Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 4:27

And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.

27. Aaron (cf. v. 14) coming from Egypt by Divine command to it Moses, finds him in the ‘mountain of God,’ Horeb (Exo 3:1). The verse is the continuation of vv. 17, 18, 20b. The ‘wilderness’ meant may be either the one beyond Horeb (Exo 3:1), or the wilderness between Horeb and Egypt.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27 31. Moses and Aaron together communicate their commission to the people in Egypt, and are readily believed by them.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Exo 4:27

Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.

Family relationships

I. The brotherhood and affection subsisting between the different members of Gods family. This is twofold. Gods 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 Gods 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 others society and assistance which, while parted, the members of Gods 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 Gods family in the realms of glory. There shall be a day when all the yearnings of the Christians 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.)

Moses and Aaron

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 Gods 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. Gods enemies must be subdued if they reject the Divine message. But first He will thoroughly apply gentle methods. (G. R. Leavitt.)

Moses and Aaron

I. Aarons commission.

1. Its reason suggestive to the reluctant servant (Exo 4:1-14).

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

II. Aarons 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 (Exo 4:31).

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.)

Lessons

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 Churchs good.

7. Gods call to meeting of instruments is to teach them their respective work.

8. Hearts which God toucheth are ready for obedience to Gods 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 Gods substitutes below (Exo 4:27).

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

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

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

14. Gods wonderful works as well as gracious works must be showed at His command.

15. Joint ambassadors of the Churchs deliverance need to know Gods words and works (Exo 4:28). (G. Hughes, B. D.)

The two brothers

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.)

The meeting of two brothers

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.)

Christian brothers

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.)

Providential arrangements

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 two brothers

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 (Act 14:11). (T. S. Millington.)

Moses and Aaron; or, the use of association

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 Pharaohs daughter, had learned to recognize and love his brother Aaron under Amrams 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, Sauls 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 others burdens, as every one members one of another. Gods 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.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 27. The Lord said to Aaron] See Ex 4:14. By some secret but powerful movement on Aaron’s mind, or by some voice or angelic ministry, he was now directed to go and meet his brother Moses; and so correctly was the information given to both, that they arrived at the same time on the sacred mountain.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

27. Aaron met him in the mount ofGod, and kissed himAfter a separation of forty years, theirmeeting would be mutually happy. Similar are the salutations of Arabfriends when they meet in the desert still; conspicuous is the kisson each side of the head.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And the Lord said unto Aaron,…. He appeared to him in a dream or vision, and to this reference is had in 1Sa 2:27

go into the wilderness to meet Moses; in the wilderness of Arabia, through which Moses was to pass into Egypt, and who was now set out on his journey thitherward:

and he went; immediately, being obedient to the heavenly vision: and met him in the mount of God; in Horeb, where the Lord had appeared to Moses, and therefore called the mount of God, and where afterwards the law was given, and the covenant made with the people of Israel; and so the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it,

“in the mount on which the glory of God was revealed:”

and kissed him: as relations and intimate friends used to do at meeting or parting, to testify affection and respect; and Aaron must on all accounts be glad to meet Moses, both as he was his brother, whom he had not seen for many years, and as he was come to be a deliverer of the people of Israel. And it is observed, that it was but two days’ journey from the land of Midian, where Jethro lived, from whence Moses set out; and that a common traveller cannot conveniently make the journey from Ramesses, or Grand Cairo (from whence it may be supposed Aaron set out), to Mount Horeb, in less than a fortnight, though he be carried on the back of a camel g; and yet Aaron reached this place by the time that Moses did, which shows that either he delayed setting out on his journey, or was detained long at the inn on the road, on account of what happened there.

g Clayton’s Chronology of the Hebrew Bible, p 221.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Verses 27, 28:

The text indicates that God had already instructed Aaron to meet Moses, before the incident of verses 24-26. The two brothers met at the “mount of God,” or Horeb, where Moses had seen the burning bush. There Moses rehearsed all God had commanded him, and told him of the miraculous signs which He would send upon Egypt.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

27. And the Lord said to Aaron. When, from the long lapse of time, Aaron must have supposed that his brother had died in exile, he now receives the joyful announcement, from the mouth of God, that he is alive; and not only so, but he is excited with the hope of His special favor; for, although God does not explain in detail what he had decreed to do and prepared, yet, by his revelation, he promises him something unusual and unexpected. But the brevity of the command is remarkable, for God says not a word of the deliverance, but desires him to be the disciple of his younger brother; and although, by his promptitude, he manifested the greatest zeal and anxiety to obey, still he is not put on an equality with Moses, who is slow, and dubious, and vacillating, and almost supine; but he is commanded to learn of him the design of God. Only, lest he should question his own and his brother’s vocation, he is instructed by a divine vision, that God is the author of the whole transaction, which serves as a recommendation of the verbal information he is to receive. For although Aaron was the messenger of God, and the organ of the Holy Spirit, we still see that he was not exempt from the usual condition to which we are subjected, of hearing God’s word at the mouth of man. If, then, there are any who object to be taught by the medium of man’s voice, they are not worthy of having God as their Teacher and Master; for it is soon after added, that Moses related all that was commanded him, as well as the great power which had been delegated to him of working miracles. But Aaron himself, although the elder, not only paid honor to his brother, whom he knew to be a Prophet of the Lord; but willingly submitted himself to him as to an angel. The kiss is mentioned as a sign of recognition, by which he testified the firmness of his faith.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 4:27-28

THE MEETING OF TWO BROTHERS

I. It was in a strange place. The wilderness would not be a very favourable place for the meeting of these two brothers It would be wild and lonely. But brotherly affection is not dependent upon time and place; it can turn a wilderness into a fathers hearth; it can make the dessert blossom as the rose The friendship of these brothers was real 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 characterised by warmth of affection. They kissed each other. Brothers do not often act 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. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him. No doubt a word was passed about their aged parents, about the memories of youth; but the chief theme was their future mission. It is well for brothers to converse together about the work and words of God. All other themes are of minor import.

SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES

Exo. 4:27-28. Christian Brothers:

1. Called by God to work.
2. Joined by God in work.
3. Conversing together about work.
4. Learning their respective work.

God may call the elder brother after the younger.
God can bring brethren together which were as lost to one another.
God makes the desert a place to meet in for the deliverers of His Church.
It is best for brothers to meet at the mount of God
It is just for Supreme Powers to open their commission from God to inferiors.
Gods wonderful works as well as His gracious works must be showed at His command.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(27) Go into the wilderness.-Either the directions given to Aaron were more definite than this, or they were supplemented by Divine guidance. He went and met Moses on the mount of God, i.e., in the Sinaitic region. Without Divine guidance, he would naturally have sought him in Midian.

Kissed him.Comp. Gen. 33:4; Gen. 45:14-15. In the East, men closely related still kiss on meeting, as they did in Moses time, and in the days of Herodotus (i. 134).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

The Commencement of The Contest Between Yahweh and Pharaoh In Egypt ( Exo 4:27 to Exo 7:13 ).

Moses now meets up with Aaron and they go to Egypt to demand the release of Israel so that they may go into the wilderness and worship Yahweh. Pharaoh refuses their request and responds viciously.

a On arriving in Egypt Moses and Aaron perform their signs before the elders and begin their task in preparation for approaching Pharaoh (Exo 4:27-31).

b They approach Pharaoh who turns on the people (Exo 5:1-23)

c Yahweh responds to Pharaoh’s behaviour with a show of authority and power, providing His credentials, and promising to deliver His People (Exo 6:1-9).

c Yahweh’s gives a charge to Moses and Aaron concerning the deliverance and details of Aaron’s credentials are provided as the head of Moses’ family (Exo 6:10-30)

b After their first rebuff Moses and Aaron are to approach Pharaoh again (Exo 7:1-5)

a They begin their task by performing the miracle of the staff becoming a snake, and their snake eats up the snakes of Egypt (Exo 7:6-13)

Note the parallels. In ‘a’ Moses meets up with Aaron and they go to Egypt to demand the release of Israel so that they may go into the wilderness and worship Yahweh. Pharaoh refuses their request and responds viciously. In the parallel Yahweh by a sign reveals what He will do to Pharaoh if he remains intransigent. He too will act viciously. In ‘b’ Moses and Aaron approach Pharaoh who turns on the people, in the parallel, having been rebuffed they approach Pharaoh again. In ‘c’ Yahweh responds to Pharaoh’s behaviour with a show of authority and power, providing His credentials and promising to deliver His People, and in the parallel He gives a charge to Moses and Aaron to bring about this deliverance and Aaron’s credentials are provided as the head of Moses’ family.

Moses and Aaron Begin Their Task Of Delivering Israel ( Exo 4:27-31 ).

At long last Aaron and Moses meet up, and Aaron is made aware of the huge implications of their meeting. Then they return to Egypt together and commence their campaign for the deliverance of the children of Israel.

This passage may be analysed as follows:

a Aaron is told to go and meet Moses and meets him at the mountain of God (Exo 4:27).

b Moses tells Aaron all that Yahweh has said and reveals to him the signs (Exo 4:28).

c Moses and Aaron gather the elders of Israel (Exo 4:29).

b Aaron speaks all the words which Yahweh spoke to Moses and does the signs in the sight of the people (Exo 4:30).

a The people believe when they hear that Yahweh has visited His people and bow their heads and worship (Exo 4:31).

In ‘a’ Aaron and Moses meet up at the Mountain of God where Yahweh has promised to deliver His people and where they are to worship Him in the future, and in the parallel the people respond to the fact that Yahweh has visited His people, and worship Him where they are. In ‘b’ Moses tells Aaron all that Yahweh has said and reveals to him the signs, in the parallel Aaron tells the people all that Yahweh has said and does the signs before the people. Central to it all in ‘c’ is the gathering of the elders of Israel to Moses and Aaron without which there could be no progress.

Exo 4:27-28

‘And Yahweh said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” And he went and met him in the mountain of God, and he kissed him, and Moses told Aaron all the words of Yahweh with which he had sent him and all the signs with which he had charged him.’

God tells Aaron to go out to meet Moses and they meet at the very place where Moses had met with God and received his theophany. There they have an emotional reunion and Moses outlines all that has taken place and what they are now expected to do.

“The mountain of God.” This is Horeb (see Exo 3:3) where Mount Sinai was sited. It is probable that it was seen locally as a holy mountain.

Exo 4:29-31

‘And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel, and Aaron told them all the words which Yahweh had spoken to Moses, and performed the signs in the sight of the people, and the people believed, and when they heard that Yahweh had visited the children of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.’

In a brief summary the writer tells us that Moses and Aaron now carried out God’s command with regard to the children of Israel. They gathered the elders together and outlined to them what had happened, and they called the people together, possibly for an act of worship, which would be permissible. Then Aaron performed the signs before them and the people. This produced response and worship as the people ‘believed’. Hope began to fill their hearts and they bowed their heads and worshipped.

“And Aaron — performed the signs.” He was now the front man acting on behalf of Moses, and he presumably now carried, at least temporarily, ‘the staff of God’ (Exo 4:17; Exo 4:20). There was wisdom in this. Moses was a stranger whereas Aaron was well known to them and trusted. And he was the mouth and had the eloquence. Moses was, of course, involved. It was presumably his hand that would become leprous. But Aaron was pressing the claim on the people. How quickly the performing of the signs is passed over. The writer is in haste to move on to the main battle. The indication is suggested that the people responded immediately. At this point their hearts were open (in contrast with Pharaoh’s). ‘The people believed.’ Faith was always central to experiencing God’s working. Compare Gen 15:6. It was no doubt here counted to them for righteousness for all who believed.

“That Yahweh had visited the children of Israel.” They had begun to think that He had forgotten them but now they learned that He had been among them and had seen the dreadful conditions under which they lived. But the easy part was now over, Pharaoh would take more convincing.

Note for Christians.

This passage has many things to say to us. In the sign of the snake we see a picture of God’s triumph over Satan (compare Gen 3:15), and of His promise that we can ‘take him by the tail’, that is render him helpless by the power of God through His word, just as Jesus did during His period of temptation in the wilderness (Luk 4:1-13). He may seem fearsome, and indeed he is, but we can say, ‘the Lord rebuke you’ (Jud 1:9).

In the same way our hands may be ‘unclean’ and leprous with the leprosy of sin, but God can purify our hands and make them useful in His service. But only if they are yielded to Him. Many of us need our hands to be cleansed from the leprosy of sin, and to say, ‘take my hands and let them be, consecrated Lord to thee’. Only then will they be truly whole.

We may not find ourselves beside the Nile, the river god of Egypt who was opposed to Yahweh. Even many Israelites probably thought of him as powerful and invincible. But Yahweh in portent ‘slew’ him and turned his waters into blood. In the same way we will have to face in our lives many things which seek to rule over us, and it will be then that we need to look to the One Who could turn the Nile into blood, and render its power inoperative. For we can be sure that He can do the same with regard to what we have to face. We know from this that nothing can withstand His power.

Like some of us, Moses was ready to make excuses in order to avoid obeying God. He was no longer used to parleying with diplomats, and not a ready speaker. But God provided him with ‘a mouth’, just as He can provide us with all we need when we obey Him and carry out His will. Moses fought hard against God, but in the end he yielded and began one of the most illustrious and powerful careers of all time. God is patient with us. Fortunately He does not give up on us like we give up on Him.

And just as Moses was called on to circumcise his son on pain of death, so are we called on to make sure that we have experienced the greater circumcision, that which is without hands, in the putting off of our flesh and the transforming of our lives by coming in faith to Jesus Christ and experiencing His saving power, through the blood of Christ and by the power of His Spirit (Col 2:11). And that we let it carry through into our lives. For it is that which will save us from ourselves, and finally from eternal death. And we need to seek it, not only for ourselves but others also.

And finally we have in this chapter the first clear statement of the unique Fatherhood of God for those who are His. Israel is ‘His son’ His firstborn’, beloved and cared for and with a glorious future inheritance, in contrast with all others. That is why He persevered with them. And he still perseveres. All who believe in Christ are in the same way incorporated within God’s people, become the true Israel, and can look to God as their Father. Equally certainly those who refuse to respond to Him will never know His Fatherhood.

End of note.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett