That they will believe the voice of the latter sign— This perhaps might be better rendered, they MAY believe; for GOD doth not so much foretel what will happen, as what is the purpose and design of these miracles: asserting, that, if the first do not prevail with some, the second may: against both which, however, if any should stand out, he enables Moses to work a third, which shall prove more convincing than the others. There is great beauty in the expression, the voice of the sign. Bishop Warburton observes on this passage, that, in the first ages of the world, men being obliged to supply the deficiencies of language by significant signs; mutual converse was upheld by a mixed discourse of words and actions. Hence came the Eastern phrase of the voice of the sign; and use and custom, as in most other affairs of life, improving what had arisen out of necessity into ornament, this practice subsisted long after the necessity was over; especially among the Eastern people, whose natural temperament inclined them to a mode of conversation, which so well exercised their vivacity by motion, and so much gratified it by a perpetual representation of material images. See Div. Leg. b. 4: sect. 4: p. 95. But, separate from all this, the voice of the sign may be well understood, and is very energetic. The voice of Nature is a common figure in all languages: every object in nature, ordinary as well as extraordinary, may be well said to utter forth a voice, and to speak in the ear of reason concerning their great God and Master. Pro dii immortales, says Cicero, speaking of some prodigies which happened in his time, qui magis nobiscum loqui possitis, si essetis versaremenique nobiscum? How, ye immortal gods, could you speak more plainly to us, if you were conversant with us? See Genesis 4:10. Psalms 19:3.
REFLECTIONS.—1. Moses, from a diffidence of himself, and perhaps too from some sinful distrust of God, suggests his fears of the people's unbelief. God had assured him of the contrary; but how hard is it to rest upon God's word against human probabilities, and our own past experience!
2. We have God's answer. The miracles should speak for his mission, and gain him credit in his message to the Hebrews. Two are performed immediately, for his own satisfaction; a third is promised, if needful, for theirs. When Jesus came, the multitude and the nature of his miracles, to a demonstration proved him sent from God. If Israel had been inexcusable to have refused these evidences, what must we be, who are compassed about with such a cloud of witnesses, if we disbelieve or reject HIM?