Exodus Thoughts

So I'm catching up after all my moving and general slacking. I finished the Prince of Egypt, I mean Exodus, tonight. Condensing all of my quick Exodus notes into one post:

• Exodus 4:24-26: This was a shock to read. For whatever reason, I had never read this before. God "sought to kill him" (Moses) presumably because of uncircumcision. But the way it is interjected into the overall story is a bit of cold water. My Bible talks about comparisons to Jacob's brush with death in Genesis.
• One thing I've always struggled to answer is the punishment of all of Egypt for one man's (Pharaoh's) refusal to comply. One time the reader even notices Pharaoh's advisers saying that it is truly the work of God, yet they are still punished for Pharaoh's sin. One possible exception may be Ex. 9:20, where "those of Pharaoh's servants who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their servants and livestock into the houses." Even so, Ex. 12:30 says that "there was no house in which there was not someone dead." This is something that has always bothered me.
• Reading the plagues in succession made for a neat, albeit imperfect, picture of God's forgiveness. No matter how many times Pharaoh said that Moses' people could be let go then reneged, Moses still gave him a chance. Rather, I guess God gave him a chance through Moses.
• Ex. 12:38 - a "mixed multitude" left with the Israelites. Interesting to think that maybe these were Egyptians that believed after what they had seen. Is that even possible -- were non-Israelites allowed to go to the promised land?
• I particularly like how God describes himself as a "jealous" God. I think this happens twice. It gives a cool picture of how much God really cares about our direction in life.
• Don't you wish you got as specific instructions for your life as Moses got for the temple?
• I love God's description of himself in Ex. 34:6-7: "The compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, keeping loyal love for thousands [of generations], forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgressions of fathers by dealing with children and children's children." It is almost like a self-defense on how a loving God can punish people. The single period in there is a perfect logical break, and his way of speaking turns. It actually reminds me of a way C.S. Lewis would describe Aslan.