[First posted in 2012; written by Sinaite “ELZ” who has since passed on to Spiritual Sinai to finally meet the God she had loved and sought all her life:
For the short time she was a Sinaite, she contributed many articles to this website, many of which were chapters from her doctoral dissertation on the book of Exodus:
- Moral and Ethical Imperatives in the Book of Exodus
- Spiritual Values in the Book of Exodus
- Illusions in the Book of Exodus
- Dramatic Ironies in the Book of Exodus
- Israel’s Responsibility from the Book of Exodus
- Israel’s Destiny from the Book of Exodus
ELZ also encouraged her students at the Christian seminary where she taught, to contribute articles:
- Revisit: The Knowledge that Awakened Me
- The Knowledge that Awakened Me – 3 – An essay of a student in World Mythology and Folklore
- The Knowledge that Awakened Me – 2 – Three Important Concepts I Learned in Mythology that Enlightened Me Tremendously
Lord, how we miss ELZ and our other elder Sinaite VAN, two valuable original organizers of our Sinai 6000 core community whose names, for certain, are written in Your Book of Life!—Admin 1.]
———————-
National identity is defined as the unique character that binds a body of people in their national life. It features a distinctive inheritance and common experiences of meaningful events. Israel’s nationalism is seen through the eye of faith of those who carried on their ancestral promises and encountering struggles to witness their realization.
The spiritual values of God’s promises and man’s commitment directed Israel to a faith and worship that define their identity as a peculiar people, a holy nation that is separated from the world system. The Sabbath, circumcision, and Passover are kept as reminders of God’s faithfulness to his promises. The moral and ethical imperatives that govern the people of God account for the distinctiveness and identity of the nation. Firmly stipulated is the theocratic rule, God as the standard of goodness, and prohibition of idolatry. God’s demand in the law has for its consequence an ethical life that is pleasing to God.
The Hebrews were naturally influenced by all the great civilizations with which they had cultural relationships, including those ofMesopotamia,Egypt,Phoenicia,Persia, andGreece. Hebrew religion, an ethical monotheism with high social ideals, is unique in human history. The faith and worship of the ancient patriarchs reflects three great observances: circumcision, sacrifices, and the Sabbath. The rite of circumcision was observed by Israel in Egypt:
Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me. So he let him go: then she said: A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision. (Exodus 4:25-26)
The proposal to celebrate a great sacrificial feast in the wilderness implies that sacrificial worship has maintained its hold upon the people:
And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land. And Moses said, It is not meet to do so; for shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord, our God, as he shall command us. And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord, your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away: intreat for me (Exodus 8:25-28).
The Sabbath is marked by the direction to gather on the Friday two days provision of manna:
And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake today, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning (Exodus 16:22-23).
The manna was to be gathered every morning and would not keep but a single day. But on the sixth day, a double quantity was to be gathered to supply the Sabbath since none fell on the seventh day. On any other day, if a surplus quantity was gathered, it spoiled but this quantity reserved for the Sabbath, kept pure and sweet.
Sabbath means rest-the term that describes the relief from whatever pointless or selfish wanderings have wearied the soul. It is the common-sense recognition of the need for periodic rest as God himself rested on the seventh day:
“Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed” (Exodus 23:12).
The introduction of the Sabbath command by the word“Remember” convey the impression of previous observance that started at Mount Sinai:
Remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it (Exodus 20:8-11).
There are indications that Israel’s ancestors had been under the influence of religious views that prevailed throughout the Fertile Crescent, from Mesopotamia to Egypt. Accordingly, the Exodus was not just a flight from political oppression but was a departure from the religions of the ancient world, from the myths that expressed the relationship between the social order and the divine order of reality. The religious rituals and ceremonial laws signify the religiosity of the Israelites, but they are not separated from the world. Nothing can please God which is not clearly separate from evil. Hence, the holy nation as required by a holy God should be “separated, set apart” as the Hebrew term for “holy” generally means.
The Passover is an annual religious rite which has been central to the life and history of the Hebrew people. It marks the occasion, describes the ritual, and declares the purpose of the Feast. The temptation to use Sabbath day for unworthy purposes is seen throughout Israel’s history. People could be found who were unable to confine their personal and often selfish interests and activities to six days a week.
The God of the Hebrews was different from other gods whom Israel must have seen, and some have worshipped them in Egypt. He required reverence and honor; an observance of the Sabbath; due honor toward parents. He prohibited murder, impurity, theft, lying, and covetousness. When the Israelites remove these acts from their lives, God’s demands would soon result in an ethical life that is pleasing to him who would be their God, and they would be his people-a holy nation:
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel (Exodus 19:5-6).
Judgment fell upon Egypt, and the strange remorseful appeal of Pharaoh that the people should leave. So they passed out, and in that passing, the national life began. Mount Sinai was the birthplace of the Hebrew nation. It was there that the covenant was given to Moses. The people stayed there for a whole year to establish the permanent covenant relationship between God and Israel. The covenant laid its foundation in the moral, judicial, and ceremonial law given by God to make them a “peculiar nation.” They passed from slavery to freedom, from brutal oppression to life under advantageous authority, from disgrace, which slavery always brings, to dignity, which life under true government ensures. Israel’s nationalism regards the conviction that the gift of the land was the supreme sign of Yahweh’s benevolence toward the people.
God called Israel’s family his “chosen people.” By the time of the great exodus, Egypt had been destroyed- their crops, their wealth, and the army were gone. God dwelt with them for 40 years as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God never did this to any other nation on earth. The oneness of the chosen people consists in their receiving God’s promises and experiencing their fulfillment. The “God of their fathers” is not the abstract, philosophical god of the ancient Near East. He is a God who acts, not just a central idea for an ethical way of life. He is a God who reveals himself, who builds upon what he has said and done before. He is known by his people, through his people, among his people.
As Exodus is interpreted by faith from Israel’s standpoint, the events are not just the ordinary rendering of wars, population movement, and cultural advance or decline. It is the disclosure of God’s activity in events, the working out of God’s purposes in the career of Israel. Israel’s sense of identity has not prevented her people from sending the repercussions of its influence far and wide into the oceans of history.
ELZ@S6K
Reader Comments