Exodus 4:8

_AND HE SAID, PUT THINE HAND INTO THY BOSOM AGAIN. AND HE PUT HIS HAND INTO HIS BOSOM AGAIN; AND PLUCKED IT OUT OF HIS BOSOM, AND, BEHOLD, IT WAS TURNED AGAIN AS HIS OTHER FLESH._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

8._And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee. _In these words God took away from Moses every handle for doubt; as much as to say, that he was sufficiently provided and strengthened to overcome the stubbornness of the people; and yet, heaping up the measure to overflowing, he afterwards added a third sign, from whence Moses might attain full confidence, and that no further hinderance should oppose his pious desires. This, too, is a remarkable evidence of the kindness of God, that he deigned so liberally to add sign to sign, and to contend with the evil heart of the people, until with a strong hand he drew them out of their torpor of incredulity. Surely, if they neglected the first miracle, they were unworthy to have another proof of his power set before them by God. It was, then, a wonderful exercise of longsuffering still to persevere in arresting their dullness. With equa...

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 4:8. _IF THEY WILL NOT BELIEVE - THE VOICE OF THE FIRST SIGN,_ _c._] Probably intimating that some would be more difficult to be persuaded than others: some would yield to the evidence of the _first_ miracle others would hesitate till they had seen the _second_; and others would not believe till they had seen the water of the Nile turned into blood, when poured upon the dry land; Exodus 4:9....

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 IT SHALL COME TO PASS, IF THEY WILL NOT BELIEVE THEE,.... Will not give credit to the commission he had from God, but question the truth of it: NEITHER HEARKEN TO THE VOICE OF THE FIRST SIGN; which miracle wrought, spoke plain enough that he that wrought it, or for whose sake it was wrought, must be one come from God, or such a miracle would never be wrought by him or for him; but should any of the Israelites be still incredulous, it is supposed, THAT THEY WILL BELIEVE THE VOICE OF THE LATTER SIGN; which had a voice in it commanding belief that he was a messenger of God; the first sign respects his rod, the other his hand....

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 ...

VOICE. Figure of speech _Prosopopoeia_ (App-6), by which the "sign" is personified....

Exodus 3:1 TO EXODUS 4:17. Moses commissioned by Jehovah at Horeb to deliver His people. The dialogue between Jehovah and Moses, as in other cases (cf. Delitzsch on Genesis 12:1), must be pictured, not as one audible externally, but as giving expression, in _words_which are naturally those of the narrators, to Moses" mental communings with God, through which he was gradually taught by Him that, in spite of the difficulties which he saw before him, he was nevertheless to be His appointed agent for accomplishing Israel's deliverance (cf. the dialogue in Jeremiah 14-15). See further, on the sense in which God is to be understood as -speaking" to a man, the Introduction, p. xlvii f....