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God
Tells Moses To Go
 "Now Moses
was tending the flock of Jethro
his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far
side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
There The
Angel Of The Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a
bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not
burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this
strange sight - why the bush does not burn up."
"When The Lord [see Rock
Of Ages] saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from
within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
"And Moses said, "Here I am."
"Do not come any closer," God said.
"Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is
holy ground." Then he said, "I am the God of your
father, The God of Abraham,
The God of Isaac
and The God of Jacob."
At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God." "The Lord said,
"I have indeed seen the misery of My people in Egypt. I have heard
them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about
their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the
hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good
and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey - the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen the
way the Egyptians
are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh
to bring My people the Israelites
out of Egypt."
"But Moses said to God, "Who am I,
that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites
out of Egypt?"
"And God said, "I will be with you.
And this will be the sign to you that it is I Who have sent you: When
you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this
mountain."
"Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to
the Israelites
and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they
ask me, 'What is His Name?' Then what shall I tell them?"
"God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM.
This is what you are to say to the Israelites:
'I AM has sent me to you.'"
"God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites,
'The Lord, the God of your fathers - the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac and the God of Jacob - has sent me to you.' This is My Name
forever, The Name by which I am to be remembered from generation to
generation."
"Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say
to them, 'The Lord, The God of your fathers - The God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob - appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have
seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised
to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites - a
land flowing with milk and honey.'"
"The elders of Israel will listen to you.
Then you and the elders are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him,
'The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Let us take a
three-day journey into the desert to offer sacrifices to The Lord our
God.' But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go
unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out My
hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform
among them. After that, he will let you go."
(Exodus 3:1-20)
Exodus
From Egypt
"Afterward
Moses
and Aaron
went to Pharaoh and said, "Thus says The Lord, the God of Israel,
'Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the
wilderness.'" But Pharaoh said, "Who is The Lord,
that I should heed His voice and let Israel go? I do not
know The Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go." (Exodus
5:1-2 RSV)
 The
Pharaohs of Ancient
Egypt were not accustomed to receiving commands from others,
particularly from such "lowly" people as Moses and
Aaron. Their message came directly from God, but the Pharaoh
(see Who
Was The Exodus Pharaoh?) was of no mind to listen.
Pharaohs didn't believe in the True God - their "gods" were
various idols, and such natural things as bulls and reptiles and the
Nile River. They worshiped created things, rather
than The Creator - perhaps the primary reason that God targeted a number
of Egypt's "gods" directly with the ten plagues.
 | The First Plague
(Exodus 7:14-24)
All of the water in Egypt - right from water already in buckets and
jars, to ponds, canals, streams, even the Nile
River - turned to blood. Then all of the fish of the
river died, causing a terrible stench. |
| The Second Plague (Exodus 8:1-15)
Frogs miraculously multiplied in number, so many that the land was
infested with the normally aquatic creatures. Even
people's houses had them inside. |
| The Third Plague (Exodus 8:16-19)
Vast swarms of gnats tormented people and animals. |
| The Fourth Plague (Exodus 8:20-32)
Vast swarms of flies through the land, spreading disease. |
| The Fifth Plague (Exodus 9:1-7)
Disease on the livestock - Horses,
donkeys, Camels,
cattle, sheep and goats - but those of the Israelites were unharmed. |
| The Sixth Plague (Exodus 9:8-12)
Festering boils on people and animals through the land. |
| The Seventh Plague (Exodus 9:13-35)
Powerful hail storms that destroyed the standing crops.
The hail stones were so big that any people or animals caught
outside in the storm were killed. |
| The Eighth Plague (Exodus 10:1-20)
Locusts
in such great numbers that the ground was covered with them.
They devoured everything that survived the hail storm. |
| The Ninth Plague (Exodus 10:21-29)
Darkness over the entire land for three days - but the Israelites
had light in The
Land Of Goshen. |
| The Tenth Plague (Exodus 11:1-10,
12:1-42)
Death of the firstborn. The Passover.
Pharaoh let the Israelites go. |
The
Journey From Egypt To Canaan
The route of the Israelites'
wilderness journey between the Exodus and their entry into the Promised
Land is listed in Numbers 33:1-50. The map below plots the
major points along that 40-year trek - that could have been accomplished
in a matter of days had they not refused to go in when God gave
them the opportunity to do so the first time. The 40 years
wandering was a deliberate delay:
"Say to them, 'As I live,' says The
Lord, 'what you have said in My hearing I will do to you: your dead
bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and of all your number, numbered
from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me, not one
shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell,
except Caleb
the son of Jephunneh and Joshua
the son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would
become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land which you
have despised. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall
in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in
the wilderness forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness,
until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.
According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land,
forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty
years, and you shall know My displeasure.'" (Numbers 14:28-34 RSV)
 Beginning at Goshen
(in the Nile River
delta north of the Pyramids),
the Multitude of
Israelites, estimated
to be 2-3 million people, left Egypt
and slavery by Pharaoh
around 1400
BC.
They safely crossed the waters of the Red Sea (in the northern Bitter
Lakes region through which the modern Suez Canal was dug) that The
Rock had miraculously opened for them, but hundreds of Pharaoh's Chariots
were lost in the waters. Rather than traveling northward along the coast
of The
Mediterranean Sea, The Lord had them turn southward into the desert
wilderness of The
Sinai Peninsula where He miraculously provided them with water and Manna.
Jethro, Moses'
father-in-law, came to greet the Israelites
after he heard of The
Exodus.
At Mount
Sinai, Moses received The
Ten Commandments on tablets
of stone from God, which were placed in The
Ark of The Covenant. The
Tabernacle was also constructed then with the Levites
given the responsibility for its operation and care.
The Israelites then made their way northward.
Aaron
died at Mount Hor, and Moses died at Mount
Nebo, near The
Salt Sea. The wilderness years of the Israelites ended when they
crossed the Jordan
River near Jericho,
only about 15 miles from Jerusalem.
Arrival
At Canaan
 "And Moses
went up from the plains of Moab to Mount
Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And The Lord
[see Rock
Of Ages] showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali,
the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the
Western Sea, the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the valley of Jericho
the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. And The Lord said to him,
"This is the land of which I swore to Abraham,
to Isaac,
and to Jacob,
'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your
eyes, but you shall not go over there." (Deuteronomy 34:1-4 RSV).
(Please note carefully to what people belongs the land of Israel, as
directly commanded by God.) "Now there was no
water for the congregation; and they assembled themselves together
against Moses and against Aaron. And the people contended with Moses,
and said, "Would that we had died when our brethren died before The
Lord! Why have you brought the assembly of The Lord into this
wilderness, that we should die here, both we and our cattle? And why
have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place?
It is no place for grain, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates; and there
is no water to drink."
"Then Moses and Aaron
went from the presence of the assembly to the door of the tent of
meeting, and fell on their faces. And the glory of The Lord appeared to
them, and The Lord said to Moses, "Take the rod,
and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the
rock before their eyes to yield its water; so you shall bring water out
of the rock for them; so you shall give drink to the congregation and
their cattle."
"And Moses took the rod
from before The Lord, as he commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered
the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, "Hear
now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this
rock?" And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod
twice; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation drank, and
their cattle."
"And The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
"Because you did not believe in Me, to sanctify Me in the eyes of
the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into
the land which I have given them." (Numbers 20:2-12 RSV)
Settling
Into Canaan
 When the Israelites
crossed the Jordan
River into the Promised Land near Jericho,
they were not entering as visitors. God commanded them to
take possession of the land of Israel, in accordance with His Divine
Plan, as revealed through the promise made to Abraham.
(see also The
Chosen People and Crossroads
Of The Earth)
The Division
Of The Land is illustrated in the map above. As
specified in Joshua
chapters 13 to 22, the Israelites were allocated their lands from far
south of Jerusalem,
to far north of the Sea
of Galilee (the Levites
were distributed among the lands of the other tribes). It is
interesting to note that the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and part of Manasseh
were given territory east of the Jordan River - very different
than the political boundaries of today. |
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