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in reference to:

While general readings of the Exodus story would have one believe that the nation of Israel was enslaved by the sheer dominating imperialistic will of the Egyptians, it is important to firstly note that the Israelites willingly entered the land of Egypt as a free nation and were “fruitful… swarm[ing] and multiply[ing]… filling [the land of Egypt].” (Ex. 1:7) It is also hard to imagine that Israelites were forcefully enslaved by the Egyptians as it also records in Exodus that “the people of the sons of Israel is more numerous and vaster than [the Egyptians],” (Ex. 1:9) and given that the idea of superiority in numbers means anything, the Israelites could have easily fought back or resisted the hostile takeover. The fact that the Exodus fails to mention any instance or incidence of persuasive rebellion against the Egyptians suggests that the people of Israel indentured themselves to live as slaves to preserve their material claims in the land of Egypt. This idea holds true throughout many points in Exodus where the Israelites, despite YHWH’s numerous promises of “[bringing up the Israelites] from Egypt to a goodly and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey,” (Ex. 3:8) choose to bite the hand that feeds them by disobeying and “murmuring” against him time after time.

Before exploring specific instances of the aforementioned disobedience and ungratefulness on part of the Israelites, it is important to understand the irony behind the fact that the minds of the Israelites were so clouded by materialistic wishes that they either a) failed to recognize YHWH’s promises of material rewards, or b) were not satisfied by the generous material bestowments of YHWH upon “his people”. It is first stated in Genesis chapter three that YHWH curried Israelites “favor in the eyes of Egypt,” so that they would not “leave empty-handed” upon flight from Egypt, but instead “despoiling” it of its riches (Ex. 3:21-22); this is reciprocated in Exodus 12, where it is documented that Israelites carried with them “ornaments of silver and ornaments of gold” which was “lent” to them by the Egyptians as a result of YHWH currying their favor. Thus upon their exodus from Egypt the Israelites, by effects of divine providence, plundered the wealth of their captors and were exacted retribution for their forced servitude (in the form of the infamous plagues struck upon the Egyptians); an extremely generous “repercussion” which even the NAACP has yet to achieve in America.

YHWH’s overcompensation to the people of Israel, despite their ignorance, is continually seen throughout the Israelite’s wandering in the wilderness. In response to the Israelites’ groveling in longing to “sit by fleshpots and eat [their] fill of bread” (Ex. 16:3), which as Professor Mathiowetz explained in lecture to be a “longing to long for meat”, YHWH sends actual meat and bread in the form of quails and manna (Ex. 16:13) thus going further than fulfilling their longings by giving them something far greater. Despite having been shown such unparalleled generosity, the Israelites continuously failed to see beyond the limitations of material wealth and continued testing his patience and ultimately incur his wrath.

Irony finds its way once again in Exodus as they commit the biggest blunder and what ultimately on the part of the Israelites is a reflection of their inability to separate themselves from material desire. The landmark event that chronicles that demonstrates the immunity of the material blindness within the Israelites comes through (although it is technically anachronistic) their breaking of the first and foremost covenant with YHWH, wherein they are told not to have “other gods besides [YHWH]” (Ex. 20:4). It is interesting to observe that not only do the Israelites break this covenant in spectacular fashion by belittling YHWH’s existence and rendering it inferior to that of a statue, but also that they choose to mold their own god out of the ultimate symbol of material wealth: gold.

The moral of the story on the Israelites and their need to abandon their material desires is not realized until YHWH’s punishment is taxed upon the Israelites. The lives of three thousand men are claimed as a result of the Israelite’s disobedience (Ex. 32:28) alongside YHWH’s decision to get rid of bad blood and start his “holy nation” anew by putting an end to them “on the way” to the land of milk and honey (Ex. 33:3). It is only at this point that we can conclude that in the case of Exodus, a failure to separate from the grasp of materialism prevented the Israelites in advancing from a nation of slaves into a Covenant Nation and the only remedy to undo the damage was by a generational change taking place.

William – can someone pleas end scientology already? の発言:
so replace teh word generational change with genocide/mass murder and you get the right picture

すこっと in SC の発言:
hm

すこっと in SC の発言:
now that you mention

すこっと in SC の発言:
yeah

すこっと in SC の発言:
God sanctions genocide

William – can someone pleas end scientology already? の発言:
yup

すこっと in SC の発言:
God = dictator

すこっと in SC の発言:
wow

William – can someone pleas end scientology already? の発言:
haha

すこっと in SC の発言:
you are fucking awesome

すこっと in SC の発言:
you just inspired the conclusion to my essay

William – can someone pleas end scientology already? の発言:
lol

すこっと in SC の発言:
well not the conclusion, but the part where i have to write about radical politics

William – can someone pleas end scientology already? の発言:
ah

William – can someone pleas end scientology already? の発言:
yeah pretty much what it looks like if you read the story in terms of how people really are and what really goes down haha

William – can someone pleas end scientology already? の発言:
really makes me wonder if people really really read the bible

すこっと in SC の発言:
it actually never occured to me

すこっと in SC の発言:
that God kills

William – can someone pleas end scientology already? の発言:
hah

William – can someone pleas end scientology already? の発言:
the god of the old testament

William – can someone pleas end scientology already? の発言:
if there were any semblance to the story being true (not the supernatural) it would be more like: guy gets bitches to follow him because he’s an attention whore but does it by giving them shit, people are people and want more shit because they are naturally greedy bitches, attention whore gets mad and kills them to get attention again

William – can someone pleas end scientology already? の発言:
haha