MOSES AND THE EXODUS
Beginning in Exodus, the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is now termed as “the people of the children of Israel”. They have grown from 70 persons who ended up in Egypt to a ‘people’, the nation of Israel, Exodus 1:8. They have been blessed in the land of Goshen in Egypt, and multiplied quickly under friendly leaders who knew the story of how Joseph had saved them from famine, but over time, a new Pharaoh arose who “knew not Joseph” He viewed their rapid growth as a threat to the safety of Egypt, especially in time of war, Exodus 1:10,11. At first they are made to be slaves, but that does not stop their growth. Pharaoh then orders the baby boys to be cast into the river. Genesis 2 describes how Moses’ is born of faithful parents who hid him in order to save him. Through divine protection and the parents efforts, Moses is adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter and is raised in Pharaoh’s household and unknowingly to Pharaoh, was nursed by his own mother. It was at the age of 40 when Moses attempts to help his people, but when he kills an Egyptian he is forced to flee from Egypt. He goes to Midian on the Sinai Penninsula, where he meets Jethro and marries his daughter Zipporah and together have two children.
While Moses is shepherding the flocks of his father in law, “the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush”, Exodus 3:1,2. The unconsumed bush dramatizes the preservation of the nation of Israel, Malachi 3:6; Isaiah 43:1,2. Moses is called upon to deliver the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt, Exodus 3:9,10.