Discovering Chiasms Challenge #3 from Exodus 2

This is the third challenge in a series intended to help develop and refine your ability to glean greater understanding of God's Words in the Bible. In the previous challenge Discovering Chiasms Challenge #2 from Deuteronomy 30, we looked at a chiasm that included an introductory epitome and a list. (See my article What is a Chiasm? if you are already confused.) This quiz is a more straight-forward chiastic structure ‐ the center-point again adds understanding.

See if you can find the structure in the following verses. Click on "Show Structure" once you have your answer. Then click on "Analysis: Why is it there?" to check your analysis with mine. I suggest that the Personal Reflection at the end of the lesson can be the most important part of these quizzes.

11 One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13 When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, "Why do you strike your companion?" 14 He answered, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid, and thought, "Surely the thing is known." 15 When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well. (Ex 2:11-15 ESV)

A  Moses understands people's burdens (v11a)   B  An Egyptian oppresses a Hebrew (v11b)     C  Moses stops Egyptian oppression (v12)       D  Two Hebrews are being hostile (v13a)       D′  Moses stops their hostility (v13b)     C′  Exposed: Moses stopped Egyptians (v14)   B′  Pharaoh oppresses Moses (v15a) A′  Moses flees from people's burdens (v15b)

Analysis: Why is it there?
Moses deals with two types of hostility in this brief scenario: first there is the oppression of the Egyptians onto the Hebrew people; then there is the hostile fighting between his own people. He killed the Egyptian and subdued the in-fighting.

While an argument could be made that line C resolves line B, and D′ resolves line D, I think that the above chiastic structure is more revealing. Not only does line B match quite well with line B′, but the other pairings of A and A′, C and C′, and D with D′ seem fairly strong.

The overall theme of this passage is hostility and its resolution. By inference, the position that Moses will assume as leader-to-be is alluded to in B′. The death of the Egyptian is a foretelling of the ultimate death of Pharaoh's army in the C level. At the center of this chiasm, we see a picture of the role that Moses will assume in D′ – to liberate his people from their hostilities.

To me, this chiasm points to the heart of Moses, even forty years before his encounter with the burning bush. His heart, as revealed here, was to liberate his people – to set the captives free. Moses wanted more than just freedom from slavery; his hope was to eliminate conflicts within his own people.




Personal Reflection: In what ways do you help set the people free?

---

---

---

Would you consider rating each of these Discovering Chiasms Challenges? Based on the feedback that you provide and that of others, I would like to indicate to others if a quiz is one star (* which means very easy) or up to five stars (***** which means very difficult. Your input in the comment section will be much appreciated.