(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)
When
Moses complained to God about the attitude of the people, God answered him.
“Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them
go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country.”
God
continued to speak; reminding Moses of a few things just in case he had
forgotten: “I am the LORD. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob
as God Almighty, but by my name the LORD I did not make myself fully known to
them. I also established my covenant
with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as
foreigners. Moreover I have heard the groaning
of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my
covenant. Therefore say to the
Israelites ‘I am the LORD and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the
Egyptians. I will free you from being
slaves to them and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts
of judgment. I will take you as my own
people and I will be your God. Then you
will know that I am the LORD your God who brought you out from under the yoke
of the Egyptians. And I will bring you
to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to
Jacob. I will give it to you as a
possession. I am the LORD.’”
I’m
sure this conversation must have encouraged and inspired Moses. He runs back to the poor, tired, overworked
people and reports what God has promised.
He again states that he is talking to THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, and none of
this is coming from Moses' imagination. He explains
to them that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew God as God Almighty, but this same
God Almighty has many attributes and each one is named. This time the people will know him as THE
LORD. Moses tells the people they must
realize the LORD will bring them out of slavery because he has chosen them to
be His people. Moses tells them that God
has promised to give them the land of Canaan in order to fulfill his covenant
with Abraham made so long ago. Moses
explains to them that they will one day be free and possess that land that was
promised.
The
people are tired. The people are
hungry. The people are overworked and
under fed and longing for nothing more than death. They are not listening to Moses whom they think may have been
hiking up a mountain having imaginary conversations with God while they have been confined to so much hard labor. Who was he anyway? He couldn’t even stay in the palace and run
the country when it was offered to him. That would have helped them out a lot! He was a fool. He would never be Hebrew like them; who did he think he was kidding? What was this talk of the God
of Abraham hearing their cries? That story was beginning to get a little old. Surely God had forgotten them long ago or they would not be here in the first
place.
So once
again a discouraged Moses goes back to the Mountain of God and falls on his
face and says to God that the people do not believe him. God doesn’t worry about that. Instead of joining Moses's pity party for himself, God tells Moses to get up and go straight to
Pharaoh and tell him to let the Israelites go out of his country.
Now
Moses must have been super perplexed this time.
God was repeating the same things again.
Last time he listened to that nothing had happened and Pharaoh had only
become angry with the people and punished them by giving them harder and longer
work. It had started this huge communications problem with them, because they had become angry with him for misleading them.
So Moses speaks to God and says, “The
Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak
with faltering lips?” Some scholars think this meant that Moses stuttered. That really could have been the case, or it could have simply been that the people did not have any confidence in Moses's ability to speak to Pharaoh since the last time had brought them only deeper into bondage.
Here is
where there is a pause in the scriptures and the genealogy of Aaron and Moses
is spelled out, name by name. The twelve
sons of Jacob are repeated along with their son’s names and some of their wives
names. It is like God is reminding the
two; (Moses and Aaron) of their heritage. Moses may have desperately needed this lesson since he had been living like an Egyptian, then a Midian Shepherd. He probably did not have a good clear understanding of the twelve tribes of Israel. Aaron was probably just getting a refresher course. Whatever the case, it confirmed that God thought this to be very important.
Every little detail of the lineage is noted and spelled out. God was dividing up the tribes and explaining
to Moses and Aaron that they should bring the people out in divisions by
families. God was instructing both Moses
and Aaron, and Moses was again complaining about his lack of speaking
abilities. I’m sure that the people not
being willing to listen to him had heaped more and more feelings of incompetence upon
his already too low self esteem. God saw
this. God included Aaron in the
instructions. Aaron had great powers of
persuasion over the people, especially the elders. Aaron had good self esteem and he would get
their attention and persuade them that Moses was right. If anyone could make the people listen to
Moses, it was Aaron.
