Exodus 1:1-13:16 Summary

Jacob’s descendants multiplied in the land of Egypt over many generations. One day a new king came to power in Egypt. He knew nothing of Joseph, and was worried about how numerous the Israelites had become. The king enslaved the Israelites and subjected them to forced labour, but the Israelites nevertheless continued to multiply. The king then ordered a group of Egyptian midwives to kill all the male Hebrew infants immediately after they were born. The midwives defied this order and were blessed by God, but the king would not step back from his plan: he ordered all his people to throw any male Hebrew infants into the Nile river (1). It was at this time that a young couple from the tribe of Levi had a son. The boy’s mother hid him for three months before placing him in a basket along the Nile river while her daughter watched over him. Just then, the king’s daughter found the boy! She had compassion on him and adopted him as her own son, and she named the boy Moses.

When Moses grew up he saw that his fellow Hebrews were being abused. He was so angry that he killed one of the Egyptian slave-masters. Once it became clear to Moses that the murder wasn’t a secret, he fled to Midian, evading the king’s attempt to kill him. When Moses arrived in Midian he saved the daughters of Reuel, the priest of Midian, from a group of shepherds. Reuel welcomed Moses and gave him one of his daughters, Zipporah, to be his wife. When Zipporah gave birth to a son, Moses named him Gershom.

Many years passed, the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites continued cry out to God for help. God heard their cries, and remembered the covenant he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (2). One day Moses was tending the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro, and he led them to Mount Sinai. The angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a burning bush that was not consumed. The Lord told Moses to go back to Egypt and lead the Israelites into the land that God had promised. Moses objected and asked that God reveal his name. God said, “I am who I am” and told Moses to tell the people that he was speaking for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (3). The Lord performed several miraculous signs, but still Moses objected. Finally, the Lord made Moses’ brother Aaron his spokesperson and Moses agreed to go. Along the way, the Lord confronted Moses and nearly killed him, but Zipporah circumcised their son Gershom during the confrontation and saved Moses’ life. Moses and Aaron met at Sinai before returning to Egypt and performing miraculous signs for the people so that the Israelites would believe that God had sent them (4).

Moses and Aaron met with Pharaoh and demanded that he let the Israelites go into the wilderness to worship the Lord. Pharaoh responded by making the Israelites’ work even harsher. The Israelites confronted Moses and Aaron, and Moses cried out to the Lord in lament (5). The Lord responded by telling Moses that he would deliver the people out of Egypt and into the land that he had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses relayed this message to the people, but they no longer believed him. When the Lord told Moses to go back to Pharaoh a second time, even Moses himself objected (6). Eventually Moses agreed to go back to Pharaoh. He turned his staff into snake and all the water of Egypt into blood, but the Egyptian magicians duplicated these signs, so Pharaoh’s heart remained hard to Moses’ request (7). When God empowered Moses and Aaron to send a plague of frogs the Egyptian magicians again duplicated the sign, but Pharaoh was desperate to be rid of the frogs. He asked Moses and Aaron to pray to their God for relief, but once they did he refused to let the Israelites go! After sending plagues of gnats and flies that the Egyptian magicians couldn’t duplicate, Pharaoh suggested the Israelites worship their God in Egypt, but Moses refused this compromise. Pharaoh finally relented, but after Moses and Aaron prayed for relief, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened yet again (8). The Lord then sent a plague of sickness on livestock, a plague of boils, and a plague of hail, but even when the plagues impacted only the Egyptians and had no impact on the Israelites in the land, Pharaoh still wouldn’t listen (9). When the Lord sent plagues of locusts and darkness even Pharaoh’s officials couldn’t convince him (10).

Finally, Moses went to Pharaoh and told him that the Lord would kill the firstborn child of every family in Egypt that night, and that all of Egypt would come to Moses and beg him to lead the Israelites into the wilderness (11). Moses then gave the Israelites instructions for the celebration of the Passover, a day that they would mark each year forever to remember the time that the Lord struck down the firstborn sons of the families of Egypt but passed over the families of the Israelites. That night, the Lord struck down the firstborn son of every family in Egypt and loud wailing could be heard throughout the land. Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron during the night and commanded them to take their people and leave. The Egyptians gave the Israelites anything they asked for just to be ride of them. The Lord had thus fulfilled his promise to bring the people out of Egypt (12).

As Moses led the people into the wilderness he gave them instructions for the dedication of every firstborn, human or animal, to the Lord (13).