EXODUS EVENTS

 Israelites suffered oppression under the rule of a threatened Egyptian king

 Commemorate the unrelenting love and protection of YHWH who kept and delivered His
promises to a helpless people against the most powerful monarch of the land, Pharaoh,
and the latter’s obstinate refusal to release YHWH’s elected people
 Moses as divine emissary
 YHWH’s declaration of Israel as his segullah

1. Pharaoh’s Oppression Against God’s People

 The total number of people born to Jacob was seventy

 The Israelites were fruitful and prolific, they multiplied and grew exceedingly
strong so that the land was filled with them
 A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph
o He was threatened that the Israelite people are numerous and more
powerful than them
o He told his people to deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and
join their enemies during war and fight against them and escape from the
land
o They set taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced
labor
 Built supply cities: Pithom and Rameses
o The more Israelites were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread
 The Egyptians came to dread the Israelites
o They became ruthless in impossible tasks and made their lives bitter with
hard service in mortar and brick and in every kind of labor
o They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them
o The king of Egypt told the Hebrew midwives: Shiphrah and Puah
 If it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, she shall live
 But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt
commanded
 Because the midwives feared God, he gave them families
o Pharaoh commanded all his people to throw every boy that is born to the
Hebrews into the Nile river and let every girl live
 Two specific assaults were made by Pharaoh:
o Oppressive labor
o Killing of male children

1.1 Oppressive Labor

 Motivated by insecurity and threat on the part of the Egyptians
 Revealed God’s fulfillment of countless descendants
 Supply cities Pithom and Rameses were built
o Scholars are uncertain regarding their specific locations
 o Ancient historical records support the presence of slaves in Egypt at that
time

1.2 Killing of Male Children

 Two ways by which Pharaoh devised the elimination of male children:
o Instructing the midwives to kill every Israelite newborn boy
o A command to his people to throw every Hebrew boy to the Nile River
 Israelites continued to grow and increase in number as YHWH had sustained his
promise
 Contrasting elements in the story:

Contrast Between YHWH and Pharaoh

YHWH’s Promise of Offspring vs. Pharaoh’s Plan of Annihilation
YHWH who Blesses vs. Pharaoh who Punishes

2. Moses: The Reluctant Hero

 Moses was introduced in a manner ancient hero-kings were initiated in a story

o Conceived in a time when so much oppression and death ruled over the
lives of people and their destiny
o Moses was set adrift by his family on the river to escape the slaughter but
in a great twist of fate, the Pharaoh’s daughter found him, willingly took
him, and cared for him
o Grew up in an Egyptian royal court and enjoyed every royal person’s right
and privilege
o Oblivious of his future vocation in overthrowing his own royal family to
bring about the liberation of the slaves, his own kinsmen
 Moses saw the suffering of his own people, felt their oppression because of the
forced labor that imposed upon them
o When an Egyptian beat a slave, he killed him and buried him under the
sand
o Moses fled to Midian, settled and married Zipporah, had a son named
Gershom, and kept a flock for a living
 The calling of Moses proved to be beyond the comfort and wealth of the palace,
or the consolation of having a happy family
 Moses had a vocation
o Vocation – from Latin voco, vocare, meaning “to call”
o His life finds its place in the greater scheme of things and achieves its
highest meaning and purpose
 On a holy mountain known as Horeb (Sinai), YHWH called Moses, revealed
Himself to him, commissioned him to a task of liberating the oppressed people
and gave His word of assurance to a reluctant hero
o Moses refused to accept the divine commission
o He was still unwelcoming of the divine calling
 oHe remarked with great hesitation and used his personal incapacity as an
excuse
o His persistent rejection may have been motivated by fear, insecurity, and
a sense of unworthiness to stand before the powerful Pharaoh and to
fulfill YHWH’s seemingly impossible mission
o Moses relented to YHWH’s calling and embraced the vocation entrusted
to him after repeated persuasive divine assurance
 The theme of a reluctant hero appears to be a recurrent pattern in the story of
Israel
o Was precisely from the weakness and powerlessness of these reluctant
heroes that YHWH’s concern and care for his oppressed people were
manifested even more
3. God’s Name Revealed

 YHWH revealed Himself to Moses as “the God of your father, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”
 Moses anticipated the possibility that people may inquire about God’s name
 I AM WHO I AM was the name that God disclosed
o Can never be and will never be a proper name in the way modern people
comprehend, use or appropriate a name to a specific person
 To the Ancient Semitic people, the name of a person/object and the ability to
name them are very significant
o To be able to name an object or person is to be superior over that object
or person
o When a person names God, such person would become greater than
God
o I AM WHO I AM rules out that possibility
 God cannot be named by Moses
 YHWH is rooted in the theological understanding of “God as one who is, or who
exists, or who causes existence”
o God cannot be named because He is the one who creates, who causes
existence, and sustains beings and life
4. Ten Plagues: Its Significance

1. Water turned to Blood Exodus 7.14-25

2. Frogs Exodus 8.1-15
3. Gnats Exodus 8.16-19
4. Flies Exodus 8.20-32
5. Livestock Diseased Exodus 9.1-7
6. Boils Exodus 9.8-12
7. Thunder and Hail Exodus 9.13-35
8. Locusts Exodus 10.1-20
9. Darkness Exodus 10.21-29
10. Death of Firstborn Exodus 12.29-36

 Signs and wonders in themselves

  Affirmed YHWH’s control in carrying out his divine plan of liberating an
oppressed people
 Proofs of YHWH subduing Pharaoh and judging the pantheon of Egyptian gods,
thereby highlighting the superiority and greatness of the God of the Israelites
among all other Gods
 Attested to the impotence of the Egyptian gods in the face of the Israelites
 Showed the Egyptians the power of God and the Israelites the folly of idolatry
 According to some scholars, the plagues are aimed directly at the power of the
Egyptian gods and goddesses
o Hapi – god of the Nile
o Heket – frog goddess
o Apis – bull god
o Hathor – cow goddess
o Re – god of light and sun; judged in the plague of the darkness
o Osiris – god of life; judged in the final plague
5. Passover and the Unleavened Bread
 Authors of the Exodus narrate the institution of the Passover and the Feast of the
Unleavened Bread between ninth and tenth plagues
o On the tenth of the month, they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb
for each household
 If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest
neighbor in obtaining one
 The lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people
who eat of it
 The lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male, take it
from the sheep or goats
 The lamb shall be kept until the fourteenth day of this
month, and the whole congregation of Israel shall
slaughter it at twilight
 They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two
doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it
 They shall eat the lamb that same night
o Shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened
bread and bitter herbs
o Do not eat it raw or boiled in water with its head,
legs, and inner organs
o None of it shall remain until the morning; anything
that remains you shall burn
 This is how you shall eat it:
o Your loins girded
o Your sandals on your feet
o Your staff in your hand
o Eat it hurriedly
o Passover of the Lord – God will pass through the land of Egypt that night
and will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human
 beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgements: I
am the Lord
 Shall be a day of remembrance
 Shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord
 Shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance
 Eat unleavened bread for seven days
 on the first day, shall remove leavened bread from houses
 whoever eats leavened bread shall be cut off from Israel
o Blood – a sign on the houses where you live
 When God sees blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall
destroy you when He strikes the land of Egypt
o Shall hold a solemn assembly on the first and seventh day
 No work shall be done for seven days
 Only what everyone must eat, that alone may be prepared by
Moses
o Shall observe the festival of the unleavened bread
 In this day, God brought Moses’ companies out of the land of
Egypt
 Shall observe this day throughout generations as a perpetual
ordinance
 Scholars believed that the account on the institution of the Passover and the
festival of the Unleavened Bread came from separate sources and traditions:
o The Passover was a rite of herders or shepherds to propitiate the gods
when they moved from the well-watered winter pastures to the arid
summer ones
o The Unleavened Bread Festival was a rite of farmers, a kind of spring
cleaning of the previous year’s old leaven
 For the Israelites, the meaning of the rituals transformed
o Became more significant because they connected such celebrations to
YHWH’s act of deliverance from their slavery in Egypt
5.1 Feast of Passover
 Passover
o Hebrew word, pasha
o Commemorates God’s passing over the Israelite firstborn that spared
them from death after they had smeared a lamb’s blood on their
doorposts
o For contemporary people, the slaughter may be viewed as immoral but it
only highlighted the point that God chose a people for Himself, a destined
race He elected to liberate among all nations
 The book of Deuteronomy transforms it into a public national festival
 Has a remained as an important commemoration for all Jews worldwide
5.2 Feast of the Unleavened Bread
 Follows seven days after the Passover
 Unleavened Bread
o Signifies the great haste and the lack of preparation that the Israelites had
when they departed from Egypt
  Seder meal on a Passover day
o Bitter herbs – bitter times as slaves
o Matzah (unleavened bread) – no time in the Escape to let it rise
o Lamb bone – sacrifice on the last night
o Salt water – tears of the slaves
o Charoset (mix of apples, cinnamon, nuts and wine) – mortar used making
bricks as slaves
o Parsley – a spring vegetable and sign of new life
o Roasted egg – a new life after Egypt
6. Covenant at Sinai and the Ten Commandment
 YHWH delivered the Israelites from the hands of the Egyptians
o Subdued Pharaoh and all the Egyptian gods and goddesses by his works
and signs of wonders and power
o Made the Israelites cross the sea (Sea of Reds) and divided its water
when they were chased by the Egyptians
 The Egyptians were casted into the sea and drowned
o Labeled as the holy war wherein the Pharaoh and his army were uttrly
destroyed by YHWH
 At the time of victory, songs of praise and thanksgiving resounded
from the redeemed slaves
 Israelites reached the wilderness of Sinai
o Israelite people were consecrated to YHWH as his chosen people and
received from Him the commandments brought by Moses
 The Decalogue or the Ten Commandments emerged.
 YHWH chose Israel as his segullah or treasured possession
o Israel was called to denounce their old gods, the defeated Egyptian gods
and goddesses and to pledge their allegiance and fidelity to YHWH
o Must observe loyalty and obedience to Him, guided by the divine precepts
and commandments

I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Ex. 20:2-3
Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods
beside me.
You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. Ex. 20:7
Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. Ex. 20:8
Honor your father and your mother. Ex. 20:12
You shall not kill. Ex. 20:13
You shall not commit adultery. Ex. 20:14
You shall not steal. Ex. 20:15
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Ex. 20:16
You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. Ex. 20:17b
You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods. Ex. 20:17a-17b

 First three commandments – our relationship and obligation to God

 7 commandments – point to our relationship and duty towards our neighbors
 Reinterpreted by Jesus in the New Testament
7. Conclusion
 People still persisted in their sins despite the consecration.
 Israel violate the covenant by making a bull as an idol
o A false representation of YHWH
o Moses interceded and spared them from punishment.
 The habit of sin and violation of Israel would become the reason that would set
then on their wandering in the desert before they reach the promised land.
o Their disobedience necessitated a time for Israel to be purified and to
repent their ways as YHWH’s covenanted people.
 Moses met a fulfilled but unrewarded life.
o He saw the promised land but was not able to step on it after forty years
of wandering in the desert
o Truly a servant-leader par excellence
o Risked his life, time and treasure in obedience to YHWH and service to
the people
o Did not fully enjoy the fruits of his labor
o The reaping of his own labor vindicated all the more the true spirit and
intent of serving the Lord
 St. Ignatius of Loyola: to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and
ask not for reward save that of knowing that I do your most holy
will
 We are called to be like Moses and embody his own worthy example
o An obedient person and follower of God
o A servant-leader who seeks God’s voice and will and disregards his own
plans and interests
 We are called to seek God as our liberator from our ways of bondage and slavery
from our personal and social sins
 We are summoned to denounce our own self-created idols as our substitute to
God
o Gadgets
o Possessions
o Earthly desire for luxury
o Power
o Lust for convenience and pleasure
o Unquenchable selfishness and caprices
 We are reminded by the “many Moses” around us that all we do is to seek that
which is most essential by seeking His voice, only then that we can direct our
steps to the promises land of our faith and eternal destiny.