CHAPTER 4 Jan. 31 
Moses Doubts God
Moses answered, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice; for they will say, ‘Yahweh has not appeared to you’. 2Yahweh said to him, What is that in your hand? He said, A rod. 3He said, Throw it on the ground. He threw it on the ground, and it became a snake; and Moses ran away from it. 4Yahweh said to Moses, Stretch out your hand, and take it by the tail. He stretched out his hand, and took hold of it, and it became a rod in his hand. 5That they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you. 6Yahweh said furthermore to him, Now put your hand inside your cloak. He put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow. 7He said, Put your hand inside your cloak again. He put his hand inside his cloak again, and when he took it out of his cloak, behold, it had turned again as his other flesh. 8It will happen, if they will neither believe you nor listen to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. 9It will happen, if they will not believe even these two signs, neither listen to your voice, that you shall take of the water of the river, and pour it on the dry land. The water which you take out of the river will become blood on the dry land. 10Moses said to Yahweh, O Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before now, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a stammering tongue. 11Yahweh said to him, Who made man’s mouth? Or who makes one mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Isn’t it I, Yahweh? 12Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak. 13He said, Oh, Lord, please send someone else. 14The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Moses, and He said, What about Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Also, behold, he comes out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15You shall speak to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do. 16He will be your spokesman to the people; and it will happen, that he will be to you a mouth, and you will be to him as God. 17You shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs. 
Moses Leaves Midian
18Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, Please let me go and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive. Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. 19Yahweh said to Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead. 20Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took God’s rod in his hand. 21Yahweh said to Moses, When you go back into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand, but I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go. 22You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Thus says Yahweh, Israel is My son, My firstborn, 23and I have said to you, Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn’. 24It happened on the way at a lodging place, that Yahweh met Moses and wanted to kill him. 25Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. 26So He let him alone. Then she said, You are a bridegroom of blood, because of the circumcision. 27Yahweh said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. He went, and met him on God’s mountain, and kissed him. 28Moses told Aaron all the words of Yahweh with which He had sent him, and all the signs with which He had instructed him. 29Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. 30Aaron spoke all the words which Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31The people believed, and when they heard that Yahweh had visited the children of Israel, and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.

Commentary

4:7 Both the snake and leprosy are symbols of sin. Moses felt he was unable to do God’s work because of his own moral failures- but God was showing him that He has the power to deal with that, and that Moses could in fact grapple with sin if he let God use him. Moses had given the excuse that the people wouldn’t believe God’s word if he preached it to them (:1), but it seems this was really an excuse for his inner sense of unworthiness.
4:11 This verse is classic proof that disease is ultimately from God and not from any superhuman Devil or demons. 
4:12 This is alluded to in Mt. 10:19,20 and Mk. 13:11 concerning how we too will be taught what to say when we come before the rulers of our world. In such moments of crisis, Moses, even in weakness as he was at this time, really is our living example.
4:16 Moses was “as God” to Aaron and Pharaoh (7:1), but he wasn’t God Himself. Such language can be used about men, Angels and Christ- but it doesn’t make them personally equal to God. 
4:24 God’s intentions can be changed by the actions of a third party, in this case Moses’ wife. Later, God intended to destroy all Israel, but Moses interceded for them, and God relented. Moses was inspired to do this by his experience at this time; and his Saviour was a Gentile woman [an unbeliever, or weak in the true faith] whom perhaps he should never have married. Moses was being taught that he too for all his weakness could be used by God to save others.
4:26 Zipporah was not one of the covenant people; she was the daughter of a pagan priest (Ex. 18:11 implies Jethro thought Yahweh was only one of many gods); she did not circumcise their children. Should Moses have married her? The fact Moses did not bother circumcising his son shows he was not really serious about his relationship with God; God tried to kill him because of this. God tried to kill Moses because of this; this shows how serious this was in God's eyes. Zipporah was a Midianite, a descendant of Abraham through Keturah (Gen. 25:1-6). Circumcision was a sign of the covenant through Isaac, hence the resentment and bitterness of Zipporah over the circumcision issue; and it seems Moses capitulated to her on this. Their marriage is sure proof that fundamental spiritual differences at the start can only lead to anger and break up later on.