Ordering Your Private World 2 - Exodus Part 8 Series

INTRODUCTION

• The hardest thing about ministry is relationships.

• Relating to those above us, beside us and below us is crucial for ministry success.

• There is no ministry outside of relationship.

• This encompasses all the key relationships in Moses’ life: Moses/Jethro, Moses/Zipporah, Moses/Aaron, Moses and elders.

• Moses did well with those above him. God and Jethro, his boss, priest and father-in-law.

But he was a woeful failure with those in his trust – leadership.

Exodus 4:19-20, 19”Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, ‘Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.’ 20So Moses took his wife and his sons and mounted them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the staff of God in his hand.”

• This ought to be a time of excitement and release, instead it is a time of disobedience danger and judgment for Moses.

• Moses has been empowered to do supernatural wonders, with his staff.

• God had opened a realm of authority, spiritual authority and entrusted Moses with great power, but Moses had issues.

• We run headlong into one of the most awkward Scriptures in all of the Bible.

• Ever been around a couple who has a fight? You wish you could disappear? That is Moses and Zipporah.

I. A SAD REALITY

• A sad reality is so many of us disqualify ourselves from destiny and ministry due to relationships that are out of order.

• Our homes, wow great place of humility.

• Come to church and move in healing and power and get in the car and have a fight on the way home.

• We all struggle with personal issues/relationships.

• Vs.24-25 - Glimpse of Moses’ issues.

• This is like being in a room with a couple arguing. The story is angry, full of history and explosive.

• Moses’ personal life is out of order, that is a nice way to say it’s a mess!

vs. 24-26 NLT, 24”On the way to Egypt, at a place where Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the Lord confronted him and was about to kill him. 25But Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She touched his feet with the foreskin and said, ‘Now you are a bridegroom of blood to me.’ 26(When she said ‘a bridegroom of blood,’ she was referring to the circumcision.) After that, the Lord left him alone.”

• There is difficulty all over these verses, their brevity, the reality that God worked 40 years with Moses and now he would take him out?

• It is important to say Moses wrote the words!

• God comes to Moses with judgment, but clearly if Moses doesn’t get his home together he has no ministry.

• Now let’s understand the context. Moses is told to go to Pharaoh and make a declaration.

Vs.22-23, “Tell Pharaoh Israel is my son…to let my son go that he may serve me or I will take your son your firstborn.”

• So we are dealing with sons here.

• God’s sons, Pharaoh’s sons and Moses’ sons.

• Exodus 18:2 - We are told he had two sons.

• He clearly saw he couldn’t confront Pharaoh about his son when he hadn’t taken care of his own son.

• The key to the story lies with Zipporah and her statements.

Vs. 25-26, “Now you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26(When she said “a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.)

• What you have here is a long term marital battle of wills, Zipporah’s and Moses’.

• Moses was a Hebrew, thus he would have been circumcised the 8th day… according to word.

• This was God’s mark on His people. Many of us say, “Wow what is that about?”

• Good question. It is God putting His mark on a man’s identity. When you were born what was the first thing they used to say?

• They looked at your genitals and depending on what they saw they said,”It’s a boy” or “it’s a girl.”

• This was the beginning point of your identity and God said mark that place.

II. A MARRIAGE’S WEAKNESS

• This wasn’t new stuff but it was not going to go under the carpet any longer. It was disqualifying.

• Moses had a call and a marriage, they are tied together.

• Zipporah is steaming mad here. She takes a knife and circumcises her boys and throws the foreskin at Moses. Fights where people throw things are usually indicators that people are blowing up everywhere.

• What is she so mad about? She is not a Hebrew. Moses must have spoken to her about circumcision and his people at some point and gotten a rude reception.