(Exodus) Exodus 4:6-13

And I'm reading now verse 6 of the 4th chapter of Exodus. And the Lord said, furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.

And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. He put his hand into his bosom again, and plucked it out of his bosom. Behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. The great message that is shared, of course, is one that is for Moses in particular. The bosom speaks of his inner life.

We would say today, the heart, out of the heart proceed the issues of life. Then this man puts his hand in there. In other words, the hand will do what's in the heart.

Now, you see, God, first of all, wanted to get that rod in the hand of a man yielded to him. But he wants that hand now in accord with the heart of the man. The heart must be in this, because ultimately a man will do what's in his heart.

That which is in the heart will come out. Out of the heart come the issues of life. The Lord Jesus Himself, you remember, made this statement concerning, He says, A good tree brings forth good fruit, and an evil tree brings forth evil fruit.

And then He went on to say that it's the heart. That is the place where the issues of life are settled, and that becomes actually all important, by the way. And so we find that He makes that very clear to us today.

Let me just read a verse in this connection. The Lord Jesus said in Luke 6, 45, A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good. An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil.

For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. And so now what God is saying to this man Moses, that I want your heart and your hand. And friends, I want to make this very clear.

God today is putting it on the same kind of basis. God doesn't want your money, and He doesn't want what you do. He wants you.

And if He gets you, then He'll have the rest. And He's saying to Moses, Moses, that hand, you put it in the bosom, it comes out as leprosy. You put it in again, it'll come out clean.

Now out of that heart will come ultimately what you are. In other words, I want that rod in the hand of a man that is yielded to me, and I want that hand to move because his heart is moving the same way, which ultimately means I want his heart yielded to me. That's a great lesson, and it was a lesson for Moses.

It'll be for the children of Israel, and it's for us today. Now you read in verse 10, Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since. Thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.

Well, the thing is that Moses puts up another objection. Moses said, I'm not an eloquent speaker. You need an eloquent speaker here.

Well, the thing is, again, he's making an excuse. Moses was able, I notice, to speak when it was time to speak, and he seems to have done a very good job of it. But you notice that now he feels his inadequacy, and that is perfectly all right, but it's also now the time has come for action, and God wants him to move.

Notice verse 11, And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth, or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say. In other words, what he's saying again is, Moses, not only I want that hand, but I want your mouth also, and if I have it, you'll say what I want you to say. And that, again, is very important.

Out of the heart proceed the issues of life, and what is in the well of the heart will come up through the bucket of the mouth. You see, God wanted his heart. Then God could have that man speak what he wanted to.

But Moses puts this up as an objection. And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. Poor Moses is trying to get a substitute here.