The Book of Exodus -- Moses

(Image is of Moses, sculpted by Michelangelo)

This is basically a preview of a bunch of things 'I Betcha Didn't Know 'bout the Book of Exodus' presentation that I am going to do for my independent study. I read Genesis through Leviticus over the break. It was totally worth it. I plan to get through the entire thing before summer.

The story of Moses in the bulrushes is a much revered one, but it is also one lifted directly from Sargon the Great.

Unlike the animated feature 'The Prince of Egypt' would have you believe, Moses was not actually raised as a brother to the Pharaoh. He was a foreman in the work yards who killed an Egyptian and buried him in the sand. Later he got into another fight and his opponent asked if he was to be buried like that "other man," which made Moses realize that his murder was no secret. So he went to live with the Midianites.

Moses was actually about 80 years old when he delivered the Hebrews out of Egypt, not exactly a young man.

One thing that severely distinguishes the Old Testament from the New is the changed character of God. In the OT, God actually is more of a primal Zeus character, upending the Egyptian pantheon by being the most powerful of the Gods. Neither Moses nor Pharoah dispute the existence of other Gods, in fact the OT details a number of miracles, such as the turning of water into blood, of staves into snakes, and the instantaneous melting of the plague of hail which are attributable to Ra, Hapi, Osiris, Nut etc. The point that is being made is the the God of the Hebrews is the new, toughest kid on the block, and he has chosen the Hebrews to be his buddies on earth.

Manna from heaven is called so because when the Hebrews were starving, God rained down a white substance which fell everywhere causing the Hebrews to exclaim "Manna? Manna?" or "What is this? What the heck?"

Although God and Moses spend gratuitous amounts of time ranting on how idols and graven images must NOT be worshiped in place of God, within Exodus alone, several items, particularly the vestments and rod of Aaron, the tablets of the Commandments, and the Ark of the Covenant, receive massive amounts of attention. God commands that these articles be made a certain way, out of fine materials, and are to be paraded around and revered, even as material objects. This is the same god who inspired Moses to force Israel (another name for the Hebrews) to drink the burned and melted Golden Calf they had created and begun to worship while he was a way on Mount Sinai.