Welcome to our article, Exodus and the Mosaic Laws.
May God guide and help me to say the right things?
Dear readers, because there are several religions in the world, we need to learn about them, before we can say what we think about them. So, today we are looking at religious
event that have shaped western religion. So, we want to review these events to
refresh our memories, then in the future compare them to other religions, if we need to. In this article we will talk about, Israel exodus from
Egypt, which is an important event as written in the Bible.
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 the river Nile hoping for a miracle, and the miracle happened because 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.
One day he was attracted to his people, and he
learned that he was an Israelite and not an Egyptian. Anyhow, he did something
bad and the Egyptian Pharaoh banned him from Egypt into the Sinai desert. So,
he went in the desert thinking about his people and walking towards Mount Sinai, near Mount Sinai he met some shepherd and stopped with them. Anyhow, he did not know that he had been selected by God to be the Hebrews leader that
would lead the Hebrews back to the Promised Land, which God had given to
Abraham their forbear.
One day Moses felt the need to go up Mount Sinai to
investigate what was there, since he was seeing 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 was burning it did not burn out, a voice from
this burning bush told Moses; stop where you are and take your shoes off you
are on sacred land; this was the voice of God who appeared in the form of a
burning bush and spoke to Moses; God said that he had heard the children of
Israel laments and prayers to him, so, he wanted to help them to be free from
the Egyptian bondage.
Now, because the Israelites were praying to the God
of Abraham, God ordered Moses to go back to Egypt to free his
people from the Pharaoh slavery. Moses was not sure this was a good idea since
he had been banned from Egypt. So, 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. So, Moses went back to Egypt and after several arguments with the Pharaoh
and divine intervention from Yahweh God, 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 with his army. But Yahweh God helped the Israelite cross the Red Sea
as if it was dry land, and then the water of the Red Sea came back and drowned
the Pharaoh army that was trying to stop them leaving Egypt. This is what is
written in the Bible.
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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 Moses went again up Mount Sinai,
where he met God again and God gave Moses the Ten Commandments.
Now, while Moses
was on Mount Sinai waiting for God to give him the Ten Commandments, he stayed
up there for a long time. So, the people that had left
Egypt to go to the Promised Land started to have different opinions; they
wanted a god like the Egyptians, so, they made up a golden statue of a bull,
this made Yahweh resentful; because he wanted the
people of Israel to believe only in him, as we can see from the first three
commandments that he gave Moses.
Of course, Yahweh
God punished them for this event. But this event brings doubts in our minds,
so, we must ask, why the people of Israel did this, there is something wrong
here, because if they had seen what we are being told they saw; then anyone
that had witnessed those events could not doubt Yahweh power for a moment.
Therefore, there is something wrong in this Bible story.
During the time
that the Israelites were travelling in the desert to reach the Promised Land,
is said that Moses spoke with God several times. From these meetings with God,
and 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 gave Jacob,
in a prior event that happened when Jacob was alive, God said to Jacob from now
on you are Israel. That is how Jacob is known as Israel.
Now we are going to talk about the tribes of Israel. Anyhow, we believe that what 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.
I believe that Moses and his brother Aaron thought that it was necessary to separate the tribes, than God instructing them to do it in many details, since they were the leaders of the Israelite and had to control the people; we need also to say that whether there was Yahweh God that was talking to Moses every time is doubtful, if it was so, then the rest of the people must have known, and would follow their instructions blindly.
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The 12 tribes if Israel
The Israelites were
divided in 12 tribes one for each family of the children of Jacob, (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, and every one of them had their own family and became one tribe. Thus,
was Yahweh order through Moses. So, the 12 tribes of Israel were independent of
each other; but 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 times saying to Moses, go and tell the house of Jacob
what they had to do. Now through this talking, new laws and ways of living were
described to the sons of Israel, this is how the Mosaic Laws were formed. Quoting
example 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.”
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.
(Anyhow, I am using
these quotes as examples in Leviticus between Moses and God).
As I have said God
was speaking to Moses many times in Exodus and Leviticus, but these talks
become doubtful, because if these meetings with God had taken place, then the
Israelites would have been more God conscious of Yahweh their God.
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The Bible has doubtful possibilities written in it.
In the Bible there are some doubtful possibilities written
When we read the
Bible, there are doubtful things written in it. In Leviticus Moses and his brother Aaron, spoke with God many
times, as if they were normal happenings. But what I cannot understand is this:
if Moses was speaking with God many times, as the Bible says, it follows that
the Israelites should have known that, and they should have followed whatever
commands were given to them.
But the Israelite had always doubts in
their minds; since they were arguing about the reasons why they were in the
desert living a hard life, as if they had not seen what had happened around
them.
What we want to say
here is this; we believe that the Israelite did not see or hear
God, otherwise they would have had no doubts about God or Moses. For this reason,
what has been written in the Bible about God talking to Moses, might not have
taken place as much as they claim. So, everything was added later when the
Bible was written and re-written.
This makes me
believe that religions are written according to the times when they are
written, because we cannot explain it, in any other way. So, if today we want
to re-write religions, we must write them according to our times.
Anyhow, in our next
article, we will continue to talk about the Bible, because the Bible was also
the Israelite history book, in ancient times history and religion were written
together, because whatever happened was thought to be religious, so, in our
next article we will be talking about,
To see more click on this link, Exodus and the Mosaic Laws.
May God bless us
all.
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