Exodus chapters 1–4 provides the setting, and contains a rich procession of cameo previews, of the great themes of the Exodus. Almost every clause incorporates the first occurrence of a key noun or verb that will reverberate through subsequent episodes in the following chapters. For example, in 2:11 Moses "went out" or "moved away" translates the Hebrew verb yatzah. This verb recurs in two additional settings: when Moses makes repeated appearances before Pharaoh to deliver the Lord’s instructions to let his people go, his "leaving Pharaoh’s presence" is narrated five times, each using the same verb, in 8:26; 9:33; 10:6, 8, 18; 11:8. Even more significant is its use to designate the exodus itself—Israel "went out" (yatzah) from Egypt, according to 12:41; 13:4; 8; 14:8; 16:1; 19:1; 23:15. Moses’ personal "exodus" from the confines of the royal precinct into the reality of Israelite slavery prepares readers for the book’s main theme.

A simple retort by a slave in 2:14, "who made you, a man, chieftain (sar) and judge (shophet) over us?" provides a key to the future role of Moses. He became chieftain maker, when he appointed chieftains to help administer the nation (18:21–25). Until he did so, he spent all day almost every day judging the people (18:13).

The other part of the slave’s retort, "do you intend to kill me," touches a personal feature of the life of Moses, who lived under a series of attempts on his life. It began with the Pharaoh’s decree that Hebrew male infants be drowned (1:22). His mother carried out the royal decree, by "throwing him in the Nile," but she provided a waterproof basket, and a lookout (2:3–4). When Pharaoh learned of Moses’ action, he ordered him killed (2:15). Even after the humans who tried to kill Moses had died (4:19), he was not safe from attempts on his life. One night on the road back to Egypt, the Lord himself tried to kill Moses (4:24)! Here, as earlier in life, Moses’ life was preserved due to the intervention of a woman. This aspect of his early life is summarized up by the expression "five women and a baby." By contrast, no male, Hebrew or Egyptian, appears in the narratives as part of his support network.

Themes of alienation and eventual belonging emerge from these narratives. Moses was Hebrew, but adopted into the Egyptian royal family. He would have struggled with shock at the huge socioeconomic, cultural, language, and above all, spiritual contrasts as he oscillated between slave hovel and palace. In this sense, Moses was a forerunner of Jesus, who also "came unto his own, and they received Him not" (John 1:10).

The belonging that eluded him in Egypt was waiting for him among the Midianites. The narrative opens with reference to the title priest of Midian, indicating that the primary, most essential element of belonging—the spiritual—was about to be provided. Moses found a spiritual home with an anointed man of God in that region. Immediately after introducing the priest, the narrator introduces seven daughters. For a man whose early survival was at the hands of women, and who likely spent formative years in the women’s quarters of both his Hebrew and Egyptian homes, the appearance of seven women was probably reassuring, and contributed to his sense of belonging.

The scene at the Midianite well in 2:16–17, sparsely narrated with a sequence of seven main verbs, exhibits the Hebrew narrator’s art at its best, stimulating the reader’s imagination to clothe the characters with the full complement of human emotions, motives, impulses, will, and longing. The episode reveals aspects of Moses: he exercised authority, he responded to injustice, and he served the wronged party by drawing water in their presence. The story may also contain just a whiff of the male instinct to impress members of the opposite sex. In this case, they were impressed, as indicated by their answer to their father’s query about why they were home so early: "an Egyptian rescued us!" This is the only time in Exodus the verb natzal is applied to Moses. In the estimate of those seven women, Moses certainly rescued them. The narrator reserves the eight remaining occurrences of the verb to focus on the real deliverer behind the deliverer in Exodus, the Lord himself (3:8; 5:23; 6:6; 12:27; 18: 4, 8, 9, 10).

Belonging is also flagged in 2:21, which can be translated "Moses was keen to settle with the man." Moses finally finds a family and a home in which, freed from tangled dynamics of slavery/overlordship/family of origin/adoptive family of his origins, he experiences normal social and spiritual acceptance and belonging. His marriage to Zipporah, immediately followed by reference to the birth of a son, marks and additional stage of belonging for Moses. The account of his life could have ended at this point with the proverbial "and they lived happily ever after," but the Lord had further plans that would send Moses back to his country and people of origin, and would provide two episodes of marital stress for him and Zipporah.

The role of Zipporah takes on further significance during the Lord’s attempt on the life of Moses when she becomes the fifth woman to rescue her husband. By both act and word, she averts the most serious life threat faced by Moses. Imagine performing a circumcision in the dim flicker of a campfire, or torch! Whatever the phrase might mean that she repeated during that frantic night, the depth of her commitment to him is clear from this bizarre incident.

The service provided Moses by his father-in-law (Exod. 18) is well-trod territory. He functioned as head of family, provider for the family of Moses, priest, and strategic advisor on matters of national importance. Then, when the visit was over, he returned home! What an in-law!

The last passage in this week’s lesson, Numbers 12:1–4, like the account of the Lord’s attack on Moses, appears suddenly without much context. Its economy of information invites speculation around the irresolvable identity of Moses’ Cushite wife. Polygamy was both condemned and tolerated in the Old Testament, and patriarchal accounts of it almost always include blunt accounts of the relational complications and family tensions that accompanied it. The first approach to understanding this passage is to recognize it is part of the literary unit that runs from 10:29 to 12:16. Within it there are two clear echoes of passages already studied this week in Exodus. First there is Numbers 10:29–32, which once again features Moses and his father-in-law. The second, Numbers 11:14–16 and 24–25, like Exodus 18, depicts Moses’ struggles to administer the Israelites, and the solution, this time employing a different strategy. Note in passing that Moses, in his prayer to the Lord in 11:15, Moses invites the Lord to kill him—a twist of a familiar theme!

Numbers 12:1–4 begins with marriage and possible polygamy, but that merely serves as opener to the fundamental issue of family authority in the face of the distribution of the gift of the Spirit, which the Lord extended from Moses to the seventy, apparently bypassing Miriam and Aaron. The attack is expressed in Numbers 12:1, which reads literally "Then she spoke, Miriam, also Aaron, against Moses.…" Miriam clearly led the verbal attack. The aggressive nature of the verb, "speak against" (dibber be) is quite clear from other passages where the construction occurs (Num. 21:5; Ps. 50:20; Job 19:18; Ps. 78:19). Although the criticism of Moses may have been legitimate, if he took a second wife, it was employed here as a pretext for attacking not just Moses, but ultimately the Lord himself. In light of such a broadside, led by Miriam, she and Aaron escaped lightly, with the loss only of time, and some personal dignity. Wisely, Moses did not allow ties of blood to overcome the ultimately more significant tie of marriage.

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