Some parts of the Bible are unsavory and some stories leave us scratching our head. Today’s story about God wanting to kill Moses right after calling him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt is one of those stories. And even stranger, the entire story is centered on circumcision. But with a surprise twist, looking at other parts of the Bible we see that God has always desired a “circumcision of the heart.” What does this mean? It means God always has cared more and always will care more about the hearts of His people than any outward signs.
The Message
Have you ever read something in the Bible and wondered why on earth that needed to be included? Even our heroes don’t come out unscathed; the Bible always shows them warts and all. Do we really need to know that Noah gets drunk and naked after surviving the flood? Or that David has an affair and loses his kingdom to his son in a civil war? Or that Peter denies Jesus three times because he’s afraid of a small servant girl?
Those aren’t the only unsavory and scarcely believable stories in the Bible!
- A donkey sees an angel and speaks to the prophet riding him because the prophet can neither see nor hear the angel.
- When an obese king is stabbed, the fat of his belly hides the knife, hilt and all. (The king’s attendants just think he’s taking a long time to go to the bathroom.)
- God commands Ezekiel to cook his food in public over human waste. When Ezekiel protests, God relents and allows him to cook it over cow dung instead.
- At the end of the book of Judges, after a woman is brutally raped and killed by a crowd of men, she is cut into twelve pieces and sent to the twelve tribes of Israel. Ghastly!
In the fourth chapter of Exodus we come across another such story that belongs on this list – a story that teaches us that Circumcision Matters! Yes, that’s where we are going today.
But before we get to it, here is what has happened so far in the book of Exodus: While the entire nation of Israel is enslaved in Egypt, and 80-year-old Moses is living in Midian as a shepherd, God calls Moses to convince Egypt’s king (Pharaoh) to free the Israelites – a truly daunting task! Moses doesn’t want to go. (“Pardon me, Lord, but please send someone else.”)
God insists. Moses complies.
- Exodus 4:18 – Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.” Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”
Why does Moses lie to his father-in-law? Because Moses is still fearful – already afraid the Israelites won’t believe him, and now afraid his father-in-law won’t believe him either. This gives us a bit of insight into Moses’s mindset.
Be honest – probably at some time you’ve done basically the same thing. (I know I have!) You felt the Spirit of God leading you to do something; but when you explained it to someone else, you left out the God part. (We wouldn’t want people to think we are religious wackos, would we?) Don’t be afraid to admit you hear from God! It’s a witness to people when we let them know God does still speak to us today by His Spirit.
- Exodus 4:19-20 – Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.
With this assurance from God, Moses heads back to Egypt, staff in hand.
The “staff of God” is extremely important! It appears in the miracles in Egypt and those in the wilderness. God’s last words to Moses at the burning bush were “Take the staff in your hand.” Now the writer makes sure we know that Moses took the staff.
- Exodus 4:21-23 – The Lord said to Moses, ‘”When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh: This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you: Let my son go, so he may worship me. But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.”
God reminds Moses of his mission and explicitly exlains that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart. The emphasis here is on the firstborn, the rightful heir, the one who will represent the father as he matures, the one with a special relationship with his father. God tells Israel over and over again that their nation is His “firstborn son.” Pharaoh has not dealt well with Israel. He will not let them worship or serve their own God. He has kept God’s “firstborn son” from Him; therefore, God says, “You are keeping my child from Me so I will take your child from you.”
Note: God doesn’t plan to free the Israelites so they can experience complete, untethered freedom to do whatever they please! He is freeing them so they may worship and serve Him. I think many Christians today welcome the news that Jesus forgives their sins and frees them from shame, but think they are free to live however they like. Not so! Just like the Israelites, we do not have freedom to live selfishly. We have freedom from the trappings of our sinful lives so we can live for God, offering our whole selves as living sacrifices.
It’s important that I tell you one detail about the following passage from Exodus 4: in the Hebrew language, the name “Moses” does not appear in these verses at all. Everything is “he” and “him.” The New Interntional Version of the Bible (NIV) adds the word “Moses” to try to help us understand; yet the ambiguity remains.
- Exodus 4:24-26 – At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses [“him”] and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’s [“his”] feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)
While I always thought this story involved a young child being circumcised, I have realized that Moses and his wife married 40 years earlier! The son in this story is more likely a man in his 30s than a small child. (By the way, in case you don’t know, circumcision is a surgical alteration of the male genitals.)
What is really going on here? Who is God going to kill? Moses? Or could it be Moses’s firstborn son? (This comes immediately after God discusses killing Pharaoh’s firstborn son.) Whom does Zipporah touch the foreskin to, Moses or her son? (The “touching of feet” is a euphemism for the touching of genitals, according to other scriptures and the opinions of scholars.) What does”the bridegroom of blood” mean?
So many questions! Some we can’t answer, but some we can. Here’s what we know.
We know that Moses’s son hasn’t been circumcised, because we read that his mother circumcises him on the spot with a flint knife. We also know that God is upset with Moses, not his wife or his son. As an Israelite father, Moses bears the responsibility for having his son circumcised.
We know that Zipporah saves the day. Just as midwives saved the Israelite baby boys, and Pharaoh’s daughter and Moses’s sister played a role in saving Moses, again we see a woman playing a major role in God’s redeeming story.
We know that circumcision is part of the covenant God made with Abraham.
- Genesis 17:10-13 – This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised . . . It will be the sign of the covenant between me and you . . . Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised.
Why has Moses never fulfilled his duty regarding his son’s circumcision? Perhaps because he was never properly circumcised himself (since he was raised in an Egyptian household)? Perhaps because he was raising his family among the Midianites? Whatever the reason, this was a big deal to God!
- Genesis 17:13-14 – My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant
We know this circumcision is required before Moses goes to Egypt. Before he can rescue “God’s firstborn,” he must first make sure his own firstborn has the covenant mark of the community of Israelites and the family of Abraham. Moses’s family must share the mark or else be cut off from God’s people.
Circumcision of the Heart
A phrase found later in the pages of scripture is “circumcision of the heart.” What does this mean and how does it relate? It means God always has cared more and always will care more about the hearts of His people than any outward signs. How does this fit into this story from Exodus 4, which shows God valuing the outward sign? Maybe because Moses never followed through with the ritual of circumcision for his son, or maybe because of all the excuses he gave God for not obeying, and maybe because of the lie he told his father-in-law, God uses this moment to make sure Moses’s heart is fully following Him.
God himself describes a more important circumcision, which He desires for all his people: a circumcision of the heart. This phrase describes the true identifying mark of somebody in the family of God.
Listen to what God says to the Israelites before they enter the Promised Land:
- Deuteronomy 30:6 – The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
Or listen to the words He speaks to Jeremiah:
- Jeremiah 4:3-4 – This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, circumcise your hearts.”
Before God ever replaced the Old Covenant’s laws with the New Covenant of grace, He had said He wanted a people whose hearts were pure and devoted to Him. Physical circumcision is a physical mark, but God sees the heart. He knows who is truly part of the family.
This is exactly the situation Paul describes in the New Testament:
- Romans 2:28-29 – A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.
This story from over 3000 years ago applies to every one of us today because it shows us that circumcision matters. We can’t look at it through the archaic lens of the Old Testament law, but must see it through the redefining verses of Deuteronomy and Jeremiah and Romans to see that a heart completely dedicated to God is what ultimately matters. God wants to see that we are fully devoted to Him.
Have you given your full heart to God? Or are you perhaps holding parts back? Are you like Moses – a bit untrusting, unwilling to follow, unwilling to speak about your encounters with God? Are you failing to give God your total obedience?
The best news for you today is that if you have been holding back, God isn’t going to come after you to kill you! Jesus already died on the cross for all your failings. He already took that punishment. Now you are free to turn to God, repent, and lay your whole heart at his feet. How will you respond to God’s call?
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