CHAPTER 1
1. Now these are the names [shemoth] of the children of Israel coming into Egypt along with Yaaqov (each came in with his household):
2. Re’uven, Shim'on, Levi, and Yehudah,
3. Yissachar, Z'vulun, and Binyamin,
4. Dan and Nafthali, Gad and Asher.
The sons of the two maidservants are listed last, for they carry the lowest rank, even though they were all born before the three listed in verse 3 as well as Yosef.
5. And all the souls that had proceeded from the loins of Yaaqov were seventy souls, Yosef being [already] in Egypt.
Egypt: Mitzrayim in Hebrew. 70 is the numerical value of the Hebrew word translated by the phrase “and as the sand” in YHWH’s promise to Avraham in Gen. 22:16. So long before there were myriads,when there were already just 70 descendants, Yaaqov was already fulfilling YHWH’s promise on one level. And in Yosef’s dream of Genesis 37:9ff, these eleven men were called “stars”, so this list of names alone fulfills on one level the promise that Avraham’s descendants would be like the stars of the heavens. (The rest of the 70 names are listed in Genesis 46:8-27.) Of course it has taken on much larger dimensions, to the point that today his descendants cannot be counted (partly because most do not remember that they are Avraham’s descendants). Deut. 32:7-8 tells us that YHWH divided the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the sons of Israel. Thus, in Genesis 10, there are 70 nations listed. When Yeshua sent out his disciples on two occasions, he sent 12 (representing the twelve tribes of Israel) the first time (Luk. 9:1) and 70 (representing all the nations of the world) the second (Luk. 10:1). 70 bulls are offered at the Temple during the feast of Sukkoth—one for each nation. (Num. 29:12-39) For this reason among others, it is called the Festival of the Nations.
[c. Year 2311 from creation/1689 B.C.E.]
6. Then Yosef died along with all his brothers and all of that generation.
After a brief reminder of where we came from, Moshe, the author, turns our focus to those who are living. B’reshith (Genesis) was written to show us who our fathers were and what they did; Shemoth (Exodus) is about what we will do to continue walking out the promises He established in them. We now have many more names to add to the list of forerunners; it is commensurately more important that we consider what our part is in carrying forward the work they began. These people are gone; we are responsible to preserve what they learned. Why is Yosef singled out among all his generation for the mention of his death? Because since Re’uven tried to ascend to a position that belonged only to his father (much like HaSatan), Yosef (like Yeshua) was put in his place as the firstborn. He took care of his brothers, proving that he was worthy of the position.
7. But the descendants of Israel were fruitful and teemed abundantly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly numerous, and the land was overflowing with them.
They were still identifiable as Hebrews, but were now mixed in among the general populace. As the descendants of Israel grew wealthy, they began to depart from their calling of looking after flocks; they outgrew Goshen, the temporary resting-place, and herdsmen were not welcome in other parts of Egypt (Gen. 46:34), so they were not all shepherds anymore. This generation had been born in Egypt, and considered it home. They had never seen the Promised Land. Before they became completely mixed and assimilated into Egypt, something had to shake them up and break them loose:
8. Then a new king rose [to power] over Egypt who did not recognize Yosef,
King: It does not say “a new Pharaoh”, implying that a new dynasty is beginning, not just a new generation. Rather than inheriting the throne, this was an uprising. Pharaohs ruled Egypt for over 1,000 years, but there were many times when new families rose to that position, sometimes even those of different ethnicity. The Pharaoh in Yosef's day was most likely one of the Hyksos, a Semitic group that took over Egypt for a time. A new dynasty of true Egyptians (Hamites) had now taken over again. But if Yosef had been seen as the savior of the whole world and was the very reason the rest of the Israelites were there, this Pharaoh would have to be willingly ignorant of his nation’s history. As was often the case—shades of Orwell--he did not want to honor the memory of someone from the past regime. Kings of Egypt and Assyria are known through archaeology to have chiseled out both the names and faces of those who came before them, whom they now considered their enemies, especially if they were of different dynasties.
9. And he told his countrymen, "Look! The ethnic group of the descendants of Israel is mightier and more numerous than we are.
More numerous: A rabbinical tradition says that only about 20% of these Israelites were actually willing to leave Egypt, and that group is estimated to have numbered 5 to 6 million—so do the math to see how large this “nation within a nation” may have grown!
10. "Come on! Let's be prudent in our dealings with it, so [they] won't get so big that they can ally themselves with our enemies in case of a battle, and wage war against us, and go up out of the land."
Ally themselves: thus increasing the number of their enemies with a fifth column from within. As George Washington said, “Experience teaches us that it is much easier to prevent enemies from posting themselves than to dislodge them after they have got possession.” The new king was probably afraid that a Hyksos invasion might recur. Yet, while they felt threatened by them, they did not want to lose this large “tax base”.
11. So they appointed taskmasters over them, to decrease their strength through forced labor, and they constructed storehouse cities for Pharaoh--Pithom and Raamses.
Avraham had asked for a sign that YHWH would really let his descendants inherit the Land. (Gen. 15:8) This was the sign YHWH responded with: that they would be oppressed in a foreign land. Decrease their strength: or keep them busy, turning their attention to how they could be useful through civic duty and prove they were loyal, upright citizens, and thus have no time to cause trouble. Israel has always been interested in the public welfare. Tradition says he called for volunteers, and since Yosef had built great storehouses, they thought this was worthy of their labor, and only then did he enlist the taskmasters. But it could be that they were replacing Yosef’s legacy to further erase his memory. Pharaoh gave them a new trade to learn, and thus took their minds off who they really were—herdsmen, though Yaaqov had reminded them to always be known that way in Egypt. Many had moved out of Goshen and settled in other parts of the land. They forgot they were in exile and got used to Egypt. Some have decided that since Raamses was the name of the city they were building, Raamses must have been the Pharaoh in power at that time. But this does not allow Egyptian and Israelite chronologies to synchronize. The name Raamses was instead based on the name of the Egyptian sun-god, Ra. They were thus actually even building something dedicated to another deity. The city was later known as Raamses, but was earlier called Avaris (called tel el-Daba today). The later name was probably added in by later scribes for identification purposes.
12. But the more they afflicted them, the more numerous they became, and they burst forth all the more, and they began to feel a sickening dread in regard to the descendants of Israel.
This is how many European nations feel about Muslims among them now, with more valid reason. Burst forth: a population “explosion”. Pharaoh thought he would use up their strength through hard labor so they would be too tired to sire more children, but apparently this is the only joy they found in their days. And Israel seems to perform best under strain. Only pressure brings out the oil in an olive. Rather than having less energy to procreate, they actually were strengthened by their hard work. There were still blessings and promises at work, but because Israel was mixed with the Egyptians, their fruitfulness was out of context, and therefore was seen as a negative thing by those around them. Having many children is now seen as a liability, not an asset. For fruitfulness to again be seen as a blessing, not a curse, we need to get back into the Biblical context defined for Israel. In survival mode, these parents also probably, at least subconsciously, wanted to have more children so the workload could be spread out more evenly.
13. So the Egyptians harshly compelled the sons of
Israel to hard labor,
14. And made their lives bitter with severe slave-
labor in mortar and brick and all sorts of field work.
All the servitude with which they enslaved them
was with cruelty.
Brick: the word means “whiteness”, a symbol of purity. Pithom means “city of justice”—a seemingly worthwhile pursuit. But replacing our heritage, even to serve the public, keeps us from being Israel to the fullest extent. Field work: Probably not growing the crops but clearing land and all the work needed to build the supply cities, which would have functioned not just as storage cities but probably political capitals with all the offices needed for the administration of the taxed or tithed crops. The problem was not that the Egyptians held slaves (for even Israelites are permitted to do so), but the harshness with which they did so without a valid reason.
15. Then the king of Egypt spoke with the midwives of the Hebrews (one of whom was named Shifrah, and the second, Puah),
Shifrah means "fair" (beautiful) and Puah means "splendid" (glittering), but its root meaning is "blast". Since Shifrah's name shares the same root with the shofar, so we could say a shofar and a blast delivered Israel. But watch the pattern in this book that is called “names”: after the names of the twelve sons of Yaaqov, with which we are already familiar, many people, important though they turn out to be, are introduced without giving their names—like Moshe’s parents and sister. (Compare 2:1-9 with 6:18, 20; 15:20.) Moshe himself is not named right away. (2:10) Only later, when they become important to the story of Israel, are their names given, and for some, like the Pharaohs and the Pharaoh’s daughter, their personal names are never mentioned. (Their names are not in the Book of Life!) In contrast, these midwives’ names are given immediately, because they put their lives on the line to save Israel, and apart from their intervention, there might never even have been a Moshe. How important are you to the story of Israel? We cannot all be leaders, but these women, though only doing their ordinary work, used it as an occasion to do the right thing, and some 3,600 years later, we still know their names.
16. and commanded them, "When you assist the Hebrew women in giving birth, and inspect them on the bearing-stools, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall be allowed to live."
Birthing stools: They harnessed gravity to make the birthing process more efficient. The Egyptians were "shooting themselves in the foot" by destroying the next generation's labor force, so that they would again have to do the work themselves.
17. But the midwives feared Elohim, and they did not do as the king commanded them, but let the boys live.
18. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why are you behaving this way and keeping the male babies alive?"
19. But the midwives told Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian ones, but [they] are vigorous; before the midwife gets to them, they give birth."
I.e., they only call us if there is an emergency; otherwise, they are comfortable giving birth without our help.
20. For this reason Elohim treated the midwives with favor, and the people multiplied and became very numerous.
Numerous women in Scripture (Rahav, et al) were blessed for lying to save Israel, so we must surmise that though we are certainly to speak the truth to one another—those of the same flock (Yirm. 9:5)-- we need not do so to an enemy, as in the case of those who hid Jews from the Nazis. This is not “bearing false witness against one’s neighbor”, as the ten commandments forbid, but rather on behalf of one’s neighbor.
21. And since the midwives revered Elohim, He brought about households for them.
Households: one of them may even have become the ancestress of David, for Psalm 16:6 says, literally, “I have a heritage of shawfrah” (beauty, spelled like Shifrah in the original text, which had no vowel points); i.e., Shifrah’s inheritance came down to him. In any case, a Jewish tradition says this slaughter of the innocents was due also to Pharaoh’s astrologers having foreseen that a deliverer was to be born for the Israelites. (Josephus, Antiquities 2:205-207) The story of King Herod and the Magi has many parallels, especially since Yeshua’s parents are sent to Egypt to keep him alive!
22. So Pharaoh commanded all his [own] people, "You must throw every son that is born into the River, but you can let every daughter live."
Since the midwives did not accomplish what he wanted, Pharaoh made all Egyptians responsible to see that Israel did not thrive. "The River": i.e., the Nile, which the Egyptians considered a god. So they are saying, “Cast your children into what we worship!” They did not say directly that they were to kill them, but rather that they should let the river-god decide who was worthy to survive. Its name was Hapi, and statues depict it as a breasted, pregnant male! Thus a source of life for a whole nation was now dedicated to death. But how many today have killed their unborn children so they could be “happy” (blessed by this god)? Billions of dollars are spent in pursuit of this elusive emotion, but YHWH does not burden us with this goal. But if we seek His pleasure, we will paradoxically find joy and fulfillment. Hapi supposedly guarded the source of the Nile. Y'hezqEl (Ezekiel) 29:3 tells us that Pharaoh considered himself to be still a greater god, who had created the Nile himself. Thus he could command the Nile to do the deciding.
CHAPTER 2
[c. Year 2484 from creation; 1516 B.C.E.]
1.
But a man from the house of Levi proceeded to marry a daughter of Levi,
But a man from the house of Levi proceeded to marry a daughter of Levi,Despite Pharaoh’s edict, they went ahead and procreated. 6:20 tells us that their names were Amram (“an exalted people”) and Yokheved (“YHWH is most important”). Their names tell the story of the outcome of what their son would accomplish:
2.and the woman conceived and gave birth to a son, and when she saw that he was well-[tempered], she kept him hidden for three months.
and the woman conceived and gave birth to a son, and when she saw that he was well-[tempered], she kept him hidden for three months.Well-tempered: not wailing loudly, and thus able to stay “under the Egyptians’ radar”. But Avraham must have passed down by tradition the revelation of how long it would be until his descendants returned to their Land. Did YHWH reveal to her that her son would be the one to bring this redemption? Three months: They reckoned time by lunar cycles, unlike the Egyptians who emphasized the sun.
3. When she was no longer able to keep him hidden, she took a container made of papyrus reeds for him, and smeared it with asphalt and pitch. And she put the boy in it, and set it among the reeds on the bank of the [Nile] tributary.
She actually obeyed Pharaoh’s command to throw him into the river, but found a loophole with this container. She put him in the river but did not give him to the river. This is the only place in Scripture that this type of vessel appears except the ark of Noakh. Again it was a watertight lifeboat. It would not have looked like a basket, having black tar literally "heaped" on it, which would also make it float better. Papyrus reeds: Thus Moshe, the writer of the Torah, started his adventure surrounded by "paper". The Hebrew word for papyrus is based on the word for "swallow", indicating that it is absorbent--able to bind well with the pitch (but also able to hold ink for long periods).
4. And his sister stationed herself some distance away to find out what would be done to him.
5. Then Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe in the river, and her female attendants were walking along the riverside. When she saw the ark among the rushes, she sent her attendant to capture it.
This was not just a random placement in the river. Indoor baths were already in use in Egypt among the royalty of this time, so this would have been a ritual bath, part of her worship of the river. The baby’s mother knew where the place set apart for such worship was, so that is exactly where she launched the “ark”. The word for riverside here is literally "hand". In v. 3, the “bank” of the Nile is literally the “lip”. So the river is described as having various body parts. Thus this strange egg-like object must have seemed like the river’s own offspring. Moshe’s mother had probably heard the Egyptian myth of Isis hiding her son Horus in a reed boat in a papyrus thicket, and knew this would present the princess with a compelling reason to spare this child.
6. Then she opened it and saw the child, and lo and behold, a small, crying boy! And she had pity on him, and said, "This is one of the Hebrew boys!"
There were people from all over the known world in Egypt at this time; how did she know he was Hebrew? Because he was circumcised. (The practice later caught on in Egypt as well.) The princess, schooled in the ways of the Egyptians to consider the Nile a god, must have known there was something special about the child whom "the river brought". The river, which had swallowed up many Hebrew boys' lives, appeared to have let this one live. In the Egyptians' eyes this “miracle” would give him an air of divinity, much as other Gentile nations attached halos to their depictions of "saints".
7. And his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call a woman for you--a wet nurse from among the Hebrew women--so she can nurse the little boy for you?
Wet nurses would be plentiful, as there were many women who had given birth but were not able to nurse their sons who had been taken away to be killed. So nothing about this would raise the princess’ suspicion.
8. And Pharaoh's daughter told her, "Go!" So the young maiden went and called the boy's mother.
9. Then Pharaoh's daughter told her, "Take this boy away and nurse him for me, and I will provide your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him.
The “wages” most important to her were to have her own son with her for so long so she could teach him the ways of YHWH. But this suggests that the Levites were not enslaved like the rest of Israel, because if she was a slave, they might not have offered to pay her.
10. And the boy grew bigger; then she brought him to the daughter of Pharaoh, and he became a son to her, and she called his name Moshe, saying, "Because I drew him out from the water."
In Hebrew Moshe means “drawn out”. Moshe would also himself draw the whole people of Israel out of Egypt through water! But we hear a similar word in Egyptian names like Thutmose and Ahmose, in which Pharaohs were often called the “son of” a particular deity. So in her language, she may have also been simply calling him “son”! Andrew Gabriel Roth suggests that this princess might have been none other than Hatshepsut, also known as Tehuti-Mes or Thermutis/Tarmuth, the daughter of Thutmose I, who was married to her brother Thutmose II at age 13, and was thus known as the wife of the god Amun, but she could only keep this title if she gave him a son. But she only bore him a daughter, Neferure. So her brother-husband began seeing a concubine, Iset, who would give him a son, though he could not be Pharaoh. In finding Moshe, she saw her occasion, for while he was hidden away with his real mother, his wet nurse (a common practice), she could have faked a pregnancy and gone away into isolation then when he was retrieved, presented him as her own son, known as Asiri-Meses in the Egyptian tongue. Her nephew, Thutmose III, was designated as the next Pharaoh. Until the infant king could grow up, she assumed the role of temporary Pharaoh herself. Her affection for Asiri-Meses grew, so to keep her nephew from ascending to the throne, she claimed that Amun had impregnated her mother and that Thutmose I had said she, not her brother, was to be the one to rule. But Asiri-Meses proved more interested in history, mathematics, art, architecture, and astronomy than war. So in her 9th year in power (1502 BCE by Roth’s calculation), she made a trade expedition to Punt (Somalia) and likely took him along to give him experience in international diplomacy. She stayed in power until Asiri-Meses was 38, trying to gain support for him over Thutmose III, but the latter became a great warrior supported by the army. So Asiri-Meses was also made an army commander, and conquered Ethiopia by marrying its queen, Tharbis, and thus forming an alliance, making the Egyptians jealous. To survive, he left by way of the desert—a story that sounds much like Moshe’s:
<c. Year 2524 from creation/1476 B.C.E.>
11. And during those days Moshe grew up. Then he went out to his relatives and saw their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man--[one] of his brothers.
Moshe skips the details of his childhood in which he became “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22), and moves on to the story that matters to him. By this clear glimpse of the fact that the true Egyptian nature is to beat back and repress what is holy (the Hebrew), he is rudely brought back to his roots. He realizes that the Hebrews are his brothers. If that is what Egypt is really like, he instantly distances himself from it and identifies himself with the Hebrews:
12. And he turned this way and that way and saw that there was no man, and he struck [down] the Egyptian man and hid him in the sand.
This is the first major turning point in Moshe’s life. When he sees his people abused, he knows he has to do something. On the literal level, he killed an Egyptian, but the Hebrew wording—“no man”—also reminds us of Yaaqov's wrestling with "a man" yet being "alone". In the battle on a different level, there was no one else there. The war within himself was over whether he was an Egyptian or a Hebrew. Why were his ways Egyptian, when the sign in his flesh and his deepest longings said he belonged with the Hebrews? He had to choose quickly, because his brother was about to die. The Hebrew man rose up within him again and he “crossed over”, killing and covering the Egyptian in himself with “sand”--an idiom for the descendants of Avraham (Gen. 22:17), with whom he now identifies, "immersing himself" as one of them. Now he was not just a Hebrew by birth or by circumcision; he sets himself clearly on the side of the Hebrews by his deeds. Knowing that we are not Gentiles after all is a necessary step toward our becoming that "one new man" of Ephesians 2:15; 4:24 and Colossians 3:10.
13. And he went out on the second day, and lo and behold, two men--[both] Hebrews--were fighting. And he said to the guilty one, "Why would you beat your fellow?"
Weren’t the Egyptians harming us enough? Do we have to hurt one another too? Even among the Hebrews, there is a guilty one--our own internal inclination to do evil. There is also the question of why one house of Israel (Yosef) should still be at enmity with the other (Yehudah). If he is your fellow (in Hebrew, one who eats from the same pasture), why abuse him? Not that we should abuse anyone, but most of all not our true neighbor.
14. But he said, "Who appointed you [as] a man over us--as a prince and a judge? Do you say [this from an intent] to kill me, like you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moshe was afraid, and thought, "So this matter has been found out about after all!"
The guilty always respond with, “Who are you to judge me?” But this man does not just say “me”; he says “us”. He is now siding with the one whom he has been beating (and the term indicates severity) and casts Moshe as the outsider. The Israelites only saw him as an Egyptian prince, and though they had become Egyptianized in many ways, they still recognized that they were separate and not to be treated lightly by anyone who was not a Hebrew. Who was he to tell them anything? 40 years later, he would be able to tell them it was YHWH that had made him their judge. But how did this man know Moshe had killed the Egyptian? Either he was the man whose life Moshe had saved—an abused man who had entered into the pattern of abusing others (compare Mat. 18:23-34)—or the one he rescued had told him who had done it. Rabbi Levi Meir (Chaplain at Cedar Sinai Hospital) calls this “the curse of ingratitude”. All of Egypt had been grateful to Yosef, but now they thought they no longer needed his descendants, and turned on them.
15. When Pharaoh heard of this matter, he made a search to kill Moshe, so Moshe fled from Pharaoh's presence, and settled in the land of Midyan, and he sat down by a well.
Now he was a threat to the Egyptians and was driven out. Though Moshe knew who he was, he was not welcomed by other Hebrews either, so he entered the land of Midyan, which means “strife”. Not only did wonderful things come to his ancestors at wells; the word for “well” also means “a place of clarification or explanation”. Anyone dwelling in the land of strife needs clear vision. Sitting is often a Hebrew idiom for learning, as seen in the related term “yeshiva”, which means a school of Torah study. If Moshe could not be with his people yet, he would spend his time in preparation to serve them when he could. Midyan is in northwestern Saudi Arabia along the northeastern shore of the Reed Sea--still excellent pastureland although there is nothing but desert beyond the mountains behind it. The Medina of Muslim fame, which is close to there, seems to be named for a remnant of this people. The Midyanites are descendants of Avraham and Qeturah.
16. Now the priest of Midyan had seven daughters, and they came along and drew [from the well] to water their father's flocks.
Priest: or “officiator; Aramaic, "chief".
17. And the shepherds came and drove them away, but Moshe rose up and freed them, and watered their flocks.
They wanted to be the first to have access to the clear water; after they were finished, it would be stirred up, and the next to come would have had to wait until it settled down again. YHWH warns about evil shepherds who made the water (a common idiom for the word of YHWH) inaccessible to the sheep, or muddied it with their feet. (Yeshayahu 56:11; Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 50:6; Yehezqel/ Ezekiel 34) His forefathers were shepherds, so it is in his blood to be one also, and this latent characteristic is now coming out.
18. When they came back to their father Re'u-El, he said, "Why have you come back so quickly today?"
Re'u-El means: " Elohim’s companion"—or one from Elohim’s flock. (Compare v. 13.)
19. And they said, "An Egyptian rescued us from the hand of the shepherds, and he also drew water for us and watered the flock."
Although the Egyptian has been wrested from his heart, in outward appearance he remains Gentile. Besides, he still speaks Egyptian, and thus this is the immediate impression.
20. And he said to his daughters, "So where is he? Why have you left the man behind? Call him and let him eat some bread!"
21. And Moshe agreed to dwell with the man, and he gave him his daughter Tsipporah [as a wife],
Agreed: was willing or content to settle there. Why so quickly? On one level, he was a refugee. But as he saw their flocks, he knew he was coming back to the heritage of his ancestors. Here he was offered bread, which symbolizes community. (1 Cor. 10:17) And the Midyanites were also descendants of Avraham. Furthermore, tradition says Re’u-El had, like Avraham, recognized that idols had no real power, and thus he was also a “Hebrew” (one who crosses over). So he was a worthy host for Moshe. (Mat. 10:11) But the rest of his people would not follow him in this belief, and de-frocked him from his position as priest, forbidding anyone from even working for him. Thus, as he had no sons, his daughters had to be the ones who tended his sheep. Tsipporah means "a small bird", possibly a sparrow. Like Yitzhaq (by proxy) and Yaaqov, he met his wife by a well. The Torah, the source of clarity, is the best place to find a mate! (See note on v. 15.)
22. and she bore a son, and called his name Gershom, because he said, "I have become a sojourner in a foreign land."
Gershom means "foreigner", “refugee”, “one driven out”, or "exile there". But now he at least had a family.
23. Now over the course of those many days, [the] king of Egypt died, and the descendants of Israel groaned from the servile labor, and they cried out for help, and their outcry reached Elohim due to their [hard] labor.
The king: An extant text purporting to be the “Book of Yasher” (mentioned in Y’hoshua) calls this Pharaoh Melol, and the son who reigned in his stead Adikam. Others think he was Seti I. Dr. Lennart Möller believes the incoming Pharaoh was Amenhotep III, also known as Thutmosis IV, father of the well-known Tutankhamon, whose untimely death as a teenager may relate very closely to the events in this book. Reached: literally, "arose" or "ascended to". It seems to have had to reach a certain threshold. Why could they not be heard until the king died? The king’s death might have necessitated finishing his tomb quickly, within the 40 days it took to embalm him. This would have increased their work load, since the new king did not appreciate the help the Israelites had been giving his father, and treated them as chattel. Or, with a new Pharaoh, they may have had to start from scratch with a new tomb, since Pharaohs often spent their whole reigns preparing their tombs. But it is pressure that changes nearly-worthless coal into diamonds that can withstand even fire—the kind of people YHWH wanted to make Israel. Now that they are under the same burden, they are beginning to come back together from being scattered. We would wish they had been united in worship or service to YHWH, but at least something was uniting them. But like the Northern Kingdom after Shlomoh, they used the accession of a new king as an occasion to seek better working conditions.
24. And Elohim heard their groaning, and Elohim remembered His covenant with Avraham, with Yitzhaq, and with Yaaqov.
25. And Elohim considered the descendants of Israel, and Elohim acknowledged.
Or, "Elohim saw...and knew" or "took note". Why had He not recognized them earlier? Because many had moved away from Goshen, and they were no longer unified. We have to be gathered before He can be in our midst. YHWH noticed the efforts of one man who stood up for the sake of his brothers. But now they are all again doing the same thing—even if it is just groaning. They have something in common again, and this is better than nothing, even if it takes life becoming harsh. This may have pushed them to reassemble in this fertile region, so they could be delivered as an actual separate community, not just scattered laborers mixed in among the Egyptians. Yeshua defines who our brothers and sisters are as those who do YHWH’s will. (Mat. 12:50) May what unites us for the greater Exodus to come (Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 23:7ff) not be groaning, but the pursuit of His Kingdom.
CHAPTER 3
<c. Year 2564 from creation/1436 B.C.E.>
1. And Moshe was tending the flock of Yithro, his in-law, priest of Midyan. When he guided the flock to the far side of the wilderness, he came upon the mountain of Elohim at Khorev.
Just when YHWH was determining that He would do something about Israel’s problems, Moshe was in the right place at the right time and doing the right thing. Here was a Hebrew shepherd—something YHWH had not seen for a long time because the rest of them were enslaved. He understands how to tend flocks and why this is important. Here was what YHWH needed for the kind of deliverance He wanted to bring. “Wilderness” literally means "place of a word". According to Israeli botanical expert Nogah Hareuveni, it can mean any kind of uncultivated land, ranging from a thicket to a scrub desert, but in any of these cases it can denote a place to pasture flocks. “Yithro” means “his excellency”. So while the rest of Israel was occupied with Egypt’s building program, Moshe was concerned with taking the sheep of “his excellency” to the place of the word—a picture of leading “His Excellency” YHWH’s people to where they could receive YHWH’s instruction, which was the real job this was training him for. In contrast with the bricklayers in Egypt, a shepherd works with living, breathing, dependent, multiplying creatures, which will leave behind offspring, not lifeless objects that will only leave ruins behind. A midrash about Moshe leaving his entire flock to go look for one lost animal forms the background for Yeshua’s parable in Luke 15:4. Once all these facts coincided, a “combination” was worked in the heavenlies to unlock Israel’s redemption. Moshe’s 40 years in the wilderness (which symbolize a transitional period) trained him to be the "shepherd" of a stiff-necked people. In-law: literally, anyone related by marriage. Yithro is probably a title for Re’u-El, as he is called “priest of Midyan” in 2: 16, but possibly the nephew or brother of Re'uel. Or it may simply mean “his (Moshe’s) superior”, the one who outranked him. Mountain of Elohim: probably originally an idiom simply meaning the most outstanding mountain in the area. But YHWH would indeed give new meaning to this description. He would later speak His words to Israel at this same mountain, and may yet do so again in the days to come. Khorev means dried-up or scorched. Later fire would indeed scorch its top. Another name is Sinai. (v. 12) Paul tells us this mountain is in Arabia (Galatians 4:25). Moshe would have been unlikely to lead his flock some 150 miles away from Midyan to pasture them in what is now called the Sinai. It is more likely Jabal al-Lawz in Saudi Arabia, very close to Midyan, and whose top is blackened by fire, though it is not volcanic. Khorev also means a desolate wasteland—not the type of place one would expect to find the “mountain of Elohim”, but YHWH often chooses to meet us in the places we least expect to find Him.
2. Then the Messenger [of] YHWH appeared to him in a flash of fire from the midst of the thornbush, and he watched it and, lo and behold, the bush was on fire, burning, but the bush was not consumed!
Sometimes we need such dramatic events before we pay attention and realize that YHWH is serious. The word for "thornbush" (sneh) is related to the name Sinai, which was probably so named because of this event. A place of thorns and fire is often the setting YHWH chooses by which to execute Israel’s deliverance. The fire consumes not us, but only the impurities in us.
3. So Moshe said, "Well, I'm going to go out of my way to see this tremendous phenomenon--why the thornbush is not burned up!"
Phenomenon: Whether or not the common Egyptians were animists who would expect spirits to live “in every bush”, Moshe was “schooled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22), and had also spent 40 years in this region, so he would be familiar with anything common there, and this was as unusual to him as it would be to us today. So he asked why it was this way—often the first step away from acceptance of the way things are to the better path. Physically, this could have been a mirage, in which light waves refract from another actual physical spot on earth and show a "live image" of what is really going on elsewhere; they are not a figment of the imagination of the viewer (Nogah Hareuveni). Moshe was told not to come closer (v. 5), and indeed one must maintain a certain distance to see a mirage. Whatever physical mechanism was used to get his eyes to see this, the strength of miracles is often in their timing. YHWH's call to Moshe here was important to the history of our redemption. Mt. Moryah, like Khorev, is also called “the mountain of Elohim” (or “of YHWH”), and that is where all the patriarchs encountered Him. The two are thus connected, though in different places geographically.
4. Now when YHWH saw that he had gone out of his way to consider [it], Elohim began calling to him from the midst of the bush. That is, He said, "Moshe! Moshe!" And he said, "Here I am!"
YHWH notices, but Elohim speaks. The compassionate One has seen His people’s plight, but He speaks as the Judge, because He is testing Moshe, and by not ignoring what YHWH had put near his path, he passed the test. He sought an answer to what seemed unexplainable. Only then did YHWH speak. He was not just in the right place, but had the right answer as well: “Here I am!” The Hebrew word hineni includes the sense of being ready to hear instructions. YHWH has new things to show us, and we have to get out of our ruts to see them. He knew that whatever was going on here was awesome, and wanted to be part of it, though he had no idea where it would take him. That is what made Moshe great.
5. And He said, "Do not come near here. Pull your sandals off your feet, because the place on which you are standing--consecrated ground it is."
We must make ourselves vulnerable to fully experience what YHWH has for us rather than staying insulated from confrontation or correction. As Adam and Chavvah walked barefoot in the Garden of Eden, and like the holy ground of the Temple (where priests also went barefoot), Moshe is allowed, in a short respite from his exile, to step in and again hear the voice that spoke there in the cool (literally "breeze" or "spirit") of the day. He is barefoot so he will have direct contact with the sand--symbol of the descendants of Avraham.
6. And He said, "I am the Elohim of your father--the Mighty One of Avraham, of Yitzhaq, and of Yaaqov." So Moshe concealed his face, because he was afraid to look upon Elohim.
He apparently had been taught enough by his parents before Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him that he recognized these names and knew enough to fear YHWH.
7. Then YHWH said, "I have paid close attention to the misery of My people who are in Egypt, and have indeed heard its outcry in the face of its oppressors, because I am acquainted with its sorrows.
The whole "people" is acting as one man. But when YHWH counted them up, He came up one short. But the missing man was found out here grazing flocks instead of building Pharaoh’s cities.
8. "And I have come down to snatch them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and bring them up out of that land to a generous and roomy land--to a land gushing with milk and honey; to the place of the Kanaanites, the Hittites, the Emorites, the Prizzites, the Hiwites, and the Y'vusites.
Come down: from “Heaven”? The idea in context is that He came down to Egypt from Kanaan, to which He wants to take them back. He is not physically limited to any place, but over and over in Scripture He says He is centered on Yerushalayim, which He calls His resting place and His footstool. Roomy: the opposite of the Hebrew word for "oppressors" (v. 7). The place of: includes the sense of displacing them. Thus He not only responds to the injustice of the situation in a general sense; He also appeals to promises He had made long before this, to validate that He was really the One speaking (see 4:5), when asking Moshe to do what seemed so unlikely to succeed:
9. "And now the cry of the children of Israel has reached Me, and I have taken note of the oppression with which the Egyptians are suppressing them."
Though YHWH "collects every tear", there is some sense in which a critical mass of cries and prayers motivates him to act. Collective prayer and the intensity of our cry does seem to make waves in the spiritual realm and move His heart to act.
10. "So go now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, and you must bring My people, the descendants of Israel, out from Egypt."
He would now be shepherding people, just as Yeshua told some fishermen (based on Yirmeyahu 16:16) that they would now be fishing for men. Go: literally, walk. This all sounded wonderful, but here was where the rubber met the road. YHWH said He would deliver Israel, yet said Moshe must do so. He will be the way in which YHWH keeps His promise. YHWH would certainly work through him, but he had to start walking. His miraculous deliverance would be accomplished only when Moshe acted.
11. But Moshe said to Elohim, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I could bring the descendants of Israel out from Egypt?"
12. So He said, "Because I will be with you, and this will be the proof to you that I have sent you: When you bring the people out of Egypt, you will serve Elohim on this mountain."
Yes, what he is being asked to do is impossible! He must confront the most powerful man in the world, ask to take all his slaves somewhere, not to mention all his people’s wealth (v. 22)! But when he makes himself available, he sets us up to see what YHWH can do. When YHWH says He is going with someone, He is out front, not following us! It is also impossible to reunite all Israel. But trust YHWH, and act. He already sees it as done, for He says “when”, not “if”. We have to see ourselves as there, and we will get there only when we obey.
13. Then Moshe said to the Elohim, "Look here; When I come to the descendants of Israel and tell them, ‘[The] Elohim of your ancestors has sent me to you', they will say to me, ‘What is His name?' What shall I tell them?"
Moshe has a “problem for every answer”. He is trying to find a way out of this job. And why not? The last time he had seen these people, they asked him who made him their boss. The memory of how YHWH had revealed Himself to their ancestors would validate Moshe’s message for his people.
14. So Elohim said to Moshe, "I will be whatever I must be!" Moreover, He said, "This is what you shall say to the descendants of Israel: ‘"I will be" has sent me to you.'
I will be: the same word in the phrase,"I will be with you" in v. 12. This description of Himself is in the imperfect tense, which can also mean, “I will continue to be what I am”, or “I can be whatever I need to be”. An enemy that could change into anything it needs to be—whether bullet-proof or an explosion--would be hard to overcome. And that is exactly what YHWH will be to Pharaoh. Whatever His people need Him to be, He can be. It is a name that looks forward, and would give Israel hope of leaving their place of bondage, and a name that shows that He is not boxed in by the whim of some priest like the Egyptian gods, which can only control one aspect of reality, and can make incursions into other territories to remove His people. He is not restricted to any one of these things, but can be whatever His people may need Him to be.
15. Then Elohim told Moshe further, "You shall say this to the descendants of Israel: ‘YHWH, the Elohim of your ancestors--the Elohim of Avraham, the Elohim of Yitzhaq, and the Elohim of Yaaqov--has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is how I am to be brought to mind continuously for perpetuity.
The name “I will be” reveals that His attributes are limitless, but the name YHWH appears to be the composite of all the tenses of “to be”: HaYaH (He was), HoWeH (He is), and YiHYeH (He will be). Thus the best translation, if such is necessary, would be “the One who (always) exists”—as contrasted with us mortals. What He has been and what He has promised to be, He already is, so we need to join what He is doing so that we can experience all that He can be. By revealing His Name, Israel would recognize that although Moshe appeared foreign, he was telling the truth, because though most of their heritage was suppressed by Egypt, they still remembered His Name. Brought to mind continuously: or remembered from generation to generation. Nehemia Gordon, an expert in ancient Biblical languages, also notes that this phrase has a broader meaning of which remembering is only one form; it means to make mention (as in 23:13) or refer to, so it is clearly indicating that we should use His actual Name, not substitutes. Forever: not until rabbinic injunction forbids its use or until foreign, pagan names are substituted for it. Ts'fanyah (Zeph.) 3:9 also tells us the reason He will one day restore all peoples to one pure language (the reversal of Bavel) is so that they can all call on His Name and serve Him in unity.
16. "Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and tell them, ‘YHWH, the Elohim of your ancestors, has presented Himself to me--the Elohim of Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov--to say, "I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt,
Gather the elders: before the rest of the nation can move, the leaders must be in unity. The morning prayers repeat daily the request to “restore our judges as at the first”, and in this order YHWH will build His nation once again. The rabbis say there was a teaching among the Israelite slaves that the one who would come to deliver them would know His name. Most had forgotten it, but the elders were the ones who would understand. He did not have to deal with every one of the people, as Yithro would later counsel him. Not everyone had a say. If he went through the proper channels, those who were prepared to recognize YHWH’s Name would.
17. "‘"and I have said, ‘I will bring you up out of the humiliating affliction of Egypt to the land of the Kanaanites, the Hittites, the Emorites, the P'rizzites, the Hiwites, and the Y'vusites--to a land gushing with milk and honey.'
18. "‘"And they will listen to your voice, and you shall come (you along with the elders of Israel) unto the king of Egypt, and tell him, ‘YHWH, the Elohim of the Hebrews, has met up with us. So now, please let us go three days' journey into the uncultivated land, so we may [make a] slaughter to YHWH our Elohim.'"'
Listen to: the word includes obeying. YHWH required him to put the heads of households on the line too; they also need to take responsibility for bringing their families out of Egypt. Hebrews: descendants of Ever, but the word itself means "crossers-over". Met up: with the sense of being unexpected. Three days' journey: far enough from the Egyptians to slaughter animals which they considered an abomination. They were not to tell Pharaoh anything about what He had revealed in verse 17. This was all he needed to know, and YHWH would make sure that after three days, they no longer had any responsibility to answer to Pharaoh.
19. "Now I am aware that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, not even by a strong hand,
Strong hand: literally, a firm, squeezing grip. YHWH is setting him up to feel the full force of what he deserved because he was, like his predecessor (Gen. 12), holding YHWH’s “wife” captive in his “great house”.
20. "So I will stretch forth My hand and give Egypt a push with all My extraordinary deeds which I will demonstrate in its heartland, and after that he will send you away.
Give a push: or strike. Choking him (putting him in a tight place) did not work (v. 19), so YHWH has to motivate him by hitting him where he will feel it most (his land’s economy and ecology).
21. "And I will give this people charm in the eyes of Egypt, so that what will occur is that you will not go empty-[handed],
22. "but each woman must ask [to borrow] from her neighbor and from the one seeking hospitality in her house articles of silver, articles of gold, and garments, and you shall put them on your sons and daughters; thus you will plunder Egypt."
Plunder: YHWH had promised this to Avraham (Gen. 15:14) and to Yaaqov (45:20). But the term is based on the word for "snatch away to safety", so in some sense through the removal of these things, at least some aspects of Egypt as well would be redeemed—including some of its people who would come out with them as well. (Compare Zkh. 14:18; Yeshayahu/Isa. 19:19-25) Elohim, the judge, determined that they had not been compensated for their hard labor, and mandated that they be paid reparations. The women could borrow earrings, necklaces, etc., in a way that men would not be likely to. From these precious metals and garments, the Tabernacle and its implements would also be made. The word for snatch away” is also used for how Yeshua would come for his bride, and the Tent of Appointment would indeed be adorned as a bride. Israel would not otherwise have supplies of cotton or dye with them in the wilderness, but these garments could be unraveled to get threads to make the Tabernacle's coverings, and the probably-idolatrous objects melted down. They had to be re-woven or recast into something that could cover (“atone for") a whole people, not just one person, and thus be redeemed.
CHAPTER 4
1. Then Moshe responded by saying, "But, look. They won't trust me or listen to my voice, but they'll say, ‘YHWH didn't appear to you!'"
Moshe has proven to be a man of fortitude, conviction, and willingness to learn. But he has not been exposed to YHWH long enough to develop confidence in Him and what He can do through him. He needs to believe he is capable of doing his part. But the only way to develop this kind of faith is to enter into the action to which He calls us. Only then can we see Him prove His trustworthiness. If you are not sure it is really YHWH you are hearing from, we have more ways to check than Moshe did: the Torah, the prophets, and those with the authority of experience.
2. So YHWH said to him, "What's that in your hand?" And he said, "A rod!"
Like "Adam, where are you?", this question was not for YHWH’s own information, but to get Moshe to focus on what he already had in hand as a solution to his concern (v. 1) as opposed to what he did not. But he was afraid to use it. After all, how could he do what all the armies of the world at that time could not--raise his hand against Pharaoh? Doesn’t he have archers and lances and chariots? A shepherd's rod usually had the most significant events from his whole life carved into it, so his rod represented his identity. To answer his own question, he needed to look at his own past—his own training as both a leader and a keeper of flocks, and realize that he was indeed specially groomed for this task. A rod is the symbol of power and rulership, for it is used to inflict pain, whether on rebellious sheep or those that come against the flock from outside.
3. Then he said, "Throw it on the ground!" So he threw it on the ground, and it turned into a snake, and Moshe ran away from its presence.
If he let the authority that YHWH had given him drop, as he was trying hard to do at this point, everything would get out of control. His training would all be wasted, dissipated into a wild (undisciplined, unfocused, self-serving) life. Letting go of the responsibility YHWH had already given him would allow it to turn on him and become an object of great fear. Moshe even has the right name to draw the people out, but he is afraid to become the hero he is supposed to be. Only by letting go of the securities we think we have can we see YHWH become our security. Moshe’s evil inclination was now exposed, and he could not bear to face it: “That can’t be me!” He was mature and past the more obvious sins, so his evil side shocked him when he saw its potential. A snake’s brain is the size of a pea, so it can only react; it cannot be trained, according to experts. It does not even have the knowledge of a dog. He would become one that only devoured and gave nothing back. And worse, he would prove a danger to YHWH’s people, for they would now have no deliverer, and would remain in bondage and probably be killed off. (R. Webster)
4. Then YHWH told Moshe, "Stretch out your hand, and seize it by the tail!" So he stretched out his hand and held onto it firmly, and it became a rod in his hand.
This is the Kingdom’s call: take the serpent by the tail. Usually one would try to grasp a snake just behind its head to control it, so it could not bite him. If anyone takes it by the tail, it is usually to give it “whiplash”--to break its spine so it is no longer a threat. But YHWH tells us not to run from the challenges when things get out of hand, but get a grip on them, for if we run from the responsibilities, we also forfeit the possibilities. Though Moshe had it made in the wilderness, with such a laid-back existence where he bothered no one and no one bothered him, his people now needed him. Now he is being called to go get in Pharaoh’s face, and he does not want such drama. But who is speaking to him? The Elohim of his ancestors. If he wants nothing to do with his heritage, he can go on being a Midyanite, and YHWH will save them by some other means. But if he embraces his calling, he can become a new kind of shepherd. YHWH said He would stretch out His own arm (3:20), but the way He will do this is by Moshe stretching out his hand. YHWH will go on ahead, but Moshe still has to act. Pharaoh has a snake on his headdress, so he is really the snake Moshe needs to take by the tail. What belonged to Pharaoh will now belong to him; these are meant to be Moshe’s sheep, not Pharaoh’s. So how do we put out our hand if we have no rod? Use both hands: the right hand to reach out to one another, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and the left to strike at whatever is holding Israel captive. In community, we get to use everyone’s “rods”. It begins with knowledge. Moshe knew a shepherd would need a rod to hit a predator, head a sheep in the right direction, or test how deep the water is before letting the flocks cross. So he had a rod. We have to know where we came from, where we are going, and what our job is. Knowing when to use each tool—knowing which tool is right for which job—is the next step. This is discernment. A matteh (a tree branch at its simplest) can be a walking stick, a shepherd’s rod, or a lance, a club, a back-scratcher, or a rolling pin. It is a useful and versatile tool! The key is to know what the present season calls for it to be. But knowing how to use it is what makes us really powerful; this is wisdom. But we cannot be wise until we take up the tool and make it our own. If we run from it, it cannot be any of these. Matteh comes from the word natah, meaning to stretch out or extend. Our rod is how we extend ourselves. We should be able to overcome with whatever is in our hands already. The way to overcome the evil inclination is to come to “grips” with it, to get in “touch” with it: identify where the real enemy is so it does not have the advantage of being an unknown factor. We can react to the evil inclination or we can use it. When a temptation raises within us some evil motivation, ask why it is there, learn from it, and let it unravel the puzzle of our hearts. Remind yourself that you are supposed to be a rod, not a snake. Ask yourself how you would rob Israel by failing to take up your calling.
5. "This way they will believe that YHWH, the Elohim of their fathers, has presented Himself to you--the Elohim of Avraham, the Elohim of Yitzhaq, and the Elohim of Yaaqov."
Why would this prove anything to them? Because the imagery of the serpent as enemy went all the way back to the Garden of Eden, and Israel was the remedy YHWH provided to counteract the curse. The Pharaohs also used a snake as their symbol, so to them this would also represent the subduing of Egypt. But mentioning the patriarchs would also clue them in to the hope of returning to their Land, because Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Yaaqov themselves were promised the Land as well as their descendants.
6. Then YHWH spoke to him again: "Put your hand inside your bosom." So he brought his hand into his bosom, and when he brought it out, lo and behold, it was leprous like snow!
Aside from the sheer attention-getting value of this Napoleon-like sign, a leper is like a dead body--not to be touched. Uncleanness is a picture of selfishness. His hand represents his works. It was as if he were reaching inside his body to test his own heart—and theirs.
7. Then He said, "Put your hand back inside your bosom." So he put his hand back into his bosom, and brought it out from his bosom, and, sure enough, it had returned to being like his [other] flesh.
When one is inclined to his own heart, the flesh is corrupted. But when we immerse ourselves in the “heart of Moshe”—the Torah—we will be healed. When our heart is inclined to YHWH, we will be made pure again, and when made to serve the interests of His whole people instead of just ourselves, even our flesh is made whole and useful again.
8. "So in case they do not believe you or listen to the voice of the first proof, then they will trust the voice of the subsequent proof.
The way one proves his authority to Israel is by his fruit. Voice: i.e., witness. The signs themselves speak! They are not just a novelty to amaze us or pique our curiosity, but so we will hear what YHWH is saying. The small wonders in our lives may be nothing more than His way of saying, “I love you and want you to come closer to Me”, but that is still worthy of our attention. Even the word for snake means "one that whispers". If the testimony of the evil inclination does not show us our need for deliverance, the proof that restoration is possible should.
9. "But if they [still] do not even trust these two distinguishing proofs or listen to your voice, then take some water from the [Nile] River and pour it onto the dry [ground], and the water that you take from the river shall become blood on the dry [land].
YHWH is offering Moshe the first solution to the lack he feels: He is training him to overcome the powers of Mitzrayim, one step at a time. If they do not repent, the most basic of commodities (especially in a dry land) will be withdrawn.
10. Then Moshe said to YHWH, "Oh, my Master! I am not a man of words, neither from yesterday nor the day before, nor since you have spoken to Your servant, because I am heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue."
Since you have spoken: He does not think this time with YHWH has improved his capability at all. Not a man of words: the idea that he had a speech impediment was a later rabbinic tradition; in the first century, Stefanos said Moshe was “mighty in words” (Acts 7:22). What he was slow at was speaking the Hebrew tongue, since he was a young child when he began living in Egyptian circles, then had lived in Midyan for 40 years; it may have been 75 years since he had spoken it!
11. But YHWH said to him, "Who fashioned the human mouth? And who determines [whether one will be] mute or deaf, clear-sighted or blind? Isn't it I, YHWH?"
I.e., “This is not your problem! Give My problems back to Me! Walk in obedience, and I will take care of the other details!” Moshe will be as eloquent as he needs to be, if he just obeys. “YHWH is One" means in part that He is in control of all that takes place, even what we think of as problems. (Yeshayahu/Isa. 45:7) We must not let our imagination go too far, because this breeds pessimism and only gets in His way. He has already put other pieces in place, though we will not see them until we enter into our part.
12. "So now go, and I will be with your mouth, and will teach you what to say."
YHWH is well aware that Moshe does not know how to do every aspect of the work He is calling him to do, and He will give him further instruction as he enters into the situations. But he has the basic skills, and is expected to exercise them.
13. But he said, "Let me be excused, Master. Please send by [whatever] hand You can send!"
This is fear speaking. Saying, “I believe You can do it, but let someone else do the work” is not true faith at all. The Hebrew word for “faith” (confidence) is based on the word for being firm—not shaky, but unafraid. But he set himself up this time, for YHWH had already chosen which hand He wanted to employ.
14. Then YHWH's anger was kindled against Moshe, and he said, "Isn't Aharon the Levite your brother? Certainly he can talk the talk! And besides, look! He's even coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
Nothing angers YHWH more than unbelief when He has already given us enough evidence. Moshe had a brother who could interpret for him, and he was being called back to be surrounded by Hebrews who spoke the language, so he had no excuse. This is one way YHWH would teach him what to say. (v. 12) But since Moshe shows by his response that he does not want the awesome gift that YHWH is offering him, YHWH takes part of it back and makes him share the honor and credit with his brother, who clearly has ears to hear YHWH, because he is already obeying. (Compare the story of Baraq in Judges 4:6-9.) Ideally, YHWH did not want another mediator, but Moshe forced Him to take Plan B. In it there was too much order—more than He intended. Moshe was to be YHWH’s spokesman, but now there has to be yet another buffer between the man who is the picture of the Torah and the people of Israel. Yeshua, too, was obedient, but that we needed him to clean up the mess we made of the Torah is to our shame.
15. "Moreover, you will speak to him, and put the words in his mouth. In addition, I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will instruct you as to what you shall do.
16. "And he will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were a mouth for you, and you will serve as an elohim to him.
At first Aharon needed to translate Moshe’s orders into Hebrew for the people. The Levites seem to have been already somewhat of an elite who knew more Egyptian than the enslaved tribes. As an elohim: I.e., he will say everything you command him to say. This is one demonstration that there are many levels of usage of this term, and it should make us pause to ask which one when we read something that sounds like it is calling a man Elohim.
17. "You shall also take this staff in your hand by which to perform the distinguishing proofs."
18. So Moshe departed and returned to his in-law Yether and said to him, "Let me go now and return to my brothers who are in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive." So Yithro told Moshe, "Go in peace."
In-law Yether: or, superior in-law (i.e., of an older generation than his and the one under whose authority he was—i.e., Re’u’el. That his “name” is given in two different forms (the second meaning “his superior”) adds credence to the idea that this was a title or position and not his name as such. Brothers: an inclusive term, as he had one brother and one sister, but it can also mean “relatives” in general. Moshe proves that he is indeed a man of few words. (v. 10) But this was actually his strong point, though he did not recognize it as such. (Compare Judges 6:14.) At this point, he never even tells Yithro about the burning bush. He says nothing that is not relevant to the need at hand, which is for permission to leave, since he is a man under authority. But for all we know, up to this point Yithro may never have learned that Moshe was anything other than the Egyptian his daughters mistook him for. He may have assumed that all of Moshe’s relatives were Egyptians, so there is nothing unusual about his wanting to go back and see them. He does not tell him anything that might make him try to hold him back—as Yaaqov had learned the hard way with Lavan. We might think he could assume that because he had seen this vision and heard from YHWH, he had the right to just go ahead and leave, but he did not. He went through the right channels. He got a second witness; he asked his patron and teacher if it would be all right, and might even have asked him if he thought this was all valid or if he was hallucinating. He asked his elder to confirm it before setting the plan in motion, and this gave him even more authority—and confidence.
19. Then YHWH said to Moshe in Midyan, "Go [ahead] and return to Egypt, because all the people [who were] seeking [to take] your life are dead."
Now YHWH speaks to him without a burning bush. Only after Moshe has taken the first major step toward obedience, does YHWH tell him the reassuring news that, by the way, all the people that he was afraid of were no longer even around. There are no more "wanted" posters with his picture on them. But YHWH wanted him to obey without having to be bribed. The dream of Yosef, husband of Miryam (Matt. 2:20) is nearly the reverse of this story.
20. So Moshe took his wife and his sons, and made them ride on the donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moshe took the rod of Elohim in his hand.
Once he started to obey, a simple shepherd’s staff used in the right way at the right time went from being Moshe’s to being Elohim’s. Because he took it by the tail, it is now the King’s scepter, the Judge’s rod, the symbol of the authority granted to Moshe now that he has laid his own fears and desires aside. It is now a weapon that will let his arm become much longer, giving him leverage that even Pharaoh will feel. It is not magic; it is an extension of Moshe. What has YHWH put in our hands and in the hands of the allies He has given us?
21. Then YHWH told Moshe, "As you are walking back to Egypt, consider the miraculous signs that I have put in your hand, and perform them all before Pharaoh. But I will give his heart a firm grip, and he will not let the people go.
Consider: This may have included realizing that the rod would be more effective as a crocodile in Egypt than as a serpent. But when YHWH gave him the second sign (v. 6-8), He did not tell him it was another proof until after he had experienced it, so this suggests that Moshe was meant to learn something personal from it first. Later his sister Miryam would become leprous because she questioned YHWH’s choice of a leader for Israel, but that is exactly what Moshe himself had just done! So YHWH showed him the deceitful potential of his own heart, so he could see his extensive authority in this perspective, and he does seem to have kept this in mind, as he never abused it. Give his heart a firm grip: i.e., strengthen his resolve, or possibly, put a tight squeeze on him, not allowing him to be merciful, so that YHWH would have a darker background to contrast with His ability to deliver.
22. “Then you shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Thus says YHWH: “Israel is my firstborn son.
The privileges of a firstborn include receiving a double portion of the father’s inheritance; his duties include using it to rescue his brothers in their time of need. This is why Israel, who received so much more light than the other nations, is called to be a light to the nations.
23. “‘"And I told you to let My son go and allow him to serve Me, but you refused to let him go. So watch out! I am about to slay your [own] firstborn son!"
YHWH begins to stake His claim, but only gives Pharaoh part of the information. He does not yet call Israel the beloved bride that Pharaoh has taken into his harem (as one of his predecessors had done with Sarah). He starts with something Pharaoh can relate to, because all the Pharaohs considered themselves to be the firstborn of the particular deity they worshipped. Yet He is challenging his honor: Your elohim has one firstborn; I have a whole nation as My firstborn! But Pharaoh thinks of them only as slaves. But since we are speaking of the firstborn son…
24. Now along the way, at a place where he stopped to spend the night, YHWH met him and demanded to kill him.
To kill him: if there was a scribal error here, a small change would make it read “to circumcise him”, which the next verses show is what He was driving at. Either way, Moshe was going to threaten Pharaoh’s firstborn, so he could go no further until his own firstborn son was in complete compliance:
25. So Tsipporah fetched a sharp stone, cut off her son's foreskin, made it touch his legs, and said, "Because you are a bridegroom of bloods to me!"
Being a Midyanite, a descendant of Avraham as well, she was familiar with circumcision and knew immediately where she had apparently been holding back, as evidenced by the fact that he is called “her son” and not Moshe’s here. He can hardly proceed with this mission that regards the covenant without its sign on his own son, much less be respected by the Hebrews he is going there to set free. A sharp stone: probably flint, which can be made sharper than a knife.
26. So He withdrew from him. Now she had said, "A bridegroom of bloods" because of the circumcision.
Bridegroom of bloods: The traditional Jewish circumcision ceremony begins with “Blessed is he who comes!”—the very greeting given to a bridegroom at his wedding. The liturgy continues, “Just as he has entered into the covenant, may he enter into the Torah, the marriage canopy, and beneficial deeds.” (Artscroll Siddur) In Arabic, the same word is even used for “circumcision” and “bridegroom”, because often Arabs are not circumcised until shortly before their wedding. His legs (v. 25): When she put the blood on these “doorposts” of one of his “gates”, YHWH let the matter drop, just as the messenger of death would pass over those who also had the blood on their doorposts. (12:22) But though the foreskin bleeds profusely when one is circumcised, having been born in her father’s house, Moshe’s sons would have been seen as belonging to Yithro (as seen with Lavan, Gen. 31:14-43), but if Moshe circumcised them, they would be identified with him rather than with Yithro. Now that they had left that household, Moshe had the authority, and she felt that they were now “really” married, because now her blood relatives belonged to her husband, not her father. Now that his own house was in order, he could get on with YHWH’s business.
27. Then YHWH told Aharon, "Go into the uncultivated land to meet Moshe." So he went, and met him at the mountain of the Elohim, and he kissed him.
That he met him at this mountain (which 3:1 identifies as Khorev or Sinai) suggests that Moshe had lived in part of Midyan that was beyond Sinai. How was Aharon free to leave Egypt? Some traditions say the Levites were never enslaved, since the priests always had special privileges in Egypt. (cf. Gen 47:22, 26)
28. Then Moshe told Aharon all the words of YHWH who had sent him, and all the proofs which he had appointed to him.
29. Then Moshe and Aharon went and gathered all the elders of the descendants of Israel,
30. and Aharon spoke all the words which YHWH had said to Moshe, and performed the distinguishing proofs in the sight of the people.
31. And the people believed! When they heard that YHWH had watched over the descendants of Israel, and that He had paid attention to their affliction, they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves.
The last time a Hebrew had spoken to Moshe, the message to him was “Who made you our judge?” But after 40 years, the tables have turned. YHWH knew what would persuade them. They may have simply needed to be reminded that YHWH remembered them and was aware of their plight. Previously their eyes had been on the fact that they were slaves and their burdens were large, but when they saw evidence that they were part of something much bigger than this problem—the promises made to Avraham and Yitzhaq, and the blessings pronounced by Yaaqov—they could not only put their pains into the perspective of YHWH’s promises; they could put His desires ahead of their own and eventually have their own desires come to be no different from His.
CHAPTER 5
1. Then afterward, Moshe and Aharon came and said to Pharaoh, "Thus says YHWH, the Elohim of Israel: ‘Let My people go so they can celebrate a festival to Me in the uncultivated land.'"
Where are the elders that were supposed to come with them (3:18)? Did they tell Moshe, “Yes, that is a great idea! It needs to be done! Why don’t you go do it for us, as our representative?” If they refused to go due to fear, Moshe is only reaping what he himself sowed when he hesitated to obey YHWH. Note that He did not just say, “Let My people go.” Unbridled freedom is a myth. We were released from Egypt in order to belong to YHWH. This involves a particular way of life, not a life with no boundaries. Why couldn’t they just gather somewhere in Egypt to celebrate? Because they would still be surrounded by statues and obelisks, and that is not the context YHWH intends. Even in the Land of Israel, YHWH calls us out of the everyday context for the pilgrimage feasts, for he wants His people gathered as one. And the only place we can truly revolve around Him is in the “place of the word” (the Hebrew meaning of “uncultivated land”).
2. But Pharaoh said, "Who is YHWH, that I should listen to His voice in order to let Israel go? I do not recognize YHWH! Besides, I am not going to let Israel go!"
Why should he care who YHWH was if he himself was the son of the sun-god? Why should he worry about the god of slaves? This was a question he would come to regret asking. YHWH would, layer upon layer, show him that He was more than the Elohim of Pharaoh’s captives. He is also the Elohim of the river, the air, the food supply, and life itself. This is also exactly what YHWH had told Moshe would transpire, so it was a confirmation to him. I do not recognize: as we might answer someone who demanded that we “stop in the name of Allah”. But this could also read, “I am not familiar with YHWH.” YHWH resolved that problem for him too.
3. So they said, "The Elohim of the Hebrews has met up with us. Please let us go on a journey three days into the uncultivated land and make a slaughter to YHWH our Elohim, so that He will not strike us with pestilence or with sword.”
YHWH does not yet exert His authority over Pharaoh, who is not a Hebrew. But Pharaoh understands the concept that if one does not serve his deities properly, he will have trouble from them. And he could have deduced that if YHWH’s subjects are in the midst of His land, if the Hebrews are plagued, the Egyptians around them will be as well. It would seem strange enough to him that the Hebrews had only one Elohim. But now He was crossing over into someone else’s territory—unheard of among the pagan gods. But “crossing over” is what “Hebrew” means, so He was proving to be a Hebrew Himself. And in the presence of the “son of Ra” himself, these people were saying they had an obligation to someone else.
4. But the king of Egypt said to them, "What [right] do you--Moshe and Aharon--have to make the people neglect their labors? Get back to your work!"
It seems that even Moshe had been given some tasks to work on since he came back.
5. Moreover, Pharaoh said, "Look how many people of the land there are now, and you'd make them take a break from the work they have to do?!"
Break: or ceasing; in Hebrew, it is the same word as for “sabbath". Indeed, the liturgy calls the Sabbath “a remembrance of the Exodus from Mitzrayim”, because even the slaves must be given a rest on that day. But Pharaoh sees this as logistically impossible, considering that there are more Hebrew slaves than there are Egyptians by now. So he tells them to forget this “pipe dream”; it just won’t work. He considers it a joke. The greater Exodus that is to come (Yirmeyahu 23:7-8) is just as impossible, if not more so, but YHWH says it will take place!
6. So on that day Pharaoh gave orders to the people's slavedrivers and officers, saying,
7. "You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as you have done previously. They will go and gather building material for themselves.
Straw: related to the Hebrew word for "build". It is what gives more substance to the clay and makes it adhere better. Make bricks: literally, whiten bricks. This seems to be for a cosmetic purpose. Archaeology shows periods of mainly brick construction in Egypt interspersed with eras of the colossal stone edifices that that nation is better known for.
8. "But you shall require the quota of bricks which they were previously making; you may not reduce it, because they are slackers; that's why they are clamoring, saying, ‘Let us go make a slaughter to our Elohim!'
9. "Make the slackers' labor [even] heavier, so they may work on it, instead of being obsessed with futile matters!"
Futile matters: Aramaic, "idle chatter". This talk about moving in circles (the literal meaning of “celebrate a festival” in v. 1)—what kind of progress is that? What will it accomplish? That gets us nowhere! The Hebrew words imply, “If you have enough energy to think about going on a trip, you have too much time on your hands. You’re not busy enough. Focus on things that are real—physical storehouse cities that need to be built! That’s all you should be concerned with, not these fairy tales about an Elohim that doesn’t even really exist.” Yes, untested belief is just naïve. But real faith, in Hebrew, means “firmness, loyalty, steadfastness in the face of things that cast doubt”. It is trusting someone who’s proven himself. Those are active terms, not figments of an imagination. Here Pharaoh gives away the enemy’s secret: keep them busy, and you will keep them under your thumb. The spirit of Egypt does not like the Sabbath, because it drains the system of labor and revenue—and gives us freedom to disengage and enjoy the fruits of our labors rather than having them all go to someone else.
10. So the slavedrivers went out with their officers, and told the people, "Thus says Pharaoh: ‘I have no straw to give you.
11. "‘You will go get straw for yourselves from wherever you can find it, because not a thing will be cut back from your duties.'"
12. So the people were scattered throughout the whole land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw,
This is the divide-and-conquer strategy. They were no longer together, and were thus less of a threat to Egypt. But the whole family probably had to get involved in finding straw so the men could continue their work, so they would all have a common burden, even if in different locations. Hardship would unify them. And they would have to constantly look to YHWH to get the job done.
13. and the slavedrivers pushed them, saying, "Complete your duties--each day's task on its day --just like when there was straw [provided].
14. And the officers [from among] the descendants of Israel which Pharaoh's slavedrivers had set over them were beaten. They said, "Why haven't you finished your prescribed due in making brick, either yesterday or today, as you had previously?"
These foremen were Hebrew collaborators, much like those Jews who worked for the Nazis, thinking they would get off more easily because they cooperated. But they were now being beaten just like the rest, and maybe even more.
15. So the officers of the descendants of Israel came and made an outcry to Pharaoh, saying, "Why are you dealing this way with your servants?
16. "There is no straw given to your servants, yet they're telling us to make bricks! Your servants are being beaten, but your own people are the ones at fault!
They do not dare go so far as to say that Pharaoh himself is to blame, though he told them to do this. They are trying to compromise so that he will do the same. But his response is, “Even if it is the foremen’s fault, I am behind them”:
17. But Pharaoh said, "You're lazy! Lazy! That's why you're saying, ‘Let us go make a slaughter to YHWH!’
18. "So now, go, get to work, because straw will not be provided for you, but you will deliver the quota of bricks!"
This had exactly the effect that Pharaoh wanted: Rather than using the leverage they had already gained and facing the consequences, they “tucked their tails” and did not say another word about going out into the wilderness, though that was still the call from YHWH. They backed down, leaving the whole burden on Moshe and Aharon.
19. Then the officers of the descendants of Israel saw that they were in trouble [since it was] said, "You shall not diminish the bricks of each day's task on its day."
20. So they confronted Moshe and Aharon, who were standing there [waiting] to meet them when they came out from Pharaoh,
21. and told them, "May YHWH look upon you and judge, because you have made our fragrance a stench in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants to provide a sword in their hand to destroy us!"
Stench in the eyes: Heavy fragrance does indeed make the eyes water. But an offering brought in the right attitude of worship is a sweet savor to YHWH. (Ex. 29; Lev. 1, etc.) A sword in their hand: They spit Moshe’s words of verse 3 back in his face, as if to say, “Will any sword that YHWH could bring upon us be any worse than this sword? Pharaoh did not do this to us until you got involved!” But if we blame the messenger for the hardship that must come on the way, we are not fully committed. When YHWH starts doing something, we cannot expect instant results. To keep plodding in the same direction in spite of the obstacles is what “believe” really means in Hebrew. This is integral to developing steadfastness. If we are not willing to go through what is necessary to bring about our release from bondage, we should stay out of it altogether, for we will only defile it if our heart is not inclined to YHWH.
22. So Moshe went back to YHWH and said, "Adonai, why have you brought trouble to this people? Why it is that you have [even] sent me?
23. "Because since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your Name, he has done evil to this people, and You have not rescued them at all!"
"I've done all You told me, but You're not keeping Your end of the bargain!" He heard them because of their outcry, but things still have to get worse before they can get better. It gets darkest just before the dawn. The first few plagues affected everyone, even the Israelites, who are still not united. So Pharaoh is doing them a favor by making them identify with one another. The menorah is a very intricate piece of workmanship, yet it is beaten out of a single piece of gold. Nothing can be formed separately and then welded on. It must all be hammered out. Egypt beats us into shape and shows us the contrast vividly so that we appreciate what YHWH does when He finally does act. We will not have the curse of ingratitude if we let the suffering make us pliable and usable. Can we think that way while we’re still in the middle of the test? Maybe success is 99% perspiration, but that 1% inspiration, that having a purpose, a reason to keep going, is so vital to our motivation to push on in such adversity. That’s why YHWH made sure we would keep retelling this story, because it’s something we need every day; it is crucial if we are to maintain confidence and stay steady when everything is screaming, “Give up!”—when the rod is still a snake. As Daniel, Yirmeyahu, and all the prophets know well, obedience will eventually bring you to a place where there is no way out, and will test whether we are still following for our own sakes or for His. He forms the dark backdrop for His most dramatic plans with impossible situations...
CHAPTER 6
1. Then YHWH told Moshe, "Now you will see what I can do to Pharaoh, because with a strong hand he will send them forth, and with a strong hand he will drive them out from his land."
Just when all hope seems lost is right when YHWH comes through, because, ungrateful people that we are, we seem to only appreciate what we’re about to lose. Now that things have worsened enough that there will be no doubt that YHWH is the one accomplishing their redemption, this is His direct response to Moshe’s complaint or challenge in 5:23. This is not the kind of answer he was looking for, though. He was not just going to shake hands with Pharaoh, say, “It was nice knowing you”, and leave! While YHWH is using him, it is really YHWH who is delivering Israel, and that has to be his focus. He chose a method that would profit Israel in the process. He wants His people to come close to Him, as did His friends the patriarchs. We must follow His instructions in order to bring His salvation to its fullness. Moshe did well, but he expected an immediate return on his investment, rather than expecting it to take time to mature. It looked as if things were getting worse rather than better, but this only gave YHWH an occasion to demonstrate His power more vividly, and in a more exciting, dramatic way that we will never forget.
Portion Shemoth
(The Names)
Exodus 1:1 - 6:1
INTRODUCTION: The major theme of the book is YHWH’s redeeming His people as He had promised. It is a story of salvation (deliverance), not just as a spiritual concept, but in a real-life situation, much to the chagrin of the players in the story, because YHWH is a Master playwright, making His plots as thick and suspenseful as can be, because He has a solution to any and every problem, and wants to demonstrate that to us. So He brings us to the edge of the precipice, the brink of total loss over and over to make the backdrop absolutely impossible so His answer and His ability to bring deliverance against all odds will shine all the more brightly. He has things “up His sleeve” that no one could predict both to confound the smug and relieve the oppressed.
Egypt was the pinnacle of human accomplishment to that point, but it got that way on the backs of those they abused, and it would not acknowledge that apart from this evil technique, it could have gotten no further from the rest of the world, so this pride had to be brought low. Using one's fellow’s service with no compensation would be forbidden to the Israelites thus enslaved when the tables turned (Yirmiyahu/Jeremiah 22:13)--just one example of how diametrically opposed the Egyptian and Israelite worldviews, so vividly contrasted in this book, are. Egypt’s worship of multiple deities is another, as was its constant focus on death (seen most vividly in the tremendous expense invested in the tombs of the Pharaohs) in contrast with the Torah’s focus on choosing life. Later in Scripture, Egypt is a metaphor of the quintessence of enmity to YHWH, and Pharaoh likewise in the prophets, as one of the incarnations of the seven-faceted Beast described in Revelation 13 but also hinted at in many other Jewish apocalyptic writings.
At Passover, the commemoration of the events described here, each of us is reminded to regard the exodus from Egypt as his own liberation from all forms of bondage.
The book begins with a colophon (overlap of information) showing its connection to the book of B'Reshith (Genesis, most notably 46:8-27), which begged for a sequel:
Standing Up
Against Injustice
Several times in this portion we see people summoning great bravery and doing dangerous things. The midwives—and Moshe’s parents, thus far unnamed in the text—directly disobeyed the orders of the authorities in order to do the right thing. (1:17; 2:2) Moshe’s sister even put herself in danger by daring to go speak to Pharaoh’s daughter and risk exposing the mother who had illegally spared this boy’s life. (2:7) These we could still call “passive resistance”, but Moshe, who had the most to lose by undermining the labor base, stood up and actively did something about the oppression the Egyptians were inflicting on a whole race of people. (2:11)
Now we have to get the right perspective. The hard work was not the problem; there are times when extreme conditions are the only way to accomplish a bigger purpose, and when not enough people voluntarily agree, governments have a right to compel. The Torah even allows slavery in certain settings (though no distinction is made in Hebrew between the words “slavery” and “servanthood”, which seems to cast the idea in a much more favorable light).
The problem was the cruelty with which the Egyptians forced them to labor. (Ex. 1:11-14) They were not just treating the task as more important than those who were accomplishing it; they were deliberately making life hard for the Hebrews. The Torah insists that we are never to degrade our fellows with harsh treatment (Lev. 25:46)--the same word used here (Ex. 1:13) in the description of how the Egyptians dealt with our ancestors.
And we must never confuse justice with mere fairness. They are not commended just for standing up for “rights” or the things they preferred; it was the deepest principles that were at stake here. The midwives disobeyed orders not for convenience’ sake, but because they feared Elohim. (1:17) This was a matter of life and death. We should never take civil disobedience lightly, because there is meant to be order in the world, and even bad rulers are better than anarchy. But at the point where they act presumptuously and cross a line set up by the highest authority, that is when we have to say, “No more!”
And YHWH did respond, using the language of justice Himself. (3:8) But in the meantime Moshe’s zeal had waned. Not that he did wrong in running from Egypt; there are times when the wisest thing to do is get to a safe place and regroup. (2:15) But he started believing the ones who said, “Who made you our judge?”
Self-doubt is helpful up to a point, when it makes us humbly inspect our own motives and make sure we are doing things for the right reason. But Moshe had not been doing the wrong thing; he let their words and Pharaoh’s wrath scare him into putting his activism on the back burner. And finally, after using the last of his adrenaline to drive away some other unjust usurpers (2:17), he turned the burner off altogether. We usually mellow somewhat with age (after all, he was 80!), but he settled down too far. He got used to the status quo, since he was no longer seeing the effects of injustice firsthand. So when the right time did come to act, he was still listening to the words that had discouraged him. When given the authority--by no less than YHWH--to do the very thing he had tried to do 40 years earlier, he now said, “I just can’t; you’ve got the wrong guy.”
So YHWH armed him with not just signs to demonstrate his authority, but the prior knowledge that it was not going to be easy. (3:19) Things indeed only got worse at first, but this is when the proverbial “tough get going”. Still, it got to where Moshe himself thought YHWH had given them false hope (5:22-23). But when he finally got to his wits’ end, that’s when YHWH assured him that this was not yet the end of the story: “Just wait and see what I can still do!”
So when the outlook is getting bleaker, when our efforts don’t seem to be getting anywhere, remember that the darker the sky, the better a backdrop it makes for the greater light that He intends to bring to those who have guarded and nourished the little bit of light that they have left.
We, too, can echo the words of Peter, Paul, and Mary: “We have come this far always believing that justice would somehow prevail. This is the burden; this is the promise; this is why we will not fail. Don’t let the light go out!”
Study questions:
1. How does Exodus 1:5 resolve the mathematical riddle in Genesis 46:8-27?
2. With all of the fame Yosef had achieved, how do you think a king could arise in Egypt who had never heard of him (Ex. 1:8)?
3. What does the fact that Israel was perceived as a threat to Egyptian society (1:9) and that they were easily numbered tell us about how the Israelite people lived?
4. What did the Egyptians expect to achieve through their “wise dealings”? (1:10) Did their plan work?
5. The midwives both disobeyed and lied to the king, and yet Elohim was pleased with them. (1:15-21) On what principle(s) could this be justified?
6. What advantages did growing up “right under Pharaoh’s nose” give Moshe for his later calling?
7. When did Yeshua say something similar to what we find in 2:14? Do you think he was intentionally alluding to that? Why or why not?
8. What comfort do you personally find in the words of 2:23-25?
9. How did Moshe’s outlook change between 2:11-14 and 3:11 (compare 4:10-13)? Was this a change for the better? Why or why not?
10. The rod in Moshe’s hand (4:2) is, by the end of the chapter, called “the rod of Elohim” (4:20). How did this transformation take place?
11. Other than their value as signs to show YHWH’s power, do you see any significance in the symbolism of a rod changing to a reptile, a man’s hand becoming leprous when it touches the flesh near his heart, or water turning to blood (4:2-9)? What might they tell the Israelites about their condition?
12. How do you understand the unusual interlude in 4:24-26 that almost precludes Moshe from being YHWH’s instrument? What do you think Tzipporah meant by her final comment?
13. What does 4:10-12 teach us about weaknesses that we might think would disqualify us from being useful to YHWH’s purposes? When Moshe, having learned this, still protests, how does YHWH view his hesitancy? (4:13ff) What should we learn from that?
14. Though Moshe has been given a commission by the ruler of the universe, he still asks permission from the man under whose protection he has lived for 40 years. (4:18) What does this teach us about the attitude YHWH’s servants should have toward loyalty and authority structures?
15. By the end of our reading, things have only gotten worse for Moshe and the people, and they seem farther than ever from leaving Egypt. What did YHWH say in chapter 3 that should have led Moshe to expect that the promised deliverance would not be immediate? Does YHWH fault him for feeling this way? How does He deal with this dilemma?
16. How did Pharaoh himself “ask for” all the plagues that came upon him and his land?
Also known as "Exodus" (The Book of the Departure from Egypt)
An ancient Egyptian flint knife
The Sidewalk
for kids
YHWH cares when His people are hurting, and He is glad to do something about it.
But when YHWH plans to do something great, He tells His prophets (Amos 3:7)—and Moshe was a prophet. But He also wants to let people share in what He is doing.
Moshe had been trained to be both a leader, familiar with how things worked in the palace, as well as a shepherd, which got him ready to lead many people who needed guidance. But when YHWH called to him and told him the job He had for him, he let his own past experience get in the way. He had tried to rescue the Hebrews from slavery forty years before that and failed, so he thought he would never be able to do any better. He must have started thinking that all he was ever going to be was a shepherd, and had given up on doing anything greater—just because he had tried once before and it didn’t work.
Now there was something else there to help him—YHWH Himself, who had ways to use even the land, sea, and sky to help change Pharaoh’s mind. YHWH told him He knew Pharaoh was stubborn, but that He would do things Moshe could not. But Moshe still didn’t trust Him.
He thought he didn’t have what it would take, but YHWH showed him that He could work with just a very simple tool Moshe already had. He thought he couldn’t talk very well, but YHWH reminded him that He was the one Who made Moshe’s mouth; He could certainly make it work!
Even when he finally was convinced he could do this job with YHWH’s help, he let one setback discourage him. He didn’t promise things would be easy just because He is working, but sometimes I think we expect that. But if something is too easy, what makes it special when it finally gets done?
This situation went beyond just the fact that this one Pharaoh wanted free labor to accomplish his building projects, and that he was mean in the way he treated the workers. Egypt was now the headquarters for the pagan ideas that got started at the Tower of Bavel. But Israel belonged directly to YHWH, and He did not want them working for someone who was going against His purposes for the world. He had a different job for Israel. The Egyptians thought they could keep YHWH’s servants occupied with what they wanted to get done so they could not get the job of the highest Elohim done. So this is another reason He told Pharaoh to “let His people go”.
And that same battle is going on today, even though we don’t always notice it. HaSatan uses many of the nations of the world to try to build his idea of a perfect world, and he likes to keep YHWH’s people right where he can see them, in the countries that are most prominent in his plans for that time. He did it through Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and now he is doing it again. But YHWH has a different Kingdom He wants built very soon, and although it seems like we are free, we are actually, again, stuck building things that aren’t going to last and that often even go against YHWH’s purposes. So He tells us through Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) that He is going to bring us out in an even bigger way than He did under Moshe, to the place where He wants us, because He still has a different kind of job for Israel to do.
And while He deals with the heavenly things that need to be put in place for this to come about, He will choose people to do part of the job on our level just like He did with Moshe, but also with the elders of Israel whose part wasn’t as visible as Moshe’s, but just as important. Are you available to Him? Or do you want to just keep building the things today’s “Pharaohs” want built, since that is the easier path, even though it’s not going to benefit anybody but the modern-day “Egyptians”? It will make people slaves even though it looks nice and easy on the surface.
If we don’t answer His call like Moshe finally did, YHWH will pick somebody else. But wouldn’t it be better to work for the right side, even if it’s the harder job at first? Because something way better will come because of it, and you can be part of that.
The Renewal of SHEMOTH
When we read about Pharaoh killing the babies (Ex 1:16, 22) we can’t help but think also of King Herod and the infants in Beyh Lekhem. (Mat. 2:16-18) Matithyahu says this is related to Yirmeyahu 31:15 (14 in Hebrew—a voice heard in Ramah, that of Rakhel weeping for her children). So what is the context there talking about? It’s about YHWH bringing the descendants of Rakhel back to their land. One verse right in the middle of it sounds an awful lot like a summary of the first Exodus:
“YHWH has redeemed Yaaqov (Jacob), and ransomed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.” (31:11)
That’s because there is a second Exodus coming, and one that is even bigger than the first. (See Yirmeyahu 16:14-15) In fact, here Yirmeyahu tells us to STOP crying, because YHWH is coming to comfort us after having severely disciplined us, “because your work shall be rewarded…and there is hope in your lattermost time”. (31:16-17) Then it moves right into the clearest promise anywhere in Scripture about the renewal of the Covenant and the forgiveness of our sins that comes with it. (31:31-34)
Right in the middle of all of this is that verse Matithyahu pulled out and linked with the attempt on Yeshua’s life from which YHWH rescued him as He did Moshe. Sometimes it’s hard to see how it fits with Rakhel and Ramah, which is about 12 miles from Beyth Lekhem; for crying to be heard that far away it would have to be some loud lamentation!
But Yeshua said he had only come for “the lost sheep of the House of Israel”—also in Matithyahu (15:24), so we have to suspect that author saw a thread running through these two ideas. Indeed, a general description of the House of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) is “Ephraim”—one of Rakhel’s children. Menashe is another included among them. But those were her grandchildren. Ramah is in the territory of Binyamin (her direct, first-generation son), but also very close to the border between Binyamin and Ephraim, which also constituted the border between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel.
Michael Card highlights some of the threads between these two tragic incidents of babies who never understood that they died for someone else in his song “Spirit of the Age”, which ends with the culmination of this “rewarded work” once all of Ephraim is regathered: “Soon all the ones who seemed to die for nothing will stand beside the Ancient of Days. With joy we’ll see that infant from the manger come and crush the spirit of the age!”
It really does fit together, and it is not taken out of context like some accuse Matithyahu of doing. He was a lot closer to these events and on location; surely he knew the connections better than these arrogant modern skeptics who think they can sit in judgment! And how fitting indeed that the two men most instrumental in the first exodus and the second should start out with such similar experiences.
Moshe was set on a course to drift right into the hands of the enemy, it would seem, but his own people could no longer keep him safe, so they risked the possibility that he might survive, even if there was the real danger that he would never think of himself as anything but an Egyptian. Just before the scattering of Yeshua’s people, “he” (through his message) was also placed in Gentile hands for safekeeping, again with the very real risk of assimilation and influence from the less-learned mindsets his “caretakers” operated under. But just as Moshe’s “homing instinct” kicked in and brought him back out of that fog, so the deep-seated Hebrew nature of Yeshua’s “body” is again rising to the surface and bringing us to defend fellow Hebrews from those who threaten them and to again “refuse to be called the sons of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer hardship with the people of Elohim than to hold onto the wealthy connections that would prove to only be temporary”. (Heb. 11:24-25)
Just after Moshe acted on his own to try to bring justice to his people, one of the Israelites who were fighting asked him, “Who made you our judge?” (Ex. 2:14) When someone wanted Yeshua to command someone else what they had no authority to demand (You know, like, “Daddy, tell Jimmy to give me back my ball!”), he answered, in what may be a tikkun for Moshe’s zealous blunder, “Man, who made me your judge?!” (Luke 12:14) Was he just trying to curb the man’s greed, or was he also giving us an example of being content to stay within the realm of jurisdiction that has been allotted to us? In due time, Moshe was later given authority to judge all of Israel, after a long time spent learning how to be a shepherd, just as Yeshua, who did wait on YHWH’s timing (Mat. 4:8-10), will be given all nations to judge in addition to Israel. (Psalm 110:6, 10-13; Isaiah 2:4; 11:4; Mikha 4:3)
YHWH had great compassion on His people’s plight and delivered us out of physical slavery through Moshe. But there is a slavery deeper than the physical kind, and one that remains even in people who appear to have no debts to anyone and seem as free as they could be. Yeshua said, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (Yochanan 8:34) Yeshua himself then freed us from this much more horrible taskmaster, and Paul goes into much detail about how in Romans 6 and 7, but the bottom line is that if anyone whom he has redeemed is still a slave to sin, it is by his own choice, because we have the option to stop obeying that former master (Rom. 6:16) and take the serpent by the tail (Ex. 4:4).
And an even more wonderful thing is, if Messiah has freed our spirits, even if we temporarily end up as physical slaves because of human politics and greed (as things got harder at first under Moshe), we are still free in the ways that count most. (1 Corinthians 7:22) We need not fear being captured by men, for as He taught Moshe to speak (Ex. 4:12), He will give us the words to say when we need them (Mat. 10:19). And one day we will even be freed from the physical consequences of Adam’s sin, when there is no longer corrupted blood in our veins. But by YHWH’s spirit, even now we can have a “down payment” or foretaste of what that will be like (Rom. 8:10-11; 2 Cor. 1:22), because even though our bodies wear out more and more each day, they can be re-energized by His joy (Neh. 8:10), His motivation, and His power to accomplish anything that needs to be done for the sake of His Kingdom. (2 Corinthians 4:16)
And again, we have no debts to our “flesh”—the physical desires that have been twisted or exaggerated by the sin residing in our bloodstreams; we don’t answer to them any more than our ancestors had to answer to Pharaoh once YHWH set them free through Moshe, because His Spirit gives us inner power to overcome and override our natural weakness and inclinations just as the law of aerodynamics does not cancel the law of gravity, but supersedes it through a different kind of power. (Rom. 8:2, 12-13)
And that is an even greater freedom than just physical, though that too was (and is) important to YHWH and helps us accomplish His agenda instead of serving the kinds of unprofitable, endlessly-repetitive cycles that go nowhere in that “vanity of vanities”. (Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes; Romans 8:20) Just as Moshe’s “flock” now had a place to go and an important function to carry out in the world, we can be part of a history that is actually going somewhere and accomplishing something that will effect more real change than any politician could ever deliver. Though we often forget our calling and go back into slavery (Rom. 8:15), this is what Israel is really about—a channel by which the rest of the world can be freed from the real taskmasters: fear, greed, lust, and every other kind of sin that just won’t let us go until we experience YHWH’s deliverance. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!” (Yoch. 8:36)
A Table in the Presence of Our Enemies
The new Pharaoh (probably of a new dynasty) was afraid of the population of Israel, but he also didn’t want to lose them. (Exodus 1:9-10) So he did what Esau did not succeed in doing to Yaaqov’s much more elemental family (Gen. 33:12-15): he took control of them. Tradition says he started by asking for volunteers, which would make no one suspicious, and then little by little withdrew non-Israelites from the work force until they alone were left, and then he cracked down. Wouldn’t you call that a concentration camp? And once concentrated, no one on the outside sees what is going on.
He tried to use insiders—the Hebrew midwives—as his “Judenrat”. But this strategy backfired, and the problem got “worse”. Why didn’t the midwives fear Pharaoh? They probably did, but they feared Elohim more (Ex. 1:17), so they didn’t cave, and YHWH rewarded them. (1:18, 20) Did they lie to Pharaoh? Did the end justify the means? Or did YHWH just give them a convenient reason that He knew would appease Pharaoh? (1:19)
But then Pharaoh stopped playing nice and put his own “S.S” in charge of the extermination. Yet right under Pharaoh’s nose, the deliverer not only survived but thrived, unthreatened though, had they known who he was, he would have been the prime target. (Shades of 1 Corinthians 2:8…)
But the concentration-camp concealment was so effective that it seems that even Moshe, with all of his inside connections, did not know for sure what the situation was. He apparently heard some rumors, but had to go see for himself if it was really true. (Ex. 2:11) Then his moment of truth came, when he had to take sides. He was persecuted for it immediately by those who turned on him, showing their true colors. (2:15)
Again the spectre of persecution seems to be looming just beyond the horizon. But just as Israel only grew stronger the more they were afflicted (1:12), so, when the world inevitably reacted in desperate fear to the people who were “turning the world upside down” with the message of an even fuller redemption than Moshe brought, that famous truth came about that “the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the [called-out community]”. And like Moshe, YHWH can conceal His secret arrows (Isaiah 49:2) until the moment comes when they can no longer hide, but by then they are fully mature and ready to be more effective than ever against the adversary.
So fear Elohim more than the other threats, knowing that we ultimately have to answer to Him for any decision to compromise in the face of pressure. As Ambrose Redmoon said, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” Or in this case, Someone else.
As the book of Revelation says over and over, “This is what will enable the holy ones to endure” in the face of worse affliction than has ever been seen (Mat. 24:21). It’s okay to groan about the hardship; YHWH hears and responds to that. (2:23-25; 3:7-8) Just don’t give in. Make the choice that the midwives and Moshe made, and watch how (not right away but in the end, 3:19-21) YHWH deals well with you too. (1:20-21)
Who's to Judge?
When Moshe, an outsider among the slaves and one whom they might legitimately accuse of being “privileged”, told one of these Hebrews (who did not know he was their fellow) to stop beating one of his own kinsmen, he retorted, “Who made you a head-man and judge over us?” (Exodus 2:14)
Who indeed? That Hebrew slave, if he lived long enough, would find out one day that his Liberator in Heaven had made this apparent Egyptian lackey his judge. (18:13) He would even judge Pharaoh! (4:16)
But this dig seems to have gone to Moshe’s head, because although later he would become “head-man and judge” over all the Hebrews, it was only after he lost the overconfidence that might have made him self-righteous. (3:11) But getting to that point does not mean we’re off the hook from the responsibility!
“Don’t you realize that we will pronounce judgment on angels, much less indeed things pertaining to this life?” (1 Corinthians 6:3) Paul argued that if holy people are to judge the world, they should not take their own cases before those who know nothing of YHWH’s standards, even if they are in official courts.
But where did he get this information? In 1 Hanokh (Enoch) 12-13, Hanokh is the one made responsible to inform the Watchers (the fallen angels mentioned in passing in Genesis 6) of the sentence passed on them by Heaven, but this does not seem to put him in the role of actually judging them. But since they are bound and held until the day of judgment (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6), it seems only fair that humans, whom they were wronging, may be the ones to do the judging. (Compare Yochanan/John 5:27.)
But how would we become qualified to do so? Uneducated people were found to be fearlessly confident and the explanation the bystanders noted was that they had been with Yeshua. (Acts 4:13)
Yet to someone who said to him, “Tell my brother to share the inheritance with me”, even Yeshua said, “Who made me your judge?” (Luke 12:14) I find it a little arrogant to approach one higher than oneself and say, “Tell him I’m right!”, as if the authority is just a proxy to serve the private interests of one who could not persuade anyone through normal logic to do what he thinks is right—which is probably why he was not put in authority to begin with!
YHWH has indeed made Yeshua our judge, but not for that purpose! He is a judge under the authority of Another, from Whom he must hear before he can render a verdict. (Yochanan 5:30; 8:16) It was the same for Moshe. (Ex. 4:15) And so it must be for us. If, with fallen bodies, we are not as well-equipped to hear directly as Yeshua was, we must hear through Moshe’s words, which make us wiser than our teachers. (Psalm 119:99) But he got them from YHWH.
Yeshua’s axiom--“Do not judge, lest you be judged” (Mat. 7:1)--is often quoted today, when no one wants his own will scrutinized by any logic or law. (“At least don’t judge ME!”) But he goes on to tell what he meant: “Because by whatever criterion you judge you will also be judged.” (7:2)
It’s not that we won’t make judgments; we have to constantly do so just to stay alive. The Torah even commands Israel to establish judges in every city (Deut. 16:18) so what He told Noakh to do (Gen. 9:5-6) can be carried out with order and justice. But remember, the same standard you apply to others will be applied to you, so choose carefully what that standard will be. Is it one you too are willing—or able—to live with?
“Don’t judge according to appearance, but judge with correct judgment.” (Yoch. 7:24) “Correct” is the secular interpretation of that word; “righteous” is the sacred, and that is the perspective we need in order to know what “correct judgment” is.
Moshe had some sense of justice at 40, but only from Egypt’s perspective, which was high but not highest. After being with YHWH, he was qualified to be our judge. Spend time with Him, and you will learn to judge correctly--for His sake, not just your own.
Who Needs Freedom, Anyway?
Shemoth starts with a shortened summary of Genesis 46:8-27—a “colophon”, which shows it is the continuation of the same story by the overlap between them. The emphasis this time is not all 70 names, but the fact that the 12 households they made up were still in Egypt, long after the famine (the reason they came there “temporarily”) had ended. It seems they had gotten used to Egypt—their “new normal”.
Moshe’s too-early attempt to liberate them met with skepticism (Ex. 2:14), like some who, mid-pandemic, called concern about one-size-fits-all mandates “free-dumb”.
Even Moshe gradually forgot there was a problem. Do we forget this new normal is really sub-normal? When Yeshua met a man crippled for 38 years, he asked an interesting question: “Do you want to be healed?” (Yoch. 5:6)
Nancy Bowser (in The Lie Effect: Overcoming Soul Abduction) asks, “Wasn’t it obvious that he did?”
Apparently not, because for some reason Yeshua raised the question. Was he just being polite--to leave him free will and not impose a change on him based on an assumption that everyone wants to be free? Or, master psychologist that he is, did he see some hesitancy now that something he had dreamed of (but was probably beginning to give up on ever experiencing) was actually a real possibility?
Ms. Bowser continues, “Could it be that this man was in some way hiding behind his condition, using it as a defense mechanism? We don’t know what the sin was that brought this upon him [Yoch. 5:14], but the result could have been such guilt, shame, or fear that he was isolating and insulating himself behind his problem.” Might folks not extend him any amnesty if it hadn't made him handicapped?
Our Hebrew ancestors did want to be freed at first, when conditions were worst (2:23; 4:31), but when this brought serious pushback from Pharaoh, they were not so sure it was really worth the risks. (5:21-22) Moshe himself at several stages was not convinced it could ever work. (3:11; 4:1, 10, 13; 5:22-23) Later, after they were freed in the drama up to which the cliffhanger of this portion leads, we find them wanting to fire Moshe and appoint a new leader to take them back to the very nation that had enslaved them! Maybe it’s this aversion to being liberated if it is perceived to be done "forcibly" that Yeshua was remembering when he asked the man if he was really sure he wanted to be free from his disease.
It seems unimaginable, but it is really not at all far-fetched. Some people get so used to being captive that it becomes a form of security. As the classic film The Shawshank Redemption shows so poignantly, those who have been imprisoned for most of their lives, when given their freedom, often find it so unfamiliar, frightening, and fraught with danger that they decide to commit another crime just to get back into the familiar, safe four walls where they’re guaranteed “three hots and a cot”, despite the drawbacks and discomforts of prison life.
The man Yeshua challenged did choose to be freed, but he threw his healer under the bus; our ancestors, too, left Egypt, but seem to have retained a homing instinct not for the Land of their ancestors, but only the land they themselves had known. So they too were afflicted for 38 years—with no way out anymore, except for their innocent children.
But the only One who really knew what was possible kept telling them that it would work! He just seems to like to build up the suspense so His masterworks can shine even more brightly in contrast. When we worry or are pessimistic about outcomes, we are saying that we know better than He does. Is that arrogant, or what?
But that’s not to say no one has anything to worry about. Yeshua also said, “Whoever sins is a slave to sin.” (Yochanan 8:34) That’s a real existential problem. But he would not have brought it up if he hadn’t had a solution. What was it? He’d already stated it: “The truth will make you free.” (8:32) So how do we know what’s true? It’s only possible if we continue in his word (8:31)--which fully agrees with his and our Father's. But his audience denied they were enslaved at all (8:33)—much like those who thought they’d been better off in Egypt. How can you be freed if you do not admit you are still bound? (Compare Yoch. 9:41) But “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (8:36)
“The reason Messiah has set you free is so you can be free!” (Gal. 5:1) That should go without saying, but sadly, we need it drummed into our skulls, because what logically follows is, “stand fast in that liberty and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery” or there’s a real danger of ending up in worse shape than before we were freed. (Mat. 12:43ff)
We can avoid that by resetting our “normal meter” not to a sub-standard Egypt but to the Promised Land.
Let Their Past
and Your Present
Prepare Us
As with our ancient ancestors here, our freedoms are being taken away one by one, and the Second Exodus spoken of in Jeremiah 16 is looking more and more necessary.
The haftarah in Isaiah gives added details about that Exodus. The context: YHWH destroys a “sea-dragon” (Isa. 27:1) elsewhere associated with…you guessed it, Egypt. (Ezk. 29:3), the first of a series of empires continuing through Babylon (com-pare the dragon in Jer. 51:34), Persia, Greece, and Rome--each oppressing Israel but experiencing YHWH. Then all who wish to join Israel (like the mixed multitude of Exodus) can be linked into its root (Isa. 27:6), probably through grafting (Gen. 12:3; Romans 11:16-24). The result? Fruitfulness for the whole world.
Associated with that dragon in 27:1 is Livyathan, a “crooked serpent”, which, by the meaning of its name, seeks to unite the world—but under fallen human policies. It appears that its final instance—the half-iron, half-clay feet of Nebukhadnetzar’s image (Dan. 2:43)—will also enslave YHWH’s people, but a great shofar will bring us out of all of our places of captivity and back to our Land. (Isa. 27:10-13) Our heady pride will be brought low and only YHWH remain exalted (28:1-5), but this will result in better outcomes for us (28:6) as long as we accept His solutions (28:12), but if we refuse them (28:7-11, 13), we will be back to the same old thing again and again—Israel’s story since the days of the Judges.
But read just a little bit further; He has one final answer: the cornerstone for a “house” YHWH is building, which will result in justice and righteousness (28:16-17), unlike the unreliable covering Egypt provided. (28:20) That stone is “cut without hands” and will grow into a mountain that fills the whole earth (Dan. 2:34-35)—a kingdom set up by YHWH Himself (2:44) that will blow away what remains of those previous great, proud earthly empires. Along with that cornerstone, initially rejected by the builders (Psalm 118:22), Yaaqov’s children will then (like the stone not made by human hands) be called “the product of YHWH’s hands”, becoming “living stones built up into a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5), and will finally have the right attitude toward YHWH, so that this time Yaaqov will not be disappointed in them as he was in Gen. 49. (Isa. 29:22-23)
As with the first Exodus, we will cross over temporarily dried-up bodies of water. (Isa. 11:15) But studying what our ancestors did before YHWH rescued them could give us important tips on how to govern our lives in the meantime. The path to that point may be just as difficult for us as it was for them, requiring bravery like that of the midwives (Ex. 1:15-19) that puts our lives on the line to honor YHWH more than the seemingly-irresistible oppressors. But recall how YHWH rewarded them. (1:20-21) He says, “Those who honor Me I will honor; those who disregard Me will get little consideration.” (1 Sam. 2:30) That should give us ample motivation to “endure hardship as a good soldier of Messiah Yeshua” (2 Tim. 2:3) to help liberate others.
In some cases, as with Moshe’s parents (Ex. 2:2-3), our wisdom, like Gideon’s (Judg. 6:11-14, 25-27), may consist of staying under the radar, looking weak (2 Cor. 12:10), until the resistance grows strong enough to come out in the open when we’re ready to call our captors’ bluff.
How long was Moshe frustrated about the unfinished business he’d left behind? (Ex. 2:15) He remained an activist for a while, bringing justice to whatever sphere he could influence. (2:17) But he either gave up hope or assumed he was not the one for the job since they were out for his life; YHWH knew He had to assure him his pursuers were dead before Moshe would be fully convinced it was safe to return. (4:19)
But by then he’d not just lost his “zeal without knowledge”; he’d let the knowledge sink in too far--to too rigid a sense of what was possible. So YHWH had to show him things that were outside the boxes he’d built in his mind (3:3; 4:3-9) to remind him the evil had only grown far worse but still needed resolving. (3:7) But his example was to show the rest of Israel how to escape the boxes that had been built around them, by themselves or others.
So pay attention to what YHWH shows you now (Ex. 4:21), even if it makes no sense yet; it may be the very means He uses to rescue us all in the days ahead. He’s the only one who defines what is or is not possible. (4:11) If He is with us (4:12), we can succeed. But expect the worst pushback after it starts to work (5:9-23); that’s the best backdrop to highlight what only He can do. (6:1)
