THURSDAY 30 September 2021 “Oxymoron” Exodus 4:21-26

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Hello my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends on this final day of September, 2021.

As you look back over this month, I wonder what you see as significant events in your part of the world, your society, your city? Tomorrow begins October and what will October bring to our world? We’ve been on a journey with Moses as his entire life purpose is changing through an encounter with God found in Exodus 3 & 4. I’m fairly certain 30 days before that burning bush encounter with God, Moses didn’t have any idea his life was about to change. For that matter the very day before that bush caught on fire, everything in Moses’ life was pointing to an uneventful continuation of a very mundane life, in the middle of nowhere tending some sheep. But suddenly God stepped in, a bush caught on fire but wasn’t consumed. A voice spoke from that bush calling Moses by name… and in that conversation everything changed for Moses!

Yesterday I left you watching as Moses and his small family begin their trek to Egypt, from their modest home or even a tent, in Midian probably on the same property as Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law. Moses was ruminating on the significance of something God had said to him. It’s recorded for us in Exodus 4:21-23:

“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 Pharaoh’s heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son, 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.”

Oh my, I wonder how many miles, or days it took Moses to work through this message from God? God was confirming that Moses would absolutely stand before Pharaoh, and not simply for conversation or discussion, not even negotiations, but for a power demonstration! God had promised Moses that He would tell Moses what to say, and now God confirmed He would empower Moses to do miracles before the Pharaoh! Moses would be an ambassador of the Almighty God to the most powerful human being on earth! Wow, what an assignment. But my Christian friends all around the world, do you understand that you and I have the same assignment from God? Listen to 2 Corinthians 5:20 “We are therefore ambassadors of Jesus Christ, as though God is making His appeal [to the world] through us.” Can you grasp the significance of this for you in your part of our world, on this the final day of September 2021?

But I’m sure Moses was deeply troubled with this statement God had made: “But, I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will not let the people go.” Does that sound like what some call is an ‘oxymoron’? Have you ever found yourself in a situation where what God seems to be doing, or what you sense God is saying to you is counterproductive to what you understood to be God’s purpose or God’s character? Did it appear to you that rather than helping the situation God seemed to be complicating the situation? If God was sending Moses back to announce to Pharaoh that God wanted the Hebrew slaves released from slavery, then WHY would God “harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will not let the people go.”? I wonder if Moses felt confused and maybe more, conflicted in his soul as he tried to understand God?

I wonder… if Aaron was walking along with Moses heading back to Egypt, how often did they engage this concept, trying to figure out what God meant and why? Big Picture, my friends! We must always remember that today is but a moment in eternity with God, and God is a God of the eternal picture. While every moment is important to God, we humans tend to look at the small details, when God often is painting a much larger picture on a huge canvas with big brushes. God knew that eventually Pharaoh would in fact release all the Hebrew slaves, and yes they would run out of Egypt carrying the bounty of Egypt, as God had predicted. (Ex. 3:21,22) But before that climactic moment, God had some very dramatic things He planned to do to teach great lessons to Pharaoh, all the Egyptians, all the Hebrews and everyone who would ever hear of the Exodus story! Those lessons required a hard hearted, stubborn, unwilling to budge Pharaoh! That’s why God said HE would harden Pharaoh’s heart! It was so God could do things we still stand in awe contemplating 3500 years later!

Moses was also contemplating this statement God had made: “Israel is My firstborn son, 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.” (Ex. 4:22,23) This made NO sense to Moses. Moses was coming to understand the Covenant promise God had made to Abraham, and that a Covenant people of God would come from Abraham and Sarah in their old age, and Isaac was that promised son, from whom the whole nation of Israel came. But Moses had no idea what God meant when He used the phrase “Israel My firstborn son…” Of course today we understand that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection make it possible for Jews & Gentiles both to become sons and daughters of the Most High God through salvation from our sin condemnation. The global church of Jesus today is the gathering of men and women; boys and girls; Jews and Gentiles; from every nation of the world and every generation, all born again by our faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8,9) and the grace of God extended to us in our Regeneration (John 3:3-7); our Justification (Romans 4:25); and our Adoption into God’s family (Romans 8:14-17).

Finally, Moses could not imagine how dramatic the 10 plagues on Egypt would be, as God would pour out His judgement on that nation and the Egyptian gods, as Pharaoh rejected any attempts by Moses and Aaron to convince Pharaoh to release the Hebrew slaves. Above all, Moses had no idea what that Passover night would be like as the ‘angel of death’ passed over the land of Egypt and killed every firstborn son whose parents had NOT sprinkled blood on their doorpost. The wails of painful grief that night were heard everywhere, including the palace of the Pharaoh. But throughout the land, that night, where God’s people, the Hebrews, had believed Moses and killed a lamb, collected the blood, and with hyssop plants painted the outside door frames of their homes… in those homes families enjoyed a final meal in Egypt, and then walked out of Egyptian bondage as a God delivered, free people. We know that great story, looking back in time from September 30, 2021. But for Moses and his family trekking through the desert toward Egypt, they had no idea what God was going to do in the next few weeks!

Finally, may we take just a moment to look at an event which happened as Moses and his family traveled toward Egypt? It’s found in Exodus 4:24-26. Their journey would have taken several days and it appears one of those nights, as they stopped for the night, they were confronted by the LORD or an angel of the LORD. Evidently Moses and Zipporah had not circumcised their son Gershom on the eighth day after his birth, as God had made clear in His Covenant with Abraham, as recorded for us in Genesis 17. Was it because Moses had spent so much time as an Egyptian, he was totally unfamiliar with this command of God, even though we can safely assume Moses himself had been circumcised by his parents as a Hebrew infant? Was it an act of defiance by Moses because he may have thought God had totally abandoned him to a meaningless life as a shepherd in the Midian desert?

We have no idea why Gershom had not been circumcised, but I find it so very interesting it was Moses’ wife Zipporah who did the actual circumcision of her son that night on their way to Egypt! I wonder if that is another indication that the family Zipporah had grown up in, with Jethro her father as a ‘priest of Midian’, was a God honoring, God worshiping family, even though we have no reason to believe they were born into the line of the Hebrew people. Are they a good example of what God had intended with His Jewish people? That the Jews would be a people who would draw the entire world to an understanding of the one, true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the God who met Moses at that burning bush? What we do know is that when Moses’ family resumed their journey toward Egypt, the males in that family were circumcised in obedience to the Covenant God had made with His people, beginning with Abraham. Moses was making a very clear identity declaration… he and his family were Hebrew, NOT Egyptian!

So on this final day of September, may I ask you… what declaration of identity are you prepared to make today? Who is your God? What level of authority does God have in your life? Who is Jesus Christ and what relationship do you have with Him? As you consider the current climate of attitudes around the world toward God, toward Jesus and toward people who claim an allegiance to and relationship with Jesus, I wonder what spiritual statement your life is making? So, here’s a worship song to help you consider the importance of a spiritual identity in 2021, no matter where you live in our world:

Today’s Scripture is Exodus 4:21-26.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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