Sermon Tone Analysis

Sam Rainer had a conversation with his son about the Bible and what Jesus looked like.

The son said, “Dad, do we know what Jesus looked like.”

Sam answered, “Well, Isaiah tells us that the Lord wasn’t much good looking or much to look at.”

His son went hmmm, “So He looked kinda like you.”

You know people look to Christians to kinda figure out what Jesus looks like in life.

I’m not saying we will ever be perfect.

But people look to see if we really take Jesus seriously.

And the ones who look to you the most will be your family.

Father’s your wife and kids look to you.

Today, we will see how Zipporah drove that point home to Moses.

This section of Moses’ life is not pretty.

In fact, the recounting is awkward and difficult to draw out every nuance.

But one can see the relational dynamics in both the home and with God.

Remember, there are 5 Gospels people can read.

The 4 God wrote down in Holy Scripture: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

And the Gospel of your testimony for the Lord.

I know the number one reason people give for their coming to faith: I know a Christian who lived for the Lord.

I also know the number one reason people give for why they are not a believer, “I know a Christian...” Your being here testifies that you want to walk in a manner that will honor Jesus and help others walk the narrow road.

But, even Moses needed a kick in the pants from a wife who loved him, bore his children, but did not know the Lord the way Moses did.

Some of you

24 Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that 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 threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26 So He let him alone.

At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood”—because of the circumcision.

(Exodus 4)

Moses has been commissioned by God to bring forth a people into freedom and create a new nation.

The nation that God has chosen or elected to set a standard to the entire world for His plan of salvation.

Beloved.

But, he neglected to lead his family into a personal relationship with God.

Clearly the daughter of the Midian priest had some awareness of God.

But they had not truly come to a meeting of the minds.

TRUTHS WE CAN GLEAN FROM ZIPPORAH’S RESPONSE

SHARED VALUES SUSTAIN A HEALTHY MARRIAGE

Besides faith in Christ, the most important decision you will make will not be which school to attend, what career to choose

Amos 3:3

Deuteronomy 4:9

9“Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life; but make them known to your sons and your grandsons.

10“Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when the LORD said to me, ‘Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children.’

De 4:9

FAITH WITHOUT OBEDIENCE TRIPS PEOPLE UP.

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NO ONE WILL BE EXEMPT FROM THE LORD’S JUDGEMENT.

The home is the best expression of the heart and priorities.

1 timothy 3:

God chose Moses to carry His message.

But he needed to follow the Lord’s command.

Just because God chose him to carry the message did not mean he could neglect the message.

God gives ample warning.

Noah’s day had 120 years.

Pharaoh will have 9 plagues.

But instead drug his feet and destroyed his home.

Pharaoh

Deut 29:10-

The Lord OFFERS a substitute for everyone who will trust Him and enter into covenant relationship with Him.

exodus 4:

Genesis 22:

Jesus did the heavy lifting on the road to Calvary so we could walk with Him.

romans 8:32

Scholars have pointed out that different Hebrew words for “harden” are used in this passage (Forster, 1555–68).

Qashah, meaning “stubbornness” is used twice, once where God is the agent and once where Pharaoh is (7:3; 13:15).

In both cases it is used of the overall process, not a particular act.

Kabed, meaning “heavy” or “insensitive” is used many times, not only of Pharaoh’s heart, but of the plagues.

God sent a “heavy” swarm of flies, hailstones, and swarm of locusts.

Chazaq, meaning “strength” or “encouragement” is used of Pharaoh’s heart.

When Pharaoh is the agent of hardening kabed is used.

When God is the agent, chazaq is used.

“Although Pharaoh is making his own moral decision, God is going to give him the strength to carry it out,” writes Roger Forster (72).

On this understanding there is nothing morally sinister about God “hardening,” Pharaoh, and it is an understanding with which moderate Calvinists and Arminians could concur.

The sense in which God hardened his heart is similar to the way the sun hardens clay and also melts wax.

If Pharaoh had been receptive to God’s warnings, his heart would not have been hardened by God.

But when God gave Pharaoh a reprieve from the plagues, he took advantage of the situation.

“But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them [Moses and Aaron], as the Lord had said” (Exod.

8:15).

The question can be summarized as follows: does God harden hearts?