Exodus 4:26 - Forerunner Commentary

Exodus 4:26

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Why Did God Try to Kill Moses (Exodus 4:24-26)?
Hebrew scholars are still undecided whether God sought to kill Moses or his son. Verse 24 does not clearly give the answer, though the pronoun "him" seems to have its antecedent in "Moses" in verse 21.

Moses knew that all Israelites were to be circumcised on the eighth day of their lives (Genesis 17:9-14). However, his wife Zipporah was not an Israelite but a Midianite, who obviously did not follow the Abrahamic covenant of circumcision (though the Midianites were descendants of Abraham through his second wife, Keturah; see Genesis 25:1-2). Apparently, Moses failed to circumcise his son because of her objection to the practice.

Exodus 4 shows that Moses, returning to Egypt to lead God's people Israel to the Promised Land, did not have his own house in subjection (see I Timothy 3:4). God could not allow His direct representative to lead the entire nation of Israel when he had not himself faithfully brought his family under the covenant, of which circumcision was the sign. That God acted to "cut him off" illustrates just how seriously God takes our commitment (or lack thereof) to His covenant (Hebrews 10:26-31).

Additional Reading:
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Six)
The Covenants, Grace, and Law (Part Seven)
No One Else Matters (Part One)
Conviction, Moses, and Us

Exodus 4:25-26
Excerpted from: No One Else Matters (Part One)

Oh, this is something that really confounds people. Here in the previous chapters God had given him all this instruction. Go back to Egypt, save your people. Here is a rod. You can do these miracles. If they ask you this, tell them this. Prepared him for His work and as soon as He gets him on the road, He tries to kill him. They do not understand. But you know, it is quite shocking for someone who really does not know the Bible were very well to come across this, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him.

Okay, let us figure this into all the matter here about Moses. This is a rather black mark against Moses. Consider: He was supposed to be the Israelite, the leader of the Israelites, the one that they all looked to and followed, and he had failed to circumcise his son. It says that he took his sons, but in the passage there, it says it was just one son that was circumcised. So maybe he had circumcised the one, but not the other. Shows a little double mindedness. Or maybe he was really busy. I do not know. But for some reason, he did not circumcise this particular son.

Do you realize what that was? Failure to circumcise his son was a sign of rejection of the Abrahamic covenant that all Israelites were supposed to do. All Israelite men were to be circumcised as a sign of the covenant. That they were in agreement with God and what God was going to do with the people of Abraham. God met him and tried to kill him because he could not allow His servant to disobey this most basic part of the bond between Him and His people. This is right at the base of belief at that time, right at the base of that fellowship, that communion with God, and Moses had failed. He had sinned in this by not circumcising his son.

Exodus 4:24-26
Excerpted from: The Doctrine of Israel (Part Two): The Old Covenant

But circumcision, they knew, was a required thing and perhaps they forgot it a little bit during the enslavement in Egypt. God reminded Moses very forcibly in Exodus 4:24-26 that he needed to circumcise his son and so Zipporah did that for him, much to her consternation. Then the Passover requirements that are given in Exodus 12 explicitly forbids any uncircumcised person to partake of it. So they must have undergone a forced, if you will, circumcision of all adult males at that time, right around Passover before they left Egypt. It was performed again as they entered the Promised Land under Joshua, in Joshua 5. So we have these instances in the Pentateuch of circumcision being done.

Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing Exodus 4:26:

Genesis 49:5-7

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