God is a jerk, and Moses is not too bright. God tells him to to to Egypt and ask Pharaoh to let his people go. But God will harden Pharaoh’s heart, so that he can punish all the Egyptians. Why? Why not soften his heart and make everybody happy?

So Moses goes, but when he asks to let the people off work for a few days, he forgets to do all the magic tricks God taught him, and just makes the Pharaoh mad instead. The Pharaoh takes it out on the Hebrews by withholding straw and punishing them for not meeting their brick quota.

Now, the Hebrews are between a rock and a hard place: “And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.”

Nobody ever talks about loving God, only fearing Him. Given his history, I would, too.

And Moses is just a go-between, and unhappy about it as well. His people hate him, because he’s telling them to do what God asked, but God’s not coming through. God’s told him that Pharaoh won’t let the people go, but he’s forced to ask anyway, and get punished. It’s not a good position.

There are a couple of verses in Ex 4 that stand out. God says that He will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and punish him for that by killing his first born. Next verse, God runs across Moses on the road and almost kills him, but Moses’ wife stops him by circumcising their child. The Lord is a sociopath.

Tomorrow: Exodus 7-10