Hearing and Observing the Lord

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Exodus 4:24-31

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Well, this morning we will complete chapter 4, the book of Exodus. I should say next week we're going to have sort of a short detour.
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We'll return to our regularly scheduled program pretty soon after, but I think with some of the momentum and the excitement about moving forward with deacons, it's fitting for the church to perhaps consider what a deacon is and not only what deacons are to be charged with, but also how a church is to pray for and support men who have been appointed as deacons.
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And so that's what we'll do next week now that we've come to the end of chapter 4 before we dig our heels into the unfolding confrontation with Pharaoh in chapters 5 through 15.
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So that's just a little respite because we are doing some heavy lifting this morning. Now, last week was a little bit heavy as well.
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If you thought last week was heavy, at least for the first half of this morning, I would say buckle up. One of the more difficult passages in the book of Exodus, it's a little alarming to read when you're doing sermon prep, almost every commentator saying verses 24 through 26 are one of the most laconic, ambiguous, confusing, maybe disturbing passages in the book of Exodus, if not the whole
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Old Testament. You read that and you go, maybe we should preach on deacons this week. But here we are, verses 24 through 26 and beyond.
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We are coming toward the very brink of the showdown between Moses and Pharaoh, that is to say, between the
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Lord and Pharaoh. Up to this point in chapter 4, we've seen the call of God upon Moses and yet Moses raising these three objections, three excuses by which he seeks to wriggle out from God's call.
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Moses has been a reluctant mediator and we saw already the Lord's anger was kindled with him at that third objection.
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You know, I'm not an eloquent man, just find someone else and it says the Lord's anger was kindled.
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Well, as we begin verse 24, we'll see another event in which the Lord's anger has returned.
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What is going on? How can we hear, how can we observe what the
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Lord is revealing in this text? So, first we want to consider, we want to hear and we want to observe verses 24 through 26, the husband of blood.
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As we move on to verses 27 through 31, we want to consider the response of belief and then we'll dig a little bit further into how we ought to hear and observe.
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I want to tie this all together under these two words, hearing and observing.
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So first, hearing and observing a strange text, the husband of blood, verses 24 through 26.
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And it came to pass on the way at the encampment that the Lord met him and sought to kill him.
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Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it at Moses' feet and said, surely you are a husband of blood to me.
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So he let him go. Then she said, you are a husband of blood because of the circumcision.
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So the narrative is picking back up. We have this little phrase translated and it came to pass.
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We're reentering into a new section of narrative and this whole scene is taking place at night.
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Please keep that in the back of your mind for a little while. This whole scene occurs at night. While Moses and his family are staying at the encampment.
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That could be translated at the inn, at the lodging place. I'm not sure if this is an encampment they set up.
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The natural rendering of the Hebrew here would be an inn or a lodging place. I don't know if they had a particular spot they liked to visit.
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I certainly do in the nice little city of Thalmuth. I don't know if they are the
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Holiday Inn Express type of folk, free breakfast included. That's always a good bet. But either way, it's nighttime and they're at a lodging place.
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And a surprise comes to them almost as quickly as the surprise comes to us. We read, the
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Lord met him and sought to kill him. Now the text does not explain in what way the
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Lord sought to kill him. Had Moses fallen sick? Was he on his deathbed?
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Is that why he didn't act? He couldn't even get out of that bed? He couldn't do anything?
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We don't know. We simply read, the Lord met him and the Lord sought to kill him.
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We don't know why Zipporah knew what the problem was. She knew what to do.
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But that's what we read. Zipporah took a sharp stone. This would have been a flint. Cut off the foreskin of her son.
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That she did that is amazing. She's a more capable and rugged woman than I think
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I've ever met. I've seen a circumcision. I probably turned white as a sheet.
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I wouldn't have come. You know, the surgeon was saying, come on in the room. And it's like, oh, we're good here. As I'm looking over her shoulder, trying not to pass out.
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So Zipporah is a hardy woman and practically a surgeon as well. She took the sharp stone, cut off the foreskin of her son, cast it at Moses' feet and said, surely you're a husband of blood to me.
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So we have this phrase, husband of blood. It's mentioned twice. Husband of blood.
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And then we read again, verse 26. Then she said, you are a husband of blood. Just a little note here.
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She's not saying it twice. The Hebrew is reporting it twice. That particle that's translated as then here makes it sound like she's saying it again.
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That's better translated as when she said or she had said. It's explaining this mysterious phrase.
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And Moses is saying it because of the circumcision. She used this word. You are a husband of blood.
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So we have this emphasis because it's repeated. It's emphasized. Husband of blood. We also have circumcision mentioned twice.
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First, the cutting of the foreskin and then circumcision at the end of verse 26. Now, you remember, this is all downstream from Genesis chapter 17 in verses 10 and following.
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God gave the command for all the sons of Israel to be circumcised on the eighth day. This was to be a sign of the covenant that God had made with Abraham.
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Any uncircumcised male would be cut off from the people. So this is an identity marker.
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This is a way of being counted among the people of God, according to the covenant he had made.
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Literally, the covenant he had cut with Abraham. Walter Kaiser astutely points out in the present case, the father is suffering for his refusal to circumcise his son.
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So here, it's not the son that's cut off, but at least Moses is on the brink of being cut off, or so it seems.
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So Zipporah rises to action. The heroine cuts off the foreskin of her son.
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A clear reference to circumcision, verse 25. And the result we read, the Lord let him go.
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The Lord withdrew from him. It could be translated, the Lord turned away. We don't understand so much about this passage.
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But what is clear is Zipporah's act of circumcision is what stops the
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Lord's attempt to kill. Now, we remember Exodus chapter 2.
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It's only two chapters away. We remember that even there, Moses was rescued by a woman.
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And once more, Moses' life is spared by the actions of a woman. So Moses' place as a deliverer has come about by the work of God, but it's by the work of God through the intervention of faithful women.
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And I wonder, this is just shooting from the hip, I wonder if that has something to do with the way the promise was given in Genesis 3 .15,
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that the promised one would come through the seed of the woman. And indeed, that promise was made to the woman.
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And I wonder if Exodus is forecasting that. Now, one of the main points in question is this phrase, the husband of blood.
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One of the things that makes this particularly difficult is it's the only place it occurs in the entire Old Testament.
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Nowhere else do we find this particular phrase, husband or bridegroom of blood. Scholars debate, therefore, what it means.
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They search high and low and look at all sorts of parallels and possible parallels. They say, is this a
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Midianite marriage ritual? Is this a puberty ritual? Is this a certain phrase that carried stock that's been lost to us?
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They tie in all sorts of things. Schneeman, who's an Old Testament scholar, he translates it as a bridegroom who has shed blood.
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That's possible rendering. And so he reads it as Zipporah knows about Moses' past when
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Moses had fled from Egypt. Remember, we just read that Moses had been in Midian these 40 years, and now
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God is sending him back to Egypt. And what does God say to him when he's around Jethro? He says, go to Egypt.
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The men who sought your life are dead. Hey, honey, guess what the Lord told me?
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The men who sought my life are dead. What do you mean the men who sought your life? Well, I never told you about that. Yeah, there was sort of an incident.
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And so Schneeman's reading into this. The bridegroom who has shed blood. The problem with that is the circumcision is the key.
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The circumcision is the whole point of this episode, verses 24 through 26.
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He's called it because of the circumcision. So a reference to his previous sin doesn't make sense here.
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Walter Kaiser, in his commentary, he says, surely this is just a saying to express her revulsion, her disgust at the whole ritual of circumcision.
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As a Midianite woman, Zipporah would not have circumcised her eight -day -old son, whether it's
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Gershom or Eliezer, we do not know. Now, of course, she may have been the very reason that her son was not circumcised.
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And Moses just was passively allowing her to make that decision. And he would not follow through in the circumcision that was required by the
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Lord at this time. But again, that doesn't seem to explain the significance of this phrase being repeated twice.
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A husband of blood, a husband of blood. Umberto Casuto, very excellent commentary on Exodus.
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He translates her and paraphrases in this way. I've delivered you from death and your return to life makes you my husband a second time, this time by blood.
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You are my bridegroom acquired through blood. You are a husband of blood to me.
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So far from revulsion, she's saying, I've bought you this time by blood. I've now wed you by blood.
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Now, all of these are simply speculation. The text does not say anything more than this.
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Surely you are a husband of blood to me. And then the Lord let him go. You are a husband of blood because of the circumcision.
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So what's going on? How do we hear and observe a strange text? In Exodus 4, 24 through 26, we have a very odd story in a very odd place.
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Surely Moses is up to something. Surely there's a very careful and deliberate intention in this episode.
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But 2 Peter 3, 16 says, in his writing, there are things hard to understand.
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This is very hard to understand. What do we do with this strange text? Well, the first thing we do is we always, always, always start with the immediate context.
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When you're doing your daily Bible reading and you come to a text that you're tempted, perhaps when the time came and you were in Exodus 4, you were tempted just to go,
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OK, and keep reading. What do you do? You start with the immediate context. You're looking for initial connections, pathways into understanding.
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You look at words or themes or actions or concepts that are spread close to the text in question.
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We read the most surprising element. The Lord sought to kill him. The Lord sought to kill him.
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Why did Moses flee to Midian in the first place? According to Exodus 2, 15,
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Moses fled to Midian because Pharaoh sought to kill him. So immediate context now, we have a parallel being established.
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First, 40 years prior, Pharaoh sought to kill Moses. And now, 40 years later, the
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Lord sought to kill Moses. 40 years earlier, Pharaoh had presumed power over Moses' life.
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Pharaoh sought to take his life away. Pharaoh presumed authority and power over the lives of all the
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Israelites. He enslaved them all. He certainly assumed the authority of life and death over the
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Israelite children. He sought to drown in the Nile. In the same way, here in chapter 4, verse 24,
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God is asserting His authority over Moses' life. And we have that contained in the phrase,
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He sought to kill him. This is a declaration of God's sovereignty. We already saw this in chapter 4.
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The Lord said to Moses, all the men who sought your life are dead. Now, it could be that they just died of natural causes.
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Or it could be that God just said, well, that's enough of that now. I'm about to bring Moses back and none of you can be alive for it.
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This episode fits the context of God's contest with Pharaoh. We just read the demand for the firstborn son.
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And now the Lord's sovereignty over life and death is paralleled with Pharaoh's sovereignty, in scare quotes, over life and death.
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So that's the immediate context. It still doesn't explain a lot. So we broaden the search field and we look for more connections, more actions, more themes that might shed light on this very confusing passage.
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As David Pettit says in a very excellent article, Journal for the Study of the
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Old Testament, a 2015 article, he writes, the approach we need to make sense of the passage is the narrative logic at work in these opening chapters of Exodus as it is informed by other connections in Scripture with dominant biblical themes.
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I think he's right on the money. You start with the context, the narrative logic of where it is within its own book.
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And then you try to allow other themes that we've seen in Scripture or will see in Scripture to shed light on the question.
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Now, when we do that, we're brought to see two things.
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First, this whole episode points us backward. It points us backward to a personal encounter with God.
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Second, this episode points us forward. It points us forward to a prefiguring or foreshadowing encounter with God.
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All right. So that's how I'm going to handle verses 24 through 26. First, pointing backward, the personal encounter with God.
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And second, pointing forward, the prefiguring encounter with God. So first, pointing backward, a personal encounter with God.
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In these early chapters of Exodus, not only is God in a contest with Pharaoh for the sovereignty of Israel, let my son go that he may serve me, not serve you, but serve me.
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But also, Moses' identity is being defined by the revelation of God.
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The call of God in chapter four has been front and center. And this has led to an identity now of Moses being the deliverer for his people.
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And this call, which brings about a new identity, ought to sound familiar to us.
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We have spent some time in years past working through the book of Genesis. Doesn't that sound familiar?
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The call of God leading to a new identity? How many name changes did we see in the book of Genesis as a result of God calling and shaping the identity of the patriarchs?
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So already, we're beginning to see there's a backward point to this personal encounter where the call of God is forming the identity of Moses.
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The first parallel then, there's perhaps others, but the first broad parallel is Genesis 22.
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Remember in Genesis 22, the so -called Akedah, where the
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Lord commands in a very shocking way that Abraham take his son, bind him on a donkey, and take him to a place where he may not return.
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Don't these elements sound familiar? What has Moses just done in chapter four of Exodus? He's taken his son, including other family, put them on a donkey, taking them to a place that the son may not return from.
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There's a threat, just like in Genesis 22, there's a threat of God's desire, apparent desire, to kill the son.
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So both Abraham and Moses, both Genesis 22 and Exodus 4, show a trial, a surprising trial, where there's a threat against the firstborn son, and the faith of the deliverer has to abide, has to persevere.
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Perhaps even more significant as a parallel is Genesis 32. In Genesis 32, we have another night scene.
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Remember, this is nighttime. Why would the narrative record that? The narrative doesn't have time for all sorts of details.
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We don't know how the Lord was seeking to kill him. We don't know why. Zipporah knew what to do. All those details are spared, but included is, it was nighttime?
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That's significant. It's part of the clue, part of the key, to placing this with the larger thematic content.
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So we have another night scene in Genesis 32. Do you remember? That's where Jacob wrestled with the angel of the
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Lord. And what happened in this night scene? It was a surprising ambush. Jacob there on the brook of Jabbok had sent his family, and all that was with him beyond the other side.
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And there he was alone, about to be the sort of caboose on this train, as he was at the camp of Mahanaim, and he thought, my life is about to be taken by my vengeful brother
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Esau. He was so terrified of this encounter with Esau, like Moses was terrified with this encounter with Pharaoh.
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But then, a surprise. You're worried about the wrong person. Here comes the Lord to attack you.
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And so, like Jacob, Moses finds himself being the object of this surprise assault at night.
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Jacob fights for his life through that night, and he's left with a mark. Remember, the
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Lord touches his hip, and it's put out of joint. And he's called
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Israel, new identity, the one who has striven with God, but prevailed.
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Now, it's very significant in terms of this parallel, that Jacob wrestles with the angel of the
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Lord, and the angel of the Lord touches. The verb in Hebrew is negah.
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It could be translated, because of the stem, strike. I like to not think of it as a strike, as if there was any effort exerted on the part of the angel of the
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Lord, but simply a touch which immediately crippled the wrestler. But it's all the same verb.
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It's all the same action. To touch, to strike, to apply. Very significant.
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The Lord touches. The Lord strikes the hip of Jacob. And as a result of that, he's left with this mark that he'll carry through the rest of his life.
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The one who has striven with God is the one who limps after God. In Exodus chapter four,
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Zipporah touches. Zipporah strikes. Zipporah applies the blood of the circumcision to Moses.
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The same verb, negah. Like Jacob, Moses now has his identity shaped by the impact of having his life threatened in the course of the night by this surprise encounter with the
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Lord. And that parallel continues. What happens right after in verses 27 and following?
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Moses goes and he meets with Aaron, his brother, and he kisses his brother.
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What happens in Genesis 32, heading to chapter 33? Jacob goes and meets with his brother and he kisses his brother.
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So the parallel is being further established. And the key here in pointing us backward is it's a personal encounter with God.
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His life is on the line. And because of this encounter, it has now been established he will serve
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God. And what's God called in Genesis? The fear of Jacob. Well, now God, after verse 26, is the fear of Moses.
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Moses has been shaped by this personal encounter with God. He's been marked out by the touching, the striking of the blood upon him.
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The primary issue, as David Pettit I think rightly argues, is not guilt, not his past crime, not even necessarily the fact that the son was uncircumcised.
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The issue is not primarily that guilt, but what that circumcision points to. The identification with the people of God.
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Who is Moses? Whose is Moses? Does he belong to Pharaoh or does he belong to the
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Lord? Circumcision then is the badge of identity. It's marked out for him as gods in God's eyes, in Pharaoh's eyes, in the people's eyes, in Moses' own eyes.
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He recognizes this indelible call upon his life. So the first four chapters of Exodus bring this to a head because the question of Moses' identity is always revolving in the text.
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Think about it. An Israelite baby raised by Pharaoh's daughter in the court of the
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Egyptians. When he then springs to be received as the deliverer of his people, as Stephen says and acts, his own people reject him.
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They do not view him in that way. So he's gone from Israelites to raised by the
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Egyptians to rejected by the Israelites. And then when he's on the run to Midian, what do the daughters of Jethro call him?
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The Egyptian. What's his identity? Who does he belong to? Well, the act of circumcision fully answers the question of identity.
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There is no more ambiguity to whom Moses will now serve with fear. So that's the backward pointing, the personal encounter.
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But this text, this strange text, also points us forward.
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And when it points us forward, it prefigures, it foreshadows. First, let me say we,
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I think, rightly assume that Moses is the one the Lord seeks to kill.
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I think that's right. I think that's a good assumption. I think it's wise that English translations don't put
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Moses in, but they leave it as what the text says. The Lord sought to kill him.
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The text is ambiguous. The text does not spell it out. Now, again,
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Moses seems most appropriate. But sometimes in texts that are opaque and strange, that scribes struggle to transmit faithfully, and rabbinical interpretation does all crazy sorts of gymnastics with, there's a recognition that some of the subtleties and ambiguities are purposeful.
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Prophetic, yet to be revealed. And it may be that the ambiguity here is intentional.
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The Lord met him and sought to kill him. Well, who is him? We assume Moses, but that's not what the text demands.
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George Howell, among others, argues that Gershom, the firstborn son, is immediately in reference with the
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Lord sought to kill him. The Lord sought to kill the firstborn. So he sees
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Gershom, the firstborn son, as the object of the attack. And he argues the closest antecedent is your son, your firstborn.
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That's, in Hebrew, a third masculine singular. And so it's a good argument. It does work. I don't think it's natural with the flow of the text, but it does work.
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And remember, chapter 4, verse 23, the Lord has just told Moses that the 10th plague would destroy all the firstborn sons of Egypt.
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But now Moses' own firstborn son is vulnerable to this plague as well. And what must happen in order for him to be spared?
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Well, he must be circumcised. That is, he must be identified with the people of God and he must be under the blood.
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Whether Gershom or Moses is in view, it's clear that the Passover is in view. Just as the
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Israelites will be saved by the smearing, the touching, the striking of blood.
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By the way, that's the same verb in Exodus chapter 12. Genesis 32, the negah, the touch.
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Exodus 4, negah, the touch of the blood. Exodus 12, over the doorpost and the lintel, the negah, the touch of the blood.
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So clearly the Passover is in view. Just as the Israelites will be saved by the application of the blood.
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So Moses here is saved by the application of the blood. Michael Morales, in his biblical theology of Exodus, he points out that a
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Palestinian Targum, which would be a sort of translation and then expansion upon the narrative, and this was written in the early centuries of Christianity.
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The Palestinian Targum basically has Zipporah say, the blood of circumcision has saved you from the hand of the destroying angel.
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So here the destroying angel of the Passover is the one that sought to kill. The Passover is clearly seen.
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And that brings us into the orbit of Passover theology. So here the text points us forward to Exodus 12.
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Remember something we've seen already. Moses, 40 years out in the wilderness before he returns, he's embodying
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Israel's experience. 40 years in the wilderness before the Lord will return them to the land.
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Moses is experiencing what Israel must experience. And we have that even here. Moses going to the mountain to encounter the
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Lord and receive his revelation. What happens after the Exodus? The people go to the mountain to encounter the
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Lord and receive his revelation. So Moses is constantly prefiguring the experience of Israel.
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And here he's prefiguring their experience of the Passover. In fact, this episode is most likely why
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Moses on the night of the Passover, in Exodus chapter 12, was adamant down to the details of the instructions.
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Make sure there is no one who breaks any aspect of what God has said.
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If you don't do everything that he has required, all of your sons being circumcised, all of you being dressed and having eaten the supper in the way it's to be prepared, to be under the blood, lest you be destroyed by the destroyer.
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So we have every detail of God's instruction being pressed by Moses, most likely because he knows it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
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God. So again, the text points us backward, the text points us forward.
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The text shows us a personal encounter with God. The text prefigures a greater encounter with God, the
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Passover. But then we can go even more forward. Not just to Exodus 12, but beyond Exodus 12.
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God sought to kill Moses, but he is spared through the circumcision of his son, when the blood of his son is applied to him.
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Let me say that again. God sought to kill Moses, but he is spared through the circumcision of his son, when the blood of his son is applied to him.
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Now, here's the gospel in Exodus chapter 4. We are spared through the circumcision of the son, when the blood of his son is applied to us.
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That's the gospel of Exodus chapter 4. This association between circumcision and sacrificial blood, the sacrifice of Passover.
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All of that points Exodus 4, not just to Exodus 12, but to the passion of the
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Lord Jesus. It points us to the cross. I'll give you an example of this, a very clear example. In Colossians chapter 2, we have all these things put in orbit.
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And you, he writes to the believers of Colossae, being dead in your trespasses.
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What does it look like to be dead in trespass and sin? What's another way in an Israelite mind to describe being dead in the works of your flesh, in the sins and deeds of your body?
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And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh.
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Do you see what circumcision is tied to? The putting off of the flesh, the putting off of that sinful way, the putting off of the old identity, the removal of the flesh.
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That's the image that's contained. You're uncircumcised in your flesh.
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In the Israelite metaphor, if you're not pursuing God by faith in his son.
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And you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He is made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.
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How is it that the Lord has forgiven you all trespasses if you're a believer? Colossians 2 .11,
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in him, that is in Jesus, you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hand.
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This isn't something Zipporah could do. This isn't something the mohel can do. This isn't something that the local surgeon at the hospital delivery ward can do.
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This is a circumcision made without hands. This is the fullness, the full meaning of circumcision.
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In him, you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh.
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See again the metaphor, the putting off of the sins of the flesh. By the circumcision of Christ, that is shorthand for crucifixion.
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How is it that we're forgiven all trespasses? How is it that we've put off all of our fleshly sins and received mercy from God?
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Well, how is it that we were circumcised by being in Jesus who was circumcised on our behalf?
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And what is that circumcision? When was he put off from the body of flesh? When was he our husband of blood on the cross?
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It's by the circumcision of Christ. He was cut off on behalf of his people, the Passover lamb and the circumcision whose blood spares us from the anger and wrath that we deserve.
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That's the gospel in Exodus chapter four. And so the church then gathers as those who have been forgiven of her trespasses.
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They gather as the bride gathering to exclaim, surely you are a husband of blood to us.
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By your own blood, you wed us. By your own blood, you've forgiven us.
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And that brings us now to the remnant of chapter four, the response of belief.
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And I want to tie this again to hearing and observing. How is it Lord to hear and observe the words and the signs of the
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Lord? The revelation and the activity of God. What is the response of belief?
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Well, we have it in verses 27 to 31. The Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness to meet
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Moses. So he went, met him on the mountain of God and kissed him. Moses told him all the words of the
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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 and the children of Israel.
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And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. He did the signs in the sight of the people.
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We have that repetition for emphasis. All of the words, all of the signs, all of the words.
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He did the signs. The narrative now is uniting Aaron and Moses. Moses, who had been up to this point, a reluctant mediator, now goes direct and shows complete obedience to every aspect of the
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Lord's command. And the result, verse 31, the people believed.
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And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, that he had looked, that he had observed their affliction, they bowed their heads and they worshipped.
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The word of God comes. The signs of God accompany.
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God's people hear, they believe, they bow their heads in worship.
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What a contrast for what's coming in chapters 5 through 15, when before Pharaoh God's word comes, accompanied by signs, and yet Pharaoh will not believe.
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He will not bow and he will not worship. This is a gem of a conclusion.
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And once more, an emphasis that we've seen all the way through Exodus, from the very first chapter until now, is emphasized the
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Lord has looked on the afflictions of his people. It's emphasized in chapter 1, in chapter 2, in chapter 3, several times here in chapter 4.
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Again and again, we're reminded the self -revelation of God. He is the God abounding in grace and mercy, who always has an eye and an ear upon the sufferings and burdens and bondage of his people.
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He has heard, he has observed, and now he is going to act. And when that revelation of his act has come, when the people hear the word and see the signs of what he will do, they believe and they bow and they worship.
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They heard and they observed him. So that's where I want to take us. It's because God hears and observes us as his people, that we must also hear and observe him.
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By the way, that word observe, it can be used in so many different ways. We could attend to him.
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A translation I love, we could stand fast in him. All this is fitting. Abide, stand fast, persevere, attend to.
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We hear and we observe because God hears and he observes us.
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And we, having received that grace, having received his word, observe his ways.
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And like the Israelites here in verse 31, we believe and we bow and we worship.
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Now, we cannot hear and observe without the help of our God. Very profitably this week,
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I spent some time in Hosea chapter 12. In fact, if you have your Bible, please turn to Hosea chapter 12.
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One of the things we've seen in chapter 4 is Moses as the reluctant mediator.
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Moses, as a man filled with the wrong fear, at least fear directed to the wrong end. He was afraid of Pharaoh, afraid of his own inabilities.
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He was not fearful of God until God, here in verses 24 through 26, gave him a reason to fear
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God. And with that, showed his mercy in this ambiguous Passover -pointing way.
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And from it, Moses sealed his resolve. With the help of his God, he returned to him.
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And from that point on, we'll see Moses directly, completely fulfills everything that God commands.
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A reluctant mediator no more. So when I look at that, when I see that transformation, when
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I see the result of this personal encounter, marking out a new direction for Moses, in the same way this personal encounter of Genesis 32 brought a new direction for Jacob, I can't help but think we, as God's people, need to know that even when we're pursuing
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Him, stumbling, half -heartedly, struggling, that we ought to look for that personal encounter which will shape us and direct us in an entirely new way.
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And when I think about that, it draws my mind to the book of Hosea. Particularly Hosea in that last oracle, chapters 12 through 14.
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Hosea 12, beginning in verse 2. The Lord brings a charge against Judah.
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Put it this way, the Lord sought to kill Judah. And will punish
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Jacob according to his ways. Now what's Hosea doing up to this point? Well, he's speaking to Israel, who is trusting on Assyria for deliverance.
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These are in the wicked days of the reign of Jeroboam. And the Israelites are trusting in Assyria as their defense, but Assyria will turn upon them and consume them.
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Instead of trusting in Assyria, they need to repent and turn to the Lord. But they've been a whoremongering people, going after every idol and every abomination in their heart.
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And the Lord is wooing them as Hosea wooed after Gomer, showing this almost indefatigable love and affection for His people.
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So here in this last oracle, chapters 12 through 14, the Lord is laying His charge against Judah.
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And He's using this imagery, this language. Who is Israel? Jacob. The national corporate people are not called
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Israel here, but Jacob. And Hosea is keying us into that. Do you remember the story of Jacob?
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You're so much like Jacob. And like Jacob, you need a personal encounter that will bring forth a new direction in your life.
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You no longer must be Jacob, but you must be Israel. You must strive with God in order to prevail.
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That's what Hosea is keying us toward. The Lord brings a charge against Judah and will punish
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Jacob according to his ways. According to his deeds, He will recompense him. Now, Hosea dives into the actual story.
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We have this divinely inspired summary of the Jacob narrative. He took his brother by the heel in the womb.
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And in his strength, he struggled with God. Yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed.
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He wept and sought favor from him. Do you notice that this is the language of personal encounter?
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And Hosea might be addressing a nation, but Hosea is addressing individuals within that nation.
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And he's saying to his people, Jacob, if you, every man and woman, would be like Jacob and find the response of God to Jacob, you must struggle with the angel and prevail.
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And what does that look like? Weeping and seeking favor from him. Being cut to the heart because of your deeds, which demand recompense, which kindle the
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Lord's anger, and seeking instead His favor. It's a personal encounter. He found him in Bethel.
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Now we're going backward and forward. He found him in the house of God. And there he spoke to us.
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That is the Lord God of hosts. The Lord, it's His memorable name.
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Now we're brought into Exodus chapter three, aren't we? The Lord, His name forever. Verse 12.
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Jacob fled to the country of Syria. Notice that we're going backward. We're going further back.
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Jacob fled to the country of Syria. Israel served for a spouse and for a wife he tended sheep.
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Now we're going from Jacob to Exodus. By a prophet, the Lord brought
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Israel out of Egypt. Moses here being called a prophet. The one who has heralded the word, so that the word could be heard, and the signs could be observed, and the people could believe and worship and be led out.
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So he's calling Moses a prophet here to say, if you would be led out of your bondage, your affliction, you must hear and observe by a prophet.
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That's Moses. The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt. And by a prophet, he was preserved. Roundabout way of saying, by hearing and responding to the word of God, he was led out.
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By hearing and responding to the word of God, he was preserved. Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly.
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Does that sound familiar? Reminded of Moses representing
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Ephraim, Exodus four, provoking the Lord to anger. Therefore, his
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Lord will leave the guilt of his bloodshed upon him and return his reproach upon him.
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So you have, up to this point, a rather disheartening, discouraging revelation from the oracle of Hosea.
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Israel, like Jacob, like Moses, like perhaps you this morning, is a stumbler, full of every excuse, yet with every excuse also full of neglect, disobedience, half -heartedness, lukewarmness, plain, old, indifference.
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And so I read Hosea in these verses speaking to the wayward follower, the half -hearted, the faithless.
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We could even say the backslider, the backslider.
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What an image. One who had been walking, arguably is even trying to walk with the
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Lord, but instead of moving forward with the Lord, they are sliding back.
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How can the backslider hear and observe? Well, as we said, it is because God hears and observes us.
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In our fainting cries, in our stumbling ways, in the misery, in the guilt and the burdens of our backsliding, the
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Lord is not ignorant to his people. He hears and he observes. And by the help of God, it's the only way we can then hear his word and respond, attend, abide in his word.
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That is the call of Hosea, chapter 12, verse 6. And so you,
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I love that, it's so direct. It's like the old World War I Uncle Sam recruitment posters, you know, with that kind of wiry old
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KFC -looking guy and the big finger almost leaping off the poster. No wonder every young man in the country joined up in the war effort.
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Uncle Sam wants you, so you. Now this is direct.
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Now this is speaking right to the heart, right to the mind of the backslider. You, by the help of your
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God, can't do this on your own. You've been trying to do it on your own, which is why you're backslidden in the first place.
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By the help of your God, return. That's the constant call of the book of Hosea.
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Return. You've slidden back, so you now, by the help of your
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God, return. That's hearing, you hearing the word of God.
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Now, how will you observe? How will you attend to the word of God? What does he say? Return.
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Return in what way? Observe mercy and justice and wait on your
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God continually. Hosea doesn't presume to think that at this very moment, the backslider will just say, oh, yes, of course.
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I'm done backsliding now. Oh, wow. I'm so glad that that night, that dreariness, that burden, that guilt, that misery, it's all over now.
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If only I just read verse six all these years ago. Hosea is assuming it's going to be a struggle.
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There's going to be a wrestling match. You're going to have to prevail. Observe mercy and justice and wait on your
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God continually. Are you hearing that? Will you observe these things?
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Hosea, his whole book, structured in three sections. You have the prologue, his relationship with Gomer, prefiguring, pointing to Israel's relationship with the
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Lord. That's chapters one through three. And then chapters four through eleven, really the second major part, the second major oracle.
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And then here, chapters twelve through fourteen. And at the end of those latter two oracles, chapter eleven and chapter fourteen, they both end with this promising encouragement, with a hope for a future.
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So chapter eleven, I'm not going to have time to read it, but just to summarize. Chapter eleven, the whole oracle comes to speak of Israel, not only as a whoremongering bride, but also as a rebellious son.
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Then God, though his son Israel, though Ephraim is rebellious and wayward, God will still be a father to him.
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How could I give you up? I think this is likely where one of the areas,
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I think also the Jacob, Esau narrative, but this is likely, Hosea 11, one of the areas that Jesus draws his parable from in Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son.
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The rebellious son who abandons his father. Give me my inheritance. I wish you were dead.
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Would you just die already and give me what's coming to me? I don't want you.
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I just want what you can do for me. That's Israel to the Lord in Hosea 11. And like the prodigal father, what does
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God say about Israel? How could I give you up? My heart churns within me.
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The Septuagint of that, the Greek translation of that, it's taken up in Matthew nine when Jesus sees the people and they're like sheep without a shepherd and his bowels churn.
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He's moved with compassion. This is
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God hearing, observing his people's affliction. And then the final poem of the book,
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Hosea 14 assures the people of God that they will find mercy when they return.
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When they return, they'll find mercy and look at the mercy.
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Hosea chapter 14. All of this is bound up with this spring sort of garden imagery, which is not lost on what
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Hosea is pointing Israel to, where we're brought back to Genesis for a reason, not only brought back to Jacob, the heel grabber, the usurper, but even before that, to the
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Abrahamic promise, God's people being the olive tree that will encompass and bless every nation in the earth.
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Oh, Israel, Hosea 14, return to the Lord, your God. For you've stumbled because of your iniquity.
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Take words with you. Return to the Lord. Say to him, take away all iniquity.
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Receive us graciously. We will offer the sacrifice of our lips. And with this, with this return, it's a repudiation of any other help.
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Syria shall not save us. We will not ride on horses. We will not say any more to the work of our hands.
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You are our God. Because in you, the fatherless finds mercy.
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It was that rebellious son who effectively orphaned himself by wishing his father dead and taking the inheritance.
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He was effectively orphaned. He became fatherless. But here Hosea says, in you,
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Lord, even the fatherless will find mercy. Even the one who repudiated and rejected your way and ran and rejected from you in their backsliding and disobedience.
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When they return, they will find that even the fatherless receive mercy. Verse four, that was the people's response, right?
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Take away our iniquity. Receive us graciously. We won't turn to foreign help. We won't serve our idols any longer.
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And this is the Lord's response. Verse four, I will heal their back sliding. Do you notice that the return to the
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Lord is the healing of the backsliding? I will heal their backsliding.
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What an interesting thing to put together. That backsliding is something to be healed. Not something to find a blog with eight practical steps on how to get a little pep in your
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Christian step. No, listen. Backsliding is something to be healed. I will heal their backsliding.
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I will love them freely. Beautiful, beautiful phrase.
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Not, I'll love them because I made an oath. By my name,
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I swore a covenant, so I will love them. Just like a combative husband and wife.
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I will love you. I made a vow to love you. Good night. I will love them freely.
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My anger has turned away from him. Exodus four, the anger of the
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Lord turned away from him. And now we have this imagery, the backslider being restored.
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I will be like dew to Israel, the dryness that threatens to disintegrate the people of God.
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Now being met with nourishment, just like the parched land is met with the wadi stone.
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I will be like dew to Israel. He shall grow like the lily, lengthen his roots like Lebanon.
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Lebanon, lush, full of every manner of foliage and exquisite plant. His branches shall spread.
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His beauty will be like an olive tree. Israel metaphor. His fragrance like Lebanon.
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Those who dwell under his shadow shall return. They shall be revived like grain and grow like a vine.
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Oh, beautiful. Those who dwell under his shadow.
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Can a plant grow in a shadow? Those who were under his anger, those who the
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Lord sought to kill, those who were backsliding and stumbling and rejecting the ways of the Lord so that the threat of God was upon them.
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They were abiding under his shadow rather than in his light. But what happens when they return?
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Those who dwell under his shadow shall return. And they shall be revived like grain.
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They shall grow like a vine. You see, darkness now has become light. And with light, there is revival.
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There is growth. I love this little phrase.
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I was reminded of it this week from the poet Pablo Neruda. He said, you can cut all of the flowers, but you can't stop spring from coming.
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Isn't that beautiful? In our sinful, stubborn indifference, we cut all the flowers.
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We break off all the buds of the fruitfulness that God has for our lives.
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And we begin to abide under a shadow where nothing can grow. Things aren't revived.
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Things just die. And the backslider keeps sliding back.
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But when he returns, he is revived like grain and grows like a vine.
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And though the buds had been broken off and the flowers had been cutting down, even he can't stop spring from coming.
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So this is the Lord's word. And what is the response? My favorite part, because it's the very last part of this oracle.
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Chapter 12, verse 9 is sort of the summary that's appended. Verse 8 is the last verse of this oracle.
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And it's not the Lord's response, but it's the people, just like in verse 31. It's the people responding to the
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Lord. What happens when we've stumbled in our iniquity but received mercy?
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What is our response when we've heard and observed that God will love us freely and will heal our backsliding and touch us with the blood like Moses was touched with the blood so that his anger will be turned away, so that light and growth and goodness will now be ours?
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What is the answer? Hosea 12, verse 8, Ephraim will say, what have
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I to do anymore with idols? I've heard and observed him.
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I'm like a green cypress tree. Your fruit, your fruit is found in me.
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That, in a nutshell, is exactly what it looks like for a backslider to be healed.
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For a Christian who has been broken and dried out and their walk with the Lord is disintegrating to be renewed and revived in strength, it looks like them exclaiming, because of all that they've heard from God's Word, all that they've observed of his love, it's them exclaiming, what have
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I to do with idols anymore? What have I to do with my sins and my bindings and my bondages anymore?
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I have heard and observed you, Lord. I'm done with that now.
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You've healed my backsliding. Now I'm not this withered root. I'm like a green cypress, and it's your fruit that is found in me.
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Do you see the response? I have heard and observed him.
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So verse 9 breaks the poem. It's a contemporary charge from Hosea, having compiled these oracles.
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It's the closing charge, and I'll close with it as a charge as well. Who is wise?
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Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them.
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For the ways of the Lord are right. The righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.
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Hosea is really wanting to know, have you heard? Have you observed?
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Who knows these things? Who's experienced them? Who is wise? Who is prudent?
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You know, I was reminded this week, as I came across a page of an old friend.
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And I have several old friends that are exactly in this place too. I was reminded that we like to think our knowledge, or at least our ability to think, is somehow detached from our actions.
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A brain in a glass case. The brain will always be able to know what it is able to know.
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The things that I have received in my mind, the things that I cognitively understand, those things will always be there for me to call on, completely above and beyond any actions or behaviors that I exhibit.
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And the Bible says that is such a deception. The Bible is crystal clear that your knowledge and your ability to know is always tied to your actions and your behavior.
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Knowledge follows morality. Knowledge follows morality.
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So, our knowing is shaped, limited, and focused by our moral activity.
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I see old acquaintances that knew so much, frankly, they heard, frankly, they observed.
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But when they started to backslide, they never returned. And what they knew was no longer what they knew.
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And their ability to know was no longer their ability. To the defiled, all things are defiled.
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And so scripture says, I am not able to know the things of God, much less I'm not even able to know things that are truly good and right and true, if I am at the same time wholesale giving myself over to sinful actions and sinful speech and sinful thoughts.
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I am not just injuring myself and others. I'm injuring, slowly destroying my ability to know the
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Lord and to know what is true. My ability to hear and to observe him. And so the question, if that's describing one of you, these young men that I was friends with, they were a lot more sanctified than I was in our day at that time.
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This one man in particular, he was, frankly, light years ahead of me in Christian profession and Christian testimony that had substance, that had content, that had fruit.
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Oh, I hope you hear me. Knowledge follows morality. When he started backsliding and he started lashing out to get some fill from the world, just like Israel in the book of Hosea, for the first time in his life as a
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Christian, it became plausible. Maybe there is no God. People don't naturally arrive to that conclusion by some logical inference deduced over time.
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People come to that conclusion because they're in bondage to sin and their ability to hear and observe the
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Lord has been destroyed. What then can wash away our sin?
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What then can make us whole again? We have
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Exodus 4 and it points us to Exodus 12, blood shed so that his people will be spared his wrath.
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We spoke about that last week, the emphasis of Pharaoh's tyranny and the bondage of Satan over those who are all their lives held in subjection to death, but that's not all that there is to atonement.
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There is also substitutionary atonement and it's God's wrath that Moses has to be saved from by the blood here and it's
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God's wrath that the people of God have to be saved from in Exodus chapter 12 and it's
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God's wrath that sinners must be saved from by the blood that was shed, not in Exodus 4, not in Exodus 12, but the blood that was shed once for all so that all who believe might not perish, but have everlasting life to be like green cypress trees with the fruit of the
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Lord abounding within them. That's the gospel, an escape from judgment through the shedding of the blood, not the shedding of the blood of bulls and goats, but the shedding of the blood of the
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Son of God, the shedding of the blood of Jesus on the cross. That is our hope and our peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
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That is all our righteousness. Can I just share this real quick and then we'll close?
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Spurgeon doesn't often speak of his conversion, but it just so happens in Exodus 4, he in a sermon spoke of his conversion and he just drew in all the
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Exodus imagery to try to explain what it was like for him to be saved. If you've been saved,
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I hope you resonate with some aspects of his own experience. If this is all a foreign language to you, you need to hear and observe.
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This is C .H. Spurgeon, arguably the greatest preacher of the 19th century, if not all of church history, that's a huge claim, but the
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Presbyterians get Calvin and we get Spurgeon, the prince of preachers. Oh, what fights and battles, what wars and strife there were in my soul when
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I was trying to find Christ. My old sins came up against me. My memory unearthed, buried trespasses, false failings gathered in force like a flood, threatened to overwhelm me.
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Everything in my constant study, everything in my daily experience seemed to drive me back from Christ.
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He's trying to find Christ, but everything he sees and does is keeping him back from Christ. But oh, on that memorable
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Sabbath morn when I heard this word, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth.
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That wintry morn when that old deacon got up as a last minute supply word to the deacons here.
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Many great figures in church history were converted under deacon sermons, just so you know, and that was the text from Isaiah.
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Look unto me all the ends of the earth and be saved. I did look, Spurgeon says, and not even a dog moved his tongue.
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My sins stopped complaining altogether. They had been drowned in the red sea of Jesus' blood.
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See the Exodus imagery? My old corruptions, I didn't even know at the time
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I had so many. They were so very quiet. Temptations ceased to trouble me.
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For that little time, at any rate, the brickmaker laid down his clay and was brought out of Egypt with jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and I was singing to the
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Lord. You see, I have met some of these old
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Egyptians since, you know, old sins come back. They need to be killed. They need to be mortified. I have met some of these old
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Egyptians since, a good number of them, and I've had some hard dealings with them. Sanctification is hard, but at the same time, all was still and quiet, happy and blessed for this reason.
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With the Passover lamb in our mouths, nobody dares to challenge us. The blood on the door is an answer to every accuser.
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Maybe you're feeling the guilt and the misery and the bondage of sin. Maybe you're beginning to hear and observe, but rather than closing with Christ, you're being kept back from him.
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How can I scrub the filth and the vileness from me? How can I change my ways?
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Can a leopard change his spots? The blood on the door is an answer to every accuser.
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Glory be to God, then, who can deliver his people from their sins, their lusts, their habits, their passions.
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Deliver them from death. Deliver them from the pit. Deliver them in such a way no one, not even
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Satan himself, can lay anything to their charge because it is God who has justified them, Christ who has absolved them.
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That is the gospel. What have you, let me ask you the question as we close, what have you to do with idols anymore?
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Have you heard and observed the Lord? What have you to do with idols anymore? Who is wise?
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Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the
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Lord are right, the righteous walk in them. Transgressors stumble in them.
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Father, we ask your blessing on this word, on this seed sown. Lord, I ask it for my own life, my own mind and heart.
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I ask it for my brothers and sisters here. I ask it for those who are here who may be strangers to your grace.
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I especially, Lord, think of the wayward son, the faithless son or daughter, the rebel, the backslider, the half -hearted, the indifferent.
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Lord, by your help, may they return, revive, come out from under the shadow of your anger and your distance and find your light and your growth and your goodness.
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May we all, as members and believers of this church, be as green cypress trees with your fruit found in us.
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May we recognize that in us, there is nothing that is good. Now, everything that is good descends from you, the father of lights.
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And may we, in that light, walk. May we not stumble as the transgressors do, but may we be righteous, even as by your help we walk in your way, hearing and responding to your word, observing all that you have commanded us, having nothing to do with idols any longer.