Message: Reading Exodus 4 was very familiar
until I realized that when it was time for Moses to go to Egypt he actually
took his wife and son with him and God used his son to show him the severity of
it all. First he told Moses to tell Pharaoh that Israel is God’s firstborn son.
Then on the way to Egypt God stopped Moses and his family and confronted him
with a threat to kill his son. His wife sprung to action by circumcising her
son with a flint rock to save his life. She wasn’t pleased about it but she
seemed to understand that this is what God required. These two things were very
symbolic ways of showing Moses how serious he was about saving his firstborn
son, Israel, and how important was for his firstborn son to be circumcised to
represent the covenant he was making with God.
Command: Circumcise my own heart and teach
other people to circumcise theirs.
Promise: People will respond to and respect
what they see modeled for them. My story is more powerful when it has been
experienced.
Warning: I’ll be tempted to skip the hard
stuff and go back to what is comfortable.
Application: Reading about the symbolic lessons
that Moses learned on the way to Egypt made me realize that God wanted him to
understand that his commitment to Israel was like Moses’ commitment to his own
son. I’m sure the reality of seeing this illustrated with his own son was powerful
and unforgettable. Moses would need this understanding to push him through the
difficulty he was about to face with Pharaoh. He was also going to show Pharaoh
a similar illustrative lesson with his first born son. What I see in my own
life is some of the hard standards God has held me to in order to help me
communicate the importance to someone else. If I haven’t experienced the pain
of spiritual circumcision in my life how can I possibly communicate it to
someone else?
