Reading for June 20th

Read Exodus 4.18-31

In verse 21: The theme of God's hardening Pharaoh's heart 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 of 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 the Pharaoh hardens his own heart or will (7.13-14; 9.7, 34-35).

Thus, Pharaoh can also be held morally responsible for 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 first born 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 verses 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 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' house caused the Lord to pas over their houses and not kill the Israelites' firstborn (12.12, 22-23).

In the same way, the protective blood or circumcision here protects either Moses or his son (the pronoun "him" in vv. 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 the ritual.

Moses' feet is probably an 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; Jos 5.13-15; Judg 2.1-15)..

In verse 27: the mountain of God is Mount Horeb, also know as Mount Sinai (3.1).

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