March 30 – Bridegroom of Blood
Exodus 4
One of the more curious accounts of walking by faith is found in Exodus 4. Moses has seen the burning bush, removed his shoes, very reluctantly accepted the position as God’s spokesman and deliverer, and was headed back from watching sheep in the Sinai wilderness for his father-in-law Jethro, toward Egypt. There he would confront the most powerful ruler on earth, Pharaoh, who was enslaving and gradually killing off the males of Moses’ people, the Jews. A fairly intimidating mission.
Forty years after fleeing Egypt, Moses is now called back. He bids his father-in-law goodbye and takes his wife Zipporah and their two sons. This is a reluctant deliverer, and we see a sign of his vacillation in the account at the beginning of this family journey back to Egypt, in Exodus 4:24-26.
Here in a cryptic retelling of the story (by Moses), we learn that only one of Moses’ 2 sons have been circumcised. Why? We are not sure. Maybe it was considered abhorrent by Zipporah or her family, and Moses lacked the resolve to circumcise the other child. A further murky fact is that Zipporah becomes aware that this oversite has now placed either the boy or Moses (?!), in the wrathful path of God who sought “to put him to death.” (Ex. 4:24) That’s a serious cost for missing surgery!
It is now Zipporah who must perform the act. She does so faithfully but with great protest!! She throws the child’s foreskin at the pitiful prophet’s feet, and exclaims, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!”
She is right. To be associated with the true God is to have a relationship of blood, loss, and newness.
The sign of the power of blood is everywhere in Scripture: “the life is in the blood… the blood shall be a sign for you… the water was turned into blood… This is the blood of the New Covenant.”
Circumcision was a sign of cutting away the old and of becoming new. It appears to be a radical act, especially for cultures new to it. But it is a foreshadowing of the far more radical shedding of the Holy Precious blood of Christ nailed to the cross. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Heb. 9:22)
Prayer:Lord Jesus Christ, You became a man in order to have Your precious blood shed.
Give me a contrite heart when I consider the great cost of my redemption.
May I approach Your Holy table with repentant joy. The life is in Your blood. Amen.
