“The Unwilling Surgeon”

Thursday, December 22, 2016

After Zipporah took a flint knife and cut off her son's foreskin, why did she touch Moses’ feet with it?

Sincerely,
Not A Doctor

Dear Not A Doctor,

Zipporah didn’t touch Moses’ feet with the foreskin; she cast the foreskin at his feet (Ex 4:25).  Zipporah threw the circumcised foreskin at Moses’ feet because it was Moses’ Hebrew heritage that required the circumcision.  Moses was a descendant of Abraham, and all of Abraham’s descendants needed to be circumcised because of the covenant between God and Abraham (Gen 17:10-11).  Zipporah was not a Hebrew from birth – it was her marriage to Moses that forced her to circumcise their son.  That is why she threw the circumcised foreskin at Moses’ feet and told him that he was her “groom of blood” (Ex 4:26).  Her marriage to Moses forced her to shed her own son’s blood in circumcising him.

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