Public Personal Versus Inward Integrity
Moses is called.
Moses is commissioned by God.
Moses has met with God.
Moses is on his way to fulfill God's grand and glorious purposes.
And then something shocking.
Exodus 4:24–26 (ESV) At a lodging place on the way 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 touched Moses’ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
This is a hard moment for us to understand. We want to question God here. Why is He one moment commending and commissioning Moses and the next moment about to slay him?
It is because your calling in God NEVER trumps your inward response toward God.
Moses had not to this point circumcised his son. He knew the importance of this sign. He understood it's implications. He was taught the stories of his people. But in the hustle and bustle of life, Moses neglected to practice the most important covenant sign of the Old Testament upon his own son. He forgot to pass on what distinguished them from all the other people. In short, God would not allow Moses to deliver His son (Israel) until Moses had led his own son (Gershom) into the covenant relationship of the Patriarchs.
This come through to the New Testament in the circumcision of the heart. We are to allow the Lord to cut and tear away the old nature of our sin and replace it with his love and grace. This is the inward work of the new covenant as stipulated by the prophets under the Old Covenant.
Ezekiel 36:26–27 (ESV) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
How often do we want to make our name for ourselves before we let God do the work He wants to do on our inner person? How often we seek to have our public persona perfected while our inward person gets neglected?
Thankfully, God will not allow it. Notice how seriously he treats Moses here. He's ready to kill him and find someone else. Why? Because public effectiveness without inner transformation will not last anyway. History in the church proves what I'm saying. How many men of God have fallen from their public positions because their private lives were not ordered!
God's work IN you is more important the His work THROUGH you. Stop what you're trying to become for the people around you, and let the Holy Spirit truly transform you. If you do not let this happen, it will cost you.
Thankfully, God is committed to your inward person and can even use personal public tragedy to transform your inward reality. I've known many Pastors who have fallen. I've also known many who have gone through it and come out all the better for it. It was death at the time, but there's new life inside.
There is no substitute for the work of God IN your heart.
Moses is commissioned by God.
Moses has met with God.
Moses is on his way to fulfill God's grand and glorious purposes.
And then something shocking.
Exodus 4:24–26 (ESV) At a lodging place on the way 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 touched Moses’ feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
This is a hard moment for us to understand. We want to question God here. Why is He one moment commending and commissioning Moses and the next moment about to slay him?
It is because your calling in God NEVER trumps your inward response toward God.
Moses had not to this point circumcised his son. He knew the importance of this sign. He understood it's implications. He was taught the stories of his people. But in the hustle and bustle of life, Moses neglected to practice the most important covenant sign of the Old Testament upon his own son. He forgot to pass on what distinguished them from all the other people. In short, God would not allow Moses to deliver His son (Israel) until Moses had led his own son (Gershom) into the covenant relationship of the Patriarchs.
This come through to the New Testament in the circumcision of the heart. We are to allow the Lord to cut and tear away the old nature of our sin and replace it with his love and grace. This is the inward work of the new covenant as stipulated by the prophets under the Old Covenant.
Ezekiel 36:26–27 (ESV) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Thankfully, God will not allow it. Notice how seriously he treats Moses here. He's ready to kill him and find someone else. Why? Because public effectiveness without inner transformation will not last anyway. History in the church proves what I'm saying. How many men of God have fallen from their public positions because their private lives were not ordered!
God's work IN you is more important the His work THROUGH you. Stop what you're trying to become for the people around you, and let the Holy Spirit truly transform you. If you do not let this happen, it will cost you.
Thankfully, God is committed to your inward person and can even use personal public tragedy to transform your inward reality. I've known many Pastors who have fallen. I've also known many who have gone through it and come out all the better for it. It was death at the time, but there's new life inside.
There is no substitute for the work of God IN your heart.
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