Interlude 400 years of silence between Genesis and Exodus The birth, call, commissioning of Moses

Interlude 400 years of silence between Genesis and Exodus

The birth, call, commissioning of Moses

Introduction

• At last I am now putting on the blog the articles about Moses. This is the second part of the series I did on Joseph where the roots of the Olive Tree join the trunk through Joseph and Moses.
• I apologize for taking so long to complete this series but I needed to write about other things as the Lord put them on my heart such as the series on the trumpet and vial judgments of Revelation.  The Harlot and the Beast and some articles on the different aspects of salvation plus my Red Alert News Flashes.
• Now is the time to write about Moses, his call to be the deliverer of the fledgling nation of Israel from the house of bondage Egypt and how God delivered them and made them a nation.
• I feel that this too has bearing on the times we are now living in as well. 
•  For one day our deliverer will come from heaven's Zion to earth's Zion to redeem in full and deliver His people.  The Jews who will be calling for Him Jesus to save them and to gather up those who belong to Him whether alive or asleep in Him.  
• This will occur after the time of the Great Tribulation.  He is our living hope and we must keep our eyes and minds focused on Him in spite of what is happening in the wold today.
• Now to the lessons on Moses.

Romans 11:15-17
15 For if their rejection and exclusion from the benefits of salvation were [overruled] for the reconciliation of a world to God, what will their acceptance and admission mean? [It will be nothing short of] life from the dead! 
 16 Now if the first handful of dough offered as the firstfruits [Abraham and the patriarchs] is consecrated (holy), so is the whole mass [the nation of Israel]; and if the root [Abraham] is consecrated (holy), so are the branches. 
17 But if some of the branches were broken off, while you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them to share the richness [of the root and sap] of the olive tree;

 Part A INTERLUDE
1 The 400 year Interval between the death of Jacob (Genesis) and the birth of Moses (Exodus)

1. I don’t know whether this may mean something but there is a 430 year gap between when  the family of Israel went down to Egypt and they ended up being slaves before God intervenes in their history again to raise up a deliverer for Israel in Moses.  
2. There is a period of silence between the end of the book of Genesis the book of beginnings to the time when Moses is born in the book of Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt.  No mention during that time of God acting on the behalf of the Israelites no mention of God speaking with anyone from any of the tribes of Israel. 
3. Yet they must have kept the tradition and memory of God alive for Moses to communicate with God at the burning bush. For him to understand who He is once He identifies Himself as the God of Moses’ forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Yet when he asks God for His name to pass onto the elders God did not say He was El Shaddai He called Himself Yahweh or YHVH I AM who I AM and I will be who I will be.  
4. God reveals Himself by a new name to Moses to identify Himself as the God of their forefathers.  They probably knew about God sending them down to Egypt and the prophecy He gave Abraham that they will be there for 430 years and they must have wondered when they would be delivered from the house of bondage of slavery to the Egyptians.  They must have wondered how much longer will they be there and when will God intervene on their behalf to rescue them and how and by whom will He do this.   
5. These questions must have gone through the Israelites minds from time to time and they must have groaned and cried out their prayers to the Lord to deliver them and to remember His promise to Abraham that He will bring them out of Egypt to the Promised Land.

2 Parallel period of 400 year silence no prophetic word from God between the Old and New Covenants before the birth of Christ

1. Then there is a parallel gap of 400 years of silence between the Old and New Testaments (covenants) when there was no prophetic word written down from the time of Malachi.
2.  Malachi 4:5-6 where God promises to send one in the spirit of Elijah to go before Him to prepare the way of the Lord which is also prophesied in Isaiah 40:3-5 about one going before the Lord to prepare the way in the wilderness.  
3. The people of Israel were under first of all Greek domination then Roman domination.  They had to fight to keep their identity from being taken over by the Greeks.
4. Who wanted to Hellenize them and make them like the Greeks in culture and beliefs including offering pagan sacrifices in the temple to their gods and sacrificing a pig on the altar. 
5. There was a rebellion by some of the Jewish people and they overthrew the Greeks killing them and reestablishing temple worship this is  how Hanukkah came about which is the festival of lights.
6. Anyway there was no prophetic word up until the time of the Lord’s birth as recorded in Matthew and Luke of His miraculous birth.
7. Of the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary and how she was told she was to have a Son of the Most High by the Holy Spirit overshadowing her and how her cousin Elizabeth was able to conceive in her old age and Gabriel appeared to her husband telling him that he will father a child and that the child will be used by the Lord to be forerunner of the Lord.
8. That the coming of Jesus was announced by angels and other miraculous signs, that He is the One that God was going to raise up to be like Moses, a deliverer.  It is just interesting that there is a parallel of 400 years of silence between the end of the book of Genesis until Exodus before God raises up Moses to deliver the people of Israel out of Egypt.  
9. That there is a similar time frame of silence between the two testaments between the law of Moses and the New Covenant of forgiveness from sins ratified by the blood of the Lord’s Messiah His only begotten Son, God the Son and Son of God, the second person (God) of the triune Godhead.  
10. Who came in the footsteps of Moses to become a deliverer not only for Israel as a nation but the whole of humankind   
11. That God raised up a deliverer in Himself through His Son to save men from spiritual death the house of bondage to sin and eternally being lost away from the presence of God.  
12. God valued humankind so much He sent His Son to die for us so that we didn’t have to live an eternal existence in hell when we died away from the pure and holy presence of God.
13. In that He made a way through the veil of flesh His Son’s body that was torn on the cross for us to enter into the Holy of Holies by faith in His Son to have fellowship forever with Father. 
14. So that when we die we will be where He is also He made a way for Israel to live before Him as a nation and Jerusalem to be purged from her sins to be made righteous via His blood poured our like a drink offering on the cross outside of Jerusalem.
15. By doing this a fountain was opened in His side when he was pierced on the tree.  So that they could be washed and made clean through His blood.  Only through coming to Him as their Messiah they will find forgiveness and grace and they can be re grafted back into the Olive Tree from which they were broken off due to unbelief.
16. It is interesting to see the parallel of 400 years between the two types of deliverance the physical deliverance of Israel from the house of bondage to slavery in Egypt which is a type of the world and its world system full of idolatry and pleasures of life. 
17.  To the Lord Yeshua’s(Jesus's) first coming God coming Himself through His Son to deliver man and Israel from spiritual death and from the house of bondage to sin to the world’s system that is perishing away and will lead to eternal separation from God.  
18. Genesis 400 years break no communication with God Egypt house of bondage Moses raised up to deliver people from slavery to Egypt and sin.  
19. His was a physical deliverer for Israel and he was a prophet he gave the law on how to live righteously from God’s own mouth.
20. As he Moses met with God face to face and saw His form, God also wrote the Law on stone tablets and gave them to Moses. He Moses was a mediator between Yahweh and Israel.
21. Malachi last prophet of the old testament 400 years no prophetic communication with or from God.  The time of the Messiah another deliverer a spiritual deliverer with a final Old Testament prophet to proclaim His coming as the Messiah the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as spoken of in the four gospels and the epistles of the New Testament.  
22. Jesus came to fulfill the righteous demands of the Law and ratify a new covenant through His blood. 
23.  Jesus Himself is also a Prophet, God the Son is a Prophet the Prophet who was to come after Moses and He too is a mediator between God and man.
24. The final mediator between God and man. He knew His Father personally for He came from the bosom of the Father and knew His form.
25. He is a spiritual deliverer in His first coming and a physical deliverer bringing into fullness salvation at His second appearing.

3 Where are we today?

1. It is two thousand years or two days in Yahweh’s timetable since Yeshua came to this earth, died rose again and ascended back to Father, is seated now at His right hand in heaven.
2. He is waiting for His people (the houses of Israel and Judah) to repent of their rejection of Him and to cry out to Him to set them free and deliver them to raise up Israel as one nation under Him again.  
3. The modern day Pharisees the Ultra-Orthodox and those of the tribe of Judah Israel’s political leaders must lead the nation in repentance of rejecting their Messiah. They must cry out to Him to come save them to help them from being totally wiped out by their enemies.
4. The enemies in the end will be the armies of the Antichrist and the nations of the world who will one day surround and invade Israel and Jerusalem.
5. As the Lord at His first appearing had a forerunner a prophet (his cousin) in the person of John the Baptist who came in the power of Elijah to announce the coming of the Lord.  
6. The Lord will raise up two prophetic witnesses, who will be His forerunners of His second coming, in the last days during the three and half years of  false peace before the period of the Great Tribulation.
7. This will be the period of the Seventieth week of Daniel where things will go back to the Old Testament way of doing things under the Law.  
8. During this time the laws of Moses will be reestablished in the nation of Israel with the re-introduction of the Temple Worship, sacrifices and priestly order.
9. Jerusalem will be again in the state she was in at the first coming of the Lord, under Roman occupation, a religious ruling class in the scribes and Pharisees and a puppet king in place.  
10. This time though it will be a false Christ who will be ruling and having control over Jerusalem from Rome to start with that he will be calling the shots about things, he will allow them to have temple worship and sacrifices until he decides he wants to come over to Jerusalem and set himself up as god in the temple to be worshipped.
11. During this time God will raise up 144,000 prophetic evangelists from the twelve tribes of Israel except for Dan, the tribe of Ephraim, is renamed the tribe of Joseph and Manasseh.  These evangelists will go throughout the world from north, to south, east to west proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom and telling of the second coming of the Lord as His forerunners in the power and might of Elijah.  
12. They will be Old Testament style of prophets like John the Baptist was as the last seven years will pick up where the last period of the 69 weeks of Daniel left off when Jesus was crucified, raised to life and ascended to heaven.  
13. Israel will be restored and at the appropriate time the Lord will come from heaven for His people.  His prophets will be going through out the earth proclaiming that the gospel of the Kingdom  of God and for men to repent, just like John the Baptist did they are preparing the way of the Lord making His paths straight.
14. While these prophetic evangelists are going throughout the world the Lord will have His two key witnesses that He calls the olive tree and menorah.
15. They will stand in the court of the Gentiles in the newly built temple in Jerusalem to proclaim the coming of the Lord and to call forth different judgments.  
16. These two witnesses who are the Olive Tree and Menorah who stand before the Lord of Hosts of heaven to proclaim the different judgments upon the earth.
17. They will bring judgments of drought like Elijah prayed for heaven to be shut up no rain, or blood Moses used his staff to change the water of the Nile into blood. And different kinds of plagues and perhaps the other prophets will be praying this way too. 
18. These two witnesses have the power to do these things.  They have the authority under God to do these things as often as they wish and God will hear their prayers.  As they speak forth these judgments the different judgments will go forth from heaven as the shofar sounds in connection to their prayers or prophesying.  The voice of the prophet is like that of a shofar in that it is the bold and the faithful preaching of prophets, Isaiah 58:1, Hosea 8:1, Joel 2:1.
19. So when these two witnesses, of the 144,000 prophetic evangelists go forth when the peace covenant has been signed for seven years with Jerusalem and the temple worship established all these judgments from God will go forth of His wrath upon the earth.
20. At the first coming of the Lord there was one prophet from the tribe of Levi his cousin John the Baptist was that prophet proclaiming His coming in one local area, the country of Israel.
21. This will be different for the second coming of the Lord there will be 144,000 prophetic evangelists from the twelve tribes of Israel will be proclaiming His coming worldwide where all eyes will see Him at His coming. 
22. At His first coming there was a sign when He was water baptized – He came by water and blood as a testimony of Him- of the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. 
23.  At His second coming the sun and moon will go dark and the stars fall from the sky.
24. The sign of the Son of Man will be seen in the heavens and He will come with His glory and majesty at the right hand of the majesty on High with His angels and saints, every eye will see Him from everywhere on the earth.  His glory will be that bright.
25. It is interesting to note that at the breaking of the seventh seal in heaven Revelation 8:1-6.  There is total silence in heaven for the space of half an hour.  
26. For two periods there was silence on the earth no prophetic utterance until the two deliverers of God came to the fore, Moses and Jesus.
27. Again there is silence but this time it is in heaven itself.
28. God is listening to what is going on, on the earth He is waiting for something to happen.  
29. Or He is just waiting for the prayers of His people to ascend up to Him in anguish asking, crying, pleading for Him to intervene through His just judgments to help them with what is happening on the earth.
30. Just like the groans and cries of His people in Egypt ascended to Him to cause Him at the right time to raise up Moses and in the fullness of time He sent His Son to be born on the earth.
31. Now He is waiting for the groans and cries of His saints to ascend to heaven so that He can send His Son forth to save and redeem His people in full. 
32. Before He does this He will bring His righteous judgment down upon the earth through the blowing of the shofars and the then the vial judgments.  His prophets will be praying for judgment or speaking it forth on the earth.  
33. While from heaven the angels will sound the shofars then pour out the vials of God's wrath upon the beast's kingdom.  Then as the final judgment God will judge Babylon and finally when the armies are surrounding Jerusalem God will send forth His Son when His Jewish people finally call for Jesus to come and save them.

Now we will turn our attention to Moses.

Part B Moses and the Exodus forms The Trunk of the Olive Tree –

 A few months ago on this blog I had put posts on the beginning of the Olive Tree; in the series of posts on the Olive Tree – Understanding Israel.
The root of the Olive Tree being Abraham(or God through Abraham is the root) and how it grew from just Abraham to Isaac the son of his old age with Sarah, and Jacob and his twelve sons who were the family of Israel (Jacob).
After 430 years the descendants of Jacob's twelve sons form the trunk of the Olive tree as the fledgeling nation of Israel.  This came about when God raised a deliverer in Moses to free them from the House of Slavery ie from Egypt.
⦁ I wondered where I was going with this section and why I was to put this section into the document on the Olive Tree understanding Israel.
It turns out to be a very important section on how the nation of Israel came into being from a tribal family of just seventy that went down to Egypt.
It was really 72 people because Joseph was in Egypt and he had two children there which Jacob adopted as his own children to form the two half tribes.  
So this tribal group became a huge mass of people who became enslaved by the Egyptians.
Yet when God brought them to Himself at Mt Sinai He betrothed them to Himself in a marriage covenant as a people group and a nation was formed during the forty years of wilderness wanderings.
⦁ God gave this fledgling nation His laws, statutes and commandments by which the people were to live by 613 of them to be exact.
There were laws for, men, women, family, farming, animals, dietary laws, community laws and laws for the priests, ritual and ceremonial laws, health laws. 
These laws were to be laws Israel as a nation was to live by. 
They were to be a light to the world through their living by God's laws, statutes and commandments, to show the rest of the world how to live in the light of God's word - Torah (teaching).  
A side note - Jesus came later as the Torah made flesh to show us how we too can obey the laws God gives from the heart through being born again.  Jesus is the light of the world, He is the torah light for it says is Psalm 119:110 thy word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. 
 Jesus is the word and the light that shows us the way to live that is pleasing in God's sight.
Getting back to Moses:
God through Moses established an order of service that will be acceptable to Him the different types of sacrifices and offerings and who is to serve Him.
That is who can be allowed to come near Him to carry out the priestly service in offering prayers and sacrifices and who were the people to carry out the menial tasks of taking care of the place of worship.
⦁ So this part of the formation of Israel as a nation is important in order to understand:

1. The importance and significance of the Passover. 
2. The tabernacle and its various items, furnishings the priestly garments and priestly office.
3. The land covenant and the promises that God made with the Israelites through the Patriarchs and reaffirmed through the Mosaic Covenant at Mt Sinai. 
4. The blessing and cursing associated with their obedience or disobedience to the laws of God and how they relate to us today as Christians:
5.  That is all these events of the Passover.
6. The tabernacle and the worship associated with the tabernacle the various items in the tabernacle the sacrifices and offerings.
7. The Priesthood with a High Priest. 

All these point to the coming of Jesus and His death on the cross and His resurrection and ascension to the right hand of His Father in heaven.
From where He rules invisibly over all the earth until His actual physical return to this earth to take up His earthly Kingdom. Which will be based in Jerusalem and Israel 
⦁ All these things as the book of Hebrews rightly states are types of shadows of the heavenly tabernacle and the real which is Jesus.  
The law is a teacher a tutor in which the house of Israel in its infancy as a nation was shut up under as Paul writes in Galatians about the law the bond woman and the freed woman of Galatians chapters 3 & 4.  
⦁ The law was a tutor to teach the Israelites about sin and how we need One to redeem us from sin.  
They were shut up in this period of. growth until the Messiah Jesus came the first time to set us free by His redeeming death on the cross.
From there He paid the ransom for our sins both the gentile nations and the nations of Israel.  
⦁ That when Jesus came they were to be no longer slaves or infants but should have been ready to come into maturity as sons to enter into the next stage of their growth in God.
That is to move from needing a tutor the law to learning how to walk as sons of God in the Spirit.
To move from law to grace to move from having laws written in stone on stone tablets to having the laws of God written on their hearts.  
⦁ To move from circumcision in the flesh to circumcision of the heart to have a soft heart towards God.  God does tell the Israelites in the Old Testament to circumcise their hearts to have soft hearts towards Him and His laws.
To become mature sons that God can rely upon to take the message of salvation to the world to be a light to the Gentiles.
To take the light of the gospel to a darkened Gentile world, that God no longer lives in a tabernacle or temple of stone but He now can live in human hearts that the laws of His Spirit can be written on our hearts.
To tell people that Jesus has made the way for people to do this to become God's children by adoption through faith in His only begotten Son.
⦁ Jesus is coming back again to rule in Israel from Jerusalem and He will live in a temple of stone but maybe somehow we will be part of those stones as He is building His House which is His temple.
Our bodies are living stones of this temple being fitted together to form a temple for God when we meet together to worship Him and our physical bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit as well.  
⦁ So somehow when the stone temple is built we will be part of it in our spirits I don’t know just a guess and it may not be that way at all but some other way which we will know how it will be when Jesus comes back to gather us who believe in Him and to take up His inheritance of Israel and Jerusalem as King of kings.
⦁ Anyway we need to know about these things to help us get an understanding about Israel and her history and the prophets when they spoke from God’s perspective concerning His land.  
These things also help us to understand what Jesus has done for us on the cross.
⦁ Moses spoke in Deuteronomy 18 of another prophet being raised by Yahweh in his place.  
In the Laws Yahweh gave to Moses He gives definite instructions about the care of the land when the Israelites come into the land and He reminds them that the land is His and they are not to sell the land or give it away as they only are aliens and sojourners with Yahweh. 
 Leviticus 25:23 t
he land shall not be sold into perpetual ownership, for the land is Mine; you are [only] strangers and temporary residents with Me.
⦁ Worship of Yahweh moved from tent or tabernacle to temple at the time of Solomon, the way the Lord was worshiped took on a more structured style.  
Still only one person could approach Yahweh that was the High Priest.
⦁ Gentiles could be part of the congregation of Israel but had to covert from their pagan ways to follow the Lord in accordance with the law given by Yahweh to Moses.  They could only worship in the court of the Gentiles in the temple.

Part C Introduction to Moses

⦁ After 430 years of slavery in Egypt Moses was born into a tribe of Levi the background to his birth and how Israel became the slaves of the Egyptians is found in Exodus chapter 1 and part of chapter 2, 
God gave favor to Moses as a child in that he was brought up in the household of Pharaoh as God had plans for this child to be His deliverer of Israel.

Birth and adoption of Moses by Pharaoh’s daughter
Exodus 2:1-10 
1 Now [Amram] a man of the house of Levi [the priestly tribe] went and took as his wife [Jochebed] a daughter of Levi.
2 And the woman became pregnant and bore a son; and when she saw that he was [exceedingly] beautiful, she hid him three months.
3 And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark or basket made of bulrushes or papyrus [making it watertight by] daubing it with bitumen and pitch. Then she put the child in it and laid it among the rushes by the brink of the river [Nile].
4 And his sister [Miriam] stood some distance away to learn what would be done to him.
5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, and her maidens walked along the bank; she saw the ark among the rushes and sent her maid to fetch it.
6 When she opened it, she saw the child; and behold, the baby cried. And she took pity on him and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children!
7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call a nurse of the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?
8 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the girl went and called the child’s mother.
9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages. So the woman took the child and nursed it.
10 And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. And she called him Moses, for she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

• Needless to say when Moses grew up and saw how the Egyptians were treating his brethren he tried to take matters into his own hands and killed an Egyptian.
• Then the next day he tried to resolve a conflict between two Hebrew slaves and they turned on him asking who appointed him to be judge over them.  They asked would he kill them like he did the Egyptian.
• So of course Moses had to leave Egypt in a hurry and he went into the land of Midian and sojourned there with Jethro a priest of the Lord and he married one of his daughters to whom he had two sons. 

Moses trying to do things in his own strength to deliver the Israelites and then fleeing into the wilderness.
Exodus 2:11-22 
11 One day, after Moses was grown, it happened that he went out to his brethren and looked at their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of [Moses’] brethren.
12 He looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
13 He went out the second day and saw two Hebrew men quarreling and fighting; and he said to the unjust aggressor, Why are you striking your comrade?
14 And the man said, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian? Then Moses was afraid and thought, Surely this thing is known.
15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh’s presence and took refuge in the land of Midian, where he sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock.
17 The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock.
18 And when they came to Reuel [Jethro] their father, he said, How is it that you have come so soon today?
19 They said, An Egyptian delivered us from the shepherds; also he drew water for us and watered the flock.
20 He said to his daughters, Where is he? Why have you left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.
21 And Moses was content to dwell with the man; and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.
22 And she bore a son, and he called his name Gershom [expulsion, or a stranger there]; for he said, I have been a stranger and a sojourner in a foreign land.

⦁ Moses was both a murderer for he killed an Egyptian and a fugitive with a price on his head.  By our standards we would think that Moses would be the last person God would choose to lead His people out from the bondage of Egypt but God doesn’t look at things the way we do. 
⦁ God wanted a deliverer to deliver His people out from the house of bondage and Moses was that person.
For God had separated him from birth and allowed him to be raised in the courts of Pharaoh by being raised in Pharaoh’s house.  
This gave Moses access to his courts when he was finally sent by God to deliver His people.
At this stage Moses was not yet ready to lead the people out from slavery.  For he still had a lot of unlearning to do and refining hence his going into the desert for nearly forty years to learn how to be a shepherd to sheep before he could be a shepherd to people.  
⦁ To learn about the rough terrain he would be taking the people through and to birth humility into him so that any pride will be dealt with by God to teach him to be dependent upon the Lord to learn not to do things in his own strength.  
As he was raised in the house of Pharaoh he would have learnt how to administer laws however being born of the Hebrew people he would have been taught about the One true God from his parents and the elders of the tribes.  
⦁ As he was of the Hebrew people that was why he tried to take matters into his own hands to help them by killing the Egyptian and trying to bring peace between two quarreling Hebrew slaves but this attempt backfired on him and he had to flee into the wilderness as mentioned above. 
 Yet God used this seeming failure of Moses to form him into the person He God wanted him to be through his wilderness years. 
 Moses would had to unlearn all the things he may have learnt while growing up in the house of Pharaoh and he would have had to learn things the way God wanted them done while wondering in the wilderness tending sheep for nearly forty years.
⦁ I won’t go into further details other than this and I am speaking from my own experience here too.  For God has been dealing with me personally in these same ways.
That when we take things into our own hands to serve God it doesn’t work, for the flesh availed nothing.
We cannot do anything in our own strength to serve the Lord it is only when we surrender everything to God can He move in our lives and accomplish His purposes in and through us (though in our case who know Christ) Christ who lives in us by His Holy Spirit and strengthens us to accomplish His purposes Phil 4:13.
⦁ Moses had to live in the desert for nearly 40 years before God called him and commissioned him to do the work of delivering Israel from the slavery of Egypt.  Moses was 80 years of age when God called him from being a shepherd over sheep in the backside of the desert to being a shepherd over people, to lead them out from the house of bondage to the Promised Land which God had promised to give to the Patriarchs 430 years before.

The call and commissioning of Moshe (Moses) by Yahweh to deliver the Israelites from Egypt Exodus 2-4
⦁ In these chapters of Exodus God reveals His name by which He is to be known by throughout their generations and the promise of giving the land to the Israelites.
Of how He will use Moses to set His people free, that Moses will be as God to Pharaoh and Aaron his brother will be his prophet.  
God over rules all of Moses’ excuses about why God cannot use him.  
We cannot argue against the Lord if He should choose us to do a particular task He will equip us to do the task and He will personally watch over us to make sure this task is done with His help.  
⦁ Moses was to bring deliverance to the Israelites but he didn’t circumcise one of his sons probably because his wife was opposed to it. 
 Yet God will not allow this to go unpunished he very nearly killed Moses until the young man was circumcised, he may have been a young man or a man as Moses was living in the area for nearly 40 years. 
 So his wife had to do the job of circumcision on his behalf as he was at death’s door.  
⦁ The Israelites were to be circumcised to show that they were people of the covenant that God made with Abraham that all of his household including the households of his descendants were to be circumcised, otherwise they would be outside the covenant to show that they belong to God.  
The one that God has chosen to deliver Israel could not afford to allow his children to be outside the covenant that God made with Abraham he needed to be above board and set the example for the people to follow.

Refresher of Genesis 17 re covenant of circumcision, why it was important for Moses’ son to be circumcised and why God nearly killed Moses.
Genesis 17:1-14
1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
2 And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
3 And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
4 As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.
12 And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.
13 He that is born in thy house, and he that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised: and my covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant.
14 And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his people; he hath broken my covenant.
Exodus 2:22-25
22 However, after a long time [nearly forty years] the king of Egypt died; and the Israelites were sighing and groaning because of the bondage. They kept crying, and their cry because of slavery ascended to God.
  24 And God heard their sighing and groaning and [earnestly] remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
  25 God saw the Israelites and took knowledge of them and concerned Himself about them [knowing all, understanding, remembering all].
Exodus 3:1- 22
 1 NOW MOSES kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back or west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb or Sinai, the mountain of God.
    2 The Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, yet was not consumed.
    3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.
    4 And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here am I.
    5 God said, Do not come near; put your shoes off your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.
  6 Also He said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
    7 And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters and oppressors; for I know their sorrows and sufferings and trials.
    8 And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand and power of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a land good and large, a land flowing with milk and honey [a land of plenty]--to the place of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
    9 Now behold, the cry of the Israelites has come to Me, and I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.
    10 Come now therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
    11 And Moses said to God,Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?
    12 God said, I will surely be with you; and this shall be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain [Horeb, or Sinai].
    13 And Moses said to God, Behold, when I come to the Israelites and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they say to me, What is His name? What shall I say to them?
    14 And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM and WHAT I AM, and I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE; and He said, You shall say this to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you!
    15 God said also to Moses, This shall you say to the Israelites: The Lord, the God of your fathers, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you! This is My name forever, and by this name I am to be remembered to all generations.
    16 Go, gather the elders of Israel together [the mature teachers and tribal leaders], and say to them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you and seen that which is done to you in Egypt;
    17 And I have declared that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.
    18 And [the elders] shall believe and obey your voice; and you shall go, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt and you shall say to him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now let us go, we beseech you, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.
    19 And I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go [unless forced to do so], no, not by a mighty hand.
    20 So I will stretch out My hand and smite Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in it; and after that he will let you go.
    21 And I will give this people favor and respect in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall be that when you go, you shall not go empty-handed.
    22 But every woman shall [insistently] solicit of her neighbor and of her that may be residing at her house jewels and articles of silver and gold, and garments, which you shall put on your sons and daughters; and you shall strip the Egyptians [of belongings due to you].
Exodus 4:1-31 and foot notes
1 AND MOSES answered, But behold, they will not believe me or listen to and obey my voice; for they will say, The Lord has not appeared to you.
    2 And the Lord said to him, What is that in your hand? And he said, A rod.
    3 And He said, Cast it on the ground. And he did so and it became a serpent [the symbol of royal and divine power worn on the crown of the Pharaohs]; and Moses fled from before it.
    4 And the Lord said to Moses, Put forth your hand and take it by the tail. And he stretched out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand,
    5 [This you shall do, said the Lord] that the elders may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has indeed appeared to you.
    6 The Lord said also to him, Put your hand into your bosom. He put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.
    7 [God] said, Put your hand into your bosom again. So he put his hand back into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored as the rest of his flesh.
   8 [Then God said] If they will not believe you or heed the voice or the testimony of the first sign, they may believe the voice or the witness of the second sign.
    9 But if they will also not believe these two signs or heed your voice, you shall take some water of the river [Nile] and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which you take out of the river [Nile] shall become blood on the dry land.
    10 And Moses said to the Lord, O Lord, I am not eloquent or a man of words, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and have a heavy and awkward tongue.
    11 And the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the dumb, or the deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Is it not I, the Lord?
    12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and will teach you what you shall say.
    13 And he said, Oh, my Lord, I pray You, send by the hand of [some other] whom You will [send].
    14 Then the anger of the Lord blazed against Moses; He said, Is there not Aaron your brother, the Levite? I know he can speak well. Also, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be overjoyed.
    15 You must speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what you shall do.
    16 He shall speak for you to the people, acting as a mouthpiece for you, and you shall be as God to him.
    17 And you shall take this rod in your hand with which you shall work the signs [that prove I sent you].
    18 And Moses went away and, returning to Jethro his father-in-law, said to him, Let me go back, I pray you, to my relatives in Egypt to see whether they are still alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.
    19 The Lord said to Moses in Midian, Go back to Egypt; for all the men who were seeking your life [for killing the Egyptian] are dead.
    20 And Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on donkeys, and he returned to the land of Egypt; and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
    21 And the Lord said to Moses, When you return into Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all those miracles and wonders which I have put in your hand; but I will make him stubborn and harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
    22 And you shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn.
    23 And I say to you, Let My son go, that he may serve Me; and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay your son, your firstborn.
    24 Along the way at a [resting-] place, the Lord met [Moses] and sought to kill him [made him acutely and almost fatally ill].
    25 [Now apparently he had failed to circumcise one of his sons, his wife being opposed to it; but seeing his life in such danger] Zipporah took a flint knife and cut off the foreskin of her son and cast it to touch [Moses'] feet, and said, Surely a husband of blood you are to me!
    26 When He let [Moses] alone [to recover], Zipporah said, A husband of blood are you because of the circumcision.
    27 The Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mountain of God [Horeb, or Sinai] and kissed him.
    28 Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord with which He had sent him, and all the signs with which He had charged him.
    29 Moses and Aaron went and gathered together [in Egypt] all the elders of the Israelites.
  30 Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.
    31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the Israelites, and that He had looked [in compassion] upon their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
Footnotes:
Exodus 4:1 There need be no "buts" in our relationship to God's will. Nothing will take the Lord by surprise. The entire field has been surveyed and the preparations are complete. When the Lord says, "I will send thee," every provision has been made for the appointed task. "I will not fail thee." He who gives the command will also give the equipment (John Henry Jowett, My Daily Meditation).
Exodus 4:25 He who is on his way to liberate the people of the circumcision has in Midian even neglected to circumcise his second son Eliezer (J.P. Lange, A Commentary). It was necessary that at this stage of Moses' experience he should learn that God is in earnest when He speaks, and will assuredly perform all that He has threatened (J.G. Murphy, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus).

Next post we will continue on with our study of Moses as the deliverer of Israel from Egypt and the first Passover.