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Find the answers to all those questions you were too embarrassed to ask in Sunday School. Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. Hosted by Luke Taylor.
Why did God want to Kill Moses in Exodus 4?
Exodus 4
Thumbnail: a bridegroom of blood?
Introduction
So, a funny thing happened on the way to Egypt after Moses spoke to the burning bush.
Something you have probably never heard about.
Even if you have read it before, this is such a bizarre paragraph of Scripture that you probably just read right on through without stopping to dwell on it.
When most of us tell the story of Moses, we start with his origins in the Nile River, how he was born an Israelite slave and how he came to be raised in Pharaoh’s palace, how he killed a man and ran away into the wilderness, how he got married to Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro. How one day he talked to a Burning Bush who said He was God and told Moses to go back to Egypt and “Let My People Go.” And as we tell the story, he went back to Egypt and started doing the 10 Plagues and you know the rest.
Or do you? Because there was another really odd moment that happened in the midst of that that nobody ever talks about. It’s right after Moses has just been talking to the burning bush, and he’s returning to Egypt.
Exodus 4:24
24 At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death.
Woah, what? The Lord wanted to kill Moses? Moses hasn’t even done anything yet. Like, God sent him back to Egypt, Moses seems to be doing what God said, Moses has been in ministry for like 5 minutes, and yet already he has blown it so bad that God wants Moses killed.
And then what happens next seems like a complete non-sequitur.
Verses 25
25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”
This is perhaps one of the strangest turns of events throughout the entire Bible.
And after this little event, there’s not really any explanation given. Moses goes to meet Aaron and they go to meet Pharaoh and the story takes off from there. And this little interlude on the way back to Egypt from Jethro’s place often gets forgotten about in the grand and epic story of Moses.
This didn’t come up in the Charlton Heston 10 Commandments movie.
This wasn’t a scene in The Prince of Egypt.
This didn’t even end up in the Veggie Tales version of the story.
(And I’m sure Junior Asparagus was extremely grateful about that).
So why did God want to literally kill Moses 5 minutes into his ministry before he even got into Egypt? And why did his wife follow that up with circumcising her son and calling Moses a bridegroom of blood?
I find this to be awkward…and kinda gross…and weird…and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to Exodus 4, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]
Reviewing the Context
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about why God wanted to kill Moses on the way back to Egypt.
We’ll start as we often do when we come to a strange passage of Scripture: reviewing the context. Now, the context is not going to seem super helpful because the odd interlude with Moses and his family here is going to seem quite random despite what’s going on.
However, I do believe I have a pretty good handle on what’s going on here, and the context actually is going to be beneficial in illuminating this passage for us.
So we’ll start back at verse 18 of chapter 4. By the way, Exodus 3 is where Moses encounters the burning bush, and I’m sure all of our listeners are familiar with that part of Moses’ story. This conversation goes on for nearly two chapters, because Moses keeps trying to weasel out of his job, and he literally argues with the burning bush that’s talking to him, which is kind of funny to even imagine. But eventually he is convinced, and so
Genesis 4:18 says what happened immediately after this.
18 Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Please let me go back to my brothers in Egypt to see whether they are still alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” 19 And the Lord said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead.”
Now, just to break in, Moses had killed an Egyptian who was abusing a slave, so he had been afraid to go back. So that’s why God says here, “The men who were seeking your life are dead.”
Verse 20
20 So Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand. 21 And the Lord said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go.
So so far, Moses is doing everything God told him to. Right? Moses is making the journey back to Israel now. Got his wife and kids. Everything seems to be going according to plan. And God is giving Moses these instructions as they travel down the road.
Verse 22
22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”
And if you know the story- and I’m assuming you do, because everyone does; it’s one of those first stories you learn as a kid from the Bible. I remember, as young as I have memory of being, when I would stand on the end of our couch with a stick in my hand and pretend to be Moses. So this is one of the basic stories that just about everybody knows in the Bible, so you know that how God is saying it’s gonna play out right here is exactly how it’s gonna play out.
Moses will say, “Let my people go.” Pharaoh doesn’t. He ends up losing his own son.
And Moses seems on board with this plan, so it comes as quite a shock when we get to
Verse 24
24 At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death.
It’s like, wait, what? What has Moses done that’s deserving of death? Did my Bible skip a page? What am I missing here?
Well, there actually is an answer we can deduce that pieces this together. It wasn’t something Moses had done; it was actually something Moses hadn’t done. So let’s finish the story and context exploration, and then we’ll come back to this.
Verse 25
25 Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!” 26 So he let him alone. It was then that she said, “A bridegroom of blood,” because of the circumcision.
27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
So I end the story there just to say that the Bible then moves on from this moment as if nothing had happened. Moses and Zipporah had one really bad night, and then the story just moves on.
I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had some spats with my wife before, and none of them ended up like this.
So what caused the spat, and why was it resolved in this way?
A Tale of Three Sons
What we have going on here is a tale of sons. The context does not illuminate the mystery except for one word that keeps coming up throughout this whole section of scripture: son. It starts into that in verse 20 when God is telling Moses what to say to Pharaoh:
‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”
So we have two sons mentioned here: Israel is mentioned as the Lord’s son. God is speaking of Israel this way because Israel is His covenant nation. God has a special plan for Israel. God will bring His actual Son, Jesus, through this nation. And there are times in the Bible that God speaks of Israel as His Son.
Hosea 11:1
When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
So God is conveying an analogy to Pharaoh. He says, Israel is my son. If you don’t free my son, I will kill your son.
And sadly, Pharaoh’s heart is hard for all 10 of the plagues on Egypt. The tenth plague brought the loss of the firstborn, and Pharaoh ends up losing his actual son by the time this story is all said and done.
But this is not just a tale of two sons; this is a tale of three. Moses had a son as well. His name was Gershom. And going into chapter 4, Gershom had not been circumcised. And this is a problem for the Moses family because as I said, the Israelites are God’s covenant people. Moses has been called to go and rescue God’s covenant people from Pharaoh, but Moses has not been following the covenant himself.
What covenant? The covenant made back in
Genesis 17:9-11
9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
Man, you really didn’t know what you were in for when you clicked on today’s episode, did you?
Another cross reference you could look at for this is in Joshua 5 where God won’t let the Israelites take the Promised Land until they circumcise themselves. Not the smartest strategy just as you’re heading into battle, but they weren’t going to have God’s favor for the next step if they weren’t in covenant with God.
So Moses had been born back with his Israelite mother; presumably he has been circumcised. But clearly, after all that time out in the wilderness, he has not followed God’s clear commandment with his own sons.
The Midianites, among whom Moses was living with Jethro and Zipporah, also practiced circumcision. But their custom was to circumcise a man at his wedding.
So listen: if you ever think your honeymoon was bad, at least you’re not a Midianite. Ok?
Apparently, Moses had adopted the practice of his Midianite neighbors rather than the practice that God had instituted.
And this creates a problem for Moses’ integrity. Moses can not go and pronounce judgment on Pharaoh’s house while his own house is in error.
I Peter 4:17
For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
Get your own house in order before you go and criticize someone else’s.
Scholar David Guzik says, “There is often a point of confrontation in the life of the leader where God demands that they lay aside some area of compromise and will not allow them to progress further until they do.”
So God has a problem with Moses. Apparently even with all this son-talk, Moses hasn’t properly tended to the spiritual needs of his own son.
At a lodging place on the way the Lord met him and sought to put him to death.
Now, most commentators who look into this story believe that something must have happened to Moses. That he was incapacitated in some way. Because the active player in this little story becomes Zipporah.
I’m not sure if Moses was literally incapacitated with something or if he was just failing to act as an Israelite father should, which would mean he was willingly incapacitated. But God is upset with Moses because Moses has come all this way and yet Moses still hasn’t gotten around to circumcising his son.
Where I grew up, we had a saying: if a man says he’s gonna something, he’s gonna do it. You don’t have to remind him every six months.
Well, Zipporah is tired of waiting. She gets upset with Moses because of the lack of action. Whether Moses is physically incapacitated and can’t move, or whether she just gets fed up with it because Moses hasn’t gotten around to it, or perhaps God manifests in the room and explains the problem, I’m not sure. That’s why the story is so confusing; because we don’t know exactly what went down in this room to ignite the argument. We just know how it ends.
Zipporah, you might say, takes matters into her own hands. It says:
Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it and said, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”
And this act seems to appease God, because they get up the next morning and continue on their journey and apparently God isn’t mad anymore.
Many commentators make a big deal about the fact that she touched Moses’ feet with it, and speculate on what that means. To me, the image I have is that Zipporah is not into this circumcision thing. At least not yet. It goes against her custom. Perhaps the reason Moses hadn’t circumcised his son all this time was because of her influence. He hadn’t been the man of the house he shouldn’t have been.
Now God’s angry with them, and Moses either cannot or will not circumcise the boy. The fact that she uses a flint rock suggests that this is kind of a spontaneous thing. They hadn’t grabbed a circumcision kit when they were packing for Egypt.
So she gets the job done with what she has available. A flint rock knife. And I imagine once she has the foreskin separated, she throws it at the ground at Moses’ feet in disgust.
Closing Thoughts
So why is this in the Bible? You’re wondering: am I really supposed to get a lesson out of this? Well, I believe yes you are. I think everything is in the Bible for a reason. And despite how bizarre and random these three verses near the end of Exodus 4 are, I think the lesson is clear.
Leadership is needed in the home. And who is the biggest victim in this story? It’s not Moses. It’s not Zipporah. It’s poor Gershom. If you get woken up in the middle of the night and your mom’s holding a flint knife and all that that entails and coming after your Junior Asparagus, I think that would be traumatizing for anyone.
And you probably feel a little traumatized after today’s lesson, too.
But there are actually three victims in this story.
The first victim is God’s Son, Israel, who are slaves in Egypt. And God is doing something right now to set them free, because God is a good father.
The second victim is Pharaoh’s son, and Pharaoh’s son is going to die, because Pharaoh is a bad father.
And now the question comes to Moses: what kind of father are you going to be? Because leadership belongs in the home. And for fathers, if you are not going to properly instruct your children in God and His ways, your children will end up victims as well.
These words about spiritual leaders in I Timothy are something all men should all strive for.
I Timothy 3:4-5 says
He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?
Now, none of us are perfect as fathers. But we aren’t called to be perfect. We’re called to manage our household well.
And if you marry a godly woman, then she can help pick up the slack in some of the areas where you are weak. Zipporah saved the day here, even though she wasn’t happy about having to do it.
And for anyone out there who isn’t married, that’s something to keep in mind as you look for a mate; not just someone who will be a godly spouse, but will also work alongside you as a godly parent raising godly children.
Children who will grow into spiritual maturity rather than being victims of lazy, neglectful parenting.
There’s one last victim in connection with this story: God’s Son. You say, well wait, that was the first victim? But no, this time I’m talking about Jesus.
There’s a word we read here in Exodus 4:25 about cutting off the foreskin which is the Hebrew word “karath” (kaw-wrath). Then there’s another word used for casting the foreskin and the blood at Moses: “naga” (naw-gaw).
These same words come up again 8 chapters later in the Exodus 12, which is the chapter about the passover lamb. And the passover is the story of how to save a son, but it was accomplished by applying the blood of a sacrificial lamb to your doorpost; once again, this Hebrew word “naga.”
As we know from the New Testament, Jesus is our passover lamb. And we also learn in the New Testament that Jesus is bridegroom and the church is the bride. And this bride could only come forth because of the sacrifice of the bridegroom. The shedding of his blood. Applied, or “naga,” to our sins.
So I’m not entirely sure why Zipporah used this phrase toward Moses, but you might say Jesus is a bridegroom of blood for us.
Moses was saved in Exodus 4 when his wife performed naga.
Israel would be saved in Exodus 12 if they performed naga.
And we are saved because the blood of our passover lamb, the son of God, is naga to our sins.
And Exodus 12 says anyone who rejects this gift is karath- cut off.
So this little story is not so weird after all. In three verses, it gives us a lesson about the importance of raising your children to be godly and in the Lord. And it gives us a prophetic picture of the Gospel itself.
The Bible is not weird. WE are weird, because we don’t know about how Moses had to get his own house in order before he addressed the house of Pharaoh. But now we do.
So if you need to do whatever it takes- and I mean whatever it takes- to get your spiritual house in order, then do it today. And if that sounds weird, I hope you’ll be a little more weird today, too.
Thanks for listening, and I mean this more than ever this time: God bless you for sticking around all the way until the end; and we’ll see you next time on WSITB.