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ОглавлениеRead Exodus chapters 1–14.
One way to cover these chapters is by watching Dreamwork’s Prince of Egypt.1 It is an animated film, geared toward children. These chapters have some interesting aspects that the film skips or changes.
Joseph is the bridge between Abraham’s tribe in Canaan and the story of Moses in Egypt. You’ll recall from Genesis 39–47, Joseph was a hero in Egypt, but eventually “a new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph” (Exod.1:8). The tribal people of Abraham were initially respected in this foreign settlement and in some sense were seduced by the affirmation they received in Egypt under Joseph. They were given a separate place to live, the region of Goshen, in order to maintain some cultural distinction. But they stayed too long and were eventually enslaved by a Pharaoh who didn’t care about the past. Four hundred years transpire—a very long time.
The Name of God
The name Moses (mosh-ah) is a Hebrew word that sounds like the words “to draw out.” When this Pharaoh’s daughter found him, she took him as her son and named him Moses (Moshe), saying, “I pulled him out (meshitihu) of the water” (Exod. 2:10). This has a double layer of meaning, the first being the description of the Egyptian princess drawing him out of the water, and then secondarily, Moses rising to draw the people out of slavery.
Notice the literary parallel here. Just as Pharaoh killed the firstborn sons of the Hebrew slaves, so now God will do the same to the Egyptians. The term for the intentional killing of infants is infanticide (infant-cide). Words created with the Latin root and the various prefixes may be familiar: homicide (killing of a man), fratricide (killing a brother), satricide (sister), suicide (killing oneself), regicide (killing of a king or queen). I hate that it is often these biblical stories that introduce these dark aspects of human nature to those fully reading the Bible the first time.
Moses married Zipporah, a Midianite shepherdess. Midian was a region associated with northwestern Arabia, and for this story it is assumed that Zipporah’s family was from the Sinai Peninsula. Moses marries outside his tribe. He was a Hebrew who was raised culturally as an Egyptian and then marries the daughter of Jethro, a Midianite priest. Take note of what must have been some level of ethnic, religious, and cultural integration. This is important as we move forward in the story.
Moses asks God for the Lord’s name. God responds with an obscure Hebrew word (YHWH) that had never been in use but that was similar in form to the verb “to be.” It has been translated “I am,” or “I am who I am.” A more awkward but perhaps more accurate rendering would be “existing” or “existence.” Regardless, it sets a precedent in Hebrew culture of God being nameless. To name something is to define it and, in a sense, control it. Have you ever met someone who controls their relationships by giving everybody nicknames? It may be disguised as cute and friendly, but on another level, it is patronizing. God cannot be defined and controlled. God is nameless and held in mystery. Hebrews thus have referred to God as “God of the name (Elohim Hashem)” or “He whose name may not be spoken.” Over time, in the Hebrew tradition, God seems to have many names, but they are actually descriptions of God’s behavior, much like a nickname is given to someone based on what they do or how they are perceived:
El Shaddai (Lord God Almighty)
El Elyon (The Most High God)
Adonai (Lord, Master)
Yahweh (Lord, Jehovah)
Jehovah Nissi (The Lord My Banner)
Jehovah-Raah (The Lord My Shepherd)
Jehovah Makeh (The Lord Who Strikes You)
Jehovah Rapha (The Lord That Heals)
Jehovah Shammah (The Lord Is There)
Jehovah Tsidkenu (The Lord Our Righteousness)
Jehovah Mekoddishkem (The Lord Who Sanctifies You)
El Olam (The Everlasting God)
Elohim (God)
Qanna (Jealous)
Jehovah Jireh (The Lord Will Provide)
Jehovah Shalom (The Lord Is Peace)
Jehovah Sabaoth (The Lord of Hosts)
Circumcision (Again)
Did you notice the strange story of God setting out to kill Moses as he headed back to Egypt to rescue the slaves in Exodus 4:24? These are the kinds of encounters I find fascinating, like puzzles that need solving. Moses’s Midian wife Zipporah intercedes by circumcising their son Gershom and dousing Moses’s big toe with the blood from the procedure. Interestingly, in Mesopotamian culture, the feet were sometimes a euphemism for the male private parts. So maybe she threw the foreskin at Moses’s private areas in anger that he had refused to circumcise his son “down there.” Regardless, Zipporah is depicted as a wife who is encouraging Moses to be faithful to his adopted Hebrew tradition. Midianites could have been monotheistic tribes that shared a common understanding of God with the Hebrews; they also descended from Abraham’s son Midian.
So what does it mean? It may mean that Moses only had a vague knowledge of the rite of circumcision and had dismissed its necessity. He was not raised as a Hebrew slave, and as we will see in later readings, the Hebrew tribe was somewhat unclear about their ancient tribal obligations. Remember, 400 years had passed. What sense of their Hebrew ritual and practice had been forgotten or muddled in those generations? Lodged in this story is the heroics of Zipporah, a non-Hebrew Midianite woman, who recognized what was needed—a firm commitment to the tribe’s ancient God and covenant. She circumcises Gershom and throws the evidence at Moses’s feet, and only then are they able to head toward Egypt committed to their new venture.
Plagues upon Egypt
Following YHWH’s command, Moses returns to Egypt with the power that he has received. Ten plagues eventually fall upon the Egyptians by Moses’s (and his brother Aaron’s) command:
1. Water turns into blood (Exod. 7:14–24)
2. Frogs swarm the land (Exod. 7:25–8:15)
3. Lice come upon humans and animals (Exod. 8:16–19)
4. Swarms of flies fill the houses (Exod. 8:20–32)
5. A deadly disease attacks all the livestock (Exod. 9:1–7)
6. Boils fester upon humans and animals (Exod. 9:8–12)
7. A thunderstorm of hail and fire falls on the land (Exod. 9:13–35)
8. Locusts descend and eat all the vegetation (Exod. 10:1–20)
9. Dense darkness so that no one could see (Exod. 10:21–29)
10. The death of every firstborn child (Exod. 11:1–12:36)
The final plague is the source story of the Jewish Feast of Passover. For Christians, this is a festival that also symbolically points to the sacrifice and salvation of Jesus, as he celebrated the Passover meal as his last supper with his disciples before his blood was shed to save and protect his people from judgment and death (Matt. 26:17). These are called “typologies,” ideas or symbols that repeat themselves in different forms across different stories into the New Testament. Passover is the “type” and Jesus’ last supper and his sacrificial blood is called the “antitype.” We will see more of these as we read ahead.
Infanticide. Killing infants to demoralize your enemy or to control their population. Genocide. Killing the entire population, or generation, to demoralize your enemy.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
1. Moses comes to realize that his wonderful life as Egyptian royalty was at the expense of the Hebrew people. If you inherited a wealthy company and found out that the profits came from the suffering of other people, what would you do?
2. If God had asked you to go back and free enslaved people, what do you think, feel, and do?
1. The Prince of Egypt, directed by Brenda Chapman, Simon Wells, Steve Hickner (Universal City, CA: DreamWorks, 1998), film.
