Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
Download the book in PDF, ePub, Kindle for a complete version.
it become Moses to say, They will not? Surely he means, "Perhaps they will not at first, or some of them will not." If there should be some gainsayers among them who would question his commission, how should he deal with them? And what course should he take to convince them? He remembered how they had once rejected him, and feared it would be so again. Note,
1. Present discouragements often arise from former disappointments.
2. Wise and good men have sometimes a worse opinion of people than they deserve. Moses sad (Ex 4:1), They will not believe me; and yet he was happily mistaken, for it is said (Ex 4:31), The people believed; but then the signs which God appointed in answer to this objection were first wrought in their sight.
2 And the Lord said unto him, what is that in thine hand? And he
said, a rod.
3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground,
and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
God empowers him to work miracles, directs him to three particularly, two of which were now immediately wrought for his own satisfaction.
Note, True miracles are the most convincing external proofs of a divine mission attested by them. Therefore our Savior often appealed to his works (as Joh 5:36), and Nicodemus owns himself convinced by them, Joh 3:2. And here Moses, having a special commission given him as a judge and lawgiver to Israel, has this seal affixed to his commission, and comes supported by these credentials.
The rod in his hand is made the subject of a miracle, a double miracle: it is but thrown out of his hand and it becomes a serpent; he resumes it and it becomes a rod again, Ex 4:2-4. Now,