Exodus 4:23
In Chapter 4 of Exodus God has just told Moses to tell Pharaoh that if he didn’t let his people go God would slay his firstborn son. That edict was actually carried out after the first ten plagues. But in verse 23 there is a sharp U-turn. God goes from telling Moses what to say to the Pharaoh, to telling Moses “Now I will kill your firstborn son.”
It is very confusing but after checking a multitude of commentaries, they all agree God is unhappy with Moses. In verse 24, we see written, At a night encampment along the way, the Lord encountered Moses and sought to kill him!
No one actually knows why God sought to kill Moses. But most scholars believe it had to do with the non-circumcision of one of his sons, because In verse 25, Moses wife Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin. She then announced she was part of a bloody religion. And she was very proud and happy she was protected by the blood of circumcision.
This story actually underscores the necessity of circumcision to be in God’s will. Then we seem to take another U turn, because in verse 27 The Lord told Aaron to go meet Moses in the wilderness. Aaron met Moses at the Mountain of God, the same Mountain where God met Moses at the burning bush, and Aaron greeted Moses with a kiss. Moses told Aaron about all of what God had told him to do. Together they assembled all the Elders of the Israelites.
Aaron was the one who spoke and told them all that the Lord had spoken to Moses and then Moses did all the signs the Lord had shown him. These signs were he turning of his rod into a serpent and the serpent into a rod again, putting his hand into and out of his bosom, when it was leprous, and then doing the same when it was well again, and taking water out of the Nile and changing it into blood. These things he did for the confirmation of his mission.
And believe it or not, they believed him! And not only did they believe him, they did not think he was using magic tricks. But they bowed themselves down in homage because God had seen their plight and taken note of the Israelites.
God had told Moses and Aaron to take the Elders with them to see the Pharaoh! But those Elders slowly disappeared along the way and by the time they reached the Pharaoh Moses and Aaron were alone. When God gives instructions His intent is that they should be followed exactly. But again Moses fails in that department. God told Moses to tell Pharaoh, “The Lord God of the Hebrews”, but Moses said “The Lord God of Israel”.
God had also told Moses to politely ask Pharaoh for permission to leave Egypt for a brief period. In fact, he was to use the word please. Instead Moses said, “Let my people go that they may celebrate a festival for the ‘I Am’ in the wilderness”. Instead of asking Pharaoh politely they demanded Pharaoh let them go. And they did not specify it would be for one week, as God had instructed.
Of course we believe no matter how Moses would have asked, Pharaoh would have said No. But Moses surely did not follow God’s instructions. Pharaoh’s response was, “Who is the Lord that I should heed him?” “I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go!”
Remember when God appeared to Moses with a job for him to do? Moses response was one of humility and he asked God, “Who Am I, that I should go to the Pharaoh?” Whereas the Pharaoh’s response is, “Who is the Lord that I should do His will?”
No sign of humility there! What a contrast! Moses saw himself as a simple human being, whereas Pharaoh saw himself, as did all the Egyptians, as a ‘divine being.’ That term, “Who is the Lord?” is what God recognizes needs to be crushed.
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