[Originally posted in 2012. The author has since passed on to Spiritual Sinai. This article is part of a doctoral dissertation entitled, Dramatic Ironies and Illusions in the Book of Exodus: A Profile of a Nation’s Identity, Responsibility, and Destiny, written by Sinaite ELZ@SK6.]
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Responsibility is the state of being accountable, the duty or liability to render satisfaction to that which is expected. Contextually, it is the commitment of a people whom God has delivered; their trustworthiness to the instructions in life that they are commissioned to share to the world as their universal obligation. The sovereign providence of God in fulfilling his promises results in Israel’s responsibility to pass on the religious tradition of monotheism and become priestly mediators to all mankind. The giving of the law made plain the exacting requirements of God’s holiness, thus the nation being holy, and the prescribed sacrifices pointed forward to the redemptive work which was to fulfill the righteousness that is demanded. With all these spiritual values, moral and ethical imperatives, it is the nation’s responsibility to become mediators so that the other nations would respond to God’s covenant demands. The historical setting of the Israelite people is traced to the time of the Exodus, when God acted on their behalf and laid upon them lasting obligations to God and fellow human beings. Throughout succeeding generations, the prophets reminded them that Israel was bound together as a “whole family” by God’s act of deliverance, that God became known to them in the great events and that their divine “call” had its roots in God’s establishment of the nation. The Israelites had escaped from physical bondage, but there was still much to be gained in spiritual and moral discipline.
It is necessary to see the commandments in their setting for the interpretation of the whole story. The revelation of the law is significant in that it proceeded from God, through his chosen people, for the government of human life. The Decalogue was basic to morality as universally admitted. The first four commandments which have to do with relationship between God and man, are today very largely ignored, while the last six commandments, which has to do with relationships between man and man, are accepted almost universally as basic. Israel heard God’s command that it was forbidden for other gods to lay claim on its allegiance. Hence, the earliest way of expressing Israel’s sense of divine sovereignty was in terms of Yahweh’s “jealousy”:
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a-whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice (Exodus 34:14-15).
The covenant ceremony itself was an invitation to decision: to serve Yahweh or not. The monotheistic element in Mosaic religion goes further by saying that Yahweh is not to be worshiped in the form of any image or likeness. This was a radical view in the world in which it was believed that the divine presence was concretely represented in an image whether in human or in animal form. Ancient people believed that the mystery of divinity explodes around them in many forms: natural, animal, or human. Without some concrete appearance of divinity, they could not have found divine meaning in life. This intolerance of images, inherited from the Mosaic period, received its supreme expression in later prophecy. Meanwhile, it is Israel’s responsibility to declare to the world that the holy God of Israel was invisibly present in the midst of the people:
And He said, Certainly I will be with thee; this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain….Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say….And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do….And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord:….And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians (Exodus 3:12; 4:12, 15; 6:7).
Their song of praise attests to the mighty acts of God to liberate them:
Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation: my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is his name (Exodus 15:1-3).
God manifested himself to Moses in the name, “I AM that I AM” that reveals his unchangeable nature, his faithfulness and purposes. To this name was added:
And Moses said unto God, Behold when I come to the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you: and they shall say unto me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you (Exodus 3:14-15).
As such, God would always prove himself, and as such he wants to be remembered, not only by Israel, but by all generations. The covenant with Abraham was transferred to Moses’ seed, the promise also, which included all nations in its blessings, was repeated. It is Israel’s responsibility to pass on the religious instruction to their succeeding generations and to other nations about the God who delivered them. When offering the first fruits of the harvest at the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, the worshiper is to confess gratefully that Yahweh brought them out of Egypt with His mighty hand. When a child asks about the motive for obeying the commandments, the answer is to be given in terms of a recitation of events which happened to the whole community-past, present, and future.
The revelation of God in the book of Exodus cast a new light upon the roots of the Hebrews, with the result that it became a period of anticipation and advancement toward the inheritance of the Promised Land. It also yielded Israel’s full participation in the divine plan that embraces all nations. The revealing light also fell upon the stories that deal with the potential glory and actual tragedy of human history.
The unfolding drama of Yahweh’s historical purpose from the establishment of a nation to the occupation of Canaan is a forceful presentation of faith in Yahweh, the God worshiped byIsrael. The fundamental experiences that are common to all human beings stem from the initiative and purpose of God. Above all, Exodus is written in the conviction thatIsrael’s root experiences provide the clue to the meaning of all human history.
Freedom from slavery does not mean license. It never means that every man is to go his own way. Freedom, to the Israelites, is life under law, which conditions it perfectly. However, the great march to the Promised Land included a mixed multitude. This mixed multitude since they neither belong to one flesh nor one race, became a menace to the purposeful march of the people of God. The laws, while given to the Hebrew people, are wide as the race in their value and application. Israel was in the interest of all nations. In giving the Law to Israel, God’s purpose was that they might be priestly mediators to all mankind.
The Hebrews were only one little folk in the midst of great nations. Though politically small, they embodied within themselves moral and religious ideas that have survived the final downfall and destruction of those proud empires around them. The Sinai revelation emphasized the usefulness of the covenant for other generations. With its diversity, successive generations, even in other nations, continued to respond to God’s covenant demand in the changing circumstances of man’s history.
The ringing expression, “let my people go” is a spiritual call for all Jewish people today who have not been aware that they are enslaved by a materialistic system and consequently had not had a desire to be freed. They are still sitting in the flesh pots in the land of Egypt. The extravagance of eating bread in their “comfort zones” is obviously not a part of God’s plan. The God that had brought them out from Egypt intended to bring them into the Promised Land. Yahweh’s gift of the land is understood to be a high point in the rehearsal of Israel’s sacred history. Throughout the centuries there was the urge for Jews to go back to the land of their fathers and regain their statehood. In recent decades, they reclaimed the wilderness, revived their language, built cities and villages, and established a vigorous and ever-growing community.
ELZ@S6K
In Memoriam
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