Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you still crying to me? Tell the Israelites to start moving.
You will not have to do anything but stay calm. You will never see these Egyptians again. Let us stay and serve the Egyptians.’ It would have been better for us to stay and be slaves than to come out here and die in the desert.”īut Moses answered, “Don’t be afraid! Don’t run away! Stand where you are and watch the LORD save you today. We told you this would happen! In Egypt we said, ‘Please don’t bother us. They said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt? Did you bring us out here in the desert to die? We could have died peacefully in Egypt there were plenty of graves in Egypt. When the Israelites saw Pharaoh and his army coming toward them, they were very frightened and cried to the LORD for help. They chased the Israelites and caught up with them while they were camped near the Red Sea at Pi Hahiroth, east of Baal Zephon. The Egyptian army had many horse soldiers and chariots. But the LORD caused Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to become brave. The Israelites were leaving with their arms raised in victory. He took 600 of his best men and all of his chariots.
So Pharaoh prepared his chariot and took his men with him. Pharaoh said, “Why did we let the Israelites leave? Why did we let them run away? Now we have lost our slaves!” When he heard this, he and his officials changed their minds about what they had done. The time in the wilderness has ended, and their new life as a people of God in the land of promise has begun.Pharaoh received a report that the Israelites had escaped. They eat the produce of the land of Canaan for the first time, and immediately the supply of manna–the food that sustained them in the wilderness for forty years–ceases. More, the commemoration of their liberation from slavery in Egypt. It is celebrated with worship and a meal on the fourteenth day of the month called Nisan, which is the first month of the Jewish year. Then the community celebrates Passover Passover commemorates the deliverance of the Hebrew people from Egypt as described in the book of Exodus. The text states that this generation of Israelites, all born in the wilderness, was never circumcised. The male Israelites are circumcised at Gilgal, in obedience to God’s commands. The end of the wilderness wanderings is marked by two other significant events in Joshua 5. The verse is something of a parenthetical remark, as the stones at Gilgal command more attention in the passage. In the Bible the promises made between God and God's people are known as covenants they state or imply a relationship of commitment and obedience. The ark of the covenant A covenant is a promise or agreement. The ark was built to contain the tablets of the covenant (the Ten Commandments). Joshua 4:9 states that Joshua set up a pile of twelve stones in the middle of the river, as well, to mark the place where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant The ark of the covenant was a box or chest that God commanded the Israelites to make from wood richly adorned with gold. In time to come, the stones are to serve as a teaching tool for the Israelites that is, when children ask about the stones, their parents are to tell them the story of the river crossing (4:5-7 20-24). To mark the occasion, God instructs Joshua to build a memorial out of twelve stones taken from the riverbed and set up at Gilgal, where the Israelites camp after crossing the Jordan. As such, the crossing of the river is a momentous occasion, the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel. The Jordan River marks the last boundary between the wilderness–where the Israelites have been wandering for forty years–and the land God has promised to Israel. The Red Sea marked the beginning of Israel’s journey in the wilderness of Sinai. This time, the waters are not those of the Red Sea (Exodus 14), but of the Jordan River, a connection made explicit in Joshua 4:23.
Joshua The successor of Moses, Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan More is Moses’ successor, and, just like Moses Prophet who led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land and received the law at Sinai More, he presides over the miraculous parting of a body of water so that the Israelites can cross on dry ground. This crossing marks the end of the wilderness period for Israel. Just as at the Red Sea, God parts the waters of the Jordan River for the Israelites, so that they cross over on dry ground into the land of promise.
0 kommentar(er)
