The Other 2 - Exodus 4:6-9

4:6-9 - The stick into and out of snake sign was cool and all, but the Lord continues, giving Moses a second sign that he can give the people to show that he is indeed sent by God. This second sign is shown to Moses by God instructing him to “put thine hand into thy bosom,” which must have been something like “put your hand into your coat.” When Moses pulled his hand back out, “his hand was leprous as snow.” TB contests that it “was NOT leprosy,” not nearly as serious as leprosy, but the significant part is that the word used here was Tzara’at, which was an ugly and contagious disease, but more importantly was “an outward sign of the infected person’s inward spiritual condition. In other words, a person with Tzara’at was seen as under a condition of discipline or curse from God… Moses’ diseased hand represented Israel’s inward spiritual condition in God’s eyes. And, just as important, God then removed the Tzara’at from Moses’ hand; that is, He was able to, and going to, purify Israel from their defilement.”

God told Moses to put his hand back into his coat and when he pulled it back out, his hand was restored to health. I hadn’t considered all these meanings, and instead just thought them to be random. Knowing what we do about disease in the ancient world and our modern medicine, this might not seem like that big of a deal, maybe it’s because I work in medicine and so I see crazy stuff all the time, but this doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Because they didn’t have the types of medicine that we do today, and because they didn’t have ways of prevention like hand sanitizer, etc. I think that ancient people were so much more nervous about staying healthy by keeping sick people away from them. And this makes sense from that perspective.

Finally, the Lord gives a third sign that Moses can give the people if they don’t believe that he was truly sent there by God, and that was to take water out of the river, “and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.” I always wondered how the people would have been able to tell the difference between water on the ground and blood until I started working in medicine and soon found that blood has a very distinctive smell and is very different in thickness. If the water in the river had become blood, it would have been contaminated to the point that the people wouldn’t have been able to drink it, use it for daily purposes, or water their animals or crops. If the water from the river was unsuitable for use, then the people’s survive would become very dire very fast.

TB gives a further explanation, saying, “the 3rd and last sign, as seen in verse 9, was God showing His power over the worthless Egyptian gods. The Nile was life to Egypt, in a very real way; in fact the Nile, itself, was also a god in the Egyptian religion… By turning the water of the Nile into blood, God was showing His complete mastery over the Myster religion system of Egypt.” TB’s exposition on the gods of the ancient world, his testimony, his explanation of other parts of this chapter are just masterful and powerful, and I feel that it would truly be an uplifting experience for anyone to listen to what he has to say concerning this chapter, it is one of the most moving that I’ve heard so far and I’ve been listening to him for quite some time.

TB’s explanation of ancient religion is too extensive to include here, so I’m just going to link it and urge anyone who’s interested to listen to it, but I’ll end today with a very powerful part of his testimony that really put our own situations into perspective. Concerning the ancient world’s belief in multiple gods and their superstitions and ignorance, TB urges, “before we kind of giggle at that notion, or snicker and think how ignorant and primitive it was for the world and early Israel to think such absurd thoughts… also understand, that our personal walk with God is one that began right where we were when He found us… mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And, we were a mess. We didn’t get cleaned up and THEN accept Christ. We didn’t believe upon Jesus and become instantly perfected.” Again, it’s a very powerful lecture that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.