The Creator Himself led the Jews through the desert. During the day He showed them the way with a pillar of cloud, that is, the Cloud of Glory, and at night with a fiery one.

There were stops along the way, but it was never known how long they would last, one night or a whole year.

If the pillar of cloud stopped moving, it was a sign that it was time to stop.

During the stay, after Moshe’s words: “Turn, O Lord, to the tens of thousands of families of Israel,” the cloud pillar changed shape and hovered over the Mishkan during the day, and the fiery pillar at night. When the time came to leave the place, the pillar changed again, stretched out, as if inviting him to go on a journey, and then the sons of Aaron, the kohanim, blew special two silver trumpets with intermittent, sharp, short sounds. After Moshe’s words: “Arise, O Lord, and Your enemies will be scattered, and Your haters will flee from Your presence” (Bamidbar 10:35-36), the pillar began to move forward.

After the first trumpeting, the camp of Yehuda set off (see below), after the second - the camp of Reuven, etc.

While parked

During the stay, the front of the camp was located to the east - the entrance to the Mishkan was on this side.

The Mishkan was always located in the middle of the camp. and the Levites, as his honorary guards, were stationed around him. Moses, Aaron, and Aaron's sons stood in the east, at the entrance. They ensured that no random person entered the Mishkan and committed an inappropriate act.

The Levites were divided into three groups: the sons of Gershon, the sons of Marari, and the sons of Kehat. The sons of Gershon were located behind the Mishkan, and during the campaign they carried on carts its coverings and the curtain that covered the entrance to the Holy of Holies, and everything that was needed for this. The sons of Kehat carried on their shoulders the Ark of the Covenant, a table for, two altars and the necessary items for them. In the camp they were located to the right of the Mishkan. The sons of Mrari stood to his left, and on the way they carried on carts the beams of the Mishkan and from the fence of his courtyard, as well as all the necessary parts.

All other Jews were divided into four camps and were also located relative to the four sides of the Mishkan. Each camp consisted of one main tribe, which had its own banner, and two tribes accompanying it.

On the east side stood the camp of Judah. Isachar and Zebulun also marched under his banner. On the western side is the camp of Ephraim. Menashe and Benjamin also performed under his banner. In the south was the camp of Reuven. Shimon and Gad marched under the banner of Reuven. Dan's camp was located in the north. Asher and Naftali marched under his banner.

When were the Jews supposed to set out?

The pillar of fire destroyed snakes and wild animals

When the Jews had to set out on the road, the camp of Judah set off first. Aaron and his sons removed the veil, covered the Ark of the Covenant with it, then packed the altars and... After this, the Mishkan was dismantled and loaded onto carts. The sons of Gershon and Mrari set off on their journey. Behind them is the camp of Reuven. Then the children of Kehat, carrying on their shoulders the Ark of the Covenant, the table of showbread and the Menorah.

How were they built during the trek through the desert?

In the Jerusalem Talmud there is a dispute about how the Jews walked through the desert. It is believed that the knees moved in a column, one after another. But according to another opinion, the order of arrangement in the camp was preserved: in the middle the Mishkan, and around it on four sides the Levites and the tribes of Israel.

Wandering through the desert following the Spirit of God, embodied in a pillar of fire (column), the Israelites, seven weeks after the Exodus, approached Mount Sinai. At the foot of this mountain (identified by most researchers with Mount Sas-Safsafeh, and by others with Serbal), during formidable natural phenomena, the final Covenant (agreement) was concluded between God and the Jews as the chosen people, destined from now on to be the bearers of true religion and morality. The basis of the Covenant was the famous Ten Commandments (Decalogue or Decalogue), carved by Moses on the two Tablets of the Covenant after forty days of solitude on Mount Sinai. These commandments contain the basic principles of God-given religion and morality. The religious and social organization of the people also took place there: the Tabernacle (camp Temple) was built, by the will of the Almighty the tribe of Levi (Levites) was allocated to serve it, and from the tribe itself the Kohanim were selected - the descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses, who were called to carry out the priesthood itself.

After a year-long stay at the sacred mountain, the people, numbering more than 600,000 people capable of bearing arms (which for the entire people would be more than 2,000,000 people), set off on a further journey to the Promised Land, that is, to Canaan.

Despite the fact that the goal of the journey - the land of Canaan, was established even when leaving Egypt, the people spend 40 years on the road as punishment for the fact that the Jews doubted their ability (and therefore the power of the God who cares for them) to capture the promised ( promised) land. The Israelites' journey through the desert was accompanied by both difficulties and disasters, as well as divine miracles: the giving of manna from heaven, the appearance of water from a rock, and many others. The movement was slow, only after 40 years of wandering did the new generation approach the borders of Canaan north of the Dead Sea, where they made their last stop on the banks of the Jordan. There, from the top of Mount Nebo, Moses glances at the future place of residence of the Jewish people and, having made the necessary orders and appointing the experienced warrior Joshua as his successor, dies without ever entering Canaan.

The biblical plot is not limited, however, only to the description of the event's history. It is replete with both Divine instructions and often careful descriptions of their execution. Methods of making sacrifices and forms of divine service are given in the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus in close connection with moral norms and aesthetic views that form the main body of commandments.

Timeline of the Exodus

The traditional religious point of view is based on the “430 years” that the Jews, according to Exodus 12:40, spent in Egypt from the time of the arrival of the patriarch Jacob there, and on the other hand, according to 1 Kings 6:1, this event happened 480 years before bookmarks of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. It is generally accepted to date the construction of this Temple to 960-970. BC e., which gives about 1445 BC. e. as the date of the historical Exodus. This date, however, is controversial within the religious calendar itself, since Solomon’s accession was preceded by both the era of the Judges and the reign of his father, King David. Even just these two periods in total exceed the mentioned 480 years, without even taking into account either the years of the Jews’ wanderings in the desert (40 years) or the reign of King Solomon himself.

On the other hand, using both late and early dating of the Ancient Egyptian chronology, 1445 BC. e. falls during the reign of Thutmose III, who, according to archaeological data, was known for his conquests in Canaan, which could not have brought him such quick rule over a huge number of Jewish slaves.

And finally, the indicated date does not satisfy the results of archaeological excavations dating back to the period of the Jewish conquest of Canaan: excavations in Hazor showed a change in the material culture of its inhabitants from the Canaanite culture to the culture of the ancient Jews dating back to 1250-1150. BC e.; in Lachish a similar transition dates back to 1150 BC. e.; in Megiddo - approx. 1145 BC e.;

In addition to religious historiography, a theory has been expressed that places the date of the Exodus at the time of the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt. Both ancient historians (Manetho, Josephus) and some modern Egyptological researchers came to such conclusions. Following this theory, the time of Patriarch Jacob's arrival in Egypt falls during the reign of the Hyksos, approximately 1730 BC. e. and subtracting 400 years of Egyptian captivity from this date, we get approx. 1350 BC e. approximately the year of the Exodus from Egypt. It is difficult, however, to admit that the Hyksos expelled from Egypt served as the prototype of the Jews mentioned in the Bible, if only because the former ruled Egypt for at least two centuries, while the Jews left Egypt in the status of newly freed slaves.

Those researchers who still present the Exodus as a real historical fact date it back to the reign of Ramses II, that is, to the period between 1279 and 1212. BC e. (or between 1290 and 1224 BC according to another version of the ancient Egyptian chronology). Despite the fact that this dating is in little agreement with religious dating, many [source not specified 36 days] researchers argue that for such a significant event there is simply no other acceptable period left in the historiography known to us.

Alternative versions

There are a significant number of alternative theories of the chronology of the Exodus, consistent to varying degrees with both religious and modern archaeological perspectives.

Volcanic theory

One possible explanation for the events described in the Bible is considered by some to be the eruption of a volcano on the island of Santorini and the subsequent tsunami that reached the Nile Delta around 1600 BC. e. The tsunami is associated with unusual natural phenomena during the ten plagues of Egypt and the cutting of the waters of the Red Sea during the passage of the children of Israel.

The giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai is also considered by some authors to be a manifestation of a volcanic eruption; the alleged site of such an eruption is often called Mount Alal Badr in the territory of modern Saudi Arabia. In that area lived a tribe professing faith in Yeveh (Yahweh).

According to scientists’ experiments, the “Burning Bush” may be an Arabian acacia bush growing on the slopes of volcanic craters. Experiments have shown that in the flame of a gas burner at temperatures above a thousand degrees, the burning of bush branches is invisible. The bush slowly chars, “burning but not being consumed,” as described in the Bible. The bush could grow near an invisible source of flammable volcanic gases and suddenly burst into flames, impressing the prophet Moses. Neither Egypt nor the Sinai Peninsula are volcanic zones; the closest volcanoes are only in Saudi Arabia, specifically the Alal Badr volcano.

The Bible (Deut. 1:2) speaks of an 11-day journey from Kadesh-Barnea (a place in the east of the Sinai Peninsula) to Horeb (Mount Sinai), which is approximately 660 km - the distance to Alal Badr, the most powerful volcano that erupted which could be seen from afar.

The Bible actually directly speaks (if we accept that Mount Sinai is a volcano) about a volcanic eruption, visible as a column of smoke during the day, and at night as a fiery glow; and about the journey of Moses and the Jews to the Mount of the Lord (from where “hail of fire” fell from the sky onto Egypt), which trembled under their feet, flamed and was in clouds:

“And the Lord caused thunder and hail, and fire poured out over the earth; and the Lord sent hail upon the land of Egypt; and there was hail and fire between the hail, [the hail] very strong, such as had not been seen in all the land of Egypt since the time of its inhabitants. And the hail destroyed all the land of Egypt, everything that was in the field, from man to beast, and the hail destroyed all the grass of the field, and broke down all the trees in the field" (Ex. 9:23-25)

“The Lord walked before them by day in a pillar of cloud, showing them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, giving them light, that they might walk day and night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from the presence of the people” (Ex. 13:21-22, Deut. 1:33)

“Mount Sinai was all smoking because the Lord had descended on it in fire; and smoke rose from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain shook greatly” (Ex. 19:18)

“And Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain, and the glory of the Lord overshadowed Mount Sinai; and a cloud covered her six days" (Exodus 24:15-16)

Drews and Khan hypothesis

University of Colorado researchers Carl Drews and Weiqing Han suggested that strong winds could temporarily split Lake Manzala (the probable “Red Sea” of the Bible, often mistaken for the Red Sea in later Bible translations) into two parts. Analysis of archaeological data, satellite imagery and geographic maps allowed Drews and his colleagues to calculate with great accuracy what the depth of this reservoir was 3,000 years ago. The east wind, blowing at a speed of 100 km/h for 12 hours, could probably drive one part of the lake to the western shore, pushing the other part of the waters south, towards the Nile. Such a division of waters would make it possible to cross the lake along a wide “passage” (3-4 km long and 5 km wide) with muddy shores formed at its bottom. The “passage” could last about four hours, then the waters closed again. According to researchers, in the Book of Exodus, which contains a description of this event (“And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea with a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters parted”), we are not talking about the Red Sea, but about the “sea of ​​reeds”. Scientists believe that the scene of action was the Nile Delta.

Other scientists have come to similar research conclusions earlier.

Another group of scientists in research modeled and showed in an on-site experiment that a “parting of the waters” could happen due to strong winds at the site of a modern beach in the north of the Red Sea, where in the era of Moses the water level was 180 meters higher. At the same time, scientists scientifically substantiated and linked the “10 Plagues of Egypt” into a logical sequence.

Connection with atonism

In his 1939 work Moses and Monotheism, Sigmund Freud linked the teachings of Moses with the religion adopted in Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten. This religion had features of monotheism. It was based on the worship of only one deity from the ancient Egyptian pantheon - the god Aten. Freud further suggests that after the failure of this religion in Egypt, one of Akhenaten’s students attempted to unite another people under its auspices, escaping from Egypt with them. This places the date of the Exodus immediately after the date of Akhenaten's death, that is, after 1358 BC. e. Freud's idea was supported by Joseph Campbell, and modern Egyptologist Ahmet Osman even suggested that Moses and Akhenaten were the same person.

Still, most modern Egyptologists do not agree to attribute the period of Moses to the period that followed the abolition of Akhenaten’s religious reforms.

Tablets of the Covenant

Tablets of the Covenant or Tablets of Testimony (from Hebrew לוּחוֹת הַבְּרִית‎, luchot ha-brit) - two stone slabs on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. Contents [remove]

Making a Covenant

According to the Pentateuch, the Tablets of the Covenant were given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai. The Ten Commandments (“...the instruction and the commandment which I have written”) were carved on the tablets “on both sides, on one side and on the other it was written on them. And these tablets were the work of God, and the writings were the writings of God” (Ex. 32:15-16). Moses broke these tablets when he saw the people worshiping the golden calf (Ex. 32:19). Subsequently, Moses, at God's command, carved new tablets out of stone and climbed the mountain with them a second time (Ex. 34: 1-4). On these tablets God wrote the same Ten Commandments for the second time (Deut. 10:1-5). The Tablets of the Covenant are also called “tablets of testimony” (Ex. 34:29), as they testify to the Covenant that God made with the people of Israel.

The conclusion of the Covenant with the Jewish people took place in three stages.

Moses climbed Mount Sinai and God announced the first Ten Commandments to him. All the people saw thunder and flames, and the sound of a trumpet, and a smoking mountain; and when the people saw it, they retreated and stood at a distance. And they said to Moses: Speak to us, and we will listen, but let not God speak to us, lest we die. And Moses said to the people, Fear not; God came to test you and to put the fear of Him before your face so that you would not sin. And the people stood afar off, and Moses entered into the darkness where God is. (Ex. 20:18-21)

Then Moses ascends the mountain for the second time, where he receives many more instructions, in particular, a detailed description of how and from what the Ark of the Covenant should be made, in which the tablets should then be stored. And the Lord said to Moses: go up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, and the law and the commandments, which I wrote for their teaching. And Moses stood up with Joshua his servant, and Moses went up to the mountain of God, and said to the elders: Stay here until we return to you; behold, Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has business, let him come to them. And Moses went up into the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain, and the glory of the Lord overshadowed Mount Sinai; and the cloud covered it for six days, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from among the cloud. The sight of the glory of the Lord on the top of the mountain was before the eyes of the people of Israel like a consuming fire. Moses entered the middle of the cloud and ascended the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights (Ex. 24:12-18)

Descending from the mountain, he found the people worshiping the golden calf and broke the tablets. The Levites sided with Moses and killed everyone who promoted the idea of ​​the calf.

After these incidents, the Lord again turned to Moses: At that time the Lord said to me: hew for yourself two tablets of stone, like the first, and come up to Me on the mountain, and make for yourself an ark of wood; and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you broke; and put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed out two tablets of stone like the first, and went up to the mountain; and these two tables [were] in my hands. And He wrote on the tablets, as was written before, the ten words which the Lord spoke to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the meeting, and the Lord gave them to me. And I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made to be there, as the Lord commanded me (Deut. 10:1-5).

The handing over of the tablets is a significant moment in the history of the people. It is believed that from this moment a union was concluded between God and the Jewish people. This event occurred on the 10th of Tishrei according to the Jewish calendar. Since then, this day has been called the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) - the most sacred Jewish holiday.

History of the Tablets

The Tablets of the Covenant were kept in the Ark of the Covenant, which was located in the Tabernacle. Subsequently, the Ark of the Covenant was installed by Solomon in the Jerusalem Temple that he built. According to Talmudic tradition, the broken tablets were also kept in the Ark, and the children of Israel carried them with them when going to war. King Josiah (Joshiahu), foreseeing the destruction of the Temple, hid the Ark with the tablets to prevent their desecration by the hands of enemies.

Following Joseph, when he became the de facto ruler of Egypt, leaving only the highest symbols of power to the pharaoh. At Joseph’s invitation, his father Jacob and his entire family of 67 people went to Egypt.

After the Jews settled on rich soil, thanks to the influence of a highly developed culture and the advantageous position of the tribe, related to the first minister and benefactor of the country, their numbers began to grow rapidly.

However, after the death of Joseph, with the change of Pharaoh, the attitude of the Egyptians towards the people who settled among them changes, the Israelites fall into slavery.

Jews were forced to cut out huge blocks of granite and drag them to the construction site; digging and laying out new canals, making bricks and kneading clay and lime for the buildings being erected, lifting water from the Nile into ditches to irrigate the fields, under the blows of cruel overseers, as the Pentateuch depicts:

“The Egyptians cruelly forced the children of Israel to work and made their life bitter from hard work in clay and bricks and from all the work of the field” (Ex. 1:13,14).

According to the traditional view, Egyptian slavery lasted 210 years.

The living conditions of the Israelites in the years leading up to the Exodus became extremely difficult. When Pharaoh saw that the measures he had taken were not able to slow down the growth of the young people, he issued an order, first secretly and then openly, to kill the boys born from the tribe of the Israelites.

At this time, the future leader and liberator of the Jewish people, Moses, was born.

Preparation for the Exodus and the Exodus itself

Moses was miraculously saved from death, thanks to the fact that as a baby he was placed in a basket tarred by his mother Jochebed (Yocheved), which, along the waters of the Nile, fell into the hands of Pharaoh's daughter Batya.

Moses was raised in the royal court and, as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, received the best education available at that time. Richly gifted by nature, he did not forget his origins from an oppressed people. He did not break ties with him, but on the contrary, from the luxurious chambers of the pharaoh’s palace he could clearly see the humiliation and slavery in which his people were.

One day, in a fit of indignation, Moses kills an Egyptian overseer who was cruelly punishing an Israeli slave. Moses buried the Egyptian in the sand, trying to hide the traces of his unwitting crime, but rumors about this managed to spread, and he was threatened with the death penalty. As a result, he was forced to flee from Egypt to the mountainous, inaccessible Sinai Peninsula, to Midian, where he led a quiet shepherd's life for 40 years.

When the time comes, Moses receives a command from God to return to Egypt in order to lead his people out of the captivity of slavery and place them in the service of God, who called Himself by the name “Jehovah,” which means “He who is.”

Returning to Egypt as a messenger and prophet of God, Moses, in the name of God, demands that Pharaoh release his people, demonstrating miracles designed to convince Pharaoh and his entourage of the divinity of his demands.

These miracles were called the ten plagues of Egypt due to the fact that each miracle demonstrated by Moses was accompanied by terrible disasters for the Egyptians. In honor of the last of these miracles, the Jewish holiday of Passover (from פסח - passed) got its name.

According to the Pentateuch, the angel of death executed all the Egyptian firstborns and "passed over" the houses of the Jews, which were marked with the blood of the sacrificial lamb.

The rescue of the Jewish firstborn marked the beginning of the Exodus from Egypt. Just a week after the Exodus, Pharaoh's army overtook the Jews at the, or Red, Sea, where another miracle took place: the waters of the sea parted before the Israelites and closed over Pharaoh's army.

The wanderings of the Jews in the desert

Wandering through the desert following the Spirit of God, embodied in a pillar of fire (column), the Israelites, seven weeks after the Exodus, approached Mount Sinai. At the foot of this mountain (identified by most researchers with Mount Sas-Safsafeh, and by others with Serbal), during formidable natural phenomena, the final Covenant (agreement) was concluded between God and the Jews as the chosen people, destined from now on to be the bearers of true religion and morality.

The basis of the Testament was the famous (Decalogue or Decalogue), carved by Moses on the two Tablets of the Testament after forty days of solitude on Mount Sinai. These commandments contain the basic principles of God-given religion and morality.

The religious and social organization of the people also took place there: the Tabernacle (camp Temple) was built, by the will of the Almighty (Levites) were allocated for its maintenance, and from the tribe itself the Kohanim were selected - the descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses, called to carry out the priesthood itself.

After a year-long stay at the sacred mountain, the people, numbering more than 600 thousand people capable of carrying weapons (which for the entire people would be more than 2 million people), set off on a further journey to, that is, to Canaan.

Despite the fact that the goal of the journey - the land of Canaan, was established even when leaving Egypt, the people spend 40 years on the road as punishment for the fact that the Jews doubted their ability (and therefore the power of the God who cares for them) to capture the promised ( promised) land.

The Israelites' journey through the desert was accompanied by both difficulties and disasters, as well as divine miracles: the giving of manna from heaven, the appearance of water from a rock, and many others. The movement was slow, only after 40 years of wandering a new generation approached the borders of Canaan north of, where they made their last stop on the shore.

There, from the top of Mount Nebo, Moses glances at the future place of residence of the Jewish people and, having made the necessary orders and appointing the experienced warrior Joshua as his successor, dies without ever entering Canaan.

The biblical plot is not limited, however, only to the description of the event's history. It is replete with both Divine instructions and often careful descriptions of their execution. Methods of making sacrifices and forms of divine service are given in the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus in close connection with moral norms and aesthetic views that form the main body of commandments.

Timeline of the Exodus

The traditional religious point of view is based on the “430 years” that the Jews, according to Exodus 12:40, spent in Egypt from the time of the arrival of the patriarch Jacob there, and on the other hand, according to 1 Kings 6:1, this event happened 480 years before bookmarks of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

It is generally accepted to date the construction of this Temple to 960-970. BC e., which gives about 1445 BC. e. as the date of the historical Exodus.

This date, however, is controversial within the religious calendar itself, since the accession of Solomon was preceded by both the reign of his father and the reign of his father. Even just these two periods in total exceed the mentioned 480 years, without even taking into account either the years of the Jews’ wanderings in the desert (40 years) or the reign of King Solomon himself.

On the other hand, using both late and early dating of the Ancient Egyptian chronology, 1445 BC. e. falls during the reign of Thutmose III, who, according to archaeological data, was known for his conquests in Canaan, which could not have brought him such quick rule over a huge number of Jewish slaves.

And finally, the indicated date does not satisfy the results of archaeological excavations dating back to the period of the Jewish conquest of Canaan: excavations showed a change in the material culture of its inhabitants from the Canaanite culture to the culture of the ancient Jews dating back to 1250-1150. BC e.; in Lachish a similar transition dates back to 1150 BC. e.; in Megiddo - approx. 1145 BC e.;

In addition to religious historiography, a theory has been expressed that places the date of the Exodus at the time of the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt. Both ancient historians (Manetho) and some modern Egyptologist researchers came to such conclusions.

Following this theory, the time of Patriarch Jacob's arrival in Egypt falls during the reign of the Hyksos, approximately 1730 BC. e. and subtracting 400 years of Egyptian captivity from this date, we get approx. 1350 BC e. approximately the year of the Exodus from Egypt. It is difficult, however, to admit that the Hyksos expelled from Egypt served as the prototype of the Jews mentioned in the Bible, if only because the former ruled Egypt for at least two centuries, while the Jews left Egypt in the status of newly freed slaves.

Those researchers who still present the Exodus as a real historical fact date it back to the reign of Ramses II, that is, to the period between 1279 and 1212. BC e. (or between 1290 and 1224 BC according to another version of the ancient Egyptian chronology).

Despite the fact that this dating has little agreement with religious dating, many researchers argue that for such a significant event there is simply no other acceptable time in the course of modern history.

Photo gallery

The Old Testament, in the Second Book of Moses, entitled “Exodus,” tells how this great prophet organized the exodus of the Jews from Egypt, which occurred in the second half of the 2nd century BC. e. The first five books of the Bible also belong to Moses and describe amazing stories and divine miracles for the salvation of the Jewish people.

The founder of the Jewish religion, lawyer and first Jewish prophet on earth was Moses. It is not in vain that many people are interested in how many years Moses led the Jews through the desert. In order to understand the essence of what is happening, you first need to familiarize yourself with the plot of this story. Moses (a biblical character) rallied all the tribes of the people of Israel and led them to the land of Canaan, promised by God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was on him that God placed this unbearable burden.

Birth of Moses

The question of how many years Moses led the Jews through the desert is worth examining in great detail. The story of Moses begins with the fact that the new king of Egypt, who did not know the prophet Joseph and his services to Egypt, worried that the people of Israel were multiplying and becoming strong, began to treat him with particular cruelty and forced him to do backbreaking physical labor. But the people still grew stronger and larger. And then Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be thrown into the river.

At this time, in one family from the Levin tribe, a woman gave birth to a baby, she put him in a basket with a bottom treated with resin and sent him down the river. And his sister began to watch what would happen to him next.

At this time, the pharaoh’s daughter was bathing in the river and suddenly, hearing a child’s cry in the reeds, she found a child in a basket. She took pity on him and took him in with her. His sister immediately ran up to her and offered to find a nurse. Since then, his own mother became his nurse. Soon the boy grew stronger and became the pharaoh’s daughter, like his own son. She gave him the name Moses because she pulled him out of the water.

Moses grew up and saw how hard his brothers Israel worked. One day he saw an Egyptian beating a poor Jew. Moses, looking around so that no one would see him, killed the Egyptian and buried his body in the sand. But soon Pharaoh found out about everything, and then Moses decided to flee Egypt.

Escape from Egypt

So Moses ended up in the land of Midian, where he met a priest and his seven daughters, one of whom, Zipporah, became his wife. Soon their son Girsam was born.

After some time, the king of Egypt dies. The people of Israel cry out in misfortune, and this cry is heard by God.

One day, when Moses was tending the sheep, he saw a burning thorn bush, which for some reason did not burn. And suddenly he heard the voice of God, who ordered Moses to go back to Egypt, save the children of Israel from slavery and lead them out of Egypt. Moses was very afraid and began to pray to God to choose someone else.

He was afraid that they would not believe him, and then the Lord endowed him with signs. He asked to throw his rod on the ground, which immediately turned into a snake, and then forced Moses to take it by the tail so that it became a rod again. Then God forced Moses to put his hand in his bosom, and then it turned white and became covered with leprosy. And when he put her in his bosom again, she became healthy.

Return to Egypt

God appoints brother Aaron as Moses' assistant. They came to their people and showed signs so that they would believe that God wanted them to serve him, and the people believed. Then Moses and his brother came to Pharaoh and asked him to let the people of Israel go, because God commanded them to do so. But Pharaoh was adamant and considered all the signs of God to be a cheap trick. His heart hardened even more.

Then God sends ten terrible plagues to Pharaoh, one after another: then the water of lakes and rivers turned into blood, where the fish became dead and stinking, then the whole earth was covered with toads, then midges flew in, then dog flies, then a pestilence occurred, then abscesses, then icy hail, then locusts, then darkness. Each time one of these plagues occurred, Pharaoh relented and promised to let the people of Israel go. But when he received forgiveness from God, he did not keep his promises.

The exodus of the Jews from Egypt becomes almost impossible, but not for God, who subjects his people to the most terrible execution. At midnight the Lord struck with death all the firstborn of Egypt. And only then did Pharaoh let the Israelites go. And so Moses leads the Jews out of Egypt. The Lord showed the way to the promised land to Moses and Aaron day and night in the form of a pillar of fire.

Moses leads the Jews out of Egypt

Having recovered from horror, Pharaoh sets off after them, taking with him six hundred selected chariots. Seeing the Egyptian army approaching them, the children of Israel, who were camped by the sea, were greatly afraid and began to cry out. They began to reproach Moses for the fact that it was better to be slaves of the Egyptians than to die in the desert. Then Moses, at the command of the Lord, raised his rod, and the sea parted and dry land formed. And the people of Israel from six hundred thousand went, but the Egyptian chariots did not stop either, then the water closed again and drowned the entire enemy army.

The Israelites made their way through a waterless desert. Gradually, water supplies dried up, and people began to suffer from thirst. And suddenly they found a source, but the water in it turned out to be bitter. Then Moses threw wood at it, and it became sweet and drinkable.

People's anger

After some time, the people of Israel attacked Moses with anger because they did not have enough bread and meat. Moses reassured them and assured them that they would eat meat in the evening and be satisfied with bread in the morning. In the evening, quails flew in, which could be caught by hand. And in the morning manna from heaven fell, like frost, it lay on the surface of the earth. It tasted like a cake with honey. Manna became their constant food, sent by the Lord, which they ate until the end of their long journey.

At the next test stage, they did not have water, and again they attacked Moses with angry speeches. And Moses, by the will of God, struck the rock with his rod, and water came out of it.

A few days later the Amalekites attacked the Israelites. Moses told his loyal servant Jesus to choose strong men and fight, and he began to pray on a high hill, raising his hands to the sky, as soon as his hands dropped, the enemies began to win. Then two Israelites began to support the hands of Moses, and the Amalekites were defeated.

Mount Sinai. Commandments

The people of Israel continued on their way and stopped near Mount Sinai. It was the third month of his wanderings. God sent Moses to the top of the mountain and told His people to prepare to meet Him, so that they would be clean and wash their clothes. On the third day there was lightning and thunder, and a loud sound of trumpets was heard. Moses and the people received the Ten Commandments from the mouth of God, and now they had to live by them.

The first says: serve only the True God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Second: do not create an idol for yourself.

Third: do not take the name of the Lord in vain.

Fourth: do not work on Saturdays, but glorify the name of the Lord.

Fifth: Honor your parents, so that it will be good for you and the days of your life on earth will be prolonged.

Sixth: do not kill.

Seventh Commandment: Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Eighth: do not steal.

Ninth: Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Tenth: You shall not covet anything of your neighbor, neither his house, nor his wife, nor his field, nor his male or female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey.

The Lord called Moses to Mount Sinai and talked with him for a long time; at the end of the conversation, he handed him two stone tablets with the commandments. Moses spent forty days on the mountain, and God taught him how to correctly carry out His orders, how to build a camp tabernacle and serve his God in it.

Golden Taurus

Moses was gone for a long time, and the Israelites could not stand it and doubted that God was favorable to Moses. And then they began to ask Aaron to return to the pagan gods. Then he ordered all the women to take off their gold jewelry and bring it to him. From this gold he poured a calf, and, as if to a god, they offered him sacrifices, and then they held a feast and sacred dances.

When Moses saw with his own eyes all this wicked feast, he became very angry and threw the tablets with revelations. And they crashed against a rock. Then he ground the golden calf into powder and poured it into the river. Many repented that day, and those who did not were killed, and there were three thousand of them.

Then Moses returned again to Mount Sinai to appear before God and ask Him to forgive the people of Israel. The magnanimous God had mercy and again gave Moses the tablets of revelation and the Ten Commandments. Moses spent a whole year with the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Having built the tabernacle, they began to serve their God. But now God commands them to set off on a journey to the land of Canaan, but without Him, and places an Angel in front of them.

Curse of God

After a long journey, they finally saw the promised land. And then Moses ordered to gather twelve people to send them on reconnaissance. After forty days they returned and said that the land of Canaan was fertile and densely populated, but also had a strong army and powerful fortifications, so it was simply impossible to conquer it, and for the people of Israel it would be certain death. Hearing this, the people almost stoned Moses and decided to look for a new leader in his place, and then they even wanted to return to Egypt.

And the Lord became more angry than ever with the people of Israel, who did not believe him despite all his signs. Of those twelve spies, he left only Joshua, Joshua and Caleb, who were ready to fulfill the will of the Lord at any moment, and the rest died.

The Lord at first wanted to destroy the people of Israel with a plague, but then, through the intercession of Moses, he forced them to wander for forty years in the deserts, until those who grumbled, from twenty years old and above, died out, and allowed only their children to see the land promised to their fathers.

Canaanite land

Moses led the Jewish people through the desert for 40 years. Over the course of many years of difficulties and hardships, the Israelites more than once reproached and scolded Moses and grumbled against the Lord himself. Forty years later, a new generation grew up, more adapted to wanderings and harsh life.

And then the day came when Moses led them to the land of Canaan to conquer it. Having reached its borders, they settled down near the Jordan River. Moses was one hundred and twenty years old at that time; he felt that his end was near. Having climbed to the very top of the mountain, he saw the promised land, and in complete solitude he presented himself before God. Now God placed the responsibility of leading the people to the promised land on Jesus, the son of Nun.

Israel no longer had a prophet like Moses. And it didn’t matter to anyone how many years Moses led the Jews through the desert. Now they mourned the death of the prophet for thirty days, and then, crossing the Jordan, they began to fight for the land of Canaan and, in the end, after a few years, conquered it. Their dreams of the promised land came true.

While reading the Old Testament once, I found a curious discrepancy between the dominant interpretation of one fragment in society and what is actually written there.

We are talking about the well-known episode of leading the Jews through the desert for 40 years. For some reason, there was an opinion that this was done so that people who were slaves in Egypt would die. Apparently, being carriers of a slave model of behavior is bad (either from the point of view of Moses, or, and this conclusion is inevitable here, from the Lord God himself).

I don’t know how it is in other countries, but here this idea has gained popularity. This idea was thickly mixed in the same cauldron with the thoughts that we “lack a civil society”, like a curse - a “bad state” and it is necessary to “squeeze out the slave drop by drop”. Like, this is how smart people taught people. Therefore, everything is fine with them “in life.” And here we have Rasya and there is Rasya, what can we take from it. Some have ladies and gentlemen, but we have men and women.

A beautiful and influential ideology, to say the least. Yes, and there is support in religion. It would seem... Or is it not?

In the Book of Numbers, starting with chapter 13, you can read a detailed account of this story. Let's see what it says there. And so that I will not be accused of taking phrases out of context, I will try to capture this very context through “abundant” quotation. So, if you don't like to read a lot of letters, sorry.

So, the Lord led the Jews out of Egypt and helped them cross the desert. In the end, the Jews came to those lands that the Lord promised to give them ownership.

Book of Numbers, Chapter 13:

2 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
3 Send men from among you to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel. Send one man at a time from the tribe of their fathers, the chief of them.

…

18 And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said to them, “Go to this southern country and go up to the mountain,
19 And consider the land, what kind of thing it is, and the people who live in it, whether they are strong or weak, whether they are few or many?
20 And what is the land where he lives, is it good or bad? and what are the cities in which he lives, whether he lives in tents or in fortifications?
21 And what is the earth like, is it fat or lean? is there any wood on it or not? be bold and take from the fruits of the earth. It was around the time the grapes ripened.
22 They went and spied out the land from the wilderness of Sin even to Rehob, near Hamath;
23 And they went into the south country, and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sesha, and Talmai, the children of Anak, dwelt: and Hebron was built seven years before Zoan, a city of Egypt;
24 And they came to the valley of Eschol, and there they cut a vine branch with one bunch of berries, and two carried it on a pole; They also took pomegranates and figs;
25 This place was called the valley of Eschol, because of the bunch of grapes that the children of Israel cut there.
26 And having spied the land, they returned after forty days.
27 And they went and came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought an answer to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruits of the land;
28 And they told him and said, “We went into the land to which you sent us; it truly flows with milk and honey, and these are its fruits;
29 But the people that dwell in that land are strong, and the fortified cities are very large, and we saw the sons of Anak there;
30 Amalek lives in the southern part of the land, the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live on the mountain, and the Canaanites live by the sea and on the banks of the Jordan.
31 But Caleb calmed the people before Moses, saying, “Let us go and take possession of it, for we can overcome it.”
32 And those who went with him said, “We cannot go against this people, for they are stronger than us.”
33 And they spread a bad report about the land which they had spied among the children of Israel, saying, The land which we passed through to spy is a land that devoureth the inhabitants of it, and all the people which we saw in its midst were great men;
34 There we also saw giants, the sons of Anak, from the giant family; and we were like locusts in our sight before them, and so were we in their sight.

Let's continue (Book of Numbers, Chapter 14):

1 And all the congregation lifted up a cry, and the people wept all that night;
2 And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, and all the congregation said unto them, Would that we had died in the land of Egypt, or that we had died in this wilderness!
3 And why is the Lord bringing us into this land, so that we may fall by the sword? our wives and our children will become prey to the enemies; wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt?
4 And they said to one another, “Let us make ourselves a ruler and return to Egypt.”
5 And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the congregation of the children of Israel.
6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, of those that spied the land, tore their clothes
7 And they said to all the congregation of the children of Israel, “The land which we passed through to explore is very, very good;
8 If the Lord is merciful to us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us - this land in which milk and honey flow;
9 Only do not rebel against the Lord, and do not fear the people of the land; for he will fall to us to be devoured: they have no protection, but the Lord is with us; don't be afraid of them.
10 And the whole congregation said, Stone them! But the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of meeting to all the children of Israel.
11 And the Lord said to Moses, How long will this people provoke me to anger? and how long will he not believe Me, despite all the signs that I have done among him?
12 I will smite it with plague and destroy it, and I will make of you a nation greater in number and stronger than it is.
13 But Moses said to the Lord, “The Egyptians will hear, from among whom You brought this people by Your power,
14 And they will say to the inhabitants of this land who have heard that You, the Lord, are among this people, and that You, the Lord, make Yourself visible to them face to face, and Your cloud stands over them, and You walk before them by day in a pillar of cloud , and at night in a pillar of fire;
15 And if You destroy this people as one man, then the nations that have heard Your glory will say:
16 The Lord could not bring this people into the land that He had promised them with an oath, and therefore destroyed them in the wilderness.
17 Let therefore the power of the Lord be great, as thou hast spoken, saying:
18 The Lord is long-suffering and abounding in mercy, forgiving iniquity and trespasses, and not leaving unpunished, but visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.
19 Forgive the sin of this people according to Your great mercy, just as You have forgiven this people from Egypt until now.
20 And the Lord said to Moses, I forgive according to your word;
21 But as I live, the whole earth is full of the glory of the Lord:
22 All who have seen My glory and My signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me ten times now, and have not listened to My voice,
23 They will not see the land that I promised to their fathers with an oath; all who provoked Me will not see it;
24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit and obeyed me perfectly, will I bring into the land where he went, and his seed will inherit it;
25 The Amalekites and Canaanites live in the valley; turn tomorrow and go into the desert to the Red Sea.
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
27 How long will this evil society murmur against Me? I hear the murmuring of the children of Israel, with which they murmur against Me.
28 Say to them, “As I live, says the Lord, as you have spoken in my hearing, so will I do to you;
29 In this wilderness your bodies will fall, and all of you who are numbered, as many as you are, from twenty years old and upward, who murmured against Me,
30 You shall not enter the land in which I lifted up my hand and swore to make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun;
31 Your children, whom you said would be a prey to the enemies, I will bring in there, and they will know the land that you have despised.
32 And your corpses will fall in this wilderness;
33 And your sons will wander in the wilderness for forty years, and will bear the punishment of your fornication, until all your bodies perish in the wilderness;
34 According to the number of forty days in which you searched the land, you will bear the punishment for your sins forty years, a year for a day, so that you may know what it means to be forsaken by Me.
35 I, the Lord, speak, and so I will do to all this evil society that has risen up against Me: in this desert they will all perish and die.
36 And those whom Moses sent to spy out the land, and who returned and stirred up the whole congregation against him, spreading evil rumors about the land,
37 These who spread a bad report about the land died, being slain before the Lord;
38 Only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh were left alive of the men who went out to spy out the land.

In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses himself briefly retells this story for posterity. Maybe he sees her somehow differently? Let's see.

Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 1:

24 They went and climbed the mountain and came to the valley of Eschol, and surveyed it;
25 And they took the fruits of the land in their hands and brought them to us, and they brought us news and said, “The land that the Lord our God is giving us is good.”
26 But you did not want to go and rebelled against the commandment of the Lord your God,
27 And they murmured in your tents and said: The Lord, out of hatred for us, brought us out of the land of Egypt, to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites and destroy us;
28 where will we go? our brothers weakened our hearts, saying: That people is greater and taller than us, the cities there are large and with fortifications reaching to heaven, and we also saw the sons of Anak there.
29 And I said to you, Do not be afraid or be afraid of them;
30 The Lord your God goes before you; He will fight for you, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,
31 And in this wilderness, where, as you saw, the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you walked before you came to this place.
32 But even so you did not believe the Lord your God,
33 Who went before you on the way to seek you places where you can stop, in the fire by night to show you the way to go, and in the cloud by day.
34 And the Lord heard your words, and was angry, and swore, saying:
35 None of this people, from this evil generation, will see the good land that I swore to give to your fathers;
36 Only Caleb the son of Jephunneh shall see her; to him will I give the land through which he passed, and to his sons, because he obeyed the Lord.
37 And the Lord was angry with me because of you, saying, “Neither shalt thou enter there;
38 Joshua the son of Nun, who is with you, he will enter there; establish him, for he will bring Israel into possession of it;
39 Your children, of whom you said that they would be a prey to the enemies, and your sons, who now know neither good nor evil, they will enter there, I will give it to them, and they will take possession of it;

God mentioned that such an incident of disobedience, or even betrayal, was not the only one. And indeed, there were many of them. The case of Moses receiving the commandments on Mount Sinai seems especially egregious to me.

Book of Exodus, chapter 19

3 Moses went up to God on the mountain, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
4 You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you as if on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself;
5 Therefore, if you will obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you will be My inheritance from all nations, for the whole earth is Mine,
6 And you will be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation; These are the words that you will speak to the children of Israel.
7 And Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him.
8 And all the people answered with one voice, saying, “We will do all that the Lord has spoken.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord.
…

16 On the third day, when morning came, there were thunders and lightning, and a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud sound of a trumpet; and all the people that were in the camp trembled.
17 And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
18 And Mount Sinai was all smoking because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; and smoke rose from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain shook greatly;
19 and the sound of the trumpet grew stronger and stronger. Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.
20 And the Lord went down to Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

On this mountain God gave Moses the 10 commandments.

In particular, let me remind you of the following (Book of Exodus, Chapter 20):

4 You shall not make for yourself any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth below, or that is in the water under the earth;
5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate Me.
6 and showing mercy to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Book of Exodus, Chapter 24:

3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the laws. And all the people answered with one voice, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.

12 And the Lord said to Moses: Go up to Me on the mountain and be there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, and the law and the commandments, which I wrote to teach them.

…

18 Moses entered into the midst of the cloud and went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

While Moses was listening to the law, including detailed instructions for making the Ark of Testimony and the Tabernacle, the incredible happened (Book of Exodus, Chapter 32):

1 When the people saw that Moses did not come down from the mountain for a long time, they gathered to Aaron and said to him: Arise and make us a god who will go before us, for with this man, with Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what happened.
2 And Aaron said to them, Take out the gold earrings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me.
3 And all the people took the gold earrings out of their ears and brought them to Aaron.
4 He took them out of their hands, and made a molten calf out of them, and dressed it with a chisel. And they said, Behold your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!
5 When Aaron saw this, he set up an altar before it, and Aaron proclaimed, saying, “Tomorrow is a feast of the Lord.”
6 And the next day they rose up early, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings: and the people sat down to eat and drink, and afterward rose up to play.
7 And the Lord said to Moses, Hasten to go down; For your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have become corrupt;
8 They quickly turned away from the way that I commanded them: they made themselves a molten calf and worshiped it, and offered sacrifices to it and said, “Behold your God, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
9 And the Lord said to Moses: I see this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people;
10 Therefore leave Me, that My wrath may burn against them, and I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation.

By the way, when the Jews were sent to walk in the desert, they nevertheless continued to grumble against the Lord every now and then:

Book of Numbers, Chapter 20.

2 And there was no water for the congregation, and they gathered together against Moses and Aaron;
3 And the people murmured against Moses and said: Oh, that we had died then, when our brothers died before the Lord!
4 Why have you brought the congregation of the Lord into this wilderness, so that we and our cattle may die here?
5 And why did you bring us out of Egypt, to bring us to this worthless place, where it is impossible to sow, where there are no fig trees, no grapes, no pomegranates, not even water to drink?
6 And Moses and Aaron went from the people to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and fell on their faces, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them.
7 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
8 Take the rod and gather the congregation together, you and Aaron your brother, and speak to the rock in their sight, and it will give water out of itself: and so you will bring water out of the rock for them, and give water to the congregation and their cattle.
9 And Moses took the rod from the presence of the Lord, as He commanded him.
10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the people to the rock, and he said to them, “Listen, you disobedient ones, shall we bring water out of this rock for you?”
11 And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his rod twice, and much water came out, and the congregation and their livestock drank.
12 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, Because you did not believe Me, to show My holiness in the sight of the children of Israel, you will not bring this people into the land that I am giving them.

So, in my opinion, everything is written very clearly in the text. God did not bring the Jews into the land he was promised because the Jews “did not believe” God, “murmured” against God, “irritated” God, and generally “committed fornication.” Walking in the desert was a punishment and a lesson for them. A lesson in obedience to God.

And nothing is written about slavery. Not a word.

And indeed, somehow these Jews don’t really look like slaves, do they? The owner of such slaves, truly, must be a holy man, I am not afraid of this word, with Buddhist patience, in order to cope with such slaves.

Moreover, it turns out to be an interesting thing. God led the Jews through the desert in order to instill in them this very slave model of behavior (obedience, faith, submission to orders, etc.), and not in order to eradicate it. But instill in relation to God and man. The Jews, being slaves in the land of Egypt, turned out to be rebellious, “stiff-necked,” frankly, even arrogant towards God. They simply didn’t believe him, they doubted his words that he was giving them the land where they were going. Miracles, signs, nothing worked.

In general, we can end here. Especially if you are a supporter of the literal interpretation of the Bible. And here, to be honest, everything is very clear, even simple (this is not the Revelation of John, frankly speaking).

However, let’s get down to “spiritual fornication” and try to come up with arguments “for” the “slave” interpretation of this fragment.

Firstly, it can be argued that defiant manners, insolence, opportunistic behavior, betrayal, etc. are the other side of a slave. In this regard, I remember how incredibly quickly Sharikov became impudent in “Heart of a Dog.” The same metamorphosis occurred with the entire “team” of Shvonder, who felt themselves to be “masters of life” while remaining “lackeys” of the spirit. The slave does not feel like a full-fledged person and, therefore, does not feel responsible for his actions. Like a dog that a stranger lured with sausage, and it ran after him. Blaming her is useless - instincts. Perhaps instant freedom, according to the principle of rags to riches (implying that one is still “rags”, although already a “prince”), did not lead to the emergence of a sense of responsibility. And without any feeling, concluding an agreement with a person and hoping for its fulfillment (a Covenant, let me remind you, this is an agreement between God and man) is rather difficult.

More sophisticated people, upon reflection, can offer a second argument in favor of the fact that God did “heal” the Jews from slavery. They say, servant of God is a high and honorable title (and this is true), implying (which is no longer so obvious) that a person has no other masters. I remember Kuraev speaking about this (with pride, of course). Accordingly, it can be assumed that God wanted to make people free (to cure them of their slavish behavior toward other people) in order for them to become true slaves of God.

Both of these arguments are based on the assumption that a slave is not acceptable to God as a servant, and that God's true people must exhibit the characteristics of a "free" model of behavior.

What can I say? In my opinion, this is a mistake, since the relationship between people (including the master-slave relationship) and the relationship between man and God are confused. The former are projected onto the latter, which is incorrect.

Still, the servant of God and the slave of Bori or Vanya are different things located on different planes. It does not interfere. In practice, these things could easily be combined. The Jews, while slaves, remained God's people. Slaves also quite easily became Christians later. By the way, here we can assume that, on the contrary, the Jews lacked obedience, trust, and diligence in their relationship with God, that is, they lacked, in fact, the traits of a real slave. Why didn’t they transfer this “slave model” of behavior, worked out in their relationship with the Egyptians, to their relationship with God? Is it because these are completely different situations?

But, more importantly, the feedback “a servant of God is a free man” does not work. Let us assume that the logical connection “a servant of God - therefore a slave to no one” is true. But this does not mean that “not a slave to anyone, therefore a servant of God” is also true. Let us note that the enemies of God - the Canaanites, whose destruction was the mission of the Jews in the Promised Land, were a free people. And this did not make them closer to God.

It is not at all a fact that Professor Preobrazhensky, as Christians, is better than Sharikov and Shvonder (although in this case, it may be better, since the latter are bearers of socialist ideology).

From the text of the Bible it follows that God wanted to make his people free. And he did it quickly. But this did not automatically lead to obedience before God. This is the key problem.

Book of Leviticus, chapter 26.

13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would not be slaves there, and broke the bands of your yoke, and led you with your head lifted up.
14 But if you do not listen to Me and do not keep all these commandments,
15 And if you despise My statutes, and if your soul abhors My statutes, so that you do not keep all My commandments, breaking My covenant,
16 Then I will do the same to you: I will send upon you terror, stunting and fever, from which your eyes will be weary and your soul will be tormented, and you will sow your seeds in vain, and your enemies will eat them up;
17 I will set my face against you, and you will fall before your enemies, and your enemies will rule over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.
18 If you still do not listen to Me, then I will increase the punishment for your sins sevenfold,
19 And I will break your proud stubbornness, and I will make your heavens like iron, and your earth like brass;

Hundreds, if not thousands of times in the Old Testament the same phrase is repeated: “I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth [generation] of those who hate Me, and showing mercy to a thousand generations of those who love Me and those who keep my commandments».

It is clear here that liberation from slavery, on the one hand, and obedience to God, on the other, are not automatically connected. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that God, punishing the Jews with a 40-year journey through the desert, saying that this is for their distrust, murmuring, and disobedience to God, was actually trying to eradicate the slave model of behavior in them. The formation of a free person and the formation of a person submissive to God are different processes.

In fact, whether you are a slave or not a slave to other people has no bearing on whether you are a worthy servant of God. The point is not at all whether you are a slave or a free person. Because of this, Christianity, having emerged in a world in which the slave system was dominant (the Roman Empire), did not have any special opinion about this institution, and slavery itself as a social order did not contradict the Christian worldview. This is a separate and very interesting question (after all, it contradicts the so-called morality and morality), which I will consider in one of my next posts.