Was the Lord going to kill Moses’s son because he was not circumcised?
After Moses sees the burning bush, and the Lord tells him about his calling to go and free his people out of Egypt, Moses reluctantly accepts the Lord’s calling and makes a journey back to his homeland. On the way, they stop at a lodging place and you read the following scripture:
Exodus 4:24-26New International Version (NIV)
24 At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses** and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. 26 So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)
**My NIV Bible has a footnote stating: or Moses’s son
This strange scripture kind of jumps out of the middle of nowhere, and it leaves me puzzled. Right after this scripture, the story resumes and the Lord tells Aaron to go and meet Moses in the desert.
Any insight about what this strange scripture means? Had the Lord never seen Moses’s son disrobed before this scripture, and he was angered when he saw that he’d not been circumcised? Did the Lord vocally tell his intentions to Zipporah (Moses’s wife) and that’s why she did a quick circumcision of her son?
I’ve asked some of my friends what this scripture means. They were not even aware of this scripture, did not recall seeing it before. So, I pulled a Bible out and showed them and they were just as puzzled as I. Leave a comment of you have any insight that you’d like to share.