Exodus 4:18 – 26 “Then Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, “Please let me return to my brothers in Egypt to see if they are still alive.” “Go in peace,” Jethro replied. Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought to kill you are dead.” So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
The LORD instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then tell Pharaoh that this is what the LORD says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son, and I told you to let My son go so that he may worship Me. But you have refused to let him go, so I will kill your firstborn son!’”
Now at a lodging place along the way, the LORD met him and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the LORD let him alone. (When she said, “bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.)
It had been an issue between Moses and Zipporah ever since Moses’s sons were born! Moses tried to demand that his sons be circumcised according to Israelite custom while Zipporah thought the whole idea sounded weird and barbaric. “Let them be circumcised when they get older if they want to,” Zipporah argued. Perhaps Moses succeeded in circumcising one son, but then Zipporah flatly refused to allow the second son to be circumcised. We can’t be sure, but it seems that Moses must have remained quiet. Zipporah thought the whole problem had gone away…. until the night that the angel of the Lord was about to kill Moses. Somehow Zipporah realized that if she cut off the foreskin from the uncircumcised son and touched Moses’s feet with it, the blood on the foreskin would protect Moses.
Why was God ready to kill Moses when He had already commissioned Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt? As head of the family, Moses should have insisted on circumcision for both his sons and he had not. God was trying to make sure Moses realized that God’s Will was not a plaything and that Moses could not cherish pet sins in his life. At the same time, God was also sending a strong message to Zipporah, who had not been raised in the Israelite tradition. Moses was about to enter a situation in which his leadership would be repeatedly tried and tested to the max. The last thing that Moses needed was opposition and criticism from his wife. Zipporah needed to realize that when God called Moses to a work, God was also calling Zipporah to support him.
APPLICATION: It’s never easy when one spouse is called to do an extremely difficult/dramatic task and the other has to go along. God never calls just one member of a couple! God always calls couples in pairs; however, sometimes the member with the less dramatic calling may feel that theirs is no calling at all.
God called me to be a missionary when I was eleven years old. When my husband and I first met, I quickly informed him that I had taken a vow of poverty and that I was called to be a missionary. If this man had any problems with either of those two assertions, we could end the relationship immediately! My husband accepted both of those assertions; however, he remained willing to slide along on the coattails of my calling. Then my husband had the chance to spend two weeks on a short term mission trip in a remote part of rural Chile. Every morning of that two weeks, I ran down the street to a church that was open for early morning prayer and prayed earnestly that God would give my husband his own calling. My prayers were answered when my husband got off the airplane, hugged me, and proclaimed, “It’s time to go to the mission field!” While I was pleased and shocked, my husband was astounded; he had had no intention of saying anything of the sort before he got off the plane.
I am a missionary surgeon in a bush hospital. Through the years, our Ghanaian friends have generally introduced us as “Doctor and the husband,” despite my best efforts at correcting them. My calling is the more visible and more dramatic; yet, I could not possibly have succeeded in that role had my husband not been willing to take care of everything else. For years I was the only doctor and I was on call continually with no end to the work. During that time, it was my husband who kept the house and our vehicles running, planned shopping trips, and maintained things at our house. My husband is a gifted mechanic/welder and an EMT. For years, my husband also helped maintain hospital vehicles and other hospital equipment; at the same time, he was also preaching regularly in one of the local churches. One calling was not more important than the other; each of us supported the other.
THERE ARE NO SMALL CALLINGS!!! Some callings are more visible; some callings receive more public attention, but this does not make them more important. Stay at home moms or dads make a big contribution to their families and give kids a sense of security that is hard to find in any other fashion.
Are you frustrated because your spouse receives a lot of attention for the work they do while nobody notices you? Take heart! God sees! God knows! God understands! The same God who called Zipporah to support Moses is also watching you and applauding your faithfulness!
PRAYER: Father God, thank you for your mercy! Thank you that you have a calling for each and every one of us and that you long for us to find that calling and to fulfill your perfect will for us. Thank you that when we are willing to submit to your will, we will find contentment and peace. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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