Page 41 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

Noah (Gen. 9:1,7), Abraham (Gen. 13:16; 15:5; 17:2), and Jacob (Gen. 28:14; 46:3). Egypt’s king
witnesses to the faithfulness of God to his people even in a foreign land.

The Egyptian king reacts to God’s blessing on Israel by making them work as slaves. He “worked them
ruthlessly” (1:13). He also tries to stop their numerical growth by instructing the Hebrew midwives to kill
all baby boys. (1:16). They refuse, citing as an excuse, the healthy nature of the Hebrew women (1:19),
and the king orders every Hebrew boy to be thrown in the Nile. As we might expect, God favors the
midwives with children because of their greater fear of him than of Pharaoh. The central theme of
Exodus is exposed on a personal scale in their decision. The issue is service. Who is master, the god who
is “life-taking and oppressive or the God who is life-giving and liberating.”
44

The birth story of Moses is well known. All the people involved are women. Besides the midwives,
Shiprah and Puah, other women are used by God to save his life. His mother is “a Levite woman” (2:1).
His unnamed sister stands guard over him in his Nile River basket (2:4). Pharaoh’s daughter and her
attendants rescue the boy (2:5) and secure proper help to rear him (2:9). His mother remains
anonymous, “one of the Hebrew women” (2:7), “the baby’s mother” (2:8), and “the woman” (2:9).

Moses himself is part Jacob and part Israel. He has compassion for people who are laboring so hard. He
intervenes on behalf of one slave who is receiving a beating and kills the Egyptian overseer (2:12). Faith
in God and the coming Messiah are at the root of his actions (Heb. 11:24-27). His deed is witnessed, and
he is rejected by his own people (2:14). Pharaoh understands the choice Moses has made to be
identified with slave-nation Israel, and Moses is forced to flee into Midian (2:15). He settles down in his
new land, marries, and has two sons (2:21-22). All this time Israel has been in slavery, crying out to God.
God hears and acts on their behalf out of his own faithful nature, remembering his promises to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Other peoples at that time were in slavery, yet they had not been promised.

Some forty years pass, and Moses is confronted by God
in a defining experience. The angel of the Lord (the
second person of the Trinity as recorded in John 8:58)
appears to Moses out of a burning bush (3:2). The place
is holy ground. God introduces himself, “I am the God
of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob.” Moses understands and hides
his face, afraid to look upon God (3:6). The experience
is unforgettable. At the end of his life when he is
blessing the tribes of Israel, Moses refers to “the favor
[good pleasure] of him who dwelt in the burning bush”
(Deut. 33:16). At the time of Exodus chapter three,
Moses is just beginning to learn about God. It will take
a lifetime and beyond to have a solid sense of the great
grace of this great God.
Fig. 23: Moses and Burning Bush, Saint Isaac’s
Cathedral.
We now see a lengthy interchange between God and
Moses as God recruits him to bring Israel out of Egypt.
Moses objects time and again. He feels his own inadequacy (3:11). He has already experienced the
rejection of his people when he intervened earlier in life (3:13). He doubts their response to his

44 Hamilton, Handbook, p. 139.

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