Why did God Want to Kill Moses?

Why did God Want to Kill Moses?

Moses was eighty years old. He had just stood in awe before the bush that burned but was not consumed, and had received instructions from the Angel of the Lord to appear before the Pharaoh of Egypt and command him in the name of the Great I Am to release the Hebrews from their bondage. After some deliberation and hesitation, Moses accepted the mission, and immediately began making preparations. 

He obtained permission from his father-in-law to return to Egypt with his family, then packed up his wife and two sons and headed south. It seems they had not gone far, perhaps only the first day’s journey, when a peculiar circumstance arose. As they made arrangements to sleep for the night, the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him (Exodus 4:24). In response to this turn of events, Moses’ wife Zipporah circumcised their uncircumcised son and threw the foreskin at his feet, screaming, “You are a husband of blood!” After this, the Lord “let him go” (4:26).

This story is particularly difficult to understand because of its brevity, and the unusual wording of verse 24: “The Lord sought to kill Moses.” Though the phrasing of the verse may elicit dark images of God slinking about the encampment, waiting to ambush Moses, the fact that God would kill someone is not unusual in other contexts. 

The wicked were slain by God in the Great Flood because of their violent and ungodly actions (Genesis 6:1-7). The Lord killed Er and Onan, two of Judah’s sons, because of their overt rebellion (Genesis 38:7,10). In Moses’ later years, God would legislate the death penalty for those guilty of disobeying certain laws (Leviticus 20). In these instances and many more, God “killed” a person or persons, albeit indirectly. In Exodus 4, we can be assured that Moses was afflicted because he was guilty of some sin, since disobedience is the only act God punishes with death.

In Exodus chapter 4 we are told that God sought to Kill Moses for not circumcising his son in accordance with the law given to Abraham in:

Genesis 17:11

And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

but he relented on killing Moses when Moses' wife Zipporah took a sharp stone and circumcised the child, even though Moses himself did not circumcise the boy.

Exodus 4:24 through 26 

And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.

Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.

So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

It seems strange that God relented with Moses and yet killed the men of Bethshemesh:

1 Samuel 6:19 

And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.

and Uzza for using his hand to keep the Ark from falling off thee cart:

1Ch 13:9 & 10

And when they came unto the threshingfloor of Chidon, Uzza put forth his hand to hold the ark; for the oxen stumbled.

And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzza, and he smote him, because he put his hand to the ark: and there he died before God.

While I full well understand that God does not need to explain his reasons, it would seem that a just God would treat both Moses and Uzza the same.

God must have had his reasons for doing it this way, so does anyone know what that reason is?

Moses' sin was corrected by his wife, which saved him in the nick of time; the other two sins were thoroughly carried out.

One of Uzziah's mistakes was that he permitted the ark to continue being carried on a cart, which was not what God prescribed. It was supposed to be carried by people using poles. The injunction against touching the ark was still the sticking point, but the ark shouldn't have been on the cart once it was in Israel's possession. It should have been carried.

The Bible "stories" teach us about the nature of God. They sometimes serve as a warning and other times they encourage a closer relationship with God.

These stories are not casual happenings; they are recorded in the Bible as an everlasting message to God’s children. So in the case of Uzza, the Ark is the presence of God on Earth. When Uzza reached out to save the Ark this is in complete contrast to the “truth”, God saves man, man does not save God. So while this seems harsh and Uzza may have reacted out of instinct the eternal-stakes were much greater than Uzza’s life. We also must realize that just because God took Uzza’s life it does not follow that Uzza went to Hell, but may have gone to be with the Lord.

Once Moses’ son was circumcised God no longer sought to kill Moses. God instructs Moses to tell Pharaoh that Israel is God’s first-born son. Israel ultimately bore the “only begotten Son” Jesus Christ. Obviously Moses’ neglect regarding his own son was inexcusable and compromised the validity of God’s full message to humanity. God will not compromise; He is not tolerant but patient (long-suffering), which is an attribute of God’s love.

The same is true with the people of Beth Shemesh that compromised these sacred articles of God, by looking into the Ark of the Covenant. All of these stories send a message even to this day.