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Welcome to our blog, Man need God
and our post, Israel exodus from Egypt
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This link above is the link to hub page of the same article
Moses meets God on Mount Sinai, in the form of a burning bush, when Moses asked him who should I say has sent me to the Pharaoh, he said Yahweh, this is how we know the name of God is Yahweh.
Israel exodus from Egypt
Welcome to our post of; Israel exodus from Egypt and the Mosaic laws.
May God guide and help me to say the right things in these religious posts?
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, so we are back to review very old events to
refresh our memories and see if we could use what we have learned, 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 a floating
devise on the river Nile hoping for a miracle, so, it happened that 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, 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
about 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, 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.
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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 could 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, 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
The 12 tribes if 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 seem 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 post 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 post, The Bible is Hebrew history
May God bless us all?
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Man needs God
Israel exodus from Egypt
IS TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, The Bible is Hebrew history.
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Some personal and religious links:
