Looking Deeper – Day 12: I Got Your Back!
Moses had another encounter with God in Exodus 4:24-26. He had failed to circumcise his son, which was required for all Jewish boys, so God struck him with a deadly illness. Zipporah sprang into action, circumcised her son and cast the foreskin at Moses’ feet and declared, “You are a husband of blood!” (Exodus 4:26)
At the surface level of this account it appears that Moses chose to disobey God and Zipporah had to step in and do what he should have done, however, since we are looking deeper let’s look again. Why do you think Moses chose not to obey? I believe the answer is in his dialogue with God at the burning bush. Here are his statements from Exodus 4:
- “But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.'”
- “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
- “O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send.”
Clearly, Moses was struggling with self-confidence issues. Could his lack of confidence have caused him to want to run from God and God’s plan for him? Could he have been trying to disqualify himself from God’s service because he felt so unworthy, unprepared, and unequipped? (Could your husband be feeling this way too?)
Based on Zipporah’s response, I’m thinking she may not have been pleased that she had to step in and do what Moses should have done, but because she did Moses’ life was spared and he was able to grow into the man God created him to be and do the great things God had planned for him.
Often times we can become frustrated with our husbands because we see all that God has put in them, and spoken over them, but they seem to not step up to the plate. We can even become angry when we have to step in and do something we believe they should be doing, but from Zipporah’s example we can see that stepping in for a husband that is struggling with self-confidence can make room for God to continue working in them and result in them walking into their greatness.
