7 Mar. Moses and Aaron return to Egypt
“Moses went back to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said to him, ‘Let me go back to my people in Egypt. I want to see if they are still alive.’ Jethro said to Moses, ‘Go! I wish you well!’…”
“So Moses took his wife and his sons, put them on a donkey, and started back to Egypt. He took with him the walking stick of God…”
“As Moses was on his way to Egypt, he stopped at a resting place for the night. The LORD met him there and tried to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife and circumcised her son. Taking the skin, she touched Moses’ feet with it and said to him, ‘You are a bridegroom of blood to me.’ She said, ‘You are a bridegroom of blood,’ because she had to circumcise her son. So the LORD let Moses alone.”
“Meanwhile the LORD said to Aaron, ‘Go out into the desert to meet Moses.’ When Aaron went, he met Moses at Sinai, the mountain of God, and kissed him. Moses told Aaron everything the LORD had said to him when he sent him to Egypt. He also told him about the miracles which the LORD had commanded him to do.”
“Moses and Aaron gathered all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything that the LORD had told Moses. Then Moses did the miracles for all the people to see, and the Israelites believed. When they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their troubles, they bowed down and worshipped him.”
(Exodus 4:18-31)
Some Old Testament passages are difficult for us to understand today because we don’t live in the Jewish culture of the time when they were written.
Here we find Moses setting off back to Egypt in accordance with God’s instructions. He asked for a blessing from his father-in-law – which he received - and he then set off, accompanied by his wife and his young son on a donkey.
That evening, Moses had a confrontation with God. Why? We’re not told! But presumably, God was annoyed with Moses because he hadn’t followed his laws and commandments. Specifically, he hadn’t circumcised his son Gershom in accordance with God’s covenant promise to Abraham, to show that he and his offspring were set apart as God’s people (see Genesis 17:9-14).
So Zipporah, his wife, circumcised her son by cutting off his foreskin with a flint knife, and smeared some of the blood on Moses’ feet to show that he truly had a blood covenant relationship with God.
Aaron, the Bible says, then met Moses, “at Sinai, the mountain of God” (Mt Horeb) (Exodus 4:27). Again, we’re not told where Aaron was living at that time, or whether this was the first time he had met Moses during the previous fifty years. But God prompted Aaron to visit his brother Moses in Midian (see Exodus 4:14 & 27) and, together, they returned to Egypt in c.1450BC.
Moses and Aaron gathered all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything that God had revealed to Moses. Moses performed the miracles for all the people to see, and they believed that God had really spoken to Moses and had empowered him to approach the pharaoh on their behalf.
The photo (by Ian Sewell) shows Mt Sinai (Mt Horeb) where Aaron met Moses.
You can see the location of Mt Sinai (Mt Horeb) on the map @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney2/25-the-israelites-journey-from-egypt-to-mt-sinai/the-israelites-in-egypt/