A Blog by Jeremy Metzger

January 19, 2017

EXODUS 4-6

Focus Verse: “At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. ‘Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,’ she said. So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said ‘bridegroom of blood,’ referring to circumcision.)

Exodus 4:24-26

So much stuff in the reading for today! Trying to pick a focus verse today was so difficult. Naturally, in true Jeremy fashion, I decided to go with the most difficult passage. Anyone with an extensive background in Hebrew traditions and scripture, please feel free to weigh in here!

During the reading today I was just drawn to this passage. How can you ignore that phrase “bridegroom of blood”? It sounds like the name of some screaming metal band…maybe it is. Anyone with an extensive background in screamo-metal music, please feel free to weigh in.

I did a little research into this passage, and lo and behold, it is indeed described as “arguably the single most bizarre and baffling passage in all of the Hebrew Bible” (J. Kirsch, Moses: A life). There are so many questions surrounding the passage. Was God going to kill Moses or one of his sons (the Hebrew translation only uses the pronoun “he”)?

Which son was God going to kill? Which son did Zipporah circumcise? Why was Zipporah the one so aware of God’s impending judgment and not Moses? Was God really going to put a stop to his plan to rescue Israel because Moses forgot to circumcise one of his children?

But on top of all of these questions (of which I am going to do the really annoying thing and answer none of them!) stands this term, “bridegroom of blood”. How can you think of anyone but Jesus Christ after reading that term?

The Hebrew (and please keep in mind, I am no Hebrew scholar, this is a very simple breakdown, so if you know more about this, please feel free to comment) for this is hatan damim. Hatan is the same word used in Isaiah 62:5, a passage very think with Messianic prophecy. Damim is a little more complicated. It is translated simply as blood, but the majority of the time it is used has more to do with being guilty of shedding blood.

Zipporah is telling Moses that he is the husband who is guilty of bloodshed. Isn’t that exactly what Jesus became for us? Even though he had absolutely no sin, even though he is the only human to be completely free of any guilt what so ever, Jesus Christ became our hatan damim, our Bridegroom of Blood, shedding His own blood so that we can be forgiven, so that we can be washed clean.

Moses was a hatan damim because he failed to keep God’s covenant…aren’t we all?

Jesus was THE Hatan Damim because WE failed to keep God’s covenant.

What a Savior!