Rating and reviewing a chunk of the Old Testament feels strange. I don't really feel up to passing judgment on a text which, given it's place in history/culture, has kind of passed judgement on us. Having known this story from before I can remember, I wasn't really expecting to be surprised upon reading it. It turns out that what I heard as a child left out some interesting (and confusing) details. Probably there are theologians and scholars who've turned out reams on the things that have caught my attention, but I'm not inclined to go and seek that work out. Instead I'm just going to ponder these strange (or at least, strange to me) aspects of the text: at one point Moses rebukes the LORD who 'repents of the evil he was going to do' to the children of Israel; an image that is hard to reconcile with the idea of an all-merciful and omnipotent God. Similarly, I have a feeling that my children's bible (which I read bits of, but never finished) left out the bit where God hardens the heart of the king of Egypt (and then punishes the King and his people for the decisions he made under the influence of God) which is the kind of paradoxical behaviour that one could go crazy trying to make sense of (or make a career writing sermons on). There's a lot to digest in this relatively little text.