As Exodus opens, Joseph and his brothers are dead, but their ancestors have been fruitful and multiplied greatly so that there is now a significant Israelite presence in Egypt. A new Pharaoh comes to power and is concerned by the huge number of foreigners living in his land, so he enslaves them and "uses them ruthlessly". He then orders the midwives to kill all baby boys in an attempt to limit population growth, but they refuse to comply and let the babies live, telling Pharaoh that they were born before they arrived. We are told that "God was kind to the midwives", honouring them for disobeying Pharaoh. Unfortunately this isn't a get out of jail free card, and it doesn't mean God always supports civil disobedience or out-and-out lawbreaking, but it does highlight the fact that we obey a higher law than that of man. Where this is a conflict, it is His rule that we must follow.
One of the Hebrew babies saved by the midwives is a boy called Moses. His mother hides him away for a few months, then when she can hide him no longer she places him in a basket and puts it in the reeds along the banks of the Nile. It must have broken her heart to put her child in such a vulnerable position, but she knew that it was the only way she could save him. Sometimes we have to take a risk and trust that it will work out in the end. And it does work out because the basket is found by Pharaoh's daughter, who decides to keep the child. Moses' sister, Miriam, is hiding nearby and offered to take him to an Israelite woman who can care for him until he is old enough to enter the palace. Pharaoh's daughter agrees to this plan, and so Moses is returned to his mother and she is able to raise the son she had feared she may lose. Then when Moses is grown, he is taken to the palace, where he becomes the son of Pharaoh's daughter. It must have been so hard for Moses' mother to give him up again, but she would surely have been comforted by the fact that she had enjoyed years with him that she may never have had and the knowledge that he would be well cared for. It's a hideous cliche, but when things look bleak, maybe we should count our blessings.
So Moses grows up in the palace, watching the Hebrews at their hard labour, knowing that he could so easily have been a slave too. One day he sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, and something inside him must snap because he kills the slave master and hides his body. I wonder if this was the first time Moses had ever stood up to the Egyptians. Did he ever speak to Pharaoh, who was by now his adoptive grandfather, about the plight of the Israelites? Or did he bottle it up out of fear until all of his anger exploded in this act of violence? There's certainly no Biblical evidence to suggest that he ever tried to capitalise on his unique position as a Hebrew who was also a member of the Egyptian royal family. Moses was surrounded by great injustice, but instead of acting sensibly and constructively, all he did was lose his temper. Are we sometimes guilty of doing the same?
His crime having been found out, Moses decides to run away rather than face up to what he has done. He flees to Midian, where he meets and aids a group of seven sisters. Out of gratitude, their father invites Moses to stay with them and gives him one of his daughters in marriage (don't get me started on the whole idea of woman as reward). So Moses settles in Midian and starts a family, and like Joseph and Abraham before him, he fonds himself a stranger in a foreign land. A few years ago, the church I went to developed a slight obsession with the idea of comfort zones and how important it is to come out of them. It became just another meaningless cliche, and there was a time when if I'd heard those words one more time I would have screamed, but maybe there is something in it. When we are comfortable we can find ourselves settling into our own little rut, but maybe when our world has been turned everything upside down and nothing is certain, it is easier to make the sort of life changes God wants us to make.
And God certainly has some changes in mind for Moses. He has heard the cries of the Hebrews and He has remembered His covenant with Abraham and now He decides it's time to act, and Moses is the man to help Him. So one day, as Moses is tending his father-in-law's flock, God appears to him to tell him of His plan, and boy does He do it in style. Moses sees a bush that appears to be on fire yet is not burning up and naturally he is curious and goes over to get a closer look, at which point God calls to him from the bush and tells him to take off his sandals because he is standing on holy groud. God may not always appear quite so dramatically, but do we recognise his presence in our own lives? How does it affect us? Do we ever stand barefoot before the bush?
God tells Moses that He has seen the suffering of His people, and He has come down to bring them out of slavery and into a land of milk and honey. And then comes the killer punch. He is sending Moses back to Egypt to speak to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out. "Who am I to speak to Pharaoh?" Moses asks, and God doesn't respond by telling Moses that he's awesome and amazing and the only man in the entire world who could do this, which is what Moses would probably have liked to hear. No, He simply says "I will be with you". Because Moses was missing the point. This wasn't about him, it was about God. He was only the errand boy. So often when we feel a calling we respond like Moses, telling ourselves and God that we're not good enough, but our ability to step up and do what God has called us to does not depend on our ability. It depends only on our willingness to let God use us.
Moses' next question is "If people ask me, what is your name?" God has already introduced himself as "the God of your fathers" so Moses knows who he's speaking to, but he wants to know more. Maybe it's just a delaying tactic, or maybe he wants to know for sure that he's not going mad, or maybe he genuinely wants to learn more about the God who's sending him out on a seemingly impossible mission. Whatever his reason for asking, God tells him "I am who I am...Tell them 'I AM has sent me to you'". Later, He says He is to be known as the Lord, "Lord" being derived from "I am". So God is what He is and that's all He has to say on the matter. It's a rather enigmatic and somewhat evasive answer, but maybe that is because there is more to Him than just a name, and He wants us to find that out for ourselves.
God tells Moses he must go to Pharaoh and ask him to allow the Israelites to go to the desert for three days to offer sacrifices to Him, but He knows Pharaoh won't listen, so He will strike Egypt and then Pharaoh will let them go. The plan seems fairly clear, but Moses hasn't finished asking questions yet. Now he asks what to do of people don't believe that God has spoken to him. God replies by first turning his staff into a snake, and then making his hand leprous before healing it again. By these signs, God says the people will believe that Moses has been sent by Him. God has answered every one of Moses' quetions, but he's still not happy, still complaining that he's not up to the job. God tells him to get on with it because He will tell him what to say, but Moses asks Him to send someone else. It's no wonder God gets annoyed with him. He understands that sometimes we need reassurance, but there comes a point when we have to stop asking questions and just do it. But God is infinitely patient and gracious and so He agrees to send Moses' brother Aaron with him to speak for him. Moses isn't going to get out of this one, but he is going to get some help. God will never give us more than we can handle.
And so Moses finally shuts up and starts his journey back to Egypt. There's a really weird incident on the way where it seems that God is about to kill Moses, but his wife appeases Him by circumcising her son. When I first read this passage, my notes were simply a long line of question marks. Why would God send Moses on a mission then try and kill him? Well, a little investigation shows that the passage should perhaps say that God was about to kill Moses' son, not Moses himself. It's still rather harsh, but now it makes a little more sense. God was presumably going to kill the boy because he had not yet been circumcised and was therefore breaking the covenant. When we make an agreement with God it is not to be taken lightly. We must keep up our end of the deal, or there will be consequences. I'm not saying that God will try to kill us, but it will affect our relationship with Him.
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