Killing Moses

One of the most revered figures in Israel's antiquity and the Lawgiver and first leader of the nation. Set aside from birth as God's chosen one to deliver Israel from Egyptian oppression and one of only two to appear with Christ in a glorified state on the Mt of Transfiguration. Moses was God's number one man in his day and God was about to kill him: "the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him" (Exodus 4:24).

OK Moses, what horrible thing did you do to motivate God to kill his chosen one?  What on earth could you have done that was so terrible that the appropriate response from God was your death?  The answer - Nothing.  Moses did nothing when he was supposed to do something as the leader of God's people, in particular: he did not circumcise his own son. 

Circumcision was the covenant sign given of God to Abraham, the Father of the Faithful: "You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised" (Gen 17:11).

Moses, for whatever reason, chose not to initiate that covenant between God and his own son. God chose to remove Moses from leadership and life. But not for his wife, Zipporah, Moses would have been stricken: "But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the Lord let him alone" (Exodus 4:25-26).

Moses was guilty of what s called the sin of omission: "If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them" (James 4:17).  Moses, the leader of God's people, was choosing not to lead then in the Covenant Path. What was he thinking?  Are you a leader in your church or community or home? What are you thinking or doing or not doing?  Jus' Askn.