Bible Studies

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Why God Wants to Kill Moses?
(Exodus 4:24-26)

Moses: ¡°Should we have our son circumcised?¡±
Zipporah: ¡°What are you talking about? Have our son circumcised?¡±
Moses: ¡°Yes. I think it is necessary to do this. As you know, my God has called me to be a servant of Him.¡±
Zipporah: ¡°So what? My son and I should pay the price? I know you a lot. You are a Hebrew; you yourself certainly were circumcised after eight days of your birth. But isn¡¯t your son, also my son, a half Hebrew and a half Midian? Does he have to do this? Did your God really command you to do this?¡±
Moses: ¡°Not really. When God called me on the mountain of Sinai, He just commanded me to take off my sandals because the place was a holy ground. However, I know that My God is holy, so I should be holy too. Is it possible for God to allow me to let my son be uncircumcised?¡±
Zipporah: ¡°Sound¡¯s good. You concern everything for your God, but what about my god? Is not my father a priest of Midian? If my son is circumcised, how would I face to my father? How would my father face his people and his god?¡±
Moses: (Silence)

Above is a made up dialogue between Moses and his wife Zipporah. If we put the dialogue before Exodus 4: 24, it should be helpful to understand why God wants to kill Moses. Moses was the great leader and the law-giver of the Hebrews, and was called ¡°the man of God¡±. Yet, in the description of the Bible, Moses was not a man with a stone heart and a steel face. He was a real human being with flesh and blood. His thoughts, feeling, and emotions could not be desolated from the conditions of his personal life. Moses had been a prince of Egypt for forty years. The New Testament tells us: ¡°Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action¡± (Acts 7:22). After that, Moses lived in the desert of Midian as a shepherd for another forty years. In the beginning of this period, Moses married Zipporah, the elder daughter of his father-in-law. Eighty years could not change the identity of Moses. He was neither an Egyptian, nor a Midian, but one of the Hebrews, a chosen people of God.

Now Moses, the servant of God, faced his first challenge, which came from his family. His wife was trouble to his life and his faith. The verses of Exodus 4:25, 26 displayed a portrait of godless woman. Zipporah was neither modest nor meek; her actions and words were filled with disrespect. However, God did not want to kill Zipporah, but Moses. Why? The reason was that Moses, an instrument of God, lost his strength in the spiritual fighting. He was too weak to face the challenge of his wife. Moses was a man who feared God, and also a man who feared his wife. He did not serve the Lord with his whole heart, whole soul, and whole strength. God does not need a double-heart servant. If Moses loves his wife more than he loves God and fears his wife more than he fears God, God will kill him.

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