Take a guess what bubbled up to the surface as I read Exodus Chapter 5. Sunday school memories? Religion class in high school? Lessons from CCD? No, no and no. My first thought was Nervous Night, the Hooters' cassette tape I played the crap out of in junior high. Holy Moses met the Pharaoh. Yeah, he tried to set him straight. Looked him in the eye. Said let my people go! ... All you zombies, show your faces, all you people in the street. All you sitting in high places, the rain's gonna fall on you.
And we danced, like a wave on the ocean, romanced. Had I known Exodus was so good to rock out to, I would have read it a long time ago. Nothing lasts forever, only fades away. Day by dayyyy.
Just like the Hooters taught us, Moses tells Pharaoh to let his people go. Pharaoh says, bitch please. And with that, it's on. Pharaoh's first little stunt is to withhold straw from the Hebrew slaves yet demand they make just as many bricks. Apparently straw is a key supply. There are beatings when the brick production slows down.
Moses informs God his initial convo with Pharaoh didn't go so well. God responds, "I am the LORD" (I like how he yells some words) and reveals he is also named Jehovah. A nickname, I suppose. God says the groaning of the Israelites reminded him of his covenant with Abraham. I guess he was a little out of it while things got out of control in Egypt. And now Moses is his go-to guy to return these folks to Canaan. God tells Moses to get back in the game, man.
God runs through the list of Abraham's descendants, and tells Moses to repeat the whole thing to Pharaoh. Moses is concerned about his uncircumcised lips, which according to other versions of the bible means his unskilled speech. How you get from A to B on this one is beyond me.
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