Character Matters
Opening Prayer
“Wounds from a friend can be trusted” (Prov. 27:6). Thank God for those who have given you vital but uncomfortable insights.
Read Exodus 4:18-31
[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. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
How did the Israelites react to Aaron's message?Moses named his firstborn son Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land” (2:22). Perhaps he felt that he was no longer an Israelite or that his failure meant that God had given up on him. Whatever the reason, Moses hadn’t obeyed the command to circumcise his sons as a sign of his obedience to the covenant. This mattered hugely: to be uncircumcised was to be cut off from the people of God (Gen. 17:14). We don’t know what happens to Moses at the lodging place. We know that God’s judgment comes upon Moses for his disobedience, but comes in a way that allows for repentance: Zipporah has time to make amends. She realizes that this is God, and discerns the real cause of the problem. As Moses should have done, she circumcises their son (25). With the offense removed, the Lord releases Moses. Character always matters. There are no exceptions, even for gifted and anointed leaders. The covenant of circumcision was the basis of the gift of the Promised Land to Abraham’s descendants, but Moses hadn’t kept it. How could he claim that covenant’s blessings if he wasn’t in obedience to it himself?
Apply
How does God want to grow your character? Are you embracing or resisting this? How can you embrace it more?
Closing prayer
Lord, please show me any ways in which I’ve failed in obedience to You so that I may correct it now.
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