Jethro’s Advice

Story:  Jethro’s Advice

Passage: Exodus 18

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, Jethro

Summary:    Jethro met Israel with Moses’ wife and children.  Moses met with him and filled him in on all that had happened.  Jethro worshipped God.  Moses sat down to be a judge for the people and Jethro suggested he set up people who could do that for him.  He followed Jethro’s advice.

  

Notes:  I find it interesting that Moses did not have his wife and kids with him this whole time!  Apparently at some point he had sent them home.  I suspect it was because he expected some resistance from Pharaoh and he thought it would be safer to send them on.  When Moses told Jethro what had happened, he worshipped God.  Jethro realized that these events showed that God is greater than all other gods.  When Moses told him about the events, he started with what God had done to Egypt, then he talked about their hardships in the wilderness, and then God’s deliverance.  Unlike Israel, Moses did not stop his story with the hardships but continued on to God’s deliverance from the hardship.  This is significant because we all face hardship and it is easy to focus on that.  But if we don’t focus on how God dealt with the hardship, we will end up as depressed negative people with no trust in God.  The whole episode with the judges is interesting as well.  Moses was handling all of the cases Israelites had with each other.  Can you imagine the tens of thousands of people having only one judge?  This is obviously something Moses had not received a structure for.   As a go between between them and God, Moses was taking all of the authority on himself to interpret God’s laws for the people.  Jethro was a little more practical.  He suggested a structure with judges over ten, fifty, a hundred, and a thousand people.  These judges would handle smaller cases within their own groups.  Larger cases would be brought to Moses.  This allowed him to focus on leading the nation and communicating with God.  Jethro claimed that God would be with this plan and Moses obeyed.  Jethro is therefore the father of our judicial system!  Not really, but it is a similar setup.  Moses was the equivalent of the Supreme Court.  These judges had the responsibility of hearing a case and interpreting God’s laws for the people in reference to the case. 

Questions:  How long was Moses’ family with Jethro?  Did Jethro believe in God?  Where did Jethro get his idea?  Did it come from God?  How did Moses choose these judges?

Lessons:  One lesson I can see here is to not focus on your hardships but to trust God and when he delivers you, to focus on His deliverance.  The other lesson I see is to share the load.  Moses took the full load of judging the people on himself.  This would have worn him out and rendered him incapable of leading the nation the way he needed to.  It was not wrong for him to give that authority to others.  It just allowed him to focus his efforts on his own calling.

Bread from Heaven

Story:  Bread from Heaven

Passage: Exodus 16

Characters:  Moses, God, Israel

Summary:    The people traveled for another month and a half.  They grumbled against Moses and Aaron about the lack of bread.  The Lord said He would rain bread down from heaven.  Moses and Aaron told the people this.  God showed His glory to the people and told Moses what He was going to do in the presence of the people.  In the evening, He provided quail, and in the morning He provided manna, a bread like substance.  They were to only gather about 2 quarts per person per day.  However some people disobeyed.  They were to only gather 6 days a week and rest the seventh.  A sample of manna was kept in a jar to be a testament to God’s provision.  The Lord provided manna to the people for forty years. 

  

Notes:  There are some interesting things happening in this story.  We begin to once again see Israel’s stupidity, but once again, we have to remember that we are as bad as they are!  The people are complaining again.  They seem to be blaming Moses and Aaron for their lack of food.  They even claimed to prefer having died by God’s hand in Egypt while they still had food.  This is ridiculous in my opinion!  It shows how shortsighted the Israelites were!  They would rather have food but die than be hungry and live.  They were focused more on their comfort than on the purpose of their life and following God.  God tells Moses He is going to rain down bread from heaven for them every day.  He even says His reason to do this is to test if the people will walk in His law or not.  If I was told that God was doing this to test whether I would obey or not and this test was going to involve me eating food, I would be all for that!  Maybe I would slip up and mess up months into it.  But Israel couldn’t follow God’s command for 24 hours!  I’ll get to that in a minute.  Moses and Aaron knew what was really going on though.  They knew the people were actually grumbling against God.  God showed His glory to the entire congregation.  This is impressive and shows that the root of the problem was that the people did not believe that He was God.  After all of the wonders and provision they had already seen, they still did not understand His holiness!  I just don’t get that!  God does specifically say that He was going to provide bread and meat so that they may know that He is the Lord their God.  Sure enough, God covered the camp in quail in the evening and with a flaky fine honey tasting bread that the people called manna in the morning.  God’s instructions were to gather an omer, or about 2 quarts, per person per day, and to leave none of it until morning.  As it turns out, an omer was a perfect amount of manna for one person in one day! What do you know! Some people kept it until the next morning though.  Moses was angry with good reason.  This showed not only a lack of obedience, but also a lack of trust that God would continue to provide for them the next day!  The manna rotted and smelled and bred worms if it was kept until the next morning.  God provided double on the sixth day.  The people were told to keep half of it until the next day and to rest the next day.  This is the first occurrence of the Sabbath.  It is not just a day of rest, it is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord.  However, some people tried to gather manna on the seventh day! These people could not listen to instructions!  They obviously found nothing!  The cool think is that the manna did not rot on the Sabbath.  This was just another obvious sign that God was behind all of this!  When people disobeyed by trying to gather manna on the Sabbath, God got angry at Moses.  Then the people obeyed!  God wanted them to keep a sample of the manna.  He knew the people needed visual affirmation of His provision.  This manna was to remind them that He is capable and willing to provide for them and help them survive!  Interestingly, Christ is the bread of life provided for us when we were starving in the wilderness.  God is in the business of provision at every level of life!  That said, we are not to depend on the provision, but rather on the provider! 

Questions:  What did the people think of the manna?  Did some people dislike it?  How quickly did people get tired of it?  Why could the Israelites not just obey! 

Lessons:  God will provide!  And when you get angry about your circumstances, try to remember that God put you in those circumstances.  You are ultimately complaining about Him.  I highly recommend not doing that!  I also think we can learn from this some of the dangers of relying too much on comfort.  The people would have rather been comfortable while they died, than alive and following God.  That sounds so ridiculously rebellious and like a slap in the face of God, but we do that all of the time!  We put our comfort or our image above God constantly!  Following God should be the number one and the number two priorities in our life!  Nothing else should even come close, not even our own comfort or image.  

Death of the Firstborn and The Exodus

Story: Death of the Firstborn and The Exodus

Passage: Exodus 12:29-42

Characters:  Israel, Egypt, God

Summary:  The Lord struck down the firstborn of everyone in Egypt.  Pharaoh summoned Moses and told him to leave.  The Egyptians were urgent to get the Hebrews out of Egypt.  They feared for their lives.  The Israelites ate unleavened bread because they did not have time to fully prepare it.  They left Egypt with 600,000 men not counting women and children.  They had been in Egypt for 430 years.

Notes:  Every house in Egypt lost their firstborn.  From Pharaoh, to his lowliest servant, even to the flocks, no one was spared.  The passage says that everyone woke up in the night and Egypt was filled with wailing.  Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron after telling them that he would never see them again.  He tells them to leave once and for all.  Finally, the plagues became too much for him.  God had accomplished what He intended to accomplish through Pharaoh.  He had delivered the Israelites from death through the blood of a perfect lamb.  The Egyptians weren’t stupid!  Their land had been ruined!  They wanted to get the Israelites out of their country.  What impressed me the most out of this passage though is the fact that one family had become 600,000 men alone over a period of 430 years!  That is a massive slave force to lose!  And Egypt was losing their slaves right when they needed some significant work done!  By the way, that is 430 years to the day apparently!  The passage concludes by stating that it was a night of watching by the Lord, so the Passover has become a night of watching by Israel. 

Questions:  Could Egyptians have killed a lamb to be passed over?  Did any Egyptians leave with the Israelites?  Why did the Egyptians just give their gold and silver to the Hebrews?  What was the Lord watching for exactly? 

Lessons:  This is a story of deliverance.  God kept His promise and delivered Israel from the hand of Egypt.  We need to remember that even when it feels like God is distant, He never has left us and He will keep His promises!

A Final Plague Threatened

Story: A Final Plague Threatened

Passage: Exodus 11

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary: God had Moses and Aaron warn Pharaoh that there would be one last plague.  The Israelites were supposed to ask their neighbors for gold and silver jewelry and they would give it to them.  Moses warned Pharaoh that God would come down in the night and kill the firstborn of every person in Egypt from the Pharaoh to the lowliest servant.  Even animals would be affected.  After this Pharaoh will let the Israelites go.

Notes:  Not only would Pharaoh let them go, God says he will drive them out of Egypt.  Apparently, the Hebrews are not winning any popularity contests with Pharaoh.  Interestingly though, the Egyptian people seem to like them.  God says that their neighbors will just give them jewelry as they leave.  Moses is apparently a great man Egypt.  This final plague is awful.  Every firstborn child in Egypt will die.  This even affects animals.  The poor livestock in Egypt really took a hit from these plagues!  Egypt would be messed up after this is all over!  According to God though, the Israelites would not be affected.  His protection even extends to the Hebrew animals.  It is interesting to me that God lumps animals in with the people for Egypt and Israel.  I assume that this is because the animals also have the breath of life.  It appears to me that God set up a hierarchy of creation.  He set animals above many things, but under humans.  Humans were over creation in general but under God.  It is interesting that Moses was “hot with anger” after this encounter with Pharaoh.  I wonder if he inherited some of God’s frustration while delivering God’s message or if Moses himself was upset with Pharaoh. This passage concludes with a sentence which basically serves to change the direction of the narrative.  We are about to slow down and get more detail.  Any time the narrative slows down to give more detail there is a good chance that we are coming to an important part of the redemptive story of the Bible as a whole.

Questions:  Were the Israelites really immune to this final plague?  Did Pharaoh really not think that his son would die?  Hadn’t God come through on all of His other plagues?  What was the general reaction of the Egyptian people when they heard about this plague?   What have the magicians been doing for the last several plagues?

Lessons: Once again we learn that Pharaoh was not listening so that God’s wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.  This passage serves to show that God wants to be glorified.  The Egyptians elevated Pharaoh above God.  Pharaoh was considered to be a god himself.  God does what is necessary to show the Egyptian people that He alone deserves worship and glory.  He unleashes His power and judgment on Pharaoh and Egypt so that they would know that He is God.  It is vital that we understand that God is about God and that we give Him the worship and glory that He deserves.  From creation forward, we see that our purpose is to bring Him glory.  

Darkness

Story: Darkness

Passage: Exodus 10:21-29

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary: God told Moses to stretch out his hand and the land would be covered in darkness.  Moses obeyed and the land was dark for 3 days.  Pharaoh told Moses to go and they could take their kids with them.  But they were not allowed to take their livestock.  Moses said that they needed their livestock so that they could make sacrifices.  Pharaoh got really mad and told Moses to never show his face again or he would die.  Moses left.

Notes: This is described as a darkness to be felt!  That’s ridiculous!  For three days the people could not see each other and stayed home.   This was another plague which was unannounced.  Goshen was unaffected.  I wonder what caused this darkness.  I almost feel like the laws of physics had to change for the light to be so divided.  Pharaoh was fully aware that the Hebrews wanted to escape.  That is why he was going to allow all of the people to go without the animals.  The Israelites couldn’t escape into the desert without their livestock.  This would effectively keep them on a leash.  When Pharaoh heard Moses demand to take all of their animals he knew Moses was trying to trick him.  He was furious and vowed to kill Moses the next time he saw him.  Moses agreed and said he would never see him again.  This won’t turn out to be true, but this is one of the last times the two of them will see each other.  Once again, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened because of God.  God had one last display of power planned.  This last plague would prove to be significant in His redemptive plan for the world.  Because of this, we will get more description for the upcoming plague than for the previous nine.

Questions: What did the Hebrews think of this?  Were the Israelites getting any warning before the plagues?  Did the darkness confuse the Egyptians?  Did Pharaoh really think Moses would take the Israelites out of Egypt without their animals?

Lessons:  In this passage we see Moses standing his ground and easily speaking to Pharaoh on God’s behalf.   He is radically different from the Moses we saw at the burning bush.  Moses has seen the power and authority of the one he serves.  He realizes that he is on the winning side and it totally transforms him.  Are we totally transformed?  We are also on the winning side and we serve the same God with the same power.  Do we act like it?  We need to get a hold of the fact that we serve God, not some idea.  We are on the correct side and we need to let that transform the way we live our lives.

Locusts

Story: Locusts

Passage: Exodus 10:1-20

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:

God warned Pharaoh through Moses that He was going to cover the land with locusts.  Pharaoh’s servants begged him to give in to Moses’ demands.  Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron back and said he would let the men go worship. He refused to let all of the Israelites go however.  So God sent locusts into the land and they ate whatever plants survived the hail.  Pharaoh repented and asked Moses to plead on his behalf to God.  God took away the locusts.  But Pharaoh hardened his heart again.

Notes: First of all, God says that He is doing these plagues so that the Israelites and their children will know that He is the Lord.  This is interesting because God is hinting at the fact that they would need some reminding.  God’s issue with Pharaoh was that Pharaoh refused to humble himself.  The root issue here is pride.  I think this is the root issue for all sin, but this was a blatant representation of it.  Pharaoh’s servants realized what was happening and begged Pharaoh to let them worship God.  They pointed out that Egypt was already ruined.   Pharaoh agreed and said that they could serve the Lord in the desert, but he wanted to know who all was going to go.  Moses told him that the adults, children and animals were all going to go.  Pharaoh was not happy and assumed that Moses was trying to trick him.  I love that he swears by saying “the Lord be with you if I let your little ones go.”  Obviously the Lord was with Moses and Pharaoh did let everyone go eventually.  Pharaoh told him to take the men and worship since that is all they need.  Moses left and God sent in locusts.  I find it interesting that the passage specifies that the locusts came in with an east wind.  Pharaoh then sounded repentant.  He admitted to sinning against God and Moses, He asked for forgiveness and asked Moses to plead to God for him.  Moses did and God blew the locusts into the Red Sea.  Interestingly, He did not have the locusts die in the land like He did with the frogs.  Pharaoh hardened his heart again though.  This story shows that you can say all the right things and sound repentant but you might not be in your heart.  Pharaoh said the right things but he did not mean it.  I just want to point out that Pharaoh’s issues stem from him worrying about his image.  As one of the most powerful men on earth, it would look terrible if he allowed his entire slave base to just walk out of the country.  If he wanted to maintain his image, he could not afford to let them go even for a short time.

Questions:  How many of Pharaoh’s servant supported Pharaoh by this point?  What did the Egyptian public think?  Was Moses surprised that Pharaoh knew that the Israelites were going to try to run for it?

Lessons:  This passage shows me the importance of being truly repentant in your heart.  As prideful humans, this is impossible unless we let the Spirit convict us of our sin an.  If we listen to the Spirit, we will see how insufficient we are compared to Christ and He will lead us to His forgiveness.  If our repentance is based in making much of God rather than making much of ourselves, Christ’s amazing grace and mercy is ready for us.  If we are not truly repentant though, we are leaving ourselves open to His punishment and judgment.  

Hail

Story: Hail

Passage: Exodus 9:13-35

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary: 
God warns Pharaoh that the next plagues will be on Pharaoh’s heart.  God warns that hail will fall that will kill anyone outside. Those who feared God took cover and were spared, but those who ignored God were struck down.  It did not hail in Goshen.  Pharaoh said he had sinned and said he would let them go.  Moses doubted Pharaoh’s sincerity but he prayed and God stopped the hail.  But Pharaoh hardened his heart again and did not let the people go.

Notes: I actually found a lot of interesting stuff in this passage!  First, the Lord specifies that now the plagues will be sent on Pharaoh himself, or on his heart depending on how you translate the Hebrew.  God gives the reason for this; that they may know there is none like God in all the Earth.  God actually goes into a lot of detail explaining the reason for these plagues.  He points out that He could have wiped Egypt out long ago.  The reason for all these drawn out plagues is not merely punishment, but so that God’s name would be proclaimed in all the Earth when they see His power.   In fact, God says that this is the reason He raised Pharaoh up.  I find this terrifying honestly.  I have heard it said that God is for God.  God’s ultimate will is for His own glory.  That is why He created us, that is why He saved us, for His own glory.  This is hard to accept, I prefer to think I play a bigger role in God’s plans, but this passage sure seems to support it.  It seems that we exist to bring God glory.  Pharaoh did not willingly glorify God, but God still used his life to bring Himself glory.  God’s end goal was not punishment for Pharaoh, but glory for Himself.  In fact, everything God does indeed seems to be for His own glory.  Eternal punishment seems cruel, but it is just.  God is the only perfect holy being.  He is the only one in the universe who deserves glory and worship.  When we choose not to give that glory and worship to Him but rather focus it on creation, we disqualify ourselves from eternal unity with Him.  Think about it, what is the purpose of heaven?  Is it for our enjoyment and pleasure?  No! It is for worship.  Heaven is about glorifying God for eternity because He alone deserves it!  Once we turn our worship to other things, it makes total rational sense that we are no longer able to worship Him for eternity without some change in us.  That change came through Christ.  But anyway, my point is that God’s glory comes first.  That is the reason that the Egyptian people suffered through ten agonizing plagues rather than being instantly wiped out.  God is not cruel. God just deserves the glory we are giving to other things.  He is jealous for our attention.  We find out in the next verse that Pharaoh was still exalting himself above the Israelites.  That is the core issue here.  Pharaoh was making himself god, as was the Egyptian tradition.  Pharaoh was not just denying the true God, he was blatantly trying to replace Him.
This is an interesting plague in that God allowed people who believed and feared Him to be spared.  We read that some of Pharaoh’s servants did indeed fear God and took shelter.  Some left their servants and livestock outside though.  I wonder if any Hebrew slaves were left outside.  Anyway, apparently it hailed for quite some time.  Pharaoh sounded repentant.  He claimed he had sinned against God and he was wrong.  Moses straight up told Pharaoh that God would end the hail, but Pharaoh was lying.  This ended up being true.  Pharaoh once again hardened his heart.  This is called sin by the way.  Pharaoh did nothing physical that was sinful here.  Simply hardening his heart was considered sin.  I find it interesting that some of the crops had not grown yet and were thus unaffected.  Even in God’s judgment, He provided for the Egyptian survivors.  This shows that even in His justice, He was loving.  Even as He destroyed, He provided.  This also supports the fact that His main goal is His glory.

Questions:  Were any Hebrew slaves left in the storm?  Why did God raise Pharaoh up just to destroy him?  Why was Pharaoh still not repentant?  How many Egyptians believed God and were spared?

Lessons:  This passage shows us a little bit about the character of God.  We see examples of His righteous jealousy.  While this is a little scary, it is also encouraging.  It shows us that God deserves and desires our worship.  When we give God glory with our lives, He is pleased.  This isn’t selfish because He deserves that glory.  This passage should show us how important it is to not exalt ourselves, others, or other things above God.  We need to give Him the glory He deserves.  Our whole lives need to be for His glory and not our own.  When we put our image, our finances, our comfort, etc. above Him, we are giving our affections to His creation which does not deserve our affections.  Keep your affections on the creator.

Livestock Die and Boils

Story: Livestock Die and Boils

Passage: Exodus 9:1-12

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh



Summary: Moses warned Pharaoh that if he didn’t let them worship, god would strike the Egyptian livestock with a plague.  Pharaoh ignored the warning and all of the Egyptian livestock died, but not one of the Hebrew livestock died.  Pharaoh still hardened his heart.  God told Moses to throw handfuls of soot from a kiln into the air and the people and animals would get boils.  They did it and it happened.  The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart and he did not let them go.

Notes: This is the second plague which did not affect the Israelites.  The cow was considered sacred in Egypt.  To kill all of the cows was a direct attack on the Egyptian religious system.  I find it interesting that Pharaoh actually checked to see if Israel was indeed unaffected by the plague, but when he saw it was true, he did not let them go.  The next plague came without warning, just like the gnats.  These boils were painful and probably burned.  The animals were also affected by this plague.  That is the animals who were not livestock were affected.  The Egyptians had a God of medicine.  The magicians did not appear in public because they also had boils.  This showed that God was stronger than their god of medicine.  I wonder if they were required not to appear so that the Egyptian people would not know that they too were affected.  It amazes me that Pharaoh still hardened his heart!  At this point, he had to know that he would be ruined if he kept denying God.

Questions:  Why did Pharaoh harden his heart when he knew that God was behind these plagues?  How did the Egyptian people feel about what was going on?  Were they angrier at the Israelites or Pharaoh?  How did the Hebrews feel at this point?  Did the boils affect Israelites as well?  Was Pharaoh affected?

Lessons:  Pharaoh looks like an idiot in this passage.  We need to careful to learn from his mistake though.  When God told him what to do and what the consequence would be if he did not obey, Pharaoh ignored and despised God.  How many times does God give us a command with a promise or a consequence?  How seriously do we take it?  Let’s be honest here, often times we don’t take it that seriously.  Aren’t we just acting like Pharaoh when we do this?  We need to take God’s word as if it was spoken by an all powerful and holy ruler and creator of the universe.  Because it was.

Flies

Story: Flies

Passage: Exodus 8:20-32

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:  God gave Pharaoh another chance.  This time if he didn’t obey, He would send swarms of flies into Egypt.  Houses would be filled; even the ground would be covered.  This time though, God would spare Goshen, where the Israelites lived.    This happened and Pharaoh decided the people could sacrifice within Egypt.  Moses said that wasn’t good enough so Pharaoh gave them permission to leave as long as the flies disappeared.  Moses prayed to God and the flies disappeared, but Pharaoh hardened his heart and didn’t let them leave.

Notes: This plague was the first to leave the Israelites unharmed.  God did this to show the Egyptians that He was the Lord.  The flies, just like the gnats, made the Egyptians’ sacrifices invalid.  The Hebrew actually only calls it a swarm.  It does not specify what it is a swarm of.    It could have been any insect really.  Pharaoh compromised and decided they could sacrifice in Egypt.  Moses reminded him about the social issues with them sacrificing in Egypt and then Pharaoh clearly promised that they could leave.   I find it interesting that Pharaoh wanted Moses to plead for the flies to leave.  That shows that he knew God was behind this.  He did not cry out to God himself though and he didn’t seem to actually fear God very much since he immediately took back his promise.  This time, the passage says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. I wonder if God was involved in this or if Pharaoh’s pride had taken over at this point.

Questions:  Why did Pharaoh harden his heart when he knew that God was behind these plagues?  How did the Egyptian people feel about what was going on?  Were they angrier at the Israelites or Pharaoh?  How did the Hebrews feel at this point?  Did they actually believe that Pharaoh was letting them go?  Was there celebrating?

Lessons:  Sometimes we cry out to God when things are tough.  But then, when things are good we forget Him and rely on ourselves.  This is exactly what we see happen here.  I suspect that Pharaoh did not deliberately lie to Moses, but rather that he rethought things after the flies left.  As awful as this looks to us, we do the same thing.  When we are clearly insufficient, we let God be God.  But as soon as we have the slightest hint of control, we make ourselves our god and we put the true God second.  When we do this, we are just as guilty as Pharaoh was in this passage.

Frogs, Gnats

Story: Frogs, Gnats

Passage: Exodus 8:1-19

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:  God told Moses to go to Pharaoh again.  If Pharaoh did not listen, God would send frogs to fill the land.  Moses obeyed and Pharaoh did not listen so frogs filled the land.  Pharaoh’s magicians duplicated this as well.  Pharaoh called for Moses and told him that if he got rid of the frogs, he would let them go worship.  Moses had Pharaoh pick a time for the frogs to leave and Pharaoh picked the next day.  Moses cried out to God and the frogs died the next day and stink.  When Pharaoh saw the frogs were gone he changed his mind and didn’t let Israel go.  Then God told Moses to tell Aaron to strike the dust of the earth. The dust became gnats which covered all the people and animals.  The magicians could not duplicate this so they decided that this was done by God.  Pharaoh did not listen though. 

Notes: God chose frogs because the frog was worshipped in Egypt.  It was illegal to kill a frog.  The Egyptians soon realized how stupid it was to worship frogs.  I love that the magicians duplicated this as well.  All they did was contribute to the problem.  Pharaoh’s magicians could never solve the problem, only duplicate it.  Pharaoh was treating Moses like God.  Instead of crying to God himself, he went to Moses.  Pharaoh promised to let the people leave to worship the Lord.  Moses wanted Pharaoh to know for sure that God was responsible for the frogs though so he made him pick a time for the frogs to leave.  Pharaoh picked the next day which would have been impossible by natural causes.  But God did it.  The frogs died wherever they were, even in the houses.  The passage says that the land stank.  I’m sure that was an understatement.  They piled the dead frogs in heaps.  I wonder if there were people whose job it was to cart the heaps of frogs to the Nile and dump them in.  Pharaoh changed his mind.  He didn’t care about his promise; he just wanted to be rid of frogs!  The next plague came without warning to Pharaoh.  I find it interesting that Aaron is still doing all of the actions.  I wonder if Moses was wishing he had listened to God the first time now.  God would tell Moses what to do and Moses would then have to tell Aaron to do it.  The gnats were significant because the Egyptians were obsessed with cleanliness.  If yo had a bug issue, you weren’t allowed to worship.  The passage states that this plague also infected the livestock which means the animals couldn’t be sacrificed.  This plague put Egypt’s religion on hold.  God was showing His superiority over their idols.  Up to this point, Israel is also affected by these plagues.  The magicians can no longer imitate these plagues.  They now realize that this is God’s doing and not Moses’.  At this point, I bet they are panicking as they realize what they are up against.  Pharaoh however will not listen to logic and does not listen.  Unfortunately for Pharaoh, God’s just getting started. 

Questions:  What did the Israelites think of these plagues?  Did they get mad at Moses?  Did Moses care anymore?  How did the magicians create frogs?  Why couldn’t they produce gnats?  Were they panicking as they realized who they were up against?

Lessons:  God is more powerful than anything.  He deserves all of our attention.  When we put something ahead of God, we are making a huge mistake.  Sometimes I think we subconsciously decide something is more important than God.  We would never state that out loud, but we act like it.  God shows in this passage that He is bigger and more powerful than anything the Egyptians worshipped.  We need to make sure we don’t put creation above the creator in our hearts.  

Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh

Story: Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh

Passage: Exodus 7:1-13

Characters:  Moses, Aaron, God, Pharaoh

Summary:  God told Moses that He had made him like God to Pharaoh.  Moses would speak what God told him to speak and Aaron would say it to Pharaoh.  God warned that Pharaoh would harden his heart even though God would use signs and wonders.  Egypt would know that God is God when He leads His people out of Egypt.  Moses and Aaron obeyed.  Pharaoh demanded a sign so Aaron cast down his staff and it became a snake.  Pharaoh’s magicians were able to imitate the sign but Aaron’s staff ate their staffs.  But Pharaoh would not listen.  

Notes:  I have a few thoughts on this passage.  First of all, this passage gives us a little bit of insight into the dynamic of God speaking to us through prophets.  If Pharaoh represents humanity, then Moses was representing God.  Moses spoke and Aaron repeated Moses’ words to Pharaoh.  Thus, even though Aaron did the work, the credit goes to Moses.  In the same way, the prophets’ messages were not from themselves, but from God.  I find it interesting that Pharaoh did not deny them because he had hardened his heart, but rather because God had hardened his heart.  Pharaoh had the choice to listen to Moses, but God had hardened his heart so he did not.  I believe God left Pharaoh with the choice to listen, but He altered Pharaohs heart enough that he had no desire to listen.  Thus God was in total control even though He technically gave Pharaoh the choice.  Sometimes I think we don’t have free will, but rather we simply have will.  God can and apparently does manipulate that will, but it is technically still our will.  At first glance this is terribly unjust.  The poor Pharaoh has no choice but to deny Moses and eventually pays for it with his life.  How is that just?  But we need to remember that A. he did have a choice to listen even if he didn’t have the will to listen and B. Pharaoh deserved death just like all of us.  The injustice here is not that Pharaoh died when we had no choice but to oppose the Israelites, but rather that the Israelites lived even though they continually stopped following God.  That is the injustice.  Verses 6 and 10 show growth in Moses and Aaron.  In both those verses we read that Moses and Aaron did “just as the Lord had commanded them”.  They were done arguing.  Whatever God told them a couple of chapters ago transformed them.  They knew Pharaoh would ignore them but now they were prepared.  They had regained their focus on God and not on their circumstances.  I don’t know how Pharaoh’s magicians turned their staffs into snakes.  I don’t know if it was an illusion or if they actually turned them into living snakes.  I have to think it was an illusion because life coming from something dead should only be done by God.  If it was an illusion, they must have been confused when Aaron’s staff ate theirs but was no bigger when it became a staff again!  This would be enough to convince me that I should pay attention, but God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart enough that he does not even seem to consider listening to them.

Questions:  What did the magicians think when their staffs were eaten?  At what point did Moses and Aaron regain their focus?

Lessons:  God does not use prophets in the same way that he used to, but in the New Testament we see that one of the gifts of the Spirit is prophecy.  The Spirit acts like a prophet for us now.  He is the go between for us and God.  We also should learn from Moses and Aaron’s obedience.  This is obviously quite a change from their former ways.  We need to be as obedient as Moses.  When he heard his mission would fail he stayed with it because his success was not based in results, but in obedience to God.

The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron

Story: The Genealogy of Moses and Aaron

Passage: Exodus 6:14-30

Characters:  Lots of random people

Summary:  This is just a list of people in the genealogy of Moses and Aaron.  At the end, we get a summary of where the story of Moses is right now.  God tells Moses to speak to Pharaoh and Moses expresses doubt that Pharaoh will listen to him.

Notes:  I always wonder about the lives of the people mentioned in lists like this.  We know nothing about them, but their lives were probably just as interesting as those who are mentioned.  Interestingly, this genealogy includes a Canaanite woman, and a man marrying his Aunt.  Every now and then, a wife is mentioned by name. Today, we have no idea who some of these names were, but in Moses’ time, these names must have been well known. The genealogies are given the most detail for Aaron’s descendants and Korah’s descendants.  This is because both families will play a role in the coming chapters.  This passage is giving background for the upcoming narrative.

Questions:  Why were these people mentioned?  How many cool stories did these people have that we no longer know?  How well known were these names to the original audience of this book?

Lessons:  Honestly, a lesson is hard to pull from this passage.  We see at the end of the passage once again that God tells Moses what to do and Moses doubts God.  We can shake our heads at Moses’ stupidity all we want, but are we any different?  Do we trust God with the impossible or do we limit our trust in Him to what is already possible?

Making Bricks without Straw

Story: Making Bricks Without Straw

Passage: Exodus 5

Characters:  Moses, Israel, Pharaoh

Summary:  Moses and Aaron asked Pharaoh to let them sacrifice in the desert for three days.  Pharaoh did not acknowledge God and denied their request.  They asked again and Pharaoh refused again.  Pharaoh then told the Egyptian foremen to no longer give the Hebrews straw to make bricks, but to require the same quota of bricks.  The Israelites struggled and were could not meet the demands.  When they complained to Pharaoh he blamed Moses so the Israelites blamed Moses.  Moses asked why God ever sent him.  He blamed God for not delivering His people.

Notes:  Moses was feeling good after the favorable reaction of his fellow Hebrews.  He went to Pharaoh with Aaron and told him that God had commanded Pharaoh to let the people go worship in the desert.  Pharaoh was probably suspicious of the Israelites motives.  He also was not willing to submit to this God.  Remember, in Egypt, Pharaoh was a god.  Who was this Hebrew God that would allow Him to tell Pharaoh what to do?  Moses tries again, but once again he is rejected. Pharaoh did not want to lose this huge workforce he had created.  To teach Moses a lesson, he made the workload essentially impossible for the Israelites.  They were given no straw but expected to make the same number of bricks.  If they failed, they were beaten.  The burden on the Israelites became so great that they personally complained to Pharaoh, but Pharaoh told them that they were lazy and wanted a break.  Interestingly, Moses and Aaron were not in this meeting, but were waiting outside.  The people knew very well that Moses and Aaron were the reason for the greater workload.  They blamed Moses and Aaron and asked the Lord to judge them.  Moses was desperate.  He told God that He was not delivering His people and that He had done evil to his people.  He asked God why he was sent in the first place.  Moses had trouble listening to God.  God said that the Israelites would believe him, but Moses doubted that.  God told him that Pharaoh would not believe, but Moses was discouraged and ready to give up when Pharaoh rejected their request.  God had told Moses everything he had to know but once things were tough, Moses was ready to give up.

Questions:  Did Pharaoh know that the Israelites were going to try to escape?  Why were Moses and Aaron not in the second meeting with Pharaoh?  Was this Pharaoh related to Moses?  Did they know each other growing up?  If so, who was older? If they were siblings, could there have been jealousy that Moses was on his brother Aaron’s side instead of his own?

Lessons:  In this passage, we see that what God said would happen happened even if it was a bad thing.  We need to learn to trust God is in control even when things don’t make sense and don’t seem to be going ours or God’s way.  God is in control and He is controlling the situation so that He is brought glory!