The miracle of the burning bush was, as we have seen, not merely a θαυμαστόν, but also a most significant σημεῖον (note 2); and in the same manner the three miracles which Moses was commissioned to perform, must have been significant signs, intended as revelations from God, adapted to the senses of all concerned, of Moses as well as of the people of Israel and the king of Egypt, and designed to convey to the heart of each, just so much as he required to know. For this reason, as Baumgarten has well observed, we find in chap. iv. 8 voices ascribed to the signs.

The first sign was as follows. At the command of God, Moses threw his staff upon the ground. The staff became a serpent, and Moses fled from it. But Jehovah told him to take it by the tail; and on his doing so, it became a staff in his hand once more. The staff was the shepherd's crook, with which he had hitherto conducted the flock of Jethro. Hence it represented his vocation as a shepherd. This he was to throw away, i.e., he was to give up his calling and follow a new one. But the staff which he had thrown away became a serpent, and Moses fled before it. His vocation hitherto had been a poor and despised one; but it was also quiet, peaceful, and free from danger. When this was given up, he was to be exposed to dangers of such magnitude, that even his life would be threatened. Moses could foresee all this, and hence the obstinacy with which he refused to enter upon his new vocation. But at the word of God he laid hold of the snake, and it became a staff in his hand once more. This showed that, by the power of God, he would be able to overcome the dangers that would surround him, when he relinquished his present calling. By overpowering the snake he recovered his staff, but it was no longer his staff; it was the rod of God (iv. 20), and with the staff thus altered he was to perform the work entrusted to him (iv. 17). It was still a shepherd's staff, and his new vocation was a shepherd's calling. From being a shepherd of Jethro's sheep he was to become the shepherd of God's sheep, the leader and lawgiver of the people of God. And he became so, by overcoming the dangers which intervened between these two different employments. We must also observe, that this was the rod with which he was to bring the plagues upon Egypt; and therefore it was the retributory counterpart to the rod with which the Egyptian taskmasters had

beaten the Israelites (chap. v. 14; vid. Hengstenberg, Beiträge iii. 523). As soon, then, as Moses appeared before the people and performed this sign, it showed them, first, that the dangers to which the mission of Moses would expose them-dangers which they soon experienced (chap. v.)—would be overcome; and secondly, that the staff of shepherd and ruler, with which Moses was to lead and govern them, was not assumed without authority, but given to him by God, and therefore the question could not be asked, as it was before, "who made thee a prince and a judge over us" (chap. ii. 14)? He afterwards performed the same miracle in the presence of Pharaoh (vii. 10 sqq.). We shall see by and by what was its meaning then (§ 24. 2).

We come now to the second sign. Moses put his hand into his bosom, and it became LEPROUS like snow. But as soon as he put it into his bosom a second time, it became CLEAN and whole as before. The bosom is the place into which the hand is put, to shelter it from cold and other evils; in the warmth of the bosom it is protected and cherished as in a mother's lap. But behold in that very place, in which we expect it to be protected and warmed, the hand of Moses became leprous. Leprosy was impurity in its worst possible form; and for this reason the leper was put away and banished from the society of his fellow-citizens. These data, which are indisputable, are amply sufficient to explain the sign. That which happened to the hand of Moses was a picture of what had happened, and was still to happen, to the people of Israel. By going down to Egypt, the Israelites had been preserved from the injurious influence of Canaanitish customs (§ 1. 7). Through the favour of the first Pharaohs, Egypt was undoubtedly a hiding-place, in which the family of Jacob had been cherished and preserved, when it was distressed both in body and mind. But there had been a change in both the men and the times, and Israel was enslaved, despised, and held in abomination in the land of Egypt. When Israel departed from Egypt, he was like a homeless leper. But Jehovah led him once more to a hiding-place, where he was cleansed from the leprosy which he had brought with him from Egypt, and where he was set apart as a holy people and a priestly nation (xix. 6). It is very easy to explain why this sign was not exhibited before Pharaoh as well as the others (chap. vii.). The thing signified was of too internal and spiritual a nature, it was too closely con

nected with the counsel of God concerning his people to be appropriately displayed to Pharaoh. The objects indicated by this sign, were such as could only be treated of between God and his people.

The third sign belonged to a totally different sphere. It is clearly and expressly separated and distinguished from the other two. Moreover, it was not manifested on this occasion, even to the eyes of Moses; it could only be seen in Egypt. Moses was directed, in the event of the people disbelieving the first two signs, to take some water out of the stream (the Nile), and pour it upon the earth, where it would be turned to blood. The reason that in this instance Moses only received a command and a promise, and that the sign was not actually accomplished before his eyes, is not to be sought in the fact that there was no water near. The whole force of this sign depended upon the water being taken from the stream, i.e. from the Nile. This sign, as will afterwards appear, Moses was also to perform in the presence of Pharaoh, but on an incomparably larger scale. It was then not merely a handful of water which was affected, but the whole body of water, when touched by the rod of Moses, was turned into blood (vii. 17 sqq.); for in this instance it was not merely a sign for Pharaoh, but a plague and judgment upon the land of Egypt (vid. § 26. 1). To enter fully into the meaning of this sign, we must remember what the Nile was to the Egyptians. It was the source of all the wealth and fertility of the land of Egypt, and was therefore worshipped as a god. With the same rod, which God had placed in the hand of Moses, that he might tend and lead the Israelites, he was also to overthrow the gods of Egypt, and demonstrate their utter weakness in comparison with the power of the God he worshipped. That which brought a blessing to Egypt was turned by Moses into a curse; and that which had been the object of veneration and worship was made an object of disgust and abhorrence. Moses was first of all to show to his people that he possessed this power, by taking a handful of water out of the Nile; but to Pharaoh he was to demonstrate that God was in earnest in his determination to smite the gods of Egypt, by corrupting the whole of the river.

Thus did God furnish his servant with three signs. They were all related, each in its own way, to the work which he had

to perform. The number three is the mark of perfection and completeness, an indication that the process of development is at an end, and the idea embodied is fully manifested. Hence the three miraculous signs were proofs, that the miraculous power of God would be put forth in all its fulness through the instrumentality of Moses. A fourth sign Israel could not and durst not demand, without convicting itself of obdurate unbelief. But in this case it was necessary, that with the triple sign there should also be progress and a culminating point in the manifestation of the idea. And our interpretation of the signs exhibits this. There were three objects upon which the power of God was to be exerted: Moses, who was appointed to be the leader and shepherd of Israel; the people of Israel, who were to be cleansed from their leprosy and made a holy priestly nation; and Egypt, which was now to discover the impotence of its gods. There was a special sign, containing a distinct intimation, for each of these ;.and thus the idea was actually exhibited in the whole course of its development. Even the order in which the signs occurred, is thus shown to have been both significant and necessary. No other order would have harmonized with the natural development and the idea.

There is one more point, and a very essential one, to which we have still to refer. It has already been frequently observed, that Moses was the first prophet sent by God, and more especially the first worker of miracles in the history of the world. We refer the reader to our remarks in § 6. 1, on the absence of the gifts of prophecy and miracles during the pre-Mosaic age. In accordance with those remarks, we discover here an essential advance in the course of the kingdom of God upon earth, and the arrival of a turning-point in its history. Hitherto the covenant works of God and man, though constantly related to each other, had been kept more distinct the one from the other. The union of the divine and human, which is the true characteristic of the history, and the perfect realization of which in the person of the God-man was foreshadowed from the first, had never before been displayed in such a way through the instrumentality of a man, expressly called and fitted for the purpose of manifesting the word and power of God. In this respect, therefore, Moses was the first type of Christ, the God-man.

(8). When Moses complained of his heavy tongue and his want

of eloquence,-faults the removal of which he could see no reason to anticipate, notwithstanding the call that he had received,— the words do not, in our opinion, denote that he stammered, as some commentators suppose. Moses said that he was not a man of words, his mouth was not fitted for addressing others. And Jehovah replied, "Did not I make man's mouth?" This answer implied a promise, that a gift of grace should make up for the lacking gift of nature; and the subsequent history of Moses' career contains the proof that the promise was fulfilled (compare ver. 15, "I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do"). But notwithstanding this promise, Moses replied: "send, Lord, whom thou wilt send." The difficulty arising from the fact that he was not a man of words, was removed by the promise of God; but Moses could not fully enter into the meaning of the promise, or place implicit confidence in it. Jehovah, therefore, referred him to the eloquence of his brother Aaron, who was to be always at his side when engaged in the duties of his office. I cannot persuade myself that M. Baumgarten (i. 1 p. 418) and O. v. Gerlach (i. p. 213 seq.) are right in the inference which they draw from the passage before us: viz. that it was the original intention of God that Moses should stand alone in delivering, conducting, and organizing the people, and should even hold the office of High Priest as well; but that he forfeited the honour by his refusal, and had now to share with Aaron both the office and the glory. There is no reference at all to the high priesthood here. Aaron was to be Moses' interpreter; this is stated in ver. 16, "he shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and he shall be thy mouth, and thou shalt be his God," and in chap. vii. 1, 2, “Aaron shall be thy prophet, and shall speak unto Pharaoh all that I command thee." There is nothing else referred to here. And this office of Aaron does not seem to have lasted long. It served for a time to remove the doubts and difficulties of Moses, and to sustain and help him in his first appearance before the people and Pharaoh. But when once Moses had discovered that the grace and gifts of God rendered him mighty in word and deed (Acts vii. 22), he stood no longer in need of another's mouth; henceforth he was his own. It was at a later period that Aaron received the call to the priesthood, and even then the arrangement was not of such a nature as that Moses relin