The lectures are too much of a history class and not as much of an English class. I still want to understand the stories as lessons for our time rather than worrying too much about the historicity of the stories.
We do learn several things that are of passing interest to me. First of all is the depiction of God as a storm god similar to the gods of the Canaanites. At the Red (Reed) Sea for example, God causes a storm that allows the Hebrews to escape and then kills the pursuing Egyptians. I am fascinated by the God of the Old Testament. He is certainly inconsistent, jealous, vengeful, murderous, etc. Hardly the loving forgiving god of Jesus.
This is obvious in the treatment of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. The Egyptian magicians are no match for God's power and God sends 10 plagues on the Egyptian people. Each time, Pharaoh is prepared to let the Hebrews go. But "God hardened Pharaoh's heart" and another plague is sent until the final plague which is the killing of the first born of all the Egyptians.
The professor does not discuss the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. Instead, she talks about how the Passover was likely some spring ritual that the Hebrew storyteller's found a way to explain. And she also talks about how in Exodus 4, well before the first plague is sent, God instructs Moses to tell Pharaoh that the Hebrews are His first born and that by enslaving them and by not letting them go, Egypt will suffer retribution. In other words, God knew in advance how the story would play itself out, that Pharaoh would not let the Hebrews go and that the killing of the first born Egyptians was inevitable.
But does God actually harden Pharaoh's heart? Would God actually make somebody commit an evil act to serve as a means to display His power? I can't read the text any other way. However, there are lots of apologists out there who will attempt to find a rational account of this episode. e.g. God really doesn't harden Pharaoh's heart. He just gives him the opportunity to harden his own heart. In fact there are a couple of verses where it does say that Pharaoh hardened his own heart. But if the text does distinguish between Pharaoh hardening his own heart and God hardening Pharaoh's heart, then the text appears clear. God does harden Pharaoh's heart. And if he can harden a heart, he can just as easily soften one. If and when he chooses. Leaving us with the "God works in mysterious ways" line.
We are also introduced to the third covenant that God makes in the Old Testament after the ones he made with Noah and then Abraham. Unlike the first two, however, which were totally one sided ie the Hebrews didn't have to do much to gain God's favour, this time God expects something in return for his helpfulness. The Hebrews are expected to obey and follow God's commandments to be rewarded; if not they will be punished. God comes across here as a powerful king and the people are his vassals. He is the ruler and his judgement stands.
The professor also refers to the exodus as a form of salvation but not the salvation as we know it. There is no real concept of a soul that will live for ever. The salvation is for a people who will survive if they follow God or perish if they do not.
And Moses and God come across as parental figures quarreling over what they should do about these wayward children. Sometimes God wants to destroy them and Moses intervenes telling God that He wouldn't look so good if he took the people out of Egypt only to kill them Himself. To be honest, I find the people annoying. If you believe the life they have had in Egypt and if you believe that God has actually helped them escape, then the people come across as ungrateful whiners constantly asking to be returned to Egypt as life in the desert is so tough. (Rather than send them back, God keeps them in the desert for 40 years until all the complaining adults who had left Egypt have died. They would never see the Promised Land.
The Golden Calf episode is the highlight of these complaints and quarrels. While Moses is with God, the people get scared and fear that without Moses and God, the people are in trouble. They ask Aaron, the brother of Moses and the second in command, to create an idol for them to worship. Aaron asks for all their gold and creates a calf. The people are ecstatic and Aaron promises a feast for the next day. Moses returns and is enraged. He asks Aaron for an explanation and Aaron basically lies, telling Moses that the people made him do it. The people are then asked to decide which side they are on - calf or Moses. The people who are not with Moses are wiped out. Aaron of course sides with Moses and he and his descendants are made high priests.
Again the apologists who excuse Aaron by suggesting that every thing he did was a delay tactic. He asked for all their gold, even the gold from their wives and children, expecting that they wouldn't give up everything. Delay tactic one. Delay tactic two was promising a feast for the next day. Why not now? Because Aaron was hoping that Moses would return in time. I suppose those are great excuses, but wouldn't you think the head guy would have tried to explain that the worship of the idol was wrong and that the people needed to have faith in their leader and their God. Wouldn't it have been better to resist the mob or at the very least warn them that he was going against his own beliefs and that he wouldn't be responsible for the consequences. Neither. He was either a coward or was suffering his own conflict in faith. In another episode two of Aaron's sons are killed because they don't follow the proper ritual in some ceremony. Yet Aaron gets a free pass here for something far more egregious.
One explanation for this episode, not in the lectures, is that monotheism may not have been so widespread while the people were wandering in the desert. By killing all the people who still worshiped idols we are seeing the beginnings of monotheism as the dominant belief system. I like that explanation - for the killings anyway. I still don't like Aaron getting off so easily.
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