Sometimes the devil doesn't tempt us with evil; sometimes he allures us with good, distracts us with obligations, confuses us with compromise, or hinders us with business to keep us from that which is best- service to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Remember, the devil always offers his best, before Christ will offer His will for your life.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Moses' Wife


There was a movie put out a while back about Moses. He and his wife stand before Pharaoh, and, eventually, the children of Israel leave Egypt. Moses' wife and sister are singing and praising the Lord.
While this is a lovely sentiment, it is not how the story actually goes.
After Moses meets with God in the burning bush, he goes back to pack up his family and head to Egypt.
Exodus 4:24- And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.
Wait! What? God just met with him and shewed him signs and wonders. He was told a new name for God and even commissioned by God for a job. Why would God seek to kill him?
Well, Moses has been with his new family for 40 years now. He has a wife and 2 sons. Being a Jew, he followed the Jewish law and had his first son circumcised. However, he didn't circumcise his second son.
I'm not sure if Moses thought he was never going back to Egypt and so he didn't have to follow the Hebrew custom, but I do know that his wife was the one who was against it.
Exodus 4:25-26- Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.
Moses' wife was against this bloody Jewish ritual. She didn't want her son circumcised. In fact, she knew why the Lord was going after Moses. She was the one who saved him by performing the circumcision.
But, notice her attitude. She called him a "bloody husband". She was angry. She didn't want it done. And she didn't go with Moses to Egypt because of it!
Exodus 18:1-6- When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt; Then Jethro, Moses' father in law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back, And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land: And the name of the other was Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh: And Jethro, Moses' father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God: And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.
Why did Moses have her go back to her father? Was it, perhaps, because she was so angry with him that she would have only been a hindrence to his obeying God?
She was more than willing to leave. She had bitterness in her heart that caused her to miss her husband become the great man of God that he did. She missed witnessing the wonders of the great I AM against the country of Egypt. She didn't see Moses become the friend of God with whom God talked face to face.
How many men out there could do amazing things for God if only their wives would let them? I am afraid to say that there are many who will stand before God and hear him say, "I wanted to do great things through your husband, and I couldn't because of you!"
Now, I'm not casting all the blame on the women. Moses could have gone back with his wife and God would have sent deliverance through another. Each man has a choice whether to obey God or to pacify his wife. Each man will give an account before God for the things he didn't do because he would rather please his wife than God. But, the women will also give account of how they hindered, held back, and whined into compliance.
2 Corinthians 5:9-11- Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
Paul says that we will give account, and he points out the terror of the Lord during that time. This isn't a reverencing fear. This isn't a sweaty palm nervousness. This is a fall on your face trembling, and don't move terror!
I pray that God allows me to swallow my pride and the thoughts of what my rights are and that I step aside to allow my husband to follow the Lord's will for his life!