Words and Signs - Exodus 4:27-31

4:27-31 – The circumcision incident seems like it is thrown into the soup of timeline without any real explanation as far as when it actually happened, at what point in the journey. Interestingly, we now kind of circle back in the timeline and see that God is not only working with Moses to get him ready, but working with Aaron to get him ready as well. The interesting thing with Aaron though is that the process he would have needed to go through to get ready would have spanned probably years, meaning that even if he didn’t know exactly why he was being prepared, or he might not have even known that it was a preparation, God knew that Aaron would need to be ready.

So with all the hemming and hawing that Moses did and how outraged God seemed that Moses wouldn’t just trust Him enough to do it, God knew that Moses ultimately would need his brother and began the work preparing Aaron long before Moses even had the opportunity to accept or decline. Thus we see that God is all knowing and works together for our good and growth, even if we don’t know or accept it. He knows our weaknesses and what we will ultimately do and sets up us for success in the way that we will accept. Moses wouldn’t have accepted doing this job on his own, so God worked it out for him to be successful but still gave him the opportunity to choose for himself.

God commands Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” It doesn’t say exactly what directions he gave him, if he just said “depart into the wilderness” or told him to go to the “mount of the Lord” or what the purpose of meeting Moses would have been, so it’s kind of interesting to see Aaron’s spiritual growth here as well. So Aaron goes out into the wilderness and met Moses “in the mount of God, and kissed him.” Obviously they knew each other and had a history, and as far as where the “mount of God” is, whether it’s in the Sinai or Arabia, I’m not going to delve into that because ultimately I don’t think that it matters that much on a spiritual level and I don’t have the energy to form an opinion. Moses tells Aaron everything that had happened with God and they head back to Egypt.

When they get to Egypt, the “gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel,” and Aaron told them what God said to tell them, but he ALSO “did the signs in the sight of the people.” The significance here is that they didn’t just relay the message, but they also did the signs, put on the show if you will. Was this just practice for when they went to Pharaoh? Was this because they people wouldn’t believe the message otherwise? Was it still to convince Moses and Aaron themselves? It just makes me wonder because when teaching the gospel now or relaying messages from God usually it’s just the message and the Spirit has to do the work on the individual. There usually isn’t s visual, physical demonstration.

The people believed Moses and Aaron and “bowed their heads and worshipped” when he heard “that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction.” The IM makes an interesting point that brought up the whole “why didn’t they just say the message, why did they have to do the signs as well?” The IM notes, “What can be said of the people who had to be converted by signs? Although their initial reaction when they saw the signs was very positive, at the first indication of challenge and adversity their commitment began to waver.” Interesting to think about and use as a backdrop for what else happens with the conviction of the Israelites throughout this freedom journey.