“GOD HEARD THEIR GROANING”

(Exodus 1:1–4:31)

Jacob’s descendants living in Egypt increase so rapidly that by royal mandate they are made to suffer as slaves. Pharaoh even decrees death for all Israelite male infants. Escaping such an end is a three-month-old baby, Moses, who is adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. Although he is brought up in the royal household, at the age of 40, Moses sides with his own people and kills an Egyptian. (Acts 7:23, 24) Forced to flee, he goes to Midian. There he gets married and lives as a shepherd. At a miraculously burning bush, Jehovah commissions Moses to return to Egypt to lead the Israelites out of slavery. His brother, Aaron, is appointed to be his spokesman.

ASTOUNDING MIRACLES BRING DELIVERANCE

(Exodus 5:1–15:21)

Moses and Aaron appear before Pharaoh, asking that the Israelites be permitted to celebrate a festival to Jehovah in the wilderness. The Egyptian ruler defiantly refuses. Jehovah uses Moses to bring about one telling blow after another. Only after the tenth plague does Pharaoh let the Israelites go. Soon, however, he and his military forces are in hot pursuit. But Jehovah opens an escape corridor through the Red Sea and delivers his people. The pursuing Egyptians drown as the sea closes in on them.

JEHOVAH ORGANIZES A THEOCRATIC NATION

(Exodus 15:22–40:38)

In the third month after their deliverance from Egypt, the Israelites encamp at the foot of Mount Sinai. There they receive the Ten Commandments and other laws, enter into a covenant with Jehovah, and become a theocratic nation. Moses spends 40 days in the mountain, receiving instructions regarding true worship and the construction of Jehovah’s tabernacle, a portable temple. Meanwhile, the Israelites make and worship a golden calf. Descending from the mountain, Moses sees this and becomes so incensed that he smashes the two stone tablets given him by God. After due punishment is meted out to the wrongdoers, he again ascends the mountain and receives another set of tablets. Upon Moses’ return, tabernacle construction begins. By the end of Israel’s first year of freedom, this marvelous tent and all its furnishings are completed and set up. Then Jehovah fills the tent with his glory.