Miracles of Moses in Exodus

Most of those miracles of Moses that are recorded in the Book of Exodus are summarized on this page.

(Note: I do not purple color-code every miraculous meeting of God with Moses, because almost everything would be purple if I did. Instead, I only purple color-code those meetings which I feel are the most distinctive.)

Exodus 1:1-2:2 Moses, a Hebrew, is born in Egypt.

He is born during a time when the Egyptian king fears the number of Hebrews living in his country, afraid that the their group will become so large that it will threaten the stability of the country. As a result, the Egyptian king seeks to reduce the number of Hebrews by ordering that all male Hebrew babies be killed.

Therefore, there are people seeking to kill Moses from the very first day of his life.

Exodus 2:3-10 Moses, who was born a slave, becomes a prince in the royal family of Egypt at the age of three months.

Exodus 2:11-15 Moses kills a violent Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew person. The Egyptian king discovers this and wants to execute Moses, so Moses goes to hide in the land called “Midian” (which is in the Sinai Peninsula).

Exodus 2:15-22 Moses meets the family of Jethro; marries Zipporah, one of Jethro’s daughters; and has children. (According to Acts 7:29-30, Moses lives for 40 years in Midian.)

Exodus 2:23-25 The Egyptian king that had wanted to execute Moses dies. The Hebrew (also called “Israelite”) slaves are suffering immensely in Egypt, and it becomes time for God to save them (by rescuing them out of Egypt).

Exodus 3:1-6 Moses meets with God (“Yehovah”) at Horeb, the Mountain of God. Moses covers his face, so that he doesn’t actually see God.

God speaks to Moses from within a bush that is on fire, but doesn’t burn (the so-called "burning bush").

Exodus 3:7-9 God confides in Moses that He is worried about His preferred people, the Hebrews. God tells Moses of how He knows the Hebrews are suffering in Egypt, and that He wants to save them by rescuing them out of Egypt.

Exodus 3:10 God orders Moses to go to Egypt and lead the Hebrews out of the country.

Exodus 3:11-4:17 Moses tries to convince God not to send him to Egypt to lead the Hebrews. Moses gives several excuses for why he shouldn’t go:

In Exodus 3:11-12, Moses suggests he is not powerful enough to lead the Hebrews from Egypt. God says to Moses “I will be with you”.

In Exodus 3:13-14, Moses asks what he should tell the Hebrews, if they ask the Name of the God that has sent him to lead them out of Egypt. God says to tell them “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh”.

It is hard to give a literal translation of this in English, but “Ehyeh” means both “I am” and “I will be”; and “Asher” means “as”. Many English Bibles translate “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” as “I Am what I Am” (which is equivalent to “I Am as I Am”). But it would be more accurately translated as “I Am / Will Be as I Am / Will Be”. Breaking this down yields four distinct phrases: “I Am as I Am” ; “I Am as I Will Be”; “I Will Be as I Am”; and “I Will Be as I Will Be”.

“I Am as I Am” and “I Will Be as I Will Be” emphasizes that we must accept God as He Is (hence, “I Am as I Am”); and with all of His Preferences / Choices / Judgments, whatever they may be (hence, “I Will Be as I Will Be”).

“I Will Be as I Am” and “I Am as I Will Be” emphasizes God’s Immutability: we do not need to fear that God will expect more from us in the future as compared to now (hence, “I Will Be as I Am”); but we also should not think that God will somehow expect less from us in the future, either (hence, “I Am as I Will Be”).

Basically, God is giving us a promise: if we will accept Him “just as we find Him”, then He promises us that He will never change on us.

In Exodus 3:15, God tells Moses that “Yehovah” is His Name forever; and, the Name by which He should be remembered by future generations. “Yehovah” also roughly translates as “He Is / He Will Be”.

In Exodus 3:16-22, God tells Moses some of what will happen when Moses returns to Egypt.

In Exodus 4:1-9, Moses asks what he should do if the Hebrews will not listen to him or believe him. God shows Moses three miraculous signs that he should perform in Egypt to try to convince the people there to listen to him and believe him:

• the changing of a walking staff into a snake;
• the turning of a hand to leprous, and back to healthy;
• and the turning of water into blood.
  

In Exodus 4:10-12, Moses tells God that he is not good at speaking to others. God begins to get annoyed with Moses, and starts asking Moses rhetorical questions. These questions are chosen so as to point out to Moses that God is able to make Moses a sufficiently good speaker to accomplish the task given to him.

In Exodus 4:13-17, Moses basically begs God to choose someone else. God finally gets angry with Moses. God appoints Moses’s brother Aaron to speak in place of Moses (most of the time). God then reminds Moses to take the walking staff that can change into a snake with him when he goes to Egypt. After this, the conversation between God and Moses ends.

Exodus 4:18-31 Moses returns to Egypt with Aaron and the rest of his family.

In Exodus 4:21-23, God tells Moses that Pharaoh’s firstborn son will die. Then, in Exodus 4:24-26, God threatens to kill the uncircumcised son of Moses, thereby prompting Zipporah (Moses’s wife) to immediately circumcise that son, as required by God.

This short passage of Scripture emphasizes the justice of God; if Pharaoh’s son will be killed as a consequence of Pharaoh’s disobedience, then Moses’s son will also be killed as a consequence of Moses’s disobedience.

Exodus 5:1-21 Moses and Aaron meet with Pharaoh, and Pharaoh rejects the request that the Hebrews be allowed to go into the desert for a festival to God. Instead, Pharaoh increases the work that he requires of the Hebrews.

Exodus 5:22-6:12 God says again that He will work against Pharaoh and bring the Hebrew people out of Egypt. The Hebrews are unwilling to accept this, and Moses again doubts his ability to convince Pharaoh.

Exodus 6:13-27 A genealogy for Moses and Aaron is given.

Exodus 6:28-7:7 God once again tells Moses to take Aaron and go to Pharaoh. Aaron will speak to Pharaoh on the behalf of Moses. However, God will harden the heart of Pharaoh (Exodus 7:3); and even though God works great miracles in Egypt, Pharaoh will continue to be very reluctant to allow the Hebrews to leave.

In Exodus 7:7, we are told that Moses was 80 years old, and that Aaron was 83 years old, when they went to speak to Pharaoh.

Exodus 7:8-13 Moses performs one of the miraculous signs shown to Him by God when he has Aaron throw down the walking staff that changes into a snake. This fulfills the prophecy of Exodus 4:1-5.

Exodus 7:14-25 Moses tells Aaron to take the walking staff in his hand, and hold out his hand over the water of Egypt. After this, all of the water turns into blood throughout all of Egypt. This fulfills the prophecy of Exodus 4:9.

The people dig trenches alongside the Nile River in order to get water to drink. It seems that the blood in the Nile is filtered into potable water as it makes its way from the river to the trenches through the intervening soil.

Exodus 8:1-15 Moses tells Aaron to take the walking staff in his hand, and hold out his hand over the water of Egypt. After this, a plague of frogs comes throughout all of Egypt.

In Exodus 8:8-15, Pharaoh tells Moses that if the plague is lifted then he will allow the Hebrews to leave. However, after the frogs die and the plague ends, Pharaoh again refuses to allow the Hebrews to go.

Exodus 8:16-19 Moses tells Aaron to take the walking staff in his hand, stretch out that hand, and hit the dust on the ground with the staff. After this, all of the dust in Egypt turns into a plague of gnats throughout all of Egypt.

Exodus 8:20-32 God sends swarms of flies into only that part of Egypt outside of Goshen, where the Hebrews live.

Exodus 9:1-7 God sends a plague against all the animals of the Egyptians, and all of those animals die. However, none of the animals of the Hebrews dies.

Exodus 9:8-12 Moses stands before Pharaoh and throws soot from a fire into the air. In the air, the soot becomes fine dust and spreads out over all of Egypt, causing people and animals everywhere to have eruptions of festering boils.

Exodus 9:13-35 Moses stretches out his walking staff towards the sky, and a hail storm with fire comes to plague all of Egypt outside of Goshen, where the Hebrews live. It is the worst such storm in Egypt’s history to that time.

Exodus 10:1-20 Moses stretches out his walking staff over the land of Egypt, and a plague of locusts comes and covers the entire land of Egypt. The locusts eat everything green on every plant in Egypt.

Exodus 10:21-27 Moses stretches out his hand to the sky, and a palpable darkness comes over all the land of Egypt. Only the Hebrews are able to have light in the habitations.

Exodus 10:28-11:10 Pharaoh threatens Moses’s life if Moses is ever seen by Pharaoh again. Of course, as there is presently a plague of darkness, no one can see Moses to kill him at that time. Moses prophesies that Pharaoh will indeed never see him [Moses] alive again.

He also prophesies that all of the firstborn males of both people and animals in Egypt will die around midnight, with the exception of those males among the Hebrews. This will occur in fulfillment of Exodus 4:21-23.

Exodus 12:1-28 The Hebrews conduct the first Passover (the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread).

In Exodus 12:2, God commands that the first month of the Hebrew calendar is to be the month in which the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are celebrated. The Feast of Unleavened Bread is supposed to be celebrated during the third week of the month of Abib, beginning with the Passover on the 14th, and continuing until the 21st.

Exodus 12:29-30 The plague on the firstborn of Egypt occurs; all the firstborn Egyptian males die, both of animals and people. This occurs in fulfillment of Exodus 4:21-23 and Exodus 11:4-7.

Exodus 12:31-50 The Egyptians give their gold and silver to the Hebrews, and then Pharaoh and the Egyptians force the Hebrews out of Egypt. This fulfills the many prophecies and promises previously given by God to save His people by rescuing them out of Egypt (i.e. Exodus 3:7-9).

Exodus 13:1-16 God orders that all firstborn Hebrew males, both human and animal, are to be His, and consecrated to Him. Also, some of the rules for how the Feast of Unleavened Bread is to be celebrated are given.

Exodus 13:17-14:31 Moses raises his walking staff; stretches out his hand over the Red Sea; the sea divides across its width; and all of the Hebrew people and their animals cross the sea on the dry ground of the sea floor.

In Exodus 13:21-22, God went ahead of the Hebrew people within a cloud pillar during the day time, and inside a pillar of fire at night. In Exodus 14:19-20, the cloud pillar moved behind the Hebrew people to prevent the Egyptian army from getting to the Hebrews.

In Exodus 14:26-28, Moses again stretched out his hand over the Red Sea, and the water of the sea came together again, and killed the entire Egyptian army.

Exodus 15:1-21 Moses and the other Hebrews sing praises to God for His great victory over the Egyptians.

Exodus 15:22-27 Moses is involved with the detoxification of (removal of poison from) a water source.

Exodus 16:1-36 The Hebrews are fed by eating quail (birds) that come to their camp during the twilight of one evening; and the Hebrews have manna to eat every morning for 40 years.

"Manna" is Hebrew for the question “What is it?” Manna is a “manifestation“ of the presence of Yehovah (God) amongst the people.

In Exodus 16:10, the Glory of God appears to the Hebrews in a cloud in the desert.

Exodus 17:1-7 Moses strikes a rock at Rephidim with his walking staff and water comes out and provides for the thirst of the Hebrew people.

Exodus 17:8-16 Moses goes on top of a hill at Rephidim; takes his walking staff in his hands; and holds up his hands. While he is doing this, Joshua leads the Hebrews in a fight against the Amalekites.

So long as Moses is able to keep his hands up, the Hebrews are winning. However, Moses’s arms become tired, and he can’t keep holding his arms up by himself. For this reason, Moses is given a rock to sit on; and Moses’s brother Aaron, and another man named Hur, get on each side of Moses, and help Moses hold up his hands when his arms become tired.

Eventually, Joshua defeats the Amalekites. God tells Moses to write down the details of this battle on a scroll, and to be sure that it is read to Joshua (Exodus 17:14), since God will completely delete all memory of the Amalekites from “under the heavens“.

The story is written down in the Book of Exodus; and Moses builds an altar at Rephidim, which he names “Yehovah-nisi”, which means “Yehovah [God] is my banner” (a “banner” is a flag, or flag-like device, which is carried at the front of an army as it goes into battle). Moses, in his hands-up pose, is the “embodiment” of the “banner”; he is representative of God, above the combatants, and in view of all of them atop the neighboring hill.

The narrative of Rephidim is a foreshadowing of the coming of Yeshua [Jesus], the Messiah. The name “Rephidim” means “(life) support”, and comes from the primitive root word “raphad”, which means “to refresh”. It is a reasonable name, given that it was a place in the desert where the Hebrews were able to get water (Exodus 17:6). However, the word “Rephidim”--”life support”--has a double meaning here.

Consider these similarities between the story of the crucifixion of Yeshua (Jesus), and Exodus chapter 17:

1. At the Battle of Rephidim, God’s People are led in their battle by a man named “Yoshua” (Joshua). Since ancient Hebrew does not use vowels, “Yoshua” has the same spelling as “Yeshua”, which is Jesus‘s Hebrew name. “Yeshua” is the eternal leader of God’s People.
2. At the same time, we have three men on a hill above the battlefield, with Moses in the middle. Jesus was crucified between two other men (Luke 23:33). All three men were suspended above the onlookers by their crosses.
3. God's representative, Moses, is sitting on a rock. At His crucifixion, Jesus was "the Rock" (1 Corinthians 10:4). And Jesus is also God's representative, and more--He is God's Son by birth.
4. Moses holds his wooden walking staff in his hands, and holds his hands above his head, creating a pose very much like that of someone being crucified. This is, of course, the same pose that Yeshua assumed while He was on the cross.
5. Moses has help holding up his hands, and the wooden walking staff. Yeshua (Jesus) also had help holding up His hands, and His wooden cross beam. Carrying the beam to the crucifixion site, a man named Simon helped Yeshua (Matthew 27:32). After He was nailed to the cross, Yeshua’s hands were held up by nails.
6. Moses maintains this “banner” pose long enough for “Yoshua” to defeat the enemy. “Yeshua” maintained this pose long enough to defeat the enemy, too (1 Corinthians 15:3-26).
7. At the beginning of Exodus chapter 17, we have Yehovah [God] standing upon a rock, which Moses’s strikes with his wooden walking staff, and water comes out of the rock (Exodus 17:5-6). After He dies, Yeshua, the “Rock”, is also struck (stabbed) with a spear while he is hanging on the cross, and blood and water comes out (John 19:34).
8. At the Battle of Rephidim, the Hebrews are fighting against an enemy that God despises so intensely that He says that He will delete all memory of them. When the victory which Yeshua has won is fully revealed, then ALL memory, of ALL enemies, will truly be gone forever. Not only will all memory of the Amalekites, the Hebrews’ enemy at Rephidim, be gone; but ALL memory of everything that causes harm of any kind--even of the devil--will be gone (Revelation 21:3-6).

Yeshua is our “life support”. When Moses experienced the events at Rephidim, he was living through a special revelation of things to come concerning the Messiah, Yeshua, the hope of God’s People.

(For an even more in-depth study of this passage, check out my page:

"Jesus, Mentioned BY NAME, With Crucifixion Imagery,
in the Old Testament / Torah" (this will open in a new window)

It is entirely about Exodus 17:8-16, and includes a video presentation.)

Exodus 18:1-27 Moses is reunited with his father-in-law; and the system of judges in Israel is established.

Exodus 19:1-25 Moses and the other Hebrews reach the Sinai Desert, at the foot of Mount Sinai.

In Exodus 19:16-18, Yehovah (God) descends on Mount Sinai. There is a cloud, with thunder and lightning. There is also smoke and fire. The mountain has an earthquake, too. And there is the sound of trumpet which becomes ever louder until Moses speaks, and God answers.

In chapters 20 to 23 of Exodus, the nature of God's Covenant is made known to the Hebrews. A “covenant” is a type of contract. God is offering to enter into a legally-binding agreement with the Hebrew people. Both sides promise to do specified things for the other side; and penalties are specified for any violations of the covenant--any “breach of contract” that might occur.

Primarily, this Covenant is a social contract to establish God as the King of the Hebrew people. Therefore, any rejection by the Hebrews of God as their King (such as wishing to replace God as King with a human) is a “breach of contract” of God’s Covenant with the Hebrew people.

Exodus 24:1-18 God’s Covenant with the Hebrew people is accepted by the Hebrews. Moses, Aaron, and two of Aaron‘s sons (Nadab and Abihu); and seventy elders of Israel went up on Mount Sinai, and saw God (somewhat), and ate and drank in His Presence.

In Exodus 24:12, Moses receives from God the stone tablets of God’s Ten Commandments, written by God Himself.

In Exodus 24:18, Moses went into the cloud on Mount Sinai, and stayed there for forty days and nights.

In chapters 25 to 31 of Exodus, God gives Moses information related to the Tabernacle of God.

Exodus 32:1-35 the Hebrew people rebel against God, trying to substitute a dead statue of gold (in the shape of a calf) for the Most High, Living God. Moses smashes the stone tablets given to him by God, and orders a killing of a portion of the Hebrews (about three thousand people, according to Exodus 32:28).

In Exodus 32:28-29, the Levites are consecrated to Yehovah (God) by their willingness to even kill their brothers and sons in order to obey God.

Exodus 33:1-6 The remaining Hebrews stop wearing their gold ornaments for some time, and they begin to move again towards the land promised to them as a homeland by God.

Exodus 33:7-11 A very brief description of the original “Tent of Meeting” is given.

Exodus 33:12-23 God reaffirms His determination to act for the good of Moses; and agrees to allow Moses to see all of God’s Glory, except for His Face. Moses will see God's Glory from a "cleft in the rock".

Exodus 34:1-27 Moses cuts out two stone tablets, similar to the ones originally given to him by God. God again writes the words of His Ten Commandments on the new stones.

In Exodus 34:5-7, God shows Moses the Glory of God.

In Exodus 34:28, Moses is in Mount Sinai with God for another forty days and nights, without eating or drinking.

In Exodus 34:29-35, Moses face shines due to his time in the Presence of God; and Moses begins to wear a veil much of the time, to protect the Hebrew people from being overly upset by his appearance.

In chapters 35 to 40 of Exodus, the Hebrews are reminded of the importance of the Sabbath day, and the Hebrews carry out the instructions regarding the construction and outfitting of the Tabernacle. After this, Moses inspects and approves the Hebrews work on the Tabernacle, and then completes the setting up of the Tabernacle. Finally, the Glory of God begins coming to the Tabernacle, and filling it for periods of time.

This completes the summary.