# Moses’ Sons

Key Passage: Exodus 4:18
Date: June 7, 2024

We have been on the life of Moses now for months, starting in chapter two. We are in chapter four now. We are moving right along. We are trying to take our time on Wednesday night; of course, it is a little bit more like a Bible study. But I enjoy the Word of God. I hope you do that. Just love the Word of God.

I was impressed with Steve Page tonight. He said he had a Bible question, but he could not remember it. But at least he had it there. He had a question on the Bible. He has been reading it, and I love it. That is great. I am glad he could not remember it because I probably would not know the answer to it anyway. I am glad he could not remember it. But pray the Lord, he is in there, and that is a good thing.

Exodus chapter number four. And the life of Moses, God called him, of course, to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt. He knew that from a young age, but he tried to do it the long way. It did not work out good. He spent 40 years on the backside of the desert. Now God came to him in the burning bush and called and commissioned him, and so on. That just happened. We will try to get almost to the end of this chapter tonight. I guess the title would be Moses’ Sons. I guess we will just put it that way, maybe that will generate a little interest on YouTube. Moses had two sons, and we will get to that towards the end of it tonight, in Exodus chapter number four. We are just going to read one verse, as a way of getting us going for the introduction tonight: verse number 18.

Exodus four. We better get to the Bible, right? Man, we are chasing rabbits already. Verse number 18: “And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.”

God had called Moses to go back over to Egypt to deliver the children of Israel out of there. Moses seems to have a good relationship with his father-in-law. I like that. He goes to his father-in-law and sits down. “I am going back to Egypt. I want to see if my brother is still living or whatnot. And I am going back.” He had a good relationship with his father-in-law. Not only that, he had worked for him for the last 40 years, keeping his flock. By the way, you ought to try to have a good relationship with your boss. Do not assume your boss is your enemy. Try to have a good relationship with your boss.

But it is interesting he did not tell him that God had just commissioned him to deliver the children. He did not tell him that. I kind of left that out. I do not know. Some will say Moses was just being modest. He did not want to say, “Well, I am about to go to…” Maybe that is it. Some even seem to think that if he had started saying something about it, word would have gotten back to Egypt, and they would have been ready for someone to try to deliver Israel out of bondage. I do not know. Maybe if he would have told his father-in-law, his father-in-law would have been fearful for his daughter and those grandkids. You know us grandparents; we can be pretty protective out there. Maybe that was it. I am not sure. But it was not mentioned. Just an interesting thought there; we will just throw it in there.

Let us keep going. We are in verse number 19. Chapter 4, verse number 19. Are you with me tonight? Good deal. Verse number 19: “And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life.” And Moses took his wife and his sons—now notice that plural, his sons—and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand. Very significant. The children of Israel are not going to see Pharaoh in his rod, showing his worldly power and leadership. It is going to be the rod of God in the hand of Moses. He is following God. God has Moses there under the leadership of God. And the Lord said unto Moses, “When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.”

The wonders included putting his hand in his bosom, and it became leprous, and then healed. He threw that rod down, and it became a serpent. He had to pick it up by the tail. Eventually, he would pour water out, and it would become blood. Those are the wonders.

But I want you just for a second there, look at that little phrase there at the end of verse number 21: “…but I will harden his heart, that he should not let the people go.” Now, the Calvinists really love that phrase right there. See there, Pharaoh did not have a choice. God hardened his heart. But they fail to recognize the wording of the King James Bible. Notice what the Bible says; every word of the Bible is so important. That is why we do not want anybody to mess with God’s word. He hardened. God did not make the decision. Pharaoh made the decision. God just simply hardened him in the decision he made. No, God did not make the decision. It does not say that. You are putting words in the Bible in more than one way with these other versions, and with the Calvinists too. No, God did not make the decision for Pharaoh. Pharaoh made the decision, but God hardened his heart in the decision he was making. We will look at it later on, even more, a couple weeks down the road when we get to that point. But I want you to realize that God hardened—it does not say He made the decision. He simply hardened his heart. I want you to understand that. Just a good verse. I want it to be in our minds.

Look over in John, keep your finger there. Look over in John, chapter number 12, verse number 32. Just throwing a verse out, I think it is one of the great verses against Calvinism. Sometimes repetition is the key to learning. I want it to be in the forefront of your mind so when you go to work and they say, “Well, you know, only the elect and all that stuff,” you can show them over here, John 12, verse number 32. It is a great verse about that subject. John 12, verse number 32. Are you there tonight? Amen? Good deal. Help me out. John 12:32. Trying to get it in our minds and hearts. Let us do it all together. Here we go: John 12:32. It is a great verse to combat, along with many verses, but this is a good one. John 12:32: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” He explains; He is talking about lifting up on the cross. If you read a little further, you see that. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men.” Well, that means not everyone can be saved unless they are drawn. No, He said, “I will draw all.” Was Christ lifted up from the earth? Oh, yes, He went to the cross. So He will draw all men. I just want to throw that out tonight. John 12:32. Sometimes they will use that: “Well, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” Yes, but Pharaoh made the decision. God hardened him in it.

Let us go back over here to Exodus chapter four. We will just keep going. We are going to try to land here in just a moment at a more permanent place. Verse number 22: “And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn.” There is something about this thing of the firstborn. The firstborn was special in Bible times. They would have the birthright, the oldest male. They would give a double portion of the household estate. Now, that could be defaulted; they can mess it up, and that happened in the Bible. But that is the typical thing. It is very special. Later on, after God brings them out of Egypt, God says, “Wait, the firstborn are mine.” When they were first getting instructions about the timing of the building and all that, that is when He says, “Hey, the firstborn…” Probably in the beginning of the tabernacle, it was the firstborn that did all the sacrifices and the work of the tabernacle. Then, a little bit later on, God changed over to the Levites. But the firstborn, firstborn, is very, very important in the Bible. God says Israel is His firstborn to God. Several times the Bible describes them that way. God says, “Israel, those are special to Me.” In fact, God’s original plan, and He will go back to it in the tribulation period. He wanted to use Israel to work in them and through them to reach the world. Israel messed that up, but He has not replaced Israel. Do not go there. No, no, no. He will go back. He will use Israel again during the tribulation period. But Israel is the firstborn through whom He wanted to work to reach the world—remember the 144,000 Jewish evangelists in the tribulation, and so on and so on? That is His first one.

Let us keep going. Look at the next verse, please: verse number 23. Exodus 4:23: “And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.” Remember how many plagues were there in Egypt? Ten, right? The tenth was the death of the firstborn. God is saying, “Hey, you won’t let My firstborn Israel go, so I am going to show you how it feels to lose your firstborn.” They have been in bondage for 400 years, 430 years altogether. I am going to show you what it is like to lose your firstborn. Eventually, that is the tenth plague. When I got a hold of Pharaoh—actually, he went back on it later on trying to get him—but this is the first warning.

Let me just say a couple of things about it. It is a sign or a type, if you will, of Jesus Christ. He is the firstborn, He is the only begotten of the Father. In humanity, that is showing Christ’s deity on His humanity side. He is the firstborn of Mary, born of a virgin. But He was also sacrificed. God gave His firstborn on the cross. There is so much to it. Let me just say a word about that. We are kind of chasing rabbits a little bit here, but let me just say a word about this thing of Jesus being our firstborn.

Would you look over—you won’t need to look at it if you have it memorized—but look over in John 3:16. John 3:16, you know it. Just for a second, let us talk about Jesus being the firstborn. John 3, verse number 16, all right? You are there, or most of you can just quote it. Ready? Let us just say it out loud. Here we go. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Now, remember that “only begotten.” That is very, very important. Because when you are saved, you are born into that family. Christ is the firstborn, but I am part of that family. I am not trying to take away from the deity of Christ; He is God in three persons, one. First John 5:7, I am all for that. But if He goes as far as the firstborn, He is our elder brother. We are joint heirs with Christ. We are adopted into the family. It is amazing, the generosity of Christ.

Now, look at John 1:12: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” So you and I, if you are saved, you are a son or a child of God. That is why John 3:16 says He gave His only begotten Son. That is very important.

Let me just for a minute here talk about these other versions, the most popular of the new versions, the NIV. Here is what it says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.” Well, if according to the NIV, God only has one and only Son, then Brother Bill, you cannot be saved. You see the problem? The ESV says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” Well, if he only has one Son, then Ted, you cannot be a son. The NLT says, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son.” There is a problem there because Brother Adam, I thought when we are saved we become a son of God. No, He is the only begotten. You see how wise God is, how He has the Bible like He wants it. Do not mess with that thing; you will mess it up every time. I just wanted to point that out. Praise the Lord, Jesus is our firstborn, but praise the Lord for the generosity of Jesus through His shed blood; He allows us to be adopted into the royal family. It is amazing, a child of the King! Pretty amazing, isn’t it? I love it, so thankful for that.

Let us go back over here to Exodus chapter four. We are going to get to some difficult scriptures coming up, and I want to try to look at them. I think in the 23 years I have been here, I have tried to avoid preaching on this section. Maybe we taught on it in Sunday school one time, I am not sure, but I think there are answers to it. We want to look at it real quick. Verse number 24 of Exodus 4: “And it came to pass by the way, in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him.” I think he is speaking of Moses there. Then Zipporah, that is his wife, 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.”

I am going to talk to you for a little bit about this thing here—this passion. Let us talk about Zipporah for just a moment here. That is Moses’ wife. Remember, he went over there to Midian, to the desert there, out by the well, and he was helping them feed their sheep and protecting them. When the daughters returned quickly to their dad, he asked how they got back so quick. They said, “An Egyptian man helped us over there.” He probably looked somewhat Egyptian, having been in Pharaoh’s court all those years. He said, “Go get him. Bring him back.” And they fed him mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans and pinto beans and black-eyed peas and some rolls with butter on top and a little salt in there too, and sweet tea. Moses said, “I think I like it over here in Midian. This is a pretty good place to be.”

Jethro, the father-in-law, was the priest of Midian. I do not know everything that means; really, none of us know for sure. I think somewhere along the line, Moses probably led him to the Lord. Later on, he comes and visits Moses, and they have a good time together, praising Jehovah for what Jehovah is doing there. But he was a priest of Midian. Typically, the Midianites were not Jehovah worshippers for sure. But anyway, Jethro, the priest, said, “Won’t you take Zipporah?” I think she was the oldest; I am not sure if we know that. But Zipporah means “bird,” a little bird, like a sparrow. It is a good term. Maybe she was one of his favorite daughters. He liked Moses, and he said, “I will give you my little bird, my sweet little angel, my little bird, Zipporah.” They get married, and they have two sons.

But do not forget that they are not Israelites. I am talking about Zipporah. Later on, remember Miriam and Aaron complained about it; there was an issue with all that. I think Jethro does get saved. I would imagine Zipporah too, but I do not know that. There is a good chance she still had some of her old, false religion in her. If she grew up in that and her dad was a priest, she probably absorbed some of that. The Bible never records anything about her getting saved. We do not know about that. But realize she was not an Israelite. Her dad was a priest of Midian, not a priest of Jehovah, but a priest of Midian. You understand that? Just trying to get a little background here.

Now with that in mind, remember the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 12, which He reaffirmed in Genesis 17: the pledge or sign of circumcision. Over there in Genesis 17, He said He wanted all the males—all of them—to be circumcised, whether born into the family or bought into the family. If not, they were not going to be part of this covenant; they were to be pushed out, not to be part of the children of Israel.

So we have Zipporah; she is not an Israelite and probably has some of the false religion in her. Her dad was a priest of Midian. This covenant is so important. God says, “Wait a second. If you do not get circumcised, you are not one of My firstborn. The covenant is not with you.” God says to Moses, “I am sending you back because I have a covenant with these people, and you are going to deliver the covenant people out.” Remember that.

But we have a problem because Moses has two sons, and at least one of them we know is not circumcised; maybe both. We just know that Zipporah ended up circumcising one of them. So we have a problem. God says, “I am going to use you, Moses, to deliver My firstborn, My chosen people, My covenant people, out of Egypt. In fact, I am going to kill their firstborn.” I just told you that is going to happen for them to be convinced. And yet your firstborn, or maybe one of your sons here—how are you going to deliver My firstborn by taking their firstborn if you do not have your sons at least in the covenant?

I do not understand everything about it. Maybe Moses said, “Well, I really do not have to deal with that because nobody knows; that is something in secret.” Shame on us sometimes for keeping things in secret. We take care of the sins everybody sees, but this thing is hidden, and nobody really knows. Maybe Moses said, “I am not willing to fight with my wife over this because it is in secret, so no big deal.” And God says, “No, I see in secret. My Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward you openly.” If you are going to get anything right, the secret parts are the most important. If you get the secret parts right, the outside takes care of itself. That is not true. God says, “Moses, I am not going to let this secret thing that really nobody knows about—just you and your household—pass by. I am going to use you like that. We are going to have to get this thing right.”

Sometimes you may say, and my wife has said this, “Man, we can never get by with that.” We have probably taken it the wrong way, taken it a little offensively toward the Lord at times. But if you think of it this way, it has helped us many times. I think of Walt Potter. He used to be in our church years ago. He was a manager at Krispy Kreme.

He was a manager at a training store. He told me that the person running the cash register needed less training than the person training to be a shift manager, who needed less training than the person training to be a production manager, who needed less training than the person training to be a General Manager of another store. The more they were going to be used, the more training they needed.

So do not always get offended when you say, “God won’t let me get by with anything.” It may be God wants to use you. God said, “Moses, I am not going to sweep this thing under the rug. In fact, if you are not going to get this thing right, I am not going to be able to use you for what I want to use you for—to deliver My firstborn and take their firstborn. So I am just going to take you home early if we do not get this thing right.” It is pretty severe, but God met Moses on this thing. The most important part is the secret part; it is always the most important. In God’s time, we had to get this thing right. So, very, very important.

Let us look real quickly at verse number 26. “So he let him go.” Then she said, “A bloody husband thou art because of the circumcision.” It seems that Zipporah did not want it, but she finally said, “I am just going to take care of it.” Some say Moses was getting sick, and God was going to let him die, so Zipporah took care of business. Maybe because in their argument, Moses wanted to do it, and the Lord just said, “I am going to take care of business.” But they finally did what was right in the deal.

Just a quick word; we are going to move on here in the New Testament. If you are saved, when you got saved, the Spirit of God circumcised your heart; you are marked. Let me read for you Romans 2:29: “But he is a Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”

A couple of things about that. One thing is that you cannot be uncircumcised once you are saved; there is no return from that. God marks you in your heart. If they are truly saved, they have that mark inside their heart, and they cannot get away from that. They can be in some prison cell, and yet the Spirit of God inside of them convicts them, saying, “Hey, you are God’s, and you know you are not right, and you are miserable because you are not right.” They are marked, and they will always be marked.

We are not to be called to be fruit inspectors. That is not my job. If I am looking for someone who is going to influence me—a prophet or teacher—that is when I am going to check out their fruits because I will know them by their fruits. If you are close to someone, if you are married, if you are close to someone and they are truly saved, every once in a while, you ought to see something when there is a mark on the inside of them. The Spirit of God is moving there. You might think they are not saved, but if you get close, man, God is working there. They have been marked inside.

He was marked. He had that mark. He was a child of God. He gets saved; God marks you. You are circumcised in your heart. You are His. If you get close enough to somebody, you ought to see something. I understand they are circumcised.

One last thought. We will not take too long on it, but can I be honest with you a little bit here? You do not read anything about Moses’ sons, but you do about Aaron. Aaron had four sons. Remember the two oldest ones? They offered up strange fire, and God took them. That would have been a perfect opportunity for God to say, “All right, Aaron, your two boys messed up. I will go to Moses.” But we never find him doing that. Somewhere along the line, Zipporah and her sons went back over there to Midian because later on Jethro brings them. It just seems that Moses really did not do a good job of raising his kids in the middle of this thing. What happened after Moses died? Joshua took over. You do not hear anything about Moses’ boys. It is a sad thing.

Now, just real quickly here, would you look over in Deuteronomy, chapter number six, just for a second? Let us talk about raising children. If you say, “My children are raised and grown,” praise the Lord for it. Maybe you can help somebody else raising their kids. These are great verses about raising our children for the Lord. When your kids are at home, man, that is such a crucial time. Raising your kids for the Lord. By the way, I am not trying to act like we did everything right. I have a good wife, praise the Lord. But it is so vital how you raise your kids. At the end of the day, they have to make a decision. I am thankful my kids are in church for the Lord; that is their decision. Credit goes to the Lord and to them. But it is so important; you greatly increase their chances of serving the Lord if you raise them right.

Deuteronomy 6. Would you look at verse number 6? Deuteronomy 6, verse number 6. He is talking to the children of Israel here. He says, “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk with them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.”

You teach them. It is not the state’s job to teach them. It does not take a neighborhood to raise children; it takes a mom and a dad primarily. We have our Christian school, and I try to emphasize that RCCS is to assist the family in raising their children for the Lord. I have told the parents, “We assist you in raising them for the Lord.” That is a good thing when they are in trouble sometimes. We say, “Hey, that is your kid.” But it is their responsibility.

Then he says, “Talk of them.” If it is family time around the Bible, I love it. That is one way to teach them. But it is throughout the day. Do they see Mom and Dad talking about the Bible and Christian things? That is the “talk of them.” By the way, this is a sad thing: sometimes somebody says, “Well, I have devotions with them, but they scream and yell the rest of the day.” No, you talk of them throughout the day. More is caught than is taught. He says, talk about it throughout the day.

Then he said, “When thou sittest in thine house.” It takes time to raise kids. You have to sit down sometimes. You cannot be running all the time. If you are running all the time, you will not have time to teach and talk with your children. You sit in your house, spending time with the kids. That is so vital. Turn the television off. Say, “I am not working overtime today because I am spending time with…” That is what they need. Kids spell love T-I-M-E.

When that child is very young, they drop that child off at daycare, maybe just a couple of months old. That child will scream and holler and throw fits for a week or two or maybe a little longer while that mom is working. But here is the thing: after a couple of weeks or months of that, when the mom or the dad comes to pick the child up, that is when the child starts crying because the time they are interacting with people who are home is when they interact. Man, we have a messed-up society because of what he said. He is talking about raising your children. He said, “When you sit in your house”—when is the last time you made a tent in your living room and slept there? At least let the kids fall asleep underneath the tent, then you go get in your own bed. Just spending time with them. Get all the kids in the neighborhood over to your house. We played kickball in our house so many times. Just spending time with them. Family vacations are great, by the way. It was a good thing for us when our family vacation did not really focus on where we were going but what we could do together when we got there.

But let us keep going. When thou walkest by the way—include them in your Christianity. I am thankful I grew up riding a church bus to church because my dad was driving that bus. He was up there grinding the gears, typically going faster than he should, and my mom was running some program on that bus, and they would send us to the back to keep those kids in line. I am glad we just kind of grew up in that. Take them with you when you walk. The philosophy in our day and time is, “Do not force it on them.” Well, you force school on them Monday through Friday. Do not fall for that hogwash. They are going to make a decision one day for Christ or not. You are going to increase the percentage of them getting saved so much more if you get them in there, let them hear it, teach it to them yourselves, and live it in front of them.

Then he says, “When thou liest down.” That is so important. Do not just pop them in front of the TV and put yourself in front of the TV. Spend time with them at nighttime. Pray with them before they go to bed. Do not ignore them. Then he says, “When thou risest up.” Every night, every morning, they are seeing you living out Christianity in front of them.

Now one last thing, we are done. Look at verse number six right there. Deuteronomy 6, verse number six. A very important word there: “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.” That is key. What is in your heart typically is what you pass down. Some parents probably did not have very good homes themselves, and their default is not the best. They do not have the best parenting skills in the world, but they have a heart for God. They may mess up some things that we try to learn from the Word of God to be the best parents we can. But if their heart is for God, the kids pick up on it. I do not know how it happens, but that parent, maybe they have all the parenting skills in the world, yet their heart is really about money—kids pick up on that.

What is in your heart? That is what you pass down. It is so important. Mom and Dad, if your heart is given to the Lord, if you have a heart for God, those kids are going to pick up on that. There is not a perfect parent in the world, but your heart is the key, and they are going to learn. It is amazing. I do not know how that happens, but they just always watch and they learn. I remember when John was about two years old. I had a nursing home ministry in Florida. I went every Sunday and preached there. John was about two years old. We were walking down the hallway. John was just learning to walk really well, and I just let him walk in front of me in the nursing home. A lady popped out of her door and said, “Is that your son down there, two years old?” I said, “Yes, ma’am.” She said, “Why do you say that?” She said, “He has your walk.” I thought, wow. Two years old, but he already walks like his dad. More is caught than is taught. Watch your heart; that is what you pass on.

Original File: Pastor Paul Chisgar - Moses’ Sons - Wednesday PM 1182023