Devorah Abenhaim considers the fact that Moshe’s lineage in not mentioned at all until this parashah, despite the importance of lineage throughout the Torah. She cites Rabbi Hirsch, who stated that Moshe was not successful in his mission until this time. God reassured him of his coming success, which required that Moshe be perceived as a human being, rather than supernatural.
Rabbi Angel writes about Moses’ great message for the Israelites, which they were not receptive to. As he observes, they were exhausted from their bondage and were basically unable to accept the message as realistic. The text uses the phrase “kotser ruach”, which is understood in different ways – short of breath, gasping under the pressure of their labor. They were psychologically unprepared to listen.
Rabbi Sacks writes of humor in the Torah: when humanity attempts to defy heaven, God laughs. He reads humor into Pharaoh’s magicians, who could not produce lice with their sorcery, while the lice continued to infest everyone, claiming that it was “the finger of God.” In response, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Satire is an essential aspect of understanding some of the plagues – wherein those forces of nature represented gods of the Egyptian pantheon.