A bit of Biblical comedy: Sarah laughs when God tells Abraham he will have a son by her. God thus names the child "Isaac", which means something like 'laughter'. Yet more proof that God has a sense of humor, and that laughter is divine.
More humor: the midwives that Pharaoh instructed to kill off the Hebrews complain that the Hebrews are too good at giving birth to stop.
How did Moses ever grow up in the Pharaoh's home? Did they know that he was Hebrew (they seemed to)? How did this work, given the attempted murder of the Hebrews? Maybe they thought just one more didn't matter. The stuff we don't know about his early life seems so very important to me. Moses had a stutter, did this contribute to his resistance to God's call?
Moses comes off as mousey through much of the Bible, yet he fights off the men who threaten Jethro's daughters. In the Ben Kingsley TV movie version of the story, Moses outwits them, rather than physically fights them off. It is a convincing theory.
What is the relationship between Moses and the religion of the Midianites? There is one theory that the name Yahweh derives from the Midianites' religion. Something definitely happened out in that wilderness.
Moses resistance to God's call for him to free the Hebrews is another bit of comedy. Moses' stutter is given as a reason. Some suggest the earlier murder was the reason, but the Bible doesn't really present that moment as making much difference after Moses flees.
Aaron is the first parish communicator.
The conflict with Pharaoh can be seen as two ways. Either Pharaoh is merely the puppet of God, who God uses and manipulates to reveal the Divine Glory of Yahweh, or he is a minor god who resists Yahweh, and who Yahweh does battle with to show his superiority. Pharaoh is the first satan, the embodiment of all the dark and turbid powers that resist the goodness of God in this world.
The first plague, turning the Nile to blood, would be a sigh of God's superiority over Pharaoh.
The Passover has roots in Canaanite harvest and fertility festivals. But the historical experience of the Jews changed the context of the ritual. Ritual informs history, and history informs ritual.
The cleaving of the Red Sea is similar to the cleaving of the waters of chaos at creation. The vision of God splitting a body of water is very much like the cutting up of the sea and river gods by God in some Canaanite myths. All of this is related to Sumerian mythos and the defeat of the watery serpent before the creation of the world.
The Song of Miriam paints the Exodus as a battle between Yahweh and the gods of Egypt. This is significant.
The Hebrews first wander in the Desert of Sin. I wonder if the name of the Desert is given because the Israelites sinned, or do we get the word 'sin' from the name of the Desert? Something to investigate.
The complaining of the Hebrews about not having enough to eat, and later about not having enough variety in their diet, is so full of a deep and persistent truth. We are all such whiners, always wanting more, more, more. It reminds me of Ben Franklin's proverb "those who trade freedom for security deserve neither". Also speaks to Dostoevsky's GRAND INQUISITOR story. We will give everything up for comfort and security. Yet God calls us away from comfort and security. Hence the tension of sin.
God punishes Moses severely for not calling on His Name when getting water from the rock at Kadesh. The punishment seems severe for such a small crime. Perhaps being so close to God puts extra responsibilities on one's back? From the one to whom much is given, much is expected.
Moses' relationship with his Midianite father-in-law seems very close in Exodus. Strange the conflicts that later arise with the Midianite clan.
The great Theophany of Exodus 19-20 should be read by every believer. It is so very important. It is everything. God comes down and directly tries to dwell with His people, and to lead them directly with His laws written on their tongues and hearts. They can't handle it. They (and God) learn that not all people are cut out to be prophets. The greatness of God reduces us down, crushes us almost. We ask God to leave, and to work through intermediaries. But God wants direct relationship. Makes a lot of sense of Christ, if you think about it.
That a people whose entire religious experience centered round freedom from slavery could then condone slavery is beyond me. It makes no sense.
God sometimes talks of He Himself going with the people, other times He talks of His "Angel" in whom God's "Name rests". What does this mean? What does it mean for God's "Name" to rest on an angel? And why is the angel so violent and dangerous? Strange, yet there is something deep and important here.
Christians talk about the "New Covenant" all the time, but what do they know about the Old Covenant? Little, in my experience. Christians should read Exodus 24. It really sheds an interesting light on the Eucharist.
The Ark of the Covenant, God's throne when He travelled with the Israelites. There is something so mysterious, so mystical about it. The thought of it holds my soul in awe. The idea of John saying of Jesus that in Him God 'tabernacled' with humanity, this image struck deep into the Hebrew collective memory. And for good reason. It is the idea that the infinite sits down and maintains intimacy with the finite.
The Story of the Golden Calf seems very out of place in Exodus. The sequence seems off. This adds to the evidence that this is a later story edited in. It is a commentary, many think, on the Northern Kingdom of Israel and her setting up images of bulls and calves that are said to represent Yahweh. The injunction against idols was not as strong in the North. There it was believed that Yahweh could be represented by a calf or bull. The south saw this as a terrible apostasy, but none of the Northern prophets like Elijah are directed by God to oppose or criticize this activity. It is polytheism, not the representation of God with a bull, which Elijah hates. Iconoclastic arguments have persisted since this time to the present.
Moses' deep intimacy with God is so very moving. Moses becomes more than a man but less than a god. It is no wonder he gained such prominence among the Jews of today, holding an almost semi-divine status. Moses intercedes with God on behalf of the Hebrews.
I love that one of the gifts of the Spirit of the Lord in Exodus is artistic ability. Creativity has a divine quality to it.
God dwelled in a tent. The totality of goodness, the very Spirit of the Universe, the eternal, the infinite, the Great One came and sat on a throne in a tent. Not in a palace, not in a Ziggurat, but in a tent. Yea, that is truth. That is itself the Word of God: "God dwelled in a tent."
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