At first sight this is a bizarre passage.
God has just called Moses at the burning bush.
He has outlined a future for Moses and has dealt with all of his excuses.
Moses has burnt his bridges and is on his way to Egypt - and now God wants to kill him???
It doesn't make sense!
To get the answer of this puzzle, we have to go back a bit...
When God instituted the covenant with Abraham, He instructed him to circumcise boys on the eighth day. This is unusual. Surrounding nations circumcised at puberty. Imagine little Israelite boys swimming at the water hole with Canaanite kids. "Why have you already been circumcised?" the heathen boys would ask.
"Because I belong to God!" would be the reply.
Circumcision was about being God's people.
Moses did not circumcise his boys on the eighth day.
It seems Zipporah didn't like the idea...
He didn't circumcise them as they got older either.
It was a blatant loose-end - a rejection of the covenant.
And it is as much about Zipporah as it is of Moses.
It is about full commitment to God and devotion to Him.
Moses needed to be a shepherd and not a hireling.
Failure to circumcise his sons would set a poor example and leave his family as hangers-on instead of part of the nation of Israel.
It was a really important principle issue.
When God calls us to leadership - we will need to recognise that He will delve into the dark and forgotten corners of our lives and "clean up" so that we are not disqualified by discrepancies and loose-ends...
---
--------------------------
Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
