FINAL PREPARATIONS FOR THE TRIP Exodus 4:18-26
REVIEW: • Moses doubts God’s sufficiency • Moses expresses this through his objections, excuses, and outright refusal to obey God • God gives every reason to believe He is sufficient • To encourage Moses to go, God tells him that his brother Aaron will go with him and speak for him • At this point Moses is ready to go
EXODUS 4:18 Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me return to my relatives in Egypt and see if they are still living.” Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”
EXODUS 3:1 Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.
MAIN IDEA: God is preparing Moses for his return to Egypt
How does God prepare Moses for his return to Egypt?
1. God reassures Moses that it is safe to return (v.19-20)
EXODUS 4:19-20 Now in Midian the Lord told Moses, “Return to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead.” So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took God’s staff in his hand.
EXODUS 2:11-13 Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your neighbor?”
EXODUS 2:14-15 “Who made you a leader and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses became afraid and thought: What I did is certainly known. When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.
EXODUS 2:23 After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out; and their cry for help ascended to God because of the difficult labor.
PSALM 23:4 Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff—they comfort me.
ISAIAH 41:10 Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.
EXODUS 4:20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took God’s staff in his hand.
EXODUS 17:8-9 At Rephidim, Amalek came and fought against Israel. Moses said to Joshua, “Select some men for us and go fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop with God’s staff in my hand.”
2. God provides further clarity about Moses’ future ministry (v.21-23)
EXODUS 4:21-22 The Lord instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, make sure you do all the wonders before Pharaoh that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he won’t let the people go. Then you will say to Pharaoh: This is what Yahweh says: Israel is My firstborn son.
EXODUS 4:23 I told you: Let My son go so that he may worship Me, but you refused to let him go. Now I will kill your firstborn son!”
a. Perform wonders
EXODUS 4:21 The Lord instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, make sure you do all the wonders before Pharaoh that I have put within your power.
EXODUS 4:21 The Lord instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, make sure you do all the wonders before Pharaoh that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he won’t let the people go.
b. Communicate this message
EXODUS 4:22-23 Then you will say to Pharaoh: This is what Yahweh says: Israel is My firstborn son. I told you: Let My son go so that he may worship Me, but you refused to let him go. Now I will kill your firstborn son!
GENESIS 15:13-15 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be foreigners in a land that does not belong to them; they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. However, I will judge the nation they serve, and afterward they will go out with many possessions. But you will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a ripe old age.
GENESIS 15:16-17 In the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” When the sun had set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared and passed between the divided animals.
GENESIS 15:18-21 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River: the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaim, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites.”
PROVERBS 20:6 Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?
3. God confronts Moses about his disobedience (v.24-26)
EXODUS 4:24-26 On the trip, at an overnight campsite, it happened that the Lord confronted him and sought to put him to death. So Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son’s foreskin, and threw it at Moses’ feet. Then she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me!” So He let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.
GENESIS 17:1-2 When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him, saying, “I am God Almighty. Live in My presence and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you greatly.”
GENESIS 17:3-6 Then Abram fell facedown and God spoke with him: “As for Me, My covenant is with you: you will become the father of many nations. Your name will no longer be Abram, but your name will be Abraham, for I will make you the father of many nations. I will make you extremely fruitful and will make nations and kings come from you.
GENESIS 17:7-8 I will keep My covenant between Me and you, and your future offspring throughout their generations, as an everlasting covenant to be your God and the God of your offspring after you. And to you and your future offspring I will give the land where you are residing — all the land of Canaan—as an eternal possession, and I will be their God.”
GENESIS 17:9-10 God also said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations are to keep My covenant. This is My covenant, which you are to keep, between Me and you and your offspring after you: Every one of your males must be circumcised.
GENESIS 17:11-12 You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin to serve as a sign of the covenant between Me and you. Throughout your generations, every male among you at eight days old is to be circumcised. This includes a slave born in your house and one purchased with money from any foreigner. The one who is not your offspring,
GENESIS 17:13-14 a slave born in your house, as well as one purchased with money, must be circumcised. My covenant will be marked in your flesh as an everlasting covenant. If any male is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that man will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”
J. VERNON MCGEE “Circumcision was the badge and seal of God’s covenant with Abraham that was designed to teach the Israelites to have no confidence in the flesh. The flesh was to be cut away, and each Israelite was to place his trust in God…They were Israelites by birth, but circumcision was the badge of it. It was an act of faith for them to perform that rite. Circumcision was the evidence that a man was the son of Abraham. It was evidence of their faith.”
J.A. MOTYER “Like all the covenant signs, circumcision signifies, on God’s side, the gift and sealing of his promises, and, on our side, the marking out of those to whom the promises apply…This was to be the mark distinguishing Abram and his family as those to whom the promises had been made and summoning them to life under the grace which the promises expressed. Covenant signs express covenant promises to covenant people.”
HCSB STUDY BIBLE “This surrender of the first portion of the bodily instrument used to fulfill God's first command to humanity ("Be fruitful and multiply," Gen 1:28) symbolized the individual's willingness to submit all of himself to God and to all of His covenant commands.”
GENESIS 17:14 If any male is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that man will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.
EXODUS 4:24 On the trip, at an overnight campsite, it happened that the Lord confronted him and sought to put him to death.
EXODUS 4:25-26 So Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son’s foreskin, and threw it at Moses’ feet. Then she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me!” So He let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.
THE LESSON: Moses has to learn that disobedience is serious
KEY THOUGHT: To do holy work you need to be pure
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