Beignets and the Bible
While munching on Marty Hallas' homemade beignets, we begin with the Book of Exodus.
Remembering the Jews were strangers in "a strange land (Egypt)", they realized that they really messed up but that God is good. In Genesis, we reviewed that this is the ancient story which is the foundation of the founding of the Tribe.
In Exodus, we will learn how the Jews became a "broader" people. At that time, there was no separation of religion and state. Exodus is not a book of names. It rarely mentions places either. It is basically a theological history of how the Jews became the people of God. It is also not a heroic epic. There are no palaces mentioned.
The first fifteen chapters is about Moses, Pharoah, key battles and biographies of a few other people.
Then comes the wandering of the Jews in the desert for forty years. The Ten Commandments were delivered to Moses and many other laws came into being.
The Tabernacle was built using very specific details (a blueprint). This book is not a complete history of the Jewish people. It does introduce an important concept:
This concept can be described as: God is the hero. God heard, God saw and God rescued.
Moses is seen as the "mirror image" of Joseph. Moses is only mentioned in two books of the Bible but he is mentioned 502 times in the Koran. Moses is one of the prophets. The Israelites behave like anti-heros. They whine and are unworthy of being set free. But, God still saved them. It took a long time for the Jews to psychologically build a nation for themselves.
We will see in Exodus that God is working actively in the lives of the Jews. He is not apart but intimately involved. God will be seen, a lot, acting in nature i.e. the plague. He definitely makes Himself known.
The Ten Commandments are written and given to the Jews. They are so basic and absolute. There is no punishment because no one is expected to ever break them!
This concludes our lecture today.
Submitted by Vicky Steinwender
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