Dear Zipporah,
I guess that people would expect me to write to Moses
regarding these two chapters but I want to think about it from your point of
view as the wife of somebody who has been called.
I want to start with the end of chapter four where the Lord
comes to Moses and tries to kill him and so you cut off your son’s foreskin and
touch Moses feet with it.
My view of this incident has always been wtf….why? But
having read through Genesis first I can understand this a little bit more. In
doing this you were making it clear that both you and Moses son were going to
be living by Israelite rather than Midianite customs. You move from the tribe
of Midian where your father was a priest into the tribe of Levi which Moses was
part of through this action. Quite why you had to touch Moses with the foreskin
I don’t get, but you obvious thought this was important. I am not sure if it
would have been a cultural action too.
In order to stop the Lord killing Moses you had to intervene
and show your loyalty. I think this may have been a test for you, the Lord may
have been checking whether you were going to be able to handle what Moses was
being called into.
I say this as the wife of a trainee Methodist presbyter who
has not been called in the dramatic way Moses has and is not likely to have to
do the sort of things Moses did, but still has been called into a life which
involves turning everything upside down. The following of that call depends not
just on the one who is called but also their partner. Whilst I do not intend to
be a “clergy spouse” of the type many think of I have had to change my life as
a result of my husband’s calling, just as you were.
In terms of that call and encounter with God it is clear
that you got it and understood. What was it like when Moses came home and
described it all to you? I can imagine him stammering it out with lots of
hesitations and asking you if you thought he was mad. You knew him and knew his
strengths and weaknesses were. I guess that when God got a bit mad with him for
using the speech issue it would have hit very deep with Moses. I get the feeling
that it would have been something he knew was a weaknesses and he was just
trying to be reasonable with God. Your role would have been to reassure him.
When my own husband was called I found the calling of your
husband and indirectly yourself useful. You see when God called Moses we know
he was calling somebody who didn’t have a perfect past and may not have been
the one who people might have initially thought of. You were somebody who
supported him knowing him faults and all and knowing that you were potentially
somebody who wouldn’t fit in, as a Midianite.
My husband is a bit different too. He is a trans man
amongst other things & I am certainly not your typical potential ministers
wife, (not that I really think the typical exists beyond stereotypes). We are
the type of people who might genuinely ask God if he has made a mistake or is he sure he doesn't want somebody who fits in with the Christian ideal that many people have a little more.
Whilst not called to go out and do what Moses did or
anything near it we do feel we are on this journey because God has called him
to give up his own comfort to work alongside others, particularly the
marginalised. At the same time there may be situations where he is called to
speak the truth to power in order to improve the situation of the marginalised.
This is scary, but God is opening up ways for him to be trained in this, which
might surprise people.
I know I said yesterday some stories need to be left and
read as just that. However, others can be connected with on a personal level.
These chapters connect with me in a way which is specific and clear. I am
called to support my husband just as you were called to support yours because
God has called them to turn our lives upside down for his glory and work and to
help others.
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