READ IT! - Introduction to Exodus 4-10

Readings for This Week

Monday: Exodus 4

Tuesday: Exodus 5

Wednesday: Exodus 6

Thursday: Exodus 7

Friday: Exodus 8

Saturday: Exodus 9

Sunday: Exodus 10

Introduction to Exodus 4-10

Chapter 4

God told Moses he was sending to Egypt to set the Israelites free. But when Moses heard this, he made all kinds of excuses about why God shouldn’t send him back to Egypt.

Moses said, “What if they don’t believe me?” And God said, “I will perform signs through you.” And Moses is like, “But What if they don’t listen to me?” And God is like, “Then I will perform more signs through you.” And Moses says, “I’m not a good speaker.” To which God replies, “Who gave man his mouth? …Is it not I?”

But Moses insists, saying, “Please send someone else.” At this point, God gets mad, and is like: “Okay, fine. I’ll send your brother Aaron with you to help you out with this public speaking thing you’re so scared of.”

After his encounter with God, Moses tells his father-in-law Jethro about what God had told him. And he then packs up his wife and kids and heads towards Egypt.

Here, the text strangely says “and The LORD met him and was about to kill him.” This is followed by a scene where Zipporah performs a circumcision on Moses’ son and places the foreskin on Moses’ feet, saying, “You are a bridegroom of blood to me.” And the text says that The LORD decides to “let him alone.”

Huh?

We're not really sure what in the world is going on in this passage. We don’t know why Zipporah was able to save her family member with a flint knife. And with the overuse of pronouns, we don’t even know whose life was in danger – Moses’ or his son’s. It's kind of weird.

But anyway, later, Moses met up with Aaron and they went together to the elders of the Israelites in Egypt and performed miraculous signs for them.

Chapter 5

Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go…’”

But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I don’t know the LORD and I won’t let Israel go.”

And Pharaoh told everyone to get back to work. Pharaoh also took away the straw that the people used to make bricks, and had the Israelites beaten if they didn’t make enough bricks during the day, accusing them of being lazy.

And so the Israelites became angry with Moses and Aaron for making their situation even worse.

Chapter 6

And Moses began to question God. But God reassured Moses that he would keep his promise to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Moses told this to the Israelites, but they didn’t listen to him.

God then sent Moses back to Pharaoh. But Moses started to make more excuses, saying, “Not even the Israelites listen to me, so why would Pharaoh?” and “I have faltering lips.”

Chapter 7

But God says to Moses, “I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.” So God sent Moses and Aaron back to Pharaoh.

And Pharaoh demanded a sign from them. So God told Aaron to throw his staff on the floor. And when Aaron did this, the staff turned into a snake. But Pharaoh brought in his magicians and they caused their own staffs to become snakes as well. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs. And the text says that Pharaoh’s “heart became hard” and he would not listen to them.

So after this, God sends a set of ten plagues on the Egyptians. Each one of those plagues can be seen as a direct slap in the face to the different gods of Egypt, showing that the God of the Hebrews was much more powerful than any of them. With the coming of each plague, Pharaoh decides to let the Hebrews go; but every time the plague subsides, he changes his mind... so God sends another plague.

First, God causes the Nile to turn to blood, rendering Hapi, the god of the Nile powerless. However, Pharaoh's magicians were able to do the same thing.

Chapter 8

Second, God causes frogs to overflow the Nile, rendering Heket, the frog-headed goddess of fertility and water, powerless. However, Pharaoh's magicians could do the same thing.

God then turns the dust into gnats, and Geb, god of earth, Khepri, the beetle-headed god of creation, and Thoth, the god of magic are all rendered powerless. And Pharaoh’s magicians failed to make any miracles this time.

God then sends flies everywhere, rendering Khepri, beetle-headed god of creation, powerless. At this point, God begins to distinguish between Egypt and Israel, and doesn't allow the plagues to harm the Israelites.

Chapter 9

God then causes the livestock to die, and Bat, the cow-headed goddess, and the bull-cult gods Apis, Buchis, and Mneuis are all rendered powerless. At this point the text says that “Pharaoh hardened his heart” and still would not let the Israelites go.

God then causes boils to appear all over the skin of the Egyptians, rendering Isis, the goddess of medicine, and Sekhmet, the lion-headed deity of plagues, powerless. Now the text says “The LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” But this is already after Pharaoh had hardened his own heart.

And God sends giant hailstones on the land, and Nut, the sky goddess, and Seth, the god of chaos and thunder, are rendered powerless.

Chapter 10

God then sends locusts to devour every green thing, and Senehem, who was possibly the locust-headed god of protection from pestilence, is rendered powerless.

God then sends thick darkness over the land, and Horus, the sky-god, and Ra, the god of the sun/right eye of Horus, are rendered powerless.

Read Exodus 4

Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”

Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”

Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”

Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.

“Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”

Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”

Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.”

Then Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, “Let me return to my own people in Egypt to see if any of them are still alive.”

Jethro said, “Go, and I wish you well.”

Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.” So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

The Lord said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, “Let my son go, so he may worship me.” But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.’”

At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said. So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said “bridegroom of blood,” referring to circumcision.)

The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron everything the Lord had sent him to say, and also about all the signs he had commanded him to perform.

Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the Lord had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.