Bookends - Exodus: The Rational Bible by Dennis Prager
On Easter Sunday in 2011, my mom called me at 5 am to tell me, “He is risen,” ensuring I had as well. She never really figured out the time difference between the US and Korea when I taught English there for a year.
My brothers and I were raised to mark holy days such as Easter. Much of the media we were exposed to, at least early on, was religious. The first movie that my parents owned was The Ten Commandments, a 1956 blockbuster that remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time. It tells the story of the Bible’s second book, Exodus. (I recently wrote about digitizing my family’s home videos and how some had other movies. One of those movies was The Ten Commandments.)
It is the story of how God heard his people's cries, delivered them from Egypt's bondage, parted the waters of the Red Sea, and led them to freedom on dry land.
Dennis Prager’s series The Rational Bible provides commentary on the Bible's first five books, aka the Torah. (Another excellent resource is the Daily Wire series on Exodus, led by Jordan Peterson, which is also available for free on YouTube. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t state the obvious: You can also grab any Bible, flip past Genesis, and read the words of Exodus for yourself.)
In Exodus, the Pharaoh of Egypt believes that the Hebrews have grown too numerous and instructs the midwives to kill any Hebrew boys that are born. In what may be the first recorded act of civil disobedience, they refuse.
“The midwives, fearing God, did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.” Exodus 1:17
Prager describes their decision this way, “It was the midwives’ fear of God that liberated them from fear of the Egyptian tyrant. This point is often overlooked: Fear of God is a liberating emotion, freeing one from a disabling fear of evil, powerful people.”
It is easy to forget that a higher power exists than the state. The founders of our country understood that our rights do not come from the government because if the government gives you your rights, it can take them away.
Moses’s mother hides him for three months and then places him in a basket “among the reeds by the banks of the Nile” (2:3), where the daughter of Pharaoh fetches him out and takes pity on him. Moses is raised as an Egyptian, but also with the knowledge that he is not entirely one of them. It reminds me of how George Washington was an English officer, and this intimate knowledge of their ways and customs allowed him to overthrow a tyrant.
When Moses is grown, he sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, and he kills him. The matter becomes known, and he flees to the land of Midian, where he marries and becomes a shepherd.
The point that the Jewish people gave the world monotheism is critical to Exodus. But it’s not as if they discovered it like fire or invented it like the wheel; the story of Exodus is how a people encountered monotheism.
Moses was tending his flock near Horeb, the mountain of God, when he noticed a bush that was aflame but not consumed. He turned aside to look at it. God inhabited the burning bush and told Moses that His name was, “I am who I am.” He sent Moses to liberate the Hebrew people.
In The Ten Commandments, Charlton Heston made famous the phrase, “Let my people go!” He left off the second part, “that they may worship me.” In his famous commencement address, This is Water, secular American novelist David Foster Wallace stated, "There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” You escape slavery by worshiping the highest thing.
God brings nine plagues upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Nine times, Pharaoh begs Moses to petition God to stop the plagues. Each time the plague passes, Pharaoh refuses to let the Hebrews go. At first, Pharaoh hardened or strengthened his own heart, but after several plagues, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Prager points out that divine strengthening allowed Pharaoh to maintain his free will because he would have succumbed to the signs and wonders God worked without it.
The tenth and final is the plague on the firstborn. Each household was instructed to sacrifice a lamb and mark the doorposts of their home with its blood. When the LORD saw the blood, He passed over that household, sparing those inside. Every firstborn that was not covered by the blood of a lamb was killed. This was a prefiguring of the messiah, the one whom Christians believe was the Lamb of God who was slain from the foundations of the world. Just as the Passover lamb led to the Hebrew's liberation, the Lamb of God led to freedom from sin and death.
The desert comes after the bondage of Egypt; anyone who has ever kicked a bad habit knows this is true. With freedom comes responsibility, in this case, in the form of the law.
How many can you name without looking?
There are 23 marble relief portraits of renowned lawmakers hanging over the gallery in the People’s House in the US Capitol. On the eastern half of the chamber, 11 profiles face left, and on the western half, 11 face right. Each profile is turned toward the middle. Venerated in the center is a full-face portrait of the greatest lawgiver of all—Moses.
Moses is credited with writing the first five books of the Bible. The Bible is a collection of books referencing one another and sharing an overarching story. Though he led his people out of bondage, gave them the law, and took them to the edge of the Promised Land, he was not allowed to enter. When he died, God accorded him an honor given to no one else. He buried him. The God of the Universe, who formed man from the dust of the earth, scooped it out and covered his servant Moses.
Pastor Jim led the Rice community church when I was thirteen. He gave a sermon on the moment Jesus went to the mountaintop and was transfigured. Moses and Elijah joined him and talked with him. Pastor Jim paused and said, “God allowed Moses to enter the Promised Land after all.” And he smiled.
God delivered Moses from the bondage of Egypt and then from the bondage of death. That is the story of Exodus and Easter. He is risen!
Handel’s Israel in Egypt is worth listening to, The Lord Shall Reign Forever is particularly affecting on Easter.
Thanks for reading. I look forward to seeing you next week.