Exodus 5 – As sometimes is the case in life, a decision to follow God or recommit to Him is not always met with immediate relief or comfort. This is called a crisis of faith. They usually don’t last long, but long enough for the faith that we have in God to be what the book of Hebrews calls it, “The knowledge of things hoped for, the assurance of things unseen (Hebrews 11).” Moses and the Israelites were required to trust in spite of what they saw around them. Moses, though disappointed with God, did not give up, but came to Him in fervent prayer for help.
This was also an opportunity for Pharaoh to do what was right. God doesn’t want any people to be condemned, including Pharaoh and the Egyptians. When Moses brought God’s word to Pharaoh, he reacted with contempt and cruelty rather than openness to what God had to say. Pharaoh’s plan was to make the Israelites so busy and exhausted, they would have no time to listen to Moses or his words from God. But when a person continually rejects God, God seconds the motion, as we see in following chapters where God hardens Pharaoh’s heart.
Exodus 6 – There are some oddities in this chapter that deserve comment. First of all, the chapter itself doesn’t fit into the rest of the narrative. It seems to take a break from the whole “let my people go” story and go a different direction. Keep in mind that the Biblical writers did not have the luxuries we do today of word processing or even an abundance of paper to write things down in the ideal order. So many times there seem to be details included in the Biblical narrative that perhaps don’t fit in the right order, but the writers didn’t have the luxury of editing and rearranging, so that is where they stayed. This is included here to give the family history of Moses and Aaron, who were of the tribe of Levi. Family lineage was very important to the Hebrews, so establishing the family history of leaders of Moses and Aaron’s stature was thought necessary.
Another oddity is the assertion of the Lord in verse 3, saying that by his name the LORD (Yahweh) He did not reveal himself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yet, the name the LORD is used very often in the book of Genesis in connection with the three patriarchs. As I looked back at these instances, I found only one time when God specifically said to Abraham, “I am the LORD (Yahweh).” All the other times he is simply described as “the LORD (Yahweh)” which could be attributable to a later editor. However, one is enough to make His statement in verse 3 untrue. There are two possibilities. Either the Bible is in error, or there is a meaning we can’t understand in the English language. My suspicion would be that what God is referring to here is the name Ehyeh (I am) that he gave to Moses in Exodus 3:14, and told Moses to say to the Israelites “Ehyeh has sent me to you.” Ehyeh (I am) and Yahweh (He is) were somewhat synonymous to God, and so it is his own name Ehyeh (I am) that He has now revealed, as he is ready to come into a covenant relationship with the whole nation of Israel.
Finally, it seems redundant that the author keeps on including the fact that Moses said he couldn’t speak. Perhaps because Moses was held in such high regard by the later Israelites, the fact that this man, who did more for the Israelite nation than anyone else, thought he couldn’t speak is especially astounding.
Exodus 7 – Moses would be like God to Pharaoh, because Pharaoh would see him as the catalyst that would bring the plagues and also bring relief. Some have puzzled over why God would harden Pharaoh’s heart. When people continually reject God, act cruelly to his people, worship other gods, and don’t accept evidence of Him that is before their very eyes, God will eventually second their motion of unbelief. That’s why the Bible says, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” (Isaiah 55:6) This hardening of heart always has a purpose of drawing more people to God, however. Though Pharaoh would most likely be eternally lost, God’s goal was that the people of Egypt would believe (see verse 5).
How Pharaoh’s magicians performed the same miraculous signs as Moses is a mystery. Whether it was illusion or whether it was done by Satanic power is left to our speculation, but elsewhere in the Bible it tells us that there are those who oppose God who will be able to do miraculous signs to deceive us (Matthew 24:24).
Many Bible scholars have suggested that the plagues were intended to systematically show God’s power over all of the deities of Egypt. The Nile River was the source of life for the Egyptian people and the river god one of their most important gods. The water turned to blood would have made a powerful impression on all Egypt.
Exodus 8 – After the plague of blood follow the plagues of the frogs, gnats and flies. Pharaoh’s magicians were able to perform similar miracles with the blood and frogs, but the gnats and flies were out of their league. They themselves told Pharaoh that this was clearly “the finger of God,” and yet Pharaoh would not listen. We’re specifically told that the plague of the flies occurred only in Egypt and not in Goshen where the Israelites lived. If the first three plagues also occurred in Goshen, then the morale of the Israelites may have sunk lower, or it may have had the effect of helping them see that God was doing miraculous things to save them.
Some have suggested natural explanations for the 10 plagues; that heavy rains in the highlands washed tons of red clay sediment into the Nile, making the water undrinkable. The frogs then came up out of the Nile because they weren’t able to live in the muddied waters. The gnats and flies then came around because of the dead frogs. While it’s true that God sometimes does accomplish his wondrous signs through natural means, the Biblical account specifically says the water was turned to blood, not simply that the water was turned red with mud. The way the gnats came about too, according to this chapter, was a miraculous generation from the dust of the ground. It is clear that Pharaoh’s magicians saw it as a divinely brought event, and not a natural occurrence (v. 19).
Exodus 9 – We might wonder how Pharaoh’s heart could remain hard even in the midst of all the plagues described in this chapter, but his tendencies are no different than yours or mine. We can all point to times in our lives when the right path that will lead to a more God-pleasing (and ultimately, more enjoyable) life is set clearly before us, but we fail to choose it. That was Pharaoh as well – hard of heart, and, on top of that, not true to his word.
It may be confusing that in verse 6 we’re told that “all the livestock of the Egyptians died,” while in verse 19 Moses encourages the Egyptians to shelter their livestock and slaves so that they can be protected from the oncoming hail. The solution to this confusion is that there was a gap of time between the plagues – weeks, or maybe even months – and during that time, the Egyptians had required some amount of livestock from traveling traders, or by purchase of confiscation from the Hebrews.
Moses has a regular pattern, reflected here in verse 29. Relief from the plague does not come until he has gone out of Pharaoh’s presence. I have a feeling that was simply a practical way of protecting himself. If he stayed with Pharaoh, once relief from the plague came, Pharaoh, may have tried to kill or imprison him. Yet the plague of hail provides Moses with a unique challenge. How is it that he could go out of the city into the open land and survive the terrible hail that was falling? Either God protected him, he had some way of sheltering himself, or the hail let up long enough for him to make it out of the city safely.
Exodus 10 – Question: Why would the LORD harden Pharaoh’s heart, as he did repeatedly? Answer: To accomplish his purpose. If Pharaoh would have allowed the Israelites to go and worship as they asked, what would that have accomplished? Israel would have returned to slavery. God knew the people needed to be driven out so that there was no option but to leave. Otherwise, some of the Israelites may have chosen to stay, and they would have been a divided nation.
It sounds strange that some would have chosen to stay, but it is reality. Human beings can grow accustomed to a way of life and find security in it, even if that way of life is a miserable one. In the middle of their 40 year trek to the promised land, many Israelites complained about the food they had to eat, and said how much better it had been in the land of Egypt (Numbers 11:5).
The other reason Pharaoh’s heart was hardened was so that God would be glorified and, oddly enough, Pharaoh and the Egyptian people could have salvation. Though Pharaoh could have softened and allowed the Israelites to go earlier, we have no evidence that he had any kind of belief in God. God’s ultimate goal is that all people would be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). By these continuous plagues, He showed His power over the Egyptian gods in hopes that the Israelites, the Egyptians, and Pharaoh himself would be thoroughly convinced that He alone was the true God.
Exodus 11 – It is important to realize that no time passes between this chapter and the last. Moses promises never to see Pharaoh again at the end of chapter 10, but has some parting words for him in chapter 11, which is part of the same conversation. So Moses tells Pharaoh some news that God had previously told him, about the plague on the firstborn of all Egypt.
Verse three gives us some insight as to how Moses was able to come and appear before Pharaoh so freely. He was highly regarded in all of Pharaoh’s household.
Exodus 12 – This account marks the first of all Passovers. God is very specific about the month and day when the Passover should be celebrated. The redemption event of the Israelite households being spared while the Egyptian households were afflicted was to be forefront in their minds – it was to begin their ceremonial year. (Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year - usually in late September - is according to the civil calendar, while the religious/ceremonial calendar began in March/April.)
God wanted all the Israelites to know that it was the blood of the Passover Lamb that caused them to be spared from this catastrophe, not any intrinsic worth on their part. They were special, not because of a special-ness inside of them, but because of the special favor God decided to bestow on them.
The way the Passover Lamb was to be eaten is symbolic of the event. In haste, with unleavened bread, roasted over a fire – all reminders of how quickly the Israelites had to leave Egypt. The Feast of Unleavened Bread was to go hand in hand with the Passover, a seven day celebration in which all yeast was removed from their households. Yeast was a symbol of a puffed-up, arrogant heart. Humility was the order in preparation for the Passover, remembering that it was by God’s power and mercy they were delivered, not because of them.
All of this was done to foreshadow the coming of the ultimate Passover Lamb, who gave his life the very day after he celebrated the Passover with His disciples. The similarities are intended by God to be striking.
- The Israelites were in the bondage of slavery. All people are in bondage to sin.
- Death passed over the Israelites because of the blood of the innocent Passover Lamb. Eternal death passes over those who have the innocent blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, applied to us by faith.
- The Israelites were set free from slavery and brought into the Promised Land. We are set free from the slavery of sin and brought into the Promised Land of heaven.
Exodus 13 – Because the people of Israel did not have the written word to be able to remember all the great deeds of God, everything God required of them was intended to help them remember. The consecration of the firstborn, in verses 1-17, was intended to help them remember that their first born had been spared, while the first born of Egypt died. And though the Israelites didn’t know it, it was also a foreshadowing of the first born Son of God that He would consecrate (set apart) for us.
God led the Israelites on the southerly route, not wanting them to encounter the fierce Philistines and have their morale stolen because of war. This took them closer and closer to the Gulf of Suez, the northwestern arm of the Red Sea. The Hebrew term for this body of water, however, is Yam Suph, meaning “Sea of Reeds.” It is very possible that much of this low-lying land where the Suez Canal is now located, was covered with a fresh water lake, a leftover from the flood that has since dried up. At any rate, the body of water the Israelites crossed is most likely not part of the Red Sea as we know it today. Whatever it was, it was significant enough to drown Pharaoh’s army, as chapter 14 indicates. |
