The interactions between the main groups of characters in Exodus establish a relationship between God’s authority and the people’s resistance. At first glance it may appear that there are two cases of resistance. First, Pharaoh resists God directly, and second, the Israelites resist the Egyptians who enslave them. However, upon further inspection it is apparent that neither is truly resistance. In the final cases of Pharaoh not obeying God’s commands, God hardens his heart, essentially creating “resistance” by taking away Pharaoh’s agency. As for the Israelites’ case, there is no mention of what they are thinking or doing throughout the entire narrative of the ten plagues, making it difficult to claim that they are resisting their enslavement.
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Before the beginning of the plagues, God tells the Israelites, “ ‘I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians’ ”(6:7). God’s intent in this is to foreshadow the plagues, and their end result. The use of the future tense proves that God is determined in this effort to free the Israelites before even beginning the process of plaguing Egypt. When the Egyptians finally drown in the sea, their deaths show that they served their final purpose, warning the Israelites. After crossing the Red Sea and watching the pursuing Egyptians drown, “Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses” (14:31). God uses the Egyptians as means to demonstrate authority to the Israelites by striking fear and fostering belief in both himself and Moses, his surrogate.
Not only do the plagues demonstrate God’s power to the Israelites, but they also force the Egyptians to acknowledge the existence of the Israelites’ singular god. Prior to Moses’ rise to power, Pharaoh, who derives power by divine right, was the ultimate authority in Egypt. Then, Moses comes and claims to be a messenger of a higher authority than Pharaoh, a god whose authority erodes that of the gods who empower
Before the beginning of the plagues, God tells the Israelites, “ ‘I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians’ ”(6:7). God’s intent in this is to foreshadow the plagues, and their end result. The use of the future tense proves that God is determined in this effort to free the Israelites before even beginning the process of plaguing Egypt. When the Egyptians finally drown in the sea, their deaths show that they served their final purpose, warning the Israelites. After crossing the Red Sea and watching the pursuing Egyptians drown, “Israel saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses” (14:31). God uses the Egyptians as means to demonstrate authority to the Israelites by striking fear and fostering belief in both himself and Moses, his surrogate.
Not only do the plagues demonstrate God’s power to the Israelites, but they also force the Egyptians to acknowledge the existence of the Israelites’ singular god. Prior to Moses’ rise to power, Pharaoh, who derives power by divine right, was the ultimate authority in Egypt. Then, Moses comes and claims to be a messenger of a higher authority than Pharaoh, a god whose authority erodes that of the gods who empower