The Story and History of Exodus - Part 3: ch.5-7:1-13

1. PRAYER
God of all who wander in the wilderness,
guide us through danger,
sustain us through desolation,
and bring us home to the place
you have prepared for us.
Amen.

2. Based on the approved budget for 2023,
anticipating $250,000 in giving, we need
$20,833/month on average.
JULY offerings: $16,078 -$4,755; $1,598 > Jul ’22
AUG offerings: $14,993 -$5,840; $3,988 > Aug ’22 SEP
offerings: $16,625 -$4,208; $3,040 > Sep ’22
-$47,996 off pace for 2023;
$417 ahead of this time ’22 Woohoo!
SEPTEMBER GIVING UPDATE
$

4. When it comes to much of
the Biblical story:
Is it REAL? < Is it TRUE?

5. Some modern scholars, arguing from
the silence of Egyptian sources on any
Hebrew slave population (not to speak
of any mention of an exodus) have
raised doubts about whether the
Hebrews were ever in Egypt…
Yet, it also hard to imagine that the
nation would have invented a story of
national origins involving the
humiliation of slavery without some
kernel of historical memory.
ROBERT
ALTER

6. EXODUS 5:1-2
And afterward Moses and Aaron came
and said to Pharaoh, “This is what the Lord,
the God of Israel says: ‘Let My people go
so that they may celebrate a feast to Me
in the wilderness.’” But Pharaoh said,
“Who is the Lord that I should obey
His voice to let Israel go? I do not know
the Lord, and besides, I will not let Israel go.”

7. EXODUS 5:3
Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews
has met with us. Please, let us go a three days’
journey into the wilderness so that we may
sacrifice to the Lord our God, otherwise He
will strike us with plague or with the sword.”

8. There’s nothing to suggest from
the earlier part of the story that
the Israelites would be punished
by God for not leaving!
(Economic threat? Plea for mercy?
Genuine fear if they don’t go?) Perhaps
Moses should have performed a sign
or two, like
God told him to. I’m not sure why
he didn’t. This scene might have
played out very differently.

10. EXODUS 5:22-23
Then Moses returned to the Lord and said,
“Lord, why have You brought harm to this people?
Why did You ever send me?
Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak
in Your name, he has done harm to this
people, and You have not rescued
Your people at all.”

11. Translation: “This has been
a disaster since the beginning
and it’s all your fault. Oh, and
I TOLD YOU SO!” (And notice: there’s)
no chiding of Moses
for lack of faith. No “how dare
you question Me?!”

12. GOD’S ACTIONS SCRIPTURE
Reveals name the
Divine Name YHWH
3:13-15;
6:2
Announces hearing
of Israel’s misery
3:7-9;
6:5
Gives Moses words
to speak to the Israelites
3:13-17;
6:6-8
Gives Moses words
to speak to Pharoah
3:18, 4:22;
6:11, 28 – 7:2
MULTIPLE TRADITIONS. SAME STORY.

13. MOSES/AARON SCRIPTURE
Moses complains
he’s a “poor speaker”
4:10;
6:12, 30
God graciously doesn’t
get angry w/Moses
4:14;
6:13
Aaron installed
as Moses’ mouthpiece
4:14-16;
7:1-2
MULTIPLE TRADITIONS. SAME STORY.

14. Editors normally have very good
reasons for doing what they do,
even if producing a smooth, non-
choppy story isn’t one of them.
The editor is more interested
in preserving voices rather than
silencing them. This alternate
version of Moses’ call is inserted here
because the two versions
cover the same topic and so
belong together.

15. EXODUS 6:14-16, 20, 26a, 27a
These are the heads of their fathers’
households. The sons of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn:
…And the sons of Simeon:…And these are the
names of the sons of Levi according to their
generations… Now Amram married his father’s
sister Jochebed, and she bore him Aaron and
Moses…It was this same Aaron and Moses
…who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt.

16. EXODUS 7:1-3
Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made
you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron
shall be your prophet. As for you, you shall speak
all that I command you, and your brother Aaron
shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons
of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden
Pharaoh’s heart*, so that I may multiply
My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

17. EXODUS 7:10-12
So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and so
they did, just as the Lord had commanded; and
Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh
and his servants, and it turned into a serpent.
Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men
and the sorcerers, and they too…did the same
with their secret arts. For each one threw
down his staff, and they turned into serpents.
But Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs.

18. The noun used here (for “serpent”),
tanin, is not the ordinary word
for “snake.” The tanin is usually
a larger threatening reptile, and is
sometimes used for the Egyptian
crocodile, or a mythological dragon.
ROBERT
ALTER

19. The god of the Nile

20. Aaron throws down his staff on the
ground in front of Pharoah, which
might be an easy detail to skip over,
but for you careful readers out there,
according to 4:1-5, Moses’ staff was to
have been front and center. Now it’s
Aaron’s. (See: multiple traditions!)

21. Snakes (cobras) were symbols of the
power behind the Egyptian throne.
For this reason, according to the
internal logic of the story, the Egyptian
magicians were able to turn their staffs
into snakes as well. Good for them, but
they missed the point of Aaron’s snake
eating theirs.
Sometimes symbolism isn’t obvious,
other times it is. This is one of those
times. Egypt is doomed.

22. EXODUS 7:1-3
Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made
you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron
shall be your prophet. As for you, you shall speak
all that I command you, and your brother Aaron
shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons
of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden
Pharaoh’s heart*, so that I may multiply
My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

23. Are we actually to believe that
God would intentionally harden the
hearts of leaders so they and their
people would be slaughtered?
And what sense can be made of
the depiction of YHWH endowing
Moses/Aaron with supernatural power
to persuade Pharoah to
let God’s people go, only to turn
around and harden his heart so
he would not be persuaded?

24. 1. God actively/intentionally did this to
Pharoah’s heart, but only after seeing
Pharoah’s character doing this over
and over again…
THREE WAYS to LOOK at IT

25. 1. God actively/intentionally did this to
Pharoah’s heart, but only after seeing
Pharoah’s character doing this over
and over again…
2. God passively allowed Pharoah’s heart
to be hardened, and allowed him to
experience the self-fulfilling
consequences of his choices; falsely
ascribed to God due to culture…
THREE WAYS to LOOK at IT

26. 3. The focus should be on the internal
logic of the narrative and what the
culturally conditioned perspective of
the writers is trying to say about the
power of Israel’s God against the puny
gods of Egypt (I.e. This is intended as
ANE spiritual trash talk, not as a literal
assessment of the specific realities of
God’s character; God isn’t like a cat
with a mouse!)
THREE WAYS to LOOK at IT
?!

27. God SEES and
God KNOWS
and God LOVES.
PART 1

28. In the face
of our own
INADEQUACIES
God says,
“I will be WITH you.”
PART 2

29. 21st century Christians
don’t have to let
ANCIENT portraits
of God dictate OUR
vision of God;
JESUS does that!
PART 3(a)

30. 21st century standards
of HISTORY or SCIENCE
shouldn’t
be IMPOSED on
the TEXT; let the TEXT
be/speak for itself
PART 3(b)

31. A Prayer For The People of God
God of miracles and mercy,
to whom all of creation sings praise.
Your grace is extravagant and unexpected.
Lead us to repentance and the
acceptance of your grace, that we may
witness to your love that embraces both
those we call friend and stranger.
Amen.