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Chapter 5
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Exodus, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
God’s Identity and Power
Redemption and Deliverance
The Covenant
Mediators and the Priesthood
Summary
Analysis
The LORD tells Moses that, in fact, Pharaoh will drive the Israelites out of Egypt by a mighty hand. He also tells Moses that though he appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, he did not make himself known to them as “the LORD.” He also established a covenant with Moses’s ancestors to give them the land of Canaan. Hearing the Israelites’ groaning in Egypt, the LORD has now remembered his covenant. Moses tells the Israelites of God’s coming deliverance. However, the people don’t listen, because their spirits are broken.
God reassures Moses that what he’s promised will come about. God promises that just as he’s cared for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in past generations, he will care for the Israelites now, upholding his covenant by giving them the land of Canaan. God’s statement that Moses’s ancestors didn’t know him as “the LORD” is a little obscure. A likely interpretation is that God has now revealed himself to his people in a more personal way than before (hence identifying himself as “the LORD,” or YHWH). In any case, so much time has passed, and the Israelites are so oppressed, that it’s difficult for the people to trust that God’s promises to them still apply.
Themes
The chapter then lists Moses and Aaron’s genealogy, including the heads of their ancestors’ houses. The genealogy descends from Levi through his son Kohath and Kohath’s son Amram. Amram married Jochebed, his father’s sister. Aaron married Elisheba and had several children: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Eleazar had a son named Phinehas. This very Moses and Aaron were charged with speaking to Pharaoh, and they obeyed God’s command.
Family histories are important in the Bible because they connect people to God’s concrete actions in the past (like his covenant with their ancestors). This genealogy helps the audience know where Moses and Aaron fit into Israel’s history (that is, in the tribe of Levi). Aaron’s four sons, and his grandson Phinehas (who shows up in the Book of Numbers), are specifically named because of their future prominence as priests.
Themes
