V18-19 – The Lord tells Moses that all those who wanted to kill him had died and so Moses tells Jethro that He wants to go back to Egypt.
The Lord is God and when we entrust him with our lives and when He is guiding us, we will be protected. The ways He uses to protect us from danger are different. In this case here, it is clear that God protects Moses from those who wanted to kill him by keeping him in Midian. While the Lord could have used other methods, He chose to use this. We see this as well in the story of Jesus when He was young:
Matthew 2:13 NIV: When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
And then later:
Matthew 2:19-20 NIV: After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”
Sometimes therefore, God can use the method of telling us to move away from somewhere in order to protect and preserve our lives. Sometimes, He can also tell us not to pass through somewhere in order to protect us. All in all, we have to be careful to heed to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And let us not be stubborn, God knows what is best for us and we therefore must follow Him.
V20-23 – Moses obeys the Lord and He leaves Midian. The Lord also tells Moses that Pharaoh will refuse to let the people go because his heart will be hardened by the Lord.
God is in all the details, even what Moses says. This means that Moses is only a servant, a messenger. He does not have to come up with his own crafty ways of saving the children of Israel because it is God who is now doing it. He only needs to obey and follow what God says. Remember, Moses had fled Egypt when He was younger because He had killed an Egyptian who was oppressing an Israelite. At the time, this was his own craftiness and while his intentions had been good at that time, He did not have the power to save Israel.
Man does not save man. God saves man from bondage. Man is only a servant, a messenger of God. In all the story of Exodus, we will see that Moses continually receives commands and directions from God concerning what to do. His work will consistently be to hear from God and to convey the Lord’s commands and directions to the people.
Dear friend, in all your serving and ministry, do not ever forget this very important point. It’s the Lord who works in you to fulfill HIS good pleasure. We have to remain humble in our walk with the Lord as servants. Never be puffed up and proud. You are only a servant.
Philippians 2:13 CSB: For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.
And this is what we must always say when we serve:
Luke 17:10 NLT: In the same way, when you obey me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”
V24-26 – This passage here shows us one of the striking characteristics of God: He is not a respecter of persons, He requires obedience and submission to Him from all people.
In this passage, the Lord confronted Moses and was about to kill him. The reason we can see here is that Moses had not circumcised his son. The command to circumcise the sons of Israel was given to Abraham,
Genesis 17:9-14 NIV – Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner—those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
As we can see here, the covenant was for all males of Israel, even those who were bought as slaves. It was an outward sign of the covenant between God and Abraham’s descendants. And of course, not only the men, this also covered the women because the man is the head of the woman biblically. So by circumcising the son, Zipporah was covered under the covenant even though she was not of Israelite origin, she was a Midianite, Jethro’s daughter.
Moses was about to be cut off by God because He had broken this covenant since his son was not circumcised. God was not going to spare Moses yet He had already been given the charge to go lead the people of Israel out of Egypt.
Dear friend, we have to keep God’s word. He does not respect any person and He shows no favoritism. All who do not honor God will be punished. For us today, our circumcision is not of the flesh, let us circumcise our hearts unto the Lord. Here is God’s word about circumcising our hearts unto the Lord.
- Deuteronomy 30:6 – “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
- Deuteronomy 10: 12-17 – And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. CIRCUMCISE YOUR HEARTS, THEREFORE, AND DO NOT BE STIFF-NECKED ANY LONGER. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.
- Romans 2:28-29 – For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.
V27-28 – God had already prepared Aaron for the task. He was going out to meet Moses under God’s direction. It’s the Lord who does all these things. Moses did not have to convince Aaron since the Lord is the one who had selected Aaron as spokesperson. Aaron’s heart was ready to serve the Lord.
When we are leaders, and have other leaders and servants under us, we have to remember that they are not our servants, they are the Lord’s servants. God is the one who decides the hierarchy of authority so that we can have order while serving Him but the bottom-line is we are all God’s servants, we are accountable to Him.
V29-31 – Moses and Aaron do what the Lord had said. And when the people heard that God was concerned about them, they bowed down and worshipped. The servants of God obeyed the Lord and the people responded to God properly: they worshipped!
I bow down in worship to the Lord when I remember all He has done. He has saved me from bondage and has given me life in Christ Jesus. I now desire to continuously circumcise my heart to the LORD so that I may please Him and walk in his ways, living a life that glorifies Him. Glory be to His Name.