A Bridegroom of Blood: Moses, Zipporah, and the Unequally Yoked Home | Exodus 18 Study

Introduction
The story of Moses and Zipporah is not often held up as a model of biblical marriage. It’s tucked between the dramatic scenes of Moses’ call at the burning bush and his confrontations with Pharaoh in Egypt. But buried in those early chapters of Exodus is a moment so sharp and sobering that it nearly ends the entire redemptive story before it starts. In Exodus 4:24–26, Moses—the chosen deliverer of Israel, the man of God—is almost put to death by the Lord for failing to circumcise his son. It is Zipporah, his Midianite wife, who intervenes and performs the act with visible disgust, calling her husband “a bridegroom of blood.”

It's a passage that makes modern readers uncomfortable. But for pastors, husbands, and dating couples, it ought to do something deeper—it ought to make us terrified of unequal yoking, sober about spiritual compromise, and urgent about godly alignment in the home.
This article is not a character assassination of Zipporah. Nor is it an argument for male superiority or spiritual perfection in marriage. It is, however, a biblical warning drawn from historical and theological realities: Moses was unequally yoked. It nearly cost him his life. It disrupted his leadership. It weakened his legacy. And it should cause every believer—especially men—to take stock of the spiritual climate of their homes.


The Unequally Yoked Marriage
“Moses was content to dwell with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.”
—Exodus 2:21

When Moses fled Egypt, he landed in Midian, married a woman from outside the covenant community, and built a life among people who had long drifted from the faith of Abraham. The Midianites were descended from Abraham through Keturah (Gen. 25:1–2), but by Moses’ time they were steeped in syncretism and pagan worship. Jethro, Zipporah’s father, was a priest in this system—likely a tribal elder who retained some memory of El or Elohim, but without allegiance to Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel.

Moses married Zipporah in that context. We have no record of her converting, submitting to Yahweh, or embracing the Abrahamic covenant. Her people were not known for obedience to God's law. And although the marriage might have appeared noble on the outside—rooted in kindness and cultural hospitality—it was spiritually divided at its core.

This is the definition of being unequally yoked (2 Cor. 6:14). A man of faith, bearing God’s calling and mission, joins himself to a woman with no evidence of regeneration, spiritual hunger, or covenant identity. The consequences unfold quickly.


The Circumcision Incident (Exodus 4:24–26)
“At a lodging place on the way the LORD met him and sought to put him to death.”
—Exodus 4:24

After God calls Moses at the burning bush and commissions him to lead Israel out of Egypt, Moses sets out—but something is horribly wrong. Though Moses has received God’s Word, he has not obeyed it. His own son remains uncircumcised, a direct violation of God’s command (Gen. 17:14).

God meets Moses to execute judgment. This isn't symbolic. It is the fierce wrath of a holy God directed toward a man who has been entrusted with His covenant but has failed to apply it in his own home.

Zipporah intervenes. She grabs a flint knife, circumcises their son, and throws the foreskin at Moses' feet with a bitter declaration:
“You are a bridegroom of blood to me!”

There is no joy, no reverence, no worship in her obedience. It’s raw and reactive. She acts not out of faith but out of frustration, likely to spare her husband's life. Then she disappears from the narrative—sent away, as Exodus 18:2 later reveals.

John MacArthur: “She seemed to resent the ritual of circumcision... This may well be why Moses sent her back.”

Matthew Henry: “It seems she did not relish the ordinance of circumcision, and perhaps Moses was too indulgent to her.”

This is the clearest biblical picture we have of a marriage divided by covenantal commitment. The man is chosen by God. The woman resents the sign of the covenant. The marriage doesn’t implode—but it does fracture. And it deeply affects the course of Moses’ life and ministry.

The Divided Household
Zipporah does not accompany Moses to Egypt. She is absent from the great moments of divine deliverance—the plagues, the Red Sea, Sinai. While Moses intercedes for the people, Zipporah is nowhere to be found. We only see her again briefly in Exodus 18 when Jethro brings her and their two sons to visit—and then she disappears from Scripture entirely.

Moses walks alone. He bears the burden of leadership without the help of a godly wife. Zipporah is neither a spiritual ally nor a co-laborer in God’s mission. And though Scripture never blames Moses for this directly, the silence is deafening.

Imagine what he could have gained from a wife like Sarah, or Hannah, or Priscilla. Imagine the help of a woman who feared the Lord, discipled her sons, loved the covenant, and upheld her husband’s arms as he led God’s people.

Instead, we have silence.

And then—later—we have apostasy.


Pastoral Warnings for Dating and Marriage
1. To Dating Couples

• Do not even consider a relationship with someone who is spiritually disengaged.
• Emotion, beauty, personality—these things are not covenant signs.
• A girlfriend who “says she believes in God” but doesn’t love Scripture, doesn’t fear the Lord, doesn’t submit to His Word—is not fit to be a wife.
• Don’t play the missionary dating game. You’ll regret it.

2. To Married Men with Spiritually Cold Wives

• You must lead anyway.
• Don’t follow your wife’s spiritual temperature—set it.
• Apply 1 Corinthians 7:12–16 with wisdom, clarity, and endurance.
• Don’t abandon, but don’t enable nominalism.
• “Sanctify your wife”—but do not sanitize her unbelief.

3. To Pastors and Elders

• You cannot disciple the church if you’ve neglected your home.
• Your wife does not need to be perfect—but she must be converted.
• She doesn’t need to teach or lead—but she must love the Lord and support the gospel.
• If not, then you must evaluate your own ministry. A man who does not have a “well-managed home” (1 Tim. 3:4–5) is not qualified to shepherd God’s church.
• And if you are unequally yoked—or enabling compromise in your home—you may need to step down from leadership before your “Jonathan” comes.
• Because that’s the natural end: when leadership is compromised at home, legacy will be compromised in the next generation.

Thomas Watson: “A godly man must not lay his head in the lap of a Delilah.”


Conclusion
Moses was a friend of God. A prophet like no other. A man of humility and might. But even he bore the pain of a divided household. He married outside the covenant. He lived with the consequences. His wife resisted his calling. His children did not carry his legacy.

And God nearly struck him down because the sign of the covenant had been neglected in his own home.

This article is not about shaming godly men with struggling marriages. It’s a warning and a call to arms:

• Don’t be passive.
• Don’t compromise.
• Don’t confuse affection with alignment.

Marry in the Lord. Lead in the Lord. Sanctify your home in the Lord.

It is better to wait alone in holiness than to walk together outside the covenant.