Oppression And Exile Of The Israelites - Essay Example

Oppression And Exile Of The Israelites For 400 years, the Israelites had been slaves to the Egyptians. They were oppressed in their day to day lives by the slave owners and the king of those times who was the pharaoh one of the most famous leaders of Egypt in the religious context. He had denied them to go with Moses to the wilderness to worship their lord God, and through this he had denied them of their religious freedom. God in heaven saw the oppression they were going through and delivered them from their oppressors the Egyptians. As he had promised to put shame to their oppressors and grant them the promised land of Canaan. The Promised Land was first made to Abraham and was renewed to his son Isaac and later to Jacob. It was to be given to the Israelites after Moses had led them from the bondage of Egypt. Moses was the son of an Israelite but was adopted by pharaoh’s daughter and raised as a royal child in the palace. He was educated about God and his promises to the children of Israelites. By his real mother who asked to take care of him. When Moses was an adult, he found two people fighting, an Egyptian and an Israelite. He killed the Israelite to prove his loyalty to the Egyptians and due to this immoral act; he went into hiding but had his faith in God. He was later called by God to deliver the Israelites from slavery. Moses rejected the call giving a reason that he was not a good orator, but God insisted1. When he finally went to see the pharaoh, he refused to let go of the slaves as the Egyptians had provided all the services to their masters. Pharaoh was adamant to his decision of letting the Israelites go, and God punished him with the ten calamities that softened his heart and let them leave. Explain the experience of Israel’s liberation and restoration in the Promised Land The Israelites were difficult to persuade to leave Egypt as they had lived all their lives there. Moreover, Moses had a hard time leading them out. It was a difficult mission for Moses to lead the rowdy ex-slaves into the wilderness as they had no rules to guide them. God saw this and gave Moses the Ten Commandments after fasting for forty days at Mt Sinai. However, as Moses was climbing down the mountain, he found the Israelites doing all sorts of immoral things and worshipping idols that made him angry and dropped and broke the commandments that were written on stone pillars. Moses was very angry and destroyed the idol. He went back to the mountain to repent on behalf of the children of Israelites and after forty days, God allowed him to engrave the commandments on rock tablets. When he went down and found that the children of the Israelites had put their faith in God and the foundation was made. God had good plans for the Israelites and he wanted a pure lineage to be a given the promised land as only them would be able to defeat Satan and liberate human beings from sins2. The stone tablets on which the commandments were written on symbolized the messiah who would come to bridge the relationship between God and men so as to reunite them again. For the relationship between God and the Israelites to be restored, Moses had instructions to build a portable temple that would be used as a place of worship3. It would also be an illustrator of the transition from the old life to the new in the Promised Land. The temple would have an outer sanctuary, the holy place, the holiest place. The commandment tablet would be placed in the holiest place. From Mount Sinai, the journey to Canaan was not an easy task. They had to pass through inhospitable deserts. Many of them regretted leaving Egypt. They wished for the life of slavery that they had back there. Moses was having a difficult task to organize them to defeat the Canaanite enemies as well as establishing a nation. Most of them had lost the vision and faith on the Promised Land. With the lack of vision, they had lost all power to complete nation-building mission. The complaining was driving Moses insane and he had to come up with a way to separate the Israelites as most of them were very negative and wanted to go back to Egypt as the felt they could not defeat the current occupants of Canaan. To separate between the people that would enter the Promised Land, the Israelites had to go through a period of indemnity in the challenge where they were deeply tried in the desert including Moses. Only the new generation was allowed to go to the Promised Land. All along Moses had been faithful and the lord was happy with him, but the pressure he was under, made him disobey the lord's orders and hit a rock twice instead of the lord's instruction that was once strike to provide water to the Israelites, the lord was displeased and also banned him to enter the promised land. However, he was allowed to see the land. At this point, he had appointed Joshua to lead the children of Israelites to the Promised Land as he had proven to be worth to enter the Promised Land. Joshua had proven his faith in the period of indemnity in the desert as he had total faith in the tabernacle and the law. He had also brought a positive message when sent to spy on the Canaanites as other spies brought negative feedback. Therefore, Moses had found a suitable person to take over leading the new generation to the land of Canaan. The spies that brought a positive message on Canaan said that the land was fertile. Full of milk and honey and was suitable for them to move in and conquer. The spies that were afraid said that the occupants were giants and they had no way of overthrowing them. Finally, the population that made it to the Promised Land was composed of non sinners who had proven to have ultimate faith in the lord, the tabernacle and the law that the lord God has put in place. Moses was able to lead them to Canaan, but he was not given the opportunity to enter Canaan as the lord felt he was a sinner. He invited him up to the mountains to show him of the vast land, and he never returned. He died up in the mountains. The story of the Israelites journey from Egypt to the Promised Land shows that God fulfills the promises that he makes to his people when they remain faithful to his words. Bibliography Douglas A Knight and Amy-Jill Levine. The Meaning of the Bible. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. 2012 Read More