This post is the sixth of Faithlogue’s 2023 Summer Series: “The Women of the Exodus.” Click here to receive each week’s post in your inbox!
Last week, we learned that Pharoah’s daughter raised Moses and educated him in her Egyptian household (Acts 7:22). However, Moses remembered he was born a Hebrew. So, when he was forty years old (Acts 7:23), Moses “went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor” (Exodus 2:11).
Moses’ sightseeing visit turned deadly when he killed an Egyptian for mistreating one of his Hebrew brothers. Moses hid the body and assumed he got away with it. However, his sin became known among the people. When Pharoah learned of the murder, he sought to kill Moses in retribution.
Once again, Moses’ life was in danger. So, he fled to Midian. The Midianites were also descendants of Abraham through his second wife, Keturah, but they were not followers of the God of the Israelites (Genesis 25:1-4).[1]
In Midian, Moses came to a well where he encountered seven daughters of a Midian priest. A group of shepherds threatened the women, so Moses helped them to water their sheep safely. When the women reported Moses’ intervention to their father, Jethro, he invited Moses to have something to eat and to stay with them.[2]
According to the ESV translation, Moses “was content to dwell with the man” (Exodus 2:21). The term translated as “content” in the original Hebrew is yaal, which conveys a feeling more like “acquiescence” than happiness.[3] Moses clearly felt the sting of exile despite the welcome he received in Midian.
According to Exodus 2:21, Jethro also gave his daughter, Zipporah, to Moses in marriage. Together, Zipporah and Moses had two sons. Moses named the first son Gershom to indicate “I have become an alien in a foreign land” (Exodus 2:22), and the second he named Eliezer, stating “My father’s God was my helper; he saved me from the sword of Pharoah” (Exodus 18:4).
Based on the meanings of these names, it appears Moses’ understanding of his circumstances changed between sons. He moved from an attitude of resignation in the guilt and shame of his sin to understanding God’s rescue despite it.
After forty years of pasturing Jethro’s sheep, God called Moses to return and lead His people out of Egypt (Exodus 3-4). After several significant conversations with God, Moses finally set out to return with Zipporah and their sons.
On that journey from Midian back to Egypt, Moses again encountered the threat of death. In response to his peril, Zipporah quickly circumcised their son and saved Moses (Exodus 4:25). After she completed this priestly action, Zipporah exclaimed, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me” (Exodus 4:26).
Zipporah’s statement and the circumstances surrounding Moses’s endangerment elude scholars. The details and their meaning remain unclear. However, we can learn several important points about Zipporah in this passage.
For example, in naming Eliezer, Moses calls God his helper, or ezer.[4] This term is the same used by God when He created Eve (Genesis 2:18). Just as Eve was the agent for God’s relational rescue of Adam, Zipporah became the agent of God’s relational rescue of Moses, first through refuge in Midian and then by circumcising their son.
Circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant to bless all nations through Abraham. Males were circumcised in other cultures as well, but for the Israelites, circumcision related directly to their covenant with God.[5] Zipporah apparently recognized the potential error in not circumcising their son, and God accepted her actions, although she was not a male, an Israelite, or a priest. Her intentions as an ezer for Moses were sufficient for God’s purposes.
By saving Moses and claiming him as her “bridegroom of blood,” perhaps Zipporah recognized God was calling Moses back toward His covenant people. Likewise, by circumcising their son, Zipporah recognized her child’s place in the covenant. Like the midwives, Zipporah chose to pay attention and cooperate with God instead of resisting and risking Moses’ life.
After this episode, we do not hear about Zipporah again until Exodus 18:2 informs us that Moses sent Zipporah and her sons home to Midian and Jethro. Along with Jethro, they visit Moses after the Exodus but do not stay with him, and we do not hear anything more about Zipporah in Scripture.
In this way, Zipporah joins Moses’s mother, Jochebed, as a background character in the narrative of his life. However, do you notice the trend here? Although she is a foreigner like Pharoah’s daughter, Zipporah joins the midwives, Jochebed, and Miriam in protecting Moses through her obedience to God. Therefore, Zipporah’s influence and actions bear consideration. She provided refuge, relationship, and rescue for Moses. In these ways, Zipporah participated fully in God’s preparation of His people for the Exodus.
© 2023 Lori Myers Berry
Additional Resources
Like Pharoah’s daughter, Zipporah’s legacy hovers on the fringes of the Exodus narrative. However, I think it’s important to remember that she took action to protect Moses even though she likely had no choice in the matter of becoming his wife or accompanying him to Egypt. Zipporah exercised personal agency when she chose to respond to God in obedience to His covenant with the Israelites.
In honor of Zipporah, I want to express something important to you, dear reader. Regardless of your personal circumstances and all the situations in which other people seek to make choices for you, you always have full agency before God. I’m going to repeat that: You have full agency before God.
And, when you exercise your choice to trust Him and act accordingly, God responds to you just like He responded to Zipporah.
Zipporah did not know God, but she clearly knew something about His word of covenant with the Israelites. Likewise, you and I may not know everything about God, but He has chosen to reveal Himself to us in His Word, the Bible.
So, may I point you back there this week with a reminder of the personal agency you have to seek and know God because of Jesus Christ, as the following verses assert:
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
John 1:12-13
“I no longer call you servant, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
John 15:15-17
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Matthew 7:7-8
[1] John D. Barry, David Bomar, et al., eds., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016), s.v. “Midian.” Logos.
[2] Reuel and Jethro are the same person (see Exodus 3:1).
[3] James Strong, The New Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew and Greek Words (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1996), s.v. “2974.”
[4] Strong, s.v. “5828.”
[5] Kenneth L. Barker and John R. Kohlenberger, eds., Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary, Volume I: Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 72.