Moses Makes a Decision.  At Last. Exodus 4:16—31

 
Moses, despite the fact that he was slow to believe all that God was willing to do for him and through him, and despite the fact that his reluctance to obey caused him  to lose a great honor, finally came around to making a decision.  For the same reasons as Moses, many Christians are very slow to grow in grace, they fail, because of their unbelief, to take full advantage of all the blessings offered them in Christ; this is the honor of all believers.

1.  God’s concession to a coward, v.16, 17

God is full of grace and full of mercy, and as it appears to us, He is ever understanding of human foibles.  As a concession to Moses, God graciously arranged to have Aaron accompany him on his mission.  However, Moses paid a high price for his intransigence:  Aaron would receive the honor of leading the priesthood—which is foreshadowed by the reference to Aaron being “the Levite.”  As Kaiser noted, there is always a risk in questioning or declining the call of God; “it may be the forfeiture of divine blessing even though there is grace and mercy for the obstinate” (Kaiser, p. 329).  It is always wise to step out in faith, even if you are full of doubt.

God obviously knew Moses’ heart, because we read that Aaron was already on his way to Moses.  It was long journey from Egypt for Mt. Horeb, and we can only guess as to the exact reason why Aaron was coming to see Moses; perhaps it was with word that the king who had sought Moses’ death had himself died.  Whatever the reason, we see God’s omniscience in action, making all things work together for good, to accomplish His purpose.

Aaron would be the mouthpiece—the prophet—speaking only the words Moses would give to him.  Those words would first be given to Moses by God.  The phrase, it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him is toned down in Jewish writings to read “teacher” or “master.”  He is called “God” by God because he, Moses, would be the possessor of the divine Word, not Aaron.  Luther observes,

Whoever possess and believes the word of God, possess the Spirit and power of God, and also the divine wisdom, truth, heart, mind, and everything that belongs to God. 

This reminds us of what Paul wrote many centuries later—

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Cor. 5:20, NIV)

Finally Moses, apparently satisfied with this arrangement, picks up his staff.  In this chapter, the staff is seen as the secret of Moses success, because is symbolized three things, as noted by G.H. Livingston: 

• The full surrender of ones self to God;
• The means by which the people would recognize God’s presence;
• The avenue through which God’s power would be seen

(G.H. Livingston, The Beacon Bible Commentary, Exodus.  Kansas: Beacon Hill Press.  1965.  p. 186)

The staff, the ultimate symbol of an ordinary thing, when  used by God is transformed into something extraordinary.

2.  Preparing to leave, verses 18—20

A couple of things in these verses are interesting.  First, we see Moses leaving Sinai and returning to his father-in-law’s home to ask his permission to return to Egypt.  Aside from the fact that Moses is 80 years old, why would he need Jethro’s permission to do that which God has commanded?  The lesson for us is two fold:  (1) God’s call does not eliminate common courtesy and thoughtfulness; (2) God respects our human relationships, even though our relationship with Him is the most important one. 

But then notice the reason Moses gives his father-in-law for leaving:  Let me go back to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.  Why didn’t he tell him the truth?  This question has perplexed Bible scholars for a long time.  The Jewish commentators think it was simply modesty on Moses’ behalf. Calvin’s take is a bit different; he thinks Moses lied because men just don’t discuss spiritual things with other men.  With respect to Calvin, Mary kept God’s word to her to herself, treasuring it in her heart, Luke 2:19.  Sometimes it’s wise to keep what God has shown us to ourselves until the time is right to tell others.

So Moses begins the trip back to Egypt, accompanied by his family.

3.  Who hardens the heart?  Verses 21—23

These verses serve as a kind of summary for Moses.  God “rehearses” the main points of His plan for his servant, as to make sure Moses got all the details— 

• Moses will perform miracles in front of Pharaoh;
• Pharaoh won’t let the people go;
• Moses will tell  Pharaoh to let the Israelites go and worship
• Pharaoh’s refusal will result in the death of his first-born son.

The expression, I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go, is used here for the very first time.  This single phrase has caused more controversy in some quarters than any other sentence in the Old Testament.  All in all, there are ten references ascribing the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart to God (4:21; 7:3; 9:12; 10:1; 20,27; 11:10; 14:4; 8, 17).  However, what many people don’t know is that there are ten different verses that say Pharaoh hardened his own heart (7:13; 14, 22; 8:15; 18, 32; 9:7, 34, 35; 13:15).  This is suggestive that the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart was as much his fault as it was a direct work of God.   This is clear in the first 5 plagues; Pharaoh was the hardening agent.  It wasn’t until the 6^th plague that God stepped in, as He warned Moses He would do. 

In Pharaoh’s case, we have a rare opportunity to see how the process works.  Livingston points out the three steps of the heart-hardening process: 

• The person knowingly hardens his own heart (8:15).  Pharaoh set his mind to resist and oppose God’s will and thus made how own heart more stubborn.
• As a result, the heart is hardened by the action of psychological laws.
• When God saw that Pharaoh was determined to resist, He directly hardened the heart (9:12, etc).

This is God’s judgment upon the individual.  God never, ever causes a person to be sinful.  James wrote this— 

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. (James 1:13—15, NIV) 

When people are determined to go their own way; when they set their wills against God’s will, God hands them over to their sins, as Paul said in Romans 1:24— 

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 

This is also Paul’s prescription for dealing with an unrepentant sinner in the church— 

[H]and this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.  (1 Cor. 1:5, NIV) 

God shows mercy to those who call upon His Name, but harden those who resist Him— 

Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.  (Rom. 9:18, NIV) 

Modern man doesn’t like those kind of verses; a “God of love” makes us feel much more comfortable.  But— 

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. (Gal. 6:7, NIV).

If you sow a hardened hard, you will read a hardened heart.  Or as the prophet Hosea so eloquently wrote: 

They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. (Hosea 8:7a) 

4.  The bloody husband, verses 24—26

We come now to three of the most puzzling verses to understand in the entire Bible.  Moses was being obedient to God in returning to Egypt, but he had failed God on one point. In fact this failure was so devastating, God had to take drastic action:  He attacked Moses en route to Egypt.  The exact nature of this “attack” is not known to us; it may have been some disease that came upon him suddenly.  But his wife’s unexpected and sudden response suggests that she connected her husband’s malady with their failure to circumcise their son.  She grabbed the knife and proceeded to do so without Moses’ help because, apparently, he was unable to assist in the operation.  God had already instituted the rite of circumcision for all the sons of Israel, but for some reason, Moses had missed one of his sons. 

Despite his wife’s valiant actions, her words of disgust and reproach—Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me—indicate that Moses had likely not circumcised his second son in order to please his wife.  But God demands obedience of those would serve Him.  God brought Zipporah to this realization by almost killing her husband.  Her obedience to God resulted in his healing, but apparently also resulted in Zipporah returning to Midian.

5. A family reunion, verses 27—31

With no break in the narrative, we find Moses meeting Aaron at Mt. Horeb.  God did all the work: he prepared the hearts of both men, but especially the heart of Aaron, who apparently accepted all the Moses told him.  They “kissed,” symbolic of Aaron’s complete trust in what his brother had told him. 

So Moses begins his mission.  He watches his brother speaking the words he should have spoken, and he watched Aaron performing the miracles he should have been performing.  We can only wonder how Moses felt.

However, the result was exactly what the Lord predicted: the elders of Israel heard and believed and they worshiped the Lord. 

On that note, I imagine Moses was very pleased.  Little did he know he was about face an opponent as evil as Satan himself.