Israel's Influence In The Hebrew Bible

The Hebrew Bible tells the story of Israel gaining trust in the Lord, a physically inaccessible being, followed by their path to discover the impacts that trust has on their lives and its future effects on their people. But while the Lord does focus on Israel as the people for whom he first cuts a covenant to guarantee their future success, his relationship with the Israelites also serves as a tool to further his own influence. Although the Lord created the people of Israel and has repeatedly made promises to key members of Israelite ancestry in the form of covenants, Israel’s trust in God wavers dramatically throughout its history. God uses and shapes major moments of uncertainty in his might to spread proof of his superiority, coming through

As God’s chosen people, Israel follows the Lord’s instructions often without knowing God’s exact motives, paralleling to the Puritanical ‘city on a hill.’ Like the Puritans, the people of Israel trust that they are in the Lord’s favor over all othersthis is clear in the creation of the covenant God made for Abraham guaranteeing the proliferation of Israel and the blessing of all other nations through them (Genesis. 22.17-18). In the case of the Israelite exodus, God instructs Moses to get the Israelites to “turn back and camp…by the sea” (Exodus. 14.2). Not only is God making the Israelites a sitting target for approaching Egyptian forces, but he is also weakening them in the eyes of Pharaoh. Turning back makes the journey appear aimless, and resting by the sea presents the Israelites with only one escape route that can easily be cut off by the Egyptians (Exodus. 14.3-4). Also, the abrupt change in direction makes the Israelites seem indecisive and unconfident, when it had earlier appeared that they were “going out [of Egypt] boldly” (Exodus. 14.8).

On the other side, God forcibly changes Pharaoh’s mind along with those of his officials to be against the Israelites so that a large portion of the Egyptian army would pursue the fleeing people (Exodus. 14.6-9). This directly follows God hardening the heart of Pharaoh against

The first details divine intervention through natural causes, as God creates a wind to drive back the sea through the entire night so that the sea floor was dry (Exodus. 14.21, 14.25). The other consists of supernatural actions, namely God’s power expressed as Moses raises his staff and hand over the waters of the sea, parting them and allowing the Israelites to walk on dry land unharmed (Exodus. 14.16, 14.22, 14.29). In the natural explanation, physical impediments slow the Egyptian forces, while on the supernatural side of the story the Lord throws Egyptians into the water and drowns them as the walls of water protecting the Israelites crash down over them. Both of these stories are equally present, neither being represented more than the other. Like the story of creation (Genesis. 1.1-31), both separate parts result in the same end while holding significant differences in the role of God. Together, the interpretations combine the natural and the supernatural, giving readers two necessary versions of the Lord: one who acts in the events of daily life, and one whose power is unparalleled and terrifying to witness. To the Israelites it is evident that, either way, God is present in saving them from the Egyptians: “Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore…[and] saw the great work that the Lord did against the Egyptians” (Exodus. 14.30-31). As a result of God’s