Exodus 4:27














1. By Divine appointment (cf. ver. 14).

2. In a sacred place.

3. As cooperators in a good work.

4. With affection.

5. To exchange experiences. - J.O.

Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.
I. THE BROTHERHOOD AND AFFECTION SUBSISTING BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT MEMBERS OF GOD'S FAMILY. This is twofold. God's people stand in a twofold relation to one another, as —

(1)natural and —

(2)spiritual men.

II. Notice THE BREACHES OF INTERCOURSE BROUGHT ABOUT IN THIS WORLD BETWEEN THOSE MEMBERS OF GOD'S FAMILY WHO HAVE SEEN AND KNOWN ONE ANOTHER IN THE FLESH.

1. Many interruptions of intercourse are brought about by providential arrangements.

2. All direct communication between brethren in the Lord is cut off by death.

III. Consider THE NEED OF AND CONSEQUENT YEARNING AFTER EACH OTHER'S SOCIETY AND ASSISTANCE WHICH, WHILE PARTED, THE MEMBERS OF GOD'S FAMILY EXPERIENCE. The need is based upon, and flows from, their spiritual constitution in one body. We are, in the design of God, constituent parts of a whole, and we are continually evincing our consciousness of this truth.

IV. Consider THE BLISSFUL REUNION OF THE SUNDERED MEMBERS OF GOD'S FAMILY IN THE REALMS OF GLORY. There shall be a day when all the yearnings of the Christian's heart after the society of his brethren shall be satisfied to the full, when his joy shall receive its entire complement in his recognition of and intercommunication with those whom he has known and loved in the Lord.

(Dean Goulburn.)

I. GOD BROUGHT THE LEADERS TOGETHER. A strange place for their meeting, and a strange scene.

II. GOD BROUGHT HIS LEADERS TO HIS PEOPLE. God may be obliged to prepare His leaders as well as His people. Moses was not ready for his work until he was eighty years old. How much of God's work may be waiting for His leaders! Pray for leaders set apart in the Mount of God; but pray, too, for elders to gather about them. And pray again for a people ready to be led. Everything must stay until so much is attained, — a consecrated ministry, a consecrated eldership, a consecrated church.

III. GOD BROUGHT HIS LEADERS BEFORE PHARAOH. God's enemies must be subdued if they reject the Divine message. But first He will thoroughly apply gentle methods.

(G. R. Leavitt.)

I. AARON'S COMMISSION.

1. Its reason suggestive to the reluctant servant (vers. 1-14).

2. The fact suggestive of the Divine condescension and forbearance.

II. AARON'S OBEDIENCE.

1. Prompt.

2. Sincere.

III. MOSES AND AARON CARRYING OUT THE DIVINE COMMAND.

1. They observed their respective places.

2. Their reception by the people (ver. 31).

IV. THE INTERVIEW BETWEEN MOSES, AARON, AND PHARAOH.

1. The reasonableness of the request.

2. The unreasonableness and haughtiness of the reply.Lessons:

1. To analyze the Divine motive, in the use of all these human instrumentalities, is fraught with most helpful and instructive suggestions.

2. The unwisdom of hesitancy, in accepting a clearly-indicated call of God, is here seen.

3. The modesty and judiciousness with which the request of Moses and Aaron was couched, suggest the carefulness which soul-winners should exercise.

4. In the haughtiness of Pharaoh we discover the preliminary step to his fall.

(D. C. Hughes, M. A.)

1. God joineth His seconds to His firsts, as He seeth need for redemption of His Church.

2. The same Jehovah only fits and calls His first and second instruments for His works. All from God.

3. God may call the elder after the younger brother, and subject him.

4. God can bring brethren together which were as lost one to another.

5. Motion and place and work, God points out to His instruments of salvation.

6. God makes the deserts places for deliverers to meet in for His Church's good.

7. God's call to meeting of instruments is to teach them their respective work.

8. Hearts which God toucheth are ready for obedience to God's call.

9. The mount of God, and God in the mount, is best for His servants to meet about His work.

10. Nature and grace teach men to give signs of love and loyalty to God's substitutes below (ver. 27).

11. It is just for supreme powers to open their commissions from God to inferiors.

12. God's words alone are to be declared, which He speaks to His servants, and are to be spoken by them.

13. Mission and commission of God's ministers must appear both from God.

14. God's wonderful works as well as gracious works must be showed at His command.

15. Joint ambassadors of the Church's deliverance need to know God's words and works (ver. 28).

(G. Hughes, B. D.)

I. AS EDUCATED BY DIFFERENT METHODS.

II. AS MEETING AFTER A LONG SEPARATION.

1. The meeting was providential.

2. The meeting had a moral and national significance.

3. The meeting was welcome to the brothers.

III. AS UNITING IN A GRAND ENTERPRISE. Brothers should unitedly place themselves in a line with the providence of God.

IV. AS ENTERING UPON AN IMPORTANT FUTURE. All the casual meetings of life are important in their bearing upon present work and future destiny.

V. AS REFLECTING COMMENDATION UPON THEIR FAMILY. Sons honour their parents when they undertake an enterprise for the good of men. Brothers cannot be better united than in the cause of God.

(J. S. Exell, M. A.)

I. IT WAS IN A STRANGE PLACE. Some men are only brotherly before the crowd, in privacy or solitude they are social despots. The wilderness will test our affection.

II. IT WAS CHARACTERIZED BY WARMTH OF AFFECTION. They kissed each other. Brothers do not often act thus in these days. They think it unmanly to do so. The age is cold at heart. It is a token of courage as well as love that a brother will thus greet his brother. But let the kiss be accompanied by kindly attentions, otherwise it is a mockery.

III. IT WAS THE OCCASION FOR RELIGIOUS TALK AND CONSULTATION. No better topic than this.

(J. S. Exell, M. A.)

1. Called by God to work.

2. Joined by God in work.

3. Conversing together about work.

4. Learning their respective work.

(J. S. Exell, M. A.)

But admire the manner in which God governs the things of this world and of His Church. When it pleases Him to save a soul, or call a servant, He causes all persons and all events to work together for this end, and in a way already determined. As a skilful general sends each division of his army, without the knowledge of the others, to assemble on the same field of battle, so the Lord sends His servants who are fighting the good fight, to the place and at the time where they ought to meet. It was thus that He sent Peter to Cornelius, Ananias to Paul, Philip to the eunuch. It is thus that in our time He sends missionaries to heathen lands. It was thus that He caused Farel and Calvin to meet at Geneva, that they might help each other, and form a friendship that lasted during their lives, and greatly contributed to the success of their work. How this thought enlightens, strengthens, comforts, and rejoices those who are engaged serving God.

(Prof. Gaussen.)

The history of Moses and Aaron appearing together at the court of Pharaoh, the one working miracles and the other as his spokesman, may have given rise to the traditions of the Greeks and Romans, in which Jupiter and Mercury, both of them Egyptian deities worshipped at Hammon and Thoth, are described visiting the earth in a similar relationship. The latter was represented with the caduceus, a rod twisted about with serpents, and was the god of speech or eloquence. To such traditions the saying of the people of Lystra may be referred, when Paul had healed the cripple (Acts 14:11).

(T. S. Millington.)

True greatness is modest. It is a false greatness that magnifies its own powers, and disparages the strength of opposing forces. One of the penalties of greatness is isolation. It removes the man from common aids and sympathies, and sets him by himself. Greatness is lonely. This isolation Moses was beginning to feel, while the task before him grew awful, and swelled into a frightful magnitude. Solitude, and that isolation which is worse than solitude — separation from the insight and sympathy of men around us — is weakening. Moses grew weak and drew back. Thinkers are not always speakers, nor speakers thinkers. Nay, thought in its very striving after accuracy and exactness, is apt to be a hindrance of fluency. Moses could think and act, but he could not speak. He was a greater man than his brother, but his brother was a better speaker. He could excogitate the ideas, and his brother could put them into words for him. God is economical in His bestowments, and seldom heaps His manifold favours on one man. Cromwell, whether a good or a bad man, was certainly a great man; yet out of his tangled utterances it was hard to come at his meaning. Here, then, the want was supplied, and with it, as appears in the subsequent history, a much broader surface of want besides; for God is, "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," and is "wont to give more than either we desire or deserve." The abundance of His mercy will not be kept within the narrow bounds our mean conceptions set to it. Moses, in the guise of an Egyptian, and as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, had learned to recognize and love his brother Aaron under Amram's roof; they had been nurtured for uses of which neither of them dreamed. How much of this provision for a secret future is there in the lives of men. What important effects to the end of life may flow from the seemingly casual associations and intimacies of childhood I This companionship at once delivered Moses from his solitude, the isolation of peculiarity, by raising up for him a co-worker, to stand with him on the same elevated plane above the mass of the people, and aid him in bearing cares on which none but one so commissioned might presume to intrude. Here, then, was unity with subordination, and harmony with distribution and diversity; and thus the apparatus of action for the great enterprise was complete. See here the good of association. See how it raised Moses out of the ague of despondency that overtook him when the object of his long desire had at last come within his grasp; how it warmed his powers into resolute endeavour, and shed a benign influence upon his subsequent labours and sufferings. So "Jonathan, Saul's son arose, and went to David in the wood, and strengthened his hand in God." So, too, our blessed Lord thought of this principle and acted upon it, and stamped it with the seal of His infallible wisdom, when He sent out His disciples two by two, making but six missions, where an earthly wisdom would have thought it better economy to make twelve. And the great St. Paul had always with him Barnabas, or Mark, or Luke, or Gaius, or Epaphroditus in his missionary travels and labours. Let us remember that in the Divine household we are knit together into one fellowship, and are to learn to be mutually considerate and helpful, and "bear each other's burdens," as "every one members one of another." God's work, our work, will be done more easily, pleasantly, effectually. See here, too, the good of subordination. Aaron was always with Moses, his shadow or second self; but Moses always was head. If both had been heads the machinery would not have worked so kindly, smoothly, and comfortably. Nothing does well with two heads.

(R. A. Hallam, D. D.)

People
Aaron, Isaac, Israelites, Jacob, Jethro, Moses, Pharaoh, Zipporah
Places
Egypt, Horeb, Midian, Nile River
Topics
Aaron, Across, Desert, God's, Kiss, Kissed, Kisseth, Meet, Meeteth, Met, Mount, Mountain, Waste, Wilderness
Outline
1. Moses's rod is turned into a serpent.
6. His hand is leprous.
10. He loathes his calling.
13. Aaron is appointed to assist him.
18. Moses departs from Jethro.
21. God's message to Pharaoh.
24. Zipporah circumcises her son.
27. Aaron is sent to meet Moses.
29. The people believe them.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Exodus 4:27

     5898   kissing

Exodus 4:27-28

     5072   Aaron, spokesman

Library
January 13. "Thou Shalt be to Him Instead of God" (Ex. Iv. 16).
"Thou shalt be to him instead of God" (Ex. iv. 16). Such was God's promise to Moses, and such the high character that Moses was to assume toward Aaron, his brother. May it not suggest a high and glorious place that each of us may occupy toward all whom we meet, instead of God? What a dignity and glory it would give our lives, could we uniformly realize this high calling! How it would lead us to act toward our fellow-men! God can always be depended upon. God is without variableness or shadow of turning.
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

May the Eleventh but -- --!
"And Moses answered and said, But----" --EXODUS iv. 1-9. We know that "but." God has heard it from our lips a thousand times. It is the response of unbelief to the divine call. It is the reply of fear to the divine command. It is the suggestion that the resources are inadequate. It is a hint that God may not have looked all round. He has overlooked something which our own eyes have seen. The human "buts" in the Scriptural stories make an appalling record. "Lord, I will follow Thee, but----" There
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

May the Twelfth Mouth and Matter
"Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth." --EXODUS iv. 10-17. And what a promise that is for anyone who is commissioned to proclaim the King's decrees. Here can teachers and preachers find their strength. God will be with their mouths. He will control their speech, and order their words like troops. He does not promise to make us eloquent, but to endow our words with the "demonstration of power." "And I will teach thee what thou shall say." The Lord will not only be with our mouths,
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

A Bundle of Myrrh is My Well-Beloved unto Me; He Shall Abide Between My Breasts.
When the Bride, or rather the lover (for she is not yet a bride), has found her Bridegroom, she is so transported with joy, that she is eager to be instantly united to Him. But the union of perpetual enjoyment is not yet arrived. He is mine, she says, I cannot doubt that He gives Himself to me this moment, since I feel it, but He is to me, as it were, a bundle of myrrh. He is not yet a Bridegroom whom I may embrace in the nuptial bed, but a bundle of crosses, pains and mortifications; a bloody husband
Madame Guyon—Song of Songs of Solomon

Preaching (I. ).
Earthen vessels, frail and slight, Yet the golden Lamp we bear; Master, break us, that the light So may fire the murky air; Skill and wisdom none we claim, Only seek to lift Thy Name. I have on purpose reserved the subject of Preaching for our closing pages. Preaching is, from many points of view, the goal and summing up of all other parts and works of the Ministry. What we have said already about the Clergyman's life and labour, in secret, in society, in the parish; what we have said about his
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren

To the Saddest of the Sad
I often wonder what those preachers do who feel called to make up their message as they go on; for if they fail, their failure must be attributed in great measure to their want of ability to make up a moving tale. They have to spread their sails to the breeze of the age, and to pick up a gospel that comes floating down to them on the stream of time, altering every week in the year; and they must have an endless task to catch this new idea, or, as they put it, to keep abreast of the age. Unless, indeed,
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888

The Sweet Uses of Adversity
Now, I propose to address myself to the two classes of persons who are making use of this question. First, I shall speak to the tried saint; and then I shall speak to the seeking sinner, who has been seeking peace and pardon through Christ, but who has not as yet found it, but, on the contrary, has been buffeted by the law, and driven away from the mercy-seat in despair. I. First, then, to THE CHILD OF GOD. I have--I know I have--in this great assembly, some who have come to Job's position. They
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

"For if Ye Live after the Flesh, Ye Shall Die; but if Ye through the Spirit do Mortify the Deeds of the Body, Ye Shall Live.
Rom. viii. s 13, 14.--"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." The life and being of many things consists in union,--separate them, and they remain not the same, or they lose their virtue. It is much more thus in Christianity, the power and life of it consists in the union of these things that God hath conjoined, so that if any man pretend to
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Hardening in the Sacred Scripture.
"He hath hardened their heart."-- John xii. 40. The Scripture teaches positively that the hardening and "darkening of their foolish heart" is a divine, intentional act. This is plainly evident from God's charge to Moses concerning the king of Egypt: "Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not harken unto you, and I will lay My hand upon Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Quotation in Matt. Ii. 6.
Several interpreters, Paulus especially, have asserted that the interpretation of Micah which is here given, was that of the Sanhedrim only, and not of the Evangelist, who merely recorded what happened and was said. But this assertion is at once refuted when we consider the object which Matthew has in view in his entire representation of the early life of Jesus. His object in recording the early life of Jesus is not like that of Luke, viz., to communicate historical information to his readers.
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Flight into Egypt and Slaughter of the Bethlehem Children.
(Bethlehem and Road Thence to Egypt, b.c. 4.) ^A Matt. II. 13-18. ^a 13 Now when they were departed [The text favors the idea that the arrival and departure of the magi and the departure of Joseph for Egypt, all occurred in one night. If so, the people of Bethlehem knew nothing of these matters], behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise [this command calls for immediate departure] and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt [This land was ever the
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Appendix xii. The Baptism of Proselytes
ONLY those who have made study of it can have any idea how large, and sometimes bewildering, is the literature on the subject of Jewish Proselytes and their Baptism. Our present remarks will be confined to the Baptism of Proselytes. 1. Generally, as regards proselytes (Gerim) we have to distinguish between the Ger ha-Shaar (proselyte of the gate) and Ger Toshabh (sojourner,' settled among Israel), and again the Ger hatstsedeq (proselyte of righteousness) and Ger habberith (proselyte of the covenant).
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

A Canticle of Love
It is not only when He is about to send me some trial that Our Lord gives me warning and awakens my desire for it. For years I had cherished a longing which seemed impossible of realisation--to have a brother a Priest. I often used to think that if my little brothers had not gone to Heaven, I should have had the happiness of seeing them at the Altar. I greatly regretted being deprived of this joy. Yet God went beyond my dream; I only asked for one brother who would remember me each day at the Holy
Therese Martin (of Lisieux)—The Story of a Soul

Exodus
The book of Exodus--so named in the Greek version from the march of Israel out of Egypt--opens upon a scene of oppression very different from the prosperity and triumph in which Genesis had closed. Israel is being cruelly crushed by the new dynasty which has arisen in Egypt (i.) and the story of the book is the story of her redemption. Ultimately it is Israel's God that is her redeemer, but He operates largely by human means; and the first step is the preparation of a deliverer, Moses, whose parentage,
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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