to be their Deliverer, and bring them forth from the land of Egypt. Filled with awe and misgiving, Moses at first sought in every way to excuse himself from the tremendous commission. _Who am I_, said he, _that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?_ _I will be with thee_, was the reply. But who was this _I_? When Moses went to the children of Israel, and assured them of the commission he had received, what was the Name he was to announce to them as his authority? _Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel_, replied the Almighty, _I AM_――JEHOVAH, the Eternal, the Self-existent――_hath sent me unto you_ (Ex. iii. 14). But this did not satisfy Moses. What outward and visible assurance could he give the people of his divine mission? This difficulty was also met. The Lord invested him with a threefold miraculous power, whereby to attest his authority, alike before the people and before Pharaoh. First, he should cast his staff, his shepherd’s crook, upon the ground, and it would become a serpent, and on taking the creature by the tail it would resume its former state. Then he should put his hand into his bosom, and it would become leprous, but on returning it to his bosom would become as his other flesh. Thirdly, if they believed neither the first nor the second sign, he was to take of the water of the Sacred Nile, and pour it upon the dry land, and it should become blood. But now Moses pleaded another obstacle. He was not _eloquent_, he was _of a slow speech, and a slow tongue_; no words had he wherewith to bend the awful Pharaoh on his throne. _Who hath made man’s mouth?_ was the reply; _Who maketh the dumb, the deaf, the blind? Have not I the Lord? Go, and I will be with thy mouth, I will teach thee what thou shalt say._ Still Moses made another effort to roll off from himself the awful responsibility of the commission. _O my Lord_, he cried, _send, I pray Thee, by the hand Thou shouldest send_. This last proof of distrust provoked even the Lord to anger, but it was the anger of Love, the Love that remembers mercy and sustains the weak. The Lord had already provided a spokesman. Aaron his brother was at this moment on his way to meet him, and he was known to be able to speak well. Together, like the Apostles afterwards, the Brothers should go in before Pharaoh; Aaron should be _instead of a mouth_, and Moses should be to him _instead of God_, and with his rod he should perform the prescribed signs. Then, at last, his timidity was removed; he consented to go, and the object of the Vision of the Burning Bush was thus far attained (Ex. iv. 1–17). CHAPTER II. _SIGNS AND WONDERS IN EGYPT._ EXOD. IV.–XI. B.C. 1491.