Is Your Heart Circumcised?

I heard an excellent sermon last Sunday. The most intellectually satisfying as well as impactful part of the sermon had to do with the explanation of one of the most peculiar passages in the entire bible. I have read this short few verses many times and my response was always to park it and hopefully some day I would have a better understanding of it. These verses are found in Exodus 4 verses 24-26:

"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.)"

Context:

• Moses was raised as an Egyptian so he most likely never had circumcision as the other Jews living in Egypt. After he married and had a first born son Gershom he likely never circumcised him either.
• He married Zipporah who was the daughter of Jethro, a Midian priest, whose ancestor can be traced back to Cain (see Wikipedia's explanation of the history of the Kenite). The significance of this is that Zipporah probably knew the importance of circumcision as a sign of covenantal relationship with the God of Israel.
• When the text says that "The Lord met Moses and was about to kill him", it probably meant that Moses was quite ill and was about to die. This event happened following a lengthy discourse between God calling Moses to go back to Egypt to rescue his people and Moses' multiple excuses for not obeying. Between chapters 3 and 4 we can find five excuses and God's five responses to Moses (taken from sermon note):

1. I'm nobody special. (Who said you need to be. I will be with you.)
2. I'm no theologian. (You know me, and that's enough.)
3. What if they don't believe? (Don't worry. Leave that up to me.)
4. I don't talk good. (I will be with you and help you.)
5. I don't want to. (I will give you others to help you.)

• So when Moses finally agreed to go back to Egypt and had fallen extremely ill, Zipporah decided that there was one very important thing she needed to do - to circumcise her son as well as Moses. "Touching Moses' feet" in the cultural context likely meant touching Moses' penis, symbolizing circumcision.

This became a bible story because it can teach us important lessons. We no longer practice circumcision as an outward sign to enter into a Covenant Relationship with God. Jesus has changed all that. What is more important is the circumcision of the heart. These two important biblical passages explained this well:

The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. (Deuteronomy 30:6)

A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God. (Romans 2:28-29)

Our disobedience to God's call to do His will will likely include similar excuses above and if we listen to Him we will hear His reassuring responses. I found these application questions very helpful and worth remembering when I sense God's call in my heart:

• What excuses am I making?
• What is that in my hand? (This is in reference to Moses' staff - an ordinary shepherd's stick, which God used multiple times to perform His miracles!)
• What am I leaving undone? (For Moses, it meant obedience to be circumcised physically; for me there maybe little things that I have kept away from God)
• What do I need from God to help me?

So I find the Apostle Paul's words reassuring and inspiring:
"And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power." (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)