Hi Mike,    
Why didn’t Moses show the Egyptians the third sign? He turned the rod into a snake and the river to blood, but he didn’t perform the leprous hand. What do all these signs mean?
    
Thanks,  M____

Hi M_____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask why Moses did not show the Egyptians the third sign of placing his hand in his bosom and turning it into a leprous condition and then placing it back into his bosom and bringing it out healed of the leprosy?
The answer to your question is that God is not, at this time even attempting to heal Egypt of its leprous, dying condition. He is calling but a very few out of Egypt, which Egypt is but an early type of Babylon.
As we all have been guilty of doing at our own appointed time, you have confused what God is doing with the world and what He is doing with His people. Israel, at this point, typifies God’s elect. So notice to whom God tells Moses to perform this sign of being healed of leprosy:

Exo 3:16  Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and [ seen] that which is done to you in Egypt:
Exo 3:17  And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.
Exo 4:1  And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they [ the elders of Israel] will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.
Exo 4:2  And the LORD said unto him, What [ is] that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
Exo 4:3  And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
Exo 4:4  And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:
Exo 4:5  That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
Exo 4:6  And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand [ was] leprous as snow.
Exo 4:7  And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his [ other] flesh.
Exo 4:8  And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.
Exo 4:9  And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour [ it] upon the dry [ land]: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry [ land].

Did Moses and Aaron perform these signs before the elders of Israel? Yes, they did, because God is healing the leprosy of His own people by destroying their fleshly desires and by destroying all the influences of Egypt and of Babylon.

Exo 4:28  And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him.
Exo 4:29  And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel:
Exo 4:30  And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.
Exo 4:31  And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

Aaron “did the signs… all the signs… in the sight of the people.”
The spiritual significance of the sign of the healing of leprosy is the sign of the dying of our flesh. It is the beginning of our dying daily, and being crucified with Christ. But it is also the beginning of a life- long process, which results in being resurrected with Christ and in the end becoming completely whole.

Ecc 12:13  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this [ is] the whole [ duty] of man.

Drop the word ‘duty.’ It is not in the Hebrew. No man is whole until he “fears God and keeps His commandments.” All of them. Egypt and Babylon deny that they will live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, but there are no ‘nonessentials’ for God’s elect when it comes to the Word of God, and there is no time when it is not all applicable to God’s elect:

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

All who deny that “every word” is for them are doing nothing less then denying that they are to “keep the things written therein… the sayings of the prophecy of this book… every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Here is the warning for any and all such people:

Jer 25:28  And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.
Jer 25:29  For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.

The apostles in their “carnal babe” state thought that they could avoid drinking of this cup, and Peter even told Christ that this would not come on Him, but Christ, knowing that Peter was speaking for all the apostles, looked on them all when He made this statement:

Mar 8:33  But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

We are all nothing more than the leprous seed of the serpent before we become the seed of the woman in Christ. Christ’s own apostles “took away from the words of the prophecy of this book, and this is what happens when we do that:

Rev 22:18  For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20  He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

I hope this helps you to see that while we will eventually all live by every word of God, there is not in every man this knowledge. Christ is right now fulfilling in His elect, every word in this book. But for Egypt and Babylon, much of what is in this book has be “taken away from, and will not be realized until a white throne judgment and the lake of fire.
It is in the lake of fire that Egypt and Babylon will come to see that they too must experience the healing of the incurable disease of leprosy. Leprosy in scripture typifies death. We who have been given eyes to see, know that we are in a body of death. Only when we understand this is that death removed, and we are able to live:

Mat 10:39  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Mar 8:35  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.

I hope this helps you to see that we are leprous, and giving account of that condition now is the preferred time to do so.
Your brother in Christ,
 Mike >