HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 425
EXODUS 5
page 55
speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see
or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go!
I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”
13 But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please!
Send anyone else.”
14 Then the Lord became angry with Moses.
“All right,” he said. “What about your brother,
Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And
look! He is on his way to meet you now. He will
be delighted to see you. 15 Talk to him, and put
the words in his mouth. I will be with both of
you as you speak, and I will instruct you both
in what to do. 16 Aaron will be your spokesman
to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and
you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say. 17 And take your shepherd’s
staff with you, and use it to perform the miraculous signs I have shown you.”
Moses Returns to Egypt
18 So Moses went back home to Jethro, his fatherin-law. “Please let me return to my relatives in
Egypt,” Moses said. “I don’t even know if they
are still alive.”
“Go in peace,” Jethro replied.
19 Before Moses left Midian, the Lord said to
him, “Return to Egypt, for all those who wanted
to kill you have died.”
20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them
on a donkey, and headed back to the land of
Egypt. In his hand he carried the staff of God.
21 And the Lord told Moses, “When you arrive
back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all
the miracles I have empowered you to do. But
I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let
the people go. 22 Then you will tell him, ‘This is
what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son.
23 I commanded you, “Let my son go, so he can
worship me.” But since you have refused, I will
now kill your firstborn son!’”
24 On the way to Egypt, at a place where
Moses and his family had stopped for the night,
the Lord confronted him and was about to kill
him. 25 But Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint
knife and circumcised her son. She touched his
feet* with the foreskin and said, “Now you are
a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26 (When she said
“a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the
circumcision.) After that, the Lord left him alone.
27 Now the Lord had said to Aaron, “Go out
into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So Aaron
went and met Moses at the mountain of God,
and he embraced him. 28 Moses then told Aaron
everything the Lord had commanded him to
say. And he told him about the miraculous signs
the Lord had commanded him to perform.
29 Then Moses and Aaron returned to Egypt
and called all the elders of Israel together.
4:25 The Hebrew word for “feet” may refer here to the male
sex organ.
30 Aaron told them everything the Lord had told
Moses, and Moses performed the miraculous
signs as they watched. 31 Then the people of
Israel were convinced that the Lord had sent
Moses and Aaron. When they heard that the
Lord was concerned about them and had seen
their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
Moses and Aaron Speak to Pharaoh
After this presentation to Israel’s leaders,
Moses and Aaron went and spoke to Pharaoh. They told him, “This is what the Lord, the
God of Israel, says: Let my people go so they may
hold a festival in my honor in the wilderness.”
2 “Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is
the Lord? Why should I listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not
let Israel go.”
3 But Aaron and Moses persisted. “The God of
the Hebrews has met with us,” they declared.
“So let us take a three-day journey into the
wilderness so we can offer sacrifices to the Lord
our God. If we don’t, he will kill us with a plague
or with the sword.”
4 Pharaoh replied, “Moses and Aaron, why
are you distracting the people from their tasks?
Get back to work! 5 Look, there are many of your
people in the land, and you are stopping them
from their work.”
5
Making Bricks without Straw
6 That same day Pharaoh sent this order to the
Egyptian slave drivers and the Israelite foremen:
• Abilities
E XODU S 4:10-12
Moses was not a gifted speaker. He
knew his limitations. Understanding our
limitations and working within them is
good if it keeps us from getting in over
our heads. But we must not use our
limitations as an excuse for avoiding
what God calls us to do. God called
Moses to travel to Egypt to help free
the Hebrews from slavery. To do this
Moses would have to speak to the
ruler of the land—in fact, the mightiest
man in the world. But Moses had a
speech problem. Did he think God
didn’t realize that?
Sometimes God uses our limitations to
teach us to rely more on his power. When
Moses stepped out in faith and obeyed,
God stretched the boundaries of his
abilities. He also provided a resource—
Moses’ brother, Aaron—to help. Never
limit God, who can do anything through
you if you let him.