Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Exodus 4:1-5
Moses Continues To Object To God's Request And God Gives Him Three Signs (Exodus 4:1).
Moses continued to express his doubts so God told him of three signs which he would be able to use in order to demonstrate his credentials. The first deals with a snake, the symbol of much religious belief in Egypt, and a reminder to Israel of the Tempter in the Garden.
The First Sign - The Rod Turned Into A Snake (4:1-5).
a Moses says that the people will not believe his voice or that Yahweh has appeared to him (Exodus 4:1).
b Yahweh draws attention to the staff in his hand (Exodus 4:2).
c He is to cast it to the ground and it becomes a snake (Exodus 4:3 a).
c Moses flees from before it and Yahweh says ‘take it by the tail' (Exodus 4:3 a).
b He puts forth his hand and it becomes a staff in his hand (Exodus 4:4 b).
a Then the people will believe and accept that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, has appeared to him (Exodus 4:5).
Note that in ‘a' Moses says that the people will not believe his voice or that Yahweh has appeared to him, in the parallel Yahweh confirms that they will do both. In ‘b' Yahweh draws attention to the staff in his hand, in the parallel the resulting snake becomes a staff in his hand. In ‘c' he casts his staff to the ground and it becomes a snake, and in the parallel he flees before it and is told to take it by the tail.
‘And Moses answered and said, “But look, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, “Yahweh has not appeared to you.”
Moses now comes up with his third objection. He had pleaded inability (Exodus 3:11) and that the people would want to know by Whose power he came (Exodus 3:13), and now he simply states that they will not believe that Yahweh has appeared to him. After all, why should they? And given their situation, and the continual unbelief they would reveal, his objection certainly had substance. But it still demonstrated a lack of faith that later generations would not have imputed to the great Moses. This is genuine tradition.
Note that the use of ‘Yahweh' is now predominant. He is coming very much as the God of the covenant.
‘And Yahweh said, “What is that in your hand?” And he said, “A staff.' And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” And it became a snake, and Moses fled from it.'
Moses staff was something with which he was familiar, an old friend, and he knew how to defend himself with it. It would also be a symbol of his authority. So God uses something familiar and important with which to do something unfamiliar. He tells him to throw it in the ground, and when he does so it becomes a snake. This first sign would be reproduced by the Egyptian magicians by trickery for they were famous with what they could do with snakes. But there was no trickery here. For when Moses saw the snake he ‘fled from it', that is backed away to a safe distance. He knew what some snakes could do. He was not practising a conjuring trick.
One root meaning of the consonants for ‘snake' (nachash) is ‘enchantment'. The snake was feared for its insidious behaviour, striking from its hiding place when suddenly disturbed, biting at a horse's heels (Genesis 49:17), and it was commonly used in enchantments, and symbolised the world of the gods in which snakes were a common feature, sometimes good and sometime bad. The Egyptians believed in the sacred uraeus-snake as a symbol of protection, often on Pharaoh's brow leading him to victory in battle. They also believed in the serpent ‘Apep as the symbol of evil. Thus to have power over such snakes was to have power over good and evil.
But to Israel the snake represented something more. It represented the traditional enemy of God (Genesis 3). Here it would be demonstrated that the one represented by the snake had been mastered by God. This is another example of the repetition of events in early Genesis in this book. They would recognise that it was indeed Yahweh Who had spoken to Moses because of his power over the snake in accordance with their traditions.
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Put out your hand and take it by the tail.” And he put out his hand and took hold of it and it became a staff in his hand.'
Yahweh then told Moses to take the snake by the tail. This required great faith and courage, for the tail is the last part of a snake that you would take hold of, for it enables it to turn and bite. But, after his initial fear, he recognised that this was no ordinary snake, and was all Yahweh's doing, and that he could therefore safely do what He said. If Yahweh told him to do it, Yahweh could render the snake powerless. So he did what he was told. He did not seek to bruise its head he took it by the tail. And as soon as he did the snake once more became a staff in his hand.
So Moses learned not to fear ‘the snake' and all that it symbolised of Pharaoh and of other-world powers, for he now knew that God controlled the snake. This was his first practical step in trusting God. And he had learned by it not to be afraid of the Serpent who lay behind it all, or of the Pharaoh whose head bore the snake. And he could demonstrate to Israel that they need not be afraid either.
There was presumably significance in the fact that he was to tackle the snake in this unusual way. The usual tactic would be to go for the head. One reason probably was in order to show the complete control that Yahweh had over the snake, and therefore over all snakes both human and divine. Another was possibly to give the hint that victory would not be instantaneous or accomplished violently. It would be achieved by a firm hand.
But a further purpose may have been to prevent the idea that this was the fulfilment of Genesis 3:15. This was not to be the final subjection of the Evil One, it was to be a preliminary subjection.
‘That they may believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has appeared to you.'
Many see a difficulty here in knowing what the ‘that' refers back to. It may well in fact assume that the reader in his mind adds an introduction in thought of words such as ‘you will do this with your rod so (that) --'. However, it might equally refer back to ‘take it by the tail', with the remainder (from the modern point of view) in parenthesis. Moses' action with the snake would be in accordance with their own longstanding tradition about what had happened in Eden. Our problem may simply arise from our lack of knowledge of the idioms of early Hebrew. Either way the meaning is clear. Moses must show this sign to the elders and the people so that they would believe that Yahweh, the God of their fathers, had indeed appeared to them, and could control the enemies of Israel as he had with their first father in Eden.
Note the continued emphasis on ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob' (Exodus 3:15 and here). The intention is to bolster both Moses and the people with the fact that the God of the covenant, the God of their past, was now here to fulfil His promises made to those great men of the past, the promises which Israel had been brought up with from their cradles. It is precisely because Yahweh is the God of their fathers that they can have such confidence. He is their own God.