Coromandel Baptist Church

Sunday 15 February 2009 Exodus 4:1-31; Hebrews 11:23-29

Moses Meets God (Part 2)

In Exodus 4 we read of Moses' continuing encounter with the Lord, an encounter marked by Moses' continual objections to the Lord's call and commission. These objections have begun earlier (e.g. Ex. 3:11) and intensify in this chapter. Here we also read of the circumcision of Moses' son (probably Gershom, but possibly Eliezer) which was undertaken by Zipporah, in a passage that indicates that Moses' call and commission could not be used in any way to neglect the covenant sign given to Abraham. Significantly, we also learn that Aaron himself was an object of divine visitation, so that his assistance to Moses is as much a matter of the Lord's calling as was Moses' own appointment. In all this we see something of the Lord's dealings with us all, who, like Moses, need to be brought from stubborn unbelief to faith in the fact that God is indeed as good as his word. The declaration that Israel is God's son— his firstborn—is thus made in the context of what becomes an oft repeated theme: Israel does not believe God or trust him, despite his choice of them and his intention to bless them.

A number of important matters arise from a consideration of this portion of Exodus. Firstly, the honesty of the Scriptures (and Moses' own candor, if we accept that he is the author of these passages) stands in sharp contrast to the way in which other ancient literature deals with the stories of their leaders and national founders. Where in other places the reader is left with an idealized (to the point of mythical) representation of the nations' leaders/founders, the Bible paints them without any pretense. In the Scriptures, the praise is to go to God, not to his servants. To a man and woman, they are deeply flawed, sinful and unbelieving human beings. God's people are always the objects of grace. None of them has any innate moral 'fitness' for the tasks to which they have been called. In the case of Moses, we see him bringing forward continual objections to the Lord's call on his life. He objects on the basis of his own inability (Ex. 3:11); the unbelief of Israel (Ex. 4:1); and his 'heavy' (i.e. clumsy, rather than shy) ability as a communicator (Ex. 4:10). In Exodus 4:13 he simply asks outright that the Lord would send someone else. In Exodus 4:24-26 we are confronted with a somewhat obscure passage, in which one of the main themes is Moses' culpable neglect of the covenant sign given to Abraham. Later, in Exodus 5:22-23, we see that Moses' spirit is still prone to grumbling and complaining. In all this we see that Moses is the archetypal Israelite, who though doubtless a member of the covenant community, must be moved by the Lord's continual shepherding (with staff and rod!) to true faith. It is this, finally, which becomes the tenor of Moses' life (so Hebrews 11:23-29), and he is identified as the meekest man in the Scriptures (Numb. 12:3) save Jesus himself. That this is so is due to the Lord, not to Moses.

Secondly, we find that the Lord's response to Moses' continual objections follows a consistent pattern. In Exodus 3:11 the Lord had promised that he would be with Moses…a promise based on the reality of who God is, as the great I AM. In Exodus 4:2-9, the Lord promises to be with Moses by granting him the power to perform signs and wonders (three are mentioned, and seem to have been used in convincing the elders and children of Israel, as implied by Ex. 4:30), so that the staff he was carrying becomes a continual visual reminder of the Lord's active presence, through which God performs his work (cf. Ex. 4:17). In Exodus 4:11-12 God promises to be with Moses' mouth and (by virtue of the Lord's commission to Aaron) to be with Aaron's mouth also (Ex. 4:14-16). At every turn God's response to Moses' unbelief is the reiteration of the promise of his presence. In principle, this was the same matter that confronted (and confounded) Israel continuously. 'Is the Lord among us or not?' (Ex. 17:7) is a question which dominates the narrative of their wilderness wanderings.

Thirdly, we see that Moses' heart and mindset were dominated by a deep seated loss of confidence in God and unbelief in his word. His objections are not the sign of true humility (the anger of God burns against him in Ex. 4:14), but rather of culpable unbelief. This theme is magnified dramatically in the somewhat obscure passage that deals with the circumcision of Moses' son (Ex. 4:24-26). The Lord comes against Moses on the way, to the point where he is on the verge of being put to death, at which time Zipporah intervenes by circumcising Gershom (or, possibly the younger son Eliezer) with a flint knife. The intensity of the Lord's action here betrays the depth of the matter in Moses' life and marriage. The command to circumcise male children was clearly established in the covenant with Abraham. He who refused to 'cut off' the foreskin in this way would be 'cut off' from the covenant community (Gen. 17:14). Given what we know of Moses' parents (Amram and Jochebed) it is unlikely that they would not have circumcised him, and taught him the significance of the action for the covenant. The Midianites, being descendants of Abraham, would have been aware of the practice. Certainly Zipporah knows what to do and why the Lord seemed intent on killing her husband. Despite some complexities in the passage the willfulness of the neglect in respect of this matter must have been deeply embedded in Moses' life. Zipporah is forced to act against all cultural convention and to circumcise her son, thereby preserving Moses as the leader of God's covenant people. He could not effectively lead the covenant community if he had been culpably neglectful of the covenant sign that marked them off as the Lord's people.