Exodus chapter 4 and verse 18. Moses had met with God at the
burning bush, and then we're told in verse 18, And Moses went
and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said unto him, Let me go,
I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt,
and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go
in peace. And the Lord said unto Moses
in Midian, Go, return into Egypt, for all the men are dead which
sought thy life. And Moses took his wife and his
sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of
Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God
in his hand. And the Lord said unto Moses,
When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those
wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand. But
I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh,
Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto thee, Let my son
go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him
go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. 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. And the Lord said to Aaron, Go
into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went and met him in the
mount of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the
words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which
he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went and
gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And
Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses,
and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people
believed. And when they heard that the
Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked
upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. So the Lord had met with Moses
at the burning bush and told him there that he was to return
to Egypt and to deliver the children of Israel out of their captivity. And God provided Moses with a
number of signs to prove that God had met with him. And he
also told Moses that his brother Aaron would be as a spokesman
to assist him in this task. And he tells Moses that all the
people who had sought his death had now died. Moses goes to his
father-in-law Jethro, Jethro in the land of Midian, and he
tells him of his plan to return to Egypt and there he takes his
wife and his boys and he sets out for Egypt. Moses had had
two sons. And it appears from what we read
in this passage that the Lord also told Moses about all the
other signs of what we sometimes call the 10 plagues that he would
inflict upon Pharaoh and Egypt. And although we're not told or
given a list of them at this stage, it does appear as if Moses
knew about them by this time. So that the Lord had told Moses
what to expect, the signs that would be given and how terrible
they would be. But he also tells Moses that
Pharaoh would not release the people of Israel whom the Lord
calls his firstborn because they were a privileged people and
because they were his covenant people. And the Lord says, I
will harden his heart, that is Pharaoh's heart, and he shall
not let the people go. All of this was revealed to Moses,
even to the slaying of the firstborn of the sons of Egypt. So that the scale and the size
of this task that Moses was given must have appeared huge in his
eyes and in his estimation. But then as we go down through
this passage, we discover that a strange thing happens. We're
told that the Lord meets with Moses at an inn on the way between
Midian and Egypt, and that the Lord sought to kill him. Now how this was done, we don't
know. Maybe it was an illness that
struck Moses down. Maybe it was some sort of attack. Perhaps it was the death angel
that we hear about later in the history of the Exodus. There
is not much information given about the nature of this attempt
on Moses' life. But it seems as though it occurred
because Moses had neglected to circumcise his second son. Now circumcision was the cutting
off of some skin from this little boy. And it was a covenant sign,
we've seen about it before, it was a covenant sign that had
been given to Abraham as a sign for his faith and obedience. And Moses knew how important
that was. It was a picture of this agreement
that God had made with Abraham. And it ought to have been performed
on the child. So Zipporah, Moses' wife, quickly
takes a sharp stone and performs the task of circumcision, thereby
saving Moses' life. And meanwhile, while that's all
happening, in Egypt, the Lord appears to Aaron and tells him
to go and meet Moses in the wilderness. And Moses obeys and the two are
reunited at Horeb. Horeb was an interesting place
for them to meet because that was where the burning bush was.
That's where God had spoken to Moses and given him his commission. And there's something interesting
about that because that place, Horeb, was two days journey from
Midian, where Jethro was. But it was two weeks journey
from where Aeron lived. Now I don't know if perhaps Moses
had delayed leaving Midian and had only got as far as Horeb
in that time or if perhaps he had stayed longer at the inn
due to the events that took place there. Or perhaps God had set
Aaron off on his journey two weeks previously, even before
Moses had complained that he was not a good speaker. It's
an interesting little possibility. And these two men then return
to Egypt together. Moses explains all that he had
been told and they gather the elders of the children of Israel
together to inform them about what the Lord is going to do.
They believe Moses and they bow before God to worship and thank
him for hearing their cries for help and for deliverance. Here's a couple of lessons that
I want us to draw from this passage today. The first one is this.
Some people think that it was unfair of God to harden Pharaoh's
heart. And they say, if God did this,
then Pharaoh didn't really have a choice. But let us remember that in our
nature, in our human nature, because of sin and because of
Adam's fall, All men and women and boys and girls are opposed
to God and are rebellious against God's will. So that if our opposition
to God is not removed by God's grace, All that happens is that
it becomes more and more opposed to God and more and more stubborn
against God as the demonstrations of God's sovereignty and power
are revealed to us. Do you remember when the Lord
Jesus Christ was performing his miracles? that the Jewish leaders,
the scribes and the Pharisees, they hated the Lord Jesus Christ
all the more because of his miracles. The miracles didn't soften their
hearts towards Jesus, the miracles hardened their hearts towards
Jesus. When Jesus raised Lazarus from
the dead, the Jewish leaders said, we have to kill Jesus and
we have to kill Lazarus as well. Such was the hardness of their
hearts. so that the hardness increases
and opposition to God increases. Pharaoh's heart was always hard,
it was already hard, and the plagues hardened it more. Each time God does something
to bless his people, each time he acts in mercy, then the men
and women of this world harden their hearts as God's enemies. Each time God gives a gift to
sinners, they use that gift against Him. Miracles don't make converts. Grace makes converts. It's the
Holy Spirit that makes alive. And signs and wonders only harden
rebel hearts and that's what happened to Pharaoh. The miracles
that Moses performed at God's command resulted in the hardening
of Pharaoh's heart. And unless grace softens, every
kindness of God's goodness will merely harden. Here's another
thing that we learn about this passage. Moses' disobedience
in the matter of his son's circumcision almost cost him his life. It was a lesson to Moses concerning
obedience to the will of God. Faith and obedience to God is
a serious and important matter. Some say that God is love and
God is all about mercy and grace and forgiveness. God is love
and God is about mercy, grace and forgiveness but God is also
holy and God is just and God is jealous for his people. Only by faith, only by trusting
in the Lord Jesus Christ can we have peace with God. Outside
of God, God will hold all men and women and boys and girls
accountable for their sin and disobedience. When God shows
us the Lord Jesus Christ and the cross of Christ as the only
way of salvation, we should learn this lesson. In Christ there
is life, outside of Christ there is only death. Only by the shed
blood of Jesus Christ shall we have peace with God and eternal
life. A third and last point, very
briefly. The response of the elders of
the children of Israel was to bow their heads and worship God. And that is the proper response
to God's goodness and his mercy. God had heard his people's cry
and he responded to their prayers. the time of deliverance had come. For 40 years, the people were
not ready. It took 40 more years of pain
to bring them to call upon the Lord for help. Sometimes the Lord's people have
to go through deep trials and hard experiences. in order to
learn how to bow our heads and worship God. This persecution
by Egypt and the taskmasters in Egypt brought the children
of Israel to their knees. But it was while they were on
their knees that the Lord heard their cries for help. the Lord
will hear his people's cries for help. When he sends his goodness
and mercy, as he will, let us trust him, let us follow him,
let us bow our heads before him and let us give him thanks. When we come as sinners and ask
the Lord to forgive our sin and to bring us into his family,
he will hear our cry. And just as he sent Moses as
a deliverer of his people, he will send us deliverance by the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. And when the Lord shows us grace
and salvation in Jesus, all we can do is bow our heads and worship
him. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.