Gtcotr ws02/09/2022
Galatians 1:15-16 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood …
After Paul heard from God, he did not confer with flesh and blood …
Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
Tonight, we will find our place somewhere between those two admonitions.
*Tell the story of man in Seoul, Korea standing on the sidewalk screaming the message over a loudspeaker, “You’re going to hell!”
He didn’t need to be told to witness but he sure needed some counsel as to how to obey God. He should not have stopped witnessing because he was offending people, but he should have stopped screaming.
Perhaps Abraham and Moses also shared a similar dilemma. Should I do exactly what God said, and only what God said, the way God said, or should I listen to other people and allow them to add their opinions to the mix? In other words, how much should we allow other well-meaning people to weigh in on the call of God on our lives?
Let’s look at Abraham first …
Genesis 11:31 And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there.
·
Abraham
was about 50 as best we understand, when he left Mesopotamia headed for Haran.
·
The
best we understand, Abraham spent about 25 years in Haran.
·
He
went with his father whose name was Terah.
·
Jones
dictionary of the Old Testament proper names
Terah = Delay
·
Terah
is also recognized in Biblical Hebrew to refer to a wanderer (one who turns
aside or wanders and wastes time.)
· Also likened to a wild mountain goat who is often foolish and distracted.
Genesis
12:1-5 1 Now the Lord had said to Abram:
“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from
your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the [a]people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.
·
God
told Abraham to get away from his family and go to the land he would show him.
·
Abraham
did not strictly do that.
·
Abraham
almost obeyed God but ended up taking Lot.
·
If
you continue to read the story of Abraham’s life, Lot was a plague to Abraham
for the next 25 years and beyond.
·
In
fact, God’s promise to Abraham did not come to pass until Lot and Abraham had
finally separated.
·
By
that time, Abraham was 100 years old.
· Let me show you something many Bible scholars miss.
We don’t find out about this account in the book of Genesis, This account is given to us through by the Holy Spirit through Stephen, a deacon in the church of Jerusalem, just moments before he was stoned.
Acts 7:1
Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.
·
Abraham did not have the promised son until
he was 100
(50-60 years
later than was promised).
·
Now there is a delay – a terror - or Terah,
if you will
·
We cannot know for sure how much it costs in
time and other quantities for Abraham to not do things when God said, like God
said, and no other way than God said.
· Terah could have been used by God to get Abraham up and moving or he could have just been a delay. I tend to think he might have been a little of both.
Now let’s look at Moses and the element of the fear of the Lord and the sin of omission.
Acts 7:34 “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.”
Exodus 4:19-20, 24-26
19 Now the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go, return to Egypt; for all the men who sought your life are dead.” 20 Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
24 And it came to pass on the way, at the encampment, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. 25 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!” 26 So He let him go. Then she said, “You are a husband of blood!”—because of the circumcision.
·
Why
Would God tell Moses to Go down to Egypt and then send an angel to kill him
once he was on the way?
·
Evidently
there was a problem.
·
Evidently
God was not happy with something in this mix.
·
We
find only 3 elements in this account that God deals with prior to Moses
accomplishing the call of God on his life.
o The first element: It
is evident that Moses did not leave on his journey to Egypt when God first told
him.
o The second element: It
is evident God did not tell him to take his wife and sons to Egypt.
§ We don’t know all the
reasons. It could be like it is today when people in some foreign countries
apply for a visa to leave those countries. They are often granted permission to
go alone but they must leave their spouse and children behind. Why?
§ Perhaps, at least its
imaginable, that Moses could have gotten comfortable in Egypt with his family.
§ Perhaps, its
imaginable that Moses’ wife or children could have been threatened, kidnapped
by Pharoah, held for ransom … all extra things that God could have fixed but
may not have wanted to mess with.
o The third element: It
is evident Moses had not kept the law of God which required him to circumcise
his sons when they were 8 days old.
§ Moses was God’s law giver. God could not allow Moses to be law giver while blatantly disregarding the law. (During the law, people lived and died and were stoned for breaking the law. Those who live by the law must be judged by the law.)
Why do we imagine one of Moses’s two sons had not yet been circumcised? Moses was 80 years old. He had been living in Midian with Zipporah and her family for 40 years. Most likely these were not little kids but rather grown men.
·
It
is reasonable to assume that his firstborn had been circumcised.
·
It
is reasonable to assume that Zipporah didn’t like it. Evidenced by her anger
and resentment.
·
Zipporah
did what she did at the end of a long hard battle, no doubt.
·
Zipporah
was not a Jew … Moses was.
·
Moses
was unevenly yoked with an unbeliever.
·
Perhaps
Zipporah saw the pain and blood of the first circumcision and refused to allow
the second son to be circumcised.
· Moses was circumcised at 8 days old and in order to save the life of Moses, Zipporah circumcised the remaining son and then in anger and resentment threw the foreskin at the feet of her husband with exclaim.
This is the point, where the 2 boys and the mother, Zipporah, leave Moses and go back home to her daddy in Midian where they will wait until Genesis 18 to be reunited with Moses after he brings the children of Israel out of the wilderness and across the desert.
Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, in Genesis 18 brings Zipporah and the boys to Moses. Jethro also gives Moses some counsel and advice on how to incorporate some leadership principles in his life.
Moses was responsible for perhaps 2 million Jews and their welfare, as well as their spiritual growth and their problems.
Moses had God to talk to and Aaron who wore an ephod to help determine the way and the will of God. Yet, he took Jethro’s advice and we still take it today.
Sometimes, God tells you what to do by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and sometimes He gives you advice through others, like Jethro or even a donkey. And yet at other times, well meaning people like Terah and Zipporah can offer opinions that water down the will of God. Only you can make that decision. Is this good counsel that agrees with the Word of God or is it counsel from the flesh and blood of man?
This is why the word of God is so precious and so powerful for us. God did not leave us without witness … it’s the Word, rightly interpreted and in light of the one story God is telling.
And for goodness sake, don’t omit anything God said.
