Puzzles and Pictures

18 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.” 19 And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” 20 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.

21 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. 22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, 23 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.’”

24 At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. 25 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!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.

27 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. 28 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. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 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 worshiped. (Exodus 4:18-31)

Called. Burning bush experience. Specially chosen…. Then “the Lord met him and sought to put him to death.” Does the Lord just randomly change his mind? Have random outbreaks of wrath? This picture of the Lord seems drastically different! But no, take the puzzle pieces and put them together and a picture of the Lord’s faithfulness, holiness, and grace comes in clear view. God himself is preparing a deliverer for his people. God himself is preparing us.

In this confusing passage, we also find an uncomfortable picture of ourselves. We, too, have been called to be ambassadors of reconciliation. Yet, a grand deliverer! A noble hero like Moses! Is that who we picture ourselves as? Does that picture ring true? The picture of the excuse-making, timid, reluctant Moses before the burning bush (Ex. 3) is far different from the picture of Moses standing before the Pharaoh and booming the Lord’s clarion call, “Let my people go!” How does this puzzle itself out?

“Let me go back to see if they are still alive,” Moses petitions Jethro here in Exodus 4. Once again, we puzzle? Why would Moses need to see if the Israelites are still alive? The Lord knew and told Moses they were alive—alive enough to groan! If Moses meant his brother Aaron, the Lord already told him that Aaron was on his way to meet with Moses. Was Moses doubting the Lord’s word? Or was Moses doubting the Lord’s call and tiptoeing around Jethro? Either way, it seems that doubt is expressed. Moses had not yet learned that man does not live on bread alone, but by the very word of God (Deut. 8:3). Picture: A doubting hero.

“Go back to Egypt, for the men seeking your life are dead” (Exo. 4;19). Perhaps Moses needed continual affirmation—it will be okay. Go. Now. No more excuses. Do not fear men. Do not fear for your physical safety. Picture: A fearful hero, still dragging his heels.

“Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin” (Exo. 4:25). Moses, the deliverer of God’s firstborn son, Israel, had not even given his own firstborn son to the Lord in the covenantal sign of circumcision. So the Lord’s anger broke out—not a capricious anger, but a just reaction against all that is unholy and dishonoring to him. Maybe Moses undermined the holiness of God? Maybe he held his son back from the Lord? Maybe he didn’t trust in the covenant or made exceptions? Or became too like the Midian world he lived in he didn’t heed the covenant? God is using this also to illustrate grace: God is making the picture clear to Moses and to the Israelites that he is remembering his covenant and he will save his people. Yet, redemption is for those in the covenant, which Moses had excluded his son from and the covenant which Moses had not taken seriously. Picture: A covenant-breaking hero, like the world, with a small vision of God’s holiness and a small fear of the Lord.

Doubt. Fear. Worldly. Forgetting the Lord’s holiness. Looking at that picture, don’t we find a reflection of ourselves?  Oh, my Jesus! I see myself! Doubt—you said you would provide, but I’m scared at the potential of lack of provision, the lack of strength, at how it might be uncomfortable. Fear—Will you be enough for me? Will you protect me? What if? Lord, I’m paralyzed. Go back to Egypt? But—there are dangers, fears, difficulty! Forgetting the Lord’s holiness—Do I approach you the Holy King lightly? See my sin, my pride, my self-glory, my selfishness, my loving the praise of people as deeply grievous and rebellious as you see these? Do I let these grieve me? Do I excuse my fear thinking it is natural instead of lifting you up as the Holy Provider?

***And you? Doubt? People-pleasing? Worldly? Forgetting the Lord’s holiness?

Moses, God’s deliverer, had to know the fear of the Lord. And perhaps in this little passage is that key to learning the fear of the Lord. Moses saw the blood of circumcision and perhaps he saw three things—the bloody cost, the demand for holiness in response to God’s covenant, and God’s faithfulness to remember his covenant. 

Moses learned:

The bloody cost—when we look, we see a picture of Christ. Moses learned the cost of being included in the covenant. Blood. Circumcision did not atone for sin, but it was a bloody sign of separation, of being cut off from the world and being included in God’s people. How would one be included in God’s people? Through redemption which would allow the Israelite’s to be part of the covenant and to honor God. Redemption would come from the death of Pharaoh’s first-born son God told Moses, his firstborn for God’s firstborn Israel (Exo. 4:22-23). We see a picture of Christ. God’s firstborn Son for Israel, God’s firstborn Son for people like Moses who are unwilling for one reason or another to give their firstborn son, people like us. The cost of true redemption would be the firstborn Son of God, Christ’s being cut off. Circumcision was a sign of this deeper reality of the cost of redemption, the cost of being included in the covenant.

Moses saw, secondly:

The demand for holiness—when we look, we see how much God’s holiness required as payment for sin, Jesus Christ himself. The perfect Lamb of God. When we undermine that, fudge the lines, don’t honor God as holy but fear men, make compromises with our sin, fail to hate sin, we undermine Christ. We are purchased by his blood and are no longer our own. Oh, Spirit! Open my eyes to the holiness of God! But give me hope, point me to Christ, my perfect holiness. And may I grow ever more like him!

“Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).

Moses was transformed by, thirdly:

God’s faithfulness to his covenant—when we look, we see a picture of how far God is willing to be faithful to his covenant. So our doubts and fears melt in the light of his glorious love.

In light of that, Moses was prepared to stand before Pharaoh, the power of the earth. He was being changed into the humble hero—for he knew the fear of the Lord, the holiness, the cost for him to be included in the Lord’s people, the cost of deliverance, the great faithfulness of the Lord. It wasn’t signs and wonders that converted Moses—he had already seen those. It was the Lord’s holiness and how far the Lord was willing to go to be faithful to his people.

In light of that, we are called to be ambassadors of Jesus before the Egypt of this world, before our neighbors, our colleagues, the nations. Will we respond with everything we have and hold nothing back, even our “firstborn sons” whatever they may be for us, to honor the holiness of the Lord? Will we fear the Lord alone? Will we go in such bold confidence in the Lord who gave his firstborn Son?