Day 18. Exodus 4-6

Exodus 4-6

Exodus 4

¹And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee.

Moses is acting like he didn't want the job. He shows a lot of humility. He's playing the reluctant hero. He is the author, and he doesn't want to make himself seem very self important. Even though he wrote the book about himself.

²And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

God proceeds to turn the rod into a snake, then when Moses grabbed it, it changed back.

This is one of the signs that the Hebrews will see to make them believe Moses was sent from their god.

⁶And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.

⁷And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

Two magic tricks for Moses to show the people, that he was sent by their god. A stick that turns into a snake and back, and a hand that he puts into his shirt, it comes out with leprosy, and then put it back again and it's cured.

⁹And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.

Finally, a third magic trick, water into blood. They gotta believe after that trick.

¹⁰And Moses said unto the LORD, O my LORD, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

Moses doesn't want the job, he claims he's not eloquent. This shows how much this is not an exact word for word description of what happened. If a person says they aren't "eloquent" then they've just disproved themselves. No person who... um... doesn't talk good; would use the word "eloquent" in a sentence. They would say "I don't talk so good" (you'll be lucky if they said so, it would probably just be "i don't talk good").

God says he'll do the talking anyway.

¹³And he said, O my LORD, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.

Moses asks if there was someone else who could do the job.

¹⁴And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.

Moses has a brother Aaron the Levite. When in the world did Moses discover he had a Levite brother. If Moses was raised as an Egyptian, did he believe himself to have been an Egyptian? Did Moses believe he was the actual son of the pharaoh's daughter? When did he discover he was a Hebrew? Here's a good site on these questions. Granted it is taken from the perspective that the events actually happened from the way they are written in the bible.

Anyway, god tells Moses he's going to be the mouthpiece, and that Aaron will be helping him.

¹⁸And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.

Does Jethro know that Moses is of the Israelites, or does he think him to be an Egyptian? Remember, in Exodus 2:19, Jethro's daughters said he was an Egyptian.

²⁰And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

Odd, we only know about Gershom so far, it will be a while before we find out about the other brother.

God then promises the death of all the firstborn of Egypt.

Now, for the fun part.

²⁴And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.

Uh, what?

²⁵Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.

A sharp stone to do a circumcision? Ouch.

²⁶So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

They really like the bloody husband bit.

Anyway, who's feet is "his feet". Which son? Gershom, or son to be named later. Why would the people of Midian not be circumcised? (Midian was a son of Abraham).

²⁷And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him.

Who kissed who? How did Aaron know his brother was Moses? Well, that's more possible, since Aaron was raised by his mother, and his mother knew that Moses was ... um... Moses, so she could have told him stories of his brother all the time.

Moses and Aaron go to the elders.

³⁰And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.

³¹And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

I wonder if it took all three magic tricks to convince the people.

Exodus 5

¹And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.

This is what god told Moses to say. In Exodus 3:18, god told Moses to lie.

Do not forget that. In Exodus 3:18, god told Moses to lie. The snake didn't lie in the garden of eden.

²And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.

Pharaoh wasn't worried about losing the slaves forever, he was worried about losing several days of production.

Why wasn't Pharaoh surprised that Moses was standing there with a hebrew?

³And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

Travel for three days into the desert, then a day (or so) of feasting, then three days travel back. That's at least a week off.

⁴And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens.

See, Pharaoh wasn't worried about losing them forever, he was worried about losing a week of work.

So then pharaoh told them they had to continue to do the same work, but they wouldn't be provided straw for making the bricks, they had to get the straw themselves. Bricks made with straw are "adobe". The word can be traced to Egypt in roughly 2000 BC.

Most of the people then went and complained to pharaoh that they didn't like Moses. Then the people yelled at Moses.

Exodus 6

¹Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.

God wanted to punish pharaoh. God could have made the people go at any point, he just wanted to show off.

³And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

⁴And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.

Odd that JEHOVAH is used here and not LORD. LORD normally is used for Jehovah.

⁶Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:

⁷And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

Here we see LORD, instead of JEHOVAH. YHWH. God will let them know that he is god.

Moses tells the people god is going to send them back to Canaan. The people didn't care.

¹¹Go in, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.

Is he still saying he wants to go on a three day journey? This verse makes it seem like they were planning on leaving for real.

¹³And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel, and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

Now we get the names of the heads of the tribes.

Reuben's, Simeon's, and then Levi's. The others don't seem to matter. In fact, the only one that matters is Levi.

¹⁶And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an hundred thirty and seven years.

Levi was 137. We don't know exactly when he was born, but it was sometime in the 1811-1805 era. Levi was the third son born to Jacob. The first (Reuben) would have been born in 1811, the second (Simeon) in 1810, the third (Levi) in 1809 (probably). In 1808 would have been Issachar. Zebulun in 1807. Dinah in 1806. Joseph born in 1805. So if Levi was born in 1809 then he died in 1672.

Verse 17 gives a list of Gershon's kids... they don't matter.

¹⁸And the sons of Kohath; Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel: and the years of the life of Kohath were an hundred thirty and three years.

Kohath died at 133. Kohath was alive when the people went into Egypt as he accompanied Jacob. (Gen 46:11). They went in in 1766, Levi would have been roughly 43. Kohath could have been pretty much any age.

Next is the sons of Merari... they don't matter either.

²⁰And Amram took him Jochebed his father's sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years.

Amram married Jochebed, he was the father of Aaron and Moses. Amram lived 137 years.

So, the lineage goes Jacob> Levi>Kohath> Amram> Moses. Kohath was alive and traveled into Egypt. He sired Amram, who sired Moses. This is the extent of the number of the people of Israel.

²³And Aaron took him Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Naashon, to wife; and she bare him Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.

Aaron fathers some boys, the important one is Eleazar.

²⁵And Eleazar Aaron's son took him one of the daughters of Putiel to wife; and she bare him Phinehas: these are the heads of the fathers of the Levites according to their families.

Eleazar has a son, named Phinehas, he'll be important later too.

Now there's some confusing verses about god talking to Moses, and Moses complaining.

Points to ponder:

1. When did Moses realize he wasn't Egyptian?

2. Why was Moses child uncircumcised? Was Moses circumcised (he should have been 8 days after he was born)?

3. Why did god tell Moses to lie?