So we leave the book of Genesis where everything is going great for the people of God. One of their own has risen to second-in-command of all of Egypt in a really miraculous way. You could say he, “started from the bottom no we here” and yes his whole team was here. In his rise to power Joseph brought the whole family along to prosper in Egypt.
The Israelites grew from a small family to millions of people in a pretty short time - pretty crazy considering that covenant the Lord made with super old Abraham and Sarah we talked about earlier. Then things took a pretty horrible turn.
New king comes into power - didn’t even remember Joseph - and he enslaved all of Israel. They went from the top to slaves for this new guy everybody was calling Pharaoh. (Pharaoh is actually a Greek word but it came from an Egyptian term meaning “great house” or a royal residence) The Egyptians had lots of gods but one of the main ones was the sun god, Ra, and there was an additional belief that their Pharaoh was also a god manifest on the earth.
As the Israelites continued to multiply, Pharaoh decided to start killing all the boys that were born by throwing them into the Nile River. Well there was this one Levite family, you remember the priestly ones? They had a boy named Moses and though they threw him in the Nile like Pharaoh ordered, they first made a little basket that they coated with tar and pitch that they put Moses in. (The only other time you see “tar and pitch” together is in Genesis when Noah made the ark - in both instances the Lord delivered his people from a watery death). He had his own little boat and was floating down the river when Pharaoh’s daughter found him, adopted him and raised him in the palace. (Think Will Smith coming from west Philly to Fresh Prince of Bel Air-type switch up).
Eventually Moses hears from God in a burning bush (definitely worth a read) that God wants to use him to deliver the Israelites from the slavery of the Egyptians - the Israelites just needed to follow the law and he would set them free and reward them for all their hard efforts. Hold up - that’s actually a lie and didn’t go down like that at all, but it seems like that’s how it should’ve happen if God were playing by our rules, right? Anyways, all that law stuff comes later - the Lord didn’t require anything of these people before he delivered them - He just loved them that much.
As you can imagine - Pharaoh wasn’t exactly thrilled to let all of his slaves and skilled workers go - he had pyramids to build for goodness sake. So God decided to let him know just who he was dealing with and sent 10 plagues. Most of these plagues seem super random until we think about all those gods that were supposedly controlling Egypt. Below are the gods and the plagues that showed just who was in charge.
Hapi, god of the Nile - Nile River turns to blood
Heket, goddess with a frog head - frogs came from every direction and only Moses could make them leave
Geb, god of dust - dust turned into lice/gnats
Khepri, god with a fly head - swarms of flies came
Hathor, goddess with a cow head - all Egyptian livestock died - Israelite livestock was spared
Isis, goddess of healing - skin boils and sores broke out among the Egyptians
Nut, goddess of the sky - hail came down in horrific storm causing catastrophic destruction
Osiris, god of crops - swarm of locusts came to consume the rest of the crops
Ra, sun god - darkness consumed all of Egypt and the sun didn’t shine
Pharaoh - all the Egyptian’s first born sons were killed including Pharaoh’s
Well whoever the Egyptians thought were in charge likely just changed because they were dramatically defeated, but Pharaoh still tried to chase the Israelites and kill them after finally relented to letting them go. Here we come to the story of the Lord parting the waters of the sea and letting the Israelites pass through, while bringing them back together to drown the charging Egyptian army.
In their joy of a new season no longer as slaves and a desire to live with their God, the Israelites were given the law as a way of understanding and imitating the Lord as well as a way suitable way of offering their gratitude. The law included the 10 commandments as well as instructions for building a temple for the Lord to reside and a list of suitable offerings. It’s important to remember that the Lord set the Israelites apart not just for the sake of setting them apart, but so the world could look at them and see something different and desire to know the one-true God who delivered them from Egypt and offered a different way of life. If they looked just like everybody else then why would anyone care who they worshipped because He would seemingly be just like all the other “gods” of the world.
The Lord wrote the law for Moses on tablets, the people were disobedient from the start and so they had to wander in the desert until they could get their stuff straight and the disobedient ones would die off - 40 years of wandering as a matter of fact - sheesh!
Eventually they were able to re-enter the Promised Land - with Joseph’s bones they’d been carrying - but Moses, as a member of the disobedient generation also died before he was able to enter. However, he had a right hand man, Joshua who helped lead Israel into the Land and conquer the people whose time was up. (In Genesis when God made the promise to Abraham about the Land, he said the Israelites would return to inhabit the land once the sin of the people that were currently living there reached its full measure, so the patience of God was on display already amongst the nations, but once the people’s sinfulness reached its full measure, it was time for them to leave the promised land. SPOILER - Eventually the sinfulness of the Israelites would meet its full measure as well!)
Now let’s recap where we are on the spectrum of people and events we’ve encountered -
Adam - Seth ~ Enoch ~ Noah - Shem ~ Terah - Abraham - Isaac - Jacob/Israel - 12 tribes - Moses (Levite) - Joshua (Ephraimite)
Creation - Sin - Flood - Promised Land - Famine - Egypt - Slavery - Deliverance - Promised Land again - Conquering current inhabitants
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