The Passage James chose on Friday in Hebrews 3 spoke of Moses, the faithful servant. Baring this in mind let us read
EXODUS chapter 3 and 4
This is an example of how chapter and verse is good for references, but not always good for the narrative and for that reason I read both chapters
MOSES DID THREE 40s
His first 40 years were in the palace where he would be educated and would learn palace ways, though his nurse was in fact his mother
His second 40 years were in the desert and we see him tending the sheep of his father in law Jethro (Godly Arab)
His final 40 years were spent leading the people of Israel through the wilderness.
I like curiosity. Some things catch my attention and I just have to investigate. In the hot conditions he worked in, to see a bush on fire would have been a common site. It was not the flames that got his attention; it was the fact that the bush was not consumed
We are told that he was tending his father in laws sheep. This would have been his daily work. He was doing the task that he did daily, when something out of the ordinary happened that would change the direction of his life.
He probably thought that working and family life were to be his lot until his death.
In providence, he led the sheep to the far side of the desert to a place called horeb ( the mountain of God) I am not sure if it had that name at the time, or if that is a name that was given to it later. In this passage, we do see that it was there that God revealed himself and spoke to Moses.
God told Moses not to come any closer, and to take off his sandals for the place upon which he stood was holy ground. I do not believe that there was anything special or holy about the ground; it was God’s presence in this special way that made it Holy, apart from that it was no more significant than the rest of the desert.
When God introduced himself, Moses hid his face. For he was afraid. (Remember that later Moses face would glow because he spoke to God face to face)
He tells Moses that he has heard Israel crying and is concerned about their suffering, and he was sending him MOSES to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt
Moses 1st objection V11
Moses questions God. Who am I that I should go to pharaoh and bring Israel out of Egypt?
God assures him that he will be with him and they will worship him on this Mountain (the Mountain of God)
Moses 2nd objection V13
V13 suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me ( note he said Your fathers, not Our fathers. He had been out of it for 40 years) And they ask me, What is his name? then what shall I tell them?
God says tell them I AM who I AM
He then is told the assemble the elder of Israel and pass the message on to thm
Moses 3rd objection
What if they do not believe me or say the lord did not appear to you?
God give Moses some signs to authenticate himself
The staff turned into a snake and back into a staff (taking it by the tail. Moses had run from it)
He put his hand in his cloak and brought it out Leprous, he put it back in, took it out and it was normal
The third sign was that if he took water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, it would become blood.
One would have thought that would have been enough to convince Moses What it actually did was leave him without any excuses.
Moses 4rth objection
I am not a good speaker.
God assured him that he would give him what to say.
Finally Moses has no more excuses and says “OH LORD, PLEASE SEND SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT”
Do we baulk at a difficult task that has to be done? Moses was saying in all his reasoning and excuses, I DO NOT WANT TO DO IT.
God was angry. Moses was an extremely reluctant servant. We are told that God told Moses that the people who wanted to kill him were all dead. Presumably Moses was afraid of them.
God was not going to let Moses get out of his responsibility. I think it was probably true that Moses was not a great Speaker, but God said what about your brother Aaron? He is good speaker. He will speak for you.
As humans we experience fear. However when we see that God has commanded us to do something, do we give in to fear?
MOSES DID NOT TELL JETHRO THE TRUTH
I wonder why Moses did not tell Jethro, his father in law the truth. He told Jethro that he wanted to go back to Egypt to see if any of his people were still alive. He did not tell Jethro what God had told him. Perhaps he thought that things would get worse for him if his father in law said No, you will not obey God and you will not take my daughter, (Your wife) or my grandchildren into danger.
The one thing we can be certain of is that Moses lied. He already knew that there were Israelis who were alive because God had told him
Jethro told him to go, and he took his wife and son.
Chapter 5 verses 24 and 23
I wondered what these verses mean. The only thing that I can find that the scholars agree on is that they are difficult.
The personal Pronoun HIM, seems to refer to Moses, but could refer to his sons.
Also why was God angry?
If it is Moses and God was sending him to Israel, why would God want to kill him? That would be self defeating.
It seem to me (and you may disagree) that the lord was angry with moses because he had not taken his responsibility of circumcising them under the Abrahamic covenant, as he should have done
Was God angry just because they were not circumcised OR was God angry because their lack of circumcision would look bad at he Palace when Moses would tell pharoh to let his people (?the circumcises go)
His wife Zipporah was furious with Moses, and did what he should have done on the 8th day after their births circumcised them.
There is a difficulty with the singular and plural in this passage as it seems to refer to more than one son, yet singular foreskin which Zipporah touched Moses feet with.
Aaron also had to obey the lord. The lord told Aaron to go into the desert and meet Moses. They met at the Mountain of the lord, i.e. the same place where God had revealed himself. They then got down to business. Moses told Aaron everything God had said and Aaron told the elders, the signs were performed and they believe
God had told Moses the truth. He told him that Pharaoh would not listen and would not let them go and that he God would harden Pharaohs heart. The task was going to be difficult and that may be another reason why Moses asked God to send someone else
OH GOD, IT IS GOING TO BE HARD. SEND SOMEONE ELSE. LET ME JUST KEEP GOING THE WAY I AM. I HAVE A GOOD UNEVENTFUL STEADY LIFE RIGHT NOW. I WANT IT TO STAY THAT WAY.
I suspect this is what Moses thought. He had been tending the sheep for up to 40 years, he had a wife and family. Life was good.
Whatever we may think is comfortable for us, sometimes God comes in and says, I have a new and difficult task, and I have chosen you to do it. Are you willing and will you go, or are you reluctant like Moses?
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