Sunday Worship Service March 10, 2024

Prelude
Call to Worship 1 Thessalonians 5:9
Hymn JBC # 232 On the cross of Calvary
The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn JBC # 105 There is sunshine in my soul today
Offering
Scripture Exodus 4:18~31
Prayer
Sermon “Moses returns to Egypt”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 255 Face to face with Christ, my Saviour
Doxology JBC # 674
Benediction
Postlude


God appeared to Moses and commanded him to lead his fellow Israelites out of Egypt where they were suffering in slavery.
At that time, Moses was living as a shepherd in a region called Midian. For about 40 years, Moses lived as a shepherd in the Midian region and was now 80 years old.
Moses hesitated to obey God’s commands several times, but God provided him with various signs (miracles) so that the Israelites and Egyptians would believe him.
And Moses finally accepted what God said and decided to go to Egypt and serve in God’s plan to rescue the Israelites.
The first thing Moses did after making this decision is recorded in today’s Bible passage (Exodus 4:18 – 31).

Moses first told Jethro, his father-in-law (Moses’ wife’s father), “Please let me return to Egypt.”
Before Moses left Midian to go to Egypt, he disclosed this to his father-in-law and asked for his understanding and permission.
Moses and Jhetro first met as follows. When Moses first fled Egypt and arrived in the region of Midian, he was sitting by a well. Seven daughters of a priest of Midian had gone there to get water for the flock. (Exodus Ch.2)
The male shepherds there tried to chase the women away, but Moses rescued them.

The daughters’ father was Jethro, a priest in the region of Midian. (For some reason his name is originally written as Reuel in Exodus 2:18. He may also have been called Reuel.)
Moses decided to stay with Jethro, so Jethro gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.
When Moses was told by God, “Go back to Egypt and rescue the people of Israel,” Moses was worried that his fellow Israelites would not believe him.
Likewise, he was hesitant because he thought the Egyptians would also not believe him.
However, up until today’s passage, there is nothing written about Moses worrying about what his father-in-law Jethro would say about his return to Egypt.
Despite that, today’s passage shows a hesitant Moses who must explain his decision to “return to Egypt” to his father-in-law, Jethro first, and ask for his permission and understanding.
For Moses, his father-in-law, Jethro, may have become a very important person, perhaps as much as his own father.

Moses must have felt indebted to Jethro for taking care of him and taking him in as he fled from Egypt.
God commanded Moses. God showed him miraculous signs, and he was convinced that it was God’s will for him to be sent to Egypt.
Even so, Moses probably hoped to convey this to his father-in-law Jethro first, gain his understanding, and have Jethro send him off.
Moses didn't think, “Since God told me and I decided so, it doesn’t matter what my father-in-law has to say.”
I think it’s fair to say that even though they weren’t blood-related, there was a strong bond between Moses and Jethro.
In the church, church members and Christians call each other as “brothers and sisters.” It expresses the belief that all believers in the same God, Jesus Christ, are children of God and that we are God’s family united by the same faith.

The fact that we are now a family of faith in the same church is a wondrous thing led by God, just like the encounter between Moses and his father-in-law Jethro.
I hope that those of us who have met in this way and who have become members of God’s family will be able to deepen our relationship as much as possible, where we can share our faith and encourage each other.
Jethro responded to Moses, as Moses had told him “let me go to Egypt”, with just one thing, “Go, and I wish you well.” Although it is just one sentence, it seems to be a statement that clearly expresses Jethro’s heartfelt desire for peace and safety for his son-in-law.
Behind the words, “Go, and I wish you well,” we can imagine Jethro thinking of the path Moses is about to take and praying.
We too, through our connection as believers in Christ, can think of each other and pray for one another to spend our days in peace and reassurance.

Moses was sent out by Jethro, and as recorded in verse 19, the Lord told him, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.”

Then Moses puts his wife and sons on a donkey and headed to Egypt.
Following that, verses 24 - 26 depict a very strange occurrence. God tries to kill Moses who is on his way to Egypt with his wife and children.
Why did God suddenly try to kill Moses, who was following God’s orders by going to Egypt? We do not know the reason.
One interpretation is that the reason was that Moses had not circumcised his son, a sign of an Israelite— one of God’s people.

In the Book of Genesis, the Lord God calls to Abraham, and Abraham leaves his birthplace and journeys to the promised land shown to him by God.
In Genesis 17, God told Abraham, “You will be the father of many nations,” and commanded Abraham and his descendants to keep the Lord’s covenant (commandments).
One of these commandments was circumcision, which was performed on the male children of Israel. This was a sign that distinguished God’s people of Israel from others.
Moses lived in the region of Midian for a long time (and because he was raised in the royal palace of Egypt from infancy to adulthood), and perhaps he didn’t fully understand the importance of the covenant with the Lord God, which was important to the people of Israel.

God (although the severity of killing Moses is beyond our understanding) may have wanted to remind Moses that he himself is a member of the people of Israel and a son of God, and therefore his son is also in the covenant with God and living in His grace.
It was no other than his wife Zipporah who saved Moses’ life then. When Zipporah cut off her son’s foreskin and circumcised him, the Lord released Moses.
Moses’ wife played a role in saving his life. If it wasn’t for Zipporah, Moses might have died there, and we are once again reminded of the importance of the role played by Zipporah, a woman.
Zipporah was Moses’ wife and a woman. As a woman in the culture and customs of the time, she was in a position that was considered weak.
However, the Bible tells us of this important event in which Zipporah’s quick judgment and action saved the life of Moses, who later did the great work of leading the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Compared to Moses, his wife Zipporah’s role was never small, unimportant, nor supporting character.
One of the famous parables that Jesus told is the story of the lost sheep.
The story goes that if a person had 100 sheep and one of them went missing, he should leave the 99 sheep on the mountain and search for the missing one until it is found.
That person in the parable is God. God would never think that “1 out of 100 animals is unimportant.”
Such is our God. Through faith, we can believe that each of us and the roles we play are equally precious and important before God.
Each of us is irreplaceable before God. I hope we can remember that within our current church congregation, everyone has been entrusted by God with an equally important role (even if it doesn’t seem that way to others).

After his life was saved by Zipporah, Moses was led by God to meet his brother Aaron in the wilderness (at the mountain of God).
God had already told Moses, “I will send your brother Aaron to you to speak in your stead because you are not good with words. Speak to him (Aaron) and put into his mouth the words that you need to say.” (Exodus 4:15)
And as it happened, Moses was able to meet Aaron. Moses gradually learned through his own experiences and with the help of others, including his family, that God’s words are powerful and that they are true and reliable.

Moses goes with Aaron and gathers all the elders of the Israelites. And, as God had told him, Aaron spoke all the words that the Lord had said to Moses, who in turn showed them the signs (miracles).
From that we see in verse 31 “and they believed.” The word of God was delivered to the people of Israel, and they believed it.
We have read the story of Exodus so far and know how many events took place before the word of God spoken to Moses was finally delivered to the people of Israel by the mouth of Aaron.
At first, Moses was afraid and hesitant, not believing that he could take on the role of preaching God’s word to the people.
But in the end, a patient and merciful God gave Moses the courage to believe in His word, believe in the help of others that God was giving him, and take the first step to complete his difficult mission.

God’s word is so powerful, and God’s word is indeed true. God’s word gives us strength, courage, and hope to carry us through each day.
We have been given such an abundance of God’s word. We have also been given helpers of faith and the family of God.
Therefore, let us walk in faith every day, trusting in the strength and richness of God’s word, without getting caught up in our own weaknesses and doubts.