Fall? or Spring?

Today seems just like a beautiful fall day – doors open, sun shining, football game on tv (Packer’s of course). The only difference always seems to turn my world backwards - flowers planted and put out! Herbs planted in herb garden pots, flowers in pots put out, hanging baskets up.  We usually don’t have a lot of plants that need upkeep as we really do not have a lot of time to care for them, but we are going to make an effort this year. I do loves plants and flowers, but eke to see a beautiful garden appear with no work. Just like I love to travel and see new places and re-visit familiar ones, but I want to get from here to there with no in between. But as I sit here content in my own little world, my heart breaks for Las Vegas and all of the sorrow and heartbreak that occurred, I cannot imagine the feelings of all those folks there. One story sticks in my mind – a small passage of time when a complete stranger stayed with a dying man, promising to call his girlfriend who made it to safety and let her know how he was doing. Sadly, the man passed away, and the stranger called the girlfriend to inform her that he had passed away before help get to him. What a sacrifice that stranger made – to stay in immediate danger in order to minister to and reassure a dying man. If only everyone in our county would “Lay down his life for his brother” could you imagine what an amazing world this would be?? Continue to keep all the families involved, including the family of the shooter, in your prayers. Someone made a comment as to where was God when all of this was happening, where were the answers to all the prayers lifted up that day?  God was there with each and every person, He heard every prayer and plea from His children, and He answered in His own way. We need to keep on believing and having the faith that He is always with us.

This Friday as we picked up all the wonderful abundance of produce, we were asked if we wanted a humongous box of stuffed toys – the only drawback was that the box came from a flea market, was wet, and who knows what ese. We immediately said yes, bought the toys home, washed and dried them, and now they look beautiful. A very few needed just a few touch ups (clothes for a couple of stuffed dolls, new ribbon for a bear, a stitch here and there) and two were not salvageable. As I relayed to Ida later that day that we had received these toys, there was silence on the other end of the phone. Ida said with awe in her voice, “Leila, the ladies and I prayed today for toys to be able to give away for the Christmas distribution”. God knew – He knew before we did what was needed. We may need a few more, but we know that He will provide.

after many washer and dryer loads, all clean and fresh smelling. Now to bag them up and be ready for Christmas surprises.

In Sunday School we are studying about Moses but I wonder about his wife Zipporah. Not much is mentioned about her in the Bible people be freed??—Zipporah was one of the seven daughters of Jethro who is also called Reuel and Raguel (Exodus 2:18; 4:24, 25; 18:1-6; Numbers 10:29). It was to the home of this shepherd-priest in Midian that Moses came when at forty years of age he fled from Egypt, and meeting the seven girls drawing water Moses assisted them. Arriving home earlier than usual they told how the Egyptian had helped them. Brought up as a son of Pharaoh, Moses must have looked every inch a cultured Egyptian. Invited home, Moses was content to live with Jethro’s family, and married Zipporah, eldest of the seven daughters. Two sons were born of the union, Gershom and Eliezer. Some writers affirm, without adequate support, that the dark-skinned Ethiopian, “the Cushite woman” whom Miriam and Aaron were jealous over, is merely a description of Zipporah, and that therefore Moses was only married once. But the statement “He had married an Ethiopian woman” implies a recent occurrence, and that Zipporah, whom Moses had married 40 years previously, was dead. It is most unlikely that Miriam and Aaron would have waited all those years to murmur against Moses if Zipporah and the Ethiopian had been one and the same woman.

Zipporah, as a woman of Midian, did not share the spiritual values of her notable husband who found himself acting against the sacred tradition of Israel. This may be one reason why he named his second son Eliezer, meaning “The Lord of my father was my help.” To keep the peace, Moses compromised with his unbelieving wife and withheld circumcision, the sign of God’s covenant, from Eliezer. The Lord intervened, and as a sign of divine displeasure, Moses is stricken with a mortal disease. Both Zipporah and Moses became conscience-stricken over the profanation of God’s covenant, and Zipporah yields. Moses is too prostrate to take a knife and circumcize the child, so his wife severed the boy’s foreskin and, throwing it down before Moses said, “Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.”

When Moses was restored to health relations in the home were not congenial, for he went on alone to Egypt, and Zipporah and the two sons went back to her home in Midian. Of this unhappy incident Alexander Whyte says, “There are three most obscure and most mysterious verses in Moses' history that mean, if they mean anything at all to us, just such an explosion of ill-temper as must have left its mark till death on the heart of Moses and Zipporah. The best of wives; his help meet given him of God; the most self-effacing of women; the wife who holds her husband in her heart as the wisest and best of men & under sufficient trial and provocation and exasperation, even she will turn and will strike with just one word; just once in her whole married lifetime.”

When Moses became the mighty leader and law-giver of Israel, there was the episode when Jethro, his father-in-law came out to the wilderness to see Moses and brought with him Zipporah and the two sons. The union was devoid of any restraint for Moses graciously received them and neither disowned nor ignored his wife and sons. But after this visit during which Jethro gave his over-burdened son-in-law some very practical advice, nothing more is said of Zipporah. She disappears without comment from the history of the Jewish people in which her husband figured so prominently. “Neither as the wife of her husband nor as the mother of her children did she leave behind her a legacy of spiritual riches.” How different it would have been if only she had fully shared her husband’s unusual meekness and godliness and, like him, left behind footprints in the sands of time!

  If you remember, Moses was found in the reeds in the water by the daughter of the Pharaoh. She kept him and raised him as her own son because the Pharaoh had demanded that all male babies be killed. He demanded the midwives kill them at birth – except many of the mid-wives defied the Pharaoh’s orders and let the babies live. Moses was raised in luxury but then left because he saw an Egyptian abusing one of his people, killed and buried him. Moses then had to flee back to his birth people, where he met Zipporah and lived for 40 years tending her father’s flock. What a sacrifice she had to make when he came home with his announcement – to go into the unknown with Moses after the Israelites were freed and wander about in the desert for 40 years. I believe our “liberated” ladies today would have questioned Moses, gave tons of excuses why he should not follow God’s words, and even refused to go with him.  

Pray this week that we, as wives are obedient, not to the point of being walked upon, but respect the wishes of our spouses. I am not saying that every decision does not need discussion but after all the pros and cons are presented, let the final decision rest upon the husband. Why do I believe this – read the Bible and you will see.