EXPEDIENT ATONEMENT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Then Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, "Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive."

Jethro said, "Go, and I wish you well."

Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead."

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.

The Lord said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” Then say to Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me. But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'"

At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. 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.

So the Lord let him alone.

Exodus 4:18-26

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we see in Exodus, chapter 4, God sends Moses back to Egypt to act as His spokesperson, first to the elders and people of Israel and then to Egypt’s supreme leader, Pharaoh.

In today’s passage, we find Moses going to his Midianite father-in-law, Jethro, and asking permission to “go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive", a request that Jethro approves. Further, we read where the Lord had assured Moses that "all the men who wanted to kill Him” were now, a message assuring him that he and his family would be relatively safe once arriving in Egypt.

And so Moses begins the journey back “with his wife and sons on a donkey” and the "staff of God in his hand." Once in Egypt, he was to carry out the following instructions given to him by God:

"When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” Then say to Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, ‘Let my son go, so he may worship me. But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.'"

Essentially, God would use Moses to communicate what lied ahead for Pharaoh and the Egyptians but of interest, God doesn’t mention one important thing that was to impact Moses’ immediate future. Through His words, we see where God is forecasting the future to Moses. But there is one thing the God fails to mention and as we see, it involved Moses’ immediate future.

At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. 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.

So the Lord let him alone.

The scriptures tell us that when the traveling party stopped “at a lodging place on the way”, the Lord “met Moses” and was “about to kill him”.

Huh?

Why in the world would God send Moses on a specific mission in Egypt only to take his life before he even got there?

I mean, in one moment, He’s talking about all the important things that He wants Moses to do in the future but then He completely reverses field and wishes to remove Moses from His plan altogether.

What could have possibly made God to be so angry that He wanted Moses dead?

Well, the answer comes in the matter of disobedience.

You see, Moses had failed to follow one very important Hebrew religious custom, one instituted by God. For when his son was born, he failed to circumcise him.

Go back to the seventeenth chapter of Genesis and you will see where circumcision was out in place by God to be a sign of His covenant with the Israelite people and in verse 13 of this chapter, we read this:

"Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant."

Obviously, Moses’ son was too young to carry out his own circumcision. That responsibility was on his father and so this is why we find God’s wrath falling upon Moses.

So what happened that saved Moses’ life?

As we see in the scriptures, it involved some quick action by his wife, Zipporah, the Midianite daughter of Jethro.

For we read where she "took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it, saying, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me." And through this act, the Lord left Moses alone. His life had been spared.

Within our scripture passage and its associated message, we find some critical takeaways to apply to our own lives:

First, we are to be obedient in carrying out God’s commands.

Moses knew the Hebrew culture and customs and yet he decided to not adhere to them, possibly because he was in the midst of the Midianite culture that didn’t practice circumcision.

Nonetheless, God expected him to stay true to the covenant He had established with Abraham and when Moses failed to keep it, he ended up in poor favor with God.

This leads to the second takeaway: God hates disobedience.

God didn’t just want to punish Moses; He wanted him dead. In this, we’re reminded that our Lord isn’t just a God of love and mercy but also a God of judgment and that judgment might include the death sentence if He so chooses.

So if we are openly sinning in disobedience against God’s word and will, we had better wake up, repent, and do whatever we need to do to abandon wickedness and exchange it for righteousness.

And this leads to our final life application point:

Expedient atonement can save you.

I think I can say with full confidence that without Zipporah’s actions, God would have indeed killed Moses and someone else would have been selected to lead Israel out of Egypt. As it turned out, her quick and decisive circumcising of their son appeased God and saved her husband.

Friends, like Moses, we too live in a world that has a completely different set of principles and customs than what God expects from those who place their belief and faith in Him. And just as Moses was adversely influenced by living amid the Midianites, so too can we be negatively impacted when we live by way of the world and its standards, standards that are centered on self and fulfilling one’s desires.

Through our Lord, Christians are called to a higher set of values, values established by God, the Maker and Master of all living things, and then lived out perfectly by Jesus, His Son. Believers are accountable to live as Christ lived and that means being fully obedient to everything he commands, commands that aren’t optional.

So if you’re living in violation of God’s Word, will, and way today, I implore you to turn away from your sin immediately and seek the expedient atonement that happened between God and Moses in our message today. Just as quickly as we get in trouble with God, we can gain His forgiveness and grace through confession and repentance.

If you’ve gone down the wrong path, reverse course this moment and don’t delay in getting right with God. Your very immediate and eternal future could be at stake.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.