Thoughts on Exodus 4:18-7:13

Last week we covered the Lord's call of Moses.  Now Moses returns to Egypt, but things don't go very well.

4:24-26 As Moses and his family are on the way to Egypt, we encounter one of the oddest episodes in Exodus: the Lord tries to kill Moses.  Why would God, who had just called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, now want to take his life?  There is no easy explanation to this story.  However, perhaps it should serve as a reminder that God is never "safe."  We can fall into the trap of getting too comfortable with being in the presence of God and too assured of our own status before Him.  We can all too easily begin to imagine that God is a harmless, benevolent, nonthreatening presence.  But as the author of Hebrews says, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:31).  And Paul adds: "do not become proud, but fear.  For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you" (Rom. 11:20-21).
     It is an awesome thing to enter into the presence of the holy God.  We should never take it for granted but, rather, approach Him with fear, trembling, and acute awareness of our own shortcomings.  We can only enter there by the blood of Christ.  It was by the blood of Christ, too, that Moses was saved.  The circumcision of his son, a mark of God's ownership which finds its ultimate fulfillment on the cross, spared Moses' life.

4:30-31 When Moses and Aaron bring the message of God's deliverance, the people believe, leading them to bow down and worship.  However, this response will be short-lived.

5:1-3 Now Moses and Aaron bring their message to Pharaoh, with significantly worse results.  Here we see an issue that first occurred in 3:16-19: The Lord had promised to free the Israelites permanently, which is made clear by the fact that He promised to give them the land of Canaan.  Yet, Moses and Aaron only asked Pharaoh to let Israel leave for three days in order to worship (and this is exactly what the Lord had told them to say).  What is going on here?
     Did God intend to trick Pharaoh into letting them go?  This is one way to read the story.  Another reading is that this three day journey was a genuine possibility: if Pharaoh had been willing to acknowledge the Lord by letting the Israelites worship Him, then Pharaoh would not have lost the Israelites.  However, God used the hardness of Pharaoh's heart and the plagues to escalate the situation until Israel was freed completely.  Exodus  11:1 seems to support this reading.
     In any case, even a three day journey to sacrifice to Yahweh was a grave threat to Pharaoh's power.  Pharaoh claimed to be God; on this claim he based his rule.  Allowing the worship of another God in his kingdom would undermine his authority.

6:14-25 The regularly scheduled programming is suddenly interrupted by a genealogy.  This is a reminder that the Exodus event was the foundation of Israel's identity.  Especially, the priesthood in Israel was founded by Moses' brother Aaron.

7:8-13 Moses uses the staff-into-snake trick which the Lord had given him.  It doesn't impress Pharaoh, though.  It might surprise us that Pharaoh's magicians were also able to duplicate the trick.  However, it is the position of the entire Bible that evil supernatural powers exist in the world.  These powers, though they may be worshiped as gods, are not truly gods, because they have no independent authority.  They can only do what God allows them to do (think of the beginning of Job, in which Satan needs God's permission to test Job).  Here, too, the ultimate authority is clearly shown:  Aaron's snake devours the snakes of the magicians.  Nevertheless, Pharaoh refuses to acknowledge the Lord, a pattern which will be repeated many times in the coming chapters.