Standing Outside

Have you ever even heard of Zipporah?  Oh, come on this is for a gold star in Bible trivia!  She is Moses’ wife.  Let’s take some time to get to know her.  Look at Exodus 4:18-20.

“After this Moses returned to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, ‘Let me go back, please, to my kinsmen in Egypt, to see whether they are still living.’  Jethro replied, ‘Go in peace.’  In Midian the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go back to Egypt, for all the men who sought your life are dead.’  So Moses took his wife and sons, and started back to the land of Egypt, with them riding an ass.  The staff of God he carried with him.”

What do we know so far about Zipporah?  She is the daughter of Jethro, who is not a Hebrew.  We know this because Moses is in Midian.  He fled there from Egypt after murdering an Egyptian.

Zipporah’s issue is that she is an outsider.

The dictionary describes an outsider as a “person who doesn’t belong to your group, someone not expected to win, an outcast.”

Zipporah was not part of God’s covenant family.

Let’s look at what she does.  Read Exodus 4:24-26.

“On the journey, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord came upon Moses and would have killed him.  But Zipporah took a piece of flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and, touching his person, she said, ‘You are a spouse of blood to me.’”

Remember that in Genesis God commanded the Hebrew people to circumcise their sons as a sign of their covenant with God.  Here we see Moses about to lead the Hebrew people and he has failed to mark his son for God.  The footnote in my Bible explains God is angry at Moses for failing to obey the command given in Genesis 17.  God spares Moses when Zipporah (who had nothing to do with the covenant) circumcises her son.

Even though Zipporah was not part of the Hebrew culture, she was instrumental in saving Moses.  She is the one who brought her son into God’s covenant family.

This begs the question, how do you treat outsiders?  In this case, an outsider, Zipporah was instrumental in God’s plan.  When we exclude people, we risk shutting off all that they offer us, which can be valuable.

People of faith are often most guilty of excluding people who don’t share the same beliefs.  Are you among these?  Do you shelter yourself from people who think differently than you?  Why?  What are you afraid of?

Ask yourself:

Do I include outsiders in my life?

Do I surround myself with people who think like me?  Or do I enjoy people who challenge my way of thinking?

Do I associate with people of other faiths?  Or do I judge them?

Where do I feel like an outsider?  Why?