Signs for Moses

But Moses said, "They won't believe me! They won't do what I tell them to. They'll say, 'Jehovah never appeared to you!'"

"What do you have there in your hand?" the Lord asked him.

And he replied, "A shepherd's rod."

"Throw it down on the ground," the Lord told him. So he threw it down--and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it!

Then the Lord told him, "Grab it by the tail!" He did, and it became a rod in his hand again!

"Do that and they will believe you!" the Lord told him. "Then they will realize that Jehovah, the God of their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has really appeared to you. Now reach your hand inside your robe, next to your chest." And when he did, and took it out again, it was white with leprosy! "Now put it in again," Jehovah said. And when he did, and took it out again, it was normal, just as before!

"If they don't believe the first miracle, they will the second," the Lord said, "and if they don't accept you after these two signs, then take water from the Nile River and pour it upon the dry land, and it will turn to blood."

But Moses pleaded, "O Lord, I'm just not a good speaker. I never have been, and I'm not now, even after you have spoken to me, for I have a speech impediment."

"Who makes mouths?" Jehovah asked him. "Isn't it I, the Lord? Who makes a man so that he can speak or not speak, see or not see, hear or not hear? Now go ahead and do as I tell you, for I will help you to speak well, and I will tell you what to say."

But Moses said, "Lord, please! Send someone else."

Then the Lord became angry. "All right," he said, "your brother Aaron is a good speaker. And he is coming here to look for you, and will be very happy when he finds you. So I will tell you what to tell him, and I will help both of you to speak well, and I will tell you what to do. He will be your spokesman to the people. And you will be as God to him, telling him what to say. And be sure to take your rod along so that you can perform the miracles I have shown you."

Moses Returns to Egypt »

TEXT SOURCE: (Exodus 4:1-17) The Children's Living Bible, ©1970 Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton Illinois 60187
TITLE SOURCE: The New Student Bible, ©1992 Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Michigan 49530