“One Mad Mama”

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

     Ex 4:24-26: I don't understand this at all.  Why did God confront Moses and why was He about to kill him?  Why did Zipporah, a Midianite, have any knowledge of this covenant ritual of circumcision, and how could she surmise that as the problem between God and Moses?  And did she and the children continue on to Egypt with Moses?

Thank you!  Please, if there is Scripture to confirm your understanding of this paragraph in Exodus, would you please share it with me also?  Thanks a lot, and God's blessings on you!

Sincerely,
Perplexed

Dear Perplexed,

Ex 4:24-26 is an odd little anecdote in Moses’ life.  We don’t get many details, so everything that we understand about it is from putting very few pieces of information together.  Here is what we know:

1. God was angry enough with Moses to kill him.
2. Zipporah, Moses’ wife, circumcised their son, and she wasn’t happy with the fact that she had to perform emergency surgery on her son.
3. After the circumcision, Moses’ life was spared.

Using these meager pieces of information, our understanding is that God was mad at Moses because he hadn’t obeyed God’s command to circumcise his children.  Remember, circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Israel (Acts 7:8).  The fact that Moses, God’s chosen leader for Israel, wasn’t keeping that covenant with his children was a big deal.  Our understanding is that Moses had not circumcised his son, God was angry about it, and Zipporah was aware of the problem, and quickly saved everyone by circumcising her son.

As for whether or not Zipporah and her sons continued to Egypt, Ex 18:2-5 seems to imply that they went back home and met up with Moses once he had led the Israelites out of Egypt.

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