Post by Josh on Feb 9, 2007 22:29:11 GMT -8
3/13/06:
1. Again, I just love Moses' frankness with God in 5:22-23: "Why have you brought trouble [evil] upon this people? Is this why you sent me?... You have not rescued your people.... AT ALL!"
And why is it that this is often so true with God He indicates His will and empowers us to do it only to be met with a shocking initial failure. Thoughts?
2. Here's a great quote by OT scholar Walter Brueggemann regarding why the initial response of Pharaoh pretty much HAD to be more oppression:
"The hardening and escalation of repression are a necessary step in creating a social situation so laden with pressure that it will blow open with rage and liberation. After all, the exodus is not a transcendental occurence, but a social revolution accomplished by real people through public protests. Yahweh may be invisibile in the narrative, but Yahweh is not absent. Liberation is slow, hard work. It entails making the oppressed odious. It requires making the oppressor stupid and abusive and blind to his own real interest. Liberation takes time, but the time is full of the resolve of Yahweh. No party in the narrative can see the painful requirement of time, not even Moses."
Do you guys see some of the parallels here with movements such as the civil rights movement in the 50's, Gandhi's actions in India, the dislodging of apartheid, or numbers of other similar incidents (what about the abortion holocaust)?
3. It's hard to tell whether the "three day journey" that Moses keeps talking about (5:3) is just a rouse or not.
Any thoughts?
1. Again, I just love Moses' frankness with God in 5:22-23: "Why have you brought trouble [evil] upon this people? Is this why you sent me?... You have not rescued your people.... AT ALL!"
And why is it that this is often so true with God He indicates His will and empowers us to do it only to be met with a shocking initial failure. Thoughts?
2. Here's a great quote by OT scholar Walter Brueggemann regarding why the initial response of Pharaoh pretty much HAD to be more oppression:
"The hardening and escalation of repression are a necessary step in creating a social situation so laden with pressure that it will blow open with rage and liberation. After all, the exodus is not a transcendental occurence, but a social revolution accomplished by real people through public protests. Yahweh may be invisibile in the narrative, but Yahweh is not absent. Liberation is slow, hard work. It entails making the oppressed odious. It requires making the oppressor stupid and abusive and blind to his own real interest. Liberation takes time, but the time is full of the resolve of Yahweh. No party in the narrative can see the painful requirement of time, not even Moses."
Do you guys see some of the parallels here with movements such as the civil rights movement in the 50's, Gandhi's actions in India, the dislodging of apartheid, or numbers of other similar incidents (what about the abortion holocaust)?
3. It's hard to tell whether the "three day journey" that Moses keeps talking about (5:3) is just a rouse or not.
Any thoughts?