What Does This Passage Mean?

[Roseheart]

This isn't really a discussion thread as such, but I was reading Exodus 4 today and came across the following passage:

23 And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. 24 And it came to pass, by the way in the inn, that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him. 25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. 26 So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

In Verse 23 I though that when God said "my son" He meant Israel, but then I don't understand who it means by "him" in verse 24, and why Zipporah said the things she did? Some explanation would be appreciated; it's my first time of reading Exodus.

 

[opengate07]

I hope this will be of some assistance.
Commentary on the Bible by Adam Clarke: Exodus: Exodus Chapter 4

 

[Roseheart]

Thank you; that was very helpful!
I think I understand it a bit better now.

 

[granpa]

http://www.christianforums.com/t7618720/

 

[Roseheart]

Thank you, granpa

 

[hedrick]

This isn't really a discussion thread as such, but I was reading Exodus 4 today and came across the following passage:

In Verse 23 I though that when God said "my son" He meant Israel, but then I don't understand who it means by "him" in verse 24, and why Zipporah said the things she did? Some explanation would be appreciated; it's my first time of reading Exodus.

CEB and NRSV both put a paragraph break between 23 and 24. The first phrase of 24 implies movement.

This is one of the weirdest passages in the Bible. I don't think anyone can be absolutely certain what it meant. The most straightforward reading I've seen is from the Word commentary. Moses was about to go on a special mission to Egypt as God's representative. He needed to be circumcised. Why God was so angry we can't tell. There's probably some context missing. Their theory is that if he had actually been circumcised it would have incapacitated him as a critical time, so instead his wife did it symbolically using his son.

This isn't a perfect explanation of the passage, but it's probably as close as we're going to come. I think there's more to this story than appears in the text.

 

[StormHawk]

Since the bible is the living word to his people, it's always right to ask, what is God saying to me / people today through this passage?

I get that just as we sign a contract / covenant for it to be in force, so God's covenants are "signed". That covenant was for physical provision and blessings and required them to follow (be sensitive to, hence circumcision) God. God later complains that they were uncircumcised in ear and heart (Jer. 9:26, Acts 7:51).

The new covenant is entered by receiving God's heart / Spirit, many people forget the sign of speaking in tongues. (Acts 2:4, 33; John 3:8, 12).

 

[drjean]

Moses was a Jew and had been circumcized as a baby at 8 days...he was found in the bullrushes at 3 months I think....
Exodus 4:23-25

Most commentators feel that God struck Moses with a life-threatening illness by which He was going to kill, to slay. It came to Moses, undoubtedly during prayer or meditation, that the problem was his resisting God in the circumcision of his son.​

There is an interesting sidelight here. From the information provided, the son had not been circumcised because Moses conceded to Zipporah that the son would not be circumcised. What God was teaching Moses is that, as the head of the house, he was responsible to see that God's rules, orders, policies, and directions were followed.​

Once he passed the test, Moses was convinced of something else: He knew that Zipporah could not go with him to Egypt. Therefore, he sent her back, and he went on alone. At least his life was spared because he followed through in doing what he should have done.

Read more: Exodus 4:23 (King James Version) :: Forerunner Commentary :: Bible Tools
​

 

[x141]

The mentality of flesh, Egypt (spiritualy called) is what cause's us not to enter in which is also to say let my Son go that He may serve me. Serve me is a much taller order than, do things for me. His Son came to finish the work. When work is finished One rests.

"{While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions. "

Here, every tongue is stilled.

 

[x141]

Zipporah was a daughter of of Cush whose sixth son was Nimrod and the beginning of his kingdom was babylon and the end of his kingdom was the same, confusion. This is the cup that Jesus reffered to that He would drink. Ziporah is a picture of the mind that is a harlot or who sleeps with every thought that passes by and not the One, this eye that is single, (if you loose your soul you will gain it). Flesh is cast at His feet which cause's her to let us go ( when you see the abomination), but not until it is cast under His, Our feet. Rest is what reveals labor just as Light reveals darkness. This is the shaking of the dust from out feet. "till I make thine enemies thy footstool" In these few passages can be found depths of Him that are not measurable and that which knowledge can not find, for knowledge brings seperation and is not a path that leads to Life.

For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; .... And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son ... which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one ...

 

[Roseheart]

Thank you, everybody!
This passage is a little clearer to me now - at first I was really confused about what it was saying, but now I think I get it.