The traditional view is that Moses wrote Genesis as well as almost all the rest of the Torah, synthesizing them together to give the Hebrews a written history of their ancestors.
The portion of the Book of Genesis, chapter 34, deals primarily with the family of Abraham and his descendants, including Dinah, her father Jacob, and her brothers, foreshadowing later happenings and prophecies further along the Scripture dealing with the authority of Moses.
According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when the Israelites were increased in numbers and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might become too powerful and ally with Egypt's enemies. In order to reduce the population of the Israelites, the Pharaoh decreed that all the newborn Hebrew baby boys be killed by throwing them into the Nile.
Moses' Hebrew mother, Jochebed (Heb. "Yahweh is glory"), was the only daughter of Levi. Jochebed was born to Levi when he lived in Egypt. She is praised for her faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Levi, according to the Book of Genesis, was the 3rd son of Leah and Jacob, and the founder of the Tribe of Levi (The Levites), in whom certain religious and political functions rested in them.
The name "Levi" refers to Leah's hope for Jacob to bond with her in body and spirit. This lack of bonding made the young Levi grow with a marked impetuosity. He and his brother Simeon, the 2nd son of Leah and Jacob, destroy the City of Shechem in revenge for the incident that occurred to Dinah, their sister and also daughter of Leah and Jacob.
Dinah went out to visit the women of Shechem (Canaanite of Hivite origin). The Hebrews had made camp in their region and Jacob had purchased the land where he had pitched his tent.
Shechem, the son of Hamor, and prince of the region, took her and lay with her and his soul was drawn to Dinah. The prince loved her and spoke tenderly with her, and Shechem asked his father to obtain Dinah for him as his wife. Hamor came to Jacob and asked for Dinah for his son. But the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully. They said they would accept the offer of Hamor to please them with a bride-price settlement if the Men of the City agreed to be circumcised.
On the 3rd day after the circumcision, when they were sore, Levi and Simeon, took their swords and came upon the city and slew Hamor and his son Shechem and all the males of the city, and took Dinah and went away. Then the sons of Jacob plundered whatever was in the city and in the field, all "their wealth," all their little ones and their wives, and all that was in their houses.
The Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me by making me odious to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites; my numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household."
But they said, "Should he treat our sister as a harlot?"
The narrative combines different angles, one describing a rape, other describing a seduction, other describing zealous moral values, and other describing blind rage. In fact Dinah was tempted to sin, and at the same time she exerted a beneficial influence upon her lover. When she died, Simeon buried her in the land of Canaan. She is therefore referred to as "the Canaanite woman" in Genesis 46:10. Shaul/Asenath was her son/daughter by Shechem.
On his deathbed, Jacob curses Simeon and Levi's anger (Genesis 49). Their tribal portions in the land of Israel were placed dispersed so that they would not be able to regroup and fight arbitrarily. According to the Midrash, Simeon and Levi were only 14 and 13 years old, respectively, at the time of the incident of Dinah. They possessed great moral zealousness, but their anger and hot temper weren't restrained and misdirected them here in the dealings with the people of Shechem. Later in the episode of the Golden Calf, the Tribe of Levi demonstrated their absolute commitment to Moses' leadership by killing all the people involved in idol worship.
Levi is described, in the Book of Genesis, as having fathered 3 sons -Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
A similar genealogy is given in the Book of Exodus, where it is added that among Kohath's sons was one -AmRam- who married his aunt, (father's sister), a Hebrew woman named Jochebed. They were the parents of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. This kind of marriages between relatives was later forbidden by the law given to Moses by God.
The account offers both matrilineal and patrilineal descend from Levites in order to clarify the religious credentials of Moses.
When Moses, Jochebed's youngest child, was born, she secretly hid him for 3 months until she could not hide him no longer. To save her son's life, from a certain dead, because of the decree made by the Pharaoh (all their baby boys were to be thrown into the Nile and die by drowning) in order to stop the growing number of Israelites being born in Egypt, she made a wooden chest of bulrushes, watertight with slime and pitch and put the child in it. She then let the chest float in the Nile while Miriam, her daughter, and Moses older sister, kept watch over it from a distance.
The wooden chest was found by an Egyptian princess, and a daughter of Pharaoh, who had come to bathe in the River, to cleanse herself of the impurities of her life. Moved with compassion when she discovered the child, she decided to adopt him. The child was adopted as a foundling from the Nile River, and bestowing upon him his name Moses (drawn out). This declaration on the child's name was prophetic on the role of this child in his future life as someone who will "draw the people of Israel out of Egypt through the waters of the Red Sea. The Egyptian princess became the foster mother of the child. She is not named in this account, but a daughter of Pharaoh named Bithiah is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4:18, as being the wife of Mered from the tribe of Judah, who is identified as Caleb, in the Midrash, one of the 12 Spies. The Midrash also records that she was not affected by the 10 Plagues, and was the only female firstborn of Egypt to survive the final plague.
The Midrash also identified the two as the same person, and says she received her name, literally "daughter of Yah"(Yah being a form of YHWH), because of her compassion and pity in saving the child not her own, and called him her son. Also she appears to be so complacent to the fact that the child had to be nursed by a Hebrew woman, and Miriam was the key person in the right time to suggest to the princess who can be the wet nurse. Miriam called her mother, Jochebed, real mother of Moses, and she became officially the wet nurse of the palace, until he grew up.
The Israelites had settled in the Land of Goshen in the time of Joseph and Jacob, but a new Pharaoh arose who oppressed them. One day when Moses had reached adulthood he, without his intention, killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Moses, in order to escape the Pharaoh's death penalty, fled to Midian (a desert country South of Judah).
In Midian, on Mount Horeb, God revealed to Moses his name YHWH and commanded him to return to Egypt and bring "His chosen people"(Israel) out of bondage and into the Promised Land.
Mount Horeb is described in two places in the Scripture, Exodus 3 and 1 Kings 19, as "Mountain of God." It is also called the "Mountain of YHWH.
The name "Horeb" first occurs at Exodus 3, with the narrative of Moses and the Burning Bush. The ground of the mountain was considered holy, and Moses was commanded by God to remove his shoes.
Exodus 17:6 describes the incident when the Israelites were in the Wilderness without water. Moses was "upon the Rock at Horeb," struck the Rock and obtained drinking water from the Rock. The narrative goes on to say that Moses "called the name of the place 'Massah and Meribah', because of the 'contention' of the children of Israel, and because they 'tempted the Lord,' saying, 'Is the Lord among us or not?'
In Exodus 33 the Lord said to Moses, "You and the people you brought out of Egypt, must leave this place. ... I will send an angel to go before you, and I will defeat the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. I will force them to leave your land. So go to the land filled with many good things, but I will not go with you. Your people are very stubborn. If I go with you, I might destroy you along the way... even if I travel with you only a short time. So take off all your jewelry while I decided what to do with you." The people heard this bad news and became very sad, so they stopped wearing jewelry. Then Moses said to the Lord, "You told me to lead these people, buy you did not say WHO you would send with me." You said to me, "I know you very well, and I am pleased with you." "If I am really pleased You, then teach me Your Ways. I want to Know You. Then I can continue to Please You. Remember that these people are Your Nation."
The Lord answered, "I Myself go with you. I will lead you." Moses said, "If you do Not go with Us, then do not make us leave this place. Also, How will we know if You are pleased with me and these people? If You go with us, we will know for sure. If You do not go with us, these people and I will be no different from any other people on earth."
Moses was pleading God for the people of Israel. God was very pleased with him because god knew him very well, but not with the people. In a way to make Moses understand why, God accepted to show Moses His Glory: "I will show you my Love and Mercy to anyone I want to. So I will cause My Perfect Goodness to Pass by in front of you, and i will speak My Name, YHWH, so that you can hear it. But you cannot see My Face. No one can see Me and continue to live. Here is a place for you to stand by Me on this large Rock. I will put you in a large crack in That Rock. Then I will cover you with My Hand, and my Glory will pass by. Then I will take away My Hand and you will see My Back. But you will not see My Face."
After that enormous experience the Lord accepted the petition of Moses and ask him to make another two Stone Tablets, like the first ones that were broken, and God said, "I will Write the Same Words on those Stones." "Be ready tomorrow morning and come up on Mount Sinai, the other peak of the mountain, stand before there on the top of the mountain. No one will be allowed to come with you. No one should even be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even your herds of animals or flocks of sheep will not be allowed to eat grass at the bottom of the mountain."
Then the Lord came down to him in a cloud, stood there with Moses and spoke His own Name. That is, the Lord passed in front of Moses and said, "YHWH, the Lord, is a kind and merciful God. He is slow to anger. He is full of great Love. He can Be Trusted. He shows His Faithful Love for Thousands of generations. The Lord forgives people for the wrong things they do, but He does not forget to punish the Guilty people, but their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren will also suffer for the bad things these people do." Then Moses quickly bowed to the ground and worshiped the Lord.
Then the Lord said, "I am making this Agreement with All of your people. I will do amazing things that have never before been done for any other nation on earth. The people with you will see that I, the Lord, am very great. They will see the wonderful things that I will do for you. OBEY what I COMMAND you TODAY, and I will force your enemies to LEAVE YOUR LAND. ... Be careful! DO NOT make any Agreement with the people who live IN the land where you are going. If you do this, you might join them when they worship their gods. So destroy their altars, break the stones they worship, and cut down their idols. DO NOT worship any other god. I am YHWH KANAH - The Jealous Lord. That is My Name. I hate for my people to worship other gods. .... WRITE everything that I have told you (Ordinances, Decrees and Commandments). THIS IS THE AGREEMENT THAT I MADE WITH YOU AND THE ISRAELITES.
Moses stayed there In the Mount with the Lord for 40 Days and 40 Nights. Moses did not eat any food or drink any water. And HE WROTE THE WORDS OF THE AGREEMENT ON THE 2 STONES
TABLETS. When Moses came down from the mountain, he carried the 2 stone tablets of the Agreement. Because he had talked with the Lord, his face was shinning, but he did not know it. Aaron and All the people of Israel saw that Moses' face was shinning bright. So they were afraid to go near him. But Moses called to them. So Aaron and All the leaders of the people went to him.
In Exodus 24, the authority of Moses is more explicit, "And God said to Moses, 'Come up to the Lord, you, Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of israel, and worship afar off. Moses alone shall come near the Lord; but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.'"
Moses came and told the people ALL the WORDS of the LORD and ALL the ORDINANCES; and ALL THE PEOPLE ANSWERED WITH ONE VOICE and said, 'ALL the WORDS which THE LORD HAS SPOKEN WE WILL DO."
Moses wrote all the Words of the Lord. Then he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the Foot of the Mountain, and 12 pillars, according to the 12 Tribes of Israel.
All that is known about Moses comes from the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Also Moses is mentioned more often in the New Testament than any other Old Testament figure. He is the symbol of GOD's LAW, as reinforced and expounded on in the Teachings of JESUS CHRIST. Writers often compare Jesus' Words and Deeds with Moses' to explain Jesus' mission. In Acts 7, for example, the rejection of Moses by the Jews who worshiped the golden calf is likened to the rejection of Jesus by the Jews.
Moses also figures in several of JESUS' messages. When he met the Pharisee Nicodemeus at night (John 3), he compared Moses' lifting up of the bronze serpent in the wilderness, which any Israelite could look at and be healed, to his own lifting up (by his death and resurrection) for the people to look at be healed. In the 6th chapter, Jesus responded to the people's claim that Moses provided them 'manna' in the wilderness by saying that it was not Moses, but God, who provided. Calling himself the "bread of life," Jesus stated that He was provided to feed God's people. Later Christians found numerous other parallels between the life of Moses and Jesus to the extent that Jesus was likened to a 2nd Moses. For instance, Jesus' escape from the slaughter by Herod in Bethlehem is compared to Moses' escape from Pharaoh's decree to kill Hebrew infants.
Moses, along with Elijah, is presented as meeting with Jesus in all 3 Gospel accounts of the Transfiguration of Jesus in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9, respectively.
No comments:
Post a Comment