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God equips Moses with signs—Exodus 4:1-9

God dismisses Moses’s concern about Moses’s own inadequacy; God himself is more than adequate (Exod 3:11-14). Moses now raises the objection that the Israelites would not believe that the Lord had spoken to him (4:1). This is a reasonable concern—people often disbelieve our testimonies of divine encounters, and Moses’s last experience with Israelites offered him little reason for confidence that they would trust him (2:14). It is a concern that God easily addresses by offering signs that would evidence Moses’s divine commission (4:2-9).

The Lord asks Moses what is in his hand (4:2). This is of course a rhetorical question, something like the Lord asking Cain where his brother was (Gen 4:9) even though he knew the answer very well (Gen 4:10). The question highlights, however, that no trick is involved; this is the staff that Moses himself has brought with him. (A staff could be a distinctive possession; cf. Gen 38:18, 25.)

The transformation of Moses’s rod to a snake is relevant to the cultural setting into which the Lord is sending him. Egyptians practiced snake magic, including stiffening snakes so that they could appear like staffs. But here Moses’s ordinary staff becomes a snake, and Moses flees (Exod 4:3). The Lord’s command to take the snake by its tail requires an act of at least some faith in God’s command, because grasping the tail does nothing to restrain, but rather acts to provoke, the dangerous head that will ordinarily strike rapidly in its defense. Moses dare not disobey the God speaking in the bush, so he obeys, and the snake again reverted to its condition as a staff. Magicians tried to turn one substance into another, but the creator of the universe could do this at will. Egyptian snake magic was often meant to ward off snake bites; the Lord truly controls snakes.

The next sign that God offers reveals his power to transform human flesh (4:6-7). God not only controls creatures that can harm humans; he can strike or heal the human body directly. Israel does not learn these lessons well, however. Later, in the wilderness, God has to strike his recalcitrant people with snakes (Num 21:6-7) and, in one case, with leprosy (Num 12:10). (In the ordinary course of events, however, neither snake bite nor leprosy is necessarily divine punishment; cf. Lev 13; Acts 28:3.)

The Lord notes that Israelites might disbelieve the first and second sign (4:8-9). If the first sign might resemble Egyptian snake magic, the second sign might possibly be dismissed as a trick from inside Moses’s garment. Presumably, however, the leprous skin was deteriorated and realistic enough that no one would mistake it for white powder. God is also ready to turn water into blood in front of them (4:9). When Moses later performs the appointed signs, the people do believe (4:30-31).

But Pharaoh would not prove so easily persuaded, nor would such signs sustain in the long term the faith of the people far more attentive to their desperate sufferings. God knows in advance that Pharaoh will not heed the signs (4:21), a factor in which Moses undoubtedly finds little comfort. God’s promises are wonderful; but the path to them normally leads through hardship.

(For other posts on Exodus, see http://www.craigkeener.org/category/old-testament/exodus/.)

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Striking the striker—Exodus 3:20

God enacts justice, though mercifully tempered by his restraint. God had not punished the oppressors’ injustice immediately, but now his impatience was coming to an end. Harsh taskmasters struck God’s people (Exod 2:11; 5:14, 16); Moses had struck an oppressor in retaliation (2:12), but in an act of virtual futility against the greater might of Pharaoh. Now, however, the Lord himself will strike his people’s oppressors (3:20).

Through Moses’s staff, God “strikes” the Nile (7:17, 20, 25) and the earth (to produce an insect plague, 8:16-17). God sends hail to “strike” whatever is in the field (9:25, 31-2), and ultimately will strike down the firstborn of people and animals, striking the land (12:12-13, 29). But for his mercy, however, God could have struck them much harder than he did, destroying all the people from the face of the earth (9:15).

God will strike the oppressors with “wonders” (3:20), the sort of language in Hebrew that applies also to Sarah bearing a child (Gen 18:14), drowning Pharaoh’s army (Exod 15:11 in context), and other works to come (34:10).

But God was not just about striking. God will also give the people favor (Exod 3:21; 11:3; 12:36) with the Egyptians, just as he did for Joseph (Gen 39:4, 21; 50:4). Thus they would not leave Egypt “empty-handed” (Exod 3:21), just as God did not let Laban send away Jacob “empty-handed” after his years of toil (Gen 31:42), and just as Israel’s law later prohibited sending away former servants “empty-handed” (Deut 15:13).

Instead, they would “plunder” the Egyptians (Exod 3:22; 12:36)! (The term more often means “deliver,” but it also can often mean “snatch away”; here they are relieving their former oppressors from some of their possessions.) Egypt had achieved much of its wealth on the backs of slaves; now the slaves were about to get remuneration.

The Israelites plunder Egypt without fighting; they have the “favor” of the Egyptian people, who voluntarily recognize that the Israelites have been unjustly exploited but are now defended by their God. Nevertheless, “plundering” or “snatching” goods is what one normally does after battle. The oppression began because Pharaoh falsely assumed that the Israelites might war against him (1:10). Pharaoh’s unjust action, however, ultimately precipitates the very judgment it sought to evade!

God is patient, but he is also just. Some people today charge the God portrayed in these narratives as impatient and brutal; sometimes the same people deny that a God could exist in this world of injustice. God has been patient with their own unjust characterizations of him. But for them, and for other wrongdoers who refuse to change, a day of justice will come.

(For other posts on Exodus, see http://www.craigkeener.org/category/old-testament/exodus/.)

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Nabeel Qureshi’s Passing and Hope

I have been praying hard for my friend Nabeel Qureshi ever since I learned of his stage 4 stomach cancer. Nabeel was so humble and a persistent and honest seeker after truth. Nabeel was also in the prime of life and health, and unlike some of us who are older, I thought, he should have decades of fruitful ministry ahead of him. I saw the cancer as an attack on his ministry that was so strategic. The survival rate for stage 4 stomach cancer is one out of 25 (4 percent) after five years, and most do not survive the first year; but those statistics are descriptive rather than prescriptive and need not limit our prayers.

Today I learned that Nabeel passed away at age 34, after over a year with the cancer.

The news is heartbreaking to all of us who loved and respected him, and sometimes things don’t make sense from our mortal perspectives.

Nevertheless, for myself and for others who are mourning, there are some things we can say for sure:

  • Nabeel touched more people in his fairly short life than most of us get to touch in a long one. God used him greatly, both to testify about the truth of Christ and to teach us Christians a much deeper love for Muslims.
  • Nabeel’s passing is NOT due to any failure of faith or lack of prayer. Vast numbers of people prayed faithfully for him; in my own case, in the past months his healing has been my most consistent prayer. Some were fasting a day each week. Some of those who prayed for him in person have seen equally incurable cases cured through prayer and experienced visible miracles—just not this time (in the hoped-for way).
  • Nabeel himself kept his lively trust in God to the end, even if, at the end, it became clear that this would not mean healing. His faithfulness in the face of death is itself a testimony for all of us who, one way or another, will also face death if the Lord tarries. Faith is not just faith that God will say Yes; faith is trusting God’s plan even when He says No.
  • All of us as believers in Jesus share the same ultimate hope. We will be reunited with Nabeel, and others, at the resurrection.
  • Each of us has our place in God’s plan, and ultimately the gates of death will not prevail against the church (Matt 16:18). That is, when God allows any of us to be taken, it does not stop God’s work. It just means we get to rest from ours (Rev 14:13).
  • The prayers will not be wasted. God sees our hearts and will still achieve his purposes.

Although this is incidental to the point, Nabeel had shared times when someone prayed for him and he had a special experience with the Spirit or even a temporary relief from the suffering. That is, God was hearing the prayers all along. Even though God has said No in this case, there is a bigger Yes in the long run. Nabeel’s labor has ended, but may the legacy of his work be multiplied a million times over in this generation.