The Story of the Exodus
The descendents of Jacob flourished in the land of Egypt. However, one day a new Pharaoh who knew nothing of the promise to Joseph said, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier then we?”(1) The Pharaoh was afraid that the Israelites might someday join with an enemy and wage war against Egypt. His solution was to turn them into slaves to build the cities of Pithom and Raamses. The Hebrew people were forced into bondage; yet, they still flourished and multiplied, because God was with them, and because of this Pharaoh became even more fearful. He increased their suffering, but they still increased in multitude. Threatened by the situation, Pharaoh commanded that all male children born to the Hebrews were to be killed.
During this time, a man from the tribe of Levi by the name of Amram took for himself a wife, also a Levite, by the name Jochebed. She bore him a male child, which the father named Chaver. Because of Pharaoh’s command, they had to hide the baby. After three months, they realized they could no longer conceal his identity, so they set him in a basket upon the waters of the Nile. The daughter of Pharaoh found the floating basket and said, “This is one of the Hebrew’s children.”(2) She took the child and raised him as her own and gave him the name Moses, which comes from a root word meaning to “take out” because she had pulled him from the river.
Although Moses spent forty years in the house of Pharaoh, he considered himself a Hebrew by birth, as his ancestry was not hidden from him. He in fact killed an Egyptian after witnessing him beating a Hebrew slave. Because of this act, he was condemned to death by Pharaoh, but Moses was able to escape into the wilderness. On his wanderings, he met Jethro, the priest of Midian, who offered him a place to stay. Moses soon found contentment in this new land. He married Zipporah, on of the daughters of Jethro, and it was not long before she bore him a son. Once a prince of Egypt, he was know content to live out his life as a Shepard. While Moses spent the next forty years tending sheep (in what is today southern Jordan) the Hebrews slaves in Egypt were crying out to the Lord for help. The Lord heard their voices and set in motion his plan for deliverance that would free them from bondage and bring them to the Promised Land.
Moses was tending a flock of sheep on Herob, the mountain of God, when he came upon a burning bush. He was started because the bush, although burning with fire, was not consumed. He was cautiously approaching the bush when the Lord called out to him by name and said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”(3) Moses then took off his sandals, fell upon his knees, and put his face to the ground. The Lord told Moses, “I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”(4) Moses hid his face in fear of God, while the Lord said, “I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My children, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (5) Moses cried out to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”(6) The Lord assured Moses that he would be with him and would help guide him. Moses then asked, “Who shall I say sent me?”(7) God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.”(8)
Moses was commanded to go before Pharaoh and tell of his meeting with God. He was to ask that the Hebrew people be allowed to journey three days into the wilderness in order that they may perform a sacrifice to the Lord. God warned Moses that Pharaoh would resist in letting the Hebrews go; however, He would strike Egypt with all sorts of plagues, so that Pharaoh would finally release them. To show that the authority of God was with him, Moses was given the ability to perform miracles and wonders. God instructed him to throw down his staff. Moses did this and watched with amazement as it turned into a serpent. God then asked him to slide his hand between his garments, and when Moses had done this his hand became leprous. He put his hand back under the garments and it returned to its normal flesh. God told him if Pharaoh did not believe the first two signs then the third would come, as God would turn all the water in Egypt to blood.
Overwhelmed with the duty before him, Moses said to God, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before or since you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”(9) Moses then asked the Lord to send somebody else in his place. The Lord held steadfast to his decision, and told him that his brother Aaron would accompany him on the journey and be his voice.
As Moses was setting off for Egypt with his wife and sons, the Lord said to him, “When you get back to Egypt, see that you do all the wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in your hand. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘thus says the Lord: Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.’”(10) Along the way, the Lord met them at an encampment and He sought to kill Moses; however, Zipporah took out a sharp knife and quickly cut off the foreskin of the uncircumcised son. This pleased God and He allowed them to continue on their journey. Moses, whom the Lord had ordained to be the leader of the Israelites, had forsaken to keep God’s law.
As God had foretold, Pharaoh refused to allow the Hebrews to leave. The Lord brought all manner of plagues, diseases, and three days of darkness to Egypt, but still Pharaoh refused to change his mind. At this point after nine attempts to change Pharaoh’s mind, God hardened his heart. Moses then said to him, “All the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first born of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals.”(11) Moses told pharaoh there would be a cry in Egypt like none before, nor shall be again, but that the firstborn of the Hebrews would not be affected to show that the Lord would make a difference between Egypt and Israel.
In preparation God told Moses that the Hebrew men were each to take a lamb for their household, a male without blemish, confine it for a few days, and on the tenth of the month “The whole assembly of Israel shall kill it at twilight.”(12) They were further instructed to take some of its blood and spread it across the doorposts were they live. God had said, “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So this day shall be to you a memorial, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.” (13) When the Angel of the Lord came the firstborn of all Egypt, male and female, human and animal, died and a great cry was heard throughout the land. Pharaoh called for Moses and told him to take his people and leave. After four hundred years of captivity, the children of Israel were finally set free. As the Hebrews, numbered in the hundreds of thousands, headed in the direction of the Red Sea, the Lord spoke to Moses and reminded him of the importance of remembering this night, the Passover. The Lord also instructed that no uncircumcised male was to take part in the feast of the unblemished lamb, and that you shall not “break one of its bones.”(14)
As the Israelites traveled into the wilderness, God appeared as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night, to guided them to the Promised Land. As they were making their way to the Red Sea, the Pharaoh of Egypt had a change of heart. He said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us.”(15) Pharaoh gathered all his soldiers and set off after the Hebrews. When the people of Israel, who were camped on the shore of the Red Sea, caught sight of the approaching army of Pharaoh they cried out to the Lord. God said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.”(16) Moses did as God instructed, and the waters of the Red Sea parted and provided an escape route. Pharaoh and his army drove their chariots across the dry bottom of the river, but God made the wheels of the chariots come off, which in turn slowed their advance. When all the people of Israel had made it to the other side, Moses commanded the river to return to its natural state. He raised his rod, and with a wave of his hand, the wall of water, which had been held back, came crashing down upon Pharaoh’s men.
Moses guided the people from the Red Sea to the Wilderness of Shur, and they went three days without finding any water. When they finally find water, they could not drink it, as it was too bitter. The people complained to Moses who cried out to the Lord for help. The Lord showed Moses a tree, and when he cast it in the water, the water was made sweet. At this place, which was name Marah, the Lord to him, “If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”(17)
The people of Israel traveled next to Elim, where they found twelve wells of water from which they drank. After this, they traveled into the wilderness of Sin. While in Sin, the whole congregation of Israel complained to Moses and Aaron. They said that at least in Egypt they had meat and plenty of bread to eat, but now they were being lead in the wilderness to die of hunger. The Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you.”(18) The next morning as the dew lifted the people saw many small round substances on the ground. “What is it?” they asked Moses and he told them, “This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.” (19) The people named the bread Manna, which means what is it. The people of Israel were to eat Manna for forty years, until they came to the border of the land of Canaan.
When the Israelites set out on their journey from the wilderness of Sin, they stop at Rephidim; but there was not water for the people. They complained to Moses by saying, “Why is it that you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst.”(20) Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me!” (21) God told him that, “Behold, I stand before you there on the rock in Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” (22)
After departing from Raphidim, the Israelites came to the wilderness of Sinai, and camped at the base of the mountain. The Lord called down to Moses and said, “If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”(23) Moses told the people of Israel what God had said and they answered together saying, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.”(24) Moses brought these words back to God and this pleased Him. He instructed Moses to get the people ready for his appearance before them on the “third day” so that “the people may hear when I speak with you, and believe you forever.”(25)
Three days later, a long trumpet blast announced the coming of the Lord. Moses had gathered the people together at the base of the mountain as God instructed. Thunder and lightning filled the sky as the Lord came to the mountain in a thick cloud. He called to Moses by name and told him to climb to the top of the mountain. All of the people at the base of the mountain trembled in the presence of the Lord.
God spoke from Mount Sinai and said: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations to those who hate Me. But showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your word, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbors.” (26)
After the Lord had revealed his laws to the Israelites, he told Moses, “I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since My name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you.” (27) God further explained to Moses the land he had prepared as an eternal property for Israel: “I will establish your borders form the Red Sea to the Sea of Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you. Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you.” (28)
References:
1. Exodus 1:9
2. Exodus 2:6
3. Exodus 3:5
4. Exodus 3:6-8
5. Exodus 3:10
6. Exodus 3: 11
7. Exodus 3:13
8. Exodus 3:14
9. Exodus 4:10
10. Exodus 4:21-23
11. Exodus 12:5
12. Exodus 12:6
13. Exodus 12: 13-14
14. Exodus 12: 46
15. Exodus 14:5
16. Exodus 14:15 -16
17. Exodus 15: 26
18. Exodus 16:4
19. Exodus: 16:15
20. Exodus 17:3
21. Exodus 17:4
22. Exodus 17:6
23. Exodus 19:5-6
24. Exodus 19:8
25. Exodus 19:9
26. Exodus 20:1-17
27. Exodus 23:20-22
28. Exodus 23:31-33
©Preparing the way.net