Zipporah and her sisterhood: A story of deliverance for Women’s History Month 2024

Rev. Angelique Walker-Smith “Now 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 stood up and helped them and watered their flock.” Exodus 2:16-17 This month is Women’s History Month and last month was Black History Month. The Bible offers opportunities to see alignment of these observances for today. One illustration of this is the story of Zipporah, her sisters, and Moses in Exodus 2:16-17. More specifically, Exodus 2:16-17 is one of several illustrations of the leadership women played in Moses’s life. While the stories of Moses’s leadership are often visible, the leadership of the women, and especially African women, related to Moses are most often marginalized, less visible, and erased—but are still important. For example, Moses’s mother, Jocabed, his older sister, Miriam, and an African princess from Egypt, Bityah, were key actresses in the deliverance story of Moses’s life that later led to him being available for his leadership in the deliverance story of the Hebrew people. These courageous and loving women ensured the safe keeping of Moses’s infant life and prosperity with an African (Egyptian)...