Exodus 40
40:1 ” on the first day of the first month.” In Exodus 12 God established this month as the beginning of months. In Genesis 8:13 it was this very day the waters dried up and Noah removed the covering from the Ark. In this month Passover was to be kept as a reminder of deliverance from bondage. In Joshua 4:19 the people go up from Jordan in the first month and camped in Gilgal. In the first month they cross the Jordan on dry land. 1 chronicles 12:15 and 2 chronicles 29:3 in the first month the doors of the Lord’s temple were opened and they began to consecrate again. Ezra , Esther, Daniel and Nehemiah all received messages from God or God appeared to them in the first month. This signifies one thing, God wanted the people to be in a state of expectation at certain times and seasons. these would be the times to watch. God is the one in this chapter who tells Moses when to erect the tabernacle, when his presence fills it and when he appears over the ark. While Jesus likely was born sometime in December he was like every other child in that his gestation period was 9 months meaning he could have come appeared in Mary’s womb march / April these are the “first month” times. The holy spirit could have overshadowed Mary, visited her, around Passover! the first month when the people were expecting God’s presence.
40:9 “anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it, and consecrate it and all it’s furnishings, so they may become holy.” God is the One who makes a thing holy and separate. God made the sabbath day holy… When God instructed Moses to pour out some blood and sprinkle some blood for consecration. The sprinkled blood was for the mortal, the poured out blood for the divine, in sharing the blood they become connected even One. This gives new understanding to Jesus words about the father and him being One and coming to make their dwelling among us so that we also can be one with them. God was setting a pattern for the tabernacle to reveal something about the tabernacle of God in heaven. God also calls his people to a higher degree of excellence in Leviticus when He tells them, “You shall be Holy, for I am holy”. God makes a day Holy, He is holy. He requires men to be holy and now we see him attribute the possibility of holiness to an object, the tabernacle and objects within the tabernacle the furniture, the altar of the burnt offerings, the utensils, the basin and its stand and Aaron and his sons. They do this by anointing the items with oil, even Aaron and his garments are anointed with oil for a perpetual ministering priesthood.
40:15 ” a perpetual priesthood” Priesthood was a bloodline and it was passed on from father to son, from one generation to the next. Only men from Aaron’s sons were permitted to be high priests, which meant they alone were allowed to enter in and minister int the holy of hollies. however there were many who served in the temple as priests, carrying the tabernacle setting up and breaking down was all done by Levites. Different families had different jobs. As you remember when it was Zachariah’s turn to serve, there were many priests rating in and out of the temple, but only one high priest and he would serve for a lifetime. Priests had an important job to do and few did it well. Eli the priest if you remember was struck down because of his refusal to correct his corrupt sons even Aaron’s own sons were struck down dead for offering strange fire before the Lord. Over time this priesthood became a corrupt political position. King Herod appointed priests that he could manipulate rather than the line of Aaron he put any Jewish even a Samaritan Jewish man as high priest. The problem was not that these men were foreign or the God only used Jews, but God was not appointing these men. God had said that Israel would be a nation of priests which was likely Herod’s loop hole, but this was a matter of corruption, selfish ambition and power. This corrupted the temple, the ministry, the service in the temple and the care and shepherding and teaching of the flock of Israel. Jesus often rebuked the priests pharisees and religious leaders for their failure to teach and obey the Laws of God.
40:16 “thus Moses did according to all the Lord commanded him.” There was a place for everything and God had told Moses or showed him how to arrange everything in and about the tabernacle and Moses Like Noah did all according to the Lord’s command. This is the language that is used for a faithful servant of God, but it also shows the incredible attention to detail and the carefulness of both of these men, their character, their gentleness and their meticulous nature to obey without flaw. Even so Moses will not enter the promised land because of disregarding God as Holy before the congregation of Israel in the incident of striking the rock when God told him to speak. One seemingly minor disobedience and he was cut off from entering the land he had worked so hard and long for. This is no accident, that Moses a man without a land and home is never given a land or home here on earth.
40:24 “he put the lamp stand in the tent of meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle. and set up the lamps before the Lord.” The lamp stand which had many cups with oil and was to burn perpetually morning and evening threw light upon the bread of presence.
40:30 “he set up the basin with which Moses and Aaron washed their hands and their feet.” We get the sense that God was just as meticulous as Moses. Requiring clean bodies, hands and feet were especially susceptible to filth and dust, mud urine animals feces and blood. Hands of priests were particular stained and dirty because of the constant slaughtering and blood and animals they were required to handle day and night. there was definitely a practicality about this, however, we see in the new testament at the Passover Jesus took a basin and washed the feet of the disciples. How would that have landed on these fishermen and tax gatherers. Was Christ in essence treating them as priests before entering the presence of God? was he making a statement about who they were and what was required of them for the task at hand. Surely when Peter proclaimed sometime later in his letters that you are a holy priesthood, one must wonder if Christ too spoke that to his disciples at one time. and then washing their feet as the priests were to wash before going into the most holy place on earth. When Jesus did this it would be less then a week when the veil would be torn from top to bottom. This veil that Moses hangs just as the Lord commanded in front of the ark in the tabernacle. which hid the covenant and the mercy and the word of God beneath a screen. This very veil would be rent opening up the holy place for the disciples and any other to go in, but first their feet were washed. What would their role be in the new Kingdom? where Jesus himself was the bread, and the light, and the word become flesh and the living water?
40:34 “and the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” throughout the remainder of their journeys God’s presence went with them, leading them with a fire and a cloud. on the tabernacle day and night in the sight of all the house of Israel. this is a fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 15 and 18 that he would dwell with Abraham;s seed and be their God and they his people. The people get to reap the promises that have taken hundreds of years and many generations to fulfill. What God has been planning since the dawn of time and passed on through a long line of righteous men, Israel is now living in the fruition. we see that God repeats this promise in Ezekiel and then it has its finality in the book of revelation which has not come to pass yet that we know of. when the new Jerusalem the bride comes down out of heaven and God dwells once and finally forever with his people and he will be the temple and the lamp is the lamb. and not nothing unclean will enter it. and they will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads. Revelation 21 &22 while times and seasons and people change, God’s expectations for holiness does not. Even in the end when all is fulfilled only the clean and chosen will get to enter into the holy place.
Exodus 39
Commentary
The tabernacle is constructed in the exact order as God instructed Moses. The very last task to be completed is making the garments the priests must wear to minister to God in the Holy Place. They are not to appear before either in filthy garments or naked. As in the garden God clothed Adam and Eve appropriately before sending them out of God’s presence. Now we see that the priests are not to return to the presence of God without an appropriate and distinguished covering. This indicates that man is still inherently sinful and cannot appear before a holy God naked, for we wear our sins like garments of flesh. In the beginning, God made the earth, like the tabernacle. The author of Hebrews says that the outer tabernacle is in fact symbolic of the earth. God made living things, like the furniture and the utensils and the holy articles which fill the temple. He made the garden like the sanctuary, he made Adam, like the priests and he made them garments to cover their nakedness. God tells them most directly do not let any of your private parts show. There seemed something offensive and extra filthy about a man’s private parts. Was it that God could see from eternity past to eternity future all the perversion that would stem from this place on his body? Was it that it was a reminder of the first sin or the continuance in sin in the seeds that would emerge from this part of a man? Is that why he instructed them to circumcise all males as a sign of the covenant? We can only speculate. But we know that throughout the scripture’s garments are mentioned that the angels appear in white garments, that there are robes of righteousness and garments of praise, that we as Christians are instructed to put on the “armor of God” to protect ourselves and that in the end the linen garments are a symbol of the righteous acts of the saints, whereas the filthy garments are a picture of the sinfulness of that man. In Zechariah the angel of the Lord is instructed to remove “Joshua’s filthy garments as symbolic that his sin has been taken away.” So while these priestly garments with their extensive details and colors and weighty materials are assumably no longer necessary to approach God there is something that remains valuable about appearing before God clothed in something special. AS Christians that something special is the blood of Christ with which we actually wash our filthy robes and make them white again?
God made a place for man in the beginning to dwell with Adam his son. He walked with him, talked with him, he gave adam work and instructed him to cultivate this sacred paradise called the Garden of Eden. This is where they would meet and where he would converse with Adam (man). Adam had access to eternal life but chose knowledge and evil instead. Man fell and was cast out of that sanctuary, God made garments to remind all of sin and death too which man was now bound and he was to wander and work the earth and dust from which he came, like Egypt, as slaves.
But now God has reached into Egypt rescued his people and begun to restore and deliver them little by little. He gives them a plan and a pattern. God instructs Israel to make a tabernacle, a sanctuary and a meeting place and garments – not so that they can return to the garden, not yet, but so that God can dwell with them in the filth of the earth. God is willing to Come down, to join them in the places they were cast.
What a beautiful Picture of Christ that we see begin to take shape in the book of Exodus.
Just as Adam took of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil disobeying Gods first command, so too Israel broke the first of God’s commandment, “you shall have no other gods before me.” They took all the gold and fashioned a calf. Was Adam’s sin not in some ways breaking the same command. Although he directly defied Gd’s one and first command do not eat of the tree of knowledge, yet it really was you shall have no other gods before me. And Adam did, Adam listened to his own voice, the voice of his wife the voice of the enemy and ultimately all of these became gods in a way that Adam listened to and followed over and above the one true God their creator and father. Man continues to sin and reject God’s commandments over and over again in the same way.
But God in his mercy and unwavering love for his creation and children forgiven again and again. God lets the sons of Israel make the tabernacle, and he makes it holy so that he dwell in it and he says “I will dwell there in the midst of my people as a picture of eternity.” God keeps his word for when it is finished and fully constructed and consecrated his glory and presence fill the holy place and all throughout the wilderness journey God is in the midst of Israel leading guiding directing and loving them into the promise land.
All the details the fine twisted linen, the rings and the stones and the engravings and the garments show us the sacred nature of God and of the sacred nature of his dwelling. We see the particulars of how a priest must dress and appear and minister to Yahweh. When the priests go before the Lord they bear the names of the twelve tribes of Israel every single time for they are to worn around his neck in front of his breast as a breastplate. These are heavy and surely the priests feel the weight of that burden each and every time they appear before God, they cannot forget Israel and neither will God. The garments were heavy, the stones, the bells, the material the gold, the layers, the turban. This was not small task putting in on and taking it off. The priests were required to prepare themselves too the utmost before entering the presence of the Highest.
There was a plate of Gold upon the priest’s head, “holy to the lord” like the twelve stones these are found in the book of revelation. The linen garments are the righteous acts of the saints again found in revelation. The end of the end is all about the tabernacle of God among men coming down out of heaven, but the one HE makes for us to dwell together, made without hands, likely the pattern that the earthly tent was made from, as was shown to Moses on the mountain. The people of Israel did all the work, then Moses blessed them.
The priests were called to the most important task in Israel they were to atone for the sins of Israel by bringing blood, they were to minister and appear before Yahweh and they were too teach the laws of Yahweh to the people of Yahweh. They alone were permitted to enter the holiest place, and only covered with these spectacular garments. They had to be dressed in a way which inspired awe reverence and attentiveness by the people, but also in a way that hid their flesh and shame from the Lord God who is to holy to look upon sin. Ot gives new meaning to the immense power of Christ blood.
Sadly, over time the priests failed. They failed to teach God’s laws to God’s people in way that truly honored Gd and revealed his mercy to his people. These garments became a source of pride and misused power.
If Gd knew this why allow it? Why go through all this hardship and grueling work? But then again why make a garden of Eden if God knew Edam and Eve along with all their seed would be cast out? Only to leave the sanctuary empty and void of both God and man.
Here is why I suggest: God desires that we know there is something to return to that we are trying to get back too, only not back but forward. Heaven and the kingdom of God awaits us it is paradise, it is the place where we dwell with Gd and he is our God and we his people, he waits like the prodigal’s father with arms open to all who return. He has set eternity into our hearts, so that we never forget where we came from or where we are headed. One day our garments of filth and pride will be replaced with robes of righteousness and garments of praise. We will bear God’s name on our foreheads. We will be a kingdom of priests. We will once again dwell with God and walk with Jesus in communion and intimacy and for now the veil is torn and we get to enter into his presence through prayer, but some day face to face.
Exodus 36:1-38
The Construction of the Tabernacle
The people sinned with the golden calf, Moses intercedes God seems to pardon the people and renew the covenant by rewriting the commandments on new tablets that Moses cut for himself. Almost immediately the construction seems to begin on the tabernacle. It makes one wonder if God in his ultimate wisdom and knowledge gave the people something to work on and build, so they wouldn’t be tempted to build another calf. How often we get into trouble when bored.
These 38 verses outline the particulars of the tabernacle. There is an endless list of curtains, loops, designs, colors, frames, materials and measurements. God gave these almost exact instructions in chapter 26 to Moses on how to build and now they are building and reiterating. We have to also assume the carefulness and caution the people were taking to please and obey God after the golden calf incident. However, in terms of spirituality and revelation as I read the portion it seems practical, dull tedious and simply not very divine. The question that arises in my mind is why? What is the purpose of these dull instructions about a tent that was built thousands of years ago? Why repeat the exact work that was already instructed? Why is this important today? And as our pastor says on occasion, why are these details taking up space in our bible?
We believe as Christians and Jews nothing is wasted in God’s word and every word of God is divinely inspired and meaningful for every generation. So why are these details important? Why not simply state, as in Genesis after God instructed Noah to build the ark, and “Noah did exactly as God commanded him.” End of story. It is assumed that the tabernacle was of more significance yet how much more significant than saving the race of humanity?
There are a few possibilities that make this text reasonable. First, this description could be a blueprint a pattern (as shown Moses on the Mountain) not just for this tabernacle, but for proceeding tabernacles and temples for Yahweh. Throughout the scripture there are other places where we see God’s house being built and used. Solomon built a house for God from his father’s plans. Ezekiel talks in details about a temple to come. Herod builds a temple in Jerusalem which is destroyed in 70 AD, but then we see anther temple type emerge in the revelation of John. So, one possible reason for such reputation and description and detail is this is a record for all future temples and tabernacles that might emerge among God’s people for God’s presence, it certainly hints at the desire for God to dwell in the midst of his people.
A second possibility is that Moses gave this task of recording the construction to one of the craftsmen. Artists are detailed oriented, but also if the craftsmen wrote this portion of scripture, did he do so as a response to God? Was it a checklist of account?
A third thought; in these instructions for the tabernacle, God makes clear the building and construction of the tabernacle was not the same but actually distinct from permanent temples. This tent of meeting and tabernacle had frames of acacia wood and poles and curtains of skin and goats’ hair. It was a temporary structure that could be broken down and put back up it could be carried and filled over and over again it could need repair and it was central to all the camps of all the tribes. In a way this tabernacle was to be a foreshadow of the body of Messiah, US! The people are the body of messiah. The tabernacle had bones, and skin and chambers and blood and water. It was distinctly different than the stones that went into the construction of Solomon and Herod’s temple. This tabernacle would be literally occupied by the presence of God indicating that we too as the body of Messiah were to be and should be indwelt with the presence of God and the Holy Spirit, with His word in the inner most chambers of our being, the heart. This is the new covenant, God’s word written on human hearts, his presence filling us, his righteousness clothing us his blood cleansing us. I think this may be why in the revelation given to John, Jerusalem is depicted as a bride coming down out of heaven and God dwelling within her. That dwelling is the goal and purpose of God from the very beginning in the garden. The tabernacle is God’s design, while others temples of stone were man’s way of keeping God in buildings. They used the basic parts and pieces but it was different than God’s design and a taste for Israel of what it would be like to be a man or woman housing God’s eternal presence.
Exodus 32
The Golden Calf
32:1 “when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain…” The people of Israel are impatient. They have not learned from their forefather Abraham the lesson of waiting upon the Lord. They are inclined towards impatience. Perhaps three months in the wilderness has worn their tolerance thin or perhaps like many of the habits they took from Egypt they still wrestled with instant gratification. According to the scripture it was a common practice for them to grumble the moment they were uncomfortable as we say when they are hungry or when they are thirsty, like infants they had little tolerance for discomfort, and now they must wait for Moses to return from meeting with God and they panic. They do not wait well and they suffer grave consequences for it. Demanding that Aaron do something, make a god they can see and that will pacify them. God on the other hand is patient. “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:8–10a and again Nehemiah 9:30 “Yet for many years You had patience with them, And testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets.” God seems to value this trait so much so that throughout all history as he interacts with men, the one thing that remains in the same in almost every story, is he causes them to wait and even instructs it. Psalm 27 Wait for Jehovah: Be strong, and let thy heart take courage; Yea, wait thou for Jehovah. What is the value in waiting, the waiting process is what produces the value in a thing. waiting turns us from one thing into another thing, like a caterpillar into a butterfly, like a coal into diamonds, like a seed into a vineyard, like grapes into wine, we must wait for a child in the womb and even now God calls us now to wait for his return. We have to assume if we believe God and his word, he is doing something in us and through us during the waiting process. The people of Israel in their haste and refusal to wait sinned. In Sarah’s refusal and impatience to bear a child, she sinned and Ishmael came forth. In Saul’s inability to wait for Samuel he sinned before the Lord, David could not wait to ask the Lord for Bathsheba and it was a great sin of adultery. There is a definite pattern, if not waiting takes us outside of God’s will than waiting and patience must produce in us both faith and obedience.
32:1b “The people assembled about Aaron and said to him, “come make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt…” The children of Israel are giving credit not to Yahweh but the MAN, Moses. In verse 11 when Moses intercedes, we can see the difference between his perspective and the children of Israel. He has received something that Israel has not yet received, faith and faithfulness towards God. Time and again from the moment God appears to Moses he is telling the children of Israel; I am the Lord YOUR God who brought you out of Egypt. This must have greatly grieved and angered the Lord to hear them sidestep his mighty and gracious deliverance. He was so angry he was ready to destroy them. They had just agreed to do everything God asked in the ten commandments, the first and foremost do not make idols for yourselves. And here they are breaking the first commandment the moment they think they have no leader. They were so accustomed to having a king, Pharaoh, that they could not do for even a moment without one. It is the same reason and root in their hearts that wanted and asks for a king later when God gives them Saul.
32:1c “we do not know what has become of him.” As if they need to know everything. Waiting builds trust if nothing else, but Israel’s inability to wait and have faith in a God they could not see, actually crippled their vision and blinded them to what was good and right. When we are unable to relinquish control over a situation, it leads us to build idols that we can control.
32:2 “tear of the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives and your sons and your daughters.” These are likely the gold and silver that Israel plundered from the Egyptians. The things used to make them beautiful and valuable turns into idols. This happens even today. We create these idols and gods to worship and look to rather than to God. Israel were slaves working in mud pits and the hot sun, I cannot imagine they wore gold earrings in Egypt. When they left Egypt and became free, they immediately imitated the Egyptians behavior and practices, which gave them opportunity to then unite and make this golden calf and sin with it. This is not unlike the tower of Babel when the men of Shinar were of one mind and said, “come let us build a tower.” Also, Paul says, “do not use your freedom as an excuse to sin.” How often are we guilty of this very thing? We look to our wealth, our beauty or our victories and we begin to bow down as if these things brought us to the places we are and gave us freedom from the unpleasantries in life. True freedom comes from the hand of the Lord, not our own hands.
32:4 “and Aaron fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it into a golden calf; and they said, this is your God oh Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” They may as well have driven the nails into Jesus hands right then and there, rejecting God, refusing to Acknowledge him as their savior and breaking his heart. Aaron uses the very gift that God had bestowed on the people and the first thing he does is sin against God. Why a calf? “The Egyptian bull god was elevated and became worshiped as one of the most sacred gods in Egypt, its name was Apis. Apis was eventually linked to both Ptah, the architect who created the world, and Osiris, the underworld god of resurrection and death. Over time, however, Apis became identified as the worldly incarnation of Ptah himself.” https://study.com/academy/lesson/apis-egyptian-god-facts-symbolism.html
It is likely that the Israelite’s were reverting back to what they knew and saw in Egyptian culture. They attributed all Yahweh had done for them to this calf/bull made of gold by their own hands. They reverted back to what was familiar the moment they couldn’t see Moses. They revealed their true heart, they wanted a god they could see and control and use to imitate Egyptian life. They had not truly left Egypt behind but brought it with them.
32:5 “now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it and made a proclamation, tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” Aaron sees that the people are pleased and quickly accommodates them further, perhaps using his newly found skill and blueprint to make an altar, something that eventually he would be tied to for the remainder of his life and all his descendants. He goes a step further and actually calls the false idol by the name of “the Lord”. Aaron was a leader in Israel, he fell fast and hard. The people we look up to today, will be the people we look down on tomorrow. No one is above reproach. We are all made of flesh and blood and have sin in our nature. It is a reminder to us to be careful who we follow and even so the most holy and godly people need accountability and truth to keep them in line with God’s truth. Aaron would eventually be making sacrifices daily on the altar God instructed them to make to atone for the people of Israel, but here he is kindling the fires of sin in the people and emphasizing before all the desperate need they have for sacrifice and atonement.
32:7 “go down at once for your people who you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.” They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them.” Nothing Israel does is beyond the scope and sight of God. He is omnipresent. They cannot escape God’s vision and neither can we. God seems to disown the people in emphasizing to Moses, “Your people.” Idolatry is spiritual adultery. God just made a covenant with the people that he brought out of Egypt, he desired to dwell in the midst of them and they said, “YES! WE DO, WE WILL.” And now while betrothed and waiting for the ceremony they find another “LOVER” and are unfaithful to the one true God and savior. Ezekiel 16 describes how God probably felt at this time. Angry, broken-hearted and betrayed. This would be an ongoing problem for Israel for the remainder of their existence. It is in fact the very reality that calls for the necessity of a messiah, a righteous branch, God in the flesh to come down from heaven and keep both ends of the covenant because they, as well as we, simply cannot remain faithful, we cannot succeed in loving God in being obedient. Our nature is too corrupt and we continue to corrupt ourselves. As the scriptures say not one is righteous. We need the lamb of God. Never is this more evident than in this moment in history up to this point.
32:9-10 ‘I have seen this people, now let me alone that my anger may burn against them and I may destroy them.” God has feelings and emotions. He created mankind in his image. Because we have them, we know he has them. Here God is revealing his anger like a lover who has been betrayed. He has walked in on his own bride in the arms of her lover. Throughout the Old Testament scripture this is a common theme and image that God uses to describe Israel’s unfaithfulness towards him. She “opens her legs” and “reveals her nakedness” and “pays her lovers” IN the book of Hosea, God instructs the prophet to take a prostitute as a wife as symbolic of Gods love towards Israel and her repeated infidelity towards him her provider and husband. Yet time and time again we also see God’s compassion and love kindled towards his people, his beloved not because she is good or perfect, but because she is his. This is the beauty of God’s love for his chosen, in spite of our sin and failure too obey, in spite of our incessant unfaithfulness and regardless of our ability to be good, he loves us. While we were sinners, while we were failures and betrayers and idolators he died for us in our ugliest messiest sin. He gave his spotless self for our corrupt flesh.
32:11 “Moses entreated the Lord his God” The people had not yet learned who God was and they were unable to tell their head from their tail. Moses knew without a doubt, Moses entreated the LORD His God. Perhaps Israel had not yet fully accepted God as their Lord. Moses reminds God that Israel is His people and he did pull them from the grave of Egypt with his own mighty hand and great power. Moses interceded for the people of Israel; no doubt one reason God chose Moses from the beginning. Moses was a compassionate and good shepherd who cared deeply for the people of Israel, so much that he was willing to kill for them, as he did defend his brother against the Egyptian. Moses was also willing to forego his place in the book of life for them. At this point we see Moses a Christ like figure in that he was willing to take the place of those sinners. Moses also reminded God of his covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob proving the value and unshakable promise of God’s word and not only the value of it but God’s fierce devotion to his own promises. “God changed his mind”
32:15-16 “and the tablets were God’s work, and the writing was God’s writing engraved on the tablets.” Moses is going to break these tablets when he reaches the bottom of the mountain although he intercedes for the people before God doesn’t eliminate his own burning anger against their wrong.
32:19 and as he came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing and Moses anger burned and he threw the tablets from this hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.” Here Moses’ physical act of breaking the tablets with God’s words and commandments is a symbolic and revelatory of Israel breaking the commandments and words of God. In their sight he was showing them what they were doing, this made the greatest impact on the Levite’s, who would eventually come to be commissioned both to teach and be the keepers of the laws of God. Malachi 24 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that my covenant may be with Levi, saith Jehovah of hosts. 5 My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might fear; and he feared me, and stood in awe of my name. 6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips: he walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity. 7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of Jehovah of hosts.
32:20 “he took the calf and burned it with fire and ground it into powder and made the son of Israel drink it.” What better way to show the people the futility of their idols. They are not powerful, they are not alive, they can do nothing in fact they are so worthless that they can be ground up into powder and ingested. When God tells the people to “go back and forth and kill” I can’t help but wonder if those who refused to drink were the ones which they killed.
32:21-24 “what have the people done to you.” Moses assumes that Aaron was somehow bewitched or forced to act in this manner and therefore brought this great sin upon them. HE is recognizing that it surely was Aaron’s fault but he is also thinking the best of Aaron in that the people must have done something to him. This is more evidence that Moses is innocent in his thinking and heart. Aaron takes advantage of this and lies to Moses saying the people are prone to evil, (not him) but the people and the calf just jumped out of the fire. This is such an offense, for he is still giving the calf some sort of power and attributing life to it.
32:25 -28 “When Moses saw the people were out of control…for Aaron had let them get out of control and they had become a mockery to their enemies he stood at the gate of the camp and said whoever is for the LORD come to me! And all the sons of Levi gathered to him.” It is here many commentators and interpreters speculate that God took the Levite’s instead of the firstborn to be priests that would serve him in the tabernacle, teach the law and atone for the sins of the people. With so many peoples how many actually heard Moses’ command? We do know that Levi, had a special ability to slaughter the sons of Shechem and here we see them taking up the sword again and killing brothers, neighbors and friends for God’s honor. They were displaying the Lord’s righteous indignation. Were they not involved in the worship we don’t know this either or perhaps they were just quick t repent. How did they know who was guilty, and who to kill. Were there people prostrating or bowing in surrender and others fighting and being rebellious ? Either way the rabble and the faithless were certainly weeded out that day from among the sons of Israel. This would not be the first time or the last time that they grieved God’s heart with unbelief and rebellion. But it was a major moment in their history. God has a way of redeeming the time and redeeming the people. IN the book of Acts. There is a story which seems to be an undoing or a replacing of these 3000 souls that were killed because of sin and unbelief this day. Acts 2 37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? 38 And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him. 40 And with many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this crooked generation. 41 They then [p]that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and [q]fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
32:29 “every man has been against his son and against his brother.” Jesus said, if you do not love me more than your family members you are not worthy of me. Although this is a hard concept to accept. The Lord must be first and foremost in our lives and hearts. We cannot put anyone before him, as Aaron had put the people first and did what they demanded rather than what God commanded. I think this is particularly hard when it comes to spouses and children or anyone in our lives who has set themselves up as a central figure in our lives and we have loved them more than God. But the Lord is clear we are to be devoted to him, dedicating ourselves to the Lord and loving less family friends’ sons’ and brothers. This is the cost of discipleship.
32:30 “you yourselves have committed a great sin.” Those spared were still held responsible and God promised to blot them out and punish them for this great sin. In Jewish thought and tradition, it is said that every punishment that Israel incurs from that point on is in part a result of this sin. Moses informs God of what God already knew and informed HIM of, but we see in this interaction a relationship between God and Moses that is so intimate a type of friendship. God and Moses looking to each other for both comfort and communication, reiterating the events like two parents discussing the children bad report from school. Moses makes atonement and yet the people are still held accountable for this sin. Moses pleads with God to blot him out of his book if he will not forgive the people. Which book is this? There is a book and this is not the only mention of it. Is this the lamb’s book of life? And it begs the question are names added when we come to Christ or are they deleted when we reject him?
32:33 lead the people where I told you my angel shall go before you.” There are several mentions of this angel and it begs the question about the angel of the Lord being the pre-incarnate Christ. It makes one wonder if in this moment when the people sin Christ is there present mediating, leading and reminding God the Father of his future offering and sacrifices for the sins of the people.
32:35 “so God smote the people for what they did with the calf.” Those who refused to repent were killed immediately by the Levite’s, 3000 it seems, but those who were willing to repent and confess were spared, yet still smote. Our sins demand a retribution often we must be held accountable and suffer a consequence here on earth. God does not remove our citizenship from heaven for sin, but he permits us to suffer the consequences. For if a man kills another man, repent as he may and be forgiven as he is in Christ, may still have to spend the rest of his life behind bars. If a Christian commits an adultery, they may still lose their family and marriage, if a disciple who loves God falls into sin and addiction, he may lose his ministry or even his life. We live on earth and must suffer the consequences of our choices and actions even so we need not fear that anything can pluck us from the hand of God.
Exodus 20
Commentary
20:1 “I am the Lord your God” this is the first time that God uses these specific words to describe himself. With Abraham, he revealed himself as God almighty, a shield and the Lord who brought you out of the Land of Ur. To Isaac and Jacob, he referred to himself as the God of your Fathers. And Even to Moses at the burning bush he said, “I am the God of your fathers” but here for the first time he says to Israel, I am the Lord YOUR God. This was also a term that Pharaoh used to describe Yahweh. All of the commandments and Israel’s obedience seem to hinge on this one truth and their reception of it. It is a direct ownership of the people and of God. He is giving himself to them face to face in a way. Even though he referred to himself as the Gd f Abraham, it wasn’t to his face. If Israel truly believes this, adopts it and owns it, they will then love and obey. Its an interesting that they belong to the one who belongs to them. All rests on who God is and Israel’s relationship to him at this point. Every command ought to point back to this one, and have its fullest meaning here in God’s relationship with Israel. He is the Lord our God who brought us out of Egypt, yes, and darkness, and slavery and death and sin and bondage. It is only his power and salvation of Israel that seals and establishes this truth.
20:3 “you shall have no other gods.” God is one. The Shema, “hear oh Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” This is the Jewish profession of faith, the anthem of Jewish men and woman. God will not share his glory. There is no one like him. All other nations have many gods and deities. Israel Is unique, they are a monotheistic religion. They worship one God. God is jealous god. He is jealous for our affection and our devotion, like a husband over his wife. Coming out of Egypt where there are many gods hundreds this was especially vital to the nation as a whole to understand God is ONE.
20:5 “those who hate me.” Those who have other gods, are not simply indifferent or neutral, but to have another god is a sign of hatred for the one true God, or loving less. Idolatry is spiritual adultery and there are no Luke warm affairs.
20:6 “steadfast love for thousands” In I john and John 10,, Jesus makes it clear that the way we show love to the Lord our God is through obedience and keeping his commandments. This is not for God to love us; this is not for God to save us or show us mercy, his salvation emerges from his own love and it is a free gift. God loves all his creation all he has made. And he has a special unique love for his chosen people for his children and beloved and he has an intimate relationship for those who love him in return, we see this in his interactions with Moses and Abraham and even David. He makes no apologies nor tries to hide the truth that he does in fact have favorites and has predestined some over others. Does God know who will love him and follow him and then choose them or does God’s choice stimulate and stir love towards him? The desire to obey God ought to flow out of a love for him, not for sordid gain or favoritism and God seems to recognizes and rewards it, while also visiting those who hate him and sin willfully with consequences, curses and judgment.
20:7 “do not take the Lord your God’s name in vain.” God has many names, the one he reveals to Moses is Yahweh, I AM and the covenant name of God which is Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. But there is another name of God, that he uses later on after the sin with the golden calf, “5 And Jehovah descended in the cloud, [a]and stood with him there, and proclaimed [b]the name of Jehovah. 6 And Jehovah passed by before him, and proclaimed, Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.”
God is holy. We will be accountable for every word that we speak. Consider all the verses about God’s name. We cannot simply take this as a thou shalt not command but take into consideration all the thou shalt when it comes to God’s name. When God appeared to Moses in the burning bush the first thing, he wanted Moses to tell the Israelite was his name. When God appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he introduced himself as his name, when Jacob wrestled with God and asked his name, God’s response why do you ask my name since it is wonderful. And God revealed new names constantly to individuals proving that he is a personal, he is a single whole in some ways. To then take this name of God, the name above all names, and use it lightly or in vain or worse as a curse word will have grave consequences. He will not leave those people unpunished.
20:8 “Keep the sabbath day holy” The sabbath was created in the beginning before the fall of man occurred. On the seventh day God rested from all his work which he had done and God blessed the seventh day and made it Holy. We cannot underestimate this day nor dismiss the sabbath as outdated or old. First because it existed before the law was given and second it continues to be sanctified even after Jesus came and ascended. The author of Hebrews referring to heaven as an eternal sabbath rest. The sabbath here on earth is a taste of eternity. The sabbath reminds the people of Israel that God made the world and God made man in this same time period that he made the sabbath. It also teaches man and Israel that we are not above God but are to imitate him in how he conducts his self. The sabbath is a gift to free people and a sign of the covenant that God has with Israel and all those who trust in the God of Israel(Isaiah 54, exodus 33). The sabbath is certainly a reminder to slow down, but it is also a reminder that there is more to this world than the work we inflicted upon ourselves at the fall of man. Even when God sent Adam out of paradise, he sent a little paradise with them, so they wouldn’t forget what it was like to rest with God.
20:12 “honor your father and your mother” this is the first command that is followed with a blessing of long life. Some say the blessing is a direct result of honoring and keeping the land and property of your parents and hence inheriting it as a reward for your labors. So serious is this command that later on when explaining the commands God says if a son curses his mother or father he is to be stoned. What if the father or mother do not act in honorable ways? As is the case often in today’s world…how do we honor dishonorable parents? How do we honor God as our father when we cannot see him r hear him or experience him in tangible ways, that we as human need, in order to grow in thrive on earth? We cannot answer all these questions, do they make it more difficult to keep this commandment? Yes. However, we must take this as with all commandments as Yahweh intended it to be used in a healthy and normal family who is keeping the commandments. Honor your mother and father who are keeping these commandments, so to imitate them in how you live. These are not commandments for the un-redeemed and for those outside of God’s covenant people but those living within the boundaries of all Gd’s expectations.
20:13 “do not murder” This is perhaps the one command that continues to be an effect even to this day in most governments and constitutions and legal institutions. Do not murder is a universal law. God has sanctified life with this very command to not eliminate life. Do not take another’s life into your own hand to determine who lives and dies. All life is valuable to God. Even the unborn life. Unfortunately, this was not a crime or sin that evolved over time, but the very first sin that was embarked upon after Adam and Eve disobeyed in a “mild” way, Cain then went to the extreme of all sins, proving this murderous violent nature was embedded into man’s heart from the very seed of all sin. Our sin nature is to take what does not belong to us. This becomes a point of contention, God himself ordered so much “killing” later on when it was time for Israel to begin conquering the land of Canaan. How do we reconcile thou shalt not kill with go in and take the land, wipe out all your enemies.
20:15-16 “do not steal, do not lie” God was giving eternal commandments for kingdom living. The nation of Israel was a brand-new nation. God as their leader and king had to establish rules for them to succeed and thrive as a nation. There could not be chaos and every man for himself, they had to learn to function as a single whole, giving not taking, telling the truth not lying so that communal living would be fair and healthy. No one, not Israel or Abraham or King David kept these laws perfectly before or after the law was given. However, it did not prevent God from commanding it. God was not giving the laws so that men could keep them perfectly or because he thought they might be able to keep them if they worked really hard, as with the sabbath. God is omniscient he knows everything past present and future. Yet he still gave these commandments. They become something to aim at, like heaven, something to look forward to and a picture of what a perfect paradise living community would look like. God gives the new covenant terms in Jeremiah and ratifies them in Christ at the last Passover supper. In doing this he says, these very laws none could keep perfectly with their hands they will instead be written with blood on their hearts. Men who loved God would desire to keep them. Just as it was to David’s credit before God that he wanted to build the temple. Even so Jesus affirms this heart inked covenant with the words, the kingdom of heaven is within you. These laws and ordinances and ways were kingdom living at it’s best and most fulfilled. Which is why here on earth the only place they can be kept is in the heart.
20:17 “do not covet” be content, coveting leads to murder. These laws are summed up in two categories as Jesus stated love God and love your neighbor. If you love your neighbor, you will not lie to them, steal from them or covet what belongs to them. How odd that God would legislate the heart and will. What is wrong with wanting what someone else might have? We could preach a million different sermons on this command as with all the commandments – tying in the relevant circumstance that run throughout time and space. But this finds it deepest reasons in one simple idea – Satan coveted and God does not want us to be imitating Satan’s tactics, but to approach the throne of mercy and grace and ask for what we need and want. Trusting God’s decisions and answers. Otherwise, we are silently and with ingratitude saying that what we have is simply not enough and therefore God does not really a good provider. Coveting is a lack of faith. When we covet, we begin to device and scheme on how we can get what does not belong to us. This leads and has and always will to some of the most heinous crimes and sin throughout history from war to genocide to rape, theft and deceit of every kind. When God says do not covet, surely he is seeing down through the future ages all the coveting that would tear through the hearts of men woman and children wreaking havoc and chaos in lives and families and homes institutions, governments and communities and lands.
20:18 “you speak to us only do not let God speak to us.” The people are so afraid of what they hear and see that they decide they don’t want to hear God speak. They only hear the ten commandments. And then they stop. They are willing to let Moses be a spokesman. The rest they must be taught by man. This is not the last time they will reject God, nor the first time. We see this throughout all time and human record. Why do we not want to hear our creator speak to us. We do not like the restrictions and convictions he may lay upon us. We want to be in control. Those who are willing to hear God are also those who know him best.
Exodus 19
19:1 “on the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.” Israel has now been in the wilderness three months. It has taken three months to get to the mountain of God, a journey that could have taken 11 days. Rosh Chodesh, head of the month or the new moon festival is mentioned in numbers 28 when God instructs Israel “On the first of the month you are to present to Adonai a burnt offering of two young bulls, one ram, and seven flawless male lambs a year old’ twenty-seven times the new moon festival is mentioned in the scriptures. In Isaiah God says his soul hates the new moon festivals because they have become occasions for hypocrisy and the worship of false gods. Israels heart eventually strays so far from God that keeping the new moon or the sabbath or the Passover isn’t about drawing closer to God or honoring him, but about rote and meaningless tradition. As he said in Matthew. It became more important to them to check the boxes than to truly rend their hearts and surrender them each month to God. Here the new moon is mentioned as a marking of the passage of time.
19:3-4 “The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people Israel. ‘You yourselves have seen with your own eyes what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.” Israel’s deliverance was not for them exclusively, nor was their freedom from Egypt a release into the wild. God delivered Israel as part of a promise and covenant he made with Abraham and their freedom from Egypt was to bring them to himself, as he told Abraham and will tell Israel again and again throughout the history, “I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. 46 And they shall know that I am Jehovah their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them: I am Jehovah their God. Ex. 29:45-46
19:5 If you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession. Among all the people (not just among the Egyptians, but all the people of the earth.) God chose Israel out of all the people in the world.
19:6 “you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” God wants Israel to know who they are. The are set apart, the entire nation is called to be a light to the nations and the world. The entire nation is called to be witnesses of God’s glory and power, agents of truth and peace. Although God will set apart the Levites to serve the temple and oversee all the worship, God has called the people as a nation to be priests, a priest job was to teach the law to Israel and make the sacrifices that would atone for the sins of the congregation. This is precisely what Israel did when the leaders brought Jesus, the lamb of God to Pilate to be crucified. This is what they did when they recorded the law and kept it. They are teaching the world they are being a nation of priests and a kingdom of holy people set apart in how they live and behave.
The Lord also calls Israel to be faithful to the covenant even before the particulars of the law are revealed, he has not given them the ten commandments yet. What they have seen in Egypt reminds them, God’s covenant relationship proceeds the agreement and the details, and yet the covenant is also essential for living as Gods people. God’s covenant existed before and is for Israel, it will also continue though they break it. The covenant relies on God, is continued in Christ’ blood and it is eternal. When God made the covenant with Abraham, Abraham was in a deep sleep when God passed through the divided animals’ parts, declaring that he would keep both parts of the covenant, and so he did when He died for the sins of Israel on the cross.
19:7 “all the Lord has spoken we will do” this is a preliminary agreement the people haven’t not even heard the stipulations or judgments only a few blessings. Their agreement, like wedding vow, is not at this point based in love for God, although that will be a commandment later on. Their vow is based in fear and awe at all God did for them in Egypt. Later When God sends his only son as a love offering those he has chosen begin to understand and relate to God with affection and devotion being able to reflect back to God what he reveals to them/us. Jesus teaches the disciples about what love looks like and seems to focus much of his teaching and ministry on love, culminating with John’ declaration that God is love.
19:10 “the Lord also said to Moses go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow and let them wash their garments; and let them be ready for the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.”
Revelation 22 “whoever washes the robes has the right to the tree of life. This washing seems to be an act of preparation for the congregation for God. They had a role in their own sanctification. This washing was symbolic and practical. They were exchanging their garments of skin and flesh and slavery from Egypt for robes of righteousness and holiness and priests’ garments. This was a washing off of the old and preparing themselves for the new.
God is also setting an expectation and requirement. We do not come before the presence of a holy God in filthy garments and sinful flesh. He has made provision with the blood to wash us, but Israel and eventually all those chosen are responsible to apply that provision and wash our garments. This requirement never changes is never adjusted or softened. After Jesus died and was raised up, more is expected from us, not less because we are given the holy spirit as a pledge. Revelation 7:13 says, there is a multitude coming out of the tribulation of every tribe they have washed their robes in the blood and made them white. Revelation 19:7-9 His bride has made her self ready and it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen bright and clean for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints (holy ones). Revelation 22:14 blessed are they who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. In Matthew 22:11-13 Jesus tells a parable which a man came into the wedding feast without wedding garments on, and was cast out. Zechariah 3, the prophet Joshua is given, in exchange for his filthy robes, clean and white garments which are the according to Isaiah the garments of righteousness and salvation. We cannot underestimate or outdate the ritual bath and cleanliness of what we wear before God and the importance of being clean in his presence.
When God is instructing Moses to consecrate the people, he is setting a standard by which they will gauge their attendance before the Holy One for all eternity.
19:11 “you shall set boundaries for the people all around, saying beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch the border of it whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.” We should not assume this means God in his anger will smite, kill or punish the people who might simply touch the mountain. God is gracious, why then should we account him in some instances as a tyrant without mercy who kills unreasonably? We should not, but God’s character is one of grace and mercy and protection of the weak and vulnerable. In the same way that we may warn a child who is near fire, do not touch the fire or you will get burned. This is not a threat, “we will burn you or hurt you if you touch the fire”, but a warning, a fair and good warning. God is holy, he is a consuming fire, he is the sun shining in full strength, if we touch, we will be burned. There is no doubt God had to limit his power in order to descend /come down upon mount Horeb, so that the people would not instantly burn up. His warning therefore could, like with eve and Adam, be a sincere cautionary for their good. I can hear him pleading with Moses not once but twice, “do not let the people touch the mountain…do not let the children touch the fire…” he was keeping them safe from his glory and holiness, which is not bad but it is powerful. Consider Paul was blinded by the light of Christ on the road to Damascus, Uriah fell down dead when he touched the ark. God spared Adam and eve death when they ate from the deadly poison of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Ezekiel fell down like a dead man, mortal fragile man cannot stand in the presence of a mighty God without being changed, humanity cannot touch God or the mountain where he resides, as a consequence of our fallen nature, we will be instantly consumed. He is a fire and we are mere sinful flesh on an earthen altar.
19:12 “whether beast or man he shall not live.” The author of Hebrews contrasts Sinai and Zion. John Bunyon also popularized this comparison between the two mountains as one between law (Sinai where the law was given) and grace (mount Zion, where the blood of Christ was poured out). In Hebrews the author says, “18 For you have not come [a]to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and [b]darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. 20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned [c]or shot with an arrow.” 21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the [d]general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
And what is the author saying but this: (For they could not endure what was commanded) The congregation of Israel were afraid at Sinai. It was a fearful thing to encounter Yahweh. But now, it is not less fearful it is not that God has changed, but that now Christ has been provided, the lamb, the atonement that they should be covered in grace and mercy and approach the throne of God without fear. They now (at zion) can endure what is commanded because they come with blood and God accepts the blood of his own son. They come with access to the Holy Spirit inside them, they come with resurrection power. We have not worry or need to fear because God has sent the lamb before us to mediate a new covenant, one in which we do not have to bear alone, but Christ bears for us. We will not die because there is life in the blood, because the angel of death passes over those sprinkled in blood of Jesus. It is not merely blood, it is God’s blood. Have we still commands and God and the voice and thunder and power? yes but we also have Christ who has overcome the power of death and sin in US! So, we can live and not die. We are not consumed, because as he says all that can be shaken has been shaken, all that can be burned has been burned, all that can die has died. We now approach a living God as living beings.
19:13 “when the Ram’s horn sounds a long blast” different sounds meant different things. IN Jewish tradition even today, there are three distinct sounds the shofar makes. One means to gather; ones mean prepare for battle and one announces the king. “The shofar has four sounds: tekiah, a long, loud blast calling people to attention; Sheva rim, three broken blows which sound like crying; teruah, nine or more staccato rings serving as a wakeup call to the new year; and tekiah gondola, a great blast played at the end of the Rosh Hashanah service.” Rosh Hashanah, blowing the shofar is a holiday which celebrates the beginning of the world and the coronation of the King. It is also called the feast of trumpets. We are also reminded that it will be a shofar that sounds upon Christ return to earth. In the book of revelation, the seven trumpets’ sounds reveal the plagues upon the earth, each trumpet a different plague. This is the ram’s horn. Also, the ram’s horn was used to blow when God brought down the walls of Jericho. God appeals to all five senses as he relates his instructions to Moses. This will ensure that Israel remembers.
19:15 “be ready for the third day” for Christ followers and certainly the early disciples this third day carries with it significance beyond that of the ten commandments being given, this was when God came down among the people. They were instructed to be ready. God was about to appear. Even so on the third day is when Jesus Christ arose from the grave and appeared to the people. Here before God descends, the men of Israel are told not to go near a woman, what did this mean? Could not stand beside women, as some might suppose or even as in Judaism, they interpreted often keeping men and women separate. I speculate that God was telling them to not have sex. Do not go “near” to be intimate, to uncover nakedness, first because they had just washed and second, they were waiting for God, not intercourse. Women would distract them from their anticipation and eagerness. In the book of Revelation, it is those who are chaste and pure who have never been with a woman in a sexual context that have some additional value in God’s eyes, or at least that follow him with undivided devotion. Paul says, if possible, it is better not to marry. However, God also created Eve for Adam and without doing so how could mankind reproduce and populate the earth? We cannot assume that Paul meant every man is better off single and chaste, but those who were called to be such disciples with undying devotion to God and Torah (his instruction). A man who has a wife must care for his wife and provide for his family and children; a man who has no wife can invest himself fully without reservation to God alone. But this is not the call of every man. I suspect that this instruction may find some meaning in the garden, for Adam chose closeness with Eve over obedience to God once before.
19:16 “it came about on the third day when all the people trembled, there were thunder and lightening flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound so all the people in the camp trembled.” We cannot imagine what this may have been like, however, we know from the scriptures, that a thick cloud seemed the usual way in which Gd appeared. Thunder lightening and darkness often accompanies his mighty presence. When the disciples stood staring at the place where Jesus ascended on the cloud, the angels said to them he will return in the same way. When Daniel saw the vision of the ancient of Days it was on a cloud, giving way to future images and art work of God on a cloud. But the scripture says plain, He dwells in darkness and thick cloud. 2 Samuel 22:12
And he made darkness pavilions round about him, Gathering of waters, thick clouds of the skies. Psalm 18:11
He made darkness his hiding-place, his pavilion round about him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
19:17 “AND MOSES Brought the people out of the camp to meet God and they stood at the foot of the mountain.” God has not removed the fear humans have of him naturally. He is God and we are not. But rather, he appeared in a form that we could receive, a helpless human infant, even so when the shepherds and the kings and the angels saw him even in this form their response was awe and honor, bowing to worship, offering gifts and praise without hesitation. We cannot help but tremble at the sight and sounds of Creator God no matter what form he takes or how he approaches or we approach. He is a mighty king and we are simply mortal fragile cells brought together to form broken vessels. Even Moses standing before the burning bush trembled before God. This is always the appropriate response to a holy God who appeals to every one of our senses that he created us with, when the people treated God as common, he was angry, when the disobeyed it was evidence of their light esteem towards God. When they brought him lame animals for sacrifice this was a sign of disrespect and God frowned upon it. God does not want to be treated as a common peer or a buddy. He is holy and ought to be respected. This show was especially important as they were being introduced to their savior so that they would forever fear God. Did it work, not for individuals, but on a national level yes. Consider orthodox jews and Christians today continue to fear God and tremble at his mercy and goodness and power.
19:18 “the Lord descended upon it in fire and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace.” When God covenanted with Abraham, a deep sleep fell upon Abraham and God appeared as a smoking oven and a furnace passing between the pieces of cut animals.
19:19 “God answered him in thunder” God also speaks to Jesus and the people hear thunder. Why is it that Moses and Jesus heard the voice and words of God but the people hear only thunder? The holy spirit is the one who teaches us the words of God. We need a mediator, Moses was that mediator for a time, Jesus is the eternal mediator, the holy spirit is an interpreter. I think that God speaks, but because of our sin and flesh and filthy nature we cannot hear him. Our sin becomes an obstacle between us and God. A channel is needed to tune in, a channel which is pure and clean and innocent of sin. Even though we are washed and redeemed we live in a world weighed down in sin. We are unclean. We must wash and consecrate and then remain pure. How does that happen living in this world. Sin does not reign but sin remains. Does this mean Moses was without sin, not necessarily, and yet God spoke to him face to face. God seemed to speak to more consistently in the ancient scriptures then in modern times to people. Perhaps sin is like a fungus that grows and spreads over time. Perhaps our sin becomes like wax in the ears of our hearts and minds. The holy spirit does the work of not just sanctifying us but releasing Gods words to us in a way and means that we can understand them for those who desire to know and hear him.
19:23 “the people cannot come up” this is evidence of Moses innocent nature. He believes that because God told the people already, they would listen and he didn’t have to repeat or worry, Moses is perhaps naïve. The Lord is concerned that the people will break through to gaze upon him and they will perish and for good reason, they are on the cusp of the fashioning the golden calf and rejecting the commands before they have even had a chance to digest them. That God is telling the people they cannot come up is interesting considering in just a few verses he tells them to come up. God wants to be seen and interacted with, however, not gazed upon like a spectacle. I wonder too does he bear scars of the whips and nails? Isaiah says he has no appearance that is handsome that men long to see, but he is despised. God calls the priests and Aaron and Moses to come up to him. Was this to form a type of wall between God and the people. A mediating wall to protect the people from God and God from the people?
One of the very first commandments in the next few verses, “you shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of an idol or any likeness of what in in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.” Also, in Deuteronomy when God is reiterating these commandments he repeats:” Deuteronomy 4:15-18
This was paramount to the people not seeing God, so that they would not begin to cast and forge idols in his likeness. The only likeness would be the likeness to Man, because man was made in his likeness. Even so, when Jesus rose from the dead his own disciples were not recognizing him by his face and appearance but by his words and communication.
Exodus 18
18:1 “Jethro priest of Midian, Moses’ father n law, had heard of all God had done for Moses and for Israel, his people.” Midianites are direct descendants of Abraham, making Israel and Midian half-brothers. Midian was one of Abraham’s sons from his wife Keturah. (Genesis 25:1-5). This son, with all his other children except for Isaac, Abraham had sent away with gifts while he was still living. Word about God and Israel is spreading to the nations, this was instilling a fear of God into the nations as well as a respect for Moses and the God’s new nation, Israel. In Number 22:7, however, because of this fear and in trepidation the king of Moab approaches the Midianites and in the famous account of the talking donkey, they seek out someone name Balaam to curse Israel for them. In Numbers 25 Israel falls into sexual immortality with Moab and Midianites.
18:2 “now Jethro, Moses’ father n law, had taken Zipporah, Moses’ wife after he had sent her home, along with her two sons.” At some point Moses sent his wife and sons from Egypt back to Midian. The text does not say why. We can assume it was to keep them safe from Pharaoh or the judgments of God, or because they were not part of Israel, and just as Abraham had sent Midian away from the promise son Isaac so too Moses sent his Midianites sons away from Isaac’s descendants. We do know that Zipporah had served as an mediator on Moses’ behalf, saving him from the Angel of the Lord that sought to put him to death, therefore she had a fear of God and knowledge of circumcision, which was the covenant made with Abraham and his seed this would include Midian. Jethro returns Moses’ wife and sons to him safely the author reminds us of the meaning of his son’s names.
18:3 “The name of one Gershom and the other Eliezer, meaning the God of my Father has been my help” this raises the question, how does Moses know the God of his fathers. It likely could have been the few things he picked up from being a child nursed by his own mother, or living in close quarters with the Hebrews, and then taught by Jethro himself. The fact that he lists the names of his children in the same text as his father n law could also indicate this. Jethro being Midianite descended from Abraham as well and would have had the some of the same understanding about Abraham’s God, the covenants and the teachings about God passed down. Was this surprising that Jethro was so quick to marry his daughter off therefore to this “son of Isaac and son of the promise” wanting to ensure his line also had a share in the inheritance of Isaac and Jacob? Also seeing that Moses was an “Egyptian” learned, educated and powerful. Perhaps the marriage was of ‘political’ alliance.
18:3 “was encamped at the mountain of God, and he went out to meet with his father n law and bowed low and kissed him.” Moses had gained seniority as a leader, respect as one who confronted Pharaoh, reverence. He was not just an Egyptian or a shepherd or a Hebrew and yet he bows down to his father n law recognizing the patriarchy of Jethro. 3Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.” Moses’ humility is evident here in that even with a man of his status, he is willing to humble himself before those deserving of honor.
18:8 “now Moses told his father n law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way and how the Lord delivered them. And Jethro rejoiced.” Moses is being the Light God called all Israel to be to the nations. Israel’s existence and all God’s interactions with them is to be a neon sign to the world who God is. Moses in this case is a witness of God’s power and care over his people and it provokes the response that every evangelist hopes for. Jethro rejoices and also blesses God and makes sacrifices to the Lord. Jethro is able to understand that God truly did choose Isaac’s descendants.
18:10 “blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh and has delivered the people from under the hand of Egyptians, Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods.” And Jethro brought burnt offerings and sacrifices, he worshiped and ate bread with Moses Aaron and the elders before God. This would have been a sign of covenant of sorts. Did Jethro at this point stop worshiping other gods we don’t know. We do know the Midianites continued to worshiping false gods and idols, because they led Israel’s men astray to do so through the sexual immorality.
18: 13 “the next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning until evening.” There were 600,000 men not including women and children. They were again looking to Moses as provider, as priest, prophet teacher, Judge, and as “god” in some ways. When Jethro questioned Moses about this Moses responds that “the people come to me to inquire of God.” With all that God was teaching and directing Moses in, it’s surprising that God hasn’t given him this same guidance that Jethro offers. Are there times God withdraws so that community and trust can be built between men, revealing that we need one another.
18:17 “I make them know the statutes and laws of God.” Moses somehow knew the Torah (teaching). It is assumed that God was instructing him much more than the scripture informs. We see how vital any laws are to a nation, and here how vital God’s laws are to this brand-new nation. They are like children going to Moses about everything, they want to know what does God want us to do. This reveals their heart, their innocence, their basic humility and willingness to be taught God’s ways, especially after the show of power and deliverance they just saw him enact on their behalf.
18:18 “you will wear yourself out” once again Moses’ humanity is seen. He is a great man, but he is still human, a fact which Jethro is happy to point out to him, keeping him humble.
18:19 “now obey my voice, I will give you advice and God be with you.” Moses takes his father n laws advice to develop a system of leaders and chiefs that Moses can teach the laws of God and they can hear cases and make judgments and determinations. “if you do this God will direct you and you will be able to endure.” In the past two chapters it is clear that Moses truly does need human aid and help from his companions. He is happy to let other bear the burden of the people. This same system is continued throughout Jesus’ time, the judges, the pharisees, the Sanhedrin, these were all part of those “elders” and “leadership” that were intended to know God’s laws and teach and judge the people’s issues so that they could go back to their place in peace as Jethro promised. Unfortunately, mankind is sinful and often times these positions of power are corrupted and people love the power more than the righteous judgments of God. Over time as happens with Israel, the “shepherds” begin to feed themselves and do what is good for them, what will gain them more pleasure and power rather than making fair and right decisions for the people.
18:24 “Moses let his father n law depart to his own country.” Even though Moses is now in a position of power over his father n law, he permits him leave. Moses has no interest in Joining their two peoples or lording it over Jethro, a priest of Midian. The interface between Jethro and Moses is a beautiful show and example of healthy relationship between two people. Both give and take one another’s council and honor and respect one another in return. There is no jealousy that we see in the text, no power grabs and no offenses taken.
Moses is now prepared to leave Israel and attend to God on Sinai.
Exodus 17
Water from the Rock
17:1-2 “But there was no water for the people to drink, therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “give us water to drink.” After several months traveling in the hot arid wilderness, it’s not surprising that the people of Israel were often thirsty. There were many people, the water they carried with them, likely had to be given to the very young, and the very old, the women having children, the sick (if there were any) and the animals first. The people’s confidence is somewhat misplaced, as they look to Moses rather than God to give them water. This is not surprising as they were accustomed to getting what they needed from a man. When the people were hungry or thirsty in the past, they would, go to Pharaoh. We saw this in the account of Joseph, when all the people went to Joseph for food, and Jacob brought his family to Egypt when they were in need. This looking to Egypt for food was deeply embedded in their belief system.
17:2 “And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” Moses’ anger and rebuttal does not silence or satisfy the people. They were thirsty. We are getting a picture of Moses. He is not the patient and gentle man that we perhaps want to picture him as. He likely is also thirsty, tired (as we see later in the chapter) he is human, he has a temper, he has insecurities. He is not a god, nor does he have the power of a god, all that we saw him do in Egypt, God was doing through Moses. And Moses as the author of Exodus and a man of God is more than willing to reveal that. He is not the ONE! However, in there need, Israel is going to get a glimpse of the “One” whether or not they recognize their savior or not.
17: 3 “but the people thirsted there and said, why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? The people still think MOSES was the one who delivered them. They have transferred their expectations and demands from one man (pharaoh) to another man (Moses). However, we also see that the people of Israel saw Moses as a peer and a brother. Perhaps looking to him to give them what they needed, but not fearing him as a leader. Not only are they accusing Moses of bringing them out but they are blaming him for trying to kill them. Moses is afraid. There are a lot more of them, then there are of him. “So, Moses cried to the Lord. Saying what shall I do with this people, they are ready to stone me.”
17:5 “and the Lord said to Moses, pass on before the people taking with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.” Israel had just emerged from the shackles of Egyptian slavery. They were familiar with the striking and will likely respond by seeing that Moses is in a position of Authority now and they should not be arguing with him. God asks Moses to employee the staff of striking. From a commentary on Aish.com “One of our first encounters with Moses as an adult is his active defense of a fellow Jew: ‘Moses saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, of his brethren…So he struck down [vayach] the Egyptian’ (2:11-12). Later, Moses sets the ten plagues in motion by ‘striking [vayach] the water’ (7:20) of the Nile and turning it into blood. This same action – striking – is repeated in the plagues of lice (8:13) and hail (9:25).
17:6 behold I will stand there before you on the Rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock and water shall come out of it and the people will drink. And Moses did so.” Horeb is the mountain where Moses first encounters Yahweh. IT is their God speaks to him there from the burning bush and commissions him. God says, he will stand before Moses on the Rock. Some interpreters see this as God’s close identification between his presence and the Rock that Moses strikes,“the command you shall strike the Rock is thus understood as you shall strike God himself, with the result that God himself is the source of the life-giving water that flowed from the rock.” (Bible commentary ESV) This is not a far stretch, on many occasions throughout the scriptures God is referred to by Moses, Samuel, King David, and others as “The Rock of Salvation” and simply “the Rock” on multiple occasions and Paul is straightforward in his conviction, when he says in 1 Corinthians 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.”
God said he would stand on the rock before Moses, this is a mirror image of what happens after the golden calf incident when Moses stands before God on the rock and God passes by showing shows Moses his glory and his back. Exodus 33:22 21 Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place [j]by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock.
When Christ had died on the cross and the soldier pierced his side in order to confirm his death, water came out. Did this in any way make Israel think about the water from the Rock? There are many references to God and Christ as Rock as well as the source of living water, as in the account of Jesus at the well in John 4.
17:7 “and he called the name of that place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarrelling of the people of Isarel and because they tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not?” Israel shows their infancy in needing constant assurance of God’s presence. Moses does not name that place after God’s miracle of providing water for the people, rather he names it after their complaints and behavior. “This is to remind the people for all time that God was among them and that the way to express their needs is through prayer.” The stone edition Torah “the nation is without basic requirement for life and it (the nation) complains bitterly. God puts them through this ordeal in order to train them to turn to him in prayer when faced with deprivation.”
17:8 “Amalek came and fought Israel” There is no human way Israel was physically or mentally prepared to fight and win Amalek. Their weakness around war was why God rerouted them. They were slaves and had been for generations not trained soldiers. They likely only had a few weapons, and while they were strong, perhaps from the hard labor of building pharaoh’s cities, they were tired, they may have been dehydrated, hadn’t eaten. God would have to intervene. The text introduces Joshua immediately following the water from the rock miracle. Joshua in Hebrew is Yehoshua, meaning salvation, this is the same name that was told to Mary and Joseph to name their son. Moses does not intreat God he just acts. He calls upon Joshua to fight, indicating that Joshua had this status prior. Joshua is faithful to Moses and to God. Later he and Caleb will be the only two who enter the promise land because they believe God. He will also succeed Moses in leading the people of Israel into the promised land.
17:9 “tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” We are seeing more and more that Moses is a man of action, but he is also human and we are seeing his physical weaknesses and his age alongside his bravery and tenacious leadership. Whenever Moses held up his hand with the staff, Israel prevailed, whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek was strengthened. So, Aaron and Hur hold up Moses hands and Joshua is successful in weakening the Amalekites.
17:14 “I will blot out the memory of Amalek.” God is angry. Amalek was the grandson of Esau, Jacob’s brother. Genesis 36:12 and second God never forgets this attack on Israel by amalek. 1 Samuel 15:2
This is what the Lord of armies says: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, in that he obstructed him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Deuteronomy 25:17 “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt. They are a constant enemy to Israel even through David’s reign. The Amalekites are the ones God tells Saul to destroy but Saul saves the king and the best of the flocks and herds and this act loses him the kingdom.
Moses builds an altar and names is Jehovah-nissi, or the Lord is my banner or as the Torah interprets it, Hashem is my miracle. This is one of only two altars that Moses builds, the other one is in Exodus 24. It could have been a custom he was not familiar with nor did he grow up with or he could have avoided in order not to instill temptation into the people of Israel to build altars to false gods. But we know he worshiped God and made sacrifices. Aaron was the High priest and he and his sons took care of all the sacrifices once God gave explicit orders about the offerings later in the Torah. And although Moses was a Levite, he was prevented, at least originally, even from entering into the Holy of Holies one the tabernacle was completed.
Exodus 16
Bread from Heaven
15:27 “then they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, ,and they camped by the water.” Palm trees produce dates and they begin to ripen in April. They can produce 2-300 hundred pounds of dates each in a season. God had provided what the people of Israel needed to sustain both their food and water needs.
16: 1 “They came to the wilderness of sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.” on the 17th day of the second month Noah entered the ark and the fountains burst open and the windows of heaven opened up. On the 27th day of the second month, the earth dried out and Noah Departed the Ark. (Gen. 7:11)
16:2-3 “the whole congregation grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness., and the people of Israel said to them, “would that we died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us into the wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” The people have been traveling for about a month in the wilderness. The novelty and excitement of leaving Egypt has worn off. They are hungry, they are longing for the meat and bread. These are flavorful and filling comfort foods. Is it possible that when they were uncomfortable in the land of slaves, they would comfort themselves with bread and meat? they are revering to their old ways of wanting food rather then God to comfort them. Food is a common downfall among humanity, take for example the garden of Eden. Eve took and ate because the fruit seemed desirable to her. Israel is following their appetite and cursing the “hand” that feeds them. The hand of the Lord just rescued them from affliction and hard labor, the outstretched hand of God is mentioned many times in the exodus account and now the very hand they were blessing for the rescue they are now cursing for their discomfort. Israel has forgotten the bondage, the cruel task masters, the hard labor, it is easy to look back with rose colored glasses and remember the “good times.” They would rather die in Egypt with full bellies, then be freed in the wilderness. We can note here as well the reason that Israel and his children, 70 in all came to Egypt in the first place was because of food. The people are blaming Moses and Aaron. They are discontented. They were discontented in Egyptian bondage, they are discontented as free men in the wilderness, it is likely this discontentment is something they will have to learn to master, or it will master them.
16:4 “that I may test them whether they will walk in my law or not.” This is not the first test or the last test. God tests men. Abraham had ten tests! God will continue to test the people in the wilderness in particular around hunger and thirst. One cannot help but think back to the very first sin and wonder if that too was a test of obedience that was failed by Adam and Eve. God’s law is his word. He didn’t create it at Sinai, it has always existed. at the same time, at this point in their journey Israel did not yet have the Law, therefore we must assume that when God speaks of His law, he means his words, the word he speaks. Whatever God instructs is his “law” The word of the Lord became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. The bible mentions the Law many times and the church and the Jewish people may limit this to either the 613 commandments, or the Torah, or the sacrificial system, but since none of these have been given yet. God either is testing them to prepare the people to receive the law on Sinai or every word he speaks is considered Law. When Christians say we are no longer under the law, we must remember that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We are always under the law, if the Law is God’s word.
16:6 “Moses said to all the congregation you will know by evening that it was the Lord who brought you of of the Land of Egypt, and you shall see the glory for the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling again the Lord, for what are we.” Moses informs the people that he and Aaron can do nothing. It was never them who did the miracles and wonders, it wasn’t them who brought them out of Egypt and that the grumbling against them is actually against the Lord himself. Moses is angry about this as he repeats himself. As soon as the people experience some discomfort, fatigue, hunger and thirst, they quickly forget that God Yahweh delivered them, just as the people were laying palm branches down and crying out Hosanna to Jesus riding throguh Jerusalem one day and the next some of them shouting crucify! Humanity is loyal to themselves. We are fickle and our faith is fragile, like the seeds planted in the shallow soil we easily are uprooted and undone when we sense trouble.
16:7 ” you will see the glory of the Lord because he has heard your grumbling.” Like the dad coming down the hall of the children who refuse to listen and go to sleep. God is coming, he is going to show the people his glory. The word for Glory in Hebrew, is KAVOD and it means a heavy weight. God doesn’t manifest anger at their grumbling yet He is patient; however because they are still learning to trust his provisions. The Glory appears in the cloud. God often appears throughout scripture in a cloud. later when God gives the commandments to Moses in Exodus 19 he says he will appear in thick cloud. When Moses was on Sinai then a cloud covered the mountain top. The cloud follows Israel throughout their journeys and attends the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant. the Cloud indicates God’s presence. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him; and He took away some of the Spirit who was upon him and placed Him upon the seventy elders. Job and David both say God hides in the clouds He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, Darkness of waters, thick clouds. The son of man will come again on the the clouds. 152 times the word cloud is used in scripture and many of those reference God leading Israel in the wilderness.
God tells the people that in the evening they shall eat meat and in the morning they shall be filled with bread. and “then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” These signs that God continues to perform in the sight of the People and for the people of Israel will define their relationship with God for all time.
16:13 “When the people saw it they said, what is it?” Manna or man, literally means “what is it?” The people awoke in the morning to find something like coriander seed on the ground like dew. It was everywhere. they could collect it and have bread. Each person gathered what they needed or could eat and there was enough for all. “whoever gathered little had no lack, some gathered more some less.” This bread from heaven was a sign of God’s provision. and would be the very statement Jesus uses to teach the people that He can satisfy them because HE is God’s provision for life. (see devotion on Jesus and Manna)
16:22 “tomorrow is a day of solemn rest” God gave the sabbath to mankind in the very beginning by creating it. Therefore the Sabbath proceeds Israel, just as the sun, moon seasons vegetation and animals proceed Israel therefore they are for all mankind. However, here the sabbath becomes a special covenant between God and Israel. Not only does he give it to them as he did us all, but he establishes patterns around the sabbath for work and rest. He uses it to make yet another distinction between holy and profane between Israel and “Egypt”. Not only does the sabbath a sign of their freedom to rest, but their status as free men. Slaves do not get to rest. Throughout Israels 40 years in the wilderness the sabbath is going to become a significant time and throughout history the sabbath day will continue to set Jewish people apart form the world. In Judaism it is the highest holy day. Leviticus 23 it is listed first of all the holy days, it is a sabbath to the Lord a day of solemn rest. in Exodus 20 when God gives the 10 commandments it is the longest commandment and the Lord actually blesses the day and makes it holy. In Exodus 33 we see the significance of the sabbath between a sign between God and his people. Throughout the prophets it is the breaking of the sabbath that seemed to break God’s heart again and again. These scriptures and many more unmask the debates around the sabbath in the new testament and why it was such a hot topic. But like with everything, God doesn’t want empty rote tradition that checks boxes and puffs pride, he wants our hearts and devotion, he wants obedience that flows from love and faith.
16:29 “see the Lord has given you the sabbath.” the sabbath was a gift to Israel. So vital to their travels especially through the wildernesses of Life that God provided additional bread on the day before – erev shabbat. So they wouldn’t have to work at all. The appropriate response should have been praise not, breaking the command to rest and going out to work. God was continuing to scrape the remnants of Egyptian slave labor out of the people of Israel.
Exodus 13
Commentary
13:1-2 “The Lord said to Moses, consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both man and beast, is mine.” To consecrate means to sanctify, set apart as or declare holy. God was about to bring Judgment on the land of Egypt, that judgment came in the form of wiping out the firstborn of man and beast not protected by the lamb’s blood. God said, he would kill Pharaoh’s firstborn. This was judgment on not only Pharaoh for holding God’s firstborn son, Israel, but also on the system of firstborn in Egyptian culture. God was judging the “power grab” that Egypt has established through the firstborn. Pharaoh was a firstborn of a firstborn of a firstborn. Yet Pharaoh was not killed. Was he a legitimate firstborn or did God’s judgment expose him? This was a plague on the firstborn, on all the firstborn, even Israel. for no other Judgment Israel had to do anything, except for this one. They had to participate in the protection of their firstborn. The distinction God made between Israel and Egypt for this plague was whoever applied the blood would be spared, that was the provision God made to distinguish those who belong to him and those who applied the blood of the firstborn’s would be spared, but they would also belong to God who spared them. It was as if the blood of the lamb bought these firstborns for God. That was GOD’s purchase price for the firstborn. Later on in the book of Leviticus and Numbers 2. God exchanges the firstborn for the tribe of Levites, life for life. And He commissions the Levite’s to serve him and serve in the tabernacle. Some bible scholars and Rabbi’s say the firstborn were to have this role until the incident with the golden calf in which they forfeit their position and God takes the Levites instead because they remained faithful to him.
13:3 “remember this day in which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the Lord brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.” This command is for the promised land. They wouldn’t be able to keep the feast of unleavened bread for forty more years. It would serve as a reminder for all history of their freedom from the house of slavery. They were not just commandment to avoid leaven because they had to leave in haste, but they had to eat unleavened bread. This festival of freedom as it is referred to by some Jews today, was kept by Jesus. Jesus both died on the first day of the festival which begins the day after Passover, and was raised up in the middle of it, as it is kept for 7 full days. Just as his arrest was significant on the Passover, so too his birth is significant during the festival of Israel’s freedom. In 1 Corinthians Paul references the leaven as a visual and symbol of sin. 7Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth. Yeast was not purchased in a neat yellow packet in the market, but gathered likely from the skins of old fruits and other natural resources such as the foam on beer. it was collected and added to a dough mixture. A piece of that dough was saved, and each one proceeding, this was called a starter bread. This would make sense that God did not want Israel to bring old leaven from Egypt, and why Paul considered the old dough contaminated and unleavened bread “pure”. Each year when celebrating the feast of unleavened bread, they had to discard all the leaven so it wouldn’t spread and start over, this would likely prevent bacteria and other diseases from spreading. Not only this but yeast was actually discovered by the Egyptians. God did not want Israel bringing anything from their life as slaves to sustain them in the promised land. They themselves were a new lump without the yeast of Egyptian bondage and culture mixed into them.
13:8 “you shall tell your son; it is what the Lord did to for ME when I came out of Egypt.” Every man was to own their freedom from Slavery and Egypt as it is to this day. We were all delivered from Egypt if we worship the one true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was not for them only, but for me. God instructed the people of Israel to pass on God’s intervention as a testimony to their children. The best way to pass on something to children is to tell them a story, the Haggadah used in a traditional Passover seder means, The telling. We tell what happened year after year so we never forget what God did for Israel and what he did for us. We eat special things, we do special things, we are special possession to God which is why he spared our firstborn so that we might know him and worship him and tell our children about him, so that they worship him and so on.
13:9 “it shall be to you a sign on your hands and as a memorial between your eyes that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt.” TO this day modern Jewish men use phylacteries on their hands and foreheads, as a reminder of God’s word. These phylacteries contain portions of the Torah, and fulfill this commandment. God says the unleavened bread shall be a sign when you touch it, on your hands, when you see it, with your eyes and in your mouth when you taste it. God’s word became flesh and dwelt in the midst of Israel and he said, “eat my flesh and drink my blood.” God also said, the word is very close to you it is in your heart and in your mouth” duet. 30:14.
13:13 “Every firstborn of your sons you shall redeem” this is the law of redemption. To redeem means to buy back something that once belonged to you. God instructs the people that even when they are settled in the land of promise they are to continue this instruction as a remembrance that God doesn’t just deliver and disappear, God is very involved in the lives of his people, he longs to dwell with them and from generation to generation we are to continue to remember that we are free because he freed us, the firstborn are alive because he spared them and they will always belong to God, not just in the generation of the Exodus but throughout all eternity. Christ has purchased the chosen with his own blood, as the Lamb of God, he bought those of us who follow him. He has redeemed us not with silver and gold but with his own blood. There are also rights of redemption. Boaz had the right of redemption when he purchased Naomi’s land and her daughter n law, Ruth. In the book of Numbers God gives Israel a chance to buy back those who were in excess to the Levites with money. There were more firstborns than there were Levites. This is phenomenal, these belonged to God through Blood, which meant because there was no Blood to replace them because there were more firstborns than Levites, these firstborns had to be bought back from God. This monies would help support the temple and the priests.
13:16 “it shall be a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.” Most of us are familiar with the mark of the beast in the book of revelation. Satan is a copy cat, always trying to create counterfeit. God is the one that marks his people with his name, not a number to distinguish who are his. Revelation 13 talks about the mark of the beast, revelation 14 speaks of the mark of God’s name on the 144, 000 who are purchased from the earth. Purchased by God as first fruits. His mark preserves those whom he has purchased from the earth. Rabbinical commentators say that the firstborn, the Passover, and the tefillin (phylacteries e.i. mark on forehead and hand) are all related.
Exodus 12
The Passover Lamb
12:1 “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt.” The Word of the Lord transcends lands and culture and countries. He speaks his word wherever his people are. This is evidence that the word of the Lord dwells within us as God says later in the book of Deuteronomy 30:14 “On the contrary, the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may follow it.”
12:2 “This month is to be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year to you.” The month of Abib which is the Hebrew word for this month, means “when the ears of barley ripen” this gives more understanding in regards to the barley and wheat that had been protected from the hail, and perhaps understanding of the time that may have passed between the hail and death plague. This month the first month is also according to the genesis account 8:13 the time when the water dried up and Noah removed the covering from the Ark. We can make a spiritual connection between the two events because both Noah and his family as well as the Israelite are being freed from confined area. Spring is a time of renewal and breaking out of our old ways and habits and sins. Noah was embarking on a new world free and clean from Sin the Hebrews as well were entering a whole new chapter of life one free of slavery and death and oppression, and looking forward to the cross it is a time we all who trust in Christ can find restoration and freedom from sin through forgiveness and breaking free of the confinements placed on us because of sin. God works in cycles and with seasons. He often would appear to his people at the appointed times, this is when he draws near. It is why Jesus was killed during Passover and rose during the feast of unleavened bread. Pentecost fell while the disciples were gathered to celebrate Shavuout celebrating the giving of the Torah and why it is likely that Christ will return during the feast of trumpets. The Jewish people have always been devoted to their calendar for good reason, but just like God does not want us to worship the gold that he provides he does not want us to worship days and seasons and new moons. Those things will not save us, but it is important to know they are special becasue God himself established them as significant and special. Each holy day becomes a channel for us to understand the Lord better but they can also become rote tradition void of authenticity and truth. Which is why God rebuked the people in Isaiah saying i can’t stand your new moon festivals and your sabbaths WITH the sacrifices. They were making them into a common party rather than a memorial to God’s work and presence.
12:3-4 “Speak to all the congregation of Israel , saying on the tenth day of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, a lamb for each household.” families were expected and instructed to eat together. This command elevates the family as a unit, whether saved or judged. If the household is too small for a lamb then he and his neighbor nearest are to take one according to the number of persons.” A whole lamb on the roast can feed up to 45 people. It is likely most households were dividing one lamb between themselves and their neighbors. This would create small communities gathering tightly into homes while the angel of death passed. They would share the blood on their doorposts as well. this would make for far less lambs to be slaughtered. it would also provide the Hebrews with a distraction as the waited girded and ready to go.
12:5 “your lamb shall be unblemished male a year old.” Later in the book of the Leviticus God gives more explicit instructions on sacrifices, what their purposes are, how to apply blood, who is to kill them. this killing of an unblemished lamb, would be something Abraham practiced, but it would also become a common way that God’s people received atonement, worshiped, and thanked God. This evening it may have been strange but eventually it would become a well known and customary practice. It was the ordinary way in which God’s people related to him. an unblemished lamb was important to God, it showed that Israel offerings were the best offerings and therefore they were honoring God. God speaks to the prophet Malachi in regard to the sin of the priest of Israel. He is angry with them because they are bringing him lame, blind and sickly animals to offer and keeping the best for themselves. This is a defilement of God’s commandment and God’s table. (1:7-9) God requires our best. in this way we show that we trust him to provide for us, but it also is a show of how important God’s forgiveness is. When Jesus offered himself upon the cross – he was without sin, without blemish. (Hebrews 4:15, 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 John 3:5, 1 Peter 2:22).
12:6 “and you shall keep it until the 14th day of the month then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill the lamb at twilight.” The night that Jesus was eating the Passover with his disciples was the 14th day of the month. It was this same night that he went into the garden to pray asking God to let this cup pass and asking the disciples to stay awake and pray. It was this same evening that he was arrested by the Jewish leaders and Romans and this next day, which would have been the first day of unleavened bread that Jesus was killed by the entire congregation, who said, “his blood be on us and on our children” This was no doubt a long night for the Sons of Israel. They must have been tired. They must have been a mess with blood stains.
12:7 “moreover they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of they houses in which they eat. and they shall eat the flesh that same night and they shall eat it with unleavened bread.” The life is in the blood. Before all other plagues there was nothing Israel was instructed to do until this plague. Had they not obeyed and put the blood on the door their firstborn also would have been killed. This showed that all firstborn’s deserved death, regardless of who their father was (Abraham or not). Every other plague Israel was excluded from naturally, but this one they were excluded from because they obeyed. one commentary says, that the other plagues were to teach the world about the existence of God, however this plague was to actually free the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage and death, and only blood has the power to do that. On the night that Jesus ate the Passover (paschal) with his disciples, he mentions two edibles, the wine which represents his blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins and unleavened bread, which represents his body, his flesh pierced and broken for us. Much like the lamb that was slaughtered and whose blood was poured out and applied to the doors of the Israelite’s homes and the the unleavened bread that was instructed to be eaten as a memorial of their freedom from the house of slaves. The blood was a reminder of the angel of death not to enter that home and therefore the blood on the doorposts was protection for the firstborn of the sons of Israelite’s who believed God and obeyed his instruction.
12:8 “bitter herbs” to this day during the Passover Seder meal the participants will serve bitter herbs, to remind them of the bitterness of slavery and their affliction in Egypt. They will eat unleavened bread to remind them that they had to leave in haste and their dough did not have time to rise, and they eat reclining to show they are not longer slaves, but they do not eat lamb. It is this sensory experience at the table that enables the most vivid memories of their retelling of the story of the exodus year after year.
12:9 “do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with ware but rather roasted with fire and whatever is left over burn with fire.” The smell of hundreds perhaps thousands of roasting lambs and their meat would have been overwhelming in Egypt on that night when death passed over Gosh en but through Egypt. To Israel this smell would have been the smell of life, and freedom knowing that these very lambs bled so that they could live. But to Egypt this aroma would have been the aroma of death as they waited for the last plague to pass through their land.
12:11 “Eat in this manner with your loins girded and your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand and you shall ear it in haste it is the Lord’s Passover.” God left nothing to the imagination nor to the Hebrews decision making. They had to be ready to leave at a moments notice. This was not their Passover, but the Lord’s Passover. God had constructed this plan, God made the rules and this was the sacrifice he required and requested.
12:12 “I will go through the land and strike down all the first born in the land of Egypt both man and beast and against all the gods i will execute judgements – I am the Lord. and the blood shall be a sign for YOU on the houses where you live and i will see the blood and will pass over you and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike Egypt.” The blood was a sign to the peoples of God and yet it was also a marker for God to spare. It was his mercy that gave the order for the Hebrews to put the blood on the doorposts. All the firstborn deserved to die, but God purchased the Hebrew firstborn for himself with the blood. Death is not permitted to transgress the barrier of blood. Blood is an indication that something has already died in the place of this firstborn. Consider Isaac and Abraham on mount moriah, when the ram took Isaac’s place. What was more important to God in this moment, the obedience of his people, or the blood itself? “we shall overcome by the word of our testimony and the blood of the Lamb. This night the blood kept the angel of death from entering the homes of the Hebrews, but there will come a day that only with blood will man be permitted to enter the house of God.
12:14 -15 “this shall be a permanent ordinance…seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove all leaven from your homes.” Leviticus 23 has a concise list of the most important of the Lord’s holy feasts. In it the feast of unleavened bread is listed. Jesus was killed on the first day and arose from the dead in the midst of this feast.
12:24 “you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you and your children forever. and it will come about when your children ask what does this rite mean to you? you shall say, ‘it is a Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians, but spared our homes’ and the people bowed low and worshiped.” This command to tell your children, this wording that this is for your children, was a message to Israel that they would have children. That there lives were not over, that not only would they be spared this plague, but they would live and thrive and continue to multiply. It was also a huge act of faith, that they bowed and worshiped based on the word of the Lord, before the actual deliverance even occurred. They were trusting in his WORD. The sons of Israel had a fear and appreciation for God sparing them, they had not pride in them that would “expect” to be spared. They were likely thinking back to when their children were thrown into the Nile and not spared at all.
12:8 “then the sons of Israel went and did so just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron so they did.” Noah was someone who also did just as the Lord commanded. When the people of God obey so meticulously there is blessing and life. It is only when they stray from the exact instruction to mingle their own ideas in with God’s that things go awry. Saul killing the sacrifice before Samuel arrived, or keeping the best of the sheep and the flocks of his enemies, or David staying back from battle. Solomon taking many wives and getting caught up in the idol worship of his many wives. God’s ways are perfect and provide freedom, our ways become a snare to our flesh. This Passover would be a memorial forever of God’s power and existence. the demonstration of God’s power and their flight from Egypt would be something they and their adversaries remember throughout history. It was a really important event to obey God perfectly in.
12:30 there was not one home where there was not someone dead
12:32 “go and bless me also” Pharaoh did not want to let the slaves go because he knew they were not just leaving for a three day journey to worship God, they were leaving forever and that meant his entire kingdom would have to change. After experiencing the last plague he finally caves under the weight of overwhelming grief and defeat and seeks for a blessing, but instead of being blessed God hardens Pharaoh’s heart once again and he chases the sons of Israel into the sea and loses his entire army.
12:48 “no uncircumcised person may eat of it.” God’s covenant of circumcision was first enacted with Abraham In Genesis 17. It is only the second time since the beginning of this book that Circumcision is mentioned. The first time its mentioned is when Zipporah takes a flint and circumcises her son and threw his bloody foreskin at the feet of Moses. God also requires the sons of Israel to be circumcised before crossing the Jordan and entering the promise land. Why was it significant that those who participate or eat of the Passover be circumcised? The pharisees and religious leaders in Jesus day made a huge deal of this, even in Paul’s time when the church was still new. Many Jews were insisting believers of Jesus must be circumcised to be part of the commonwealth of Israel. it is important to note that the covenant of circumcision was a sign of the covenant God made with Abraham and all his descendants. Abraham was childless but God promised he would be the father of a multitude and nations even. The cutting away extra flesh on the reproductive organ would be an appropriate place to remind him of this. It wasn’t after all Abraham’s flesh which brought forth Isaac or that would accomplish the family God promised him. In addition the reason for the covenant in the first place was that God wanted to be God to him and his seed after him. Circumcision was the mark of God on the people of God, proving who they were. Why would anyone be cut off for not doing so, and why could they not eat of the Passover unless they were circumcised. First they would be cut off because as a sign that they were not part of the people of God, for if they were they would have this mark in their body. It was also a sign that they were keeping God’s ways and teaching them to their children, their seed. This makes it seem sacred and exclusive. perhaps circumcision was similar to the command to put the blood on the doors of the households of the sons of Israel. That was also a sign, not just a sign of the Israelite’s home but a sign of obedience. Eating the Passover lamb and putting the blood on the doors was one in the same. this was a rite that was an exclusive privilege of those who trusted and followed Yahweh. Eating the Passover, even as a memorial was a sign that one honored God and were part of the family of God through Israel and acknowledged God as their God and savior who spared them personally , who saved them, who delivered them. This was not a small thing. Only those who had been part of the exodus and who were teaching their children who God, was a deliverer, and were teaching their children the ways of God were considered God’s family. the same law applies to both the stranger and the native. This is an important remark. In the same way any person who comes to this country must abide by the same laws of the land. SO too there were likely many Egyptians mixed into the hosts of the sons of Israel that had to know that they wouldn’t be able to continue in the Egyptian ways of idol worship, false Gods, power and whatever other pagan ways they were accustomed to. This also could have played into the instruction about the circumcision. if they would be traveling with Israel they had to obey God’s laws and commands and be one people.
12:51 “and it came about on that very same day that God brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their hosts.” God kept his promises and the people are freed from their bondage to Egypt at least in body.
Exodus 11-commentary
The Last Plague
11:2 “each man ask from his neighbor and each woman from her neighbor for articles of silver and articles of Gold.” God says that Israel will plunder the Egyptians, several times, including before any of the plagues began. Exodus 3:22 (you will plunder the Egyptians. Silver and Gold. God also includes this detail in genesis when he makes his covenant with Abram and tells him that Israel will be slaves 400 years, but will come out with great wealth. “and when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a fear of great darkness fell upon him. And He [God] said to Abram, “Know for a certainty that your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterward shall they come out with great wealth.” (Genesis 15:12-14)
This great wealth, the gold and silver, will no doubt, become the gold that Israel uses to fashion the golden calf in the wilderness. While they are waiting for Moses they grow impatient and Aaron leads them all into great sin. The gold and silver is also a symbol of provision and wealth. The Israelite were being well provided for; however, sadly they turned God’s provision into an object of worship. and all that wealth is ground up into powder and they are forced to consume it so they are left empty handed because of their own insatiable appetite for gods , idols and power. How often in our world today does the wealth that God provides for us turn into dust in our pockets or food we consume because we look to it rather than God as the one who delivers us from peril.
11:3 “The Lord gave the people favor in the sight of Egyptians, and furthermore the man, Moses was greatly esteemed in the land. Both in the sight of Pharaohs servants and the sight of the people.” Moses is an upright man and the people see this. It’s a miracle the Egyptians aren’t angry with Moses and the Hebrews for destroying their land.
11:4 “about midnight I am going out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of the Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn of the slave girl.” The presence of God was in Goshen, he had to go OUT into Egypt for the last plague, death of the firstborn. God’s presence dwells in the midst of his people while they are still slaves in Egypt. He is Immanuel, God with us. Dwelling is not just what God does, it is what he longs to do and where he longs to be. Leviticus 26:11, And I will make My dwelling place among you, and My soul will not despise you. Leviticus 26:12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people. Psalm 46:5 God is within her; she will not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. This was part of his promise to Abraham and part of the final promise in the revelation to the apostle John.
11:5 “all the firstborn will die” God has not instructed Israel to put the blood on the doorposts nor that he will “spare” the Israelite firstborn. This death sentence is for the firstborn only. The blood will also only be to spare the firstborn of the Hebrews. Every one is leaving Egypt and the blood is not what gets them out, the blood on the doors will be so that the angel of the Lord does not strike down the firstborn. because he spares them they belong to him, he purchases these firstborn with blood.
11:6 “But against any of the sons of Israel a dog shall not even bark.” Israel has God’s promise and protection against the plague of death, yet still there is no requirement on them, no part or role that they know about as of yet. God makes this promise before they make any agreement about putting blood on their doorposts. We must assume that God in his foreknowledge is making this promise based on what will actually happen. This Passover was unique in all history …that never before and never again…these are words that are used a few times in scripture, but not lightly. They are used as markers in history to describe catastrophic events. There will be no disruption in the land of Goshen where the Hebrews dwell, and yet great cries in all the land of Egypt, where not a household will be without someone dead. God makes distinction.
11:5 the death of the firstborn This was a promise God made to Moses about Pharaoh in the very earliest chapters of Exodus when he first appeared to Moses. This final plague was actually the first to be foretold to Moses as a result of Pharaoh killing Hebrews babies. IN one Jewish Commentary it is said that God only intended this one plague and that it was the only one needed for Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go, however because of Pharaoh’s obstinacy more plagues were given. How can God kill the innocent of Egypt? For three days before hand, the Egyptians saw the lights in Goshen and could have escaped to safety. God always sends a door of escape and his mercy is far reaching. God calls Israel his firstborn. He calls Jesus his firstborn, David and Ephraim are also referred to as “Firstborn”. Colossians 1:15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Colossians 1:18
And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.”
To understand the significance of the firstborn, consider the Egyptian culture of hierarchy and power within their civilization. It was a society ruled by primogeniture (Primogeniture is a principle of seniority and inheritance that favors the eldest child.) The first born had absolute power within the family unit. Pharaoh was the firstborn of the firstborn of the firstborn. It was from his birthright that he exercised his power. The attack against the first born was therefore a powerful polemic against the entire culture of Egypt. The eldest ruled the younger siblings. This is why having slaves was so important to the Egyptians. This gave the lower classes someone else to control and dominate. (aish.com) Therefore not only was God inflicting punishment on their system but there was a direct attack on their power. Would it have been the firstborn who not only had the rights of inheritance, but also inherited the responsibility of vengeance on enemies. God was wiping out every one of Israel’s enemies. Does the fact that Pharaoh didn’t die disqualify him from being a firstborn exposing his birthright. Was he indeed a false Pharaoh, and hence one without absolute power even over his own people?
According to Judaism the firstborn were also significant. However, it was often the younger who was elevated to the rights of the firstborn for example, Cain was the firstborn however, Seth his younger brother took on the status of firstborn carrying on the lineage of the messiah. Also Isaac came after Ishmael, yet he was the promised son who formed the middle chain in the patriarch. Jacob was the most famous example of misplaced birthright. who is accused of stealing the firstborn rights of Esau, although God ordained the events around him legally purchasing the birthright from his brother. “ God confirms that Jacob’s willingness to serve God is what transformed him into a “firstborn.” On the other hand, “real” firstborns have lost their status: God purchased only the firstborn of the Hebrews in Egypt when he passed over the houses of the Israelite. God redeemed or purchased them as his own, however, their status as firstborn was given up when they sinned with the golden calf and God took the Levites instead who displayed loyalty and devotion to God in that day. Numbers 3.
“Originally the Temple service devolved upon the firstborn, but when they committed the sin of the Golden Calf, (Midrash Rabbah – Bamidbar 4:8)” based on these we know firstborns, who were not actually born first. In contrast to Egyptian culture, in Hebraic culture, heritage is spiritual. It is not those who are firstborn who serve God but those willing to serve God are called the firstborn. “ From the dawn of time there have been those willing to serve God, and others who have ignored or rejected such opportunities.10 The lineage of the Jewish people is the antithesis of Pharaoh, instead of firstborn after firstborn after firstborn, the spiritual legacy which we carry is of those who chose to serve God regardless of station, and at times despite modest ancestry. This is the significance of God’s resounding declaration that we are His firstborn. Others willing to serve in the future will likewise merit this status: Rabbi Natan said: “The Holy One, blessed be He, told Moses: ‘Just as I have made Jacob a firstborn, for it says: Israel is My son, My firstborn, so will I make the King Messiah a firstborn, as it says: I also will appoint him firstborn (Psalms 89:28). (Midrash Rabbah – Exodus 19:7) One day the Messiah himself will merit to be called a firstborn. He will help teach the world that being a child of God transcends lineage. And that being a firstborn of God is about how we lead our lives, it is the manifestation of the image of God within,11 not a question of sequence of birth.” (aish.com)
11:8 “and all these your servants will come down to me and bow themselves before me, saying Go out, you and all the people who follow you.” It is likely there were many people Egyptians as well as Hebrews following Moses and Aaron out of Egypt. as it says in a later chapter, that “a mixed multitude left Egypt.” Here God promises that the Egyptians, even those who are not leaving with Hebrews, will bow down to him, not Pharaoh. Their allegiance may be to pharaoh, but even they will acknowledge and revere the One True God who is above Pharaoh. The new testament authors use this verse taken from Isaiah 45, “that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess to God.” Is this not a fulfillment of God’s intentions to display his wonders and signs in the midst of the land so that they will know He is God and there is none like him!
11:9 the question must be presented, ‘Was Pharaoh then innocent if God hardened his heart so that God’s wonder could be multiplied? Could the king of Egypt truly be accountable if God was not permitting him to repent? God hardened Pharaoh’s heart because Pharaoh hardened his own heart. God gave pharaoh the ability and resolve to do exactly what he wanted to and to the utmost, which in this case was to harden his heart against Yahweh.
Exodus 10
10:1 “For I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants that I may perform these signs of Mine among them.” God is consistent. “There is no shifting or shadow of turning in him.” This is why we are reading the same words again and again in chapter after chapter. What seems rote to us, is God’s unwavering resolution and commitment to bring out the children of Israel from the house of slaves and give them something solid to know about God for all eternity – we can rely on God. Humans tend to remember that which is repeated. What God says He will do, he does, and he says it again and again and again until his plans and purposes are fully accomplished. He doesn’t change his mind, he doesn’t trick us, he is dependable and unswerving and reliable. Man forgets but God never does. Man is fickle but God is solid. Man, changes but God is secure in his ways, and his words and how he executes. Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever.
10:2 “That you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson…that you may know that I am the Lord.” God’s very first commandment in all the world to Adam, was be fruitful and multiply. Here in this monumental moment in history, God is reiterating the importance of passing on from one generation to the next the knowledge of the Lord. God’s purposes are not for individuals exclusively, He works in families, in generations and among nations. When God called Abraham, He promised that in Him all the families of the earth shall be blessed…Gen. 12:3 “for I have chosen him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord…” genesis 18:19
“it will come about when your children will say to you…” Exodus 12:27
“and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and you shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” Deuteronomy 6:7 This is extension and perpetuation of God’s faithfulness is the principle of the seed. Which is not only that it will keep bearing fruit year after year but that within the fruit is more seed, which can be planted. God’s faithfulness to man will continue throughout generations Psalm 100. God’s laws and ways and truth will continue to bear fruit and grow and multiply and fill the earth, and he does this through mankind. He spread his word through us! He passes on the seed of his word in our seed through our words and testimonies to our children.
10:4-5 “Tomorrow I will bring Locusts into your territory” The occupation of the locusts is to consume and strip vegetation. A plague of Locusts is truly to eat what is left, and to strip the remainder of the vegetation in Egypt. The Locusts have a spiritual significance and a physical purpose in Egypt. The locust proceed the day of the Lord. The prophet Joel says: 1:2 “hear this, O elders and listen all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days or in your father’s days? Tell your sons about it, and let your son tell their sons, and their sons the next generation. What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; and what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; and what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locusts have eaten.” God begins the plague of locusts by telling Moses to tell his sons. this links the locusts with the testimony. The Locus are like God’s army invading Egypt and sending Judgment and destruction upon them for their false gods and sin against God’s people. God’s people are not to worship false gods and idols and when they do he will send the army of locusts to destroy. Tell your sons! Exodus 20:5-6 in the law, “4“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
10:7 “let the men go, that they serve the Lord their God do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed.” Even the servants whose hearts were also hard according to verse 10:2 were urging pharaoh to let the Hebrew go. Why was it so important to Pharaoh to hold onto the children of Israel? He couldn’t part with his way of life, his power over a mighty people, his control which gave him a feeling of divine power. Pharaoh is addicted to power, as is our enemy Satan. Once he is challenged by the all powerful God of the Hebrew peoples, Pharaoh’s battle ceases to be about keeping his land secure and like an addict who needs his next hit, his focus shifts to gaining the power of a god. In his futile belief, he believes he can actually contest with the creator of the universe, as if there is any competition?
10:13 “So Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt.” God asks Moses to stretch out his hand but Moses stretches out his staff. Of the plagues thus far, God has asked Moses first to use the staff, then the staff in the hand, and then the hand stretched out. In an almost hidden foreshadowing of Moses disobedience to speak to the rock, we see him using the staff, even though God tells him to use his hand. In doing this, Moses reveals his reliance upon the staff, rather than God. God is gracious and patient, but we know that eventually it will be this sin and lack of trust that keeps Moses from the promise land. It is not until the last plague of darkness that God commands Moses to stretch out his hand and he obeys rather than the staff.
This is the very same staff that became a serpent before Pharaoh, that struck the Nile River and brought forth blood. The same staff that will have the name LEVI written on it and bud into almond blossoms” The LORD said to Moses, “Put back Aaron’s staff in front of the ark of the covenant law, to be kept as a sign to the rebellious. This will put an end to their grumbling against me, so that they will not die. “Perhaps in an act to preserve the humility of Moses, the staff that once belonged to Moses is now referred to as Aaron’s. Perhaps Moses was relying too much on his staff. How often do we too rely more on what God has given to us, than God himself? Struggling to trust God to work directly through us. He wants us to be his “staff” an extension of his arm.
10:13 & 19 “the Lord directed and shifted the wind” God reveals his mastery over the wind. In three out of four of the gospels there is the account of Jesus directing the wind, giving evidence that Jesus is the son of God and one with God. “And they came to him and woke him up saying master we are perishing and being aroused he rebuked the wind and the waves and stopped and became still. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” Luke 8 24&25 this instilled fear into disciples and no doubt fear into Pharaoh which is why in verse 20 the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart after this act. Had God not intervened surely Pharaoh’s heart would have melted and he would have fallen to his knees in fear and reverence.
10:21 “Then the Lord said to Moses stretch out your hand toward the sky that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt even a darkness which can be felt.” At creation there was darkness and it covered the earth. It wasn’t until God interrupted the darkness with his word and said let there be light that the world changed. When Jesus gave up his spirit there was thunder and an earthquake and the sun grew dark at noon. Darkness in Egypt for three days that was so thick it could be felt, was surely the same kind of darkness that occurred when Jesus took his last breathe on earth. I suggest, this darkness is an absence of light, an absence of God’s presence and life. The Egyptians had no fear of God. This plague came before the day of the Lord, before the plague of death. This will come again, in the end of all things when there is a new heaven and new earth, the only light we will have will be the light that comes from the Lord. … revelation 22:4They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them. Isaiah 60:19
No longer will the sun be your light by day, nor the brightness of the moon shine on your night; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your splendor. This world is in a spiritual darkness that can be felt, as we prepare for Christ return and the death that comes upon those who do not fear God.
10:23 Israel had light. Israel had light for the three days that Egypt was in Darkness. God continues to set Israel apart from the judgments of Egypt. Isaiah 26: 20Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves a little while until the wrath has passed. 21For behold, the LORD is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. Israel was called be the light to the nations, and a light for the nations. the light in gosh-en, from the Egyptians perspective would have been a testament to who is God and where to go. Any in Egypt who feared God would know where to God to know God. in the same way that God calls Jesus followers to be lights so too the Hebrews were the light in the world on these three nights. Isaiah 48:1010Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of His Servant? Who among you walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD; let him lean on his God. But also, the disciples as well were called to be light. Matthew 5:14 14“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. also 2The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. Isaiah 9:2. The darkness in Egypt was a physical manifestation of a spiritual reality, ,they were living in darkness, and the darkness was the shadow of death , likely the last warning to trust in the God of the Hebrews, the last chance for them to run to the light in goshen, and come under the covering and mercy of the blood.
10:24 Egypt flocks are dead Pharaoh tells Moses and Aaron they can go worship God, old and young male and female. but leave their flocks. Egypt was totally emptied of their flocks and herds. He possibly thought at least if they go perhaps they can leave their animals in Egypt and then at the very least Egypt will own the animals.
Exodus 9
9:1 “let my people go so they may worship me” Pharaoh is displaying the same restraint on God’s people as Satan. The aim of the bondage he keeps people in is to prevent them from Worshiping God.
9:2 “But if you continue to restrain them and refuse to let them go.” Pharaoh was committing two evils. Restraining God’s people and refusing to let them go. This is indicative of Pharaoh’s tight grip on Israel. Pharaoh had to agree to let them go and he had permit them to leave. His continual refusal to do so is sinful, deceptive and blatant Hypocrisy, these come from a hardened heart and God hates it. For a fool speaks foolishness;
his mind plots iniquity.
He practices ungodliness
and speaks falsely about the LORD;
he leaves the hungry empty
and deprives the thirsty of drink.
7The weapons of the scoundrel are destructive;
he hatches plots to destroy the poor with lies,
even when the plea of the needy is just.
Isaiah 32:6
Words are important to God, the vows we make as his children he hears and takes seriously, even James reminds the believers let your yes be yes and your no be no. He wants us to be people who keep the promises we make because he keeps the promises He makes. Pharaoh was not keeping his promises or his word proving his character and the hardness of his heart.
9:3 “The hand of the Lord will come with a very severe pestilence on your livestock which are in the field…” God gives Pharaoh fair warning through Moses. He tells him everything in advance, consistently giving pharaoh a chance to repent, to listen, and surrender his rights and authority over God’s people. God says he is sending severe pestilence on all the livestock of the Egyptians. The pestilence is a cattle disease that will wipe out their meat sources. Livestock is vital to any society especially in ancient civilizations where there are no grocery stores. They relied heavily on meat as a major food source. Based on the complaints of Israel in the wilderness, Egypt had a lot of meat, even the slaves ate “pots of meat” If there were no animals, there is no food. If there are no animals, there is no horse power, who plows the fields? How do they travel about without donkeys and horses? This was not a plague that would come and go in a few days, the consequences of this cattle disease would last for years to come. Replenishing would take years. God has now placed his hand on the water and food of Egypt. These are the two most vital staples in Egypt. This is the reason Jacob and his family came to Egypt in the first place because Egypt had storehouses of food and grain, because of Joseph’s wise leadership, now under the authority of an evil king the land is impoverished and starving. Food and water are also the two major complaints of Israelites in the wilderness and the two things God provides for them miraculously. God is removing from Egypt what he provided in the first place by Joseph’s hand, God’s provision follows his people.
9:4 “nothing will die that belongs to the sons of Israel” God makes distinction again between Israel and Egypt, this time it is between their livestock. The people of God would need their livestock not only for sacrifice to serve God in the wilderness, but for travel and for food when they left Egypt. The message to Pharaoh is clear: Israel is leaving and will be provided for, but you Egypt are being left desolate. There is no mistaking God’s favor and provision and protection of the Hebrew people. We live in a society today that believes everything ought to be equal and the same for all. This is nice in theory but unbiblical. Israel was different, God had set his seal and covenant on these people. They are his chosen people and God treats them differently then others. Because it is through them in particular, he will make his name known throughout the world, it is through them he will bring his one and only son, it is through how he interacts with Israel that not only pharaoh will know of God, but all the nations, will know there is no one like God who controls the wind, the water and the elements of nature. After God saves Israel and all who join them, he gives them the law to govern them. No other nation on the earth had this privilege of being handed God’s law to instruct, teach and lead them. God instructs Israel to be Holy, and continues to pour out his favor and affection on them. God is setting his favor on Israel simultaneously while setting his judgments over Egyptians. He is preserving Israel’s homes, animals, lives and destroying Egypt’s. And everyone is witnessing God’s power and his faithfulness to the sons of Israel.
9:5 “at this time tomorrow” God sets a definitive time frame for when the Plague will come upon the land. Times matter to God. It is plausible that that God sets a time the way a master marksman points to his target. Pharaoh and his servants have no opportunity to pass off the pestilence as a coincidence. God is exacting and precise. This also reveals God’s power over nature and that he keeps his word. God is building a name and reputation for himself so that even today as we read this we can see and say, this is who Yahweh is and this is what he does and this is how he works. God is outside of time and yet he chooses to work within the limitations and time frames of humanity and the universe. God created time on the fourth day of creation he certainly knows how to manipulate it to serve him and for his purposes yet he’d rather work within it. Consider the sabbath day, being so specific that it is considered a sign on the seventh day. God gives Israel feasts and festivals marked by certain times and seasons. There are no happy accidents in God’s economy. Jesus the lamb of God was killed precisely during the Passover when the lamb was being offered as a memorial of freedom. There are no accidental miracles. He tells Abraham for 400 years your people will be slaves in Egypt and it is so. He tells Jeremiah 70 years your people will be captive in Babylon and it is so. He promised Sarah and Abrahm a child at this time next year and he kept his word. Time gives structure and order and God uses time to unmask his power and meet with humanity. He comes down into our time and according to our limits and he works.
9:6 “not one died” God is preparing Israel in as much as he is judging Egypt. He can do a lot of things at once. Israel didn’t know God either. When God appeared to Moses, Israel had limited knowledge of God. 400 years had passed since Joseph had been ruler in Egypt and Jacob had been alive. There were likely only fragments of faith and the knowledge of God among the sons of Israel. They are watching all this happen, they are watching Pharaoh get his and they are watching God preserve their homes, lives land and animals. This preservation and special favor is building Israel’s faith, strengthening their resolve and courage to believe in God and follow him out of Egypt. Simultaneously while he is showing the power of his judgment to Egypt, he is showing the power of his salvation to Israel. They are gathering up and collecting memories recording in their hearts the things they will pass onto their children, “not one of our animals died.” The miracles of this moment in history will be what shapes Israels understanding of God throughout all generations, even today.
9:8-10 “take a double handful of soot and throw it into the sky and it will become boils” – God has now touched, the water, the food, the air and the flesh of the Egyptians. God is demonstrating his mastery over the universe, over natural elements and over mankind. He is not an aloof creator, he is involved, he has come down, he is present for the day to day, and event by event happenings. He knows what will bring a man to his knees. Job was another man who was confronted with similar afflictions, his flesh, his family, his livestock were all afflicted terribly and yet he did not curse God, in contrast to pharaoh who is experiencing similar plagues and yet will not bless God. Rightly so did God call Job righteous and Pharaoh hardhearted.
9:11 “and the magicians would not stand before Moses because of the boils for the boils were on the magicians as well as the Egyptians.” While the Egyptians are being targeted by God’s hand against them, also the magicians receive of God’s wrath. The magicians do not appear to be of Egyptian descent. Perhaps they were priests or elites from another land. When Babylon raided Jerusalem in the first and second sieges, they took the ‘cream of the crop’ from Israels sons to serve in the temple, this was Daniel and his friends. this may have been common practice in ancient civilizations. These elites would then serve in the courts of the royal families. This could have been the case with these magicians. Their loyalty to pharaoh, made them susceptible to the same plagues and afflictions that were laid on the Egyptians. However, by this we can wonder if those who were loyal to the Hebrews and God may have been immune to the same judgements. God is just and he has forgiveness and acceptance for those who turn to him and wrath for those who resist him.
9:14 “I will send all of my plagues on your heart servants and people” who can do these things? God is setting himself apart from every other power in heaven and on earth. Here is no one like God. Thus far he has affected the physical land and organisms of the earth, but there are plagues coming which will break the hard stiff heart of pharaoh and bend his will so that he will let Israel go.
9:16-21 “behold this time tomorrow I will send very heavy hail” This is one plague where God not only warns pharaoh but he warns all the people. God gives them a chance to save themselves and whatever is left of their beasts. Pharaoh does not have the best interest of his people in mind. He is blinded by pride and so focused on holding onto people that do not belong to him that he is forgetting to care for the people who do belong to him. God, in his mercy warns them because their king is not. And those among pharaoh’s servants and peoples who feared the word of the Lord, made their servants and livestock flee into their houses and were spared. The servants of pharaoh would have had front row seats to the miracles and wonders Moses was performing at Gods command. These therefore were either the most God fearing of Egyptians or else the most wicked and hardened. Those who had no regard for the WORD of the Lord left their livestock outside and there was devastation, this time on the food in the field, on the plants, on anything and everything that was left. What livestock was there? Israels livestock. There may have been Egyptians that cared for the livestock of the sons of Israel, just as their were Egyptian midwives for the Hebrew woman. The two peoples were entwined in one another’s lives and the Israelites were many.
9:26 “only in the land of Goshen there was no hail.” 17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the [h]temple from the throne, saying, “It is done.” 18 And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since mankind came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. 19 The great city [i]was split into three parts, and the cities of the [j]nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give her the cup of the wine of [k]His fierce wrath. 20 And every island fled, and no mountains were found. 21 And huge [l]hailstones, weighing about [m]a talent each, *came down from heaven upon people; and people blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because [n]the hailstone plague *was extremely [o]severe.
We cannot underestimate the connection between the bowls of wrath in the book of revelation and the plagues on Egypt. Hailstones being the last. It is worth reading Revelation as we see blood, hail, boils, darkness and frogs! God is supreme over his own creation.
9:27 “I and my people have sinned” in the movie spider man with Toby McGuire there is one part where the goblin is covered with a shawl and pretending to be an elderly woman with a baby carriage, it stirs spiderman’s concerns and when he draws closer to the goblin, the goblin throws off his shawl and reveals himself. That is how I picture Pharaoh in this moment, pretending to be repentant and confessing his sins and then as soon as the plague is lifted and the compassion of Moses is stirred he throws off his tenderness and is wicked again. Pharaoh’s confession is false. He is not truly tender, he is not truly sorry, he doesn’t truly believe he has sinned. He is recognizing that Moses is a prophet and that God is powerful; but his hard heart blames God and Moses. His appeal is shallow and selfish. His tears crocodile in nature. He is asking Moses to make supplication for him, but he himself refuses to make supplication himself even on behalf of his people and land. Note Pharaoh’s is especially fearful of the thunder. This is none other than the voice and sound of God. When God spoke to Jesus in the hearing of the people, they only heard thunder, when God spoke to Moses on the mountain top the people heard thunder. Pharaoh is not willing to take the full blame either he blames his people for their unrighteousness, all the while he himself and alone is making these decisions.
9:29 “the earth is the Lord’s” Each plague comes with a revelation about God. His power, his name, his possession, his mercy, his authority.
9: “I know you do not yet fear the Lord.” Pharaoh was not fooling Moses. Was that the goal for pharaoh to fear God? No, even when Israel does leave, Pharaoh chases them when he has a change of heart. As the wicked chase the righteous so pharaoh has no fear of God. Like Saul chasing David throughout the wilderness, Haman chasing the Jews, the Pharisees chasing Jesus. Those who have no fear of God pursue the people of God because they do not believe in God’s fierce fatherly love over his children. The hearts of the wicked are revealed when they blaspheme God and hunt his people. The hardness of their hearts and violence against God’s children justifies God’s wrath against them.
9:32 “all the land was devastated by the fiery hail. But the barley and wheat had not yet sprouted so it was not affected.” This reveals the mercy of God, as well as the time of year. The wheat comes a full month later than the barley in Egypt, and does not come into ear till March. This would coincide with the actual exodus, which took place in the march /April, a time frame in which Passover is still celebrated to this day. We can speculate that this was not necessarily intended exclusively for the Egyptians, although it could have been a sign of hope for those who feared God, that they would rebuild and have sustenance in the future. It also could have been for the Hebrews who were instructed to take bread with them, but not to let it rise. God was providing for them even in this way. Sparing what they would need before their journey.
Exodus 8
Summary The Plagues begin. God is in the midst of Israel. Pharaoh begins to feel the pains of God’s judgment. He continues to refuse to let GO of God’s people, he continues to harden his heart and God continues to afflict Egypt.
Egypt existed long before Israel was even a nation before God. Even before God called Abraham. Egypt is an ancient land and people. When Famine hit the land where Abram was sojourning, he went to Egypt. This is where he lied about Sarah being his sister, because he was afraid of Pharaoh. When Pharaoh took Sarah into his household, “The Lord struck Pharaoh and his household with great Plagues.” Genesis 12:17. Did any of these plagues resemble the plagues God was sending through Moses and Aaron?
8:1 “let my people go that they may serve me” God desires and purposes for his people to serve Him. Not only does God desire His people to serve Him, but to serve him only. This is a huge distinction between the Hebraic / Christian religion and most every other religion worldwide. This is where God begins his redemption of his people in the midst of a world with many other gods. As Christians, our purpose lies beyond belief in God. Beyond all that God can do for us, ,beyond salvation and forgiveness. We are saved to serve. blessing and eternity, are byproducts and gifts that God grants us within God’s kingdom and because of the cross. But the highest call of a christian is to serve the Most High. Hebrews 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? God is not just freeing Israel to free them, but so they may serve him freely. Revelation 22:3 says, There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him.
8:2 “if you refuse, I will smite your whole territory with frogs.” Egypt is known to have had upwards of 1500 different gods. Many of these were creatures; such as goats, cows, serpents, falcons, crocodiles and a frog goddess to name a few. Heqet was the goddess of fertility, resurrection and creation. “In ancient Egyptian religion and mythology, Heqet was a frog-headed goddess who personified generation, birth, and fertility. It was common for the nations to worship many gods, most people were polytheistic. Israel was unique in their call by God to monotheism. Abraham was called out of the Chaldean who worshiped many gods to serve and obey the One True God. The first plague of frogs was intentional mockery of Egyptians higher authority. God was not just judging Egypt he was judging the gods of Egypt in the eyes of His people Israel, so they would know how futile it is to worship any other God but Yahweh.
8:7-8 “the magicians did the same thing with their secret arts.” The secret arts mean they “produced some frogs” but didn’t reveal how. They did a trick, without anyone knowing how or noticing. The slight of the hand can create fascinating illusions fooling even the most clever. These soothsayers had learned at least as much as a middle school card shark. Satan is a liar and a deceiver, he is master of hidden things, but he has no creativity, no original ideas. He is a copycat much like these magicians. They have no creativity, and no original ideas; they are counterfeits. Which is why they don’t do anything new, but rather they just imitate Aaron’s wonders. Pharaoh likely understood that God not only had supreme power over his magicians, but also over creation. He had power over the frogs, the water, the dust of the earth. And if that was true, he had the power to remove them. When pharaoh becomes distressed by frogs jumping in kneading bowls and bedrooms he “asks Moses to entreat the Lord to remove the frogs.” He did not ask the magicians to do remove them.
8:9-10 “the honor is yours to tell me: when shall I entreat for you and your people that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses…that you may know the Lord our God is God?” God is disarming Pharaoh, systematically and all Pharaoh’s excuses. The frogs did not affect the Israelite homes, Moses mentions Pharaohs servants, people and homes. He permits Pharaoh to pick a date and time for the frogs to be removed, so that there is no chance that pharaoh can claim the frogs were a random occurrence. Here we have additional evidence that God’s power is neither random nor coincidental.
8:10 “there is no one like the Lord OUR God.” God is working in Pharaohs purview intentionally. Pharaoh knows who is the True God. There is none like him, but God is not appealing or vying for Pharaohs allegiance. Yahweh is not “one of the many gods of Egypt and he will not be put on a pedestal to add to Pharaohs collection of deities. He is The God of Israel, the God of the Hebrews and there is no one like OUR God. Everything that God is doing seems to declare distinction, and difference between Israel and Egypt. There is no evidence that The Lord or Moses is trying to win Pharaoh over to faith. God is severing ties between the two peoples and Pharaoh does not seem welcome into the nation of Israel.
8:14 “the land became foul” when God took the frogs they didn’t just hop back into the river. They died; they were conquered. This revealed their impermanence and fragility. They are created beings which have a creator, who can give them life or take it from them. The frogs are not responsible for human fertility, any more than pharaoh’s magicians are responsible for bringing the frogs up on land; neither has any real power beyond what God permits. They are only symbols of the power that Pharaoh pines after. When the frogs died and the land became foul there is a natural certainty of a spiritual truth; the land of Egypt was unclean because they worshiped the creatures rather than the creator. The very creatures which Egypt made into gods have fouled the land. The first commandment God gives to Moses on Mount Sinai, for the people of Israel deals with idols and images and false gods. “You shall have no other gods before me either in the likeness of anything on earth or in the heavens.”
8:15 “when Pharaoh saw their was relief” There are no atheists in the foxholes. When we are afflicted, we humble ourselves. When we feel good, we forget God. To believe in God is good, but it does not save anyone, just as the demons believe. Pharaoh showed some “faith” when he asked Moses to entreat God. He has finally recognized God’s power. but , as soon as the king was in a more comfortable situation, he stiffened his heart again, refusing to listen. This was not a surprise to God. Pharaoh would not listen, just as God said. However, in Pharaoh’s habitual deception, we see the human tendency to compose ourselves with pride and confidence when we feel a sense of control, wellness and strength. It is easy to forget what God has done, and what promises were made in our desperation. The vows and oaths uttered become reminders of our frailty. “when you enter the good land the Lord your God has promised you and your enemies have cased and you are dwelling in security and you have plenty of food, be careful lest you forget the Lord God, and run after other gods.” this is also what makes David’s vow to Jonathan son so powerful, David made the vow when he was in a desperate moment, but years later he kept it. The worship of ‘other gods’ is a reflection of self-sufficiency, independence pride and self-reliance. Idolatry is symbolic of our own control, wealth and power. That is why Jesus said you cannot serve God and wealth.
8:16 “strike the dust of the earth” The first-time dust is mentioned in scriptures is in Genesis 3. God makes man out of the dust of the earth and breathes life into him. If the frogs represent the false gods of Egypt then could the dust represent fallen man in Egypt. God is Master over both.
8:18-19 “the magicians of pharaoh could not replicate the dust turning into gnats” and even they confess that ‘this is the finger of God.” But pharaoh would not listen. God could have crushed Egypt with one blow. He could have brought pharaoh to his knees with one plague, he could have eliminated Pharaoh or destroyed his rule, and wiped Egypt from the face of the earth, after all God brings down kings and sets up kings. God could have tenderized pharaoh’s heart so that he let Israel go immediately. There are many ways God could have dealt with the king of Egypt, but he brings frogs and gnats , lice and cattle disease , hail and boils. These are irritating, annoying inconveniences. Each one lasted only a day or two, maybe less. God shows mercy, He removes each plague upon request, he shows great patience, even in his judgments he permits Pharaoh to be irreverent and rebellious without striking him down on the spot. Why? Why does God seem to be “playing with Pharaoh” why send fleeting irritations to display his power, rather then lasting desolation, like a flood? Pharaoh is no obstacle for God. Pharaoh is like a tiny little ant crawling between the toes of the Almighty. The way he chooses to deal with Pharaoh reveals. As irritating as Pharaoh is to God with his hardness of heart and all his futile gods, so God, in a mockery brings this same type of irritation upon Pharaoh. and it becomes the little foxes that ruin the garden.
8:21-23 “For if you do not let my people go I will send swarms of insects on you and on your servants and on your people and into your houses and the house of the Egyptians shall be full of insects, but on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen where my people dwell in order that there will be swarms there, so that you will know that I the Lord am in the midst of the land” God owns Egypt, he owns Goshen, he owns the cattle on a thousand hill. God made the earth and it all belongs to Him. Just as he separated the light from the darkness and the day from night and the heavens from the land, so shall he separate his people from the peoples of the earth (nations). He sends dismay upon Egypt while sparing a little part of Egypt. The word judgment also means to divide. Jesus says there will come a day he will sit as Judge on a throne and separate the goats from the sheep. “God is in the midst of the land separating the goats from the sheep. God is present and the division and distinction he makes between Israel and Egypt is a sign of his presence. GOD’S JUDGMENT IS A SIGN OF HIS PRESENCE. This is not the first or the last time God makes a distinction between those who belong to him and those who do not.
8:24 “the land was laid waste” Pharaoh is disturbed and made uncomfortable by the gnats. He calls Moses and Aaron and agrees to comply according to his rules. Go sacrifice within the land, the land that has been laid waste. As if he could pull one over on God. God isn’t negotiating with Pharaoh, He isn’t meeting Pharaoh half way. He doesn’t have to. God will have his way. Pharaoh is attempting to pacify Moses and Aaron’s desire for freedom by giving them a little, while attempting to maintain control and ownership of Israel. As if they are little children begging to go outside and play, “just don’t go to far”. Pharaoh will let them worship their God on his terms, within his purview, under his supervision.
8:26 “What is an abomination to the Egyptians” the cow was another Egyptian god and recognized as a deity by Egyptians. What then were they serving for meat? I do not know, but it is likely that certain sacrifices that God required from Israel as part of worship were sacred to the Egyptians. Moses says they would be offended and perhaps stone the Hebrews for killing their sacred gods. Today there are many things, beliefs, commands and ways of God that offend the peoples of the world. Atheists are willing to stone Christians and Jewish people for aligning with the biblical customs and laws. The world wants to defend their rights and they are willing to kill for it. Homosexuality is acceptable in American culture. But what is celebrated and encouraged by secular people is absolutely prohibited and abominable to our God and to many Christians and Jews and muslims today. Abortion is another sacred cow for those who do not believe in one God. Violence has been done to Christians over pro -life positions that is equal to stoning. God has set apart his people by his ways and laws. Throughout the scriptures he clarifies what is acceptable and what he requires of his servants. The world does not accept God’s ways and instructions. The world fumes and gnashes their teeth at God, just as the Egyptians would have. There is a distinction between God’s possession and the devils, it is getting more and more obvious the closer Jesus is to returning, just as the closer Israel was to being redeemed and set free the clearer that distinction was made between holy and profane, between Israelite and Egyptians.
8:27 “we need three days” the chapter ends with the lingering taste of three days on our lips. Three days is of utter significance to us. Jesus was three days in the grave before rising up, the first fruits of the dead. Taking on life once again by his own power. The frogs couldn’t bring themselves back from the dead, Pharaoh couldn’t relieve the land of the gnats and his magicians had zero power to reproduce what God did so effortlessly through Moses and Aaron and yet in three days God’s son rose up from the grave defeating death and sin. He opened up the gates of heaven for all his servants to enter into the promise of eternal life. A lot can happen in three days. It would take just so long to put enough distance between Israel’s life and their death, their hope at the foot of Sinai receiving the Word of God and their past life in Egypt. God wanted them to serve him but first he had to resurrect them from the grave of Egypt.
Exodus 7
God’s Witnesses
Summary: Moses and Aaron present the three miraculous signs in the presence of Pharaoh as God commanded. This marks the beginning of God’s judgment of Egypt. These signs also serves as a warning to Pharaoh especially the blood throughout the land, which speaks of impending death, but Pharaoh in his blind pride, hardens his heart and does not heed the warning nor does he surrender the people of Israel.
7:1 “see I have made you like God to pharaoh and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.” God is establishing order, authority, structure and leadership. He leaves no loose threads, there is no mistake or question as to who is calling the shots. Moses must see himself as God when he is with Pharaoh or he will crumble beneath the certainty of Egypt’s throne, Aaron must respect Moses as God or he will question and doubt (as he eventually does in the wilderness). Like it or not there are heads and leaders even in God’s economy. God deals with Israel throughout the wilderness in an incredibly organized fashion, even down to how they leave Egypt in martial array, they travel by tribe, they each have their job and responsibility God never leaves room for questioning what is expected of them and this is part of his character from the very beginning when he created the world. God is systematic in his approach, we see it in the patterns of the world, in a flower in the smallest of organisms and the largest of solar systems. He is an excellent planner, When Moses is overwhelmed in the wilderness with all the children of Israel coming to him night and day with their grievances, Jethro, his father n law councils him to establish heads and leaders of hundreds and fifties and tens. This eases Moses’ anxiety and burden. We can rest in God’s planning and preparatory skills which are far more developed than ours. God is also willing to share some of his power with his servants, in this case Moses. Moses is God’s representative. It is also worth noting that God is known to send witnesses in two’s. From Adam and Eve, to the animals on the ark to Jesus sending his disciples out. In the book of Zechariah chapter 4 there are the two olive tree’s branches which are the witnesses, On the mount of transformation Moses and Elijah, two witnesses appear to Jesus. In the book of revelation There are two witnesses who die and come back to life to mention a few instances. We cannot underestimate the power of two witnesses to represent and come on behalf of God. The bible says by two or more witnesses every matter will be established. God chose his two witnesses to appear before the King of Egypt to present and honor the King of the universe.
7:3 “but I will harden pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply my wonders in the land of Egypt.” God sometimes hardens hearts for his greater purposes. In Romans 11, Paul writes that a partial hardening has come upon the hearts of Israel in order for the fullness of the gentiles to come to Christ. Here in Exodus 7 we see God hardening Pharaoh’s heart so that God may multiply His wonders.
7:4 “ I will lay my hand on Egypt” Malachi 4“[a]For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of armies, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branches. 2 But for you who [b]fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and frolic like calves from the stall. 3 And you will crush the wicked underfoot, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day [c]that I am preparing,” says the Lord of armies. 4 “Remember the Law of Moses My servant, the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.” 5 “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers back to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and strike the land with complete destruction.”
The Day of the Lord is both great and terrible. Great for those who fear His name, terrible for the evildoer. TO Egypt, God’s hand upon their land is a fearful thing. His hand represents judgment, wrath and destruction. To the Hebrews, however, God’s hand represents freedom, rescue salvation and deliverance.
7:4 “I will bring out MY hosts, MY people.” God claims his own possession. The children of Israel belong to The God of Israel. There is an unextractable union between God and his people and moreover God and His purposes. Beginning with Abraham, God’s goal has been to take Israel as his own people, be their God and dwell among them. Genesis 17. We see this here in Exodus 6:7, Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 7:23 & 11, Ezekiel 36:28
And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Also in Revelation 21:3 he never ceases for this end game, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His [a]people, and God Himself will be among them[b], it is undeniable. God does not waiver from his plan. Jesus helps fulfill this plan by shedding his blood for the forgiveness and redemption of Israel, both Jew and gentile who trust in his name and follow him. Jeremiah 31 is one reminder to all humanity that Israel will never cease to be God’s people. Jeremiah 33:20 This is what the LORD says: If I have not established My covenant with the day and the night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, 26then I would also reject the descendants of Jacob and of My servant David, so as not to take from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore them from captivity and will have compassion on them.” God’s declaration of “My hosts, and My People the children of Israel” is spoken in neither haste nor casually. When God claims something as his own it is his forever. That does not mean we fully understand the details of his relationship with Israel.
7:4 “the Judgments of God” God’s judgments are painful, purposeful and powerful. When He comes to rescue his people Israel all Egypt will feel the judgment pains of the Lord. God is judge this neither changes or shifts for any reason. God will Judge, he judged then, he judges now he will be judge forever more. His judgments prove his sovereignty, his goodness and justice.
7:5 “bring out Israel from the midst of Egypt” in the book of Revelation God commands his people to ‘come out from the midst of Babylon.’ God does not want his people living forever in the midst of a culture that does not acknowledge or worship him alone as God. I cannot help but think of what the church refers to as the rapture here. I don’t claim to take a stand one way or another with that particular doctrine, however, God does often pull us from the miry clay and set our feet upon solid ground. There is evidence in scripture that Jesus will return and take what belongs to him.
7:7 Moses was 80! God calls old men, young, frail women, small numbers, the fragile believers and dumb deaf and blind. God calls sinners. He does not seem to call the strong as often. The brilliant, the self-reliant, independent and confident are not God’s first draft picks. When Gideon’s army got too big, God told him to send men home. God prefers to fight with shepherd boys then win with goliaths. God calls those who MUST rely on him to succeed in the task at hand. That was Moses, that was Abraham at 100, that was David the youngest of all his brothers, Jacob always running scared, Hannah and Rebekah barren and empty handed, the lost, the destitute, the desperate. God meets us where we are, he is not afraid or threatened to meet us in our most vulnerable and lowest places in life. I would suggest he looks forward to lifting us up from those valleys and wine presses. He called mere fishermen and tax gatherers to be his followers and spread the most important message in world history, fishermen, not the elite religious giants of his day. He sent a host of angels to a bunch of shepherds to announce the birth of His son, the savior of the world. He chose to speak to a little boy name Samuel over the priest who made the sacrifices. The religious powerhouses are not ready and willing to give up their status for the message of Jesus Christ, which is bow low, carry your cross, deny yourself follow a shepherd. But the weak and frail are humble enough to climb upon the shoulders of God and go into battle. Moses was eighty-three, he was not going in his own strength to speak to pharaoh.
7:9 “work a miracle” Pharaoh demands a miracle, just as the pharisees of Jesus day were demanding miracles as evidence and proof of who Jesus was. Still like the pharisees it doesn’t really matter to pharaoh, even if he knows that God sent Moses and acknowledges God as God, he refuses to bend his will and release his labor force. His cities are way to important to him they are a symbol of his power, authority and kingdom. Like most men of power and status they will not give up the means of their own glory.
7:10 “Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded.” This is so important to following the Lord and to be his servant. Many want to obey God as long as his orders align with what they are comfortable with and agreeable towards and as long as God’s instruction make sense to their plans. But Noah did just as God commanded and all life was saved, Moses and Aaron do just as God command and Israel will be redeemed, Jesus loved his life not even unto death, obeying everything the Father gave him to do and he purchased the souls of men. 1 John says if you love me than you will keep my commandments. God’s commands are not negotiable although we live as if they are. God promises again and again to Israel if you obey you will eat the best of the land, if you heed my voice, do all that I command it will go well for you. We don’t have to understand or agree with God we only have to do exactly as he says. This is not for his sake, but for ours. And if we don’t have a verbal word from the Lord, seek out his answers in the Word He has given us the privledge of having in this day and age.
7:11 “The soothsayers did their magic tricks.” God knew this would happen. The tricks Pharoah’s priests did were not a surprise to God. Even so, God still told Moses to perform before Pharaoh so that Pharaoh would know God was God. Pharaoh is still competing with the King of the universe. His cheap tricks are blinding him to the true power that God is displaying. Little by little God is chipping away at the king of Egypt’s pride and resolve. How did they do the things God gave Moses to do. Power is not exclusive trait to God. There is power in and throughout the universe. Supreme Power is exclusive to God, almighty power, limitless power yes these are exclusive to The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, but power still exists in the world today and among men, who were made in God’s image. This keep the king of Egypt hard hearted and It keeps men today hard hearted as well. Whenever we can find an excise to dismiss something God does as coincidence or replicable we tend to lose faith. There are many ways we learn to cope, there are many ways we can be comforted, there are many ways we succeed. All of these things do not disprove God as some would claim, but only proves God allows men to have some power and knowledge in the world. God permits in his grace that we should be comforted by a dog for example, does that mean that God isn’t real. No it just means he isn’t our sole source of comfort that in his mercy he has permitted us to be comforted because he knows we will not always turn to him. But like that dog, every comfort is limited and that is where we find God at the end of all our resources and magic tricks.
7:17 Pharaoh knows that God is the Lord yet he hardens his heart, this is the most dangerous place to be with God. This is intentional rebellion. God may have mercy on those who do not know who he is and in their ignorance sin or doubt, but for those who know he is God and still turn from him there is no sacrifice or mercy for this man.
7:19 “There was blood throughout the land” Yet there was no death (other than the poor fish). The blood did not come from humans, from violence or death, yet it filled the land. When The last plague strikes the firstborn there is much death but no blood except for the lambs blood on the doorposts of those who trust God’s word to be true. When something odd occurs we ought to ask why? Why does blood fill the land but there is no death, why is there so much death but no blood? This is an act of God alone.
The blood throughout the land of Egypt is not blood that can save or atone for sins. This blood does not flow from life, it is not life blood. The death that strikes the firstborn is not death that leads to life because there is no blood to redeem. Only the blood of a lamb, blood flowing from life is able to atone for sins and deliver Israel from the power of pharaoh and from bondage.
7:23 ‘pharaoh showed no concern’ He was unmoved by these witnesses and signs that Moses and Aaron performed at the command of the Lord God. His heart was hard. He was not the one digging beside the Nile for water to drink, he was not the one scrambling for straw. He was unmoved and unconcerned perhaps because he was untouched by the hand of God at this point. People don’t change until the pain of same is worse than the pain of change.
Exodus 5
Israel’s Labor Increased
Moses and Aaron finally confront Pharaoh, Pharaoh refuses to comply and rather seems to systematically compete with The God of Israel for Israel’s devotion. Pharaoh is having a tug of war with God over Israel’s allegiance. He increases Israel’s work by refusing to provide straw for them, making it impossible for them to make bricks, to which they respond with cries, despair, fear and accusation against Moses, but how they do not respond is by turning toward God and acknowledging their faith in his promise to deliver them from bondage.
5:1 “let Israel go so that they may celebrate a feast to me in the wilderness” How odd to use celebration and wilderness in the same sentence. The wilderness is not a natural place for celebration and feasting, rather the wilderness (bar midbar in Hebrew) conjures thoughts of dry, barren, wandering, painfully endless miles of emptiness and trials. But God’s ways are not our ways. “He will provide a door of hope in the valley of achor (trouble; disaster)” Hosea 2:15 God has a way of making silver out of ore. He will rain bread from heaven, bring water from a rock, provide a savior in a stable, and a feast in the wilderness. God is somewhat a rebel in how he does things. When God calls the children of Israel out of the furnace of Egypt, he calls them out to bring them in to the land of promise flowing with milk and honey. Peter says , “when he calls us it is to inherit a blessing” (I peter 4) wherever He brings us – however barren the destination may seem to us, he gives water in dry places, breathe to dead bones, grace in suffering, He is able. The wilderness places are a challenge for us, but an opportunity for God to meet our needs and reveal his glory, power and word. May we not fear the wilderness places in our life that God calls us to, knowing that he intends for us to feast there.
5:2 “who is this Lord that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and besides I will not let Israel go.” Pharaoh rightly says he does not know God. Therefore, why should he “obey” or “listen”. It’s far more difficult to obey God’s word when one does not know God’s character, mercy, love and laws. Sadly, so many Christians even today do not truly know God because they do not know his word – they do not spend time with Him they have no history, no encounters, no ebenezers, no awareness of covenant – to them God is a religion, not a person, a savior or truth. Their heart is as hard as pharaohs refusing to let go of their “possessions,” their “way of life,” self-righteousness and false beliefs because they do not know God. Jesus says, Matthew 7:21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
5:3 Moses and Aaron made two back-to-back appeals to Pharaoh. The first appeal was confident, divine, strong reflecting a desire for Israel’s absolute freedom. “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, let my people go so they may celebrate a feast in the wilderness.” The second appeal reflects intimidation, a slave mentality, and culturally appropriate language that perhaps Moses hoped Pharaoh would respond more favorably too. “Please let us go to sacrifice to the God of Hebrews so he does not punish us.” Either way Pharaoh made one conclusion, that seems apparent in the text: he now has competition. He clearly sees himself as god of Egypt and attempts to assert his power and position because now his slaves want to worship another God , this “Lord, God of Israel,” their own personal God. Israel is expressing a dangerous desire, they want to be free, and they recognize freedom is a possibility. Pharaoh is shaking in his boots, as his predecessor before him, not only are Israel more and mightier but now they have their own God and they want to leave Egypt. So what does Pharaoh do? What he saw his predecessor do, appointed tasks, more work, more labor, cruel taskmasters who inflict severity on the Hebrews. We also see Pharaohs response throughout the chapter is to exalt himself through his language (Thus says pharaoh); his commands (get back to work, complete your quota of bricks, let the labor be heavier), his manipulation (your lazy), his withholding provision (no straw) and his attempt at holding onto power. Now Israel must begin to choose who will they fear more? The god who can kill them or the One who is promising to give them Life.
5:4 Moses and Aaron get back to your labors … Pharaoh seems familiar with Moses and Aaron. This is interesting considering Moses fled Egypt years before. Moses is not Pharaohs servant to order “back to his labor” Making bricks is not Moses’ work to bear. This indicates Pharaoh and Moses may have known each other prior, perhaps even grown up together. Gathering all the info from these early chapters, I we can speculate the motivation of Pharaohs daughter adopting Moses, when she drew him from the water. She certainly could have attributed it to the “gods of the Nile .” She could have been motivated out of spite or control or even defiance against the pharaoh’s edict and authority, perhaps she herself thought his ruling cruel and opposed it. We do know later on that when Israel leaves Egypt she is among them. So what was her motivation in drawing Moses? Did she want to train up a Hebrew slave in her own household for her own purposes, as an experiment? Moses was chased out and hunted down by Pharoah, clearly not a favorite.
5:5 “you would have them cease their labors” not only is Pharoah trying to appeal to Moses’ past Egyptian devotions, as if Moses cares about Pharoah’s cities being built, but he is truly revealing here that Egypt is run by the Hebrews not only are there more Israelites than Egyptians but Pharoah is scared to not have his laborers, if they ceased their labors, Egypt’s land would suffer, his cities would no longer be built, he would have no more bricks or free labor. The infrastructure of his entire society would change, crumble perhaps.
5:7-9 “that they may pay no attention to false words” There is a truth and reality to this phrase. Work weighs down the hearts and hopes of men. Work distracts them, fatigues them, dissolves and dulls their resolve and thinking skills. This is especially true for hard physical labor it wear men down, which was Pharoah’s intent. In modern day times many workaholics have no time for church, worship or God’s word. Work becomes their god. Our enemy, Satan loves to load us down with work physical painful work and discouragement sets in. Jesus said, to his disciples in the garden before he was taken, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” This is the devil’s domain is the flesh, this is the place he attacks us. Satan would love to work us to death, but God wants to give us rest, peace, refreshment and restoration. This is one reason I believe God created the sabbath day, for six days you shall do your work but the seventh is a sabbath rest, not only does it indicate freedom, but it gives our weak bodies, which are made of dust, a practical solution and necessary ingredient to spiritual and physical and mental health. Once Israel is redeemed it is the sabbath day that God gives to them as a sign of the covenant.
5:10 “thus says pharaoh” Pharaoh sees his power and authority is being challenged. Through mockery and mastery, he uses the same language with the Hebrews as Moses and Aaron use with Him. In doing so He places himself as ‘god’ commanding them, reminding them who they are “Egypt’s slaves not free men who worship at will.” Is Pharaoh so merciful for providing straw to make bricks that HE needs, not Israel. These are components of his rule he wants to keep hidden from his servants. He has to manipulate them into thinking they need the straw and they need his mercy to provide the straw, when in reality, they need no such things, rather he needs them! Suffering can create delusions which easily twist the truth. Pharaohs plan seems to work because we soon see, the children of Israel blaming and cursing Moses, and Moses turning and doubting and blaming God. But sometimes things must get worse before they get better.
5:7 you are no longer to give the people straw. No straw! See my devo for this chapter on no straw. Pharaoh refuses to provide straw making it literally impossible to make any bricks. His ask is unreasonable. Yet, Israel still has a slave mindset, so they accept pharaohs commandment to make bricks without straw, they scramble around trying to obey him because they fear him. They see pharaoh’s word as absolute truth. They cannot see who they are, children of God, sons of Israel, and they do not yet know who God is, the God of Israel. The Hebrews easily fall back on what they do know, to act like slaves and cry out to their cruel taskmaster, like an addict begging at the feet of his dealer. When they need help, they go to the most powerful force in their lives, Pharaoh. And Pharaoh is content to remind them of that by withholding something he has convinced them they “need.”
5:14 the foreman’s were beaten when they did not meet their quota of bricks. Peter says, “it is better to suffer for doing what is right, then to suffer for doing what is wrong.” This injustice against the foreman would certainly incur God’s increased mercy upon Israel and his anger against Pharaoh. God’s peoples are not strangers to ill treatment simply for wanting to worship God, and God does not always prevent or protect us from it. But he does ask that we at times endure it, and it is better for us to continue to doing what is right and good even though it may mean trials, tribulation and persecution because as Peter reminds us it is proves our faith 1 Peter 1, in the same way fire tests gold. Titus 3 Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, 2 to slander no one, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing every consideration for all people. 3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy,
5:15 The sons of Israel cried out to Pharaoh. Previously they had cried out to God and now they are calling themselves Pharaohs servants, pleading with Pharaoh to ease their afflictions. When Pharaoh tries to put himself in the place of god, Israel quickly assumes the position which they have been assuming for the past 400 years. They are recognizing Pharaoh as their provider, pharaoh as the one who can ease their burdens.
5:21 The Sons of Israel, lash out at Moses may God judge you. They curse him. They are more concerned about Pharoah’s treatment and retaliation, in this moment than they are God’s Judgment and redemption; they are afraid to die. One second ago, Israel believed, was bowing low and worshiping God for being concerned about them. Now they turn against Moses and maybe even God as soon as the heat is turned up. Suffering will reveal what is truly in a man’s heart, as fire reveals the dross in silver and brings to the surface the impurities of Gold. Egypt is rightly called the furnace of affliction. God uses Egypt in the life of HIS people to test them and prove their faith. Egypt, Pharoah and the suffering Israel endures will bring out every impure thought and deed in them both now and in the wilderness. As it was once said, it was easier for God to take Israel out of Egypt then it was to take Egypt out of Israel. Israel was un-redeemed and bent toward human weaknesses, complaint, blame, worshiping false gods and disbelief. In Egypt they were accustomed to these ways of living, but human nature accustomed them to sin. This is the heart and core of their redemption God is pulling them out of Egypt and making them his own, transformed, a people for his own possession, so that he may be their God. Through this entire ordeal he is making a name for himself this is a process. 2 Samuel 7:23 And what one nation on the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, and to make a name for Himself, and to do a great thing for You and awesome things for Your land, [a]because of Your people whom You have redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, from other nations and their gods? 24 For You have established for Yourself Your people Israel as Your own people forever, and You, Lord, have become their God.
5:22 Moses doubts God. “why have you brought harm to this people…and have not rescued them? God doesn’t punish or rebuke Israel for cursing or Moses for accusing. They have had little to no experience with God and he does not hold them accountable for representing Egyptian ways. He meets them where they are, not where he wants them to be. He takes into account their affliction and despondency. God is understanding of our frail humanity. We now are aware of the reason God took so much time to prepare Moses and reveal the plan in detail. This was not an easy task even though in happens over the course of just a few chapters in our bible, this was huge complex situation that may have been occurring over months and months and I can imagine there were a lot of emotions and confusion and questions that God had to vet as he was working to free Israel from a bondage mindset.
Israel has not yet repented. They have not quite turned to God, away from fear, Pharoah and the world they have known. The heavy burden of sin and slavery twists the minds and thoughts of the children of Israel and so it does to us even today. Slavery to sin and fear of death turns men against God and self. We have to remember who we are and who God is before we can be free from anything.
Exodus 4
4:2 God questions Moses, since the very beginning of God’s interacting with mankind, when He asked Adam where are you, God has been asking questions, it’s part of his character and personality, and this is one way he communicates with mankind. Even though God knows everything, he chooses to engage with us here by respecting our limits and meeting us there. He wants us to understand and trust him so he inquires.
4:3-4 The staff became a serpent, was Moses aware of the serpent’s role in the garden? Is that why he flees the serpent? Is the serpent symbolic of pharaoh is that why he flees? Is Moses simply a timid man, is that why he flees. But as soon as Moses flees, God tells Moses stretch out your hand, He grants Moses the courage to take control of the very thing he is afraid of. God will also stretch out his hand over Egypt he promises in 3:20. The tail of the serpent is perhaps the most dangerous place to grab a snake and yet God instructs him to do it, why he requires Moses to face his fears and he will be doing dangerous things but he will overcome. Why does God often ask his servants to do the thing they fear the most, “Abraham kill your son.” For example, I believe it is because we must trust God more than we fear our own demise.
4:5 God continues to use his memorial name to address Israel. This was all Israel knew about God. They didn’t have a bible, they didn’t have priests or a temple, or a law. They must have had some oral stories passed down, but that is what they had to go on. Acts 4:12. Neither is their salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. “Psalm 9:10 Those who know your name trust in you, for you, O LORD, do not abandon those who search for you.
4:7 leprous hand, what a strange sign. Perhaps indicating that God has the power to send disease which he is about to do and to heal, he has the power to kill and destroy or to restore life.
4:10 Moses pleads with God to send someone else. Revealing more of his weakness fear and humanity. God did not choose a mighty warrior who was confident and powerful, to lead Israel out of bondage and appear before pharaoh. He chose a weak man riddled with insecurity. Later on, God refers to Moses as the humblest man alive. God often chooses the weak small and vulnerable to perform his greatest tasks. Deuteronomy 7:7“The Lord did not love you and choose you because you outnumbered other peoples; you were the smallest nation on earth. What a comfort knowing that God does not call the equip but equips those he calls.
During Steven’s testimony before he is stoned in the book of acts Steven refers to Moses, as one who spoke with eloquence. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. Acts 7:22. How does this indicate that God gave Moses all he needed to perform the tasks and that Moses saw himself differently than those around him saw him.
4:11 Who made man’s mouth? God makes us what we are, for his own purposes and glory. When he shouts at Moses, who made man’s mouth, who makes man seeing or blind, dumb or deaf? There is value to each person’s life beyond their outer strengths and abilities. God had just showed Moses powerful signs that indicated God can change things. He can Change a staff into a serpent, healthy skin into diseased and back again, and water into blood. Now Moses doesn’t seem to believe that God can change his slow and heavy tongue to an eloquent speaker that others will listen to. Moses isn’t doubting his own abilities but God’s. Perhaps, this is what triggers the anger of the Lord. And Yet in an act of great compassion he sends Aaron to support Moses and speak for him. Although we do see that sometimes Aaron speaks and sometimes Moses speaks. God does change Moses as we see in Steven’s testimony.
4:12 God will teach Moses what to say just as Jesus promises the holy spirit will teach us what to say. John 14 – But the Comforter, who is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. God is the same in every generation, he does not change, there is no shifting in his character or his ways or his plans and purposes.
4:22-23 “Israel is my firstborn son.” God informs pharaoh at the first meeting what will happen at the last meeting. I will kill your son. Did this help solidify pharaoh’s hard heart and pride?
The reference to Israel as firstborn is interesting here, considering the blood on the doorposts will only spare the actual firstborn. Yet God sees all Israel the entire nation as his firstborn son. God is merciful, and just as he spared the barley that had not yet sprouted during the fiery hail, so too he could have killed all Egypt but he spared them and only took the firstborn who were not protected by the edict of the blood. As the firstborn of God’s what birthrights belong to Israel?
4:24 The lord met him and sought to kill him. God had just declared he would kill pharaohs firstborn son now God is seeking to put Moses to death. What is the connection here? Was Moses a firstborn son? When blood is shed and touches Moses’ feet Moses is spared. Was the foreskin from his firstborn. Was this another sign for Moses that blood would save or perhaps a foreshadow both for Egypt’s final plague but also the cross? Some commentaries say that Moses had not yet circumcised his son and that was crucial for this moment in time when he was about to take a leadership role in Israel.
4:27 God is already speaking to Aaron. This indicates that one God was speaking to some of the sons of Israel, and two that they were listening. But also that God knew Moses intrepidation and had already planned for this.
4:31 when they saw the signs that Moses performed and they heard that God was concerned about them and he saw them, they believed and worshiped. Which makes me wonder if many of their prayers began like this, “don’t you see, don’t you care” The sons of Israel were ready to receive deliverance from God. He had answered their cry for help.
Exodus 3
3:1 Horeb, The Mount of God this is none other than Mount Sinai. The very place where Israel camps and Moses meets with God for 40 days and nights. There He receives the torah (the Laws of God written on stone tablets) It is here that upon seeing Israel play the harlot he Smashes the tablets in anger.
3:2the Angel of the Lord appears to Moses in the burning bush. God calls to him from the midst of the bush. So both the angel of the Lord appears, and God calls. There are other instances when The Angel of the Lord appears, not AN angel, but THE angel. Some say this is the pre-incarnate Christ. Here the title suggests that the angel of the Lord and God are of the same, they are “one”
3:4 When the Lord saw that Moses turned aside, he called to Moses, Moses. He said his name two times. God called to Moses after Moses turned aside to see the great sight of a bush on fire, but not being burned up. His attentiveness called to God. We see them begin a dialect where they seem to be speaking to one another like two men. Again, I must wonder if this is not our savior interacting with Moses. It is here in this unique moment in time, during this unique encounter, when God commissions Moses. Moses response, “heneni” is a Hebrew term meaning, “here I am.” This is used by Abraham when God calls to him before asking that he offer Isaac on the Altar. It is interesting that one should feel they must locate themselves for God. AS if God doesn’t know where Moses is, but I suspect this is a term indicating not so much location but willingness.
3:5 God instructs Moses to remove his sandals because the ground is holy. Removing sandals is both vulnerable, and humble but also a sign of respect. Moses here is in the presence of Almighty God, who is Holy. Removing ones sandals is the least he could do to acknowledge this reality.
3:6 God introduces himself to Moses. For the remainder of the chapter, God is revealing himself, and telling Moses the plan. He is sharing with Moses what he is about to do and all that will happen. This serves as both a preparation for Moses but also when it occurs Moses faith and trust in God must increase. “Moses hides his face, for he was afraid to look at God”. Why? I find this passage relevant:
“In the presence of his integrity, our own pretense is exposed. In the presence of his constancy, our cowardice is brought to light. IN the presence of his fierce love for God and for us, our own hardness of heart is revealed. Take him out of the room and all those things become relative. I am not that much worse than you are, nor you than I, but leave him in the room and there is no room to hide. He is the light of the world. In His presence people either fall down to worship him or do everything they can to extinquish his light.” Pg. 92 Barbara Brown Taylor, Bread and Wine
3:7 and the Lord said, “I have seen the affliction of my people.” He takes ownership of the sons of Israel. Here we see the compassion and the mercy of God, concerned for his people, seeing his people, hearing their cry. I am aware of their sufferings. So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land.” Here we see Christ in the Father. Or in the New Testament that Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us, that he came down, we see the father in Him. Even as I am in the father and the father in me, if you have seen me you have seen the father.” This coming down is characteristic of God. He came down to see the men building the tower of Babel. He comes down. He is not a god who cannot move, he is not a god who remains above us and beyond our suffering, he is God Almighty who comes down to see, to live among, and the be God to his people. Which is what his name I AM means. To BE.
3:10 God commissions Moses, “Come now and I will send you to pharaoh, so that you may bring my people, the sons of Israel out of Egypt.” We see throughout the scriptures how very characteristic this is of God, he sends people. He commissions them to do things, to go places, to say things. This is God, he includes humanity, he employees us to work along side of him, does he need us – no, but clearly he wants our companionship and he pursues us. Here he is pursuing Moses.
3:11 when Moses doubts his own identity, God promises to be with him. The sign he says will be that you worship God at this mountain. I suspect that means when Moses finds himself with a multitude of Israelite people, he will know that God sent him and was with him.
3:13-15 God is revealing himself to Moses and his memorial name forever, is the Lord God of Abraham isaac and Jacob to all generations. This sets apart the people of Israel, but it also defines God in part to humanity. He is not the god of humanity, he is not the god of the water and the nations, he is the God of the Hebrews. It puts Him into perspective and gives us clear expectations of who God is and to whom his covenants are with. I AM – YAHWEH is God’s covenant name with the people of Israel. Not that God is limited to that name or that he is exclusively their God. God is God. But to what other nation does he attach himself by his very own words? This has got to count for something.
3:17 God promises deliverance. He gives a detailed account of how things will shake out. Israel will listen to you, Pharoah will not listen, this is what you are to say. I will stretch out MY HAND and strike Egypt, then he will let you go and you will leave rich plundering the Egyptians and even those living in your own homes!
Exodus 2
2: 1 Moses is a Levite. Both his mother and father are from the tribe of Levi. Levi was the third child of Jacob and Leah and his name means “attachment.” The tribe of Levi will eventually take on the prestigious title of priesthood. God chooses the Levi above all the other tribes as his own possession. They are the only tribe without an inheritance in the promised land because God will be their inheritance, They will be responsible, like Moses, to Mediate between God and the sons of Israel. The Levites are also responsible for the temple, the sacrifices and teaching the law to Israel. This is part of Moses’ birthright.
2:3 Moses mother like every mother sees her child as beautiful and good. IS this the reason that she hid her child from a wicked king and murderous edict? Throughout Israel’s history God often worked through the women and mother’s of Israel. God’s elevation of women is an interesting reality considering how often women have been marginalized within the church and their roles diminished when it comes to spiritual matters. Yet here is Moses’ mother saving the deliverer. Was it so strange that a mother would try to save and hide her own child? Not really, perhaps she knew something more, like Rebekah perhaps God spoke to her about the child in her womb. She risks her life to save her child and her people. We can add her to a long list of Godly matriarchs who saved the day. God is redeeming the daughters of Eve in scripture. Consider some of the women who became hero’s in biblical history; Sarah, Rebekah, Deborah, Hannah , Rahab, Naomi, Ruth, Esther, Bathsheba, Zipporah, and Mary and let’s not forget about those Midwives Shiprah and Puah! God Truly does honor mothers and godly women.
2:3 Moses Mother set Moses in an ark upon the Nile having faith in God and a hint of defiance towards the pharaoh, who in 1:22 commanded ALL people to cast the Hebrew baby boys into the Nile. Here we see her putting her baby boy into the Nile, “as instructed” but first building him a little ark to safely travel in and sending a guardian to watch him to safety.
2:13 Moses knew the Hebrews were his brothers. He killed an Egyptian to protect one of them, perhaps in hope to win favor among them. This act proved his allegiance was not with Egyptians. Did Moses Justify his murderous act because he didn’t consider Egyptians his companions? We don’t know, but when he saw two Hebrews fighting who he called companions he rebuked them for it. His defense in no way gained him respect or the affection he hoped for among the Hebrew men, but rather they turned against him as well. They did not see him as one of them, nor as Moses saw them, as brothers. Perhaps they resented his Egyptian status.
2:15 One indication that Moses had few emotional and relational ties with Egyptians is how quickly pharaoh turns against Moses and tries to kill him. Moses doesn’t appeal or try to defend his actions, he just flees. Moses reveals both his humanity, when he becomes afraid and his divine call as deliverer when he murders the Egyptian. The act of murder however was a manifestation of his flesh trying to do what God created him for in his own power and ability, this generated fear. Eventually when Moses acts out of the spirit and power of God at work in him, he manifest humility and courage. Just as David bravely fought lions and bears and Goliath, “by the spirit of the Lord” because it is not by might nor by power that we win our battles. David declared that he came at Goliath in the name of the Lord God of Israel. Moses kills a man in defense of Israel which appears noble, but God hasn’t sent him to do this. God’s call on Moses will include freedom and life, not death and shame.
2:17 Moses gets another chance at delivering the weaker persons when he settles in Midian. This time a band of 7 Midianite sisters and a flock of sheep. Moses chases off the shepherds who are ‘feeding themselves’ but when the girls report back to the father , they say, “whats more…is that he gave water to us and the flock.” This could be a foreshadow of Moses bringing water from the rock in the wilderness not once but twice. This trait in Moses – God seems to delight in and seek out in his servants. Jesus tells Peter, “if you love me feed my sheep.” he asks the church, “when i return will i find you giving food at the proper time.” “whoever is thirsty let him come.” this compassion towards the weak and helpless is also a trait of God himself. Look at how Jesus feeds the multitudes. Jesus’ first miracle was to change water into wine for the people to drink. The Lord’s most powerful and memorable miracle was raining bread from heaven for 40 years, and then becoming bread and living waters! Time and again the prophets and priests are rebuked for being shepherds who ‘feed themselves and not the flock.’ Moses in this moment shows great compassion toward not only a group of females, but their animals. This meant more to the girls than Moses chasing off the other shepherds. and I think it meant more to God, because in Moses was a man whom he could trust to care for the sheep. Deliverance is something, but what is more, is compassion towards the weak and weary, to give water in a dry land. It’s easy to do something noble, but are we willing to do something humble? Jesus said, “when you do it unto the least of these you do it unto me.” and he was talking about a drink of water.
2:23 The children of Israel sighed because of the bondage they cried for help and their cry rose up to God. God heard, God knew, God saw and God remembered. But sometimes God waits. He waits for his children to cry for help and to recognize that they cannot save themselves. He wants us to see our bondage and sin. God wants us to want to be delivered. We are much less likely to fight God when we have asked for help, and we are more likely to follow him and trust when we recognize our own helplessness and inability to save ourselves.
my faith place 