
Tomorrow’s Reading: Exodus 7-8/Matt 25:1-30
Note: all gifts that are larger that 100lbs, please have delivered to 'back deck', as it's easier for me to get them into the house.
Moses is faced with many challenges and soooo has to get outside his comfort zone. He heads back to Egypt to plead with Pharaoh for a 3day Prayer journey to the desert. God asking you/us to do something that puts you outside the 'comfort zone'.
Be sensitive to that today and see if anything materializes... hmmm.
Jesus continues to speak to the end of times. Bottom line here is to live a life pleasing to God now, for ‘it will be good for that servant whose mater finds him doing so when he returns’ 24:46.
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3 comments:
Setting: In Sinai Desert, God speaking to Moses, then back in Egypt
God is asking Moses to go back to Egypt (remember, he killed a man there and it was because of fear of his life he fled to Median) and speak to Pharaoh about the Hebrew/Israelites needed to go to the desert to worship for 3days to offer sacrifices to ‘Lord our God’ (4:18). Moses debates with God that he isn’t qualified, eventually God concedes (wow) and allows Aaron to go with him to speak on his/His behalf..
Moses on his way and in v24, God was about to put Moses to death for ‘apparently not circumcising his son’ (NIV) – not much said here, but Zipporah (Moses wife) circumcised their child and touched Moses ‘feet’ (NIV says euphemism for “genitals”) – she a) recognized God’s anger and b) realized that Moses was in direct communion with God?. There may be more to it here, not sure. Thoughts?
I’ve often wondered what the point was of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart ultimately 9 times to carry out His own plan. NIV says: another 9 times Pharaoh is said to have hardened his own heart – Pharaoh alone was the agent of the hardening in each of the first five plagues – not until the 6th plague did God confirm Pharaoh’s (I think the 3rd Pharaoh since Moses birth) willful actions.
The result of Moses going to Pharaoh and requesting Israelites leave angers Pharaoh – he orders Israelites/slaves to produce same about of daily work/bricks but not with out supplied straw/materials. This angers Israelites and now their anger burns against Moses.
Moses is a very tough position here –much outside his comfort zone, fearful for his life, and now even his own are angry with him.
Matthew
Setting: Jesus still describing the end of times to the 12.
A sign of the son of Man (Jesus) will appear in the sky, He will send his angles to earth and gather the ‘elect’. Thoughts here – gather where and who are the ‘elect’; NIV says ‘the People of God’; the ones that have accepted Christ as Lord and savior? Be prepared as no one knows the day or hour of his return v36 – like two me, one will be taken and the other left. Taken where – it is clear to me, Heaven. And in v44, you must be ready.
Happy Birthday Scott,
I've not commented in a while, but I am still keeping up!
Thanks Jeff! - was just thinking about you this a.m. actually.
NOTES on Exodus 4:24-25
Exodus 4:23-25
Most commentators feel that God struck Moses with a life-threatening illness by which He was going to kill, to slay. It came to Moses, undoubtedly during prayer or meditation, that the problem was his resisting God in the circumcision of his son.
There is an interesting sidelight here. From the information provided, the son had not been circumcised because Moses conceded to Zipporah that the son would not be circumcised. What God was teaching Moses is that, as the head of the house, he was responsible to see that God's rules, orders, policies, and directions were followed.
Once he passed the test, Moses was convinced of something else: He knew that Zipporah could not go with him to Egypt. Therefore, he sent her back, and he went on alone. At least his life was spared because he followed through in doing what he should have done.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Conviction, Moses and Us
Why Did God Try to Kill Moses (Exodus 4:24-26)?
Hebrew scholars are still undecided whether God sought to kill Moses or his son. Verse 24 does not clearly give the answer, though the pronoun "him" seems to have its antecedent in "Moses" in verse 21.
Moses knew that all Israelites were to be circumcised on the eighth day of their lives (Genesis 17:9-14). However, his wife Zipporah was not an Israelite but a Midianite, who obviously did not follow the Abrahamic covenant of circumcision (though the Midianites were descendants of Abraham through his second wife, Keturah; see Genesis 25:1-2). Apparently, Moses failed to circumcise his son because of her objection to the practice.
Exodus 4 shows that Moses, returning to Egypt to lead God's people Israel to the Promised Land, did not have his own house in subjection (see I Timothy 3:4). God could not allow His direct representative to lead the entire nation of Israel when he had not himself faithfully brought his family under the covenant, of which circumcision was the sign. That God acted to "cut him off" illustrates just how seriously God takes our commitment (or lack thereof) to His covenant (Hebrews 10:26-31).
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