Exodus 4

4 ¹Moses replied, "But they won't believe me or listen to my voice, for they'll say, 'Our Father did not appear to you.'"

²Our Father said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A staff."

³He said, "Throw it to the ground." He threw it to the ground, and it became a snake, and Moses ran from it.

⁴But our Father said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and grab it by the tail"—he reached out his hand, caught it, and it became a staff in his hand. ⁵"that they may believe that your Father, the God of their fathers—of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob—has appeared to you."

⁶Then our Father told him, "Put your hand in your cloak." So he did, and when he pulled it out, his hand had a skin disease, white as snow.

⁷He said, "Put your hand back in your cloak." He did, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

⁸"If they will not believe you or listen to the first sign, they may believe the second sign. ⁹If they still won't believe these two signs or listen to your voice, take water from the Nile and pour it on dry ground; the water taken from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground."

¹⁰But Moses said to our Father, "Please, my Sovereign Father, I've never been good with words, not before nor since you've spoken to your servant, for I'm slow of speech and slow of tongue."

¹¹Then our Father said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Isn't that I, your Father? ¹²Now go, and I will be with your mouth and will teach you what to say."

¹³But he said, "Please, my Sovereign Father, send someone else."

¹⁴Then our Father's anger flared against Moses. He said, "Isn't Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know he speaks well. Even now he's coming out to meet you, and he'll rejoice in his heart when he sees you. ¹⁵Speak to him; put the words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth and his, and teach you both what to do. ¹⁶He will speak for you to the people, be your mouth, and you will be like God to him. ¹⁷And take this staff in your hand and use it to perform the signs."

Moses and Jethro Part

¹⁸Moses returned to his father-in-law Jethro and said, "Let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see if they're still alive." Jethro said, "Go in peace."

¹⁹And our Father told Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt—all the men who wanted to kill you are dead."

²⁰Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses took the staff of our Father in his hand.

²¹Then our Father told Moses, "When you return to Egypt, perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I gave you power to do. But I will harden his heart, so he will not let the people go. ²²Then you are to say to Pharaoh, 'This is what our Father says: Israel is my firstborn son, ^a a v22 Long before Israel was a nation, our Father called this people his firstborn son — the first hint of the family he is gathering to himself, fulfilled when Jesus, the true firstborn, opens the way home for all his children. ²³and I say to you: let my son go to serve me. If you refuse to let him go, I will kill your firstborn son.'"

²⁴At a lodging place on the way, our Father met him and tried to kill him. ^b b v24 This brief, mysterious scene turns on the covenant sign of circumcision, which Moses had neglected for his son. Zipporah's swift act restores the family to the covenant before Moses can lead our Father's people. ²⁵Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son's foreskin, touched it to Moses' feet, and said, "Surely, you are a blood bridegroom to me."

²⁶So our Father released Moses. Then she said, "A bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.

²⁷Now our Father told Aaron, "Go meet Moses in the wilderness." So he went, met him at the mountain of our Father, and kissed him.

²⁸Moses told Aaron all the words our Father had given him to deliver, and all the signs he commanded him to perform. ²⁹Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the people of Israel. ³⁰Aaron spoke all the words our Father had spoken to Moses and did the signs before the people. ³¹The people believed. Hearing that our Father had come to help Israel's people and seen their suffering, they bowed their heads and worshiped.