Reading for July 30th

Read Exodus 4.18-31. In verse 21: The theme of God's hardening the heart of Pharaoh plays an important role throughout the story of Israel's Exodus out of Egypt. Ancient Israel understood the heart as the intersecting point of human intellect and the human will. God repeatedly stiffens or hardens the heart or will of Pharaoh against letting Israel go (9.12; 14.8). This emphasis on God's control of Pharaoh ensures that Egypt will finally come to acknowledge God's power. On the other hand, the texts also repeatedly declare that Pharaoh hardens his own heart or will (7.13-14; 9.7, 34-35). Thus Pharaoh can also beheld morally responsible for his own willful actions. Pharaoh even confesses his own willful actions. Pharaoh even confesses his own sin and responsibility for wrongdoing (9.27-28). The story holds together affirmations of divine guidance and control along with human freedom and responsibility. In verse 23: The threat to Pharaoh to kill your firstborn son will be accomplished in the tenth and final plague (12.29-32). In this way God will reclaim Israel as God's firstborn son (v. 22). In verse 24-26: This story of the deity's attack and circumcision's role as a defense against the deity is difficult to understand. We have lost some of the historical context that underlies the original story. However, the mention of Pharaoh's "firstborn son" in the the preceding verse (v. 23) suggests a connection to the final plague when the deity killed all the Egyptian firstborn. The protective power of the blood on the door posts of the Israelites houses cause the Lord to pass over their houses and not kill the Israelites firstborn (12.12, 22-23). In the same way, the protective blood of the circumcision here protects either Moses or his son (the pronoun "him" in 24-26 is ambiguous). Circumcision is a ritual involving cutting off the foreskin of the male penis. A flint is a sharpened stone used in ritual. Moses' feet is probably alternative way of saying his genitals. A bridegroom of blood may reflect the practice of some cultures that called the circumcised male "a bridegroom." The theme of the deity's attack against those whom the deity has chosen for a special mission occurs elsewhere in the Bible (Gen 32.22-32;Num 22.22-35; Josh 5.13-15; Judg 2.1-5). In verse 27: The mountain of God is Mount Horeb, also known as Mount Sinai (3.1). Comments or Questions..