Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Have you ever tried to talk God out of something? Maybe he's given you something to do that you think is impossible. In your mind, you list out all the reasons it can't be done and why someone else should do it instead. Welcome to Thru the Bible. If you can relate to that situation, then you'll identify with Moses. God told him to lead his people out of Egypt and out of slavery, and all Moses had was objections. And we'll hear these and maybe learn something about our own impossible tasks as we study Exodus chapter 4 together.

So welcome aboard the Bible bus, find a good seat and open your Bible, and I'll kick things off with this letter from a fellow listener named Bruce. He writes this: "I've been an utter failure at reading through the Bible in one year. I've tried and failed many times, but when I started riding the Bible bus at the Hebrew stop, back just before COVID, all things changed. Dr. McGee helped me read through to Revelation in five years, so I kept riding and reading: Genesis, Matthew, Exodus, all the way to Revelation again. What a wonderful book the Lord has given us. I'm still riding and reading because it is a living book, and I learn more each time I read it. Dr. McGee has encouraged me to read the word for myself, and he helped me understand what I was reading."

Well, Bruce, it's so great to hear from you, and I'll keep saving you a seat. And then here's a quick note. This is from Charles and Carolyn. They share this: "This is our third trip, and each time the windows on the Bible bus seem to get bigger. As with any journey through the word, if you sit on the other side, you discover something new." And what about you? Whether it's maybe your first trip, your fifth, your tenth trip going through the Bible with us, what new things is God teaching you? We'd love to hear about it. Send us a note in the feedback section of our app or email us at biblebus@ttb.org or write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word that's always living. Thank you that no matter how many times we come to it, you continue to open our eyes and teach us more about who you are. Lord, give us hearts that are eager to listen and ready to follow you. In Jesus' name, Amen. Turn to Exodus 4 as we go through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now God has called Moses to go and deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt. And God has trained him 40 years out on the desert. And at the burning bush, God issued his commission to him. But now this man who was so eager and ran ahead of God before, he's reluctant now to accept the office, and he raises several objections. One objection was he said that he didn't think the people of Israel would receive him. How would he know they'd receive him? And then we find out that he actually has really two more objections, and they're real objections, by the way, as this one is as far as he's concerned.

So God puts into that rod, when it's used according to the will of God in the hand of a man that's yielded to God, it will become his badge of authority. And I believe that a man today, any man that will take the word of God and preach it as the Spirit of God leads him, without any bias or prejudice, I'm confident that God will bless that to the hearts of those that hear. Therefore, we saw that that rod could be an instrument of Satan; it could become a serpent. But when Moses would take it, it would return and become a rod.

You will note also now that God gives him another assurance, and it is an important lesson for him as he assumes this great responsibility. And I'm reading now verse 6 of the fourth chapter of Exodus. "And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign."

The great message that is here, of course, is one that is for Moses in particular. The bosom speaks of his inner life. We would say today the heart; out of the heart proceed the issues of life. Then this man puts his hand in there. In other words, the hand will do what's in the heart. Now you see, God first of all wanted to get that rod in the hand of a man yielded to him. But he wants that hand now in accord with the heart of the man. The heart must be in this because ultimately a man will do what's in his heart. That which is in the heart will come out; out of the heart come the issues of life.

The Lord Jesus himself, you remember, made the statement. He says a good tree brings forth good fruit, and an evil tree brings forth evil fruit. And then he went on to say that it's the heart. That is the place where the issues of life are settled, and that becomes actually all important, by the way. And so we find that he makes that very clear to us today. Let me just read a verse in this connection. The Lord Jesus said in Luke 6:45, "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh."

And so now what God is saying to this man Moses: that I want your heart and your hand. And friends, I want to make this very clear. God today's putting it on the same kind of basis. God doesn't want your money, and he doesn't want what you do. He wants you. And if he gets you, then he'll have the rest. And he's saying to Moses, "Moses, that hand you put it in the bosom, it comes out as leprosy. You put it in again, it'll come out clean. Now out of that heart will come ultimately what you are. In other words, I want that rod in the hand of a man that is yielded to me, and I want that hand to move because of his heart is moving the same way, which ultimately means I want his heart yielded to me."

That's a great lesson, and it was a lesson for Moses. It'll be for the children of Israel, and it's for us today. Now you read in verse 10, "Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." Well, the thing is that Moses puts up another objection. Moses said, "I'm not an eloquent speaker. You need an eloquent speaker here." Well, the thing is, again, he's making an excuse. Moses was able, I noticed, to speak when it was time to speak. And he seems to have done a very good job of it.

But you notice that now he feels his inadequacy, and that is perfectly all right, but it's also now the time has come for action and God wants him to move. Notice verse 11: "And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." In other words, what he's saying again is, "Moses, not only I want that hand, but I want your mouth also. And if I have it, you'll say what I want you to say."

And that again is very important. Out of the heart proceed the issues of life. And what is in the well of the heart will come up through the bucket of the mouth. You see, God wanted his heart, then God could have that man speak what he wanted to. But Moses puts this up as an objection. "And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send." For Moses is trying to get a substitute here. "And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well."

"And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God." In other words, this man Aaron, his brother, will be his spokesman. And God will use Aaron. But this was a great mistake of Moses, you see. God didn't want a divided command.

And you will find out that it caused problems as they went along through the wilderness. We'll discover that when we get over in the book of Numbers. And we're going to discover that when this man made a golden calf, you'll recall. That was a terrible blunder that this man Aaron made. Now you see it came as a result of a divided command. God didn't need Aaron; all he needed was Moses. But you see, Moses' reluctance... now there are two things here. One is we need to recognize our weakness. But when God calls us, we ought to move out. This man Moses, you see, is so reluctant, holding back, that God had to put another man with him, and that was not good.

"And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace." Moses certainly got along well with his father-in-law. But frankly, we still have the question here about Mrs. Moses, about his wife here. And you will recall that I said we would return to this subject, and I raised some questions about Moses' homelife before.

Well, we're going to get a little added detail here. Let me read beginning verse 19. "And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life." Now you see there is a new Pharaoh in Egypt. The one that actually would have been his father by adoption is now dead, and so he can return back to the land of Egypt. "And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand."

"And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, and he shall not let the people go." Now God says here he'll harden his heart, and that's always presented a problem. Now in view of the fact that when we get to the plagues, we come to that again, I trust that you will permit me to wait until we get there before I go into that, because that does have, I think, a very satisfactory solution.

I'm reading at verse 22. "And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn." Now you see how God was lenient with Pharaoh and with the Egyptians. When he went down, he didn't put it on this basis immediately. He told Pharaoh at the very beginning. He said, "Either you let my son Israel go, or I'll slay your son." But you see, there were many plagues that came in between. In other words, God gave Pharaoh an opportunity to save his own son, but he didn't avail himself of that.

And now I read verse 24. "It came to pass by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him." Now this is a strange verse. But this reveals now the third real big objection, and this is Moses' neglect of the most important rite, which was circumcision, which was the seal of the covenant God had made at the beginning with Abraham. And it was very important. Now notice this little incident here. "Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision."

That's an incident that is very difficult, I grant you, to look at. Now let's come back and look here in these few moments that are left to us at the homelife of Moses. I'd like for you to meet now Mr. and Mrs. Moses. We have first of all the romance of Moses and this daughter of the priest of Midian. We saw that he had to flee from Egypt. He's a fugitive from Egypt. And he went here to Midian. And the Midianites, remember, were the offspring of Abraham. You see, when Abraham married Keturah, why Midian was one of the offspring.

That means they were monotheistic in their worship. And I believe that Moses was more at home in Midian than he was in Egypt, because you see his mother had trained him in Egypt about their background. And now he meets a people who are monotheistic. That means they worship one God; they were not idolaters. And it was in Asia, where he'd gone out in the Sinaitic Peninsula. It was a desert wasteland. Now this priest of Midian had these seven daughters, and he really had a job on his hands getting rid of them.

And Moses and the priest of Midian became very close friends, as we have learned. And here, notice, he just let him go, let him return back to the land of Egypt. In other words, he didn't attempt to hinder him in any way. Now the one that he had married was Zipporah, that is, the daughter of the priest of Midian that Moses had married. Her name was Zipporah, and that sounds like a modern gadget to take the place of buttons, by the way. Actually, as we've said before, it means sparrow or really birdie, a little bird. Birdie.

May I say to you that here you have the first Lady Bird. And this was the wife of Moses. The word, though, it means a little birdie, not an old bird or an old crow or something like that. The same thing's true, you call a little girl, you call her a kitten. When she gets old, you better not call her an old cat, you'll be in trouble. And I think Zipporah must have been her father's favorite with this name. He called her Birdie. It was a pet name.

Now God blessed this home of Moses at the beginning. The boy that was born there was Gershom, the firstborn. And that means a stranger. Moses was a stranger in that land. And now he has a home there. And Moses gets a bride while rejected by his brethren, and Christ got a bride or he's getting a bride while being rejected by the world. We saw the same thing was true of Joseph. You see these are glorious portraits we have in the word of God.

Now if this were the entire record, I'd have to conclude that everything was proceeding nicely in the home of Moses. But now will you notice that I've just read to you the redemption and regeneration of Zipporah. God called Moses at the burning bush. So now he must return to Egypt. Pharaoh's dead. Moses starts his journey to Egypt. And then this strange thing: God attempted to kill him. Why? Well, circumcision was the badge and the seal of the covenant with Abraham.

And it was to teach them they were to have no confidence in the flesh. The flesh should be cut away. Their confidence is to be in God. And that was the thing that was true of Abraham. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. And we find Isaac and Jacob had followed along in the same way and the same ritual. Circumcision was the badge of it, and so it was an act of faith for them to perform that rite. And we're told today, to as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become sons of God.

That was the evidence that they were sons of Abraham, that's an evidence of their faith. Now apparently Zipporah had resisted this ordinance. Moses had neglected this rite. Perhaps he forgot it, didn't think it was important, did not want to precipitate a marital rift. After all, Zipporah didn't want it done. Zipporah's monotheistic, but she thought probably this was a foolish and bloody thing to do. In fact, she says that here. She's not atheistic; she's just resisting the ordinance of God. And Moses didn't make any issue of it.

Moses could stand up against Pharaoh, but he couldn't stand up against his wife. Moses could oppose Israel when they were wrong, but he didn't oppose his wife when she is wrong. Moses lay hold of God in prayer, but he couldn't persuade his wife. Moses apparently thought that he would get by with it. He just slide along, take it easy. And I think Christian workers sometimes get in that position: preachers and missionaries and Christian workers sometimes neglect their own home while they're out trying to fix up everybody else's.

Well, God intervened here with Moses, and he waylaid him, and he revealed the seriousness of the situation. And friends, there's a real danger when husband and wife do not agree completely in spiritual matters. That's the reason scripture warns against believers and unbelievers marrying. That at the very beginning we saw the sons of God looked on the daughters of men, and it's not good. And mixed marriages, they just don't somehow or another work out.

And Zipporah was the one who performed the rite to save Moses' life. I think God would have slain Moses. And it was, therefore, on her part an act of faith. She came under the covenant of Abraham and claimed the promises. This is redemption of blood, no confidence in the flesh. Now a little later on, we're going to find that Moses' father-in-law brought Zipporah to him. And you have the reconciliation of the two.

I am of the opinion that at this particular point, we know she started out with Moses, and I think when they got to Egypt, that Moses when he saw the problem and the difficulty, he probably sent her back home to be with her father. And then her father later on we'll see that, when we get to the 18th chapter of Exodus, he brings her after they're out on the wilderness march. Now let me leave that and conclude this chapter at verse 27. "And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him."

"And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him. And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel: And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto 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 children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped." And this is a great scene that we have here, a great worship scene of these people now turning in faith to God.

And it will be on this basis now that God's going to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Now at chapter 5 that we come to, we see the contest with Pharaoh begins now. In chapter 5 through 11, and we have nine plagues that are leveled against the idolatry of Egypt. And it's actually a battle of the gods. Next time we'll get into that. Here again is another one of those remarkable things in this book. So let me read chapter 5, verse 1. "And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness."

"And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." I believe that this expression "let my people go" has been made famous in a picture. I wish that we could make the other question famous: "Who is the Lord?" And that's the best question of all today, because you'll have to know him before there can be any deliverance for the people. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: Dr. McGee called it the best question of the day. Who is the Lord? How would you answer that? Well, to go deeper in Exodus, download our free booklet, "Bitter to Sweet: God's Answers to Life's Disappointments", from our app or at ttb.org. There you'll find Dr. McGee walks us through Exodus 15 where we learn from Israel's struggles and are reminded that God is with us, using difficult times to grow us, prepare us for his service, and lead us to blessing.

We're always happy to help you find "Bitter to Sweet" or any other resource by Dr. McGee when you call 1-800-65-BIBLE. Now, the Bible bus continues our five-year journey through the whole word of God. To prepare for our next study, read ahead through Exodus 6, verse 5. You can find the reading schedule in our app or at ttb.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE and we'll mail you a bookmark.

And when you get in touch, would you let us know how you hop aboard the Bible bus? It helps us to faithfully steward the resources that God provides through partners like you. So thanks in advance for that. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I sure hope that you'll come along next time as we continue our way through the Bible.