Tuesday, 11 April: selections from the Exodus story in the Old Testament of the Bible

·        Text-objective discussion leader: Sara Moreau

Objective 4

            To observe cultural variations in the immigrant narrative by different nations, at different historical periods, or under different national conditions.

            “National Migration”

            In contrast to the normal pattern of immigration by individuals or families with intensions to assimilate to their new home, some groups immigrate with the intention of not assimilating. These groups are primarily religious in identification, but under special circumstances they may become the dominant culture of a nation or area.

As most immigrant stories begin, the ancient Jews, or Israelites, were suffering a great deal in Egypt as the result of a new Pharaoh that did not know Joseph.

            Exodus 1:13-14 – The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously;

                        And they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and

                        At all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously

                        Imposed on them.

            Exodus 1:22 – Then Pharaoh commanded all his people saying, “Every son

                        Who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are

                        To keep alive.”

            Exodus 5:6-8 – So the same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters over the

                        People and their foreman, saying, “You are no longer to give the people

                        Straw to make brick as previously; let them go and gather straw for

                        Themselves. But the quota of bricks which they were making previously,

                        You shall impose on them; you are not to reduce any of it.  

As a result of their suffering, the Lord promises to bring them out of Egypt into a new land.

            Exodus 3:17 – “So I said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt

                        To the land of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the

                        Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk

                        And honey.”

            Exodus 6:8 – I will bring you to the land which I swore to give to Abraham,

                        Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you for a possession.

            Deuteronomy 11:10-15 – For the land, into which you are entering to possess it,

                        Is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow

                        Your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden. But the land

                        Into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys,

                        Drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the Lord your God

                        Cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning

                        Even to the end of the year. It shall come about, if you listen obediently

                        To my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the

                        Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your

                        Soul, that He will give the rain for your land in its season, the early and

                        Late rain, that you may gather in your grain and your new wine and your

                        Oil. He will give grass in your fields for your cattle, and you shall eat and

                        Be satisfied.

When they reach the NEW land, or Canaan, the Lord tells them how they are to live. They are not to assimilate in any way with the Canaanites. They are to stay a separate people and live according to the way the Lord commands them.

Leviticus 18:3 – You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you

                        Lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am

                        Bringing you; you shall not walk in their statutes.

Deuteronomy 7: 2-3; 5 – And when the Lord your God shall deliver them

                        Before you and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy

                        Them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.

                        Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your

                        Daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.

                        5- But thus you shall do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and

                        Smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim, and burn their

                        Graven images with fire.

            Exodus Chapter 20 – God gives the Israelites the Ten Commandments. This

                        Unifies them as a people and sets them apart from other groups and

                        Nations.

The punishment for assimilating with the new nation is death. The Lord had them kill their own people if they were not following Him.

Exodus 32:26-28 – Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever

                        Is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together

                        To him. He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every

                        Man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate

                        To gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his

                        Friend, and every man his neighbor,’” So the sons of Levi did as Moses

                        Instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.                 

Questions:

            1. Do you think the story of the ancient Jews resembles that of the immigrant or minority more?