Christ in the Old Testament

Exodus 4:31

And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped. (NIV)

Today’s Reading: Exodus 4:18-31, Genesis 17:1-14 and Ephesians 2:11-13

We are going to cover a very odd passage of Scripture today. But let’s set the stage so we have some context. After God gives Moses the three signs to perform and appoints Aaron to be his spokesman, Moses is out of excuses and “the LORDS’s anger burned against Moses.” So I would say at this point Moses reluctantly agrees to go do this thing for God. He doesn’t seem to have much choice. I think it’s worth keeping in mind that Moses wrote the book of Exodus so from his perspective, he knew God was angry.

So Moses goes to Jethro and lies about why he wants to take his family and leave but it works and he gets Jethro’s permission to go. So Moses and the family head off to Egypt with God’s staff in hand. It’s at this point that God decides to tell Moses what’s really going to happen. God had only revealed to Moses an overview of things to come the gist being that Moses would go to Egypt, ask to let God’s people go worship, the king would be stubborn, God would perform some miracles and then the king would let them go.

So Moses is on his journey and God drops a little detail on him. We can only speculate why but I just find it interesting. While the family is playing the I see something you don’t see game, God interrupts and says, Oh by the way, I’m going to kill the firstborn son of the Pharaoh of Egypt. We don’t get any details of Moses’s reaction or thought process but I can only imagine. He doesn’t want to go in the first place! And it’s about to get worse!

What happens next is such an odd passage of Scripture. But let’s not ignore the hard parts and just dig into it. The family stops for the night and it says, “the LORD met [him] and was about to kill him.” Your version might say “the LORD met Moses” but that’s not what the Hebrew says. The Hebrew text is unclear who God met with here and was going to kill. We also don’t know exactly why. Then Zipporah circumcises her son and touches Moses feet with the foreskin. Then God left him alone.

What just happened? So strange! We can speculate a little here. It seems that Moses didn’t circumcise his oldest son in keeping with the requirement of God’s people. Maybe Moses was trying to fit in with the Midianites so to prove it he abstained from this practice. Regardless of why, God is either going to kill Moses here or his son for not doing it.

Circumcision is the mark of God’s covenant with His people. This is not an optional practice. Read Genesis 17:1-14 and bookmark it. We will come back to this passage a lot this year. God’s covenant with His people is that He will be their God and will give them the land of Canaan. That’s God part of the contract and He will keep his promise so long as His people do their part. Their part of the contract is to be circumcised and “any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

So let’s get this straight. Moses thought he was going to go into Egypt and be God’s instrument to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham with an uncircumcised son. The one thing that God asks of His people to do, Moses hadn’t done. I think the “him” in this verse that God was about to kill is Moses’s son. And mom saves the day! What a scene! You can see this playing out in your head. I won’t give you the play by play but wow I’m not even sure Hollywood could do justice to this scene! Zipporah places the foreskin on Moses’ “feet” and says, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”

Why she said that we don’t know. But she’s right. Moses is a bridegroom of blood. The blood of circumcision took the Israelites from being foreigners without hope into a covenant with God where they would be given the land of milk and honey and belong to Him. And here we see the parallel to Jesus. Jesus is our bridegroom of blood. His death on the cross ushered in a new covenant with God that now includes all people. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13)

And what is Israel’s response when Aaron and Moses tell them everything that was about to happen? “And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.” I think that’s an appropriate response.

Today’s Prayer: Lord, you are a God who fulfills all of your promises. Thank you for your mercy and your faithfulness.