God’s man to deliver the Israelites (Exodus 1)
The second book of the Bible opens as the time was approaching for the Israelites to be set free from the slavery into which they had been forced by their Egyptian masters. These same masters had formerly been their hosts and, previously, owed their lives to the very God they now refused to recognize. This same God had sent Joseph to warn the pharaoh of an impending seven years of famine. For many years, Joseph had been a prisoner, but then he was able to give God’s interpretation of a dream to the pharaoh, who had promptly made him second-in-command of Egypt, answerable only to the pharaoh himself. Joseph had collected and stored grain during seven bumper years of crops, then sold it to the Egyptians as the famine took its toll.
How quickly people forget the blessings of God and the people through whom they come! Joseph and his whole generation died in due course, but his descendants were very fruitful. The land of Goshen was fertile and they soon became a large nation, overflowing the borders of their 'reservation'. Eventually, a new pharaoh (who felt no obligation to the descendants of Joseph) became fearful of their size and strength and began to consider strategies for ethnic cleansing.
The more the Egyptians mistreated and oppressed them, the more the Israelites seemed to multiply! The Egyptians became alarmed and made the Hebrew slavery more bitter still, forcing them to toil long and hard in the fields and in construction work. The pharaoh instructed the midwives to kill all the baby boys born to the Israelites, but the midwives feared God and did not do what the pharaoh told them; they let the baby boys live. (God blessed the midwives with their own families because they feared God.)
Do we fear God in times of crisis? Are we prepared to stand for what we know is right, rather than obey what is contrary to God’s commands? God honours faithfulness and justice now, just as He did then. It may not be easy to stand up for what is right, but it will be worthwhile.
Things went from bad to worse for the Israelites. Their people were enslaved; their children were being killed. They were God’s chosen people and God had said that He had special plans for them, but it all looked to be heading for disaster. However, just because we cannot see anything happening in our lives, it does not mean that God is not doing something about our crisis.
A measured response (Exodus 2:1-10)
Against this background and in these ‘impossible’ circumstances, a baby boy is born. It will be his life’s work to deliver the Israelites out of slavery and to lead them away to the land that God had promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The boy's parents (Amram & Jochebed) were descended from Levi. The baby's parents had faith in God. When they saw that God had given them an unusual child, they trusted that God would save him from death at the hands of the Egyptians and hid him for three months. Then his mother came up with a cunning plan. She waterproofed a wicker basket for him and hid him in reeds alongside the river Nile, in a spot near the place where the royal women used to bathe. Jochebed got his older sister, Miriam, to watch over him there.
How ironic that God used the very people that were trying to wipe out His chosen people, to nurture the one who would one day deliver them. The pharaoh’s own daughter heard a baby crying, discovered the Hebrew child and felt sorry for him. Miriam emerged and offered to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for the princess. The woman that she 'found', of course, was the child's own mother! The princess later adopted the child as her own and gave him the name, 'Moses', meaning 'drawn out' (of the bullrushes). The future saviour of the Israelites was brought up as a royal prince, educated in all the wisdom and culture of the Egyptians - the nation who had become Israel's arch-enemy!
Despite growing up in the royal household, Moses was well aware of his Jewish heritage and, one day when he had grown up, he went to watch his enslaved people at work. He saw an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew and, seeing nobody else around, stepped forward and killed the Egyptian, burying him in the sand. The next day he went to where his people lived and found two of them fighting. He remonstrated with them but the one in the wrong responded by saying, 'Are you going to kill me like you killed that Egyptian?' Before long, the pharaoh also heard what Moses had done and ordered him to be found and killed. (Acts 7:23-29)
Moses managed to escape and fled to Midian where he was taken in by Jethro (Reuel) a priest after Moses had helped to save his daughters from some local shepherds. In time, Jethro gave one of his daughters (Zipporah) to Moses as his wife and she bore him two sons: Gershom and Eliezer. For forty long years, Moses lived in Midian as a shepherd. He must have been devastated at how his life had gone off track so completely. Would he ever be able to return to his own people? After such a promising start, would he live out his life in obscurity, never realising his potential?
Have you ever done something that you think has wrecked your chances of ever living a 'normal' life again? Have you asked God to forgive you? You might have to put right what you have done wrong, or face up to the people you wronged, but God will be with you. Be determined to press forward with God. Accepting His forgiveness is the only way to wash away our past and start anew.
A fresh start and a new purpose (Exodus 3)
One day, at the ripe old age of eighty, Moses was tending a flock of sheep near Mount Horeb when he saw a bush catch fire spontaneously. This is not such an uncommon sight in hot climates, but this one looked different. Although it was burning, it was not being consumed, so Moses went to have a closer look. As he approached, he heard a voice saying to him: 'Don't come any closer. Take off your shoes, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your fathers - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' God then told Moses that He had seen everything that was happening to His people; He was concerned about their suffering and wanteed to rescue them. 'So,' He said, “now go! I am sending you to pharaoh, to bring my people out of Egypt.''
This was the first time that Moses had come face-to-face with God and he couldn't believe that God was calling him to take on such a prominent rôle. He felt totally ill-equipped to do what God was asking, but God promised: 'I will be with you.' From our privileged perspective, much later in history, we can see that Moses was one of the greatest leaders of Israel in the Bible, yet how similar he was to us in our doubts and fears! Perhaps we have been invited to take on some rôle in our church or Christian group and our instinct is to shy away from taking on this responsibility. But our heavenly Father would never ask us to do something He has not empowered us to do. His call may take us out of our 'comfort zone', but it can only be good for us as part of our preparation for eternal life with Him in future.
A new direction (Exodus 4)
Moses had plenty of objections to God's plan but God would not take ‘No’ for an answer. He promised to be with him and offered Moses' own brother (Aaron) to be a spokesman for him. Moses was concerned about his credibility as God's agent and whether or not his own people would believe that God had sent him. In response, God gave Moses the authority to use three demonstrations of God's power to convince people that he was acting on God's behalf:
1. To throw his staff on the ground where it would become a snake. He could pick it up by the tail and it would become a staff again.
2. To put his hand inside his cloak, whereupon his hand would turn leprous; then return it to his cloak whereupon he would be healed.
3. To take some water from the river Nile and pour it on the ground where it would turn to blood.
God told Moses that all the people who had wanted to kill him are now dead and gave him a message for the new pharaoh: a warning that God would slay the pharaoh's eldest son if he refused to listen. God also encouraged Moses that he and his people would not be leaving empty-handed. (This promise was to be fulfilled some weeks later when the Israelites finally left Egypt after the death of all the firstborn of the Egyptians at the hand of God Himself.)
A warning (Exodus 4:24-31)
Moses took his leave of Jethro, his father-in-law, and set out with his wife and two children for Egypt. However, Moses had not paid attention to God’s covenant with his ancestors because he had not circumcised his son. (See Genesis 17:12-14.) Moses had already shown some reluctance to accept what God had called him to do. He was about to face intense opposition and tests of his faith. If he was not prepared to surrender himself fully to God, how could God use him and protect him? This passage suggests that God would rather have us die than allow us to take on His work with reservations or half-heartedness.
Zipporah, his wife, appears to have realised the danger that Moses was in and, rather than lose her husband, she took a knife and circumcised their son. God gives us the ‘light’ of His word and, as we read it and hear it, He expects us to respect it and to be obedient to it - according to the understanding given to us. What has God said to us about our lifestyles, or even our characters? Are we being obedient to what He has said?
Moses is now ready to be used by God, so He sends Aaron (Moses' brother) to go and meet him 'at the mountain of God'. Moses tells his brother the full story of God's concern for His people and their joint mission to confront the pharaoh and demand the release of the Israelites. He shares with Aaron the authority they have to use three 'signs' of God's power. They then summon the Israelite leaders and give them the good news. They duly demonstrated the 'signs' and the elders were convinced and accepted that God was indeed concerned for them and had sent Moses and Aaron to deliver them. Together, they bowed down and worshipped.
The darkest hour (Exodus 5)
It seems to be a common experience that things always get worse just before they get better. For the Israelites, this was certainly the case. Moses & Aaron put their request to the Egyptian pharaoh and he promptly increased the work load for the Israelites! He said that, if they had time to wander off for three days and worship God, then they were lazy and should work harder. Have you found that, when you start on something that God wants you to do, things immediately take a turn for the worse? Suddenly you don’t seem to have the time, or problems appear that you never anticipated. Don't lose your nerve. If God is at work in your life, then be assured that some opposition can be expected. Almost every person who has stepped out in faith in response to God’s call has experienced the same.
The key to success is in pushing through. Our enemy (Satan) is fine with the status quo in our lives: when we listen to a Bible reading and some prayers in church, but rarely study God's word for ourselves or share our lives with Him each day. However, if there are signs of change and spiritual growth in our lives, he and his demonic forces will do their best to oppose us, frustrate us and divert us from what God has asked us to do.
Let my people go! (Exodus 6-10)
Earlier, God had delegated some powers to Moses to underline the fact that Moses was representing 'God Almighty'. He now goes further, firstly reminding Moses of the name by which He had introduced Himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: 'El-Shaddai' (meaning 'God Almighty') but now using a different name: 'the LORD' (Jahweh - meaning 'I am'). It is a name that signifies God's unchanging nature and character. This God had made covenant promises to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 15-17), Isaac (Genesis 26:2-5) and Jacob (Genesis 28:13-15) and what He had promised to the patriarchs, hundreds of years earlier, He was now about to fulfil through Moses.
'See, I have made you like God to pharaoh... and your brother, Aaron, is to tell the pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country.' (Exodus 7:1-2) The Egyptian pharaohs were regarded as a link between the realms of humanity and divinity. They were seen as human beings, but chosen by the gods to rule and guided by divine will. Jahweh (the LORD) was now setting up Moses as equivalent to the pharaoh: the LORD's chosen intermediary who would represent Him in a contest with the Egyptian pharaoh.
A duel to the death ensued. Moses (through Aaron) set out God's demand: 'Let my people go!' The Egyptian pharaoh refused and God responded by sending a plague on the land. This happened nine times and, each time, the plague was more devastating than previously. The pharaoh called on his own advisors and magicians who, in some cases, were able to demonstrate their own powers by copying and repeating the plagues themselves. (This, of course, only intensified the damage caused.) As things grew steadily worse, the majority of the Egyptian people began to see that they were losing this contest and became desperate just to see the Israelites sent on their way. The pharaoh remained obdurate. He tried to do a deal with Moses, but God also refused to compromise on His demand.
The final plague (Exodus 11-12)
Right at the beginning, God had told the pharaoh that he regarded Israel as His 'first-born son' and, if the pharaoh would not release His son, He would kill the pharaoh's first-born son. (Exodus 4:22-23) Now the time had come for this promise to be fulfilled. God explained to Moses what would happen so that he could prepare the people. This would involve getting packed and ready to leave Egypt, but it was also to be an event that they would commemorate each year to celebrate their release from captivity. Each family was to select a lamb, look after it for four days, then sacrifice it and daub the blood on the doorposts and lintels of the house in which they lived. The meat was to be roasted and eaten completely with nothing remaining.
At midnight, the 'Destroyer' swept over Egypt. Every house where there was blood on the doorposts and lintels was passed over (hence the name 'Passover' for the feast of commemoration) but, in every other house, every first-born son died, from the first-born son of the pharaoh to the first-born son of the lowest servant and all the first-born of the cattle as well. That same night, the pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and told them to leave immediately. The Israelites had been told by Moses to ask the Egyptian people for clothing and items of value and the Egyptians were only too keen to comply. Some six hundred thousand Israelite families took their livestock, goods and unleavened bread and headed off. After four hundred and thirty years in Egypt, they were finally heading back home.
Homeward bound
They left behind a country that had been ruined as a result of the plagues that God had inflicted on Pharaoh and his people as a judgment for keeping His people in bondage and slavery. Their destination was the land that God had promised to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It should have been a journey of some short weeks and it started well, with 'all the Israelites doing just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron'. However, it became an extended diversion of many long years before they reached their goal as we shall see in our next two studies of Moses.
What about our lives? Do we believe that God has called us to follow Him with some purpose in mind? As we look back, can we see the evidence of God at work in our lives, even before we were aware of it and turned to Him for forgiveness and new life? Are we putting ourselves in a position to hear His voice speaking to us? Have we asked what plan He has for our life? Are we prepared to follow Him, come what may? He may want first to clean up our life, but He will be there with us to help us do it. He only wants us to be willing and to take the first step.
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