I've been roughly familiar with the story in Exodus for most of my life, but never had read the story in its entirety or known the details. I suspect that's the way it is with most non-Jewish people (including Christians), because the details are rather surprising. Well, unless you already realize that this book is bereft of any moral value.
As I stated in my reflections on Genesis, it was not my intent to nit-pick every detail. I set out to read and understand the story, and the commentary that followed was my honest reaction to what I read. I may not have gotten everything right (I'm sure I didn't), but it still has value because it demonstrates how an honest, modern reader reacts to the story. Here are some reflections on what I read.
Why Exodus fails as a moral guide
First off, Moses is a murderer (Exodus 2:12). But this fact goes completely unremarked upon. He is not punished, made an example of, or in any way effected by his crime (other than the fact that he had to run from the Egyptian police). He was not concerned about committing the crime of murder, only about being seen and getting caught. He's a pretty despicable character.
Then let's look at the plagues. God kills innocent creatures en masse and with abandon, only to prove that his magic is stronger than the magic of the Pharaoh's gods. You'd think an all-powerful deity could think of demonstrations of power that wouldn't result in mass death. He could have gone all David Copperfield on Pharaoh, like vanishing a pyramid, walking through a stone wall, escaping from a sealed tomb or flying through the air. Or he could have shown things from the future that he must have known were to come, such as Chicken McNuggets, solar panels or velcro. Or he could have just resolved the whole situation in the blink of an eye, without any of the gory murder. Instead, he continuously "hardens Pharaoh's heart" so that he has an excuse to continue to visit these atrocities upon the Egyptians, including the innocent women and children. This is the opposite of morality and a terrible message.
This all culminates with a mass murder of innocent children. I hope there's no need to clarify why this is awful.
In Exodus 21 we're treated to the "eye for an eye, burn for a burn, ox for an ox" kind of revenge-based anti-justice that characterizes the Old Testament God. Thank goodness we realized that a true system of justice should not be based on vengeance. Strange how God didn't know that.
We're told in Exodus 35:2 that if you work on the sabbath, you'll be put to death. Well, aside from the obvious fact that this isn't true (or else malls everywhere would be filled with corpses on Sundays), you'd think that something this important would receive a little more explanation; but that's it, we're given one verse. Eleven chapters on how to build a sanctuary (explained in excruciating detail, twice), but one verse on being put to death for something that is never clarified. Baffling.
The Moral Vacuity of the Ten Commandments
Then we have the Ten Commandments. Of course, I'm talking about the ones listed in Exodus 34 (the ones that are specifically called the "Ten Commandments"), not the ones that everyone cites from Exodus 20 that are not identified as such. Participate in feasts, bring your sons before God, don't boil baby goats in their mother's milk; those commandments. There is nothing here about morality, only about religious subservience.
But okay, because I know nobody will accept the actual word of the Bible in identifying these as the ten commandments, and will prefer their favored list from Exodus 20, let's examine those.
There are only a few that make any moral statements:
- Thou shalt not kill
- Thou shall not steal
- Thou shalt not bear false witness
The rest of them are mostly guidance on how to worship God (don't work on Sunday, don't worship other gods, always worship this God, that kind of thing), which are, at best, morally neutral. Now I've left out a couple that some might take offense to, so let me clarify:
- Thou shalt not commit adultery
The real crime here would be violating the trust of your spouse and lying about it. But there are couples who are perfectly happy in open marriages, for whom this is not a violation of trust. Who am I to judge them? The earlier rule against lying is sufficient to cover this case without overcompensating.
- Honor thy father and mother
Clearly there are cases when this would not apply. Who needs to tell a child to love their parent? And what loving person could tell a child to continue to love and respect a parent who beats or abuses them?
- Thou shalt not covet ...
Besides being completely anti-market, you can't really tell people how to feel. But you can put realistic limits on behavior, and the real problem here would be if someone stole from their neighbor something they coveted. So again, this is already covered under the more general rule against stealing.
Now, aside from the fact that there's very little of actual moral value here, there are other problems. These are presented as absolutes, and do not permit any interpretation. Can you steal food for your starving family? Can you kill in self-defense (or a soldier in war)? Can you lie to protect someone's life; or tell a "little white lie"? According to this list, no, you can't. But ethics are situational (though I'm not endorsing the teleological Situational Ethics of Joseph Fletcher with that statement), and actual moral choices are not so black-and-white. So, as a guide to moral behavior, these offer no actual value.
And finally, for the little they do say about moral behavior (however imperfectly), there's no reason that these are specifically understood as moral in the context of this religious text. Most cultures and other religions have similar statements; these are easily understood (and better understood) in the context of a secular legal system based upon the fair treatment of fellow human beings, not based upon fear of some petulant, murderous deity.
Exodus is pro-slavery
This might seem surprising to someone who hasn't read it, since the whole point of getting the Hebrews out of Egypt was to free them from slavery to the Egyptians. But Exodus often talks about slavery as if it were a perfectly normal, morally acceptable thing to do. Such as Exodus 12:44, when God is explaining to Moses that, once you've circumcised your slave he can eat passover food. Not to mention all of the instructions in Exodus 21 about ownership and beating of slaves. Disgusting.
Why Exodus fails as fiction
Parts of Exodus just don't make any sense. In Exodus 1, Pharaoh, when realizing how large and powerful the Hebrew nation is, fears for his empire. He knows they could overthrow his empire, say, if Egypt was attacked and they joined his enemies. So what does he do? He conscripts them into slavery and attempts to murder all the male children! This makes no expository sense at all. (a) If they were so powerful, they should not have been so easily subjugated. (b) If Pharaoh was afraid of them, he should have made them his allies, not his enemies. Instead he antagonized them at every turn, and effectively made them into his enemies (self-fulfilling prophecy). And (c) when Moses comes and starts destroying his empire, he does everything in his power to ensure that Moses continues to destroy his empire. If this were A Bug's Life, Moses would be Flick and Pharaoh would be Hopper.
When God brings the 10 plagues to Egypt, first he kills all the animals with the 5th plague (the "grievous murrain"), and then he kills all the firstborn male animals with the 10th plague. But if all the animals were already dead, there would be no more animals to kill later. Unless you want to beat a (firstborn male) dead horse.
Exodus is anti-science
Exodus teaches a belief in witchcraft, magic tricks and polytheism. I was surprised when reading this book how, when Moses showed Pharaoh all of the things he could do with sticks and water, that Pharaoh brought forth his own magicians to repeat the same magic tricks. Here's a question: when Moses did his tricks, what was the source of his magical power? God, right? So when Pharaoh's magicians did their versions of the magic tricks, what was the source of their magical power? I'm assuming it wasn't God (that would be like having the quarterback intentionally throw an interception). The competition between Moses and Pharaoh's magicians became a question of who could do the most terrible magic tricks; Moses' magical power (from God) was greater than the magicians' magical power (from where?). The only thing to conclude is either (a) there's a source of magical power in this world that God doesn't control; or (b) God was playing both sides. Either way, it's bad for God. Of course the real answer is (c), this whole thing is fictional nonsense.
As far as polytheism goes, there are numerous references to other gods, and God is terribly concerned that his people will worship those other gods instead of him.
Summary
There's so much more; it seems pointless to continue to rehash the inhumanity of this book.
I can only conclude that anyone who continues to point to the Bible as a moral guide, or specifically to Exodus as the source of the 10 commandments, simply hasn't read or understood it.
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