Why ​did ​the Lord Seek ​to Kill Moses ​in Exodus 4?

Mike,

Can you help me understand what is going on in Exodus 4:24-26 where there is this seemingly random comment about the Lord seeking to kill Moses and this interaction with Zipporah and her son’s foreskin that saves Moses life….am I missing something?

A____

Hi A____,

Thank you for your question concerning the Lord wanting to kill Moses over the circumcision of Moses’ son at the inn on the way down into Egypt. The circumcision ended up having to be done by Moses’ wife, Zipporah:

Exo 4:24  And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.
Exo 4:25  Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.
Exo 4:26  So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

You ask: 

“Can you help me understand what is going on in Exodus 4:24-26… about the Lord seeking to kill Moses and this interaction with Zipporah and her son’s foreskin that saves Moses​’ life…?”

In answering any questions concerning scripture we are unlocking “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 13:10-17).

Christ has given us eyes that see and ears that hear those mysteries in what He calls ‘keys to that kingdom’ (Mat 16:18-19). Here in Matthew 16 it reads as if the Lord is giving the keys to the kingdom to Peter alone and not to all.

Mat 16:18 Now I, also, am saying to you that you are Peter, and on this rock will I be building My ecclesia, and the gates of the unseen shall not be prevailing against it.
Mat 16:19 I will be giving you the keys of the kingdom of the heavens, and whatsoever you should be binding on the earth shall be those things having been bound in the heavens, and whatsoever you should be loosing on the earth, shall be those having been loosed in the heavens.

“Having been bound in the heavens… and… having been loosed in the heavens” means the Lord is giving us the ability to think as He thinks “in heaven” and how He permits and restrains the things of the heavens.

With this gift from the Lord​, we will consider what we are being told in these three verses.

In ‘heavenly’ language a woman always signifies a church, be it a good church (Eph 5:31-32) or an apostate church (Rev 17:1-6). ​We are told circumcision signifies the putting off of the things of the flesh and our desires for the things of this earth (Col 2:11):

Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Col 2:11  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

Zipporah is credited with circumcising her son and thereby saving the life of Moses, her husband. The words “sought to kill him” indicate the Lord has smitten Moses with a deadly disease which rendered Moses so weak that he was unable to circumcise his son, a ritual which was done by men both in the culture of Israel and Midian who were also descended from Abraham.

Moses​’ affliction necessitated that Zipporah circumcise her son. Very few are given to know it, but we as the wife of Christ are also used as the agent through whom Christ is offered up, and we are the agency through which He was raised up. That great Truth is hidden in this mistranslated verse of scripture:

Rom 4:25  Who was delivered for [G1223​: ‘dia’, by or through] our offences, and was raised again for [G1223​: ‘dia’, by or through] our justification.

In the same manner​, we, too​, are the agent by and through whom the afflictions which are lacking in Christ’s afflictions are filled up in us for His body’s sake, which is the church:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

In this story, Moses signifies Christ, and Zipporah signifies the church. Christ tells us that He is us​, and we are Him.​ Christ completely identifies with His church.

Act 22:7  And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

So while Zipporah was in type circumcising Christ, she was also circumcising the church​, and in doing so she was in type fulfilling these verses of scripture:

Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

By circumcising her own son, her own flesh, Zipporah signifies the church putting off its own flesh. In what she accomplishes, she signifies the Lord’s elect ‘building themselves up in love.’ Love is defined as obedience to God (1Jo 5:2-3), and obedience to God necessitates denying and putting off the desires of our flesh.

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

The scriptures use the same person for two opposing symbols in several instances. Pharaoh symbolizes the Father having given the kingdom to Joseph who symbolizes Christ in Genesis 50, and in the very next chapter of scripture, Exodus 1, the Pharaoh signifies the devil seeking to destroy the seed of the woman.

In Matthew 16 Christ tells Peter that the Father has revealed to Peter who Christ is, and Christ gives Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Just a few verses later Christ also tells this same Peter to “get thee behind me Satan.”

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

This is the very next thing we are told about Peter in this same chapter:

Mat 16:21  From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Mat 16:22  Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.
Mat 16:23  But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

So, yes, there is much that we miss until the Lord gives us His keys to the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

There is still another lesson to be learned from this story, because there was a reason why the Lord wanted to kill Moses. Moses, like Cain, obviously had ‘not done well’ and had not done what he knew he was supposed to have done:

Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7  If thou doest well [do as you have been instructed], shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well [be disobedient], sin lieth at the door. And unto [Hebrew: against] thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Therefore the message for us all in this story of Zipporah circumcising her son is the same as the message of the “man of God” who was tired, thirsty and and hungry and succumbed to the lies of another prophet who told him that the Lord had changed his mind about what the ‘man of God’ was supposed to do. This ‘man of God’ had been told to go to Bethel and cu​rse the altar of the golden calf which Jeroboam the king of Israel had placed there in Bethel. He was told that he was to “eat no bread nor drink water​, and He was to come back by a different way than the way he went to Bethel​.

1Ki 13:8  And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place:
1Ki 13:9  For so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest.
1Ki 13:10  So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.

It was no easy task, but the instructions were as clear as the instructions concerning the circumcision of a male child on the 8th day. The man of God in 1 Kings 13, was tired, hungry and thirsty, and he disobeyed God’s clear instructions just to satisfy the desires of his flesh. Moses also ignored the Lord’s commandment to circumcise his son on the eighth day. The Midianites, practiced circumcision and, according to what scholars tell us, they waited until a boy was anywhere between 13 days or 13 years, the age of Ishmael when Ishmael, their patriarch, was circumcised along with Isaac who was circumcised on the eighth day according to the Lord’s very clear instructions. The fact that the Lord sought to kill Moses indicates very strongly that Moses had not done well and had not followed the Lord’s instructions with his whole heart. The lesson for all of us is that we must listen diligently to the Lord’s words and obey them with our whole heart. The Lord will spew us out of His mouth if we are not diligent in our obedience to His Words:

Luk 6:46  And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Jos 22:5  But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

One last lesson here is that God was not going to use a man to deliver His people who had not even bothered to circumcise his son as he had been instructed. If Moses had waited ​until he were in Egypt to be obedient to the Lord​, his slack hand of service would have given people like Korah an excuse to call Moses​’ leadership into question. The point being that the Lord will also hold us back in our service to Himself as long as our ‘weights and sins’ continue to dominate our lives:

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

I hope this all helps you to see some of the lessons which are hidden in the story of Zipporah circumcising her own son. I think you knew before you asked that this is far more than “a seemingly random comment about the Lord seeking to kill Moses.”

Your fellow servant, Mike