exodus 2 and 3

Read Exodus 2 and 3 at Bible Gateway.

Exo 2-3 Hebrew paragraph divisions:

Exo 2:1-22 {p} Moses, born to be Israel’s deliverer
Exo 2:23-25 {s} God acknowledged the children of Israel
Exo 3:1-4:17 {p} …

Exo 1:1-2:25 chiastic structure:

1a) Exo 1:1-5, The children of Israel in Egypt;

1b) Exo 1:6, Joseph died;

1c) Exo 1:7 p, Increase of Israel, strangers in a strange land;

1d) Exo 1:8-14, Israel enslaved;

1e) Exo 1:15-16, Pharaoh seeks to kill the Hebrew babies;

1f) Exo 1:17-21, The midwives deliver the Hebrew babies;

1g) Exo 1:22 p, Pharaoh seeks to kill the Hebrew babies;

central axis) Exo 2:1-10, Birth of Moses, the deliverer of Israel;

2g) Exo 2:22-12, Moses kills an Egyptian;

2f) Exo 2:13-14, Moses seeks to deliver his brethren;

2e) Exo 2:15a, Pharaoh seeks to kill Moses;

2d) Exo 2:15b-20, Reuel’s daughters delivered;

2c) Exo 2:21-22 p, Increase of Moses, “stranger in a strange land;”

2b) Exo 2:23a, The king of Egypt died;

2a) Exo 2:23b-25 s, The children of Israel in Egypt.

Reading the passage of the central axis, to see if I could discover why God would put neon flashing lights around it, the first thing I noticed was that Moses’ mother hid him for three months. Three – a sign of Messiah in Scripture! I was tempted at first to think it was merely a coincidence, but notice:

In Exo 1:22, Moses, even though as yet unborn, was given a death sentence.
In Exo 2:2, Moses was hidden away unseen for three months.
In Exo 2:6-10, Moses was miraculously raised up to life, not death.

Here we have a clear prophetic picture by type of the death, burial, and resurrection of Messiah, who was born to be the Deliverer of Israel!

For further reading:

Ramesses II (Wikipedia)
Egypt and the Bible (Assoc. in Biblical Research)
The Egyptian Problem – James B. Jordan, Biblical Chronology Newsletter (Manetho and standard Egyptian chronology)
Searching for Moses – Answers in Genesis (I love AiG, but this particular case is a good example of trying to make the biblical history fit the accepted Egyptian chronology, and I think we need to just admit – the Scripture is true, truth does not contradict, and we can trust the history recorded in the unchanged and unaltered record of Torah.)
Patterns of Evidence: Exodus (the archaeological evidence for the biblical history, however they differ with me on the pharaoh of the Exodus. But there is a great amount of evidence brought to light!)