Exodus 4:18-31--Moses Returns to Egypt

Moses Returns to Egypt
18 Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” 19 And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.” 20 So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand.

21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”

24 At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. 25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.

27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. 28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which he had sent him to speak, and all the signs that he had commanded him to do. 29 Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the people of Israel. 30 Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had spoken to Moses and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.

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Moses returns to his father-in-law to ask permission to return to Egypt to see if they are still alive--why he didn't just tell Jethro that God commanded him to go, I'm not sure.  God ells Moses that it's safe to return to Egypt and that all those who were seeking to kill him for the murder of the Egyptian taskmaster are dead.  Moses takes his wife and sons with him and returns to Egypt with the staff of God--the symbol of God's power--in his hand.

God tells Moses to obey God completely and say and do everything as the LORD commanded, even though He knows that Pharaoh's heart will be hardened--God even says that He will cause that to happen to accomplish His purposes.

We then see an interesting verse where God calls Israel His "firstborn son" and God promises early on that if Pharaoh will not let God's people go, that God will kill Pharaoh's first-born son (the 10th plague).  God already knew that Pharaoh wouldn't listen and that plagues 1-9 wouldn't be effective on their own for Pharaoh until they were accompanied by the 10th plague.

We then see another very strange verse that says that along the way back to Egypt, the Lord (this would be the Son of God since it's not LORD) met Moses to put him to death.  We can only assume by the passage that this was due to some sort of rebellion where he had refused to give his family over to God.  His wife somehow knew of God's command that the boys be circumcised and that they had been disobedient to that command and she circumcised their son and used the blood from this to touch Moses and make atonement for him.  Moses calls his wife a "bride of blood" because of this, but she truly saved his life here by being obedient to the Lord's will when he would not be.

God then has Aaron come out into the wilderness to meet Moses, and they meet at Mount Horeb ("the mountain of God") which would later be called Mount Sinai.  Moses explained to Aaron how God had given him a message and that he wanted Aaron to help him speak the words that God had given him, and he told and taught Aaron all these things--which I can say as a tutor and teacher reinforces the truths for you when you need to explain them to others.

They went together to speak to the elders of Israel (Aaron did the talking) and the signs were done in front of the people to confirm the message was from God.  And the people believed and responded in worship--the right response.  We already know this will not be the response of Pharaoh, but we'll get to that next time.