James McPolin SJ looks at the Exodus account of the liberation of the people of Israel and reads it as an expression of God’s will that all his people would be able to worship him freely, without suffering oppression or injustice.
When we speak of liberation or freedom we always have to keep in mind two realities. For example, when as Christians we work for justice in society we try to free people from all forms of sinful oppression and injustice so that they become free to lead a full human life. The Exodus is a story about freedom and liberation. The people of Israel believed that God was responsible for liberating them from a life of oppression in Egypt so that they would be free to serve God as a people of faith in a new land. They were to be freed from slavery in order to become free to be faithful to their God.
From crowd to community
The liberation of the Hebrews includes these two elements. God had been ‘carrying’ his people just as an eagle lifts its young on its wings towards Mount Sinai in the desert.
His people were not meant to be just a crowd but a community bound to him and to one another by a bond of special friendship. They became his people, called to respond to and serve him. They believed that his calling is grounded on the Exodus which manifested God’s action in delivering Israel from bondage: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself’.
Covenant
Whether in fact these people would become the people of God depended on one condition: ‘if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant. ‘ Then they would be his personal ‘possession ” a community that belongs to him in a special sense and whose call was to order its entire life according to his word and his commandments. (Exod. 19:3-5)
Therefore, this people was liberated from a state of oppression (such oppression was evil, even sinful) and for a particular purpose (to be a people who respond to and serve God and one another).
As we have seen, this friendship between God and the people of Israel is described by a word which belonged to the ancient culture of the Near East, that is, ‘covenant’. It was an alliance made between individuals (e.g. marriage), tribes or nations; an agreement made before human witnesses and before gods. In the Bible this covenant-friendship is described with solemnity as made before God on a mountain (Sinai) in the presence of human witnesses, with Moses presented as interpreting and communicating God’s will for the people in the form of commandments (Exod. 20). This means that Israel becomes God’s people and God becomes their God.
Love and fidelity
The covenant-friendship emphasizes God’s love for and fidelity to the people and their fidelity to him by keeping his word, expressed in the commandments. These commandments are not to be seen as mere obligations imposed by God; they are to be understood in terms of the mutual love that defines the special relationship between God and the people. For Israel believed that in the extraordinary events of the Exodus God had taken the initiative. Gratitude for their deliverance was the main motive for the people’s response in faith and love. Faith and love take the form of obedience to his word and of living by the promise that he would be with them in the future.
Hence, ‘remembering’ was always a crucial element in the faith of the people. Whatever difficulty, even disaster, may befall them in the future, they were to believe that God delivered them in the past; he would also deliver them in the future.
In the tragedies of their later history, the people always drew much energy from their faith by recalling how God had liberated them in the past and enabled them to overcome great obstacles to gain their freedom so that they were able to face great difficulties in their history in a spirit of faith and confidence in God, just as we ourselves become more confident in God in times of difficulty when we remember how God has helped us in the past. Remembering is a key element of faith.
Gift of land
The story of Exodus is incomplete without taking into account the journey to the land which they could posses and where they would live as a nation. The biblical writers see their possession of the land of Canaan (Israel) as guided by God and this land as God’s gift to them. Therefore, the land has not only a material aspect (that is, something possessed, lived in and developed) but also a religious aspect or divine dimension in so far as it is related to God.
This is described in the books of Joshua and Deuteronomy: ‘Therefore, keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways… For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land. You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you’ (Deut. 8).
Land of plenty
Land is not just a physical space. It is a place for living. It is not just the soil but includes all its resources natural resources, mineral resources, water, forests and even the air.
‘The Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land with flowing streams, with springs and with underground waters welling up in valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees… a land of olive trees and honey, a land where you may eat bread without scarcity, where you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and from whose hills you may mine copper. ‘You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you.’ (Deut 8)
Thus the land is regarded as ‘good’ because it manifests the blessings of God in a very special way.
Land is a very fundamental good for all. It is a source of life. The people are never to forget that it is a gift of God who liberated them. They must always celebrate this gift. The farmer brings part of his produce, called the ‘first fruits’, to the priest in grateful acknowledgement of God’s gift (Deut. 26). He expresses thanks to God for the land and all its fruits which are God’s gift to his people. The land is a source of production, of materials for life. Having land means having a home, a nation and security. Land sustains human life; it is a space for becoming a people.
For these reasons possessing a land was so important for this new nation just as it is important for all peoples today. Land is called an ‘inheritance’, that is, the people see it as a blessing from God; they possess it as a free people and they owe it to God who is the owner (Deut. 4). Constantly it is stated that it is a gift of God which cannot be usurped in any way.
Sharing land
The goods of creation are meant for sharing. The God of Israel is presented as a God of plenty who actually ‘looks after the land… his eyes are always on it from the beginning of the year to the end of the year;’ it is he who waters it with his rain (De ut. 11). He not only gives the land but also looks after it; it is a constant gift to the people. For the Israelites, therefore, the land is not just a material possession. It also has a religious meaning, a divine dimension, as God’s gift, cared for by God along with the people, a place for living out the word of God, a place to enjoy life as a blessing of God. It is also a possession intended by God to be shared with others.
In fact, the people of Israel even made laws in God’s name so that the land and its products would be shared with those who had been denied land. For example, every seven years there was a ‘sabbath year’ when the crops of the fields and the vineyards were left free for the poor to take. Every fiftieth year was a ‘jubilee year’ when property acquired had to be returned to the original owners, especially to those who had been forced because of their poverty and need to sell their property (Lev. 25).
The reason for this was that the land belonged to God and was entrusted to the Israelites because of the covenant. The people are not absolute owners of the land; it is God’s will that it be shared. In Jesus’ time, however, these laws were apparently neglected.
Land and justice
The question of the land and property continues to be just as crucial and relevant today as it was in ancient Israel. In many parts of the world many people are denied a share in the land and its resources. Sometimes a few people own so much that many are denied their share. In some countries large estate-owners exploit and underpay poor tenants, or else foreign companies exploit and plunder the land and resources of poorer countries.
Lessons of the Exodus
The biblical accounts show us how the people saw the divine dimension at work in the concrete events of their history – in their liberation from Egypt, their journey through the wilderness and their arrival in the homeland. This vision of faith led them to respond to God’s love in their history by acknowledging him and accepting his word.
‘Remembering’ what God had done for them in the past enabled them to trust in his help for the future. All of this is an invitation to us to seek the divine dimension at work in our world and to remember God’s favours to us in the past as a basis of hope for the future.
Exodus meant ‘liberation’ from evil in order to be free to serve God in a new land. The Church today speaks of liberation as a vital element in preaching the Gospel. Christians are called to free our world from evils such as injustice, dehumanizing poverty and oppression so that people can lead a more humane life, according to God’s will.
Finally, it is important to read the Old Testament in the light of the New. For example, for us Christians, the ten commandments of the covenant (Exodus. 20) should not stand alone or be taught without reference to Jesus. It is he who deepened their meaning and they are to be understood in the light of his example and teaching (Mk. 10).
Also, Jesus brings another ‘covenant’ which deepens our friendship with God as sisters and brothers of Jesus and the new Passover in the celebration of Jesus who passes from death to resurrection and liberates us from evil.
This article first appeared in The Messenger (August 2000), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
