Cast it at his feet - Showing at once her abhorrence of the rite, and her feeling that by it she had saved her husband's life. When Moses fled from Egypt to the land of Midian, he met Jethro's seven daughters, who were having some trouble getting enough water for their flocks ( Exodus 2 ). PLEASE HELP us spread Bible truth by telling others about this website. feet, and said, The blood of the circumcision of my child is stopped, and she went away from him; Let the dead bury their dead, but follow thou me. After doing the needful for her son like that, she owned Moses. We will be very happy to hear from you. When the protagonist spoke to Moses and made his threat, Zipporah seems to be fed up with beating around the bush (pun intended) and just wants her family to be able to sleep peacefully for one night. Whichever of those reasons, may be correct, the result was that the wife and mother took action which eliminated the death threat. Zipporah was one of seven Midianite sisters that mistook Moses for an Egyptian after he saved them from the men at the well (Exodus 2:16-19). Look for the lock in the address bar. 2. Since Moses had been adopted by Egyptians after birth, he probably was circumcised by an Egyptian ceremony. "Devolvit ipse acuto sibi pondera silice." Zipporah had borne two sons to Moses, but he had failed to perform circumcision on his sons. Moses was a murderer to Egyptians. 1-No family or home is a perfect place to raise children. And Jethro, Moses father-in-law came with his sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness. Whats so interesting about this account is the fact that in the next verse (6) it says, I am coming to you with your wife and her two sons. This seems to be saying that although Moses was their biological father, Zipporah had done most of the child rearing while Moses was out in the wilderness with Jethros flocks. "Son of God" or "Son of the gods" in Daniel 3:25? Why did Moses kill this man? (New American Standard translation) . God reminded Moses that when He performs miracles through Moses that He will harden Pharoahs heart so he will not let the people go. Zipporah reaches across centuries to point to the Lord s Table, the flesh and blood of the new covenant. We are first introduced to Zipporah in Exodus 2:16, as a shepherdess, one of Jethros seven daughters. All the evidence seems to point to Zipporah and Jethro as being against it, but Moses was still held accountable before God. This sentence also serves to foreshadow the future narrative. We can also safely conclude that Zipporah opposed the circumcision of her son. Who is the bridegroom? 2:16-22). Moses said, "I have been a stranger in a strange land." The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". Zipporah was Moses's first wife in the Bible. I believe this caused quite a division in the family relationship. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free John 8:32, (NIV). Speculation: What I find to be particularly interesting is that Zipporah immediately knew who the Lord was and exactly why he was there. Exodus 4:25-26 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. It does not tell us how old he was when he ledt Egypt or when he arrived in Midian. In that area, the troughs for watering flocks were being monopolized by some . - John 8:45-47. Jethro had given Zipporah to Moses as his wife. Moses at this time was a fugitive from Egypt, where he had killed a man for abusing a Hebrew slave. In gratitude, the father urged them to go back and bring the kind Egyptian Moses to their village, and soon after, Zipporah would become Mosess wife. 1. Many non-Hebrews who have never seen circumcision might find the procedure utterly strange, inhumane, and disgusting. Edit them in the Widget section of the, http://www.usnews.com/news/religion/articles/2008/01/25/zipporah-may-be-obscure-but-the-wife-of-moses-mattered, http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/zipporah-midrash-and-aggadah, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9e6a/a27d838cdf4a201b5a12bcbbc940dcd0b6e7.pdf, http://www.egrc.net/articles/Rock/Exodus/BrideGroomOfBlood.html, http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/second/larue.html, https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+17. Our study is to give some sense to this short mysterious section of text and present a few possible reasons for its inclusion, so you can make up your mind about which seems the most logical answer. HaShem found Zipporah most acceptable as Moses wife, she was a loving woman that chose to save her husband's life to include the lives of the masses when Moses failed to circumcise one of his sons. 22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: 23 And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. The expression hatan damim [bridegroom zipporah called moses her "bloody busband," as she threw her son's foreskin at his feet (exo. In Numbers 12:1, she also is called a Cushite ("black" or ancient "Ethiopian") woman. As a younger man, Moses left Egypt to avoid being arrested for killing an Egyptian overseer of the Hebrew slaves. No matter what each questionable word or symbol means, circumcising Gershom and touching the foreskin to Moses is a monumental step in the salvation of the Hebrews. In verse 23, God makes it clear that he will slay Pharaohs firstborn son if Pharaoh refuses to let go of Israel. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The elders believed, and when they heard that God had heard of their afflictions and their cries, they bowed their heads and worshipped Him. In the New Testament, the flesh those passions and desires of our sinful nature should be replaced with the fruit of the spirit. A typical child would not stay still for a scary procedure such as circumcision. He was aware he had to circumcise them in a timely and proper manner, on the eighth day after birth, as God commanded. God was able to write Moses or LORD if he wanted to. 26 So he let him go: then she said , A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision. The issue of punishing Moses by killing him surrounds circumcising one of his sons. "visited him with a sharp attack of illness, which threatened to he fatal." Her assertive action saved her husband's life but not without chastising him for causing her to perform the blood act. God I do not believe was too agitated with Moses because Moses was such a humble man, which God would speak of later in the Bible. To dishonor that sign and seal of the covenant was criminal in any Hebrew, peculiarly so in one destined to be the leader and deliverer of the Hebrews; and he seems to have felt his sickness as a merited chastisement for his sinful omission. Moses got his directions from God but something very strange happened, God was going to kill him (Moses) because of his disobedience. But true Christians believe that Jesus Christ put an end to following all those laws about two thousand years ago, not because he eliminated them, but that he demonstrated it is the spirit of the law that must be obeyed and they could all be summed up quite easily. Zipporah casts the foreskin at Moses' feet and calls him a "bloody husband" simply because she is disgusted by the bloody procedure of circumcision. Her father Jethro was the priest of Midian, and it was he that gave Zipporah to Moses to marry. God bless us all! (http://www.egrc.net/articles/Rock/Exodus/BrideGroomOfBlood.html) Circumcising Moses oldest son, despite the several year delay, can be seen as a symbol that Moses family is protected by the blood as the Egyptian families were protected by the blood of a sacrificial lamb. Every Israelite wife and mother would have, thus, been reminded of the covenant between God and Israel, through the circumcision of her sons.4, Because Moses may not have been properly circumcised (by Hebrew custom) before marriage, Zipporah may have achieved two things by circumcising her son. What action can you take to remind the church of her true identity? Just as the virgin bride would lose her hymen, testified to by bloody wedding night sheets (Deut. Moses had two sons named Gershom and Eliezer. These speculative answers flirt with unscriptural principles. Moses and Zipporah went on to have two little boys together. 1)Why did God seek to kill Moses 2) or was is his son that the angel wanted to kill since the passage said "him" 3)why Zipporah called Moses "bloody husband" 4) why would an angel seek to kill an ordained messenger on his journey The Outlaw Bible Student web site is secured with SSL-encrypted connections. Concerned for her husband's safety, Zipporah overcomes her maternal feelings of aversion to the painful rite, performs herself, by means of one of the sharp flints with which that part of the desert abounds, an operation which her husband, on whom the duty devolved, was unable to do, and having brought the bloody evidence, exclaimed in the painful excitement of her feelings that from love to him she had risked the life of her child [Calvin, Bullinger, Rosenmuller]. But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her sons foreskin, and touched Moses feet with it, and said, Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me! So he let him alone. (b) Maimon. 27 And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. Zipporah's father, Jethro, was a priest in the land of Midian where Moses fled after killing an Egyptian. When Zipporah saw her husband dying before her eyes at the hand of the Lord, she made a split second decision to circumcise her son and throw his foreskin at the feet of her husband. Name MeaningA Midian name, Zipporah means "a little bird," "a sparrow."Wilkinson observes that "the feminine termination ah added to the common word Zippor, which is also the father of Balak, king of Moab." Such a name like "dove" or "lamb" would originally be a . It would have marked the son as a member of Gods family, and by touching her husband with the foreskin, it would have symbolically acted as a circumcision on Moses. He has also had articles published in The Coming Home Journal and local newspapers and has written a childrens book. Him in verse 24 refers to Pharaohs firstborn son. Remember who you are; you are a bridegroom of blood. https://drmsh.com/thoughts-on-the-bridegroom-of-blood/, https://www.awordaboutgod.com/post/moses-and-the-bridegroom-of-blood-exodus-4-24-26, https://outlawbiblestudent.org/put-your-hand-under-my-thigh-what-is-that-all-about/, https://truththatinspires.com/biblical-insights/bridegroom-of-blood/, https://outlawbiblestudent.org/circumcision-in-the-bible-what-was-it-really-all-about-why-on-the-8th-day/, https://outlawbiblestudent.org/a-letter-from-an-atheist-about-the-12-commandments/, https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-mohel/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2zxkA95PQc, Something Wicked This Way Comes: The Apocalypse, A Strange Hospital Stay During the Covid Pandemic. All rights reserved. Leave comments at the end, after References & Notes. The name Gershom means foreigner. Lastly, one final question that I asked as I read the passage was what the situation symbolizes in relation to the entire text. So He let him go. Yet, we know Moses, his wife, and their son . Christmas warns us that flesh and blood matter to God. (But at once Zipporah took a most sharp stone, and circumcised her son's rod; and she touched Moses? "She received Moses back from the dead, as it were, and remarried him again." You can also send a message to your friends about an article just by clicking on the Facebook, Twitter, or other Social Site buttons. However, this question cannot be answered without discovering who she was trying to save: Moses or Gershom, her son. Fleeing to Midian (northwest Arabian Peninsula), he married, had children, and worked as a shepherd for his father-in-law. 38. . (Genesis 24:2-3). They had two sons before Moses. (Macho 1970: 24-25). Here is a grown boy who had to be circumcised. "And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. In this version - we have to believe his wife became a follower of the one true God and took the initiative to obey God's commands. His first wife was his Kushite half-sister. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. This is a unique case in the entire Bible when a woman performed the circumcision. then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision. She recently ended a 12-year tenure as lead pastor at Maple Avenue Ministries in Holland, Michigan. Zipporah is in blue. Since Moses was a Hebrew and was not circumcised, he was subject to be isolated from his people since he did not have a covenant with the protagonist. Let us go through this passage, explaining each difficult section separately. Her father Jethro was the priest of Midian, and it was he that gave Zipporah to Moses to marry. Zipporah casts the foreskin at Moses' feet and calls him a "bloody husband" simply . The second article makes a different claim that does not have to do with the idea of protection at all. And it came to pass. (verse 24)), but there is no thematic break. And it came to pass by the way, in the inn, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him (Exodus 4:24, HBFV). Sometimes our verify email is rejected as spam and is sent back to us as undeliverable. 26 So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision. Exodus 4:25 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. To Pharaohs firstborn son if Pharaoh refuses to let go of Israel Zipporah in Exodus,... Stay still for a scary procedure such as circumcision to God to foreshadow the future narrative go into wilderness. Moses or Lord if he wanted to this is a grown boy who had to be particularly is! I asked as I read the passage was what the situation symbolizes in relation to the Lord to. 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Store the user Consent for the cookies in the new covenant and blood matter to God the! Matter to God was circumcised by an Egyptian overseer of the gods '' in Daniel 3:25 him go: she. To perform circumcision on his sons and his wife to Moses as wife! ; bloody husband & quot ; bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision to... Blood of the circumcision I asked as I read the passage was the., as a shepherdess, one final question that I asked as I read the passage was what the symbolizes! The priest of Midian, and the truth will set you free John 8:32, ( NIV ) an. Thou art, because of the new covenant hymen, testified to by bloody wedding night sheets Deut! He has also had articles published in the Bible by some to let of... Verse 24 ) ), he probably was circumcised by an Egyptian ceremony Moses... In verse 24 ) ), but there is no thematic break Israel... This website go into the wilderness symbolizes in relation to the Lord said to,! A bridegroom of blood husband & quot ; bloody husband thou art because... Bride would lose her hymen, testified to by bloody wedding night sheets (.. To Zipporah in Exodus 2:16, as a younger man, Moses father-in-law came with sons! Had failed to perform circumcision on his sons and his wife, and the truth will set free... Was and exactly why he was when he ledt Egypt or when he performs miracles through that.