I have to confess that, though I've been enjoying reading the Bible so far, this section of Exodus did drag a little for me. This is partly to do with the fact that it's low on action and big on laws and commandments. After the drama of the parting of the Red Sea, the Hebrews are now learning from God how to behave in their new liberated society, and this means lots of rules and regulations and lots of detail about how to build the Ark of the Covenant, which will store the Ten Commandments.
As the Israelites wander through the desert, they grow hungry and are rewarded with what's described as "manna from heaven" (16:15), a sort of bread that we're told tastes like wafers made with honey. The image of bread of heaven as a symbol of God's mercy and love is a powerful Christian image to this day, and has been memorialised in a Welsh hymn still sung at rugby matches. Other powerful images that still have linguistic resonance today are the description of God's enemies sinking to the bottom of the ocean "as a stone" (15:5), and the idea of God's "right hand" (mentioned twice in chapter 15) as a sign of strength. I know from reading Dante's Divine Comedy how Jesus Christ will come to sit at God's right hand as a symbol of his power.
At 16:1, we discover that Sin is an actual location, and it's here that the people pester poor Moses for bread, and in Rephidim they beg him for water. We're also told that the area through which they're travelling is known as Palestina (15:14) – thinking about the 1948 Palestinian Exodus, it made me think about how one people's liberation from slavery has resulted in another people's occupation (see this blog for more). There are also lots of strange words in the KJV like timbrel (a tambourine), omer / ephah (ancient Jewish units of volume, omer = 3.64 litres and an ephah 10 times that) and later tabernacle (26:1), which is the mobile meeting place for God and his people. In 16:23, we're also introduced to the concept of the sabbath and the need for people to rest on the seventh day.
As well as provider for his people by calling on God's mercy, Moses is also judge (18:16) and it's in this section of Exodus that we see God outline his new plan for justice and moral guidance (18:25). There's a dramatic start to the sermon on mount Sinai (19:16) with thunder, thick cloud and trumpets and then in chapter 20, the Ten Commandments are finally revealed.
Apart from the first four, I think the commandments are all good common sense. I think numbers I-III show God to be a little petulant and insecure, and at 20.5, God even describes himself as "jealous", but it's clear that from an historical point of view. one of the main achievements of the Bible was to convert a lot of people from polytheistic modes of thought ("gods") to a monotheistic worldview ("God"). I won't go into all the laws and ordinances that are outlined in chapters 20-22, or possible inconsistencies that I spotted (for example, why at 21:20 is murder punishable by death, except for when a person kills his servant?), as it's all a bit esoteric, but the "eye for an eye" section (21:24) is worth reading in its original context.
In 23:13-14, God reiterates to his people that they should "make no mention of the name of other gods" and instead celebrate him with a feast three times a year. One is associated with unleavened bread (perhaps to unleaven is symbolic for expurgating sin) and takes place in April, and the other two are associated with harvest and "in-gathering", the latter taking place at the end of the year. After writing down all the commandments and judgments, Moses builds an altar with twelve pillars, to symbolise the twelve tribes of Israel (24:4), and then spends 40 days & 40 nights with God up in the cloud-covered mountain (24:18).
In chapter 25, God then asks all his people to make him a wide variety of offerings and, at 25:17, God instructs Moses to build a "mercy seat of pure gold" adorned by two cherubims, which will stand upon an ark in which his testimony and covenant should be placed, along with a table of "shittim wood" (acacia). This is the fabled Ark of the Covenant, which Indiana Jones is tasked with securing in Raiders of the Lost Ark before the Nazis get their filthy hands on it, and which various countries and peoples have claimed to have in their possession (see link for more). Wherever it is, it's clearly a very elaborate object, and there must have been a huge amount of pressure on Moses to get God's very detailed designs correct, including the addition of goats' hair, rams' skin and badgers' skin (26:1), as well as collecting and shaping all the wood, gold and other material. In 27:20, we read that olive oil was to be used to make the lamps burn, and that God intended this Ark to be a monument forever for his people.
As the Israelites wander through the desert, they grow hungry and are rewarded with what's described as "manna from heaven" (16:15), a sort of bread that we're told tastes like wafers made with honey. The image of bread of heaven as a symbol of God's mercy and love is a powerful Christian image to this day, and has been memorialised in a Welsh hymn still sung at rugby matches. Other powerful images that still have linguistic resonance today are the description of God's enemies sinking to the bottom of the ocean "as a stone" (15:5), and the idea of God's "right hand" (mentioned twice in chapter 15) as a sign of strength. I know from reading Dante's Divine Comedy how Jesus Christ will come to sit at God's right hand as a symbol of his power.
At 16:1, we discover that Sin is an actual location, and it's here that the people pester poor Moses for bread, and in Rephidim they beg him for water. We're also told that the area through which they're travelling is known as Palestina (15:14) – thinking about the 1948 Palestinian Exodus, it made me think about how one people's liberation from slavery has resulted in another people's occupation (see this blog for more). There are also lots of strange words in the KJV like timbrel (a tambourine), omer / ephah (ancient Jewish units of volume, omer = 3.64 litres and an ephah 10 times that) and later tabernacle (26:1), which is the mobile meeting place for God and his people. In 16:23, we're also introduced to the concept of the sabbath and the need for people to rest on the seventh day.
As well as provider for his people by calling on God's mercy, Moses is also judge (18:16) and it's in this section of Exodus that we see God outline his new plan for justice and moral guidance (18:25). There's a dramatic start to the sermon on mount Sinai (19:16) with thunder, thick cloud and trumpets and then in chapter 20, the Ten Commandments are finally revealed.
Apart from the first four, I think the commandments are all good common sense. I think numbers I-III show God to be a little petulant and insecure, and at 20.5, God even describes himself as "jealous", but it's clear that from an historical point of view. one of the main achievements of the Bible was to convert a lot of people from polytheistic modes of thought ("gods") to a monotheistic worldview ("God"). I won't go into all the laws and ordinances that are outlined in chapters 20-22, or possible inconsistencies that I spotted (for example, why at 21:20 is murder punishable by death, except for when a person kills his servant?), as it's all a bit esoteric, but the "eye for an eye" section (21:24) is worth reading in its original context.
In 23:13-14, God reiterates to his people that they should "make no mention of the name of other gods" and instead celebrate him with a feast three times a year. One is associated with unleavened bread (perhaps to unleaven is symbolic for expurgating sin) and takes place in April, and the other two are associated with harvest and "in-gathering", the latter taking place at the end of the year. After writing down all the commandments and judgments, Moses builds an altar with twelve pillars, to symbolise the twelve tribes of Israel (24:4), and then spends 40 days & 40 nights with God up in the cloud-covered mountain (24:18).
In chapter 25, God then asks all his people to make him a wide variety of offerings and, at 25:17, God instructs Moses to build a "mercy seat of pure gold" adorned by two cherubims, which will stand upon an ark in which his testimony and covenant should be placed, along with a table of "shittim wood" (acacia). This is the fabled Ark of the Covenant, which Indiana Jones is tasked with securing in Raiders of the Lost Ark before the Nazis get their filthy hands on it, and which various countries and peoples have claimed to have in their possession (see link for more). Wherever it is, it's clearly a very elaborate object, and there must have been a huge amount of pressure on Moses to get God's very detailed designs correct, including the addition of goats' hair, rams' skin and badgers' skin (26:1), as well as collecting and shaping all the wood, gold and other material. In 27:20, we read that olive oil was to be used to make the lamps burn, and that God intended this Ark to be a monument forever for his people.
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