LEADERSHIP (2)
[p. 119] LEADERSHIP (2)
Exodus 3:1-6; Exodus 3:11-15; Exodus 4: 21 - 23; Exodus 32: 11 - 14; Exodus 33: 7 - 11
JT This chapter begins the third phase of Moses’ life, his third forty years. Undoubtedly, the one hundred and twenty years of Moses’ life is intended, among other things, to afford God an opportunity to show His precious interest in His servants’ histories. The third phase of Moses’ life is the most fruitful one, the one to which divine honours belonged. The second chapter contemplates his history, as it were, by itself; it is not what God did in him, but what he did himself; spiritual history, however, is clearly marked. God was working in Aaron at the same time, but we hear nothing about him until he appears in his eighty-third year. We hope to dwell on that later.
Now in the third chapter God is having to say to Moses directly, and He brings out openly the results in Moses of his earlier experience. Applied to us this is when a brother’s works show what he is secretly; he proves it openly, purchasing to himself a good degree. It is himself. But in this third phase God is working with Moses having in mind the great work He designed for him, beginning with this extraordinary experience of the bush. What transpires brings out the effect of the experience and education of the previous forty years. He turns aside to see what Jehovah would present to him. Thus his name is called twice as if he had been acquiring distinction in heaven. “And Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, and God called to him out of the midst of the thorn-bush, and said, Moses, Moses! ... And he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”. The time had come for the coming great servant to become definitely acquainted with God. And it is “I AM THAT I AM”. It is God in His essential Being, as this and subsequent scriptures [p. 120] show, who is revealing Himself to Moses, and who is sending him to the children of Israel, and who is sending him to Pharaoh.
CHH Would Acts 13 where the apostle Paul gets his commission at Antioch correspond to Moses being committed definitely to service?
JT Yes. Earlier history had been the making time for the apostle. The fruit of this is now apparent. His novitiate was completed — applying to the five year period of the Levite. He and Barnabas had served in the assembly for a whole year. Their work was honoured of God. The disciples were first called christians at Antioch. We have an allusion to the assembly there, which was the fruit of their service, and five names are given as distinct in the place. The Holy Spirit is free to act now and send him out. There is a definite sending forth by the Spirit. “Moses”, we are told, “tended the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian”. It is the second phase of his history. “And he led the flock behind the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God”. That is the point to which the flock was led. Many would lead elsewhere, into blind alleys, the party-making principle would be that, but he led to the mountain of God — to Horeb. The angel of Jehovah appeared to him in the midst of the thorn-bush, and the thorn-bush burned with fire but it was not being consumed. “And Moses said, Let me now turn aside and see this great sight, why the thorn-bush is not burnt. And Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see”. That is the point. He is now ready for this great event. John says as to the Lord, “we have contemplated his glory”.
JD Would you say a word as to the difference between Horeb and Sinai in connection with the question of leadership?
JT I think Horeb is grace. Sinai involves the terrors of the law, that is, what God is in His severity.
[p. 121] We read in Romans of the goodness and the severity of God. The goodness, I think, is seen in Horeb and the severity in Sinai. They are in the same range of mountains, but I refer to the way Scripture presents the facts.
JD Would the bush burning represent Israel?
JT Yes. It is not consumed. The burning went on and the bush was not consumed. God Himself was there — “the good will of him that dwelt in the bush” (Deuteronomy 33: 16). God was dwelling there. That is wonderful. Israel will appear in the future after all the extraordinary vicissitudes of God’s discipline as not consumed, as the Israel of God.
RWS Is it a question of the yield in quality now in Moses? Actually, it was only one-third of his life.
JT Well, I think it shows how much making is needed before we have the full result in any servant. This third phase had all the honours that could enter into it, all the decorations, all the loveliness too, for God was increasingly appreciative of Moses. He says in Numbers 12 that there was no one like him, that he “was very meek, above all men that were upon the face of the earth”. Even prophets did not have his distinction. Jehovah says in Numbers 12: 6, “If there be a prophet among you, I Jehovah will make myself known to him in a vision, I will speak to him in a dream. Not so my servant Moses: he is faithful in all my house. Mouth to mouth do I speak to him openly, and not in riddles; and the form of Jehovah doth he behold”. A most unique distinction! It is not written for Moses; it is written for our sakes that we might aspire to acquire a place with God. God intimates that we all may be favourites. Each of us may discern what distinction he has with God.
JD What do you see in verse 3? That must have been most acceptable to God. He says, “Let me now turn aside and see this great sight”. Does that fall in [p. 122] line with what you said this morning as to being in the current of divine operations?
JT Quite so. It is pursuant of what we had; and now he is in the very centre of divine things. He turns aside to see what he calls “this great sight” — why the thorn-bush was not burnt.
Ques You are linking up this idea of leadership with moral qualities, are you not? Will you distinguish for us between leadership and gift?
JT That is a good point. We may have leadership without gift. It is really more a matter of moral quality — by which others are influenced. It is the man, the person himself, that comes under God’s notice as pleasurable to Him, as conforming to Christ, whom He would put forward among His people to lead them in the right way. At Nazareth, Luke 4, it was the Lord’s manner, not the exercise of gift. He did not say much; having read a passage, He commented on the scripture, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears”. What the hearers noticed was “the words of grace that were coming out of his mouth;” His whole manner, and the proceedings. That is, I think, what affords leadership — what one is. In the synagogue the Lord was conscious that He was anointed.
Ques I notice that sometimes where there is evidence of gift, it is supposed that leadership is there too, necessarily. That would not be the case, would it?
JT No. You feel the vessel is marred unless there is likeability in it. He becomes endeared to God and to the saints by his manner. Paul says, “my ways as they are in Christ” (1 Corinthians 4: 17). Timothy, his own child in the Lord, would put the Corinthians in mind of these ways.
AAT In Moses’ time there was one leader. Is it right to think there is more than one leader at a time?
JT We began this morning with three leaders in Moses’ time. Micah says God sent before Israel, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. That was the idea exactly. It was not that they walked before them literally, but morally. They were all at least eighty years of age before God began to use them, so he is telling us that God took great pains with the leaders He provided. God led Israel “like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron” (Psalm 77: 20). Miriam led with them as we see in Micah.
APT It says in Judges 5: 2, “leaders led in Israel”.
JT That fits into this. It is a question, not simply of being a leader, but of leading.
GAT Does the eighty years have anything to do with it?
JT God is indicating that being so old before being used, they had been long in His school. We have a life-size picture of Moses, not of the other two. Aaron is not mentioned until he is eighty-three and Miriam, if she is the one mentioned in Exodus 2, is over ninety. I think that God has in mind to impress us with His care in preparing people to lead us, so that we are to respect them for the Lord’s sake and for their own sake. “Remember your leaders”, and then, “obey your leaders;” (Hebrews 13: 7, 17). That is, remember the past ones and obey the present ones.
JD “Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God; and considering the issue of their conversation, imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13: 7). It is largely a question of state and conduct.
AEH Do you attach emphasis to the personal pronoun “I” at the end of verse 4 — the sense that he had in his own soul of being pleasurable to God?
JT He answers the definite word, “And Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, and God called to him out of the midst of the thorn-bush and said, Moses, Moses!” His answer is, “Here am I”. The repetition of his name would impress him with the fact that he was divinely thought of. “Moses, Moses!” Great personal history entered into that definite address.
Ques Would Moses’ feelings be involved in the fact that God was saying to him that He was continuing in their midst? Would that come out in the thirty-second chapter?
JT Yes. God is now impressing him with the importance of the people, what they were to Him. In the thirty-second chapter Moses shows that he values the people, and God listens to him on that account. Here the people are in Jehovah’s mind and He is impressing Moses with this fact. In verse 11, “Moses said to God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, For I will be with thee; and this shall be the sign to thee that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said to [p. 128] Moses, I AM THAT I AM. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover to Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations”. He is impressing Moses with the people and their importance in His mind. There is not time to go into it all. Jehovah goes on in verse 16, “Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, Jehovah the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, hath appeared to me, saying, I have indeed visited you, and seen that which is done unto you in Egypt; and I have said, I will bring you [p. 125] up out of the affliction of Egypt, unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy voice”. He is impressing Moses with the greatness of the people in His mind, and Moses is to respect them; so that the servant begins thus in the knowledge of God to see that the people necessarily are greater than himself. He is to be an instrument in God’s hand for their blessing. “Ourselves your bondmen for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4: 5). Every servant should reckon that the saints are not his flock; he is their servant.
CHH Would this instance of the thorn-bush be a final test as to God’s own work with Moses during the forty years, and would that qualify him for leadership, having due regard for the people of God?
JT Yes. The knowledge of God is opening up to him. Moses is coming to know God in His essential Being. It is God essentially — “I AM THAT I AM”. Moses is directed to say to the children of Israel: “Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you. This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations”. The people were in God’s heart. He had great thoughts and purposes as to them. He compassionates them in their present misery in Egypt and would bring them out of their affliction there unto the land He had purposed for them — a land flowing with milk and honey. I AM is sending Moses to the children of Israel with these good tidings. He has been raised up on their account, and is now to be used by Jehovah to deliver them from their cruel bondage and lead them into the land His love has provided for them. Besides his mission to Israel, Moses is to be sent to Pharaoh — “that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt”. As to this Jehovah said, “I will harden his [p. 126] heart, that he shall not let the people go. And thou shalt say to Pharaoh, Thus saith Jehovah: Israel is my son, my firstborn”. It is affecting that Pharaoh is to know that Israel is Jehovah’s son, Jehovah’s firstborn. “And I say to thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me”. That is the line of thought in chapter 4. After he comes into the knowledge of God the servant comes into a direct transaction with God, involving committal on his part and on God’s part. God is revealing Himself essentially to Moses. He had already regarded the people, but now they are to be known as in God’s counsels, as God’s son. In serving we should apprehend what the saints are to God, how we are to clothe them as we minister to them.
LES Do you think Solomon came to this where he says to Jehovah, “And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude” (1 Kings 3: 8)?
JT That is a good example in serving — that we value the brethren. We never love the brethren if we do not respect them; nor can we serve them with feeling unless we love them. A great servant says, “if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved” (2 Corinthians 12: 15). Love has its own reward. You have pleasure in loving people.
AR Why is it that God says He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then it says, “Moses hid his face”? God is appearing in relation to His people. Why is he afraid?
JT He is still in the making here. God says. “I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham”. It is not his immediate father. Abraham is in mind. Is he equal to this? He still has to learn to be at liberty with God. Moses was afraid to look at God and hid himself. What is presented here enters generally into service and leadership. It is only as a servant knows God and has liberty with Him that he can serve Him [p. 127] acceptably. And it is only in this liberty that he can truly serve the saints.
GAT What does it mean to be on good terms with God?
JT We are to be with Him on His own terms. His goodness and severity run on together; but He has no pleasure in dealing harshly with us. Normally God has pleasure in His servants. Moses was faithful in all God’s house (Numbers 12: 7). What enjoyment He had in him! But how much more in the perfect Servant! Of Him God said, “Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth!” (Isaiah 42: 1).
CDeB Does what you have said of Moses fit in with Asher, who dipped his foot in oil that he might be acceptable to his brethren (Deuteronomy 33: 24)?
JT Yes. It is the blessing of Moses, the man of God, himself. Moses, at the end of his life, helps us in all this; he conveys the mind of God in blessing in regard to each of the tribes. Deuteronomy 33 is full of this — how the saints are apprehended as in favour with God.
EGMcA He uses the expression, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but when Moses expresses a doubt as to his going and ability, God says, I AM.
JT “And Moses said to God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, For I will be with thee; and this shall be the sign to thee that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say, What is his name?” That is a good question. It is easier to ask it than to answer it, but God put it into Moses’ mouth. “God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM. And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: I AM hath sent me unto you”. “I AM” is His essential, infinite Being. But at that time much more remained to be disclosed.
EGMcA Then He said, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: I AM hath sent me unto you”. Is that falling back on His essential Being to establish His great thoughts?
JT That is the idea.
AR When you say, ‘come up’ what do you mean?
JT What has already come out. Think of the history that was antecedent to all this! The world in which Moses was then was probably 3,000 years of God’s relations with His creatures. How much had come out! There is much more to come out; “I AM” is infinitude, but you have to wait for its fulness.
AEH Does John’s gospel come into your mind as you are dwelling on these thoughts? I was thinking of the prominence of the word ‘sent’.
JT John’s gospel fits into Moses peculiarly. The Lord says of Moses to the Jews, “if ye do not believe his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” The great I AM is speaking. That brings out the greatness of Moses’ ministry. Thus you can link this on with John’s gospel. “In the beginning was”. That is Being. It is “I AM”. “In the beginning was” is historic, but extending back infinitely, but in John 8: 58 the Lord says, “Before Abraham was, I am” — that is eternal existence, as in Exodus 3: 14.
AEH The Lord says in that gospel to certain ones, “unless ye shall believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8: 24). That is, the fire will have full effect in judgment, but here the bush is not consumed.
JT Just so. As already said, He says in the same chapter, “Before Abraham was, I am”. Not I was, but [p. 129] I am.
GAT Would you say that Jehovah wanted to impress Moses and the people with the greatness of His Person?
JT Yes. He is putting it on its own infinite basis. The full unfolding of this awaited the incarnation. It requires the incarnation to be understood. John’s gospel opens it up. All anticipated the incarnation. Even what we are speaking of as to service looked forward to the presence here on earth of Christ as Man — for God. And as to how He served, He says, “I do always the things that are pleasing to him” (John 8: 29). We can only touch on these great things now, and it is in view of our subject — that there may be an immediate effect on each of us who are seeking to serve. God comes in; He is desirous to have transactions with us, so that we may be representative of Him in serving the saints. He is with His people. They will come out glorious at the end, even though there may be failure. The bush is not consumed. What understanding have you got of the people of God? How are you going to serve them, how are you going to clothe them in your thoughts in serving them? He is not only there with them in the bush, but in infinitude. The heavens cannot contain Him. ‘I am raising you up on their account’, He would say to each one. Therefore let us get into our souls a right apprehension and attitude as to God and of those we would serve, so that the ministry may be between Him and us. The position is “God’s dispensation, which is in faith” (1 Timothy 1: 4).
JD Would there be anything in the change from Jehovah to God in verse 4, “And Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, and God called”?
JT It is the supreme God (Elohim) of the first of Genesis, but He is now operating in relation to His people and revealing Himself as Jehovah.
The next point now to be considered is this matter of sonship, the message as to sonship to Pharaoh. What strength in the servant’s soul would this intimate conversing with God afford — God Himself, in view of his mission to Pharaoh! “Thus saith Jehovah: Israel is my son, my firstborn. And I say to thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill thy son, thy firstborn”. The servant is fortified with that, what God will do as He is disregarded, because he is now to be a representative of God.
JD Are you suggesting that the thought of leadership has the service of God in mind in connection with sonship?
JT That is plain enough here. We are rising now in our subject of sonship. It is the service of a son that God has in His mind. He is warning every Pharaoh, every government, every one as to what His people are to Him. He is not only speaking to His servant Moses now, but speaking to Pharaoh. He is using this wonderful term as to Israel, “my son”, and he is to serve Him. God is entering into conflict with those that oppose His people. The servant should be impressed with the greatness of the things he is dealing with, the greatness of the people in God’s mind, that they are in the great relation of sonship with Him. That involves Christ’s sonship, the incarnation: “out of Egypt have I called my son” (Matthew 2: 15).
JD It is necessary for the servant to have this abstract view, this high thought of the saints being the sons of God.
JT Paul develops that in the letters to Corinth, what the saints were to God and what they were to him; how he regarded them, and warned them too to be enlarged as he was enlarged because of what he heard about them. “Our mouth is opened to you, Corinthians, our heart is expanded ... let your heart also expand itself” (2 Corinthians 6: 11, 13). Then he goes on to speak of what would hinder their being expanded; namely, worldliness.
[p. 131] But God says, I have taken you into relationship with me. “And I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6: 18). We have these exceedingly great promises, and thus we should be “perfecting holiness in God’s fear” (2 Corinthians 7: 1).
EGMcA Do you think the apostle Paul had that in his mind in the epistle to the Galatians, trying to deliver them from legality?
JT Yes. Galatians corresponds, so that sonship is the point; what we are, “Jerusalem above” being our mother.
CAM The impression that Moses had, the light of incarnation typically brought before his soul, would be sonship. The great thought that would come before us as the truth of the incarnation dawns on us is sonship.
JT That is how the truth will stand eternally.
AR As Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh and tell him this message, he increases the pressure. What would you say about that?
JT Well, the most serious thing is that God says He will harden his heart. Verse 21 says, “I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go”. That is a terrible thing. You have got to deal with a man whose heart is judicially hardened. You will have a hard time of it. But God is now moving against Pharaoh for the deliverance of His people, and “who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered?”
GAT Is it not hard for us to understand that God had hardened this man’s heart and still feel that he was wrong?
JT It is God’s way. Romans opens this up. “Who art thou that answerest again to God?” (Romans 9: 20). “The scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very thing I have raised thee up from amongst men, that I might thus show in thee my power” (Romans 9: 17). Why should [p. 132] God not have a free judicial hand? He is supreme. God will wear Pharaoh down through the ten plagues; but then He is testing His servant. But Moses becomes greater and greater — the man Moses (Exodus 11: 3). That is the testimony of this book. That is the normal way of God with His servants. The very hardness of the task brings out “the power that worketh in us”.
AEH While God has His thoughts of the saints in an abstract way, He would have in His mind that they are distinguished, and all that opposes them at the outset would be brought down.
JT If you look at Exodus 5 you will see what a plight they seem to be in. In verse 1, it is said, “Moses and Aaron went in, and said to Pharaoh” etc., and in verses 6 - 15, “And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the number of the bricks they have made heretofore shall ye lay upon them: ye shall not diminish any of it, for they are idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let them put heavier labour on the men, that they may be taken up with it, and not regard vain words. And the taskmasters of the people and their officers went out and spoke to the people, saying, Thus says Pharaoh: I will not give you straw: go ye, get yourselves straw where ye may find it; but none of your work shall be diminished. And the people were scattered abroad throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. And the taskmasters urged them saying, Fulfil your labours, the daily work, as when there was straw. And the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and it was said, Why have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick, both yesterday and today, as heretofore? Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh,
[p. 133] saying, Why dost thou deal thus with thy bondmen?” Pharaoh says, verses 17 - 21, “Ye are idle, idle! therefore ye say, Let us go and sacrifice to Jehovah. And now go — work! and straw shall not be given you, and ye shall deliver the measure of bricks. And the officers of the children of Israel saw that it stood ill with them, because it was said, Ye shall not diminish anything from your bricks, the daily work. And they met Moses and Aaron ... And they said to them, Jehovah look upon you and judge, that ye have made our odour to stink in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his bondman, putting a sword into their hand to kill us”. Now look at where they are, look at what a servant has to contend with. This record is made for those who serve. “And Moses returned to Jehovah, and said, Lord, why hast thou done evil to this people? why now hast thou sent me? For ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all!” This is a most critical time, but Moses is going to come out victorious.
G,A.T. Is there weakness here?
JT This is God’s way. God is bringing Himself before us. This is the God we are to serve. We are to serve Him with reverence and godly fear. If you do not answer the test, He may have to discard you.
AR We may think that Pharaoh was going to wear down the saints to oblivion, whereas God was wearing down Pharaoh, not Israel.
JT Yes. This lesson enters into all times. What a time we are in now! It is a learning time for us all, and especially for those who serve.
CHH Is Exodus 4: 24 a personal test?
JT Yes-a most searching one, Jehovah sought to slay him. It was a domestic matter, but typically, disregard of the death of Christ was involved — circumcision was neglected. We have to learn to go through with [p. 134] God crises in our circumstances as we seek to serve Him. The brethren may turn against us. They turned against Moses here.
APT Is Stephen illustrative of a real leader in a practical way?
JT Stephen’s leadership involved martyrdom, and coupled with this is his ability to unfold the ways of God in a crisis, to pick out the line of things, or the lines of things that have to be dealt with. Stephen was meeting a most difficult situation and he died for the truth in it, but it was bringing in what was needed at the time. His ministry was brief, but he brought in what was needed in a masterful way. It was most effective. What he was shone out in his face.
LES Referring to being discarded, did you have in mind Elijah at Mount Horeb?
JT Yes. Of course, he discarded himself, but God accepted his resignation. That is a humbling thing in itself. He asked God to let him die. God says ‘I will let you go all the way you have in mind’. He was going back to Horeb — retrogression. He was going to resign his commission. God said, ‘I will help you to go back’, to fulfil what he had in his mind. It is solemn because it is an exposure of the state he was in at that time. After his greatest victory he collapses.
APT When Paul and Barnabas were about to start on their second service among the gentiles there was quite a crisis as to whether John Mark should go with them. Paul did not take John Mark because he gave up and went back, so that he took Silas instead.
JT Yes. Barnabas would take Mark because he was a natural relative. The allowance of the influence of natural relations among the saints is most baneful. That is what Paul had to stand against there.
Ques Would not the fact that Moses had learned not to fear the wrath of the king serve him well in connection with issues arising among the brethren?
[p. 135] JT It would. He manifested that spirit at the beginning. Now he has to face Pharaoh, apparently not fearing him. Exodus 7: 1 says, “Jehovah said to Moses, See, I have made thee God to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet”. Aaron’s staff will become a serpent. They are acting in the presence of Pharaoh apparently, without fear. Jehovah tells him to go down and stand “in front of him”. I think he began well in not fearing the wrath of the king. God removed that king, Exodus 2: 23. The present king is not especially opposed to Moses, but the question is general now as to the service of God. He is now more manifestly against God than Moses.
EGMcA What is the bearing of circumcision in this crisis of Moses in chapter 4: 24? Why does circumcision come in just as Moses got a message to go back to Egypt?
JT Jehovah met him and sought to slay him, as we have noted. It was because of the circumcision. A servant may fail in regard to circumcision, that is, the putting off the demands of the flesh in relation to our houses. You have to put it off totally, that is, in the circumcision of Christ. The word to young men is not to love the world nor the things in the world, because what is of the world is not of the Father. Many a young servant has been damaged by his wife, because she wants the things of the world — sometimes through urgency for a better house, better furniture, etc.
AR If Moses had been allowed to continue without circumcision in his house he might have misrepresented God before Pharaoh. “See, I have made thee God to Pharaoh”, Jehovah says. That makes him a very great man, does it not?
JT Yes. That brings in another thing in relation to service: that is, that there is a divine system — that one is not merely an individual, but serving in a system of things. Here Aaron is a constituted prophet, “Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet”. Moses is God to Pharaoh, not a god, but God, and Aaron is his prophet. So that the servant recognises others; he is working in a system. Surely God has a system. Christ is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession.
GAT Would you say a word as to “Let my son go, that he may serve me”. What does that service include?
JT Worship is implied — ministering to Him. So Philippians 3: 3 says, “We are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh”. That is, in type, what is in mind here, service Godward. Jehovah directed Moses that Israel should serve at Horeb, Exodus 3: 12.
LES Would Paul’s apostleship in the Corinthian epistle, being based on the will of God, be God’s representative authoritatively, and the brothers Sosthenes and Timothy be linked up with the apostle in the same way that Aaron is linked up with Moses?
JT Yes. Aaron is the more sympathetic side of the position, but he is not the priest yet. He is a prophet. We shall look at Aaron tomorrow, God willing.
We have already touched on the passage in Numbers where God says He spoke to Moses “mouth to mouth”. That was a great honour, involving special knowledge of God. Then in Deuteronomy 33 it is said Moses was king in Jeshurun. That place he acquired with the people; and then in the last chapter of that book it is said, “there arose no prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom Jehovah had known face to face; according to all the signs and wonders that Jehovah had sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land; and according to all that mighty hand; and according to all the great terribleness that Moses had wrought in the sight of all Israel”. Another thing is that God buried him. That is a beautiful distinction conferred on Moses.