Jethro’s position as priest of Midian reveals that the Truth had survived and even flourished amongst some of Abraham’s ‘Arabian’ descendants while it was completely absent in Canaan and in serious decline in Egypt. When Moses first fled to Midian, therefore, he was coming to an ‘ecclesia’, much as Jacob had done many years before when he fled to Haran. The providential encounter with the daughters of Jethro at the well (Ex. 2:15-20) is strongly reminiscent of Eliezer’s selection of Rebekah for Isaac (Gen. 24:10-24) and Jacob’s first meeting with Rachel (29:1-12), and we can be sure that Yahweh had guided him to the most spiritual family in the land. Zipporah was therefore an eminently suitable wife for Moses, being a believer herself, and from a priestly family.
Circumcision amongst the descendants of Abraham
The Midianites, as descendants of Abraham, would still have been circumcising their male children as a sign of their faith and ethnic identity, as the Arab races do today. The descendants of Ishmael circumcise their sons in their thirteenth year because this was Ishmael’s age when baby Isaac and all the other males of Abraham’s household were circumcised (17:25). Jethro was not himself descended from Hagar, but from Keturah, Abraham’s ‘Cushite’ concubine (1 Chron. 1:32; cf. Num. 12:1). Keturah’s children were later sent to live in Arabia (Gen. 25:6), where an older age of initiation became the custom. This might then explain why only one of Moses’ sons was overdue for circumcision at the time of their return journey to Egypt (Ex. 4:25).
By way of contrast, it seems that the practice of circumcision had totally lapsed amongst Jacob’s descendants in Egypt, for, according to Exodus 12:50, “all the children of Israel” were circumcised after they came out of Egypt1 As a nation of slaves, the Israelites would have found it hard to maintain their religious and cultural traditions. The great majority of them seem to have lost all but their ethnic and tribal identities by the time they came to leave Egypt, and were serving all the idols of the land (Josh. 24:14; also Ezek. 20:7,8,16,24). It is unlikely that the people would have resorted to paganism at Mount Sinai if they had never practiced it before (Ex. 32:4; Deut. 9:12).
The final impetus to cease circumcising the baby boys may well have come around the time of Moses’ birth, when the persecution was reaching its peak and the Egyptians were killing all newborn males. Mothers were no doubt trying to hide their sons in various ways, and knew that if the babies were discovered and checked for the sign of circumcision they would meet certain death. Moses and Aaron, sons of faithful parents, were possibly among the last to be ‘done’, since all the Israelite males had to be circumcised eighty years later (see above).
Moses’ reticence
Moses had lived nearly all his early life amongst aristocratic Egyptians, whose anti-Semitic attitudes would have taught him to be very careful not to betray his Hebrew origins. From his panic-stricken flight from Pharaoh, and his reluctance to return, we can tell that he was a fearful person in some ways, and this may go some of the way to explain why he resisted the specific commandment of circumcision. It is surprising to note that, although Moses obediently circumcised the people upon leaving Egypt, he did not continue to enforce this law for the rest of the wilderness wanderings, so that the entire generation at the entrance to the Land had to be circumcised by Joshua (Josh. 5:2-9). It may also be due to this same reticence that Moses provides no reasons or excuses for why he resisted or neglected the inevitable for his own son(s).
While in Midian, Moses fathered two sons, Gershom and Eliezer (Ex. 2:22; 18:2-6), and had not circumcised one or both of them by the time he came to return to Egypt. Zipporah, raised in a culture that had retained the patriarchal traditions, may have pointed out to Moses his obligation as father and head of the family. The fact that an angel arrived to kill him (or his son) is a hint that Yahweh may have reminded Moses to comply; in preparation for his role as leader and example to the nation. There is no explanation for his procrastination, unless he was concerned for his boys’ safety in Egypt, where he feared that population control might still be exerted over the Israelites by the ‘culling’ of males.
Zipporah intervenes
While Moses delayed, or was unable, to rescue himself from the angel’s wrath, Zipporah was forced to take desperate action, and, seizing a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin (4:25). Many years later another faithful ‘daughter of Jethro’ (Judg. 4:11), Jael the Kenite, also proved to be very handy with a sharp tool when it was absolutely necessary to ‘cut off the flesh’ (v. 21).
Zipporah’s strong language when she had to do the deed herself is pitiable (Ex. 4:25,26). It is against nature for the mother to do such a thing, and Zipporah felt both shamed and angry. Jewish mothers today, although assenting to the national practice of circumcision, often stand aside and cling to female relatives while the procedure is underway, and cannot witness their babies’ pain.
The father is primarily responsible for ensuring that the operation takes place, and his baby son may be cradled in his own arms while the mohel (the Jewish term for the circumciser) does his work. Compare the New Testament account of Paul taking responsibility for the circumcision of Timothy (Acts 16:3), his own “son in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2). If the father is at all likely to faint, another senior male relative stands in, and in many places this has now become the custom.
It seems that this frightening and traumatic scene caused such a rift between Moses and Zipporah that they separated, and she and the boys went home to her father (Ex. 18:2). This does not appear to have caused any problem in Moses’ and Jethro’s excellent relationship, for they greeted each other very fondly at Mount Horeb, when Jethro brought Moses’ wife and children back to him (vv. 6,7).
Jethro’s own gracious manners (2:20) and Moses’ meekness (Num. 12:3) brought a satisfactory ending to the saga. Zipporah, in the intervening time, may have been counselled by her wise father on the value of forgiveness and cooperation. The healing passage of time, and Moses’ successful return as a strong and decisive leader, would have helped them to secure a smooth and happy reunion.
Background to a study of the Apostle Paul