Exodus 4-7

Moses doesn't really want to be chosen and keeps trying to find excuses.  Back in chapter 3 it started with “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”.  To this, God tells Moses that he will be with him.  Then Moses brings worry of whether or not they will believe him.  To this, God provides Moses with miraculous signs to show as proof.  Next, Moses complains that he is not eloquent with words.  To this, God replies, "Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?  Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak”.  Lastly, Moses asks God to send someone else and God finally gets angry with him and provides his brother, Aaron, to speak for him.  Wow, that's a lot of excuses.  However, this isn't so bad in light of the fact that I often make many excuses or complaints for myself.

I find it very interesting how God makes mention of the firstborn so early on.

"Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’”

God already makes mention of the firstborn, seeing ahead of time the final plague he will bring about on Egypt.

There's a weird story about circumcision.  Perhaps Moses didn't circumcise his son when he was supposed to and Zipporah does it to save Moses.  Well, he doesn't die and gets to continue on to Egypt.

Moses, along with Aaron, make their first appearance to Pharaoh and ask to let the people go worship God (as God instructed them to say).  Pharaoh will not let them and because of this, places heavier burdens on the Israelites.  They are no longer given straw to make bricks, but are still required to produce the same amount of bricks.  As they describe, Moses has made the Israelites "stink in the sight of Pharaoh".  Though the people initially believed Moses, they are not liking how things are turning out for them so far.  Fortunately, things take a turn for the better in chapter 6.

God promises deliverance and tells Moses what he is about to do.  When the people are told, they don't listen "because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery".

We read a genealogy of Moses and Aaron oddly inserted in the story at this point.  Perhaps this was a good of a place as any?

Well, they go back to Pharaoh who obviously is still not listening.  They then get to see the first plague, turning the Nile into blood.  The magicians of Egypt were able to do the same thing and Pharaoh still remained hard-hearted.  Because of the Nile turning into blood, the Egyptians are forced to dig along the Nile to get water to drink, since they cannot drink the blood water of the Nile  anymore.  These plagues are meant so that they don't affect the Israelites, and so I guess the Israelites have water where they are.