Why did God seek to put Moses to death? Why did He relent?

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Why did God seek to put Moses to death? Why did He relent?

When Moses lived in Midian, God spoke to him out of a flame of fire from within a bush on the mountain of God in Horeb and revealed His name Yahweh.

Exodus 3

5

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

6

Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Exodus 6

2

Then God spoke to Moses, telling him, “I am Yahweh.

3

I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but I did not reveal My name Yahweh to them.

God came down to rescue the Israelites because they were enslaved in Egypt and cried out for help; He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Exodus 2

24

So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Exodus 3

7

The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction of My people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their oppressors, and I am aware of their sufferings.

8

I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians

God chose Moses and appointed him for His holy mission—to bring His people the Israelites out of Egypt, to be their God and to give them the land that He swore on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as a possession.

Exodus 3

10

Therefore, go! I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

Exodus 6

7

I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

8

And I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD!’ ”

God gave Moses the power to perform signs and wonders in Egypt with the staff of God. He said to Moses that this will be the sign that He sent him to rescue the Israelites from Egypt: They will worship the LORD on the mountain of God in Horeb.

Exodus 4

12

Now go! I will help you as you speak, and I will teach you what to say.”

21

The LORD instructed Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders that I have put within your power.

Exodus 3

12

“I will surely be with you,” God said, “and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship God on this mountain.”

The mountain of God—Mount Sinai, also called Mount Horeb, was a three-day journey from Egypt.

Exodus 3

18

The elders of Israel will listen to what you say, and you must go with them to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’

God foretold Moses that Pharaoh will harden his heart and refuse to let them go from Egypt unless a mighty hand compelled him.

Exodus 3

19

But I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless a mighty hand compels him.

Exodus 4

22

Then tell Pharaoh that this is what the LORD says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son,

23

and I told you to let My son go so that he may worship Me. But since you have refused to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son!’ ”

Moses was being sent on a holy mission to Egypt, but he took his wife Zipporah along with him. God sought to put Moses to death at the lodging place because he had to keep himself from his wife. However, the LORD let him alone because Zipporah circumcised her son; circumcision was the sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham.

Exodus 4

20

So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

Exodus 4

24

Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that 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 threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.”

26

So He let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood”—because of the circumcision.

Genesis 17:11

"And you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you.

Moses sent back his wife Zipporah, and Jethro his father-in-law received her along with her two sons.

Exodus 18

2

After Moses had sent back his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro had received her,

3

along with her two sons.

Then Moses went to Egypt for the holy mission, and on the fifteenth day of the first month Aviv, the day after Passover, the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt.

Exodus 12:51

And on that very day the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.

In the third month, after the Israelites set out from Egypt, on the same day, they reached Desert of Sinai and camped in front of the mountain.

Exodus 19

1

In the third month, on the same day of the month that the Israelites had left the land of Egypt, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai.

2

After they had set out from Rephidim, they entered the Wilderness of Sinai, and Israel camped there in front of the mountain.

Moses' wife and sons came to him where he was encamped.

Exodus 18

5

Moses’ father-in-law Jethro, along with Moses’ wife and sons, came to him in the desert, where he was encamped at the mountain of God.

6

He sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you with your wife and her two sons.”

The LORD said to Moses to consecrate the people because He will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all people on the third day.

Exodus 19

6

And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”

10

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes

11

and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

Moses consecrated the people and said to them to be prepared for the third day and keep themselves from their wives.

Exodus 19

14

Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes.

15

He said to the people, “Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives.”

When Ahimelek the priest told David that they could eat the consecrated bread only if they had kept themselves from women,  David stated that they were consecrated, and that they keep themselves from women when they go out on missions.

1 Samuel 21

4

The priest told him, "There is no ordinary bread on hand. However, there is consecrated bread, but the young men may eat it only if they have kept themselves from women."

5

David answered him, "I swear that women are being kept from us, as always when I go out to battle. The young men's bodies are consecrated even on an ordinary mission, so of course their bodies are consecrated today."


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