The Wesley Study Bible tells us that the book of Exodus “narrates the fundamental act of salvation for God’s people in the Old Testament – the deliverance of Israel from oppression and bondage in Egypt. The exodus freed the people of God to serve the missional purposes of God for all humanity. The Book of Exodus focuses on what it means to live as the redeemed people of God.”

Exodus starts with the people in slavery in Egypt. We watch Moses grow up, the suffering of the people. We get the story of the burning bush, the 10 plagues, Passover, the parting of the red sea, bread from heaven, water from a rock, the giving of the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant, the golden calf, Moses’ face shines, they create the tabernacle, and so much more.

One of the reasons I love the book of Exodus is that so much of what we read here helps us to understand what goes on later in scripture.  Exodus is where we get the Passover and the commandment to take Sabbath rest. We get to see God’s provision and care through manna, quail, and water from a rock.  We get to see people being human and messing up and making mistakes.  They think about things only from their own perspective, they find change and transition uncomfortable, they complain and cry out.

Walter Brueggemann identifies four major themes in Exodus – Liberation, Law, Covenant, and Presence.  As you read or listen, make a note of where you see these themes come up.

Chapter 1 starts with God’s people in Egypt. How did they get there? In Genesis 12 God makes a covenant with Abram and Sarai (later called Abraham and Sarah). Skipping over a lot of details, the two of them have a son named Isaac.  He and his wife Rebekah have two sons, Esau and Jacob.  Jacob has four wives and 12 sons.  Jacob wrestles with God and afterward is also called Israel. One of Jacob/Israel’s younger sons is named Joseph. You can read about him in Genesis 37. Skipping over even more details, Joseph ends up in Egypt where he becomes the Pharaoh’s most trusted advisor. At that time, there’s a famine where Jacob/Israel and his other sons and their families are living. They go to Egypt.  Skipping over even MORE details, all of Jacob/Israel’s family settles in Egypt in an area called Goshen.

Exodus begins with remembering.  The story of Jacob/Israel and his family is condensed into 7 verses. The Egyptians and Pharoah see the people as nameless slaves, but the opening verses of Exodus remind the people they are not nameless, they have a history, they are rooted in their family story, in the story of God.
 
Back in Genesis, God made a covenant with Abram and Sarai that included three things: numerous descendants, land (the Promised Land), and that all the families of the earth would be blessed through them. We see that part of the covenant is fulfilled already, as there are so many Israelites.

The king of Egypt so despised the Israelites that he decides to carry out genocide on the Israelite male babies. He instructs the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill male babies immediately after birth.

Shiphrah and Puah quietly rebel and let them live. Brueggemann writes that Pharoah and the Egyptians have a “deep fear of the outcasts [that] has evoked a policy of systematic murder of precisely the babies who might be the most productive workers in the state system. The new policy is indeed irrational, suggesting that fear and rage have produced a deep insanity in imperial policy.”

Why are the Israelites also called Hebrews?
Brueggemann gives us the background on the word Hebrews:

“It is of peculiar importance that in this entire unit [about the genocide of male children], ‘the Israelites’ are not at all mentioned (unlike 1:9, 1:13). Now it is all ‘Hebrews.’ This term, with its cognates known all over the ancient Near East, refers to any group of marginal people who have no social standing, own no land, and who endlessly disrupt ordered society. They may function variously as mercenaries, as state slaves, or as terrorists, depending on governmental policies and the state of the economy. They are ‘low-class folks’ who are feared, excluded, and despised. It is the common assumption of scholars that the biblical ‘Hebrews’ are a part of this lower social class of hapiru who are known in nonbiblical texts.”

Chapter 1 gave us the big picture, and now we zoom in in Chapter 2 to the story of a particular family descended from Jacob/Israel’s son Levi. A baby boy was born and hidden for his first three months of life.  We’re not sure how much time elapses between verses 9 and 10.  When the nameless child grows up, he is returned to the Pharoah’s daughter.  He is named Moses, not by his Israelite parents, but by Pharoah’s daughter.

It seems Moses is very justice minded.  He intervenes in the beating of a Hebrew slave, the fighting of two Hebrews, and he helps women shepherds in Midian.

Brueggemann writes, “The narratives uses the same word, for kill, naka, that was used for the actions of the Egyptian against the Hebrew, ‘beat.’ The Egyptians is killing the Hebrew slave, and Moses inverts the power relation and does to the Egyptian what he is doing to the slave.”

In chapter 2:23-25 we have the pivotal marker in the story –the people groan, they cry out, and God hears. Note: the people are referred to here as Israelites. It doesn’t say the people cry out to God, only that they cry out, and that God hears their cries.

The narrative toggles between the people in general and the specific story of Moses. In Chapter 3 we’re back with Moses, an adult, husband, and father, living in Midian, being a shepherd.  We find him on Horeb, the mountain of God, where he sees a bush burning, but not consumed by fire.

God calls to Moses and explains how God has heard the cry of the people, how God knows their suffering. God tells Moses the plan- to deliver them from the Egyptians, to bring them to the Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey. God says, “So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites out of Egypt.”

God calls each of us, some are called to certain professions, to certain ways of life, to speak up, to serve, to preach, to pray, to make art, to care and nurture, to heal and protect.  Our callings are as unique as our personalities. Often our personalities, our talents, our gifts, help us fulfill our calling. You may find you have various callings that work together, different callings during various seasons of life. When you’re in the process of discerning a calling, you might wish for or pray for direct communication from God.  “Just tell me what to do!” we might pray.  “Please tell me the plan, exactly.” This is what God does with Moses. How does that go?

Moses gives five excuses why he cannot do what God is calling him to.  Can you identify all five? Can you identify with those excuses?

What’s up with Chapter 4:24-26?
In short, we’re not sure. Brueggemann writes that these verses are “among the most enigmatic verses in the entire book of Exodus. The episode is not framed in time or space, nor does it seem to be related to its context… Yahweh is set loose for the sake of Israel, but Yahweh is also set loose by the narrator in savage ways against Pharaoh and (here at least) in savage ways against Moses.”

Aaron
Before I closely read chapter 2, I figured Moses and Aaron didn’t really know each other.  But after reading that Moses was returned to Pharaoh’s daughter after he grew up it is clear that Moses and Aaron have a preexisting relationship. In Chapter 7 we learn that Aaron is just three years older than Moses.

The end of chapter 4 juxtaposes God and Pharoah. Brueggemann writes, “Yahweh is the God who has seen, known, heard, remembered, and come down. This God is so unlike the king of Egypt, who has noticed nothing of the suffering, who has heard nothing of the protest, who has known nothing of their anguish, who has remembered nothing of old promises, and who has never come down to relieve.”

Moses and Aaron request that Pharoah lets the people go, just for a time, so they can go into the wilderness to worship God. They are then accused of laziness. Over and over again in this chapter the people are called lazy.

When God begins to do a new thing the people’s experience gets worse.  Now they are not given straw, but must find it themselves, all while making the same number of bricks. Moses cries out to God, “O LORD, why have your mistreated this people? Why did you ever send me?” Even though God is working it feels hopeless. We’ll see in the narrative the liberation of the Israelites is not as fast or easy as Moses or the people wish it was.

God tells Moses to speak a word of hope to the Israelites in Exodus 6:6-8. What do you make of the people’s response in verse 9? – “Moses told this to the Israelites; but they would not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and their cruel slavery.” How do you think you’d respond to a word of hope if you were an enslaved Israelite?

In Chapter 7 God reiterates the plan. Part of the plan is for God to harden Pharaoh’s heart.  I’ve never really understood why God would want to harden anyone’s heart. It’s important to remember that Exodus is written by the people, explaining how and why the events took place.  It’s the story of their understanding. It’s the words they used to make sense of what happened. These words that had been handed down for generations, were told aloud, and then finally compiled and written down.

About the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart Brueggemann writes, “On the one hand, Yahweh will ‘harden’ Pharaoh. On the other hand, Yahweh will do ‘signs and wonder,’ gestures of dazzling, inscrutable power. The fact that Yahweh both hardens and does signs appears to be simply a literary device for intensification, but there is a quality of political realism in the escalation. That is, action for liberation leads to greater repression, and greater repression produces more intense resolve for liberation. In that process, it is never known who will be first to lose nerve. Moreover, the very sign itself becomes the means whereby the hardening is accomplished, as the very gesture toward liberation is what evokes more repression—i.e. hardening.”

Exodus 7:8-13 is the first of the ‘plagues.’ Listen to this: “the translation ‘snake’ is far too innocuous and bland. What Moses and Aaron conjure is not a garden-variety snake. Rather, the term in most of its uses (and surely here) is a great sea ‘monster,’ bespeaking God’s unleashing of chaos in the midst of Pharaoh’s well-ordered realm. The production of the ‘monster’ thus may announce in the empire that God is unleashing powerful disorder and elemental destabilization, which are the outcome of brutal oppression.” -Brueggemann

Second Plague – Blood. Moses is direct to tell Pharoah to let the people go. Why are they going? To worship God. In Chapter 5:1 God says through Moses and Aaron, “Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness.” Not even to go away forever, just to celebrate a festival, just to worship God.

Third Plague – Frogs “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” The reason for release remains the same – to worship God. Pharoah asks Moses and Aaron to pray for the frogs to leave.  They do and the frogs all die. But instead of relenting Pharaoh’s heart is hardened again. Just like Brueggemann said in the notes for chapter 7 about signs and hardened hearts – “…the very sign itself becomes the means whereby the hardening is accomplished, as the very gesture toward liberation is what evokes more repression—i.e. hardening.” It’s a catch 22. The signs don’t soften Pharoah’s heart, they do the opposite.

Have you ever experienced something similar in your life? Or seen it happen in another’s life?

Then we have the Plague of Gnats and the Plague of Flies. The flies don’t come over Goshen were the Israelites live. Then the Plague on the livestock of the Egyptians, the Plague of Boils, the Plague of Hail. The hail is the last straw and Pharaoh tells them they can go, but once the hail stops he changes his mind.

Next is the Plague of Locusts. During this scene Yahweh is called “The God of the Hebrews.”  Knowing what Hebrews means (see note on chapters 1-4) , how does that change the meaning of that name for God?   Now Pharoah’s officials are begging Pharaoh to let the people go. Pharaoh says only the men can go, but Moses says, “nope. We’re bringing everybody.” Pharaoh does not agree.

What do you think of what Pharoah says when he asks Moses and Aaron to pray to remove the plagues? – “I have sinned against the Lord your God and you. Do forgive my sin…”

The plague of Darkness is next- it lasts three days. Pharaoh says Moses can take all the people, old and young, but no livestock. Moses says, “no deal.”

Chapter 11 is a warning about the final plague. The Israelites are instructed to ask their Egyptian neighbors for silver and gold. That way they have valuables when Pharaoh “drives them away” after the last plague.

Chapter 12 includes instructions for how to observe the first Passover. The people are to eat the meal with girded loins, sandals on feet, staff in hand. (Gird your loins means to make your tunic into a makeshift pair of shorts by lifting the hem up between the legs and tucking it into a belt around the waist.) The instructions for eating the meal are not just for the first time, not just for the actual night of the Plague of the First Born, this is how they are to celebrate the Passover meal year after year. Ready. Prepared. You get the sense that they are going to jump up at any moment and go. They are nimble. They aren’t even to put down their staffs.

Chapter 12 goes on to talk about eating unleavened bread during the Passover. It says, “whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel.” They left Egypt in a hurry. No time to wait for loaves to rise. They eat unleavened bread every year to remember that “leaving Egypt is a dangerous, anxiety-ridden business.” Walter Brueggemann writes, “Anybody who has leavened bread is not ‘hurrying’ – i.e. is not participating in the urgency and anxiety of the memory.”

Now that the Plague of the First Born is complete the Egyptians want the Israelites out as soon as possible. Pharoah tells them to go and take their old and young, their herds and flocks. They end up plundering the Egyptians because when they asked their neighbors for silver and gold they gave it to them. So they leave Egypt with treasures.

Chapter 13 is more instruction for celebrating the Passover year after year.  It’s not a one time event, but a yearly celebration to remember what Yahweh did for the people.

The presence of God is always visible – a pillar of cloud at day and a pillar of fire at night. Why do you think this was important?

Pharoah was very happy to see the Israelites vacate Israel, but not anymore. Pharoah quickly forgets the plagues and wonders what they’ll do without the free labor. He sends chariots to pursue the people.

This is the first time the Israelites believe that they will die and that it would have been better to stay enslaved.  It seems like these crises create memory loss for everyone. Read Chapter 14:11-13.  How would you respond to the people?

Put yourself in the Israelite’s shoes.  How do you receive Moses’ words from verse 14? – “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”

Last month’s reading from Mark taught us that large bodies of water represented chaos for the ancients. When Jesus walked on the water it showed that Jesus was God – the only one able to control the chaos of the sea.  Here God is more than able to control the chaos of the sea – by splitting it in two so the people could walk through on dry ground.

When the waters close over the Egyptians it symbolizes the defeat of evil, the victory of God over oppression, enslavement, cruelty, and injustice.

We end our reading today with songs of victory, a longer song lead by Moses and a short chorus sung by Miriam.

Brueggemann writes,  “The Song of Moses is commonly recognized as one of the oldest, most radical, and most important poems in the Old Testament… the poem holds together a distinctive articulation of the story of liberation, with Israel moving from the world of Pharaoh’s oppression to the safe land of promise and the undercurrent thematic of a creation liturgy, which portrays and enacts God’s victory over the powers of chaos and the forming of the earth as a safe, ordered place for life.”

With these two joyous songs the story of the people’s enslavement and rescue is concluded. Now we move into the wilderness.