Exodus 4:24-26

Exodus 4:24-26

[24] And it came to pass by the way  in the inn,  that the LORD  met  him, and sought  to kill  [25] Then Zipporah  took  a sharp stone,  and cut off  the foreskin  of her son,  and cast  it at his feet,  and said,  Surely a bloody  husband  art thou to me. [26] So he let him go:  then she said,  A bloody  husband  thou art, because of the circumcision. 

What does Exodus 4:24-26 Mean?

Contextual Meaning

This brief account raises several questions.
Evidently God afflicted Moses because Moses had not been obedient to God. He failed to circumcise at least one of his two sons ( Exodus 18:3-4). The Egyptians practiced partial circumcision on adults. [1] God"s sentence for this sin of omission was death ("cut off from his people," cf. Genesis 17:14). God was ready to carry out this sentence on Moses for his failure (cf. 1 John 5:16). In doing this God was making Moses face his own incomplete obedience that reflected his lack of faith in God. God afflicted Moses, but whether He did so naturally or supernaturally is unclear and unimportant. In this incident God was bringing Moses to the place he brought Jacob when He wrestled with him at the Jabbok ( Genesis 32). He was getting him to acknowledge His sovereignty. [2]
Zipporah ("little bird") performed the operation at her husband"s insistence. It is obvious that she did not approve of it. Most scholars believe that Zipporah cut off the foreskin and threw it at Moses" feet. One writer believed that she touched Moses" genitals with her son"s foreskin. [3] Another argued that she threw it at the feet of the preincarnate Christ. [4] Perhaps because of her resistance to do the will of God Moses sent her and his sons back to her father at this time. Moses may have sent her back during or before the plagues, when his life might have been in danger from the Egyptians. We have no record of when Moses" household returned to Midian, but we read of them rejoining Moses later at Sinai ( Exodus 18:2).
The "bridegroom of blood" figure ( Exodus 4:26) evidently means as follows. Apparently Zipporah regarded her act of circumcising her son as what removed God"s hand of judgment from Moses and restored him to life and to her again. It was as though God had given Moses a second chance and he had begun life as her husband over as a bridegroom (cf. Jonah). [1] She had accepted Yahweh"s authority and demands and was now viewing Moses in the light of God"s commission. She abandoned her claim to Moses and made him available to Yahweh"s service. [6] "You are a bridegroom of blood to me," may have been an ancient marital relationship formula recalling circumcision as a premarital rite. [7]
"Moses has been chosen and commissioned by God, but he has shown himself far from enthusiastic about confronting the Pharaoh and threatening him with the death of his son. YHWH sets about showing Moses that although he is safe from other men (Ex. iv19) he faces a much greater danger to his life in the wrath of the God whom he is so reluctant to serve (iv14). Like Jacob before him, Moses must undergo a night struggle with his mysterious God before he can become a worthy instrument of YHWH and can enjoy a completely satisfactory relationship with his brother. In all this, Moses, like Jacob, is not only an historical person, but also a paradigm. The Israelite people, the people whom YHWH has encountered and whom he will slay with pestilence and sword if they go not out into the wilderness to serve him ( Exodus 4:3), must ponder this story with fear and trembling.
"If Israel is to survive the wrath of YHWH, it must, our text implies, be by virtue of the spilling of atoning blood ... Gershom"s blood saves Moses, just as the blood of the Passover lamb will save the Israelites. Since for the sin of the Pharaoh his son"s blood will be shed, it is appropriate that the blood which saves Moses should not be his own, but that of his son. It is also fitting that this blood should be blood shed during the rite of circumcision. Since before the Passover lamb is eaten the participants must all be circumcised, it is right that the neglect of Gershom"s circumcision (though this omission is not the cause of the attack) should be repaired. The boy cannot be circumcised by his father, who is otherwise engaged, so Zipporah takes it upon herself, acting on behalf of her absent father, Jethro (hence the words to Moses "You are my Song of Solomon -in-law by virtue of blood, the blood of circumcision"), to perform the rite, thus showing herself to be a worthy member of the elite class typified by Rahab the Canaanite harlot and Ruth the Moabitess-the foreign woman who puts Israelites to shame and earns the right to be held up as a model for imitation. Why does she touch Moses" raglayim [8] with the severed foreskin? Although, as I have argued, Moses is to be thought of as already circumcised, this action of his wife Isaiah , I have suggested, to be construed as a symbolic act of Revelation -circumcision: Moses as representative of the people as a whole is thus symbolically prepared for the imminent Passover celebration. The vocation of the Israelite is a matter of high moment. One"s reluctance to serve YHWH wholeheartedly has to be broken down in a fearsome lone struggle in the darkness, and even then before one can meet YHWH there must be a twofold shedding of blood, the blood of circumcision and that of the Passover lamb. Furthermore, the pride of the male Israelite in his high vocation must needs be qualified, by reflecting that in his mysterious strategies for the world YHWH often employs in major roles those who are neither male nor even Israelite." [1]
These few verses underscore a very important principle. Normally before God will use a person publicly he or she must first be obedient to God at home (cf. 1 Timothy 3:4-5).
"This story of Moses shows that God would rather have us die than take up His work with unconsecrated hearts and unsurrendered wills." [10]