Hello friends, today we will be looking at a mystery that still is debated to this very day. Turn to Exodus Chapter 4 verses 24-26.
“At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met {Moses} and was about to kill him. 25 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. 26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)”
This is strange because just moments before this scene, the LORD told Moses that he must go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. If God called Moses to carry out this deed then why does he want to kill him? Was God going to kill Moses or his son? Was Zipporah an obedient or angry wife? With different debates and scholarly articles written about this passage, I think we can view this passage in two ways and how it reflect on our lives as persons in ministry.
First, we must look at Moses’ life socially. In the beginning of Exodus, we get a look at the Israelites bound in slavery. A wealthy nation now made poor. Moses, born an Israelite, was sent down the river in a basket and picked-up by an Egyptian princess. From this point until the moment when he killed a slave master, Moses is living in the Pharaoh’s palace. After he killed the slave master he runs to Midian. While there, he marries into the family of a Midianite priest. Unlike today, priests were a high social position in biblical times. Although he knows that he was an Israelite, he was raised Egyptian with the attitudes and privileges of his class and in Midian he is assimilated with the status of son-in-law of the priest.[1]
Secondly, we must look at the spiritual side of things. In Egypt, he was introduced to Egyptian gods until he was an adult and introduced to Midianites gods until he was old. Fred Blumenthal says, “The culture and polytheistic religion(s) became influential to him until the age of 80.[2]” Even if Moses was not actually 80 when he left Midian, he had years of being influenced by different gods.
Up to this point we have looked at Moses’ life from a spiritual/social perspective. Then comes the moment when he meets the Israelite’s God, “I AM.” Blumenthal brings up an interesting point that Moses, who has been conditioned (with other gods), and yet to see, hear and accept the revelation at the burning bush was an accomplishment probably unequaled in the history of mankind.[3]” You see, back then the idea of one universal God was foreign and here Moses, is encountering a God who calls himself, “I AM,” who is the one and only God of the world. Reis mentions that at this moment, Moses can no longer be who he thinks he is or who he wishes he were; he has to recognize and become who he truly is, an Israelite.[4] After a lengthy conversation, he accepts the call, gathers his family, and heads back to Egypt.
After looking at some back story, we now get to our key verse. Moses is walking towards Egypt with a staff, which he received during his conversation with God, in one hand and on the other hand he has his family. The staff represents his calling to free the Israelites and, unknown to him, to be one of the greatest Old Testament prophets. His family represents his high social status and his other gods he worships. Now Moses approaches the lodging place, where God is going to kill him. I agree with Shankman when he says,
“Moses has clung to his old self in the face of the Lord’s summons; such stubbornness can bring death. On the other hand, to answer the call, Moses must die to his old self; only death will prepare him spiritually for his God-sanctioned mission.[5]”
Moses has a choice to make, he can give up his old-self and serve God, or he can continue to live in his former life and have his ministry be killed by God.
Now how does all this tie in to the circumcision by Zipporah? The act of circumcision is an act of being tied into a covenant with God. From this perspective, Moses (or his son) needs to be circumcised in order to proceed with his ministry. Also the Israelites would probably not follow a man, who talked to their God, who is uncircumcised. The best way to make sense of this in a modern setting would be if a porn star came up to someone addicted to porn and told them that porn is bad and they should not be watching it, even though this porn star continues to practice his/her profession. In order, to continue with this ministry Moses, must embrace his original identity and make a covenant with God to be an effective minister. But it was not Moses who did the circumcising, but his wife Zipporah. Going down the path we are going, Zipporah is considered a hero. I have heard the saying that behind a good man is a good woman. That woman is Zipporah. Moses is struggling with the two choices he needs to make and he cannot decide on which one to chose. Zipporah, seeing her husband’s struggle, did the circumcision for her husband as an act of obedience. She knew what was going to be good for her husband, to be identified with his own people, and to be a servant of the one and only God.
Some of us are at a lodging place in our lives, and we need to make a choice. Some of us may be called to serve the true God, but we also are serving other gods (money, social status, etc.) If you are at that place, I encourage you to talk to someone. Talk to a Zipporah in your life, weather it is your parents, church friend, pastor, wife, or others. Looking at the rest of Moses story in the Bible, it is safe to say that he made the right choice. If Moses was here today, he would tell us to chose, “I AM.”
