F is for Feminism and Foreskins

I am now officially over a month into my seminary career, and it has been quite the ride already. 

I have learned some stuff, met some people, and read a million pages of various books.

For anyone who knows me, you know I have mastered the skill of doing as little as possible to still pass a class. That means: almost never reading, writing papers the night before, and showing up to class at least 75% of the time. 

Well, I decided this time around I would be more responsible...which means I actually have to contribute to my education and put forth effort to learn. WHAT. 

However, I am finding reading for class makes learning much easier! Imagine that. 

I am also discovering some really funny and empowering stories tucked away in the Hebrew Bible. 

L I K E  T H E  F O L L O W I N G . . .

(This picture is not entirely relevant to the rest of the post, I just like pictures)

In reading through Exodus for my Old Testament class, I came upon a gem of a passage. It includes drama, a death threat, feminism, and forced circumcision. Everything needed for a great story.

B U T  F I R S T : a quick narrative background. 

Background: Moses was a Hebrew boy born in Egypt during a time when the Pharaoh had ordered the death of every newborn Hebrew boy– the Hebrew population was growing too numerous. Being the sneaky mom she was, Moses' mother placed him in a basket and floated him along the banks of the nile. Luckily, the Pharaoh's daughter found him while bathing, raised him, and he became a prominent member in Egyptian society. 
One day Moses witnessed an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, out of anger he killed the Egyptian. When word had spread of this incident, Moses fled to the land of Midian where he gallantly saved seven sisters from creepy shepherds who tried to assert their authority over the women and steal all the water from the well. The father of the sisters was so happy he gave his daughter Zipporah in marriage to Moses. Classic patriarchy. 
He lived in Midian with his new family for quite a long time, until the famous burning bush incident- where God spoke to Moses through a burning bush telling him to leave Midian and return to Egypt to save Israel. 
So Moses, Zipporah, and their son took off for Egypt and this is where our story begins.

On the trip, at an overnight campsite, it happened that the LORD confronted
 [Moses] and sought to put him to death. So Zipporah took a flint,

cut off her son's foreskin, and threw it at Moses' feet. 

Then she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood to me!"

So the LORD let him alone.

(Exodus 4:24-25)

THIS IS THE WORD OF THE LORD. 

When I first read this, my reaction was:

"What the crap is this?"

Which slowly turned into:

"Haha, foreskins."

Which eventually became:

"FEMINISM!"

Let me give you a little more background. CIRCUMCISION was the sign of the Covenant YHWH created with Abraham – the Father of Israel. This was an outward sign of one's faithfulness to the God of Israel, so every man in the tribe was to be circumcised or be cast out. For Israel, circumcision happened on the 8th day after a boy was born to symbolize one's willingness to submit himself to YHWH. For Egypt, circumcision happened (if at all) at the age of fourteen to symbolize coming into manhood. 

If Moses was to deliver a nation who is in covenant with YHWH, and he was not practicing the commands of that covenant with his own son, that would be awkward. And if Moses was to lead the nation of Israel, he learned the hard way that he would be held under strict discipline to be an example for YHWH's people.

Now, scholars debate whether or not it was actually YHWH who threatened to kill Moses, but that is not what is important in this passage. What is important is that Moses' life was at stake and Zipporah did something about it.

Take a moment and picture what went down. Let your imagination go wild. 

What would you do if you were traveling with your family and your husband's (or your) life was threatened because your son was not circumcised? Would you have the chutzpah to circumcise your son and throw it at your spouse's feet?

Zipporah delivered Moses so Moses could deliver Israel. 

I was going to end this study here. I was going to make a claim for women empowerment and note the significance of how Zipporah appeased YHWH on Moses' behalf. However, I realized there is much more to the story.

As I reflected upon Moses' life, I realized he had a habit of being saved by women.

The Hebrew midwives honoring life when Pharaoh ordered the death of all Hebrew baby boys:

"The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women,

for they are vigorous and give birth before the 

midwife can get to them"

(Exodus 1:19)

His mother bravely defying Pharaoh's commands to keep her son alive:

The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son;
when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him
for three months. But when she could
no longer hid him, she got a papyrus basket...
She placed the child in it and set it among
the reeds by the bank of the Nile.
(Exodus 2:2-3)

The Pharaoh's daughter graciously taking Moses in as her own:

Pharaoh's daughter went down to bathe at the Nile
while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. 
Seeing the basket among the reeds, she sent her slave girl to get it. 
When she opened it, she saw the child –
a little boy, crying. 
She felt sorry for him and said,
"This is one of the Hebrew boys."


W H A T  I S  T H E  S I G N I F I C A N C E ?

In this, we see YHWH including women in the narrative of Israel's deliverance from Egypt. In the midst of Patriarchy, Moses could not have been a woman, she would not have been taken seriously or allowed the same opportunities as a man. YHWH knew this, YHWH understood the culture with which YHWH was interacting. So YHWH used women in multiple instances to save Moses' life as a means to honor them. Without the courage and resourcefulness of all these women, Israel's history might have looked different. 

From this we understand that YHWH's heart has always been and will always be for the outcasts. YHWH could have easily chosen men to save Moses' life, yet women were chosen instead. YHWH chose to include women in the Exodus narrative as a way of saying:

You are worthy enough to be in My story. 

I see value in your gifts and character. 
Even though society pushes you down, I will lift you up. 

T H E  T A K E A W A Y :

Women, be encouraged that our voices are present in the Bible. 

We just need to shift the frame through which we read in order to hear. 

Do not be ashamed if you notice something patriarchy glances over or belittles. 

Your voice and your experience matters when you read Scripture, in fact, it is valued. 

We need more women and other minorities to speak up about your experiences when reading the Bible. 

Do not let the patriarchy bring you down. 

Thank you for reading. I would love to continue in conversation if you have questions. 

- - O V E R  A N D  O U T .