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Exodus 4 Bible study: The people believed
Moses was sure Israel wouldn't believe him, and the chapter ends "The people believed." His "slow" tongue is in Hebrew a heavy one, the same word later used for Pharaoh's stubborn heart. God promised "I will be with your mouth", sent Aaron already on his way, and before the first plague warned Pharaoh, "Israel is my son, my firstborn", and "I will kill your firstborn son."
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“Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“While Moses was still objecting, God told him Aaron was already coming out to meet him.”
Is that in Exodus 4, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Three signs for a doubting people
Moses opens with a fear: "But, behold, they will not believe me, nor listen to my voice" (4:1). God answers with signs. The rod in Moses' hand becomes a snake and then a rod again (4:2-4), "so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you" (4:5). His hand comes out of his cloak "leprous, as white as snow", and then "it had turned again as his other flesh" (4:6-7). And if they still won't believe, water from the river poured on dry land "will become blood on the dry land" (4:9).
Where it leads to Jesus
I will give you a mouth
Exodus 4:12leads toLuke 21:15
God tells Moses, "I will be with your mouth, and teach you what you shall speak" (4:12). Jesus tells his followers who will be brought "before kings and governors" not to plan their answers beforehand, "for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict" (Luke 21:12-15), and "the Holy Spirit will teach you in that same hour what you must say" (Luke 12:12). Jesus doesn't cite Exodus 4, so this is a reading: some hear the same promise in both; others read Jesus's words on their own.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about Exodus 4
That was a taste
The rest of Exodus 4 is waiting in Favor
- "Please send someone else"
- "Israel is my son, my firstborn"
- The fear that didn't come true
- A heavy mouth and a heavy heart
- Words put in a mouth
- 9 questions as you read
- 10 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach Exodus 4 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
אָמַןamansay a-MAN
Brown-Driver-Briggs gives the root meaning "confirm, support", and for the form used here, "trust, believe". In 4:1 the form is ya'aminu, they will believe. The verb comes six times in this chapter. Moses fears "they will not believe me" (4:1); God gives the signs "so that they may believe" (4:5), with more in case "they will not believe" the first (4:8-9); and the chapter ends, "The people believed" (4:31). It is the verb in "He believed in the LORD, who credited it to him for righteousness" (Genesis 15:6), and it comes back after the sea: "they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses" (14:31).
For your group
Exodus 4 Bible study questions
- 1God asked Moses, "What is that in your hand?" and used an ordinary rod. What ordinary thing in your life might God want to use?
- 2Moses said, "Please send someone else." What makes it hard to say yes when you sense God asking something of you?
- 3Moses was sure "they will not believe me", and in the end "The people believed." When has something you feared turned out differently than you expected?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads Exodus 4 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Can I read Exodus 4 straight away?
Favor takes the Bible as one story, in order, so you'll reach Exodus 4 with everything that leads up to it in view. Start from Genesis, or meet Jesus first in the Gospels. You can read the text of any chapter in Favor's Look up whenever you like.
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I've never really read the Bible. Is this for me?
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The World English Bible, a modern, readable translation in the public domain. God's name appears as "the LORD", as in most English Bibles.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home