NXR Podcast - QUESTIONS - Why Did God Almost Kill Moses In Exodus 4:24-26?
Aired: 2022-09-03
Duration: 16:21


=== Why God Threatened Moses (11:47) ===

[00:00:03]  Reading from Exodus chapter 4, verse 19 through 26.
[00:00:06]  Are we given any indication as to why God decides he wants to kill Moses after he sends him back to Egypt?
[00:00:14]  From, I guess, Jeff.
[00:00:17]  Yeah, so I've looked up some stuff to answer this question, Jeff.
[00:00:20]  You've asked it several times.
[00:00:21]  It's a great question.
[00:00:22]  Sorry I haven't been able to get to it sooner.
[00:00:24]  Let's go ahead and look at the text.
[00:00:25]  Let's start with verse 21.
[00:00:27]  Exodus chapter 4, verse 21.
[00:00:29]  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, Pharaoh's heart, so that he will not let the people go.
[00:00:43]  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 might serve me.
[00:00:52]  If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.
[00:00:56]  Then, verse 24, this is what you're getting at.
[00:00:59]  At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and sought, it says, met him.
[00:01:04]  But I believe it's Moses, met him and sought to put him to death.
[00:01:10]  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.
[00:01:20]  So he let him alone.
[00:01:23]  It was then that she said, Zipporah, a bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision.
[00:01:31]  Okay.
[00:01:32]  Yeah.
[00:01:32]  It's a good question because it is a confusing passage.
[00:01:34]  Let me read a little bit of commentary that I've got.
[00:01:36]  From John Gill.
[00:01:37]  So I was looking it up.
[00:01:38]  John Gill, he was the Reformed Baptist pastor in the same church that Charles Spurgeon was the pastor of, and Charles Spurgeon was 100 years later.
[00:01:47]  John Gill is arguably, I think, one of the greatest Reformed Baptist theologians that we have in church history.
[00:01:55]  So here's some of his commentary on this very difficult text.
[00:01:59]  He says So it was that the Lord met him and sought to kill him, not the uncircumcised son of Moses.
[00:02:07]  So first we have to determine who is him.
[00:02:10]  Right?
[00:02:10]  The Lord met him and sought to kill him.
[00:02:12]  Who?
[00:02:12]  Him could be Moses' son.
[00:02:14]  And some theologians and biblical commentators have come to that conclusion.
[00:02:18]  But John Gill is saying, and I agree with him, that the hymn is not Moses' son, but Moses himself.
[00:02:23]  So the Lord met him, being Moses, and sought to kill him.
[00:02:27]  Not the uncircumcised son of Moses, as some have thought, but Moses himself, who had neglected the circumcision of his son.
[00:02:36]  That from the context and the fact that Zipporah after related seems to be the reason of the divine displeasure.
[00:02:43]  Why was God angry and seeking to put Moses to death?
[00:02:46]  Apparently, from the text, because Moses had neglected to circumcise his son.
[00:02:52]  And not, so the divine displeasure being in relation to Moses neglecting to circumcise his son, rather than God being displeased because of Moses' choice to bring his family with him, supposed to be a hindrance of him in his work, right?
[00:03:07]  There are a lot of commentators.
[00:03:08]  The reason why John Gill is dismantling that as an option is because there were a lot of commentators that that was their conclusion.
[00:03:15]  That the Lord was displeased with Moses because God had called him to go to Egypt to preach to Pharaoh to perform all these miracles and signs and wonders and to tell Pharaoh that Israel is God's firstborn son and to let his son go that he might serve him.
[00:03:30]  And God was displeased with Moses because God had called him to ministry, but Moses was trying to bring his family along with him into ministry.
[00:03:37]  And his family would slow him down, it would be a hindrance, and that's why God sought to put him to death.
[00:03:41]  Some commentators have concluded that.
[00:03:43]  I would say that that is not correct.
[00:03:45]  John Gill would also say that is not correct.
[00:03:47]  God was not displeased with Moses because he was bringing his family with him in his ministry.
[00:03:53]  God was displeased with Moses, from what we can tell, because he was not functioning properly as the federal head of his family in circumcising his son.
[00:04:04]  Okay?
[00:04:05]  Nor of his staying too long at the end.
[00:04:07]  Some have said Moses was staying in the end too long.
[00:04:10]  He was delaying out of cowardice, right?
[00:04:12]  Because this is the same Moses who just a little bit earlier said, Well, God, I can't go.
[00:04:16]  I can't be your mouth spit.
[00:04:18]  Your mouthpiece, because I'm slow of speech.
[00:04:21]  And the Lord says, Is it not I, the Lord, who makes man mute?
[00:04:24]  God's saying, I make the healthy.
[00:04:26]  I also make the disabled.
[00:04:27]  I make the sick.
[00:04:29]  I've called you to go, and I'm going to be with you, and you're going to obey.
[00:04:32]  Stop hesitating.
[00:04:33]  Stop making excuses.
[00:04:35]  Obey me.
[00:04:36]  Okay.
[00:04:36]  And so some have said, Well, Moses was staying in this inn on his way to Egypt too long.
[00:04:41]  He was again still cowardly and hesitating, and that's why the Lord sought to put him to death.
[00:04:46]  I don't think that's it either.
[00:04:47]  Okay.
[00:04:47]  Let me read a little bit more.
[00:04:49]  And not hastening his journey, which are some of the reasons given by some.
[00:04:52]  Okay, so that's one thing that John Gill says is who is the Him that the Lord is seeking to put to death?
[00:04:57]  It's not Moses' son who's uncircumcised, but rather Moses himself.
[00:05:01]  And why is the Lord displeased with him, seeking to put him to death?
[00:05:05]  Because he is slowing his journey, because he is exercising delayed obedience, which would be disobedience by staying at the end too long or hindering his ministry by bringing along his family.
[00:05:17]  No, no, the Lord is displeased because he has not circumcised his son.
[00:05:21]  And I think that's clear from the context because the Lord leaves Moses alone, so to speak.
[00:05:29]  The Lord lifts this, whatever it was that was going to kill Moses, the thing that Moses and his wife Zipporah were able to conclude that the Lord is seeking to put him to death.
[00:05:41]  The Lord stopped seeking to put Moses to death when what happened?
[00:05:45]  When Zipporah circumcised their son and threw the bloody foreskin at the feet of Moses and touched his feet with it.
[00:05:54]  And said, A bloody bridegroom, behold.
[00:05:57]  So, Zippor, she took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son, perceiving that it was the neglect of, again, reading from John Gill, the neglect of circumcision of her son that was the cause of the divine displeasure against her husband.
[00:06:13]  And he, being either so ill through the disease upon him that was threatening to take his life, or, here's another option, so ill, because, so ill, Through the disease upon him, or so terrified with the appearance of the Lord or the angel of the Lord to him in the manner that it was that he could not perform this rite himself.
[00:06:38]  So Zipporah undertook it.
[00:06:40]  So, even in that, again, John Gill, and I would agree with him, this is not meant to say that Moses didn't circumcise his son, and Moses is still refusing to circumcise his son.
[00:06:51]  And so, Zipporah is now choosing to go against her husband's will.
[00:06:57]  Moses' will being not to circumcise their son, but Zipporah going against her husband's will in order to submit to God's will to circumcise their son.
[00:07:06]  That's not what's being said.
[00:07:07]  It seems implicit in the text that Moses, because that wouldn't have spared Moses' life.
[00:07:13]  If God is displeased with Moses to the point of seeking to take his life, that the Lord sought to put him to death because of Moses' sin of neglecting to circumcise his son, and Moses still doesn't want to circumcise his son, and Zipporah is doing it against Moses' will, that would not save Moses' life.
[00:07:30]  So, what's implicit is that the reason why the Lord spares Moses, spares his life, is because Moses was in disobedience, but now is in obedience.
[00:07:40]  So, it's very likely that Moses actually told Zipporah to go and circumcise their son, which then brings up the question why can't Moses do it himself?
[00:07:49]  Because ordinarily the father would do this.
[00:07:51]  Well, implicitly, what John Gill's getting at is Moses probably did not have the physical ability to do it because the Lord was seeking his life, seeking to take Moses' life, meaning that the Lord was either doing it by, uh, Directly from an angel in a supernatural sense, or the Lord was doing it providentially through illness or some kind of sickness.
[00:08:13]  But in both cases, either by Moses being physically paralyzed by fear, if it was a supernatural route of an angel threatening to take Moses' life, like the angel that appears to Joshua, remember later on, and holding a sword, and Joshua falls on his face in fear, prostrate, and asks, Are you for us or against us?
[00:08:32]  Neither, I am for the Lord.
[00:08:35]  It could be that.
[00:08:36]  It could be that Moses could not circumcise his son, but his heart, he was willing.
[00:08:40]  His will was there to obey the Lord.
[00:08:42]  He recognized I was in disobedience, neglecting to do something God had commanded me to do, and I want to put it right, but I'm just physically not able to do it.
[00:08:50]  So my wife is going to do it for me.
[00:08:51]  I'm physically unable because I'm either paralyzed by fear because of the supernatural threat on my life from an angel, or paralyzed physically from illness because of God's, again, a divine threat on my life, but providentially through sickness.
[00:09:06]  Okay?
[00:09:08]  Last thing from John Gill.
[00:09:10]  Then Zipporah gave praise and said, How amiable, this is John Gill's interpretation of the bloody bridegroom.
[00:09:17]  What does that mean?
[00:09:18]  How amiable, how likable, how pleasant is the blood of circumcision which hath delivered my husband from the hand of the destroying angel.
[00:09:28]  I have a bloody bridegroom, a bridegroom of blood, meaning I have a bridegroom, my husband, the bridegroom, I have a husband who has been atoned for by blood.
[00:09:41]  That's what Zipporah is saying.
[00:09:43]  So she says, Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.
[00:09:46]  Meaning, surely you are a bridegroom.
[00:09:48]  God, it's basically what Zipporah is getting at is stop for a second, put aside the blood factor and just a bridegroom for me or to me.
[00:10:00]  Well, he was already her groom.
[00:10:02]  Moses was already her husband.
[00:10:04]  Surely you are a husband to me.
[00:10:06]  Well, of course.
[00:10:07]  Why is that revelation novel?
[00:10:08]  Why is that new after this experience?
[00:10:11]  Well, I think the reason why it's novel, why Zipporah is saying this, Is she saying, Surely you're a bridegroom to me, meaning I've got my husband back.
[00:10:19]  You've been returned to me, which again implies that Moses was on his deathbed.
[00:10:25]  He was an inch from the grave.
[00:10:27]  Again, whether it be supernatural fear from the angel of the Lord holding a sword before him, threatening to chop him down, or whether it be some kind of terrible sickness that was threatening his life, some kind of terminal sickness that he was an inch away from death.
[00:10:43]  In both cases, Zippor, the reason why she's saying, Surely you're a bridegroom to me, what she's saying is, Not surely you're my husband, like she just recognized that Moses was her husband.
[00:10:52]  She already knew that, but what she's saying is, surely my husband, praise God, I get to keep my husband.
[00:11:00]  Surely my husband has been restored to me.
[00:11:02]  My husband, who was, for all intents and purposes, every sign was pointing to the fact that he was going to die, that I was going to lose my husband, he is now returned to me.
[00:11:12]  Okay, so that's what she's saying.
[00:11:13]  She's saying, surely you are a restored bridegroom, a restored husband to me.
[00:11:19]  I've gotten my husband back from the jaws of death.
[00:11:22]  But she doesn't just say that.
[00:11:23]  Now we're ready for the blood component.
[00:11:25]  Surely you are a restored, revived husband of blood to me.
[00:11:31]  So, what is she saying?
[00:11:33]  I think in simple, what she's saying is she's saying, Surely my husband who was about to die has been revived and given back to me, and he has been given back to me because of blood.
[00:11:46]  Because his sins have been atoned by blood.

=== Blood Restores the Husband (02:56) ===

[00:11:50]  And so, all that being said, why did the Lord seek to put him to death, right?
[00:11:53]  The Lord just called Moses to be his mouthpiece.
[00:11:56]  To Pharaoh to do signs and wonders.
[00:11:58]  And so you're right.
[00:11:59]  It seems random.
[00:11:59]  It's like God just set up Moses to be this hero in Israel, to be the deliverer.
[00:12:04]  And then all of a sudden, in the very next breath, the Lord sought to kill Moses.
[00:12:09]  The Lord calls Moses, and then the Lord seeks to kill Moses.
[00:12:13]  And it does seem random.
[00:12:14]  It's hard to understand.
[00:12:15]  But I think the reason why is because the Lord just called Moses, but Moses better obey.
[00:12:21]  The Lord, yes, the Lord just appointed Moses to be a deliverer of Israel, his mouthpiece to Pharaoh, to perform mighty works and signs and wonders.
[00:12:29]  All this is true.
[00:12:31]  But the Lord just ordained Moses, we could say.
[00:12:35]  But an ordained man who's been ordained by the Lord to ministry, he better live in accordance with that.
[00:12:43]  He better meet those qualifications.
[00:12:45]  He better, if he's been called by God to talk the talk, to preach, to be a mouthpiece, he better also walk the walk.
[00:12:51]  And I think that's what the Lord is doing with Moses.
[00:12:53]  He's saying, I just called you, but lest you get presumptuous, do not think that because I've supernaturally called you and equipped you to perform signs and wonders, do not think that that means.
[00:13:06]  That you're a free agent.
[00:13:07]  You work for me and you abide by my law.
[00:13:10]  And I told you to circumcise that boy.
[00:13:12]  You know that.
[00:13:12]  That's what I told to Abraham and your fathers.
[00:13:16]  And you were to circumcise him on the eighth day.
[00:13:19]  And I don't want to hear your excuses.
[00:13:21]  On the eighth day, you were to circumcise an Israelite boy and you neglected to do it.
[00:13:26]  And I take holiness seriously.
[00:13:28]  Yes, you're going to be my mouthpiece.
[00:13:30]  But if you're going to be my mouthpiece, you're going to be a holy mouthpiece.
[00:13:34]  Because in the same way I will not spare Pharaoh in Egypt, I also will not spare you.
[00:13:38]  I will not tolerate.
[00:13:42]  An enemy, a threat of holiness.
[00:13:44]  I will not tolerate sin.
[00:13:47]  And so, whether by illness or whether by supernatural and angel, Moses was, it's not just that he was threatened to be killed, but he was on his way to death.
[00:13:57]  He was an inch away from losing his life to the point where he, obviously, the way that his life was spared is his heart realigns through that threat, through the Lord's discipline of Moses, his heart realigns with obedience.
[00:14:10]  So, Zipporah is not acting against her husband's will.
[00:14:12]  But Moses wants the boy to be circumcised, but he's so heavily under God's discipline that the physical results of that is that he can't even physically perform the circumcision himself.
[00:14:25]  But Zipporah does, and then she throws the bloody foreskin at Moses' feet, on his feet.
[00:14:32]  And it's as though the angel of the Lord, whether it be sickness or a literal angel, this angel of death, the angel of the Lord passes over Moses, and his life is spared because it's atoned for.
[00:14:42]  His sin is atoned for by blood.
[00:14:44]  And in this, really, what we see is the gospel.

=== Jesus Atonement Beyond Circumcision (01:34) ===

[00:14:47]  That's what we see.
[00:14:47]  Hebrews says that there is no forgiveness of sin apart from blood.
[00:14:52]  There is no forgiveness of sin apart from blood.
[00:14:55]  And Moses' son, it's his blood.
[00:14:58]  It's his blood in this circumcision that is used ultimately to atone for Moses' sin.
[00:15:05]  And is it not the blood of God's own son?
[00:15:09]  Better than Moses' son and his blood in circumcision, we have God's own son, Jesus, and his blood in crucifixion.
[00:15:16]  Not just his foreskin, but bleeding out and dying.
[00:15:19]  And it's the blood of Christ and only the blood of Christ that causes death to pass over, the angel of death to pass over, that brings us back, that revives us, that brings us to spiritual life.
[00:15:32]  The wages of sin is death.
[00:15:34]  And there is no forgiveness of sin but by blood.
[00:15:37]  And that's what we see right here.
[00:15:39]  Hopefully, that answers your question.
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