Mosaic Covenant. Exodus 1-4: Background Hundreds of years after Abraham, the Israelites have found...
-
Upload
lambert-cunningham -
Category
Documents
-
view
215 -
download
0
Transcript of Mosaic Covenant. Exodus 1-4: Background Hundreds of years after Abraham, the Israelites have found...
Mosaic Covenant
Exodus 1-4: Background Hundreds of years after Abraham, the Israelites
have found themselves enslaved in Egypt under Pharaoh's rule
Pharaoh becomes worried about the increasing Israelite population – thinks they will attempt to overthrow the Egyptians – orders ‘population control policy’: every Hebrew male under two must be killed
Moses’ mother placed him in a basket at 3 months and floated him down the river – this is the similar to “leave the baby on the door step” model
Pharaoh's daughter found Moses: may have thought of him as a gift from the Nile god
Exodus 1-4: Background Moses grew up as the grandchild of pharaoh
He would have most likely been able to inherit the throne and then been able to free the Israelites, but Moses killed an Egyptian guard:
“On one occasion, after Moses had grown up, when he had gone out to his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor, he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen. Looking about and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” (Exodus 2: 11-12)• After Pharaoh found out that he killed a guard,
he sought to kill Moses, so Moses had to flee Egypt
• He settled in Midian and married Zipporah
Exodus 1-4: Background God reveals himself to Moses through the
burning bushExodus 2:24-3:6“God heard their moaning and God was mindful of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” (bloodline of mediators of the divine covenant)God saw the Israelites, and God knew….There the angel of the LORD appeared to him as fire flaming out of a bush. When he looked, although the bush was on fire, it was not being consumed.So Moses decided, “I must turn aside to look at this remarkable sight. Why does the bush not burn up?”When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to look, God called out to him from the bush: Moses! Moses! He answered, “Here I am.”God said: Do not come near! Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.I am the God of your father, he continued, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Exodus 1-4: Background God’s Divine Name:
“But,” said Moses to God, “if I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what do I tell them?”God replied to Moses: I am who I am. Then he added: This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”Exodus 3:13-14A name is the essence of the person. God does
not have a ‘regular’ name because he is so much more than that – in fact “He Is”, plain and simple, constant and forever.• Phonetically, the consonants are Y H W H, but
out of respect, Jews of the Babylonian times substituted Adonai, which is the title of Lord, instead of saying the divine name. When reading the Old Testament today, we read “LORD” instead of the divine name.
Jesus says “I AM” throughout the Gospel of John, hinting at his divine nature. Examples:
Woman at the well:
Walking on water:
Bread of Life Discourse
‘The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.”Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.”John 4:25-26
‘When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they began to be afraid.But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.” –John 6:19-20
Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – John 14:6
Exodus 1-4: Background God sends Moses to free the Israelites from
slavery in Egypt
Signs of the Lord: Moses is given power from God to transform his staff into a snake, turn his hand like a lepers’, and turn the Nile into blood These all have a distinct purpose: Egyptians
would have greatly feared them
Aaron, Moses’ brother is sent with Moses to Pharaoh because of Moses’ inability to speak clearly (he had a speech impediment…probably a lisp)
Exodus 5:1-9Afterwards, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may hold a feast for me in the wilderness.”Pharaoh answered, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD,* and I will not let Israel go.”They replied, “The God of the Hebrews has come to meet us. Let us go a three days’ journey in the wilderness, that we may offer sacrifice to the LORD, our God,a so that he does not strike us with the plague or the sword.”The king of Egypt answered them, “Why, Moses and Aaron, do you make the people neglect their work? Off to your labors!”Pharaoh continued, “Look how they are already more numerous than the people of the land, and yet you would give them rest from their labors!”That very day Pharaoh gave the taskmasters of the people and their foremen this order:“You shall no longer supply the people with straw for their brickmaking* as before. Let them go and gather their own straw!Yet you shall levy upon them the same quota of bricks as they made previously. Do not reduce it. They are lazy; that is why they are crying, ‘Let us go to offer sacrifice to our God.’Increase the work for the men, so that they attend to it and not to deceitful words.”
Exodus 5-6 Moses and Aaron have asked Pharaoh to let
their people go, but his “heart is hardened” meaning he has no desire to be moved by grace When we have a heart that to hardened to the
Lord, we are closed off from God and don’t allow His life within us
Pharaoh increases the labor for the Israelites
He does not allow them to worship the Lord; they must worship Egyptian gods Main point: they desire religious freedom
Exodus 7-11: The 10 Plagues
Ten plagues sent to ‘fight’ with Egyptian’s ‘gods’ (theomachy – divine warfare) ‘gods’, like many polytheistic religions, are
typically demons in disguise; they have some power, but cannot overpower the Lord.
Each plague symbolized the killing of that particular god, showing the Lord more powerful than the Egyptian gods – God is trying to humble the pharaoh
Exodus 7-11: The Ten Plagues
1st : Turning the Nile into blood Symbolizing the killing of the Nile god
2nd : Frogs Mocking fertility god
3rd: Gnats
4th : Flies
5th : Plague on livestock Numerous gods dedicated to livestock
The Ten Plagues 6th: boils
Possibility attack on vanity
7th : Thunder and Hail Against sky gods
8th : locusts destroy crops Agricultural gods meant to protect crops
9th : three days in darkness Attack on sun god – chief god of pantheon
After three days, officially dead in ancient times
10th : death of firstborn Attack on pharaoh, who was thought to be a god
10th Plague: Death of First Born
Passover ‘Angel of death’ struck down every first born in the
land unless they followed the Lord’s instructions
They were to kill a spotless lamb, spread its blood around the door posts, and then eat the lamb together with their family
Theme throughout Scripture: Adam – animal (lamb) sacrificed in his place and to
clothe him and Eve
Abraham – ram sacrificed instead of Isaac
(Now) Moses – lamb sacrificed instead of firstborn
10th Plague: Death of Firstborn
Pharaoh finally breaks down when he cannot save his own son Pharaoh is seen as a god and should be able
to save his son, but this is proving that he is, in fact, mortal
Pharaoh lets the Israelites leave, but then quickly changes his mind.
Crossing the Red Sea“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind all night long and turned the sea into dry ground. The waters were split, so that the Israelites entered into the midst of the sea on dry land, with the water as a wall to their right and to their left.” Exodus 14:21-22The sea is parted by a divine wind: we’ve seen
this in Genesis, wind creates dry land from water
Israelites are becoming a new creationSymbolizes baptism – freedom from dominion of
sin
Exodus 16-17‘The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died at the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our kettles of meat and ate our fill of bread! But you have led us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of famine!” –Exodus 16:3 Israelites have been enslaved in Egypt for so long
that it has become comfortable – even though their life is much better free, they complain and want to go back at the first sign of struggle
The Lord feeds them manna from Heaven Connections:
From the Lord’s prayer: “give us this day, our daily bread” – the Israelites can only keep the manna for that day, must trust the Lord will give them food for the next day
‘Manna from Heaven’ = Eucharistic symbol The Lord makes water come forth from a rock
Connections: Baptismal water Blood and water pouring forth from the side
of Christ