O.T. Tuesday: Bridegroom of Blood!

Exodus 4: 24 – 26 is one of the oddest passages in the bible to me. The first time I read Exodus I missed it completely but the next time I read Exodus I didn’t miss it.  I was shocked to say the least at this quick vignette:

²⁴ Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the Lord met him and sought to put him to death. ²⁵ Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and threw it at Moses’ feet, and she said, “You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me.” ²⁶ So He let him alone. At that time she said, “You are a bridegroom of blood”—because of the circumcision (Exodus 4:24-26)

And that’s it. Moses and his family were enroute to Egypt and God was briefing Moses on what he expected Moses to do when they got to Egypt when suddenly God shows up and threatens to kill Moses. Wow! Wait… what?

This is a pretty stunning passage, and the more I read it the more confusing it seems to me. Normally when I come to a passage that confuses me I back up a little bit and take a run at it then go a little past it to get the context of the verses. The bible isn’t a series of stand-alone quotes, it’s a unified work of literature. Taking a look at the surrounding verses puts a verse into perspective. My favorite example is Luke 17:36 "Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left." I’ve been told by more than one person that Jesus is talking about the rapture here, but if you read Luke 17:37 it says And answering they said to Him, "Where, Lord?" And He said to them, "Where the body is, there also the vultures will be gathered." Not exactly the rapture I've heard so much about. However in this case looking for the context didn't help because previous to this they were traveling to Egypt, then God threatened to kill Moses, then they’re back on the road.

I even wrote to askarabbi.com to find out what was up with this. I got a pretty awesome answer from them, let’s face it, if you want to learn about the Torah, ask a rabbi. He knows. Let’s look at these three verses a little more carefully; firstly nowhere does it say that the Lord threatened Moses, verse 24 just says “him”. However we can infer from events that “him” is not Gershom or Eliezer (the only other males mentioned in this narrative) and it wasn't Zipporah (the bible NEVER confuses gender) and it couldn't be anyone else that wasn't mentioned because there would have been some explanative narrative that would reveal why God was satisfied when Zipporah circumcised her son for someone other than the child’s father. So at this point we’re safe to assume that the “him” in question truly is Moses.

So we know God is going to kill someone, and we know that the someone in question is Moses, so Zipporah then circumcises her son and God backs off? Really? Yeah really. One weird thought that popped into my head is that after circumcising the baby Zipporah then turned to God with the flint and said “You’re next if you don’t BACK OFF!” but that’s too Starsky and Hutch, even for the old testament. And it’s not like she was bored and started lopping bits off her baby. So what’s the deal?

The problem isn’t with Zipporah, or God, or the baby boy, or the narrative. The problem with understanding this passage is us. When God wants you to do something, especially in the bible, it’s not a guessing game, he tells you. You do it. End of story. (Ask Jonah – God gets his way.) This is something we need to keep in mind while studying the bible. The narrative isn’t going to explain every single nuance, every jot and tittle, it’s going to tell us what we need to know and God expects us to use our BRAINS not our hearts when reading the bible. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, so when he wants something done, something gets done. (Ask Noah – 480 isn’t too old to take up shipbuilding). There was no guesswork here, there was a son of Moses that needed to be circumcised and there was no question in anyone’s mind that night thousands of years ago.

God had chosen Moses to be a leader of his chosen people, so Moses needed to be a shining example of Judaism and circumcision is mandatory for all descendants of Abraham and their servants. This is a sacred symbol of the covenant between Abraham and God. And the briss must take place on the 8^th day after birth, not the 7^th, or the 9^th, but the 8^th. How could God have his people led out of captivity and into the promised land by someone that can’t keep the covenant?

Obviously Moses was getting very close to missing the 8^th day for circumcising his son. I’m guessing here but when God showed up to kill him, Moses was a bit shocked, so stunned that he couldn't do anything. But Zipporah kept her wits about her, grabbed a shard of flint (which is actually incredibly sharp) and did the job for Moses. Being the spiritual leader of his family the task of circumcision the new born son fell to Moses, who for whatever reason forgot to do it so Zipporah did what Moses failed to do. Was he too busy with travel plans? Was his mind distracted by the Lords commands and instructions so that he overlooked this most important part of the Abrahamic covenant? It doesn't really matter, he failed to do the job and God had to remind him or replace him. Lucky for Moses his wife is a deft hand with a sharp flint otherwise he'd be a small smoldering crater hundreds of miles from Egypt and his brother Aaron would be talking to a burning bush who was saying something like "Ok, let's try this again..." 

I’m going to go out on a limb and postulate that Zipporah wasn’t happy about having to perform the circumcision for her husband. Not happy in the least. After all, she had to save her husbands life from our Lord by hurting her baby boy, and it was all Moses fault for not doing it in the first place. I'm betting that Moses was going to be sleeping on the Old Testament version of a couch for a while after this. Tossing the baby’s foreskin at his feet and calling him a bridegroom of blood which I’m guessing is not a compliment. Or is it? Do you have any insights to this?