Welcome to Exodus! In case you ever wondered, the original name of this book was Shemot, which means "names." Likewise, the original name of Genesis was Bereshith (spelling varies), meaning "in the beginning." All the books were named according to the first couple words in the book, and if you read the Hebrew Scriptures those are the names they still use.
So here are my observations:
Why does the story call Moses' father-in-law Reuel the first time and Jethro the other times? My first guess is that Reuel is more of a title or a description than a name. It means "friend of God," and he was the priest, so maybe "friend of God" is another way of saying "priest." I don't really know.
A lot of people who preach on this passage point this out, but God knew how to prepare Moses for his future job. First he was raised in the Egyptian palace as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, so he had the best education you could probably get anywhere in the world, plus his mother no doubt taught him Hebrew religion and history. Then he spends 40 years as a shepherd, which means he had to learn how to be in charge of lots of dumb animals. Very soon he would be in charge of lots of dumb people, and I think herding a tribe of people who don't like you across the country is probably not too much different from herding a flock of sheep. Maybe.
Don't miss the last couple verses of chapter 2, because they're very deliberate. It says, "So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them." In other words, God wasn't ignoring them, nor had He forgotten them - just like we saw with Noah during the flood. When bad things happen to us, our first tendency is often to think that God either doesn't care or isn't around, but that's not true. He 1) hears us when we cry out to Him, 2) remembers (i.e. doesn't forget) His promise never to leave us, 3) sees us in our misery, and 4) pays attention to us. Those are four very deliberate actions on God's part.
When God calls Moses, Moses makes lots of excuses. First he plays the "I'm not good enough" card, and then God answers him by saying "I will be with you" - in other words, it doesn't matter who you are. Then Moses asks who he should say sent him (I'm not sure why he asks this; if anybody has an idea, let me know), and God gives him His covenant name, YHWH. YHWH is derived from the verb hayah, which means "to be." That's why it's translated "I AM WHO I AM," in all caps like that. It's God's personal name, His most holy name, the name that describes Him as the One who is. I think it's a pretty awesome name.
Next Moses says that the Hebrews won't believe him, so God gives him three signs which I imagine each symbolize something and could be made into a sermon (you know, because there's three of them, and sermons always have three points): turning the staff into a snake, making his hand leprous, and turning water into blood (Moses doesn't actually do that one at this time, God just tells him about it).
So then Moses says (he's getting more personal now) that he's not good at talking. I think Moses might have been like me a bit in that respect, because I'm not very good at talking either, and if God told me to go before the ruler of the civilized world and tell him something he really wouldn't want to hear, I wouldn't want to do it either. God has a really good comeback here: "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes hi mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?" This is really, really important. When God calls you to something, He also equips you with everything you need to accomplish your calling, even if it doesn't seem like enough to you. Moses thought that talking to Pharaoh required being able to speak well, but in God's eyes, Moses didn't need that. He gave Moses all the tools he needed, and then promised that He would help him along the way. And He did: He sent Aaron to be his speaker, and He trained Moses along the way, so that by the end of the story we see Moses talking, not Aaron. Which is pretty cool.
This principle is something I realized one day in ballet class, when I was thinking about how bad my turnout was. I realized that God had given me the body I needed to have for whatever task He's called me to do. And whatever that is, I don't need perfect turnout to do it. I have all the tools I need to be the dancer God has called me to be, and I have everything I need to go wherever God wants me to go. All I have to do is use what He gave me, and He'll help me do the rest. That was a huge encouragement and relief to me; maybe it will be to you as well.
Moses finally gives his most personal excuse: "God, please send somebody else." Deep down, he really just doesn't want to do it, and I can't say I blame him. Moses had what seems to be a nice, quiet life over in Midian. He had a wife and kids, a father-in-law who seems pretty cool, and some sheep; what more could he want? Then along comes this wacked-out bush that turns out to be Jehovah God telling him to drop it all and go back to a country where he's wanted for murder and tell the most powerful man alive to give up his number one source of labor. I wouldn't want to do it either. I really don't think God was all that concerned with what Moses wanted to do, because what Moses wanted to do was continue his nice, quiet, safe little life. God isn't safe, and He doesn't guarantee us safe lives as His followers. The only thing He really does guarantee is that He'll be with us. Actually, that's a lot.
That's all for today; tomorrow we'll look at the 10 plagues. Won't that be fun?
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Exodus 1-6: Israel in Bondage
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5 comments:
My guess is that there are 3 different father-in-laws for Moses because he never actually existed. It is a story clumsily put together from many other myths, and the inconsistency is blatant in this, like many instances. Even the name is Thut-moses, Ah'moses etc. which is actually an Egyptian name - where most of the myths of the bible originated.
Why wouldn't a place the size of Texas notice 3 million people and their animals, looking for food, destroying and consuming resources, not to mention where are their toilets??? wandering through its desert and not record it in their history? A city that size makes a significant impact - let alone trying to migrate that many people - how would one communicate across a group that large, and what chaos in determining which way to go? And Egypt, where there is numerous historical records, failed to mention Moses, the 10 plagues and this monumental exodus of 3 million people... Sounds like a Grimm's fairy tale, or something out of Disney.
There is a third name for Moses' father-in-law... Hobab (Judges 4.11)
Can the bible be trusted at all if there are so many inconsistencies? That would mean that it is not so perfect - and if it is not so perfect can we trust it as the absolute word of god? What other inconsistencies are there that people have destroyed their lives and others' lives over?
What an interesting comment. Aggressively put forth, firm opinion, yet no name or contact information, which tells me you are not interested in me replying to you, although I am going to anyway.
I don't know very much about the Bible compared to scholars, but one thing I do know is that Moses' name is supposed to be Egyptian, and the Bible says as much. Pharaoh's daughter named him; I imagine she would give him a name in her own language. I don't know what the problem with that is. I also would not be surprised if the Hebrew people did get influenced by the Egyptians, after being there 400 years.
We don't know what the size of the Hebrew clan was at this time, we can only estimate. If you believe the Bible, which you don't and that's okay, God provided the people with food. The toilets are where the toilets are when you're in the wilderness, although God told them to take care of that outside camp for sanitation reasons.
How inhabited was the Middle East at that time? Most of the people groups Israel ran into ended up not surviving for very long. We didn't even know the Hittites existed (which led some to criticize the Biblical account) until quite recently. I guess many of them didn't mention the Hebrews because they were too busy being dead, but that's just me.
There was a structure beyond simply Moses in the people. There were heads of households, families, clans, etc., who were easily recognizable.
I don't know so much about archeology, so I don't know if Egypt would want to record what would have been the biggest national embarrassment in their history. If the History Channel is right, they did their best to cover up things like that (you know, like having female Pharaohs and changing the national religion and so forth). But we know about those things, so I don't know.
A fascinating book to read is In Search of the Mountain of God by Robert Cornuke and David Halbrook. It is an account of an independent amateur archeological search for evidence of the Hebrew Exodus and journey through the wilderness. It is remarkable what they found.
Hobab was not another name for Jethro; he is named the son of Reuel, and Reuel is Moses' father-in-law. It would have been helpful if commas had existed then, but the text says, "then Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law." Since we already know Reuel is Moses' father-in-law, there is no need to make the text say otherwise.
Sometimes it's hard to tell what a person's name is in the Bible because there are no capital letters or anything. For instance, we give this one guy the name Melchizekek, but the name means "king of righetousness," so it could be just a title or even a description. "Jethro" means "his abundance," and "Reuel" means "friend of God." I dunno, 'tis why I asked. But if you're already worried about the two names, there's no need to attempt to make it worse than it is.
What's funny to me is that as many inconsistencies as there appear to be in the Bile, nobody ever tried to cover them up. My pastor says the Bible puts its worst foot forward - there was no effort by the authors (or compilers, for you) to change the material so that people would be less likely to question it.
I don't think anyone ever killed anyone else over the inconsistencies in the Bible (e.g. "No, it was Reuel - die!"). People have killed people by misunderstanding what the Bible teaches, and people have killed people because they wanted to and the Bible provided an excuse. This is tragic, and I will not deny that many evil things have been done in God's name that should not have been. I mean, I do really bad things, and I'm a Christian. The bummer about the Church is that it's made up of humans, and it's difficult to tell what's inside another person's heart. All that I can do is follow God the best I can and understand the Bible the best I can, and I try to show love to people because that's what Jesus did. I guess it's kind of a simplistic mantra, but simplistic is good for me right now.
Whoever you are, enjoy your new year. I may disable anonymous comments in a bit, or I may not.
I think the reason Moses asks God, "Who shall I say sent me" in chapter 3:13 he is bringing mention to the fact that the Hebrews were worshiping other Gods (Egyptian Gods)and that maybe some of them didnt even know their was such a thing as monotheism. Joshua 24: 14-15 and Amos 5:25-26 mention the Israelites worship of idols while in Eqypt.
P.S. Anonymous may have commented a long time ago, but they are still in my prayers.
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