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#967 - Exodus 4 – Signs and Excuses · The Bible Study Podcast

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  Speaker 1: Life Audio The Bible Study Podcast, Episode nine sixty seven. Today,
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  Speaker 1: The Bible Study Podcast continues the study of the Book
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  Speaker 1: of Exodus with chapter four. Welcome to the Bible Study Podcast.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Chris Christensen. We're going to continue on
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  Speaker 1: with chapter four, Signs for Moses. This could easily be
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  Speaker 1: called excuses from Moses and signs for Moses, but we'll
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  Speaker 1: see more of that afterward. From this sponsor, Chapter four,
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  Speaker 1: Signs for Moses. Moses answered, what if they do not
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  Speaker 1: believe me or listen to me and say the Lord
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  Speaker 1: did not appear to you. Then the Lord said to him,
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  Speaker 1: what is that in your hand? A staff? He replied,
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  Speaker 1: The Lord said, throw it on the ground. Moses threw
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  Speaker 1: it on the ground. It became a snake, and he
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  Speaker 1: ran from it. Then the Lord said, reach out your
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  Speaker 1: hand and take it by the tail. So Moses reached
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  Speaker 1: out his hand and took hold of the snake and
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  Speaker 1: had turned back into a staff in his hand. This
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  Speaker 1: said the Lord, is so that they may believe that
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  Speaker 1: the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham,
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  Speaker 1: the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has
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  Speaker 1: appeared to you. Then the Lord said, put your hand
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  Speaker 1: inside your cloak. So Moses put his hand into his cloak,
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  Speaker 1: and when he took it out, the skin was leprous.
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  Speaker 1: It had become as white as snow. Now put it
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  Speaker 1: back in your cloak, he said. So Moses put his
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  Speaker 1: hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out,
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  Speaker 1: it was restored, like the rest of his flesh. Then
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  Speaker 1: the Lord said, if they do not believe you or
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  Speaker 1: pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second.
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  Speaker 1: But if they do not believe these two signs or
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  Speaker 1: listen to you, take some water from the nile and
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  Speaker 1: pour it on the dry ground. The water you take
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  Speaker 1: from the river will become blood on the ground. Moses
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  Speaker 1: said to the Lord, pardon your servant, Lord, I have
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  Speaker 1: never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you
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  Speaker 1: have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech
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  Speaker 1: and tongue. The Lord said, who gave human beings their
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  Speaker 1: mouths makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight
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  Speaker 1: or makes them blind? Is it not I? The Lord?
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  Speaker 1: Now go, I will help you speak and will teach
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  Speaker 1: you what to say. But Moses said, pardon your servant, Lord,
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  Speaker 1: Please send somebody else. Then the Lord's anger burned against Moses,
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  Speaker 1: and he said, what about your brother Aaron the Levite?
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  Speaker 1: I know he can speak well. He is already on
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  Speaker 1: his way to meet you, and he will be glad
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  Speaker 1: to see you. You shall speak to him and put
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  Speaker 1: words in his mouth. I will help both of you
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  Speaker 1: speak and will teach you what to do. He will
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  Speaker 1: speak to the people for you. It will be as
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  Speaker 1: if he were your mouth, and as if you were
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  Speaker 1: God to him. But take this staff in your hand
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  Speaker 1: so you can perform the signs with it. And you
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  Speaker 1: see why I say this could easily be Moses' excuses,
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  Speaker 1: because Moses tries three times to say, I don't really
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  Speaker 1: want to do this, And if he comes up with
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  Speaker 1: excuses at first, it's like talking to your kids here
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  Speaker 1: a little bit. What if they don't believe me. I'm
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  Speaker 1: not sure that this is going to work because they
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  Speaker 1: may not believe me. Well, God gives him two signs
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  Speaker 1: to show them and tells him a third one so
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  Speaker 1: he can He's got this staff, and this would be
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  Speaker 1: the tool of a shepherd. Right, you use a crook
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  Speaker 1: and a staff as a shepherd. A staff you use
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  Speaker 1: against the wolf, and a crook you use to pull
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  Speaker 1: the sheep back. It was so from the Lord is
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  Speaker 1: my shepherd, thy rod, and thy staff. This is the staff.
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  Speaker 1: It's that it's that long stick that's a bit like
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  Speaker 1: a club. So he's carrying this because it's what shepherds do.
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  Speaker 1: And God uses what he has in a new way.
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  Speaker 1: And we'll see when this staff is referred to in
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  Speaker 1: the future, we won't necessarily hear it by the term
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  Speaker 1: Moses staff, so keep an eye out for that. But
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  Speaker 1: he says, throw it on the ground. It turns into
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  Speaker 1: a snake, and Moses runs because he doesn't like snakes,
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  Speaker 1: and it probably turned into something that was not a
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  Speaker 1: pleasurable snake. And so God says, pick it up by
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  Speaker 1: the tail. He picks it up, he turns back into
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  Speaker 1: a staff. So that's one thing. And then he says,
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  Speaker 1: put your hand in. Your cloak comes out leprous. Put
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  Speaker 1: it back in. It comes out clean. Okay. So we've
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  Speaker 1: got two signs to show people. And then says this
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  Speaker 1: third one, pour water on the ground from the nile.
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  Speaker 1: It will become blood. Okay. But that wasn't really the problem.
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  Speaker 1: So Moses goes on and says, okay, Lord, I'm not
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  Speaker 1: that good speaking neither in the past nor since you
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  Speaker 1: have spoken to yourself. God just started speaking to Moses.
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  Speaker 1: This is something that has happened minutes ago. So I
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  Speaker 1: have not become a good speaker here in the last
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  Speaker 1: few minutes, is what he's saying. I am slow of
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  Speaker 1: speech in tongue. Well, he's been out with sheep a lot,
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  Speaker 1: hasn't been spending as much time with people as someone
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  Speaker 1: might have who was in a different line of work.
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  Speaker 1: And he hasn't been in the court as he was
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  Speaker 1: as a kid. Now, maybe he was a good speaker
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  Speaker 1: at that point, but that's a long time ago. So
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  Speaker 1: he says, I, really, I don't think I'd be very
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  Speaker 1: good at this. Maybe you should just find somebody who
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  Speaker 1: would be better at it. And then he says, well,
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  Speaker 1: you know who gave people speech, who makes them talk,
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  Speaker 1: who makes them dumb? Who makes them blind? Well, it
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  Speaker 1: isn't it, ey, isn't that the Lord? I will help you.
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what to say. And then finally we
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  Speaker 1: get to the real thing. Lord, send someone else, and
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  Speaker 1: God gets a little mad at Moses and says, well,
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  Speaker 1: Aaron's coming to Aaron's gonna help. You'll talk to Aaron
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  Speaker 1: Aaron will talk to the people, but I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to hear anything else. Basically, at this point, you're going. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I wonder whether we sometimes sound like this to God.
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  Speaker 1: If God wants us to do something, do we come
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  Speaker 1: up with excuses like this I don't have I'm not
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  Speaker 1: sure we'll work, I'm not sure I have the skills
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  Speaker 1: to do it. And maybe this should just be somebody
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  Speaker 1: else's mission. And clearly, in the case of Moses, those
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  Speaker 1: excuses were not listened to by God. God had a
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  Speaker 1: plan for his people, and that plan included Moses, even
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  Speaker 1: if Moses thought it sounded like a bad idea. Now,
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  Speaker 1: was Moses also afraid of going back where there was
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  Speaker 1: a price on his head? Was he afraid if he
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  Speaker 1: goes back to Egypt he gets killed? Maybe? Was he
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  Speaker 1: just wondering what people would think of him as somebody
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  Speaker 1: who was a fugitive? Possibly, But whatever excuses he came
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  Speaker 1: up with, God had a plan, and that plan included Moses.
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  Speaker 1: And sometimes God is a plan and that plan includes you,
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  Speaker 1: or that plan includes me, whatever excuses we may have,
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  Speaker 1: Moses returns to Egypt. Then Moses went back to Jethro,
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  Speaker 1: his father in law, and said to him, let me
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  Speaker 1: return to my own people in Egypt and see if
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  Speaker 1: any of them are still alive. Jethro said, go, and
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  Speaker 1: I wish you well. Now. The Lord had said to
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  Speaker 1: Moses Omitian, go back to Egypt, for all those who
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  Speaker 1: want to kill you are dead. So Moses took his
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  Speaker 1: wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and started
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  Speaker 1: back to Egypt, and he took the staff of God
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  Speaker 1: in his hand. The Lord said to Moses, when you
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  Speaker 1: return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all
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  Speaker 1: the wonders that I have given you the powers the
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  Speaker 1: power to do. But I will harden his heart so
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  Speaker 1: that he will not let the people go. Then say
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  Speaker 1: to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says. Israel is
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  Speaker 1: my firstborn son, and I told you let my son
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  Speaker 1: go so that he may worship me. But you refuse
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  Speaker 1: to let him go, So I will kill your firstborn son.
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  Speaker 1: At a logic place on the way, the Lord met
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  Speaker 1: Moses and was about to kill him, but Zipporah took
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  Speaker 1: a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses'
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  Speaker 1: feet with it. Surely you are a bridegroom of blood
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  Speaker 1: to me, she said, so the Lord let him live.
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  Speaker 1: And at that time she said, bridegroom of blood, referring
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  Speaker 1: to circumcision. The Lord said to Aaron, go into the
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  Speaker 1: wilderness to meet Moses. So he met Moses at the
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  Speaker 1: Mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told erin
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  Speaker 1: everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also
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  Speaker 1: about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.
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  Speaker 1: Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites,
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  Speaker 1: and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses.
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  Speaker 1: He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed.
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  Speaker 1: And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about
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  Speaker 1: them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
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  Speaker 1: So lots of stuff going on. He tells his father
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  Speaker 1: in law, Jethro, I'm going to go back and see
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  Speaker 1: people alive. He doesn't in this passage. It doesn't look
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  Speaker 1: like He says, Oh, by the way, Jethro, I was out,
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  Speaker 1: I saw a burning bush. God talk to me, and
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  Speaker 1: I've got a mission to go. He makes up some
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  Speaker 1: other reason. Not quite comfortable with that role yet, I guess,
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  Speaker 1: and he goes back. God tells him all the people
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  Speaker 1: want to kill your dead. That may have been a
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  Speaker 1: concern on his mind, as I suspected, which might be
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  Speaker 1: why God tells him. And so he and his wife
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  Speaker 1: and sons go back by the way. When you see
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  Speaker 1: Pharaoh tell him all these things. And also when he
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  Speaker 1: tells you he won't let them go, we get some
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  Speaker 1: subtle foreshadowing here, or not so subtle, that Israel is
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  Speaker 1: my firstborn. Let my son go so that you may
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  Speaker 1: worship Be, or I will kill your firstborn son. Well,
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  Speaker 1: we will get there, but not for a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: And then there's this odd story here that the Lord
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  Speaker 1: met Moses was about to kill him. Now. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know if this is related to things we will see
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  Speaker 1: later in the chapter that you can't look on God
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  Speaker 1: and live, or what's going on here, but it is
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  Speaker 1: circumcision that prevents this, and so from now on, circumcision
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  Speaker 1: will be part of what it means to be an Israelite.
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  Speaker 1: Lord says to Aaron. So Aarin is now sent to
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  Speaker 1: meet Moses and they meet up. They haven't seen each
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  Speaker 1: other for many years at this point, and Moses tells
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  Speaker 1: him everything that's going on. He tells him about the
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  Speaker 1: sheep business, but they get around at some point to
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  Speaker 1: the burning Bush tells him all the signs shows them
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  Speaker 1: to him, probably, and they go and they talk to
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  Speaker 1: the elders, and the elders believe, they believe, and they worship.
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  Speaker 1: So far, so good. It won't be that easy, but
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  Speaker 1: we'll see that next time. With that, we're going to
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  Speaker 1: end this episode of the Bible Study Podcast. If you
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  Speaker 1: have any questions, send an email to Chris to xat
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  Speaker 1: gmail dot com, or better yet, leave a comment on
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  Speaker 1: this episode at the Bible Study podcast dot com. And
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  Speaker 1: as always, thanks so much for listening. I want to
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