Reader's Version
- Scandalous Scripture, Part Four: The Bible We Don't Read in Church
- Bridegroom of Blood
- Sermon by Gene Simco (Reader's Version)
- I heard a story about a rescue attempt from a burning building. A crowd of twelve people managed to get up to the rooftop, hoping for a helicopter escape. Sure enough, the helicopter arrived and lowered a rope to the twelve people. There were eleven men and one woman hanging on to this rope for dear life.
- But there was a problem: the helicopter wasn't able to climb because of all the weight. They quickly realized that one person had to let go; otherwise, they were all going to fall and die. They couldn't decide who should make the ultimate sacrifice until the woman gave a very touching speech.
- She announced that she would voluntarily let go of the rope. As a woman, she explained, she was used to giving up everything for her husband and her kids. She talked about sacrificing her body through pregnancy and the pains of labor, using her body to nourish her children, and giving herself to her husband just to start the cycle all over again. She declared that this final sacrifice would complete the natural cycle and the ultimate purpose of her life.
- As soon as she finished her beautiful speech, all the men started clapping their hands.
- A Disclaimer on the Popular Stories
- We are continuing in our series, Scandalous Scripture. We are looking at the weird, uncomfortable, and graphic parts of the Bible that we usually speed-read past or completely ignore in church.
- Before we jump in, a strong disclaimer for those of you who know your Bible history: we are not disregarding the popular stories. However, we are going to do a fast-forward overview of those sections to make time to look at what is normally skipped over.
- Last week, we looked at the Joseph account and Genesis 38, unpacking Judah's massive moral failures. But we noted that God miraculously redeemed this broken bloodline to bring forth the Messiah. Right before his father Jacob (Israel) dies, he blesses his sons. Over Judah, he speaks a bizarre, prophetic image of a coming King.
- Genesis 49:10-11 (NLT)
- The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from his descendants, until the coming of the one to whom it belongs, the one whom all nations will honor. He ties his foal to a grapevine, the colt of his donkey to a choice vine. He washes his clothes in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.
- This prophetic "blood of grapes" points to a coming King who will conquer and redeem through a messy, bloody sacrifice. And as we turn the page from Genesis to the book of Exodus, the story of God's people gets incredibly bloody.
- The 30,000-Foot View (The Story We Usually Tell)
- To get to the scandalous parts, we have to fast-forward through about 400 years of history. Here is the brief overview of the bridge chapters we usually teach in Sunday School to get us to where we are stopping today:
- Exodus 1: The Oppression. Joseph’s generation dies. A new Pharaoh enslaves the Israelites and worries about them overpopulating. He orders all Hebrew baby boys to be thrown into the Nile River—which, in a poetic judgment, will literally become a river of blood later on. In the midst of this, we get the incredible story of the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah. Because they feared the Lord, they courageously defied the King's order and saved the baby boys. When questioned, they told Pharaoh that the Hebrew women were too vigorous and gave birth before they could arrive. God rewarded these midwives for honoring Him.
- Exodus 2: The Birth and Flight. Moses is born to Amram and Jochebed. He is hidden in a basket, found, and adopted by Pharaoh's daughter. As an adult growing up in the palace, he murders an Egyptian, flees for his life to the desert of Midian, and marries a woman named Zipporah.
- Exodus 3 & 4: The Burning Bush. Forty years later, God speaks to Moses from a burning bush. God commands him to go back to Egypt to free His people. This is where God reveals His profound covenant name: "I AM WHO I AM." Moses tries to argue with God, making excuses that he is tongue-tied and slow of speech. God counters his excuses by appointing Moses's brother, Aaron, to act as his mouthpiece.
- The Zoom-In: The Bridegroom of Blood
- Moses finishes arguing with God, gets his staff, and finally packs up his wife and sons to head to Egypt. He is on his way to demand that Pharaoh release God's "firstborn son" (Israel) so they can go and worship.
- But there is a massive problem: Moses has a son, and he has flatly refused to circumcise him. He is in active, unrepentant rebellion against the Abrahamic covenant established back in Genesis 17.
- Right in the middle of a standard travel narrative, we get one of the most bizarre and terrifying accounts in the Bible.
- Exodus 4:24-26 (NLT)
- On the way to Egypt, at a place where Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the Lord confronted him and was about to kill him. But Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She touched his feet with the foreskin and said, “Truly, you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” (When she said “a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.) After that, the Lord left him alone.
- What in the world is happening here? God's holiness is absolute. He will not allow a hypocrite who violates the covenant to act as the deliverer of His people. Moses is a dead man walking, but his wife intervenes for him.
- Here is exactly why God was about to kill him:
- The Covenant Violation: Moses was on his way to Egypt to demand that Pharaoh release God's "firstborn son." However, Moses had a son of his own and had flatly refused to circumcise him.
- Active Rebellion: By refusing to circumcise his son, Moses was living in active, unrepentant rebellion.
- The Hypocrisy: God’s holiness is absolute. God will not allow a hypocrite who is actively violating the covenant to act as the deliverer of His people.
- Moses was failing to lead his own family in obedience to God's most foundational command for the Israelites, meaning God's wrath was imminent. It was only when his wife, Zipporah, stepped in with the flint knife and performed the circumcision—shedding the blood required by the covenant—that God's wrath was averted and Moses's life was spared.
- Moses, the great intercessor, desperately needed an intercessor—and he found one in his wife. Scandalous!
- The "Feet" Easter Egg
- The text says Zipporah touched the bloody foreskin to Moses's "feet". In biblical Hebrew, the word for feet (raglayim) is frequently used as a polite euphemism for genitalia. We see this later in scripture when Ruth uncovers Boaz's "feet," or when King Saul goes into a cave to "cover his feet".
- Many biblical scholars believe Zipporah literally took the bloody foreskin and touched it to Moses's groin. She was performing a symbolic, proxy circumcision on her husband.
- The Theological Anchor: Moses was given his life back—essentially given back to his wife as a bridegroom for a second time—because blood was shed and the covenant was honored. He was saved from the wrath of God by the sudden shedding of blood, directly applied by his bride.
- This sets up our entire theme.
- What We Normally Look At: The Magic Battle
- The overarching point of Moses's return is to ask Pharaoh to let his people go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to worship. When Moses and Aaron first confront Pharaoh, a "magic battle" ensues. Aaron throws down his staff, and it miraculously becomes a snake.
- Pharaoh's magicians step forward and are actually able to replicate these miracles, though Aaron's staff ultimately swallows theirs.
- An Easter Egg for the Bible Nerds: Exodus doesn't name these magicians, but the Apostle Paul does. In 2 Timothy 3:8, Paul writes, "Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth." Jannes and Jambres are the men battling Moses!
- The Plagues and The Passover
- After the magic battle, the plagues begin. The very first plague God sends turns the Nile River—the exact spot where the Hebrew babies were violently drowned—into blood.
- Exodus 7:14-21 (NLT)
- Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn, and he still refuses to let the people go. So go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes down to the river. Stand on the bank of the Nile and meet him there. Be sure to take along the staff that turned into a snake. Then announce to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you, “Let my people go, so they can worship me in the wilderness.” Until now, you have refused to listen to him. So this is what the Lord says: “I will show you that I am the Lord.” Look! I will strike the water of the Nile with this staff in my hand, and the river will turn to blood. The fish in it will die, and the river will stink. The Egyptians will not be able to drink any water from the Nile.’”
- Then the Lord said to Moses: “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and raise your hand over the waters of Egypt—all its rivers, canals, ponds, and all the reservoirs. Turn all the water to blood. Everywhere in Egypt the water will turn to blood, even the water stored in wooden bowls and stone pots.’”
- So Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded them. As Pharaoh and all of his officials watched, Aaron raised his staff and struck the water of the Nile. Suddenly, the whole river turned to blood! The fish in the river died, and the water became so foul that the Egyptians couldn’t drink it. There was blood everywhere throughout the land of Egypt.
- Pharaoh's magicians, Jannes and Jambres, use their magic and turn water into blood as well, so Pharaoh's heart remains hardened. Subsequent plagues follow: frogs, and then gnats. It is after the plague of gnats that Jannes and Jambres finally quit.
- The devastation continues with flies, a plague on the cattle, boils, hail and thunder, locusts, and darkness. But it all culminates in one final, terrifying plague: the death of the firstborn.
- The only thing that saves the Israelites from this final plague isn't their good behavior; it is the blood.
- Here, God institutes the Passover feast. The Israelites are commanded to remove all the yeast from their houses and cook a Passover lamb. They are to roast the lamb with bitter herbs and eat it entirely. Furthermore, they must eat it with their sandals on and their staffs in hand. The yeast and the dress code symbolize expediency—they had to be ready to leave in a hurry.
- Exodus 12:21-23 (NLT)
- Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go and select a lamb or young goat for your families and slaughter the Passover animal. Drain the blood into a basin. Then take a bundle of hyssop branches and dip it into the blood. Brush the hyssop across the top and sides of the doorframes of your houses. No one may go out through the door until morning. For the Lord will pass through the land to strike down the Egyptians. But when he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, the Lord will pass over your home. He will not permit his death angel to enter your house and strike you down.”
- When the angel of death sees the blood, wrath is averted. The people are saved because they are covered by the blood.
- Atonement and Consecration
- The primary point of the Passover sacrifice was to save the people from judgment. In the Old Testament, different sacrifices meant different things.
- Here, we see the two main types at play: Atonement and Consecration. The Passover lamb is a sacrifice of atonement—a life given to cover sin and shield the people from wrath. Later on, we will see sacrifices of consecration, where blood is used to set the priests apart for holy service.
- Ultimately, sacrifice taught Israel that sin brings death, but God, in His mercy, allows another life to stand in the sinner's place. The Old Testament sacrifices pictured it, and Jesus ultimately fulfilled it.
- The Cycle of Blood: From the Nile to the Doorpost
- The narrative arc of the plagues begins and ends with blood, creating a profound theological bookend.
- The very first plague struck the heart of Egypt's life source by turning the Nile River into blood. This was a direct, poetic judgment: the exact river where Pharaoh had previously ordered the violent drowning of Hebrew baby boys was transformed into a river of death.
- In the tenth and final plague, blood appears again, but this time its purpose is inverted. Instead of being poured out as a symbol of judgment and death, the blood of a spotless Passover lamb is painted on the wooden doorposts as a covering of salvation. The blood in the river brought God's wrath upon the oppressors, while the blood on the doorposts shielded God's people from that exact same wrath, allowing the angel of death to pass over them.
- Overview of Exodus 13–20: The Journey to Sinai
- To briefly bridge to the next section we want to look at, after the Passover, the Israelites begin their journey into the wilderness to meet with God. Here is a brief overview of what happens next:
- Exodus 13: God commands the consecration of the firstborn to remember the Passover. The Israelites officially leave Egypt, guided miraculously by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
- Exodus 14: Pharaoh changes his mind and pursues the Israelites with his army, trapping them against the Red Sea. God parts the waters, allowing Israel to cross on dry ground, but drowns the pursuing Egyptian army when the waters collapse.
- Exodus 15: Moses and Miriam lead the Israelites in a song of worship celebrating their deliverance. Shortly after, the people grumble about bitter water at Marah, which God miraculously turns sweet.
- A Note on Marah: The word "Marah" literally means "bitter." If you remember our study from last week, this ties beautifully into the story of Ruth. When Naomi returns to Bethlehem broken and empty, she tells the town, "Don't call me Naomi; call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter." But God sweetens her bitterness! Ruth, a Moabite, is redeemed by Boaz, and God miraculously weaves her right into the genealogy of Jesus.
- Exodus 16: As the people complain about starvation in the desert, God begins raining down daily provisions of bread from heaven (manna) and sending quail in the evenings. This is actually where the Sabbath is instituted.
- Exodus 17: The Israelites grumble again, this time about a lack of water at Rephidim. God commands Moses to strike a rock, and water gushes out. Later, Joshua leads the army to defeat the Amalekites while Aaron & Hur hold Moses’ hands up in the air.
- Exodus 18: Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, visits the camp. Seeing Moses exhausted from mediating every dispute, Jethro wisely advises him to appoint leaders and judges to share the burden of governing the people.
- Exodus 19: The Israelites finally arrive at the base of Mount Sinai. God descends on the mountain in a terrifying display of a thick cloud, thunder, lightning, smoke, and a trumpet blast, warning the people to consecrate themselves and not touch the mountain.
- Exodus 20: God speaks directly to the people, delivering the Ten Commandments, laying the foundational moral law for His newly redeemed nation.
- The Sprinkling of the Blood
- If we fast-forward through a whole bunch of commands, the Israelites are still at Mount Sinai, and God is establishing His formal covenant. Moses reads the Law, and the people confidently promise, "We will do everything the Lord has commanded".
- (Spoiler alert: they won't.)
- To seal this covenant, Moses sacrifices young bulls. He throws half the blood against the altar, representing God. Then, he does something scandalous.
- Exodus 24:7-8 (NLT)
- Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people. Again they all responded, “We will do everything the Lord has commanded. We will obey.” Then Moses took the blood from the basins and splattered it over the people, declaring, “Look, this blood confirms the covenant the Lord has made with you in giving you these instructions.”
- Moses literally splatters buckets of blood directly onto the congregation. The blood physically and brutally binds a holy God to a sinful people.
- The Graphic Ordination
- Right after this, God gives instructions on how to ordain Aaron and his sons as priests. To modern readers, this sounds like a strange cult ritual, but the symbolism is deeply profound.
- Exodus 29:19-21 (NLT)
- “Next take the other ram, and have Aaron and his sons lay their hands on its head. Slaughter it, and apply some of its blood to the right earlobes of Aaron and his sons. Also put it on the thumbs of their right hands and the big toes of their right feet. Splatter the rest of the blood against all sides of the altar. Then take some of the blood from the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his sons and on their garments. In this way, they and their garments will be set apart as holy.”
- This blood is applied directly to three specific places:
- The Ear: To consecrate what they hear (listening to God over the culture).
- The Thumb: To consecrate what they do (the work of their hands).
- The Toe: To consecrate where they walk (their daily path and conduct).
- The New Testament Reality: Hebrews & The Ultimate Bridegroom
- Now we get to the New Testament. We see that all these graphic, bloody moments in Exodus explode into the Gospel. The writer of Hebrews looks directly back at the moment Moses splattered the congregation.
- Hebrews 9:19-22 (NLT)
- For when Moses had read every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, using hyssop branches and scarlet wool. Then he said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” In the same way, he sprinkled blood on the Tabernacle and on everything used for worship. In fact, according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.
- We try to sanitize our faith today. We turn the cross into pretty jewelry, but biblical salvation is messy. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.
- At the Last Supper, Jesus the "blood of grapes" imagery from Genesis 49 together with the Passover.
- Luke 22:14-20 (NLT)
- When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table. Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”
- Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come.”
- He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
- After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.
- Jesus becomes the Passover Lamb Himself. This is an amazing fulfillment of the Passover. God in human form literally becomes the sacrifice that atones for all people's sins. And Jesus didn't just speak these words; hours later, He lived them on the cross.
- John the Baptist declares this perfectly about Jesus:
- John 1:29 (NLT)
- The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
- Our Passover Lamb & The Yeast of Sin
- That is exactly what Jesus does through His sacrifice on the cross, and the Apostle Paul tells us exactly who Jesus is in this story.
- 1 Corinthians 5:7 (NLT)
- Get rid of the old “yeast” by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us.
- A note on the context: It's important to tie this back to our discussion last week. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul is directly addressing a severe case of sexual sin in the church. He draws an analogy using the yeast from the Passover. Just as the Israelites had to urgently sweep every crumb of yeast out of their houses to honor the Passover, the church must remove the "yeast" of unrepentant sin from its midst. Because Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed, we cannot allow the corruption of sin to remain in the house!
- There is a profound beauty in God Himself becoming the sacrifice. We’ve looked at Philippians 2 before, which vividly describes who Jesus is and what He did for us. Although He was God, He did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited or grasped. Remember the Greek word harpagmos—the ultimate reversal of Adam's sin. Where Adam grasped and reached for equality with God to take advantage of it, Jesus emptied Himself! He assumed the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of man. And when He had come in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.
- The Crucifixion: Fulfilling the Details
- Jesus is the ultimate Passover Lamb, and the details of His crucifixion perfectly mirror Exodus 12.
- Remember how the Israelites applied the blood to the wooden doorposts? They used a bundle of hyssop branches. Moses used hyssop in the covenant ceremony, too. Now look at what happens as Jesus's blood is covering the wood of the cross.
- John 19:29 (NLT)
- A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips.
- The hyssop branch points right back to the Passover!
- The Ultimate Reversal
- Jesus is the ultimate Passover Lamb whose blood covers the wood so the wrath of God passes over us. But He is also the ultimate Bridegroom.
- Ephesians 5:25-27 (NLT)
- For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.
- In Exodus 4, the bride (Zipporah) had to shed blood to save her bridegroom (Moses) from the wrath of God. But on the cross, we see the ultimate reversal of this scandalous story: The Bridegroom (Jesus) willingly sheds His own blood to save His Bride (the Church) from the righteous wrath of God!
- Application: Covered and Consecrated
- With the knowledge that God came and shed His blood for us, paying the price that we deserve so that we can have eternal life through Him, we should ask ourselves a question:
- What is covering your doorpost? In Exodus 12, if you taped a glowing resume of your good deeds, your charitable giving, and your perfect church attendance record to your doorpost, the angel of death still came in. Only the blood saved. Are you trusting in your own goodness, your own church attendance, or your own morality to stand before a Holy God? Or are you trusting entirely in the shed blood of Jesus Christ? You cannot earn your way past God's holiness.
- Are you Consecrated? When we look at passages like Ephesians 2, we see a crucial balance. Ephesians 2:8-9 reminds us that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus—not by our own works, so no one can boast. However, if we keep reading to verse 10, it says that we are created anew in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
- The blood doesn't just save us from the wrath of God; it saves us for the holy purposes of God. Under the New Covenant, the Apostle Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:9 that the Church is a "royal priesthood."
- We see the marking of the priests and the sign of the Passover all the way back in Exodus:
- Exodus 13:9 (NLT)
- This annual festival will be a visible sign to you, like a mark branded on your hand or your forehead. Let it remind you always to recite this teaching of the Lord: ‘With a strong hand, the Lord rescued you from Egypt.’
- So, has the blood of the Lamb just been your "fire insurance" to keep you out of hell, or has it actually been applied to your ear, your thumb, and your toe like the priests of Exodus? Are you living a consecrated life?
- Here is what that looks like practically this week:
- The Ear (What you consume): The blood on the earlobe means consecrating what you listen to. We must audit the voices you allow into your life. What podcasts are you listening to? What music is filling your mind? Are you sitting at work entertaining gossip and toxic conversations? If the media you consume and the conversations you entertain do not honor your Bridegroom, you need to cut them off.
- The Thumb (What you do): The blood on the thumb means consecrating the work of your hands. Look at what your hands are doing. How are your hands serving your spouse or your church? Let's take it to the digital world: what are your thumbs typing on your phone? Are you using your thumbs to build people up, or are you tearing people down in text messages and comment sections? Consecrate your hands to do the work God prepared you for.
- The Toe (Where you go): The blood on the big toe means consecrating where you walk. Evaluate your daily path. Are your feet walking into environments, relationships, or situations that compromise your purity and your covenant with God? This includes your digital footsteps. What websites are your fingers clicking when no one else is around? Choose this week to intentionally redirect your steps towards community, accountability, and the things of God.
- Jesus paid an incredibly high price to be your Bridegroom. Do not settle for just being covered. Step into your calling, apply the blood to your life, and live completely consecrated to Him.
- A New Legacy
- The enemy wants you to look at your past—your mistakes, your rebellion, the times you compromised your boundaries—and convince you that you are disqualified. He wants you to believe that your history is too messy or too scandalous to be used by a Holy God.
- But the blood of the Ultimate Bridegroom speaks a better word!
- When Jesus went to the cross, He didn't shed His blood just so that you could barely get across the finish line into heaven. He shed His blood to wash you completely clean, to break the generational chains of your shame, and to entirely consecrate you for a holy purpose. You are not defined by your past. You are a royal priesthood. You are the Bride of Christ, bought at an incredibly high price.
- So as you leave today, do not walk in shame. Walk boldly out of these doors, knowing that your doorposts are covered, your life is consecrated, and your Bridegroom has already won the victory. Step out of the shadows, honor Him with your life this week, and let the cycle of shame be broken forever.
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- ©️Copyright 2026 Gene Simco Most Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scriptures in brackets reflect the original Biblical languages.