But no matter how hard they are worked, the population explosion continues. Pharaoh decides to tackle the problem in more direct ways only to be defeated by the midwives' faith vv.
Outline of Exodus
So now all Hebrew boy-babies are to be cast into the Nile. That is Pharaoh's decree. But the water which drowns can also be used to float a watertight basket the same Hebrew word as Noah's "ark" and Moses' life is saved by his mother's resourceful action. Moses was 40 when he tried to strike his first blow for freedom 2: A further 40 years passed before the events of chapter 3. She would have taken Moses back to the harem where he would be brought up with others, learning to read and write the Egyptian hieroglyphic and "cursive" scripts and gaining expertise in various skills and sports Acts 7: It was not unknown for foreigners to be brought up in this way, and trained for responsible posts in the army, priesthood, or civil service.
The Midianites were descendants or Abraham through his second wife, Keturah. They were desert-dwellers, so Moses could scarcely have had better preparation for the wilderness journeys with Israel than these years of nomadic life. Moses is actually at Sinai Horeb the very place where he will later receive the Law, when God's call comes. God has a stupendous commission for Moses-he is to be God's messenger to Pharaoh, and lead his people to freedom-but the missionary is most reluctant. He raises one objection after another, and each is countered by another promise from God The spoil from Egypt 3: It was from this that the tabernacle was furnished.
Miriam would have been older than both. Zipporah puts the matter right and Moses' life is spared.
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The first request to Pharaoh merely aggravates the situation. People turn against their "deliverer. Israel had to leave Egypt in order to sacrifice because the nature of their sacrifice was offensive to the Egyptians 8: Pharaoh's reaction reveals his implacable hostility already predicted by God.
Ramesses II is known to have made himself available even to ordinary petitioners cf. Moses, brought up in the harem, had a special claim to Pharaoh's attention. As so often in Scripture, the list is selective.
Moses and Aaron are shown to have descended from Jacob through the line of Levi. The list covers the period of Israel's stay in Egypt. Pharaoh has heard and rejected Moses' request. He has shown the sort of man he is: I do not know the Lord and moreover I will not let Israel go! Now God begins a series of judgments to teach Pharaoh and his people who the Lord is, and to show them the extent of his power over all creation 7: Nine times God acts, and Pharaoh, his magicians and all the gods of Egypt are powerless to reverse his judgments.
The magicians may counterfeit, but they cannot countermand. The Nile - heart of the nation's economy and worship - turns to blood, its polluted waters killing the fish 7: Seven days later, frogs , driven from the river banks by the rotting fish, seek shelter in the houses 7: First gnats and then flies , breeding amongst the carcasses of fish and frogs, plague the land. Disease strikes the cattle , and skin infection breaks out on man and beast, carried by the frogs and insects 9: Hail and thunderstorms ruin the flax and barley crops - but not wheat and spelt, which have not yet grown.
And those Egyptians who take note of God's warning remain safe 9: The wind blows in a plague of locusts from Ethiopia which strip the country bare of greenstuff For three days the light of the sun is blotted out by thick darkness. This was probably a khamsin dust storm. The plagues probably occurred over a period of about a year. In each case God chose to use natural disorders to confound Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt He caused the "nile god" to bring ruin, not prosperity, the frogs to bring disease instead of fruitfulness; and the power of Re, the sun-god, was blotted out.
The whole sequence of events follows a logical pattern which could have started with unusually high flooding of the Nile River, bringing down red earth and microcosms which polluted the water. But , however it happened, this was no mere "chance" - God was demonstrating his absolute control! Here God distinguished between his people and the Egyptians. He controlled the extent and the areas affected by each plague. He announced the timing of each, and could call a halt at any time in answer to prayer.
We must see the hand of God in this for in no other time have so many plagues come upon a land in such a short period of time. The hardness of Pharaoh's heart: Several times in these chapters God is said to have hardened Pharaoh's heart and made him obstinate 4: But this was not done against Pharaoh's will. Rather, where God could have softened Pharaoh's heart as he did Paul's he simply let him be.
God gave him up cf. Preliminaries are over, God's warning of 4: This is the end of the road for Pharaoh and his people.
But for Israel it is the beginning. This is a day to remember down the ages; when God dealt death to the first-born of Egypt, but spared the people who were His own. A new feast is instituted, and a new religious year begun. The bitter herbs remind them of all their suffering in Egypt. The flat unleavened bread recalls the haste of their departure no time to use yeast and wait for the bread to rise.
Even so, they do not go empty handed. The years of slavery are in some measure paid for by the clothes and jewelry heaped upon them by the Egyptians, now only too anxious to see them go. Just as God foretold Gen.
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The journey to the border begins. But first there are further instructions about how the Passover is to be celebrated, who may join in, and where it is to take place.
- On Any Given Night.
- Betrayals Allure.
- Welcome To The Outback.
- The Swamp Fox: Lessons in Leadership from the Partisan Campaigns of Francis Marion?
- The Little Mermaid (50 Shades of Fairy Tales).
The events are to be further commemorated in two ways:. Subsequent chapters make it plain that their number was certainly too great for the wilderness to support-hence God's special provision of manna. They were also at times short of water, although they no doubt learnt to manage on very little, and their encampments would have been spread out to take advantage of several watercourses at each halt in the journey.
Hemmed in between sea and mountains, with water before them and Pharaoh's forces at their backs, the people of Israel meet their first big test of faith-and they panic. As God drives back the waters so that they can cross in safety, and as He sends the wall of water rushing down upon Pharaoh's forces, Israel learns the truth of Moses' words: If ever a victory deserves to be recorded for posterity this one does.
Moses leads the people in a great paean of triumph: God has saved Israel, He has destroyed their enemy. Miriam and all the women take up the refrain and dance for joy. The song is a fine example of ancient Semitic poetry. It is not long before the complaints start. There were plenty of fish to eat in Egypt, and fruit and vegetables and no shortage of water. But in the desert the people are soon thirsty and hungry-and mutinous. God's method of provision is designed to teach them obedience, and daily dependence upon him.
Exhausted by the journey, the birds were easy to catch. This incident, and the names Massah and Meribah, became a byword for rebelliousness. Joshua Moses' successor leads a picked force against this nomadic tribe descended from Esau. But it is God who gives the victory, through Moses' intercession. The burden of leadership is heavy, and Jethro's practical suggestion for reorganization and delegation is a sound one. Jethro, although a non-Israelite, is reckoned a godly man. He is welcomed and his advice is taken.
In religious matters, however, he learns from Moses not vice-versa as some might suggest.
Exodus Bible Study
It is not clear when Zipporah returned home-perhaps soon after the incident recorded in 4: As God promised 3: Sinai, where he will establish his covenant with the nation. Thunder, fire, earthquake and 1ightning herald God's presence and demonstrate his power. The Lord God, holy, awesome, unapproachable, speaks. The first three commands concern man's relationship to God, the remaining seven his relationship to one another. Hence Jesus' two-clause summary of the law in Matthew After verse seven in the first chapter of the book of Exodus Israel is noticed by the Egyptians as being great in number and prosperous.
In view of this the book of Exodus seems to fall into seven distinct sections:. This section includes the birth, education and flight of Moses; his call to be deliverer of his people and his consequent return from Midian to Egypt; and his first ineffectual attempts to prevail upon Pharaoh to let the Israelites go, which resulted only in an increase in their burdens. This section also includes the account of the observance of the first Passover ch. This section also contains a narrative of the principal events on the journey from the Red Sea to Sinai, including the coming of the manna, the observance of the Sabbath, the supply of water from the rock at Rephidim and the advice of Jethro concerning the civil government of the great mass of people.
The laws recorded in this section regulated the religious, civil, and social life of the Israelites. Exodus is a book of redemption in which God delivers His people out of bondage and brings them into a special relationship with Himself. Bibliography Resources on the Old Testament.
Coast Map of Israel's S. The Book of Exodus Exodus