Israel exodus from Egypt
Welcome to our page (47) of; Israel exodus from Egypt and the Mosaic laws.
May God guide and help me to say the right things in these religious articles?
It is written in the Bible that Moses went on Mount Sinai, where he met with God in the form of a talking bush and God said to him that he was Yahweh the God of Israel and other things as well.
Israel exodus from Egypt
May God guide and
help me to say the right things in these religious articles?
In our study of
religions and how they serve humanity, we are also in search of how to
reconcile religions and therefore any religious event that have shaped
religion, in the hope that one day we would be able to use this knowledge to
suggest what could be done to improve religions, or at least help religions
survive at their best, since there are signs that religion is becoming less
important these days in the western world, so we are back to review very old
events to refresh our memories and see if could use what we learn later on, in
this case we will talk about, Israel exodus from Egypt.
In the Old
Testament according to the Bible Moses was to be killed from the Egyptians when
he was born, but his mother abandoned him on the river Nile hoping for a
miracle, and the miracle happened because he was saved from the river Nile from
an Egyptian princess that had no children, he grew and learned in the Egyptian
court the Egyptian’s ways, but one day he was attracted to his people and did
something bad enough that the Egyptian Pharaoh banned him from Egypt into the
desert of Sinai, by now he knew that he was an Israelite and not an Egyptian,
so he went in the desert thinking what he could do to help his people, he did
not know yet that he had been selected by God to be the Hebrews leader that
would lead the Hebrews back to the Promised Land, which was the same land that
God had already given to Abraham their forbear.
As we all know
since it is written in the Bible and we have been told this event many times,
since it is one very important event in the Old Testament; one day Moses felt
the need to go up Mount Sinai to investigate what was there, since he was
seeing some abnormal signs, so he went up Mount Sinai and saw a burning bush,
but this burning bush was different from a normal burning bush, because while
it seemed to be burning it did not burn out, a voice seemed to come from this
burning bush telling Moses; stop where you are and take your shoes off you are
on sacred land; this was the voice of God who appeared to Moses in the form of
a burning bush and spoke to Moses, God said that he had heard the children of
Israel laments and prayers to him, so he would help them to be free from the
Egyptian bondage.
Now, because the
Israelites were praying to the God of Abraham for this reason He ordered Moses
to go back to Egypt to free his people from the Pharaoh slavery. Then when
Moses asked God who I should say has sent me to the children of Israel and to
the Pharaoh, God said, I am who I am and tell the children of Israel and say
that Yahweh the God of your Father has sent me. (This is how we know that the
name of God is Yahweh) So Moses went back to Egypt and after lots of arguments
with the Pharaoh and some divine intervention from Yahweh God, which we are not
going to write them here because they are too long and this article is more
about the exodus from Egypt than what happened during this initial part. Anyhow
in the end Moses finally succeeded to lead his Hebrew people out of Egypt.
As they left Egypt
the Pharaoh tried once more to stop them and with his army ran after them; it
is said that here again Yahweh God helped the Israelite cross the Red See as if
it was dry land, and then the water of the Red See came back and drowned the
Pharaoh army that was trying to stop them leaving Egypt. Here we would like to
point out that this seems an impossible achievement, however this is what is
written in the Bible more or less, so if we are believers we should accept that
as being true.
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On their way back to the Promised Land
On their way back
to the Promised Land the Israelite went near Mount Sinai, since Yahweh God
wanted Moses to go back to him up there, and there Moses went again up Mount
Sinai, where he met God again and God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, this is
how the Mosaic Laws started.
But let us tell the
story in a more detailed way, because while Moses was on Mount Sinai waiting
for God to give him the Ten Commandments, he had to stay there for a long time
because that is how it happened and while he was there all those people that
had left Egypt to go to the Promised Land started to have different thoughts,
some of them wanted a god like the Egyptians had and they made up a golden
statue of a bull, this action made Yahweh resentful of this god statue, not
because of the statue, because it was only a statue and had no power to do
anything, but because he wanted the people of Israel to believe only in him, as
we can see from the first three commandments that he gave Moses.
Of course Yahweh
God punished them for this event. But this event brings some doubts in our
minds, therefore we would like to point out and say this; if the people of
Israel had really seen and understood how everything had happened, since they
were witness to everything that happened, and the most important and recent one
was crossing the Red Sea as if it was dry land; for what reason they wanted
this other god? Look they had been freed from slavery, they had crossed the Red
See as if it was dry land and they had seen the Pharaoh army drown, what was
wrong with them? Or perhaps what was wrong with this story being told one might
ask? Because frankly if anyone had seen what we are being told; then anyone
that had witnessed those events could not doubt even for a moment Yahweh power.
Therefore, there are reasons to believe that somehow something is wrong in this
story here, but let us continue our story.
During the time
that the Israelites were travelling in the desert to reach the Promised Land,
Moses seems to have spoken with God several times, so, from these meetings with
God, and also from those happenings that took place during this voyage from
Egypt to the Promised Land, Moses and his brother Aaron wrote and laid down the
first part of the Mosaic Laws that would guide the Hebrews from there on.
During this period Yahweh gave Moses many laws the Hebrew were divided in
tribes and these formed the 12 tribes of Israel, which are the families of the
12 children of Jacob also called Israel; because Israel is the name that Yahweh
God wanted Jacob to be called, in a prior event that happened when Jacob was
alive, God said to Jacob from now on you are Israel. That is how the name of
Israel came about.
For easiness sake
we are going to talk about the tribes of Israel hereunder, so that it is easier
for the readers to follow, when they are separated thus.
At this point of
time we would like to point out to our readers that we are not only writing all
this Bible’s things just to tell you what the Bible says, but, we are also
writing this to point out to you that most times people do what they have to do
according to the times and places they happen to live in. So, we believe that
whatever took place in the Sinai desert including the Mosaic Laws; it was
something that at that time and place needed to be done the way it was done, in
order to control the people better. About God being the main player and telling
Moses everything that needed to be done, we are not sure about that, even
though the bible tells us that God did.
Therefore, I rather
believe that it was more what Moses and his brother Aaron thought that it was
necessary to do at that particular time, than what God was instructing them to
do, since they were the leaders of the Israelite they had to come up with some
answers, we need also to say that whether there was Yahweh God that would be
talking to Moses all the time is doubtful, perhaps if talking to God had
happened less often than, it could have been possible? Anyhow, we are going to
tell you more about this later on, because now we would like to talk about how
the Israelite were divided, since this is very important to know, as they are
going to form the 12 tribes of Israel; so now, let us talk about the 12 tribes
of Israel.
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The 12 tribes if Israel
About the 12 tribes
of Israel
The Israelite was
divided in 12 tribes one for each family of the children of Jacob, who was also
known as Israel, since God had said that he, was to be called Israel.
The 12 children of
Israel were: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Benjamin, Zebulon, Joseph,
Dan, Asher, Naphtali, and Gad; these were the names of the 12 children of
Israel, at least this is how I have found them written, and each and every one
of them had their own family and became one tribe. Thus was Yahweh order
through Moses, so that the 12 tribes of Israel were somehow independent of each
other and they had to look after themselves so to speak, although they had to
follow God’s order that went through Moses and his brother Aaron of the house
of Levi.
The Bible says that
God spoke with Moses many time saying to Moses, go and tell the house of Jacob
that they have to do this and that and many other things. Now through all this
talking new laws and ways of living were described to the sons of Israel, this
is how the Mosaic Laws were formed in the beginning.
Perhaps the best
way to show you what I mean is by quoting a few examples from the Bible:
Quote 1: Leviticus
18;
Yahweh spoke to
Moses; he said:
‘Speak to the sons
of Israel and say to them:
“I am Yahweh your
God. You must not behave as they do in Egypt where once you lived; you must not
behave as they do in Canaan where I am taking you. You must not follow their
laws. You must follow my customs and keep my laws; by them you must lead your
life.” (There is a lot more that was said and I could write it but, I rather
not)
Quote 2: Leviticus
19;
Yahweh spoke to
Moses; he said:
‘Speak to the whole
community of the sons of Israel and say to them:
“Be holy, for I,
Yahweh your God, am holy.
Each of you must
respect his father and mother.
And you must keep
my Sabbaths; I am Yahweh your God.
Do not turn to
idols, and cast no gods of metal. I am Yahweh your God.
(There was a lot
more that I could write down, but I am stopping my quote here since I was using
these two quotes to give examples of what was going on in Leviticus between
Moses and God).
As I have already
said above God was speaking to Moses so many times in Exodus and Leviticus and
even later on, but somehow these talking of God to Moses becomes doubtful,
because if these meetings with God had really taken place and they had really
happened all the time that it is written in the Bible, then the Israelites
would have been more God conscious, but they were not as much as they should
have been under those circumstances.
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Doubtful possibilities written
In the Bible there
are some doubtful possibilities written
There are a lot of
good things written in the Bible and one can go on to talk about them for a
long time, but there are also a few things that don’t seem to add up and this
is one of them.
By reading the
Bible specially Leviticus it seems that Moses and sometimes his brother Aaron
spoke with God lots and lots of times one after the other, as if they were
normal happenings. But what I cannot understand and would like to ask here is
this: if really Moses was speaking with God these many times as it is said in
the Bible, it would follow that the Israelites should have seen or at least
known what was going on during these times; therefore, they should have
believed and follow whatever commands were given to them without even arguing
in any ways, since what was being told was from Yahweh their God, but the story
of the Israelite tells us that they had always doubts in their minds.
We are saying this
because, every now and then the Israelite seem that they were not sure of
themselves, and sometimes they were arguing about the reasons why they were
there in the desert living a hard life, as if they had not seen what had
happened around them.
What we would like
to say here is this.
There may well be
some reasons to believe that the Israelite of those days, did not see or hear
God otherwise they would have had no doubts at all about God or Moses, and they
should have been following blind anything that would be asked of them. For this
reason, it might be that all what has been written in the Bible about God
talking to Moses so often might not have taken place at all or not as much as
they claim. So everything might have been added later when the Bible was
written and re-written many times.
This is one of our
views, because we cannot explain it in any other ways and there is a lot more
that can be said about these writings that don’t add up, but we leave it as it
is for now.
In our next
religious article, we will still be talking about the Bible, because the Bible
was also the Israelite history book, in those ancient times history and
religion were written together, because whatever happened was thought to be
religious or partly religious, so in our next article we will be talking about
this.
So, see you in our
next hub, The Bible is Hebrew history
May God bless us
all?
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