Immerse: Beginnings Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 102
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IMMERSE
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BEGINNINGS
4:18–5:3
So Moses went back home to Jethro, his father-in-law. “Please let me return
to my relatives in Egypt,” Moses said. “I don’t even know if they are still
alive.”
“Go in peace,” Jethro replied.
Before Moses left Midian, the Lord said to him, “Return to Egypt, for
all those who wanted to kill you have died.”
So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed
back to the land of Egypt. In his hand he carried the staff of God.
And the Lord told Moses, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will
harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go. Then you will tell
him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son. I commanded
you, “Let my son go, so he can worship me.” But since you have refused, I
will now kill your firstborn son!’”
On the way to Egypt, at a place where Moses and his family had stopped
for the night, the Lord confronted him and was about to kill him. But
Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She
touched his feet with the foreskin and said, “Now you are a bridegroom of
blood to me.” (When she said “a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring
to the circumcision.) After that, the Lord left him alone.
Now the Lord had said to Aaron, “Go out into the wilderness to meet
Moses.” So Aaron went and met Moses at the mountain of God, and he
embraced him. Moses then told Aaron everything the Lord had commanded him to say. And he told him about the miraculous signs the Lord
had commanded him to perform.
Then Moses and Aaron returned to Egypt and called all the elders of
Israel together. Aaron told them everything the Lord had told Moses, and
Moses performed the miraculous signs as they watched. Then the people
of Israel were convinced that the Lord had sent Moses and Aaron. When
they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their
misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
After this presentation to Israel’s leaders, Moses and Aaron went and spoke
to Pharaoh. They told him, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel,
says: Let my people go so they may hold a festival in my honor in the
wilderness.”
“Is that so?” retorted Pharaoh. “And who is the Lord? Why should I
listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know the Lord, and I will not let
Israel go.”
But Aaron and Moses persisted. “The God of the Hebrews has met with
