Makes Me Wonder...

Tonight at youth group we are talking about the exodus and the passover. So, last night I settled into bed to begin studying and I actually took the time to pray that God would reveal what He wanted my girls to hear tonight during small group time. I am ashamed to admit it, but I often get hurried and forget to pray for that. So I began in Exodus chapter 4 when Moses packed up his family and headed for Egypt. I stumbled across verse 24-26 and got stuck. It says, " 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."

The Lord was about to kill Moses??!!?? Now, I have never claimed to be a Bible scholar, but I had never read that before. BUT, I know I have because I have read this story a hundred times. How did I miss that? I remembered the bloody husband thing, but I never connected to the verse before it, or to what happened apparently. I read in a commentary and it all made sense, but I could not (and still am not) get over that i missed this and how random it is in scripture. There is no explanation of prior disobedience, just mentions, by the way Moses you are in big trouble. Makes me laugh a little.

I finally was able to continue reading the rest of the story, but I didn't make it past the plague of flies before I went back to read it again. I also checked all of my other Bible versions to make sure it was in all of them...it was. I stopped there and went to bed a little baffled. I was also very disappointed because I still didn't have anything to talk to my girls about regarding the passover (partly b/c i didn't even make it that far in my reading). That, coupled with the spider I saw that I couldn't find to kill, made my night's sleep a little lacking.

I was sharing this new discover with a co-worker today. As I am telling the story to her, the scene is unfolding in my head. It became a very typical occurrence in many marriages today (minus the trowing of foreskin and all).

So, God shows up and Moses didn't so what he was supposed to b/c his wife really didn't want him to. Now, he is in BIG TIME trouble and she feels bad and takes care of it herself, obviously not with a very pleasant attitude. She bails him out and saves his tail. Does that sound familiar to anyone but me? But how can a relate this story to 8th grade girls? Could this be what God revealed to me for them and I missed it until today? Is that why I couldn't get it out of my head?

Moses obviously dropped the ball. His wife had to take care of something that wasn't her responsibility to do. God always accomplishes His will, but who has to suffer in because we didn't obey in the first place? Like Pharaoh's disobedience, all of Egypt suffered for his stubbornness. And in came the Passover.

Answered prayer and a valuable life lesson rolled into one for me. How am I dropping the ball and making others suffer? That is something to ponder.