Letter to Aaron (Exodus 8)

Dear Aaron,

I am getting more interested in you and your story as Exodus continues. I had always thought it was Moses staff being used and you were just the voice who Moses spoke through, but I am realising I was wrong.

You are described in an earlier chapter as a “prophet”, somebody in your own right who is speaking and acting against power to give the message of God. We too often condemn you to being “Moses brother”. This identifying people by their relationship to another rather than in their own right is a common mistake in our society. You remind us there is so much more to the other and their story is vitally important too.

As I read about you I am intrigued about how you were able to do some of the things you did. For example how did you gain access to Pharaoh in the first place? How come you were not put under arrest, or more probably killed for your actions? Then there is the question of how you were able to get to the different rivers and canals to put your staff over them? Did you have to travel all over the country in disguise?

I ask these questions being aware that two versions of this story are interwoven and that there are questions over your existence. Personally I think that you were real and that you acted against the state in order to free your people. I think that the stories of the plagues do describe events which happened at the same time as you were involved in your freedom fighting.

I think it is particularly interesting that your story highlights the overlap between freedom fighting and terrorism. If we look at it in a modern context you would have been viewed as a terrorist. God through you was causing massive disruption in the land. These actions were of a sort which today would be described as environmental terrorist acts. I wonder if that was why Pharaoh’s heart hardened, did he get to the stage where he realised that things needed to change but then think if they did he would be giving in to you? Or was it he realised the implications on the economy and his great civilisation he let you go? I am not sure, but I think the hardening of the heart may be able to be looked at in these terms.

Your story actually reminds me a lot of what I know about South Africa and the ANC actions there. That gives a different question, did the response of the authorities always harden against your people too? We know initially that was what happened but did it happen after each plague too?

How did you cope with the disappointment of thinking on several occasions, this was it you had gained freedom, but then having Pharaoh change his mind? I cannot imagine what that was like for you. How much did you let Elisheba know about what was happening? Did she and the boys have to go into hiding? I am imagining that Goshen was tightly controlled by the Egyptians.

What were your feelings towards Moses? He seems to have your total trust, how was that gained? As you can tell I have lots of questions for you because you intrigue me the more I read about you.

In terms of what you teach me I guess a large part of it is that of having courage to speak out against injustice. I am not in your situation and so am not called to engage in acts against the state. I am not called to speak truth to power like you were either, but I do know there are still injustices in my society which God does call me as a Christian to speak out on. Whilst he does raise up prophets such as yourself many more of us are called to follow the example of the prophet in resisting unjust authorities and speaking up for the marginalised and speaking out against injustice.