Why did God seek to kill Moses?

This strange story about Moses raises several questions: Did God really try—and fail—to destroy Moses? Did the Lord swing at Moses and miss? What’s really going on here? Let’s step back and look at the larger context of this surprising Bible passage. As a young man, Moses had been trained in all the ways of Egypt. But after killing an Egypti

an taskmaster, he had to run for his life. Moses spent the next 40 years in the land of Midian as a shepherd. There he learned about taking care of sheep, which helped prepare him to shepherd God’s people out of Egypt. But Moses had important spiritual lessons to learn as well. After God spoke to him from the burning bush, calling him to be a deliverer, Moses headed off to Egypt with his wife and oldest son to meet with his brother Aaron. It was on this trip that God confronted Moses.

Here is the pivotal point in the story: Moses neglected to obey God’s instructions regarding circumcision—a sign given to Abraham as a way to show devotion to the God of Israel. Moses was not living the truth he was going to profess. He was to be God’s man in Egypt, but he had not been God’s man in his own household.

The reason it says “the Lord sought to kill him” might be because he encountered an angel of judgment along the road as a warning, perhaps much like Balaam faced. Some translations read, “The Lord was about to slay him.”

We don’t know exactly why this ritual had not been performed, but it appears that his wife thought the rite was barbaric. Whatever the case, Moses had not taken this important step of obedience to God. The mark of circumcision was not just a physical sign to the Hebrews, but a spiritual sign of accepting a covenant made with the Lord. Just as the blood of the Passover lamb smeared on the doorposts marked the culmination of the Exodus, so this blood of the circumcision of Moses’ son marked its beginning.

Key Bible Texts

And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. (Exodus 4:24 KJV)