The Lord Met Moses and Sought to Kill Him! Really?

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. 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. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.”

Wow! I had to read that two or three times because I never saw that before in the last 15 years. That left a question mark in the minds of everyone before they came to class tonight also. The Lord sought to kill Moses?

You know the story of Moses. He was saved from the plan of Pharaoh to kill all of the Hebrew infant boys. His mother put him in an ark (KJV) and Pharaoh’s daughter saw him and decided that she wanted him. He was raised for 40 years in the house of Pharaoh learning the Egyptian culture. Yet had the fortune of being raised by his mother thereby learning the Hebrew culture.

Moses killed an Egyptian and fled Egypt. He ended up in Midian where he met his wife Zipporah and they had a son. While he was tending Jethro’s sheep he encountered a burning bush and the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in that bush. When Moses got curious and started to go toward the bush, God spoke to him to stop him from proceeding any further.

Long story short God and Moses go into this dialog about how God wanted to use him. Finally after much complaining on Moses’ part, Moses agreed to be used by God. So he packed up his family and headed to Egypt. But on the way, God met him and it was intense!

So why does the scripture say, “And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him”? The answer is simple. His son was not circumcised. Genesis 17:14 says “And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant”. His son had to be circumcised in order to be in obedience. But guess who took the initiative to fix the problem quick – Zipporah, his wife. She circumcised their son (which is typically the father’s job). When she completed the circumcision Moses was let go and they continued on their way.

So here are the two lessons in story:

1. In order to be used by God your house must be in order. Oftentimes when calamity falls people want to blame the devil or other people. It is very rarely thought that God may be trying to get their attention in order to get some things in order. You say, “God would never do that”. Look again at vs.24. That word kill = muwtf which means to die prematurely (by neglect of wise moral conduct). If you are neglecting wise moral conduct it will cost you and there is no one that you can blame for the trials and circumstances that precede from that behavior. The best thing to do is fix it so you can keep moving on toward the thing that God is calling you to.

2. Guys, your wife can save your life. So pay attention to her. Zipporah recognized immediately what the problem was and she worked immediately to fix it. I don’t want to know what would have happened if she had not acted. Moses should have done it and he didn’t. Pay attention to you wife she is your help meet. She knows stuff too

An amazing lesson in just 3 verses that are often overlooked!