Va’Era 3rd Aliyah

G-d Lets Moshe Know What Is Coming

After yesterday’s tangential outline of the lineage of Moshe and Aaron, the Chumash now returns to it’s regular narrative, with G-d telling Moshe to speak to Pharaoh on account of G-d’s Greatness and Moshe protesting that his “lips are blocked”.

G-d reassures Moshe that Moshe will have dominion over Pharaoh with plagues and tortures and that Aaron will serve as his spokesperson.

G-d specifies that Moshe should speak the words that G-d told him to Pharaoh, after which Aaron is to explain these words to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh was the type of wicked person who never really repents sincerely but rather once in a while acts as if he regrets his actions and is repenting, under duress of a severe punishment.

G-d did not want people to be fooled by such a mock repentance on the part of Pharaoh and think that G-d was acting unnecessarily cruelly towards him. So G-d said that He would “hearden Pharaoh’s heart” so that he would not even act as though he were repenting.

As things played out, G-d only needed to harden Pharaoh’s heart during the last five plagues. For the first five, Pharaoh was stubborn enough without Divine Intervention.

G-d predicts that Pharaoh will not cede to Moshe’s requests and G-d will have to take the Israelites out of Egypt through force and by causing suffering to the Egyptians.

G-d continues, saying that at that time, Egypt will will recognize that He is G-d.

Moshe and Aaron act as G-d commanded them too. Moshe was 80 years old at that time and Aaron was 83.