Ver. 1. They will not believe me.] They had formerly refused him, “and thrust him away.” (Exodus 2:14 Acts 7:27) And so they might again, if he had not somewhat to show for his extraordinary calling. In the year 434, the Jews of Crete were shamefully seduced by a pseudo-Moses, who promised to divide the sea for them to bring them back to their own country. Those that will not receive the love of the truth, are justly given up to the efficacy of error. (2 Thessalonians 2:10,11) Quaeque repulsa gravis. -Hor. Funccius, in Comm. Chron.
Ver. 2. A rod.] Heb., Matte, in answer to Maze, What is that? an elegant antonomasia in the original. This is ordinary in both Testaments; the penmen whereof, many of them, were, as Cicero saith of Demetrius Phalereus, oratores parum vehementes, dulces tamen, soft, but sweet orators.
Ver. 3. And it became a serpent.] So doth the word to those that cast away the care of it; it stings them with unquestionable conviction and horror. With this rod Moses should guide the Israelites, sting the Egyptians. (Isaiah 14:29 Jeremiah 8:17) And Moses fled from before it,] First fly from sin as from a serpent, saith one. But if thou hast taken this serpent into thy hand, rest not, till, like Moses’s serpent, it be turned into a rod again to scourge thy soul. Be either innocent or penitent.
Ver. 4. Take it by the tail.] Which was dreadful to be done, because of the antipathy and likely danger; but faith fortifies the heart against the fear of the creature, and carries a man through the difficulty of duty.
Ver. 5. That they may believe.] Miracles are sufficient testimonies of an extraordinary calling from God, provided that they be true miracles (not such as Deuteronomy 13:1-3), to confirm a calling that is agreeable to God’s holy word, as here.
Ver. 6. Put now thine hand.] Here was sign upon sign, as Exodus 3:12. So low stoops the Most High to our meanness. And doth he not the same favour for us by the often administration of the Lord’s supper? Doth he not seal again and again, &c.? Was leprous as snow.] Let us but lay our hands upon our hearts, thrust them into our bosoms to rifle there, and we shall be sure to take them out leprous, all of a tetter. [tetter: A general term for any pustular herpetiform eruption of the skin, as eczema, herpes, impetigo, ringworm, etc.]
Ver. 7. As his other flesh.] To show him that God, by small means, could bring about great matters, and that in a moment. See Isaiah 66:7,8. Which yet was ill applied by Cardinal Pool to this revolting nation in Queen Mary’s days.
Ver. 8. The voice of the first sign.] God’s signs have a voice, and words. (Psalms 105:27) They speak not only to our eyes, but ears; as those many prodigies did before the last desolation of Jerusalem; as the terrible tempest at Rome in 1516, -the same year that Luther began to stir, -that so struck the church where Pope Leo was creating his cardinals, that it removed the child Jesus out of the lap of his mother, and the keys out of St Peter’s hand. So the two suns seen in London at the coming in of King Philip on Feb. 15, 1553: the new star in Cassiopeia in 1572: the prodigious comet in 1618, &c. Ουδεις κωμητης οστις ου κακον φερει.
Ver. 9. Shall become blood.] In the year 874, in Brixia in Italy, it rained blood for three days and three nights. In 1505, there appeared in Germany, upon the garments of men and women various prints and tokens of the nails, of the sponge, of the spear, of the Lord’s coat, and of bloody crosses. Maximilian, the Emperor, had, and showed the same to Francis Mirandula, who thereupon wrote his “Staurestichon,” and therein thus— “Non ignota cane, Caesar monstravit, et ipsi Vidimus; innumeros prompsit Germania testes.” In the third year of Queen Mary, William Pikes being at liberty after imprisonment, and going into his garden, took with him a Bible: where sitting and reading, there suddenly fell down upon his book four drops of fresh blood, and he knew not from whence it came. Whereat he being sore astonished, and wiping out one of the drops with his finger, called his wife and said, In the virtue of God, wife, what meaneth this? Will the Lord have four sacrifices? I see well enough the Lord will have blood; his will be done, and give me grace to abide the trial, &c. Baleus Centur., 8. Func., Chronol. Act. and Mon., fol. 769, 1853.
Ver. 10. I am not eloquent.] Heb., A man of words, a master of speech—ηγουμενος λογου —as Paul was. (Acts 14:12) He had not that first, second, and third of an orator, -elocution, or pronunciation. And yet God made choice of him rather than of eloquent Aaron to pray. (Exodus 17:12) Not gifts but graces prevail in prayer. Slow of speech.] Of a letsom delivery; wordbound.
Ver. 11. Who hath made man’s mouth?] There is no mouth into which God cannot put fit words. Balaam’s ass was enabled by God to convince his master. Whereas by a man, never so full and fluent, he cannot bring forth his conceptions, without the obstetrication of God’s assistance. (Proverbs 16:1)
Ver. 12. I will be with thy mouth.] [See Trapp on “Mt 10:19”]
Ver. 13. By the hand of him whom thou wilt.] Or, shouldst send: by that excellent speaker the Messiah, cuius dicere est facere. Thus when God had answered all Moses’s objections, he frowardly denies to go notwithstanding, and bids him send by his son, as one that was better fitted for the service. That which made Moses so unwilling, was, whatever he pretended, the fear of his life: which rub when God had once removed, he went on his journey. (Exodus 4:19,20)
Ver. 14. And the anger of the Lord.] And no wonder: Patientia laesa fit furor. Where God commandeth, there to ask a reason is presumption; but to oppose reason, is a kind of rebellion. I know that he can speak well.] The gift of utterance is a high favour, a piece of a Christian’s riches. (1 Corinthians 1:5) [See Trapp on “1Co 1:5”] Aaron, as Cicero saith of Aristotle, had aureum flumen orationis, a golden gift of speech.
Ver. 15. Will teach you.] [See Trapp on “Ex 4:11”] [See Trapp on “Ex 4:12”]
Ver. 16. And he shall be thy spokesman.] God hath made me ill-favoured in this world, and without grace in the sight of men, said Tindal to Frith, speechless and rude, dull and slow witted: your part shall be to supply that which lacketh in me: remembering, that as lowliness of heart shall make you high with God, even so meekness of words shall make you sink into the hearts of men. Instead of God.] To dictate unto him my mind and counsel. Such a god to every Christian is his sanctified conscience. Act. and Mon., fol. 988.
Ver. 17. Wherewith thou shalt do signs.] God, of his freewill, joining his operation thereunto; as likewise he doth to the outward signs in the two sacraments: and hence their energy, which else would be none.
Ver. 18. Whether they be yet alive.] Which if they be, though in a low condition, both they and I shall see cause to be thankful. (Lamentations 3:39 Ecclesiastes 9:4)
Ver. 19. For all the men are dead.] Here the Lord lays his finger upon the sore. This was that pad in the straw, the thing that made Moses hang off as he did; however he pretended the people’s incredulity, his own inability, and this and that, neither did he altogether dissemble: but self-love needs not be taught to tell her tale.
Ver. 20. Upon an ass.] This may argue his poverty, as Zechariah 9:9. Especially if he had but one ass for the whole family.
Ver. 21. But I will harden his heart.] With a judiciary penal hardness. And thus God is in this book eight times said to have hardened Pharaoh’s heart: thrice it is said that he hardened his own heart, and five times his heart is said to have been hardened—viz., by the devil, through the just judgment of God.
Ver. 22. Even my firstborn.] And so “higher than the kings of the earth.” (Psalms 89:27)
Ver. 23. Let my son go.] God commanding Pharaoh to let go his people, and yet hardening his heart that he would not let them go, is not contrary to himself. For by so commanding him, he requireth his obedience; and by so hardening him, he punisheth his disobedience.
Ver. 24. And sought to kill him.] To do justice upon him, according to Genesis 17:14, and as upon one that was an unfit man to take care of the Church, having no better ordered his own house. (1 Timothy 3:5) God passeth not by the sins of his best children without a sensible check, especially if scandalous and committed against conscience. He hath much ado to forbear killing us in such cases: he is even ready to have a blow at us, and cries like a travailing woman, who bites in her pain while she can, to be delivered of his judgments. (Isaiah 42:14)
Ver. 25. Surely a bloody husband.] A peevish wife, whose frowardness is either tollenda or toleranda, cured or carried patiently, ne coniugium fiat coniurgium. She was not so hot, but Moses was as meek.
Ver. 26. A bloody husband thou art.] This peal she rings oft in his ears, and so taught him patience. “Coniugium humanae divina Academia vitae.” Certain it is that we are a bloody spouse to Christ: the Church is Aceldama, a field of blood.
Ver. 27. And the Lord said unto Aaron.] To this religious family rather than to any other, God appeareth: which mercy is remembered, 1 Samuel 2:27. Met him in the mount of God.] His wife either had left him, or was sent back by him to her father. God supplies that comfort by the coming of Aaron.
Ver. 28. And Moses told Aaron.] So clouds, when full, pour down, and the spouts run, and the eaves shed, and the presses overflow. Aromatical trees sweat out their precious oils: and as ambergris is nothing so sweet in itself as when compounded with other things; so good men are great gainers by communicating with each other.
Ver. 29. And Moses and Aaron.] So Zerubbabel and Jehoshua; Paul and Barnabas; the other disciples “by two and two”; (Mark 6:7) the two faithful witnesses; (Revelation 11:3) both for more authority, and for mutual help and comfort.
Ver. 30. And did the signs.] Moses did; or Aaron, by his command and appointment.
Ver. 31. They bowed their heads.] An ordinary gesture among the Jews then: as at this day, the reverence they show is in standing up, and the gesture of adoration in the bowing forward of their bodies: for, kneeling they use none, neither stir they their bonnets in their synagogues to any man, but remain still covered. Spec. Europ.