We are in a series in the book of Exodus, so please turn with me and your Bibles to
Exodus chapter 4, verses 18 to 31.
If you're not familiar with your Bibles, Exodus is the second book in the Bible, after Genesis,
before Leviticus.
Chapter 4, verses 18 to 31.
Let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's Word.
Father, we gather once again under the reading and preaching of your Word.
Because of our conviction that every word of yours is truth, that all of Scripture is
breathed out by you, and therefore profitable for us, and that it's able to make us wise
for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
Even passages that we don't expect to be like that.
So we ask again that you will address us as you always do.
that you bring the conviction and comfort that only your Spirit can bring.
And magnify the name of your Son, Jesus, in this Word.
Lord, in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Please, follow along with me as I read Exodus 4, 18 to 31.
Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him,
please, let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.
And Jethro said to Moses, go in peace.
And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, go back to Egypt, for all the men who are seeking your life are dead.
So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey and went back to the land of Egypt.
And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
And the Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power.
But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son.
And I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me.
If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.
At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to put him to death.
Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said,
surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.
So he let him alone.
It was then that she said, a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision.
The Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses.
So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak and all the signs that he had commanded him to do.
Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel.
Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people.
And the people believed.
And when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction,
they bowed their heads and worshipped.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
Some of us have worked with leaders who are gracious and flexible.
They seem to have an endless capacity for sacrificing themselves and bending to accommodate other people's preferences and opinions.
But when that graciousness is taken to the extreme,
if they never stand up for their rights and views,
that's no longer being gracious and flexible.
That's being a pushover and a coward.
It's hard to know what they actually think and what they actually want,
which is very demotivating.
On the other hand, we've also known leaders who are resolute and uncompromising about their standards.
They are willing to endure much difficulty and push back from others to maintain their standards and accomplish their goals.
But when that resoluteness is taken to the extreme,
it becomes stubbornness and tyranny.
What we really want in the people we follow are those who combine both graciousness and resoluteness.
People who can both accommodate us and challenge us.
And God is the perfect embodiment of those two characteristics.
He is exceedingly patient and gracious,
but he is also unyieldingly holy and just.
And for that reason, he is worthy of both our love and affection and our fear and reverence.
We learn in this passage that the Lord delivers his people from slavery by the blood of his firstborn son,
that we might serve him as his children.
And in this account, we see the Lord's sovereignty and the Lord's holiness and the Lord's graciousness in turn.
And I'll go through those in that order.
So five times in this, in the preceding passage,
Moses made some kind of excuse, if you remember,
for why he could not obey God's command to go to Egypt to deliver God's people from slavery.
But after God's repeated assurances of his presence and power that he would go with him,
and God's patient and gracious accommodation of Moses' weaknesses,
he finally ascents.
And that dialogue between God and Moses was long and detailed in the preceding passage in verses 18 to,
but in this passage, in verses 18 to 31,
the passage is characterized by short, punchy, action-packed sentences.
And it conveys the fact that Moses follows through on all the Lord's commands without delay.
For example, Moses was commanded,
go back to Egypt, chapter 3, verse 19.
And chapter 3, verse 20,
I'm sorry, chapter 4, verse 19.
In chapter 4, verse 20 tells us immediately that Moses went back to the land of Egypt.
In chapter 4, verse 17, God commanded Moses,
take in your hand this staff.
And verse 20 tells us that Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
So he's obeying promptly everything God had commanded him to do.
But that doesn't mean Moses now has zero doubt and is full of faith.
Judging from verse 19,
it seems that Moses is still worried that there are people in Egypt who are out to kill him.
If you remember from chapter 2,
we were told that when Pharaoh heard that Moses killed an Egyptian man,
that he, Pharaoh, sought to kill Moses.
So Moses is worried that there's still a death warrant out for him,
that there's a bounty on his head.
Probably the reason why, after all these years, still hasn't gone back to Egypt.
But God patiently assures him,
go back to Egypt,
for all the men who are seeking your life are dead.
But remember, now Moses has a new life in the Midian wilderness.
He has a wife and he has children now.
So before he takes his wife and kids out of the only country they have ever known
and takes them to hostile territory in Egypt to rescue God's people,
he first must receive his father-in-law's blessing.
You can imagine the nervousness as Moses approaches his father-in-law.
And it says in verse 18,
he said to Jethro,
please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.
And Jethro, ever the supportive father-in-law he is,
says go in peace.
You might be wondering if this is kind of dishonest.
Why didn't Moses say,
the Lord,
the God of my forefathers,
has appeared to me in a burning bush
and he told me of all people personally to go and deliver Israel from their slavery in Egypt.
And by the way,
I'm going to take Zippra,
your daughter,
and your grandkids with me.
I mean,
that's,
imagine telling your father-in-law that.
That's a tough ask.
But I don't think Moses is intentionally hiding the full truth here from Jethro,
although that's certainly possible out of fear.
The whole account is so abbreviated.
And likely there was a much longer conversation.
And I think there's actually quite an appropriate reason why Moses says this,
that,
hey,
please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.
Because that summary,
that reason parallels chapter 2,
verse 11,
where it says this,
Moses went out to his people and looked on their burdens,
and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew,
one of his people.
That word his people is literally his brothers.
And the same word that's used here in chapter 4,
verse 18.
And so there's a pattern here.
40 years ago,
Moses had gone out into Egypt to see his brothers.
And that prompted him,
after seeing his oppression,
to want to try to deliver them by striking the Egyptian.
And now again,
Moses wants to go back to see his brothers in Egypt,
to see what's going on with them.
The parallel suggests that Moses is revealing his desire to deliver his people once again from their oppression.
40 years ago,
Moses failed.
He was driven out of the country,
with Pharaoh who was after him.
His own people rejected him as their prince.
But this time,
the story is going to be different.
Because now the Lord goes with him.
40 years ago,
Moses was rashly taking things into his own hands.
But this time,
he carries the staff of God in his hand,
which will ensure that Israel is freed.
And we see the Lord's total sovereignty
in what he says to Moses in verse 21.
He says,
The hardening of Pharaoh's heart
is a prominent motif
throughout the Exodus account.
And we're told that his heart was hardened
no less than 18 times
in a variety of ways.
Majority of time,
11 times or so,
it explicitly states that,
as it does here,
that the Lord was the agent of the hardening.
The Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.
He says in Exodus 9, 12,
But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh.
Some other times,
five times to be exact,
the use of the divine passive construction
implies that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.
It implies that the Lord hardened his heart.
So for example,
Exodus 8, 19,
it says Pharaoh's heart was hardened.
Who was it hardened by?
The implication is the Lord.
That's the divine passive construction.
So that's what it says majority of the time,
vast majority of the time.
But there are still other times,
three times total,
when scripture says that Pharaoh
hardened his own heart.
For example,
it says in Exodus 9, 34,
Pharaoh sinned yet again
and hardened his heart.
So which is it?
Is God responsible for hardening Pharaoh's heart
or is Pharaoh responsible for hardening his own heart?
The answer is yes.
God is fully sovereign over all of Pharaoh's decisions.
And yet,
Pharaoh is truly responsible for all of his decisions.
Some of us are uncomfortable
with the juxtaposition of those two realities,
but the author of Exodus has no problem
affirming both of those things side by side.
In fact,
the two seemingly contradictory statements
sometimes occur in the same verse.
Earlier in Exodus 3, 19,
the Lord said,
I know that the king of Egypt
will not let you go
unless compelled by a mighty hand.
The word mighty or strong
is the adjectival form of the Hebrew word,
the verb that is used here in Exodus 4, 21.
I will harden,
or literally,
I will strengthen his heart.
Meaning,
he's going to strengthen his resolve,
make him more stubborn
so that he sticks to his word
and refuses to let the Israelites go.
So there's a word play here.
On the one hand,
God will strengthen Pharaoh's heart
so that he will not let the people of Israel go.
On the other hand,
God will use his strong hand
to compel Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.
So,
he is,
in other words,
playing both offense and defense.
He is orchestrating
even Pharaoh's stubborn refusal
to reveal,
in order to reveal his glory and power.
That's why God raised up Pharaoh
for this particular time.
He says in Exodus 9, 16,
for this purpose,
I have raised you up,
Pharaoh,
to show you my power
so that my name may be proclaimed
in all the earth.
That's God's purpose.
One of my favorite movies of all time
is Life is Beautiful.
I don't know if you guys have seen that.
It's incredibly,
in the movie,
the main actor,
the Italian actor,
Roberto Benigni,
he stars in it as the lead actor,
but he's also the same guy
who wrote the script
and directed the film.
So,
he's the writer,
the director,
and the lead actor
in the film.
What's happening here in Exodus
is quite similar.
God is the writer,
he is the director,
and the principal actor
of Israel's Exodus from Egypt.
And what's the point of that?
So that in the end,
when the credit rolls,
God receives
all of the glory.
This is a hard doctrine for us
because
the values of liberty
and independence
and self-determination
are so deeply ingrained
in our culture.
I mean,
the state motto
of our upstairs neighbors
is live free or die.
Right?
And you might not know this,
but the Massachusetts state motto
is not as well known
because it's in Latin,
but when you translate it,
it's actually quite similar.
It says,
by the word,
well,
I mean,
by the sword,
we seek peace,
but peace only under liberty.
That's our motto.
So,
we're so used to this illusion
of control over our lives,
and we're so used to seeing ourselves
as the protagonists
of the story of our lives,
that it's very hard for us
to accept the reality
that we are not
actually in control
over our lives,
and that God
is actually in full control
over our lives.
Indeed,
he is in full control
over all of human history
and of the entire universe.
It's hard for us
in a man-centered world
to accept a God
who is truly sovereign.
The apostle Paul
understood this well
after citing the book of Exodus
and mentioning
how God hardened Pharaoh's heart
in order to show forth his power.
Paul writes that God has mercy
on whomever he wills,
and he hardens whomever he wills.
And then he anticipates
the objection.
Well,
you will say to me then,
why does he still find fault?
For who can resist his will?
In other words,
if God hardened Pharaoh's heart,
then how can he also blame Pharaoh?
Pharaoh is helpless
to resist God's will.
I'm sure
some of you,
like me,
have raised similar objections
to God in the past.
And here's how
the word of God
answers that objection
in Romans 9,
20 to 23.
But who are you,
O man,
to answer back to God?
Will what is molded
say to its molder,
why have you made me like this?
Has a potter
no right over the clay
to make out of the same lump
one vessel for honorable use
and another for dishonorable use?
What if God,
desiring to show his wrath
and to make known his power,
has endured with much patience
vessels of wrath
prepared for destruction
in order to make known
the riches of his glory
for vessels of mercy,
which he has prepared
beforehand for glory?
The Bible doesn't try
to explain away
the tension between
divine sovereignty
and human responsibility.
It simply says,
who are you, O man,
to answer back to God?
When you crochet a scarf,
does the scarf talk back to you
and say,
I want to be a blanket instead?
When the comic book writer
Jim Starlin
created the character Thanos
to be a villain
in the Marvel Universe,
does Thanos talk back
to the author and say,
hey, I actually want
to be a hero.
Thank you very much.
Doesn't make any sense.
God created us from scratch.
He sovereignly orchestrated
our backgrounds,
our relationships,
our experiences.
He gave us all of our talents
and tendencies and temperaments
and he did all of this
for his glory.
That's his ultimate purpose.
That's what it means
to be God, the Lord, Yahweh.
I am who I am.
I will be who I will be.
He is by the very definition
of God's sovereign.
Nevertheless, God's sovereignty
does not erase human responsibility.
Though God is fully sovereign,
Pharaoh really is culpable.
He is responsible
for hardening his own heart
and refusing to let
the Israelites go.
And this tension in Scripture
is not a riddle to be solved
but a truth to believe
and to live by.
Because we are responsible
for our actions
and culpable for our sins,
we do our best
to discern God's will
and try to obey him.
But because God is sovereign,
we trust him
and rest in him
even when tyrannical kings reign.
Even when our lives
are out of control.
Life doesn't make sense
or work as God intended
if we resolve this tension
one way or another,
if we don't maintain the tension.
By telling Moses ahead of time
that he will harden Pharaoh's heart,
God is preparing Moses
for Pharaoh's stubborn resistance.
Don't be surprised, Moses.
Don't despair, Moses.
Pharaoh's resistance
is all part of my plan.
Even when you experience
the most devastating setback
of your career
or of your relationship
or in your health,
even when life
is not going according to plan,
even when you're facing
great hardship
or suffering in your life,
you can find comfort
in knowing the fact
that nothing happens
outside of God's
sovereign purposes,
outside of the loving hands
of our heavenly Father.
That's the Lord's sovereignty.
And then we see
the Lord's holiness
and his justice
in verses 22 to 26.
God instructs Moses
to say this to Pharaoh.
Thus says the Lord,
Israel is my firstborn son.
And I say to you,
let my son go
that he may serve me.
If you refuse to let him go,
behold, I will kill
your firstborn son.
The nation of Israel,
as Yahweh's chosen people,
and his special possession
is his firstborn son.
Having a child heightens
the protective instincts
in fathers and mothers.
And those who seek
to harm a child
incur the fierce anger
of the parent.
Not many of you guys
know who this person is probably.
Last month,
Cain Velasquez,
a former UFC heavyweight champion,
was arrested on murder charges
because he was chasing
and shooting with a gun
a man who allegedly
molested his four-year-old son
repeatedly at a daycare.
Obviously, he should not have
taken justice into his own hands.
That was a presumptuous
and unwise decision.
But it's not hard
to understand
the man's paternal rage.
In a similar way,
the Lord God
is getting very personal here.
Israel is my firstborn son.
And I say to you,
let my son go
that he may serve me.
And if you refuse
to let him go,
behold,
I will kill your firstborn son.
This is justice.
This is a preview
of the tenth
and final disaster
that the Lord
inflicts on Egypt
for Pharaoh's refusal
to let Israel go.
All the firstborn sons
of Egypt
will die
in chapter 11 and 12.
When announcing
Israel's impending exile
to Assyria
due to their sinful rebellion
against him,
the Lord says this
in Hosea 11, 1-4.
When Israel was a child,
I loved him.
And out of Egypt,
I called my son.
The more they were called,
the more they went away.
They kept sacrificing
to the Baals
and burning offerings
to idols.
Yet it was I
who taught Ephraim
to walk.
I took them up
by their arms,
but they did not know
that I healed them.
I led them
with cords of kindness,
with the bends of love,
and I became to them
as one who eases
the yoke on their jaws.
And I bent down
to them
and fed them.
This is how God
relates to his people.
As his son,
you can sense
both his intense affection
and heartache
in that passage
because of the rebellion
of his son Israel.
The Lord called him
and taught him
and brought him
out of their slavery in Egypt.
He taught his son to walk.
He took his son
by his arms
and healed him.
He led his son
with cords of kindness
and bent down
to feed him.
And yet,
his son repeatedly
rejected him,
rebelled against him,
and went after idols.
And Matthew 2.15
cites this passage
to say that
Jesus' sojourn in Egypt
is a fulfillment
of Hosea 11.1,
out of Egypt
I called my son.
Matthew is making
the connection
that Jesus
is the new Israel,
the true son of God
who was called
out of Egypt
to deliver his people.
That means,
if you are a child of God,
if you have repented
of your sins
and put your faith
in Jesus,
then in Christ,
you are God's son.
In Christ,
you are among God's people.
You're a member
of his family.
That means,
the Lord God,
the Almighty God,
cares for you
and protects you
with the same zeal
that a loving father
has for his child.
You are not
a helpless,
fatherless child.
The Lord's mighty hand,
your Father in heaven,
he is watching over you.
This truth must be
such a comfort
to believers
in parts of the world
where Christians
face severe persecution
for their faith.
Right now is the time
of God's patience
with evildoers,
but the Lord
will return in vengeance
and he will vindicate
his holiness
and he will execute
his justice.
However,
the Lord's holiness
is seen not only
in his dealings
with the enemies
of his people,
but also in his dealings
with his own people.
He says in verses 24 to 26,
at a lodging place
on the way,
the Lord met him
and sought to put him
to death.
Did you expect that?
Then Zipporah took a flint
and cut off her son's foreskin
and touched Moses' feet
with it and said,
surely you are
a bridegroom of blood to me.
So he let him alone.
It was then that she said,
a bridegroom of blood
because of the circumcision.
This is one of the most
challenging passages
of scripture
to interpret.
Just to give you
one example,
one Old Testament scholar,
David Pinchensky,
just despairs
of interpreting it
all together
and this is what he says,
quote,
biblical scholars
love this passage
because it is
totally incomprehensible.
That's clearly
an overstatement.
It's funny nonetheless.
The reason why
it's so difficult
to interpret
is that it seems
to come out of nowhere
and it uses
a whole bunch
of personal pronouns
without making it clear
who it's referring to.
Why would the Lord
commission Moses
for this task
and then seek
to put him to death
before he can fulfill it?
Who is the son
that Zipporah circumcised?
And who is the him
that the Lord met
and tried to kill?
Even in verse 25
where it says
Zipporah cut off
her son's foreskin
and touched Moses'
feed with it.
If you look at the footnote
there on the word Moses,
it tells you in Hebrew
it just says him.
It doesn't say Moses.
It's most likely Moses.
That's why the translator
is trying to help us
by putting that in there.
So we can't be certain
that this is what
the passage definitively means
but here's my best attempt
to make sense of it all.
Exodus 4 verse 20
is the first time
in the book
when we are told
that Moses had sons
in the plural.
We are only told
of the birth
of his firstborn Gershom
in chapter 2.
So now we know
that Moses had another son
before his return to Egypt.
And later in Exodus 18 verse 4
we find out the name
of this second son
and his name is Eliezer
and it tells us
the meaning of his name there
and the meaning is this.
The God of my father
was my help
and delivered me
from the sword of Pharaoh.
Interesting.
He named him that
before the Exodus.
So he is referring to
God delivering him
from the sword of Pharaoh
who was trying to kill him.
So that helps us
that helps to make sense
of chapter 4 verse 19
because when God tells Moses
seemingly out of the blue
that all the men
who are seeking your life
in Egypt are dead,
Moses probably named
his second son Eliezer
after that assurance
that Pharaoh is dead
and his men are dead
who are trying to kill him.
So then Eliezer
was likely born
around this time
and his name
prophetically anticipates
God's deliverance
of Israel
from the new Pharaoh's sword
as well
just as Moses
is about to return
to Egypt.
So then according
to Genesis chapter 17
verse 10 to 14
that's where God
makes his covenant
with Abraham
and he commands circumcision
as a sign of the covenant
and this is what it says
this is my covenant
which you shall keep
between me and you
and your offspring after you.
Every male among you
shall be circumcised.
You shall be circumcised
in the flesh
of your foreskins
and he shall be a sign
of the covenant
between me and you.
He who is eight days old
among you
shall be circumcised.
Any uncircumcised male
who is not circumcised
in the flesh
of his foreskin
shall be cut off
from his people.
He has broken
my covenant.
Circumcision marked
Israel as God's
special possession
his chosen people.
It was the sign
of the covenant relationship
that they have
with the Lord
in the same way
that in the new covenant
nowadays for us
baptism
and the Lord's supper
function as signs
of the covenant
that we are included
among his people.
The failure
to observe
God's covenant stipulations
meant being cut off
from his people
meaning
they'd be excluded
from God's people
and circumcision
the cutting off
of the foreskin
was a very visual
representation
of that curse
of being cut off
you and your progeny
your future generations
will literally be cut off
from God's people.
That's what that sign
symbolizes, represents.
And so this is my best
reconstruction
of the event.
Moses' second son
Eliezer
was born around this time.
Moses was about
to take leave
of his father-in-law
to return to Egypt.
The eighth day
when Eliezer
should have been circumcised
had come and gone
but Moses still
had not circumcised him
and he was liable
to judgment
because it was his
responsibility
to circumcise his son.
So as Moses
and his family
are journeying
to Egypt
at a lodging place
on the way
the Lord met him
and sought to put him
to death.
This is very similar
to what happens
in Numbers 22
when Balaam
is expressly permitted
by God
to go meet Balak
but then later on
when he's on his way
he says
the angel of the Lord
came out
to oppose him
because his way
was perverse
before him.
We don't know
exactly what's going
on here
but the Lord
unmistakably
appeared to Moses
and Zipporah
and he made it clear
that he was there
to oppose Moses
and kill him
and maybe Moses
suddenly fell ill
maybe he is confronted
like Jacob
was confronted
by the angel of the Lord
and wrestled with him
all night long.
Apparently
whatever the case was
Zipporah knew
immediately
what the issue was.
She wastes no time
and takes a flint
a hard sharp stone
and then cuts off
her son's foreskin
and touches Moses' feet
with it.
The fact that Zipporah
knew exactly what to do
shows that she and Moses
has probably had
conversations
about this issue.
The fact that
only one son
is circumcised here
shows that
the other one
was already circumcised.
So maybe
Moses circumcised Gershom
according to the custom
of his fathers
since he was born
not long after
Moses left Egypt
and started sojourning
in Midian.
And since Moses
named his son Gershom
after a prominent member
of the tribe of Levi
it's clear that
he was aware
of his Jewish heritage
despite the fact
that he was educated
in the court
of Pharaoh.
However
with his second son
Moses had not
followed through.
Maybe Moses
had assimilated
Midianite customs
by then
or perhaps
he had an argument
with Zipporah
over whether or not
to circumcise
his son
Eliezer.
Whatever the case
Zipporah knew
that the lack
of circumcision
was the reason
for the Lord's
opposition.
And when she
cut off the son's
foreskin
and touched
Moses' feet with it
feet is likely
euphemism for
Moses' genitals
it says that
the Lord
let him alone.
Just as previously
he was rescued
rescued by
Hebrew midwife
Shipporah
and Puah
and then
he was rescued
by his mother
and sister
and then
he was rescued
by Pharaoh's
daughter
from out of the river
Moses is once again
saved by the
timely intervention
of a woman
this time
by his wife
Zipporah.
If Moses
is to lead
the nation of Israel
and call them
to keep their
covenant with the Lord
then he must
first ensure
that his own
household
is keeping
their covenant
with the Lord.
Similarly
1 Timothy 3
4-5
says that
elders who
govern
the household
of God
the church
must first
demonstrate
that they can
manage their
own households
well.
Neglecting
to circumcise
his son
was a grave
failure
on Moses'
part
because it
signified
that his
own family
is cut off
from the people
of God
that he has
the people
of God
the very people
that he has
been called
and commanded
to rescue.
How is Moses
to enjoin Israel
to take the
covenant of God
seriously
if he himself
has failed
to set an example
by doing so?
God is
holy
and he takes
obedience
seriously.
He is no
chummy old
body that
you can push
around and
presume upon.
God is
to
God
to
practice
church
discipline.
When someone
who claims
to be
a Christian
engages
in
demonstrable
destructive
sin
and refuses
to repent
the church
excommunicates
that member
and bars
him from
partaking
of the
Lord's
Supper
in order
to communicate
the spiritual
reality that
he has been
cut off
from God's
people.
That he may
not partake
in the
family supper.
This is not
to say that
Christians are
perfect.
We all
sin in
numerous ways.
But the
hallmark of
the Christian
is that we
repent of
our sins
and we
turn to
Jesus for
forgiveness
in faith.
A purported
Christian's
refusal to
repent brings
disrepute to
the church
and undermines
our gospel
witness.
And we
must uphold
the holiness
of God
as a church.
I used
this illustration
about a year
ago when we
were in Acts
chapter 4 but
it's very
relevant for
today's passage.
In C.S.
Lewis'
The Lion,
The Witch,
and The
Wardrobe,
Susan,
I think,
is having a
conversation with
Mr.
Beaver about
the prospect
of meeting
Aslan who
is the lion
that resembles
God in
this fictional
series.
And Mr.
Beaver says,
Aslan is a
lion,
the lion,
the great
lion.
Oh,
says Susan,
I thought he
was a man.
Is he quite
safe?
I shall feel
rather nervous
about meeting
a lion.
Safe,
says Mr.
Beaver.
Who said
anything about
safe?
Of course he
isn't safe.
But he's
good.
He's the
king,
I tell you.
Not safe.
God's not
tame.
He's good.
And he will
fiercely defend
his holiness
and justice.
But we can
rest assured
that he is
also gracious
to us
and merciful
to us.
And how
does this
passage
demonstrate
the Lord's
graciousness?
In a number
of ways.
First,
notice the
parallel between
verse 19
and 24.
It says in
verse 24
that the
Lord sought
to put
Moses to
death,
which is
similar to
how verse
19 describes
the men
who are
seeking
Moses'
life.
And that
echoes
Exodus 2.15
where he said
Pharaoh sought
to kill
Moses.
Seeking
communicates
intent.
Pharaoh is
only a man.
He's not
all-knowing
and he can
only be in
one place
at a time.
He has no
idea where
Moses is,
so he needs
to first
look for
him and
find him
before he
can kill
him.
So Pharaoh
seeks to
kill him.
But God
is different.
He is
all-knowing
and he is
omnipresent.
He is
everywhere
at the
same time
and he is
all-powerful.
And it
says the
Lord met
Moses.
God
didn't need
any time.
God
could have
killed Moses
in that
instant.
He didn't
need to
seek to
kill him.
But instead
God
communicates
his intent
to Moses
and Zipporah.
He gives
them time
to repent.
And when
Moses and
Zipporah do
repent,
he mercifully
relents.
we see
God's
graciousness
in another
way.
The
words
son
and
firstborn
son
are
repeated
throughout
this
passage.
God
says
Israel
is his
firstborn
son.
And he
says to
Pharaoh,
let my
son go.
And if
you don't,
I will
kill your
firstborn
son.
And this
is immediately
followed by
Zipporah
circumcising
her and
Moses'
son.
Not
coincidentally,
the death
of Egypt's
firstborn
sons in
chapter 12
is immediately
followed by
God requiring
circumcision as
a precondition
for partaking
in the
Passover
sacrifice.
He says
in chapter
13,
and immediately
after that,
God commands
Moses in
chapter 13,
consecrate to
me all the
firstborn.
Whatever is
the first to
open the
womb among
the people
of Israel,
both of
man and
of beast,
is mine.
Every
firstborn of
man among
your sons
you shall
redeem.
And when
in time
to come
your son
asks you,
what does
this mean?
You shall
say to
him,
by a
strong
hand the
Lord
brought us
out of
Egypt from
the house
of slavery.
For when
Pharaoh
stubbornly
refused to
let us
go,
the Lord
killed all
the firstborn
in the
land of
Egypt,
both the
firstborn of
man and
the firstborn
of animals.
Therefore,
I sacrifice
to the
Lord all
the males
that first
opened the
womb,
but all the
firstborn of
my sons
I redeem.
The firstborn
male animals
had to be
sacrificed in
commemoration of
the Passover
when God
judged the
firstborn sons
of Israel,
but passed
over the
sons of
Israel.
And all
the firstborn
sons,
humans,
had to be
redeemed with
payment to
signify that
they belong
to the
Lord.
They don't
belong to the
parents,
they belong to
the Lord.
So then the
ritual of
circumcision is
intimately tied
to the
observance of
the Passover,
which is then
connected to the
significance of
the firstborn
son.
And I think
this is the
reason why
Moses leaves
the pronouns
in this
passage
ambiguous and
doesn't clarify
whether it's
Gershom or
Eliezer that
is circumcised.
If I'm
correct in
thinking that
it was Eliezer
that was his
second son
that was
circumcised,
then by not
specifying that
the fact that
it was the
second son and
leaving it
ambiguous,
Moses makes
it easier
for us to
make the
literary and
theological
connection between
circumcision and
the redemption of
the firstborn son
during Passover.
And this is where
we see the
amazing grace of
God.
The only reason
why the firstborn
sons of Israel
were spared
during that
tenth disaster
was that they
followed the
Lord's instruction
to sacrifice
an unblemished
one-year-old
male lamb
and daub its
blood on the
lintel and the
side posts of
their door frames.
And this
sacrificial lamb
pointed to
Jesus,
the firstborn
son of God
who would die
as the atoning
sacrifice for our
sins.
That's why John
1 29 says,
Jesus is the
lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the
world.
1 Corinthians 5 7
says,
Christ is the
Passover lamb
who has been
sacrificed.
It's because
Jesus,
the firstborn,
died in our
place that we,
God's people,
are saved and
called his
firstborn son
in Christ.
We,
all of us,
like Moses
and like Israel,
have failed to
keep our end of
the covenant with
God.
We've been
unfaithful to
him.
We have sinned
against him.
And if the
Lord had met
us in our
sin,
he would have
met us in
judgment.
to put us
to death.
But the
blood of the
son of God
atoned for
our sin.
And because of
Jesus,
instead of being
caught off from
God's people,
we can now come
to the table of
the Lord,
be adopted into
his family,
and call upon
God as our
father.
What should be
our response to
such mercy?
we see it in
verses 27 to
31.
In the
preceding passage,
God had
graciously accommodated
Moses' weakness
by promising to
send Aaron to
him to be a
spokesperson for
him because Moses
was not a good
speaker.
And that promise
is fulfilled here
when Aaron meets
Moses at the
mountain of God
and begins to
serve as his
mouthpiece.
And then when
they go to
Egypt and gather
the elders of
Israel and they
speak all the
words that the
Lord had spoken
to Moses and do
all the signs
that the Lord
had given
them, he says
in verse 31,
the people
believed.
And that too
is a fulfillment
of the Lord's
promise from
earlier on.
Remember when
Moses protested
in chapter 4
verse 1 saying,
they will not
believe me or
listen to my
voice.
But God had
promised Moses
in chapter 3
verse 18,
they will listen
to your voice.
And once again,
it's the word
of the Lord
and not the
voice of Moses
doubts that
proves true.
The people
believed and
that should be
our response
too.
When you hear
the good news
of Jesus Christ
preached, if
you're not a
follower of
Christ, you
should believe.
Entrust yourself
to the Lord.
And it says
in verse 31,
when they heard
that the Lord
had visited
the people of
Israel and
that he had
seen their
affliction,
they bowed
their heads
and worshipped.
That is the
appropriate human
response to
God's compassion
and salvation.
We are not
alone.
We are not
fatherless.
God has seen
our affliction.
He has visited
us in Christ
and we ought to
worship him.
That's why the
Lord God saves
us.
Remember what
the Lord told
Moses to say to
Pharaoh in
verse 23,
let my son go
that he may
serve me.
The word
serve is
sometimes also
translated as
worship.
We have been
redeemed from
our slavery to
sin that we
might serve and
worship the
Lord.
God does not
free us
from slavery to
sin for the
sake of freedom
itself.
God does not
serve us.
He frees us for
himself so that
instead of being
slaves of Pharaoh,
instead of being
slaves of any other
idols of our world
for that matter,
whether it's money,
success, fame,
lust, the approval
of man, that we
might instead be
slaves of Christ.
Sin always enslaves
us.
We delude
ourselves into
thinking that we
can enjoy sin here
and there in a
controlled manner,
at our convenience,
but sin instead
controls us and
masters us and
leads us ineluctably
to death.
True freedom for man,
for humanity, is
found only in
servitude to God.
It is only in the
arms of our
heavenly father that
we are truly known
and loved.
It is only at the
table of our
father's home that
we are truly fed
and satisfied.
It's only in the
service and worship
of our father that
we fulfill our
eternal creation
purpose.
Let's pray
together.
Lord,
we worship
you.
We stand in awe
of you.
We tremble before
you because you
are holy,
because you are
sovereign.
but Lord,
we also
love you.
We love you
more than anyone
else in the
whole world.
We love you
with our whole
heart.
We lay down our
lives before you.
We dedicate,
we devote
all of our lives
to you.
because you are
a gracious
God.
Because you are
our father.
Because you
loved us
first.
Because you
gave your son
for us.
God,
help us to
believe
these truths
and live
in obedience
by them
for your
glory.
In Jesus'
name we
pray.
Amen.