This morning we continue our journey through the book of Exodus, and today we arrive at a passage that is both foundational and perplexing. Fresh from his encounter with the living God at the burning bush, Moses is now tasked to go back to Egypt and lead Israel out of slavery. But his return journey is not without its difficulties. We see Moses navigating family dynamics, receiving further divine instructions, and experiencing a deeply unsettling incident involving his own family and the covenant of circumcision. This passage forces us to grapple with profound theological truths: God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility in the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart; and the foreshadowing of a greater salvation through a bloody sacrifice.
Our text is Exodus 4:18-31, and it is a text that challenges our assumptions and deepens our understanding of a God who is both mighty in power and intimately involved in the lives of His people.
Let's pray and turn our attention to God's Word.
Again our passage is Exodus 4:18-31, see our first heading this morning in v18-23…
Toward Egypt (v18-23)
“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 in 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. And 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.’”
Here we begin to see Moses’ return journey to Egypt, and the first thing we see him do is return to his father-in-law Jethro. Why? One reason is because Jethro is his father-in-law, and Moses desires his blessing before leaving. Another reason is that Moses has been the one shepherding Jethro’s flock, so he needs to return his sheep back to his care, so Jethro can find another shepherd. Yet another reason is the one Moses gives to Jethro in v18, he desires to leave in order to see how his fellow Israelites are doing. Do you find this to be interesting request? I do. I’m glad to see Moses identifying with the Israelites, yes, but I find it interesting because he mentions nothing about what just happened to him on the mountain. He mentions nothing about the burning bush, about God appearing to him, and about God calling him to go back to Egypt to deliver God’s people from slavery. Moses tells none of that to Jethro. Why did he leave all of this out? I don’t think Moses was trying to deceive Jethro. I think Moses said what he did in v18 because Moses himself was still struggling to process and believe everything that had just happened to him. Like many people, I think Moses was somewhere between belief and unbelief.[1]
Jethro’s answer is simple and straightforward, “Go in peace.” And we don’t hear of Jethro again until chapter 18 where he and Moses are reunited.[2]
So off Moses goes, or did he? I’m unsure of how much time passes between v18 and v19 but I think some time does go by because the next thing we see happening in v19 is God speaking to Moses to encourage him to actually leave for Egypt. God tells Moses that all those who were seeking his life are dead, which means, Moses no longer has to fear returning to Egypt and facing former enemies. So what does Moses do upon hearing this? He leaves. We see it in v20. He packs up and all his family and his staff, and they ride out of Midian toward Egypt.
This moment in v19-20 is very similar to a moment much later on in Matthew’s Gospel when Joseph and Mary remain in Egypt until the death of Herod and only upon hearing of Herod’s death do they return home. Just as Moses knew it was safe to return to Egypt when Pharaoh died in our text, so too Jesus’ parents knew it was safe for them to leave Egypt and go home in Matthew 2. This isn’t the only foreshadowing in our text, more will come soon.
As Moses and his family are leaving to return to Egypt God speaks again to Moses in v21-23 and in this moment Moses learns much from God. Two massive realities in fact.
First, God tells Moses he’s to do the signs and miracles before Pharaoh, to reveal the power of God. So while these signs are intended to validate his calling and ministry from God with the Israelites, what does God intend to do in these signs with Pharaoh? See it? Through the signs He gave to Moses, God intends to harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he will not let the people go. This is the first time in Exodus we see the reality of God hardening Pharaoh’s heart, and this is important for us to see because this is a major theme throughout Exodus. I don’t think this should surprise us all that much really. We’ve already read back in 3:19 that Pharaoh won’t let the people go unless compelled by a strong and mighty hand, and in the plagues God will do just that.
But what does this language mean, God hardening Pharaoh’s heart? Throughout the Exodus event we’ll read about Pharaoh’s hardened heart in three different ways.[3] Sometimes we’ll see it phrased that God is hardening Pharaoh’s heart. Other times we’ll see it phrased that Pharaoh was the one who hardened his own heart. And at other times, we’ll see it phrased more generally, stating that Pharaoh’s heart was hard without telling us who did the hardening. Church, we affirm all of these. Too often people like to see this one way only, saying it was only God who hardened his heart, or only Pharaoh who hardened his heart. But as the Bible displays in many instances, here is the affirmation of both God’s full sovereignty and man’s full responsibility. So yes God was at work hardening Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not let the people go. This opened the way for the ten plagues were about to see, and thus, revealed the greatness and power of God over all the gods of Egypt. And yes, Pharaoh was a sinner himself who made bad choices that resulted in the hardening of his own heart, and thus in the same way, his choices paved the way for his downfall to come. As we keep on in Exodus and see more of these various statements of hardening, we’ll say more on them as we see them in their own context. For now, just notice this is the first instance of this theme, where we see God as the sovereign One at work, ordaining all these events for His glory and His people’s good.
So Moses has learned about God’s hardening of Pharaoh yes, but he learns more in v21-23. The second massive reality he learns about Israel’s sonship. For God, the Exodus is a family affair. See that detail in v22? God calls Israel His firstborn son. What does this mean? Simply put, it explains why the Exodus happens. Why did God go to all the trouble to strike the Egyptians to save His people? Because they belong to Him! The Exodus, then, is a story about a Father’s love for His son. How that Father rescued His son from great suffering to bring him out to the mountain to worship Him. God loves His son Israel so much, that for enslaving them, God warns that He will strike Pharaoh where it hurts the most by taking his own son away from him. God is a jealous Father.
Later on in OT the prophet Hosea will speak of this. In Hosea 11:1 God says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.” Much later on in the Bible, the NT picks up this thread and uses it to speak of Jesus. In Matthew 2, the very same text we mentioned earlier where we see Joseph and Mary leaving Egypt to return home after Herod’s death, Matthew says this in 2:15, “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’” What does this mean? By quoting Hosea 11 and Exodus 4:22 Matthew is showing how Jesus is retelling and summing up the story in Israel in Himself.[4] Since Israel disobeyed, Jesus has come to do what they should have done, so in His own life Jesus retraces Israel’s steps and at each point where they proved faithless, He proves faithful.
Lesson? Jesus is the true Israel of God, meaning He’s the true Son. There’s great encouragement to grab hold of here Church. This matters so much not only because it shows us more of the glory of Jesus, it matters so much because it shows us more of ourselves. We who believe in Jesus, what do we become upon believing in Him? We become adopted sons and daughters of God, who are so closely united to Christ that we’ll now never be without Him. So to trust in Jesus the Son is to become sons ourselves, and being sons we relate to God as our Father, and to read Exodus as a Christian is to see and know our Father for who He really is. Our strong and mighty God who will always defend us from our enemies and rescue us in the end. Amen!
As wonderful and clear as this is, we now move to something more difficult and unclear in v24-26.
Toward Death? (v24-26)
“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.”
This is a tough text indeed. Many of you actually requested we deal with this text in our current Sunday evening series on tough texts, but because we’re in Exodus on Sunday mornings we knew we’d arrive at this passage and would deal with it then. Well Church, here we are.
I have many questions about these three verses.[5] Question 1: who is God seeking to kill in v24, Moses or one of his sons? Question 2: if its Moses, why seek to kill him when God just labored with Moses to convince him to go to Egypt? Question 3: if its Moses, what did he do to anger the Lord? Question 4: why does it say God sought to kill him? Can’t God do whatever He desires to do? Is this evidence of God being unable to carry out something? Question 5: in v25 how does Zipporah immediately seem to know what to do to solve this problem? Question 6: why does she touch Moses’ feet with the foreskin she just cut off? Question 7: what does ‘bridegroom of blood’ mean? Question 8: who is the bridegroom of blood Zipporah is referring to? And question 9: why is God satisfied in v26 with Zipporah’s actions?
Anyone have any answers to these questions? This is certainly among the most difficult passages to understand in the Bible. Perhaps, we can view it like this. As they were resting during their travel, God sought to put Moses or Moses’ son to death. Why? Because of circumcision. I think it’s safe to assume this was the issue here, because v25-26 gives circumcision a central place. So what’s going on is that God was not going to let someone in this family get to Egypt due to circumcision.[6] But what about circumcision so angered the Lord? In v25 we see that Zipporah performed a circumcision on their son and then seemed to give Moses an emphatic remark, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” This leaves the impression that she was angry at Moses for not doing the circumcision, thus implying Moses was the guilty party in view, which Zipporah made up for by doing it herself, which allowed them to continue on their journey. If this is what happened Zipporah would then be another woman in these early chapters of Exodus who saves the day. After this, Zipporah took the foreskin and touched it to Moses’ feet[7], which seemed to signify that the blood serves as a covering or atoning sacrifice for Moses’ sin because v26 says “So He (God) let him alone.”
All in all, because of his sin Moses almost loses his life or the life of his son. God truly was about put someone to death, but when the blood covered Moses, God stayed His anger. This tough and strange text, in a deep way, prepares us for what’s to come.[8] The God who appears here in anger, ready to kill father or son is the same God who will meet Pharaoh in the plagues. This is the same God who will provide atonement for His people in the blood of the Passover lamb, that is, if they put the blood over the doors. Zipporah responded well by offering a bloody sacrifice to atone for sin. How will the rest of Egypt and Israel respond to God in that final plague?
How glorious to see it Church, here God makes a way through the blood. How beautiful to see it, and to see the greater moment this leads to far ahead to the cross of Christ. There it’s not the blood of circumcision, or the blood of a small lamb, but the blood of God’s beloved Son. His blood that speaks a better word, His blood that opens a better and more lasting way, His blood that can atone for all the sins of all who would come by faith. Just as God stayed His anger at Moses through this hurried circumcision, so too anyone who comes to the Son of God in faith won’t be met by an angry God out to kill, but a God of love eager to forgive and save and keep forevermore. Indeed, God makes a way through the blood.
Now, after working through a very complex passage, we end our text with clarity once again in v27-30 as we see a final summary.
Toward Worship (v27-31)
“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.”
These final verses of the chapter serve as a summary, moving us as the reader away from the scene at Sinai and the burning bush in chapters 3-4, toward the scene at Egypt in chapter 5 and beyond. Here we’re brought back to see more of what Moses and his family did before leaving for Egypt. We see Aaron heading out to meet Moses in v27. We see Moses telling Aaron all the words of God, and the signs of God, and we see them both set out for the people of Israel in v28. We then see Moses and Aaron gather the people, speak to the people, and perform the signs for all the people in v29-30.
It's a fast wrap up for sure. But does the fast pace surprise you? It's worth noticing how little space is devoted to this meeting between Moses and the people. I say this is worth noticing because this is the moment Moses was dreading and fearing, so much so that it caused him to doubt the Lord before the burning bush. But despite all his fears when the moment finally came, the moment went fine. Moses’ fear proved to be an invention of his own making. There's a big lesson in this for us. Worrying about what might happen in the future so much so that we doubt the Lord is a sin that can overburden the soul. Once Moses obeyed and went out to meet Aaron and the people, it went fine! Lesson? If God calls you to it, He’ll take care of you in it. There’s no need to worry. If you’re on a train and you enter a dark tunnel, you don’t jump off for fear of the dark, do you? No! You trust that the engineer knows what they’re doing even if you can’t see the tracks ahead. Church, when can see, when we cannot see, trust the Lord. He is God, and He is good!
Conclusion:
Hear v31 again, “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.”
Here at the end we see the people who Moses said would not believe, believe, and more, we see them worship God because of what He had said to Moses![9] This is right for them to do.[10]
We should take their cue.
We know more than Israel does in v31. We have not only heard of the Lord visiting us in the Person of His Son, we have read of it, and we have come to know and trust and love this beloved Son of God. Into our darkness Christ descended to save, and ascended to reign! We know the gospel offer, of freedom from all our sins, and freedom to enjoy God by glorifying Him forever.
The only right response to seeing these wonderful works of God, is to worship God.
[1] Philip Graham Ryken, Exodus: Saved for God’s Glory – Preaching the Word Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015) 113.
[2] Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus – NAC (Brentwood, TN: B&H Publishing, 2006) 143.
[3] Ryken, 114-115.
[4] G.K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011) 406-422.
[5] Victor P. Hamilton, Exodus: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2023) 81-82.
[6] Stuart, 152-153.
[7] Feet here refers to the male genitalia of Moses.
[8] Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, vol. 1 (New York, NY: Norton, 2019) 229.
[9] John I. Durham, Exodus - WBC (Waco TX: Word Books, 1987) 59.
[10] Ryken, 120.
