People are always looking for signs and wonders. In Jesus’ time, many asked for a sign from Him to prove that He was from God. When the Lord had appeared to Gideon, he asked for a sign to prove God would do what He said He was going to do. If you’re like me, then you want to know God’s will for you. You want to know exactly what you’re supposed to do. You want to know it’s all going to work out well. After all, isn’t that why we ask for signs? We want assurance everything’s going to work out.  

What if you did know? What if God showed you the person you will be? What if God told you exactly what you needed to do to get the job done? Would it be the difference between trusting God and doing exactly what you were told to do, or would you be like Moses? 

But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

Exodus 4:13 (NIV)

Signs and Signs

Forty years after fleeing from Egypt, Moses was tending his flock at mount Hermon when the Lord wanted to get his attention. 

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”  

Exodus 3:2-3 (NIV)

God will do whatever He needs to do to get our full attention. It doesn’t matter what our relationship with Him might be. Saved or unsaved, He will get your attention if He wants it. Whatever else was going on in Moses’ life, the Lord needed to do something impossible to get his attention. 

Once the Lord had Moses’ full attention, He told Moses what He wanted him to do and why. 

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Exodus 3:7-10 (NIV)

How many of us would have said, “Great! Thank you, Lord. I’m off to go do this!” God’s not telling Moses to go off and do something that looks easy. Moses has a lot of questions for the Lord. The first and perhaps the most revealing question Moses asks the Lord is, “Who am I?” 

But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Exodus 3:11 (NIV)

When God answers Moses, He doesn’t answer him in the way we might think. He doesn’t tell Moses “because you were educated and was raised in Egypt.” God doesn’t give any reason to Moses as to why he’s qualified.

And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.”

Exodus 3:12 (NIV)

Moses is qualified to do what God has told him to do because God told him to do it. God tells Moses he’ll know that it was He who sent him to free the Israelites when they are freed from Egypt and worshipping on mount Hermon.

I don’t about you, but that’s not the sort of sign we want to see, is it? God tells us to go do something and tells us we’ll know He’s the one who told us to do it when it’s done? Something else God tells Moses is that He’s going to be with him. Moses will have the favor of God. His blessing. Why does God answer Moses in this way? 

Abraham is the father of faith and considered righteous by God. Why? Because Abraham believed God. That’s all we really need. Is to trust and believe that what God says will happen, will happen! He won’t leave us or forsake us. 

What if?

Most of us are like Moses. We’re full of what if’s. We know God is all-knowing. We know there’s nothing He hasn’t thought of, yet we’re filled with doubts about our role in His plan. I’d say any question we have can be summed up in one question. What if I fail? Perhaps it’s just me who has this terrorizing fear of failure. Perhaps, I’m the only person whose confidence in God is shaken by a lack of confidence in myself to do His will. 

Moses remembered why he left Egypt. He remembered his failure to show his people that he was fighting for their freedom, and he had forty years to think about it. Now Moses was an old man. Why would he want to go back to Egypt, and how could he do what God asked him to do? 

Although Moses asks God many questions, God answers every one of them to appease Moses’ doubts and fears. Finally, Moses just asks the Lord to send someone else because he thinks he can’t handle it. There’s got to be someone better than me for the job, he thinks.

But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

Exodus 4:13 (NIV)

We’re paradoxical people. We want to serve the Lord. We want to do great things for the King in the Kingdom. We want to do the Father’s will. However, when we’re told to do the job He’s destined us to do, we think we’re not the right person for it. 

A Matter of Blood

Once Moses decided he would follow God’s plan, he set off to return to Egypt. On the way to Egypt, we encounter a situation that seems out of place with what has recently happened on Mount Hermon. 

24 At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26 So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)

Exodus 4:24-26 (NIV)

What’s going on here? Why is the Lord about to kill Moses? These were my questions when I read this.

Before I answer those questions, we need to have a little background. Moses had two sons. The first was Gershom, who we are told about in Exodus 2:22. However, we aren’t explicitly told about the birth of Eliezer, Moses’ second son. Regardless, we do have these verses, which give us some insight.

19 Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

Exodus 4:19-20 (NIV)

Verse 20 tells us Moses left with his sons. Therefore, he had more than one. So the son who was not circumcised in Exodus 4:25 wasn’t Gershom. It had to have been Moses’ second son, Eliezer (We learn the name of Moses’ second son later on in Exodus 18:4.). 

Let’s return to Exodus 4:24-26 and our questions.

The Lord was about to kill Moses because he hadn’t followed the rule about circumcision regarding his son Eliezer. We can surmise that Eliezer was born after Moses met with the Lord on Mount Hermon, but before Moses left for Egypt. This tells us why the Lord was about to kill Moses.

We can presume that Moses didn’t perform the circumcision in Exodus 4:25 because he had been incapacitated by whatever it was that was trying to kill him. Probably an illness of some sort. The other thing Zipporah does with the foreskin, and what she says to Moses, might seem a little odd. It did to me. Let’s look at this verse from the New King James Bible.

Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses’ feet, and said, “Surely you are a husband of blood to me!”

Exodus 4:25 (NKJV)

Several translations of this verse use the verb “cast” to describe what Zipporah did with Eliezer’s foreskin. Other translations use some variation of the verb “touch.” The Hebrew word translated here is, “naga.” It means to “touch, lay the hand upon, to reach, violently, to strike” (Strongs 5060). 

So, after Zipporah circumcised Eliezer, she threw his foreskin at Moses and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” From this action, we can surmise that Zipporah had some objection to Eliezer’s circumcision. This is probably why Eliezer hadn’t been circumcised on the eighth day. We might think his circumcision had been postponed because they were leaving for Egypt, but that doesn’t align with Zipporah’s statement to Moses or throwing the foreskin at him.

In summary, we can say that Zipporah had given birth to Eliezer before leaving for Egypt but objected to his being circumcised, and Moses acquiesced. Therefore, the Lord struck Moses with something to kill him. Zipporah intervenes, circumcises Eliezer, and resolves the issue. 

Conclusion

I have a goal in my life to be more like Jesus. This is a common goal we share as Believers. None of us were perfect when we were saved. The paths we each have to walk to perfection in Christ are not easy. None of us can walk this path on our own. Sometimes, if we’re honest, we’d like to be told step-by-step what to do to achieve this goal. We could lock ourselves away in monasteries or convents, and live the remaining of our days serving the Lord away from the world. However, we believe the Lord has a job for each of us in the world. I am the only person who can do the job the Lord has given to me, and you are the only person who can do your job. While we might have doubts and fears that want to hold us back from doing our jobs and becoming perfected in Christ, we need only know two things. God is with us, and when we arrive at our destination, it was God who brought us out. 

Do you know God? God knows you, and He loves you. He sees you as significant because you are. No one is insignificant to Him. He’s with you today, right now, and He wants you to know Him. Jesus died for your sins and mine so we could be free of guilt, be freed from death, and live eternally with Him. Eternal salvation is just a prayer away.

Pray this prayer with me to accept the gift of salvation today:

Lord Jesus, forgive me for all my sins. I repent from my ways. Wash me in your blood and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. I believe that you died on the cross, were buried, and on the third day, God the Father raised you from the dead. Right now, Lord Jesus, I open the door to my heart, and I receive you into my heart as my Lord and personal Savior. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer, then congratulations! You are on the first step of a brand new life. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to my family, the family of God. There are abundant resources available online for new Christians. You can visit here for more information on what to do next. You can also leave me a comment, and I’ll do my best to help you on the next step of this incredible journey.

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