In the Exodus, the second book of the Bible, we are told the story of how God through Moses freed the Israelites from oppression in Egypt. Moses was born to an Israelite mother during a time when the Pharaoh who was fearful of the size and strength of the Israelite people, decreed that all Israelite male babies should be thrown into the Nile River. Moses’ mother trying to save her son placed him a basket in the reeds in the river, where he was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter who raised him as her own. When Moses was all grown up, he saw the witnessed the suffering of his people, the Israelites which eventually lead to him killing an Egyptian soldier whom he saw whipping an Israelite slave. He fled to Midian where he made a life for himself. Then the Pharaoh died, and the new Pharaoh made the lives of the Israelites more difficult. They cried out to God for help, and God hearing their cries remembered his covenant with Abraham, and chose Moses to led the Israelites out of Egypt. The God of Exodus is not comparable to the God we are often told of because the God we are told of is full of love and light, whereas the God of Exodus is not merciful and all-loving, is rather painted as an entity of wickedness. I do not see him as a hero because he allows and encourages acts of evil which includes the killing of Egyptian babies, and he is manipulative and excessively prideful.
God first appears to Moses on Mount Horeb. There he tells him that he is to go to Egypt to free the
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
After Joseph died the new Egyptian pharaoh began to realize that the Israelite population was on the rise and oppressed them by making them slaves. As a result of being slaves and beginning to populate Egypt the Egyptians decided to kill all the firstborn Israelite male babies. The only one to escape this massacre was Moses who’s mother put him in a basket and put him in the water. He was then found by Pharaoh’s daughter and she saved him and treated him as if he was her own son. As a result of the event of having been enslaved and having their male children killed the Israelites cried out to God and he heard them.
God wanted Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. He eventually took up the mantle and made his return to Egypt. This began the third 40 year period. Upon return to Egypt, he patterned up with his brother, Aaron in taking up the task to lead the Israelites. God worked through Moses to inflict 10 plagues on the Egyptians as Pharaoh initially refused to let the Israelites go, the last of them finally persuaded Pharaoh to let the Israelites go.
The bible teaches us many things about God. From Genesis and Exodus we can learnwhat the Judeo-Christian view of God was. Genesis shows us that God made the sun, the moon,the earth and every living thing. During the days of creation God made all things good. On theseventh day of creation God rested and declared all he made to be very good (Genesis 1:31). God created human beings in his own image. We as humans can be certain of our owndignity and self worth because we have been created in the image of God. The book of Genesisshows us that people disobey God by choosing to do wrong. Even great bible heros failed Godand disobeyed him. The bible teaches us that God is forgiving. God has many attributes. God makes no mistakes and this is wisdom. God is infinite, heknows
About 500 years after the death of Abraham, his descendants through Isaac were living in Egypt as slaves. Genesis 37 to 50 tells the story of how this came about. The 10 oldest sons of Abraham's grandson Jacob disliked their younger brother Joseph so much that they found a way to sell him to traders who in turn sold him to an Egyptian officer as a slave. In his new land, Joseph went through a series of ups and downs and eventually became the prime minister of Egypt, the highest official under the king. God enabled Joseph to foresee an approaching time of famine, and used him to store up food and then distribute it during the famine. His political position made it possible for him to settle his father's family in Egypt's most fertile territory. Here they prospered for many years. However, the time came when the leaders of Egypt began to view the rapidly growing Israelite community as a threat. As a result, they made slaves of the Israelites, treating them with ever-increasing harshness. Finally, desperate because the descendants of Jacob continued to multiply, they issued an order that all their male babies be destroyed at birth. The first 12 chapters of Exodus tell the story of how the Lord responded to the cries of His people. He miraculously provided Moses to be their leader, sent 10 plagues on the Egyptians, helped the Israelites celebrate their first Passover, and led them out of the land of bondage. It appears that as they left for Canaan, they had no
When Moses and the Israelites came to the land of Canaan, twelve spies were sent in to explore. They came back and reported that the land was bountiful, but the Canaanites had a mighty army that could crush the Israelites. Soon, the bad report spread through the nation of Israel and the people rebelled. They cried to God, asking why He would lead them so far, only to let them die by the Canaanite sword.
Throughout Exodus, God constantly tries to instill fear in Pharaoh and the Egyptians in order to prove that he is the Almighty, powerful God. However, despite being the creator of the universe, it is not so easy for God to prove to his creations that he should be worshipped. When trying to free the Israelites from their enslavement by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, God struggles to convince Pharaoh to release the Israelites. His difficulty in persuading Pharaoh causes him to cast ten plagues on the Egyptians to torture them until they become weak and decide to let the Israelites go. However, these plagues seem more like a cry out for people to notice him and acknowledge his power. God’s inability to control his own creations establishes his weakness
Moses was the one to continuing approaching a burning bush, and listened to it talk. Despite listening to an inanimate object prophesize to him, Moses knew that the message was whole and pure and instantly believed that this destiny would lead the Israelites to justice (Exodus 3:17). Throughout the rest of his journey, Moses and God shared a similar definition of justice, which is an important reason why they were so successful with their plan. Since God made His plan for Moses and the Israelites so clear, Moses had no choice but to accept God’s perspective and began to trust that His justice was exactly what was needed. It was that simple for him.
Many authors have employed the religious beliefs of their cultures in literature. The deities contained in Homer’s Odyssey and in the Biblical book of Exodus reflect the nature of the gods in their respective societies. Upon examination of these two works, there are three major areas where the gods of the Greek epic seem to directly contrast the nature of the God of the Israelites: the way problems are solved, the prestige and status that separates the divine from the masses, and the extent of power among the immortal beings.
It was no surprise that Pharaoh immediately regretted letting the Jews go. He sent his army in chariots to chase after and bring the Jews back. The Jews were caught between the Pharaohs army and the Red Sea. It was here where the miracle took place. “Moses raised his hand and the sea just parted, it split in half leaving a clear passage for the Jews to cross, G-d definitely had a hand in this” said the
God wanted to Hebrews to be let free from Egypt. To accomplish this God sent ten plagues to Egypt. At this time Moses was the leader of the Hebrews. Moses led his people out of Egypt and into the desert. They wondered the desert for 40 years until they found the land that God had promised them. Joshua led the Hebrews to take over the land from the people who lived there before the Hebrews were
There was a connection between the principles. God would be responsible for the Exodus, but Moses would be leading it (Bruckner 42). Even though God was fully capable of saving his people, He sent Moses, in human form to rescue the Israelites for
The bible mentions many people that God uses in order to do his work on earth, many of which were on earth even before Jesus was even born. Early on in the Old Testament there are multiple people that are considered very important to God and his work on earth. The people that God used did not have to have a special skill or be someone well-known because God does not care about the earthly things we have, so most of the people he used in the Old Testament were just regular people. Some of these people include Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Because of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam’s importance in the Old Testament we will discuss, each of them individually, which one God favors over the others, and why God favors that one person over the other two.
The Hebrew Exodus has had people debating its plausibility for quite some time. From scholars to regular students, people have been trying to prove or disprove the Hebrew Exodus, either with facts or belief. Despite the strong evidence against the Exodus, many will choose to believe in it anyway. My personal belief of the Hebrew Exodus, is that it didn’t happen. It’s hard to believe the Exodus happened when the historical findings are non-existent. The Exodus events haven’t made it into recorded history, which was well kept by Egyptians, they also haven’t left anything to be found in the Sinai Desert, and has chronological errors.
Moses was a leader of the Hebrews and probably the most important figure in Judaism. He led the Hebrew people out of Egypt and into the Promise Land. His story is told in the book of Exodus, and begins when he was first born during the time that the pharaoh of Egypt declared that all male Hebrew babies were to be drowned at birth. Moses’ mother Yocheved, hid Moses and placed him in a basket in the reeds of the Nile River, where he was then found by the pharaoh’s daughter, who kept Moses and raised him as her own. In the story of Moses, he grows up and stumbles upon an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. Out of anger Moses murders the Egyptian, and flees to Midian to escape his crime (Hays, 2000). In Midian, Moses rests besides a well,