Exodus 1-2
Introduction
This lesson begins a study of the book of Exodus, covering the time from the death of Joseph to the self-exile of Moses. A study of the genealogical timeline will be included at the end.
Exodus picks up where Genesis left off, which ended with Israel safely settled in Egypt. Though from the beginning to the end the narrative covers about 430 years of history, everything past chapter two only covers two years, from just before to just after Israel leaves Egypt. No other Old Testament book is quoted more by the New Testament writers.
As with Genesis, and in keeping with ancient near east tradition, this historical account is not the dry list of facts and timestamps western history tends to use, but a colorful narrative that puts the reader into the story. One of the key points we learned in the Genesis studies will continue in Exodus: that God has purposes and plans for things that from our perspective make no sense at all. Faith is easy when things go well and seem rational to us, but faith is proved genuine when it endures through trying circumstances.
There is a helpful outline of the book in this commentary. Other recommended resources include the NETS Bible and this LXX Interlinear.
Exo. 1
The text really begins with vs. 8, where time has passed and a new Pharaoh arises who has no regard for Joseph. He sees the rapidly-growing nation of foreigners as a possible fifth column should Egypt be attacked, so he enslaves them and treats them harshly. This seems like a poor strategy, since it’s such treatment that is much more likely to motivate treason against the host country. And so it turns out to be— not due to attack from other countries, but to the fact that the more Pharaoh oppressed Israel, the more it prospered.
In verse 15 Pharaoh decides to ignore that pesky bit of cause-and-effect and try another method of oppression: He orders the Hebrew midwives to kill all the male babies, apparently before the mothers see them alive, based on what the midwives say when confronted by Pharaoh for not obeying him.
But notice that the midwives use at least a partial cover story: that since Hebrew women are strong and vigorous (likely another unintended consequence of the work they were forced to do), they went from labor to delivery much faster than the Egyptian women, so the boys were already born by the time they’d arrive. The fact that Pharaoh buys this excuse is what seems to indicate that it was too late to kill the boys once the mothers saw that they weren’t stillborn. As Constable’s notes point out, this plan is the only thing that “miscarried”.
For their bravery, God blesses the midwives with children of their own. Many Christians today believe that a woman disobeying a man is a terrible sin, but God is in the habit of treating women of valor like the adult human beings they are. Meanwhile, Pharaoh decides to dispense with the inconvenience of midwives and just orders his people to take any Hebrew male infant they find and throw it into the river, likely the Nile. But there is no mention of the people of Egypt actually carrying out this command, and this is further supported in the next chapter.
Exo. 2
In the Genesis study we learned that Levi was a wicked and violent man who was passed over as an elder son of Jacob. But we also learned that God can and will restore and reinstate people if they genuinely repent, or they don’t follow in their wicked father’s footsteps. So now we see an example of God’s mercy in the birth of Moses, whose parents were of the tribe of Levi. God’s sense of irony is shown here, in that he turns the very method Pharoah used to eradicate the Hebrews into the method of their eventual escape.
Moses’ mother hides him as long as she can, and then she makes a wicker basket of papyrus coated with tar to make it watertight. It’s interesting that the Hebrew word here is the same as that used for Noah’s Ark, and those are the only two instances of the word in the Hebrew scriptures. So she puts the baby into the basket and sets it down in the river, which technically meets Pharoah’s requirement! Then Moses’ older sister Miriam watches to see what happens to him.
We should know by verse 5 that this is all God’s doing, because just then Pharaoh’s daughter comes to bathe in the river. She sees the basket and hears the baby crying, but though she knows it’s supposed to be killed, she rescues it anyway. Then Miram wisely offers to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby for her, which unbeknownst to Pharaoh’s daughter, will be the baby’s natural mother— and she’ll be paid for her services! Well played, Miriam.
Of course, the time eventually comes when the child must be handed over to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopts him as her own son. And it is she who names him Moses, meaning “I drew him out of the water.” This again shows how God uses foreshadowing, since later Moses will lead Israel across the Red Sea on dry ground.
Constable points out another foreshadowing as well: it’s always women who save Moses, who in turn will save Israel from extinction, which parallels the women who stayed with the condemned and crucified Christ after all but one of the men had run away. God is no respecter of persons.
As we see starting in verse 11, Moses grows up in the privileged life of Egyptian royalty, well-educated and respected. But for reasons explained in Heb. 11:24-25, one day he goes out to see how his people are being treated, and he comes upon an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. So he looks around to see if anyone else is watching, then kills the Egyptian, though perhaps not intentionally. If he had any inkling of his eventual role as Israel’s savior, he went about it in the worst way.
Of course, this would end his career as a royal, because people always find out. The next day when he tries to break up a fight between two Hebrews, they resent his interferance and ask if he’s going to kill them just as he killed the Egyptian. He knows he’s dead meat, so he runs away to the land of Midian.
In verse 15 we see that by God’s unseen guidance once again, Moses “just happens” to rest at a well where the daughters of a local priest come to draw water for their father’s sheep. But they don’t see Moses there at first. Then other shepherds come and tries to push away the women, but Moses rescues them and helps them get the water they need. So they go to their father Reuel (elsewhere called Jethro) and tell him that they were rescued by an Egyptian, and he can’t believe they just left him there alone. So Moses takes shelter in the home of Reuel, who later gives his daughter Zipporah to him as his wife.
As we come to verse 23 we see that a long time has passed ( 40 years according to Acts 7:30), and finally the Pharaoh who wanted to kill Moses is dead. But the people of Israel continue to suffer as slaves, and their crying out to God has reached the point where he will have Moses fulfil his true calling. In the next lesson we’ll see how this calling happens, including a refutation of some needlessly divisive theories about the true name of God. But we need to clear up a few miscellaneous points before we end this lesson:
- There is no evidence that the Hebrews helped build any pyramids.
- The use of “Hebrew” to describe the Israelites, first seen in Genesis, is likely derived from a descendant of Shem named Eber.
- Methods of calculating the number of years Israel was in Egypt can be studied at the resources below. The fact that it’s been disputed for a long time shows that it isn’t as clear as we’d prefer, but at least we can say that the integrity and inspiration of scripture is not threatened by any of this.
The Genealogical Timeline
Take a look at these resources on the matter of the number of years in the genealogical timeline up to Moses:
