Reading: Exodus 4-6, Psalm 18

One of the most famous stories in the world, transcending culture, time, and place, is the story of the Israelite Exodus. An inspiration for slaves, pilgrims, settlers; a warning to rulers, kings, and the powerful. The story has been made into countless plays, movies, and books which have shaped our understanding of the story. Moses is routinely listed as one of the most important figures in world history. What is less often talked about it that the story of the Israelite Exodus begins with a refugee shepherd who did not want the job.

Moses has been given a divine commission to return to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go three days into the wilderness to worship God. He asks God for his name, and God gives it to him (the subject of God’s name and it’s function in the Bible is fascinating, but not my subject.) Now he asks for proof, as he fears the people will not believe him. So God gives him three signs: turning his staff to a serpent, causing and curing leprosy, and turning water to blood. Suitably impressed, Moses attempts to hand off the job by noting his lack of speaking expertise. God promises to tell him what to say. Here Moses reveals his real reason for all these questions: he just doesn’t want to do it. God becomes angry and tells Moses he will have his brother, Aaron, help him speak, but to get himself up and go.

Moses’ interaction with God at the burning bush is not his best moment, but to his credit he eventually obeys. Moses tells his father in law that he is leaving with his wife and sons. It will do us some good to remember who Jethro was as “priest of Midian.” Remember Abraham’s other wife, Keturah? One of their sons was Midian. Jethro and his family are also descendants of Abraham, and Jethro is a priest of his people, likely carrying on some form of worship of the God of Abraham. Important for the rather strange incident we are about to recount is that God’s covenant with Abraham was sealed with a sign: circumcision. As a descendant of Abraham, Midian would also have received the sign.

Jethro tells Moses to go in peace. God again speaks to Moses, and does something interesting: he calls Israel his firstborn. The bulk of the story of Genesis was a story in which God created the people of Israel, in spite of each generation’s attempts to destroy themselves or allow themselves to become lost in one of the cultures around them. God has made this people, and now he is claiming this people as his own firstborn child. God gives Moses a message for Pharaoh for when he refuses to let Israel go: if you do not free my firstborn, I will take yours.

All this talk of firstborns leads into one of the strangest and least well understood incidents in the entire Bible, the story of Zipporah at the Inn. Here is the traditional understanding of what happened. At a lodging place en route to Egypt, God appears in vengeance mode and threatens to kill Moses. Zipporah realizes this is happening because Moses has not circumcised his son Gershom and in so doing is blatantly disregarding the covenant promise to Abraham. She quickly circumcised him and throws the foreskin on Moses where God will see. Then God leaves Moses alone. The author then uses this story as an explanation of an apparently common saying of the time, “bridegroom of blood.” This seems to work with the previous passage about firstborns, as well as the reminder that Jethro is of the people of Midian, who should also have been included in the covenant. There are large difficulties with interpretation due to a large number of Hebrew pronouns without clear antecedents, as well as our lack of understanding as to what the saying “bridegroom of blood” was used for in ancient Israel. This interpretation seems to have the fewest problems, so I’m going with it, though there are others, and we will not likely know the whole story until an eyewitness shows up to tell us.

Following this odd story, Moses meets Aaron, who has also heard from God as to what they are to be about. They come to Egypt and present themselves to the leaders of Israel and do God’s signs with the staff and leprosy, and the people accept them. Finally, they appear before Pharaoh and make God’s message: let the people of Israel go into the wilderness to worship God. It is worth again pointing out that this is a much smaller request than to let them go forever. God is setting Pharaoh up. Pharaoh has the opportunity to agree to a reasonable request and so avoid terrible judgment. Moses and Aaron even recast the request as a requirement for the people of Israel to avoid plague and pestilence. But Pharaoh, as we knew he would, rejects the request out of hand. Then he doubles down- for making such a request, the people will now no longer be provided with straw for brick making.

A little drama follows in which the people of Israel appear before Pharaoh with a complaint that they have no been given straw and Pharaoh blames Moses and Aaron for the situation. The people are understandably upset with the brothers for this, as they demonstrated miraculous signs to the people and claimed to be on a mission from God. Moses turns to God and makes the same complaint: you sent me on this mission, why is this happening? God, in effect, answers him, “Don’t worry, Moses. This story isn’t over yet, and it’s better than you think it is.” We get a short genealogy of Moses and Aaron, reminding us of where they came from, then Moses again complains that he “of uncircumcised lips” is the wrong person for this job.

Though the story so far would seem to support Moses’ claim, tomorrow we will begin reading how God uses Moses to systematically demolish the Kingdom of Egypt, humiliate it’s gods and Pharaoh, and finally bring his people out of slavery to worship him in the wilderness.