Exodus 1 - 4: Meet Mr. Moses!

When we last saw the Israelites, at the end of Genesis, I was a little confused by how well they seemed to be doing. With Joseph basically running Egypt for the Pharoah, his kinsmen looked to be in pretty good shape. With their flocks happily grazing on the lush fields of Goshen, they were living well, multiplying fruitfully and the whole bit. You certainly didn't get the impression that they needed to led away from oppression and subjegation in a biblical epic starring Charlton Heston.

As Exodus opens, however, a generation has passed, and we are told that in the meantime things have not gone well for Jacob's descendants. A new administration has come to power, and shows no interest whatsoever in courting the Israelite vote. Consolidating his power by exploiting anti-immigrant sentiment -- a strategy that has proved sadly durable -- the new Pharaoh encourages the enslavement of the group that is now called the "Hebrews."

In a particularly grim piece of public policy, the new Pharaoh further decrees that all male Hebrew babies must be killed by being thrown in the Nile. One Hebrew woman interprets this loosely, throwing her baby into the nile in a waterproofed papyrus basket, whereupon he is found a way downstream by Pharaoh's daughter, and... well.... you know how this goes, right?

Moses

There is nothing written about Moses' upbringing in the royal family. We meet him as a young man, when he kills an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew. The episode seems incomplete, in that Egyptians were by this point apparently beating Hebrews pretty ubiquitously, but no matter. Moses dodges the rap by getting out of town. He goes and lives in the Sinai, where he marries a nice local girl, Zipporah, and settles down to work in his father-in-law's business, which is of course herding.

It is at work, tending herd, that Moses sees the famous burning bush, from which God speaks to him. Moses and God have a long conversation, in which Moses is charged with the responsibility of going to Egypt and leading the Hebrews to the land that they have been promised so often. [This property, interestingly, is referred to twice (3:8, 3:17) as the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. That God is giving the Hebrews a territory which already belongs to six other nationalities, none of whom are privy to the deal, is ominous foreshadowing of certain troubles that will crop up over the next 4000 years.]

God has an answer to both of Moses' main objections. Because he worrys that he will not be believed by the Hebrews, God provides him with a magical staff that can, among other things, turn into a snake. And because Moses is not especially articulate, God fetches his brother Aaron, who will function as the mouthpiece and press secretary. So, Moses and Aaron return to Egypt, and rally the Hebrews.

Wonder of Wonder, Miracle of Miracles

It's interesting that God, who I was always taught pretty much demands faith up front, is going to offer the Hebrews miracles to extablish Moses' credentials. It kind of begs the question, why can't we get some miracles to reassure us of God's existance?

Now there are of course people about who claim to have experienced miracles, but it is important to emphasize -- with all due respect to their experience and belief -- that they are dead wrong. They were, in whatever circumstances they wish to report, merely very lucky. A miracle is not required to enjoy good luck. To call one's own good luck a miracle is to claim God's favor relative to those suffering bad luck, which is really, when you think about it, self-serving at best and potentially quite odious. So cut it out, y'all, with claiming miracles.

Unless, that is, you want to say something along the lines of "every [sunrise / waterfall / look at my baby's face / container of Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream] is a miracle." I recognize this kind of thing as a fine and healthy sentiment. It does rather dilute the concept of "miracle," however.

A miracle, a true miracle, needs to be a twist in the laws of physics or of the line between life and death. And really, it makes perfect sense that God wouldn't want to hand them out like candycorn. If everyone got to witness a miracle every time their faith was a little shaky, they would be so common that they would no longer be a violation of the basic laws of the universe. (and you know how we are. We'd just want one little miracle -- but then, a year later, we'd want some kind of confirmation that what we'd seen was real, or that God still existed -- and before long, we'd be wanting them as a regular part of the Sunday service. We're annoying that way, we humans.) They would become merely one of those things that happens sometimes, something encompassed by rather than outside of the basic constants that dictate how the world works.

So if you buy all of that, we can assume that God would be pretty sparing in playing the miracle card. His use of it here suggests that this is a pretty important point in his overall plan, but it doesn't show a lot of confidence in Moses' ability to get the team fired up with his natural leadership skills.

Solitaire on an Epic Scale

We naturally think of the coming conversations between Moses and Pharaoh as being a dialogue carried out between the leaders of two communities, each acting with their personal and political agendas at heart. But if you were to strictly follow the text, it's something closer to a puppet show.

Moses, preparing for his journey, is heavily coached by God, who tells him not to worry, I will help you speak and will tell you what to say. (4:12) He is told that he must tell Pharaoh to let the Hebrews go. But, says God, I will harden [Pharaoh's] heart so that he will not let the people go. (4:21) So, God is controlling not only the message, but the reaction to the message, which would seem to really reduce any active role that they humans are playing in all this. It's a bit like God is playing ping-pong with himself.

Trippy Passage of the Week

Then, there's Exodus 4:24-26, for my money the oddest passage since Jacob wrestled with God back in Genesis 32. If any of you gentle readers can give me some idea of what this is all about, you will be officially ordained as a MRTB Biblical Scholar, with a certificate suitable for framing.

Ready? Here goes. Moses and his family are on the road back to Egypt. But before they get there,

24 At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. 26 So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)

I hope somebody can clear this up for me. Speculations, or for that matter wild guesses, are encouraged.

See ya next week.