13,14 Apr -- Confusing or What?
The readings for Fri 13 and Sat 14 April are -- Ex 5:1-6:30; Ps 18:1-6; Pro 3:29-32; Mt 20:20-21:11.
On Sunday night I'm preaching from Exodus 4 on the latter part of the story of Moses and the burning bush. BUT I've come across something that's pretty confusing there.
Back in Exodus 4, Moses, following God's instructions, threw down his staff and it became a snake (4:3). Then God told him to take his staff and repeat the sign in front of Pharaoh (4:17). BUT in Ex 7: 8-10 it is Aaron who does the sign with his own rod.
Straight after that is the 1st plague. God tells Moses to stand by the river bank holding the "staff that was turned into a snake". Was this the staff that turned into a snake at the burning bush (Moses' staff) or the one that turned into a snake in front of Pharaoh (Aaron's staff)? In the end it seems that Aaron strikes the Nile with his rod. BUT in Ex 17:5 God tells Moses: "Take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go... Strike the rock, and water will come out of it."
To add to the confusion, Aaron stretches out his staff to bring on the 2nd plague (Ex 8:5-6) and the 3rd plague (8:16-17). BUT Moses stretches out his staff to bring on the 7th plague (9:22-23) and the 8th plague (10:13-14) and to divide the waters of the Red Sea (14:16,21). BUT it was Aaron's staff that was kept in the Ark of the Covenant with the two tablets of the 10 Commandments (Numbers 17:10; Hebrews 9:4).
Is there an explanation? I'll be trying Sunday night, in passing. BUT do you have any ideas?
posted by Ps John @ 5:52 PM
6 Comments
6 Comments:
Hi All,
I had a Google on this and found an interesting article at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron's_rod
This says that in Rabbinic tradition they're the same staff or rod!
Solves the confustion though.
Karen B
Have Moses and Aaron ever been seen together in the same room?
Yes, actually ... In the passover scene in the movie The Ten Commandments ;P
Anyways, it doesn't really matter whether it was the same staff or not; the important thing is that God was acting through Moses and Aaron. But what _I_ wanna know is through what power the magicians managed to mimic some of those acts (even though they were to a lesser extent)!? Obviously something anti-God, but interesting; means witchcraft is actually more real than I always thought it was, which means evil spirits are actually more real than "oh yeah, there are evil spirits out there", which is actually pretty scary ...
Yes, that was an interesting and helpful article in Wikipedia Karen. Amazing what you find sometimes in Wiki. That's why I linked it to this blog. The thing is though that entries are easily changed (eg my entry on our church under Ashfield) and not always for the better (I think, anyway).
But re "the staff". Looks like I agree with Rabbinic tradition on the one staff (though not some of the other ideas). To me, that view makes most sense of the various various references.
Good point Lisa. We should take spiritual warfare seriously. At the same time, God secured a great victory in the death and resurrection of Jesus and in him our victory is assured. The confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh can be seen as a very public competition be God and Egypt's gods (eg snake, god of the Nile, the sun god Ra). God wins every time (eg God's snake eats theirs, Nile turns bloody, darkness). I love the bit where Pharaoh's magicians weren't able to stand before Moses because of all their boils! The magicians acknowledged the superior God (eg 7:19) but couldn't convince Pharaoh.
Did I just hear you say that other gods DO exist, but our God is more powerful?! ;P
Is that a wink at the end of your last message Lisa? Sure there are other gods. We make them all the time. And they can have a lot of power over us. God said: "You shall have no ther gods before me." (Ex 20:3 NRSV) 1 Cor 8:5,6 NRSV says: "Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven and earth -- as in fact there are many gods and many lords -- yet for us there is one God..."
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