Types of the Bride of Christ: Zipporah

Zipporah was the wife of Moses and the daughter of Reuel, who was the priest of Midian.  She was one of Jethro’s seven daughters.  There is far less written about her than other bride types, yet there is still much to glean from Scripture.

After killing an Egyptian who struck a Hebrew, Moses fled to Midian.  There he helped Zipporah and her sisters who were being pushed away from a well as they were trying to get water for their flock.  This is reminiscint of Rebekah, another type of the bride of Christ, who also meets her bridegroom by the well. 

Reuel opens his home to Moses and gives him Zipporah as a wife — a Gentile bride.  We see a similar pattern with Asenath, the Gentile bride given to Joseph (another type for Christ) who was also the daughter of a priest.  Zipporah coming out of her family of seven sisters has been compared to the bride coming out from the church.  Zipporah was also given to Moses during the time of his rejection.

Zipporah and Moses had a son named Gershom, “for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.” (Exodus 2:23)  Their second son was Eliezer, which means God is my help.  When Moses returns to Egypt, Scripture tells us that the Lord “met him and tried to kill him.” (Exodus 4:24)  The Hebrew verb for “kill” used here is also sometimes used to mean the death of wisdom.  Blumenthal writes: “At this moment what God expressed to Moses by threatening to “kill” him is the demand that the prophet dedicate himself totally and irrevocably to the people he is about to lead.”     

That may explains what happens next.  Zipporah takes a sharp stone and cuts off the foreskin of her son (which one we do not know, some suggest her firstborn) and casts it to touch Moses’ feet, saying, “Surely a bloody husband art thou to me” (Exodus 4:24-26).  Extra sources tell us that Moses had failed to circumcise one of his sons, because Zipporah was opposed to it.  As far as we can tell, however, she was the first woman of the Bible to circumcise her son. 

The NET Bible notes suggest that Zipporah was telling Moses, “I have delivered you from death, and your return to life makes you my bridegroom a second time, this time by blood bridegroom, a bridegroom acquired by blood.”  Christ is our bridegroom acquired by blood, but I need to dig deeper because I think there is more to this passage that is not yet clear. 

Later, Zipporah is secure at her father’s house during the time when God delivers His judgments on Egypt.  This is a type for the bride being raptured and spared during the tribulation period.   

Chitwood writes in “The Bride in Genesis,” “Zipporah did not accompany Moses to Egypt when he appeared to his brethren the second time and was not present during any of this dealings with his brethren in Egypt… she was separated from Moses during this time and reunited with him only after the Exodus.”  

I know this post is about Zipporah, but in reading Exodus 4, I had to chuckle as Moses tries his best (three times) to back out of what the Lord has asked him to do.  We all may have doubts at times, but I cannot imagine actually standing before the Lord, trying to convince Him to change His mind!