A not very nice story

Now on the way, at a place where they stopped for the night, the Lord met Moses and sought to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off the foreskin of her son and touched Moses’ feet with it. She said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” referring to the circumcision.) Exodus 4:24-26

Believe me, this is not a passage I would normally even dream of writing a blog about! I am doing so because I have been challenged to. “You only write about the easy, uncontroversial parts of the Bible – what about the really tricky, difficult parts? Why don’t you tackle them sometimes? What about that very strange story in Exodus 4:24-26?” Though not in so many words, that in effect is what was said to me.

So I thought, “Fair enough! I’ll give it a go.” I can only hope you might find it helpful.

Exodus 4:24-26 is certainly a hard one! The basic question is straightforward enough: What actually happened?

Moses, his wife Zipporah and son Gershom are travelling from Midian, where they met and married, to Egypt. That is where Moses spent his early years, and where he is going to be used by God to lead the people of Israel out of slavery.

That’s clear enough. But something happened one night at a “lodging place on the way”. “The Lord”, we are told, “met Moses and was about to kill him”.

What can that possibly mean? The best guess is that God was angry with Moses and struck him down with some kind of illness.

But why would God do something so drastic? Well, the next thing that happened was that Zipporah took it on herself to circumcise Gershom, suggesting that this is something Moses had failed to do – and that this was why God was angry with him.

Zipporah obviously wasn’t happy, to say the least – if ever there was job for the father rather than the mother, this was it. And Zipporah wasn’t even an Israelite, so why should she have to bother herself about circumcision? But for some reason she knew it had to be done, so she did it.

Then she “touched Moses’ feet with the foreskin” (personally, I can’t help picturing her furiously throwing it at him, her hands red with Gershom’s blood), and called him a “bridegroom of blood”. As a result, “the Lord let him alone” – that is, spared his life – and the crisis was averted.

Having looked at a variety of books on my shelves, that’s about the best I can come up with. (There are other complexities I haven’t mentioned.) If you have a better explanation I would love to hear from you.

But now another question: Does this strange story have anything to say to us today? I think it does.

If nothing else, it reminds us that God is to be taken seriously.

Circumcision had been commanded upon the people of Israel, as a sign of God’s covenant with them (go back to Genesis 17). Moses had failed in following this through, and God felt he needed to be taught a lesson.

Thankfully God doesn’t normally treat us today in such a fashion when we are disobedient, though there are New Testament examples of him acting pretty severely (the obvious ones are Acts 5:1-11 and 1 Corinthians 11:30).

Actions have consequences! But so does inaction. And that applies to us in our dealings with God. So… How serious are we about our relationship with God? Are we, if the truth were told, spiritual triflers?

Putting it another way, let’s be careful not to abdicate our responsibilities.

Zipporah ends up doing Moses’ work for him, and is understandably angry. All credit to her, of course – for the way the story unfolds suggests that if she hadn’t stepped in Moses would have died and God’s plans would have been derailed.

So the question arises: how many times have I left it to others to take on responsibility for things I should be doing? In particular, focussing again on the role of the woman in the story, I can’t help wondering how many churches there are where we men are guilty of taking a back seat and leaving it to the women to take a lead – where women are serving faithfully in all sorts of ways while their husbands are on the fringes or absent altogether. (Looking at many churches, it’s often a case of “Thank God for the women; pray God for the men!”)

Do any of us men need to take a good look at ourselves?

Oh, there is something else. Passages like this make it very clear that the Bible is not always an easy book. Far from it!

Sometimes you come across Christians who will tell you that “I just take the Bible as it stands; whatever it says, I just believe it.” That sounds all very fine, but is in fact often a sign of shallowness and laziness. (A suitable response, I would suggest, might be to administer a good sharp punch on the nose – in Christian love, of course.)

No. Exodus 4:24-26, along with a host of other passages, reminds us that once we have asked the most basic question, “What does this passage say?” we then need to go on to ask a second question, “What does this passage mean?”

And that isn’t always quite so straightforward! So let’s not kid ourselves that it is.

Father God, thank you for those who cheerfully and without complaining shoulder heavy responsibilities in the life of the church. Forgive me for those times I have increased their burden by my carelessness and neglect. Teach me the joy of whole-hearted, sacrificial service. Amen.