Exodus 4:24-26 – Revisited

I asked the same question about Exodus 4:24-26 on our VLI forum. This is what my pastor/teacher posted:

"These are comments I found from a Sunday School teacher, Andrew Harnack, to prepare his class for discussion:

There are at least six questions we may ask about these verses:

1. Why is God so suddenly angry?
2. With whom is God so suddenly angry?
3. Why does Zipporah take a flint knife and circumcise her son?
4.
What does it mean when the narrator says she “cast [the newly amputated
foreskin] at Moses’ “feet”? Why does she throw the foreskin at Moses’
feet?
5. Why does Ziporrah call Moses (depending on the translation)
“a bridegroom of blood” (NIV), “a bloody husband” (KJB), or “a husband
of blood” (New Life Version).
6. Why is this little story in the Bible? What application may we Christians make of it?

What follows are my reflections as I look at the verses in my Jerusalem Bible:

1. The context

It’s
important to see the context of verses 24-26. Earlier, claiming he’s
not eloquent enough, Moses has been trying to excuse himself from being
God’s messenger to Pharaoh. Genuinely peeved and quite “angry” at Moses
in verse 4.14, God responds by introducing Aaron as Moses’ mouthpiece;
that is, Aaron, soon to arrive upon the scene, will “speak to the
people in [Moses’] place (17). Apparently this arrangement proves
satisfactory to Moses. Going back to his father-in-law, Moses asks
Jethro for his permission to return to Egypt and obtains a
yes-you-can-return blessing from his wife’s father (18). The LORD then
urges Moses to get going, assuring him that everyone “who wanted to
kill you” is now dead. Immediately Moses takes off with his wife and
son, that is, with Zipporah and Gershom (see 2.22); he also takes the
“staff of God” God gave him at the beginning of Chapter 4. God then
reminds Moses that he is to “think of the wonders I have given you
power to person” (21), and he tells Moses what to expect from Pharaoh
after he hears Moses’ message; ultimately, God says, Pharaoh will
experience the death of his “first-born son” because he will refuse to
let Israel, God’s “first-born son” leave Egypt.

2 The problem with the antecedents of the two pronouns: “him” and “his”

Now
we come to the “tough” verses. On his way to Egypt, Moses stops off at
inn and discovers that God is trying to kill “him!” Who is the him?
Moses? Before you say, “Yes, it’s Moses whom God is trying to kill!”
note the next verse, 25: “Then Zipporah, taking up a flint, cut off her
son’s foreskin and with it touched his [whose? Moses?] feet . . . .”
Some readers suggest Zipporah’s quick action indicates that the baby’s
life is in danger! Thus at this point we have two possibilities:

1. God is trying to kill Moses.
2. God is trying to kill Moses’ son, Gershom.

The text can be read both ways. Here’s why:

1.
God is trying to kill Moses because he—in his great haste to get to
Egypt has completely forgotten to circumcise his very own “first-born
son” Gershom into the Great Covenant! How in the world can he preach to
Pharaoh about the importance of respecting Israel, God’s “first-born
son” (23) when Moses himself has failed to realize the importance of
taking care of his own flesh-and-blood, little Gershom, who travels
along outside the covenant with God! Moses thus deserves to die because
he’s proved himself completely insensitive to the will of God which has
been made absolutely clear to the Patriarch Abraham: the covenant
relationship must always be sealed by circumcision (Genesis 17)! No
wonder God is angry at Moses!

2. God is angry at Moses’
uncircumcised son, Gershom. Just as God will put to death the
“first-born” of Pharaoh because of his father’s refusal to obey God, so
here God will put to death the “first-born” of Moses for the same
reason: Moses has not obeyed God by not fulfilling the covenant
requirement that all Israelite males are to be circumcised. It seems to
me that the first reading is preferable: God is trying to kill Moses
because in his haste to get going to Egypt he has completely forgotten
how the Abrahamic covenant is to be ratified: Moses has forgotten to
get the knife and cut off the foreskin of his own son! Moreover, it
should not surprise us that God is angry with Moses again; after all,
he was angry with him in verse 14.

3. Zipporah’s quick saving action

At
this point we should make special note that it’s Zipporah who “saves
the day”! It’s a quick-witted woman who knows exactly what to do. When
her pre-occupied, negligent husband (no doubt busy taking care of the
donkey, making motel reservations, and looking at road maps) forgets
his number-one responsibility (circumcize the boy!) and thereby prompts
God to anger, Zipporah reaches into her handbag, gets out the
penis-knife and goes to work. Snip! Snip! Snip! Good for her! Her hands
all bloody, she makes it possible for Gershom to be in the covenant and
thus stave off God’s anger at the irresponsible parent—Moses.

Notice
what else she does. She takes the bloody little foreskin and throws it
at Moses’ “feet.” Well, that’s what the Bible says, but you should know
that in the Bible the word feet often means a man’s genitals, his penis
and testicles. As The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
explains,

"Foot" or "feet" is sometimes used
euphemistically for the genitals (Deuteronomy 28:57; Ezekiel 16:25).
"To cover the feet" (1 Samuel 24:3) is synonymous with obeying a call
of Nature. Even today "to speak with the feet" is expressive of the
eloquence of abusive and obscene gesticulation among oriental people,
where hands, eyes and feet are able to express much without the use of
words (Proverbs 6:13).

Zipporah’s throwing–you see the
rather violent action?–Gershom’s foreskin on Moses’ private parts is
reinforces the dramatic quality of her foreskin-cutting activity.
Notice what she says when she make the throw, “Bloody husband”! Her
scorn, given voice by this invective, is full of irony; she’s calling
her husband exactly what he isn’t. After all, he’s not bloody; she is!
And she’s a good bit put out that she has had to do the cutting, the
snipping, the circumcising! Can you image the looks she must have given
Moses!"

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