24 At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met {Moses} and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched {Moses'} feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. 26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)
It seems to be completely random. I can't figure out what it adds to the narrative or what the point of it is.
What do your commentaries say?
There is a translation issue here - it could be referring to Moses' son's feet.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, James Jordan sees it as prefiguring the Passover - Zipporah but blood on the doorposts of Moses' house, sort of.
When Moses entered Egypt after his sojourn in the wilderness, God met him and tried to kill his firstborn son, and this was only averted because Zipporah faithfully saw through the crisis and circumcised him. This event anticipated the threat against the firstborn in the tenth plague, when only those who saw through the crisis and obeyed God by displaying blood were saved.
I read my niv study guide it said that moses had not circumcised his son. so his wife did it and feet could be euphenism for genitals
ReplyDeleteChris, it is an issue of identity. Moses was to lead the people of Abraham out of Egypt to be a unique people of God. Circumcision was the sign of that covenant. Moses was identifiably an Israelite.
ReplyDelete