Moses is empowered to confirm his mission with miracles: his brother Aaron is appointed to assist him.
“Then he said to him: What is that thou holdest in thy hand? He answered: A rod.” (Exodus 4:2)
Jesus Christ is referred to as the rod of salvation.
“Let me try to explain, as far as the Lord enables me to, what these signs mean. The rod stands for the kingdom, the snake for mortality; it was by the snake that man was given death to drink. The Lord was prepared to take this death to himself. So when the rod came down to earth it had the form of a snake, because the kingdom of God, which is Jesus Christ, came down to earth. He put on mortality, which he also nailed to the cross. Your holinesses know that when that proud and stiffnecked people grumbled against God in the desert, they began to be bitten by serpents and to die of the bites. In his mercy God provided a remedy, a remedy that restored health at the time but also foretold the wisdom that was to come in the future.” -St. Augustine
“And the Lord said again: Put thy hand into thy bosom. And when he had put it into his bosom, he brought it forth leprous as snow.” (Exodus 4:6)
All who desire to be saved, must come to believe in Jesus Christ, God made man: for the sake of our salvation.
“Again, another sign which Moses gave points to our Lord Jesus Christ. He put his hand into his bosom and drew it out again, and his hand had become as snow. A second time he put it in and drew it out, and it was again like the appearance of human flesh. This signified first the original glory of the Godhead of the Lord Jesus and then the assumption of our flesh, in which truth all nations and peoples must believe. So he put in his hand, for Christ is the right hand of God; and whosoever does not believe in his Godhead and incarnation is punished as a sinner; like that king who, while not believing open and plain signs, yet afterwards, when punished, prayed that he might find mercy.” -St. Ambrose
“Go therefore and I will be in thy mouth: and I will teach thee what thou shalt speak.” (Exodus 4:12)
The Lord fills the souls of the Saints with the Holy Spirit who gives all grace, virtue and wisdom.
“The Lord himself also opened his mouth and said to the apostles, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ By these words he declared that he was the one who said to Moses, ‘I will open your mouth and will teach you what you are to say.’ Therefore this wisdom, divine, ‘indescribable,’ ‘unmixed and uncorrupted,’ pours its grace into the souls of the saints and reveals knowledge, so that they may look upon his glory.” -St. Ambrose
“And the Lord said to him as he was returning into Egypt: See that thou do all the wonders before Pharao, which I have put in thy hand: I shall harden his heart, and he will not let the people go.” (Exodus 4:21)
One’s free will is the reason for a hardened heart: in God’s justice, one can not receive His sanctifying grace when in unrepentent mortal sin.
“And you must not deny free will to Pharaoh just because God says in a number of places, “I have hardened Pharaoh” or “I will harden the heart of Pharaoh,” for it does not thereby follow that it was not Pharaoh himself that hardened his own heart. Furthermore, we read that this happened to Pharaoh after the plague of flies had been removed from the Egyptians, as the Scripture testifies: “And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened so that neither this time would he let the people go.” Thus it was that both God and Pharaoh caused this hardening of the heart: God, by his just judgments, Pharaoh, by his free will.” -St. Augustine
Discussion: One cannot be saved without belief in Jesus Christ. How can we show others the light and love of Christ?
Women's Prayer Group In Christ 