“At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. 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. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)”
In the movie “UP” there is a dog named ‘Doug’. I like that name. We reference him a lot for something that he said, “Squirrel!” In the middle of a thought Doug would see a squirrel and point it out and then go back to what he was saying. Doug had a doggy voice translator on his collar so you could understand him. When one of our family members does something like this we always yell “Squirrel!”
Verses 24-26 of chapter 4 stick out of the Moses story like someone yelled “Squirrel!” Before this, Moses had questioned the Lord five times and each time the Lord answers Moses’ question and assures him that the Lord is with him. Even after turning a staff into a snake and back into a staff, and turning Moses’ hand into a leprous one and back to normal again, Moses still begs God to use someone else. The Lord God, angry over this, finally relents and tells Moses that his brother, Aaron, will go with him and be his mouth. It was all set. His family was packed up and going to Egypt to free the Hebrews. Only wait, here comes verses 24-26. At a lodging place on the way the Lord is about to kill Moses. I had to stop and read this several times. I even read a commentary of these verses to more fully understand them. (Here is the link). After I read the commentary over these verses it hit me. Moses has been so far from the Lord he even stopped living and practicing the laws of the covenant that God gave to Abraham, namely circumcision of their son. He could not keep going until he fulfilled the covenant law. The Bible even tells us that Aaron did not get the go ahead to meet Moses until this happened.
Somewhere in your past you heard from the Lord. It was like lightning and goose bumps. It was all you could think about. God called you and you knew it was Him without a doubt. After questioning what you went through, you decide to move forward with God. Your life choices positively change and you see a difference. Heck, you might even choose to move like Moses did. Then it comes. The ugly past, the old boyfriend, the old friends, the old habits come to pay a visit. You dabble back into the old world again and you find yourself in a place that resembles death. Death in your emotions, death in your thoughts where this sin in no longer fun any more, it is on the contrary, killing you.
Our verses today might seem a little out of place but the Lord put them in this story for us. Your call from God and your decision to follow Him is real. But what looms around and threatens to derail the whole thing is your sin, or in Moses’ life, the lack of compliance with the holy covenant of the Lord. You must comply with the Lord and get rid of your past no matter how deep those ties are in order to move forward with God. You can’t tell a drug addict that he or she could have just one hit a week and get totally clean; just like you cannot move forward with God until you say no to your past. Sobering thought I know but Moses was about to sleep with the fishes if his wife would not have circumcised their son that day.
What do you need to ‘cut out’ of your life that is holding you back from moving forward with God? Find it, cut it out and move forward with the Lord. There could be a nation of people waiting on you to comply.
Let It Go 
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