Who represented "the Lord" in Exodus 4:24-26, and what's the deal with the foreskin?
score:6
To understand these verses it's helpful to read them in context. I'm using the King James Version, which seems a bit easier to understand (in particular the part about "touching" Moses' feet).
EXODUS 4:22-26 (KJV) And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn. And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.
Moses was on his way to tell Pharaoh that this time, if he didn't let Israel go, he would slay Pharaoh's firstborn. On the way, the Lord met Moses () to take his life for not fulfilling His commandment to Abraham to circumcise every male. The statement "the LORD met Moses" may have been spiritual: perhaps Moses suddenly became very sick and Zipporah discerned the cause. At any rate, the LORD was there to take Moses' life. (Note that the KJV renders LORD in all caps when referring to Jehovah, {God Above Us}, and Lord when referring to Adonai, {God With Us}).
As the King James Version reads, Zipporah cast the foreskin at Moses' feet because she was a bit of a fireball (in the best sense), and wasn't too happy with Moses at the moment. "A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision!"
Upvote:-2
Question 1 - It was an 'Angel of the LORD'. Question 2 is also answered by these verses from the 'Book of Jasher':
78 "9 And Zipporah conceived and bare a son and he called his name Gershom, for he said, I was a stranger in a foreign land; but he [Moses] circumcised not his foreskin, at the command of his father-in-law."
79 "7 And Moses hearkened to all that the Lord had commanded him, and he returned to his father-in-law and told him the thing, and (he) said to him, Go in peace. 8 And Moses rose up to go to Egypt, and he took his wife and sons with him, and he was at an inn in the road, and an angel of God came down, and sought an occasion against him. 9 And he wished to kill him on account of his first born son, because he had not circumcised him, and had transgressed the covenant which the Lord had made with Abraham. 10 For Moses had hearkened to the words of his father-in-law which he had spoken to him, not to circumcise his first born son, therefore he circumcised him not. 11 And Zipporah saw the angel of the Lord seeking an occasion against Moses, and she knew that this thing was owing to his not having circumcised her son Gershom. 12 And Zipporah hastened and took of the sharp rock stones that were there, and she circumcised her son, and delivered her husband and her son from the hand of the angel of the Lord."
Most scholars are blinded and working with limited material because they did not read the Apocrypha books and wrongly assumed that everything was captured in the Canonized works. They spend so much time debating vague lines in the KJV versus NIV versus Hebrew, versus Greek translations etc. Such a waste of precious time. What I think they could have done is cry out to God for days and days and not stop until He explained it to them or pointed them in the direction of the Apocrypha like the book of Jasher Chapter 78 & 79 (pasted above) which clearly explains that it was not a case of God trying to kill Pharaoh’s son, but Moses himself. Why is that so hard for them to believe? The Book of Jasher is an apocryphal book of the Bible that has been considered by some to be the original beginning to the Bible and is referenced in both the Book of Joshua and the Second Book of Samuel. “Is not this written in the Book of Jasher?” -Joshua 10:13. “Behold it is written in the Book of Jasher” 2 Samuel I:18. It fills in many of the details concerning biblical protagonist and their stories. I recall it being a very interesting read and it is indeed note-worthy that two biblical writer's mentioned it as a reference; a source of authority in that day (two witnesses). A must read for serious students of antediluvian and end times research. This extra biblical text helps to flesh out some of the more skeletal accounts in Scriptures.
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