Creation in Exodus
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Class Schedule
This schedule allows anyone to have the full experience of the course. The column at the far right provides complete videos of the class and all of the materials that were distributed to the original students.
Date |
Topic |
Leader |
Location |
Zoom Sign on |
Videos and Handouts |
| 16-Feb-25 | Creation in the Plagues | Doug | Church Library | Click here | |
| 23-Feb-25 | The Tabernacle | Eric | Church Library | Click here | |
| 2-Mar-25 | No Class | ||||
| 9-Mar-25 | Eric | Church Library | Click here | ||
| 16-Mar-25 | Doug | Church Library | Click here |
The importance of studying the Book of Exodus needs no explanation. We first heard the story of the Hebrews escaping slavery in Egypt in Sunday School when we were still in elementary school. Even for those who are not Bible readers, it is likely that they know the story of God liberating the Hebrew people, the passage through the Red Sea, and the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai.
Our teachers, Eric Robinson and Doug DeCelle are proposing a fresh reading of Exodus and a discussion-oriented course consisting of 4 classes. There are several reasons for returning to Exodus. First, it is especially timely in our time of political upheaval. And secondly, because the church has new tools that shed fresh light on Exodus’ message. Christian faith is not a static thing. The Bible is the best known book in the world. But advances in archeology and anthropology plus innovations in textual study, not to mention changes in our own society give the Bible an enduring character of newness.
Why Exodus is Important
The Book of Exodus recounts Israel’s release from slavery in Egypt, the establishment of its religious practices, its migration to a new home, and its acquisition of a law code that functions like a constitution of the new society. Exodus is like the headwaters that flow into a great river. The story and the themes of Exodus continue in Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and the Old Testament’s history books.
Additionally, Exodus tells of a national birth that is different from the births of the great civilizations that surrounded it, notably Egypt and the Mesopotamian empires. Israel was born when God liberated it from slavery. The formerly enslaved Israelites then migrated to a new home in the area we call today “Palestine.” Once in Palestine the people set up a new society in the light of the God who had brought them into being. Religion, the economy, national polity, relations with neighbors were all established under God’s guidance.
In contrast, other nations saw themselves as arising from a creation myth whose point was to set up a society dedicated to its creator deity. So an important character of Israel, the nation whose story dominates the Old Testament, is its newcomer nature. Israel could adopt or depart from its neighbors’ traditions under divine direction.
To ask it differently–for a people whose primary self-consciousness and religion is that God has a particular delight in them and has delivered them from oppression–what is their attitude toward other societies? Further, what is their attitude towards the non-human world, what we call nature?
The answer to those questions took the form of Israel’s creation stories and a theology of creation that runs throughout the Bible. We think of the creation stories, say in the first two chapters of Genesis, as accounts about how the world got its start. And while there is a sense of beginning in in Genesis first chapter, the creation narratives disclose the Bible’s view of the nature and destiny of all things—nature, people, animals, societies, the works!
Here’s where these observations lead. God didn’t smile on Israel and rescue it from the Pharaoh’s clutches simply to do a big favor for one group of human beings. God delivered Israel as an early instance of the larger project of delivering and perfecting the entire cosmos.
That God had saved them was great but ultimately was not a big enough vision of reality to be an ultimate concern, a faith. This is where creation in the Bible comes in.
Doesn’t Israel Have a Creation Myth?
Not exactly. The creation stories we have in the Old Testament aren’t technically myths. Neither are they about only one people.
The creation stories in Genesis came into Israel’s consciousness after Israel knew itself to be uniquely blessed and brought into being by God’s love and liberation. The Creation stories and theology aren’t about the creation of Israel. They are about God’s universal creation, the creation of the whole cosmos and all of life including all peoples.
The Adult education program has now offered several courses on the topic of Creation. Someone might wonder why we keep coming back to an area in Christian faith that feels straightforward and serves as the stage for the greater drama of liberation told in Exodus.
So, why do we keep studying creation? Because it feels important. Creation deals with the very issues that are in the news today and that frighten us. Creation, as we’ve learned and discussed, talks about not only how the world got its start, but also about what God thinks of the world and how people are to live in the world.
Creation stories and the theology underlying creation are universal. They give insight into humanity as a whole rather than God’s particular interest in Israel. This is an important topic in an era when people are on the move and we talk about a clash of civilizations.
Creation also sheds light on God’s care for the non-human world and even the non-living world. We’re thinking of a deterioration of the natural world with overheated weather and violent storms.
A lesser known reason for our interest in creation is because the world is coming to new insights about the Creation texts at the beginning of Genesis and in the biblical theology of Creation. We’re seeing things in the biblical idea of creation that we’ve never seen before.
Important as Creation Is We’ve Tended to Ignore It
In the late 1960s and 1970s the ecology or environmental movement burst into the world’s consciousness, particularly in the United States. As businesses and government began to digest the idea that pollution was causing damage to the living world, academic theologians were also acknowledging that they didn’t adequately appreciate what the Bible had to say about the nature and destiny of the non-human world.
In the years that followed that environmental awakening, several leading theologians worldwide begin to recover a vital creation theology.
One of their discoveries or re-discoveries was that God’s creative activity is ongoing and crops up repeatedly throughout the Bible. As God moves in the world and saves from oppression and sin, God also creates. Creation and redemption are two sides of the same coin.
What’s This Have to Do with Exodus?
This is where Exodus comes in. The Exodus story, which recounts the deliverance of the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt, is the story of the beginnings of Israel. Genesis is the story of the beginnings of all things. What the Church is beginning to see is that Bible wants its readers to see that God’s creational work pervades God’s saving work.
Put bluntly, Exodus is about Creation. The more we understand about Creation, the better we understand what God was doing in delivering Israel and setting them up as a nation along side of other nations.
What our class will explore is how important Creation is to deliverance. It is not too bold to say that creation is deliverance. Deliverance is creation.
Why is Studying Exodus Important in Our Time of Crises?
We live in a time beset with problems that are so big that we can scarcely understand them much less deal with them. Take, as examples, migration and the clash of civilizations, erratic and corrupt political leadership, the intrusion of artificial intelligence, and the worse pandemic in several generations.
The most ominous of our problems is climate change.
We face, as we used to say, problems of “biblical proportions.”
This expression communicates a reassuring truth. The Bible, thank God, is indeed about mega crises. It has a global even cosmic horizon. It gives a glimpse of where history is headed. It lays out a pathway of service for our personal lives.
The Class
The class, scheduled for February 16th and 23rd, and March 9th and 16th, will not attempt to cover all the Book of Exodus, which spans 40 chapters and introduces several important themes. Instead, the teachers, Eric and Doug, will delve into representative sections that will introduce how creation pervades the story.
Resources
| Author | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fretheim, Terence | Exodus | This commentary, Eric and Doug’s primary resource for the class, is available in the First Presbyterian Church library is both accessible and readily available on Amazon |
| Walzer, Michael | Exodus and Revolution | A political reading of the Book of Exodus by a prominent political philosopher |
| Peterson, Eugene | The Message Bible | If reading longer pieces of the Bible is new for people, it is always fun to buy yourself a new Bible and get a fresh start with an accessible version. The Message by Presbyterian Eugene Peterson is a great way to start reading whole biblical books. This version is very affordable. |
| Enns, Pete | Pete Ruins Exodus Part 1 | Podcast. We’re pleased to commend anything on The Bible for Normal People website and podcast. The title “Pete ruins…” is meant to be taken humorously, which is characteristic everything on this site. The hosts are both fun and knowledgeable in a very relatable way. |
| Enns, Pete | Pete Ruins Exodus Part 2 | |
| Enns, Pete | Pete Ruins Exodus Part 3 | |
| Enns, Pete | Pete Ruins Exodus Part 4 | |
| Enns, Pete | Pete Ruins Exodus Part 5 | |
| Enns, Pete | Pete Ruins Exodus Part 6 | |
| DeCelle | Chart of Creation Allusions and Expressions Throughout the Bible | Over 200 Bible passage citations where the biblical text alludes to or evokes creational ideas. |
