Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

Moses starts out full of insecurity. He’d spent so much time meditating on his mistake that we was full of his inability to function away from God (John 15:5). He had no balance provided by the knowledge that God would be with him, enabling him to accomplish whatever was required (Philippians 4:13). God was trying to get him there. He was providing good words and good thoughts about His character. He had already revealed Himself as a God who lived in the future.

God asked Moses what he was holding. It was a rod. A stick. God told him to throw it on the ground and he obeyed. It turned into a snake and Moses almost ran away. It was close. God told Moses to pick it up by the tail. The dangerous part. It could EASILY have bit him. This was a tremendous act of trust and submission. He had to be willing to die obeying. And he was. The snake turned back into a rod. It was still a hunk of wood, but it was now something more (like Moses himself). From this point on, it is called the Rod of God.

He got two more signs for the people that God said would believe the signs: a hand turning leprous when put inside clothing and then made whole when the action was repeated. He was also told he could pour water on the ground and it would turn to blood.

So. Moses has been told God is the (current) God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God of the future. Three miraculous signs to perform. And that the Israelites would believe Him.

Moses tries to beg off. Again. He cites a lack of good speech. Again. God had had enough. He told Moses fine. God mentioned Moses’ brother Aaron. Would HE do? Could HE speak clearly enough for Moses? Moses wisely said yes, Aaron was fine. God told him to go to Egypt where Pharaoh would NOT believe right away, but who WOULD eventually let the people go.

Moses took his wife and his son and started toward Egypt. Problem though. His son was circumcised and circumcision was THE mark of a covenant with God. God is a covenant keeping god. He makes them and He is faithful to them. We don’t get the opportunity to be saved because we deserve it. We get it because God made a covenant. Covenant is important. God came against Moses for not keeping Covenant and Moses’ wife Zipporah came to his rescue and circumcised their son. Aaron shows up after this and Moses tells him everything that happened with God. It’s an odd relationship and not the strongest one for the situation. The people would only hear Moses through Aaron and Aaron would only hear God through Moses. They took the message to the elders (as commanded) and they believed and worshipped God because He had heard them.

After this they go to Pharaoh and demand he let the Israelites go three days’ journey into the desert and make sacrifices to God. Pharaoh claimed not to know the Hebrew god. He didn’t see why he should. In fact, this VERY arrogant Pharaoh decided that not only would they not be let go, they would be punished. He decreed that no straw would be given for the making of bricks (for the building projects they slaves at like the storage cities). But their daily quota would not be reduced in any way.

The taskmasters pushed their charges, demanding fulfillment of their quota. The Israelites felt this demand for doing two jobs at the same time was unfair and a delegation came to Pharaoh to appeal to his sense of justice. This is when they learned that it was all because Moses and Aaron were asking for their release. Pharaoh pointed the finger squarely at them. The intimation was that if this line of inquiry continued, things would get worse. He was trying to turn the people against Moses and nip it all in the bud. It worked. When the delegation left, they came across Moses and Aaron and gave them a LARGE piece of their mind. In fact, they cursed the day Moses arrived – as if before then they had an easy time of it.

“Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘I am Yahweh” (Genesis 6:6a)

Moses immediately went to God whining ‘I told you so’. They don’t listen. They’re rejecting me. And Pharoah said no. Why did you even have me come?

The Lord, being Gracious, didn’t smack Moses upside the head. Instead, God did two things. First, He reminded Moses of all that He had said before (God told him everything that would happen), renewing the promises of deliverance. Second, for the first time ever, God shared His personal name: Yahweh (Yod Heh Vav Heh or JHVH). Not only the God who Promises, but the God who Fulfills Promises. He told Moses to tell the Israelites He WOULD bring them out from under their burden. That they would become His people and He would become their God – a personal relationship based in covenant. He would deliver what He had sworn to their forefathers to deliver.This is all covenant language. His name is a covenant name.

Moses spoke to the Israelites (through Aaron), but they refused to listen. They were too busy bemoaning their new circumstances. God told Moses to talk to Pharaoh again. Moses must have drug his feet, because God spoke and commanded: Go tell Pharoah to let the Israelites out of the land.

Next, there is a genealogy to establish that although Moses was raised in Egypt under Egyptian ways and had been in Midian for forty years, he in fact WAS a Hebrew. That he and Aaron had impeccable pedigree.

This section closes with Moses AGAIN saying he was unskilled in speech. This is the fourth time he used this excuse. He REALLY didn’t want to do this in the face of total opposition. Pharaoh didn’t want to see him. The Israelites didn’t want to see him OR have him talk to Pharaoh. Everyone was against him. (This is probably when he sent his wife back to her family with his son to keep them safe. Later they are reunited.)

Summary

Key Players: Moses, Zipporah, Adonai (the Lord), Pharaoh

Key Themes: Obedience, Covenant, Refusal

Key Verse(s): Exodus 4:1, 10, 13, 14-17, 25, 31; 5:3-8, 17-18, 20-21; 6:1-5, 9-12, 28-30