Study Desk

"Believe me, they will listen to you. Then you and the leaders of Israel will go to the king of Egypt and say to him: ‘ God , the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness where we will worship God —our God.'

Moses objected, "They won't trust me. They won't listen to a word I say. They're going to say, ‘ God ? Appear to him? Hardly!'"

So God said, "What's that in your hand?" "A staff."

God said to Moses, "Reach out and grab it by the tail." He reached out and grabbed it—and he was holding his staff again. "That's so they will trust that God appeared to you, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

God then said, "Put your hand inside your shirt." He slipped his hand under his shirt, then took it out. His hand had turned leprous, like snow.

Moses raised another objection to God : "Master, please, I don't talk well. I've never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer."

God said, "And who do you think made the human mouth? And who makes some mute, some deaf, some sighted, some blind? Isn't it I, God ? So, get going. I'll be right there with you—with your mouth! I'll be right there to teach you what to say."

God got angry with Moses: "Don't you have a brother, Aaron the Levite? He's good with words, I know he is. He speaks very well. In fact, at this very moment he's on his way to meet you. When he sees you he's going to be glad. You'll speak to him and tell him what to say. I'll be right there with you as you speak and with him as he speaks, teaching you step by step. He will speak to the people for you. He'll act as your mouth, but you'll decide what comes out of it. Now take this staff in your hand; you'll use it to do the signs."

God said to Moses in Midian: "Go. Return to Egypt. All the men who wanted to kill you are dead."

So Moses took his wife and sons and put them on a donkey for the return trip to Egypt. He had a firm grip on the staff of God.

God said to Moses, "When you get back to Egypt, be prepared: All the wonders that I will do through you, you'll do before Pharaoh. But I will make him stubborn so that he will refuse to let the people go. Then you are to tell Pharaoh, ‘ God 's Message: Israel is my son, my firstborn! I told you, "Free my son so that he can serve me." But you refused to free him. So now I'm going to kill your son, your firstborn.'"

On the journey back, as they camped for the night, God met Moses and would have killed him but Zipporah took a flint knife and cut off her son's foreskin, and touched Moses' member with it. She said, "Oh! You're a bridegroom of blood to me!" Then God let him go. She used the phrase "bridegroom of blood" because of the circumcision.

God spoke to Aaron, "Go and meet Moses in the wilderness." He went and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him. Moses told Aaron the message that God had sent him to speak and the wonders he had commanded him to do.

So Moses and Aaron proceeded to round up all the leaders of Israel. Aaron told them everything that God had told Moses and demonstrated the wonders before the people. And the people trusted and listened believingly that God was concerned with what was going on with the Israelites and knew all about their affliction. They bowed low and they worshiped.

After that Moses and Aaron approached Pharaoh. They said, " God , the God of Israel, says, ‘Free my people so that they can hold a festival for me in the wilderness.'"

Pharaoh said, "And who is God that I should listen to him and send Israel off? I know nothing of this so-called ‘ God ' and I'm certainly not going to send Israel off."

They said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness so we can worship our God lest he strike us with either disease or death."

Pharaoh took immediate action. He sent down orders to the slave-drivers and their underlings: "Don't provide straw for the people for making bricks as you have been doing. Make them get their own straw. And make them produce the same number of bricks—no reduction in their daily quotas! They're getting lazy. They're going around saying, ‘Give us time off so we can worship our God.' Crack down on them. That'll cure them of their whining, their god-fantasies."

But Pharaoh said, "Lazy! That's what you are! Lazy! That's why you whine, ‘Let us go so we can worship God .' Well then, go—go back to work. Nobody's going to give you straw, and at the end of the day you better bring in your full quota of bricks."

As they left Pharaoh, they found Moses and Aaron waiting to meet them. The foremen said to them, "May God see what you've done and judge you—you've made us stink before Pharaoh and his servants! You've put a weapon in his hand that's going to kill us!"