Tag Archive | Pharoah

#2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 31

Jan31

    Day 31 —  Won’t you read the Bible with me this year?   It only takes a few minutes.  (You can also listen to an audio recording.)

   Day 31 – Exodus 4 – 6  (Moses, God, Aaron, Pharoah & Israel)

Chapter 4 continues the amazing conversation between the LORD and Moses at the burning bush at Sinai. God has just told him that HE will bring out His people from Egypt, and they will plunder that country in the process. Oh wow!

But (yes, that is Moses’s first word). But… they won’t believe me!  I can almost hear God sigh. Okay… here’s a couple minor miracles that you can show them. And when Moses obediently throws down his shepherd’s staff, it turns into a SNAKE!!  Yikes!  Moses runs from it, but God says to catch it by the tail. Seriously???  But Moses obeys and voila! it is a staff again. (By the way, the snake is one of the symbols of authority in Egypt.)

Then God does the leprosy (yikes again!) miracle – first appearing when Moses pulls out his hand from his robe, and disappearing when he puts it back inside. (I imagine Moses is really shook up by now, but God offers a third miracle that he will do when he gets to Egypt. Get a pitcher of water from the “holy-to-Egyptians” Nile River, and when you pour it out… it will be BLOOD!

It’s settled then, right? No!

Moses’s next word again was, “But…”  This time he says he can’t talk eloquently, in fact he has a stutter. (Perhaps from only talking to sheep for 40 years and hearing their “baa-baa-ba.”)

God is losing patience with His man. Who gave you that mouth, Buddy?  Me.  If I made it, I can make it talk for me!  But…alas… I’ve summoned your bro Aaron. He can talk. He will talk for you…for me.

Moses can’t find another excuse so he goes home and explains to his father-in-law that God has called him to set the Hebrew people free from slavery in Egypt.  Surprisingly, this priest of Midian sees God’s hand in it all and sends him off “in peace.”

Chapter 5 finds the brothers before Pharaoh in Egypt. “The God of Israel says ‘Let My People go so they can hold a feast to Me in the desert.”

WHAT???, says Pharoah. “Who is the LORD that I should obey his voice.  I WILL NOT!”

Moses & Aaron resort to, “Please let us go to sacrifice to the LORD our God, lest…… a pestilence fall on us.”

“NO!! NO WAY! GET OUT OF HERE!”

And Pharaoh doubles the load on the already super-burdened Hebrew slaves. And they ask Moses why he ever came. They aren’t delivered. Their situation is WORSE.  And of course, Moses goes to God and accuses Him of the same thing. YOU HAVE NOT DELIVERED YOUR PEOPLE … AT ALL!

In chapter 6, you can almost see God rubbing his hands together. “NOW you will see what I shall do to Pharoah.” Then he preaches a mini-sermon to Moses, recalling His promises to the Patriarchs.

“I have heard the groaning…”

“I have remembered my covenant…”

“I am the LORD and I will bring you out…”

“I will deliver you from slavery…”

“I will redeem you…”

“I will take you to be my people…

“I will be your God…”

“I will bring you into the land I promised your forefathers and give it to you for a possession…”

“I AM THE LORD.”

Then follows a brief genealogy of Moses and Aaron (the tribe of Levi), beginning with their faithful parents Amram and Jochebed.

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(And then the contest begins. You’ll be sorry, Pharaoh, that you messed with the Living God.)

#2024GOAL – Reading Through The Bible Chronologically, day 30

Jan30

    Day 30 —  Won’t you read the Bible with me this year?   It only takes a few minutes.  (You can also listen to an audio recording.)

   Day 30 – Exodus 1 – 3  (Israel grows & becomes a threat, Moses appears)

In Joseph’s time, Israel was 70 people strong. Now, 300+ years later (chapter 1), they had “increased greatly; they have multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.”  WOW!  (God was fulfilling His promise to Abe in Genesis 15.)

But the new, paranoid Pharoah is afraid of them. What if…? And what if they…? he worried. So he set out to “deal” with this problem. First he conscripted the Hebrews to build cites for him through hard manual labor. Then – because they just got stronger and multiplied – the forced labor got ruthless and turned into cruel slavery. And still they multiplied.

The next solution was to kill baby boys at birth, but that didn’t work out so well. God used the midwives to save the newborns.  Pharoah’s “final solution” was infanticide. He commanded all Egyptians to throw EVERY son born to the Hebrews into the crocodile-infested Nile River.

But a beam of hope arises in chapter 2. A beautiful baby boy is born to a couple who are from the tribe of Levi. (Not Joseph, not Judah).  The mother kept her son hidden as long as she could, but babies do cry loudly sometimes. So she obeyed the ruling pagan authority and “cast” her baby boy into the Nile.  It just so happens, that he was lovingly wrapped and placed in a water-proof basket, and had a big sister to look after him.

He “happened” to float by where Pharoah’s (childless) daughter was bathing and began to cry pitifully.  She had the basket brought to her, recognized the baby boy as Hebrew (circumcision), but instantly wanted him.  Miriam steps up right then and offers a wet nurse for the baby, and Pharaoh’s daughter PAYS the baby’s own mother to nurse him. WOW. But at about 3-years old, Jochabed gives up the baby (named Moses by the Egyptian) to live as the grandchild of the Pharoah.

This was of course all in God’s plan. Moses is trained up in all ways (achedemics, languages, military command, etc,) to become a leader (not for Pharoah, but for God).  He just needed some time learning how to lead…. SHEEP. Dumb sheep.

After defending a Hebrew slave by killing an Egyptian taskmaster (a big no-no), Moses has to flee for his life. He runs hundreds of miles away, trekking across the Sinai desert to Midian. (Midianites were descendants of Abraham & his second wife, Keturah). There at a well, where some women came to water their sheep, another matchmaking takes place. Moses meets the seven daughters of the local priest, and marries one of them, Zipporah and looks after his sheep. The have a son (later another one).

It looks like Moses (mighty man of God) has sunk into obscurity.  Well, he has.  For forty years he herds, feeds, cares for, chases after, and nurses flocks of sheep.

Then God calls him.  He was trained 40 years in Egyptian leadership and 40 years in shepherding. God has heard the cries of his people in slavery, and Moses is ready.  Well, GOD thinks he is ready. Not so, Moses.

In chapter 3, God talks to him through a burning bush that does not get consumed. (But not TOO close, for the area around God Almighty is holy).  Moses, God says, “Come, I will send you to Pharoah that you may bring my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.”

“WHAAAATT???”  Moses cries. Who am I?

God promises Moses His very Presence will go with him, and, in fact, God will help Moses bring the nation back to the very spot on which they stand.

“What am I gonna tell the people?”

God tells Moses to use his “personal” name to the people. The Name he used with Abraham… I AM WHO I AM. (Yaweh, or Jehovah).

Then God goes on to tell him how it will happen. He is to tell the Pharoah certain things, which will be resisted, do some miracles, which will be resisted. Then God will bring them out with POWER, with lots and lots of loot, and take them to the Promised Land.

(Okay. It’s settled, right?  Wrong. Moses, the sheep-herder has more objections.)