Author: Sandra Hughes

Chapter 5

God had told Moses to go to Pharaoh and to take the Elders with them. But It seems the elders all dropped out one by one and two by two, as they grew more and more fearful of appearing before the Pharaoh, ‘the god-king’.

Pharaoh, after all, was not expected to take kindly to Moses’s demands. So by the time Moses and Aaron reached Pharaoh none of the elders remained with them.

Those elders by virtue of their status were probably the older men in the community. If we think about it we realize young people are the most likely to undertake endangering situations. Old people are more fearful and more cautious. You can get caution, wisdom and strategic thinking from an older person. But if you want courage and risk taking you had better look for younger men. And for this mission physical courage was very necessary. Or maybe it wasn’t that they did not have enough courage. Maybe they disappeared along the way because they just didn’t have enough faith.

Sure, Moses had faith. After all God had shown him miracles, but the elders did not have any miracles to fall back on. And even then, when Moses and Aaron appeared before pharaoh they did not follow God’s orders. They were to tell Pharaoh that the Lord God of the Hebrews wanted them to make this journey but evidently the two brother forgot. Maybe they were nervous.

It may sound trivial, but Moses told them the ‘God of Israel’ instructed them rather than the ‘Lord God of the Hebrews’. Then to add insult to injury God told Moses to politely ask Pharaoh for permission to leave Egypt for a brief period. Moses was even supposed to ask please. But what did Moses do? He said “Let my people go that they may celebrate a festival for me in the wilderness. Details are important to God but not yet important to Moses.

Pharaoh had a quick answer, maybe even one that absolutely any person who is ignorant of God would ask. Who is the Lord that I should heed him? I do not know this Lord, nor will I let Israel go.

Then finally Moses and Arron got it right. They said the Lord is the God of the Hebrews who manifested himself to them. And then the next question they part they said correctly, “let us go a distance of three days into the wilderness to sacrifice to the Lord our God lest he strike us with petulance of sword”.

Then Pharaoh basically asks, “Why aren’t you working? And “Why are you being distracting to everyone?”

In Pharaoh’s anger or for retribution Pharaoh tells the taskmasters to stop supplying the slaves the straw to make the bricks, but to make them go get it themselves and then they are to make as many bricks as they had been making when the straw was provided to them.

These were impossible quotas they had to meet. Pharaoh had every intention of bringing division between the slaves and Moses and Aaron. And it worked. The system in Egypt was that the bottom rung were Jewish workers. In Hebrew the same word is used for slaves and workers. Next up the ladder were the foremen who were also Jews. And then above them were the Egyptian taskmasters who followed Pharaohs orders precisely.

When the foreman, who were Jews, came upon Moses and Arron standing in their path, they said to them, “May the Lord look upon you and punish you for making us loathsome to Pharaoh and his courtiers-putting a sword in their hands to slay us.”

Can’t you just imagine that we would have agreed with the slaves and wished that Moses and Aaron never went before Pharaoh, when all they have done to this point is to make matters worse for the slaves?

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 14
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Exodus 4:23

In Chapter 4 of Exodus God has just told Moses to tell Pharaoh that if he didn’t let his people go God would slay his firstborn son. That edict was actually carried out after the first ten plagues. But in verse 23 there is a sharp U-turn. God goes from telling Moses what to say to the Pharaoh, to telling Moses “Now I will kill your firstborn son.”

It is very confusing but after checking a multitude of commentaries, they all agree God is unhappy with Moses. In verse 24, we see written, At a night encampment along the way, the Lord encountered Moses and sought to kill him!

No one actually knows why God sought to kill Moses. But most scholars believe it had to do with the non-circumcision of one of his sons, because In verse 25, Moses wife Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin. She then announced she was part of a bloody religion. And she was very proud and happy she was protected by the blood of circumcision.

This story actually underscores the necessity of circumcision to be in God’s will. Then we seem to take another U turn, because in verse 27 The Lord told Aaron to go meet Moses in the wilderness. Aaron met Moses at the Mountain of God, the same Mountain where God met Moses at the burning bush, and Aaron greeted Moses with a kiss. Moses told Aaron about all of what God had told him to do. Together they assembled all the Elders of the Israelites.

Aaron was the one who spoke and told them all that the Lord had spoken to Moses and then Moses did all the signs the Lord had shown him. These signs were he turning of his rod into a serpent and the serpent into a rod again, putting his hand into and out of his bosom, when it was leprous, and then doing the same when it was well again, and taking water out of the Nile and changing it into blood. These things he did for the confirmation of his mission.

And believe it or not, they believed him! And not only did they believe him, they did not think he was using magic tricks. But they bowed themselves down in homage because God had seen their plight and taken note of the Israelites.

God had told Moses and Aaron to take the Elders with them to see the Pharaoh! But those Elders slowly disappeared along the way and by the time they reached the Pharaoh Moses and Aaron were alone. When God gives instructions His intent is that they should be followed exactly. But again Moses fails in that department. God told Moses to tell Pharaoh, “The Lord God of the Hebrews”, but Moses said “The Lord God of Israel”.

God had also told Moses to politely ask Pharaoh for permission to leave Egypt for a brief period. In fact, he was to use the word please. Instead Moses said, “Let my people go that they may celebrate a festival for the ‘I Am’ in the wilderness”. Instead of asking Pharaoh politely they demanded Pharaoh let them go. And they did not specify it would be for one week, as God had instructed.

Of course we believe no matter how Moses would have asked, Pharaoh would have said No. But Moses surely did not follow God’s instructions. Pharaoh’s response was, “Who is the Lord that I should heed him?” “I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go!”

Remember when God appeared to Moses with a job for him to do? Moses response was one of humility and he asked God, “Who Am I, that I should go to the Pharaoh?” Whereas the Pharaoh’s response is, “Who is the Lord that I should do His will?”

No sign of humility there! What a contrast! Moses saw himself as a simple human being, whereas Pharaoh saw himself, as did all the Egyptians, as a ‘divine being.’ That term, “Who is the Lord?” is what God recognizes needs to be crushed.

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 13
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Exodus 3:15

God told Moses His name was ‘I am what I am’,  ‘I am who I am’, ‘I will be what I will be’ and ‘I will be who I will be’.  But those names were only for Moses to know.

On the other hand, God told Moses that when he went to the Israelites he was to tell them God’s name was “the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”, and that would be God’s name forever.

When you realize these Israelites had probably forgotten who God was or what He had done, it makes sense why when they left Egypt they did not trust Moses nor God and they begged to return to Egypt where thy had “leaks and garlic” for food condiments that were tasty.

Moses had three groups of people that he had to convince of God’s message: Pharaoh, the Israelites slaves, and the elders of Israel. We don’t actually know much about the Elders of Israel.  We don’t know if they were also slaves or a ruling class over the Israelites.  What we do know is they were credited with wisdom, and wisdom required respect.

At the end of God’s conversation with Moses He instructed him to use both the personnel name the Lord YHVH, which is Jehovah, and the universal name Elohim when introducing God to the Elders.

Moses was to tell them that God said, “I have taken note of you and of what is being done to you in Egypt and I have declared I will take you out of the misery of Egypt and into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, , and the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Then Moses was instructed to take the Jewish Elders with him to the King of Egypt and tell him, “The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, manifested Himself to us”.  Moses was then instructed to ask Pharaoh to permit the Israelites at least a weeklong sabbatical.  And when making his request, Moses was to be very polite and even was to say “please let us go to make a Sacrifice to the Lord our God.”

The instructions to the Israelites were they would travel a distance of three days out, have one day for sacrifices, and then three days back.  Of course we know Moses’s request will be anathema to Pharaoh.

To begin with, it was an affront to the Egyptian religion. Especially since the Egyptians worshipped many animals as gods.  Just think how many people today would be abhorred by animal sacrifice to a loving God?  And yet not too many people would reject a juicy steak or a tender chop at their dinner table?

Of course, public animal sacrifice is no longer practiced by mainstream religion today. But the Torah viewed animal sacrifice as an appropriate way of serving God. They rightfully believed animals were created for human beings to use for morally legitimate purposes, but they were never to abuse an animal.  Add to that the knowledge that nearly all sacrificed animals were to be eaten.

God then warned Moses that the king of Egypt would not let them go. Remember, God has always had foreknowledge from the beginning of time until forever. That can be hard for us to understand because we only have a human brain, but God stands outside of time. Time is irrelevant to God because He is timeless.

God followed up His instructions to Moses with the information that that He was certain that the king of Egypt will not let them go.  “No, not by a mighty hand”.

We know who had the mighty hand when God continued with, “And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty!”

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 10
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Exodus 3:10

While talking to Moses from the burning bush God said, “Come, I will send you unto Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people out of Egypt”. (3:10)
Think about it. Moses is leading a completely normal shepherd’s life when, out of nowhere, God Himself appears and asks him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. “And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?”. (3:11)

Remember that phrase, ‘the meekness of Moses’ that was so frequently used as an example to us throughout the history of our country? Well, it was said because it was true, Moses was a truly meek man. He was strong in his beliefs and strong in justice but he endured injury with patience and without resentment. He had a quiet strength.

Actually, he was a meek man with a past. Moses knew he was wanted for murder in Egypt, and now he is asked to appear before a king who wants to kill him. But God always prevails and God said to Moses, “I will be with you”. (3:12) Basically God said, “Moses, you don’t have to worry, I will be your strength and protection.” God said, “That shall be your sign that it was I who sent you.” “And when you succeed because of me, you shall worship me at this very mountain.

It’s interesting to note that when God makes His request of Moses the first question Moses asks is, “Who am I?” The second question Moses asks is, “Who are you?” Said more politely, he has actually asked who shall I say sent me. Moses knew The Israelites had strayed so far from their faith they probably no longer even knew God or anything about Him.

It’s even quite probable that after having grown up in the Egyptian royal household knowing only the Egyptian gods and even now he was familiar with the Midianite gods that he needed to be reminded who God was. Or possibly Moses asked the question because he was anxious to know more about the Israelite God.

God said to Moses “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh.” You will say Ehyeh sent me.
God just identified Himself to Moses with a name that has four different meanings, each one perfectly accurate. They were, “I am what I am”, “I am who I am” “I will be what I want to be” and “I will be who I will be”.

Actually Hebrew does not have a word for the present tense of the verb “to be.” There is no Hebrew word for “am” or “is” or “are”. In other words, to say I am Moses he could only say, “I Moses”.

What this leads to is the fact that terms “I am who I am” and “I will be” were never again mentioned in the Torah. God gave Moses the complete answer
for Moses only, but not for the Israelites.

The most commonly used name for God in the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible is essentially the verb “to be”. It is comprised of the Hebrew letters, YHVH. We now pronounce that word Yahweh. Yahweh is where we get the name Jehovah, and it is always translated “Lord”, even though YHVH actually means “Being,” or “Will Be,” or even just the word “Is”.

God simply “IS”.

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 9
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Chapter 2-3

Moses fled from Egypt to Midian to protect his own life. While resting at the well where everyone got their water, Moses helped seven sisters by defending them against the shepherds. He was later invited to their father’s home and ended up marrying Zipporah, one of the seven sisters.

Scripture then says, (3:1) “While tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, Moses drove the flock into the wilderness where he came to Horeb the mountain of God”. What Scripture doesn’t say is why Moses drove the flock into the wilderness. That was a very unusual thing to choose to do. We can’t read minds and Scripture does not tell us but guesses are: He drove his flock to ungrazed land where plant life was plenty?

Or, perhaps he thought like Winston Churchill who was quoted as saying, “Every prophet has to go into the wilderness. He must have a strong impression of a complex society and all that it has to give, and then he must serve periods of isolation and meditation. This is the process by which psychic dynamite is made.”

Even scientists have an opinion about this type of isolation. They say, “Being alone and being lonely are two different things. Being alone is something we do to fuel our soul and energize our life, while being lonely is living a life that disconnects us from others. One fosters personal growth, and the other keeps us stuck.”

What we do know is Horeb refers to the region of Mount Sinai where God later reveals the Ten Commandments. Some, in fact, think it is another name for Mt Sinai. While at the Mountain of God, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a burning bush. This was no mere angel. This was an actual dialogue between Moses and God.

Here was this bush completely on fire, but it was never consumed by the fire. Only God can accomplish this feat. Moses continued looking at the bush and wondering why it did not burn up. It’s noteworthy that we all see miracles every day in our lives and rather than give the credit to God, we take them for granted. Just the act of a baby being born is a true miracle and yet how many people discard the baby to get rid of an inconvenience. We fail to respect God’s miracles given directly to us.

Moses, on the other hand, closely observed his miracle. Actually, the Hebrew word in the narrative that is translated into English as bush is seneh, which refers in particular to brambles or a thorn bush. And the question then becomes ‘how long do you look at burning brambles?’ When Moses turned aside God called out to him out of the bush. (3:6) “I am, the God of your father, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

God told Moses to not come closer but to remove his sandals from his feet because he was standing on holy ground. This spot was only holy because God was there. It was not holy before God appeared and we could not find that holy ground today. It seems there is about 200 square miles around that area that was declared a World Heritage site, which houses a monastery and could also contain that very area of the burning bush. But your guess is as good as anyone else’s.

The question is, what did Moses do? Why, he hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God! But God continued, “I have marked well the plight of my people in Egypt and have heeded their outcry because of their taskmasters. And yes, I am mindful of their suffering.” I’ll have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians! God is coming to rescue His chosen people. But they are not the only ones God rescues. We can all be thankful that God is the God of all people, not just the God of Moses, ancestors and descendants. He is our God as well. And He knows each of us by name and deed. He is not just the great Author of all of creation, He is a personal God to each person who believes.

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 8
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Chapter 2-3

Moses had just escaped capital punishment for killing an Egyptian. He ran off to Midian and ended up helping seven sisters whom the sheep herders had pushed aside so they could water their sheep without waiting for their turn.

They returned to their father whose name was Reuel, Jethro, Jether and even Hobab. The intent is not to be confusing but to let us know that this man went by each of those names in different places in the Torah. Reuel, wondered how it happened they had returned home so quickly. It normally took much more time to do their job. It seems that Jethro and his daughters had gotten used to their late return because the shepherds bullied them. But Moses had not. They told their father (2:19) “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds; he even drew water for us and watered the flock”.

Jethro wanted to know more, he queried as to where this man was and why they left him alone. He instructed them to ask him in to break bread or in other words, to eat with them. After all, Jethro is not stupid. He wanted his daughters to get married. And especially he wanted them to marry someone who had demonstrated such noble characteristics.

What a delight for Moses to be invited in to a home with seven eligible daughters. And just as we would have thought that man with all those names gave Moses his daughter Zipporah as wife. In Hebrew the name Zipporah is pronounced Tzeeporah. We don’t know if she was beautiful or fetching or fantastic or not. All we know is she was given to Moses to marry, and she bore him a son whose name, given by his father, was Gershom. Gershom means stranger, sojourner or in exile. Moses own words were (2:22) “I have been a stranger in a strange land”.

A long time after that, and Scripture does not say how long after that, the king of Egypt died. And the Israelites were groaning under the bondage of slavery and they cried out for help from the bondage. And God heard their cry. God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That is what Scripture says, but we know God never forgets but he does work according to His own timetable.

The problem is that from our perspective God never seems to step in early enough. Actually, when Scripture says God remembered it does not mean God forgot. God’s remembering means God has decided to act. It is human nature to wonder why God does not step in and straighten things out. Why has God not stepped in and stopped senseless killings signally or in mass.

And then we remember. Human beings have a free will. If God always intervened to stop evil we would not have free will – we would be robots. And we know ultimate justice is waiting for us. It will be the rule of heaven and it will last forever and ever.

But at this time in Israel’s history, God looked at the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 7
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Chapter 2-3

Moses went out in the field to see his kinfolk. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave and Scripture says, (2:12) “And he looked this way and that way, when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand”.

The first conclusion people come to is he didn’t want to be caught killing an Egyptian and so he made sure there was no one to see him do it. But when you think about it, there could be a logical explanation, other than secrecy that he looked about. That explanation is that he was looking for a man’s man, or someone who was man enough to have the courage to do what he was about to do. But seeing no one was willing to risk their own life Moses came to the defense of the Hebrew slave. He killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand.

Through the years, Moses has been highly criticized for this homicide. But what would you have him do? Should he have walked away turning his back on a terrible injustice? Should he have approached the Egyptian to persuade him to stop? That would have evoked a huge belly laugh on the part of the Egyptian. Should Moses have just walked away? That would have made him complicit in a murder. He would have been turning his back on a terrible injustice.

Should he have tried to persuade the Egyptian overseer to stop? That idea borders on the absurd. Should he have attacked the Egyptian without killing him? The Egyptian surely would have fought back and possibly killed Moses. Or he would have informed the authorities about Moses’s bad act of faith. It also would have resulted in his being accused of subversion.

It has to be, God approved of what Moses did. This was surely a way for God to test Moses and find out exactly what kind of man he was. Killing the Egyptian slave master is one of three stories with that exact purpose: finding out exactly what kind of man Moses was.

The second is, when Moses went out the next day, he found two Hebrews fighting; so he said to the offender, why do you strike your fellow. It’s interesting to know that the word used here for offender literally means, the Evil One. It’s also interesting to realize that when the Jews canonized the Scriptures that they were so truthful about them that they could be offended by it. God did not spare their feelings when he talked about their true nature.

The guilty party responded, (2:14) “Who make you chief and ruler over us. Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” This comment frightened him because now he knew this entire matter was known. Just think how you would feel: Moses was raised at the royal court, killing an Egyptian overseer and identifying with the Hebrews would have branded him a traitor and warranted the death penalty. Well, Pharaoh did learn of the matter and he did seek to kill him, but Moses escaped and fled from Pharaoh.

He went to the land of Midian and sat down beside a well. It just so happened that the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water, and to fill the troughs to water their father’s flock. But shepherds came and drove them off. Our hero came to their defense and he filled the troughs.

This is the third time Moses showed his true character. All three times he refuses to tolerate the evil he sees around him. The first time he intervenes when a non-Hebrew oppresses a Hebrew. The Second time he intervenes when one Hebrew wrongs another Hebrew. And the third time he intervenes when non-Hebrew men oppress non-Hebrew women.

It’s obvious to God and man that all injustice infuriates him and prompts him to act. He is truly a man of principle.

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 6
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Chapter 2

We remember a baby boy was born in Egypt to two non-descript people. Unfortunately, he was a boy with, as we would say today, a price on his head. The Pharaoh had ordered all baby boys of the Hebrews to be thrown in the Nile. His mother kind of obeyed. She didn’t throw him into the Nile but she did put him in the Nile in a woven, waterproofed basket.

As we know, the boy was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter. Praise the Lord, the Pharaoh’s daughter was not much like her father. She saved that baby. All the while that baby’s sister had been watching all the action and she was brave enough to offer her mother, as a wet nurse, to nourish that boy. Pharaoh’s daughter was very amendable to that plan.

That young sister, Miriam by name, went to retrieve her mother and to bring her to meet the Pharaoh’s daughter. When they met there was no conversation as to the why and how Miriam’s mother would or could be a “wet nurse”. Of course, no Egyptian woman would ever consider nursing a slave’s baby but there were plenty of Hebrew women whose infant boys were killed and they would be able to wet nurse a child.

Upon meeting the Hebrew woman, who was willing to nurse this child she had found, the Pharaoh’s daughter said, (2:10) “Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will pay thy wages.” Pharaoh’s daughter was nothing like her father. Not only did she save a Hebrew boy baby but she was paying a slave money to nurse it for her.

Can you even imagine how very caring and generous this young woman was? When that baby boy grew up, we assume somewhere between three and five, his own mother took him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who made him her son. She named him Moses explaining, “I drew him out of the water.” In Hebrew the word Moses is derived for a word that means “I drew him out.” But Moses is also an Egyptian name, the name Moses (Hebrew Moshe) is derived from Egyptian mose (“is born”). We have to assume that even though Moses was raised as an Egyptian he recognized he was also a Hebrew because Scripture says, he went out to his kinfolk and witnessed their labors and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own.

When you consider that Moses had been given the best of both worlds you have to wonder why, he was chosen and even willing to be the exceptional man chosen by God to deliver the Israelites from bondage. Put yourself in his shoes: his younger years were spent with a mother who was willing to break the law to keep him alive and then to give him up to another mother and family where he lived a life of luxury and ease with an adopted mother who gave him every advantage her world had to offer.

Moses was exceptional when you consider: Moses fights evil. He is instinctively intolerant of suffering and injustice. He does whatever he can to stop the evil. Later, Moses will command the respect of the Israelites because he was not raised with them. He was far worldlier than his own people, who were raised as slaves. He actually chose to be a Hebrew when he could have led a completely charmed life as an Egyptian prince. Moses was not demoralized, he does not just cry out, he takes action.

We see his character in action when we go back to the time he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Scripture says, “He turned this way and that and, seeing no one about he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” There are two ways that verse can be interrupted. One is Moses looked around to make sure there was no one to witness that illegal act that he is about to commit.

To determine this, it would require judging his actions: It was a fact of that time that to protect a slave -let alone to kill an Egyptian, was a major transgression of Egyptian law and if he were caught, he would be executed. Or, the other possibility is he checked to see whether there was “a man,” someone who would intercede on behalf of the slave? The Hebrew word that means MAN is ish. Moses’s question was would there be a MAN who would intercede?
We use that word ish in English, also. It means “a morally upstanding individual”. We use that word when we say man-ish, which means acts like a man.

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 5
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Chapter 1-2

Because Pharaoh wanted to eliminate all males born to the Hebrews, and because nothing else, to this point, had eliminated boys; the king of Egypt, ordered all babies born boys were to be thrown in the Nile. Once again baby girls could live, boys could not. Remember girls were great! They did not cause uprisings or fight wars. What is surprising is Pharaoh said all boys born from this date forward should be thrown into the Nile River.

The majority of translations of Scripture makes it clear that it was every boy. Quoting from Scripture (1:22) “And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, every son that is born you shall cast into the river.” There are a few translations that say that it is every boy from the Hebrew tribe that should be thrown in the Nile.

It was confusing because why would Pharaoh kill off his own future army. While searching for that answer it was easy to realize all that is necessary is to go back to Exodus 1:16 where the Midwives were instructed to “kill all baby boys of the Israelites”. The only difference now is Pharaoh is no longer expecting the midwives to commit infanticide on all Israeli baby boys, but he is now instructing ALL the Egyptians to participate in this practice.

Going on to chapter two we are told “A certain man of the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.” We are not given their names, evidently God wanted us to focus on the result of this union and not on the people. That woman conceived and bore a son and when she saw how beautiful he was she hid him for three months. Moses’s birth was in no way miraculous. Later we learn Amram and Jochebed were the parents of Moses.

God chose Moses to lead the Jews out of Egypt because of his exceptional moral and leadership traits. He was not preordained to lead and he was a normal mortal. It was Moses’s mother who played the critical role in saving him and the whole story plays out like a beautiful fairy tale. We’ve all heard the story before.

When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket and caulked it with bitumen and pitch. The same substances that were used on Noah’s Ark. She placed her child in it and placed it among the reeds, by the bank of the Nile River. His older sister, Miriam, sat nearby so she could see what happened to him.

The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile. Her maidens gave her privacy and walked down the Nile. While going in to bathe, Pharaoh’s daughter spied the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to retrieve it. She opened it and saw it was a child. Actually, a crying baby boy. She took pity on it and said “This must be a Hebrew child.” It’s rather ironic that we are told she knew it was a Hebrew boy baby and yet she took pity on it. Her own father set out to annihilate the Hebrews and yet she was going to save one of them.

This is a lesson for all of us. It doesn’t matter what your lineage, it matters who and what you are. You can be moral and good even if you are raised by bad people. It doesn’t even matter what your past has been – you can still act moral and good. Another figure in this story who is moral and good is Moses’s sister who was brave enough to speak up and ask, “Shall I go and get you a Hebrew nurse.” Here she was, being bold enough to make herself known and to offer assistance to the daughter of the king when she herself was only a slave girl.
Being moral and good has nothing to do with our station or situation in life. It solely depends on our own character.

⇛ continue reading Exodus – Part 4
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Chapter 1

Exodus opens with the listing of Israel’s sons and then tells us his family numbers seventy in the land of Egypt. We are then told Joseph died along with all his brothers and all of that generation.

Deduct that entire generation and you have a mighty small nation of people that have been the focus of the world ever since their beginning. But the Israelites were fertile and prolific, they multiplied and increased very greatly. In the writing of Exodus, with all it contains, we see God’s great attempt to make a moral world.

God’s first attempt to make a good world was creating human beings with a conscience. We know that didn’t work because Adam and Eve’s first child Cain killed his brother Abel. After that episode, and some following events, God came to regret creating human beings. It was then that God sent the flood, destroying all mankind except for one particular good man and his family. God knew that human conscience did not work, so he set up a few rules in Genesis chapter nine. He then revealed some basic moral laws and principles. The first was to not murder. In fact, they were to take the life of those who deliberately murdered.

Next, they were to have children, and they were not to consume the blood of any creature, and He reminded them every human being is created in the image of GOD. But that didn’t work either. People murdered and plundered and engaged in other evils. Then God made a third effort to morally improve mankind by revealing Himself to one specific group “who would be charged” with spreading ethical monotheism in the world.

That group was first known as the Hebrews. The word which meant to cross over or to pass through. Next, they were known as Israelites. The new name given to Jacob by God which means “to wrestle with God”. And then they got the name Jews, which is retained to this day, from Jacob’s son Judah, the Lion of God.

The question, of why God had to keep trying different ways to make man good, may have crossed your mind. It could make you wonder, “Doesn’t God know the beginning from the end”? Or don’t you even wonder why He didn’t just begin the world with The Ten Commandments or with a Chosen people who would obey?

But as you are led off in that path you have to remember God created the human with free will. We have the freedom to believe God – or not. And then with hindsight we know that God dealt with different people, in different times, and in different ways. That is what we call dispensations.

When the unbeliever stands before God, he cannot blame God for not covering all the angles. God can only say I tried all these different methods to convince mankind and yet “you would not believe in spite of all My efforts”. Scripture continues with “and the world was filled with them.” This statement implies that the Egyptians perceived that the Jews were everywhere. They ignored the fact that the Jews only occupied the land known as Goshen. The Jews evidently made a large impression.

The Jews presence throughout the centuries and throughout the world has always been overstated. Today (2021) there are about fourteen million Jews over all the world and the entire world has approximately 7.9 billion people. But back in Egypt there was a change, a big change. A new king, who did not know Joseph, arose over Egypt. We all tend to have a short memory when it comes to anything good. That new king did not know that Joseph actually saved Egypt from the famine.

But maybe it is not a short memory that plagues us. Maybe it is a lack of gratitude that does the most damage. Human beings tend to much more quickly forget the good others have done.

It is human nature for people to remember vividly the bad that has been done to them but it is so much harder for anyone to remember the good that has been done to them. This is one of the very good reasons why it is so difficult to be a good person. Being good actually is only accomplished by fighting our prominent nature.

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