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21. The Exodus from
Egypt.
Once, when Moses had
driven his father-in-law's sheep deep into the desert on Mount Horeb, a
voice spoke to him: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. I have seen the misery of my
people in Egypt and will have mercy on them. So now go; I will send you
to Pharaoh to bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.’
This was a great task. Moses said: ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh
and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’ - God said: ‘I will be
with you.’ Then Moses said, ‘O my Lord, I have not always been eloquent,
for I have a difficult tongue and a difficult speech.’ Then God said to
him, ‘Who made man's mouth, or who made the mute or the deaf or the
seeing or the blind? Did I not do it, the Lord?’ He said that God knows
what he is doing and what he can expect of every man, and that he can do
good to man even through infirm persons and make his name glorious. God
also promised him that his brother Aaron would stand by him and speak
for him.
Moses now returned to Egypt. But his wife and children stayed at home
with Jethro, their father. On the way, his brother Aaron met him and
greeted him with great joy. Moses and Aaron gathered the elders, that is,
the leaders of the children of Israel, and told them that God would
deliver the people through them. The people rejoiced and did not know
what a difficult time was ahead of them.
Then Moses and Aaron went to the king and said, ‘Thus says the Lord, the
God of Israel, ’Let my people go, that they may hold a feast for me in
the wilderness. Pharaoh gave them the ungodly answer: ‘Who is the Lord
whose voice I must obey? I know nothing of the LORD, nor will I let
Israel go.’ That same day Pharaoh spoke to the governors and officials.
‘It is still too good for the Hebrews,’ he said, and ordered that they
be made to labour and suffer even more hardship. For this often happens
when God wants to save soon and one is already looking forward to
salvation, that the need only becomes greatest, so that man recognises
that salvation comes from God. ‘When man's help seems to be at an end,
God's help comes.’
When Pharaoh refused to listen, God performed terrible miracles on Egypt
through Moses. All the water in Egypt turned to blood; that was the
first plague. - When the water became water again, frogs came without
end. This was the second plague. - Item, there came forth the goats out
of the dust. - Death came among the livestock. - The Egyptians were
afflicted with evil, black pustules. - Severe storms with lightning and
hail devastated all of Egypt, especially the flax and barley. - The
locusts were devoured. - There was a three-day darkness; this was the
ninth plague. Every time there was trouble and terror, Pharaoh promised
to let the people go.
Every time he had another deadline, he went back on his promise and
became more wicked than he had been before. - Is it not so that reckless
and stubborn people from childhood promise correction before God and man
when they are threatened with the punishment of their sins? But when
they have found mercy and time for amendment, they know nothing more of
their promise, until at last the divine judgements break in without
mercy and can never remain behind. Finally, in one night in Egypt, all
the firstborn sons of every house and the firstborn of all the livestock
died. It was the tenth and final plague. It was so terrible for the
Egyptians that Pharaoh himself forced the Israelites to leave.
Moses and Aaron had commanded the people to eat for the last time at
night in Egypt and told them how. A lamb was slaughtered in every house.
They called it the paschal lamb and ate it standing with sticks in their
hands as people ready to travel. Unexpectedly, the king ordered them to
leave Egypt without delay.
So the Israelites set out from the land of their servitude and misery
with great joy, with their livestock and all their possessions,
including the gold and silver they had borrowed from the Egyptians, and
with unleavened bread dough. They never had time to bake it. They also
took Joseph's bones with them, as Joseph had ordered from his deathbed.
But as soon as they were gone, Pharaoh hurried after them again with a
great army and overtook them at the Red Sea, which separates Egypt from
Arabia.
But the waters of the sea had receded, though at a narrow ford, so that
the children of Israel could pass through on dry land. But when Pharaoh
and his army pursued them and stood at the bottom of the sea, the waters
returned and all the Egyptians perished. In this way God delivered the
descendants of Israel.
Jacob had gone to Egypt with sixty-six souls; Moses went out again with
six times a hundred thousand men, not including the children. They had
lived in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years. In memory of this
salvation, the descendants of Israel celebrate and commemorate their
Easter feast every year to this day.
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