There is an often overlooked event in Exodus chapter 4. It occurs right after the burning bush when Moses speaks with God and then sets out on a journey to do what God commanded. The passage says, “At the lodging place on the way, the Lord met him [Moses] and sought to put him to death” (Exodus 4:24). Why would God do this after blessing him and reminding him of the covenant he had made with Israel and promising to be with him? The following verse gives us some context.
The next verse says, “Then Zipporah [Moses’s wife] took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin” (Exodus 4:25). This abrupt shift to circumcision appears to be the key to understanding God’s displeasure. Most commentators say that Moses’s sin was the failure to circumcise his son. He had set out to do the work of the Lord under the grace afforded to him by the covenant, but he had not taken the sign of the covenant seriously.
Forty years earlier, when Moses fled Egypt, he escaped to Midian and married a Midianite woman. His father-in-law, Jethro, was a Midianite priest. The Midianites were descendants of Abraham but were not of the line of Isaac and Jacob. They were not part of the covenant line and likely abandoned the covenantal sign.
Moses had two sons at this point. John Calvin hypothesizes that Moses probably had his firstborn circumcised. However, he likely received pushback from Jethro and Zipporah because of this bloody and painful ritual. When it came time to circumcise his second son, he did not want the fight, so “for the sake of favor with men, he neglected to obey God.” Other commentators are not as speculative, but they agree that Moses sought to please men rather than God in his negligence in circumcising his children. When God shows up to kill Moses, and Zipporah takes a flint and circumcises her son, this act satisfies God, so he allows them to continue (Exodus 4:25-26).
What can we do with a passage like this? The first bit of advice is that we should not draw dogmatic commands from difficult and obscure passages, but there are some things worthy of our consideration.
Firstly, the sign of the covenant is significant. Just as circumcision is the sign of the old covenant, baptism is the sign of the new. Yet, how often do we delay or downplay this outward profession of faith? If we claim to be in a covenant with God—the new covenant made in his blood—we should do what he says and be baptized. We should not let our fear of man, or any other kind of fear, keep us from obeying God in this ordinance.
Secondly, if God had wanted to kill Moses, Moses would have died. God threatening him is a test of Moses’s obedience. God disciplines his children when they are wayward. God contests us in those moments, but his adversarial approach is always done in love. He is conforming us to his image.
Thirdly, Paul tells us in Romans that circumcision is a matter of the heart. It is a picture of the flesh—the sinfulness of our hearts—being cut off. In New Testament language, it is a picture of the new birth. Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old has passed away, and the new has come. Regeneration is the reality to which these symbols point.
Jesus was clear: unless a man be born again, he will not enter the Kingdom of heaven, and when the judgment comes, the Lord will stand against the unconverted on that day, but it will not be a test. Only those under the covenant made with the blood of Christ will be saved. This truth speaks significantly to Zipporah’s comment that she is “a bridegroom of blood” (Exodus 4:26). Her comment is stated twice in the passage, which indicates its significance. Zipporah likely said it in rebellion because she was upset that she had to inflict this painful and bloody act upon her son, but the phrase speaks to a greater reality in that the church is the bride of Christ purchased by his blood.
Have you been born again? Has the power of the Holy Spirit cut off the sinful flesh of your heart? There is only one way this happens. By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, for the glory of God alone. Do you have faith in Jesus and his work on the cross to save you from your sins? If so, you are saved, and when Christ returns, he will gather you as his treasured possession, and all who neglect so great a salvation will be sent away to eternal punishment. Never let the fear of man or the desires of the godless world keep you from entering into his rest. It is the only way to be right with God.
-D. Eaton
The Fight of Faith 