Narrative of God start here after Preface (Genesis 1-11) and the Introduction (Genesis 12-50)
Today is a break from the text - big picture stuff
Haga - onomatopoeia for a lion's growl while hunched over its prey. Proverbs uses this word for meditation (meditating on the law of the Lord day and night)
Questions
- Why does God show up to kill Moses?
- How does Zipporah know exactly what to do in Exodus 4?
- Why is Moses' son not carrying the sign of the covenant in the first place?
- What has been Moses' experience in this story?
- What kinds of things stand out to us about this story?
Moses
- A circumcised Hebrew who is raised on Pharaoh's house
- After he killed the Egyptian he flees
- Moses must've been struggling with his identity..
- He carries the sign of the covenant, circumcision
- He watches the Israelites be oppressed by his own Egyptian household
- Moses' son might not have been circumcised because that would be Moses aligning himself with Hebrew people, and him being raised in Pharaoh's house may have led him to not feel like a part of Yahweh's family. This might be Moses' statement that he is no longer apart of Israel
- God reveals himself at the burning bush, and more or less tells Moses that it's not about his qualifications
- Fits with the idea that Moses has this identity crisis going on
- Moses is called out of exile, out of his identity crisis, back into God's people
- Genealogy in Exodus 6 is about proving to Moses himself that he's exactly who he doesn't feel qualified to be - a member of the Hebrew people, Israel, whom Yahweh chose
- Moses actually is the most qualified person God could choose for this job
- Raise in Pharaoh's house
- Has royal training
- Knows Pharaoh's family
- Familiar with the ins and outs of Egypt
chathan
- "bridegroom of blood" (in Exodus 4) or "son-in-law" (back in Sodom and Gomorrah story Genesis 19:12,14)
- 3 other words show up in these 2 stories almost exclusively
- Rasha means "wicked" in a unique way
- First 4 in these two stories, Genesis 18:23,25 then Exodus 2:13;9:27 which serve as bookends to the Exodus story
- tsa'aqah - cry of oppression, you are a victim of injustice
- Appear 5 total times
- appears twice in Genesis 18:21;19:13 then again in Exodus 3:7,9,
- Slight exception from Esau who lets out a "tsa'aqah" when Jacob steals the blessing
- Shaphat - judge (restorative, not retributive)
- Genesis 18:26;19:9 and Exodus 2:14;5:21
- Rasha means "wicked" in a unique way
When there is a wickedness that causes the bitter cry of oppression, God will hear their cry and come to give judgement that restores order to the chaos