So we leave behind the first stories of the biblical narrative, the stories that present to us a God who is above all and who has a creative desire to create something that is good and pleasing, a desire to be in relation to man (male and female), beings who are “like” Him. In our freedom, we disappoint God and He respond to our failings with anger and persistent outreach. We finally see God reach out in a very personal way to Abraham, a man whose family by one account originated in Ur and then moved to Haran. Throughout the second part of the book of Genesis we hear God repeatedly promise to make the line of this one man a faithful people, a light to the nations.

George Fox will accept Paul’s vision of this time as a time when “death reigned” over the earth - the “ministration of condemnation.” But this is only the beginning.

With the coming of Moses and the Law, a new stage in the spiritual development of man will take shape, what Paul and Fox will call the “ministration of Moses” and the law given by God through him. Again, when we read these stories it is important to remember that they constitute a mix of oral history, legend, poetry and reflection that have put forth an array of “types,” “figures,” metaphors and symbols that fill our lives with meaning, so that even if you do not believe that they represent a simple history, they are incredibly important in penetrating our sense of who and what we are, what the meaning of our lives is, where we have come from and what we are meant to be as a whole people.

Exod. 1 – The family of Jacob is recounted, the number coming into Egypt numbered at 70 (a number expressing perfection).  Because the Pharaoh fears the Hebrews might be led to join with Egypt’s enemies, he comes to fear their numbers and so he enslaves them with bone-crushing labor and finally decides to eliminate boy babies. 

Exod. 2 - Moses’ mother puts him in a “little ark of papyrus” (the ark as symbol of salvation is here recapitulated, the first ark being the ship of salvation in the Noah story), and puts it in the reeds, stationing Moses’ sister Miriam near enough to observe what happens to it.  One of pharaoh’s daughters finds it and takes pity on the baby. She sends her maid to find a nurse at which point Miriam steps out from behind the bushes and suggests her own (and the baby’s own) mother as a woman who might nurse the child. He is returned to pharaoh’s daughter when he is weaned and grows up in the court.

He knows he is a Hebrew and when he is grown, he feels for their burdens.  He even kills an Egyptian man he sees mistreating a Hebrew man (2:11-12).  The next day he again goes out and tries to break up a fight between two Hebrew men and learns that they know what he has done; they also berate him for his interference: “Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us?” (2:14 - a lot of irony there).  So Moses has to flee.  He goes to Midian and like his ancestors before him meets his wife-to-be by a well.  She is the daughter of a priest of Midian whose name here is Reuel, but in other parts of the Bible is called Jethro (in Gen.3:1) and Hobab (in Judges 1:16). Reuel’s daughter’s name is Zipporah.  They have a son whom they name Gershom.

Though there is a lot of historical difficulty placing Moses in Egypt – no real historical evidence outside of the biblical account – the timeline of the biblical narrative would place him there somewhere 50 to 100 years after the 17-year reign of Akhenaten in Egypt. Akhenaton tried unsuccessfully to turn Egypt towards monotheism, and it is difficult not to speculate that Moses might have come under the influence of people on the periphery of Egyptian religious practice who might have still been preaching the unpopular monotheistic message. I know I am drawn to this theory because there are so many references to the Egypt—Hebrew connection.

Exod. 3 – Moses notices a bush burning with a flame that does not consume it and turns aside to see it.  God speaks to him “out of the midst of the bush” (3:4), calling his name and telling him he is standing on holy ground.  God tells him he, YHWH has “seen the affliction of my people. . .their cry I have heard. . [and] indeed, I have known their sufferings! So I have come down to rescue it. . .” (Schocken - 7-8).  I like the way that this is translated.  He says He is sending Moses to bring them out, but Moses questions God’s plan. “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh. . .?” (3:11)  Moses asks God what name he should call YHWH, and he is told “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” [I will be-there howsoever I will be-there is how Schocken translates it, saying the syntax is difficult]. The English simply says, “I am”.

Exod 4 – Moses worries that the people will not trust him - as well he might in light of Ex.2:14, where he is challenged by a man who thinks he’s trying to throw his weight around. YHWH gives him the staff to perform great deeds with - it turns into a snake.  Then Moses begs off the job because he can’t speak well (4:10). You would not guess this from the Moses we meet later in Deuteronomy.  God tells Moses he will “be-there with your mouth” (4:12); He will tell Moses what to say. He will also send Aaron to speak for Moses.

Moses returns to Jethro/Reuel, and he is given permission to leave with his sons and wife, taking them on a donkey.  YHWH tells Moses to refer to his people Israel as “my son, my firstborn,” (4:22) and tells him to tell Pharaoh to let them go to serve YHWH.  Moses narrowly escapes death on the journey “at the night-camp.” God goes to Aaron and tells him to meet his brother in the desert (4:27).  That must have been something considering Moses had grown up separated from him.  It must also have been indispensable to have Aaron as a go-between between the people of Israel and Moses, for he is a stranger to them really.