Today’s focal passage is Exodus 9.8-11 which focuses on the plague of boils. Rudy Ross and I discuss this on YouTube today.
For my blog article, I have chosen to provide notes from Walter Brueggemann’s book, “Delivered Out of Empire.” I appreciate how he has summarized the events of the exodus and made applications to our current age.
I have put Brueggemann’s ideas in outline form as they appear in his book. I hope they are helpful for your study of this portion of Exodus.
(1) When Moses addresses Pharaoh, he makes clear that the message is not his own, but from Jehovah.
“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Let my people go” (Exodus 5.1).
(2) “Let my people go” will advance the interests of Jehovah. It will also make drastic changes in Pharaoh’s exploitative operation that depends on cheap labor.
Autocrats know that the end of a significant economic program will effectively end their rule. Even a message from God won’t change the mind of a person who is powerfully entrenched in self-interest.
(3) Pharaoh refuses because he does not “know” Jehovah.
But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should listen to him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go” (Exodus 5.2).
Jehovah is a friend of slaves, whereas Pharaoh lives in luxury and illusions of unlimited power.
An interesting study of the Gospel of Matthew shows that Jesus calls his followers “little ones.” If we have to choose, let’s choose to be a “little one” in contrast to the powerful who ignorant of God and his purposes.
(4) God’s name, “I am who I am” (Exodus 3.14) declares that God will be present. Jehovah, “the God who is there,” is the Creator of heaven and earth and the Lord of the nations.
According to Brueggemann, God is the One “who has willed the emancipation of slaves and has declared opposition to all sociopolitical arrangements that subjugate some and to all economic arrangements that depend on cheap labor.
“Because of Jehovah’s command, history is decisively bent toward freedom.”
(5) God sets people free to worship and serve him.
“Let my people go, so that they may celebrate a festival to me in the wilderness” (Exodus 5.1).
Pharaoh knows what modern readers of Exodus may miss. Moses is proposing a dramatic enactment of loyalty to Jehovah.
Instead of serving Pharaoh, God is calling Hebrews to serve him.
“Let my people go, so that they may serve me” (Exodus 8.1). As we saw in yesterday’s article, “serve” includes both worship and service.
Throughout the story, we discover Pharaoh’s realization that he will have to relinquish his cheap labor supply.
People who have control over God’s “little ones” extract their labor to enhance personal wealth. They demand that their subject serve them and resist the alternative.
(6) The command of Jehovah is for freedom. It is not freedom to “do your own thing.”
This freedom from Pharaoh is in order to practice obedience to Jehovah. God’s proposal is to transfer loyalty and to come under the commanding direction of Jehovah.
(7) The terms “make a festival” and “serve” anticipate the Ten Commandments, in which the will of Jehovah is given to God’s people.
The exodus is the moment of establishing Jehovah’s alternative government in the world. In another article, Brueggemann says this is as if God marched in and planted a sign, “Under New Management.”
Jehovah, who hears the cries of the oppressed, is not content to be a God “religiously celebrated.” God has a will and a purpose for ordering his people.
Obedience to Pharaoh is the endless assignment of production. The Ten Commandments are clearly an alternative to the series of commandments from Pharaoh, all of which concern productivity.
Four of the Ten Commandments describe behavior toward God and six refer to relationships with other people.
The way Jesus described the commandments puts them in direct contrast to the demands of Pharaoh and his like.
God has freed humans to experience these commandments: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
“This is the greatest and first commandment.
“And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (Matthew 22.37-39).
Think about it.
We do well to recognize that this message is not our own, but from God himself. We must take this message with utmost seriousness.
Authentic Biblical change requires challenging self-interest, including our own.
We do well to avoid being like Pharaoh, who remains ignorant of God’s ways due to his self-centeredness. Instead, we should align ourselves with God’s purpose that is best described in the two great commandments.
YouTube Video
Rudy Ross and I discuss this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
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