Questions for Parashah #49

I will begin to use this blog to post weekly questions for the coming weekly study. Our reading cycle is the triennial cycle, a schedule of which can be found at Torah Resource.

Exodus 6:2–7:17
Ezekiel 28:25–29:31
Acts 7:17-22

Link to Torah Resource Commentary

Here are several discussion questions for this week's portion. Please feel free to leave your thoughts, questions, and responses in the comments section.

1. In the beginning of Moses and Aaron's confrontation with Pharaoh, the Egyptian court magicians could duplicate the plagues by their secret arts (staff to snake, water to blood, swarms of frogs). Why is it that they could not reverse any of the plagues? Hearkening back to last week's parashah (Ex. 6:1), we can ask again, whose hand is the strong hand, whose arm is the outstretched arm here? Are their parallels in the gospels and in the book of Acts where sorcerers or demonic forces caused harm and destruction to people or animals? Why were these same forces unable or unwilling to create life?
2. In the haftarah portion, Israel's leaning on Egypt is described as leaning on a reed that is unreliable, a reed that snaps and causes the shoulder to tear and the loins to shake (Ez. 29:7, ESV). Similarly, we may be tempted to rely on Egypt, and the things of Egypt, the river Nile and the self-made prosperity that flood irrigation represents. What are several ways that we can "lean on Egypt" and what, through personal experience, has the result been? This is more of a personal application question.
3. Ezekiel 29:11 declares that the Egyptians will be in dispersion as a result of the Babylonian conquerors and that the land of Egypt would be uninhabited for 40 years. Which parts of Egypt were included in this decree? What is the time frame of its fulfillment? Are there other biblical and historical references to this time of dispersion?
4. How does the time period of 40 years compare with the captivity and exile of Judah for 70 years? What does that teach us about how God judges the nations versus his own people? What does this communicate about his covenantal nature?
5. Ezekiel 29:16 labels Egypt as a "guarantor recalling sin" (Stone Chumash). We are not to return to the things that once enslaved us, no matter how tempting or comfortable they are. How do we know very specifically from the text of Exodus that the children of Israel were never to return to Egypt?