Bondage Through Moses

Moses, however, persuaded God to rethink his decision through logic and reasoning. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people.” By seeing the fault in His potential actions, God saw the good in Moses’ plea and had a change of

I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to

Ramses the Pharaoh wouldn’t let the Israelites out of Egypt, so Moses stepped in and led the Israelites out of Egypt, which we know as the Exodus. If I were an Israelite, I would join Moses out of Egypt. I would do this because being a slave would mean being tortured. Moreover, Moses had powers from God, so it was save to be with him. He had the Ten Commandments, so people would know how to live their daily lives.

To begin with, one reason I would follow Moses out of Egypt is because the Hebrews were slaves. For instance, the Hebrews were oppressed. According to Document 2, it tells us that Moses saw a Hebrew slave being mistreated. This means that the slaves were mistreated while being in Egypt. Document 2 supports my reason because it tells us that an innocent slave was being wronged.

In Exodus, there was never any signs of doubt and God’s plan for justice was always consistent. Because of this, Moses’ purpose did not waver during the negotiations with Pharaoh, preventing him from understanding Pharaoh’s perspective. Moses followed the orders of God and obeyed his every command, never doubting him for a second (Exodus 3:12). He believed that if anyone was going to pull him and his people out of exile, it would be God. The idea of following God and His love was so simple to Moses, that he completely ignored occurrences that any person today would have fled from.

Moses knew how to not bow to the complaints of the children of Israel (Exodus 17:3), but also knew how to hear godly counsel from a man like Jethro. Oh Moses listened to this man of God…he took advice from a friend… he did not say, don’t worry God got my back… he did not say, haven’t you heard how I lead the children on dry land….or how I did this and how I did that… oh brother and sister break it down a little more.. Moses did not brag about how many members he had, or new building were being under construction, he did not talk about the choir having a new record deal or how the church just brought a brand new bus... Moses… listened... Men that are called by God to lead are always in danger of attempting to encompass more than they are able…

Bondage can be defined as a state of subjection to a force, power, or influence or the state of being under the control of another person. Throughout the novel Middle Passage, written by Charles Johnson, bondage is a reoccurring theme. The characters in the novel are bonded physically, emotionally, or psychologically. Some characters are bonded and can not escape their bondage. Others choose to place themselves in the situations. Throughout the course of the novel, some of the characters gain their freedom and move forward with their lives. Other characters are never able to gain their freedom because their lives end in death.

Moses, in the book of Exodus, was obedient to God and chose to carry the burden of freeing the Jewish people. He used nature to plague the Egyptian Pharaoh in freeing the Jewish slaves. However, God did not cause harm to the Egyptians because he did not love them, in fact, he gave them the warnings of the plagues to come; unfortunately, they did not listen and underwent the suffering. Despite nature’s evil during the seven plagues, the positivity that came out of it was the release of the Jewish people for the Pharaoh. They had been enslaved for many years, but they were finally able to be free once

To escape persecution from Pharaoh, Moses flees to Midian. By leaving his familiar surroundings, Moses finds himself crossing a threshold into a foreign land. To get to Midian, Moses must cross the Desert of Sin. The crossing of the threshold is the first step into the sacred zone of the universal source (Campbell 81). In Midian, he befriends and then marries the daughter of Jethro, priest of Midian. Moses becomes a shepherd as he adjusts to his new life. There is an enormous contrast between Moses' life as an Egyptian prince and his life as a Midianite shepherd. As a prince he had everything done for him. As a shepherd he had to do everything for himself; he was holding the very job that he had been taught to despise, and he lived as an unknown foreigner. This was a humbling experience for Moses. Living the life of a shepherd and nomad, Moses learned about the ways of the people he would be leading and also about life in the desert. Campbell would say that Moses was swallowed into the belly of the whale (Campbell 90). Moses couldn't appreciate these lessons, but they were preparing him to free Israel from Pharaoh's

God used Moses to bring the people out from under the enslavement of Pharaoh. He brought them through the Red Sea, however the people still doubted that God was powerful enough to bring them to their own inheritance that waited for them.

Moses was a humble man, but God sees that he is mightier than Moses sees himself. When God tells him that he must lead the Jews out of Egypt, he grows fearful and unworthy of such a task. Moses humility toward God is what makes him capable of such a tremendous mission. Although, he would have much rather not lead the Jews out of Egypt because he is afraid and does not have faith in himself, however, he is able to do it because God has told him to and God would not ask him to do so if it was impossible. Moses successfully leads the Hebrews out of Egypt. Moses was capable of freeing the Jews of slavery with a quality of humility (No Title, 1986).

Slavery in Exodus 21-The Old Testament deemed to be a common practice. Modern readers should gain understanding like other nation, slavery was rampant and flourished in the Israelites, but the biblical slavery is very different from the modern slavery. The old testament lacks slavery condemnation but it has a clear teaching on ethical treatment of slaves, which was part of the culture of the surrounding nations. Slavery in the bible in the time of the Jews was not an exploitation act but rather an act of enabling the poor to provide for themselves. The word slave was used in referring to various forms of servile situations, not the slave familiar to many modern bible readers. In the ancient Israel, the “slave” referred to both a person who is under the masters’ law and to any subordinate person in the social status ladder. Westbrook lists subjects of a king, heads of households, debtors volunteering to service to pay their debts and non-citizens to be examples of servile situations encompassed in Israel in the ancient times. The bible engages the reader in many passages regarding slavery and further tells one how to obtain the slaves, how they should be treated, and how to draw the moral and ethical line between a slave male and female slave.

For this assignment I have chosen to analyze the section from Exodus where G-d approaches Moses about leading the Israelites out of Egypt. I found this interesting as it begins the tale of the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt; one can argue that this was one of the most seminal and inspiring events in all of human history. In Exodus 3, 1-15 G-d chooses and recruits Moses to lead the Exodus. Moses’ leadership provided the inspiration for freedom seekers for generations; yet Moses questions his ability to carry out this task. In this paper I will explore the interactions between G-d and Moses when Moses is persuaded to assume this leadership role.

You see, another group of people, the Egyptians, had made the Israelites their slaves. The Israelites were forced to work for the Egyptians without any pay. They had no mon- ey, no rights, nothing they could call their own. But in an amazing act of love, God sent Moses to deliver his people out of slavery.

Moses saw a fellow Hebrew being harmed by an Egyptian so he took judgement into his own hands and killed the Egyptian. Moses is set up apart from his people from the way he was born and raised, but he is the one that executes the exodus with God inevitably reconnecting with his rightful people. God’s mighty hand is the one that executes the curses in the land of Egypt to oppress the Egyptians until God’s people were let go. Pharaoh made task harder with less advanced materials just for the sake of oppression (TNOAB,