Exodus 1-4

Yikes...my first day in Exodus was a little tough.  I'm still struggling with the end of Ch. 4.  Let's see if I get it better as I walk through it with you.

-The book starts off with a new ruler of Egypt who is not a follower of God.  He is concerned with the rapid reproduction of the Hebrew people.  He was attempting to keep them oppressed and was concerned with their growing number.  He ordered the death of every Hebrew male baby.  When his orders were not fulfilled he ordered that all males are to be thrown in to the Nile.
-Moses was born to Jacob's son Levi. When he was born his mother recognized that he was special.  Instead of discarding of him in the river, she hid him out for several months.  When she was unable to hide him anymore she took him to the river, but made sure he would not drown.  She created a floating basket and placed it in the reeds.
-The basket was found by the Pharaoh's daughter.  She decided to take the baby in as her own.  But b/c the baby was so young she needed to find a Hebrew women to nurse it.  Luckily Moses' mommy was hanging out watching the whole thing.  She stepped up and was reunited with her baby boy.  She did eventually hand him over to the Pharaoh's daughter to be raised as her son.

Okay......so the next chapter fast forwards and Moses is now an adult.  (After further research I learned that we will read about the earlier days in Moses' life later.  I'm not sure why the Bible is set up that way....but I will go with it.)
-Moses has to flee his land b/c he gets in a little trouble for defending taking revenge on behalf of a fellow Hebrew.  He then helps some women out and is given a wife.
-Meanwhile the Israelites are crying out to God b/c of the slavery they are enduring and God is listening.   -He appears to Moses in a burning bush.  Moses is told to go to the Israelites and instruct them to follow him.
-Moses tests God.  Why me?  What if they don't believe me? (At this point I am thinking..... Seriously....you are talking to a burning bush!  Do what He tells you!)  God seems patient with Moses up until he tells God that he doesn't think he can do it b/c he isn't a good public speaker.  This is the point where Moses shows that he doesn't want to do it.   God tells him to take his brother to speak for him.

All right....I am doing okay so far.....but Ch. 4:21-31 was hard for me to understand.  PLEASE feel free to comment with your thoughts b/c I don't think I got this part.  Here is where I struggled and maybe Julie can jump in or others can help me out.  Here is my struggles:

The Lord hardened the Pharaoh's heart? (21)
The Lord was about to kill Moses?  (24)  Because he was not circumcised?
Actually verses 21-25 leave me confused.  nic

I don't know how much I can add, but I did a little research to try to help us out on this one. 

The Lord was about to kill Moses.  I believe this was because he was so angry about Moses begging Him not to send him to Egypt.  God is apparently not a big fan of begging.  "Moses should not have resisted the call or pleaded such excuses or hesitated with such weak faith. Now God abandoned the gentle answer and in anger brought in a form of retribution. Because Moses did not want to do this, he was punished by not having the honor of doing it alone. His reluctance and the result are like the refusal of Israel to enter the land and the result they experienced."

The hardening of the heart of Pharaoh- God first tells Moses he must do the miracles, but he also announces that he will harden Pharaoh’s heart, as if working against Moses. It will help Moses to know that God is bringing about the resistance in order to bring a greater victory with greater glory.

The metaphor uses the word “son” in its connotation of a political dependent, as it was used in ancient documents to describe what was intended to be a loyal relationship with well-known privileges and responsibilities, like that between a good father and son. The word can mean a literal son, a descendant, a chosen king (and so, the Messiah), a disciple (in Proverbs), and here, a nation subject to God. If the people of Israel were God’s “son,” then they should serve him and not Pharaoh.

The next section (vv. 24-26) records a rather strange story. God had said that if Pharaoh would not comply he would kill his son – but now God was ready to kill Moses, the representative of Israel, God’s own son. Apparently, one would reconstruct that on the journey Moses fell seriously ill, but his wife, learning the cause of the illness, saved his life by circumcising her son and casting the foreskin at Moses’ feet (indicating that it was symbolically Moses’ foreskin). The point is that this son of Abraham had not complied with the sign of the Abrahamic covenant. No one, according to Exod 12:40-51, would take part in the Passover-exodus who had not complied. So how could the one who was going to lead God’s people not comply? The bold anthropomorphisms and the location at the border invite comparisons with Gen 32, the Angel wrestling with Jacob. In both cases there is a brush with death that could not be forgotten.

So, a whole lot of this is just copied and pasted from another website, but hopefully it gives a little more insight.  I think I am now beginning to understand why a lot of people choose to read the Bible in chronological order!