Zipporah Circumcises Her Son.
Exodus 4:24-26
"On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord met Moses and tried to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' feet with it, and said, 'Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!' So he let him alone. It was then she said, 'A bridegroom of blood by circumcision.'”
Who Was Zipporah in the Bible?
Zipporah the Midianite was a descendant of Midian, Abraham’s son by his third wife, Keturah. In Hebrew, her name means “bird” or “little bird.” We first meet Zipporah—who later became Moses’s wife—at a well in her hometown of Midian. At the well, she met Moses, fleeing from Egypt and Pharaoh’s judgment after he murdered an Egyptian (Exodus 2:15-22).
Zipporah and her six sisters attended to their daily chores of drawing water and watering their father’s flock. Moses was seated at the well nearby, undoubtedly dressed, painted, and speaking like an Egyptian dignitary. When local shepherds drove the sisters away from the well in the act of gender-based violence, Moses rose to their defense, and he watered their father’s flocks. Upon returning to their father's home, the sisters reported the incident of the “Egyptian” stranger who had come to their aid. In gratitude, the father urged them to go back and bring the kind “Egyptian” Moses to their village, and soon after, Zipporah would become Moses’s wife.
Zipporah only appears three times in Scripture: the first time at the well (Exodus 2), the second time while on the journey to Egypt (Exodus 4), and finally in the wilderness when Moses met her father Jethro, who was accompanied by Zipporah and her sons (Exodus 18). Of her three appearances in the text, she only speaks one time, in Exodus 4. Ultimately, Zipporah is replaced by Moses’s second wife, a Cushite woman.
She Is Called, and We Are Called
The church is married to a bridegroom of blood. Christmas warns us that flesh and blood matter to God. Holy Week drags us reluctantly down the bloody path to Golgotha. Maundy Thursday leads us to a bloody table and to a garden where Judas Iscariot has blood on his hands. Blood and water flow from the Bridegroom's side in those last moments on the cross. After the resurrection, Jesus invited Thomas to touch him in the bloody parts, his hand and his side. We who are in Christ cannot deny the sacrifice, the pain, the very life that runs through our souls in the blood of Christ, our resurrected Lord.
We must remember who we are—the bride of Christ, circumcised in our hearts, dead to sin, our flesh perpetually cast at the feet of Jesus in confession and repentance. We are dead because of our sins and alive because of Christ, through his life and blood.
Zipporah reaches across centuries to point to the Lord’s Table, the flesh and blood of the new covenant. Every time we gather for communion, her words should be told alongside Moses’s, “Yes, Jesus, you are a Bridegroom of blood.”
At first glance, the relationship between Zipporah and Moses looks like the familiar boy-rescues-girl tale. Zipporah and her sisters appear too weak to defend themselves from the threat of local shepherds at the well. Moreover, here comes Moses to the rescue. Naturally, this man who rescued these vulnerable young women was a likely suitor for one of the daughters of the Priest of Midian, and they lived happily ever after.
This is no patriarchal fairy tale, and Zipporah is no damsel in distress. Where once she was the beneficiary of male benevolence, she then stepped in to save the life of the patriarch. Zipporah’s story should always be told alongside Moses’s, for without her, he would indeed have died before returning to Egypt, still unclear about his true identity.
Our identity is hidden in Christ. There are things in the culture, society, and this world that naturally attach themselves to us and disguise our true identity. Sometimes, our careers, family name, or traditions are such a part of us that we forget Paul’s reminder that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20).
As we reflect on Zipporah’s witness, let us consider this: The Hebrew word for “remember” invites us to focus on a thing until it leads us to repentance. Ask God to help you remember the places and things in your life that you have attached to your identity. How might these things have been allowed to trump your identity in Christ? Ask God to reveal these places and things. Confess and repent.
Zipporah urges us to remember who we are in Christ. We are urged to die to all our false identities and to remember our true identity as siblings of flesh and blood of the Bridegroom
If you are a mom or have taken care of children, you have probably discovered how quick your reflexes can be. You can imagine babies rolling off the couch and toddlers jumping off steps from the top.
This quick-acting, quick-thinking quality is highlighted several times in Scripture. Zipporah is one.
Zipporah was Moses’ wife. When Moses came to Midian to get away from the Egyptians who sought to kill him, he got to know the priest Reuel and his seven daughters (Ex. 2:16-20).
Reuel, also known as Jethro, invited Moses to live with them, and he gave his daughter, Zipporah, to Moses as his wife (Ex. 2:21).
We do not know much about Zipporah. We know she gave Moses two sons, Gershom and Eliezer (Ex. 18:3-4).
After Moses met God at the burning bush (Ex. 3-4:17), he took Zipporah and their sons back to Egypt (Ex. 4:19-20).
Somewhere on this trip, they stopped for lodging, and God met them there, intending to kill Moses (Ex. 4:24). While we are uncertain about the reason for this, Zipporah is the one who saves Moses’ life.
When she realized Moses’ life was in danger, she somehow processed that the needed response was to circumcise their son (Ex. 4:25). She took the flintstone, performed the procedure herself, and threw the remnant of skin at Moses’ feet.
After doing this, the Bible reads, “So He let him alone” (Ex. 4:26).
Zipporah’s quick action saved Moses’ life that day.
There is no reason why this event happened in the first place. Considering that the child was not circumcised and Moses’ was rejoining the people of Israel, I can only believe that a failure to obey the law regarding this was at issue.
In Genesis 17:9-14, we find God making circumcision a sign of the covenant between He, Abraham, and his descendants (v.11). God clearly says that any male who is not circumcised “shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant” (Gen. 17:14).
Moses’ son could not be a part of Israel unless he took part in the sign of the covenant – circumcision. As this was something to be done when the child was eight days old (Gen. 17:12), it was the parents' fault for its not being done.
Zipporah knew enough of God’s law from being married to Moses that she recognized this correction that needed to be made.
Should either one of them have thought of it long before now? Probably. However, they did not. When it was brought to their attention, Zipporah quickly acted to rectify the problem.
That is all we know about her. This is all God chose to share. However, even this tiny blip in the larger Exodus story tells us two things, to my mind: Obedience to God’s law is essential.
Do not wait when you learn you are not in fellowship with God. Act quickly to remove the sin and restore your relationship with the Lord.
God uses this quick-thinking woman to show that He keeps His promises, even when the promise is destruction for disobedience.
His forgiveness was immediate. As soon as she had corrected the problem, God no longer sought to kill Moses. He uses her to show that repentance can be speedy when you recognize your wrongdoings.
Forgiveness from God is that quick for us as well. We have to take the necessary steps to access it!
If we have never buried our sins in baptism to put on Christ, we have to do so to be in a right relationship with God (Rom. 6:1-7; Acts 8:12; Acts 8:34-39; Gal. 3:26-29).
Once we are in that relationship with God, when we learn of sin in our lives, all we need do is confess it to Him and turn away from it.
I John 1:9 reads: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Moreover, 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
In Zipporah’s case, the sin and what to do about it were evident at that moment. Sometimes it is not apparent, like for David and his sin with Bathsheba (2. Sam. 11 – 12). Nevertheless, God’s forgiveness is always waiting for us to ask for it (2 Chron. 7:14; Prov. 28:13; Eph. 1:7).
I encourage you today to be like Zipporah. If you see something that needs correcting in your life, correct it. Take that swift action and turn things around.
The same principle can be applied to everyday life as well. It may not be sin, but it may be that child that needs to learn to stop doing something, a habit that we have ourselves that needs to be broken – see the problem, determine the correction, and do something about it. If you lack confidence in your abilities to correct the problem – do, like noted before, ask for help and learn.
There is no need to carry the burden of knowing something is wrong and yet doing nothing about it when it is within your power to correct it.
Bizarre is typical of how biblical scholars describe the tale of Zipporah and her husband, Moses, especially the section in which God attacks Moses, and Zipporah uses a blood ritual to defend her husband and son successfully. "For mystery, mayhem, and sheer baffling weirdness, nothing else in the Bible quite compares with the story of Zipporah and the 'Bridegroom of blood.
The main plot of Zipporah's cryptic story, which contains a few large holes, is this: Moses, a fugitive from Egypt, where he killed a man for abusing a Hebrew enslaved person, happens upon the seven daughters of Jethro, the Midian priest. The daughters are at a well in the desert, trying to water their sheep. Using brute force, chivalrous Moses scares off some bullying shepherds harassing the girls. Despite their religious differences, a grateful Jethro gives Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. They marry and have two sons, Gershom and Eliezer.
A few years later, after God speaks to Moses through a burning bush, Moses sets out with his family to return to Egypt to free his people from slavery. During this journey, a strange incident occurs one night in their tent. God tries to kill Moses. Zipporah, somehow sensing that God is angry that their son is not circumcised, immediately grabs a stone and cuts her son's foreskin. Then she flings the bloody foreskin at his feet (whether "his" in the story refers to God, Moses, or the baby is unclear, and feet may be a stand-in or a euphemism for genitals). Then she says: "Surely, a bridegroom of blood thou art to me." According to God's covenant with Abraham, cutting away the foreskin from the penis signifies identification among Hebrews.
Several mysteries in this tale leave experts baffled. Why did Zipporah, a woman, perform the circumcision? Which son was involved? Was God himself the attacker, or did he send one of his minions? Why did Zipporah and Moses separate? Is Moses's "Cushite" or Ethiopian wife referred to as Zipporah or another woman in the text?
Despite the many ambiguities, the story's central message is clear, according to Kirsch: "The lesson the Bible intends is that God insists on circumcision as the essential symbol of the covenant of his chosen people. God is even willing to murder for failure to comply. He will even kill Moses after recruiting him on his liberation mission. That is how important circumcision is to God."
In addition, Zipporah plays more than a supporting role in the future of the Israelites. "Moses is God's chosen messenger, the most important biblical figure after Abraham." However, Moses is at risk of losing his life, except for the intervention of Zipporah. "She, the pagan daughter of a priest, stood up to God," he adds. The entire fate of Israel rests with her.
Although Zipporah is an obscure figure in the Bible, she is depicted favorably. At the same time, Moses is " unfortunate, a total shirker, full of arguments about why he should not be the one to go to Israel and lead his people out of slavery." On the other hand, Zipporah is heroic, "decisive, fearless, strong, the competent person in an emergency."
Others draw out different themes apart from the importance of circumcision. "To me, the main point is to show that the deity is not all benign. It can be dangerous for humans to be in the presence of God unless they follow religious prescriptions such as circumcision."
According to Crawford, the story may also say that marriage to foreigners can be a good idea and work out well. Women may be more active in the religious sphere within the family structure than men. "Like Zipporah, the women may be responsible for conducting the religious rituals," she says.
A new novel, Zipporah, Wife of Moses, by Marek Halter, puts a fictionalized spin on Zipporah by making her the "Cushite" or Ethiopian wife of Moses. Halter portrays Zipporah as a proud, black-skinned woman who refuses to marry Moses, even after bearing his two sons, until he accepts God's mission to lead his people out of slavery. In this version, Zipporah changes the destiny of Moses and his people. "Zipporah is black, and a foreigner and she poses the problem of how we relate to the other," says Halter. "Moses is ignorant, so Zipporah becomes his principal adviser." Zipporah, the outsider with black skin, helps Moses fulfill his destiny as a liberator of the enslaved.
Just as there are several interpretations of Zipporah's role in the biblical text, there are various interpretations of the literal meaning of her name. "Tzipor" means bird in Hebrew. One theory, according to Rabbi Rebecca Alpert in The Women ' s Torah Commentary: New Insights From Women Rabbis on the 54 Torah Portions, is that before she was born, Zipporah's mother intuited that "like the purification offering of two clean, living birds, [her daughter] would be responsible for purifying her house." Another suggestion is that she "would take flight with this strange man, Moses."
In either case, Zipporah stays true to her role as a woman who acts bravely and decisively, not one who is acted upon.
