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Course 6 · Lesson 2.3

The exodus and the covenant at Sinai

11 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 6 outline

Module 1: Israel in the Ancient Near East

  1. Egypt, Mesopotamia and Canaan: the world of the Old Testament
  2. What archaeology and ancient texts can and cannot show
  3. Genesis 1 to 3 beside other ancient creation accounts
  4. Ancient cosmology and how Christians and Jews read Genesis

Module 2: Covenant: Abraham and Moses

  1. What a covenant is, and covenant forms in the ancient world
  2. The covenants with Noah and Abraham
  3. The exodus and the covenant at Sinai
  4. The Torah: law, worship and the tabernacle
  5. Covenant in Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox and Reformed thought

Module 3: Kingship in Israel

  1. From the judges to the first kings
  2. David, Jerusalem and the promise of a lasting house
  3. Solomon, the temple and the divided kingdom
  4. How Samuel and Kings tell the story: sources and purpose

Module 4: The Prophets, Exile and Restoration

  1. What a prophet was in Israel and in the ancient world
  2. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah: justice, loyalty and judgment
  3. Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the fall of Jerusalem
  4. The return, Ezra, Nehemiah and the rebuilt temple
  5. How the prophetic books were formed: the debate over Isaiah and others

Module 5: Wisdom and Apocalyptic Writing

  1. Proverbs and the way of the wise
  2. Job and Ecclesiastes: wisdom that questions
  3. What apocalyptic writing is: Daniel and its setting
  4. Reading apocalyptic images responsibly

Module 6: Second Temple Judaism and the Development of Jewish Thought

  1. Persian, Greek and Maccabean periods
  2. Temple, synagogue and the main groups in Jewish life
  3. Development in Jewish thought: angels, resurrection, wisdom and law
  4. Sources: the Dead Sea Scrolls, the deuterocanonical books and Josephus

Module 7: Messianic Expectation and the Shape of the Covenants

  1. Anointed ones in the Old Testament: king, priest, prophet
  2. Messianic texts in the prophets and psalms
  3. How Jews and Christians read the messianic texts
  4. The promise of a new covenant
  5. Mapping the development of covenant across the Old Testament

All courses

Program / Course 6: Old Testament Theology and History / Lesson 2.3

What you will learn

  • Summarize the story of the exodus from slavery to the arrival at Sinai.
  • Describe the covenant ceremony and the Ten Commandments in their setting.
  • Explain why rescue comes before law in the structure of the story.
  • State the main views on the date and historicity of the exodus.

The big idea

The exodus is the founding event of Israel in the Old Testament. God rescues a people from slavery in Egypt, brings them through the sea, and meets them at Mount Sinai, where he makes a covenant with them and gives the Ten Commandments. The order matters: rescue comes first, and law follows as the response of a freed people. Scholars debate when and how the events happened, but the text presents them as the origin of Israel’s identity and worship.

Key terms

Exodus
A Greek word meaning going out. It names the second book of the Bible and the departure of Israel from Egypt.
Passover
The festival that remembers the night when God passed over the houses of Israel and the firstborn of Egypt died. It is celebrated by Jews today.
Sinai
The mountain where Israel received the covenant. Its exact location is unknown.
Decalogue
The Ten Commandments, from the Greek for ten words.
Book of the Covenant
The collection of laws in Exodus 20:22 to 23:33 that follows the Ten Commandments.
Theophany
A visible or audible appearance of God, such as the fire, smoke and thunder at Sinai.
Holy
Set apart for God. In Exodus Israel is called a holy nation.

Background

The book of Exodus begins with the descendants of Jacob multiplying in Egypt and a new king who fears them. He sets them to forced labor and orders the drowning of Hebrew boys. A child named Moses is saved, raised in Pharaoh’s household and, after fleeing Egypt, meets God in a burning bush in Midian. God reveals his name and sends Moses back to demand the release of the people.

Ten plagues strike Egypt and the last, the death of the firstborn, leads to the departure. The people cross the sea, Pharaoh’s army is lost, and Israel sings. They travel through the wilderness to Sinai, where the rest of Exodus and the following books take place. The Old Testament refers to this story more often than to any other event, in the law, the psalms and the prophets.

The nature of the evidence is disputed. There is no Egyptian record of Israel’s departure that scholars agree on. Some see a memory of a small group leaving Egypt that became the founding story of all Israel. Others defend the main outline of the account as it stands. The lesson sets out the positions and then turns to the theology.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: From slavery to the sea

In Exodus 3, God tells Moses that he has seen the affliction of his people and has come down to deliver them. God gives his name, usually written Yahweh or the Lord, and the phrase I am that I am, whose meaning is discussed. Moses and his brother Aaron appear before Pharaoh, and the plagues follow. At the Passover meal, families eat roasted lamb with unleavened bread and mark their doors with blood. The festival is to be kept as a memorial for all generations (Exodus 12).

At the sea, Israel is pursued and the waters part. Exodus 15 gives the Song of the Sea, among the oldest poetry in the Bible according to many scholars. The text insists that the victory is God’s. The people did not fight.

Step 2: Meeting God at Sinai

In Exodus 19, three months after leaving Egypt, Israel camps before the mountain. God tells Moses to say to the people that they have seen what he did to Egypt, and that if they obey his voice and keep his covenant they shall be his own possession among all peoples, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. The people agree. After a time of preparation, God appears in cloud, fire and thunder, and speaks the Ten Commandments to all the people.

The commandments begin with a statement of identity: I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Only after that come the commands. The first speak of loyalty to God alone and of reverence for his name. The later ones concern the Sabbath, the family and relations among neighbors, ending with a ban on coveting.

Step 3: The ceremony and the laws

Following the commandments is a collection of laws about slaves, injuries, property, justice for the poor and the stranger, and the annual festivals. In Exodus 24, Moses reads the book of the covenant to the people, who promise to do all that the Lord has said. Moses sprinkles blood on the altar and on the people, and Moses with Aaron and elders go up the mountain and eat and drink in the presence of God.

Then Moses goes up again for forty days. In his absence the people make a golden calf (Exodus 32), a grave breach of the first commandments. Moses breaks the tablets, intercedes, and the covenant is renewed in Exodus 34, where God proclaims himself merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Step 4: When and whether

Two dates are most often proposed. An early date, in the fifteenth century BC, rests on the figure in 1 Kings 6:1 that Solomon began the temple four hundred and eighty years after the exodus. A late date, in the thirteenth century BC, rests on the mention in Exodus 1:11 of the store city Rameses, and on the archaeology of Egyptian building at that site. Some scholars take the numbers as symbolic.

Other scholars doubt that a large exodus occurred, since archaeologists find no trace of such a movement in Sinai, and propose that the story reflects the experience of smaller groups. Defenders of the account reply that nomads leave little trace and that the Egyptian records are incomplete. No firm agreement exists, and a student should hold any date lightly.

  1. Why does Exodus place the rescue before the commandments?
  2. What does it mean for Israel to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation?
  3. What does the golden calf episode show about the covenant?
  4. How does the self-description of God in Exodus 34 shape the covenant?
  5. What are the two main proposed dates for the exodus, and what reasons support each?
  6. How would the story function for a community that celebrates it every year?

Examples

The Passover meal

In Jewish homes, the Passover meal is called the seder. The family reads the story, eats unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and each person is to see himself or herself as having come out of Egypt. Jewish tradition thus keeps the story as a living memory and not just a past event.

Two ways of numbering the commandments

Jewish tradition counts the opening statement as the first word. Catholic and Lutheran tradition joins the commandments against other gods and images and divides the one against coveting in two. Orthodox and most Protestant churches treat the ban on images as separate. The text is the same, and the numbering differs.

The golden calf

While Moses is on the mountain, Aaron makes a calf of gold, and the people say these are the gods who brought them out of Egypt. Within weeks of the covenant, the people break its first terms. The story shows from the start that the covenant depends on God’s mercy as well as on human faithfulness.

Different perspectives

Jewish readers

The exodus and Sinai are the center of Jewish memory. Tradition holds that the whole people stood at Sinai and received the Torah, and that the covenant binds Jews in each generation. The festivals of Passover and Shavuot commemorate the events.

Catholic readers

The Catechism treats the Ten Commandments as an expression of the natural law and as a gift of grace. The church sees the exodus as a figure of Christ’s passover and of baptism, while affirming that the Old Covenant has never been revoked.

Orthodox readers

Orthodox writers read the exodus as a type of baptism and of Christ’s resurrection, and the church sings the Song of the Sea in its worship at Easter. They read Sinai as a revelation of God and the law as a guide toward the fullness of life in Christ.

Protestant readers

Protestants broadly see the exodus as the model of God’s grace in redemption, and the law as given to a redeemed people. Reformed writers speak of three uses of the law, while Lutherans stress the law’s role in showing sin. They differ over how far the Mosaic law binds Christians.

Scholarly views

Historians disagree widely. Some hold that a small group of escapees brought a story that all Israel adopted, others that the account has a historical core, and others that it is mainly later theological memory. All agree on its great influence on Israelite and Jewish identity.

Why it matters

The exodus is the model event in the Old Testament for what God does: he hears the afflicted, acts to rescue, and then calls the rescued into a way of life. Many later texts, from the prophets to the New Testament, return to this pattern. Understanding it helps a reader see why the law is not presented as a ladder by which Israel earns freedom but as a response to freedom given.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: The Ten Commandments were the whole of the law.

Correction: They are the opening statement, followed by a large body of laws on worship, justice and community. Jewish tradition counts 613 commandments in the Torah.

Misunderstanding: Israel had to keep the law to be rescued from Egypt.

Correction: In the story the rescue comes first and the law follows. The text presents obedience as a response to a gift already given.

Misunderstanding: Scholars have proved the exodus never happened.

Correction: Scholars lack direct evidence and disagree on how to interpret what they have. Silence in the record is not proof, and the claim is debated.

Knowledge check

What does God say to Israel in Exodus 19:5 and 6?

God says that if Israel obeys his voice and keeps his covenant, they will be his own possession among all peoples, for all the earth is his, and they will be to him a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. The statement joins privilege with responsibility, since Israel is set apart for a purpose that touches the nations.

Why does the Decalogue begin with the words about the exodus?

Because the commandments are given to a people already rescued. The opening identifies the speaker as the God who brought Israel out of slavery. This shows that obedience is a response to grace and gives the law a ground in relationship. It also contrasts God with Pharaoh, who held Israel in bondage.

What happened at the golden calf, and how did it end?

While Moses was on the mountain, the people asked Aaron to make gods, and he made a golden calf. Moses broke the tablets in anger, and many died. He then pleaded for the people, and God renewed the covenant in Exodus 34, proclaiming himself merciful and gracious. The account shows both the seriousness of covenant breach and the mercy of God.

Name the two proposed dates for the exodus and the reasons given.

The early date, in the fifteenth century BC, depends on the number of 480 years in 1 Kings 6:1. The late date, in the thirteenth century BC, depends on the city Rameses in Exodus 1:11 and on Egyptian building there. Some scholars regard the numbers as symbolic, and others doubt the event as described. The question is unresolved.

Think it through

  1. What does it mean to you that rescue comes before the law?
  2. How would the story of Passover shape a community that told it every year?
  3. Which commandment seems hardest to keep in your setting, and why?
  4. What are the risks of treating a historical question as the same as a question of meaning?

Independent assignment

From Egypt to Sinai

In your own notebook, read Exodus 12, 14 to 15, 19, 20, 24 and 32 to 34. Write an outline of the story in about ten lines. Then write 250 to 400 words explaining how the order of events (rescue, covenant, breach, renewal) shapes the meaning of the law. Add a short note on which dates for the exodus you find best supported and why you hold your view loosely. Keep it for yourself.

Further study