Y’all are the sons of who?

Israel! Israel! Israel!

Not Jacob!

Come on, God. 

One would think that God would remember that He renamed Jacob to Israel when He broke his hip while wrasslin’ (hence the name Israel, “he who struggles with God”).

Jacob bustin' a hip

And it only just happened in the last Book, for Pete’s sake!

But I guess God can call whoever He wants whatever He wants to call them whenever He wants to.  

Anyway, it gets a little frustrating when a major player is renamed early on in the story only to have folks forget and revert back to his prior name.

Even if it’s God.

But that’s exactly what happens at the beginning of Exodus (and throughout the Book, until Moses finds it in himself to correct the Almighty and call Israel by his “forever after” name near its conclusion).

And that’s not the only thing that is a little confusing in Exodus.  

Moses and Aaron, brothers chosen by God to communicate with the Israelites in escaping human bondage and submitting to God’s authority are Levites, one of the two tribes that were cursed by Israel at the end of Genesis in his deathbed blessing (“Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly”) due to that unfortunate business about Dinah and Hamor and the slaughter of the circumcised Shechemites which made the Hebrews odious to their neighbors. 

Seems to be a somewhat inconsistent choice.

For the most part, the story of the Israelites’ freedom from slavery is pretty much like it is depicted in “The Ten Commandments” starring Charlton Heston as Moses, John Carradine as Aaron, and Yul Brynner as Pharaoh.

Except for a couple of things that seemed important to me, being:

1)    There aren’t ten plagues that befall Egypt, but there are instead nine marvels/wonders (blood, frogs, flies, boils, etc.) and one plague (death of the first-born) --- which you might not feel is all that important, but it should prove to you that:

• (a) I am actually reading the Bible and not simply going off what Wikipedia says the Bible says (which would be kind of like cheating through use of “Cliff Notes”, and I would never do anything like that, not even on a dare), and
• (b) Wikipedia is not always accurate and is hardly authoritative, and it is wrong when it says that there were ten plagues, because there weren't: Nine marvels/wonders; One plague;

2)    Moses was a poor public speaker, and Aaron did most of the talking (which is not how I remember the roles were portrayed in “The Ten Commandments” at all, and would certainly not have cast the noted unintelligible mumbler John Carradine in the role of a mouthpiece); and

3)    Pharaoh didn’t harden his own heart against the Israelites, but God hardened it.  As a matter of fact, Pharaoh was ready, willing, and able to “let the people go” long before the nine wonders were completed (AND before the plague, AND before the destruction of the Egyptians in the Sea of Reeds (aka the Red Sea)), but God stepped in to make the nations aware that the freedom from bondage was from a divine source, not from human will or volition (again, not at all how I remember Yul’s portrayal of Pharaoh, which seemed more the embodiment of human vanity and power rather than a tool of the All-Powerful to make a point).

As a matter of fact, one can somewhat sympathize with Pharaoh, who appears to see the light and acknowledges the God of Israel’s power, even asking for God’s blessing a number of times.

Only God wouldn’t let him do the right thing.

Like I said, it’s a little confusing.