The Women of Exodus: Zipporah
This artwork is a print of an etching by Dutch artist Anthonie Waterloo. The action of the piece takes place in the lower right corner of an idyllic scene, unlike the environment where the biblical event took place. Waterloo chose to illustrate an event that is not often addressed in art or in sermons about the Exodus. Moses and his Midianite wife Zipporah have a son and take him with them when travelling back to Egypt to free the Hebrew people. They rest for the night, and “the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him” (Exodus 4:24). Zipporah somehow understands the situation and takes immediate action—she grabs a knife and circumcises the boy! Her action saves Moses’s life. Zipporah follows in the pattern we have seen thus far in the early pages of Exodus, God uses women to bravely intervene and save the life of Moses before he becomes the savior of his people.