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Exodus 11

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1 And Jehovah said to Moses, Still one plague more will I bring on Pharaoh, and on Egypt; afterwards he will send· you ·out from this place; when he completely sends· you ·out, driving·​·out he shall drive· you ·out from this place.

2 Speak now in the ears of the people, and let them ask a man from his companion, and a woman from her companion, vessels of silver and vessels of gold.

3 And Jehovah gave the people grace in the eyes of the Egyptians. Also, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh’s servants, and in the eyes of the people.

4 And Moses said, Thus said Jehovah, About midnight I will go·​·out into the midst of Egypt.

5 And every firstborn in the land of Egypt shall·​·die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh about to sit upon his throne, even·​·to the firstborn of the handmaid who is behind the millstones; and every firstborn of the beast.

6 And there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such that there has not been any like it, nor shall there be any like it again.

7 And to all the sons of Israel a dog shall not point his tongue, from the man and even·​·to the beast; so·​·that you may·​·know that Jehovah wonderfully·​·makes a distinction between Egypt and a son of Israel.

8 And all these thy servants shall come·​·down to me, and bow· themselves ·down to me, saying, Get thee out, thou, and all the people that is at thy feet; and afterwards I will go·​·out. And he went·​·out from with Pharaoh in fierce anger.

9 And Jehovah said to Moses, Pharaoh will not hearken to you; so·​·that my miracles may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.

10 And Moses and Aaron did all these miracles before Pharaoh; and Jehovah made· the heart of Pharaoh ·firm, and he did not send· the sons of Israel ·away from his land.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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Moses

  

At the inmost level, the story of Moses -- like all of the Bible -- is about the Lord and his spiritual development during his human life as Jesus. Moses's role represents establishing forms of worship and to make the people obedient. As such, his primary representation is "the Law of God," the rules God gave the people of Israel to follow in order to represent spiritual things. This can be interpreted narrowly as the Ten Commandments, more broadly as the books of Moses, or most broadly as the entire Bible. Fittingly, his spiritual meaning is complex and important, and evolves throughout the course of his life. To understand it, it helps to understand the meaning of the events in which he was involved. At a more basic level, Moses's story deals with the establishment of the third church to serve as a container of knowledge of the Lord. The first such church -- the Most Ancient Church, represented by Adam and centered on love of the Lord -- had fallen prey to human pride and was destroyed. The second -- the Ancient Church, represented by Noah and the generations that followed him -- was centered on love of the neighbor, wisdom from the Lord and knowledge of the correspondences between natural and spiritual things. It fell prey to the pride of intelligence, however -- represented by the Tower of Babel -- and at the time of Moses was in scattered pockets that were sliding into idolatry. On an external level, of course, Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt through 40 years in the wilderness to the border of the homeland God had promised them. Along the way, he established and codified their religious system, and oversaw the creation of its most holy objects. Those rules and the forms of worship they created were given as containers for deeper ideas about the Lord, deeper truth, and at some points -- especially when he was first leading his people away from Egypt, a time before the rules had been written down -- Moses takes on the deeper representation of Divine Truth itself, truth from the Lord. At other times -- especially after Mount Sinai -- he has a less exalted meaning, representing the people of Israel themselves due to his position as their leader. Through Moses the Lord established a third church, one more external than its predecessors but one that could preserve knowledge of the Lord and could, through worship that represented spiritual things, make it possible for the Bible to be written and passed to future generations.