Exodus

I really enjoyed battling through the Book of Exodus. I only wish God would give me a rod that would turn into a snake when I threw it down too, to help me chow through all this painful, but compelling literature. It's no wonder Dr. Sexson ranked Exodus as an 8 that day in class. I mean, the Ten Commandments are listed, the Israelites are led out of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea is described, Mount Sinai is here and is important in relation to Words with Power, and of course... we meet Moses. However, what I like best about Exodus is the reader gets to actually know more about God. It may not be what I thought, it may be that he is easily angered and snaps on the Israelites for every human mistake that is made, for example, when he wanted to kill them all for worshipping that calf made by Aaron, but we still see God a lot more in this Book as compared to Genesis.

I enjoyed reading the transformation of Moses from somewhat of a weak man into a courageous man. At the beginning of Exodus, he wouldn't comply with God's request to talk with Pharaoh in Egypt and does nothing but complain about this mission given to him. Because why? He is afraid of speaking and doesn't do so well with communication. Kind of a wimpy excuse for the prophet chosen by God to fulfill such an important task of leading the Israelites out of Egypt. So, we have Joseph the Dreamer, Jacob the trickster, and Isaac the Blind of Genesis, and Moses the Complainer of Exodus. But towards the end of Exodus we see Moses flourish into a savior, or other words someone actually deemed worthy to be chosen by God for such a mighty undertaking. He actually saves the Israelites from God. And he does this by speaking to God, and speaking was such a timid matter for him before.


David Plotz brings up an interesting argument about Exodus concerning monotheism and polytheism in the Ten Commandments, that I have yet to think about. The first two of the Ten Commandments states, " You shall have no other Gods besides Me" and "You shall not bow down to them or serve them", now, that leaves room for a lot of interpretation, especially for an individual who is not highly religious, such as myself. David Plotz desribes the Israelites being polytheists, and then discovering that God was the top dog, coming to this realization of monotheism. But it still leaves grounds for further interpretation for me. If God was the only God why would he even have to make a rule of not having other Gods? Is there proof in the Ten Commandments that there is multiple gods? Wow, perplexing argument David Plotz. I need to study/theorize more on this. Did anyone else find this as thought provoking as I did?