YHWH Approves Murder and Slavery

June 14, 2009, 6:54 am by dc-agape.

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Exodus Chapter 2:11-25

This is the story of a hideous crime, a cover up, and the murderer being blessed by YHWH.  But then Levi, Moses’ great-grandfather murdered an entire city of Shechem for a single suspected crime.  But of course, two things make this murder OK by YHWH.  First, the 10 commandments have not been written yet.  And second, Moses does kill an unbeliever.

Here again, the childhood of the story is missing.  He is born and then he is an adult.  Childhood is something that is either boring to the Israelites or not important.  Moses goes out, from his sheltered life in the palace, to gloat at the Israelite slaves.  In the process he saw the injustice of slavery – a master beating his slave.  Of course, this is not the moral of the story – Christians have approved of slavery until the United States Civil War.  So Moses premeditatedly kills the Egyptian:

Exodus 2:12 Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

This is not a murder in the heat of the moment, nor is it an accident.  Moses had to wait until the Egyptian was neither near Israelites nor any other Egyptian to accomplish this murder.  It was cold, it was calculated, and it was premeditated.  Worse is that he covered up the murder by hiding the body, which means that he had no remorse, and that he would have had to continue to plan how to keep the body out of sight until he could bury it. 

Well, as it turns out, he did not do a good job.  The very next day he interrupts a fight between two Israelite slaves, I guess the slave masters enjoyed watching this sort of thing.  In fact, you would think that the slave masters would break it up, due to slow down in work and possible loss of a laborer.  Well instead of being thankful that Moses stopped an abusive Egyptian, the Israelite asks Moses:

Exodus 2:14 The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.”

The Israelite is more afraid of Moses than thankful.  Moses is more worried about himself than remorseful.  Worse the Pharaoh does find out and tries to kill Moses.  How unjust the Pharaoh is for wanting to punish a murderer!  Instead of facing his punishment, Moses flees the country.  Not only that but he goes to Midian about 200 miles away.

Midian it turns out is actually a monotheist country that worships YHWH.  When Moses gets to a well in the area he meets the daughters of one of YHWH’s priests.  Some men drove the Midianite daughter from the well, but Moses steps in and helps the woman.  He goes so far as to also water the women’s animals for them.  I wonder if he killed the shepherds.

Well the women when on their way and when they arrived at home their father was surprised at how quickly they had finished the task of watering the flocks.  Moses must have been a very strong man…he did the work of seven women in less time than they would have.  Reuel, their father, tells them to invite the Egyptian back to have dinner with them.  In the process, Moses marries one of the daughters and has a child that is half-Midian.   

Even though Moses was protected by a Midian who worshipped YHWH, and marries one of the daughters of the Midianites, YHWH was not going to let the Midianites live:

Numbers 31:1 The Lord said to Moses, “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites.  After that, you will be gathered to your people.”

Within Moses’ lifetime the Midianites (his wife’s nation and worshipper of YHWH) did nothing to the Israelites to deserve vengeance – try finding it in the Word of God!  In fact, what you will find is that after Balaam warns the Moabites not to fight the Israelites the Midianites are no longer part of the story!  They have done nothing to the Israelites.  You realize this means that Moses kills his father-in-law and his wife’s sisters, right?

This chapter ends with YHWH “remembering” the suffering that he put on the Israelites.  Two things should be blatantly obvious to the reader of this passage.  One is that it is YHWH plan to have the Israelites become slaves (Gen 15:13).  YHWH plans and orchestrates the enslavement of the Israelites.  Second, is YHWH so absent minded that he has to remember that his “chosen people” are suffering?  Even worse is that during this entire time that the Israelites were slaves, YHWH turned a blind eye to the suffering that he designed, but he finally becomes concerned:

Exodus 2:25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

Now isn’t odd that an omnipotent all-knowing YHWH would all of a sudden after decades of slavery (if not centuries) recognize what he had done to his “chosen people”?  But this is exactly how the Word of God is written.  YHWH ignores their suffering for at least 60, if not 100 years or more! 

As an Atheist I know I have heard the line “YHWH works at his own time frame” and “YHWH works in mysterious ways”.  But this takes the cake.  People were suffering, possibly for generations, and he just ignores that he planned their suffering!  Can you think of a less caring or a less loving act than this?  I see no reason to worship a  beast like this, thankfully YHWH is just a man-made image!

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