Day 30: Exodus 1-4

So today we start Exodus.

Chapter 1:
Here we skim through several generations of the Israelites living in Egypt after the death of Joseph and all his brothers. They have multiplied exponentially and the Egyptians are concerned about their number so they basically enslave the Israelites to try to keep them in check. As a child hearing these OT stories it never really dawned on me how ruthless and despotic these middle eastern rulers really were. When I think of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt today, Sadam Hussein of Iraq, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, Muammar Gaddafi of Lybia it seems not much has changed in this region of the world. It continues to be dominated by this type of ruler.

Chapter 2:
This chapter tells of the birth and early life of Moses.

Chapter 3:
Moses is called by God to lead His people out of Egypt. He seems pretty unwilling.

Here's a run down of his "reasons":

1. "I'm a nobody." (3:11) This sounds very humble at first and of course it's true but God says not to worry because He will be with him. The same is true for us. We're nobodies but God says, "Go" and reassures us that He will be with us.
2. "What if they ask who You are? What should I say?" (3:13) Basically God says, "Just tell them the truth. It's me...the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You know the One. I AM. They'll know who you're talking about." I suppose we're still sort of afraid people will ask us a question we can't answer.
3. "What if they don't believe me?" (4:1) In response to this God gives him three miraculous signs he can do to show he's got some special power from God. If they don't believe the first one, try the second. If they don't believe the second try the third. These were to be the evidence that he was sent by God. What is our evidence? What can we point to to indicate that God is in our lives? I suppose the answer to that may be different for each of us but I think our own experience of God working in our lives would be the main thing we can point to. Will people believe us? I don't know but that's the evidence we have.
4. "I'm really not very good with words." (4:10) God says, "Who made your mouth? I did, that's who! If I say you can talk then, by golly, you can talk!" I suppose God made my mouth too.
5. "Please send someone else!" (4:13) No more reasons, just a plea from the gut to be exempted from service. Yeah, I suppose I've been there, too. God gets pretty angry at this. I suppose as a sort of compromise he sends Aaron, his brother, with him.

I wonder if God ever gets any new problems.