WHEN GOD MEETS US TO KILL US

“Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26 So He let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood”—because of the circumcision.”

Exodus 4:24-26(NASB)

This passage tells how the Lord met Moses to "kill" him. Hidden in it is a very clear principle that many forget and end up failing in their attempts to follow the Lord in ministry.

Moses had been commissioned to a work for the Lord in Egypt. He had a supernatural "word" from the Lord complete with a burning bush. We don’t hear from scripture that the Lord ever directly said one word about his boy being circumcised or his relationship to his wife. God said go to Egypt and so that's what Moses was doing! On the way the Lord literally attacks him with the intent to kill him! Has God gone nuts? Is He a little scherzo? What's the scoop?

 

Here is where it gets so very interesting. God doesn't seem to tell Moses why He is about to do him in. Moses doesn't say anything to Zipporah. Suddenly she decides to circumcise her kid real quick and God relents. Zipporah isn't exactly nice in her speech to Moses but she seems to have saved his life.

All of this means that everyone - God, Moses and Zipporah - knew what God was doing.

God had given Moses a spoken word - a revelation that was beyond the "Word" already given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob..... That word was a direction in his life but...... it didn't overrule the "Word" already given.

So often people really do hear from God but they think that because they have a "direct" revelation it overrides the "Word" in scripture. It does not! Moses was obeying the word he got at the bush but because he was not obeying the "Word", God could not allow him to continue moving towards Egypt.

Zipporah was the real problem as it is clear that she would not be a party to having her son circumcised. I am pretty sure that Moses had warned her about this but she was not committed to following Moses or God. Not only did she have Moses under her thumb she also wanted to protect her boy from God. She was not going to be ruled by either.

Several important principles grow out of this passage.

First, you can have a genuine call of God in your life and God himself will resist it if you are not willing to follow what He teaches in His Word.

Once a young lady I knew became very depressed because she couldn't "hear" God's voice like so many of her friends could. I went to the Lord about this problem and He very clearly spoke to me. The Bible says, until we have listened and followed what he teaches in the written Word then we cannot expect to hear from Him in other ways.

The reason for this is two-fold. First we will not really be able to hear God's voice in the now when we have not learned to recognize it in scripture. An example of this is how Abraham (in the story of the rich man and the beggar in Luke 16) said "if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." No present sign or "word" from God supersedes the Word already given. If they do not follow what He says in the scripture then they will not follow if a sign is given. They will chose to say it is something else.

Another problem with getting words from God can be their reason for wanting a "word" is self centred and not God centred. This was my friend's problem. She wanted a "word" to prove she was special. She wanted to convince herself, and others, that she was "spiritual." Being "spiritual has never been based on getting "words" from God. It is based on our obedience to the "words" we have already been given, first of all in scripture.

Moses was willing to obey the supernatural revelation given on the mountain of Sinai but not willing to obey the one which had been handed down to him through his parents from the patriarchs.

He knew that Abraham's covenant with God demanded that every male that opens the womb had to be circumcised. His wife didn't like this particular aspect of his religion and so she stood in his way of following God. Now we can't be too hard on her because you notice that God didn't hold her responsible. God was seeking to kill Moses not his wife!

Moses should have taken a firm stand even if it meant that it offended his wife. In this way we see that there is a crucifixion in the marriage covenant as well. We must die to placing our marriages before God in obedience to Him.

The second principle is we, like Moses, have to learn the price of the ministry we are given includes dying to making anyone else happy where they are not happy with what God desires, especially those we love the most. God asks perfect obedience to Him even when our spouses, loved ones or friends don't agree. He met Moses to kill him because he choose to honour his wife and her wrong desires before honouring Him. He warns us not to do the same thing.

This can be taken to be an excuse for harshness with our spouses or others. It is most certainly not. It is a warning that idolatry can even be found in the marriage vow if we honour each other above God.

I learned later from the Lord that I did not have to withhold myself in love for someone in order to love Him supremely.

After God had spoken to me the truth I have just shared I found I would often be aloof and try not to love that "special person" in my life so much. One day He said to me, "You don't love me more by loving her less, you love me more by loving me more." That set me free to realize that it wasn't Moses’ deep love for Zipporah that led him to be God's enemy but rather his lack of love for God.

It is only when our hearts have a vacuum in our love for God that the loves of this life can enter and take His place. In fact supremely loving God causes us to love all others even more. He is the source of love.

Moses did not have to grow cold, harsh and authoritarian towards Zipporah to have made sure that his son was circumcised. He simply had to be willing to release her to God and follow his first love.

This is not loving others less, it is loving God supremely. Imagine what Sarah would have said to Abraham if she'd have known the mission he was on with little Isaac when they journeyed to Mt. Moriah was to kill her son? What he was to do there was not because he did not love her or Isaac or anyone else. Had it been so it would not have been an act of love towards God but an act of hatred of the worst kind.

Like Abraham, Moses should have loved God more. If he had of then his love for Zipporah would have taken its proper place.

The summary of the lessons here in this passage then is:

1. If you have received a genuine "Word" from the Lord and it is not coming to pass, check if you have missed following His written Word while seeking to obey the supernatural "Word."

2. Love and Honour God before all others, including those you love the most. They will most likely be the ones who can draw your heart away into disobedience if you are not steadfast in your love towards God.

3. God loves us and the people we influence too much to let us move forward in Him and His service until we have dealt with the areas He has already spoken to us about. If we do not deal with them we start down a road that can leave us unusable and His enemy. Many people don't understand why they are far from Him and yet have known His presence in the past. They feel as if He is against them. It may be He is. If we have persistently not followed Him in love and obeying His commands He may meet us "to kill us." In fact it would be far better that He does so than letting us go our own stubborn way like He did with Balaam. It is as C.S. Lewis said, “a severe mercy.”

This does not mean He hates us. He does not want us to minister in His name when we have a rebellious heart. Our destruction is better than the destruction we will bring into our own and others’ lives as a result of our disobedience.

In this last point we see that it is even His love that motivates Him to chasten us - even to death. It is His love not only for us but for the lives we will affect.

“But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. 30 For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. 31 But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged.”

1 Corinthians 11:28-31 (NASB)

4. Seeing that another has a greater place in our hearts is not a signal to love them less but rather that we have grown cold to the Lord.

No one can ever take my bride Carie's place in my heart as long as our love burns brightly. The only time adultery can enter into a marriage is when one spouse has lost their love for the other.

So it is with God. As long as we love Him completely no other "god" can take His place. When one has it is because He has been left in our hearts.

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”

Luke 10:27 (NASB)