Exodus: Introduction

Exodus presents a very different side of God's gift. The Hebrews left the land they were promised because of famine, and took up residence in Egypt. We find out at the beginning of Exodus that the people of Israel have become strong and numerous, and that a king who does not remember Joseph enslaves the people.[footnote:Ex. 1:8--10.] The problem of Exodus is how God will enable the Israelites to come into the possession of the land of promise. When Abraham first sojourned in that land, the Hebrews were not mighty enough or numerous enough to truly possess the land --- they did not inhabit it. When Jacob finally returns to Canaan it would seem like the time has finally come for peace and settlement of the country of Canaan, but as God foretold when speaking to Abram, “Know this, your descendants will be foreigners in a land that is not their own...”[footnote:Gn. 15:13.] For one thing, the promised land is still impure because of the Amorites[footnote:Gn. 15:16.] --- but God respects even the freedom of those who oppose His will. If God gives the Amorites four-hundred years to “fill the measure of sin,” it isn't because He wants their sin to worsen. Meïr Simcha of Dunabourg comments on Rachi, “Either the Amorite will fill up the measure of his perversion --- then his [Abram's] descendants will be allowed to conquer his [the Amorite's], or he [the Amorite] will come back to God and obey on his own the divine will, giving the land to the children of the Patriarch, in conformity with the ancestral tradition held since the days of Noah.”[footnote:La Voix de la Thora: Genèse, p. 152; Gn. 15:16.]

It is amazing to see that God allows the free will of people who are not Abraham's offspring, who are not heirs or members of the covenant to “interfere” with the realization of His promises --- with Him giving the gift of a land. If human gestures must be realized within a lifetime, the gestures of God often span a much longer period. God acts with wisdom, He acts at the most favorable time and in the most significant way to reveal as deeply as possible His love. It is not the material gift of land to the sons of Abraham that is important, it is the way God gives that land to them. God gives them that land in order to establish and develop a relationship with them. Their motivation for getting back to Canaan is a strange mixture of things. Whereas Abram left his land to go to the land God wanted to give him, the Israelites are stuck in a land that is not their own --- slaves in a foreign land. Now the people cry out to the Eternal for help and God responds.When God does respond to Israel however, He does not respond by immediately changing their circumstances; He responds by drawing closer to them.[footnote:Ex. 2:24.] The compassion of God, or closeness of God is described by four verbs which, according to the commentator Maharal, represent four degrees of divine help:1. Hears, means that their imploring has been “perceived” and that the wall separating creature from creator has fallen. 2. Remembers, is a higher degree: God will not forget, because he holds on to the memory of their father's merits. These first two stages are due to the divine grace accorded to the children of Israel suffering in exile. 3. The next stage brings with it a new progression, “God saw the people of Israel,” which implies that their distress was brought before His eyes and that His intervention becomes, consequentially, no longer an act of grace, but and act of justice. 4. Finally, God knew, He alone, the secrets which have not been made known openly, which include both the intimate sufferings unknown to others and the deep feelings of repentance and return to God that are born in the depths of the heart. [footnote:La voix de la Thora: l'Exode; p. 23, °24 ] The beginning of God's help is God coming closer to those who cry out to Him. The beginning of God's help is compassion. The beginning of God's help is an intensification of His presence. From the last passage we also learn what attracts God's presence and saving help. God draws close to those who cry out, to those with whom He has made a covenant, to those who are victims of injustice, to those who repent and return to Him. And yet, if we compare the reaction of Got to the reaction of a man confronted with evil, there is a troubling difference. A human reaction to the suffering of a loved one is immediately active and involves doing everything in one's power to eliminate or reduce that suffering. God is certainly in a position of power high enough to immediately remove the suffering of Israel --- and God has also revealed His preference and love for Israel. There are two points which may help understand how God could allow the suffering to continue: First, the Egyptians, who are oppressing Israel, are also created by God and created free. If God has willed them to be free, He will not go back on it. Second, without changing the free will of Pharaoh, God could still make it impossible, naturally, for Egypt to oppress Israel --- which He does, only not right away. So, if God allows so much time to pass before delivering Israel from oppression, it is because Israel's suffering is not an absolute evil. Israel's suffering causes them to call out to God, to return to Him --- and God, in turn, comes down to Israel. God does not want suffering for its own sake, but He allows it because He created men free, and because it causes Israel to reassess what is truly essential in their lives --- their covenant with the Lord.