Exodus 4; Job 21; Luke 7; 1 Corinthians 8
Exodus 4:24-26 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. 25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. 26 So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.
Why did God appear to Moses in the burning bush and commission him to return to Egypt to lead the children of Israel out and then meet with him along the way and seek to kill him? Moses married a Midianite named Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro. Moses might have thought when they married that he would never again see his own people but would live out his days in the desert being a shepherd. However, God had bigger plans for him. When God gave Moses a son, Moses had not circumcised him as God had instructed Abraham to do. Moses is now on his way back to lead the Israelite people and he is being disobedient to God's word. This is a BIG DEAL to God and he sought to kill Moses because of it.
Apparently, this conversation had been had with Zipporah before because she took a sharp stone and circumcised Gershom. Then she threw the bloody foreskin at the feet of Moses and declared him to be a bloody husband. Once Gershom was circumcised, God let Moses go and proceed on with his journey to meet Aaron. Moses found himself in a difficult situation because he married a woman that was not brought up to believe the same way he did. It could be also that Moses had not even mentioned circumcision when Gershom was born thinking that he would never see the Israelites again. Now that God had called him to return he realized that he was walking in disobedience to the covenant sign of Israel.
Whatever the reasons, Moses and Zipporah experienced difficulty in marriage because they had different customs and different beliefs. Moses also failed to lead in the family's following the Lord when the baby was eight days old. This neglect led to a crisis later in life. What do we learn from Moses? We learn the lesson that we are to marry someone with the same beliefs we have. Apparently Moses and Zipporah had done quite well until this situation and we learn that how children will be raised is a big question that should be discussed before marriage. We also learn that you cannot follow God and skip the first things. God would have killed Moses even though he had called him to a task if Moses had not been obedient in the first things.
You can't walk with God in the big things if you won't walk with God in the small things.
In Christ,
Rody
