Throughout the book of Exodus, the development of Moses’ moral, spiritual, and leadership qualities is evident. In Moses’ case, his character in all three of the aforementioned qualities progresses as he matures. A man who had once killed an Egyptian and had little faith in God progresses to the man who is willing and capable to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. While he is certainly not perfect, he is a much more capable leader in touch with God when his story ends as opposed to when it began. To properly comprehend the character of Moses, the development of his moral, spiritual, and leadership qualities must be considered, in both positive and negative contexts.
The moral qualities that Moses exhibits evolve greatly over the course of
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In addition, he punishes the Israelites by making them drink the ashes of the golden calf, and having the sons of Levi kill 3000 Israelites. In this situation, Moses engaged in several good-tempered actions. Although the punishments may seem severe, they are completely called for given the fact that the first commandment given to the Israelites is that “you shall have no other gods before me.” As the leader of the Israelites, it is Moses’ responsibility to make sure that they uphold their covenant with God and, when they don’t, he has the right to punish them as he sees fit. He was not acting irrationally or letting his anger control him in these punishments. He was rightfully angry and made the correct choices given the severity of his people’s actions.
While Moses always has some level of faith in God, his spirituality grows immensely over the course of his life. When Moses first sees God in the burning bush on Mt. Horeb, he “hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.” The action of hiding his face shows that Moses initially has at least some faith in God. However, his faith and devotion are not yet at the level they will come to be. When God first tells Moses that he is to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses responds “but suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” This moment of doubt shows that Moses is not yet fully devoted to
The Bible portrays Moses as an indignant vigilante faced by the oppression of his confrères, as the instigator of the revolt of the enslaved Israelites, as the leader of a newly constituted people, as a legislator, and as a political founder. Of course, the Bible explicitly says that Moses is the servant of God who acts only under the orders of a supreme and divine ruler. Yet Moses seems to be the human leader of God’s chosen people and plays an undeniably political role. To read the bible politically is a question of determining how to interpret Moses and the exit from Egypt. From the outset, it is important to note that Moses does not appear as the representative of a certain form of politics whose mottoes and convictions he would manifest.
The most important character in this unit is Moses, who is introduced in Exodus and leads the Israelites through their journey to the promised land until he dies in Deuteronomy. He not only was a leader for the Israelites, but he was a very religious and had a special connection with God. His accomplishments influence the Roman Catholicism today. He freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt; he delivered them the Ten Commandments; he led them to the promised land of Canaan; on their journey, he protected, nourished, and sheltered the Israelites. As a leader of this Israelites, he guided them because most of them did not know anything but slavery. After the Moses died in Deuteronomy, the Israelites' population grew more powerful. In conclusion,
So the plagues tell us that God is powerful, unique and the only one in whose hands rests the salvation of the people. The repeated demand of God echoed by Moses in his prophetic utterances "Let my people go so they may worship me" (Exodus. 9.1) reveals his intention to make room for a people who can worship him and devote themselves to him. His decision to act on Israel’s behalf reveals his clear intention to judge
As Moses grows he becomes aware of his lineage and takes notice to how oppressed his people are in Egypt. While leading a flock out on the side of a mountain the angel of Jehovah appears in a flame and a bush begins to burn. The bush does not erupt into ash and Moses is awestruck. God calls to Moses and begins to relay him his destiny. God says “I have surely seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians… and unto a land flowing with milk and honey”
Sibling rivalry between two of the Olympian Gods, cast separate curses upon mortals that resulted in the creation of a new species of Vampires.
Throughout this well written passage the author reveals the character “Moses” through multiple literary elements and rhetorical devices. Some techniques that are used are metaphors, imagery, and selection of detail. The author reveals who Moses really is through deep connections. There are also multiple different devices that are intertwined within these techniques and descriptions that help reveal when Moses truly realizes his character throughout the detailed passage. The author, jones does not begin his description until midway through the passage where he states “he was the only man in the realm, slave or free”, this is believed because he wants to give background information about the character Moses before he tells all.
The first question that Lamb raises is if God’s anger in the Old Testament is justifiable. In other words, can God be concerned with Love and still kill people in his anger? Lamb argues that God 's anger, although sometimes extreme is justified and necessary. To prove his point, Lamb uses the story of Uzzah (2 Sam. 6:1-8). In this story, King David recovered the Ark of The Covenant and paraded it throughout Israel in the back of an ox cart. In front of a large crowd of Israelites the Ark became unstable and Uzzah reached out to steady it, because of this God killed Uzzah instantly. At first this seems completely unjustified, it looks as though Uzzah was just protecting the Ark. But, the more we look into God’s motives, the more it makes sense. First, God commanded the Israelites to carry the Ark by two long poles that attach to the side of the Ark, and he was very clear about this. Second, by killing Uzzah in front of all of these people, God sent a message that said his laws shall not be disobeyed. It
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.
God calls Moses to be the Israelites deliverer. This is a man who ran from Egypt because he killed an Egyptian and was content to spend his life as a shepherd. But God had different plans for Moses because the Lord uses the most imperfect people and empowers them to do his will. The Lord met with Moses and called him to deliver his people but Moses wanted to argue with God because Moses did not believe he was the right choice. Moses argued he was not the best choice because
In the Bible, God commands Moses to go up Mount Sinai to receive divine instruction. When he comes back, his people, the Israelites, have gone crazy. They have forgotten Moses, and forgotten their God. They form their own god, a golden calf, and build an altar. They even had a festival for the golden calf. "Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and sat down to indulge in revelry" (Exodus 32:6). Moses then went down the mountain and got so angry that he smashed the tablets with the Ten Commandments on them. The Israelites lost faith because they could not see the God they were worshipping, so they forgot him and began worshipping a false idol. The Israelites are not very
Moses: Moses was born in a time when his people, the Israelites, an enslaved minority, were increasing in numbers and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might ally with Egypt's enemies. God sent Moses back to Egypt to demand the release of the Israelites from slavery. Moses said that he could not speak with assurance or eloquence, so God allowed Aaron, his brother, to become his spokesperson. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments
America in the 1920’s was a mixing pot of growing social and political issues that mirror some of the same issues we are having in our nation today. Some of the main problems to surface in the 1920 was the rise of fundamentalism and the scopes trials, the massive waves of immigrants coming to the United states for the cheap or free land available to them, the organized crime forming do to the passing of the 18th amendment and the start of prohibition, and the last major problem of the era was the conflict of reproductive right which leads to the planned parenthood created by Margaret Sanger. All of these issues started in the 1920’s but many have carried over to our generation and will still be here after our time has come and gone.
When they got on the top of the mountain, God saw that Abraham truly had faith in him, thus he sent a ram instead so that Abraham did not have to sacrifice his son. Abraham never had a doubt in God’s will and was offering even to sacrifice his own flesh and blood to prove his undoubting faith. Moses on the other hand, questioned God. When he first encounters God in the form of a fiery bush, Moses questions God’s will by asking, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11). Although he meets God in a physical form, he still questioned him with doubts of his own abilities. Unlike Abraham who had unquestioning faith, Moses started out his relationship with God with a lack of faith. Eventually, Moses does develop the same undoubting faith that Abraham processed. Only initially did he have doubts about his relationship with God.
The great thing is that Moses like many of us, needed a faith builder. We the Prophets of God, in this generation are like our prophetic forefathers, we have our faith built by our afflictions and life drama and we see that God proves himself in our lives daily. Prophets, God is still asking each one of us this same question, ‘What is in our hands? What will it take to make you believe that I’m your God the source of the supernatural?
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).