Excuses, Excuses - Exodus

Devotional

Day 1: Snake, Staff, and Surrender

Moses gripped his shepherd’s staff—a tool for guiding sheep, not confronting kings. God told him to throw it down. The wooden rod writhed into a serpent, then became a staff again when Moses obeyed. This ordinary tool became God’s weapon against Egypt’s cobra-crowned power. What we clutch as mundane, God transforms when surrendered. [08:55]

God didn’t demand Moses’ eloquence or strength—only his staff. The same rod that scared Moses became a sign of divine authority. Pharaoh’s snake-headed scepter would tremble before Yahweh’s living power. Our “ordinary” becomes extraordinary in yielded hands.

What staff do you white-knuckle—skills, resources, or routines—that God waits to reclaim? Write down one practical tool you’ve withheld from His mission. Where might fear be masking your call to surrender?

“Moses answered, ‘What if they do not believe me or listen to me?’… The LORD said to him, ‘Throw it on the ground.’ Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.”
(Exodus 4:1-3, NIV)

Prayer: Ask God to reveal one “staff” you’ve clung to instead of trusting His power.
Challenge: Physically place an object representing your surrender (pen, keys, phone) on your desk as a prayer of availability.

Day 2: Leprous Hand, Healing God

Moses hid his hand inside his cloak, then pulled out flesh white as death. Leprosy meant exile—until God reversed it with a command. The sign wasn’t for Pharaoh, but for Israel’s doubting elders. God’s healing power would prove His unique divinity to His own people. [09:33]

Leprosy symbolized sin’s corruption; healing foreshadowed Christ’s restorative touch. God didn’t need Moses’ perfection—just his obedience. The same hand that failed became proof of Yahweh’s redeeming love.

Where do you hide “leprous” areas—shame, addiction, or brokenness—instead of letting God restore them? Name one wound you’ve kept cloaked. What if exposing it to Christ could become someone else’s proof of His power?

“Now put your hand into your cloak,”… When he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.”
(Exodus 4:6-7, NIV)

Prayer: Confess one hidden struggle, asking God to transform it into a testimony.
Challenge: Text a trusted believer about your struggle within the next hour.

Day 3: The God Who Made Your Mouth

Moses protested, “I’m slow of speech!”—ignoring that the One who shaped his tongue also parted seas. God answered with three questions: “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him mute? Is it not I?” The Creator doesn’t call the equipped—He equips the called. [21:21]

Moses’ self-focus blinded him to God’s track record. The bush burned without consuming. A staff became a snake. A hand rotted and healed. Yet Moses still doubted His Maker’s ability to empower speech.

What “speech impediment” do you cite—shyness, past failure, or insecurity—to avoid God’s call? Write the lie beneath your excuse. How might trusting your Creator’s design for your voice change your next conversation?

“The LORD said to him, ‘Who gave human beings their mouths?… Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.’”
(Exodus 4:10-12, NIV)

Prayer: Thank God for how He designed your voice—then ask courage to use it.
Challenge: Share one sentence about God’s faithfulness with someone today.

Day 4: When “Send Someone Else” Fails

Moses’ final excuse stripped pretense: “Send someone else.” God’s anger burned—not at Moses’ fear, but his defiance. Yet grace provided Aaron, turning rebellion into a team. Even our resistance can’t thwart God’s plan—but it may cost us His fullest blessing. [28:52]

Aaron became both help and hindrance—later enabling the golden calf. When we insist on human substitutes for obedience, we risk settling for lesser tools. God’s Plan A always surpasses our reluctant Plan B.

Where have you demanded God send “someone else” to your mission field? Write the task you’ve avoided. What might you lose if He grants your request but withholds His best?

“But Moses said, ‘Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.’… The LORD’s anger burned against Moses.”
(Exodus 4:13-14, NIV)

Prayer: Repent for any area where you’ve told God “send someone else.”
Challenge: Write one actionable step toward your avoided mission—then do it within 24 hours.

Day 5: Blood on the Feet

Zipporah’s flint knife sliced her son’s foreskin as Moses lay under God’s judgment. Blood smeared on feet stayed the angel of death. This gruesome act fulfilled Abraham’s covenant—a shadow of the blood that would one day excuse us all. [43:19]

Moses’ neglect nearly killed his family. Yet God used a pagan wife to enact salvation, foreshadowing Christ’s blood applied for rebels. Our excuses demand a sacrifice; Jesus offered Himself so we might be excused.

Where have you ignored “circumcision”—total consecration to God’s covenant? Identify one area of half-hearted obedience. What blood-stained grace might you be taking for granted?

“Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin… and touched Moses’ feet with it. ‘Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,’ she said.”
(Exodus 4:25-26, NIV)

Prayer: Thank Jesus for shedding blood so your excuses could be forgiven.
Challenge: Write “COVENANT” on your hand—let it remind you to live fully consecrated today.

Sermon Summary

Exodus 4 unfolds a running battle between fear and the call of God. The burning bush has already named and commissioned, yet Moses keeps answering with a new skin of a reason stuffed with a lie. The text opens Moses’ third excuse: what if they do not believe or listen. God answers fear with signs. The staff becomes a serpent and back again, a direct shot at Egypt’s cobra-crowned power, saying in effect that Yahweh can turn Pharaoh’s symbol into a stick. The staff, a shepherd’s ordinary tool, becomes the staff of God. The hand turns leprous and is healed to tell Israel that the true God alone can give life back. The Nile, Egypt’s lifeline, is threatened with blood to show that the living God can flip a culture’s idol into a curse. Each sign confirms the word already spoken. Today, the text says, the confirming sign is the empty tomb. Resurrection is the sign that Christianity is true.

Moses then claims a heavy tongue. The Lord answers with questions that reframe everything: who made the mouth, the ear, the eye. The argument lands here. The message matters more than the messenger, treasure in jars of clay. God cares more about availability than ability. The excuses are not irrelevant, they are irreverent. The Holy One answers anyway with help. Aaron will walk alongside, a gift that will prove both grace and grief, as later stories will show.

The staff of God now points past itself. In Exodus it will be a visible sign of saving power. In the gospel the saving power is carried by a different wooden instrument, the cross. Not the wood, but the word of the cross saves. The Lord also tells Moses hard news. Pharaoh’s heart will be hard. Scripture holds the tension without apology. Sometimes God hardens, sometimes Pharaoh hardens, sometimes the heart is hard. Sovereignty and responsibility stand together as a mystery to be adored, not a puzzle to be solved. Over it all, a deeper claim sounds. Israel is my firstborn son. If Pharaoh refuses God’s son, Egypt’s firstborn will fall. Substitution begins to take shape, later fulfilled when the true Firstborn, Jesus, bears death to bring many sons home.

A hard, strange stop on the road proves the point. The Lord moves in judgment because Moses has not circumcised his son. Zipporah acts. Blood touches feet. Judgment relents. God often relents if people repent. The leader who will plead for a nation first has to obey at home. The book’s own author does not polish his record. He needs a savior. The Son who never made excuses steps into Gethsemane and says, may your will be done. He drinks the cup. He is the sign.

Key Takeaways

1. Fear breeds excuses, God gives signs [10:24] Fear asks, what if they do not listen, even when God has already promised they will. The Lord meets that fear with signs that confirm his word, not to entertain but to anchor faith. The decisive sign now is the resurrection, the empty tomb that answers doubt with history. Faith is not guesswork when God has already spoken and raised Jesus. [10:24]
2. Ordinary tools become powerful surrendered [14:38] A staff is just a stick until it becomes the staff of God. Vocation, skill, schedule, even weakness, turn potent when placed in God’s hands. The point is not the instrument but the Owner, who can write freedom with a dead piece of wood. Consecration, not impressiveness, is the hinge of usefulness. [14:38]
3. God values availability over ability [24:56] A heavy tongue is not a final verdict when the Maker of mouths sends and stays. The treasure is the message, and jars of clay are on purpose so that power is clearly his. Study and preparation matter, but humility and yes matter more. Calling runs on obedience, not polish. [24:56]
4. Adore sovereignty and responsibility together [39:02] Scripture speaks in three registers about Pharaoh’s heart, and refuses to flatten any of them. God is sovereign, humans really choose, and the mystery is meant to humble, not harden. Worship grows where arguments end and trust begins. Reverence holds paradox without demanding to be God. [39:02]
5. Blood-marked obedience averts judgment [42:51] Circumcision on the road looks abrupt until covenant faithfulness is remembered. Disobedience in the leader’s tent cannot stand while he goes to confront a king. Zipporah’s costly act shows that repentance has shape, and that God relents when hearts return. The line runs straight to the cross, where the Firstborn’s blood secures mercy for rebels. [42:51]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[04:21] - Turn to Exodus 4 and the excuses
[05:51] - Honoring a faithful missionary
[08:55] - Sign one: staff to serpent
[09:33] - Sign two: the leprous hand
[17:55] - Sign three: Nile threatened with blood
[19:54] - Resurrection as the confirming sign
[21:21] - Heavy tongue and God’s answer
[24:21] - Treasure in jars of clay
[24:56] - Availability over ability
[28:29] - Send someone else and Aaron’s role
[34:31] - The staff of God and the cross
[36:06] - Hard hearts and firstborn judgment
[42:51] - Zipporah’s act and covenant blood
[46:56] - Jesus makes no excuses, only atonement
[47:15] - Closing prayer

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
Exodus 4:1-9 (ESV)
1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” 2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”

Observation Questions

What three signs did God give Moses to confirm His power to the Israelites and Pharaoh?
How does the description of Moses’ staff change after the first miracle (compare Exodus 4:2 and 4:20)?
What reason does God give for hardening Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus 4:21, and what consequence follows?

Interpretation Questions

Why might God have chosen a staff turning into a snake as the first sign, given Egypt’s cultural symbols of power? [13:09]
The leprous hand is healed to show God’s authority over life and death. How does this sign contrast with the gods Egypt worshipped? [16:41]
God says Pharaoh’s refusal to release Israel will result in the death of Egypt’s firstborn. How does this foreshadow the ultimate rescue provided through Jesus, the “true Firstborn”? [41:11]

Application Questions

Fear often leads to excuses like Moses’ “What if they don’t believe me?” What practical step could you take this week to confront a fear with faith in God’s promises? [10:24]
The sermon emphasized that ordinary tools (like Moses’ staff) become powerful when surrendered to God. What “ordinary” skill, resource, or weakness in your life could you intentionally place in God’s hands? [14:38]
Moses prioritized his limitations over God’s sufficiency. When have you hesitated to obey God because you felt unqualified? How might focusing on His ability rather than your inadequacy change your response? [24:56]
Zipporah’s act of circumcision averted judgment. Are there areas of disobedience in your personal life or relationships where repentance and action are needed to align with God’s covenant? [42:51]
The empty tomb is called the “decisive sign” of Christianity. How could you share the hope of Christ’s resurrection with someone struggling with doubt this week? [19:54]

Sermon Clips

Many people today look for signs from god. They say, god, if you're really here, show me. Show me. You know, show yourself to me. Then, I will believe in you if you give me this sign. God has given us a sign, church. It is a miraculous sign and it is the sign of the empty tomb. It's the resurrection of Jesus Christ that god came to Earth. He lived the perfect life. He died in our place. But then more than that, he was raised from the dead. [00:19:57] (35 seconds)

We see another principle here in the circumcision and that is that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness and we see that principle coming through in the scripture and so we see that when the when the the blood is put on the feet of Moses, god forgives. God relents from his punishment of Moses. And of course, Jesus would be the one who would be the firstborn, who would die, and not just save the Hebrews but even the Egyptians, even the Midianites, every tribe, nation, and tongue are sanctified and can be forgiven and made right through the blood of Jesus. [00:45:27] (45 seconds)

Moses was going to be a great leader but this failure reminds us that there is only one perfect savior. Moses, the writer of this book, has told us many of his flaws and he wants you to know that he is not perfect. He needs a savior and that savior was coming and he was ready. He was willing. He would not make excuses. In the Garden Of Gethsemane before Christ was crucified, he said, my father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done. [00:46:12] (36 seconds)

And he went out and he freely offered his life for our salvation. Jesus didn't say, send someone else. He knew there was no one else. He and he alone could make perfect atonement for our sins. So church, let's praise god that Jesus did not make excuses but laid down his perfect life to excuse us from the punishment we deserved. Let's pray. [00:46:48] (28 seconds)

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Excuses, Excuses - Exodus - Ryan Murphy