Obedience before the Calling

At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death.

Exodus 4:24

Moses didn’t go out into the desert looking for God. God went looking for Moses. After the burning bush, God called Moses to lead the people out of Egypt. Moses resisted, but God persisted by turning his staff into a snake and making his hand leprous. Yet that wasn’t enough because Moses offered his excuses about not being able to speak. The Lord relented and allowed Aaron to speak for Moses. After receiving his father-in-law’s blessing, Moses packed up his family and started on their way to Egypt. Yet on the way…something happened.

God was going to put Moses to death. After all that prepping process for leading the people out of Egypt, Moses would’ve been killed if it wasn’t for his wife, Zipporah, who administered the circumcision of their son. Although there isn’t clarity for Moses’ reasons for avoiding circumcising his son, we do know that the sign of the covenant was first established with Abraham. (Genesis 17) For whatever reason, Moses was off on his way towards his calling—without first taking care of being obedient to God’s command.

We also must be careful to not sidestep obedience to God’s word as we move towards our calling. It’s possible for believers to downplay our obedience when we sense the enormous calling on our lives. Yet we must not use our grace from God as an opportunity to sin either by action or omission. Satan will take advantage of every time we make excuses or neglect to deal with our failings.

The Holy Spirit will convict us of our sins if we humbly confess sins and receive God’s forgiveness and cleansing. Our calling becomes more punctuated with the presence and purpose of God if we are careful to obey what we know is right to do.