Moses hesitated before the burning call. "What if they do not believe me?" he asked. "What if they say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you'?"
The Lord replied, "What is in your hand?"
"A staff," Moses said.
"Throw it to the ground."
Moses obeyed, and at once the staff writhed and twisted, becoming a serpent. Terrified, he drew back. But the Lord commanded, "Reach out and take it by the tail." Trembling, Moses stretched forth his hand and seized it—and instantly it became a staff again.
"This sign is given so that they may know that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has appeared to you," the Lord said.
The Lord then told him, "Place your hand inside your cloak." Moses did, and when he withdrew it, his flesh was white as snow with leprosy. "Put it back," said the Lord. When he obeyed, his hand was restored, whole again.
"If they will not believe the first sign," the Lord continued, "they may believe the second. And if they still refuse, take water from the Nile, pour it on the ground, and it shall turn to blood."
Still Moses faltered. "O Lord, I am not eloquent. I am slow of speech and tongue."
"Who gave man his mouth?" the Lord thundered. "Who makes him deaf or mute, who gives sight or makes blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Go! I will help you speak and teach you what to say."
But Moses pleaded, "Please, Lord, send someone else."
The Lord's anger burned. "What of your older brother Aaron the Levite? He can speak well. Even now he comes to meet you, and his heart will rejoice. You shall speak to him and place the words in his mouth. I will help both of you, and he shall be your voice, as if you were God to him. Take this staff, for with it you shall perform signs."
So Moses returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, saying, "Let me go back to my people in Egypt." Jethro answered, "Go in peace."
With his wife and sons upon a donkey, and the staff of God in his hand, Moses set out for Egypt. The Lord warned him, "Perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have placed in your hand. Yet I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Tell him: 'Israel is my firstborn son. Let my son go, that he may worship me. Since you refuse, I will take the life of your firstborn son.'"
On the way, at a lodging place, the Lord confronted Moses and was about to kill him, as he noticed Moses had failed to circumsize his son which is a violation of Abraham's convenant. But Zipporah seized a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin, and touched it to Moses' feet. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she cried. And the Lord relented.
Then the Lord said to Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." Aaron went, and on the mountain of God the brothers embraced. Moses told him everything the Lord had commanded, and Aaron believed.
Together they summoned the elders of Israel. Aaron spoke the words of the Lord and performed the signs before the people. Hope stirred in their hearts, and when they knew the Lord had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.