We have before us one of those texts. You know, the kind of text that you
read and then say, ‘What in the world is going on here?’ This is one of
those texts. It has been a problem for Christians through the years. But it’
s a good thing that these kinds of texts exist. It is when we think that we
have everything figured out that we run into the most serious trouble. Being
reminded that we don’t have it all figured out is a blessing. If truth be
known, though, the passage is actually not hard to understand. There are
times, though, when God is hard to understand. This passage will give us, I
hope, an opportunity to do a little better in understanding our God. So, let
’s sort things out and then see what this part of God’s Word has to teach
us.
First, let’s establish the facts. After a series of objections, Moses
finally submits to God’s commission to go to Egypt to demand that Pharaoh
allow Israel to leave. He has been equipped with miracles and a serious
threat of death to deliver to Pharaoh. And off Moses goes. What we expect in
the next scene is for Moses to confront Pharaoh. But that’s not what we see.
What happens instead? ‘At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and
sought to put him to death.’ Now, that anyone hearing this is surprised is,
itself, not surprising. This is, by no means, expected. But once you get
over your surprise, you can figure out what is going on. I’m guessing that
one of your first questions is why. ‘Why would God want to kill Moses?’ The
answer is at hand. Does He kill Moses? No. What stops God from killing
Moses? The circumcision of Moses’ son. Zipporah’s response stopped God’s
attack. The circumcision removed the reason for attacking and killing Moses.
We now have an answer to the question why? God sought to kill Moses because
his son was not circumcised.
Some of you may still be confused. But that is because you have forgotten
what God said back in Genesis 17. That’s where circumcision was given as the
sign of the covenant relationship that Abraham and his descendants had with
God. Back there God had told Abraham that any of his descendants who was not
circumcised was breaking the covenant. That isn’t a minor thing. God said
that such a person should be put to death. God was holding Moses responsible
for the failure to have this sign of the covenant applied to his son. And
so, ‘At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to
death.’ The text is not all that difficult to understand. Moses committed
something that God had defined as a capital offense, and God was going to
exact justice.
Now, I’m going to guess that at least some of you still have some questions.
But I think that the questions aren’t about how to understand the text. Your
questions are about understanding God. There is still something unsettling
about what God has done here. It still confuses you. That just means that
there are some important lessons to be learned by seeing our God in action
here.
One reason that God’s actions confuse people is that they do not take
seriously enough how important obedience really is. We live in a time where
Christians are not being taught that God really does care about our obeying
Him. They are not being taught that failure to obey carries consequences,
sometimes very serious consequences. There are those who actually doubt that
this is true. So, let me offer a few examples that illustrate this fact.
First, there’s the situation with Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, priests.
God had just finished explaining how He was to be worshipped. He was quite
explicit about this. But these two, for whatever reason, disregarded what He
said. And so, God killed them. ‘And fire came out from before the Lord and
consumed them, and they died before the Lord.’ [Leviticus 10:2] God is
serious about obedience. Now, just so that no one here thinks that this is
just some Old Testament thing, there’s the situation of Ananias and Sapphira
in Acts 5. They lied to God and man. They did it to look good. As a result,
they both dropped dead. God is serious about obedience. And don’t forget
what happened in Corinth. Some Christians there were sinning at the
celebration of the Lord's Supper. As a result, some became sick and some
died. God is serious about obedience. It is an important fruit of a true
faith. This is one reason why we begin our worship services with a Reading
from God’s Law, a Prayer of Confession and a Declaration of Pardon. We are
recognizing as a part of our worship that obedience is important to our God.
We are also recognizing that we have not obeyed very well at all. But we don
’t just say, ‘Oh well, what can you expect? We’re only human.’ No, we
confess our sin together and ask for the forgiveness that Jesus has
provided. And we also ask to be changed so that we will do better at
obedience. And that is followed by the declaration that we are forgiven,
saved from God’s justice by the blood of Christ. This is not a throw away
just to fill up the hour. We are dealing with serious things. The fact that
God is merciful and doesn’t always hold us accountable for our lazy attitude
about obedience is no reason to ignore this issue. God is serious about
obedience. You need to be also.
There’s a second lesson here. There are some things that we need to learn by
experience. God could have just as easily said, ‘Oh, Moses, by the way,
before you go, you’ll need to be sure that your son is circumcised, okay?’
But He didn’t. There are many things that we can learn simply by being told
or by reading them in a book. But not everything. God often teaches by
having us experience something. Jacob needed to learn that he wasn’t going
to make it by being sneaky and deceptive. What did God do? Did He invite
Jacob to a series of lectures titled, ‘Honest Dealings with God and Man’?
No, he sent him to Uncle Laban, someone who was better at scheming, and then
capped his lessons off with a night of wrestling with God. Then, of course,
there’s this: ‘Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he
suffered.’ [Hebrews 5:8] If anyone could have learned simply by being told
or by reading it in a book, it was Jesus. But, by God’s plan, Jesus learned
by the hard things that He experienced. Consider your own lives. Some
lessons were impressed on your heart in a very powerful way because you
lived through something. You learned by experience. We need more than just
books and lectures to mature in the faith. God teaches important lessons by
what we experience. Later in Moses’ life we will see him respond with great
intensity to the sins of Israel. We will see him angry with them, and we
will see him fall on his face before God, earnestly pleading for their
forgiveness. But do you see why he responded in this way? Moses learned – by
experience – that God is serious about obedience. And he learned the lesson
well so that it bore good fruit later.
This explains why God sends you into the different situations that He does.
There are many important lessons you need to learn. And let me be clear that
these situations are not all hardships. There are things to be learned by
experiencing God’s great blessings also. But the question is whether you are
ready to learn from the different experiences God sends your way. If you
would learn the lessons, you must be able to accurately interpret the
experiences. You need to understand, to some degree, what God is doing.
Zipporah understood what was going on. It showed in that she circumcised her
son. She interpreted the situation accurately. But to do that, she needed to
know something about what happened back in Genesis 17. She needed to know
her Bible. If you would learn from the experiences that God sends your way,
you will need to have a growing knowledge of the Scriptures. Without that
knowledge, you will not understand anything of what is going on. So, when
something bad happens, you’ll interpret it like so many others. ‘Well, what
are you going to do? Life’s like that sometimes. Into every life a little
rain must fall.’ Or you may go straight to a bitter spirit. ‘Why does this
have to happen to me?!?’ And even when good happens, it is so easy to credit
yourself with a good work ethic or some such nonsense. If you would learn
the lessons, you’ll need to interpret your experiences through the lens of
the Bible. And you can’t do that if you don’t know your Bible. Maybe the
Tuesday night Bible study needs to have a higher priority than what it does.
There is another ingredient needed if you would learn from your experiences.
You need to invest time and energy in some quiet reflection on the
Scriptures. There are ways of thinking about life that you need to
incorporate into your soul. That can only happen by interacting with the
Scriptures, directly and indirectly. You need to take what you can from the
Scriptures and then spend some time and energy quietly reflecting on your
life. ‘So, what is God doing with me lately? What are some lessons He is in
the process of teaching me? What are some things that I am hearing and
reading that I might relate to my experiences?’ This is a skill that you
need to learn and one that you need to teach your children. ‘This Book of
the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day
and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written
in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have
good success.’ [Joshua 1:8] How are you doing at this? I fear that some of
you and your children are too busy doing other things to invest the time and
energy needed to learn from God. That would be a shame.
Last thought from our text. God will surprise you – He certainly surprised
Moses – and you need to expect that. [Sic] God surprises us not because He’s
like crazy Uncle Harry. No one knows what he’ll do from one minute to the
next. No. God is not capricious. He surprises us because there is so much
that we don’t know about Him – and about ourselves – and we don’t know that
we don’t know it. So, when it comes time for the next lesson, it seems to
come out of the blue. ‘Who would have expected a lesson about that? I
thought I understood that area of my life pretty well.’ But what is that but
a subtle form of pride. We are not nearly as smart as we think we are. And
even less wise. Thanks be to God for His surprising lessons.
