Who was Zipporah in the Bible?

Daughter of Reuel, or Jethro, and wife of Moses. Apparently she circumcised her second son, and declared that Moses was 'a husband of blood' to her. She had been sent back during the tribulation and deliverance of Israel, and then was brought by Jethro with her two sons to Moses. Jethro is a type of the Gentile rejoicing in the deliverance of Israel, and bringing back the loved remnant thereof in the last days. Ex. 2:21; Ex. 4:25; Ex. 18:2.

Zipporah was one of the seven daughters of a Midianite priest called Reuel (Ex. 2:16.18). Moses met her when he fled to Midian to live there (v.15). It is interesting to consider why Moses had to flee. It does say the Moses fled from Pharaoh (v.15) but the context brings out a further aspect, namely that his brethren had rejected him. When Moses saw two Hebrew men who were quarrelling and reprimanded the guilty one he was told: “Who made thee ruler and judge over us? dost thou intend to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian?”. It was, as a matter of fact, this opposition from the side of his own people that put him in danger with Pharaoh.

At that point in time, Moses had not been recognised as leader of Israel who would liberate the people, and this brings us to the first point in relation to Zipporah: she was the bride given to Moses in the days of his rejection. Similarly, the church now [1] is the bride given to the Lord Jesus during the time in which He is rejected by Israel.

You will recall that in Exodus 2:21, we read of Moses' marriage to Zipporah, daughter of Reuel (Ex. 2:18), or Jethro (Ex. 18:5). We must remember that Zipporah was a Gentile woman; and I hope that at some time you will each read and enjoy Mr. J. G. Bellett's remarks about the line of famous Gentile women that entered into the most illustrious places in Israel. Zipporah was one of this remarkable line, which tells out to those who have ears to hear, of the Gentile bride that our Lord is preparing for Himself at the present time.

Moses had two sons, Gershom (A Stranger There) and Eliezer (My God is an Help), names which bear bright witness to the true and faithful heart of their father. In Exodus 4:24, 26 we have a hint that all was not well in Moses' own household, and evidently Zipporah refused to allow the sons to be circumcised, for to her, apparently, it appeared to be a cruel, unnecessary custom. But Zipporah not only was quite out of her place of subjection, but quite wrong in choosing her own way, instead of bowing to God's order. But before God could use His servant this must be set right, and his household, as well as he himself, must bear the mark which testifies of death. Finally, to save her husband's life, Zipporah herself performs the act on her sons, but with the complaint: "Surely a bloody husband art thou to me!" It is well for us to remember that we cannot with impunity set aside God's order, even though we may prefer our own way. Both Aaron's family and Moses' family tell us that we may not trifle, or choose our own path, in the things of God. Well is it indeed when father and mother together, with one heart, can join in acknowledging through God's method, that death and blood-shedding is the only portion that is due by right to our offspring.

Second son of Moses and Zipporah, so named by Moses because 'God' had been 'his help.' He, with his mother and his brother were left in the care of Jethro until after the Exodus, when they joined Moses in the wilderness. Ex. 18:4; 1 Chr. 23:15, 17; 1 Chr. 26:25.

Eldest son of Moses and Zipporah, born in Midian. Ex. 2:22; Ex. 18:3; Judges 18:30 (see MANASSEH); 1 Chr. 23:15-16; 1 Chr. 26:24.

What could he do but escape from Egypt entirely? He took a long journey to Midian, possibly nearly one hundred miles, thus being separated altogether from his own people Israel as well as from Egypt. How intense must have been his loneliness! But it was God who had led him there. Sitting down to rest by a well, he witnessed a scene that again stirred his concern for those who were oppressed. Seven daughters of one man, the priest of Midian, came to water their father's flock of sheep, but other shepherds came to drive them away. Moses took up the cause of the weak, helping the young women and watering their flock (v. 17).

When they told their father, Reuel, of the Egyptian who had helped them, he answered them, “And where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread” (v. 20). This hospitality developed into an arrangement pleasing to Moses, that he might make his home with Reuel. From Reuel's family Moses then received his wife, Zipporah, who bore him a son, to whom he gave the name Gershom, meaning “a stranger here.”

At first Moses' service to those Midianitish women meets no requital, even as Joseph's to the chief butler; but it must not remain so. Reuel, their father, sends for him in virtue of his service to his daughters, provides a home for him, and gives him his daughter Zipporah to wife: and we read, "she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land."

Having reached Midian, Moses sat down by a well situated in a place of pasture. This well was used by the shepherds for watering the flocks, and presently seven shepherdesses drew near. The shepherds drove them away from the coveted water, whereupon Moses stood up, held back the shepherds, and then drew water for these daughters of Jethro.

As he sat by the well, came the seven daughters of Reuel with their father's flock. But the shepherds drove them away from the troughs they sought to fill for watering the sheep. Moses interposed, and so helped the maidens that they returned soon enough to excite their father's inquiry how it came to pass, and a message sent that the stranger should partake of his hospitality. The gift of his daughter as wife followed, and the birth in due time of a son, whose name expressed the father's sense of strangership in a foreign land, in striking contrast with Joseph's forgetfulness of all his toil and all his father's house, under similar circumstances.

"And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their burdens; and he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he turned this way and that way, and when he saw that [there was] no man, he smote the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. And he went out the second day, and, behold, two Hebrew men were quarrelling; and he said to him that was in the wrong, Why art thou smiting thy neighbour? And he said, Who made thee ruler and judge over us? Dost thou intend [say] to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, Surely, the matter is known. And Pharaoh heard of this matter and sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from before Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian. And he sat by the well. And the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew [water], and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses rose and helped them, and watered their flock. And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, Why are ye come so soon today? And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew abundantly for us, and watered the flock. And he said to his daughters, And where [is] he? Why then have ye left the man behind? Call him that he may eat bread. And Moses consented to stay with the man; and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she bore a son, and he called his name Gershom [a sojourner there]; for he said, I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.