WPC Senior Pastor s Bible Study - Wednesday, September 30, 2015 Exodus 1:8-14 [15--2:10]; 3:1-15 (Here are study notes for this week s sermon text at Winnetka Presbyterian Church, including an opening and closing prayer if you choose to use this study as a devotional experience. You are warmly invited to join us for this study in person on Wednesdays at 10am! If you have any questions or wrestlings with the scripture or these notes, please feel free to contact David.) Opening Prayer for Illumination Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Exodus 1:8-14 [15--2:10]; 3:1-15 1:8 Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 He said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites, 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them. [15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 "When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live." 17 But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?" 19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them." 20 So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very strong. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live." 2:1 Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. 4 His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. 5 The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. "This must be one of the Hebrews' children," she said. 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?" 8 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Yes." So
the girl went and called the child's mother. 9 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed it. 10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses, "because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."] 3:1 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." 5 Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." 6 He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. 7 Then the Lord said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." 11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" 12 He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain." 13 But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, "What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" 14 God said to Moses, "I am who I am." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, "I am has sent me to you.' " 15 God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, "The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you': This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations. The Book of Exodus - The Book of Exodus or, simply, Exodus (from Greek ἔξοδος, exodos, meaning "going out"; Hebrew: Testament)., Sh'mot, "Names"), is the second book of the Torah and the Hebrew Bible (the Old שמות - The book tells how the Israelites leave slavery in Egypt through the strength of Yahweh, the God who has chosen Israel as his people. Led by their prophet Moses they journey through the wilderness to Mount Sinai, where Yahweh promises them the land of Canaan (the "Promised Land") in return for their faithfulness. Israel enters into a covenant with Yahweh who gives them their laws and instructions for the Tabernacle, the means by which he will dwell with them and lead them to the land, and give them peace. - Traditionally ascribed to Moses himself, modern scholarship sees the book as initially a product of the Babylonian exile (6th century BCE), with final revisions in the Persian post-exilic period (5th century BCE). Carol Meyers in her commentary on Exodus suggests that it is arguably the most important book in the Bible, as it presents the defining features of Israel's identity: memories of a past marked by hardship and escape, a binding covenant with God, who chooses Israel, and the establishment of the life of the community and the guidelines for sustaining it. Commentary from Patricia Tull A lot has happened since we left Jacob in Genesis 32 last week.
This year s narrative lectionary skips the story explaining how Jacob s family landed in Egypt: how jealous brothers sold Jacob s favorite son into slavery, how Joseph rose to power alongside the pharaoh, and how a drought drove the family to seek help, and finally refuge, in a foreign land. Exodus begins several generations later, when trouble is brewing for Jacob s multiplying descendants. A new pharaoh comes to power who fears the foreigners. He proposes to deal shrewdly, making slaves of all these once-honored guests, forcing them to build grain storage cities for his profit. He does not seem to realize that his cruelty will ensure the thing he most fears. He will be defeated -- not just by the Israelites, but by their God. While Exodus 1:8-14 summarizes the Israelites deteriorating conditions in Egypt, and chapter 3 relates God s call to Moses to save them, the real drama occurs in the surrounding episodes, played out in vivid scenes in which the king attempts repeatedly to overcome the immigrant population by violence, but is repeatedly outmaneuvered. The pharaoh s second shrewd move in the story is even more violent and illogical than the first -- he decides to kill off his future slave force, all the male babies who would otherwise grow up to work for him. The pharaoh fears boy babies, but he should worry instead about the women. The Hebrew midwives he recruits to carry out his plan, telling them to kill the babies at birth, simply ignore him. When summoned for questioning, they offer explanation wrapped in insult: The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are strong. They give birth before the midwife comes. So, matching draconian violence and poor judgment with sheer frustration, the pharaoh gives his own people a chilling order to throw every boy baby into the Nile. All pretense of shrewdness gives way to pure violence. Action centers next on a single household: a mother hides her newborn son, devising a plan to have him rescued from the riverbank by the pharaoh s own daughter and, through his older sister s intervention, sent back to his own mother, who is paid to nurse him. He becomes the shrewd pharaoh s own adopted grandson and grows up in his family. Unlike the two midwives, the pharaoh s daughter is not named in the story. But according to an ancient rabbinic tradition, she is honored: God says to her that because she took in a child not her own, and called him her son, God will take her in and call her the daughter of God, Bat-ya. Thus the king fails to realize he is being thwarted not by boys but by five bold women. Two midwives, a mother, a sister, and a daughter all help save a baby who has so far done nothing either for or against the pharaoh. Thus unfolds the story of God s preferential option for those who otherwise appear powerless. Far from being the God of the Establishment, far from being manageable or tame, the Hebrew God spurns human power, makes fools of the pretentious, and honors those, whether princesses or slave girls, who act on their instinct for justice.
The rest of chapter 2 relates Moses s early adult missteps. He is neither fully Egyptian nor fully Hebrew, and he exerts his own sincere instinct for justice rather less expertly than his female champions had. After murdering an Egyptian who was abusing an Israelite kinsman and then learning that his deed was known, he flees to Midian, where he befriends and marries into a priest s family. Meanwhile, the pharaoh dies, but slave conditions remain intolerable. The chapter ends with God taking heed to them again. Exodus 3:1-15 describes Moses encounter at the burning bush at Mount Horeb, and God s sevenverse-long speech to Moses, announcing that God intends to use him to rescue the slaves and take them to Canaan. Moses first two responses follow. First, who am I to do such a thing; and second, who are you : what is your name? God does not address Moses qualifications, but rather reassures him of divine presence. As for who God is, God first responds with the famous, and circular, pronouncement, or perhaps retort, I am who I am. But after this God self-identifies with the God of the ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, indicating that this God is no newcomer, but One who has been following the Israelite descendants through their fortunes and misfortunes for centuries, though they did not know it. These two responses to the question of God s identity do in fact seem to be illustrated by prior events. Neither the story nor this conversation clarify why a compassionate God would have allowed the Israelites condition to deteriorate so far in the first place, and for that we can only agree that I am who I am works in rather mysterious ways. In this case, as in the previous generation, God chooses particular people through whom to work, and not necessarily those we might have suggested. God s support for the previous pharaoh s dissidents even before Moses birth preceded, and made possible, this moment at the burning bush. The conversation goes on past the lectionary reading for another 24 verses. Moses raises further objections, which God answers patiently and generously, providing a few visual aids to help convince Israelites who disbelieve his words -- a staff that becomes a snake, a hand that turns leprous and heals, water that becomes blood. Moses, ignoring all this, objects that he is a poor speaker. God promises to give him the words. But when Moses, seeing all his exits blocked, says, Please send someone else, God reluctantly agrees that his brother Aaron will help. The drama continues unfolding in chapter 5 when Moses first attempt to liberate the slaves fails miserably, resulting in further hardships for the slaves and rancor against their supposed rescuers. A complex battle of the gods ensues, in which pharaoh s sorcerers at first match Moses tricks, but are finally outdone. As is true for battles from the dawn of civilization until now, this intercultural struggle wreaks ecological disaster, devastating water, vegetation, animals, and Egyptians many times over before, suddenly and dramatically, the Israelites flee to safety beyond the sea barrier.
From here the lectionary will skip to Deuteronomy, to Moses reminders on the border of Canaan of the commandments God gave the people once they returned to Horeb, the mount of the burning bush. Questions Arising From the Text - God calls Moses in a context of terrible circumstances for the Israelites in Egypt. Can we possibly understand those circumstances? Do we need to for the story of Moses to mean something to us? - Like many whom God calls in the Bible, Moses resists and feels unworthy. Yet God makes covenant with him. How does God call us even when we resist it? - This is the beginning of the story of God s deliverance of the people. In what senses does this story speak today, and to whom does it speak? Closing Prayer God of deliverance, you called Moses to be your hands, feet, and voice in a troubled world. Teach us how to work, walk, and speak your word in a troubled world. Amen.