Page 39 - Pentateuch

Here we must pause. In these verses, God has revealed himself to Moses in a deeper manner than he ever
did with the patriarchs. We might remember all those incidents in Abraham’s life and how each revealed a
little bit more of God’s character to him. We might remember Jacob wrestling
hy<h.a, rv,a] the angel of the Lord until dawn, seeking a blessing and being refined in the

hy<h.a process by his interaction with God. They knew YHWH, but they did not know
him as thoroughly as Moses now knows him. God reveals himself as the great
“I AM,” the root meaning of the word YHWH. The revelation is emphatic, “I
AM WHO I AM” (3:14).

To know God in this fashion is a great privilege. God takes the initiative in grace, calling the undeserving
into this presence. Yet once a man or woman has been brought into God’s presence, that person’s response
is crucial. God instructs Moses to return to Egypt. He does so, taking his wife and sons. On the way, God
gives him more revelation about how the endeavor will end. Pharaoh’s heart will be hardened at the
expense of his firstborn son (4:18-23)

Suddenly, God confronts Moses and is going to kill him (4:24). We are given no warning about this threat.
Immediately, we wonder why. A strange event follows. Zipporah, Moses’ wife, circumcises their sons, and
all is well (4:25-26). Can it be that Moses has lived a casual spiritual life in Midian, away from the rest of the
nation? Can it be that Zipporah is more spiritually attuned than her husband? Male circumcision has been
the sign of God’s covenant with the nation since the days of Abraham (Gen. 17:9-14). “Any uncircumcised
male…will be cut off from his people;” he has broken God’s covenant (Gen. 17:14).

Moses is just beginning to learn what it means to know the holy God. Years previously, he had been
ordered to take off his sandals, “for the place where you are standing
is holy ground (Exod. 3:5). The verb form of “holy” occurs first in
Genesis 2:3 in connection with the Sabbath day of rest. The only other vd,q – holy -
occurrence before Exodus 3:6 is the chapter about Judah visiting a

prostitute. Three times in 38:21-22, the NIV uses the phrase “shrine prostitute.” The phrase has the word
“holy” as its root. Many of the nations in Canaan viewed sex as an integral part of their religion. Human
sexual activity stimulated their gods to be sexually active. The result would be adequate rain, abundant
crops of grain and animals, and beautiful, healthy children. For them, sex was one of the holiest parts of
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life, and they integrated the act into their worship.

Moses and the entire nation of Israel were to be different, unlike all the other nations, because their God is
different. Infant circumcision of all male children was quite different from the practices of the nations.
“From its inception, infant circumcision was the distinctive Israelite custom, not derived from Egyptian or
other practice, and contrasting sharply with the puberty rites of other nations: the latter points to the social
acknowledgment of adult status, the former to a status before God and a prevenience [going before] of
divine grace.” So if Moses was to lead Israel out of bondage to God, he must respond to the holiness of
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God. Circumcision was one of the most basic responses to this great God.

The stakes are high. God views Israel as his “firstborn son” (4:21). In refusing to let God’s firstborn son go,
the Egyptians would lose their “firstborn sons” (4:23). We are forced to connect the memory of Abraham’s

45 We cannot take space to thoroughly document the religious practices of the nations in and around Canaan in ancient
days. Many examples can be given. “The worshippers of these deities, through the use of imitative magic, engaged in
sexual intercourse with the devotees of the shrine, in the belief that this would encourage the gods and goddesses to
do likewise” (O.J. Baab, “Prostitution,” Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary (1984), 3:932).
46 J. A. Motyer, “Circumcision,” The New Bible Dictionary, ed. J. D. Douglas (Wheaton: Tyndale, 1982), p. 210.
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