OUR reading for this week covers Exodus, chapters 5 to 26 inclusive. Learn to remember the subject of the chapter by some one or two central topics. That will help us in carrying the reading in our mind. We may be compelled to read rapidly sometimes. Endeavor to concentrate the mind on the reading; shut out as far as possible all thoughts of other things; even tho others may be around, shut yourself in, so to speak, with an invisible wall, so that you and the Master may be alone; then listen to Him speak; fix the great thought or thoughts of the chapter in your mind; think of them through the day.
As suggestive of this week's reading, note the topics: chapter 6, the Lord's message to Moses, and the genealogy of Moses; chapter 7, the first plague, the waters turned to blood; chapter 8, the plagues of frogs, lice, and flies; chapter 9, the plagues of murrain, boils, and hail; chapter 10, the plagues of locusts and of darkness; chapters 11 to 13, the last plague, the Passover, and the going out of Egypt; chapter 14, crossing the Red Sea; chapter 15, triumphant song of Moses; chapter 16, the fall of the manna; chapter 17, the striving with Jehovah and war with Amalek; chapter 18, the visit and counsel of Jethro; chapter 19, before Mount Sinai; chapter 20, the giving of the law; chapters 21 to 23, practical instruction for various phases of life growing out of the law; chapter 24, Moses in the mount receiving the law; chapter 25, instructions for the building of the sanctuary, including the ark, the table of showbread, and the candlestick; chapter 26, directions for the making of the tabernacle itself.
It will be seen that in all of these plagues, God designed to teach Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and Israel as well, that the gods which they worshiped were vanity. Every form of life was by them deified. The turning of the Nile into blood was a blow against Hapi the Nile god. One of their female deities had a frog's head—Heka, the wife of the god of the cataracts, or of the inundation which came every year. The very animal they deified became a plague. The frog was the symbol of regeneration with them. The third plague of the lice from dust, fell upon the earth, worshiped in the Egyptian pantheism as Seb, the father of gods, while the dust of the black, fertile soil of the Nile was especially sacred, called Kemi, from which Egypt took its ancient name.
From the air came the fourth plague. The air was deified as Shu, son of Ra, the sun-god, or as Isis, queen of heaven. The fifth plague struck at ox-worship, the murrain on cattle. The sixth plague was from ashes scattered toward heaven, from which sprang the boils—a challenge to Neit, the mother-queen of highest heaven. Some tell us that these ashes came from the holy furnace where sacrifices were offered. The seventh plague took in much of their visible manifestations of deity,—the hail, thunder, and lightning,—smiting man, beast, herb, and tree. The eighth, the locusts, ate the very trees which the Egyptians prized so much, and which were considered sacred. The locusts themselves may have been so considered also.
The ninth plague, darkness, obscured their greatest of all idols, Ra, the sun-god. Every god was remembered in the last plague, the smiting of the first-born; and in this the Lord declares, "I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt." Every town and home had its sacred animal,—frog, beetle, ram, cow, cat, etc.,—we are told, each representing a god.
The word "Pharaoh" means simply "king;" is not a proper name, more than would be czar, cesar, emperor, pasha. The Pharaoh of Joseph is supposed to be one of the Hyksos, or shepherd kings which ruled Egypt for a time. The Pharaoh of the oppression was Rameses II, the great builder, who reigned 67 years. One of his immediate successors was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, given by Fausset's Biblical Encyclopedia as Thothmes II.
The word "borrow" in chapter 11 is better translated "ask," or "demand." It comes from a Hebrew word which means ask or demand. The children of Israel, as they went out of Egypt, were to demand something for the service which they had rendered. See the Revised Version.
Note in chapter 13 the carrying of the bones of Joseph with them as they departed from Egypt. All the while that these bones had been preserved in Egypt, it was a prophecy to Israel that God would deliver them.
The song of Moses, chapter 15, is a pæan of triumph over earthly foes. It will be repeated sometime, and there will be added to it the song of the Lamb, triumph over all temporal and spiritual foes. See Revelation 15.
Note the great threefold weekly miracle in which God pointed out that one day and one day only of the week could be the Sabbath; and this for forty years, as recorded in chapter 16. Note also in the connection that when God came to Israel with His holy law, it was designed to bring them blessing—a revelation of His marvelous love; but they would not receive it as such. How comes the law to us?
