Exodus Chapter 1

Exodus Bible Study Questions: Who or what was the “God” who “dwelt well with the midwives” and who “the midwives feared”? (Exodus 1.20).

What are the symbolic undertones of Moses being a descendant of Jacob’s (Israel’s) third-born son, Levi? (Exodus 2.1). 

What are the symbolic undertones of Moses having been placed in an ark and “drawn out of water” in his third month of life? (Exodus 2.3).

What does Moses’ act of murder say about him as an individual? (Exodus 2.12).

What does the priest of Midian having seven daughters symbolically foreshadow about his way of being? (Exodus 2.16).

What does Moses’ naming his son “Gershom (Stranger There)” suggest about Moses’ understanding of the promise that had been given to Abraham? (Exodus 2.22).

Who or what was the “God” who heard the “groaning” of the children of Israel and “remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob”? (Exodus 2.24).

Who or what was the “God” of “Horeb, the mountain of God”? (Exodus 3.1).

Who or what was “the Angel of the LORD” who “appeared” to Moses “in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush”? (Exodus 3.2).

Who or what was “the LORD” who “saw that [Moses] turned aside to look” at the great sight of the bush not being consumed by the flame? (Exodus 3.4).

Who or what was the “God” who “called to him from the midst of the bush”? (Exodus 3.4)

Who or what was the “He” who said, “I am the God of your father – the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? (Exodus 3.5-3.6).

Why was Moses “afraid to look upon God”? (Exodus 3.6).

Who or what was “the LORD” who said, “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt”? (Exodus 3.7).

What did “God” mean when He identified Himself as “I AM WHO I AM”? (Exodus 3.14).

How does Moses’ rod turning from wood, into a snake, into wood and his hand turning from healthy, into deathly and leprous, back into healthy again serve to reiterate the identity of “I AM WHO I AM”? (Exodus 4.2-4.7).

Who or what was “the LORD” to whom Moses expressed self-conscious doubt regarding his personal limitations and who asked Moses, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?”? (Exodus 4.11).

Who or what was the “I” who would “harden” Pharaoh’s heart “so that he will not let the people go”? (Exodus 4.21).

Who or what was “the LORD” who “met” Moses “and sought to kill him”? (Exodus 4.24).

Who or what was “the LORD” who the children of Israel “bowed their heads and worshipped”? (Exodus 4.31).

Who or what did Moses and Aaron consider “the LORD God of Israel” to be? (Exodus 5.1).

Who or what was “the God of the Hebrews” who Aaron and Moses told Pharaoh had met with them? (Exodus 5.3).

Why did Aaron and Moses claim that if they were unable to “sacrifice to the LORD our God” that “He” may “fall upon [them] with pestilence or with the sword”? (Exodus 5.3).

Who or what was “the LORD” who the officers of the children of Israel referred to when they told Moses and Aaron, “Let the LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us” and who Moses “returned to”? (Exodus 5.21).

When the officers told Moses to “Let the LORD look on you and judge,” were they referring to the same “LORD” who Sarai had previously referenced when she told Abram, “the LORD judge between you and me”? (Genesis 16.5).

Consider the Bible narration in relation to contemporary humanity. Who is being treated in a manner similar to the children of Israel around the world today?

What role do your individual purchases and moment-to-moment way of life play in sustaining social injustice as well as the degradation of the planet through unsustainable living practices?

What role can each human being play in liberating those suffering from injustice and in living reducing our carbon footprint?

Who or what was “the LORD” who “said to Moses: ‘See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.  You shall speak all that I command you…”? (Exodus 7.1-7.2).

Explain your understanding as to what happened when “Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods”? (Exodus 7.12).

Who or what was “the LORD” who spoke to Moses? (Exodus 7.14).

Who or what was “the LORD God of the Hebrews”? (Exodus 7.16).

What may the plague of frogs, lice, and swarms of flies symbolically represent?

Who or what were “the magicians” who told Pharaoh that “the finger of God” was responsible for the destruction that they witnessed? (Exodus 8.19).

What may the outbreak of boils on the Egyptians’ bodies, and the falling of hail, symbolically represent?

Who or what was “the LORD” who Moses “spread out his hands to”? (Exodus 9.33).

Were the “locusts” that Moses and Aaron told Pharaoh that “the LORD God of the Hebrews” threatened to “bring into your territory” actual locusts, or do they symbolically represent something else? (Exodus 10.3-10.4).

How would the children of Israel “serve” “the LORD God of the Hebrews”? (Exodus 10.3).

Who or what was Pharaoh referring to when he said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you”? (Exodus 10.16).

Who or what was “the LORD” who Moses “entreated”? (Exodus 10.18).

Who or what was “the LORD” who “gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians” and who “said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh will not heed you’”? (Exodus 11.3; 11.9).

Why does “the LORD’s Passover” mark “the beginning of months”? (Exodus 12.1).

Who or what was “the LORD” who “will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you”? (Exodus 12.23).

Who or what was “the LORD” who “struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt” and who “had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians”? (Exodus 12.29; 12.36).

What is the symbolic significance of “about six hundred thousand men on foot” leaving Egypt? (Exodus 12.37).

What is the symbolic significance of Israel being in Egypt for exactly four-hundred and thirty years (430)? (Exodus 12.40).

Who or what was “the LORD” who “spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Sanctify to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and animal; it is Mine’”? (Exodus 13.1).

Who or what was the “God” who “did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines” and instead led them “around by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea”? (Exodus 13.17).

Who or what was “the LORD” who the children of Israel “cried out to” and who Moses told the people would “fight” for them? (Exodus 14.10; 14.14).

Who or what was “the LORD” who “caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night” and who told Moses to stretch out his hands over the sea? (Exodus 14.21).

Who or what was “the LORD” who was the focus of the song that Moses and the children of Israel sang after they were successfully liberated from enslavement? (Exodus 15.1).

What was the symbolic “bitter” truth about the children of Israel’s situation after having been physically liberated from Egyptian control? (Exodus 15.24).

What are the symbolic undertones of the setting of Elim, the place where Moses led the people on the third day so as to celebrate “the LORD God of the Hebrews”? (Exodus 7.16).

What is symbolic of the children of Israel residing in the Wilderness of Sin while they “murmured against Moses and Aaron”? (Exodus 16.2).

Who or what was “the glory of the LORD” who “appeared in the cloud” and who Moses told the children of Israel had provided them bread? (Exodus 16.10; 16.16).

Why is it necessary to observe “a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the LORD”? (Exodus 16.25).

Who or what was “the LORD” from whom Moses sought advice with regard to the question, “What shall I do with this people?”? (Exodus 17.4).

Why would Moses instruct Joshua to “fight with Amalek”? (Exodus 17.9).

What did Moses mean when he told Jethro that “the people come to [him] to inquire of God” and that he makes known “the statutes of God and His laws”? (Exodus 18.15-18.16).

What did Jethro mean when he told Moses to select men who “fear God” and were “men of truth, hating covetousness”? (Exodus 18.21).

Who or what was the “God” who Moses went up to? (Exodus 19.3).

Who or what was “the LORD” who “called to [Moses] from the mountain”? (Exodus 19.3).

Who or what was “the LORD” who “descended upon” Mount Sinai “in fire”? (Exodus 19.18).

Who or what was the “Me” who “You shall have no other gods before”? (Exodus 20.2).

Why “shall” the people “not make for yourself any carved image” and “not bow down to them nor serve them”? (Exodus 20.4; 20.5).

“God” said, “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.” What does this mean? (Exodus 20.5).

What does it mean to “take the name of the LORD your God in vain”? (Exodus 20.7).

What does the statement that “the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain” mean? (Exodus 20.7).

What does it mean to “keep” the Sabbath “holy”? (Exodus 20.8).

Who or what is “the LORD your God” who is “giving you” the land upon which our “days may be long”? (Exodus 20.12).

The final five commandments state, “You shall not murder…commit adultery…steal…bear false witness…(or) covet…anything that is your neighbors.” What do these commandments all emphasize? (Exodus 20.13-20.17).

Who or what was the “God” who Moses said “has come to test you” and who “Moses drew near [in] the thick darkness”? (Exodus20.20-20.21).