Ask Pastor Mike Live

Mike Fabarez: Ricky, if you're still watching, why did God want to kill Moses because he didn't circumcise his son? That's in Exodus chapter five. That is an interesting passage. Zipporah, his wife, understood it and she knew this was a problem. She immediately cuts off the foreskin of their son and throws it at Moses' feet and says, "You almost got us killed here."

Circumcision is something that God is requiring as a sign of the covenant between Israel and himself, not the church. So if you don't circumcise your son, there's no problem with that. It is a confusing passage there in Exodus 5, whether she's hating the process or hating having to do this to her son, but there's some obvious revulsion to this whole thing. Either way, God is saying you better do what I've asked to be done.

This is 600 years after the institution of circumcision back in Genesis when Moses was given this sign. It's not unique to Israel, but it is something that God has done. I say that only because this isn't only done in Israel. All throughout Old Testament history, it's done in other countries too. Not all of them, obviously. Philistines and others are famously known as the uncircumcised and it came to represent those who were eating their pork and their ham sandwiches that were taboo for Israelites.

But foreskin has no meaning, as it says in First Corinthians. Circumcision or uncircumcision today in the church age means nothing, anymore than someone wearing a breastplate with 12 stones in it. It doesn't matter. It mattered a ton in the ceremonial law of the Old Testament. It matters nothing today. So circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing. Whether you avoid pork means nothing. Shellfish—none of this matters. The kosher laws don't matter.

But it did matter then and Moses was remiss in not circumcising his son. He knew better. Think about it, even in Egypt, Moses clearly knew this. He was the most educated Israelite there was and he should have known. He did know. God wouldn't come at him in judgment if he didn't know. To think, "Wow, that seems serious to kill him," well then go to First Corinthians and look at Paul talking about people that are turning the Lord's Supper into a potluck where they're favoring their friends and the rich instead of doing what the Bible says and taking these elements in remembrance of Christ.

He says some, because you're doing this wrong, are weak, some are sick, and some have even died. So God is willing, as he did with Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, or in the Old Testament with the sons of Aaron, he's willing to show how serious he is about sin when it's known. This kind of full knowledge. Ricky, that's what's going on and that's the problem. The problem is if you know better, and no one knew better than Moses, if you know better and you don't do what God has asked you to do, he's going to come in judgment.

Co-host (Male): Especially for someone like Moses. Not only did he have full knowledge, more knowledge than anybody else in Israel, but he was a leader. He was God's chosen leader in all of this. So God's going to hold them to a high standard.