Zipporah
Mostly known for being the wife of Moses, and daughter of the wise and kind Jethro, priest of Midian. She seems to have little identity of her own except for a few moments that tells us more about her rather than the men she walked with.
One of seven sisters, she was a shepherdess watering her flock, dealing with some lecherous male shepherds, when a knight in shining robes shooed them away and watered the sheep for them all. They go home and tell dad what happened, and he who has seven daughters says… oh my goodness, go and bring him back here!
I wonder if Zipporah was over the moon that of all the sisters, she was the one to marry the Egyptian prince. Life settles down, Moses tends to the sheep now and she looks after the children and the home.
I can only imagine the pain of being wed to someone who always wished he were somewhere else, that for forty years never felt at home. Even when your partner says the right things – on some other level I think you know when a piece of their heart wants more than your life together is providing.
Naming your children accordingly must have felt like a stab to the heart. So you can imagine the conflict in her when after all this time your husband returns with a light in his eyes, when he speaks animatedly and with passion for the first time you have ever seen it. Only then do you realise that the price of this answered prayer will cost you all the stability and security that you have taken for granted your entire life.
Can you imagine the “You want to do what???” conversation, the same one Noah had probably with his wife, Lots wife, Sarah… and so many since in response to a calling God has placed on our families.
But she packs up the donkeys, packs up the children, says her goodbyes to her dear father, sisters, nephews and nieces and leaves for Egypt. The place her husband had run from in fear of his life into the safety of her familys arms.
At an Inn along the way, there’s an encounter that isn’t much described in the scripture, but tells us so much about the relationship she has with her husband and with his God. We are told an angel comes and threatens the life of, we think Moses, or though it could possibly be Gershom the son. Zipporah instantly grabs a flint and circumcises her son and saves Moses’s life. I may be reading this wrong but it seems to me she almost growls at Moses “you are a bridegroom of blood to me”
I think Zipporah is angry with God, the sons hadn’t been circumcised, a mark of the covenant with Abraham, the one physical mark that said you were an Israelite, that Yahweh was your God. I think Zipporah had been the one to put a stop to that; perhaps it seemed barbaric or cruel to her. And Moses had kinda shrugged and said, “We’ll talk about this another time.”
Zipporah, we think turns back with the children to Midian, it may have been then or later but she doesn’t do the plagues and the red sea part of the journey we don’t think. Its some time later as they near the foot of Mount Sinai that Jethro brings her and the children back to be with Moses.
I think we often need time out don’t we, when things have been hard and painful. Jethro is all about how wonderful Yahweh is now, I wonder if Zipporah has come around to believing that too. Perhaps she had to have her own time in the wilderness asking the Lord “Why my husband?” “Why me?” “why is this so hard” “ when I prayed for the conversion of his heart I meant to us, Lord, not to you”
I wonder if when she arrived and saw the 1000s of people that her husband had been called to free, she saw there was a bigger picture, that there was a purpose to her sacrifice of a comfortable, stable life. I wonder if she had her own burning bush moment that saw not a God of unreasonable demands and apparent disregard for her but a God who would move the earth to free his children, who would accompany them to the promise given, a God who heard the cry of His people and responded. Did she get on board? We will never know.
We don’t know if she died and Moses remarried, but if you recall, Miriam was taken down a peg after gossiping about Moses’s wife. This could of course be referring to Zipporah as the term Cush can mean a wide variety of things. Either way, God backs Zipporah; her faithfulness and part in the story are as valued as every single Hebrew-blooded woman there.
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