Exodus 17 Essay

Hebrew poetry is used to express various things in the Bible. Hebrew poetry is used to “express emotion, facilitate worship, and to instruct in wisdom” (Hindson, 2012). God uses Hebrew poetry to teach us how we can better live our lives. Within Hebrews the terms laziness, diligence, folly and wisdom are utilized. God’s plan for us to apply some of these terms and to give terminology to the way we should be living against.

And seeing how that one specific law can be viewed differently it shows how unlike the two places were. In one place they were realizing how much God does for them, and how he provides to them if they follow his laws or commandments. Whereas in the other (around Hammurapi) location Hammurapi just talks about they are following the laws, and them getting nothing in return. In the book of Exodus, it shows how

17 "And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock."

Examine the role of sin (or transgression) in three texts that we have discussed in the latter half of this semester.

Moses helped lead the Israelite out of Egypt from slavery. He divided the waters so they can

In the Catholic faith, the Protestant belief of “sola scriptura” or “scripture alone” is to be used along with the Magisterial authority of those in the church such as the Pope and Bishops, which is a long standing belief from the church’s founding in 33 AD. The Protestant Bible and The Catholic Bible both use the same New Testament, which was defined by Athanasius in 367, but use a different Old Testament. The Protestant Old Testament is different than the Catholic Old Testament because of the history of the founding of the Protestant faith. The Protestant Old testament comes from the Hebrew Bible which was decided to have 24 books, with this canon being accepted at the Councils of Jamnia in 90-118 AD. (Coffman)

In Exodus 6:12, the Hebrew phrase “Poor Speaker” (NRSV), does not mean a physical speech disability in a literal sense, but rather it is used as a metaphor to describe Moses’ hesitation to speak to Pharaoh which was not only his own self-consciousness, but was also a product of Israelites disinclination towards him.

Ezekiel lived in a time of international crisis and conflict. Assyria was the world power in the area under the rule of Tiglath-pilesar III. In 724 B.C Israel raged war upon Assyria, and Israel was no match for Assyria. In 627 B.C the last of the able Assyrian rulers, Ashurbanipal died. Following the death of Ashurbanipal, Babylon under Nebuchadrezzer II wanted independence from Assyria. In 614 B.C the Assyrians under Nineveh surrendered to the rising Babylonians. In 605 B.C the Babylonians defeated the Egyptians and established themselves as the leading power in the area. During all of this warring, Judah allied itself with Babylonia and kept her independence. However, in 597 BCE, after failing to continue their payment of tribute,

Without devotion to God, violence and death would flourish in Israel. These factors would impede God’s blessings of security and life; thus, the Mosaic covenant demonstrates the continual faithfulness of God in the Old Testament. Finally, God is faithful to Israel during the people’s complaints in the desert. Rather than abandoning the nation for its faithlessness, God provides them will nourishment and protection during their journey. These acts further reinforce the faithfulness of God, even when his followers stray. In all, the Pentateuch demonstrates the theme of God’s faithfulness.

The darkness in the beginning of the book of Helaman fits with this quote. They don’t just wake up one day and decide they what to kill someone. The Book of Mormon says it is by degrees. Earlier in the scripture, we're taught that Satan gently leads us down to hell. In the Doctrine and Covenants Christ says,

as in Romans 1:17: the justifying activity of God.” In other words, justification must come from God entirely apart from human effort.

God has given us the freedom to choose between Good and Evil, Life and Death, and Blessings and Curses. These choices are to be balanced and constant within our lives. God’s intent for our destiny is to have eternal life, a life of peace and sanctification.However, whatever we decide, He will respect our choice.

So many go through the same sin cycles; simple, repeating the same sin they struggle with. Why do we continually repeat the same sin? God explains the reasons through His word. By noticing each step we can know how to properly refrain from making the same mistake over and over again. Through His word, He explains each step and the result of sin.

God develops many special relationships with His people throughout the Old Testament. Another word to describe the relationship between God and his people is covenant. The word covenant goes into the details of the relationship. Within the five books of the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), Historical books, Poetical books, and the Prophet books, one may pick up on the relationships being developed between God and humanity. God has an unconditional love for His people; He is always faithful to them. On the other hand, humanity has more of a conditional relationship with God. Humanity continuously falls short, making the love seem “conditional,” but are given a choice to either follow God into a relationship and receive love and benefits of the covenant or not. “No child of the covenant who presents to Him a faithless and insincere heart shall be included in its blessings.” Going off the idea of love being unconditional and conditional, this paper focuses on how the Old Testament is about God, humanity and their relationship.

This forced relocation surely put Judah’s people into an emotional tale-spin, potentially affecting those in both Judah and Babylon for generations. Families that could not find healthy ways of handling their predicament may have given rise to children who continued with unhealthy habits and actions, doomed to repeat their parent’s mistakes. Ezekiel’s main concern is the negative actions which were against God, i.e. God’s laws and the priestly traditions Ezekiel was called to uphold.