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The Three Signs of Moses — When God Reveals What Egypt Tried to Hide
- Leisa Baysinger
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
When God called Moses from the burning bush, He did not simply send him back to Egypt with a message. He sent him with three prophetic signs—each one a revelation, each one an indictment, each one a witness that the God of Israel had seen every hidden cruelty committed against His people.
These signs were not magic tricks meant to impress the elders of Israel. They were symbols of truth, exposing the very sins Pharaoh tried to bury beneath fear, propaganda, and the Nile River itself.
According to Rabbi David Fohrman of alephbeta.org (1), each of these three signs correspond to a specific wound inflicted upon Israel. What follows is my own explanation on that insight.
First Sign - The Staff That Became a Serpent
“He threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it.”
— Exodus 4:3
The first sign strikes at the root of Israel’s suffering: dehumanization.
Pharaoh did not begin with slavery. He began with fear. He taught Egypt to recoil at the Hebrews the way Moses recoiled from the serpent. He reshaped public perception until Israel was viewed not as neighbors, but as a threat, as something dangerous, something “other.”
Oppression always begins with a lie about a people’s humanity.
The serpent sign exposes:
• A nation trained to fear and hate the innocent
• A ruler who weaponized perception
• A slow, deliberate campaign to make Israel seem less than human
God was showing Moses: “I saw how Pharaoh taught Egypt to fear and hate your people, so that they “recoiled” at their sight. I saw the lie beneath the whips .”
Second Sign - The Leprous Hand Restored
The Sin of Attempted Genocide
“He put his hand inside his cloak… and when he took it out, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.”
— Exodus 4:6
The second sign mirrors Pharaoh’s second decree: the command to the Hebrew midwives to kill every newborn boy.
A diseased hand represents:
• A hand stretched out to destroy life
• A hand corrupted by violence
• A hand that should have nurtured but instead brought death
Yet when Moses places his hand back into his cloak, it is healed. This restoration echoes the courage of Shifrah and Puah, the midwives who refused to obey Pharaoh and instead feared God.
Their obedience preserved a generation.
This sign declares:
• God saw the attempted destruction of Israel’s future
• God honored the women who stood against evil
• God would repay Pharaoh for the lives he tried to erase
The Third Sign - The Nile Water Turned to Blood
The Sin of Hidden Murder
“The water you take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
— Exodus 4:9
The third sign reveals the most hideous crime.
“Every boy that is born you are to throw into the Nile.” (Exodus 1:22)
The Nile—Egypt’s pride, its god, its lifeline—became a grave for Hebrew infants. Egypt believed the great and mighty Nile river could hide the evidence. But God saw. And when Moses poured out the Nile water, the truth appeared: blood crying out from the ground, just as Abel’s blood cried out to God.
This sign proclaims:
• Nothing can conceal injustice
• No nation can bury the cries of the innocent
• God exposes what the powerful try to hide
This is why the third sign is the strongest. Moses was told that if the leaders of Israel didn’t believe the first two signs that they would definitely believe this third sign.
These three signs were God’s witness against Egypt. He wanted the leaders to know that He had heard the cries, that He had seen their suffering, and justice was on its way.
The signs also form a divine testimony:
• God saw the lies.
• God saw the violence.
• God saw the blood.
• God remembered His covenant made with their forefathers.
“I have seen your suffering. I have heard your cries. I know what was done to you. And I am coming down to save you.”
— Exodus 3:7-8
God sees all, hears all, and knows all. He will avenge the blood of His saints. If you have read the end of the Book - then you know who wins the war. Satan may win some battles but he doesn't win the war.
Blessings,
Leisa
References:
(1) Aleph Beta — Moses’ Miracle (Part 1 of 7)
Rabbi David Fohrman
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