Exodus chapter 4 verses 18 through 31 is our text today, if you'll turn there. Exodus chapter 4 and verses 18 through 31. If you're using the Bibles that are found underneath your seat, you'll find it on pages 47 and 48. Exodus chapter 4 verses 18 through 31. Let us now give heed to the word of our God as he speaks to us from Exodus chapter 4 and verses 18 through 31. Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, go in peace. And the Lord said to Moses and Midian, go back to Egypt for all the men who were seeking your life are dead. So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand. The Lord said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, let my son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son. At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me. So he let him alone. It was then that she said, A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision. The Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak and all the signs that he had commanded him to do. Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads. and worshiped. So may the Lord add His rich blessing to the reading and to the hearing of His Holy Word. Shall we pray? God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, may You teach us now in these moments together as we are around Your Word Teach us the wonders of your grace even as we look at the time that Moses had a serious slip up on his way back to Egypt. You surely gave these accounts to us so that we would be wise, so that we would be discerning. And so we ask that Your Spirit would impart to our hearts and to our minds this day a readiness to listen with ears of faith. And in all things, may our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified, for it's in His name that we pray. Amen and amen. We have 14 verses to look at this morning and there are seven different scenes that transpire. So what that tells us is this is a rapidly moving text, section of verses that we're looking at this morning. Things are really moving along in Exodus at this point. Now, it's good to start out well at something, whatever you begin, whether it's a project, a new job, whatever it is, it's good to start out well. But it's even better to finish well. I suppose if you had to make a choice, it'd be better to finish well than to start out well. Starting out well is good, it's important. It can set you on the right course. Lately in my YouTube feed, I've been getting all of these clips of Secretariat. I don't know about you, but I love to watch that horse run. What an amazing horse. It's interesting in the, she won the Triple Crown, he won the Triple Crown in 1973, setting records in every race of the Triple Crown races. But in the first two, started out dead last. in the Derby and I think it was the Preakness. They started out last, but ended up just blazing around on the outside and winning. So what a strong finish that horse had. I think I've watched that Belmont race a hundred times. Never get tired of the 31 lengths that that horse just blew the entire field away. Didn't start out well, although in the Belmont he started out pretty well. But what an amazing horse. Well, Moses, he's now on his way back to Egypt. He's been now in Midian. He's been outside away from his family for 40 some years. And the time has now come for him to go back and get back in the game, so to speak. But before Moses arrives in Egypt, we're going to see that there was this If we could put it this way, a potentially deal-breaking glitch that occurred, and it was one of Moses' own making. So let's get into the text. Let's see what the Lord God has for us. It's important, I think, for us to look closely at scripture, to see the flow, to see the context, to see the transitions and the changes, the connection, the connections that the Holy Spirit gives us as we see how redemption is moving along at this point in the story. Now, verses 18 through 20. They tell us that Moses informs Jethro about his plans to return to Egypt. So Moses has now come back from his encounter with God in the wilderness. All those objections that he put up have been smashed, and he's now ready and willing to go. And so he comes back to his family, to his father-in-law in Midian, and in verse 18 we see that he requests his, that is Moses, released from his familial obligations, from the responsibilities that he has to his family. The reason, and he gives this to his father-in-law, he wants to see if his relatives in Egypt are still alive. It's been a long time. There in verse 18 we see that Jethro grants Moses's request, he gives him his blessing, go in peace. So here we have a very Amicable departure, not one that's done in conflict. I suppose you could see that Moses had the authority of God, could have left, could have gone to Jethro and say, I'm out of here. The Lord has called me to go. I'm going to leave. But he respectfully, politely addresses his father-in-law. And by the way, that's always a good idea, even if you don't have to. to give a courtesy to those who care about you regarding changes in your life. Now in verse 19, the Lord gives Moses the green light to go back to Egypt. Pharaoh and the people that were seeking his life, likely the family of the man that he killed, they're all dead. And so Moses has no impediment really to go back to Egypt. So Moses moves his entire family, his wife, and notice he has now more than one son. The text says sons, plural, and so he heads for Egypt there in verse 20. And once again we're told he takes the staff of God in his hand. That's the symbol. That's the mark of God's presence and his mighty power with him. Now this next development in this passage concern in verses 21 through 23 the Lord now speaks to Moses and he gives him instructions before he returns to Egypt. Some very important things he has to say to him. First of all, he tells him and reminds him to do the signs that he gave to him. Remember those three signs? The staff to the snake and back again, the hand in the bosom to become leprous and then be restored. And if those two didn't work, he was to take some water from the Nile and it would be turned into blood. These were all to authenticate Moses' authority there in verses 1-9. But probably the big piece of instruction is in verses 21-23 where Moses is told by God that he, God, will harden Pharaoh's heart such that he will not allow the people to leave. And so when Pharaoh refuses, Moses is to tell that wicked leader that Israel is the Lord's firstborn son. Now firstborn in scripture is one that has preeminence. Sometimes the firstborn was the firstborn in chronology. Sometimes it wasn't the firstborn. As a matter of fact, Joseph became the firstborn of Jacob when he was not the firstborn. And something else that this tells us and should have communicated to Pharaoh is Israel being the firstborn also communicate that other God had charge of all the other nations. the world as well. So Pharaoh had best not stand in the way, otherwise the Lord will strike Pharaoh's firstborn son. So we're getting a glimpse, a preview of what's to come. Then we move to the next scene in this chapter and here Moses is journeying. He stays at a lodge on the way and this Section of verses really gives the commentators fits. It's not easy to discern exactly what is going on here. It's an enigmatic, puzzling incident, mysterious in its details, but I would submit that the essential point is clear. The text in verse 24 says, at a lodging place on the way, the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Now let that sink in for a moment. The Lord met him at a lodging place on the way and sought to put him to death. Now the first question is, who is the him that's being focused upon here? Is it Moses, which would seem to be the most natural? Or is it Gershom? Because he's the one that we'll see has the procedure of circumcision done upon him. Expositors all over the place will marshal arguments for both viewpoints. Moses may seem to be the more logical referent. But the text has just talked about the killing of Pharaoh's firstborn son, so it also could make sense that the text is connecting that to Moses' firstborn son. Pharaoh's firstborn son could be in peril? Well, here's the case where Moses' firstborn son is in peril. Well, at any rate, whether it's Moses himself or Gershom, It's clearly Moses who has been derelict in circumcising his son. That is, in applying the covenantal mark of God upon his child. And the question is raised, who then was in danger of death? Moses or Gershom? And again, a case could be made for either one. Some Bible versions, like the New International Version, The ESV to some extent give us their interpretation. They see Moses being met and in danger of death. But all we really have here are just the pronouns without mentioning any names. But I would submit to you the real focus, the real hero here is Zipporah. She intervenes. She sees something that's happening that's terrible. Either Moses is being struck down in some way, and many think there may be some paralysis was setting in with Moses, or maybe Gershom's life was beginning to slip away, and she immediately realizes that the problem is spiritual and not physical. Almost makes you wonder if there were some discussion in the Moses household about circumcision. The Midianites did it differently than the Hebrews. The Midianites were actually descendants from Abraham, the family of Keturah, through Keturah, the wife after Sarah. And likely, they did practice circumcision, only they did it much later. They did adult circumcision, generally when a man was getting married. would be circumcised. But she recognizes the problem and she acts quickly. And she performs the circumcision. And this, of course, may suggest that Moses was the one that was stricken and could not perform the ritual, which would have been normally his place to do that. And so Zipporah, as a Midianite, she would have been familiar with this rite of circumcision. Again, practiced much differently than it was in the line of Isaac. But it comes down to this, in verses 24 and 26, that Moses' wife averts a disaster on the way to Egypt. Zipporah carries out circumcision and she, notice, touches his feet with it. Again, that's mysterious. We could go into some detail there, but I think we get the general idea. So what's happening here is Zipporah does the circumcision, and with what she's familiar with, God accepts an out-of-the-ordinary ritual, not done the normal way, done by the wife and not the father using words not normally spoken because she out of love for her husband and her son is responding to God's covenant. I think that pastor and scholar Alec Montier may very well capture what's happening in Zipporah's heart. He writes this, at the heart of Moses' family there was an offense against the will and word of God. Zipporah saw what the problem was, touched Moses with it, and suddenly all was well. The crisis was over. And Moses, he says, now plainly better, opened his eyes, looked at his wife. She greeted him with a loving cry, as though to say, Moses, you're back with me. You're my bridegroom and husband all over again. And instead of taking you from me, God has given you back to me because of the blood of circumcision. You are my bridegroom of blood. So, Meir sees Zipporah's incredible love for Moses and for her family. She's not repulsed. She's not disgusted by a bloody ritual as some have supposed. She wasn't angry with Moses. She wasn't mad at God. She might have been a little disappointed with Moses. But once again, here we see a woman stepping up and used by God to keep things on course. Now there really are three scenes that are described in verses 27 through 31. Basically, what we find in these verses is Moses, he reunites with his brother Aaron, and they speak to the leaders and the people of Israel when they get to Egypt. They now get to Egypt. God told Aaron to meet his brother. This happened in the wilderness, verse 27. And he does so, and this is at the mountain of God, this is at Sinai, where the Lord had appeared to him. And when they meet, They embrace, they greet, and Moses then brings his brother Aaron up to speak on what God had been doing, told him what to say in Egypt. And so when they arrive in Egypt, notice how time is really moving quickly here, the brothers then meet with the elders of the people, verse 29. And Aaron was probably, likely, an elder himself, which would have given Moses instant credibility. Remember, in many of the minds of the Israelites, Moses was a fugitive. He had fled justice. He was an outlaw. So here's his brother Aaron, an elder himself perhaps. And so Aaron communicates to the elders and then Moses goes before the people and Aaron as well. And he does the signs that God gave him to do before the people of Israel. Verse 30. Notice when the people see the signs, we're told they believed. Now, some commentators see in this a mass conversion, if you will, to the true and correct understanding of the God of their fathers. But at any rate, the people now realize that the Lord, Yahweh, has visited His people. And that he knows and he cares about their afflictions, what they're going through. At last the Lord has heard our prayers and is beginning to act. And notice they respond in verse 31 with heartfelt and awe-inspired worship. That's their response. So we have a section here that gives us a lot of information in a relatively few amount of verses. Moses goes from Midian to Egypt. Many things happen on the way. And he almost got seriously sidetracked in doing that. Why do you think God bothered to record these things for us? Do we really believe that all Scripture is inspired and is profitable for reproof, for instruction, for training in righteousness, that the man and the woman of God may be fully equipped? There's some equipping to go on here through these verses. There are profound implications regarding the new covenant people of God even though what was taking place was happening under the Abrahamic covenant prior to the mosaic. Now we're not going to talk about this today but I want to plant a little seed because we'll talk about it later. Put this on the back burner but you notice in verse 21 God tells Moses straight up I am going to harden Pharaoh's heart. And that's a truth of Scripture that we need to ponder. And we need to get our minds around it as much as we can. It's a hard concept to grasp, I grant. But we must see it as Scripture reveals it to be. The Lord's sovereign prerogative to decide, to determine. Not just Pharaoh's destiny. the destiny of everyone who rejects the truth of God. It's interesting in Romans 9, Paul, in discussing what had happened to Israel as a whole, he uses Pharaoh as the paradigm for all who reject the truth of the gospel. And we'll get more into this, work on making more sense of it as we get closer to the plagues, the account of the plagues, which really won't be too awful long. We could also talk about how real faith leads to worship. Real faith and belief in the true and living God always results in worship. And that's what we see in verse 31, the people believed and they bowed their heads in worship. That's where A true and right understanding of God always leads into His presence to adore Him, to praise Him, to render that which is His due. And that's what we see the people here doing. We could also dive into the importance of the role of the elders there in verse 29. One of the first things that Moses and Aaron did was call the elders of the people. Why was that? Well, because elders are the important guardians, protectors, the filters of the nation according to its tribes and clans and families. You see, the office and the role of the elder has always played a strategic role and had an important place in the plan and purposes of God for His people. But I want us to dwell for the few remaining moments that we have on a really key issue in this passage. It's an issue that gets lost in large swaths of the evangelical Bible-believing church today. Let me just, at the outset, make this point of application right now and then we'll develop it somewhat as we go on. And that's this, that the Lord God views His covenant, its obligations, and its signs very seriously. And that means that we, as His covenant people, must also take them seriously. Now let's unpack this a little bit. Let's focus a moment, just go back to that enigmatic event that happened at the lodging place on the way in verses 24 through 26. This glitch. quote-unquote, so to speak. Now this could have potentially, think about it, it could have potentially derailed, or at the very least cast a terrible pall over Moses' mission. God has just called Moses, destroyed his objections, and now here's God's man, perhaps, ready to die, or an important member of his family that would have seriously impacted Moses. I think we can get sidetracked trying to pinpoint just who is the him in verse 24, whether it was Moses or Gershom or maybe even Eleazar. You see, the Holy Spirit did not see fit to make that clear because he wants us to focus on what is clear which is this that God seriously disapproved of Moses's neglect maybe even his disdain of the covenant and the central feature of that covenant which was circumcision Clearly, someone in Moses' family, whether himself or his children, someone was in mortal danger because of Moses' either dereliction, either he ignored it or he rejected it. And yet here's Moses, the great representative of God's covenant with Abraham, now going back to the people, being the one that is fulfilling the promises of that very covenant that Moses has essentially ignored and rejected and not thought very highly of. I think it's typical in many treatments of these verses to write it off and just dismiss it as, oh, that's the Old Testament. doesn't apply to us anymore. And so many Christians will look at this passage and they'll view it as anachronistic, as outdated, as irrelevant. It's a ritual that really has no significance to Christians today. And yes, circumcision is no longer applicable. There are unique features in this text that we need to recognize. Moses uniquely is called by God to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. He has a status and a standing that is special and different than you might say the average believer. But He's leading them to freedom. To both physical freedom and spiritual freedom. I think that often gets lost in our understanding of the Old Covenant. As we seem to think of it, or it's easy to think of it, as only something physical. Only something natural. Only something national. And yet, all throughout we see that this covenant had spiritual dimensions to it. Atonement was made through the provisions of this covenant. It was bringing them to God through a relationship. We don't want to press this incident of Moses' neglect of circumcision. to such an extent that we would even suggest that God today would put any parent who neglected the sign of the covenant today to death. I found it quite coincidental. It's amazing how the Holy Spirit does these things. Talked this morning about the Ananias and Sapphira incident. And the Achan? In many ways, we see a parallel here with what happened to Moses. You know, God, especially in foundational points, will put like an exclamation point upon what happens. Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit and they breathed their last. They lie to the Holy Spirit. Now do you think people today lie to the Holy Spirit or is that a thing of the past? Clearly that happens today as well. But God is very gracious. We can be very thankful that when we act like hypocrites and come across as holy, when we're really faking it, the Lord doesn't take our breath completely away. He's gracious. You know, when Moses ignored the sign of the covenant, which was circumcision at this stage in the development of God's covenant, what he did was to put himself, put his family in great danger, spiritual danger. Again, Moses was the enforcer, the champion, the implementor of God's covenant promise. He's coming to the people to say God's here to take care and fulfill His covenant promise. By the way, I haven't really bothered to do it myself. I haven't bothered to have it in my family, but He's going to do it for you. We often read about high-ranking government officials who actually flaunt or disobey, break the very laws that they were in charge of implementing. I read recently of a state lawmaker that was caught going almost 40 miles an hour above the speed limit. And when stopped, she claimed that she had legislative immunity. And on top of that, she had to drive fast because the charger on her electric vehicle had only four minutes left. A person might be able to escape man's application of justice, but not the Lord's. So we should look at what's happening here with Moses as God's exclamation point. To see that he takes his covenant seriously. The obligations that accrue that are on us as God's covenant people. And that includes the signs. Moses may have been convinced, you know, it's not all that important. God knows my heart. And yet it was his word, it's his covenant. whatever reason Moses didn't do what was commanded for God's people. I know today as we apply this to where we are, that there's disagreement among good godly believers whether or not that covenantal sign applies throughout the whole family, whether it applies to children. I understand that. I get that. I was there myself once. And you all know where I stand. You know where this church stands historically on the issue of children and the covenant. And as one who firmly believes that the covenantal sign of baptism, although it's different than the old covenant sign, believes that it still should be applied by one or both believing parents. I recognize that there are good brethren who believe that with the coming of Christ that the nature of the church has changed, the nature of the covenant is different. It's a totally spiritual communion and the church is to remain pure with only true believers in it, even though some may sneak in with a false profession. I understand that. And yet we know, prior to Christ's return, there will be false professors, false brethren in the church. Not because they just stand before the elders and consciously lie about it. Many are deceived. Oh, it is tempting to want to use this passage to press the issue, the seriousness of applying the covenant to our children. If someone could come up with, I think, a solid argument that the new covenant is a completely different covenant. It's nature. and its essence being completely different than the one that God gave to Abraham, that'd be one stipulation that would cause me to change my mind. Or if someone could show that God is no longer in this more gracious covenant, God no longer, if we can have good, solid scriptural evidence that in this most gracious covenant, God no longer includes children, I suppose that would be another one. But absent those two stipulations, and there are more, I think a preacher could validly claim that this text applies to New Covenant parents about the seriousness of neglecting God's covenantal sign. Now how that works out on a practical basis, that would require several more sermons. But also I want to say that at the same time, the confession does not elevate the signs, baptism or the Lord's Supper, to be a first-level requirement of salvation. So hear me well on this. Our Confession of Faith, chapter 28, section 5, says this about baptism. Although it be a great sin to contemn, that's a word we don't use much, contemn. But it means to despise, to disdain, to neglect. Although it's a great sin to despise, disdain, or neglect this ordinance, and it's talking about baptism. Yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably next to it as that no person can be regenerated receive the new heart, or be saved without it, or that all baptized are undoubtedly regenerated. Ignoring baptism is serious, but it does not produce saving faith or salvation. So the signs, the obligations of the covenant are a serious matter before the Lord. But I want to press a wider point as well. This is given to us as an example as well. And that would be our second application, which is that neglecting or despising any of the things that God has given for worshipping and serving Him properly, and of course this would include the ordinances that He's appointed, Any of this is a serious sin in God's sight. And it puts the believer in a very vulnerable position spiritually. Leaves one vulnerable to spiritual deception, spiritual plunder, spiritual ruin. It puts someone at odds with God. Moses was at odds with God because of his ignoring God's covenant. We know that including the sins forbidden in the second commandment, according to our larger catechism, question 109 is all neglect. contempt, hindering, opposing the worship and ordinance which God has appointed. And the text, the thumbnail text that our catechism uses for that is Exodus 4, 24 through 26. There are differences, there are unique things in this account. But the principle, the point, that God cares about His covenant and we dare not say, well, maybe, maybe not, and treat it like dessert after a big meal. We'll take it if there's room. God doesn't put anyone to death today as He sought to do with Moses or Gershon. But we put ourselves on the road to spiritual ruin when we neglect or despise God's ordinances, when we despise God's worship. You know, there's no amount of Bible studies, home groups, or Bible conferences, or live streaming services, Bible videos, even things like these that can spiritually build you up in the faith as the regular gathering with the people of God to worship the Lord God, to sing His praises, to hear His word, to pray together, to be exhorted and to be challenged. Nothing comes close. All of those are helpful, have their place, but they can never be a substitute. for what God has appointed in His covenant for His people. So God records this glitch for us in Moses' life, not because it's some little hiccup that just needed a woman's touch to fix. God recorded this slip-up because it's more than a slip-up. It's more than a glitch. It's a potential rejection of God's provision and His promises. Whatever reasons Moses had to think that circumcision wasn't important, whether he had bad information, bad conclusions, the Lord was setting him straight. He was gracious to Moses. And he's gracious to you and to me. He doesn't strike us with paralysis today or some deathly sickness, though he might use afflictions. to get our attention. You know, what the Lord uses is generally, He brings us those gentler means, the preaching of the Word, the reading of it, to get our attention. But if these don't do it, maybe something stronger will. So as you look at your life today, is there a spiritual glitch going on in your life? Maybe it's not a glitch or a problem of the caliber that Moses experienced, but it's something that God has called you to do or to believe or to be and you've ignored it. Put it on the back burner. Maybe there's a problem in your life and you're just at a loss as to know what to do. Might just be the time for you to seek the mind of the Lord to show you, maybe through a Zipporah in your life. Just really where the root issue lay. So yes, it helps to make a good start at the beginning. But sometimes that doesn't happen. Sometimes in our journey with the Lord, we slip, we fall, we have glitches, there are missteps, mistakes, sins. Sometimes through no deliberate fault of your own, sometimes so, but persevering to the end. Getting back on track is the all-important thing. Finishing well. Have you been going through a bumpy, rough season in your Christian journey? Have you messed up? Well, the wonderful, amazing, incredible thing about our God is He doesn't cast you off when you stumble. He picks you up. He sets you on your feet, though the righteous may stumble and fall, yet He still picks them up. He picks you up, He enables you to stand. Moses had this major glitch on his return to Egypt. Yet God, through His wife, He blessed Moses and He kept him on course. And God does that with you and with me. If you've wandered off the path, if you've hit a spiritual wall, maybe neglected some important spiritual command of God, don't throw your hands up in despair and say, it's all over. I've blown it. God is just, yes, but He's also most gracious and merciful. And Moses got back on track. And so can you. Almighty God, the one who keeps us from stumbling so as to be ruined, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, O Lord our God, Moses' family was on the verge of being functionally like that of Pharaoh's, like that of the Egyptians, and yet, O God, you sustained him. You got him on track even though it was a very scary moment. Lord, will you show to us any slips, any glitches in which we might presume or else ignore sacred things that we ought not to ignore or to disdain. Oh, arise, oh God. Shine in all your saving might. truly prosper each design that you've ordained to spread your glorious light. and you've given us your word to keep us on track. And when those slip-ups and glitches occur, you enable us to regain our footing so that we would walk aright, bring honor to you and blessings to others. So let the healing streams of mercy flow this day in our lives. Through Christ Jesus we pray in his exalted name. Amen and amen.