Exodus teaches Christians a significant lesson regarding the importance of living in obedience to God’s Word. The Israelites engaged in idolatry and rebelled against God repeatedly. As a result, God allowed the Egyptian king to enslave them for many years, and they endured intense suffering for refusing to be faithful to God. God showed compassion by sending Moses and his brother Aaron to tell Pharaoh to release the Israelites. Yet, despite the many plagues that God caused, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not free God’s people. They struggled with being faithful to God. Because they broke the patriarchal covenant, they encountered severe afflictions in the land of Egypt (Exodus 1-11). God gave Moses and Aaron a staff and commands them to drop it in front of Pharaoh when he asks them to present a phenomenal sign. Aaron and Moses approached the Egyptian king and did as the Lord instructed, and the pole transformed into a snake. Yet, Pharaoh called his sorcerers, and they threw their rods down. Pharaoh’s magicians’ sticks also turned into serpents, but Aaron’s wand consumed their wands. Nonetheless, God toughened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not free the Israelites (Exodus 7:8-13).
God orders Moses to confront Pharaoh by the Nile’s riverbank and explain to him that the Lord sent Moses and Aaron to release the Israelites so they may praise the Lord in the desert. God commands Aaron to extend his staff along the Egyptian waters. When Aaron obeyed God’s command, all
In the Old Testament, the Israelites were seen as people who failed to listen to God’s commandments. Despite knowing beforehand that they would be punished for their disobedience, they still continued to commit sin. God tried to deter their misbehavior by promising them many blessings, but it worked to no avail. Due to the insubordination of the Israelites, He made sure that the promises He made to them would be withheld and that they would face consequences.
The readings of Exodus explain the departure of the Israelites from Egypt and how the covenant was renewed. The rejuvenation made Israel a nation and formed a relationship between god and his teachings. The nature of god’s presence reveals how the Israelites were authentic and productive with how they reproduced and how the land became filled with Israelites. The reality demonstrates how the new king of Egypt stated that, “The Israelite people have multiplied and become more numerous than we are”(Exodus p. 16). This reality proposes how the Egyptians became resentful against the Israelites in order them to suffer brutal slavery and make life difficult for them with intense work and punishment. The texts in Exodus acknowledge the sacrifices Hebrew women had to make in order to live through nature and reality. It states “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are robust and give birth before the midwife arrives” (Exodus p. 16). Gods presence through nature and reality reveals how
Without devotion to God, violence and death would flourish in Israel. These factors would impede God’s blessings of security and life; thus, the Mosaic covenant demonstrates the continual faithfulness of God in the Old Testament. Finally, God is faithful to Israel during the people’s complaints in the desert. Rather than abandoning the nation for its faithlessness, God provides them will nourishment and protection during their journey. These acts further reinforce the faithfulness of God, even when his followers stray. In all, the Pentateuch demonstrates the theme of God’s faithfulness.
The Exodus story is a key event in regards to Israel’s history and the Old Testament. Exodus is often seen as the beginning for the Israelites in regards to their journey of faith. In Exodus it covers many events which includes Moses being called by God to lead the slaves, the escape of Egypt, wandering in the Sinai desert for forty years, establishing a covenant with God, receiving the Torah, and getting settled in the new land that they were called to. The Torah is known as the instruction from God that was given to Moses and then passed on to the Israel’s people. Passover is an event that has important significance still to this day. Jews still celebrate this event every year as a way to show the importance of passing through the life of
Moses threw down his staff and it immediately turned into a serpent. The Egyptian magicians did the same thing, but Moses serpent ate the other serpents. Nevertheless, pharaoh did not accede to Moses’ message of God “Let my people go”.
Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro. He led his flock to the far side of a mountain. Here, an angel appeared to him from within a bush that appeared to be on fire but was not burning. Then God called to Moses from the bush and told him to not come any closer because the ground on which he was standing was hallowed. Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. God then told Moses to liberate the Hebrews from Egypt. God told him what to say to the people and the pharaoh. Moses threw his staff on the ground and it becomes a snake, and he reached his hand into his coat and pulled out leprosy, he used these as signs to bear witness to the Lord.
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.
It has also been reported that Moses warned our King that G-d will smite Egypt. “Pharaoh promised to let the children of Israel go, but he always changed his mind the moment the affliction was removed” is what his main servant had said. “We have suffered water turning into blood, swarms of frogs, lice, wild animals running wild, painful boils, and death of domestic
Moses replied,“The Lord God of the Hebrews command that you let his people go so that they may serve Him. Now, Aaron will stretch his rod towards the cattle of Egypt and they will all die.”
Although many Africans already practiced varying religions, a major moral justification for slavery was to provide religion to the so-called savages. While many slaves did in fact adopt Christianity, its teachings did not quite coincide with slavery. That is, slaves related to stories of triumph and overcoming the odds, using them as an example of their deserved freedom. For example, the famous story of “The Exodus,” where Moses, as directed by God, leads the Hebrews out slavery in Egypt, was often seen as direct Biblical anti-slavery sentiment.
Understanding the dynamic concept of covenant permeates everything God says in His Word and everything He does in a believer’s life. The following word study will examine the text of Exodus 19:1-8. The text begins with an obscure and severely brutalized people who are saved from slavery and are on the verge of a new covenant between God and man. The word in study is the Hebrew word האמנה, translated “covenant.”
Genesis 17 consists of God laying out the covenant between Himself and Abram. He tells him that he shall have countless descendants, he will be the father of a multitude of nations, his descendants will be fruitful, that they shall possess the land of Canaan forever, and that he is now to be called Abraham. God’s one condition for the mark of the covenant was that all of the men were to be circumcised. In chapter 15, God told Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish the nation that enslaves them, and in the end they will come away with great wealth.” The book of Exodus entails the story of the Jews as slaves in Egypt and how God appointed Moses to lead them out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the Promise Land. The Israelites wandered in the desert for 40 years before God allowed them to enter into the Promise Land with Joshua as their leader. In their wandering, God presented the Israelites with the Ten Commandments and the Mosaic covenant was formed. Before the Israelites entered the Promise Land, Moses gave them clear instructions on what would happen if they violated the terms of the covenant, saying, “Today I call on heaven and earth as witnesses against
The angle of the Lord appears to Moses in a flaming bush. Moses sees the bush is burning however is not consumed (Exodus 3:2). “3 And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned’, Moses was confused as to why the bush was on fire, yet undestroyed (Exodus 3:4). God calls Moses, Moses responds to God (Exodus 3:5). Then in verse 5 God tells Moses, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground”(Exodus 3:5). In verse 6 God introduces himself by saying, ‘“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And [in response] Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God”(Exodus
Throughout the bible, and reading it once more by Marcus Borg, a common idea as it relates to a religious experience, is that the Bible is a human product. Throughout chapter two, Borg continuously describes the Bible as being a product of humans. He explains on page 22 that he sees scripture through the lens of the Bible being a human product, meaning that it is the “product of two ancient communities” (22). He believed that what the Bible explains things to be are words from the communities of ancient Israel and the early Christian movement. “We cannot talk about God (or anything else) except with the words, symbols, stories, concepts, and categories known to us, for they are the only language we have”, made me think about the idea that