The Word Made Plain

Tony Clark: It says that Moses' wife, Zipporah, took a knife and cut the foreskin of her son. We know there were sons plural because she had two sons. She did a type of circumcision and threw the foreskin at the feet of Moses and said in Exodus 4:25, "Surely you are a husband of blood to me." Then it says that God let Moses go after this. These are very strange and bizarre verses for our American ears.

What was going on in this story is that Moses was about to go and lead three million Israelites out of Egypt and into a covenant relationship with God through circumcision. Moses had not even circumcised his own boys. It is as if God was saying, "I will not let you lead my people into a relationship with me when you haven't even led your own family in this relationship with me."

The implication is that Moses' wife didn't want Moses to cut on her babies, and he didn't circumcise them because of her. Because of this, God was about to take Moses out. Zipporah gets in her feelings and gets upset and circumcises them, so that lets me know that she knew what this was all about. She circumcised them; obviously, Moses must not have been able to move or something. She took a knife, circumcised them, and then threw the foreskin at the feet of Moses.

What did Moses do? He sent her back to the house. Why? Because she would have hindered the work of God that He called Moses to do. This is why in 1 Corinthians 7:29, Paul would later say, "The time has come when those who have wives should be as though they have none." What he is saying is that you should not let anyone, even your wife, hinder you from what God has called you to do.

I can imagine Moses standing before Pharaoh, saying, "Let my people go," and all of a sudden Moses' cell phone rings. It is Zipporah. "Moses, you'd better not be at Pharaoh's house again talking about letting your people go. He ain't letting your people go. Now get to the house, Moses. While you're at it, can you stop and get some milk and some bread?" He had to send her back to the house because she would have hindered him.

This is why Paul later said those who have wives should be as though they have none. Moses did what he was supposed to do. He led the people out of Egypt, and now they're in the desert. All of a sudden, who pops up? Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, with Zipporah and the boys. I can see him looking at Moses and saying, "Bro, did you forget about them?" He brought Moses' wife and boys with him.

The lessons are clear. Number one, don't get involved with nor marry anyone who doesn't understand the ways of your God, like Moses did. To put it in simple terms we can understand, don't marry an unbeliever. She didn't understand the customs of circumcision and was actually against it. This is why she got mad and circumcised them and threw it at Moses' feet. Moses said God is calling us into this covenant relationship through circumcision of the men, and she said, "No, you are not doing that to my babies." Moses said God commanded it, but she said no.

Number two, don't allow yourself or anyone else to hinder or keep you from doing what God has called you to do. I believe this is what Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians 7:29, that the time has come for those who have wives to be as though they have none. Men, let me talk to us for a minute. In Genesis 3:17, God called Adam on the carpet for listening to his wife and disobeying His word by eating of the forbidden fruit.

Later on, in Genesis 21:12, God tells Abraham to listen to his wife. How do we know when to listen to our wives as God told Abraham and when not to listen to our wives as God called Adam on the carpet and Moses as well? Watch this. When what she is telling you will cause you to disobey God's word, you shouldn't listen. This means, men, we must know God's word so well that you would immediately know whether she is telling you to disobey or to obey God's word. We have to know this book.

We have time. All of us have time. Last year showed us we have time. The pandemic wiped out all of our extracurricular foolishness that we were involved in and forced everybody to be at home. We were either bingeing on Netflix, our phones, iPads, or whatever else. We have time. We can't use the excuse that we're just so busy anymore. We have to know this book because you have to know whether what your wife is telling you is the word of God or not.

We have one more example of how God uses wives as a hindering agent, and I'm going to share with you why He does that. Why did Satan go after Eve instead of Adam? Why does Satan use wives? I'll explain that afterwards. We have one more good example, and that is the wife of Haman in Esther 5:14. Her name was Zeresh. Haman had beef with a Jewish man named Mordecai. Everyone was told to bow down when Haman rode by, and when he got to Mordecai, Mordecai said he was good and wouldn't bow down. He only bows down to God.

Haman went home ticked off. He gathered his friends along with his wife, and at the leading of Zeresh, they all suggested that gallows be made, seventy-five feet high, to hang Mordecai on. The way the Hebrew is constructed in this verse, we think of gallows and hanging and the piece of wood with a rope. No, the way the Hebrew is constructed, it shows they actually wanted to crucify Mordecai. The Persians were the ones who invented crucifixion; the Romans took it to another level, but crucifixion was invented a thousand years before the Romans. This was a form of crucifixion.

When Haman heard that, it pleased him, and they had the gallows built by the suggestion and influence of Zeresh, Haman's wife. I brought out these biblical examples not to show how chauvinistic the Bible is against women, but to show you how a wife is the most influential person in a man's life, all the way back to Adam and Eve. I have said it for years: the man is the head, but the woman is the neck that turns the head.

Ladies, please don't get in your feelings over how much power and influence you have over men. That is confirmed in several verses in the Bible. Just realize this power and don't abuse it because you will be held accountable for it and will give an account to God for how much you used or abused this influence. I realize 99.9 percent of you men don't have a wife like mine. My wife has always influenced me towards what is biblical and right.

In the thirty-six years we've been married, she has never influenced me to do anything unbiblical or something that wasn't right. There have been times I have been the angriest at my wife when what she told me to do was right. I knew it was right, and I got mad and ticked off. There have been times I've been on the fence about something, and what she says can sway me either way. She has never said, "I want to get them. Yeah, that's right, you ought to get them."

We've been together for forty-one years. She has never ever influenced me or talked me into doing something that wasn't right or was unbiblical in all the years that I have known her. This is why I say 99.9 percent of you men don't have a wife like mine. Ladies, seek to be like Christ, who is called in Colossians 1:18 the head of the church. In other words, we get our orders from Christ.

Make sure the orders you are giving your husband include advice, wisdom, and direction that Christ would give him. This is a huge responsibility, so you must be in tune with God and prayer because you have to know that your words have great weight and great influence and that they are from the Bible. We have seen it big time. Even in the Proverbs, it talks about the influence that a woman has over men, period. We've seen it from cover to cover in the Bible.

You have a great influence over men. I think of Mark 6 where Herodias danced for Herod. She put on some kind of dance, and that man said he would give her up to half his kingdom. I'm blown away by that. He was going to give up half his kingdom to this girl because she wiggled like that. The influence that a woman has over a man is key here. You have to make sure you're in tune with God because you want to make sure the wisdom and advice you're giving is in tune with the word of God.

You need to be in that word yourself and not knowing that influence and just using it to manipulate and get your way. My wife has a certain tone she uses when she wants me to do something for her. It is just a way that she says it. When I hear it, immediately I say, "What do you need me to do?" It is a certain way. You know how to do it. Some of you don't even know you're doing it. It is just a way, the influence, the tones you use. A woman who is beautiful on the outside, when she comes in touch with that beauty, she knows how to use it to manipulate.

What do we call them today? Gold diggers. They know how to use it. Be careful. As I mentioned at the beginning, Satan doesn't care who or what he uses to hinder you as long as you are hindered. Don't automatically assume because you are hindered from doing something that it is not God's will. It could be Satan hindering you. Another effective way Satan uses to hinder God's people is through church hurt and church drama.

I've seen many of God's people hindered from the work of God because they got hurt at another church and they left, and now they just sit at the new church because they don't want to risk getting hurt again. I am so sorry that you were hurt at another church, but we, God's people, are not like Christ yet. We're dealing with our own struggles, our own drama, our own hang-ups, and heartaches.

The pandemic has sent many of us into mental issues, depression, and people are slowly making their way out of their homes. They're afraid, they're fearful, and they're wondering. It sent us all into mental stuff. We come off jumpy. God's not done with us. Give people some grace, the grace you want others to show you. Forgive people like you want to be forgiven. This is why Ephesians 4:32 says to be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you.

Keep your eyes out for Satan trying to hinder you from the work of God by using church hurt. Look at what it says there in verse 14: "I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise." I want to draw your attention to the word debtor. The Greek word is *opheiletes*, and it means obligated. Paul said that he was obligated to the Greeks and to the barbarians. The Greek word for barbarian is *barbaros*, and it means a foreigner or a non-Greek.

The Greeks and the Romans considered anyone who didn't speak Greek or Roman as a barbarian. Paul also said that he was obligated to the wise and to the unwise. Why did Paul feel indebted? Why did he feel obligated to everyone? It is because he saw everyone in need of salvation and because he understood his own lostness. When God saved Paul, he wanted everyone to receive the same grace and forgiveness he had received.

He is also showing them that the gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone—for Greeks, for barbarians, for wise, and for unwise. So often, the wise feel like the gospel is for weak people who need a crutch to lean on. No, the wise need the gospel as well. Paul told them that he is a debtor to God, who called him by His grace, and he was a debtor to everyone he came in contact with. He continues in verse 15: "So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also."

I love the balance of these two verses. In verse 14, he said that he was obligated, and now in verse 15, he said that he was ready to fulfill what he was obligated to do, which is to preach the gospel to those who are in Rome also. The Greek word for ready is *prothumos*, and it means to be eager, to be willing, or ready. Paul was eager, willing, and ready to go to some of the most beautiful and yet corrupt cities in the world to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to them.

Paul says, "I am ready." What about us? Are we ready, eager, and even willing to preach Jesus Christ in the cities we live in? God asked in Isaiah 6:8, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah responded by saying, "Here am I, Lord, send me." Where are the Apostle Pauls today? Where are the Isaiahs today? Where are those who are willing, ready, and eager to preach the gospel and preach it to the people in our generation?

Our generation needs Jesus Christ too, just like the previous generations. Isaiah said, "Here am I, Lord, send me." Let me conclude with this. In this message, we saw God's will versus Satan's hindering. We saw how Satan can hinder us from doing the work of God. Satan will always try his best to hinder you from anything spiritual or the work of the kingdom.

Satan will never ever tell you to just turn that movie off and go read your Bible. But if you sense God saying, "Why don't you turn that TV off, put down that phone, and go read the Bible?" Satan will hinder you from doing that. His job is to always hinder us to keep us from that which is spiritual, whether it is His work.