The begining of the return--------------------------The plagues in Egypt ---------------------------------------- The Tabernacle

INTRODUCTION

God shows the spiritual and historical creation of world and man, four stages of fall and proclaims His plan for return of man to God. The book of Genesis is depicting the time when the great events began and the prototypes of great spiritual teachers lived. Those persons played already their historical roles, but their advent should be expected in the nearest as well as distant future.
People should understand that God doesn't promise to save all mankind. God promises and gives the way of return to Him. There is only one way for man, nation and mankind to be saved, it's the way of spiritual development, the way of Return to God. Mankind is following the way of natural selection, which can be represented in two forms - animal and spiritual. The initial sin shows that deeds of man are generated by his animal origin. Mankind is following this way of development - man is becoming more sophisticated animal, this way leads to collapse of world civilization.
This development may be characterized as horizontal, as it can't bring man or society to a higher spiritual level. Today spiritual and moral stance of any state is lower compared to spiritual position of individual people living in such a state. There is another way of development - spiritual way, which allows man to obtain new spiritual and physical qualities already in this life. The Lord has been trying to show this way to mankind thousands of years, but all in vain. This way is always open for people, they don't have to apply for permits, they don't have to cross borders. Everyone following this way will get assistance of the Lord. Time term provided by God for man to select the way is very limited! It explains why powerful civilizations were wiped away from earth so rapidly (in terms of historical development) - "for their sin reached its full measure".
The Book Exodus describes the fate of Israeli people in Egypt, exit from Egypt and conclusion of the Covenant with God. All the events depicted in this book are characterized by two spiritual concepts: first, the beginning of Israeli people return to God (righteous people), and the second concept - the fourth spiritual stage, the advent of Messiah and division of Mankind.
Seventy men of Israel entered the land of Egypt, they were the prototype of seventy righteous nations to be scattered all over earth. From now on the name Israel had two meanings: first, it named the descendants of Jacob, and second, it depicted all the righteous people living on earth prior to advent of Messiah.

THE BEGINNING OF THE RETURN

These are the names of the sons of Israel who, accompanied by their households, migrated with Jacob into Egypt: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. The total number of the direct descendants of Jacob was seventy. Joseph was already in Egypt. Now Joseph and all his brothers and that whole generation died. But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific. They became so numerous and strong that the land was filled with them.
(Ex., 1, 1-7)

The authorities of Egypt were frightened by the numerous sons of Israel and the new Pharaoh started to oppress Israeli people and limited the birth rate among the Israeli. The Pharaoh sent the Israeli for hard works - they had to make bricks and to build supply cities for Pharaoh.
We may recall Shinar, where people were making bricks of clay to build a city and a tower to reach the sky. They did it to get famous and to prevent scattering all around the world. They spoke one language and they were spiritually unified challenging the Lord. They opposed God and God scattered them around the world confusing their languages and destroying their spiritual unity. The Lord sent Messiah at the fourth stage of the Return. Messiah would have gathered righteous peoples into a unified spiritual whole.
God chose the Israeli people and made them the prototype of all mankind, but all mankind was four times banished away from God and ended with the spiritual slavery - heathenism. The Lord punished people for their sins up to the fourth generation. The Jewish people had to experience this way of banishment like all mankind: four generations of Israeli people had to stay abroad. The Israeli had to start being honored people and they ended in slavery. Only after those endeavors the way of spiritual Return of man to the Creator would be preached by the Lord on showing the example of Israeli people. Those days they were making bricks and building cities like the people in Shinar. They had one language, they were not yet assimilated with the Egyptians, though they were not unified by spiritual unity. Only hard labor and unbearable life united the Israeli together. Moreover the people retained the legends about their forefathers, who had been promised by God to be taken away from Egypt. The nation born in slavery surrounded by heathen culture of Egypt had to start the way of Return on wish of God. Israeli people were destined by the Egyptians for extermination, this people had to fulfill this mission. This nation should warship God for salvation and bringing the people to the land "with milk and honey".
The way of the Return should repeat the way of banishment. People had to reach the first stage - they had to overcome the scattering of Babel. The Lord deprived people of spiritual unity (as it was the unity of people against God) and scattered the people around the earth. Now only God may gather the people and make them into a unified nation - the people knowing the single Lord God following all the commandments, laws and regulations.
So, despite all the obstacles the promise of God to make the people of Jacob into a great nation was fulfilled.

MOSES

Now a certain man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, who conceived and bore a son. Seeing that he was a goodly child, she hid him for three months.
(Ex., 2, 1-2)

Moses belonged to the blessed twenty eight generation, his parents were of Levi house.
The Lord saved him from death in childhood and the Lord brought him into the palace of Pharaoh. But the education in Pharaoh's palace didn't spoil him, it didn't destroy the spirit of his people in him, which he got with the milk of his mother.

On one occasion, after Moses had grown up, when he visited his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor, he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen. Looking about and seeing no one, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
(Ex., 2, 11-12)

The people like Moses are educated by the Lord. First of all the Lord endows such persons with love and affection for people. The affection for his people forced Moses to commit the crime and to kill the Egyptian, who was striking a Hebrew. Nevertheless this act would not make him close to his people.

The next day he went out again, and now two Hebrews were fighting! So he asked the culprit, "Why are you striking your fellow Hebrew?" But he replied, "Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?"
(Ex., 2, 13-14)

Hard life and exhausting labor gradually devoured the spiritual forces of people and undermined the unity of Israeli people - tens and tens of years will be required to return this spiritual unity.

Pharaoh, too, heard of the affair and sought to put him to death. But Moses fled from him and stayed in the land of Midian. As he was seated there by a well, seven daughters of a priest of Midian came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. But some shepherds came and drove them away. Then Moses got up and defended them and watered their flock.
(Ex., 2, 15-17)

Where to all the roads come in a desert? Certainly all the roads come to a well. The servant of Abraham guided by wish of God met Rebekah near a well, Jacob met Rachel and Moses met Zipporah near the well. Water is the source of physical life, and the Holy Scripture is the source of spiritual life. But it becomes spiritual source of life when man makes the required efforts overcoming the barriers in struggle for good and justice. Jacob overcame the shepherds and watered the flock of Rackel and Moses protected the girls and watered their flocks. New spiritual truth will always find opposition, but it should be overcome. The father of the girls asked Moses to stay with him and gave him his daughter Zipporah for wife. Soon she bore two sons to Moses.

A long time passed, during which the king of Egypt died. Still the Israelites groaned and cried out because of their slavery. As their cry for release went up to God, he heard their groaning and was mindful of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
(Ex., 2, 23-25)

The Lord chose Israeli people as a selected people and the Lord showed through Israeli people the way of Return. The Lord assigned the Israeli people – as the prototype of mankind – to stay for four generations in Egypt:

"In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here…"
(Gen., 15, 16)

The Lord God brought Adam and Eve to Eden and Israeli people was at first well accepted in Egypt and they were given the best Egypt could afford. In a similar way as mankind was banished further and further away from God and life was getting harder, the deviation of Israeli people from God of their forefathers that they were made slaves physically and spiritually. Four stages of banishment hit mankind for all the sins and four generations of Israeli people had to spend in banishment. Mankind like Israeli people was influenced by heathenism for the time of exit from Egypt. The time of banishment was coming to an end.

THE LORD'S COMMAND

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight-why the bush does not burn up." When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."
"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground." Then he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
(Ex., 3, 1-6)

Keeping flocks symbolizes the priest service and the whole life of Moses was a preparation for this service, which would be given to Moses by the Lord. The Lord brought Moses to Midian to prepare him for his future priest service. Obviously his father-in-law Jethro, whose wisdom showed up in advices to Moses after the exit from Egypt, played a big role in spiritual education of Moses. As the time came the Lord brought Moses to Horeb and he saw the bush, which was on fire but did not burn up. The bush is usually identified with Israeli people, which despite all the disasters and trials kept on surviving and increasing in number. "Do not come any closer," – the Lord said. But time would pass and Moses would stand "face to face" to the Lord, which proves that he was spiritually prepared for his mission. When the Lord says "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob" the Lord confirms the covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and for the first time the Lord proclaims the beginning of the three stages of the Return. The one of the stages begins with Moses, he is called upon for service.

The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey-the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
(Ex., 3, 7-8)

When the Lord made covenant with Abraham the Lord said to him: "I will be your God and God of your descendants…" Now the Lord says "my people", confirming the given promises, though the people didn't know the Lord and worshiped foreign gods. But the first stage of the Return is aimed to gather the people scattered in Egypt, to bring this people away from slavery – from spiritual slavery in the first line – and to make it a single people selected by God. We may recall what people were planning to do before they were scattered around earth in Babel: " Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth". Almost the same goals are proposed for Israeli people. The Lord promises to bring the Israeli people close to Him and to make the Israeli people glorified, to give the Israelites good land and to create a great nation.

And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."
(Ex., 3, 9-10)

Moses had been away for many years, he had a family, two sons and settled life. But the Lord sent him to Pharaoh to bring Israeli people from Egypt!

But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain."
(Ex., 3, 11-12)

The words "I will be with you" eliminate for the time being any protests and Moses gives up.
But let's return some years back and examine the personality of Moses. From the historical viewpoint Abraham had to be the prototype of Moses, the best traits of Abraham could be witnessed in Moses. But who is closer to Moses from the spiritual stance? Some examples from the lives of Moses and Jacob will be of great help to locate the spiritual forefather of Moses:

Pharaoh, too, heard of the affair and sought to put him to death. But Moses fled from him and stayed in the land of Midian…
(Ex., 2, 15)

When Jacob found out that Esau wanted to kill him, he fled to Haran.

Seven daughters of a priest of Midian came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. But some shepherds came and drove them away. Then Moses got up and defended them and watered their flock.
(Ex., 2,16-17)

The same way Jacob met Rachel with her father's flock and he overcame the resistance of the shepherds, watered the sheep of Rachel and joined the family of Laban.

At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him.
(Ex., 4, 24)

As Jacob was returning to the land of his forefathers God came to him at night time and wrestled with him. Jacob got his new name, Israel, after that event. The comparison of those three events from Moses' and Jacob's lives may lead us to a conclusion that Jacob was the spiritual forefather of Moses – the direction of spiritual return is opposite to historical. Jacob was the first on this way. Like Jacob who was moving toward the Lord and became the name Israel, Moses would overcome Jacob in spiritual terms and he would move even further. The deep interrelation of Jacob-Israel-Moses is proved by the phrase of the Lord during his last visit of Jacob: "I will go with you to Egypt and I will bring you back". The Lord will remember His people, it's proved by the promise given by the Lord in Leviticus and show the sequence of recollection:

I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
(Lev., 26, 42)

Moreover this promise shows the spiritual prototypes sequence in all four stages of people returning to God: Jacob – Moses, Isaac – Jesus Christ, Abraham - …, God scattering people in Babel – Messiah. In historical tradition the sequence will be retained: Abraham – Moses, Isaac – Jesus Christ, Jacob - …, God saving the people of Israel - Messiah.
In due time the Lord remembered His people and sent Moses to bring the people from Egypt. Moses was already prepared for his mission and he began the discussion with questions, how he would be able to persuade people that he was sent by God, by God of their forefathers. The lives of numerous people would depend upon their belief in Moses.

Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?" God said to Moses, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob-has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
"Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers-the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-appeared to me and said: I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites-a land flowing with milk and honey.'
(Ex., 3, 13-17)

The Lord wants to bring Israeli people from Egypt, the Lord unveils His name to Moses and to Israeli people. The name of God is integral with the fathers of Israeli people, with those forefathers whom the Lord gave promises about numerous descendants, about great future of that nation in new land. The Lord names Himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, confirming the three stages of return as those stages are related to the names of forefathers and represent the three stages of unified spiritual teaching. As the blood relation defines the line of Abraham-Isaac-Jacob, the spiritual idea will connect Judaism-Christianity-Return. Return is the teaching which the Lord would give people to bring them to the next spiritual level. But we return back to Moses.
The sin of people residing in Canaan "reached its full measure" and the time for their punishment arrived. The Lord tells Moses the coming future. The Lord says that he will make pharaoh stubborn and he will not give up and let the Israeli leave Egypt. But then the Lord will apply force and He will make numerous miracles to let Israeli people take the goods of Egyptians and leave Egypt. But why did the Lord decide to apply force against pharaoh while the Lord could have brought Israeli people away from Egypt making the pharaoh amenable? Two reasons may explain it: first, as the Lord started the mission for the return of people to God – Israeli people was selected to play the chief role in this mission – the power of the Lord Almighty had to be demonstrated. The people, which worshipped foreign gods had to become faithful to God, had to follow God any place. Second, the punishment of Egypt is the prototype of Messiah's advent, division of mankind and protection of righteous by God. The exit of Israelis from Egypt includes two main events: the first and the last stages of the Return. But we have to discuss the beginning of the Return and Moses.

Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The LORD did not appear to you'?" Then the LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" "A staff," he replied. The LORD said, "Throw it on the ground." Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the LORD said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. "This," said the LORD, "is so that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers-the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob-has appeared to you."
(Ex., 4, 1-5)

The Lord will help those who have belief in God and are coming to God. The help is like a staff on the road. Those who do not have belief in God the help will take shape of a snake chasing this person away from God. Such person has to stop, to come through all the trials and to start the way of return. Then the snake will not scare him away as the help of God is like a staff on a righteous way.

Then the LORD said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow. "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
(Ex., 4, 6-7)

The privy thoughts of a man depict him. The clean thoughts make clean hands and clean hands can do righteous deeds, and the opposite – unrighteous deeds are created by unkind mind. Jesus Christ said:

A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
(Matt., 12, 35)

And the Lord said:

Then the LORD said, "If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first miraculous sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground."
(Ex., 4, 8-9)

If the ways of people are unrighteous and their deeds are sinful, it will lead them to death.

Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue." The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say." But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."
Then the LORD's anger burned against Moses and he said, "What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and his heart will be glad when he sees you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform miraculous signs with it."
(Ex., 4, 10-16)

The last attempt to avoid the assignment of the Lord was in vain and despite lack of eloquence Moses had to accept the assignment of the Lord. The last words of the Lord show that Moses and Aaron will start the Return of mankind to God and they are they prototypes of Messiah and Prophet, who will come and divide mankind prior to the judgment day.

THE RETURN TO EGYPT

Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead." So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand. The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.' "
(Ex., 4, 19-23)

All the barriers on the way of Moses back to Egypt were eliminated and he could fulfill his mission. He asked his father-in-law Jethro and started on his way to Egypt. The Lord is blessing him, giving Israeli people the name of His son, firstborn son, as the Israeli people was the first people to receive the word of God in covenants, laws and decrees. This people was the first to open the Single God to mankind and started the way of Return to God.

At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched Moses' feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. So the LORD let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)
(Ex., 4, 24-26)

The fact is that Jewish people made circumcision on the eighth day, but Zipporah belonged to the other people and they did circumcision in thirteen years. Moses who was chosen by God to save his people had not fulfilled the main provision of the covenant with God – he hadn't done circumcision in due time and God was angry with him. Zipporah took flint knife and made circumcision according to rules and eliminated the anger of God and God had mercy on Moses.
Soon Moses met Aaron at the mountain Horeb and told him everything they had to do. They met elders of Israeli people in Egypt and told them everything and "performed the signs before the people".

… and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
(Ex., 4, 31)

• Foreword

• The first book of Moses: Genesis

• The second book of Moses: Exodus

• The third book of Moses: Levitikus

• The fourth book of Moses: Numbers

• The fifth book of Moses: Deuteronomy

• The tent of meeting