Exodus 4:6

_AND THE LORD SAID FURTHERMORE UNTO HIM, PUT NOW THINE HAND INTO THY BOSOM. AND HE PUT HIS HAND INTO HIS BOSOM: AND WHEN HE TOOK IT OUT, BEHOLD, HIS HAND WAS LEPROUS AS SNOW._ Put ... hand into thy bosom - the open part of his outer robe, worn about the girdle....

6._Put now thy hand into thy bosom. _By this sign Moses was instructed that what is in the greatest vigour withers away at once, at the command of God; and that what is dry is thus restored to its original vigour; in a word, the statement of Paul was confirmed by it, that God “calleth those things which be not, as though they were.” (Romans 4:17.) It was, so to say, a kind of leprosy, when Moses was banished from the court into the land of Midian, where he led his flock through wild and rough places, among thorns and brambles. After he had passed forty years like one half-dead, having no dignity or name, he regained, as by a restoration, (_postliminio_) what he had lost. Therefore God now promises him that he would soon restore what He had taken away. This is the simple connection of the sign with its effect, with which sober readers will be content, without giving heed to the su

1-9 Moses objects, that the people would not take his word, unless he showed them some sign. God gives him power to work miracles. But those who are now employed to deliver God's messages to men, need not the power to work miracles: their character and their doctrines are to be tried by that word of God to which they appeal. These miracles especially referred to the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ. It belonged to Him only, to cast the power of the devil out of the soul, and to heal the soul of the leprosy of sin; and so it was for Him first to cast the devil out of the body, and to heal the leprosy of the body....

Verse Exodus 4:6. _HIS HAND WAS LEPROUS AS SNOW._] That is, the leprosy spread itself over the whole body in thin _white scales_; and from this appearance it has its Greek name λεπρα, from λεπις, _a scale._ Dr. Mead says, "I have seen a remarkable case of this in a countryman, whose whole body was so miserably seized with it, that his skin _was shining as if covered with snow_; and as the surfuraceous scales were daily rubbed off, the flesh appeared _quick_ or _raw_ underneath." The leprosy, at least among the Jews, was a most inveterate and contagious disorder, and deemed by them incurable. Among the heathens it was considered as inflicted by their gods, and it was supposed that they alone could remove it. It is certain that a similar belief prevailed among the Israelites; hence, when the king of Syria sent his general Naaman, to the king of Israel to cure him of hi...

LEPROUS - The instantaneous production and cure of the most malignant and subtle disease known to the Israelites was a sign of their danger if they resisted the command, and of their deliverance if they obeyed it. The infliction and cure were always regarded as special proofs of a divine intervention....

EXPOSITION EXODUS 4:1 The reluctance of Moses to undertake the part of leader, indicated by his first reply at his first calling, "Who am I that I should go?" etc. (Exodus 3:11), was not yet overcome. God had promised that he would succeed; but he did not see how he could succeed, either with the people or with Pharaoh. It was not enough for him that God had declared, "They (the people) shall hearken unto thy voice" (Exodus 3:18); he does not, cannot believe this, and replies: "Behold, they will not believe, neither hearken unto my voice" (Exodus 4:1). This was plain want of faith; but

AND THE LORD SAID FURTHERMORE UNTO HIM,.... Continued his discourse, and gave him another sign: PUT NOW THINE HAND INTO THY BOSOM. AND HE PUT HIS HAND INTO HIS BOSOM; within his coat, under that part of the garment next to his breast: AND WHEN HE TOOK IT OUT, BEHOLD, HIS HAND [WAS] LEPROUS AS SNOW; that is, white as snow, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, through the leprosy that was upon it; it was a leprosy of the white sort, and which is reckoned the worst and most difficult to be cured, see Leviticus 13:3. It is highly probable that this gave rise to the story told by several Heathen writers, as Manetho m, Lysimachus n, Trogus o, and Tacitus p, that Moses and the Israelites were drove out of Egypt by the advice of an oracle, because they had the leprosy, itch, and other impure diseases upon them. m Apud Joseph. con

PUT NOW THINE HAND The sign of leprosy. The heart ("bosom") stands for what we are, the hand for what we do. What we are, that ultimately we do. It is a sign of (Luke 6:43). The two signs, rod and hand, speak of preparation for service: (1) consecration -- our capacity taken up for God; (2) the hand that holds the rod of God's power must be a cleansed hand swayed by a new heart....

CHAPTER 4:1-28 MOSES' OBJECTIONS, JEHOVAH'S ANSWER AND THE RETURN TO EGYPT _ 1. The first objection (Exodus 4:1)_ 2. The two signs and Jehovah's assurance (Exodus 4:2) 3. The second objection (Exodus 4:10) 4. Jehovah's answer (Exodus 4:11) 5. Moses' request (Exodus 4:13) 6. Jehovah's anger and answer (Exodus 4:14) 7. The command to return to Egypt (Exodus 4:18

EXODUS 4:1 J (following Exodus 3:18). MOSES'S THIRD DIFFICULTY Israel's unbelief. To overcome it, he is enabled to authenticate his mission by three signs the rod that became a serpent and again a rod (Exodus 4:2), the leprosy of his hand that came and went (Exodus 4:6), and the turning of water into blood (Exodus 4:9). The first is in P a sign to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:8), and the third is in E and P the first plague ...