INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS
This
book is called Shemohth
Which means 'Names' in Hebrew
And tells the story of a Pharaoh
Who got himself into a stew.
Mind
you, not all of it his fault
As we shall see from the story,
His misfortunes were the result
Of JEHOVAH's quest for glory.
Authorship
is attributed
To Moses, just by tradition,
And you can believe it or not!
It's entirely your decision.
If
and when all this took place
It is just pure speculation,
As is the belief that it was
Penned under God's inspiration.
CHAPTER
ONE
A
good many years had gone by,
Joseph and brothers were long dead,
From the time they took refuge
In the land that gave them bread.
There
arose in Egypt a Pharaoh
With his people's welfare at heart
Who felt that all these Hebrews
Were slowing the economic cart.
They
were shepherds and as such
Didn't help much in agriculture
And were also not all that keen
To promote Egyptian culture.
As
labour was at a premium
For his architectural plans
He put them to work, making bricks,
Which displeased the Hebrew clans.
Unaccustomed
to any work
Involving physical exertion
They felt that their 'chosen' status
Had been given to perversion.
And
as the Hebrew birth rate
Continued on an upward roll
Pharaoh sought to introduce
A new program of birth control.
According
to Jewish records,
Which are of very little worth,
Midwives were commanded to kill
Every Hebrew man-child at birth.
But
the midwives disobeyed
For fear of God's retribution
And so the people increased
Thanks to their contribution.
CHAPTER
TWO
A
Levite, who didn't know God's Law,
Took his father's sister to bed
And so a baby boy was born
To Amram and aunt Jochebed.
She
managed to hide the child
Three months, God only knows where,
But then leaves him in a basket
By the river, at kismet care.
Pharaoh's
daughter came for a swim
And saw this ark among the reeds
Which contained, when she opened it
One of the Hebrews' many seeds.
Miriam,
the child's elder sister,
Ensured, for a goodly sum,
That Pharaoh's daughter would take
As the boy's nurse his own mum.
The
youngster grew to manhood,
His life was a bed of roses,
Pampered by Pharaoh's daughter
Who'd given him the name - Moses.
But
our hero's racial traits
Were difficult to shake away,
And he murdered an Egyptian
At the construction site one day.
He
thought that no one had seen him
But was as wrong as he could be
And when challenged on the issue
To Midiam he had to flee.
There,
he struck an acquaintance
With Reuel and all his daughters,
Whom he had helped when he drove
Shepherds away from their waters.
Sometime
later he was given
One of the daughters to marry,
And with the birth of his first son
He decided there to tarry.
CHAPTER
THREE
Moses'
father in law, Jethro,
Was known previously as Reuel
For unless he had two names
This tale is confusing as hell.
At
mount Horeb, tending the flock
Of Reuel, it is presumed,
Moses saw a bush on fire
But the bush was not consumed.
He
didn't seem at all perturbed
By the great wonder of it all!
Of a fire that did not burn
Or hearing a plant to him call.
'Moses,
Moses', the bush had said,
To which he gave a quick reply,
And did not sound too concerned
When he answered back, 'Here am I'.
So
the bush continued to speak,
For there was no one else around,
And told him to take off his shoes
As the place was 'holy ground'.
The
voice then revealed itself
As coming from God, not from weeds,
And Moses suddenly learned
That speech does not grow from seeds.
He
had been talking to this plant
For quite some time in that place,
But now that God reveals Himself
Moses hides away his face.
(Comparing
verses two and four
One discerns a note of discord:
Was it God almighty speaking,
Or just an Angel of the LORD?).
God
told him that He had come down
To send him on a rescue mission:
He was to bring Israel out
From the land of their oppression.
But
Moses was not all that keen
To meet with Pharaoh, who he knew
Had ordered that he should die
For the Egyptian that he slew.
The
LORD said he should not worry,
He with be with him all the way,
And as for being 'slow of speech'
He would coax him on what to say.
Yet
Moses was still unhappy!
'What would people's reaction be
If I should come to them and say,
The God of our fathers sent me?'
As
they might want further details
He asked if God had a name
And was given to understand
That God wasn't always the same.
'Eh
- yeh' Asher 'Eh - yeh', said God,
'I will be what I want to be'
But then reveals His full name
In Chapter Six and verse three.
The
LORD then gives instructions
On what Moses should say and do
And ends by commanding the Jews
To plunder the Egyptians too.
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