Letter to Elisheba (Exodus 6 & 7)

Dear Elisheba,

You were Aaron’s wife, a woman who would face disruption in your life to as your husband took the role of prophet and Moses’s spokesman.

I wonder how you felt about everything going on. I am taking it that you would have been suffering like everybody else in your community. Were you ostracised by those who blamed your wider family for bringing suffering upon them or did they try and use you to speak reason to the brothers?

How was Moses viewed by you? Did you worry about the influence he appeared to have over Aaron? Did you and your husband have to accept that Moses was acting on God’s word and not completely mad? Were you and your husband amongst those who refused to believe Moses originally? These are questions the text raises for me but which it does not have answers to.

I wonder if heritage and genealogy was the thing which was used to persuade you that you had little choice or that Moses wasn’t crazy. I guess the family stories passed down and you knew them well, especially as the boy’s mother was also their great aunt and so she would have had a link to that previous generation too.

Was Jochebed still alive when all this was going on? If she was did she use the story of Moses’ survival as a baby during that slaughter of the innocents as evidence that God was really with him?

You obviously had four sons to think about too. Did you both decide to follow Moses because of a fear of what would happen to them and a desperation that something had to change so they had hope of a better future?

Did Moses tell Aaron that he was going to harden Pharaoh’s heart? It seems to me that your husband got a lot of the raw deal on what was going on. He was the one who was charged on speaking truth to power but was only the intermediary, having to trust Moses completely.

The dynamic is something I find really interesting and is something I will explore further in a letter to your husband I am sure.

How did you feel about Moses speech defect? Was stammering or whatever faltering would be most fully translated as in our day and age common or was it judged as a sign of weakness? Was it something used to mock by yourselves? I can imagine the children doing impressions of Uncle Moses which you probably had to tell them off for or were they too well behaved for that?

What was going on in your head on that day when Aaron headed off with Moses to see Pharaoh? Did you know what was going on or was it hidden from you to some extent?

What was it like when Aaron got home and told you about the staff turning into a snake and the others having their staff’s turn into snakes too but his eating them up. Did it scare you even more? I think it would have me as this was clearly getting into the world of the supernatural and in your pre-modern society there would have been even more myths around such actions than we have today.

Then there was the blood in the Nile, that would have been really scary and I guess your people would have suffered doubly too. Did it mean that you did not have water and had to dig the wells for the Egyptians?

As you can tell I have lots of questions for you. They relate in part to the fact the narrative focuses on the main events but do not look at the impact of you as women. Yours is in many ways a hidden history. Yet, I think it is an important history because we have so much to learn about how to relate to and support the families of those who lead in whatever capacity. Having the stories of women such as yourself would help us as it would having the stories of men who supported women who lead and having the stories of children and so on.

Letter to an Overseer (Exodus 5)

Dear Overseer,

Pharaoh put you in a terrible position where you ended up suffering most. I am guessing you were not popular with your own people, possibly being seen as collaborators of some kind by having the overseer positions. Certainly I am guessing many resented the way in which you sought to pass on the orders of the slave drivers. At the same time you got beaten most severely for not managing the impossible.

As I read, and whilst I know there can be no real comparison my mind strayed to thinking about those employed in benefit offices and so on. Where you had the straw taken away and people were punished for not managing they are forced to sanction people who find it increasingly difficult as the safety net is taken away from their clients in the name of austerity. At the same time their own working conditions are being subject to cuts and they cannot spend the time they used to supporting clients.  

Both you and they were the in between people, the people most in touch with the suffering whilst being the same people forced to implement the new regime.  

I am interested in what the meeting with Pharaoh was like and how it was secured. In many ways it seems to have been like a deputation from a modern day trade union. How did you secure this meeting? Was it that there were slave drivers who weren’t so tyrannical that you managed to build up relationship with, did you have a sympathetic ear in the palace or was it that the slave drivers were being punished to and so wanted you to go in and explain?

Today in our culture when the trade unions go in they too are not being listened to. Indeed they are being punished through a range of ways some ways talked about are legislative and some are based on the government putting unreasonable conditions on starting talks with them whilst seeking to portray them as the baddies who won’t come to the table. As I say I know it is different in many ways but it is what your story brings to my mind and I think part of the role of the bible is to make us sensitive to what is going on around us today by jogging our minds and helping us to make these loose connections about who the modern day people in similar positions would be.

When you went to see Moses and complained he was making it worse for you I wonder what that was like. Were some of your number talking about attacking him physically or was it just a plea being made to him to go away and stop getting involved?

Your story suggests that you were people of good intellect and able to put your case forward well, even if you were not able to win. I am guessing that brains rather than brawn is how you were chosen for the role of overseers. I also wonder now whether rather than collaborators you were somehow seen as community leaders of some kind. You were able to get the ear of people who perhaps ordinary members of your community could not.

Letter to Zipporah (Exodus 3 & 4)

Dear Zipporah,

I guess that people would expect me to write to Moses regarding these two chapters but I want to think about it from your point of view as the wife of somebody who has been called.

I want to start with the end of chapter four where the Lord comes to Moses and tries to kill him and so you cut off your son’s foreskin and touch Moses feet with it.

My view of this incident has always been wtf….why? But having read through Genesis first I can understand this a little bit more. In doing this you were making it clear that both you and Moses son were going to be living by Israelite rather than Midianite customs. You move from the tribe of Midian where your father was a priest into the tribe of Levi which Moses was part of through this action. Quite why you had to touch Moses with the foreskin I don’t get, but you obvious thought this was important. I am not sure if it would have been a cultural action too.

In order to stop the Lord killing Moses you had to intervene and show your loyalty. I think this may have been a test for you, the Lord may have been checking whether you were going to be able to handle what Moses was being called into.

I say this as the wife of a trainee Methodist presbyter who has not been called in the dramatic way Moses has and is not likely to have to do the sort of things Moses did, but still has been called into a life which involves turning everything upside down. The following of that call depends not just on the one who is called but also their partner. Whilst I do not intend to be a “clergy spouse” of the type many think of I have had to change my life as a result of my husband’s calling, just as you were.

In terms of that call and encounter with God it is clear that you got it and understood. What was it like when Moses came home and described it all to you? I can imagine him stammering it out with lots of hesitations and asking you if you thought he was mad. You knew him and knew his strengths and weaknesses were. I guess that when God got a bit mad with him for using the speech issue it would have hit very deep with Moses. I get the feeling that it would have been something he knew was a weaknesses and he was just trying to be reasonable with God. Your role would have been to reassure him.

When my own husband was called I found the calling of your husband and indirectly yourself useful. You see when God called Moses we know he was calling somebody who didn’t have a perfect past and may not have been the one who people might have initially thought of. You were somebody who supported him knowing him faults and all and knowing that you were potentially somebody who wouldn’t fit in, as a Midianite.

My husband is a bit different too. He is a trans man amongst other things & I am certainly not your typical potential ministers wife, (not that I really think the typical exists beyond stereotypes). We are the type of people who might genuinely ask God if he has made a mistake or is he sure he doesn't want somebody who fits in with the Christian ideal that many people have a little more.

Whilst not called to go out and do what Moses did or anything near it we do feel we are on this journey because God has called him to give up his own comfort to work alongside others, particularly the marginalised. At the same time there may be situations where he is called to speak the truth to power in order to improve the situation of the marginalised. This is scary, but God is opening up ways for him to be trained in this, which might surprise people.

I know I said yesterday some stories need to be left and read as just that. However, others can be connected with on a personal level. These chapters connect with me in a way which is specific and clear. I am called to support my husband just as you were called to support yours because God has called them to turn our lives upside down for his glory and work and to help others.

Letter to Pharaoh's Daughter (Exodus 2)

Dear Pharaoh’s Daughter,

I wonder how old you were when you went down to the river. I am assuming you were not old enough to be married and perhaps had the naivety of youth about you.

You knew that your attendants had to obey you, even if it might bring them into conflict with your father.

What did you think of your father’s orders to kill the Hebrew babies? It seems you took the opportunity to save Moses although it would have involved some risk on your part. I am guessing when Moses sister arrived on the scene and offered to find a nurse for you that you probably worked out what the score was. Yet, you went along with this happily. Did it make you feel good that you were doing the right thing?

At what age did you take Joseph in? Were you married by that point or did you have to explain it all to your father? Did he accept Moses into your family because you were his daughter or because there came a point where he realised he did wrong?

When you heard Moses had committed murder and run away did that bring out xenophobic feelings in your father? Did you have to deal with a lot of “I told you so”?

Were there people who kept you informed or not though? Did you know when he got married to Zipporah?

How did you personally feel about the slavery of the Egyptians? Did you understand it and condone it?

As I read it and wonder what my response should be there is an obvious moral lesson about looking after people in danger. However, I wonder if sometimes rather than looking for the moral meaning or echo in everything whether it is sometimes better to read parts of the bible and let them be. To just hear the story and not automatically be seeking to draw out the application.

I think the bible should teach us and application is important but sometimes we should just absorb the story and let it be as that, an interesting narrative.  

Letter to an Egyptian King (Exodus 1)

Dear Egyptian King,

You did not know Joseph. I wonder if this is because there had been a change of dynasty in your land or was this to do with the time which had elapsed since Joseph had been in Egypt and his story had not been handed down?

I ask because I would have thought the story of the great famine would have passed down and Joseph’s role in it would have been known.

Or was it as the Israelites became more powerful in Egypt there was a conscious writing out of him by those who resented the foreigner’s power?

Your brutality towards them seems to come from fear of a potential security risk. I find this interesting as our government seems to be becoming more fearful of the risks posed by part of the population who come from families who have emigrated here. This fear that they will join with our enemies is one which echoes down to today.

Thankfully we do not put people into forced labour in the same way, but I do worry how as your people allowed this policy to be implemented what role we in our country play in the shrewd oppression of groups judged to be dangerous.

When you decided to go for the killing of the boys to try and stop the growth of Hebrews in your nation I wonder if this was a common practice? To us it seems barbaric but to you it does not seem odd.

I am glad fear of God stopped the Hebrew midwives obeying your commands but I do wonder what happened to them for disobeying you. These women stood up for life and in doing so took a courageous step. I doubt to be honest if I could have done the same, yet I don’t think I could have done what you asked either.

As I read this story I am yet again struck by how different your culture was yet how the same fears are what underlie different actions throughout culture and time.

I have previously been somebody who has had far more time for the idea of social construction than social fact but I do wonder if the bible gives evidence that there are certain fears and emotions which are social facts and it is our reaction to them which is the social construction as well as who these fears relate to.

If this is the case do we, as Christians, need to acknowledge those fears more and identify ways in which they can be overcome? For example rather than simply saying “fear of the other taking over our country is wrong” do we need to ask deeper questions about where the fear of a particular group comes from and what can be done to deal with that fear in a way which is positive rather than negative?

This passage illustrates I think the need to understand our history and the history of immigration of certain groups and use that in our response. Part of your response came because you did not know Joseph. If this is means you did not know his story it shows how a lack of knowledge of history can impact our interpretation of the present.

(Another) Letter to Joseph (Gen 49 &50)

Dear Joseph,

You were the favourite son from the moment you were born and the blessings your father dishes out reflect that. Their wording identifies what your father thought of all of you boys.

You had been estranged for so long and then found him again, but by then he was elderly and approaching death. How did that feel for you?

You are clearly moved by his death and make sure his wishes are met in terms of where he was to be buried.

I take it when the embalming is referred to it is the Egyptian form of mummification which we are today familiar with from the bodies found in the pyramids. Did you follow other customs we associate with that time such as burying specific items with him?

You were clearly touched by his death, which was marked by those from your adopted country too.

I wonder if other siblings felt relief that they could now move on as well as fear as to how you might act.

I think whilst most mourn the death of their parents the emotions are not as simple as we are often led to believe. Because in our society death is somewhat taboo we do not often discuss it and yet I think we need to.

Sometimes death can be kinder than life. I really worry that in our society we are so focused on life that we keep people alive too long when they have no quality of life.

I wonder how your own sons felt about your death. Was it your status that meant you knew you would have to be buried in Egypt but your heritage that meant you knew your bones should be moved when your ancestors moved out of the land?

You clearly were aware of your own mortality. Did that thought of death scare you or not?

Letter to Ephraim (Gen 48)

Dear Ephraim,

I wonder what it was like for you when you were taken in to see your grandad. We don’t know how old you were but that you were young enough to sit on his knee.

You were being taken in to see somebody ill and old and I am guessing the atmosphere would have been anxious. Were you scared by what was going on?

Then there was the blessing your brother was meant to get, in your dads eyes. I wonder if Jacob was remembering he was the younger son. There seems an important pattern in Genesis of showing that the eldest son is not necessarily the one who gets the blessing. This I increasingly realise as we go through is counter-cultural. That’s why Joseph got so upset, because Jacobs actions were going against what seemed to be the correct social order.

I think this is an important thing to take on board, that the “right choice” is not always God’s choice. I find this helpful because when I look at myself and my husband and I often think, “God have you made a mistake?” Why have you given me the calling you have and called my husband in the way you have? Do you not know who we are and the labels attached to us?

I know this is a note rather than a letter today, but I don’t want you to think this is not an important one. Your story has underlined to me something important.