Au In the beginning was the Word
 

moses1.-    It is not easy to understand and to update the operation Moses. The pledge has its difficulties. It is necessary to separate history from legend. It is in the history where we listen God´s word that opens a liberation path, which generates covenant with God and between the men, which offers an orientation to human existence, which creates community.

2.-    To begin with, we place Moses in Israel people history. The Jew remembers its beginning like this: My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt to find refuge there, while still few in number; but in that country he became a great powerful nation (Dt26,5). When Moses is born, the Israelites are submitted to a heavy slavery: So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labour, and in that way they built the storage towns of Pithom and Rameses. (Ex 1,11). Besides, the Pharaoh (perhaps Rameses II, 1290 – 1224) gave a brutal order against the Hebrew people growing: Every infant boy born must be thrown into the Nile (1,22). Abandoned in the Nile´s bank, Moses was saved by the Paraoh´s daughter, who adopted him as a son, saying: I have drawn him out of the water (2,10).

3.-    The circumstances took Moses to forget his roots and to become a man of the dominant pharaoh establishment. But Moses, by now a grown man, wanted to meet his fellow Hebrews and he noticed how heavily they were burdened (Ex 2,11). One day he killed an Egyptian (perhaps a taskmaster) who was striking a Hebrew. In a tomb excavated in the King´s Valley (Thebes) an old painting shows the construction works promoted by the dead man, a high dignitary, while alive. The works are forced works. “The stick is in my hand, says a taskmaster, as it is written down in the hieroglyphic writing, don´t be lazy!”. Fleeing from a certain punishment, Moses went to live in the land of Midian (Ex 2,11). Sitting down near a well, he met priest Jetrho daughters, who went to water their father´s sheep. Some shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses went to their help. Jethro offer him to work like a shepherd and gave him his daughter Zipporah in marriage. (Ex 2,21).

4.-    In one occasion, Moses led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the Mountain of God. (Ex 3,1). Over there he had a faith experience that changes his life: He saw a bush that was on fire without burning up (Ex 3,2). That served him like a signal, like its own interior fire, like the itching that was burning him in his interior, like God´s word that he was listening: I have seen the humiliation of my people in Egypt and I hear their cry when they are cruelly treated by their taskmasters. I know their suffering. I have come down to free them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a beautiful spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey. It is a word of liberation, and with the consciousness comes the mission: Go now!. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt (Ex 3,7-10). It is a prophetic experience: Then came the prophet Elijah like a fire, his words a burning torch (Sir 48,1). When Elijah peregrinates to God´s mountain (1 R 19,8), carries fire in his heart: I am burning with jealous love for Yahweh, because the Israelites have forsaken your covenant (1 R 19, 14). It is a Jeremiah experience: His word in my heart is like a fire (Jer 20,9).

5.-    Before the mission he is tasked with, Moses defends himself: Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the people of Israel out of Egypt? The Lord answers: I will be with you and this will be the sign that I have sent you. When you gave brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain. And also: You will say to the Israelites: YAHWEH, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me. That will be my name forever, and by this name they shall call upon me for all generations to come. (Ex 3, 12 – 15). There have been many speculations about God´s name. The whole thing is simpler. What is really on stake is the ordinary covenant´s formula: the Lord is with his people.

6.-    The liberation from Egypt and the Red sea crossing are events that do not appear in the Egyptian documents of that time, and the same happens with the plagues, calamities or misfortunes lived like punishment (Ex 7-12). But the exodus becomes Israel´s faith avowal: God leads history. The Lord said Moses: Tell the people of Israel to go forward. You will raise your staff and stretch your hand over the sea and divide it to let the Israelites go dry foot through the sea (Ex 14, 15- 16). It seems that, when Napoleon entered at the extreme of the Red sea with his army, dry in part due to the ebb tide, the high tide surprised them and the late sections were obliged to walk with the water up to their armpits. Tide height difference in the Suez Gulf (now a channel) reached the 2,10 mtrs. It is possible that the Israelites escaped through there in the most opportune moment. They have camped between Migdol and the sea (Ex 14,2). Migdol means tower, fortification; id est, it is the Egyptian watching fortification. A dense cloud made fleeing easier. A strong East wind, blowing during the night, dried the seabed, which came out in sight. The Egyptian chariots advanced with much difficulty: At daybreak the sea returned to its place, so that the Egyptians, trying to flee, confronted the waters (Ex 14, 20-27).

7.-    To reach the Land of Promise (Canaan, Palestine) the shortest way was the Philistine route, bordering the Mediterranean coast, but it also was the most watched way, with fortifications and watching posts. The mines route, bordering the Red sea western coast, was the longest way. Besides, Moses already knew the Madian way. Well, the Israelites take a roundabout: God did not lead them through the land of the Philistines, although it was nearer, for God thought that the people might lose heart if they were faced with the prospect of a battle and would return to Egypt. God therefore led the people by the way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea. (Ex 13, 17-18). The pharaoh had said about the Israelites: They have lost their way and the wilderness has closed in on them (Ex 14,3).

8.-    The exit from Egypt is the first step of a long way: From Rameses to the Jordan river (Num 33, 5-48; see Dt 1,46). A caravan formed by many people with sheep and cows flocks cannot advance too fast (Ex 12,38). They go through the dessert´s border, they camp where water is available, they totally come back to the nomad life. They take advantage of the zone resources: the quails and the hoarfrost (Ex 16, 13-15). In Rephidim they do not find water and they murmur against Moses: Did you make us leave Egypt to have us die of thirst? That place was named Massah and Meribah because of the Israelites complain and to have tempted God saying: Is Yahweh with us or not? (Ex 17, 1-7). Another problem: the Amalekites attack (Ex 17,8).

9.-    Jethro knew what God had made in Moses favour and went out to meet him with Zipporah and her two sons (Ex 18,6). He acknowledged that the Lord is greater than all the other gods. Next day, Moses sat down to judge the people problems. He stayed from the morning to the night. Jethro advised him to share his mission with capable men: They will administer justice at all times, bringing to your attention only those cases of major importance (Ex 18,22). Afterwards, Moses said goodbye to his father in law, who went back to his country

10.-   The third month after the exit from Egypt, they reach Sinai’s dessert and they camped in front of the mount (Ex 19,2). There they celebrated the covenant of God with his people: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagle´s wings and brought you to myself. Now if you listen to me and keep my covenant, you shall be my very own possession among all the nations. (Ex 19, 4 – 8). The Israelites said: We shall do all what the Lord has said (19, 4-8). Jewish liturgy proclaims the present sense of the liberator exodus: That who is oppressed, come to celebrate the Pasch.

11.-   The people that God has liberated cannot be like the others. To be instructed (Ex 24, 4 – 12), through Moses, he receives the Tables of the Law. The Decalogue is a fundamental catechesis, a life orientation. It marks the limits out of which there is no covenant neither with God nor with the men, it is the possibility to participate in God´s way in his action upon the world, it is the believing key of human adventure: Do not have other gods before me, do not take the name of Yahweh your God in vain, remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, honour your father and your mother, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false witness against your neighbour, do not covet any thing that is your neighbour’s (Ex 20, 2-17). When Moses sees the molten calf event, he breaks the tables of the Law (32, 19), to remake them afterwards (34,1).

12.-   Due to its difficulties and privations, the dessert is a temptation place. At the end, a test to our faith is placed before us: if we confide in God, if we confide in his word. (Dt 8,2). The hard situation in the dessert reveals what is in the man´s heart. Paul remembers to the community of Corinth that the experience of the dessert uncovers a people full of evil desires, which is not confident in God. The dessert´s sins are present: idolatry and fornication, tempting God, grumbling (1 Co 10,6-10). In Psalm 95 it is said: For forty years they wearied me and I said: They are a people of inconstant heart; they have not known my ways.

13.-   Israel stays in Kadesh for a long time (Dt 1,46); it is an oasis. To reach Canaan, the Israelites must go through Edom. Moses sends messengers, requesting permission to go through, but the permission is denied; then, he makes a turnabout (Num 20,21). He sends messengers to Sihon, Amorites king, but he also denies the permission and, besides, he attacks Israel  (Num 21,24). The Israelites settle in Moab’s country and, deceived with artifices, they have sex with the Moabites women. Pinehas liquidates the problem in a brutal way: spear in hand he comes upon a couple fornicating and drives the spear through both the man and the woman. (Num 25, 1-8).

14.-   The departure from Egypt takes place under an emigration general context, in which it may be situated. During the second millennium, the great eastern desert nomad tribes waylay the moment to settle in the fertile grounds of Canaan´s country. It is not a massive invasion, but an infiltration more or less continuous, with no established before hand plan. The emigrants settle in the north, in the high Galilee, and in the near plateaus too. The fortitudes surrounding the country’s centre, the rich Esdrelon plain, prevent them to advance. The centre is a country protected all the way around: two lines of fortified cities by the north and by the south, the deep Jordan valley by the east and the Egyptian fortitudes in the way to the sea in the west. Regardless everything, the Ephraim’s mountain, in the central zone, serves as a refugee to the habiru, old Hebrew name, for a long time.

15.-   Moses dies at the gates of the Land of Promise. The book of the Deuteronomy will say: No prophet like Moses has appeared again (Dt 34,10). Joshua succeeds him, so that the community of Yahweh may not be like sheep without a shepherd (Nm 27,17). Joshua confronts the crossing of the Jordan. Really, the occupation of the country is limited to the centre of the country and takes place in a pacific way, with the exception of some local conflicts. The Israelites camp at Gilgal, where they celebrate the Passover (Jos 3-5). Jericho does not offer any resistance (6,1-16). A part of the group commanded by Joshua settles in Ephraim’s mountain. Little by little, the name of the mountain designates those settled on it. They are, then, named Ephraim´s tribe. Down to the south the tribe of Benjamin settles. Shechem´s assembly includes a pact between diverse tribes, some of which have been settled in the north of the country for a long time. To these tribes’ delegates, Joshua announces all what the Lord has made for his people (Jos 24, 2-13), Israel´s wonderful history (Ps 105), inviting them to leave other gods and to convert to the Lord. The answer is: We will serve Yahweh, our God, and obey his commands (Jos 24, 24).

16.-   In the present Palestine Israelite conflict, it is convenient to recall what rabbi David Mayer writes in Le Monde (09-01-2001).   He affirms that in the jewish tradition the idea of “saint land” or “unconditional promise” about the Israelite country does not exist. He mentions the following passage: And now, Israel, listen to the norms and laws that I teach that you may put them into practice…. Do not become corrupted, do not make and idol… you will perish from the land which is going to be yours after crossing the Jordan (Dt 4, 1-26). The rabbi denounces this Israel land idolatry. It is necessary to condition the concept of Promised Land. It is a signal of our times: Promised Land is a land shared by people of diverse race, culture or religion, who know how to live together. As a principle, any land may be the promised land for those who look for justice and peace.

17.-   What is the relation ship between Moses and Jesus of Nazareth missions?. In Jesus times, what should be the land of freedom and life is oppression and death land. Inclusive the temple corrupts its function and it is a part of an unjust and oppressor world. Jesus, with the Spirit strength, begins his mission in the Galilee of the gentiles, accomplishing prophet Isaiah’s word: The people who lived in darkness have seen a great light (Mt 4,16), because where there is oppression, there is a liberation word. Like that day, in the Nazareth’s synagogue (Lk 4,18).

18.-   With the Gospel, Jesus introduces a tension expressed as follows: You have heard that it was said… but now I tell you… (Mt 5, 21-48). The Decalogue not only has been accomplished (5,18), but overcome too: You not only will have no other gods, but you will first set your heart on the kingdom and justice of God (6,33), you not only will no take the name of Yahweh in vain, but nor in any way  (5,33-34), you not only will keep saint the sabbath, but you will be fed by the bread of life (Jn 6,35-51), you not only will honour your father and your mother, but those who listen the word of God will be your family (Mk 3, 31-35), you not only will not kill, but you will love your enemy (Mt 5,43-46), you not only will not commit adultery, but you will be faithful with all your heart (Mt 5,27-30), you not only will not steal, but you will share your wealth (Lk 19,8-10), you not only will give false testimony against your neighbour, but you will exculpate and forgive (Mt 18, 21-22).

19.-   They were celebrating the feast of the tents. Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him and they go to a high mountain to pray. While he was praying, his face was changed and his clothing became dazzling white. The two great Israel figures, Moses and Elijah, appear in glory: they talk with him about his departure that had to take place in Jerusalem (Lk 9, 31). Jesus will be delivered in the man´s hand (Lk 9, 44). Peter offers to accomplish the feast of the tents. He was still talking, when a cloud covered them with its shadow. From the cloud a voice came out saying: This is my Son, my Chosen one, listen to him. The cloud, signal of God´s presence (Ex 24,15), appears now over Jesus. The word announced by Moses is accomplished: He will raise up for you a prophet like myself, to whom you shall listen (Dt 18,15). It is Jesus mission confirmation(Mt 3,17): Listen to him.

 

* For personal or group reflection:

- It is an important event of the salvation history

- The operation Moses is necessary and present today

- The living God opens a liberation way in history

- That who is oppressed, come to celebrate the Passover

- The hard dessert´s situation places us under test

- The Promised Land is a share land

- We assume the tension: you have heart what was said, but I tell you

- The Decalogue is not only accomplished but overcome

- We are Jesus disciples, we listen to him

- We share liberation processes: personal, social, ecclesial