How Did Moses Return to Egypt in Exodus 4?

Moses returned to Egypt in response to God’s word after God promised to give him signs, teach him what to say, and provide Aaron to stand with him. Exodus 4 shows how Moses raised several difficulties, and God answered each one and provided what was needed. In the end, Moses and Aaron spoke to the elders, and the people believed and worshiped.

Moses Worried That People Would Not Believe Him

The first problem Moses raised was that people might not believe what he said. He said that people would not listen to him and would say that the LORD had not appeared to him.

God asked Moses what was in his hand. When Moses answered that it was a staff, God told him to throw it on the ground. The staff became a snake, and when Moses grasped it by the tail, it became a staff again.

God also told Moses to put his hand inside his cloak and then take it out. His hand became white as snow, and after he put it back inside his cloak, it returned to normal. God said that even if people did not accept the first sign, they would believe the second sign. If they would not believe the two signs or listen to his words, he was to pour water from the Nile onto the dry ground, and the water would become blood.

These signs were not persuasion methods Moses came up with on his own. God gave the signs so that people would believe that the LORD had appeared to Moses.

God Also Answered Moses’s Ability to Speak

Moses said that he was not eloquent by nature and that he was slow of speech and tongue. Even after receiving God’s command, he said that his condition had not changed.

God asked who had made the human mouth. Then He commanded Moses to go and said that He would be with his mouth and teach him what to say. When Moses again asked Him to send someone else, God burned with anger against him.

Yet God did not leave Moses alone. He told him that his brother Aaron, who spoke well, would come to meet him. God said that He would be with Moses’s and Aaron’s mouths and would teach them what they were to do. Aaron would speak to the people, and Moses would perform signs with the staff God had given him.

Moses and Aaron Delivered the Word They Had Received

Moses told his father-in-law Jethro that he would return to his brothers in Egypt, and Jethro said, "Go in peace." God also told Moses in Midian to return to Egypt. Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and set out for Egypt with God’s staff in his hand.

God told Aaron to go into the wilderness to meet Moses. After the two met, Moses told Aaron everything that God had commanded him to say and all the signs He had ordered him to perform.

Moses and Aaron gathered the elders of the Israelites. Aaron spoke the words that God had commanded Moses, and he also performed the signs before the people. The people believed when they heard that God had seen the Israelites and looked upon their affliction. Then they bowed down and worshiped.

Today, Write God’s Answer in One Sentence

Today’s task is to see how God answered each of Moses’s concerns. Read Exodus 4:1-20 and write down, in one sentence, the signs, promises, and help God gave.

There is no need to assume that Moses’s concerns are exactly the same as ours. First, we should follow the questions and answers recorded in the passage in order. Moses spoke of the possibility that the people would not believe him and of his own inability to speak, and God said that He would give signs, be with his mouth, and send Aaron as well. After hearing that word, Moses took God’s staff and returned to Egypt.

Textual Basis

• Exodus 4:1-9
• Exodus 4:10-17
• Exodus 4:18-23
• Exodus 4:27-31