(5) That they may believe . . . --These are God's words to Moses, in continuation of those which form the first portion of the preceding verse. The clause describing the action of Moses in Exodus 4:4 is parenthetic. The words give Diviue sanction to the view, so strangely combatted of late, that the power of working miracles is given to men, primarily and mainly, for its evidential value to accredit them as God's messengers. Without the gift of miracles neither would Moses have persuaded the Israelites, nor would the Apostles have converted the world.

Verse 5. - That they may believe. The sign was to convince the Israelites, in the first instance, and cause them to accept the mission of Moses (see vers. 30, 31). It was afterwards to be exhibited before Pharaoh (ver. 21), to try him and prove him, but not to convince him.

4:1-9 Moses objects, that the people would not take his word, unless he showed them some sign. God gives him power to work miracles. But those who are now employed to deliver God's messages to men, need not the power to work miracles: their character and their doctrines are to be tried by that word of God to which they appeal. These miracles especially referred to the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ. It belonged to Him only, to cast the power of the devil out of the soul, and to heal the soul of the leprosy of sin; and so it was for Him first to cast the devil out of the body, and to heal the leprosy of the body.That they may believe,.... The elders and people of Israel; for this miracle was wrought not for the confirmation of Moses's faith; for, as Aben Ezra observes, the sign of the burning bush was given to him to confirm his faith, that it was God that appeared to him, and called him to this work; but this was wrought to confirm the faith of the Israelites in his divine mission:

that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee; See Gill on Exodus 3:6.