Years later Israel was a large nation but was enslaved in a foreign land called Egypt. Israel cried out to God for help and He heard.
One day, Moses saw a burning bush not being consumed. God called out to Moses from the bush, saying, “I have seen my people’s suffering. I will rescue them and take them to the land. You, Moses, will lead Israel.”
Moses came to Pharaoh and said, “Let God’s people go!” Pharaoh mocked God so God judged Egypt. The final judgment was the killing of the firstborn. God instructed his people that each household was to sacrifice a perfect lamb and put its blood on the doorposts. Whoever followed God’s instructions would save their firstborn, but those who disobeyed would lose him. When the firstborn of every family in Egypt died, Pharaoh finally let Israel go.
When they were free, on their way to the Promised Land, God entered into a special covenant relationship with Israel. God instructed them on how they were to worship God and live before others so that they might bless the entire world.
Meaning: God has fulfilled the first of his three promises to Abraham – of his descendants being numerous. Israel is a large nation. However, the problem is they are enslaved in a different country rather than being in the land of promise. The story of Moses is the story of God fulfilling the second promise – bringing his people up to the Promised Land.
Along the way, God gives Israel his instruction so that they might be a light in the darkness, an example for other nations. Upon entering the land, the hope is that they will obey God’s instructions and in so doing bring all the other nations to worship the one true God. In this way, God’s instructions appear to be the means by which God will fulfill his third and final promise to Abraham – to bless all the families of the earth. However, the question is, will Israel succeed by obeying God, or will they go the way of Adam & Eve, Noah, and the rest of humanity?
Personal Note: This was one of the most difficult stories to get under 200 words. It was fairly easy to summarize the stories of Adam and Noah since they only consist of 3-4 chapters of our Bibles anyways. In the Bible, Abraham takes up a good chunk of the book of Genesis – but that’s still only one book! Moses’s story goes from Exodus through Deuteronomy! Therefore, I am aware that this story is somewhat lacking for us who know about Moses’s birth story, the 10 plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea, the wilderness wandering, etc. However, I tried to think about the flow of the great narrative of Scripture and Moses’s contribution to that “metanarrative.”
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