The Unifying Theme in the Pentateuch - Literature review Example

The Unifying Theme in the Pentateuch By The Unifying Theme in the Pentateuch Introduction Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are often referred to as the Pentateuch.1 These are the bible’s first five books. They are called the Torah because they are centered on the Sinai covenant that God made to the Israelites through Moses. The books can be summarized in the following ways: Genesis (God’s plan to Israelites), Exodus (God’s redemptive power), Leviticus (person of God), Numbers (God’s providence) and Deuteronomy (principles of God). The central theme of the Torah is God’s covenant with His people. The Pentateuch talks about God’s promises for his people. They give a historical account of how God intended to fulfill His promises through interactions with His people. For example, revealing His presence and giving those principles to live by in order to have a healthy relationship with Him. The books describe how the Israelites fell on many occasions and how God rose them again because He was determined to fulfill His promises to them despite their sins and weaknesses.2 This paper asserts that the unity of the Pentateuch comes from the single story the books tell i.e. God’s creation of the world and destines human beings for progeny blessing and land possession (Genesis 1-3). Despite God’s instructions to Israelites to live holy lives, they rebelled as human population increased. Their behavior provoked God to send floods to wipe them off the service of the earth, except Noah’s family that was holy. Because God was still interested in fulfilling His covenant, he spared Noah’s sons, Ham, Sham and Japheth (Gen 4-9). The three sons continued the human race and formed the descendants of 70 nations of civilized. The civilized Generation that emerged from Noah’s sons also annoyed God by building a city rather than taking their assigned land as God had instructed them (Gen 10-11). This made God to choose one family from the rest. Abraham and Sarah were then chosen by God to fulfill his promises through them.3 At this time, the couple was landless and childless, yet they obeyed God and kept His instructions. God’s promises to increase humans and give them land to possess were fulfilled through Abraham. Genesis chapter 12: 1-9 talks about how God called Abraham to be the father of all nations. Abraham lived with his father when God called Him. He had a wife, Sarah but no children or land. He didn’t even know Yahweh and worshipped the moon gods. God called him and told him to go to the land of Canaan. God promised to bless him by giving him land possession and make him a great nation. God also promised to bless those blessed him and curse those that cursed him. Abraham left Haran together with his wife and servants for Canaan where they settled and God blessed the land and it bore many fruits.4 He then blessed them with a child named Isaac so that the blessing of progeny would be fulfilled through Abraham’s descendants.5 Genesis 15, Abraham entered into a covenant with God, to give his descendants land to possess and increase their generations. God ordered Abraham to offer Him a sacrifice. Afterwards, Abraham fell into a deep sleep through which God talked to him. God said that Abraham descendants would be enslaved in a strange land for 400 years but God would later give that land to them and return everything that was stolen from them. God promised to give Abraham’s descendants land in Canaan and the surrounding environs. Genesis 17: 1-15 continues to illustrate God’s plan for His people by initiating a covenant with the Israelites. God ordered him to circumcise himself and every male member of his descent thereafter when they reached 8 days old. This was meant to be a physical sign of God’s covenant with Abraham and his descendants. After circumcision, God changed Abraham’s name from Abraham to Abraham. He promised to make him a great nation, give them land to possess and establish a lasting covenant with his descendants. Genesis 22 describes hoe God tested Abraham’s faith to see how loyal he was. God ordered him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Abraham gathered sacrificial tools and took Isaac to Mt Moriah where he intended to sacrifice him. However, when he was about to kill his son, God provided a lamb and spared Isaac.6 This proves that Abraham was the ultimate choice for God to establish a lasting covenant with because he feared God and was ready to obey him at any cost. It also shows God’s commitment to fulfill his promise of progeny by sparing Isaac to continue Abraham’s descendants Genesis 26: 1-17 continues to prove God’s plan for His people by sparing Isaac and blessing him in a foreign land. A famine led Isaac to Gerar where he met Abimelech, king of the Philistines. God told him not to leave Gerar because God would bless him by giving him the land. Isaac told Abimelech that his wife, Rebecca was his sister because he feared that he would be chased away. Later on the king realized that she was his wife and ordered his men not to harm them. God blessed him so much that the king chased him away because he was becoming a threat to them.7 In Genesis 28, God’s plan to increase Abraham’s descendants is continued when Isaac blesses Jacob and tells him to take a wife from his mother’s house. On his way, Jacob decided to rest at Bethel where God appeared to him in a dream and promised to increase his descendants and enlarge his territories. Jacob called that place Bethel and built an altar to God there. Exodus explains God’s redemptive power over His people. God saved them from their enemies and fought their battles because He had promised to prosper them and enlarge their territories. Exodus 1: 11-27 talks about Israelites oppression in Egypt. The Egyptians used them as their slaves. They were subjected to hard labor and their treasured items snatched by the Egyptians. Some were forced to worship foreign gods and their male progeny were destroyed by the Egyptians. This was in fulfillment of God’s words to Abraham during the circumcision covenant where God told him that his descendants/ offsprings would fall into slavery for a period of 400 years.8 During this period, the Israelites went through great suffering and they almost forgot their God. They were frustrated and cried out to God to save them. Being a chosen nation, this enslavement made them doubt God’s promises to them. However, God remained faithful and blessed the works of their hands. They increased in number and the king felt threatened leading to a decree to kill their male firstborn sons. However, God sent Moses in time to prevent this massacre. Exodus 3: 1-16 gives an account of how Moses encountered God in a burning bush. This was during a period when Pharaoh ordered the killing of the Israelites’ first born sons. God had promised to increase Abraham’s progeny and Moses was called in time to save the descendants from total destruction. Thus, Moses was instructed to encounter Pharaoh so as set His people free. Moses was reluctant because he had fled after killing an Egyptian. He gave excuses but God chose Aaron his brother to e his spokesperson. In Exodus 6, God told Moses to remind His people the promises He had made with them.9 God instructed Moses to announce that he would save them from their oppression and make them a great nation. He was going to bless their descendants and defeat their enemies. Moses reported this to the people but they couldn’t believe him for they had suffered for too long to believe that God still cared about them. God then told Moses to go to Pharaoh and order him to set them free. When pharaoh refused, God sent 10 plagues that revealed his power and Israelites left Egypt with great victory. In Exodus, God wanted to reveal himself to the Israelites. He ordered them to keep clean and abstain from sexual intercourse. They were to gather at the foot of Mt Sinai where God would speak to them. When the time came, the people gathered and God appeared to them with signs of thunder and storms. They were reminded that God had chosen them and they had to obey Him in order to enjoy His blessings. Exodus 32 describes Israelites weaknesses and impatience with Moses, and how God was still committed to His covenant despite their weaknesses.10 When Moses went to Mt Sinai to collect the commandments, the people became impatient, they made a golden calf and worshipped it. God became agree and was about to finish them but Moses begged God to forgive them. When Moses came down and found them worshipping them, he got angry and dropped the two tablets that contained the commandments. He burnt the calf, spread the ashes on water and forced them to drink it. He ordered the Levites, who stood for God to kill their neighbor, friends and families, leading to deaths of more than 3000 people. Moses was commanded by God to lead his people to Canaan but he punished them with a plague for disobeying him. The book of Leviticus talks about the person of God. God gave laws that they had to live by in order to establish good relationships with him and with others. The regulations and rules applied to all spheres of their lives including religion, family, relationships, harvest and punishments.11 For example, they were to worship God only and refrain from worshipping any forms of idle. They offered different types of offerings they were required to offer as a sign gratitude to God (Lev 1-8). The book also addresses clean and unclean foods that would make them unholy to approach God’s presence. They were to avoid meat from dead animals and insects, snakes and sea animals that didn’t have scales (Lev 11). Chapter 12 talks about purification of women after child birth so that they would approach His presence without blemishes. Chapter 13-25 talk about different issues related to cleanliness and purity such as discharges that cause uncleanliness, cleanliness form infections skin diseases, unlawful sexual relationships, sin atonement and different types of laws on sacrifices. Leviticus 26: 2-13 talks about the rewards for obedience to God’s words and commandments. God promised to send rains in all seasons, increase their farming produce, give them peaceful lives and give them war victory. He promised to give them favors, their descendants and walk with them. These promises are similar to the ones God made with Abraham when He promised to make him a great nation. Through the Israelites, God intended to fulfill His covenant by increasing their generations, bless their land and give them war victories in order to increase their territories.12 The person of God as described in this book reveal that He is kind, merciful, just and fulfills his promises. God likes order, purity and obedience from His people in order to maintain His covenant with them. The entire book reveals the person of God and His willingness to fulfill the covenant with the Israelites.13 Numbers 13 talks about God’s providence especially in making the Israelites explore the land of Canaan in order to seize it and occupy it. Verses 26-33 explain how some people were sent to sojourn the land of Canaan in order to determine how to conquer. The men went and upon returning, they reported that the land was rich but was occupied by strong men that the Israelite couldn’t conquer. This sent fear among people but Caleb silenced them saying that God had delivered the Canaanites to the Israelites. God was willing to show His strength in giving them victory as he had promised in Leviticus 26: 2-13. Leviticus 14: 1-4 explains the people’s rebellion to God after hearing the bad report. They complained that God should have let them die in Egypt rather than make them die by the sword. Verses 10-12 expresses God’s anger because His people lacked faith with him.14 Aaron and Moses pleased on behalf of the people for God to relent His anger. They sent new men to spy the land and the group came with positive news that the Israelites could defeat the Canaanites. The people realized they had sinned and repented for doubting God. Yahweh forgave them because He had made a covenant with them. Deuteronomy 1 explains God’s plan to extend Israelites land possession by ordering them to leave Horeb where they had stayed for too long. After 40 years of residing in the deserts of Horeb, God commanded them to leave because He had promised them a land filled with honey, milk and comfortable living verses 1-8). God wanted them to leave Horeb so that they could occupy Canaan and the lands surrounding it. To achieve this, they had to defeat the occupants of these lands.15 However, God had promised them in Leviticus 26 that they would live peacefully and win battles and this assured them of great victory against their enemies. Moses appointed leaders from heads of each tribe to lead the tribes and ensure that they followed God’s commandments (Verses 9-18). Although the people further rebelled against God, He was slow to anger because He was committed to fulfilling His promises and the people were very close to reaching Canaan. Deuteronomy 2 describes how the Israelites wandered in the deserts and how God prevented them from harm and gave them victories against their enemies. After wandering in the deserts for 38 years, the Israelites were weak and not a match to their hostile neighbors. However, God fulfilled his covenant of protecting them and fighting their battles. Verses 24-37 describes hoe God gave them victory over Silhon, king of Heshbon. The king had a big army that he used to wage war against the Israelites (Blekinsopp, 2002) However, God made the Israelites stronger in their military tactics and they defeated the king, taking his land and its possession as theirs c This indicated that God was willing to increase their territories and protect their descendants from perishing in wars so that Israel can be a great nation. Chapter 26 explains God’s instructions to Israelites after they reach Canaan.16 God instructs them to honour Him by offering Him the first fruits and tithe of their soil produce and to follow His commands. This indicated that God was true to His promises to give them the land of Canaan as He had promised in Genesis. Therefore, the entire Torah main theme IS God’s covenant with the Israelites. Conclusion The unifying theme makes a big difference to the Christians today in showing God’s willingness and commitment to his promises. Today’s Christians are the New Israelites who learn from the Torah that they must obey God and keep His commandments in order to have a healthy relationship with Him. Through obedience to God, they enjoy the fulfillment of His promises in terms of providing spiritual nourishment, physical needs and grace.17 God gives them great victories in work places, family feuds and shielding them from political violence, to mention a few. The Torah clearly defines God’s nature and Principles. It shows Christians how God expects to relate with them and their role in making the world a better place by refraining from unclean practices such as sexual immoralities (Leviticus 18). Therefore, the Pentateuch increases Christian’s faith in knowing that God will fulfill His promises to them as long as they obey Him. The books are also relevant to non-Christians in that they reveal God’s forgiving nature, patience and willingness to forgive and redeem sinners. The Torah gives countless account of how the Israelites turned against God and He forgave them. This expresses God’s willingness to draw sinners to Himself, which increases their desires to know Him. Non-Christians after reading the Torah understand God as a kind father, rather than see Him as a vengeance judge who is ready to offer punitive punishment at the slighted provocation (Blekinsopp, 2002). The Pentateuch teaches them that God is willing to establish a good relationship with all 0f His creation despite their sins. Therefore, the books draw non-Christians to the kind God who is willing to start all over again despite the sins and inequities of his people. He is willing to take any Non-Christian and walk with them, teaching them His way so that He can prosper them and bless their future generations. Bibliography Bible, Holy. "New international version." Grand Rapids: Zondervan (1984). Blenkinsopp, Joseph. The Pentateuch: an introduction to the first five books of the Bible. Doubleday, 1992. Bruce, Frederick Fyvie. The canon of scripture. Intervarsity Press, 1988. Clines, David JA. Theme of the Pentateuch. Vol. 10. A&C Black, 1997. Fox, Everett. "The Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, vol. 1, The Schocken Bible, a new translation with introductions, commentary, and notes by Everett Fox." (2007). Kaiser, Walter C. Toward an Old Testament Theology. Zondervan, 1991. Metzger, Bruce Manning, and Roland Edmund Murphy, eds. The new Oxford annotated Bible with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books: New revised standard version. Oxford University Press, 1991. Olson, Dennis T. The Death of the Old and the Birth of the New: The Framework of the Book of Numbers and the Pentateuch. No. 71. Scholars Pr, 1985. Sailhamer, John. The Pentateuch as narrative: a biblical-theological commentary. Zondervan Publishing Company, 2002. Whybray, R. Norman. The making of the Pentateuch: a methodological study. Vol. 53. A&C Black, 1987. Read More