Moses gave 5 excuses why he should not be put on God’s mission. (I usually come up with more than 5).
- Who am I? We never feel smart enough, educated enough, spiritual enough.
- I don’t know enough about Spiritual stuff. He said “How will I describe you? What do I call you? We all know what the LORD said…”I AM WHO I AM”. It is not our job to show God’s Glory, we just do what is asked of Him, He will do the rest.
- Nobody will believe me-have you ever tried to share the Gospel to your unbelieving family or friend. It’s hard.
- I can’t speak. We are all given Spiritual Gifts at the time of our Salvation. The gift is from God. The reason you were given it was to become a vessel or a messenger of God. So it is important to note that we are all called to “speak” on His behalf, just according to the Gift he has given us.
- Last, but NOT LEAST! “Please send someone else”. That’s not my thing, I am not good at that….
In chapter 4 we see a foreshadowing of the first and last plague that will occur.
- 4:9 “the water you take from the river will become blood on the ground
- 4:23 “so I will kill your firstborn son”
So Moses headed to see the Pharoah with his staff in hand, the staff of God in his hand. (vs. 20)
The Lord told Moses he would harden Pharoah’s heart. “21 The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.”
The Hebrew word here is chazaq. It means to strengthen or to fortify. (Not change his feeling)
I know what you are thinking…Zipporah could be a knife salesman on QVC! I thought the same thing! 😂
24 At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26 So the Lord let him alone.
Circumcision was an important symbol of the Abrahamic Covenant, and the lack of circumcision would mark a person as cut off from God’s people (Genesis 17:9–14). For Moses to neglect to circumcise his son was an affront to God as if he were saying that he and his family did not truly belong to God. How could Moses be an effective leader of God’s people if he were in violation of God’s clear command?
Moses never had his son circumcised. Why would they be? He was raised Egyptian! So his wife swiftly secured the covenant with a flint knife. That’s why I carry a pocket knife in case a mom ever needs to borrow it. 😬
I don’t remember if we talked about it (or if I just had the conversation with myself 🤪) Look for the ‘all caps’ LORD in the scriptures throughout the Bible. When it is all caps it is the Hebrew word YHWH, we translated it to Yahweh or Jehovah. In theology, YHWH is a tetragrammaton (“a word having four letters”). Yahweh is the encompassing “I AM”. The LORD has always been, He is the beginning and the end of time, He is utterly independent. God is constant, he is the same yesterday, today, and forever…I could go on!
Chapter 5- We are in Egypt and we have these 2 different groups of people. The Egyptians obviously, and the Israelites. Let’s go back to the end of Genesis. God was so good to put the families in Goshen, away from the city. They were able to raise up their people away from the influence of polytheism. The Pharaoh says “Who is the Lord?” The Lord is not one of the gods that is on the list for the Egyptians to worship, BUT Pharaoh’s name is on that list as a god. So when Moses enters stage left and says “This is what THE LORD says”, it was putting the deity of Pharaoh as a match to a God that Pharaoh has never even heard of! Oh Stars, that’s not good….but God has a bigger plan than “just” letting his people go.
Chapter 6- (my favorite of the 3) Read the first part with authority aloud and emphasize the word “I” or “my”.
So then you get to the end of Chapter 6 and you roll your eyes and say “C’mon! another “family record”, I can skim over this”. No!
Like all the others it starts with Reuben…Simeon….boring…..and then we get to Levi-Moses’ family. and it stops there. This partial genealogy of Levi (which must be important if it is the first 4 letters of the next book we will read, Leviticus), establishes the position of Moses and Aaron. Jochebed’s name means “the Lord is glory”. She is the first person in the biblical text to have a name incorporated with His divine name.
Ready for the best part?? Not only is God establishing the position of Moses and Aaron’s family but the wife of Aaron is Elisheba. Elisheba is from the tribe of Judah. God is uniting the tribe of Levi (the priesthood) and Judah (kingship, royalty) lines: Jesus is on every page of this Bible.
If that does not make sense to you…IT IS OK! IT WILL ONE DAY…I PROMISE!
Reading the Bible - 2021 
That is really neat about Judah and Levi tribes uniting!- One other cool thing that I learned about this passage (Ex. 6) is that the “I will” statements in vs. 6-7 are correlated to the 4 cups taken at the Passover meal. When Jesus took the Passover meal with his disciples (fast forward hundreds of years), they read from this passage, and when they took the “cups” of wine they read each verse. You know when Jesus takes the cup- “then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it saying- this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” – it was the 3rd cup- the cup of redemption. Jesus knew he was about to die– -according to Passover tradition- they just read from Exodus– “I will redeem you with an outstretched arm”- isn’t that a beautiful picture of the cross? Each “I will” statement is what Jesus did for us (or will do- 4th cup is future). 1) I will bring you up from under the yoke of the Egyptians (rescue from sin) 2) I will free you from being slaves from the (free from sin) 3) I will redeem you with an outstretched arm (redeemer), 4) I will take you as my own people and I will be your God (one with him, forever). When I learned this I thought it was so cool!!!
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I just learned about the “cups” too at the last supper in 2020, but I never correlated it to this. ❤️❤️
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Also when he says on the garden remove this cup…it’s the third cup. Outstretched arm
Your notes are awesome!
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In not on.
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I get stuck in trivia land so many times. Did Zip circumcise both sons or just the firstborn? Was there a connection to the Lord saying Israel is my firstborn and if you refuse to let them go I will kill your firstborn? I read one commentary that thought Moses had never been circumcised under the circumstances of his secret birth and then later to be able to pass through life as an Egyptian. If that were the fact then he had to circumcise himself before he circumcised his son. On the other hand another said he was circumcised and that’s how the adoptive mother knew he was a Hebrew. I find it interesting that when Jethro’s daughters tell their father about him thy refer to him as an Eqyptian not a Hebrew. ( 2:19)
Several agreed that she did not throw the foreskin at his feet but that feet was a substitute word for private parts. So, why would she do that.? Even now, why did she have to do it instead of Moses. And, a flint knife?? I have this horrible picture of a bear grills adventure knife..😱 And, how old was this boy? He wasn’t a baby. That poor boy! No wonder his mama was upset.
I know this is so trivial in light of the redemptive story and all the ways scripture points us to Jesus but I get so caught up in the people, their personalities and traditions.
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I love your randomness!
I ‘think’ Moses was circumcised when he was 8 days old since he was still with his Hebrew parents. As far as his sons, I do think she circumcised them all. Poor kiddos! I have heard that the word for feet is VERY similar to the Hebrew word for family jewels, and it does make sense (the seed). This puts Ruth in a whole new context when she covered Boaz’s feet! Yes, cover them up! Nobody wants to see them!
The firstborn of every living person and animal is dedicated to the Lord. If you go all the way back to Cain and Abel you will see it was pleasing to the Lord Gen. 4: And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, We give God our best…our first, not the leftover (in everything). This was also to counter the OPPOSITE of what the Pagans did. We dedicate the firstborn to the Lord (the BirthrightCovenant line), the pagans would sacrifice their firstborn to the false god Molech. It was a cow statue with a furnace built into it and they would offer their firstborn to appease their god by throwing it in the fire.
I think everyone might have known he was Hebrew because the slaves arguing said 14 “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”
1. who made you judge over us? (He was one of them).
2. They called the guy he killed “an Egyptian”
3. They never would have talked to him like that if they knew he was Egyptian.
I bet Jethro’s (I always say Tull after it…you young ones don’t know that was a heavy metal band in my day) referred to him as an Egyptian because he looked like one (unless he flashed them….how would they know at first glance 😂😂).
Looking forward to more random comments. You speak my language (randomise) 😁
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Thank you for your reply on that. Its so much fun to me to get absorbed into the word and what’s going on. God gives us a little peek into this home. I can chew on these little nuggets for days. Last night I couldn’t help but think about these to boys, Gershom and Eliezer. They never followed in their father, Uncle Aaron or aunt Miriams footsteps. They don’t become great leaders. Just another tidbit that makes you say hmmm.
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Love love love this. I know I keep saying this same thing but the Bible really is just one congruent love story and it all points to Jesus. Good stuff. 🥰
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Kristie, I run to my phone when I hear the “comment” ding. You can keep saying it every day!
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