History of Israel: Moses Returns To Egypt

In the latest episode of Bible Backdrop, we continue our series on the History of Israel looking at Moses' return to Egypt. What events led him there? How did he respond to God's calling? Did God really almost kill him? 

After 40 years of living in the wilderness and tending his father in law's sheep, Moses is called by God to talk to Pharaoh to let Israel go. Moses is beaten down, uncertain and tries to back out. God is having none of it and Moses is compelled to go. But...he won't do it alone. Listen to this latest episode of Bible Backdrop to hear the whole story.

Transcript

Aaron continued walking in the wilderness. He had no idea where he was going; only that he knew he had to go. He was certain he heard the voice of the God of Israel telling him to go and meet his brother, Moses, in the wilderness. Now, he wasn’t so sure. Had he heard correctly? Was Moses still alive? It had been a long 40 years since he last heard about him. When he had to run since Pharaoh was looking to kill him after Moses had killed an Egyptian. Maybe this was a wild goose chase? The delusions of a man longing for freedom from his taskmasters.

No...he was certain of the voice and of the direction he was going. He was rationing his food as best he could, but he hoped to find Moses soon. It was getting dangerously low and there was nowhere to replenish it. There was nothing to do but keep going. Continue moving east, toward the large mountain that loomed ahead.

As he crested a hill, his heart almost burst with joy. A tent was set up and a man was putting wood together to build a fire. A woman was there too, although she didn’t look too happy about the situation as she gathered some things to make their meal. Even if this wasn’t Moses, at least he may be welcomed and given some food to continue his journey. 

As Aaron drew closer, the man stopped and dropped the load he was carrying. He started running toward Aaron and waving wildly. Aaron stopped and held his staff in case he needed it to fend off this stranger.

 “Aaron! Is that really you?!”

 “Moses!” Aaron replied.

He couldn’t believe it. He had not heard wrong. Here was his brother Moses, in the flesh. God had directed his path the entire time!

Moses embraced his brother and kissed him on the cheek. 

 “The Lord appeared and said you were coming to meet me. I couldn’t believe it, but it’s another miracle that you are here! And I am so very glad. We have much to talk about, but let’s get some food first...then we can talk.”

Aaron, a thousand emotions running through him at the same time, was stunned silent. He couldn’t believe that his brother was standing in front of him, alive and well. And the Lord had appeared to him? Something big was about to happen...something bigger than either one of them could have imagined.

Hello again everyone and welcome to the next episode of Bible Backdrop. We’re continuing our series on the history of Israel and the calling of Moses. When we last left off, Moses had escaped into the wilderness to avoid being killed by Pharaoh. While out there, he did a service by protecting the daughters of a local priest of Midian. He was invited as a guest to the man’s house and married one of his daughters.

Now we fast forward 40 years later. This has been a long 40 years for Moses and for the people of Israel who are still groaning under the bondage of Egypt. Moses is a very different man now than the one who left Egypt. No longer the Egyptian taught prince...no longer the man who was going to lead Israel out of bondage by his own hand. Now he is a simple shepherd without a flock of his own. As the Bible states, he is moving his father in law’s flock. It seems that Moses is almost the anti-Jacob. In establishing the nation, God gave Jacob great wealth in order to increase the family size so that they may endure. However, with Moses, it appears that God wants him to be unencumbered with any wealth so as to be able to focus on the job at hand. It has also humbled and broken him as we will see in the future verses.

While out with his father in law’s sheep, Moses sees a very strange sight. A bush appears to have caught fire, which wasn’t unusual in the climate; but this was very different. The bush was not being consumed. It wasn’t diminished...no leaf curled...no branch charred. It was strange enough that Moses turned aside to walk towards it. And then something even stranger happens. A voice comes from the bush. One verse says it was an “angel of the Lord” but then later verses say it was “the Lord.” Which one is correct? In this case...both. The word for angel in Hebrew is malach which means “messenger” or “the one who is sent.” So the angel of the Lord, in the case, is one of the trinity and commentaries think it may have been a pre-incarnate Jesus.

As he is approaching the bush, God calls his name twice. Why twice? By saying a name twice, it showed that this was a matter of importance and urgency. God told him to come no further and take his sandals off. Since God is holy, there will be separation so Moses is to stay a distance away. As for the sandals, this was a two-fold purpose. First, taking off the sandals was a sign of humility. Servants and the poorest usually did not have shoes. Second, it was customary to remove your sandals when coming into someone’s house. In this case, Moses was entering God’s house by standing in his presence. He had to show the proper humility being before a holy God.

When God announces who He is, Moses then hides his face. We start to see that this is a very different Moses from the arrogant one that was run out of Egypt for murder. Moses is far more humble now and recognizes his sinfulness and pride that brought him here. He probably thinks God is about to punish him for his deeds. As usual, God has other plans.

It’s at this point that God reveals his plan to Moses and what he wants him to do. He sees the oppression happening to Israel and now is the time for liberation and freedom. He states that he is sending Moses to go before Pharaoh to bring the people out of Egypt.

Now, you might think that the voice of God speaking out from a burning bush in a desert would get anyone moving right away to obey. However, as I said before, this is not the same Moses. He is broken and believes he has nothing useful left to offer. As an aside, I think we’d have a lot of the same questions and concerns that Moses had...even if we heard God speaking to us directly.

Moses starts by asking God who he was that he should go before Pharaoh. God answers that He will be with Moses the whole time. This should have been enough, but Moses continues. He then asks God His name to tell the elders of Israel so they will believe him. God answers by saying I AM WHO I AM sent him. This was the name that God was known by throughout Genesis. Still not enough, Moses then asks what he should do if the elders still don’t believe him. God then gives Moses the ability to perform 3 miracles: his staff turning into a snake, his hand becoming leprous and then whole again, and then filling a container with water but it turns to blood when poured out. Moses then says that he is slow of speech. In this case, he feels that he doesn’t speak Hebrew or Egyptian well anymore. God starts pushing back and showing some tough love at this point and reminds Moses that He will be with him and tell him what to say. Finally, all out of excuses, Moses simply asks God to send someone else. At this point, the Bible says “Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses.” Oddly enough, God didn’t get angry through the entire sequence of questions until Moses outright asked not to go. God responds that Moses’ brother Aaron can speak well and is going out to the wilderness to meet him. Then, with the arguing over, Moses is sent on his commission. First, he asks for a release from his father in law, Jethro, to go back to his own people. Jethro immediately agrees and wishes him well. 

Then we have an interesting aside to the story. The Bible says “At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it.” This is...interesting...to say the least. Why this story and why here? What we can gather from what is written is that either God appeared and was literally going to kill Moses or he came down with a sudden and severe illness. Realizing that this is the result of his sin for not circumcising his son and probably incapacitated from doing so, Zipporah has to step in and do it. And she’s not happy about it. In fact, the probable reason he didn’t circumcise him in the first place is because she disapproved of the practice. Now, he is going to Egypt to lead the people out of bondage...to be the great giver of the law...and he hadn’t even followed the basic command that was well known to every Hebrew about circumcision. So why not just tell him to do it instead of going through this? Two reasons: First, Moses should know better and God is making a point. If he is to lead, he needs to follow by faith. God had already given the command hundreds of years earlier and Moses should not have ignored it. He should have known that this was going to be important when he gets to Egypt and meets with the Israelites. Second, by incapacitating Moses, Zipporah has to do it. This means that she has to be accepting of the practice and equally yoked with Moses as he goes through what will be a very difficult time leading the nation of Israel.

After circumcising their son, Zipporah touches Moses’ feet with the foreskin and says “You have become a bridegroom of blood to me.” She’s not happy about this...at all. But she needs to get on board for Moses to do what God has called him to do. After this is done, then the Bible says “So the Lord let him alone.” It appears that whatever the threat was, whether illness or something else, passes and they are able to continue.

Before moving on, they get an ally. As promised, God sent Aaron to meet with Moses. Moses shares everything with Aaron that God told him to do and all the signs that he was to perform. Aaron must have been excited to hear this and get started.

Finally, they are in Egypt and bring together the elders of Israel. While Moses may have been a stranger to most of them, Aaron was likely well known and could speak for Moses. Moses was also able to perform the signs God commanded. When they saw this, the elders were overjoyed and bowed down and worshiped.

Unfortunately, things will get worse before they get better.

After meeting with the elders, it’s time to face Pharaoh. How they got an entrance to Pharaoh is unknown. Perhaps once having been part of the royal household, Moses was aware of the procedures and knew how to gain access. People may also have recognized him, including Pharaoh. They may have even grown up together, so Pharaoh would be curious. Imagine his surprise when Moses walks in wearing shepherd clothes and accompanied by this unknown Hebrew. But the real surprise comes when Moses tells Pharaoh that he has met with the Lord and asks to release the people to go for a festival to the Lord.

Pharaoh is unimpressed. “Who is the Lord, that I should obey Him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” Moses counters and states that if Pharaoh does not let Israel make sacrifices, God could strike them with sword or plagues. Again, Pharaoh is unimpressed and his ire is raised that they would lose a week worth of work (3 days out...1 day for a festival...3 days back). So instead of letting them go, he makes things worse. He tells his taskmasters to no longer provide straw to make the bricks...that Israel will need to provide their own straw, but will have to make the same quota of bricks. Before moving on, what was the deal with adding straw to bricks? At this time in Egypt, bricks were not hardened by fire because it was hard to do so without a constant source of fuel, given the large building projects. It was discovered that adding straw to a brick and then drying it in the sun makes it 3x harder than a brick without straw. The reason for this is because straw releases something called humic acid as it breaks down. The humic acid causes the bricks to harden better and are well suited as building materials.

Back to the story. This new order gets pushed down to the Israelites who are bewildered. They go to Pharaoh who declares that they are lazy and need more work to do and to stop this nonsense about going out to the wilderness to worship the Lord. So who do these elders blame? Pharaoh? The taskmasters? Nope. They blame Moses. Who then asks God… ”Why Lord...why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me?”

Moses seems to have forgotten that God already told him that Pharaoh would not let the people go until He was forced to do so. But why put the nation through these trials? We must remember that God is forging a nation and that growth is done through strife and hardship. The people, and Moses, need to be faithful and surrender to His will to face the difficult times ahead. 

On that note, I think we’ll stop here. Next episode, we’ll take a deep look at the 10 plagues that finally force Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. If you are enjoying Bible Backdrop, please subscribe and leave a 5 star rating and review. If you want to get in touch with the show, you can e-mail me at BibleBackdrop@gmail.com. Word of mouth is still the best way for this show to get around, so tell a friend and have them subscribe. You can find Bible Backdrop on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere podcasts are found. Thank you again for listening and have a great week!