Zipporah Circumcises Her Son. Series

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