THE BOOK OF EXODUS

Exodus 1

The Israelites Oppressed

¹ These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: ² Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; ³ Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; ⁴ Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. ⁵ The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
⁶ Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, ⁷ but the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them.
⁸ Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. ⁹ "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. ¹⁰ Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."
¹¹ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

What? Didn’t Joseph say that everything was owned by Pharaoh and everyone was in bondage under him? Now the writer of the bible is saying, “well not really, it wasn’t really like that. It was more, um, well, it was more the new kings fault, yeah. He was an evil king. A scorpion king…hey that’s neat! Um, I mean, that’s bad!”

¹⁵ The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, ¹⁶ "When you help the Hebrew women in childbirth and observe them on the delivery stool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, let her live." ¹⁷ The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. ¹⁸ Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"

Yet again, another example of the writer not knowing the culture he was talking about. They make it sound like Pharaoh had time and intention to walk through the street’s counting heads. Please! First, he was a ‘figure head’, a god, the real government worked like a machine, it’s wheels working behind the scenes. Secondly, Pharaoh was a god, he probably said nothing to these two insects of human beings, why would he? The truth is, the more slaves these Hebrews produce, the more work can be done. Why would a god be afraid of his slaves? Again, this mighty Pharaoh, instead of marching his army into the Hebrew villages, issues a proclimation:

²² Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: "Every boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live."

Exodus 2

The Birth of Moses

¹ Now a man of the house of Levi married a Levite woman, ² and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. ³ But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. ⁴ His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

Really? How about this one:

Set’s sister, Isis was enslaved by Set after her brother and husband, Osiris’s death (which is a topic itself and will be discussed shortly). Isis managed to escape and was forced to hide in the swamp of the Delta, for she was carrying a child, Horus, destined to grow up and defeat Set; thus avenging his father’s death. As an infant, Horus was watched over by various gods and marsh-nymphs in a place in the swamp called Chemmis. Among these was Nephthys, the sister and wife of Set-as she had left her husband due to his cruelty. Snakes were his biggest source of danger, as they were Set in disguise. At one point, Horus was bitten and poisoned. He was saved by the gods because the power of the "high god" could protect him from Set and his followers.⁷

There were many, many stories like this in ancient times, as well as many versions of the so-called immaculate birth, but we’ll get to that. What is interesting to note is that Moses was enslaved in Egypt…funny this ancient story is also set in Egypt. Moses saves his people…Horus avenges his father, thus saving the people. The names have the same amount of syllables and have a soft ryme to them.

Anyway, in Moses’ version of his life, he is found by none other than the Pharaoh’s daughter, who takes pity on the child and adopts him.

Now, how does Moses know so much about the history of his people when he was in the court of the pharaoh? Yet, he does not even know the name of his own mother? Moses wrote this?

Anyway, Moses, who’s been educated as an Egyptian, probably thinks like one as well, one day went for a walk and he sees some Hebrews being accosted by the Egyptian slavers. And Moses gets mad:

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

He’s shaping up to be just like his ancestors.

¹⁵ When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well. ¹⁶ Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock. ¹⁷ Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock.
¹⁸ When the girls returned to Reuel their father, he asked them, "Why have you returned so early today?"
¹⁹ They answered, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."
²⁰ "And where is he?" he asked his daughters. "Why did you leave him? Invite him to have something to eat."

What’s wrong with this picture? Moses, is the adopted son of the Pharaoh’s daughter. That’s pretty important. Are we to assume that some one of such importance just walks along as is not recognized by the people. Why would Moses have to kill the Egyptian, couldn’t have just told the guy to stop and then said something like, “I am Moses, Son of daughter of Pharaoh, and you have the gall to question me?” But of course he doesn’t. Why? Probably because the whole story is a lie. Moses was probably a street rat, not someone as important. And, the pharaoh instantly turns on him and wants him dead. Not only that, but Pharaoh fails? Moses escapes and guess what? That’s right he gets married:

²¹ Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage. ²² Zipporah gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have become an alien in a foreign land."

Yawn, the predictability is starting to get grating.

²³ During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. ²⁵ So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.

God, who’s been sleeping or something, wakes up and remembers(?) what he told A, I, J. Remember, that he says it to everybody who’ll listen. It’s been on his mind from the beginning, but for what ever reason, he has forgotten and now he remembers. Not only that, but it was Joseph who sold them into slavery in the first place. God chose him remember?

Exodus 3

Moses and the Burning Bush

¹ Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight-why the bush does not burn up."

Figure – Tlauixcalpantecuhtli burning a rubber ball

Babylon’s creation myth:

He set the lightning in front of him,
With burning flame he filled his body.⁸

Let’s assume that god goes to this elaborate end to get Moses to talk with him. Why have we seen god do nearly nothing of importance? He’s almost always forced to ‘bend’ to get humans attention.

⁴ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!"
And Moses said, "Here I am."
⁵ "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

Note again, the Babylonian creation myth, seems to echo what was later called the burning bush even more now.

God blathers on about his promise, again. Moses then gets worried about the burden of proof when he arrives back in Egypt and god says:

¹⁴ God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'IAM has sent me to you.' "

Not only does Moses not know the name of his own mother, nor the name of the pharaoh, nor the name of the pharaoh’s daughter, but now god won’t even tell him his name. Sounds to me Moses was really worried about the burden of proof, that’s why the story is so vague, so that people won’t have the necessary information to question what they are being told. Classic religious double speak.

It’s interesting to note that the word for Lord sounds like and may be derived from the Hebrew for I am. Again, more naming issues that fit perfectly with any classical mythos.

²⁰ So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them. After that, he will let you go.
²¹ "And I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty-handed. ²² Every woman is to ask her neighbor and any woman living in her house for articles of silver and gold and for clothing, which you will put on your sons and daughters. And so you will plunder the Egyptians."

Oh my! At least it’s not genocide…at least not yet. Does it or does it not say plunder? Didn’t Joseph sell his people into slavery…and now instead of paying that debt and buying their freedom, god offers to steal more from the Egyptians?

Exodus 4

Signs for Moses

¹ Moses answered, "What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, 'The Lord did not appear to you'?"
² Then the Lord said to him, "What is that in your hand?"
"A staff," he replied.
³ The Lord said, "Throw it on the ground."
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. ⁴ Then the Lord said to him, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand.

Um, Remember Gen3:1? The serpent, is the most crafty of the beasts. And later:

^GEN3:14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
^GEN3:15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."

So, this most vile, evil, and wretched animal, god hands to Moses as a gift? I guess, judging from god’s apparent love for deceitful and adulteress humans, he must have decided that the snake wasn’t so bad.

⁶ Then the Lord said, "Put your hand inside your cloak." So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was leprous, like snow.
⁷ "Now put it back into your cloak," he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.

Magic tricks are always done ‘behind’ curtains. Why? Because they’re fake, and something has to be changed in order for the observer to believe that the magic is real. If god really wanted to prove his power, he could have changed Moses hand were it was and not had to have hidden it first.

Then Moses says that he might not be the man for the job but god says:

¹¹ The Lord said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the Lord ? ¹² Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."

…and he should have said, “Who makes him a sinner? Who makes him kill, and steal? Who makes him righteous? Who are you, but my puppet? Why did I even bother giving you the illusion of free will?” But he doesn’t…oh well, instead Moses cries some more about not wanting to be the chosen, but in the end he goes anyway.

²¹ The Lord said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. ²² Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, ²³ and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son.' "

The Hebrew celebrate Passover as a great gift from god, a sign…but do they not see that in this passage god says, “I will Harden his heart”…meaning that he was pulling all the strings! Pharaoh, Isreal, all of it is just some huge puppet and what ever happens is an act of god…not a single solitary once of free will. And then to top it off, god says, because I won’t let Pharaoh do this thing I want him to do, I’ll kill of all his children. That is some wondrous and loving god. What a stool!

But it’s okay, because it’s all a lie anyway. Example, the next verse seems inserted and completely out of place with what god just told Moses to do:

²⁴ At a lodging place on the way, the Lord met {Moses} and was about to kill him. ²⁵ But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son's foreskin and touched {Moses'} feet with it. "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me," she said. ²⁶ So the Lord let him alone. (At that time she said "bridegroom of blood," referring to circumcision.)

Notice in this very next passage god wants to kill Moses. What? He just told Moses to go to Egypt and free his people, but here he wants him dead?

Exodus 5

Moses arrives and starts to threaten the Pharaoh…who we’ll remember can’t change his mind anyway.

Pharaoh gets a little pissy about Moses and Aaron and says:

⁶ That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: ⁷ "You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw.

This most assuredly has to be a lie. If the slaves weren’t gathering the straw in the first place who was, and why? I thought that was the reason to have slaves? Could you imagine that happening on a plantation, “Wake up Ms. Scarlet, it’s another day, and we’ve got to get out there and pick that cotton, so the slaves can gin it!” But of course the writer of the bible has no clue about the reality of slavery, and the story continues.

The slaves have to work harder and this gets them in more dire straights, and of course what do they do: blame Moses and Aaron. It’s good that the story is following Jarvis’ Method!

Exodus 6

God steps up the pressure:

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country."
² God also said to Moses, "I am the Lord . ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.

What does that mean that he didn’t make himself known to them? He wrestled with Jacob. He sat down and had dinner with Abraham. He even told Abraham that he the lord god was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. How is that not revealing?

Then what’s worse, is that since Moses doesn’t know his birth, god sits down and tells him his family record. Oh, that make up for all of it!

Exodus 7

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, "See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. ² You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. ³ But I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, ⁴ he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.

Again, with the I will harden his heart crap. Why!!!! It doesn’t make any sense. Where the hell does free will play into this! If Pharaoh is not free to change his mind, then all the first-born Egyptians that he is about to kill die because god wanted them dead. Not because Pharaoh was stubborn. Or that the Egyptians were actually guilty and some how deserved this punishment. No, they die because god said that they will. That is evil.

So Aaron does the staff to snake bit…and Pharaoh shows that he can do it as well, but Aaron’s staff/snake, eats all the Pharaohs staves/snakes. Ha, ha! And then god ‘hardens’ the Pharaohs heart, so this display was useless.

The Plague of Blood
¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go.

Huh? Didn’t the lord say that he was going to make Pharaoh’s heart hard? So why does he blame Pharaoh for the event.

So they go and see Pharaoh again, this time Aaron turns all the water in Egypt into blood. Wow! Why does Pharaoh keep seeing these clowns? He’s a god. He doesn’t have to take audience with just anyone that walks in off the street.

²² But the Egyptian magicians did the same things by their secret arts, and Pharaoh's heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. ²³ Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart. ²⁴ And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water of the river.

The Egyptian magician did the same thing to what? What ‘water’ did they turn to blood? There wasn’t any. And how stupid does the writer think we are when he says they dug along the Nile to get drinking water…wouldn’t that WATER be blood as well? This is just stupid.

When does the water become water again anyway? The human body can only live about 48 hours without water, there would have been thousands of dead with in the first day.

Exodus 8

The plagues of 8: First there are frogs. Then there are gnats. Then flies. And each one follows the same pattern: Pharaoh, “Pray to your god to take away the _________”, the ________ are gone, Pharaoh ‘hardens’ his heart.

Exodus 9

Continuing plagues: The Plague of Livestock. The Plague of boils. The Plague of hail. Again, the same routine.

Exodus 10

The plague of locusts. The plague of darkness. More of the same.

Are you starting to get the picture? Either Moses / god were idiots and puppets to Pharaoh, or Pharaoh, had in fact had his heart hardened and could not change his own mind. Frankly it makes a mockery of the whole religion.

Exodus 11-12

¹ Now the Lord had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. ² Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold." ³ (The Lord made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)
⁴ So Moses said, "This is what the Lord says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. ⁵ Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well.

And Exodus 12

¹ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, ² "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. ³ Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. ⁴ If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed in accordance with what each person will eat. ⁵ The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. ⁶ Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. ⁷ Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. ⁸ That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. ⁹ Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire-head, legs and inner parts. ¹⁰ Do not leave any of it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. ¹¹ This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord 's Passover.
¹² "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn-both men and animals-and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord . ¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Joe has one son. This son grows and has one son named Tony. Tony has one son, named Billy. According to the command of god:

Besides, how many Jews died, because they couldn’t find a ‘flawless’ sheep our goat?

This is one of the most holy days of the year to Jews. The day that god killed thousands if not millions of people in their name. What makes them any different from the Nazi’s? Nothing. The fact that they rejoice on this day as a great day in their religion proves that they have a warped sense of morality. It proves that in their religion it is okay to kill millions if it means something as simple as their freedom. What’s worse, is that it teaches us that we don’t have to be strong and stand up for what we believe, but just to be cowardly and quiet, and if we wait long enough, god will save us. And, apparently, will do it in such a way that the enemy will be utterly and totally destroy.

I find nothing pretty or interesting about Yahweh.

¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.

Notice again, that the writers don’t recognize that one of the pillars of god is broken by this: omnipresence. Why would he have to ‘look’ or ‘fly’ or anything, he should just already know. In fact as he is saying this he already knows which ones have done as he plans. It’s stupid.

¹⁴ "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord -a lasting ordinance. ¹⁵ For seven days you are to eat bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. ¹⁶ On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat-that is all you may do.
¹⁷ "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. ¹⁸ In the first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. ¹⁹ For seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born. ²⁰ Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread."

Here is where god says, because I killed millions of people for you, you will remember and be thankful.

²⁸ The Israelites did just what the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron.
²⁹ At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. ³⁰ Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

Then god does it. Killing ALL the firstborn in Egypt. So if Tom and his family were just passing though on to green pastures, his family is now gone to him.

Frankly this event is a disgusting and ugly part of the history of this religion. If it really happened, I would willing not chose to follow such a god that could be so evil and so destructive and completely unaware of the rest of Noah’s family. Besides, by killing the Egyptians doesn’t he break his covenant with Noah, when he told Noah to be fruitful and multiple?

Not a single solitary religious source views this as genocide. There is really something wrong with human beings that agree with what god did here.

Now the Pharaoh calls back the Murderer Moses (remember Exodus1) and says, okay you win…I guess god finally stopped with the hard heart thing on the poor guy.

As they leave they ‘ask’ for gold and silver…but the word used, again, is plunder which is defined as:

1. Pillage, sack. 2. to take by force or wrong doing: STEAL ~ vi: to commit robbery or looting

First god kills all of the firstborns, then as the Israelits are leaving, they steal and rob from those that lived.

Interesting to note they give us an exact amount of time as well as a number of people: 430 years, and six hundred thousand men (besides women and children). Assuming that only half of those men were married and then only one forth of the woman daughters then there would be: 450,000 more women. That’s 1,050,000 people (minus the children). Divided equally among the years: that is 2441.8 people born a year. But that does not include deaths, no for the fact that we didn’t start with 2441.8 people 430 years ago. We started with the 12 brothers and their families, probably less than a few hundred. These numbers almost seem impossible. Some mathematician should do the work on that.

Passover Restrictions
⁴³ The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for the Passover:
"No foreigner is to eat of it. ⁴⁴ Any slave you have bought may eat of it after you have circumcised him, ⁴⁵ but a temporary resident and a hired worker may not eat of it.
⁴⁶ "It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. ⁴⁷ The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
⁴⁸ "An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the Lord 's Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it. ⁴⁹ The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you."

God says, only people that mutilate their genitals can participate in Passover. So he doesn’t care if you are Jewish, just as long as you have no foreskin. The Romans’ must have been upset with that law, knowing their fondness for food.

With that they escape.

Exodus 13

Begins with the consecration of every firstborn male, but immedialty goes right into the what they are suppose to do on Passover…again.

⁸ On that day tell your son, 'I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.' ⁹ This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand.

Pass on this oral lie, that has never been written in any book, that no Egyptian has ever talked about.

Answering these skeptics, however, is not always so easy as one might expect. The fact is that not one shred of direct archaeological evidence has been found for Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob or the 400-plus years the children of Israel sojourned in Egypt. The same is true for their miraculous exodus from slavery. And remember those reassuring Sunday-school stories about archaeologists finding Jericho's walls lying outward just as the Book of Joshua suggests they fell? It turns out that the most respected archaeologist to dig at Jericho earlier this century, Kathleen Kenyon, differed.¹⁰

And:

Contemplating our own reactions to Rabbi Wolpe’s sermon, let’s examine the evidence. The truth be told, there is precious little undisputed evidence of the Exodus, beyond the biblical account. While some material uncovered by archaeologists in Egypt may be related to the events described in the Bible, this data is very small in quantity. Adding greater doubt is the fact that the alleged evidence may actually refer to other events, and not to the Exodus at all.¹¹

As well as:

Yet Judaism has been openly grappling lately with an uncomfortable reality: Archaeologists and other experts are finding no solid evidence that the Exodus, and the slavery in Egypt, ever really happened. One of the greatest stories ever told, it seems, may be a fable built on sand.

"The story of the Exodus did not happen the way the Bible depicts it, if it happened at all," said Rabbi David Wolpe, senior rabbi at Los Angeles' Sinai Temple.¹²

The real question should be why? Why do we need this lie? What purpose does it serve?

¹¹ "After the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he promised on oath to you and your forefathers, ¹² you are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord . ¹³ Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons.

Kill, kill, kill. He sure loves the site of blood.

Crossing the Sea
¹⁷ When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, "If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt." ¹⁸ So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.
¹⁹ Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He had said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place."

Remember Joseph was the reason why they were sold in to bondage…yet he’s held up as a righteous man.

²⁰ After leaving Succoth they camped at Etham on the edge of the desert. ²¹ By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. ²² Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

When did they sleep? Or were they fed magical manna that acted as a stimulate?

Exodus 14

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ² "Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. ³ Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.' ⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord ." So the Israelites did this.

We start off this chapter, again, with god using Pharaoh and the Egyptian army as his personal puppet to, “gain glory for MYSELF”.

Anyway, Pharaoh pursues them with all his men. And when the Israelites see the Pharaoh they start in on their whining…that lasts until well after the middle of the bible. “Why did you bring us out here to die?”, “Why have you done this?”. What a bunch of babies…hardly the battle strong country that exists today.

²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, ²² and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.
²³ The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh's horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. ²⁴ During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. ²⁵ He made the wheels of their chariots come off so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, "Let's get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt."
²⁶ Then the Lord said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen." ²⁷ Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the Lord swept them into the sea. ²⁸ The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen-the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.

I guess that’s the end of that Pharaoh. What became of Egypt? A land with out an army? A land with out a ruler? It must have been terrible in Egypt at that time…so many enemies waiting for just such a moment to happen. What ever happened? Nothing. Nothing happened to Egypt. They flourished for many more centuries and only really because a conquered nation because of poor Cesar and Cleopatra.

Not to mention, such a loss would have been recorded by the Egyptians. Something as destructive as losing your army and your leader would have made it into the written history of Egypt. By the way, that’s one of the big differences; Egypt had a written history…the Hebrew did not. Yet we don’t believe that Ra is god…and we’re suppose to believe that Yahweh is god? Based on what? Word of mouth?

Exodus 15

The first part of Exodus 15 is the ‘song’ that Moses (and his backing vocals: the Israelites) sing in glory of god. More typical religious fevor. I could openly receite the lyrics here but instead lets look at some of the other myths:

It is she, Isis, the just, who protects her brother,

Who seeks him without wearying,

Who in mourning traverses the whole land

Without respite before finding him,

Who gives shade with her feathers,

And wind with her wings.

It is she who praises her brother,

Who relieves the weakness of him who is tired,

Who receives his seed and gives birth to his heir,

Who nurtures the child in solitude,

Without anyone knowing where she is.

.

Osiris! You went away, but you have retutned,

you fell asleep, but you have awakened,

you died, but you live again

The above is a song for Isis, the Egyptian goddess. What of Orpheus, Homer, and Virgil? What about Beowulf? All stories of amazement that was suppose be the acts of gods. Yet, we don’t see too much actually religious belief springing from the stories by these writers. Why? Probably because the cultures that birthed these artists understood that it was art, understood the undertow of meaning, unlike the what apparently is the middle east. For it seems rather peculiar that most of what we call religion has sprung from this area of the world. Maybe it isn’t necessarily because it’s the root of mankind, maybe instead, it is because they are backwards mentally and have never formulated the idea of art for the sake of art. Watch the movie Galaxy Quest.

The second part of Exodus 15 talks about Miriam (the first prophet mentioned) as well as yet another miracle by god for a whining people:

²⁰ Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing. ²¹ Miriam sang to them:

"Sing to the Lord ,
for he is highly exalted.
The horse and its rider
he has hurled into the sea."

The Waters of Marah and Elim
²² Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. ²³ When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) ²⁴ So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?"
²⁵ Then Moses cried out to the Lord , and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.
There the Lord made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. ²⁶ He said, "If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord , who heals you."
²⁷ Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water.

Now that the occupation by the Egyptians is over let’s take a look at what happened:

1. Joseph is sold by his brothers to The Egyptians. Sin against one’s Brother: Envy, jeoulous.

2. Joseph Saves Egypt from the Drought.

3. Joseph Openly accepts the enslavement of all Egypt as payment for food. Thus binding his own people into 430 years of slavery. Note that somewhere along the line the Egyptians apparently freed their own people. Odd.

4. Moses is born and made royalty.

5. Moses Murders an Egyptian and flees for his life. Sin against Man: Murder.

6. Moses claims that god gives him a command to ‘free’ Israel.

7. God makes Pharaoh say 'no' more than 7 times.

8. God Kills All the First Born in Egypt, because he wouldn’t let Pharaoh say 'yes'.

9. God Kills Pharaoh and his army, because he wouldn’t let Pharaoh say 'yes'.

10. Israel begins its whiny, child like trek across the desert.

Exodus 16

Manna and Quail

¹ The whole Israelite community set out from Elim and came to the Desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had come out of Egypt. ² In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. ³ The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the Lord 's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

Whine, whine, whine. Where is their devotion? Where is their love or loyalty? The Egyptians, who they obviously despised, had more respect for their gods than this ragged group.

⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, "I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. ⁵ On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days."

Here’s more testing from our so-called omnipresent, omniscient god. I’ve a test for you in the vane of what god is doing. Take a deck of cards. Take one card from the deck and place it before you, face up. Ask someone to pick a card. Since they can only pick the one card that is available, they pick that card. Prove you’re great gift of foresight and tell them what the card is. You’ll probably get, “Hey wait a minute, there was only one card and you could see what it was!” Point out to them that the Hebrew Religion calls ‘testing’ by god a holy event…then so to must your omniscient!

Let me see if I get this right. Abraham takes his kid up a mountain where god tell him to kill him. When god says just kidding he has a Ram appear tangled in a bush and Abraham sacrifices that instead. Now, god ‘rains’ bread from the sky? Couldn’t he just make their stomachs full? Why this elaborate scheme?

⁶ So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you will know that it was the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, ⁷ and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord , because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we, that you should grumble against us?" ⁸ Moses also said, "You will know that it was the Lord when he gives you meat to eat in the evening and all the bread you want in the morning, because he has heard your grumbling against him. Who are we? You are not grumbling against us, but against the Lord ."

Notice that it says meat, but doesn’t say where it comes from. We know about the bread, from heaven. And Moses repeats himself constantly, did he just skip over this part, or did god not want to give up the secret of the meat?

¹³ That evening quail came and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. ¹⁴ When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor. ¹⁵ When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was.
Moses said to them, "It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. ¹⁶ This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent.' "

Yuck! They ate quail dung mixed with morning dew!

"We began to use quail's droppings to feed the pig, and to use the pig's feces to feed the fish, and the fish's feces to feed the quail. In this way, we built our own bio-chain," he said.¹³

²¹ Each morning everyone gathered as much as he needed, and when the sun grew hot, it melted away. ²² On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much-two omers for each person-and the leaders of the community came and reported this to Moses. ²³ He said to them, "This is what the Lord commanded: 'Tomorrow is to be a day of rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord . So bake what you want to bake and boil what you want to boil. Save whatever is left and keep it until morning.' "
²⁴ So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it. ²⁵ "Eat it today," Moses said, "because today is a Sabbath to the Lord . You will not find any of it on the ground today. ²⁶ Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any."
²⁷ Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. ²⁸ Then the Lord said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions? ²⁹ Bear in mind that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on the seventh day; no one is to go out."

The Sabbath created and more scolding by god for the behavior of the Israelites.

³¹ The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. ³² Moses said, "This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Take an omer of manna and keep it for the generations to come, so they can see the bread I gave you to eat in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.' "

If any one has ever seen bird droppings they’d realize that they are white, coriander seed, what they taste like, I’ll leave that to the Hebrew.

Interesting to note, that the Hebrew have very strict dietary requirements. Which we’ll learn later. But let us realize now, that a Hebrew will not eat a hotdog made from a pig, but he is willing to eat something that ‘falls’ from the sky?

³⁴ As the Lord commanded Moses, Aaron put the manna in front of the Testimony, that it might be kept. ³⁵ The Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a land that was settled; they ate manna until they reached the border of Canaan.

Forty YEARS! In forty years (that’s one generation), not a single solitary person was required to justify his existence by hunting or planting, or being anything but some kind of weird science experiment for god? That seems awful ridiculous, and again points out the fact that god wants to divide us not to have independent thought and individual greatness.

Exodus 17

Water From the Rock

1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink."
Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test?"
3 But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?"
4 Then Moses cried out to the Lord , "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."
5 The Lord answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?"

How much of this behavior is the ‘lord’ going to take before he smoots them? It didn’t take as much for him to inflict pain on those that would sleep with Abraham’s wife.

The Amalekites Defeated
⁸ The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. ⁹ Moses said to Joshua, "Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands."
¹⁰ So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. ¹¹ As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. ¹² When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up-one on one side, one on the other-so that his hands remained steady till sunset. ¹³ So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
¹⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."
¹⁵ Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. ¹⁶ He said, "For hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord . The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation."

This is an interesting verse. These people, the Amalekites, attack. It says nothing of their size and number, so it could have just been a small tribe, if they existed at all. In fact, the odds are that it was completely made up. The Line in Exodus17:14 says that he would completely blot out the memory of Amalek, which can only mean that after today they would not exist. Weren’t the Amalekites son’s of Noah as well? God doesn’t seem to keen on keeping his promises.

Exodus 18

Thus, not having any culture of their own they begin to steal it from the people that they hated the most, the Egyptians:

¹⁵ Moses answered him, "Because the people come to me to seek God's will. ¹⁶ Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God's decrees and laws."
¹⁷ Moses' father-in-law replied, "What you are doing is not good. ¹⁸ You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. ¹⁹ Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him. ²⁰ Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. ²¹ But select capable men from all the people-men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain-and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²² Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. ²³ If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied."
²⁴ Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. ²⁵ He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. ²⁶ They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.

You would think that god would have told them to do this, but instead it takes Jethro to do it. Notice, that Jethro is the wise father figure, come in time of need.

Exodus 19

¹ In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt-on the very day-they came to the Desert of Sinai. ² After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.
³ Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, "This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: ⁴ 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. ⁵ Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ⁶ you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
⁷ So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak. ⁸ The people all responded together, "We will do everything the Lord has said." So Moses brought their answer back to the Lord .
⁹ The Lord said to Moses, "I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you." Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said.
¹⁰ And the Lord said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes ¹¹ and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

On the third month, and third day. More numerology for you.

The lord says, “I’m going to come to you in a dense cloud” Why? He was seen walking through the garden. He sat down at a meal with Abraham. He wrestled with Jacob and almost lost. But here he sits up in his great cloud? Oh, it gets worse:

¹² Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, 'Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. ¹³ He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live.' Only when the ram's horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain."

So now, this god that walks among men, can’t even be looked upon by his ‘chosen’ people. Sounds to me like Moses is trying to get alone for a while to think things through.

¹⁶ On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast.

A loud trumpet blast? Cool, god brought his band!

²⁰ The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up ²¹ and the Lord said to him, "Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. ²² Even the priests, who approach the Lord , must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them."

See, now Moses is alone with god, but you’ll notice that god contradicts himself, by saying, even the priests, who approach the lord, must consecrate themselves. Moses, corrects him and says:

²³ Moses said to the Lord , "The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, 'Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.' "

That’s funny. Moses correcting an omnipotent, omniscient god. Does god say, “Where were you when I created the stars?” Or any of that other crap he does when someone attempts to stand up to him? No, he says instead:

²⁴ The Lord replied, "Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord , or he will break out against them."

Which is basically, “Oh, yeah, you’re right, that is what I said”. I guess god is really busy, sounds to me like he needs a Personal Assistant.

Also notice that is says, "HE will break out against them". God's now talking in third person. So it's only fair if I qoute Seinfeld: Jimmy thinks this stupid.

Exodus 20

The Egyptian laws:

The Ten Commandments

¹ And God spoke all these words:

² "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
³ "You shall have no other gods before me.
⁴ "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ⁶ but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
⁷ "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
⁸ "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
¹² "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
¹³ "You shall not murder.
¹⁴ "You shall not commit adultery.
¹⁵ "You shall not steal.
¹⁶ "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
¹⁷ "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

Let’s take each on as they are written:

1. You shall have No other god before me: No where in any religion does the god that reigns over all gods say to his followers, “Hey it’s okay if you believe in Aphrodite, I understand you’re infatuation with her…and you’re right, she is hot!” No in fact all Reigning gods expected you to fall at their feet when they showed up, regardless of the particular deity you followed before that moment. Just ask some of the unlucky that didn’t do Zeus’ beckon call.

2. No idol Worship. That’s really just a more defined version of rule number 1. What is neat to note here is that god says that he is a jeoulous god (Some versions zelous god) and they he punishes transgression for generations: I guess murdering an entire village for the crime one person does against your sister is okay in the lords eyes. I guess allowing someone to rape your wife is okay in the lords eyes. I guess deceiving you brother and father is okay in the lords eyes. So don’t worry about being a bad person, just do not make any golden calves…as we'll see.

3. You shall not use the Lords name in vain: Christ almighty, what a joke! Just another way to terrorize those that don’t believe. Afterall, if you were an Israelite and some one standing next to you says, “You’re god is a joke”, you do what you can, you kill him.

4. The Sabbath. I like the Sabbath, because it has fixed our calender with the idea of a five day work week. Any time I don’t have to be at work is a good thing. Praise Allah!

5. Honor your father and mother…Unless your name is Jacob…or Adam for that matter.

6. You shall not Murder…unless your name is Moses, or you have a really good reason to kill. Say, if you caught someone cutting up firewood on the Sabbath

7. You shall not commit adultery. Unless you’re wife gives you someone else to have sex with, or if you see a temple prostitute, or if your husband gives you away because he's afraid for his own life.

8. You shall not steal. Unless it goes under the guise of plunder, which god says is okay.

9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. No one guilty of this…yet.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. Again, unless your name is Jacob…who steals his brothers blessing. Or your name is Cain, who kills his brother.

The argument that I always hear is that, “Of course we sin, that’s our nature” That’s great for us, but GOD knew that we were sinners. He’s seen his own chosen people perform all these things that he tells them not to do. If he’d looked around a little harder I’m sure that he would have found a tribe of people somewhere that were at least honest with themselves. That had a least one virtuous quality that god could have worked with, but instead, he settles for this lost tribe of idiots. That instead of being thankful for their salvations complain every time they can manage it.

Idols and Altars
²² Then the Lord said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites this: 'You have seen for yourselves that I have spoken to you from heaven: ²³ Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold.
²⁴ " 'Make an altar of earth for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, your sheep and goats and your cattle. Wherever I cause my name to be honored, I will come to you and bless you. ²⁵ If you make an altar of stones for me, do not build it with dressed stones, for you will defile it if you use a tool on it. ²⁶ And do not go up to my altar on steps, lest your nakedness be exposed on it.'

We’ll see what happens to those that do.

Exodus 21

Now god, whose done such a wonderful job of raising us thus far, stars in with his laws (why didn’t he give these laws to Adam?):

Hebrew Servants
2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.

Huh? What benefit would marriage be to a slave then? For a god that just saved his people from slavery, you’d think that he’d be a little more receptive to destroying the idea.

⁵ "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' ⁶ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.

… or, “If the servant realizes that he has no chance on his own, and really loves his wife, whom he will be without after freedom, and he decides to stay…then he shall stay forever”

⁷ "If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as menservants do. ⁸ If she does not please the master who has selected her for himself, he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to foreigners, because he has broken faith with her. ⁹ If he selects her for his son, he must grant her the rights of a daughter. ¹⁰ If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. ¹¹ If he does not provide her with these three things, she is to go free, without any payment of money.

…or “Women are to be slaves for life…the only way a woman may be set free is if she’s underfed, under clothed, or doesn’t get raped once in a while”

¹² "Anyone who strikes a man and kills him shall surely be put to death. ¹³ However, if he does not do it intentionally, but God lets it happen, he is to flee to a place I will designate. ¹⁴ But if a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death.

If god lets it happen? Huh? God holds the Pharaoh’s mind in hatred against the Israelites. God does it. Not Pharaoh, but in the end Pharaoh is destroyed. So any act against another, is an act of god’s will. Can we say puppet?

¹⁵ "Anyone who attacks his father or his mother must be put to death.

Parents everywhere, rejoice! Besides, if my son attacks me, I’m the only one that would have the knowledge and understanding for why my son would do such a thing. I would be the only able to judge him fairly.

¹⁶ "Anyone who kidnaps another and either sells him or still has him when he is caught must be put to death.

If this had been a law when Joseph was sold into slavery, then there would be no Israel…for all the children of Jacob would have been put to death…it’s too bad.

¹⁸ "If men quarrel and one hits the other with a stone or with his fist and he does not die but is confined to bed, ¹⁹ the one who struck the blow will not be held responsible if the other gets up and walks around outside with his staff; however, he must pay the injured man for the loss of his time and see that he is completely healed.

²⁰ "If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, ²¹ but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.
²² "If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. ²³ But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, ²⁴ eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, ²⁵ burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

This sort of contradicts what they have already said about injuries. In Exodus 21:18, the quarrel is to be settled with cash, if the injuries allow the man to walk (with a cane), but it says nothing about beating the other guy until he requires the use of a cane as well. That is a contradiction to “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise” #7

²⁸ "If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull must be stoned to death, and its meat must not be eaten. But the owner of the bull will not be held responsible. ²⁹ If, however, the bull has had the habit of goring and the owner has been warned but has not kept it penned up and it kills a man or woman, the bull must be stoned and the owner also must be put to death. ³⁰ However, if payment is demanded of him, he may redeem his life by paying whatever is demanded. ³¹ This law also applies if the bull gores a son or daughter. ³² If the bull gores a male or female slave, the owner must pay thirty shekels of silver to the master of the slave, and the bull must be stoned.

If the bull gores a ‘person’ then both the bull and the owner die. If the bull gores a ‘slave’ it’s thirty shekels and the bull dies. This from a people that were under the yoke themselves!

³³ "If a man uncovers a pit or digs one and fails to cover it and an ox or a donkey falls into it, ³⁴ the owner of the pit must pay for the loss; he must pay its owner, and the dead animal will be his.
³⁵ "If a man's bull injures the bull of another and it dies, they are to sell the live one and divide both the money and the dead animal equally. ³⁶ However, if it was known that the bull had the habit of goring, yet the owner did not keep it penned up, the owner must pay, animal for animal, and the dead animal will be his.

All of these laws were probably stolen from Egypt or Greece. Does this mean that god looked down about the Egyptian laws and said, “I have made Egyptian laws, and seen that they were good!”. Yet he ends up nearly destroying Egypt. Will the contradictions never end!

Exodus 22

More laws, this time on Property and Social responsibility.

Needless to say, there is nothing in this chapter (or the last) that is ground breaking. Nothing that did not exist already in some other country that was founded and growing why Abraham was stacking rocks up and calling it an alter.

There is this one though:

²¹ "Do not mistreat an alien or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt.

Bah! Do not mistreat an alien, unless you have enslaved him or plundered him, or put him to death for being a citizen of a city who is your enemy.

Also,

³¹ "You are to be my holy people. So do not eat the meat of an animal torn by wild beasts; throw it to the dogs.

…but eat the holy dropping that fall from the sky, even though you have no idea what it comes from!

Exodus 23

More laws about Justice & Mercy as well as the Sabbath and the Annual Festivals. The 23^rd chapter ends with this verse:

God's Angel to Prepare the Way
²⁰ "See, I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared. ²¹ Pay attention to him and listen to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion, since my Name is in him. ²² If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. ²³ My angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. ²⁴ Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces. ²⁵ Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you, ²⁶ and none will miscarry or be barren in your land. I will give you a full life span.
²⁷ "I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. ²⁸ I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. ²⁹ But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. ³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.
³¹ "I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you. ³² Do not make a covenant with them or with their gods. ³³ Do not let them live in your land, or they will cause you to sin against me, because the worship of their gods will certainly be a snare to you."

The true intentions of god shine through: War! Notice again, that all the nations god is sending them to drive out and destroy are the sons of Noah and Noah’s children. God is killing all of his children, only this time instead of using a flood to cleanse the land, he is using the Israelites and their willingness to spill blood as his instrument.

Exodus 24

The Covenant Confirmed

¹ Then he said to Moses, "Come up to the Lord , you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. You are to worship at a distance, ² but Moses alone is to approach the Lord ; the others must not come near. And the people may not come up with him."
³ When Moses went and told the people all the Lord 's words and laws, they responded with one voice, "Everything the Lord has said we will do." ⁴ Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said.
He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel. ⁵ Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord . ⁶ Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. ⁷ Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, "We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey."

Notice that Moses breaks the second commandment by building an alter. Alters are ‘seats’, or ‘thrones’ and by their very nature are ‘holy’ onto themselves. By building the alter he is building something to ‘worship’ on it’s on own merits. Not to mention, setting up the 12 stones that represent the 12 tribes. This is all idol worship. But god tolerates it here…because he’s probably asleep, or hypnotized by the smell of the burning flesh.

⁸ Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."

This is the blood of the covenant, again more idol worship. What’s the difference between creating a status and calling it god and all of this that they are doing?

⁹ Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up ¹⁰ and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. ¹¹ But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank.

They parted with god. Remember, only a few short chapters ago god walked among men.

¹² The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and stay here, and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and commands I have written for their instruction."
¹³ Then Moses set out with Joshua his aide, and Moses went up on the mountain of God. ¹⁴ He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Aaron and Hur are with you, and anyone involved in a dispute can go to them."
¹⁵ When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, ¹⁶ and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. ¹⁷ To the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire on top of the mountain. ¹⁸ Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Moses already wrote these down, it says so at the beginning of the chapter. Notice too, that Joshua goes up with him. Notice again, that the use of numbers is important.

Exodus 25

Offerings for the Tabernacle

1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 "Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from each man whose heart prompts him to give. 3 These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; 4 blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; 5 ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows; acacia wood; 6 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; 7 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.
8 "Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. 9 Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you.

What’s odd is that these things are of zero value to god. Why would he need them? What purpose would it serve to take them? Some might say that it was because they had value to us, that he took them. A way for us to show how much we were willing to give for him. But I say, nay, nay. If that were the case then anything found to be valuable to the heart would have been good for god. Instead he takes only things that could be traded for money or other possessions. What’s funny is that in most cultures, this is the sort of thing they do when people die as is the case for the culture that they stole from, the Egyptians.

Look at the elaborate situation that the Pharaoh’s would receive after dying. Mummification. Large tombs full of riches. See ¹⁴ for better details on tombs.

It is not necessary to turn to the Egyptians, because all over the world leaders and important figures were buried with riches and power, proving that they were who they said they were. Also, notice that most of the faith systems believed that when they arrived at ‘heaven’s door they would have all those riches with them.

So it’s not to hard to see that the Israelites probably wanted to bestow human characteristics on their deity by saying that he would want all this tangible garbage. It might help to remember that god made the world, he could very easily have made this tabernacle himself, with all the gold and silver he could shove in it.

The Ark
¹⁰ "Have them make a chest of acacia wood-two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.¹¹ Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. ¹² Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. ¹³ Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ¹⁴ Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest to carry it. ¹⁵ The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. ¹⁶ Then put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you.
¹⁷ "Make an atonement cover of pure gold-two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide. ¹⁸ And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. ¹⁹ Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. ²⁰ The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. ²¹ Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you. ²² There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.

First we have a place for god to sit, now we have a place for god to dwell and meter out his commands. According to legend the Ark was ‘lost’ during the sac of Jerusalem. But recent stories have led to its apparent discovery in a small church in Africa. You would think, something as important as the Ark would have been returned to Israel the moment any news of its existence was even whispered. After all, it’s the seat of god. Like, Patton’s jeep, his command center. His throne from which to pass judgment and commands. That’s a pretty important artifact to let a bunch of quasi-Christian clerics own in some obscure region of the world where war could turn the ark into the ark of evil. I doubt that Israel believes that this thing is the ark, or they would have already stolen it back.

Some alien-theists believe that the ark is some kind of super weapon or in some cases, some kind of radio. Both of these explanations fall into the supposed detail that is offered in this verse. I personally think it’s...well, hogwash. But it’s just as viable as any other story.

The most probable answer is that after the city was sacked in 587 BC it was destroyed as plunder, or lost forever in an attempt to steal it out of the city. Both of these, of course, only illustrate that there was no magical power that the ark contained, or it would have probably avoided the whole sacking of the Temple in the first place.

The Table
²³ "Make a table of acacia wood-two cubits long, a cubit wide and a cubit and a half high. ²⁴ Overlay it with pure gold and make a gold molding around it. ²⁵ Also make around it a rim a handbreadth wide and put a gold molding on the rim. ²⁶ Make four gold rings for the table and fasten them to the four corners, where the four legs are. ²⁷ The rings are to be close to the rim to hold the poles used in carrying the table. ²⁸ Make the poles of acacia wood, overlay them with gold and carry the table with them. ²⁹ And make its plates and dishes of pure gold, as well as its pitchers and bowls for the pouring out of offerings. ³⁰ Put the bread of the Presence on this table to be before me at all times.

Then Moses commands that they build a table (I guess they’re going to carry this idol with them everywhere they go).

The Lampstand
³¹ "Make a lampstand of pure gold and hammer it out, base and shaft; its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms shall be of one piece with it. ³² Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand-three on one side and three on the other. ³³ Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three on the next branch, and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand. ³⁴ And on the lampstand there are to be four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms. ³⁵ One bud shall be under the first pair of branches extending from the lampstand, a second bud under the second pair, and a third bud under the third pair-six branches in all. ³⁶ The buds and branches shall all be of one piece with the lampstand, hammered out of pure gold.
³⁷ "Then make its seven lamps and set them up on it so that they light the space in front of it. ³⁸ Its wick trimmers and trays are to be of pure gold. ³⁹ A talent of pure gold is to be used for the lampstand and all these accessories. ⁴⁰ See that you make them according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.

Now he’s got himself a complete room. A place to put all his stuff, and see it too!

Exodus 26

The Tabernacle

¹ "Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman. ² All the curtains are to be the same size-twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide. ³ Join five of the curtains together, and do the same with the other five. ⁴ Make loops of blue material along the edge of the end curtain in one set, and do the same with the end curtain in the other set. ⁵ Make fifty loops on one curtain and fifty loops on the end curtain of the other set, with the loops opposite each other. ⁶ Then make fifty gold clasps and use them to fasten the curtains together so that the tabernacle is a unit.
⁷ "Make curtains of goat hair for the tent over the tabernacle-eleven altogether. ⁸ All eleven curtains are to be the same size-thirty cubits long and four cubits wide. ⁹ Join five of the curtains together into one set and the other six into another set. Fold the sixth curtain double at the front of the tent. ¹⁰ Make fifty loops along the edge of the end curtain in one set and also along the edge of the end curtain in the other set. ¹¹ Then make fifty bronze clasps and put them in the loops to fasten the tent together as a unit. ¹² As for the additional length of the tent curtains, the half curtain that is left over is to hang down at the rear of the tabernacle. ¹³ The tent curtains will be a cubit longer on both sides; what is left will hang over the sides of the tabernacle so as to cover it. ¹⁴ Make for the tent a covering of ram skins dyed red, and over that a covering of hides of sea cows.
¹⁵ "Make upright frames of acacia wood for the tabernacle. ¹⁶ Each frame is to be ten cubits long and a cubit and a half wide, ¹⁷ with two projections set parallel to each other. Make all the frames of the tabernacle in this way. ¹⁸ Make twenty frames for the south side of the tabernacle ¹⁹ and make forty silver bases to go under them-two bases for each frame, one under each projection. ²⁰ For the other side, the north side of the tabernacle, make twenty frames ²¹ and forty silver bases-two under each frame. ²² Make six frames for the far end, that is, the west end of the tabernacle, ²³ and make two frames for the corners at the far end. ²⁴ At these two corners they must be double from the bottom all the way to the top, and fitted into a single ring; both shall be like that. ²⁵ So there will be eight frames and sixteen silver bases-two under each frame.
²⁶ "Also make crossbars of acacia wood: five for the frames on one side of the tabernacle, ²⁷ five for those on the other side, and five for the frames on the west, at the far end of the tabernacle. ²⁸ The center crossbar is to extend from end to end at the middle of the frames. ²⁹ Overlay the frames with gold and make gold rings to hold the crossbars. Also overlay the crossbars with gold.
³⁰ "Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain.
³¹ "Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim worked into it by a skilled craftsman. ³² Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases. ³³ Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. ³⁴ Put the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy Place. ³⁵ Place the table outside the curtain on the north side of the tabernacle and put the lampstand opposite it on the south side.
³⁶ "For the entrance to the tent make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen-the work of an embroiderer. ³⁷ Make gold hooks for this curtain and five posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold. And cast five bronze bases for them.

What does not make any sense is that the Israelites are wandering the desert and they had to carry all this stuff with them. How in the world could they carry the entire tabernacle un assembled? After all, only the most holy of men can enter it. It is the Holy of Holies and not to be taken lightly. How then did they move it when it was time to move on? They must have taken it back apart, thus rendering what ever was inside it, to be viewed by the common masses.

I would bet that during these times of moving and disassemble the priests would say something like, “Oh, how can we move it? Well, um, gods’ not in it right now”. As if to add to this impossibility it continues in the next chapter.

Exodus 27

The Altar of Burnt Offering

¹ "Build an altar of acacia wood, three cubits high; it is to be square, five cubits long and five cubits wide. ² Make a horn at each of the four corners, so that the horns and the altar are of one piece, and overlay the altar with bronze. ³ Make all its utensils of bronze-its pots to remove the ashes, and its shovels, sprinkling bowls, meat forks and firepans. ⁴ Make a grating for it, a bronze network, and make a bronze ring at each of the four corners of the network. ⁵ Put it under the ledge of the altar so that it is halfway up the altar. ⁶ Make poles of acacia wood for the altar and overlay them with bronze. ⁷ The poles are to be inserted into the rings so they will be on two sides of the altar when it is carried. ⁸ Make the altar hollow, out of boards. It is to be made just as you were shown on the mountain.

That’s not all:

The Courtyard
⁹ "Make a courtyard for the tabernacle. The south side shall be a hundred cubits long and is to have curtains of finely twisted linen, ¹⁰ with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases and with silver hooks and bands on the posts. ¹¹ The north side shall also be a hundred cubits long and is to have curtains, with twenty posts and twenty bronze bases and with silver hooks and bands on the posts.
¹² "The west end of the courtyard shall be fifty cubits wide and have curtains, with ten posts and ten bases. ¹³ On the east end, toward the sunrise, the courtyard shall also be fifty cubits wide. ¹⁴ Curtains fifteen cubits long are to be on one side of the entrance, with three posts and three bases, ¹⁵ and curtains fifteen cubits long are to be on the other side, with three posts and three bases.
¹⁶ "For the entrance to the courtyard, provide a curtain twenty cubits long, of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen-the work of an embroiderer-with four posts and four bases. ¹⁷ All the posts around the courtyard are to have silver bands and hooks, and bronze bases. ¹⁸ The courtyard shall be a hundred cubits long and fifty cubits wide, with curtains of finely twisted linen five cubits high, and with bronze bases. ¹⁹ All the other articles used in the service of the tabernacle, whatever their function, including all the tent pegs for it and those for the courtyard, are to be of bronze.

Now, I’m not mathematician, but I’m sure that this thing would have to have been huge when completed, not to mention weigh a ton. I would have liked to have seen the Israelites carrying this monster on their backs through the desert.

Exodus 28

Now that they’ve decided that there is a difference between normal people and god…it’s time to distinguish those among us humans that are in fact unique and by doing so, ‘better’. Let’s face it Moses The Murderer, is distinguished in the face of god. He is ‘higher’ thus better than the average human. Now it’s time to make sure that this sort of power loop continues to grow:

The Priestly Garments

¹ "Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests. ² Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor. ³ Tell all the skilled men to whom I have given wisdom in such matters that they are to make garments for Aaron, for his consecration, so he may serve me as priest. ⁴ These are the garments they are to make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban and a sash. They are to make these sacred garments for your brother Aaron and his sons, so they may serve me as priests. ⁵ Have them use gold, and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen.

Garments that identify thus that they are the bearers of gods laws. Notice, that those chosen to lead are relatives to Moses. That god doesn’t see anyone out there among thousand of men that of equal value as those that are related to Moses. This whole thing is starting to stink of David Koresh.

The rest of this chapter explains the garments themselves that the priests will wear in order to show that they are better than the rest of the Hebrew nation.

Exodus 29

Consecration of the Priests

¹ "This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect. ² And from fine wheat flour, without yeast, make bread, and cakes mixed with oil, and wafers spread with oil. ³ Put them in a basket and present them in it-along with the bull and the two rams. ⁴ Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. ⁵ Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him by its skillfully woven waistband. ⁶ Put the turban on his head and attach the sacred diadem to the turban. ⁷ Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head. ⁸ Bring his sons and dress them in tunics ⁹ and put headbands on them. Then tie sashes on Aaron and his sons. The priesthood is theirs by a lasting ordinance. In this way you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.
¹⁰ "Bring the bull to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. ¹¹ Slaughter it in the Lord 's presence at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ¹² Take some of the bull's blood and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out the rest of it at the base of the altar. ¹³ Then take all the fat around the inner parts, the covering of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar. ¹⁴ But burn the bull's flesh and its hide and its offal outside the camp. It is a sin offering.

God and his killing continues. Remember that this religion is based on blood and in order to get blood you must kill something, thus proving the sacrifice. Remember also that farming religions would have poo-poo’ed this idea, because it doesn’t take into account the beauty of re-incarnation as well as resurrection. Of course the hunting religions try to do this later, as we will see.

Here they have a public ritual, that further illustrates to the people that Moses the Murderer’s brother is better than they are.

Then one of the great evil statements put down by Moses The Murderer:

³⁶ Sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it.

Here in lies the whole error of the religion. That we are sinners and that some how murder against other living things atones for it. But it makes zero actual sense. Especially since 1. The animals that they murder is wasted meat, that they don’t actually eat, and 2. That god made these animals in Genesis and saw that they were good. These are clean animals that are worthy of the creation, and instead of showing their beauty through acts of greatness for them, the Hebrew kill them and waste them. There is nothing beautiful or godly about that.

It’s from this idea that blood of others atones for my sins that we have Christianity. It’s wrong. All of it. To say that I am not responsibly for who I am is foolish and foolhearty. Especially since god gave them laws to live by, but what does it matter when I can break the laws and simply burn up a cow to justify my error…or even easier, claim that some obscure jew named Yesu died for my sins? I have done nothing to better myself or the world, only added to the oxymoron. No, atonement is not gained through the spilling of blood.

Exodus 30

The Altar of Incense

¹ "Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense. ² It is to be square, a cubit long and a cubit wide, and two cubits high -its horns of one piece with it. ³ Overlay the top and all the sides and the horns with pure gold, and make a gold molding around it. ⁴ Make two gold rings for the altar below the molding-two on opposite sides-to hold the poles used to carry it. ⁵ Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. ⁶ Put the altar in front of the curtain that is before the ark of the Testimony-before the atonement cover that is over the Testimony-where I will meet with you.
⁷ "Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. ⁸ He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come. ⁹ Do not offer on this altar any other incense or any burnt offering or grain offering, and do not pour a drink offering on it. ¹⁰ Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on its horns. This annual atonement must be made with the blood of the atoning sin offering for the generations to come. It is most holy to the Lord ."

All that burning flesh must have finally gotten to them.

Atonement Money
¹¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹² "When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.

Huh? What use does god have with money? Be weary of religions that ask for cash or promise plagues as a result of your apparent selfishness. Notice that these are the chosen people he is forcing to pay a tithe!

¹⁶ Receive the atonement money from the Israelites and use it for the service of the Tent of Meeting.

Right, and who is responsible for the tent? Moses the Murderer himself. So his scam, is to get rich and rule over these people all in the name of god.

Basin for Washing
¹⁷ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹⁸ "Make a bronze basin, with its bronze stand, for washing. Place it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and put water in it. ¹⁹ Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet with water from it. ²⁰ Whenever they enter the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister by presenting an offering made to the Lord by fire, ²¹ they shall wash their hands and feet so that they will not die. This is to be a lasting ordinance for Aaron and his descendants for the generations to come."

This is just stupid uninformed babbling. What is water¹⁵:

Microbes

Coliform bacteria are common in the environment and are generally not harmful. However, the presence of these bacteria in drinking water is usually a result of a problem with the treatment system or the pipes which distribute water, and indicates that the water may be contaminated with germs that can cause disease.

Fecal Coliform and E coli are bacteria whose presence indicates that the water may be contaminated with human or animal wastes. Microbes in these wastes can cause short-term effects, such as diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches, or other symptoms. 

Turbidity has no health effects. However, turbidity can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches.

Cryptosporidium is a parasite that enters lakes and rivers through sewage and animal waste. It causes cryptosporidiosis, a mild gastrointestinal disease. However, the disease can be severe or fatal for people with severely weakened immune systems. EPA and CDC have prepared advice for those with severely compromised immune systems who are concerned about Cryptosporidium. 

Giardia lamblia is a parasite that enters lakes and rivers through sewage and animal waste. It causes gastrointestinal illness (e.g. diarrhea, vomiting, cramps).

Radionuclides

Alpha emitters. Certain minerals are radioactive and may emit a form of radiation known as alpha radiation. Some people who drink water containing alpha emitters in excess of  EPA's standard over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer.

Beta/photon emitters. Certain minerals are radioactive and may emit forms of radiation known as photons and beta radiation. Some people who drink water containing beta and photon emitters in excess of EPA's standard over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer.

Combined Radium 226/228. Some people who drink water containing radium 226 or 228 in excess of EPA's standard over many years may have an increased risk of getting cancer.

Radon gas can dissolve and accumulate in underground water sources, such as wells, and in the air in your home. Breathing radon can cause lung cancer. Drinking water containing radon presents a risk of developing cancer. Radon in air is more dangerous than radon in water.

Inorganic Contaminants

Antimony Asbestos Barium Beryllium

Cadmium Chromium Copper

Cyanide Mercury Nitrate

Nitrite Selenium Thallium

Water is not clean and in no way purifies the body. It is a requirement for living, but just because someone digs there hands in water, where billions of living things teem (including things that were once in the human body) in no way cleans the person. The act of cleaning with water comes from the additive of lye (a base) that ‘unhookes’ the bonds oils create.

Soap is an excellent cleanser because of its ability to act as an emulsifying agent. An emulsifier is capable of dispersing one liquid into another immiscible liquid. This means that while oil (which attracts dirt) doesn't naturally mix with water, soap can suspend oil/dirt in such a way that it can be removed. ¹⁶

Anointing Oil
²² Then the Lord said to Moses, ²³ "Take the following fine spices: 500 shekels of liquid myrrh, half as much (that is, 250 shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, 250 shekels of fragrant cane, ²⁴ 500 shekels of cassia-all according to the sanctuary shekel-and a hin of olive oil. ²⁵ Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil. ²⁶ Then use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony, ²⁷ the table and all its articles, the lampstand and its accessories, the altar of incense, ²⁸ the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand. ²⁹ You shall consecrate them so they will be most holy, and whatever touches them will be holy.
³⁰ "Anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them so they may serve me as priests. ³¹ Say to the Israelites, 'This is to be my sacred anointing oil for the generations to come. ³² Do not pour it on men's bodies and do not make any oil with the same formula. It is sacred, and you are to consider it sacred. ³³ Whoever makes perfume like it and whoever puts it on anyone other than a priest must be cut off from his people.' "

Incense
³⁴ Then the Lord said to Moses, "Take fragrant spices-gum resin, onycha and galbanum-and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, ³⁵ and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred. ³⁶ Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. ³⁷ Do not make any incense with this formula for yourselves; consider it holy to the Lord . ³⁸ Whoever makes any like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from his people."

More stuff to just hide the smell of all that burnt flesh.

Exodus 31

Bezalel and Oholiab

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses, ² "See, I have chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, ³ and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds of crafts- ⁴ to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, ⁵ to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship. ⁶ Moreover, I have appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to help him. Also I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you: ⁷ the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony with the atonement cover on it, and all the other furnishings of the tent- ⁸ the table and its articles, the pure gold lampstand and all its accessories, the altar of incense, ⁹ the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, the basin with its stand- ¹⁰ and also the woven garments, both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests, ¹¹ and the anointing oil and fragrant incense for the Holy Place. They are to make them just as I commanded you."

Okay so, I said that god chose no one out side of Moses’ family to help out. I was wrong, but notice that they are not artisans of their own power, but have been given the skills by god. How about Hercules, or Achilles, or for that matter all of human kind is some Indian religions.

Through out this silly book is this impression that the spirit of god was in everything. The religion bases its existence on the idea that the book itself was divinely written. Supposed scholars say that this means that the individual writers wrote from their own voice, but were ‘moved’ to write by god. What horsesh*t! Pharaoh had is heart hardened by god, there are no words confused there. He had no choice in the matter. Bezalel had been filled with the spirit of god, will skill, ability and knowledge in all kinds. Of crafts-… in other words, he has no choice in the matter. Free will can not be played where the participants can’t make up their own minds.

The end of this chapter has Moses the Murderer repeating himself about the Sabbath and this all interesting passage:

¹⁸ When the Lord finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.

Gee, I wonder where these stone tables, proof of god’s existence, are today…The first ones are broken by Moses the Murderer and the second batch lost when the ark disappears. Hum, how unfortunate.

Exodus 32

The Golden Calf

¹ When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, "Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him."
² Aaron answered them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me." ³ So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. ⁴ He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."

Huh? I thought Aaron was suppose to be the head priest of this new religion that Moses the Murderer was getting from god on the Mountain?

Now it looks like Moses hadn’t let his brother in on the divine plan and good old Aaron thought he new what his brother was up to.

⁷Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. ⁸ They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.'
⁹ "I have seen these people," the Lord said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. ¹⁰ Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation."

God gets angry at the fools, because it doesn’t fit into what Moses has been told to do, so he’s going to destoy them all. But Moses, who’s murdered already in his life is suppose to have said:

¹¹ But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. "O Lord ," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. ¹³ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.' " ¹⁴ Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

And, once again, Moses is able to tell god what to do. But:

¹⁹ When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. ²⁰ And he took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
²¹ He said to Aaron, "What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?"
²² "Do not be angry, my lord," Aaron answered. "You know how prone these people are to evil. ²³ They said to me, 'Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.' ²⁴ So I told them, 'Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.' Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!"
²⁵ Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. ²⁶ So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, "Whoever is for the Lord , come to me." And all the Levites rallied to him.
²⁷ Then he said to them, "This is what the Lord , the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' " ²⁸ The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. ²⁹ Then Moses said, "You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day."

He goes back into the camp and kills them anyway. Moses broke his own commandments: 5 (Honor thy father and mother) and 6 (though shall not murder). And after he’s allowed so many to die, does he kill his own brother for leading them astray? No, he ends up a priest and a ‘righteous’ man.

Exodus 33

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, 'I will give it to your descendants.' 2 I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way."
4 When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments. 5 For the Lord had said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you. Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.' " 6 So the Israelites stripped off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.

Here, again Moses the Murderer repeats himself. How many times does this sort of thing have to happen, before the reader starts to wonder about the supposed authorship of the book?

The Tent of Meeting
⁷ Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the "tent of meeting." Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp. ⁸ And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. ⁹ As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. ¹⁰ Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to his tent. ¹¹ The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

This passage is even written in a different style. Moses the Murderer has already told us what the tent was and what was in it and how to build it and how everything else inside it was built, blah, blah, blah. But here, the writer makes it sound like this is the first time we hear of the tent.

Moses and the Glory of the Lord
¹² Moses said to the Lord , "You have been telling me, 'Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, 'I know you by name and you have found favor with me.' ¹³ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people."
¹⁴ The Lord replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

This is a contradiction. In the last chapter god says he will not go with them, but will send an angel with them. That’s number: 8

¹⁵ Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. ¹⁶ How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"

Then Moses the Murderer realizes that it’s his neck on the line, after he gave the order to murder so many of his own people.

¹⁷And the Lord said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."
¹⁸ Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."
¹⁹ And the Lord said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord , in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. ²⁰ But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."

Huh? Didn’t he show Abraham his face? Didn’t Jacob see his face? What of Adam and Cain? What kind of morons does this book take us for?

Exodus 34

The New Stone Tablets
¹ The Lord said to Moses, "Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will write on them the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. ² Be ready in the morning, and then come up on Mount Sinai. Present yourself to me there on top of the mountain. ³ No one is to come with you or be seen anywhere on the mountain; not even the flocks and herds may graze in front of the mountain."

This is getting ridiculous. No one can see what you are doing. It’s like the wizard of Oz, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

Moses does what he is told and appears before god on the mountain. God tells him that he’s a loving god and a compassionate god, even though he kicked us from the garden of eden without even letting Adam explain himself. Not to mention he killed all the people of the world in a great flood. He killed thousands if not millions of Egyptians who had nothing to do with the plight of the Hebrew people. If that’s compassion, we’re doomed. But it’s okay, because he redeems himself:

¹⁴ Do not worship any other god, for the Lord , whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

Then, yet one more time, god tells Moses all the things they need to remember to do.

The Radiant Face of Moses
²⁹ When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord . ³⁰ When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. ³¹ But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. ³² Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

Here, the brother that would destroy Israel re-appears, and is welcomed in to Moses the Murderers arms.

Exodus 35

Is a repeat of Exodus 26 and Exodus 31. You think the people of Israel were starting to wonder if Moses was loosing his memory?

Exodus 36-39

Is a waste of time. The skilled begin their construction of all the things commanded to make. Again, how the hell did they move this monster?

And at the end of Exodus 39:

⁴³ Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the Lord had commanded. So Moses blessed them.

And he saw that it was good.

Exodus 40

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses: ² "Set up the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the first month. ³ Place the ark of the Testimony in it and shield the ark with the curtain. ⁴ Bring in the table and set out what belongs on it. Then bring in the lampstand and set up its lamps. ⁵ Place the gold altar of incense in front of the ark of the Testimony and put the curtain at the entrance to the tabernacle.

Here god tells him to set it up…after it was done being built in the last four chapters. BUT, in Exodus 33:7 they have already been meeting in the tent….how is that possible if it has just been made. Yet one more contradiction: 9

¹² "Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. ¹³ Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest. ¹⁴ Bring his sons and dress them in tunics. ¹⁵ Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue for all generations to come."

This is the same Aaron that built a phony god and told the people to worship it, and because he did that thousands of people lost their lives.

Anyway, they set up all this stuff as commanded and god settles into the tent, but:

³⁵ Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Even though Moses the Murderer has already seen him, has spent time alone with him, now god is suddenly shy?

MURDER:

Moses Murders an Egyptian out of anger.

GENOCIDE:

Passover

Amalekites

Moses Murders His own people In Exodus 32:27, 3000 dead

WAR

The Amalekites

Number of running contradictions: 9