Exodus 4 — Sketch
The Reluctant Prophet
Big Idea:
Moses asks God what he should do if the Israelites don’t believe that God has sent him.
God shows Moses wonders to perform as proof for them.
God tells Moses to throw his staff on the ground. He does, and it becomes a snake.
God tells Moses to grab the snake by the tail. He does, and it turns back into his staff.
God tells Moses to put his hand in his cloak. He does, and it becomes leprous.
God tells Moses to put his hand back in his cloak. He does, and it is healed.
God tells Moses that if the people still don’t believe, he should pour some water from the Nile onto the ground, and it will become blood.
Moses complains that he cannot speak well and asks God to send someone else.
God becomes angry with Moses, but says that Moses’ brother, Aaron, will help him.
Moses moves his family back to Egypt.
Along the way, God “was about to kill him.”
But Moses’ wife, Zipporah circumcises their son and touches Moses’ feet with the foreskin, saying “Surely, you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”
God lets Moses live.
Moses and Aaron present God’s message to the Israelites.
Jesus in This Chapter:
Just as Moses was able to grasp the dangerous snake and turn it back in to a benign staff, Jesus takes the sin that leads to death and makes us safe from it.
Just as Moses’ hand was healed from leprosy when he put it back in his cloak, our hearts are healed of the sins committed against us when we give them to Jesus.
The “Bridegroom of Blood” story is bizarre, but there’s still something to it. In Matthew 9:15 Jesus refers to himself as “the Bridegroom” of the Church, and Revelation 19:7-9 describes Heaven as a wedding party between Jesus and His bride the Church. In this case, Zipporah shows incredible insight by identifying God as the “Bridegroom of Blood,” and it saves them from death. Likewise, Jesus is the Bridegroom whose blood saves the Church.
(Originally drawn September 9, 2010)