EXODUS 4:24-26 — BRIDEGROOM OF BLOOD?
June 5, 2019
READING TIME: 2 MINUTES
“Dave, what does it mean in Exodus 4:24-26 that Moses was a ‘bridegroom of blood’?”
The man of God cannot be less than obedient and thorough in his obedience to the Lord and apparently, Moses had failed to circumcise one of his sons. For this, the Lord disciplined him and sought to put him (Moses) to death (4:24). The death threat was probably some life-threatening illness but we’re not sure. It seems that Zipporah then took it upon herself to perform the rite, even though she found the act repulsive, likely because of her non-Israelite origins. She flung the baby’s foreskin at Moses’ feet (possibly a euphemism for genitals but not necessarily) and called him a bridegroom of blood. In saying this, Zipporah is declaring that Moses is now her bridegroom for a second time. Umberto Cassuto explains that she was saying, “I have delivered you from death, and your return to life makes you my bridegroom a second time, this time my blood bridegroom, a bridegroom acquired through the blood.”
The significance of this passage is twofold. First, it showed that if Moses was to be the spokesman for the covenant-keeping God of Abraham, he needed to keep the provisions of the covenant (Genesis 17:9-22). Second, it foreshadowed the requirement that those participating in the Passover were required to be circumcised (Exodus 12:43-48). It may have been at this time that Moses’ family returned to Midian.
Zipporah was likely angry at Moses’ God who demanded the circumcision of babies, against the traditions of all peoples in the region, who had brought about her husband’s action in circumcising their older boy shortly after his birth, and who now demanded that her younger boy be circumcised or her husband would be killed.
Moses’ sin of not having circumcised his second son calls to mind the concept of a “sin to death” in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 11:27–30; 1 John 5:16). Exodus 4:24–26 becomes an example of this in the Hebrew Scriptures.
These few verses stress a vital principle: normally, before God will use a person publicly, he or she must first be obedient to God at home (cf. 1 Timothy 3:4-5).
SOURCES USED
Allen, Ronald B. “The ‘Bloody Bridegroom’ in Exodus 4:24-26.” Bibliotheca Sacra 153:611 (July-September 1996): 259-69.
Cassuto, Umberto, A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, 3rd ed. [Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1967], 60.
Constable, Tom. Exodus. <https://planobiblechapel.org/tcon/notes/pdf/exodus.pdf>.
The Moody Bible Commentary. Moody Publishers.