I came up with this illustration before that debacle in New York yesterday, but I'm not going to abandon it because it's a good illustration for our purposes. Imagine, if you will, a tall masted ship. It can be a bark or it can be a full rigged ship, doesn't matter. You can even imagine that ship in, well no, don't imagine the ship in New York that busted its masts on the Brooklyn Bridge. Don't think of that ship. But imagine a different ship bearing the name on the side, HMS Majesty. HMS standing for His Majesty's Ship, so I guess, or HMS History, His Majesty's Ship History, so I guess it's an English ship. Who's at the helm of HMS history? Whose hand would be guiding the course of history? Who controls the rudder of persons and events? An economist might say, well, it's an invisible hand of the market. And a communist might say, well, it's the hand of the proletariat, or it should be. And perhaps our own politicians would be, well, it's the hand of the sovereign people. who elect us and put us into office, but all those answers are wrong. You and I know that to be the case. The hand on his majesty's ship, history, is the hand of his majesty himself, God. And what is the destination? Where is the pilot taking us on this ship of history? Well, the destination is the glory of Christ and the good of his people. The glory of Christ and the good of his people, that's where all history is aiming toward. And we've seen this, we've seen this in the life of Moses as his personal drama of his family, of his experience, of his growing up, of his preparation to be God's servant is emerging out of and has emerged out of the progressive transformation of Israel from an extended family to a nation of many households. And while the drama of Moses is far from over, it will proceed now and forward only within the history of Israel's redemption. So that which emerged out of the history of Israel is now going back into the history of Israel for a particular result, namely the redemption of God's people. of this kingdom of priests and servants and worshipers of God that we're considering in the book of Exodus. As the staff of God with which we left Moses in verse 17 reminds us, the main character isn't Moses. The main character is God himself, his majesty. And he himself is present and active in every act and in all the action of the narrative. and we mustn't forget that. What I want to show you from our text this morning, from these rapid episodes of going from Midian back to Egypt, is something of God's presence, sovereignty, and central influence, even determination of what is going on in all of human history. Our sovereign God directs all the affairs of men and nations for the deliverance of his people. Our sovereign God directs all the affairs of men and nations for the deliverance of his people, and we'll consider this under two headings this morning. God's sovereign direction in verses 18 to 23, and then in the most enigmatic passage of all of the book of Exodus, God's sovereign deliverance. God's sovereign direction and then God's sovereign deliverance. We're gonna pick up here with God's sovereign direction as Moses approaches his father-in-law and begs leave to leave, asks him to go back to Egypt with the family. And as we get this in place here, it's something as to change up the metaphor from the ship, it's something of a setting, a place setting, setting a dinner table, getting things prepared. for an event that's about to happen. And then what will come is a serving of the meal as the event takes place, as the redemption is worked in weeks and months to come as we work through Exodus, but the same divine hand is at work in both. in both occurrences, in both developments, in both setting the table and delivering the meal, in present circumstances, you might say, and in future events. The present circumstances in verses 18 to 20 are described as such. Moses departed, returned to Jethro, his father-in-law said to him, please, please, sir, let me go, that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt and see if they are still alive. And Joseph said the same to his brothers about, or said the same to Pharaoh in his day about going back to Canaan to retrieve his father to see if he's still alive. This is a typical Hebrew idiom. I just want to check on my family. I want to see how they're doing. It's a reasonable request, but certainly not the full story, is it? Moses needs to go back to Egypt for more than just checking in on his relatives. Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, go back to Egypt for all the men who are seeking your life are dead. So Moses took his wife and his sons, mounted them on a donkey, returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the staff of God in his hand. These present circumstances that set the table, that set the stage, if you will, that pull up the anchor so the ship can go out of the harbor into the open sea, they're all in God's control. Notice how God is directing these things. It's God who prompts Moses, who gives him the impetus to leave, as he will do later on for Joseph and Mary when they leave Egypt to go back to Galilee, to Nazareth. But he tells him, everyone who was seeking your life all those years ago, they're gone. Now it's safe for you to return. You can get down to business. You can get to the work which you have prepared for, which I have prepared you for. which I have prepared for you. And God's in control of all of this. And that's highlighted particularly by the taking of the staff there in verse 20, with the staff of God in his hand. But before we rush off, these present circumstances under the control of God are a wonderful illustration to us of the providence of God, which our confession reminds us, as the providence of God doth in general reach to all creatures, So after a most special manner taketh care of his church and disposeth all things to the good thereof. Again, the aim, even of the arrangement of these present circumstances, is for the good of his church, for the good of his people. We may not always understand it. Moses, though a stranger in a strange land, was comfortable admitting it, and yet he's being directed back and God setting all affairs in order for the purpose of redeeming his people out of slavery. Well, God's control, his sovereign direction extends also to future events, for the serving of the meal, if you will. In verses 21 to 23, look at them with me. The Lord said to Moses, the Lord who spoke on the mountain of God and then who spoke in Midian said to Moses, when you go back to Egypt, see that you perform Pharaoh all the wonders, no longer signs now, but wonders is the word, which I have put in your power, but, shall 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 son my firstborn so I said to you let my son go that he may serve me but you have refused to let him go behold I will kill your son your firstborn is God's message to Pharaoh There's so much here to unpack about the will of man and the interaction between man's free will and God's sovereign control over all affairs of men and nations, surely. And we're going to be talking about that in some depth, both in and weeks to come with Exodus, but also when we get to Romans chapter 9, which draws on this very motif, this theme of Exodus, the hardness of Pharaoh's heart and why his heart is hard. But the point here is God is showing Moses and relaying to Moses, I am in control not only of what has transpired so far, but of what will transpire, what will come. Therefore, do this, that, and the other thing. and this is my purpose. This is rather considerate of God, isn't it? Moses is gonna run into all kinds of discouragement in his ministry. As Pharaoh resists, as Pharaoh makes things harder on the Israelites, as the Israelites complained to Moses and Aaron, Moses even knowing that this was gonna be the result is going to have a hard time. Imagine if he didn't expect it. So God's being rather considerate to him and almost reassuring him, you would say, not just giving him a heads up, but a reassurance. I'm in control. This is all according to plan. I have a purpose in this. And then he predicts even the last plague, something of a metonymy as a part for the whole of all the plagues, of all the wonders, the last wonder of taking the firstborn of Pharaoh and of all those in Egypt, Jew and Egyptian alike who do not, mark the lintel in the post with the blood of the sacrificial lamb that the angel of God would pass over. One brief comment on free will here. Just so none of you are wondering why in the world would God do this to Pharaoh, like Pharaoh's some kind of innocent. He's not, even within the scheme of God's sovereign control and determination of his will. God hath endued or given the will of man with that natural liberty that is neither forced nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined to good or evil at his creation. But, as our confession would continue to go on with, man by his fall into a state of sin, by that rebellion of Adam, then inherited through corruption of all of his descendants by ordinary generation, man hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation, so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself or to prepare himself thereunto. In other words, Pharaoh will not be acting against his will. Pharaoh, as we will see, hardens his own heart, even as God hardens his heart. God's purpose and Pharaoh's corruption are, in this sense, compatible in a way. But God does no violence to the will of Pharaoh. It's more that he abandons him. He lets him go by the way which he desires to go and wills to go anyway. Pharaoh is free to sin. but he's not free to do good and to relinquish God's firstborn Israel. There are three applications I want to make out of these two episodes with father-in-law Jethro and then the abusive father of Israel, that is Pharaoh, and the true father of Israel, which is God himself. In the first place, Notice how Moses acts with such discretion with Jethro. He's not lying to Jethro by any means. He's not alarming Jethro. but rather he's acting with courtesy and consideration for this man who has employed him, who has given him one of his daughters in marriage, who has been a patron of him and probably, actually certainly, a confidant and an advisor, as he will prove to be again in the future when they meet back up in Exodus chapter 18. And Moses, he deals with him very gently. There's no demanding here. He says, please, sir, let me go that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt and see if they are still alive. And this tells us quite a bit about how we are to regard our own parents and those in authority over us or those who have seniority over us. The larger catechism says, that the honor, and Moses certainly honors death row here, the honor which inferiors owe to their superiors is all due reverence in heart, word, and behavior, prayer and thanksgiving for them, imitation of their virtues and graces, willing obedience to their lawful commands and counsels, due submission to their corrections, fidelity to defense and maintenance of their persons and authority, according to their several ranks and the nature of their places, bearing with their infirmities and covering them in love, that so they may be an honor to them and to their government. There's respect given to whom respect is due, an honor given to whom honor is due here, and Moses gives us a good example of that. And lest we not be warned, the sins of inferiors against their superiors are all neglect of those duties required toward them, envying at, contempt of, and rebellion against their persons and places in their lawful counsels, commands, and corrections, cursing and mocking, and all such refractory and scandalous carriage, as proves a shame and dishonor to them and their government. Well, Moses is a good son-in-law, and he takes his leave of Jethro with honor, and so too should we. And all of our interactions with our parents, aged or young, and with those in authority over us, our employers, supervisors, government authorities, and the like, this is a good lesson for us, for this pleases God. Why do I bring all this up? Well, the fifth commandment, which Moses hasn't received yet, the fifth commandment has a promise attached to it. Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God gives you. Where are the people of Israel going? Where is Moses taking them? To the land which God will give to them. So at the very start here, we have an exemplary illustration. of what it means to honor those in authority over you. Of course, we'll see the Israelites have a real problem with that in the wilderness, and that will be a matter of some lament as well as we consider it. Second application, we need to correct our thinking on God's role in men's hearts by considering Pharaoh himself. Proverbs chapter 21 instructs us and corrects us particularly those of us who, growing up in this culture, really emphasize the self-determination of man and our liberty and our freedom to do whatever it is we want to do and to be whoever we want to be. The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord. Pharaoh's hard heart is like a channel of water in the hand of the Lord. He that is the Lord turns it wherever he wishes. Every man's way is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart. To do righteousness and justice is desired by the Lord more than even sacrifice. consider Pharaoh and consider as well yourself and consider those our leaders today in society and in the church and in the academy and marketplace. Who is in control? Who ordains the decisions that are made in the highest levels of power? Is it some gross conspiracy led by this family or that organization or what have you, or is it God ultimately who's in control? Even the raging of the nations and the chaos and all the evil that we see in the world is yet super intended by God who is sovereign over all things. Not that he's the author of evil, may it never be, but that he is sovereign and powerful and mighty. over evil. Thus we can sing in the words of Psalm 29, sons of the mighty in reference to ourselves and be assured that whatsoever comes to pass, even suffering and death, yet God is in control and the times are in his hand. His hand is on, is at the helm, is steering the rudder, if you will. So why shall we be anxious? Why shall we worry in vain, rather let us, as we consider even the hardening of Pharaoh's heart prophesied here, predicted here, anticipated here, let us wonder and awe at God who directs all history, who is sovereign over all the affairs of men and nations, of things seen and unseen, and God is a conqueror. whose conquest cannot be foiled. Finally, we are to go with God. In verse 20, again, Moses took the staff of God in his hand. We go with God, even as Moses goes with God. The staff is not God, but it's a sign of his presence and of his power with his people. And it is again and again going to come up as Moses and Aaron wield the staff of God, not the staff of Moses anymore, but the staff of God. As they wield it, it will be at key junctures when God makes himself known. and that he is with us, that he has not abandoned us or his people, but rather he has at all times and in all ways exerted his, not just influence, but his absolute sovereign control and power over all things. Go in his direction as Moses did, as Mary and Joseph did. for he will lead you home and he directs you by his word even as he spoke to Moses and Midian and as he speaks to us in this his word and by his spirit who applies it to our hearts. This staff It has a sacramental quality to it. What do I mean by that? Returning again to our confession of faith, sacraments are holy signs and seals of the covenant of grace, immediately instituted by God to represent Christ and his benefits and to confirm our interest in him. And on that paragraph goes, this staff is something of a sign given by God to Moses to represent God's kingship and God's power, that is, Christ in all of his glory, even with his people. There is in every sacrament a spiritual relation or sacramental union between the sign and the thing signified. Once it comes to pass that the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other. And we'll see something of that in the sacramental staff, but also in what we're about to consider now in the sacrament of circumcision. which is itself not just associated with, but very closely connected to the covenant which God has made with Abraham and which God is maintaining with the people of Israel. The staff being the sign of God's presence and the circumcision, which we're now going to have to consider being the sign of God's covenant. Having considered that God is sovereign in the direction of history, now we'll consider that God is sovereign deliverance of his people. God's sovereign deliverance here in verses 24 through 26. We've talked about deliverance before. In fact, my whole Exodus series is delivered for doxology. God's delivering a people for his own glory, for the worship of his Christ even. And in deliverance, we mustn't take it apart from that idea of delivery of packages and parcels but also of babies that brings something new to us. The delivery of Israel as much as the delivery of Moses to his parents brings new life and life which is good, even very good. And so to hear we have that dynamic as what in other contexts would be a rather intimate family affair. yet takes on redemptive historical magnitude and significance for us. And the signs of this life are bloody and yet lively, for a flow of blood is a sign of life. I wanna consider from these verses, 24 through 26, the problem of disobedience to covenant requirements, and then the solution of deliverance through covenant bloodshed leading to new life. So look at verse 24 with me. Now it came about at the lodging place, probably just a lodging place, a place where they set up camp, maybe at an oasis even, but not like an inn or a shelter. beyond what they would have had at hand. Now, it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. Here's our first two ambiguities. Whom did the Lord meet? Did the Lord meet Moses, who is at the center of the action, or did the Lord meet Gershom, or perhaps Moses' other son? Because remember, Moses put his sons, plural, on the donkey. He's got Gershom and probably Eliezer at this point. So whom is the Lord meeting? There's some ambiguity there. And sought to put him to death. Well, why do that? And what does it mean sought to, or tried to, or meet to put him to death, to challenge him. Did Moses fall ill because he's not going to do anything about this? Or is there something else that's going on? A terror, just a fright in the night? There's a lot of detail that's missing here, a lot of gaps that perhaps were not really meant to fill in entirely. But it is suggestive that Moses is the one that God needs to put him to death, which introduces the complexity of, you just commissioned this man and sent him back to Egypt to work wonders before Pharaoh and Israel, and now you want to kill him. What is going on?" Well, what happened next brings some light to the cloudy ambiguity. Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet. And she said, you are indeed a bridegroom or relative of blood to me. So he let him alone. Well, the problem then is that her son was not circumcised. Which son, we do not know. Maybe it was Gershom, maybe it was Eliezer, but regardless, a member of Moses' household was not bearing the sign of the covenant, which leads to what? An evaluation of Moses not being faithful to the covenant which God had instituted in Israel in his day, which God had instituted with Abraham and which had been carried forward through to the nation as it grew. even as we know from the saga of Joseph and his brothers and Jacob and his sons and all the rest of it. But Zipporah, she takes matters into her own hands, quite literally takes a flint into her hands and performs the rite and resolves. The problem of disobedience to covenant requirements is resolved in this deliverance action by not Moses, but by Zipporah, whose name now is recorded in the annals of history among Shifra and Pua and Miriam and Yokobot of all these women and Pharaoh's daughter who have saved Moses at various points in his life, yet again delivered by a woman, by his own dear wife. And she threw her son's foreskin at Moses' feet and said, you are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me. Again, a lot of complexity here, but what's happening in this action is that Moses is now being identified with the solution to this covenant crisis. So his life then is spared. And when she says, you are a bridegroom of blood to me or a blood relative to me, it's not her yelling at him or grousing at him or putting him down. No, she's not that kind of wife by any means. Rather, it's her celebrating that she gets her husband back as if from the dead. Mrs. Groff and I just celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary, and I jokingly said to her, Jocelyn, will you marry me? And she said, no, we already did that. And she's right. We did do that 15 years ago. But in this passage, it's almost as if Zipporah says, I have my husband back. We're renewing our covenant vows, our marriage vows. Again, an intimate family action in any other context takes on great historical significance. Very similar to Moses asking Jethro's leave to go to Egypt. or God referring to Israel as his firstborn son. These themes are ringing with an intensity and a volume in this passage, and that's really what unites all these episodes together, of God's concern for his household of households, this nation of Israel, which is his family, over and against Pharaoh, who positions himself as the father in Egypt over all things. This bloodshed leads to new life. I can say all this with great confidence because of verse 26, which gives us the interpretation, even if it's a bit oblique. So he let him alone. At that time, she said, she had said, this is why she said, you are a bridegroom of blood, because of the circumcision. That's really where the focus is. Because of the covenant, the covenant sign, which is associated with the covenant itself. So we need to regard two things rightly out of this. In the first place, regard the sacraments rightly. The sacraments is covenant obligations. We believe and we preach at this church that we are under obligation to God to present our children for baptism, that they would bear the covenant sign because they are members of the covenant community. Even under age, before they can speak and profess faith, yet God has said they are set apart unto the Lord until such a time as they can rebel and run away or profess faith and embrace it. We regard them as a heritage from God and as disciples of God in our care. And we are to faithfully catechize them, but also to have them baptized and brought into the covenant visibly by that way. Sacraments are covenant obligations, but also recognize our salvation, and what this passage tells us about that. Salvation is by historical bloodletting and atonement. Our Savior was circumcised ritually and identified with his people, baptized with them in the Jordan, identified with his people, and then shed his blood on the cross with that identity with his people as the perfect Israel, God's firstborn only begotten son. And in so doing, in the shedding of his blood made atonement for their sins, for our sins. That happened in history. To say that Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth was crucified is an historical fact. And to say that he was crucified for our sins is a theological fact. fact of our salvation and So too he fulfilled the covenant in his shedding of blood in circumcision and on the cross and this episode Enigmatic as it may be is yet clear enough blood must be shed for the payment of our guilt and our debt due to sin and that blood is shed once for all by Jesus Christ to whom this episode points and You and I need a substitute. We cannot lay down our own lives as a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice. We're just not worth that much. But Jesus Christ is of infinite worth and perfection, perfect righteousness. And when our substitute dies, To make atonement for our sin, it's up to us then only to receive that gift through faith, as an open hand, as God puts it into our hands, and through faith then to be found just in his sight, having been clothed in Christ's righteousness, even washed in his blood, as we testified. Moses here is sprinkled with the blood of a substitute and it saves his life. He who will give the Passover directive to all those in Egypt, namely Israel, who wish to be saved and claimed as God's own undergoes his own Passover deliverance even here in this episode. And God provides it all. He provides it because he's merciful. Merciful to Moses through his loving wife, Zipporah, but he's merciful to us preeminently in Jesus Christ, who loves his bride, who is the bridegroom of blood, you may say. and lays down his life for you and for me and all those who call upon him in truth. Have you done that? You children, have you cried out to Christ in whom you've been baptized? And have you cried out to him for salvation? And said, lay hold of me, oh God, as I lay hold of you. Lord receive me forgive me a sinner. I plead only the blood of Christ This is our plea and he is faithful to hear us The Savior says You are welcome come enter into your eternal rest and the captain says hoist the sails and It's time to go out onto the open sea. On his majesty's ship of history, that captain is the captain of our salvation, is Jesus Christ himself. He overrules, superintends, foreordains whatsoever comes to pass. Our sovereign God directs all the affairs of men and nations for the deliverance of his people, but why? Why deliver his people? For his own glory. And the Father ordains all things for the glory of the Son. And the Son does the same and accomplishes salvation for the glory of the Father. And the Spirit makes it known to us that Father and Son would be glorified together. This is true of your salvation. and of my salvation. It's all leading inexorably to and with great unswerving focus to the glory of our triune God. This is why all things happen. It's only for us to yield. But this too is subject to his sovereign deliverance. You must be born again. Pharaoh, dead in his sins, could only harden in his sins. But the one who is truly born again by the Spirit, is to be soft and tender and receptive to God and passes from one degree of glory to the next as he or she is conformed into the likeness of Christ. Is this your desire? Is this where you see your life trajectory going? Are you on HMS history as it were, even as the waves roll and crash about? All the glory belongs to the captain. He's the one at the helm, and all the mystery remains undisclosed with him. All we need to know in order to glorify and enjoy him is revealed to us in his word. What a wonderful, even an indescribable gift we have been given in this word that makes known to us God's sovereign direction of history, but God's sovereign deliverance of his people, resting on God's sovereign grace and love. to have a people to glory in his son, their captain. Let's stand together for prayer. Our Father and our God in heaven, we pray that you would be glorified in our lives, in our conversation this day and every day, in our study of the word, in our increase in grace and godliness. Lord, we pray that you would impress upon us the truth of your word, that we would indeed grow in understanding and delight, that our theology would blossom forth in doxology. Lord, be glorified now as we continue in our singing and in our fellowship and in our instruction. In Christ's name we pray, amen.