Zipporah Circumcises Her Son. part 2

by John Thomas Lowe
(Woodruff, S.C.)

Part 2
Once we are in that relationship with God, when we learn of sin in our lives, all we need do is confess it to Him and turn away from it.
I John 1:9 reads: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Moreover, 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, “For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
In Zipporah’s case, the sin and what to do about it were evident at that moment. Sometimes it is not apparent, like for David and his sin with Bathsheba (2. Sam. 11 – 12). Nevertheless, God’s forgiveness is always waiting for us to ask for it (2 Chron. 7:14; Prov. 28:13; Eph. 1:7).
I encourage you today to be like Zipporah. If you see something that needs correcting in your life, correct it. Take that swift action and turn things around.
The same principle can be applied to everyday life as well. It may not be sin, but it may be that child that needs to learn to stop doing something, a habit that we have ourselves that needs to be broken – see the problem, determine the correction, and do something about it. If you lack confidence in your abilities to correct the problem – do, like noted before, ask for help and learn.
There is no need to carry the burden of knowing something is wrong and yet doing nothing about it when it is within your power to correct it.
Bizarre is typical of how biblical scholars describe the tale of Zipporah and her husband, Moses, especially the section in which God attacks Moses, and Zipporah uses a blood ritual to defend her husband and son successfully. "For mystery, mayhem, and sheer baffling weirdness, nothing else in the Bible quite compares with the story of Zipporah and the 'Bridegroom of blood.
The main plot of Zipporah's cryptic story, which contains a few large holes, is this: Moses, a fugitive from Egypt, where he killed a man for abusing a Hebrew enslaved person, happens upon the seven daughters of Jethro, the Midian priest. The daughters are at a well in the desert, trying to water their sheep. Using brute force, chivalrous Moses scares off some bullying shepherds harassing the girls. Despite their religious differences, a grateful Jethro gives Moses his daughter Zipporah in marriage. They marry and have two sons, Gershom and Eliezer.
A few years later, after God speaks to Moses through a burning bush, Moses sets out with his family to return to Egypt to free his people from slavery. During this journey, a strange incident occurs one night in their tent. God tries to kill Moses. Zipporah, somehow sensing that God is angry that their son is not circumcised, immediately grabs a stone and cuts her son's foreskin. Then she flings the bloody foreskin at his feet (whether "his" in the story refers to God, Moses, or the baby is unclear, and feet may be a stand-in or a euphemism for genitals). Then she says: "Surely, a bridegroom of blood thou art to me." According to God's covenant with Abraham, cutting away the foreskin from the penis signifies identification among Hebrews.
Several mysteries in this tale leave experts baffled. Why did Zipporah, a woman, perform the circumcision? Which son was involved? Was God himself the attacker, or did he send one of his minions? Why did Zipporah and Moses separate? Is Moses's "Cushite" or Ethiopian wife referred to as Zipporah or another woman in the text?
Despite the many ambiguities, the story's central message is clear, according to Kirsch: "The lesson the Bible intends is that God insists on circumcision as the essential symbol of the covenant of his chosen people. God is even willing to murder for failure to comply. He will even kill Moses after recruiting him on his liberation mission. That is how important circumcision is to God."
In addition, Zipporah plays more than a supporting role in the future of the Israelites. "Moses is God's chosen messenger, the most important biblical figure after Abraham." However, Moses is at risk of losing his life, except for the intervention of Zipporah. "She, the pagan daughter of a priest, stood up to God," he adds. The entire fate of Israel rests with her.
Although Zipporah is an obscure figure in the Bible, she is depicted favorably. At the same time, Moses is " unfortunate, a total shirker, full of arguments about why he should not be the one to go to Israel and lead his people out of slavery." On the other hand, Zipporah is heroic, "decisive, fearless, strong, the competent person in an emergency."
Others draw out different themes apart from the importance of circumcision. "To me, the main point is to show that the deity is not all benign. It can be dangerous for humans to be in the presence of God unless they follow religious prescriptions such as circumcision."
According to Crawford, the story may also say that marriage to foreigners can be a good idea and work out well. Women may be more active in the religious sphere within the family structure than men. "Like Zipporah, the women may be responsible for conducting the religious rituals," she says.
A new novel, Zipporah, Wife of Moses, by Marek Halter, puts a fictionalized spin on Zipporah by making her the "Cushite" or Ethiopian wife of Moses. Halter portrays Zipporah as a proud, black-skinned woman who refuses to marry Moses, even after bearing his two sons, until he accepts God's mission to lead his people out of slavery. In this version, Zipporah changes the destiny of Moses and his people. "Zipporah is black, and a foreigner and she poses the problem of how we relate to the other," says Halter. "Moses is ignorant, so Zipporah becomes his principal adviser." Zipporah, the outsider with black skin, helps Moses fulfill his destiny as a liberator of the enslaved.
Just as there are several interpretations of Zipporah's role in the biblical text, there are various interpretations of the literal meaning of her name. "Tzipor" means bird in Hebrew. One theory, according to Rabbi Rebecca Alpert in The Women ' s Torah Commentary: New Insights From Women Rabbis on the 54 Torah Portions, is that before she was born, Zipporah's mother intuited that "like the purification offering of two clean, living birds, her daughter would be responsible for purifying her house." Another suggestion is that she "would take flight with this strange man, Moses."
In either case, Zipporah stays true to her role as a woman who acts bravely and decisively, not one who is acted upon.