Knowing and Acknowledging Again

Knowing and Acknowledging Again
EXODUS 11: 1-10
EXODUS and Leviticus for Everyone


1Yahweh said to Moses, “There is yet one more blow I shall bring on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will send you off from here. When he sends you off, it will be complete. He will finally throw you out from here. 2You may speak in the ears of the people so that they ask for objects of silver and gold, each man from his neighbor and each woman from hers.” 3Yahweh gave the people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians. Moses himself was also very great in Egypt in the eyes of Pharaoh’s servants and of all the people.

4Moses said, “Yahweh has said this: ‘At midnight I intend to go out in the midst of the Egyptians 5and every firstborn in Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on the throne to the firstborn of the servant who is behind the millstones, and all the firstborn of the cattle.’ 6There will be a loud cry in all Egypt such as has not been and will not be again. 7But at any of the Israelites a dog will not growl, at a person or an animal, so that you may acknowledge that Yahweh distinguishes between Egypt and Israel. 8All these servants of yours will come down to me and bow down to me saying, ‘Go out, you and all your people who follow you.’ After that I will go out.” He went out from Pharaoh’s presence in angry fury.

9So Yahweh had said to Moses, “Pharaoh will not listen to you, in order that my wonders may multiply in Egypt,” 10and Moses and Aaron had performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but Yahweh had strengthened Pharaoh’s resolve and he did not send the Israelites off from his country.


The other day I was stopped for speeding, and the highway patrolman asked me the same question that a British policeman once asked me in these circumstances: “Sir, do you know the speed limit on this road?” Yes, I said, and I was able to give the right answer; it was 65 mph, and I was doing rather more than that. If I had been in Israel and had been asked the question, it would have seemed more complicated, at least in Old Testament times, because the verb for “know” also means “acknowledge” or “recognize” and thus obey (I don’t think the verb works that way in modern Hebrew, so if I am ever stopped for speeding in Israel, that is one thing I needn’t worry too much about). Like some other Hebrew words, it presupposes a link between the way we think and the way we act. When I was stopped by the police, I knew the speed limit in my head, but I was not acknowledging it with my right foot. That is often the prophets’ complaint about people. They know the Torah, but they do not acknowledge it.

It is not only Pharaoh that Yahweh wants to draw into acknowledging Yahweh. These signs are designed also to draw Israel into that acknowledgment. The logic is one Paul will pick up in Romans 1–3. The people of God can be good at recognizing other people’s falling short of God’s standards and be inclined to exempt themselves. Paul’s argument shows how “all have sinned and come short of God’s glory.” It’s true of Jew but also of Gentile, of agnostic but also of believer, of Muslim but also of Christian. Exodus knows that Israel has as much need to acknowledge Yahweh as Egyptians have. God’s commission of Moses in Exodus 6 included reference to how the exodus will bring about that acknowledgment. If Yahweh’s being that kind of God really gets under their skin, it will revolutionize their lives.

Moses is to tell his son (the one he had failed to circumcise?!) and his grandson about the tough way Yahweh treated Pharaoh so that they may make that acknowledgment (10:2). Moses stands for all Israelites in relation to their children and grandchildren. The king of Egypt (or Assyria or Babylon or Persia) will often be controlling their destiny, and they will be tempted to stop trusting in Yahweh. They need their trust in Yahweh sustained. One way to sustain it is to keep retelling the story of God’s ruthless treatment of the imperial power that dominated them at the beginning of their story. Yes, Israel needs to keep acknowledging that Yahweh is God. Yahweh’s encouraging Pharaoh to keep resisting pressure to release the Israelites means more and more signs of Yahweh’s power, and these will encourage that acknowledgment.

God makes the point again in connection with the deaths of the firstborn, which will affect the Egyptians but not the Israelites, “so that you may acknowledge that Yahweh makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.” Little people like Israel can assume they count for nothing over against the superpowers of the day. This story makes it possible for them to look at things differently. God is not on the side of the superpowers.

Throughout, the exodus story alternates two ways of understanding events. There are two wills being worked out in the story, God’s and Pharaoh’s. Pharaoh is stiffening his resolve not to let go of his Israelite labor force. At the same time, God is stiffening Pharaoh’s resolve, encouraging him not to let the Israelites go (all the while bidding him to let them go!). The final catastrophe will bring about a total capitulation.

There are several linked aspects to God’s will. God is intent on ending the Israelites’ suffering and also on enabling them to focus on serving God rather than having to give their energy to serving Pharaoh in building projects that just serve his interests. God is intent on showing Pharaoh who is God and who is in control of the world, and on Israel itself recognizing this. Further, God is intent on this being a story that will bring that truth home to the world—to people like us who still read the story. In order to achieve the first two of these ends, it would be fine to get the Israelites out of Egypt as easily and as quickly as possible, but in order to achieve the other three ends, it is useful if it takes longer. So God is quite happy to encourage Pharaoh not to give in too easily. His ever-increasing stupidity and its coming to a climax in the terrible catastrophe that is imminent would have frightening implications for the leader of any great power. Such a leader cannot afford to fall into the trap of thinking he or she is God, which may bring down terrible calamity on the people. It also contains great encouragement for later Israel and for other powerless nations and people. Great leaders and great powers fall, and great is the fall thereof.

Exodus announced one way of putting this when Moses was first sent to bid Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave. Israel is God’s firstborn: that is, Israel is the one whom God intends to privilege in connection with its having a special responsibility and role to fulfill for its Father in relation to the rest of the human family. Pharaoh is trying to hold onto this firstborn and use it to fulfill his own ends. Like a mafia boss sending a message to a foolish small fry who thinks he can defy the big guy, God offered friendly advice to Pharaoh. It would be wise to let go of my firstborn; otherwise I will take yours. Yet for all the impressiveness of Egyptian wisdom, wisdom is not Pharaoh’s strong suit. He has come to make too much of himself, and this is the moment when the chickens come home to roost. Jesus will warn that when people fail to give food and drink, hospitality and clothing (which would be quite a good way to describe how the Egyptians had treated the Israelites) to members of his family, they depart into eternal fire (Matthew 25). Exodus is less frightening; only the firstborn of the nation pay the price, and it is only a this-worldly price.

The note about the generosity of ordinary Egyptians makes a similar point in a very different way. They are quite happy to make gifts to the Israelites that will be used to build a sanctuary for God. In this sense they join in serving God.

There is some jerkiness about this section of Exodus, presumably issuing from the way it combines different versions of the story. At the end of chapter 10 we would have assumed Moses had left Pharaoh, but in 11:4 he still seems to be in Pharaoh’s presence. So this means the hot anger with which Moses leaves Pharaoh links with the standoff at the end of chapter 10. It is the first time Moses has become angry (maybe we should infer some anger when he killed the Egyptian in his youth). We have had one or two references to God’s being angry, and maybe Moses is now learning to be more like God. Anger is an important energy- producing emotion for people who are called to do the right thing when it involves firm and aggressive action, or even simply to react in the right way to wrongdoing like Pharaoh’s.


Taken from Exodus and Leviticus for Everyone by John Goldingay