Exodus 3 and 4: Moses 3 Signs as a Paradigm for Understanding Signs and Wonders Today

Exodus chapters 3 and 4 records one of the most unique interviews ever granted to a human being. That singular interview took place between God (YHWH) and an ancient Palestinian Jew by the name of Moses. At the time of interview, Moses' life had been neatly parceled in two 40 year segments. The first forty years found him in Egypt. As the Book of Exodus records at the end of chapter 2, Moses defends one of his Jewish countrymen by murdering an Egyptian slave master. Upon discovering that his murderous act was known to the civil authorities, Moses flees Egypt to spend the second chapter of his life in quiet obscurity in the land of Midian.

In chapters 3 and 4, God summons Moses to the upper extremities of Mount Sinai. Moses alights the mountain to discover a burning bush that is in flames but is not consumed by the fire. Moses then hears God speaking through the bush. It is revealed to Moses that God has not forgotten his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as detailed in the Book of Genesis. The Abrahamic covenant promised that a day was coming in which the descendants of Abraham would be as numerous as the stars on a moonlit night. Some four hundred years after that promise was made, Moses finds himself alone on a mountaintop, in the presence of God, that the promise made is about to become the promise fulfilled. To Moses' surprise and consternation, Moses is to become the means of conveying the good news that the day of deliverance is at hand. What happens next is nothing short of remarkable.

Standing in the presence of God, Moses receives direct, audible and clear instruction of what he is to do, what he is to say and to whom he is to say it. Many of my conservative evangelical brethren struggle to understand the question of what God's will is for their lives. They rightly, pray, study Scriptures and seek to live a life of diligent obedience in compliance with God's ordinances. But frequently, there remains a subtle question mark niggling in the back of their minds as to whether or not they have correctly discerned God's will. Moses had no such excuse. God's will was as plain as the nose on Moses' face and yet rather than rejoicing in the fact that God had chosen him as the means of delivering his kinsmen, Moses instead has the pluck to tell the creator of the universe to send someone else in his place.

God then gives Moses three signs that he is to perform in the presence of his countrymen and their political oppressors. The first of the three, takes the form of Moses' shepherd rod turning into a snake and then transforming itself back into a wooden staff. The second sign, consists of Moses' hand turning leprous and restoring itself to normal. Lastly, Moses is to change water into blood. The purpose of these signs was to authenticate the message and validate the messenger. They were to be an outward and visible demonstration that God was about to break His silence;
that the promises made are about to be fulfilled; that deliverance is about to take place. In New Testament parlance it could be said that the Kingdom of God is at hand.

As history unfolds, Moses did indeed demonstrate these miraculous signs as well as others. Exodus records ten distinct episodes of miraculous demonstrations of God's power culminating with the Exodus event itself and Jewish deliverance from Egyptian bondage.

It strikes the author, that there may be a paradigm here for the New Testament Church to understand the ultimate purpose of signs and wonders. The power given by God to Moses to perform miracles was designed to validate the message the Kingdom of God was about to intrude into the affairs of humanity in a rather unique way. Pharoah needed to be convinced as well as the Israelites. Anyone can claim to have messianic status. Anyone can claim that they have a message from God. It is quite another thing to authenticate that claim with a demonstration of power. As the remainder of Exodus unfolds, we find that the need to perform the miraculous diminishes as Israel emerges from its captivity.

History also records, that after the nation emerges from Egypt, God demonstrates His sovereign rule by performing other miracles. Some examples would be creating water from a rock along with the provision of mannah and quail to name a few. However Moses no longer needs to validate God's message by turning staffs into snakes, making his hand leprous or transforming water into blood. They fulfilled their desired end and were no longer needed. No where in the Old Testament do we see Levitical priests hearkening back to and era in which the miraculous abounded. They do not seek to conjure signs and wonders from the past as a means of explaining and validating their present circumstances.

That is not to say that God does not work miracles today. Plainly He does. However, the New Testament paradigm seems to follow the pattern first displayed at Sinai. Jesus message was that the Kingdom of God is at hand. The long awaited Messiah has finally come. The promise made is now the promise fulfilled. With the advent of the New Testament era, signs and wonders were granted to early followers of Jesus as a way to demonstrate that the Kingdom of God had not merely come by word, but with power as well. What is also clear is that as the New Testament draws to a close the proliferation of signs and wonders that so marked the early teaching of Peter and Paul seems to be waning as well.

When it comes to sincere Christians seeking after the outward, flamboyant and demonstrable signs of God's presence, perhaps we can take a cue from the Levites and the Aaronic priesthood in this regard. Pentecost has come. The Kingdom of God is growing. With the closure of the Canon, and the historical attestation of the risen Jesus, do we really need to seek after bursts of power to explain who we are and why we exist?

Soli Deo Gloria