The first sign was turning Moses’ staff into a snake and then back into a staff. Snakes symbolized magic and protection in Egypt and it was common for Egyptian gods to be depicted holding snake-wands. For example, a statuette found by archaeologists in the Ramasseum in Egypt depicts a female sau, a type of sorceress, who could provide magical protection. This statuette holds a snake-wand in each hand. 
 

Perhaps turning Moses’ staff into a snake served to mock the powers of Egyptian sorcery, emphasized when the staff devoured the staff-snakes of the magicians of Egypt in Exodus 7:12.

With this sign, Moses and Aaron demonstrated that the power of God was greater than the power of Egyptian sorcery, even if it cold be real. God has not changed and so regardless of what “powers” the enemy appears to possess. James tells us to submit to God and resist the devil. We can’t do that unless we are capable of it. Paul stated that the God of peace shall bruise the devil beneath our feet. There is one simple reason for this supremacy and it is because Jesus Is Lord! This is an amazing study. Adam was created to be God’s vice-regal agent on the earth and Adam sold out, but the Second Adam came to bring full restoration and cried out triumphantly tele? on the cross—it is finished!

According to Sir James Frazer, author of the classic on ancient pagan religion The Golden Bough, Egyptians believed that leprosy afflicted sinners, in particular those who sinned by eating the flesh of a sacred animal (Golden Bough Ch. 49 section 4). It this ‘sin’ that Moses told Pharaoh the Israelites were going to commit by bringing animal offerings to God in the desert. Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and told them to go and bring their offerings to their God in the land. Moses replied:

It is not proper to do so, for we will offer the deity of Egypt to Hashem our God. Behold, if we were to slaughter the deity of Egypt in their sight, will they not stone us? Exodus 8:21-22

This second sign, like the first, was a mockery of Ancient Egyptian beliefs. What Moses said was that it is Hashem, not the offended Egyptian deities, who determines who does and does not have leprosy—who is and who is not considered a sinner is in the hands of the God of Israel alone.

The river Nile was worshiped as a god by the Egyptians. It was seen as the giver and sustainer of all life because of Egypt’s dependence on the rising tides of the Nile for economic well-being.

Moses’ third sign of  turning water into blood  was not about just any water,because God had specifically told Moses to take some water from the river in Exodus 4:9 and turn it into blood.

The river refers to the Nile and Moses could not “rehearse the sign” while standing at the burning bush – somewhere in the Sinai peninsula as he did with the other two.

The significance was not to turn water into blood, but to turn the Nile into blood as this was a direct affront to Pharaoh’s Egyptian pagan beliefs. Especially since the Egyptians saw Pharaoh himself as the human embodiment of the creator and protector of the Nile.

It is not my intention to comment on the plagues themselves. The primary purpose of the ten plagues was not the salvation of the people of Israel from Egypt—that could have been accomplished without them. The purpose of the plagues was the refutation of the gods of Egypt in the eyes of the Egyptians. 

I shall harden Pharaoh’s heart and I shall multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh will not heed you, and I shall put My hand upon Egypt. And Egypt shall know that I am God, when I stretch out My hand over Egypt. Exodus 7:3-5

It is evident from scriptures that God raised up Pharaoh to reveal His glory. We also know that God puts one man down, so we might be able to look at key positions such as heads of state in that light. The president or prime minister of a country may then be there because God either permitted it or wants that person to hold office.

We know of course that man still has freedom of choice, but even so, rather than praying”against” a certain situation or person, would it not be wiser to pray for that person and ask God for understanding? Ask Him the purpose.

This whole Exodus account may have much more meaning to us today than we think. This gives me an opportunity now to think of our own imminent Exodus and ask, “How ready are you?”

That made God angry again! Never think that God never gets angry! He does! His anger however is not like ours. It is righteous.

I have only seen the Lord’s anger twice in my life. One was when it as like He was speaking through clenched teeth with the opening words, “How dare they! How dare they!” He was referring to how believers say that the devil was attacking them and stated that such an attitude is “As good as telling Him that “Calvary was not good enough”. The other time was when the Lord took me for  45 minute visit to hell where He showed me preachers there, “Because they did not preach truth”. I suspect that there are other occasions, but cannot comment on them, other than to refer you to the time Jesus cleansed the Temple.

There are unchanging spiritual principles and truths here that we cannot afford to discount.

Also do not think that we should not get angry.

Paul told us about keeping our spirits and minds renewed and putting off the old man, to put on the new regenerated nature in Ephesians chapter four. It deserves mention here.

If you really listened to him and were instructed about him, then you learned that since what is in Yeshua is truth, then, so far as your former way of life is concerned, you must strip off your old nature, because your old nature is thoroughly rotted by its deceptive desires; and you must let your spirits and minds keep being renewed, and clothe yourselves with the new nature created to be godly, which expresses itself in the righteousness and holiness that flow from the truth. |
Therefore, stripping off falsehood, let everyone speak truth with his neighbor, because we are intimately related to each other as parts of a body. Be angry, but don’t sin—don’t let the sun go down before you have dealt with the cause of your anger; otherwise you leave room for the Adversary.
The thief must stop stealing; instead, he should make an honest living by his own efforts. This way he will be able to share with those in need.
Let no harmful language come from your mouth, only good words that are helpful in meeting the need, words that will benefit those who hear them. Don’t cause grief to God’s Ruach HaKodesh, for he has stamped you as his property until the day of final redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, violent assertiveness and slander, along with all spitefulness. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted; and forgive each other, just as in the Messiah God has also forgiven you. Ephesians 4:21-32

Moses’ attitude aroused God’s anger, but, interestingly, God already knew beforehand and told the man that Aaron was coming to help him. If He has called someone to perform a task, God already knows ahead of time what will eventuate. This reinforces my belief that any person with a legitimate call of God on his or her life is: 9a) called, (b) equipped, (c) ordained and (d) dispatched on the assignment. Self-appointed and church appointed people do not really meet the criteria.

When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, called him by name, gave him supernatural signs, gave him his assignment knowing that he would need help and such help was already coming when Moses started to make feeble excuses.

This is totally different to deliberately refusing to accept an assignment and I pity those who are in that category, because from what I have learned, on most occasions, their lives are a mess. When someone tells God no, they are not interested, it seems to me that it is a form of rebellion. From what I have observed, it seems that everything they touch turns to dust. The reason is that God “backs off” as they had made their choice.

Sh’mu’el said, “Does Adonai take as much pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying what Adonai says?
Surely obeying is better than sacrifice, and heeding orders than the fat of rams.
“For rebellion is like the sin of sorcery, stubbornness like the crime of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of Adonai, he too has rejected you as king... 1 Samuel 15:22-23

Jesus stated:

This is war, and there is no neutral ground. If you’re not on my side, you’re the enemy; if you’re not helping, you’re making things worse. Matthew 12:30

Moses kept arguing and debating the issue whilst the very help he needed was already coming down the road. God knew ahead of time what would happen, yet still offered the man a choice and He still does that to us today. We choose to follow Jesus. We choose to worship. We choose to pray. We choose to study God’s word and we choose to listen to His voice and follow Him, or go our own way. We choose all kinds of things that make us who we are and I have obesrved that on most occasions when someone refuses compliance, everything they touch seems to turn to dust.

I wonder what might have happened if Moses never made such excuses, immediately complied and got on with the job. Would we have witnessed a greater demonstration of God somehow? That’s wild guessing I suppose and we do not know. This is more important than we may think, because when someone denies his or her call in life by God, they go elsewhere and there is more than one outcome. The task may never be done and if that is the case, other peoples’ lives may be at stake. Someone could go to a Christ-less eternity because another person rejected that call. I know from personal experience that this happens.  I never ask anyone for an opportunity to preach. If God wants it, that is another matter and we receive many invitations to minister but it is my policy to never go unless the Lord says so. When He tells me to go, I do. My wife and I received such an invitation and the Lord told us to go. We made all necessary arrangements and went to the airport to pick up the tickets supposedly waiting for us. I made the bookings, but the Lord told me not to pay for them! On our arrival, the tickets were indeed there, but not paid for. We watched the airplane leave and rather bewildered asked him what to do. He said to stay at a nearby hotel and return the next day, which we did. The tickets were there again, but no on had paid for them, so we returned home and that meeting never happened. Some time later, we discovered that one person had refused to pay...twice. We do not know what might have happened.

Another possibility is that God may have to appoint a substitute and as a result, what I dub as “second best” is achieved.

Any “second best” is just what it says. Moses may have been capable of doing the job alone, but did not know it. On the other hand, he may have needed an assistant because of the sheer size and scope of the ministry and God knew that also, but imagine someone other than Aaron applying for the job. This is real and it happens too often in churches today when someone covets (and I say that delberately) the position of a pastor; a church advertises for someone for a position, he applies, has an interview and is selected...

God has a vision for a certain place and that vision requires a man that God chooses, not man. We are to recognize the call and the hand of God on that person, but anyone else??? There is a principle whereby God “separates” those He chooses for specific tasks.

The Greek word is aphorizō, that means to exclude. That means everyone else is excluded and is not to be picked. It also means to get rid of! The meaning there should be self explanatory. Of particular interest also are the meanings to appoint, to set aside for a specdial or particular task or function, such as a ministry office.
Please weigh this up by looking at Matthew 13:49, 25:32; Luke 6:22; Romans 1:1 and Galatians 1:15

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit has an active part to play in the selection process.

One time when they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Ruach HaKodesh said to them, “Set aside for me Bar-Nabba and Sha’ul for the work to which I have called them.” After fasting and praying, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.  So these two, after they had been sent out by the Ruach HaKodesh, went down to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus. Acts 13:2-4

No mention is made of  them having to hold the ministry credentials and ordination certificates we often demand today. There is good reason of course, but the real qualifications for ministry come from above! From what I can ascertain, both Moses and Aaron had no formal training  for the ministry. I suspect that Moses had very little religious training. He was raised in the courts of Egypt, knowing nothing other than the false gods of Egypt and how to look after another man’s sheep.

Pastors look after someone else’s sheep! It would seem that all Aaron know was how to make mud bricks, so he had no qualifications that we seem to depend on today. I studied at two bible colleges and studied for a doctorate only to discover that such things do not necessarily mean a thing. Actually, I find that they are a more of a hindrance, because they are intellectually based, usuelly lacking inreal faith and are not always reliant on the Holy Spirit to properly and fully equip us.

This leads me to interesting questions, because if the Holy Spirit did not come to us as we understand it on the Day of Pentecost, what prompted Aaron to find Moses? How did he find him? When did he embark on his own journey and how long did it take him? There are all kinds of variables there. Perhaps you are “an Aaron”, wondering what to do next. Perhaps God has been trying to get your attention.

There are answers to these questions.

The spirit of a man is the lamp of ōōōōōōōō,
Searching all his inmost parts Proverbs 20:27

For you, Adonai, light my lamp;
Adonai, my God, lights up my darkness. Psalm 18:29 (read the entire Psalm)

I commenced this with a discourse on the three signs that God gave Moses and elaborated on that. I then discussed how this applies to us today and this is very reletant to us today. God asked Moses what he had in his hand. It was a rod or staff. Today, God could well ask you the same question, namely, “What have you got that I can use?” You might not think that you are anyone special but I say you are. You may say that you have made too many mistakes but who hasn’t made a mistake? You may well state that all I speak about is “OK for you Robert. You are a preacher. I am not and do not want to be one.” Good! Don’t try to enter the ministry unless you know for absolute certainty that God has asked you to do that. Just be who you are. All He really asks is this:

My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe and delight in my ways, Proverbs 23:26

See what happens next...