Conference yukon::christian_v7

    Welcome Colin!
    
    As you read the account of God's calling to Moses starting verse 1,
    Moses was very stubborn against what God called him to do.
    
    Exodus 4:1  And Moses answered and said, but, behold, they will not
    believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, the LORD 
    hath not appeared unto thee.
    
    Moses' refusal to obey the Lord was going to cost him.  God is just and
    disobedience will be rewarded.  It may seem harsh that God was going to
    take his son, but God knew what it would take to bring Moses into
    submission.  
    
    It appears as though Zipporah tricked her husband into believing that
    his son may have been slain.  For she says thou art a bloody husband
    and when God spared their son, she then tells him because of the
    circumcision.  God used Zipporah to bring about the reality of the loss
    of his son in order break Moses' stubborness.
    
    Moses felt inadequate to be the messenger of God.  How many of us feel
    inadequate when God calls us.  Why we say, Lord, I've sinned against
    thee and I'm not qualified to serve in this area.  And we rebel against
    the very calling and nudging of His Spirit.
    
    I think of the wayward soul who knows God is calling him back and
    oftimes its not until they reach the bottom before they lift their eyes
    up and obey the beckoning call.
    
    I think of my husband who has known the Lord's grace many times [he's
    alcoholic], one of his loves is his money.  He finds all of his
    security in money and it took a recent drunk driving which took quite
    a bit of his savings for his security to be shaken...  Now finally
    after years of rejection, he's looking upwards.
    
    Maybe this hasn't helped... you'll have to let me know.

Hi Colin, 

God had a very significant role for Moses to fill.  Moses was to be a
unique prophet (Numbers 12:6-8, Deuteronomy 34:10-12), prefiguring our LORD
Himself (Deuteronomy 18:18).  Moses had to be prepared to occupy this place
before the LORD, on behalf of Israel.  This meant that he had to walk very
carefully within the laws that God had laid down.  More carefully than the
rest of Israel, otherwise he would bring judgement upon himself. 

Hence it was very important that Moses led his family according to the law.
Otherwise, he couldn't expect to lead the rest of the nation (cf 1 Timothy
3:5) 

In Genesis 17, the covenant of circumcision was given to Abraham.  This is
the only aspect of God's covenant which requires a specific token deed for 
the recipient to stay in the covenant.  If an Israelite man did not submit 
to circumcision, he was to be cut off from the people and the covenant 
(Genesis 15:14).  This obedience was a very important ceremony.

Moses had married a woman who was not an Israelite, who was unlikely to 
recognise the special nature of Israel's relationship with God.  For Moses 
to perform the circumcision on his sons was apparently something Zipporah 
had balked at.  Yet Moses had to learn to put God's command before his 
wife's reluctance.  So Moses had to come to this testing place before he 
would be ready to face Israel in leadership.  The events of the pentateuch 
demonstrate God's dealing with Moses, as well as God's dealing through 
him...

'Blood' is the token of sacrifice, without which there is no forgiveness of 
sin (Hebrews 9:22).  The token blood referred to in Exodus 4:25-26 also 
indicates an acceptance of God's grace, instead of the way of man's 
rebellion.

I hope this helps some..

						God bless 
							Andrew

re.0

	It means that God could never compromise His righteous and holy nature
or allow His servants to do so either.

	As a Hebrew, Moses should have circumcised his children. For whatever
reason he didn't. Perhaps it was his love for his wife (who wasn't Hebrew and
obviously didn't like the custom). This seems possible given her reaction. In
any case, the point is that Moses did not cut off the flesh. Physically the
flesh of his son, spiritually his own. His own in the sense that he was
attempting to carry out a major mission for God, without a thorough dealing and
cutting off of the flesh.

	We ourselves, if we want to be of any use to the Lord, must be
circumcised in heart. Otherwise God will cut us off from His service. All the
fleshly things must go.

Regards,
Ace

    .2 / .3
    
    I had considered the disobedience of the circumcision, and that is a
    GREAT point, but [sorry for my questions] the point as I read it was
    obedience in general.. Moses was denying God's service multiple times
    through the text... dontcha think?

Re .4, Nancy

� the point as I read it was obedience in general.. 

Yes, but for some people this wouldn't have been so critical.  Moses' 
calling made it imperative for him to learn the hard lessons quickly.

It was Moses privileged position before the LORD that made his failing in 
Numbers 20 so critical as to prevent him from entering the Promised Land.  
For anyone else, it wouldn't have had the same significance.  But then, 
no-one else was able to...

� Moses was denying God's service multiple times through the text... 
� dontcha think?

He sure tried to duck out of it - to the point of testing God to the limit, 
it would seem (Exodus 4:13-14).  However, I rather think that is where 
God's mercy finds the man who is so humble that he doesn't steal God's 
glory, so that God could do a great work through him, and at the same time,
that same humility brings out the reluctance to do something for which he
knows he doesn't have the personal ability or strength. 

Does this add up?

							Andrew

    Yes it does add up.  It seems your focus is on the law being obeyed and
    Moses being accountable versus the attitude of obedience which is what
    I was zoned in on. :-)  I actually think our views compliment and
    collide.
    
    Nancy

re.4 and .5

	Nancy and Andrew,

	It all sounds applicable to me.

	The thing I remember about Moses is that he tried to carry out God's
service before and failed. He ended up murdering an Egyptian and calling upon
himself the reproach of his own countrymen whom he was trying to deliver. He was
relying totally upon his natural strength and God couldn't use it. So God
arranges a seminar 8*) for Moses on the back side of the desert for 40 years.
Yet even after that dealing there was still something in the way (the case with
his son's circumcision). 

	The flesh cannot have even the slightest toehold in God's service.

ace 

    Thanks for the help !
    
    It looks like it was the son whose life God spared through the act of
    circumsision . I can live with that .
    
    Looks like everything will fall into place the further I read on !
    
    thanks for all your help !
    
    Colin