But take this staff in your hand so you can perform signs with it.”
17. And thou shalt take this rod. There is no doubt that God chose this shepherd’s rod to be the instrument of his power, in order the more to confound the pride of Pharaoh. For what but shame and reproach could it bring to Moses, that he should bear with him the crook with which he had heretofore guided his sheep in their folds and hovels?
Moses persists in backward steps, and we cannot now call it humility but must own cowardice, slothfulness, and unbelief. He was a great mind but no orator, and thought himself unfit for great affairs; yet God often chooses those with fewest natural advantages, that His grace may shine the brighter. An unwilling mind will seize any sorry excuse rather than obey.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 4:10-17
And thou shall take this rod in thine hand,.... Which he then had in his hand, and was no other than his shepherd's staff: wherewith thou shall do signs: wondrous things, meaning the ten plagues inflicted on Egypt.