Egypt & Exodus I- Exodus 1-17

Notes

  • Out of Egypt
Moses is called by God to deliver the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt.

What motivates God to act? He was "mindful of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (see Exodus 2:24; Psalm 105:8-11). That’s why He repeatedly identifies Himself to Moses as "the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob" (see Exodus 3:6, 13,15; 6:2-8).

God had warned Abraham in a dream that they would be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years, but that God would deliver them (see Genesis 15:13-15). Now the Israelites had been in Egypt for 430 years - the first 30 years as privileged guests, relatives of the prime-minister Joseph, the last 400 years as slaves (see Exodus 12:40).

The time had come for Him to fulfill His promise to Abraham - to make His descendants a great nation and to give them a beautiful and bountiful land of their own (see Genesis 28:13-15).

God sends Moses to tell Pharaoh that "Israel is My son, My first-born" (Exodus 4:22; Sirach 36:11).

We see God here again trying to establish His holy family. We see this when He renews His promise to Moses: "I will take you as my own people and you shall have me as your God" (see Exodus 6:7). This anticipates the covenant He will make with them later at Sinai (see Exodus 19:5).

Watch the "character" of God throughout Exodus - what He says and does. He’s not a detached "Creator."

God in Exodus truly reveals himself to be the divine Father of Israel (see too Deuteronomy 32:6). He saves His children (see Exodus 12:12-13; 12:29-31), clothes them (see Exodus 12:35-36), guides them (see Exodus 13:21-22), feeds them (see Exodus 16:1-17:7) protects them (see Exodus 14:10-29; 17:8-16), teaches them (see Exodus 20:1-17; 21:1-23:33), and lives with them (see Exodus 25:8; 40:34-38).


  • The Plagues
Pharaoh is punished, his nation put under judgment, for failing to respect the rights of God’s first-born son.
Pharaoh makes the big mistake of mocking the power of the Moses’ God (see Exodus 5:2). In the ten plagues God visits upon him, He both punishes Pharaoh and executes judgment on the Egyptians’ many gods (see Exodus 12:12; Numbers 33:4):
* The Egyptian Nile god, Hapi, is rebuked by the plague of blood on the Nile (see Exodus 7:14-25).
* Heket, the frog goddess, is mocked by the plague of frogs (see Exodus 8:1-15).
* The bull god, Apis, and the cow goddess Hathor, are reviled by the plague on the livestock (see Exodus 9:1-7).
* And the plague of darkness is a rebuke to the sun god, Re (see Exodus 10:21-23).
Scholars believe that each of the plagues can be linked to specific Egyptian deities. Even the final plague that strikes the first-born of Egypt can also be seen as an attack on the political gods of Egypt, because Pharaoh was worshipped as divine and his sons were "divinized" in special ceremonies.
By these divine actions, worked through Moses, God was demonstrating His power - establishing that Israel’s God is "a deity great beyond any other" (see Exodus 18:11; 9:16;11:9).

  • The Passover
Israel’s first-born is "passed over" in the last plague, spared the fate of Egypt’s first-born.
We have to read the story of the Passover carefully. This story has a great influence on the shape and the meaning of the rest of the Old Testament. It’s also vitally important for understanding Catholic beliefs about the meaning of the Cross, the salvation won for us on the Cross, and the memorial of our salvation that we celebrate in the Mass.
The Passover story is one of the Old Testament’s defining dramas. But more than that it points us ahead to the defining drama of all salvation history - the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
  • The crossing of the Red Sea
God’s great act of deliverance in the Exodus shaped the identity and imagination of the Israelites. We’re going to find references to this Exodus throughout the rest of the Old Testament.
The Exodus was the one divine sign above all others that convinced the Israelites that they were God’s chosen people. What other people could boast that God had personally delivered them in their time of trial?
We hear this faith in the song that Moses sings when they get to the other side of the Red Sea: "Who is like to You among the gods, O Lord?....In your mercy You led the people You redeemed…The nations heard and quaked…while the people You had made Your own passed over" (see Exodus 15:11,13,14,16).
The memory of God’s mighty deeds here in Exodus become the foundation of Israel’s identity as a nation and the basis for all of its hopes for the future.
  • Trials in the Wilderness
Despite all the signs and wonders worked by God, the story of the Israelites’ journey to Sinai after the Exodus is a story of stubbornness and shortsightedness, of the people’s inability to trust that God was with them, that the God who delivered them would care for them along their way.
Right off the bat, they grumbled at Mara that the water was too bitter to drink - and God responded by giving Moses the power to make the water sweet (see Exodus 15:22-25).
A month later, they were grumbling for food in the Desert of Sin. God feeds them with manna from heaven, giving them their daily bread every day for 40 years (see Exodus 16). This is the manna that Jesus said was a symbol of the Eucharist (see John 6:30-59).
But even this wasn’t proof enough for them. They were thirsty at Meribah and Massah and put God to the test: "Is the Lord in our midst or not?" (see Exodus 17:2,7). So Moses struck the rock, as God instructed, and waters poured out for the people.

Summary


  • Out of Egypt
  • The Plagues
  • The Passover
  • The crossing of the Red Sea
  • Trials in the Wilderness





Questions


  1. What were the consequences for Isrealites, when a new king came to power after the death of Joseph?
  2. What does the name Moses mean?
  3. What does God's divine name reveal about Himself?
  4. What were the plagues sent by God on Eqypt?
  5. What is the meaning of the word 'Passover'?





Bibliography

Exodus

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