Obey or Be Killed?

There are times when I’m reading my Bible and I come across a statement that causes my brain to say, “Say, what?!” Today was one of those. A little background: I’m doing my read through the Bible in a year discipline as part of my personal devotional time each day. And today I’m a day behind, maybe two… no matter – I’ll catch up because I love reading my Bible!! But sometimes I get side-tracked on a verse or two, thus the being behind. Today I had actually determined that I was going to read straight through with no bunny trails – famous last words! So I was reading along and read this in Exodus 4:24 “At a lodging place on the way (Moses and his family are heading back to Egypt after God has sent him to speak to Pharaoh about freeing the Israelites), the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him.” WHAT?! At this point I’m realizing that a bunny trail is ahead. I mean, who can read that and just keep going? Seriously… So I got to thinking as I read the next few verses trying to figure out why God was suddenly about to kill Moses. The next thing we see is Moses’ wife, Zipporah, circumcising her son and throwing “it” at Moses’ feet. I think she was pissed! She’s from Midian, so her people didn’t do circumcision. I bet there had been a fight when the son was born about this very issue. Moses, being an Israelite, had to know the law of God that required males be circumcised on the 8th day after birth. They fought, the wife won – Moses gave in. Remind you of another Old Testament couple? (Adam giving in to Eve and eating that piece of fruit!) Here’s the thing. Whether Moses had previously known God or not – whether Moses had been following God’s law or not – now that God has appeared to Moses, calling him as a leader among his own people, the “rules” have changed. Moses has agreed to go and is now accountable for his obedience to God. I’m sure God had been pressing Moses to have his sons circumcised (not sure whether the other son was circumcised or not) and Moses had listened to his wife instead. BUT NOW – Moses is a leader, an example before God’s people and God can no longer allow this disobedience. So – God’s going to kill Moses if he doesn’t obey! Zipporah finally complies when she realizes God is going to kill her husband, but she is certainly not happy about it! (I have no idea how she knew God was going to kill her husband – those details are not in scripture.) Personal application – obey God or He will hunt you down and kill you? NO! Haha! We would all be dead… Leaders must obey and be an example to those who are watching. Leadership costs us our own way. Leaders lead… They go first. They do the hard thing. They sacrifice. Husbands, follow God’s voice above the voice of your wives. Wives, stop arguing with your husbands when they're trying to both obey God and to lead you. Who said being a leader was easy? If you’re called, you can’t get away from that calling so go ahead and answer the call to go – go ahead and lead where God has called you! And if you refuse – run fast! Hehe…