Moses the Liberator

When last we met, Moses had barely escaped Egypt with his life and had taken refuge in Midian, where he lived an anonymous, peaceful sort of life for many years.

But one day he came across a bush that appeared to be on fire, but which was not being consumed by the fire. (Ex. 3:2) Curious, he took a closer look, and discovered that God was speaking directly to him. Not only that, but God told him that he must return to Egypt, and set the Israelites free from slavery. (Ex. 3:9)

As you can imagine, this seemed a tall order—mainly because Moses had no army, not to mention he was wanted for murder in Egypt. And so, he did what many of us would have done, and tried to convince God that this was not such a good idea.  “What if they don’t believe me?” He also mentioned that he was not a very good public speaker. (Ex. 4:1-10)

In the end, he did as he was asked (it was God, after all—and God pointed out that He was well-aware that Moses was not a good public speaker, being as He was God.) Moses appeared before Pharoah, who was no doubt surprised that the black sheep of the family had returned. Moses told Pharoah to “set my people free”, or else God would visit plagues upon the land to show his displeasure.

 As could be expected, Pharaoh scoffed at such a threat, but in short order the land of Egypt was infested with nine different plagues—first, the Nile turned to blood, then there were frogs, gnats, flies, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, and three days of darkness. (Ex. 8, 9, 10)  Several times during these plagues Pharaoh weakened—not a surprise, considering this extraordinary chain of events—but in the end, he continued in his refusal to free the Hebrew slaves. 

And so, God unleashed the tenth and most deadly plague; that the firstborn of every household would die “both man and beast.”  To spare the Israelites from this tenth plague, however, Moses instructed them to splash the blood of a slaughtered lamb on their doorways, so that the Angel of Death would see this signal and “pass over” their houses. (Ex. 12:21)

The Jewish Feast of Passover celebrates this event, and it is not a coincidence that—fifteen hundred years later—Jesus’ Last Supper was a Passover celebration, the ritual celebrating how the Blood of the Lamb defeats death itself.

This deadly tenth plague convinced Pharoah to give in, and so the Israelites gathered up their things and began the long trek back to the land of Canaan.

But—in one last waffle—the Pharoah changed his mind and set out with his army to recapture them. (Ex. 14:5) Moses and his people—about 2 million strong—were trapped at the shores of the Red Sea, with the army fast approaching. Moses raised his arms, and the Red Sea parted so as to allow the Israelites to escape across the exposed sea bed. (Ex. 14:19)

When Pharaoh’s army followed, the waters rushed back to destroy it, so that the Israelites would have no fears of pursuit as they began their new lives in freedom.

Next time: Moses the Lawgiver