Reflection Of The Book Of Exodus

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Recommended: Salvation and sin

The Book of Exodus is not a narrative of slavery. The Book of Exodus is not a condemnation of slavery. The Book of Exodus is not an escapee's manual. The Book of Exodus does not even incorporate one journal entry, one trial transcript, or one eye-witness account of the slavery endured by the Israelites in Egypt. Despite its lack of address, the Book of Exodus solidifies man's need for God and God's need for worship.
Before returning to Egypt with his purpose at hand, Moses discovers God on Mt. Sinai during a solitary journey with his father-in-law's flock. By bringing Moses to a mountain, God shows Moses that holiness is not a quality known to man; holiness is known only to God. God may reveal holiness to man, as he does to Moses; without God, man cannot find holiness. Holiness is not found hidden under a rock or at the bottom of a well. Holiness cannot be explained by divination or science. The burning bush is a curiosity, a mystery that compels Moses to draw nearer. His drawing nearer is met by God's infinite divide, a discrete boundary between God and man, uniting and dividing, attracting and repelling, living and dying, a holiness emanating from God to the earth, to man, and back to God.
As much as holiness cannot exist without God, holiness also cannot exist without man. Land cannot exist without receptacles for the sea: elevations and depressions that together contain water. Similarly, holiness cannot exist without receptacles for sin: man and woman who together invite evil. Man and woman find holiness by welcoming God with the hospitality reserved for an honored guest. Moses' progenitors build altars to the Lord in the desert landscape, such as Jacob's El Elohe Israel. The altars often contain sacred objects, such as me...

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.... God's explanation is not long-winded, " 'They shall make a sanctuary for me, that I may dwell in their midst.' " (Exodus 25:8) The need for worship emanates from man's physical needs. Man needs God's presence and the sanctuary fulfills that need, yet God is not simply a box filled with the needs of man. God's need for worship also must emanate from God Himself, a mystery veiled from man in the Book of Exodus.
Piecing through the puzzle work of theologians' and philosophers' expressions of God yields few pieces that fit together. God is not a distant star whose light can be studied over time. God's nature cannot be revealed through any physical reality, for physical reality does not capture God. Unlike man's need for God, God's need for worship cannot be analyzed. And how uninspiring worship would be if it were reduced to some formula! Pieces of a puzzle it is not.

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