E X O D U S: Signs

May 24, 2026

Devotional

Day 1: Blood on the Feet: When God’s Commands Confuse Us

The Bible’s strangest moments often reveal God’s relentless commitment to relationship. When Zipporah circumcises her son to save Moses from divine wrath, the shocking act underscores how covenant faithfulness trumps human comfort. Confusing texts become invitations to trust a God who works through cultural specifics we may never fully grasp. [02:53]

“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, touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, ‘You are a bridegroom of blood to me.’ So the Lord let him alone.”
(Exodus 4:24-26, NIV)

Reflection: What current situation in your life feels as confusing as Zipporah’s act? How might this confusion be an invitation to trust God’s covenant faithfulness over your need for clarity?

Day 2: Reading Glasses for the Soul: Lenses That Distort or Clarify

We all interpret Scripture through preconceived ideas—like viewing God as either a distant sovereign or a personal genie. The Exodus story resists both extremes, revealing a God who is holy enough to confront Moses’ disobedience yet near enough to provide Aaron’s help. Our lenses either cage God or let Him roam free. [04:26]

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
(2 Corinthians 3:18, ESV)

Reflection: Which lens do you default to—a God of rigid rules or a God of quick fixes? How might viewing Scripture through relationship instead of systems change your walk this week?

Day 3: Reluctant Leaders and the God Who Persists

Moses’ five excuses mirror our own resistance to holy assignments. Yet God’s response—“I will be with your mouth”—transforms insecurity into partnership. Divine patience meets human trembling, not to eliminate fear but to redirect it toward reliance. Leadership begins not with confidence, but with surrendered reluctance. [10:24]

“But Moses said to the Lord, ‘Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent… I am slow of speech and of tongue.’ Then the Lord said, ‘Who has made man’s mouth?… Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.’”
(Exodus 4:10-12, ESV)

Reflection: Where is God calling you to lead despite your reluctance? What promise of His presence could steady your trembling hands today?

Day 4: Zoo Theology: Caging the Untamable God

We prefer a God behind glass—predictable, safe, observable. But Yahweh explodes cages, appearing as burning bushes and demanding blood covenants. The same God who threatens Moses’ life later promises to teach him. Wild grace refuses to be domesticated, inviting us beyond Sunday spectacles into risky relationship. [29:16]

“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me.”
(Psalm 139:7-10, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you tried to cage God for comfort? What one step could you take this week to engage His untamable presence?

Day 5: The Moreness of God: Wide, Long, High, Deep

Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 echoes Exodus—we serve a God whose love is both cosmic and intimate. Just as Moses discovered Yahweh’s layered nature through desert encounters, we’re invited beyond easy answers into the “more” of divine love. Every weird text, every confusing moment, becomes a door to deeper dimensions. [31:47]

“That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
(Ephesians 3:17-19, ESV)

Reflection: When have you settled for a “zoo version” of God’s love? How might you actively pursue the “more” of His infinite dimensions today?

Sermon Summary

Exodus 4 unfolds the paradox at the heart of Yahweh’s self-revelation. The God who is holy, other, and burning-bush terrifying also names himself, Yahweh, and draws near as a person who relates to persons. The divine word, I have come down to rescue them, sets the tone. God sees misery, hears cries, and moves to deliver. That same presence then turns toward one very human leader. Moses is hesitant, anxious, and full of polite but firm resistance. Please send someone else. Yet the text keeps holding together transcendence and nearness. Yahweh gives signs that display power over vocation, health, and sustenance, and then promises, I will help you speak, and I will teach you what to say. The God who shakes the ground also tutors the reluctant.

The narrative’s strangest turn does not let anyone cage God into tidy categories. At a lodging place, Yahweh meets Moses and is about to kill him, and Zipporah’s flint knife and the cry bridegroom of blood break the tension. The story is messy and complicated on purpose. The God who gets angry and impatient is the same God who provides Aaron, assures help, and lets Moses live because a woman acts decisively. Grace runs through the whole thing, but it is a wild, untamable grace.

This text exposes the lenses humans often wear. A sovereignty-only lens can flatten the conversation between Yahweh and Moses into a formula that cannot account for Zipporah’s intervention. A signs-and-wonders-only lens can turn Yahweh into a wish-granting genie and skip past holiness and fire. Both lenses depersonalize God and people. Eugene Peterson’s line lands right here. God is emphatically personal. God is only and exclusively God in relationship. Exodus insists on that truth by refusing to be neat. The living God cannot be put in a zoo for weekend viewing. Yahweh will not stay behind the glass.

Moses’ journey announces the larger invitation. The triune God is a loving community who is both far and near, other and knowable. The question under all the Bible study and church strategy is simple. Who gets trusted, a controllable system or a personal God who carries mystery and mercy at the same time. The gospel answers, there is more. More height, more depth, more love than knowledge can hold. The table then becomes a weekly place to handle that paradox with bread and cup. God in the flesh came down to rescue, and that rescue keeps opening into more.

Key Takeaways

1. Hold transcendence and nearness together The text refuses to split God into safe halves. Holiness burns, and yet love stoops low and speaks a name. Real trust grows when mystery is not erased but carried. Reverence deepens precisely where closeness is received. [07:33]
2. God works through reluctant leaders Moses’ fear does not veto calling. Yahweh meets insecurity with presence, provision, and patient instruction. The promise I will help you speak names a God who does not demand polish, only trust. Reluctance can be a safeguard against dangerous overconfidence. [12:16]
3. Read Scripture through a relational lens Narrative is not a puzzle to crack but a relationship to enter. Sovereignty without story and miracles without holiness both depersonalize the living God. Exodus invites a way of reading where God loves, corrects, partners, and surprises as a person. [25:11]
4. You cannot put Yahweh in a zoo Caged religion prefers glass between human life and divine presence. Exodus breaks the glass with anger, mercy, blood, and promise all in one trip. The living God will not be managed, only trusted and known. That wildness is grace, not threat. [29:39]
5. There is more than already known The gospel keeps opening beyond prior experience into wider, longer, higher, deeper love. Understanding serves love, but love surpasses knowledge and fills the inner life with Christ’s presence. Expectation, not control, becomes the posture of faith. [32:21]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:40] - Prayer and Bible’s weirdness
[01:12] - Why Exodus matters today
[02:31] - The strange scene on the road
[03:53] - Lenses for reading Scripture
[05:40] - Moses at the burning bush
[06:39] - Yahweh reveals his name
[08:30] - I have come down to rescue
[09:56] - Moses’ reluctance and signs
[15:45] - Please send someone else
[16:53] - Anger, Aaron, and provision
[19:55] - Popular lenses and their limits
[25:11] - God as emphatically personal
[28:35] - The zoo metaphor
[30:59] - Trust, the more, and the table

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
Exodus 4:24-26 (ESV)
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.

Ephesians 3:18-19 (ESV)
[May you] have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Observation questions

In Exodus 4, what three signs did God give Moses to demonstrate His power over vocation, health, and sustenance?
How does Moses respond to God’s call in Exodus 4:13, and what does God promise him despite his reluctance?
What unexpected action does Zipporah take in Exodus 4:25, and how does it resolve the tension in the story?

Interpretation questions

Why might God have chosen signs involving a staff, a hand, and water (Exodus 4:1-9) to address Moses’ doubts? What do these symbols reveal about His authority?
How does the phrase “I will help you speak, and I will teach you what to say” (Exodus 4:12) challenge common fears about inadequacy in leadership or obedience?
The sermon describes God as both “holy and terrifying” yet “personal and near.” How does the Zipporah incident (Exodus 4:24-26) illustrate this paradox?
How does Ephesians 3:18-19’s description of Christ’s love connect to the idea that “there is more” to God than we can fully grasp?

Application questions

Reluctance often feels like a weakness, but Moses’ story shows God uses it to cultivate trust. Where do you sense hesitation or fear holding you back from a step God is asking you to take? How might His promise to “help you speak” apply there?
The sermon warns against reducing God to a “controllable system” or a “wish-granting genie.” In what areas of your life do you tend to put God “in a zoo” instead of trusting His wild, relational nature?
Zipporah’s decisive action saved Moses’ life. When have you seen God use unexpected people or messy situations to display His grace? How does this shape your view of His work in your current challenges?
The phrase “there is more” invites expectation, not control. What practical habit could help you regularly lean into the “height, depth, and width” of God’s love instead of settling for limited understanding?
How might viewing Scripture as a “relationship to enter” (rather than a puzzle to solve) change the way you read the Bible or pray this week?

Sermon Clips

36s

#DivineParadox

“There is this distance, and yet at the same time, this closeness. There is this transcendence and eminence. This is the paradox at the heart of Exodus. This is the paradox that's at the heart of the gospel, the incarnation of Jesus. Right? God in the flesh. It is sort of the physical expression of God's transcendence and eminence. It is the paradox at the heart of the human experience. On the one hand, God is other. God is not us, and yet at the same time, God relates to us and knows us, and we can be known by him.”

49s

#CalledInReluctance

“God can use you in your reluctance. God can use you in your reluctance. God does not need you to be 100% confident. God works through our hesitancy. God works through our insecurity. And and in many cases, this is a a a truth that I've learned many times, sometimes the hard way, a reluctant leader is often a better leader. The overly confident person is sometimes the most dangerous leader of all. Moses is very hesitant about taking this on.”

46s

#WhoDoYouTrust

“The the big questions hanging over all of this, the questions of spirituality and theology and how we study the bible, all these big words we throw around here, the big question underneath all of it is who do you trust? It feels easy. It feels easier to trust a mechanical, explainable god that we can define. It feels easier to trust a magic genie who shows up at just the right moment to give us what we want. It is a lot harder to trust a personal being who is a bit mysterious, who is both other and knowable, who is both far and yet near, who is holy and personal.”

45s

#TriuneLove

“Now, with the story of scripture, what this messy, complicated, sometimes weird story shows us is that the heartbeat of the universe is a loving community, not a sovereign egomaniac or a genie in a bottle. A loving community of three in oneness, father, son, and spirit, who is both holy and other, and yet at the same time, knowable and personal. Both sides of the paradox help us hold a view of a wild, untamable god who loves us in massively cosmic and at the same time, deeply personal ways.”

52s

#UncomfortableGod

“There's a lot of conversation about, you know, how could Moses be responsible for knowing that he was supposed to circumcise his kids? How does Zipporah, what she does, how does that make God happy? It's weird. Right? There's a lot of debate about all of that. But I think underneath underneath the debate and those questions, this is a story that should shake up our comfortable and easy interpretations of God. God gets angry and impatient. God wants to kill Moses. And God reveals to Moses first person in human history to know God's name.”

31s

#ReadingWithLenses

“K? I'm starting to have this moment where it's like a pill bottle or whatever, and it's kinda like, oh, shoot. I can't I can't see it. Like, I I think I need some help here. Right? And as frustrating as that is, it's just part of the aging process, of course, as frustrating as that is, there is a a gift in that, which is it's sort of my body's way of reminding me that we all need lenses. And we all use lenses when it comes to reading the bible. No one just reads the bible.”

46s

#HowYouReadMatters

“We all have a set of lenses that we put on to help us make sense of this thing, and it's actually incredibly important to acknowledge this. It's actually really honest, I think, to acknowledge this, that we do have these lenses and that these are ways in which we can sometimes see what is going on in scripture. And some lenses, I'm just gonna say it, some lenses are better than other lenses. And so today, we're gonna talk about the actual story and the events that are going on here, but I also want us to see how the way that we approach scripture can determine how we understand it and how we apply it to our lives.”

38s

#ChurchShapingUs

“I wanna name two very popular lenses that are taught in most churches in The US right now, and I I sometimes hesitate to do this because I don't really like, but, yeah, I don't want it to be like, oh, those other churches are doing it all wrong, and look at how great we are, some sort of dynamic like that. But, again, I think a lot of this is very assumed, and it is kind of happening to us that we're being formed in these ways whether we know it or not because of the predominant voices in the church today. And I think it is helpful at times to just name some of this stuff out loud.”

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E X O D U S: Signs

Devotional

Day 1: Blood on the Feet: When God’s Commands Confuse Us

Day 2: Reading Glasses for the Soul: Lenses That Distort or Clarify

Day 3: Reluctant Leaders and the God Who Persists

Day 4: Zoo Theology: Caging the Untamable God

Day 5: The Moreness of God: Wide, Long, High, Deep

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

E X O D U S: Signs

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