well it's the morning after.
george athas spent 2 hours unpacking exodus to a room full of tired and sick people.
and i was captivated.
i will try to record the things said here:
1. INTRO
1.1 what does 'exodus' mean?
- from greek translation, meaning exit or departure
- hebrew? known as shemoth, which means 'names': from word in 1.1
1.2 what is the book's context?
- pentateuch
- how God is going to fulfil His promises to His ppl when they are ensalved by Pharoah
- PROMISES:
- international: will bless all humanity
- national: VIA Israel
- In Egypt, that the Israelites have proliferated so rapidly is an indication of God's blessing
1.3 what type of book is it?
- narrative structure
- middle: whole chunk of legislation and description of the tabernacle
- self-contained story, complete in and of itself
1.4 what is it about?
- what makes the story work? PREDICAMENT
- yes, slavery. but symptom of a much deeper issue: WHO OWNS ISRAEL?
- Pharoah wants to lay claim over them: enslave, own, control. BUT they breed so prolifically - so he tries to slaughter the male babies. this oppression is motivated by hate and fear.
- GOD on the other hand blesses His people thru the prolific birth rates, and is motivated by love and commitment. He wants to act on their plight. He shows HIS ownership by blessing them (breeding rates)
- these two polarised forces = SHOWDOWN. 2 characters in the narrative = battle for Israel.
- not only a story of liberation: doesn't just stop at the Red Sea
- it's about the lengths God will go to to forge a relationship with people: chooses to dwell in tabernacle; even after golden calf, bcos of Moses' intercession, still chooses to persist with these people
2. STRUCTURE
(there was a whole page just outlining the structure.... i'm not regurgitating it here... but i did write a couple of things down..)
- plagues = battle between God and Pharoah
- ch14: Red Sea: grand finale: God pwns Pharoah
- ch 1-18 = REDEMPTION
--> Promises and Obstacles (1)
--> Redemption (2-18)
- ch 19-40 = RELATIONSHIP
- ch 19 - God establishing and maintaing relationship
- legislation - what life must be like to keep relationship. ON HIS TERMS.
- ratified with sacrifice
- place of relationship = tabernacle = for HIs presence - to be in close proximity with them!
- freedom is not doing whatever they want, freedom is being in right relationship with God, living how you were meant to live
- you can't just approach God willy nilly --> you need to do it on HIS terms, alone
- Israel threatens to break the relationship with idolatory: by ch 32, the deal if off, God's had enough, wants to start again with just Moses
- Moses intercedes and God decides to go ahead with the relationship (altho it is conditional - see later)
- He reiterates His plan for the relationship and focuses on the tabernacle... He reforges the relationship with this v wayward people
3. REDEMPTION
3.1 promises
- GOd wouldn't have cared less about the slavery of the Israelites if it weren't for the promises He made (cared less??)
- wants to fix all of humanity THRU the long term project of the people of Israel
3.2 moses
- captures the problem/predicament fueling the narrative:
- Moses birth = God's claim to ownership = blessing thru prolific birth rates
- Moses cast into Nile = because of Pharaoh's order to kill
- COMPETING CLAIMS OF OWNERSHIP
- Nile was border territory (Western bank was burial ground, infested with crocodiles, hippos etc; BUT life-giving water that society depended on)
- He is rescued (LIFE) but by Pharoah's daughter (pharoah = death)
- Daughter takes as her own Son = claim of ownership
- TYPEFIES ISRAEL'S EXPERIENCE
- Foreshadows the future - quarrelling Israelites ignore Moses' attempt to arbitrate between them = Israel's reluctance to take his leadership
- his role as a governor anticipated
- ALSO in-fighting between Israelites: insufficient cohesion to rescue themselves ; who is Moses, a MURDERER to rescue them?
- God has to transform Moses, extract him from Egypt, and help must come from the outside
- JUDGE: day to day running of society
- PROHPET: God gives words on Sinai and as His envoy from God to the ppl
- PRIEST: ppl to GOd
3.3 god's name
- MOses effectively asks for His credentials: 'I am who I am'
- english insufficient = timeless: I be who I be
- past, present and future
- GOd's eternity, ever-existant
- habitual past
- present: suprememly sovereign over Himself, entirely independent. pure being.
- want to know who God is? look to the past: makes commitment to ppl... can understand the past.
- How He always is: in the business of making relationships
- future: I will be who I will be - there's more to come! inspire faith and hope
3.4. plagues
- battlefield
- Ph's initial reaction to Moses' request: 'I don't know this God, therefore I won't let you go'
- implies that if I do know this God, i will let go
- plagues reveal who God is
- Israel suffers nothing --> denies Ph's claim of ownership
- jab at the god's of Egypt? (Nile and Sun = Amon Ra and Nile God)
- gods never named, Ph never names: YHWH dominates the stage!
3.5 passover
- Israel is firstborn son, let them go, let them come and worship me = if you don't i will destroy YOUR firstborn sons
- God has an esp pressing claim over the firstborn
- lamb substitute for 1st born... every year conduct ceremony, make the exodus present all the time, makes real to them --> legit to say 'GOd rescued me from Egypt' --> kinda like our sacraments, celebrate, make it real
(didn't fully get everything he said about firstborn stuff in subsequent passovers....)
3.6 rescue
(actually the Reed Sea, not the Red Sea. typo in the KJV way back)
- one of the problems we have when reading the OT, is that we're unfamiliar with the way they thought
- parting of the Red Sea picks up Ancient Near Eastern motifs in which the creator god slays and cuts the Sea Monster in two, thus enabling a creation act
- ie, the way humanity was creation was thru splitting chaos (seas seen as chaotic and fearsome) to reach order
- we think of creation 'ex nihila' ie out of nothing. BUT back then, creating was givng something FORM and FUNCTION
- rescue? splits the Red Sea, brings them thru, and so creates a People, a nation is born
- sing a hymn: Ex 15, kinda like a national anthem.
- before, fighting, disorganisation - now unified and cohesive nation
- does it matter if the truth of the msg is whether or not He did in fact part the sea?
- yes the creation story
BUT
- if parting of sea didn't happen, the bottom of the OT falls out bcos God took no deliberate action to form Israel.
4. RELATIONSHIP
4.1 covenant
- formalisation of a relationship which does not naturally exist (adoption, marriage etc)
- covenant at Sinai, resembled the treaties of the ancient near east, same structure
- particularly close parallels between Hittite 13th C suzerainty treaties between a conquering king and a vassal kind (not agreement of equals) BUT Israel is not simply subject of God, hasn't just traded in slave masters: SONSHIP. --> 'let my firstborn go so that they can worship me'
- distinctly father-son relationship, involving discipline but relationship
- first born = metaphor to describe what wants to do with Israel - 2 Sam 7: David, the metaphor takes one step towards reality --> adopt ur son as mine = Son of GOd
- NT: not merely ADOPTING, God THE SON comes to serve God in perfect relationship
4.2 priestly role
- ex 19.4-6
- function: to be a mediator between God and the rest of the nations
- if fail to obey, not blessing to other nations, the other nations will come back to bite them (exile)
4.3 idolatry: distorting god
- "this golden calf captures YHWH"
- BUT god's name - "I AM"... He just IS
- can't capture that in a chunk of gold
- domesticating God, reducing Him down
- furious!!!
- personal God, who will be taken and dealt with on His own terms
4.4 moses' intercession
- appeals to God on the basis of who God is
- chooses to reveal more about who He is in a mystical way: pass by, shield him, see after effects
- on the basis of who God is, have mercy on us!
- b/c I am gracious and compassionate
- doesn't acquit the guilty - will die in desert
- but hasn't given up on Israel
- doesn't sweep sin under the rug, WILL EXACT JUSTICE
4.5 tabernacle
- why the intricate details? effect of the whole
- if u want to relte to God, on His terms
- following the protocols: it isn't easy, can't waltz into His presence
- can't approach willy nilly
- Christ deals with our Sin: is the batteries that made the whole thing of sacrificial protocol work
- having sin dealt with thru the sacrifice of Christ
- (bread = meal = fellowshipping with His people)
- incense = cloud, screen, prayer
5. BRIDGING THE DISTANCE TO US
5.1.
- God's redemption of Israel in Exodus was not an 'eternal' redemption. He saved them from slavery in Egypt - not from their sinful natures and eternal judgement. As such, God's commands to Israel instructed them on how to live as a good citizen in the chosen society of Israel - they were not instructions on 'how to get saved'. This is why Paul can claim that he was 'blameless' and 'righteous' when it came to law-keeping, and yet he was still unsaved; he was just a good Israelite (Phil 3.4-9). The righteousness Christ gives us is of a different order, apart from the Law. It justifies us eternally and allows us to enter the eternal Kingdom of God, not merely the historical society called 'Israel'.
- law = Israel
- Jesus = Heaven
- Galatians - law = babysitter
- righteousness from the law = external. rules? still sinful being who is out of relationship with God.
5.2
- God's covenant with Israel at Sinai was conditional (Ex 19.5-6). It required Israel's continued obedience in order t obe in force. Their disobedience spelled the end of the covenant relationship with God as is demonstrated in Ex 32.7-10 and eventually the Exile. The only thing which keeps God engaging with Israel despite their disobedience is his sheer mercy and goodwill
- after Exile, Ezekiel had to 'resurrect' the people from the dead bcos the relnship was broken
-did they have a concept of eternal salvation?
- I AM = knew something about eternity but didn't know fully - God was an enigma. recountable, reveal more.
- means by which they participate in kingdom? thru sacrifices - participate in Christ's sacrifice by faith - obeyed.
- BUT now that we have seen JC - we can know what Israel was all about - keeping the law in light of JC is not enough! reveals fully in JC :)
- Exodus is a necessary stage in salvation history
- relates to us in a personal way
- God has a history -we become a part of that history
- whereas law was conditional, Jesus is unconditional.
:)
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