[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 05:00 p.m. or Wednesdays at 07:00 p.m. if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison church, you can find us
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[00:00:37] Speaker B: So this class, if you've been in here at all, is called the Life of Moses.
I get to kind of put a little bit of a twist on that because I had a really random situation happen where I got to go to Egypt. And real quickly, just because I know some of you are new, I'll give a brief overview of what we've done, and then this will probably be the last week that I will do this overview.
So these are just some of my pictures from Egypt. We're going to talk about that throughout this class. Moses on the historical timeline is a very, very important topic, especially with nonbelievers, because when you study books about, like, does God exist or not? For all the books where people say he does not exist, they normally have an entire chapter where they're like, well, first and foremost, they talk about these Israelites that were hundreds of thousands, if not millions of them in Egypt, and we can't find evidence for that anywhere. However, on this trip that I got to go on, there actually was quite a bit of evidence, not just subjective, but archaeological evidence, while there to get an idea of exodus and the life of Moses. Do not trust these sources that are the four most trusted sources for this topic.
Some of them are good in certain ways, but most of them normally aren't going to provide you, like, the best material.
My perspective on this topic is that Moses and the Israelites exited Egypt in 1446 BC. One kings, six one is my main reason for believing that. Where it gives a specific day to 480 years prior to this, other cultural factors. At the time, pyramids were already built. Like soon after actually Noah got off the ark. Just a few hundred years later, the pyramids were probably built, and then a variety of different things happened. With Abraham coming in Joseph coming in, et cetera, et cetera. I decided to include this slide this week just because I've had two or three people bring this up, but I won't read it. But in Genesis 46, there's actually a really interesting few verses where Joseph looks at his brothers and he basically tells them to be shepherds or to be like shepherds, and then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen, for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians. This actually helps kind of prove the idea that the Hyksos were in power while Joseph was there in Egypt, because the Goshen area, with avaris being the capital, which we talked about last week, was where the Hyksos people dwelled, and that's where they ruled from, but they ruled egyptian people that did not like them. And Hyksos people were shepherds. So when he says, hey, be like Hyksos and then live in Goshen, or be like shepherds and then live in Goshen, he's saying, live near other shepherds that like you and don't really wander out into the other areas of Egypt because they're not big fans of us right now.
If you want to see this, you can look at it later on. This is just how my timeline would work. The two main types of things just really interesting. Two main dates would either put us with Amenhotep II being the pharaoh of the Exodus, or Ramses II. And it's just really interesting because we have both of their mummies today. Like, we have both of these dudes dead bodies in cases, and we can stare at them, but that kind of put some historical perspective on it. And looking at those guys, it's like, wow. Like, this is real.
Exodus one and two, we already went over, we had a discussion of just Moses being brought up out of the water and his whole story. There we have some images of mud brick making found on walls in Egypt. We have pharaoh talking with a God, which would have shown that pharaoh would have been perceived as a God in that damn time. End of class one was in Exodus two.
This is where Moses is essentially raised, and then he kills an Egyptian, and he flees big time. Like, emphasis on the fear of God there.
Thutmose III, during this period, had likely, in my opinion, been the pharaoh, and he died while Moses was in Midian. And then AmeNhotep II, whose body we saw just a little bit ago, came to power.
Lots of meanings. And we'll talk more about some names. But EXodus in the original HebrEw, the title of this book would have been the book of names Moses meant to pull out or to draw out of the water. Horeb. Mount Horeb, which turned into Mount Sinai, was a place of dryness, essentially. Reuel, Jethro's original name, would have been friend of God. And then Jethro, that we see being his name throughout the remainder of the book of Exodus. This more likely would have been his title. So Moses was probably telling, like, his father, or saying that his father in law was just a respectful guy, which is a good thing to say about your father in law.
Zipporah means bird. Don't understand it, but we'll talk about her a little bit tonight. I think I may have understood a little bit more. Jochebed, that's Moses mother means yahweh is glory. Shipra and Pua bear, beautiful one and girl. So Pooh was probably the one helping Shipra get birth. Children. And then Miriam wished for child.
And then we talked about. This was goshen over here. This is Midian, 300 miles away, where Moses would have fled to during this period.
And then we talked about the name that is, like, the most important name of the whole Bible and the whole human history and any book that you ever read, which is I am who I am. My translation of it would essentially be I am the ising one. It would mean that God essentially is constantly active in the past, constantly active in the present, and will be constantly active in the future. It was some hebrew verbiage that doesn't really make sense there, which is why I used.
Trust me, I know it doesn't make sense.
I did not bring this up this past week, but I just wanted to say this. If you grew up with felt boards, like I did, this is what shepherds look like on felt boards for children.
This is a picture that I took in 2018 in Israel of what a shepherd in this area looked like.
There is not a lot of green there, if you notice. This kind of puts a whole new perspective on psalm 23. Maybe you lead me to green pastures and stuff like that. Like they weren't in a land of green pasture. Moses wasn't in that. He was in a dry, barren land, like this guy in Israel in 2018.
So just kind of put that in your mind when you're thinking about Moses shepherding Jethro's flock, leading them through the wilderness, meeting God on the mountain.
All right. And then I think this is where we got to. We got to God, essentially. We started talking about these pronouns that God was using, where he's essentially trying to say, I'm the one who's going to do this. I'm the one who's going to do this. I'm the one who's going to do this. You're just going to be my tool. And all that Moses hears in that is, I'm the one that's going to have to do this. So then he gives the we talked about the opposite of Isaiah six response. He says, here I am. Don't send me.
So that is where we are to start this class. And I will just say this.
I think we're going to get to it after the excuse portion that we're going to get to just be prepared for one of the weirdest things I've ever talked about in a bible class.
So Exodus, chapter four, verses one through 17.
I will just go ahead and read that.
So Moses answers, God, this is at the burning bush scene. What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, the Lord did not appear to you? Then the Lord said to him, what is in your hand? A staff. He replied, the Lord said, throw it on the ground. Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake. And he ran from it. And the Lord said to him, reach out your hand and take it by the tail. So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake, and it turned back into a staff in his hand. This says, the Lord is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you. Then the Lord said, put your hand inside your cloak. So Moses put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous. It had become as white as snow. Now put it back in your cloak, he said. So Moses put his hand back in his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. Then the Lord said, if they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile, pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground. Moses said to the Lord, pardon your servant, lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since. You have spoken to your servant. I am slow speech and tongue. The lord said to him, who gave human beings their mouths, who made them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go. I will help you speak and will help you and will teach you what to say. But Moses said, pardon your servant, lord. Please send someone else. Then the lord's anger burned against Moses, and he said, what about your brother, Aaron, the Levite? I know he can speak. Well, he is already on his way to meet you, and he'll be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth. I will help both of you to speak and will teach you what to do. He will not speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so that you can perform the signs with it. So this section of Exodus, chapter four, is discussed a lot, because Moses makes a lot of excuses, and that is very relatable, at least to me and probably to some of you guys as well. All of us are constantly making excuses for things that we don't want to do or reasons why we shouldn't do it. Moses first excuse dealt with people not trusting or believing what he had to say.
He looks at the burning bush, talks to the angel of the Lord or the Lord himself, and he says, but what if they don't trust me? And in my mind, that's valid. Moses right now is kind of in a weird place in his life. He's talking to a bush that's on fire. Like, it's pretty logical to say, what if I go to these hundreds of thousands of people and they don't believe my story right here?
But then God actually provides Moses signs to show other people. So, here's my question for us.
My first initial response to this was, man, wouldn't that be cool if God could provide me some signs so that when I talk to people about him, they could say, all right, where's your proof? And I could be like, rod, snake, boom, God.
But that is not how it is.
However, when I started to think about this more and more and more, I started to realize, you know what? There are some signs, at least, that I could think of. So what are signs we have today that help us to have confidence in showing other people the truth of God?
[00:12:58] Speaker C: I know for me, being from, like, an engineering background, just seeing the exactness and how perfect the world may be able to support human life for us to even be here.
To me, it's just an overwhelming sign.
I just don't see any possible way that it just randomly happened.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: Yeah, get Mike Houtz in this class, and he'll teach the rest of it like he'll just keep going on that subject.
[00:13:26] Speaker C: Romans 120 says, for since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, understood from his workmanship. So that men without excuse just look around.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Perfect. Exactly, Shannon.
[00:13:40] Speaker D: So us recently, going through a lot of greek in our family, we've had numerous people just ask how, like, we.
[00:13:49] Speaker C: Can have such a peace about it.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: So that they don't really notice a.
[00:13:54] Speaker D: Piece in a really difficult.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm literally going through a class right now called suffering, and it is like one of the most interesting, just mind boggling classes ever because so many people try to prove that God doesn't exist because they start with their suffering. But then the ironic thing, I was reading this CS Lewis writing based upon this, and he actually starts with the premise, here's the crazy thing. People have suffered throughout time, and yet look at all of these different religions that just decide, like, there is a good goddess out there. In the end, it's almost the exact opposite of where other people are starting suffering. And the pain that we feel with that is obviously incredibly difficult. But there's truly, truly, once you realize it, it's like opening your eyes, only one true possible kind of relief, in my opinion, from it. And it's just knowing what future we have and having christian brothers and sisters are able to support us in that.
Any other signs you all can think of?
[00:15:13] Speaker C: Well, back on the engineering front, the engineers use trees and the way they sway the wind to design their buildings, to swing them in, airplanes first built observing birds and other animals, how they hover. How can we mimic that? So again, it's back to God's nature.
[00:15:37] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: It's perfect. And we use it to build our stuff. And it works, too.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And think about this there. Oh, Wesley, I don't know how there's.
[00:15:50] Speaker C: Anybody in the medical field that can possibly say there's not a guy when you live in body. I mean, I remember taking amp in high school. Man, this is deepen. At the next level in college, man, this is deep. I took advanced these, like, it's just.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Deeper and deeper, never ending intricate detail.
[00:16:05] Speaker C: About how the human body works.
It just blows my mind that there's anybody in the medical field that could even think they're not a guy.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Outside of those things. I mean, again, my brain just started, like, going off a million different directions, which caused me to ask this question.
I think the Holy Spirit is a pretty big one in terms of, like, providing answers and stuff. For other people that love, joy, peace, patience, cascades, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, like we aren't going to have those in the ability or the way that we have those without the spirit.
You think of other aspects of that, John, I guess. Chapter 13, by this the whole world will know that you're my disciples, by the love that you have for one another. Well, I look out at the world and there are a lot of people in the world who are really loving parents of children and are really close friends. However, what Jesus is trying to say, there is, there is a type of love that is even unknown to the world beyond those things. And that is a type of love that christians are called to have that then exhibits the truth of who God is in the end, by the way, that we love one another. Alright, so his second excuse, he starts with like one and you guys already can see this. And then he starts over here and then he goes totally different direction. He goes, alright, God. Well, that was a pretty good answer and that's pretty cool that you're giving me all these miracles, but now I'm not a good talker, which is just kind of wild, like just imagining yourself being able to turn the nile to blood, being able to throw a rod on the ground, having this leprous thing happened. I'm not a good talker, God.
So how can we keep our lack of ability from getting in front of God working?
Because so often, I guess the reason I'm asking this question is I look at a person that I might not connect to, or I see a situation that I might desire to handle for God's glory, but then I say, you know what? I'm not good at that. Or I'm too nervous about that, or I won't connect in whatever way. How do we keep our lack of ability from getting in front of God working through us when we put our.
[00:18:31] Speaker D: Focus on the fact that God is going to be the one that gives the increase. So I might be the vessel, but who knows what it is that I might say.
But it's not me doing anything, it's goddesse.
[00:18:44] Speaker B: I think that is. I don't think there's a better answer than that. God in all of this makes it very explicitly clear to Moses, I am the one doing the work. You are just the tool in the midst of this. And I think we just constantly have to remember, I'm the vessel, I'm the tool. It's not up to me. This is up to God in the end. And if this is really truly for his glory. It's going to work out.
And then Moses final excuse. It's just so funny to me. He tries this direction over here, and then he tries this direction way over here, and then he says, God, will you just please send somebody else? Like, I don't want to do this.
So I don't know. This is a similar question, but how can we remember to keep God's will in front of our own desires?
[00:19:40] Speaker D: I was just thinking about how I.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Had thought about it before.
[00:19:43] Speaker C: Moses might be thinking, well, I'm happy here.
[00:19:47] Speaker D: You know, I like being a shepherd.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: And I'm happy here, and I don't.
[00:19:51] Speaker D: Want to step out of my comfort zone.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Yep, there's so many like, and we'll talk a little bit if I have time, I'm trying to make time, but we'll talk a little bit about, like, Hebrew literature in this class, just a touch on it. But there's so many stories throughout the Old Testament, and then Jesus really pushes them in the New Testament about God just trying to get his people to go somewhere. Like, just leave, just go somewhere else. And then that all kind of, like, comes to a front with Jesus saying, go into all the world and be disciples to every nation. I mean, I think about the tower of Babel where God is like, all right, these people are all speaking the same language. This is getting a little bit dangerous. Leave, go out, spread out.
But then constantly you see Moses doing it here, then you see the Israelites doing it later on. It's this constant, don't be comfortable in yourself in your moment. Rather get comfortable being uncomfortable. Just get comfortable abiding in me and allowing me to work through you in these situations.
I think this God's will in front of our own desires, like that has to be like, the crux of where sin exists in my mind, like, most all sin that I can think of other than maybe one or two different types, revolves around selfishness.
This is just something that I think each and every one of us have to practice on a daily, hourly, second by second basis on how to put my will or my desires down here and how to put God and his desires at the front. And then this is just really unique to me. I never caught this until I did this reading. But you can see where I read it out right here.
The Lord's anger burned against Moses after he gave all of these excuses. And then he says, what about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well, but then he says he is already on the way to meet you.
And I just thought that was fascinating because God not only doesn't even give Moses the ability to respond to that question, but God has already worked out a way to where Aaron is already on the way in the midst of this conversation, before the excuse is even made. Like, this is a 300 miles journey, and Aaron is marching through this desert land now.
So with regard to that, here's the question I thought of.
Despite God's anger, God had already put into motion a plan to help Moses. What can this show us about God's nature or about who God is?
[00:22:48] Speaker D: I think it's twofold. So I think that he is a. He is a father who truly cares about his creation in all aspects, but I think on the second fold of that, it shows. I mean, it's more evidence to the engineering and to the medical field. Like, just. He didn't just create something face value, like, he knows all the intricate details.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:23:12] Speaker D: And I feel like his plan from the very beginning, even though we have free will, I know he has had a plan, and it includes me in my life as well as Moses and all that he's about to live out.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Absolutely.
It goes back to your weird statement earlier. It doesn't make sense of God. What did you say? God is the ising one.
I can't write my mind around it because he's already put something in motion in the future. But then he also has in the present a reaction, an emotional reaction to Moses disobeying them, even though he knew it was going to happen. He just is.
He knows and he is. And he has.
[00:24:02] Speaker C: Points to this overpowering nature.
Moses can make any excuse he wanted to, and theoretically, he could have actually not done it. But God's will is always going to overpower anything. And whatever will God has for our lives, whatever will God has in general, we can mess it up along the way. We can choose not to follow God's will, but his will is going to be done regardless of the actions that we take in the world. There's nothing that we can do to stop it.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:24:31] Speaker C: I think it also shows that God.
[00:24:35] Speaker B: Caring and understanding about what we consider our own insecurities and things that we.
[00:24:41] Speaker C: Think are gonna are hurdles, you know, for us in our lives. And Moses obviously has insecurities, right?
[00:24:49] Speaker B: That he presented us before God. And yet, despite that, God said, here's how I can help you overcome the insecurities so that my will can still be done.
[00:24:58] Speaker C: So I think that's pretty powerful.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: Think about it, right?
[00:25:01] Speaker C: Own insecurities and things in our lives that we consider hurdles.
[00:25:08] Speaker D: Kind of building off of that. I'm a teacher, and a lot of times parents, like, if they complain about test raids, they think that I'm like, out to get their kid. And I kind of see a little bit of that here. Not that God's out to get Moses, but the fact that he has a Moses is going to do it, but he's going to help him. He's putting things in motion to help Moses be okay with that. I think it shows some mercy.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
The same CS Lewis book that I was reading had a little passage in it where it said, cs Lewis says, God is not a grandfather, he is a father. And the way that he describes it, and he says, God is not this grandfather in heaven who just gives treats to his people and wants to see them happy and says, look at them having a good day. I will make everything perfect in this situation. Rather, he is a father that because of his love, sometimes causes suffering to happen for his people to push us to make us better, to make us more like him, to make us holier in the way that he is holy. It's that becoming comfortable, being uncomfortable type of thing.
You have something keep in mind, though.
[00:26:30] Speaker C: At least, I think if we're not y'all attack, there is a time that God's patience will run out.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And you keep on rejecting, I mean, with the Egyptians.
[00:26:49] Speaker C: But that's the reason I can't do this, God. I can't speak. I can't. I'm just not good enough. What if Pharaoh won't answer? Or what if he won't listen? Well, he's not going to listen. So eventually, just like he did in Noah's day, northern kingdom, southern kingdom, and the Israelites in general, he finally rejects.
Eventually he's going to reject. So now skip verse 24.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I'll talk about it. But all of this also exists in God's eternal will. Like God has both his will that he desires right now, which is for all men to be saved. Like he wants good to happen. But his eternal will is there's going to be a group of people with him in heaven, and there are going to be a group of people who are not with him in heaven one day.
One of the things that is different in this story than certain aspects of today is that Moses, the israelite people, all of them back then were part of his eternal will. Like, these are the people of God who are going to do the thing that gets Jesus to come on the scene. This is part of God's plan.
Which may help him seem to be a little bit more patient with Moses sometimes. Other times, maybe not. All right, so Lynn brought it up. So we're going to get into the weird section, exodus 418 30. I'll go ahead and read it, and then I think we'll have a little bit of time to get uncomfortable.
So then Moses went back to Jethro, his father in law, and he said to him, let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive. Jethro said, go, and I wish you well. Now, the Lord had said to Moses and Midian, go back to Egypt for all those who wanted to kill you are dead. So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and started back into Egypt, and he took the staff of God in his hand. We're just going to stop right there real quick. I'll go ahead and ask this discussion question now, while I'm thinking about it.
Did Moses just tell his father in law the truth?
Moses had just been told by God at the burning bush, after giving all of these excuses, go and set your people free. Get your people out of Egypt. I will be with you. I'm the one who's going to work through you. And then Moses comes to Jethro's father in law, and he goes, hey, your excellent mister father in law. Can I return to my people in Egypt and see if any of them are still alive?
Is that what he just talked to God about?
That's not what I just read in the story.
So do you think Moses was telling his father in law the whole truth? You know my answer at this point, my answer is no. Maybe there's somebody that can work out a way to where that could have been the truth. But regardless of if you told him the whole truth or not, I think he didn't. Why can it be hard for us to completely be truthful about our faith sometimes?
[00:30:02] Speaker C: One of the things that's interesting, you go back in the earlier chapters, and Jethro was actually referred to as a priest in media.
And so I wonder if the respect that he had for him is more than just being his father in law. That respect for him is, at least among that group of people, is a quote unquote, religious authority. And it makes me wonder if that's not maybe part of why he didn't go into the whole truth. I'm not saying he didn't, that he told the truth. I'm just saying the question is why?
[00:30:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it could be. And Moses hasn't seen what's to come. But, like, Moses is about to march out of Egypt in chapter 18 with a million plus Israelites and coming to Jethro. And Jethro's like, what?
I guess they are still alive.
[00:30:57] Speaker D: Maybe Moses also didn't fully believe.
[00:31:00] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Yep. Yep. I think just sometimes, and we're going to talk about this a lot in this class. This is another theme we've talked about, names and deliverance and fear. Another aspect that I can't put in. Just a one word thing at the moment that we see throughout this book is just almost like a ridiculous unbelief in God, in the midst of the most miraculous moments ever. Like, Moses just talked to God in a burning bush.
He walks away from this scenario, and then he's. It's like, that's out of his mind. And he's like, all right, I'm too nervous to, like, tell the full truth right here. But then later on, we'll talk. We'll get to this. This will ruin a point in a later class, but do you guys realize that in the midst of the Israelites complaining, in the wilderness, in the midst of all of this just awfulness that happened for 40 plus years, there is a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud every single night, guiding their way everywhere, and yet they're still having this level of unbelief every single chapter. It seems. It seems so wild, but yet then I look at my own life and I can see the incredible things that God's done in my life. And then I also see how I can get nervous talking to someone or not tell the whole truth or not go as far as I should, just because I'm so not relatable to a God who is and is ing one. I live in the moment. I don't have this past, present, future always in my mind, but my goal is to put those things in my remembrance. All right, so how much time I got? All right, plenty time to talk about the weird stuff. So just to let everybody know, Moses has just been worked on by God at a burning bush. Moses has been told by God to go to Egypt. The Lord said to Moses, verse 21, when you return to Egypt, see that you perform before pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. In a later class, we are going to talk about hardening of his heart. Then Pharaoh said, this is what the Lord says. Israel is my firstborn. Then say to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says, Israel is my firstborn son. And I told you, let my son go so that he may worship me. But you refuse to let him go. So I will kill your firstborn son. And then I highlighted the weird stuff in blue. At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah, his wife, took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses feet with it. Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me, she said, so the Lord let him alone. At that time, she said, bridegroom of blood, referring to circumcision.
Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet Moses. He met Moses at the Mount of God.
Moses told Aaron everything. Moses and Aaron bring together the elders and the people of Israel. He performs these signs to them. They believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and they worshiped. So all of this section seems like it belongs and flows perfectly with everything that we've read so far, other than the blue stuff. And this is a very, very strange section. God has just told Moses, go into this land. Be a part of, like your people. Set them free. Go, go, go. And then, as Moses was going along the way, he's actually finally obeying God. The Lord met Moses and was about to kill him, it says. And then this just sick scene takes place.
And I. So I didn't know if people were interested in this. I know Lynn was.
So I decided to do what I'm really, really good at sometimes, in a sad way. And I went on a deep dive.
So I don't know if you've ever discussed this passage in your life, but you're about to.
And I'm just going to let you know, it is weird, and it will only get weirder as I discuss it. So, here we go. This is some of the stuff that I gathered. It's these two slides, and then we'll be done.
I like creating very well put together slides, but I just didn't know how to do this one because I had so much information. So we're just going to move from place to place and kind of figure this out. So, first of all, Moses wrote Genesis through deuteronomy. He wrote the Pentateuch. And in that pentateuch, there are a lot of writing styles that he actually utilizes that are incredibly, incredibly interesting. One of these interesting styles is, I don't know what you would call it, but it could essentially be, in my mind, the story of the sojourner that was almost killed. And this is a thing that Moses literally, like literarily, wrote about in a very specific way. But I also believe God acted in a very specific way in these situations. And the two other situations in the Pentateuch that are relatable to this story are the story of Jacob and the story of Balaam. And I want to show you guys how real quick.
Genesis 32, story of Jacob. Exodus four, story of Moses. Numbers 22, story of Balaam.
Jacob and Moses, at least left their father in law. Balaam, at the beginning of his story, leaves his father.
Jacob journeyed to meet his brother with his wives and his sons. Moses journeyed to meet his brother with his wifes and sons on a donkey. And then Balaam journeyed to the Israelites, who were brothers with one another on a donkey. Jacob encountered God, where he spent the night with an uncertain reception.
God encountered Moses in an angry way as he spent the night with an uncertain reception. And God encountered Balaam in an angry way with an uncertain reception. Jacob left with his staff, Moses took his staff. Balaam took his staff. Jacob was spared by an angel who spoke to him. Moses was saved by his wife, who spoke to him. Balaam was saved by a donkey, who spoke to him.
Jacob left an encounter injured. Moses left an encounter injured with blood on him. And then Balaam left an encounter injured with a crushed foot. Jacob met and kissed his brother. Moses at the end, meets and kissed his brother. But then also in the midst of all three of these stories, Jacob is crossing a border. He's going from Mesopotamia to Israel. Moses is crossing a border, he's going from Midian to Egypt. Balaam is crossing a border to meet the Israelites in the end.
Now, all of those passages in the Hebrew also utilize a bunch of the same words. And what I mean by that is, like, how I might say at the beginning of a sentence, nevertheless, they did yada, yada, yada. But some other point, I might say, because of this or despite the fact that this happened, well, it would be the equivalent of each of these stories sentences kind of starting with nevertheless, nevertheless, nevertheless, it's something that you see over and over. And it seems that in these stories that are in the midst of other things going on that seem separate and apart and weird, that something important is happening that God is trying to draw attention to, and that Moses is trying to draw attention to all of them in the midst of the pentateuch, by then using the same literary styles in the midst of all of those happenings.
And the main thing that I think that is being trying that is attempted to be brought up in these three passages, specifically the sextest four situation is a sealing or an approval of an identity by God. These people in these stories did not, and I'll explain this, have an identity that was completely 100% on God's side prior to these stories. And at the end of these stories, their identity was sealed as a person that is part of the winning team. So. Oh, I'm going to try to speak so fast right now. Be ready. All right, so how does this explain sealing the identity? Abraham Covenant. Genesis 17, circumcision. That was the circumcision covenant where the people of Israel or the people, or the hebrew people, those born after Abraham, were meant to be circumcised. I don't know if you have ever thought about why the hebrew people used circumcision as a tool for that man. Time did a deep dive into it. It's actually very interesting.
This is not directly from the Bible, but this is what most jews believe. Prior to Genesis 17, Abraham and his wife decide not to get Sarah pregnant and trust in God's plan, but they get Hagar pregnant. Following this story, Sarah gets pregnant. This is where it gets kind of awkward. But in both of those situations, the thing that is used is Abraham's private parts there.
And God having him then sever a part of his private parts is both a call towards judgment and a call towards mercy. It is a call towards saying, you did this. That is against my will in a horrible way. To Hagar, this is your punishment, but your tool in this situation will also be used as a blessing in the future through Sarah and through others, as long as you obey my will. That is what most jewish people believe is the purpose for circumcision. An interesting question in this is, who is God trying to kill? The NIV or the ESV, which I've been using in this, say God sought to kill Moses. It's actually very ambiguous. It says God tried to kill him in the Hebrew. We don't know if it was Moses or if it was Gershom in this situation.
All right, this is really weird. Gets even stranger. Told you it would be awkward.
The word feet, zipporah through the foreskin or place the foreskin touch. The foreskin is the literal word. Onto Moses feet. In Isaiah, chapter seven, verse 20, there is an example of this, but this happens a lot in hebrew literature. The word feet in Hebrew oftentimes is an analogy for a male's private part.
What most scholars believe is actually happening here is Zipporah is taking this foreskin, is touching it to that region of Moses that is very much not his feet, and is saying, look at you. You are circumcised as you're supposed to be. Our son was not looking like you. And here is the evidence in this moment, right now.
Bridegroom of blood, there are two different perspectives. One perspective on bridegroom of blood is the poor saying, I'm mad at you because you got this bloody awful situation. And this just occurred to each of these. I'm split on which one I trust in. That's one thought process. Other thought process of bridegroom of blood is her saying, now we are truly Israel, or now we are truly Hebrews. We are now part of the same blood family. I was from Midian. You were a Hebrew, but you were a sketch Hebrew because you grew up with Egyptians. Now we're both part of the same blood.
Interestingly enough, we don't see Zippur again until exodus 18. And it's when Jethro says, you sent her back to me afterwards. So I don't even understand what happened there. We can ponder, maybe she got.
Maybe she was done with Moses after this. I don't know. All right. Other just interesting aspects literarily of this. Shipra and Zipporah, chapters one through four. They are the tail sides of each one. Shipra saves Moses as a baby. Zipporah saves Moses later on. In English, those seem very different. In the Hebrew, it would be Shipra and Zipra. In the end, those seem very, very similar. There's probably some meaningful aspect of that which kind of makes sense of Zipporah's bird name. All of a sudden, it was a name that sounded like this, and it was a way that they could have connected this story of final thing, and then I'll let you go.
Moses going through what the people of Israel were about, or are about to have to go through. Moses was delivered out of the waters. In chapter one, Moses runs from Egypt. Moses goes to Mount Sinai and is afraid of Goddesse. God provides for Moses in the wilderness. There is a Passover now, in this sense, where God commands the Israelites to put blood on the doorposts so that he will pass over them. All of a sudden, Moses has had blood placed on him, and God is passing by and deciding not to kill him. In a very real sense, this section, one through five ish, one through four ish, Moses goes through nearly everything that the people will have to go through. And that's probably because he's going to have to lead those people. And the best type of leader is a type of one who understands what they're going through and has been through what they're about to go through. So you may never talk about that section again.
