Exodus 4:18-31: "Four Short Stories"

There are parts of the Bible that lend themselves more to teaching/preaching than others. Today's passage, Exodus 4:18-31, doesn't lead to a smooth sermon. It's a series of four short stories. Each of these stories has its own little buildup and conclusion. Each of these stories has its own message.

I'm a little worried you'll leave today remembering nothing. It's too much to try to keep in your head. But even if that happens, I trust that meditating on the Bible, delighting in it, will be a source of blessing to you today (Psalm 1).

Sermonette #1: "How to Say Goodbye"

(J. Gerald Janzen, Exodus, was really helpful here):

(18) and Moses went,

and he returned to Jethro his father-in-law,[1]

and he said to him,

"Let me go, please,

so I[2]will return[3] to my brothers

who [are] in Egypt,

so I[4]can see if they are still alive,"

and Jethro said to Moses,

"Go in peace (shalom),"

Let's start by thinking about Moses' words to Jethro. Moses asks for permission to return to Egypt, on the off-chance that some of his Hebrew brothers are still alive.

Is that why God is sending Moses?

Moses here hides God's mission from Jethro. He doesn't want to tell Jethro what's really going on.

Why?

My guess is that, in part, he's not sure Jethro will believe him. I've heard other stories about Jesus calling people to big ministries, and they hide that from their family. With one guy, his parents found out when they read the newspaper, and their son was in it. When God does really remarkable things through you, you may find yourself hiding that from the people closest to you, at least for a while. Let's turn to Matthew 10:32-39 (NRSV no reason):

32 “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

When Jesus calls you, one of the things that sometimes happens, is that families turn on each other. Your family think you're doing something stupid. Your family rejects you, disowns you.

So maybe it's not just that Jethro may not believe him. Maybe there's also fear of what Jethro will do.

Now, how does Jethro respond?:

and Jethro said to Moses,

"Go in peace (shalom),"

One of the hardest things to do in life, is say a true goodbye to someone. And we know that with some people, it's more difficult to say goodbye to than others.

A man I know became pastor at a church, at a time when the church was not doing very well. There were a lot of hurt and broken people. The church was divided, and unhappy, and unproductive. This pastor came, and he brought healing with him-- more through who he was, than anything he said.

Less than two years after he became pastor, Jesus called him somewhere else. And that same church became filled with a lot of hurt people. People struggled with him leaving. They feared what would happen to them. They focused on themselves, and their own needs, and how the pastor blessed them. But the focus wasn't so much on the pastor. To be honest, the focus was probably more on the fear of losing momentum, and people, and money.

If we take this story about the pastor, and bring it back to Exodus 4:18, we get a feel for how we should understand it. Who is Moses to Jethro?

Moses is a valued member of his family. He's the one who takes care of the flock. He's the one who is married to one of his seven daughters, and has given him a grandchild. In a non-socialist society, Moses is Jethro's Social Security.

So imagine that you're Jethro, and Moses comes to you, asking you very nicely, for permission to go, and return to his brothers.

How do you hear his words? What do you focus on?

Yourself? The pain and hardship that this will cause you? (so Laban, Genesis 31-- could probably make this a whole sermon by itself)

Or do you focus on the other?

I'm not going to get this quite right, but a wise pastor once told me that he viewed everyone in the church, as someone given to him by God for a time. Every person was a part of his flock, temporarily. And at some point, Jesus may call them somewhere else-- and that somewhere else, may be to a different church in town. When that happened, this pastor wasn't offended by it. He didn't take it personally. Instead, he wished the leaving people well. He blessed them, and let them go in peace/shalom.

That pastor, to me, is a model of wisdom. And he is an example for us to follow. At some point, some of you may feel called to serve Jesus somewhere else. And that somewhere else may be the church across the street, or down the road. And you may be a valued, productive member of this family. You might be a key volunteer, who runs a program, or who is a key part of the worship team.

We will miss you. But if you feel called, know that we let you go in peace. We will offer you a blessing in Jesus' name. We will pray over you, if you'd like.

And we will do our very best to focus on you, and Jesus. Not on ourselves. If you go, go in peace.

Sermonette #2 (Exodus 4:19-22): "God wants you to serve Him"

This brings us to verse 19, which marks the start of our second short story. It's a slightly awkward transition. Most scholars think there's multiple sources involved here, one way or the other. But, at any rate, let's start with just verse 19:

(19) and Yahweh said to Moses in Midian,

"Go! Return to Egypt,

because all of the men seeking your life[5]have died,

This verse is sort of amusing. And it's telling. Moses has just spent most of chapter 3 and 4 coming up with questions and concerns. And we saw, in the end, that Moses' real problem was that he doesn't want to go. He wants God to find someone else.

Here, for the fourth time, God tells him to go! Only here, God gives him a reason he needs to go-- "because all the men seeking your life have died."

In all of Moses' questioning, and concerns, he somehow missed the most important problem. There were at least a few people in Egypt-- powerful authorities-- who wanted him dead. And if people want you dead, you go far away from them. You don't offer yourself on a platter.

I think what God is doing here, is very subtly telling Moses that God knows what He's doing. God anticipates the problems that you don't. He remembers what you forget. And if God is with you, helping you, you will be okay.

Verse 20-21:

(20) and Moses took his wife and his sons,

and he had them ride on the donkey,[6]

and he returned to the land of Egypt,

and Moses took the staff of God in his hand,

(21) and Yahweh said to Moses,

"When you go to return to Egypt, understand/recognize/consider[7]all of the wonders that I have set/put in your hand,

and you shall do them before Pharaoh,

while Ishall strengthen his resolve/heart,

and he will not send out the people,

Where did God put his wonders? Verse 21:

"In Moses' hand."

Now, maybe we are supposed to think that God here is talking only about the "staff of God." Because the staff of God is very literally in Moses' hand, according to verse 20.

But I think there's more to it than this. Everyone, hold up your hands, and look at them.

Imagine that God has done the same thing for you, in Christ, that He did for Moses. That God has put his wonders in your hands, if you have faith.

Imagine that you've been taught to obey all that Jesus commanded (Matt. 28:18-20), including healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing those with skin disease, and driving out demons (Matt. 10:8). Imagine that Jesus has authority over everything, and that he is with you.

If the Holy Spirit lives inside of you, and partners with you (2 Cor. 13:14), then what's possible? What can your hands do, if Jesus is with you?

God also promises to do a second thing in verse 21. In my translation, God says that He will "strengthen Pharaoh's resolve." Your Bibles read that God will "harden his heart." And honestly, that's not a very good translation. First of all, the verb means "to strengthen," not to harden. Let's turn to Judges 3:12:

(12) And the sons of Israel again did evil in the eyes of Yahweh,

and Yahweh STRENGTHENED Eglon the king of Moab against Israel

because of the evil they did in the eyes of Yahweh.

Or let's turn to 2 Chronicles 11:11:

(11) And he STRENGTHENED the fortifications.

The other thing is that "heart" in the OT, isn't really your heart. Your "heart" can refer to your mind, your feelings, or, here, your will/inclination (see lexicons). Probably the best way to understand these two together is to say that God "strengthened his resolve."

Pharaoh already has it in for the Israelites. He's already determined to keep the Israelites as slaves, and exploit them, and make life miserable for them. God is going to take that resolve, and make it stronger. God isn't going to make Pharaoh do something he doesn't already want to do. God is going to make sure Pharaoh doesn't change his mind. There will be no moment of weakness.

Why will God do this? God's goal in all of this, is to make sure that Pharaoh doesn't send out the people.

For many people, the best way to change their mind about who God is, and what He wants, is through signs, and miracles, and wonders. Many people will never believe unless they see signs (John 4:48). But in the Gospel of John series, we also saw that sometimes signs can have the opposite effect. In John 9, when Jesus healed the man born blind, the Pharisees ended that story saying that Jesus is a sinner, the man born blind is a sinner, and his family is a sinner. They ended up more blind toward the truth about Jesus than they were at the start of the chapter. They were strengthened in their unbelief.

Here, we see the same type of thing. God will use the wonders to strengthen Pharaoh's resolve, but in the wrong way. God wants this to be difficult. God wants this to be a process.

Why?

Part of the reason is that God is determined to judge Egypt for what it's done to his people. This judgment will be thorough, and severe. I think there's probably also two other reasons. First, God wants to use this to bring glory to himself. And second, God wants to teach his people that God is good, that God cares for them, and that God is more powerful than the Egyptians or their gods. And God knows that the best way to teach people, is to show them. God will prove himself to his people.

This brings us to verse 22. Here, Yahweh tells Moses what he should tell Pharaoh:

(22) and you shall say to Pharaoh,

"Thus has said Yahweh: My firstborn son [is] Israel,

and I say to you, send out my son so[8]he may serve me,

and you have refused[9] to send him.

LOOK! I am killing your firstborn son.

Firstborn sons, by their nature, are the most important children in any family. They have pride of place. They are the ones who will inherit everything.

And God tells Pharaoh, Israel is his firstborn son. God has other sons-- other peoples. But Israel is his firstborn. HIS. Not Pharaoh's. HIS.

And so God commands Pharaoh-- not nicely-- "send out my son so he may serve me."

Your Bibles maybe say, so he may "worship" me. But the KJV gets it right here. "Serving" includes the idea of worship. But it's more than that. What God wants, is his people to serve him.

And Pharaoh refuses. Who does Pharaoh think Israel belongs to? Himself. And who does he think the Israelites should serve? Well, he's made the Israelites serve (hiphil of the same verb "to serve") him (Exodus 1:13, 14). So Pharaoh is not going to let them go (He's not like Jethro, releasing Moses).

As a result, all of this is going to end one way: God is going to kill Pharaoh's firstborn son, in front of Pharaoh. God is like every bad guy, in every action movie ever, threatening to kill your loved one in front of you. Only, in this story, God will be successful.

You mess with God's firstborn-- with his chosen people-- and bad things are going to happen to you. And here, the punishment fits the crime. You kill God's little ones, and God may kill yours.

[Could also say, that when God saves you, it's so you serve him instead of anything/anyone else; Romans 1:5 ("obedience," and "service", not "faith," is the end goal; Romans 6:13, 16.]

Sermonette #3 (Exodus 4:24-26): "God took Circumcision Seriously"

(Almost everything in what follows is from Duane Garrett, Exodus)

With this, we come to our third short story. This story, is one of the most mysterious in the entire Bible. And it's even more mysterious in the Hebrew-- it's hard to say what exactly is happening. Let's just read the three verses, and then work back through it slowly. I should note-- there's one word that I won't translate right away, in verse 25.

(24) and then,[10]on the road in Midian, Yahweh met him,

and He sought to put him to death,

(25) and Zipporah [had] a flint,

and she cut off the foreskin of her son,

and she touched[11]his[12]feet,[13]

and she said,

"Because a "khatat" of blood, you [are] to me,"

(26) and He withdrew/slackened from him.

At that time she said,

"A 'khatat' of blood by circumcision."

This a tricky little story. Maybe too tricky for a sermon. But let me say four things off the bat, to help us ease into it.

(1) Moses isn't mentioned one time in these verses. Your Bibles may say "Moses," but they should all have a footnote by it that tells you what the Hebrew actually says. It says "him," or "his." It doesn't say "Moses."

(2) The only male actually (explicitly) named in the text is Zipporah's son. And so, probably, all the references to "his" and "him" in the story are about her son. Not Moses.

(3) Your Bibles will translate "khatat" as either a husband (KJV) or a bridegroom (for what follows, see Clines, DCH). This word can mean "bridegroom," but it's only used that way on the day of someone's wedding (Isa. 61:10; Jer. 7:34; 25:10). You'd never call your husband a "khatat" once you've settled into married life.

The same word can also mean a "son-in-law" (Gen. 19:14; Jg. 15:6; 1 Sam. 18:18).

It can also mean a "relative by marriage" (2 Kings 8:27).

How can one word describe a bridegroom, a son-in-law, and a relative by marriage?

The bigger idea, I think (following Duane Garrett in part), is that "khatat" describes a new member of the family.

If I'm right about these three things, the story ends up looking like this:

Zipporah now has two sons. And one of them isn't circumcised. Now, God expects very little of his people before the Mosaic covenant (H/T Goldingay). Honestly, the one thing he really expects is circumcision (Gen. 17:13-14). And the one thing God expects, is the one thing that Moses and Zipporah don't do. In their own way, they fail as badly as Adam and Eve.

So God decides that He's going to kill their son. How he does that, I don't know. It's a terrible thing to imagine. But God comes, and He is slowly killing the child. Why does God do it slowly? God gives Zipporah time to fix this-- time to recognize why this is happening, and time to fix the problem of uncircumcision.

So Zipporah circumcises her son, and then she claims him as her own. Her son has become a "khatat" through circumcision-- a member of her family through blood, and part of the covenant people.

That, I think, is the point of the story. Now, what do we do with it? I'm not going to try to apply it, actually. But I think it helps us understand the NT much better.

God had told Abraham that anyone who wasn't circumcised would be cut off from his people (Gen. 17:13-14). And here, God slowly kills someone who doesn't bear the sign of the covenant. So when you think about circumcision, don't think about it as being a legalistic, ritualistic thing. Understand that God was serious about circumcision in the OT. And when you read Acts, or Galatians, and the struggle in the early church as it wrestled with whether or not Gentiles should be circumcised, understand why this was so hotly debated. Galatians makes a lot more sense, when you keep Genesis and Exodus in mind. In the OT, under the covenant with Abraham, every male had to be circumcised, or you weren't part of God's people at all.

Sermonette #4 (Exodus 4:27-31): "Why We Praise God":

(27) and Yahweh said to Aaron,

"Go to meet Moses in the wilderness,"

and he went,

and he met him at the mountain of the God/Elohim,

and he kissed him,

(28) and Moses reported/told Aaron all the words of Yahweh who had sent him, and all the signs that He commanded him,

(29) and Moses went, with Aaron,

and they assembled all the elders of the sons of Israel,

(30) and Aaron spoke all the words that Yahweh spoke to Moses,

and he[14]did the signs before the eyes of the people,

(31) and the people believed,

and they heard that God had visited the sons of Israel

and that He had seen their affliction,

and they bowed down,

and they worshipped.[15]

Let's just focus on verse 31. The people believe what Aaron says. God is coming to save them, through Moses. God has seen their suffering.

And when you hear the news that God is coming to save you, what do you do?

You bow down. You worship.

When God saves you, this is the natural reaction. This is why we praise God.

Translation:

(18) and Moses went,

and he returned to Jethro his father-in-law,[16]

and he said to him,

"Let me go, please,

so I[17]will return to my brothers

who [are] in Egypt,

so I[18]can see if they are still alive,"

and Jethro said to Moses,

"Go in peace (shalom),"

(19) and Yahweh said to Moses in Midian,

"Go! Return to Egypt,

because all of the men seeking your life[19]have died,

(20) and Moses took his wife and his sons,

and he had them ride on the donkey,

and he returned to the land of Egypt,

and Moses took the staff of God in his hand,

(21) and Yahweh said to Moses,

"When you go to return to Egypt, see all of the wonders that I have set/put in your hand,

and you shall do them before Pharaoh,

while Ishall strengthen his resolve/heart,

and he will not send out the people,

(22) and you shall say to Pharaoh,

"Thus has said Yahweh: My firstborn son [is] Israel,

and I say to you, send out my son so[20]he may serve me,

and you have refused[21]to send him.

LOOK! I am killing your firstborn son.

(24) and then,[22]on the road in Midian, Yahweh met him,

and He sought to put him to death,

(25) and Zipporah [had] a flint,

and she cut off the foreskin of her son,

and she touched[23]his[24]feet,[25]

and she said,

"Because a "khatat" of blood, you [are] to me,"

(26) and He withdrew/slackened from him.

At that time she said,

"A 'khatat' of blood by circumcision."

(27) and Yahweh said to Aaron,

"Go to meet Moses in the wilderness,"

and he went,

and he met him at the mountain of the God/Elohim,

and he kissed him,

(28) and Moses reported/told Aaron all the words of Yahweh who had sent him, and all the signs that He commanded him,

(29) and Moses went, with Aaron,

and they assembled all the elders of the sons of Israel,

(30) and Aaron spoke all the words that Yahweh spoke to Moses,

and he[26]did the signs before the eyes of the people,

(31) and the people believed,

and they heard that God had visited the sons of Israel

and that He had seen their affliction,

and they bowed down,

and they worshipped.[27]

[1]Exodus wanting us to view Jethro this way. This is a family. [2]weyiqtol. [3]interesting. Same two verbs Moses does to return to Jethro (go/walk and return), he asks Jethro to allow him to do for his brothers. [4]weyiqtol. [5]it's the word KJV translates "soul." [6]either showing his concern for them, or his wealth, I'm guessing. [7]usually has the sense of "to see," but here it probably means more like "to understand" (HALOT), as in Ex. 16:6 (you shall "know"), or "consider" as in 1 Sam. 12:24 (DBL #5). [8]weyiqtol. [9]the verb tense here is awkward. [10]updating story time, marking a transition. [11] A ritual act in Exodus 12:22. H/T Terence Fretheim, Duane Garrett. [12]In the Hebrew, she doesn't touch it "to" his feet. She touches "his" feet. [13]"feet" is a euphemism probably. [14]it's unclear if it's Moses or Aaron here. Most naturally, it's Aaron, but everything else would point to it being Moses. [15]Here's one of the words for worship. [16]Exodus wanting us to view Jethro this way. This is a family. [17]weyiqtol. [18]weyiqtol. [19]it's the word KJV translates "soul." [20]weyiqtol. [21]the verb tense here is awkward. [22]updating story time, marking a transition. [23] A ritual act in Exodus 12:22. H/T Terence Fretheim, Duane Garrett. [24]In the Hebrew, she doesn't touch it "to" his feet. She touches "his" feet. [25]"feet" is a euphemism probably. [26]it's unclear if it's Moses or Aaron here. Most naturally, it's Aaron, but everything else would point to it being Moses. [27]Here's one of the words for worship.

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