Today’s encounter is an odd scene involving Moses on his way to Egypt: “At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death.” It is a curious sidebar in the story. And, while God was not the first, or last, parent to threaten to kill His child at a lodging place on a road trip, it does seem to be out of His character. . . . Or does it?
God is pro-life, right? . . . He is also holy, right? . . . What happens when those two aspects of God collide?
For that matter, is Moses a hero of the faith, or a disobedient skeptic? . . . I’m guessing that the answer is, he is a bit of both. As I am, I confess.
And the LORD said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who were seeking your life are dead." 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. 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. Then you shall 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.'" At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. 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!" So he let him alone. It was then that she said, "A bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision. Exodus 4:19-26
Our encounter begins nicely enough. God assures His man Moses that those who were seeking his life are now dead. Sounds good. Sounds like God is sending Moses off to do His work and deliver His firstborn son, which is the people of Israel. But in order to deliver God’s firstborn son, God will need to kill Pharaoh’s firstborn son. The Lord knows that will require the payment of life-for-life. God knows about that.
Speaking of firstborn sons . . . Uh, Moses has never gotten around to circumcising his own firstborn son. Remember all that seriousness about covenants that God had said to Noah, and to Abraham? God keeps His side of the covenant as an unbreakable promise, sometimes with nothing expected in return. “I will not destroy the earth in flood.” But the covenant of being God’s special people—His firstborn son, as He describes them—requires this mark of ownership, this agreement from the human side, to dedicate sons to the LORD.
Had Moses somehow simply overlooked a small detail? No. It was NOT just some “small detail.” Moses certainly had been circumcised himself, and had been taught all about the importance of what it means to be God’s chosen people, marked by this sign of the covenant. But it seems that somehow Moses had given up on God. It was likely back when he fled to Midian forty years ago. He married a Midianite, and he was apparently raising his sons in keeping with whatever standards were prevalent in Midianite culture. Circumcision, schmircumsion. His father-in-law’s god may have been called YHWH, and Jethro may have been a descendant of Abraham, but the Midianites were NOT part of the covenant. So Moses skipped that sign of the covenant with his son.
And God said to Abraham, "As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. . . . So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant." Genesis 17:9-14
Not a lot to misunderstand there.
I imagine Moses felt that God had abandoned him when Moses presumed to step up and lead his people in rebellion against Egypt when he was 40. So now Moses has become a passive unbeliever. Not an active heretic. But a burned, untrusting skeptic. Not quite sure that God is truly good, or that He really cares about Moses or the people of Israel—an entire generation enslaved and suffering, like sheep without a shepherd, with no one to lead them out. Moses had been ready to be That Guy., once upon a time But it backfired, and Moses and reeled and fled. That was a generation ago. Moses has become the worst kind of believer: A disobedient disciple. Someone who says, “Lord, Lord, but who does not do the things He says.
I think this is why the Lord became angry with Moses and his arguments and refusal to go, back when God called him at the bush, because Moses was unprepared and unwilling to follow. He was like the unfaithful steward who received just one talent, and he buried it in the ground and returned it to his master, saying that he was afraid. Afraid to invest money? Afraid to be a steward? Yes. Because his master was unfair, he could never be sure if the risks that he would take with his master’s money would backfire on him, so he played it safe. Too safe. And he was called a wicked and lazy servant. A skeptic, like Moses.
Now here at an overnight stop on the way, God is threatening to kill Moses, because Moses is presuming to step into leadership in the name of YHWH without getting his own house in order. Moses is an unbeliever who is going into ministry, reluctantly and under compulsion, and somehow he thinks that it is OK to continue to take God lightly. No more! Unacceptable! God threatens Moses, to let Moses know that God means business when He says to do something. A sacred covenant was sniffed at and seen as inconvenient, so it was neglected.
Am I being too hard on Moses? Reading a lot into a little thing? No! Understand the concept of a covenant. A covenant is unbreakable. Unbreakable! More than a pinkie promise. So who is man to break his side of the sacred covenant? And what is the consequence? Adam? Noah? Looks like it is death. Moses had not kept the covenant. Of course, the covenant is not for the eight-day-old son to keep; it is for his father to keep it. We keep the covenant as a sacred part of our heritage. We mark our children as a way of saying, “I’m all in. I will raise my family to be in this relationship with God.”
Simply put, Moses wasn’t all in.
Moses was aware of all this. Later, he twice argued with God while going to Pharoah and called himself a man with uncircumcised lips. I don’t think he was talking about a stutter or about shyness here. I think Moses was aware of an inconsistent lifestyle. He was not a worthy spokesperson. This time, it might be humility, but it is true.
Jesus later scolded the scribes and Pharisees for being uncircumcised in heart. Out of the heart the lips speak. So when Moses says his lips are uncircumcised, he is admitting that it is his heart that is speaking through his lips. Later, Moses would be told to speak to the rock, and water would come forth. Instead, Moses struck the rock. And struck it again. As God had told him to do before. But he was angry at the moment, right. Well, we tend to say when we are angry what we really are thinking. When angry, we are less careful about the filters, and the truth often comes out. Here’s what Moses said when he was angry: “Must I bring forth water for you?” What’s wrong with that? It is claiming the glory that belongs to God alone. God will bring forth the water. Moses was simply to declare it. But no, Moses got his own ego into this and acted like he was a shaman, providing for Israel by himself. That is also a serious breach of relationship with God, and the old skeptic comes to the surface. This is why Moses was punished by not being permitted to enter the Promised Land.
But the people did far worse things! That’s true. But Moses was the leader. And leaders are held to a higher standard. That’s why James that not many should presume to be teachers, because as such we are held to a higher standard. Presumption to do something (overconfidence) is a second cousin to refusing to do something (lack of confidence). Both are fleshly.
Back to the scene here, where God is threatening to kill Moses. His wife, Zipporah, takes a knife and circumcises their son, then “touches” Moses’ feet with the bloody skin and says, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me.” I think it is very possible that Zippy was angry at Moe, and this was “thrown” at Moses and said with angry disdain, as in, “You Hebrews bring blood into the family, and I despise it all.” But some have interpreted this very differently, as an act of reverence. She submissively touches his feet, and says, “I am committed to my bloodbridegroom.” And it became a saying.
In any case, I found some old German hymns by Nicolas von Zinzendorf, the old German reformer, and while translating them into English I discovered that he more than once used the word BloodBrideGroom as a worshipful way to address Jesus Himself. “We are Your bride. You are our BloodBrideGroom.”
There is no forgiveness without blood, for life is in the blood. And sin is a matter of life and death—just ask Adam. So are covenants—just ask Abraham and Isaac. And God is willing and able to carry out his threats—just ask Noah.
YOUR ENCOUNTER
While we are here in this moment with Moses, let’s ask some serious questions: How is my covenant relationship with God? Have I Presumed to be a teacher, or a leader, without first being a complete follower? My baptism: did I mean it? Did I die that day? Am I walking in the promised Spirit? Or am a skeptic, wearing the name and giving token sacrifices, but holding back the most important things for myself? A life uninspected is a life on a downhill slope. So let’s do a careful introspection today.
Confess your skepticism, renounce half-hearted obedience, and make a covenant to be fully committed, dead to self, dead to sin, alive to God in Christ. Jesus is Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all. Are you all in? Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. Then write about it in your journal.