1. Exodus Part 2
OT Series Sermon 9
Gabe Orea XICF – Jan 14, 2018.

3. Big Picture Israel Hebrews People of Israel Slavery Freedom Lawless
Traditions & Laws
It is in Exodus where God gives Israel their first traditions and laws.
Traditions are important because they help to keep the community together; they also contribute to build up an identity; they also help explaining some fundamentals of our history. Some branches of Christianity are against traditions, but I don’t think that is correct. What surely we should be aware of is that traditions should never become the reason for our being; traditions are just tools to remember what constituted us as people, and to keep us together as community; they are not an end on themselves, but are certainly useful.
The book of Exodus describes some traditions that God required the people of Israel to observe.
For example,
Big Picture
Israel

4. 2 “This month will be the beginning of months; it will be for you the first of the months of the year. 3 ‘On the tenth of this month, they will each take for themselves a lamb for the household. 4 you will count out portions of the lamb according to how much each one can eat… 24 “And you will keep this event as a rule for you and for your children forever. 25 When you come into the land that Yahweh will give to you, you will keep this tradition. 26 When your children say to you, ‘What is this tradition for you?’ 27 you will say, ‘It is a Passover sacrifice for Yahweh, who passed over the houses of the Israelites when he struck Egypt; and he delivered our houses.’ ”
Traditions: 12:2-6; 12:25-26
Notice the change in calendar;
the tradition itself;
the perpetuity of it;
the passing it to next generations. 12
Traditions

5. 12 And Yahweh said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and be there, and I will give you the tablets of stone and the law and the commandments that I have written to instruct them.”
Laws: The most famous being the Ten Commandments. 24:12
This is one of the rare instances where the Bible affirms part of Scripture to be actually written by God. Most of the content of our Bibles was not dictated by God; it is important for us to understand that. 24
Laws

6. Big Picture Israel Hebrews People of Israel Slavery Freedom Lawless
Traditions & Laws
People
Nation
Certainly a nation with very humble origins; they were slaves. And by their own admission, they did not make a revolution and liberated themselves; it was God who liberated them, just as a father takes his son out of trouble. That is one more reason why God calls Israel his “son.” (4:22)
Don’t forget, they are NOT a nation with race or ethnic or blood purity; they are rather a mixed group of people, although certainly the majority of them would be descendants of the 12 sons of Jacob.
Big Picture
Israel

7. Big Picture Israel Hebrews People of Israel Slavery Freedom Lawless
Traditions & Laws
People
Nation
Polytheists
Monotheists
So if they were not totally bound to each other through their race, what kept them together? It was precisely their new laws and traditions.
Their new laws and traditions were at the same time civil and religious; there was no distinction. They all came in the same package.
We need to remember that for Israel, their religious beliefs were part of their national identity. Thus, it was unconceivable to be an Israelite and not believing in God, specifically in Yahweh, the one who identified himself as “I Am.”
The Hebrews, just as all other peoples in the land, were polytheists, that is, it was natural for them to believe in several gods. But transitioning from Hebrews into becoming the people of Israel, they needed to adopt monotheism, that is, believing in only one God. This was a painful process. Exodus tells us how they would go back into polytheism from time to time, until gradually most of them became strict monotheists.
Summarizing, Exodus is the birth of Israel as a Nation.
Big Picture
Israel

8. 20 The Ten Commandments 1. You shall have no other gods before me.
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.
3 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4 Keep the Sabbath day.
5 Honor your father and your mother.
6 You shall not murder.
7 You shall not commit adultery.
8 You shall not steal.
9 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10 You shall not covet anything that is your neighbor’s.
Summarized version of the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments. 20:1-17 20
The Ten Commandments