But take this staff in your hand so you can perform signs with it." Sermons
The rod a fit emblem of "the word of the truth of the Gospel." 1. The rod was something definite. "This rod." Not any rod, but the one which God gives us. 2. The rod was perhaps the instrument of a despised calling. So is the preaching of the Cross "foolishness" (1 Corinthians 1:21-25). 3. The rod was to be grasped and used: "in thine hand" Study, preach, expound, apply. 4. By the rod, Moses was to do signs: "wherewith thou shalt do signs." Spiritual miracles wrought by the preaching of the word. 5. The rod was efficient only as accompanied by Divine power (1 Corinthians 2:4). - J.O. He shall be thy spokesman. I. THAT SOMETIMES GREAT MEN ARE CALLED TO UNDERTAKE A WORK AGAINST THE PERFORMANCE OF WHICH THEY IMAGINE THEMSELVES TO HAVE A NATURAL IMPEDIMENT. 1. Men should be certain that their so-called impediment will be a real hindrance in the service to which they are sent. In these days, when people are called to work, they at once refer to their infirmity and unfitness for it; but their real infirmity is not so much their slowness of speech, as their unbelief, and unwillingness to follow the Divine command. They have not the rectal courage to encounter difficulty. 2. But we admit that sometimes men are called to religious work, against the performance of which they have a true natural impediment. And why this apparent anomaly?(1) It is because with the command He gives the moral energy necessary for its execution. He gives the timid man the stimulus of the vision. He gives him the inspiration of a miracle.(2) Its design is to educate man on the side of his weakness.(3) It is to render the mission all the more triumphant when accomplished. It is the distinguishing glory of Christianity that it makes provision for the victory of the weak, who have within their souls the grace of God. II. THAT AT SUCH TIMES GOOD MEN REQUIRE THE AID OF OTHERS WHOSE TALENTS COMPENSATE FOR THEIR INFIRMITIES. 1. This help was adapted to the infirmity of Moses. "Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well." So there are a variety of gifts and talents in the Church. The one is the complement of the other. 2. This help was arranged by the Providence of God. "And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee." (1)As to the time of meeting.(2)As to the place of meeting.(3)As to the purpose of meeting.3. This help was founded upon, and rendered welcome by, family relationship. "Thy brother." III. THAT SUCH CO-OPERATION RENDERS RELIGIOUS WORK MUCH MORE JUBILANT AND SUCCESSFUL. 1. It is happy. It is adapted to our weak condition of faith. 2. It is sympathetic. 3. It is hopeful. () I. THE CERTIFICATED AMBASSADOR. Moses. 1. His hesitation. Caused by (1)His own meekness. Had not a high opinion of himself.(2)His knowledge of the people he was sent to deliver, and also of the oppressor. He had not forgotten their rejection of him.2. His certificate. Power to work sundry miracles is given. 3. His unbelief. Moses seems, at this time, to rely too much on human qualities. His lack of eloquence, he thinks, will be great hindrance. II. THE GRACIOUS COMPENSATION. Moses and Aaron the complement of each other. The man of words and the man of action. Human qualities are mercifully distributed. No one man perfect. Each needs the help and talents of others. Providence designs that men should not be independent of one another. "Two heads better than one." Opposites often found in one family. Moses and Aaron — brothers. Different qualities and talents in a household to be used, and combined, for the service of God. Let none envy the gifts of others, but cultivate his own. III. THE BROTHERS' MEETING. 1. In the wilderness. Place of brotherly meeting a garden in the desert of life. How great the joy of meeting each other where all around is paradise, and no separation or toll in prospect. 2. Marked by affection. They "kissed" each other. Mutual respect and love. 3. Their intercourse. Chief matter in hand was Moses's commission. Aaron, the elder, Cheerfully takes the second place. Is indebted for even that to the humility of Moses. They journey on together, and at once address themselves to their work.Learn — 1. God's witnesses are witnessed to. Seals to their ministry. 2. Humbly to regard ourselves, but do any work to which Providence calls us. 3. Rejoice in others' powers, and cheerfully unite for common ends. 4. Thank God for our meeting on earth, and prepare for the better one. 5. Christ, our elder Brother, meets us in the wilderness, salutes us with the kiss of love, and goes with us to all our holy labours. () () In the great honey industries of South California the bees play a most important and valuable part. But they cannot pierce the skins of the apricots until the lady-bug has made a hole for them. It must have been an accidental thing at the outset, the first bee joining a lady-bug at her feast of apricot, but they have now become necessary to the honey-crop of the district. All life and service is interdependent — Timothy is necessary to Paul; the least essential to the great.() 1. Often righteously provoked.2. Often gentle in its reproof. 3. Truly benevolent in its disposition. () I. THEN GOD TAKES KNOWLEDGE OF THE VARIED TALENTS OF MEN.II. THEN GOD WILL HOLD MEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR TALENTS. III. THEN THE TALENTS OF MEN CANNOT BE BETTER EMPLOYED THAN IN THE SERVICE OF THE CHURCH. () We have noted the timidity and hesitation of Moses, notwithstanding the varied promises and assurances with which Divine grace had furnished him. And now, although there was nothing gained in the way of real power, although there was no more virtue or efficacy in one mouth than in another, although it was Moses, after all, who was to speak unto Aaron, yet Moses was quite ready to go when assured of the presence and co-operation of a poor feeble mortal like himself, whereas he could not go when assured again and again that Jehovah would be with him. How his case, like a mirror, reflects our own hearts! We are more ready to trust anything than the living God. How deeply should it humble us before the Lord that, though we move along with bold decision when we possess the countenance and support of a poor frail mortal like ourselves, yet we falter, hesitate, and demur when we have the light of the Master's countenance and the strength of His omnipotent arm to support us.()
People Aaron, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Jethro, Moses, Pharaoh, ZipporahPlaces Egypt, Horeb, Midian, Nile RiverTopics Doest, Miraculous, Perform, Rod, Signs, Staff, WherewithOutline 1. Moses's rod is turned into a serpent.
6. His hand is leprous.
10. He loathes his calling.
13. Aaron is appointed to assist him.
18. Moses departs from Jethro.
21. God's message to Pharaoh.
24. Zipporah circumcises her son.
27. Aaron is sent to meet Moses.
29. The people believe them.
Dictionary of Bible Themes Exodus 4:17 8421 equipping, physical Exodus 4:15-17 4512 staff Library January 13. "Thou Shalt be to Him Instead of God" (Ex. Iv. 16).
"Thou shalt be to him instead of God" (Ex. iv. 16). Such was God's promise to Moses, and such the high character that Moses was to assume toward Aaron, his brother. May it not suggest a high and glorious place that each of us may occupy toward all whom we meet, instead of God? What a dignity and glory it would give our lives, could we uniformly realize this high calling! How it would lead us to act toward our fellow-men! God can always be depended upon. God is without variableness or shadow of turning. …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth May the Eleventh but -- --!
"And Moses answered and said, But----" --EXODUS iv. 1-9. We know that "but." God has heard it from our lips a thousand times. It is the response of unbelief to the divine call. It is the reply of fear to the divine command. It is the suggestion that the resources are inadequate. It is a hint that God may not have looked all round. He has overlooked something which our own eyes have seen. The human "buts" in the Scriptural stories make an appalling record. "Lord, I will follow Thee, but----" There …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year May the Twelfth Mouth and Matter
"Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth." --EXODUS iv. 10-17. And what a promise that is for anyone who is commissioned to proclaim the King's decrees. Here can teachers and preachers find their strength. God will be with their mouths. He will control their speech, and order their words like troops. He does not promise to make us eloquent, but to endow our words with the "demonstration of power." "And I will teach thee what thou shall say." The Lord will not only be with our mouths, …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year A Bundle of Myrrh is My Well-Beloved unto Me; He Shall Abide Between My Breasts.
When the Bride, or rather the lover (for she is not yet a bride), has found her Bridegroom, she is so transported with joy, that she is eager to be instantly united to Him. But the union of perpetual enjoyment is not yet arrived. He is mine, she says, I cannot doubt that He gives Himself to me this moment, since I feel it, but He is to me, as it were, a bundle of myrrh. He is not yet a Bridegroom whom I may embrace in the nuptial bed, but a bundle of crosses, pains and mortifications; a bloody husband …
Madame Guyon—Song of Songs of Solomon Preaching (I. ).
Earthen vessels, frail and slight, Yet the golden Lamp we bear; Master, break us, that the light So may fire the murky air; Skill and wisdom none we claim, Only seek to lift Thy Name. I have on purpose reserved the subject of Preaching for our closing pages. Preaching is, from many points of view, the goal and summing up of all other parts and works of the Ministry. What we have said already about the Clergyman's life and labour, in secret, in society, in the parish; what we have said about his …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren To the Saddest of the Sad
I often wonder what those preachers do who feel called to make up their message as they go on; for if they fail, their failure must be attributed in great measure to their want of ability to make up a moving tale. They have to spread their sails to the breeze of the age, and to pick up a gospel that comes floating down to them on the stream of time, altering every week in the year; and they must have an endless task to catch this new idea, or, as they put it, to keep abreast of the age. Unless, indeed, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888 The Sweet Uses of Adversity
Now, I propose to address myself to the two classes of persons who are making use of this question. First, I shall speak to the tried saint; and then I shall speak to the seeking sinner, who has been seeking peace and pardon through Christ, but who has not as yet found it, but, on the contrary, has been buffeted by the law, and driven away from the mercy-seat in despair. I. First, then, to THE CHILD OF GOD. I have--I know I have--in this great assembly, some who have come to Job's position. They …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859 "For if Ye Live after the Flesh, Ye Shall Die; but if Ye through the Spirit do Mortify the Deeds of the Body, Ye Shall Live.
Rom. viii. s 13, 14.--"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." The life and being of many things consists in union,--separate them, and they remain not the same, or they lose their virtue. It is much more thus in Christianity, the power and life of it consists in the union of these things that God hath conjoined, so that if any man pretend to …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Hardening in the Sacred Scripture.
"He hath hardened their heart."-- John xii. 40. The Scripture teaches positively that the hardening and "darkening of their foolish heart" is a divine, intentional act. This is plainly evident from God's charge to Moses concerning the king of Egypt: "Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not harken unto you, and I will lay My hand upon Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6.
Several interpreters, Paulus especially, have asserted that the interpretation of Micah which is here given, was that of the Sanhedrim only, and not of the Evangelist, who merely recorded what happened and was said. But this assertion is at once refuted when we consider the object which Matthew has in view in his entire representation of the early life of Jesus. His object in recording the early life of Jesus is not like that of Luke, viz., to communicate historical information to his readers. …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Flight into Egypt and Slaughter of the Bethlehem Children.
(Bethlehem and Road Thence to Egypt, b.c. 4.) ^A Matt. II. 13-18. ^a 13 Now when they were departed [The text favors the idea that the arrival and departure of the magi and the departure of Joseph for Egypt, all occurred in one night. If so, the people of Bethlehem knew nothing of these matters], behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise [this command calls for immediate departure] and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt [This land was ever the …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel Appendix xii. The Baptism of Proselytes
ONLY those who have made study of it can have any idea how large, and sometimes bewildering, is the literature on the subject of Jewish Proselytes and their Baptism. Our present remarks will be confined to the Baptism of Proselytes. 1. Generally, as regards proselytes (Gerim) we have to distinguish between the Ger ha-Shaar (proselyte of the gate) and Ger Toshabh (sojourner,' settled among Israel), and again the Ger hatstsedeq (proselyte of righteousness) and Ger habberith (proselyte of the covenant). …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah A Canticle of Love
It is not only when He is about to send me some trial that Our Lord gives me warning and awakens my desire for it. For years I had cherished a longing which seemed impossible of realisation--to have a brother a Priest. I often used to think that if my little brothers had not gone to Heaven, I should have had the happiness of seeing them at the Altar. I greatly regretted being deprived of this joy. Yet God went beyond my dream; I only asked for one brother who would remember me each day at the Holy …
Therese Martin (of Lisieux)—The Story of a Soul Exodus
The book of Exodus--so named in the Greek version from the march of Israel out of Egypt--opens upon a scene of oppression very different from the prosperity and triumph in which Genesis had closed. Israel is being cruelly crushed by the new dynasty which has arisen in Egypt (i.) and the story of the book is the story of her redemption. Ultimately it is Israel's God that is her redeemer, but He operates largely by human means; and the first step is the preparation of a deliverer, Moses, whose parentage, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Exodus 4:17 NIV
Exodus 4:17 NLT
Exodus 4:17 ESV
Exodus 4:17 NASB
Exodus 4:17 KJV
Exodus 4:17 Bible Apps
Exodus 4:17 Parallel
Exodus 4:17 Biblia Paralela
Exodus 4:17 Chinese Bible
Exodus 4:17 French Bible
Exodus 4:17 German Bible
Exodus 4:17 Commentaries
Bible Hub
|
