Exodus 4:25-26

Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

These verses show us just how serious this moment really was. Moses had delayed obedience, and now Zipporah is forced to step into a situation that never should have reached this point. The language makes it plain that she had no love for circumcision. She resented it. She recoiled from it. And that may well explain why Moses had put this off for so long. It is very possible that the pressure came from home, and Moses yielded where he should have stood firm. If so, his compromise nearly cost him his life.

That gives this passage a sharp edge. A man cannot surrender spiritual leadership in his home simply because obedience creates tension. Moses appears to have avoided conflict, but avoiding conflict did not produce peace. It only postponed the crisis until it became unbearable. In that sense, the Lord was showing him that neglect in his primary ministry would drain the strength and meaning out of everything else he was called to do. Before Moses could ever lead a nation, he had to lead in his own house.

Zipporah did what Moses should have done earlier, and because she did, his life was spared. But the whole scene is marked by bitterness. She obeyed under pressure, not from shared conviction. That is often what happens when spiritual leadership is delayed. What should have been handled quietly, clearly, and prayerfully at the right time turns into something painful and resentful later on. Delay makes things harder than they had to be.

There is also a picture here for us. Hebrews 4:12 says the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. The Word is what cuts through the flesh. The Word is what deals with what is stubborn, resistant, and carnal in us. That is why Deuteronomy 6:6-7 tells us that God’s words are to be in our hearts first, and then taught diligently to our children in the ordinary flow of life. At home. On the road. At bedtime. In the morning. In other words, the shaping of a family is not mainly done through occasional big moments, but through steady exposure to the Word of God over time.

That is still the answer. The Word, the Word, the Word. Psalm 119:9 asks, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” and answers, “by taking heed thereto according to thy word.” The cleansing power is not in our cleverness, our personality, our speeches, or our pressure tactics. It is in the Scriptures brought near, opened often, and lived out faithfully.

And the enemy will always try to whisper the same lie: it is too late, too broken, too tense, too far gone. But this passage says otherwise. Even here, at a late and dangerous moment, obedience still mattered. Action still mattered. The sword still had power. So no, it is not too late to bring the Word of God back into the center of your home. It is not too late to pray with your family, read with your family, speak of the Lord in ordinary moments, and establish that honoring God is not optional.

A family does not need a famous ministry in order to be a fruitful one. It needs the presence of God, the truth of God, and a man or woman willing to keep putting the Word before those under their care. That is not a small work. That is holy work. And for many of us, that is the first congregation God has entrusted to us.