Why God Sent Uriel as a Serpent Against Moses at the Lodging

"And it came to pass on the way, at the lodging-place" (Exodus 4:24). If on the way, why a lodging-place? Rather, this teaches that Moses kept going in and out, from the lodging-place to the way, and from the way to the lodging-place, and he was pondering in his mind and saying whether he should go to Egypt to redeem Israel or not. For he was pondering in his mind: if I say the time of the redemption has arrived, they will say, "Surely we know that the Holy One, blessed be He, said that the servitude would be four hundred years, and the time of redemption has not yet come." And if I say to the Holy One, blessed be He, "Where am I going, for the four hundred years have not yet arrived?" — the Holy One, blessed be He, grew angry with him. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Joseph already prophesied to them "pakod" (Genesis 50:24) — that is to say, by the numerical value of "pakod" the Holy One, blessed be He, will reduce for them from the servitude. And therefore one hundred and ninety years were reduced, like "pakod," and they are ninety, corresponding to the ninety of Sarah our matriarch, who was of that age when she bore Isaac, and one hundred years corresponding to Abraham at the time he begot Isaac. Another interpretation: "And it came to pass on the way, at the lodging-place." The Holy One, blessed be He, sent Uriel, and he appeared to him in the likeness of a serpent, and he was swallowing Moses from his head down to his circumcision-place. And all this — why? Because his son was uncircumcised. And when Zipporah saw this, she was afraid; she said, perhaps this one is swallowing him because he is uncircumcised. Immediately, "Zipporah took a flint" etc. (Exodus 4:25).