[0:00] Now, seeking the Lord's blessing, we'll turn to the first part of Scripture we read, Exodus chapter 4.
[0:30] And we'll read at verse 24. Exodus chapter 4 at verse 24. And it came to pass by the way in the inn that the Lord met him and saw to kill him.
[0:45] Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at his feet and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go.
[0:58] Then she said, A bloody husband thou art, or a husband of blood, because of the circumcision. The Lord met him and sought to kill him.
[1:14] Now, we've seen already how the Lord met with Moses in the burning bush. And how, after 40 years, God recommissioned Moses and instructed him to go back down to Egypt and there to deliver Israel from bondage.
[1:34] And we also saw the particular objections that Moses made. He was first concerned that the people would not believe him. So God gave him three distinctive signs to perform in front of the people.
[1:48] First, his rod would become a snake. But then when he grasped hold of it again by the tail, it would become a rod again. And that was to teach the people that by faith in God, they would overcome the power of the serpent or the power of the devil.
[2:05] Secondly, Moses was to put his hand to his chest and take it out, and it would be leprous. So he was to put his hand back to his chest and take it out, and it would be restored like his other hand.
[2:18] And that was to teach the people that God would cure them in their heart, and he would give them a clean life. He would deal with the problem of sin, which had brought them into bondage in the first place.
[2:29] In other words, and the third sign was that he would take some of the water of the Nile, pour it on the ground, and it would become red like blood.
[2:41] And that was to teach the people that God would turn the blessings of Egypt into their curse. The very people who worshipped the Nile would be destroyed by the Nile to show that God is the Lord.
[2:56] But then Moses began to put up other objections. He couldn't speak properly. He was too weak. He wasn't adequate. Until finally, Moses accepted the commission that the Lord gave him.
[3:10] And he now set about going down to Egypt to deliver Israel. Before he does so, he takes the flock of sheep back home to his father-in-law, Jethro.
[3:21] You remember that for 40 years, Moses has lived in his father-in-law's house, and he has worked for him as a shepherd. Now, he goes back to him and asks for permission to go to Egypt.
[3:34] Let me go, he says, and return to my brethren, which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. Now, he does that out of respect.
[3:45] But Jethro took him in when he was a fugitive from Egypt. And Jethro gave him a home and gave him one of his daughters in marriage. And Moses is respectful.
[3:56] And before he leaves, he goes back to ask Jethro for permission. Now, he doesn't tell Jethro the whole story. And that's just discretion. It wasn't deceit. It was just discretion.
[4:07] You don't always have to tell everything. He doesn't tell Jethro everything, but he asks respectively for permission to go. And Jethro gives him that permission.
[4:18] And so Moses takes his wife and his two sons. He has a son called Gershom, which means I've been a stranger in a strange land. And he has another son called Eliezer, which means God is my help.
[4:34] It's the same kind of name as Lazarus. God is my help. And he puts them on Anas and he sets out on his long and fearful journey back to Egypt for the first time in 40 years.
[4:50] Now, he stops for a night at Anin. Now, beside the road very often, just as today you have hotels on highways, so you had inns where people could stop for some kind of refreshment.
[5:04] Now, if the road wasn't a particularly busy one, then the inn could sometimes be pretty crude. Sometimes it might just be an enclosure or a shelter, a place where you could tie up the animals and feed them and have some rest for the night.
[5:19] Perhaps it was a pretty crude kind of inn that Moses stopped in this night. But here he had another encounter with God. And this encounter is completely different to the one he had just had some days previously at the burning bush.
[5:35] At the burning bush, God spoke to him in a way that spoke of closeness and friendship and intimacy. But here at the inn, we find these staggering words in verse 24.
[5:50] It came to pass by the way in the inn that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. Now, you could hardly find a greater transition than that.
[6:01] One day the Lord appears as a friend, but now suddenly the Lord has some kind of controversy with Moses. And he appears before him as an enemy or an antagonist to such a degree that Moses is at the point of death.
[6:19] Now, this is a perplexing passage. But I hope by the Lord's grace that we might be able to understand some very important lessons from it for ourselves.
[6:29] It's difficult, but nonetheless, its teachings are precious. First, let's get a clear picture on exactly what happens. What does it mean when it says that the Lord met him and sought to kill him?
[6:45] Well, it's possible that the Lord appeared in the form of an angel. Many of you will know that he appeared to Abraham like that in the form of a man.
[6:56] Or you might be aware that he appeared to Jacob like that when God wrestled with Jacob. We looked at that some months ago. God appeared in the form of an angel and wrestled with Jacob all night until the break of day.
[7:10] God could assume the form of a man. Now, maybe he did that. Maybe he even appeared with a sword in his hand, just as he appeared to Balaam when he was riding on the ass.
[7:22] He appeared as the God of vengeance, the God of judgment, and the God of power. But I would rather tend to understand it like this, that God made himself known to Moses in a particular sickness which Moses experienced that night in the end.
[7:42] Moses came under some kind of severe affliction or sickness in such a way that he knew it was from the Lord.
[7:53] It was an unusual thing. And I would guess that it hit him very, very suddenly. So that Moses is near paralyzed by some affliction from the hand of God.
[8:05] And he knows it's from God's hand immediately. And he's so physically incapacitated by it, he's so unable to move, that it's Syphora who has to act.
[8:18] And she takes, I would assume, their youngest son, and she circumcises the son there and then. Now, it was always the male who performed that act in the family.
[8:32] And the fact that it was Syphora who performed it here, I think, tells us that Moses was too weak and too unable even to perform that act.
[8:43] He was at the threshold of death itself. Now, she takes a sharp flint stone, whether they took it with them or whether it was in the inn, or maybe it was just a crude stone that she found.
[8:56] And the sharp flint stone, which is very common in that part of the world, and she performs the rite. She performs the circumcision. And interestingly, she takes the skin and she casts it.
[9:10] The word in the Hebrew is quite strong. Or she takes it and puts it to the feet of Moses. And not only does she do that, but she then says to him, surely, you are a husband of blood to me.
[9:26] You are a husband of blood because of the circumcision. Now, that's a mysterious thing. What are we going to make of it?
[9:38] Well, in the first place, it's quite clear that there's a problem in the family. And the Lord comes to deal with that problem in the family. And the problem revolves around this sign of circumcision.
[9:54] Now, many of you may remember that circumcision was a special sign which God gave to Abraham. And God said to Abraham, everyone born in your family must be circumcised.
[10:08] And that will be a sign in their body that I have promised you and promised them great spiritual blessings. And that I have given you great spiritual privileges.
[10:24] These things are signified by the sign of circumcision. Remember, circumcision in the old world represented cleanliness, purity, and initiation.
[10:40] And that's why it was put on to the children of the covenant. Because they were born or initiated into special families, into covenant families. And that sign told them that they must become pure and that they must become clean before God.
[10:55] Now, for some reason, Moses neglected to put this sign upon his own son. At least upon one of them.
[11:06] I would assume the youngest one. The one called Eliezer. And so God comes and he deals with that. We'll come on to the reasons why I think he neglected it in a moment.
[11:18] But sometimes, friends, even if we might be Christian people, there might be some things wrong in our lives. Maybe some things far wrong.
[11:31] A commandment, perhaps, that we're overlooking. Or something that we're neglecting. And we're letting it go on in the family. And letting it go on in the home. Now, the Lord will not leave us like that.
[11:42] The Lord will come and he'll deal with us about that particular point in his own way. And if we won't listen to the word, then we'll just have to listen to the rod.
[11:53] God always tries the word first. But if the word doesn't seem to penetrate, he'll accompany the word with the rod of chastisement. And that will usually do it. Because as Hebrews tells us, God has to chastise his sons.
[12:07] Now, let's see the way in which things worked in this family and how the Lord dealt with it. I think perhaps we can look at three things. Why did Moses neglect to put this sign on his son?
[12:21] Secondly, what was the result of it? And thirdly, how was the situation put right? Now, first of all, why was it neglected? Now, this may sound harsh, but I think it would be right for us.
[12:37] To see the fault in the first instance as lying with Zipporah, his wife. Now, that seems to come through quite clearly in the narrative.
[12:48] That she somehow has been responsible for this situation in the family. And Moses has deferred to her. He's accepted her wishes.
[13:00] And perhaps even he's accepted her father's wishes. This man called Jethro. And what I mean by that is this. Zipporah came from a godly family herself.
[13:14] Her father, Jethro, we're told, was a priest in Midian. But this family was surrounded by paganism. The Midianites were descended from Abraham.
[13:28] If you remember, Abraham's first wife, Sarah, died. And Abraham took a second wife, a woman called Keturah. And one of their sons was called Midian.
[13:39] Now, he left the home and he went eastward into the desert areas. And from him came the Midianites. Now, they lived largely in the fellowship of the Ishmaelites.
[13:52] People who were very different to the people of God. They had a different kind of religion. And these Midianites were surrounded by them. And after a couple of generations, they became like them.
[14:03] But here's an exception. This man, Jethro. God preserved the faith in this man's family and perhaps in some families around about him.
[14:15] So that he was the priest of Midian. Now, I wonder if that's the reason why circumcision was neglected.
[14:27] And that will become more clear if you think of this. The Ishmaelites used to circumcise not their children, but their young male adults. They didn't circumcise children, but young male adults.
[14:43] And I wonder if that had come into this family of Jethro. So that that was their custom and that was their practice. Not to circumcise the children, but to circumcise the young adults.
[14:58] And Moses perhaps deferred to this family. He deferred to his wife and he deferred to his father-in-law. In any case, for some reason, Moses didn't do what he should.
[15:10] And what he knew was right. He put it off. He let it go. Until God, some years afterwards, has to deal with him like this. And you can tell from the way God deals with Moses that Moses should have done it and should have known about it.
[15:26] So the Lord has to deal with him in this way. Now, I think this has several important lessons to teach us. And the first one is this. You must live just as I must live by the word of God and by his commandments at all times.
[15:48] Not by commandments or rules that are in other people's lives or in other churches. Let me put it this way. It's quite possible for us.
[16:01] And I think this is very practical. It's a practical thing to remember. It's quite possible for you to recognize another person to be a Christian. And it's quite possible for you to recognize another church to be a true church.
[16:15] A true part of the visible church. Because it is quite possible for them somehow to have neglected, as individuals or as churches, a commandment of God.
[16:37] And you can't follow other people like that or other churches like that. You have to keep to the word of God. Our only rule to guide us.
[16:48] Now, let me make a simple distinction here. I mean, there are certain customs and traditions that you can change to. For example, let's say you're worshiping in a home.
[17:00] Let's say you're there for a weekend or you're there for a week. And in that home, they're having worship in the evening. And let's suppose that they don't go on their knees for worship.
[17:12] Now, it would be right for you to conform to that. Because it is not a specific commandment. If they are, whether they are lying down or seated or whatever, then you should follow them.
[17:23] Unless you are breaking a commandment in God's word. That's what I mean. I know of someone who insisted on kneeling when the family remained seated. And that, to me, is not right.
[17:35] I do not see how that would be right. And neither is it right the other way around. I know of a person who remained seated while the rest went on their knees. Again, that wasn't respectful. If it is a custom or a tradition, you should conform to it depending on where you are.
[17:50] Whatever it is, providing it is not against the word of God. And by the way, I consider it a good custom to kneel at family worship. Now, that is different to principles and commandments.
[18:06] Let me take another example. I remember when I was in Detroit. And I met this woman. She was talking to me. And her daughter was in another American state.
[18:18] And she was in a Baptist church. Now, this is particularly relevant because baptism and circumcision are related. She said her daughter was in a Baptist church. And she told me that she was the only Presbyterian there.
[18:33] And she was coming under constant pressure to be immersed so that she could sit at the Lord's table. Now, just to help us understand that a bit, that Baptist church was insisting that she be fully immersed in water before she could sit with them at the Lord's table because that was the only baptism they recognized.
[18:54] Now, on the one hand, people were saying to her, well, it doesn't matter too much. It is only a rite at a ritual. Just be immersed and you can sit at the Lord's supper. But she felt strongly in her heart, no, that's denying my first baptism.
[19:09] I was baptized in a covenant family as a child. And that means something. And the word of God teaches it to mean something to me.
[19:19] And that baptism is important. And she withstood that and she resisted it. And she would rather have stayed away from the Lord's supper than deny her baptism and its validity.
[19:32] Now, I'll tell you, I was proud of that girl. And that girl was right because this was a biblical principle and commandment which she didn't want to deny and which she didn't want to invalidate.
[19:45] And let's help to try and see these distinctions all the time. She wasn't saying that this church weren't Christians, not at all. But she wasn't going to break the commandment of God for it. Now, remember that in your relations.
[19:58] You can get on with a person. You may have fellowship with a person. But if it's breaking the word of God, don't be like that person. That's just a simple rule of thumb that you can follow.
[20:08] You stick to what the word of God is teaching us. And after all, God expects more from those who know more. God expects more from those who know more.
[20:22] Sometimes, again, we see that. We see a people, perhaps, and they've recently come to Christ. And there are many things wrong in their lives. And you say, well, how come they can do that and I can't?
[20:35] And perhaps you're prone just immediately to become like them. And you find that God deals with you very severely. And you say, well, why? And the Lord says to you simply, I expect more. You were born or raised up to know this and to know that.
[20:49] And you've always known it. Whereas they are coming from darkness. And so, again, that is something we should remember. Let us follow the word of God and patiently and with love, let's seek to come to a better understanding of it and to bring others to a better understanding of it also.
[21:06] So that's the first thing. If Moses gave way to them because of custom or tradition, he was wrong. God gave way to Zipporah just out of fear or something like that.
[21:19] Or because he just let her have the final say in the matter. That's possible. Now, what does the New Testament tell us?
[21:31] Well, it tells us very clearly that anyone who rules in God's house, whether as an elder or a minister, should not be governed by domestic pressures.
[21:43] It tells us that very, very simply that no elder or minister should be ruled by pressure in his home. For example, in 1 Timothy 3, verse 4, it speaks of an elder, and this includes, I think, a minister here, as one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity.
[22:10] For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God, ruled by domestic pressures?
[22:23] Now, sad to say, there have been ministers and elders who speak the voice of someone else. Sometimes it's their wives you can hear in their mouth.
[22:34] Sometimes it's their sons you can hear in their mouth. Sometimes it's their daughters, and it's not themselves that they are representing at all. That can be. Take even a man like Eli.
[22:48] Eli was an unusual man. I'm fully persuaded that he was a man of God. But remember what the Lord said to him after many years. He said this to him, You have honored your sons more than God.
[23:03] And what that meant was this, that practically, Eli just fell short. There were certain things he should have dealt with, with respect to his sons and to their conduct as they were growing up, which he just did not deal with.
[23:18] And God said to him, You have honored your sons more than God. And Moses is being taught here, Look, if you're going down to lead my people out of Israel, then you make sure you are putting my word first in your own life and in your own home.
[23:39] As though he's saying to Moses, Look, what good is it if you go down and say to Israel, I'm going to give you the blessings of Abraham, and you haven't got the sign on the son yourself.
[23:50] And we all know how terrible it can be if there's a glaring inconsistency between what a man says and what he does himself.
[24:01] If there's a glaring inconsistency, it falls short in terms of power. Again, the man may be a Christian. He may have a defect. He may be in disobedience.
[24:13] And the token of it will just be a lack of power. I would think so, a lack of power. And that can come across in many ways. Some people who yield to a weakness or a disobedience like that, they just seem to lose their strength.
[24:28] They lose their spiritual power. You find that until repentance comes in, and then the spiritual energy and spiritual strength like that comes back. Now, God comes here to Moses, and he says, Put this right first before you go down to my people in Israel.
[24:46] So then he's neglected it. And what is the result of it? Well, God meets him in a fight. And God has to appear like that to us very often.
[24:58] He might let a thing go for a while, but then certainly he comes and he deals with it. Now, we've noticed that Moses was in such danger or in such weakness here that he just couldn't deal with it himself.
[25:12] It's Zipporah who had to deal with it. But it's Moses' life that's in danger. He's the one who's at death door. Why?
[25:25] Because the buck stops with the father. That's why. In every home, that's the case. God will lay the responsibility of the home, how it's run, with the father, not with the mother.
[25:41] Father, fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but raise them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
[25:53] All you fathers are responsible for how your children are raised, as I am for mine. And we will answer to God for what they learn, what they study, what they do, how they pass their time, as long as they are under our care, our home, and our control.
[26:14] Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture. Cherish them in godly ways. Raise them in godly ways.
[26:25] And that's involved in the vows of our baptism. So it's Moses here who is chastised. And then again, we discover this. God will do whatever he needs to do in order to correct this.
[26:43] Ah, my friend, let's remind ourselves here that this is an act of love. Doesn't Hebrews tell us that? That every father chastens his son.
[26:53] Now, it's never easy to do that. It's never easy to do that, to chasten your son. Especially if you have to use physical punishment. God does that with his own children.
[27:05] He doesn't just use his word, but sometimes he inflicts us physically. And in spite of what society will tell us today, that is laid upon us in the word of God to use reasonable force.
[27:16] Being guided by God to use reasonable force if your child warrants it or if his misbehavior warrants it. Not easy to do. And sometimes afterwards, perhaps you can feel terrible that you've had to do this or whatever.
[27:32] But I don't know if you've ever found this, but usually in the Christian life, you discover that everything that you have to do has a difficulty in it. In fact, you almost have to do everything by faith and that includes chastising your children.
[27:46] You have to do it by faith. It's against sometimes what you would like. But you know it's for their good because God did this to you for your good. You had a trial from God.
[27:56] You had a sickness. You had a persecution or something from God for your good because God loves you as a son. Therefore, he chastises you. If he didn't love you, he'd just let you go.
[28:08] He'd say, off you go. Do what you want. Live like that. But he loves you and he'll take you back on that path. That's what a father does to his son. And all children here should know that when your mother or father gives you a telling off or when they rebuke you or when they give you a punishment in some kind of way, it's to help you.
[28:28] And I want all you children to understand that. It's because your parents love you that they deal with you like that. And that is how God dealt with Moses here. He'll do what he has to do to put it right.
[28:42] Do you remember in the Corinthian church? They had a problem there with the other sacrament, with the Lord's Supper. And Paul says to them, many of you are weak, he says, and many of you are sick, and many of you have fallen asleep.
[29:00] Fallen asleep. God chastised them because they weren't observing the Lord's Supper properly. And he does what he has to do in order to bring us back.
[29:13] Now, my friends, I think it's interesting that Zipporah knows here what she should do. I don't know, I suppose you could say that maybe Moses told her, this is why God is chastising me like this.
[29:26] But Zipporah knows it. She takes the stone, and she acts. I'm quite sure that Zipporah and Moses often spoke about this. The child hadn't just been born, he'd been probably some years of age, perhaps.
[29:44] But they had spoken about it, and it was left neglected. But here, Zipporah knows. And when God comes to chastise like this, he'll tell you if there's something wrong.
[29:57] I suppose you say to yourself, well, how do I know? Let's say you're saying today, well, something has come into my life, and I'm wondering if it's a chastisement. Well, let me tell you this.
[30:09] If it's a chastisement, you'll know. If I was going to chastise my child and not tell him why, it would be of no avail. Suppose you received some kind of punishment, go to your room for an hour, and you don't tell why.
[30:25] What good is that going to do? God will tell you why. When something's come into your life, and you're wondering, you take it to him. Take it to him in prayer, and say, Lord, is this just a trial?
[30:38] Or is this because of something in my life? If it's because of something in my life, show me. And God will show you. God answers prayers. If you're his child, God will show you that there's something wrong in your life that you have to put right, and that you have to deal with.
[30:54] And he'll point to it. He'll point to it either in his word, or he'll point to it in providence. He'll point to it. He'll bring it before you, and he'll say, get this out, or put this right.
[31:04] And then the situation will be sorted out. Now, what puts this situation right here? Well, what puts it right is simply this, that Zipporah does what she should do.
[31:18] And notice, God makes her do it. She's the one who had the problem with it, and she's the one who has to do it. She takes the stone, and she performs the act. And the minute she performs it, God lets him go.
[31:31] Verse 26, So he let him go. And then she said, a husband of blood, you are to me. Now, there's a couple of things here, I think, that we need to notice very carefully.
[31:48] And the first is this. Zipporah puts it right outwardly, but I don't think she's right herself inwardly. But she puts it right outwardly.
[32:01] And because she puts it right outwardly, God lets Moses go. I'll come on to Zipporah in a moment. But let me say this. In some things, God is satisfied with putting a thing right outwardly.
[32:20] Let me give you an example. We have laws on our statute books that have allowed millions of children to be killed in the womb. And right throughout Europe, these laws have become so liberal that it's more or less abortion on demand.
[32:39] Has that brought God's judgment on this country since 1967? Yes, it has. We have put laws on the statute book that allow lower and lower ages of homosexual consent.
[32:54] Has that brought God's wrath on this country? Yes, it has. You might say there are other people who don't bother with these things and they're getting on all right. That goes back to what I said before.
[33:06] Where God has given more, God requires more. God made this nation great and he built us up and we've thrown that away. Has God's wrath come?
[33:18] Yes, it has. Now let's say that the prime minister was to pass a law that abortion was to be stopped. And let's say his motive for doing that was public pressure.
[33:34] Let's say it wasn't that he feared God but that he was getting lots of public pressure on all sides to stop this slaughter. Let's say he changed the law for that reason. God would withdraw his wrath and judgment from the nation even if his own heart wasn't in the best motive.
[33:53] Do you see what I mean? It's the outward thing that God is concerned with there and he deals with that. It's the outward lack of the sign that he's concerned with and when that's put on he moves away from Moses.
[34:08] And that's why we should pray for these things to happen because whatever the attitude of politicians who might change it it doesn't matter if it is changed God will restore a blessing and God will take away his life.
[34:22] But Zipporah herself has some difficulty. She takes the skin and she casts it at his feet and says you are a husband of blood to me.
[34:34] Now some people put a good interpretation on this and they say that she was thankful as much as to say I've almost been married to you again you are nearly dead to me and I nearly lost you but because of this blood of circumcision you're brought back to me and as it were you are a husband of blood to me married by blood.
[34:59] Now that may sound quite good but to be honest I just don't think it's consistent with the spirit of what she's doing. She's casting it at his feet and she says you are a husband of blood to me and something else that's important Moses sent her back home here.
[35:17] Now we're not told that specifically it only comes out incidentally way forward in chapter 18 when Moses has brought out Israel out of captivity Jethro and Zipporah and the two sons of Moses come out of Midian to meet Moses in the desert.
[35:39] That tells us that here at the inn Moses said you must go back and you must return home. Why? Because she was being an impediment.
[35:52] There was something in her spirit that wasn't right and if it would continue it would hamper Moses on his journey and so she has to go home and I'm sure that when she went home she rethought and she prayed and God brought her to a better mind.
[36:09] Certainly in Exodus 18 when they come together everything is perfect and everything is put behind them but she has to think and to repent just like David when he tried to take the ark home the first time he didn't keep the command of God.
[36:24] Everything ended in a disaster and Uzzah one of his leading men died. David went home for six months and thought about it and he prayed about it. He came back again and did it properly and when he did it properly God blessed him.
[36:38] I think that's what happens here. Have you ever thought that you might be an obstacle in someone's spiritual life? It's possible for a husband to be an obstacle to his wife or for a wife to be an obstacle for her husband.
[36:54] You know I often hear people say and to some extent I'd go along with it that if a man is called to the ministry then his wife will be called as well.
[37:04] Well I understand what that means but very often you might find that a wife might be resisting it for quite a long time and that's not telling the man that he's wrong it's just a plain fact that she is wrong and that she needs to seek the Lord's will could there be anyone here in that category?
[37:26] I certainly know of some even today I know some wives who would say that they were for some time trying to dissuade their husbands from going down this road but they saw that they were wrong that the Lord was calling them.
[37:39] Now I believe again that the Lord will show that. He'll show it but our duty is when there's a clash of that kind to come husbands and wives to pray over the thing that the Lord will make his mind clear.
[37:52] Now there was some stubbornness here so the Lord has to deal with it in this kind of way. Are you keeping someone else back somehow? Maybe nothing to do with the ministry might just be something else in the spiritual life are you keeping someone else back?
[38:10] And Zipporah is not allowed to stand in his way and she goes home until the matter is sorted out there. And it's a very solemn thing you know to be standing in the path of someone else like that.
[38:23] And we really need God's guidance and God's grace and a willingness to be reconciled to his will over these things. I just don't think that Zipporah liked this the idea of circumcising a child but it was God's word and she had to yield to it and I think the Lord gave her a better heart for it.
[38:44] So Moses in the morning there is a division they go back to Jethro and he makes his way down to Egypt. First he has to meet Moses in the wilderness and sorry he has to meet Aaron.
[38:58] Aaron has received the message in Egypt go to meet your brother. So they meet in the wilderness at the mount of God they kiss one another it had been 40 years since they had seen each other and Moses told them the signs that he had to perform in front of Pharaoh and then they went in to Egypt and they gathered together the elders of the children of Israel their representatives gathered them together and did the signs Aaron did them that was a judgment on Moses remember he didn't believe so he lost the privilege Aaron did the signs and the people believed that was one thing the next thing is that he has to go in to Pharaoh the last time he saw Pharaoh he was the son of Pharaoh this is a different Pharaoh all right but it's still the same throne room it's still the same palace here now he comes back as a shepherd with the rod of God in his hand and he's going to face the most powerful monarch in his own day and generation and he's going to stand in front of him and he's going to say let my people go the great cry of the blacks of course in the southern states of
[40:12] America to let my people go this was what Moses had to say in front of Pharaoh how would he stand and how would Pharaoh respond may the Lord enable us to take these things to heart and to wait upon himself let us pray oh Lord our God truly thy word teaches us many things and if in anything we are prone to disobedience and to be yielding on something which thy word makes plain help us oh Lord to identify it and to bring it before thyself and to act upon it and we pray that they would give us strength even in raising of children and give husbands and wives a prayerful spirit that they might seek the will and the mind of the Lord and that that mind might be revealed to them and we are not to be like the horse or mule which do not understand and which need a bit or a bridle in their mouth before they obey help us to be sensitive to thy word before we are exposed to thy word oh Lord have compassion and have pity upon us as a father pities his children for
[41:31] Christ's sake Amen Amen