Tag Archives: Exodus

Bible Interpretation, Books of the Bible, Sunday School

Commentary on Exodus 1 (The Israelites Oppressed)

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Post Author: Bill Pratt 

Verses 1-5 remind the reader that 70 people came down to settle in Goshen, which is a district of Egypt situated in the northeast corner of the nation. The twelve sons of Jacob (Israel) are listed and grouped according to their birth mothers. The numbering of 70 is a reference back to Gen 46:27 where all of the descendants of Jacob who entered Egypt are named.

In verses 6-7, we learn that after Joseph and all his brothers died, the Israelites experienced tremendous population growth. Note the similarity between Gen 1:28 and Ex 1:7. God had commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, and that is exactly what the Israelites have done.

Goshen was a land of great natural resources that allowed the Israelites to settle down and practice agriculture instead of being primarily nomadic, as their ancestors were. The stable food supply undoubtedly contributed greatly to their prosperity. Things were going so well for the Israelites, they had forgotten that they were strangers in a strange land. Their home was to be in Canaan, not Egypt.

Although the Israelites had lived in Goshen for hundreds of years, their life in Egypt was about to be massively disrupted.  Egypt, like any other nation, experienced political turmoil and changes in governance. The writer of Exodus announces that a new king (Pharaoh) came to power, and this king, evidently, either knew nothing or cared nothing about Joseph’s role in Egyptian history.

Some historians have speculated that the new king knew about Joseph, but because the king was bringing a new regime into power that was very different ethnically (non-Semitic) from the previous regimes, he no longer trusted the Hebrews (who were Semitic) to align themselves with his regime’s interests. Since Goshen bordered Canaan, where Egypt’s enemies were located, the Israelites could easily ally themselves with Canaanite nations who wanted an easy path into the heart of Egypt.

The new Pharaoh’s first plan to deal with the Israelites was to enslave them. They would be forced to build the store cities of Pithom and Rameses. However, contrary to his plans, the Israelites continued to increase in number. The clear message here is that the Gentile king of Egypt cannot thwart God’s plans for his people. The Pharaoh’s plans simply backfire on him.

Starting in verse 15, Pharaoh tries plan B to stop the multiplication of the Israelites. He calls two of the Hebrew midwives to him (they were probably leaders or representatives of a much larger number of midwives), and commands them to kill the boy babies when they are born. The midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, however, decline to obey Pharaoh, and let the boys live.

The reason given for the midwives disobeying Pharaoh is that they “feared God.” The message to the reader is that when a person in authority over us gives us a direct command that contradicts God’s unmistakable will, we are to disobey.

The midwives, when questioned by Pharaoh, tell him that Hebrew women give birth more quickly than Egyptian women, and so the midwives arrive too late to kill the baby boys. In the context of the narrative, the midwives are obviously lying to Pharaoh, but they are lying to save lives.

It is reasonable to assume that Pharaoh is counting on the midwives to surreptitiously kill the newborns without the mothers realizing what is going on. The plan counts on the skills and obedience of the midwives to carry it out. If the Hebrew mothers catch on, they will simply avoid using the midwives.

If Shiphrah and Puah refused to go along, it is reasonable to assume that Pharaoh would find other midwives to kill the Hebrew boys. By convincing Pharaoh that the plan simply won’t work because of how quickly Hebrew women gave birth, Pharoah abandoned the plan altogether instead of drafting more midwives.

Pharaoh’s plan B, to control the Israelites, backfires on him, just as his first plan did. The Israelites “became even more numerous” and because the midwives feared God and saved the lives of the baby boys, the midwives were also rewarded with families of their own.

Bible Interpretation, Miracles

How Is a Messenger of God Confirmed? Part 2

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Post Author: Bill Pratt 

In part 1, we looked at the first sign that God promised to show the enslaved Israelites in order to prove that Moses was God’s true messenger. We now continue with the second sign.

Then the LORD said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow. “Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh. (Ex 4:6-7 NIV)

Alfred Edersheim explains the meaning of the second sign in his Bible History: Old Testament:

The second sign shown to Moses bore direct reference to Israel. The hand which Moses was directed to put in his bosom became covered with leprosy; but the same hand, when a second time he thrust it in, was restored whole. This miraculous power of inflicting and removing a plague, universally admitted to come from God, showed that Moses could inflict and remove the severest judgments of God. But it spoke yet other “words” to the people. Israel, of whom the Lord had said unto Moses, “Carry them in thy bosom,” was the leprous hand. But as surely and as readily as it was restored when thrust again into Moses’ bosom, so would God bring them forth from the misery and desolateness of their state in Egypt, and restore them to their own land.

Finally, God offered a third sign as proof to the Israelites:

Then the LORD said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.” (Ex 4:8-9 NIV)

Edersheim explains the significance of the third sign:

The third sign given to Moses, in which the water from the Nile when poured upon the ground was to become blood, would not only carry conviction to Israel, but bore special reference to the land of Egypt. The Nile, on which its whole fruitfulness depended, and which the Egyptians worshipped as divine, was to be changed into blood. Egypt and its gods were to be brought low before the absolute power which God would manifest.

In order to prove that Moses was a true prophet, God provided three miraculous signs that would not only be supernatural in nature, but would also communicate meaningful messages to the Israelites. These were not random miracles, but miracles that were significant to the recipients.

Did these signs actually serve their purpose? Yes. In verses 29-31, we learn that

Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelites, and Aaron told them everything the LORD had said to Moses. He also performed the signs before the people, and they believed. (emphasis added)

So here is the takeaway. If a man living today claimed to be a true prophet of God, I would expect God to provide miraculous signs to authenticate him. If no miracles were forthcoming, then I would assume he is either a lunatic or a liar, but definitely not from God.

Bible Interpretation, Miracles

How Is a Messenger of God Confirmed? Part 1

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Post Author: Bill Pratt

Here is a typical conversation I’ve had on the blog with skeptics many times:

Skeptic: “What if a person today, claiming to be a prophet of God, comes along and tells you to do something? Wouldn’t you have to do it?”

Me: “Only if they could prove they were a true prophet of God.”

Skeptic: “How would you know that? After all, there are lots of people claiming to speak for God, and they tell their followers to do lots of crazy things.”

So what is the answer? Do we Christians blindly follow any person who comes along and says they have a new word from God?

One of the primary ways the great prophets of God were confirmed in the Bible was through miracles. Not all prophets were confirmed by miracles, but many were, and certainly the major ones were. Jesus, and all of his apostles were confirmed by miracles, and so were many Old Testament prophets.

In fact, there is an important passage in the Book of Exodus where this exact scenario plays out. God has asked Moses to go back to Egypt and free the Israelites from bondage, but Moses protests in Exodus 4.

“What if they [the Israelites] do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?” (Ex 4:1 NIV)

God responds by showing Moses three miraculous signs that will prove to the Israelites that Moses is a true messenger of God.

Then the LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied. The LORD said, “Throw it on the ground.” Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it.  Then the LORD said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the LORD, “is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.” (Ex 4:2-5 NIV)

Since the Pharaoh’s power was symbolized by a serpent, the purpose of this miracle was to show that God (through Moses) had power over Pharaoh. Alfred Edersheim, in Bible History: Old Testament, expands on this thought:

Hitherto Moses had wielded the shepherd’s crook. At God’s command he was to cast it away; his calling was to be changed, and he would have to meet “the serpent”—not only the old enemy, but the might of Pharaoh, of which the serpent was the public and well-known Egyptian emblem. “The serpent was the symbol of royal and divine power on the diadem of every Pharaoh”—the emblem of the land, of its religion, and government.

In part 2, we’ll look at two more signs that God will provide in order to authenticate Moses’s message to the enslaved Israelites.