seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Exodus 4:18 Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”
Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
19 Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”
24 At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26 So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)
27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.
29 Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, 30 and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, 31 and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
Here's that link to the commentary.The LORD met him and sought to kill him: This is a mysterious event; but it seems that God is confronting Moses — in the strongest possible way — because Moses had not circumcised his son. God demands that this be set right before Moses enter Egypt and begin to fulfill the call of God.
Surely you are a husband of blood to me: Perhaps Zipporah objected to the rite of circumcision. She was not an Israelite and may have thought it a barbaric custom. Perhaps this was why God held Moses accountable (for not doing what was right, even though his wife didn’t like it), but disabled Moses so that Zipporah had to perform the circumcision itself.
Some wonder why Moses’ wife seems so bitter here. Perhaps for the first time she recognized the serious nature of her husband’s call and how important it was for their whole family to walk in the ways of the LORD.
“Stone instruments like [flint knife] were retained for ritual purposes long after the introduction of metal implements.” (Kaiser)
I've never noticed that story in verses 24-26. Since I never noticed it... and it involves God wanting to kill Moses while Moses was on the way to fulfil the mission he was just assigned to do by God Himself, I figure it's something to pull out and look at.Here's the link to "Got Questions".
This disturbing incident, in which God was going to kill Moses, is not fully explained in the text, but we can piece together an idea of what occurred. Here are the clues:
- God was seeking to kill Moses
- Zipporah, Moses’ wife, took a flint knife and circumcised their son
- after the operation, Zipporah touched Moses’ feet with the foreskin
- Zipporah called her husband “a bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision
- at that point, “the Lord let him alone” (Exodus 4:26).
- Zipporah, Moses’ wife, took a flint knife and circumcised their son
- after the operation, Zipporah touched Moses’ feet with the foreskin
- Zipporah called her husband “a bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision
- at that point, “the Lord let him alone” (Exodus 4:26).
Based on the fact that God was going to kill Moses, we assume that Moses had committed some sin against God. The fact that the circumcision of Moses’ son caused the Lord to relent indicates that Moses’ sin was a failure to circumcise his son. The fact that Zipporah, not Moses, performed the surgery suggests that Moses was unable to do it himself; the same conclusion is supported by the fact that Zipporah touched Moses’ feet with the proof of circumcision—this would be more natural if Moses were bedridden. And, if Moses was confined to bed, the method that God was using to kill him was likely an illness of some kind.
There is more in the commentary and the article. I don't know why I had never seen this before. It's a cool look into the real relationship between God and His Instrument [tool]. God is going to use Moses to clean up the mess in Egypt. First, He had to clean up His tool!Remember, please, that Moses is of the tribe of Levi. Levi and Rueben were the ones who had all the men in Shechem circumcised and then murdered them while they couldn't move because of the circumcision. [That was after the "rape" of Dinah.] Someone would remember that. It might ruin the testimony Moses is assigned to deliver. God had to clean up Moses' past as well. After all, right before Moses left Egypt, it was a fellow Hebrew who testified that Moses was a murderer. God had to clean up the past, if the testimony of Moses was to stand before the Elders.
Was that in the movie? If it was, I sure missed it!
I don't think I've ever heard a sermon on this story either!!!!
Was that in the movie?
