June 19, 2024
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Matthew and Exodus? Here’s today’s reading:
Exodus 4 (NIV)
Signs for Moses
1 Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
2 Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.……Continue Reading
Exodus 4
“At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him.”
Exodus 4:24 NIV
https://bible.com/bible/111/exo.4.24.NIV
Why would God want to kill Moses after just giving him instructions on communicating with the Israelites?
Hey Suzanne, please see my comment below…
”And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!” So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision.“
Exodus 4:24-26 NKJV
Moses is on a mission from God and God is going to kill him! I think this is a lesson to wives, our obedience to the Lord affects our husbands and our children. Was Moses’ son uncircumcised because Zipporah thought it detestable? Seems so from this passage. Circumcision was a sign of Gods covenant with the nation of Israel. I wonder what would have happened if Zipporah had not quickly obeyed the Lord’s command. I wonder also, how did Z know that the Lord was about to kill Moses? Did she see the Lord?
Hey Amy, see my comment below.
I am jumping ahead here so as to address questions coming from this passage. First God stewards Moses with regards to His using him as His representative to the people of Israel. Moses has insecurity and rather than trusting God for how He will provide along the way, Moses wants some proofs to show the people. Then he is insecure about his speaking ability and God provides Aaron, but not before suggesting a second time, are you sure you won’t trust me to put words in your mouth? Insecurity is a bad dynamic in any heart, but particularly in the heart of a leader. We all have our faults and our weaknesses and if we focus on them rather than on God for what He will provide and the strengths He has already given us, we will do less or nothing in so many areas of life and miss out on what God has for us. There are people we will not influence, service we will not perform and relationships we will not have. We need to take thoughts of insecurity captive and overcome them with God’s truth about us and about Him. That is what God is trying to convince Moses of here in this passage. I have called you, and if I have called you then I will equip you! This also does speak to God seeing things in people that we might not see in ourselves. Moses becomes a great leader and a great communicator. God does not call the able, He enables the called!!!
And this interaction with God, Moses and Zipporah is a challenging one. It gives little context and isn’t replicated anywhere else, so we are left with informed presumption. I think Amy has it right that this starts with Moses being God’s guy to the chosen people and the sign of the covenant is circumcision and Moses’ son is not circumcised. Now we can presume that this is not the first time God has brought this up to Moses, and probably not the first time Moses has interacted with Z about it. I wonder if in his insecurity Moses has not lead his family in this way. SO, Moses you can’t be My guy if your son is not circumcised, so now the jig is up. It is that important…so I guess I have to threaten death. Now how Z recognizes this is a mystery…does the Lord appear, is death coming over Moses and God pricks her conscience…the passage does not clarify, but she makes the connection that whatever overwhelming thing is happening is about the fact that my son is not circumcised…so I guess I know what I have to do. In certain circumstances God’s will will be done, and He will go to great lengths to make it happen.
And I was struck by the people recognizing God’s concern for them after all their suffering, and they worshiped. How often does that dynamic play out in our lives?
Thanks for the clarification Pastor on the context about why God threatened to kill Moses. This is a difficult passage but it was about circumcision. I don`t think God was going to kill Moses but was just trying to get His attention. As you said Amy; circumcision was a sign of God`s covenant with Israel. So what Pastor said makes perfect sense.
Now Moses after God commands him to go to Egypt to save His people; starts making excuses of them not believing him { Moses} or how to speak, etc. Perhaps because he has lost confidence in himself for now he doesn`t speak well and is now 80 years old. Perhaps other reasons. But the point that Moses is missing is that he never could do any of the things that God called him to in his own strength and wisdom. His reliance had to be totally upon God. This is the main reason why God waited so long to use him. This is another reason why God got angry with Moses. Who made your mouth? This is a lesson to us all. If God has led you to do something; we should listen to Him and obey Him. God reminds Moses that at first Pharoah will not let Israel go but will in the end. Israel whom God considers His first born will kill Pharaoh’s first born if he doesn’t let Israel go. Exodus 4:22,23. As we know God killed all the first born in the land if they didn`t mark their door frames with blood. The Passover. Something else I realized is that God spoke to Aaron and told him to find Moses. And he did. God bless.
It is amazing as you read through scripture how many times God uses someone that has imperfections and how God looks at our imperfections so much different than we do. Moses tells God to send someone else I can’t do it, and God gets angry because God could use our imperfections to bring glory to himself always shocked when I read that God was gonna kill Moses because he didn’t circumcise his son just a reminder to us the importance about obedience to God, our father
Exodus 4.
Thank you Pastor for the explanation of Exodus 4:25.
God had selected Moses as his representative. Everything about Moses needed to be lawful.
It speaks to Moses’ failure to recognize that reality. But it was already evidenced by Moses’ human weaknesses, with his questioning and reluctance. So God stepped in and corrected it.
Exodus 4
God remains patient with Moses despite all his questioning and worry. When he worried about how people will know who sent him, and how will they believe it is God, and even when he worries about his ability to speak so eloquently for people to understand him. God gives an explanation and solution to each concern and it is not until Moses reveals his blatant unwillingness that God becomes angry. He has all that he needs to accomplish the task God is giving him, God answered every concern, and still he just doesn’t want to do it.
As for the circumcision incident, I was grateful Pastor had explained that because it was confusing as to why God would give him such a significant job and then try to kill Moses. However, it makes sense that with circumcision being so important to God and Moses’ son still not being circumcised it spoke to the preparedness and heart of Moses if this still wasn’t done even if it was the choice of his wife, He is about to be a great leader and so he certainly needs to know how to lead his own home and family first.
Exodus 4