Post by Admin on Jul 25, 2022 20:55:12 GMT -5
In His very fine book Echoes in Exodus Brian Estelle has gathered a wealth of study material as he makes the case that the Exodus contains all of the major themes and is recorded by God to demonstrate the new Exodus in Christ.
One of the footnotes was to this writing by R.E. Nixon;
biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/tp/exodus_nixon.pdf
[p.6]
In the earlier part of the Old Testament there are three outstanding moments to which the later
writers look back.
They are the call of Abraham, the Exodus and the reign of David.5
To
Abraham there was made the promise of numerous descendants and a land for them to live in
as their own.
That promise was not fulfilled in his lifetime.
The Exodus was the event which constituted the descendants of Abraham a nation and the purpose of the Exodus was to bring
the people eventually to the promised land of Canaan.
But the mere crossing of the Jordan into Canaan did not accomplish the purposes of God, for the land had to be conquered. It was not until the time of David that it could truly be said that Israel was given security from all her
surrounding enemies.
Moreover they had to find a place in which Yahweh their God would
choose to make His name dwell, and therefore the capture of Jerusalem by David was in a
sense the climax to which the whole Exodus-event was leading.
‘Now at last Yahweh had accomplished that for which He had redeemed Israel out of Egypt four centuries earlier, and
brought them into the Promised Land. There had not failed one word of all His good
promise.’
Moses, then, was the essential link between Abraham and David. The Exodus gave substance
to the hopes of Abraham and it provided a nation and a land over which David could rule.
This was ‘the decisive event in Israel’s history’.
While the recent spate of Old Testament theologies has been emphasizing this, the historians of Israel have been at pains to point out that the Exodus must have been a real historical event.
As John Bright points out: ‘Of the exodus itself we have no extra-Biblical evidence. But the Bible’s own witness is itself so impressive as to leave little doubt that some such remarkable deliverance took place....
A belief so ancient and so entrenched will admit of no explanation save that Israel actually
escaped from Egypt to the accompaniment of events so stupendous that they were impressed
for ever on her memory.’
Associated with the Exodus was the giving of the Law and the ordering of the cultus. Hebrew
worship and Hebrew morality were traced back to their beginnings just after that great event of deliverance which constituted a nation needing instruction and regulation.
The Decalogue starts with proclaiming God as the Redeeming God: “I am the Lord, thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,\ out of the house of bondage.”
Thus the whole of Israelite ethics is regarded from the point of view of the revelation of redemption
(cf. Lv. 19.34, 36f.; 18.3; 20.24ff.; 26.13, 45;
further the whole of the introduction to the book of Deuteronomy; and the words of the man who offers his first-fruits in the temple, Dt. 26.5ff.).’
Many have examined the spiritual significance of the Law and the cultus with great profit, but that lies outside the scope of our present study.
One of the footnotes was to this writing by R.E. Nixon;
biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/tp/exodus_nixon.pdf
[p.6]
In the earlier part of the Old Testament there are three outstanding moments to which the later
writers look back.
They are the call of Abraham, the Exodus and the reign of David.5
To
Abraham there was made the promise of numerous descendants and a land for them to live in
as their own.
That promise was not fulfilled in his lifetime.
The Exodus was the event which constituted the descendants of Abraham a nation and the purpose of the Exodus was to bring
the people eventually to the promised land of Canaan.
But the mere crossing of the Jordan into Canaan did not accomplish the purposes of God, for the land had to be conquered. It was not until the time of David that it could truly be said that Israel was given security from all her
surrounding enemies.
Moreover they had to find a place in which Yahweh their God would
choose to make His name dwell, and therefore the capture of Jerusalem by David was in a
sense the climax to which the whole Exodus-event was leading.
‘Now at last Yahweh had accomplished that for which He had redeemed Israel out of Egypt four centuries earlier, and
brought them into the Promised Land. There had not failed one word of all His good
promise.’
Moses, then, was the essential link between Abraham and David. The Exodus gave substance
to the hopes of Abraham and it provided a nation and a land over which David could rule.
This was ‘the decisive event in Israel’s history’.
While the recent spate of Old Testament theologies has been emphasizing this, the historians of Israel have been at pains to point out that the Exodus must have been a real historical event.
As John Bright points out: ‘Of the exodus itself we have no extra-Biblical evidence. But the Bible’s own witness is itself so impressive as to leave little doubt that some such remarkable deliverance took place....
A belief so ancient and so entrenched will admit of no explanation save that Israel actually
escaped from Egypt to the accompaniment of events so stupendous that they were impressed
for ever on her memory.’
Associated with the Exodus was the giving of the Law and the ordering of the cultus. Hebrew
worship and Hebrew morality were traced back to their beginnings just after that great event of deliverance which constituted a nation needing instruction and regulation.
The Decalogue starts with proclaiming God as the Redeeming God: “I am the Lord, thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,\ out of the house of bondage.”
Thus the whole of Israelite ethics is regarded from the point of view of the revelation of redemption
(cf. Lv. 19.34, 36f.; 18.3; 20.24ff.; 26.13, 45;
further the whole of the introduction to the book of Deuteronomy; and the words of the man who offers his first-fruits in the temple, Dt. 26.5ff.).’
Many have examined the spiritual significance of the Law and the cultus with great profit, but that lies outside the scope of our present study.