Zipporah

Exodus 4:24-26 (New Living Translation)

24 On the way to Egypt, at a place where Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the Lord confronted him and was about to kill him. 25 But Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She touched his feet with the foreskin and said, “Now you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26 (When she said “a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.) After that, the Lord left him alone.

Dear God,

Okay, I do not remember this story, and the author (Moses?) did not do a very good job of telling it. Moses and his family are on their way to Egypt, and for some unexplained reason you were about to kill him. Was he complaining too much? Was he telling Zipporah that he could not do what you were asking him to do? Or had you told him to circumcise the boy and he would not do it? Either way, you were obviously fed up, and Zipporah stepped up to the plate and circumcised her son en route. We can tell she was upset about having to do it with her statement to Moses that he was now a “bridegroom of blood” to her.

Regarding circumcision, I do not think I have ever thought about how Moses being circumcised would have impacted his life. Is that how he knew he himself was Hebrew and not Egyptian? (Exodus 2:6 and 2:11). I am sure it came up with his wife too, since he did not look like other males. So how did she know that circumcising her son would assuage your anger? How old was the boy anyway? I do not know, but what I see is a woman who apparently saved her husband’s life by doing something she really did not want to do to her son. Was Moses too weak to do it when the boy was born?

Father, this one story gives me so much respect for Zipporah. She had to be scared to go to Egypt and take her family with her, but when the time came, she was willing to do what needed to be done. Moms can be amazing. Wives too. As a man who has greatly benefitted from a great woman as my wife, I can recognize it when I see Moses’s wife. She left a life of comfort with her father and went through everything Moses did. Thank you for her example.

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen