The entire Exodus narrative in the Hebrew Bible is the flash point of Jewish identity. The events surrounding the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery under the Egyptians, the receiving of the law through Moses on Mount Sinai, and the sojourn in the wilderness toward the eventual occupation of the promised land constitute an epic story that matches that of any other great culture. So compelling is this narrative that over two millennia after being written, it is still the subject of novels and films.
Specifically, the Exodus narrative demonstrates how God honored his covenant with Abraham's descendants, the Israelites, by delivering them from slavery under Egypt's pharaoh with great shows of power and glory. God's plan is executed through his prophet, Moses. An Israelite who was spared death as a child, Moses grew up as an adopted Egyptian, and later fled Egypt after murdering an Egyptian. He was called by God while out tending the sheep of his father-in-law. The following passage indicates God is motivated to a great extent by his remembrance of his covenant with Abraham. The deliverance story is thus a continuation of the promise revealed in the Genesis texts. God shows his power most definitively when the pharaoh will not release his slaves, and God provides a powerful deliverance. God has Moses lead the people to the base of Mount Sinai, the mountain that smokes with God's presence. Here, God gives Moses the instructions—or the Law—for establishing the Israelite community. The most famous piece of this Law is the section commonly known as the Ten Commandments, which have become a blueprint for basic ethical living for many Jews and non-Jews alike.
A most remarkable aspect of the Exodus narrative is its portrayal of the relationship between Moses and God. In later texts, Moses is called, the "friend of God," a man with whom God has talked face to face. Moses, indeed, grows into his role as the leader of God's people and as the arm and voice of the Lord. At first, Moses is a stuttering, uncertain, perhaps even unwilling, messenger of God. He develops throughout the text into a thundering prophet of the "Most High God" who convinces God "to repent" of plans to destroy the disobedient Israelites. Moses initiates his own directives as if they were God's and spends weeks at a time alone in the presence of God— so much so that his very facial features change. As the following passage relates, Moses asks to see God's full glory. God obliges him, but only partially, because no human can survive the full vision of God's face. The image of God shielding Moses in a crack in the mountain and covering his face with his hand, in order to reveal himself to his servant, is one of the most intimate and beautiful passages in the entire Jewish corpus. Furthermore, this passage reinforces a powerful truth: God is "holy" and an "other." Despite covenant relationships and bonds of loyalty between God and his people, God is still God. Even his own people cannot ever truly "see" him or know him in his fullness.
Moses and the Law
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