Why was God going to kill Moses in Exodus 4:24-26?
Exodus 4:24 - 26
ESV - 24 At a lodging place on the way 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 touched Moses' feet with it and said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!
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Asked July 01 2013
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Anonymous (via GotQuestions)
For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Sandra Atueyi
The Lord threatened him with death or sent sickness upon him, as the punishment of his having neglected to circumcise his son. When God discovers to us what is amiss in our lives, we must give all diligence to amend it speedily. This is the voice of every rod; it calls us to return to Him that smites us.
pearl malyk
Young's Litteral Translation reads:
Exd 4:24 And it cometh to pass in the way, in a lodging place, that Jehovah meeteth him, and seeketh to put him to death;
Exd 4:25 and Zipporah taketh a flint, and cutteth off the foreskin of her son, and causeth it to touch his feet, and saith, 'Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me;'
Exd 4:26 and He desisteth from him: then she said, 'A bridegroom of blood,' in reference to the circumcision.
The HIM in this passage is NOT Moses, it is the son of Moses who is uncircumcised & is to be cut off from his people Gen.17:13
There is clear indication this is not a 'new topic' because Zipporah obviously refused to allow Moses to circumcise the boy at his birth but she KNOWS now that it's either circumcise him or he DIES when God Himself appears, so SHE DOES the "bloody" act (in her opinion) herself... then throws the foreskin down & says to Moses: Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. She was not raised Jewish, all her relatives were not circumcised and she saw no reason to allow her foreign husband to do this strange ritual to her new born son, however, when GOD Himself appears on the scene, there is clear indication Moses kept out of this ... not a word from Moses is ever recorded. He let GOD right this wrong, and when it came down to her son's LIFE being at stake ... she lined her son up with God's LAW so he would not have to die ... she circumcised him on the spot.
Prior to this Moses was a foreigner in Midian and his son was a Midianite and it was ok to not be circumcised, but NOW they are going to join the Israelites and if his son is to be an Israelite he MUST be circumcised according to what GOD instructed Abraham, this child's great, .......great grandfather ... BOTH foreigners and natural born males into his household MUST BE CIRCUMCISED. God knew this was NOT an argument Moses could win with his wife, so GOD set this matter right in Mose's household HIMSELF!
Danny Hickman
Beautifully explained pearl !!
This claim that 'we either obey God or suffer the consequences,' doesn't hold water. If that was true none of my children would have lived long enough to learn to walk.
God doesn't threaten to kill us if we don't obey. And if He did kill us for disobedience He'd have done it way back in Genesis 3.
This was told to us to let us know how important it was for Moses and his wife to be in unison about the covenant God had made with the people He had chosen to use to reveal Himself to the world.
I like how you humanized the story. Moses' wife was our of order. Moses left it to God to get her on track.
Nicely done.