Exodus 4 - Undomesticated Deity

God doesn't fit in the boxes we like to put Him in.

Our good, holy and sovereign God cannot be tamed.

SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF:  Moses doubted that Israel would believe that God had sent him. So the LORD graciously confirmed his calling through miraculous signs, patiently addressed his fears, rebuked his reluctance, and appointed Aaron to speak—making clear that the mission would proceed by God’s power, not Moses’ confidence.

Exodus 4:18–31 (NIV)

¹⁸ Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”

Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”

¹⁹ Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” ²⁰ So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

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. ²² Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, ²³ and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’ ”

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. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)

²⁷ The LORD said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. ²⁸ Then Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.

²⁹ Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, ³⁰ and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, ³¹ and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 94

Q. What does the Lord require

in the first commandment?

A. That I, not wanting to endanger my very salvation,

avoid and shun

all idolatry,

magic, superstitious rites,

and prayer to saints or to other creatures.

That I sincerely acknowledge the only true God,

trust him alone,

look to him for every good thing

humbly

and patiently,

love him,

fear him, and honor him

with all my heart.

In short,

that I give up anything

rather than go against his will in any way

Summary

We have such a strong desire to domesticate God - that is, to shape and fashion Him according to the way we want Him to be. The raw and untamed God of the Bible so often, then, seems so off-putting and even bizarre, impetuous and down right cruel. We like the warmth with which He appeared from the burning bush, coming to rescue His enslaved people, but then we get to a passage like today's and we're not sure what to think about Him.

Moses felt this way too, and it nearly cost him his life.

We get our first clue right away as Moses approaches his father-in-law, Jethro. Moses begins by asking for permission to return to his own people in Egypt. Such deference to Jethro is appropriate, for the Bible always describes him as being wise and godly. But Moses doesn't explain the whole situation to Jethro. He said nothing about a burning bush, holy ground, or a God named I AM who promised to rescue His people. All Moses mentioned was a desire to see if any of my people are still alive.

Then there's Moses' wife, Zipporah. She probably wasn't too pleased to have been put on a donkey with her sons, carried away from her father and homeland to Egypt, where there's a death warrant that's been issued for her husband. But that's not her most pressing problem. Moses had likely indicated that their sons needed to be given the sign of the covenant - the bloody, painful procedure of circumcision. And that's where she had drawn the line. And Moses apparently didn't cross it - more afraid of his wife's wrath than God's.

But then one night at a rest stop, this intrepid family encountered the untamed holiness of God: the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him for his passive cowardice and noncompliance. What a scene! Zipporah angrily threw a bloody foreskin at Moses' feet to appease God's wrath and save Moses' life.

God doesn't fit in the boxes we like to put Him in.

  Dig Deeper  

We haven't even gotten to the most difficult aspect of today's passage yet!

²¹ The LORD said to Moses... I will harden Pharoah's heart so that he will not let the people go.

How then, the perennial question goes, can we blame Pharoah for resisting God if it was God who hardened Pharoah's heart? That's not a question that gets reserved for Pharoah; it gets asked in regards to all those who refuse God's call to repent - those whose hearts God has not softened.

The Apostle Paul fiercely rebukes our tendency to tame God with a question like this. Who are you, a mere man, Paul writes in Romans 9, to talk back to God? This doesn't mean it's wrong for you to wonder about such things, only that you better not persist in trying to constrain our holy, all powerful God to fit your own limited understanding.

This is the first of ten times in the book of Exodus that we'll read about the LORD hardening Pharoah's heart. But we'll also read ten times over that Pharoah voluntarily hardens his heart on his own. There certainly is great mystery in God's sovereignty that we can't fully comprehend. But don't forget that God never forces Pharoah do anything he doesn't want to do. Ultimately the LORD gives Pharoah - and every other unbeliever - exactly what they want.

So as we read these sometimes strange stories in the Old Testament, resist the urge to conform God to your own design. Don't try to domesticate Him. Instead, silently and thankfully own the mystery that He's conforming you to His design.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our loving, yet untamed Father;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will be able to fully trust God even though you don't fully understand Him;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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