Journey to Egypt
The Journey to Egypt
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Leaving Midian
Moses returned to Jethro, his father-in-law. “Please let me return to my family in Egypt to see if they’re still alive.”
“Go in peace,” Jethro replied.
Then Yahweh told Moses in Midian, “Return to Egypt. Everyone who wanted to kill you has died.”
So Moses took his wife and sons, who rode on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also carried the staff of God in his hand.
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Moses finally accepted Yahweh’s right to command him. He returned to Midian to take back Jethro’s flock and inform his family. In deference to Jethro’s status as the head of the household, Moses asked his permission to return to Egypt to check on his relatives. This polite formality didn’t require Moses to divulge the details of his dangerous mission. But it ensured he left in peace with his father-in-law.
After Moses made the necessary preparations in Midian, Yahweh spoke to him again. The pharaoh and other powerful men had sought to kill Moses for murdering the Egyptian taskmaster.1 But now all those men had died, and a new pharaoh sat on the throne. Moses could return to Egypt without fearing a death sentence.
So Moses set out for Egypt in obedience to God’s command. He took his family with him, as well as a donkey for them to ride on. Though Exodus has mentioned only their son Gershom to this point, Moses and Zipporah had a second son named Eliezer.2 As they traveled, Moses walked with the shepherd’s staff God had turned into a snake at Mount Sinai. He carried the staff of God’s wonders with him to Egypt.
Obstinate
Yahweh told Moses, “When you return to Egypt, perform all the wonders I’ve empowered you to do before the pharaoh. But I’ll make him obstinate so he won’t send the people away.”
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Yahweh instructed Moses to perform wonders to show the pharaoh Yahweh’s power. To do so, Moses would use the staff of God he carried with him. But the command came with a warning that despite the wonderous signs, the pharaoh wouldn’t agree to free the Israelites. Yahweh would make him obstinate, so stubbornly unyielding that no amount of reason would change his mind.
While God did indeed make the pharaoh obstinate, that doesn’t mean the pharaoh never had a choice to obey. He had plenty of chances. After the first five of Yahweh’s wonders, the pharaoh chose disobedience of his own free will.3 But when his chance to submit had passed, God made it so he no longer could. Ignoring this or trying to explain it away misses the point. In fact, the pharaoh’s obstinance played a crucial role in God’s quest to redeem humanity.
The primary theme of the first part of Exodus is the revelation of Yahweh as the God who is.4 He had set apart the Israelites as his people so through them he could bless the nations.5 Israel would reveal Yahweh to the world. But first Yahweh had to reveal himself to Israel, which required completing the ten wonders in Egypt.6
By the time Israel walked through the sea and out of Egypt, they knew Yahweh was the only true God.7 The Egyptians knew too.8 Even forty years later, the Canaanite prostitute Rahab and the entire town of Gibeon submitted to Yahweh because of the events in Egypt.9 God knew the pharaoh’s obstinance would allow others to see the truth and embrace it.
Yahweh’s Firstborn
“Then tell the pharaoh, ‘This is what Yahweh says: “Israel is my firstborn son. I told you to send my son away so he can serve me. Since you refused to send him away, I’m about to kill your firstborn son!”’”
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After the pharaoh ignored God’s wonders, Moses would warn the pharaoh about the act that would finally force him to free the Israelites. Because of the covenant, God viewed the Israelites corporately as his firstborn and heir. The pharaoh had to send Yahweh’s son away from serving in Egypt so he could serve his Father. The pharaoh’s obstinate refusal would ultimately cost him his own firstborn son.
The image of Israel as Yahweh’s son recurs throughout Scripture.10 Here Yahweh’s firstborn contrasts with the pharaoh’s firstborn. The Egyptians gave the pharaoh’s heir apparent the title “son of Re” at birth.11 This linked the fates of the son of Yahweh, the God of Israel, and the son of Re, the high god of Egypt. If Re could protect his son, Yahweh would fail to free his. But if Yahweh prevailed, the pharaoh would finally free the Israelites, and the world would know that Yahweh alone is the God who is.
Violating the Covenant
Now at a place they stayed while traveling, Yahweh confronted [Moses] and sought to kill him. So Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched his feet with it. “You’re a bridegroom of bloodshed to me!” Yahweh released him at the time she said “bridegroom of bloodshed” because of the circumcision.
One night as Moses traveled toward Egypt with his family, Yahweh confronted and attacked him. Moses found himself fighting for his life. Yahweh had called Moses to lead his people out from Egypt, fulfilling his promise to Abraham.12 He had gone to great lengths to save Moses as a baby and to convince him to accept his commission.13 Yet suddenly, Yahweh intended to kill his chosen emissary.
Zipporah quickly realized what was happening and why. They had failed to circumcise one of their sons.14 With Moses incapacitated, Zipporah grabbed a flint knife and carried out the circumcision herself. Then she touched Moses’s feet with the foreskin, anointing him with his son’s blood. Because of this, Yahweh released him and let him live.
The unexpected change in Yahweh’s attitude toward Moses seemed to endanger his covenant with Abraham. But in fact, his fury reflects his commitment to that covenant, which Moses had broken by not circumcising his son.15 That Zipporah called him “a bridegroom of bloodshed” indicates she opposed the practice. The Hebrew word damim (“bloodshed”) always refers to an act of violence. Zipporah mistakenly feared circumcision would harm her sons.
Like Adam, Moses ignored God’s command and instead submitted to his wife.16 After revealing himself to Moses, Yahweh could no longer overlook this. Moses should have fulfilled his covenant obligation as soon as he returned to Midian. When he dared to begin his journey to Egypt without doing so, he exposed himself to the death penalty. Moses couldn’t serve as the mediator of God’s covenant with Israel while in violation of that very covenant. Yet by not killing Moses outright, God gave the family a chance to rectify the situation. Zipporah’s submission, however reluctant, saved Moses’s life.
Meeting Aaron
Yahweh told Aaron to meet Moses in the wilderness. He encountered him at God’s mountain and kissed him. Then Moses told Aaron about all the words Yahweh sent him to say and all the signs he commanded him to perform.
While meeting with Moses at Mount Sinai, God had told Moses that his brother, Aaron, was on his way to meet him.17 Aaron had recently left Egypt in obedience to God’s command. By the time he reached Mount Sinai, Moses had left Midian and headed back toward Egypt. The brothers reunited at the mountain. They greeted each other with joy after their forty-year separation.
Moses informed Aaron of his conversation with Yahweh and his calling to free the Israelites from Egypt. Aaron agreed to join him on his dangerous mission. God had promised Moses the Israelites would believe him, and Aaron was the first.18 They would return to Egypt together.
- See Running Away.
- Exodus 18:3–4.
- Exodus 7:22; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7.
- Oswalt, “Exodus,” 271; see The Name.
- See Why Israel?
- Exodus 9:16; 10:2.
- Exodus 14:31.
- Exodus 14:18.
- Joshua 2:10–11, 9:8–9.
- Deuteronomy 14:1, Isaiah 1:2, Jeremiah 3:19, 31:20, Hosea 11:1, Romans 9:4.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, “Pharaoh,” last modified April 15, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/topic/pharaoh.
- See The Exodus Foretold.
- Exodus 1:22–2:9, 3:1–4:17.
- Kaiser, “Exodus,” 383–384; Oswalt, “Exodus,” 316.
- See Circumcision.
- See The Man’s Punishment.
- See Moses’s Prophet.
- See Israel’s Response.