Moses and Israelis

We present in this issue the topic #130 from the Systematized Study of the Spiritist Doctrine, that is being presented weekly, according to the programme elaborated by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), structured in 6 modules and 147 topics.

If the reader uses this program for a study group, we suggest that questions proposed be discussed freely before the reading of the text that follows. If you would like to study alone, we ask you to try to answer the questions at first and only then read the text that follows. The answer key can be found at the end of the lesson. 

Questions 

3. What else did Moses need to overcome besides the normal difficulties of crossing the desert to reach the Promised Land?

4. Did Moses die before or after the arrival of the Israelis to the Promised Land?

Text

Moses lived in Median when he was called to follow his mission through

1. The History of Israel is basically in the Old Testament in the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Genesis talks about the symbolic history of the origin of humanity with emphasis on Israeli  people until their entrance in Egypt. Exodus talks about the difficulties the Israeli people went through, their exit from Egypt and the bond created with the Lord through the ten commandments received by Moses in the Sinai Mont. Leviticus talks about civil and religious laws, centre of the Mosaic Law, destined to the people, levitas and priests. Numbers give other laws such as registration of people and families. Finally, the Deuteronomy tells us about the death of Moses.

2. According to the Bible, humanity had its origin in Adam and Eve who had three children together: Cain, Abel and Seth later on. Cain killed Abel and ran away from his parents connecting himself to primitive habitants from Earth. He got married and had kids of his own. Later on Seth did the same, he connected himself to habitants from Earth. From this and other relationships, Jewish people appeared. It was from one of Seth’s descendents, Noah and his son Seem, that Abraham came. Abraham had Isaac (son of Sarah) and Ishmael (son of Agar). Isaac started the Jewish nation, Ishmael started the Arabic nation.

3. Isaac married Rebecca and had twins named Esau and Jacob. Jacob married Rachel and had many kids. One of them was Joseph who went to Egypt and became an important character who started the pacific immigration of Israelis to Egypt. Israelis would live there for four hundred years until the appearance of Moses who would free them from the oppression they were living in, according to Exodus. 

4. Werner Keller says that Moses was Hebraic but born and raised in Egypt by Egyptians as his name shows. Moses is the translation of Maose, very common name in Egypt. Moses was part of the tribe of Levi and his story started when he kills a Egyptian who was mean to Hebrews. After that, fearing oppression from the Pharaohs, Moses runs away to Median, in the Orient, close to the Golf of Akaba. In this land, Moses lived a calm life when one day, when passing by the Mont of Horeb, he had a vision of fire on a bush. One voice gives him instructions about his mission to free Hebrews from the oppression they lived in Egypt.

5. Moses gives freedom to his people after many big sacrifices helped by his mediumship. According to Cesar Cantu, in his universal History, God multiplied Moses’ abilities to favour the Hebrews and confuse the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh always promised but never actually allowed the Hebrews to leave and, trying to stop them leaving, he separated their people around Egypt.   

Moses died before arriving in the Promised Land

6. Moses talked about God to the ancients of Israel. The God who was trying to free them and make them his special people. Moses then asked them to leave Egypt and go to the Promised Land with him.

7. After the Hebrews left, Moses leaded six hundred thousand men who were able to fight and, in total, almost two million individuals, taking them to Palestine. They could have walked through a shorter route of 300 miles only but Moses wanted to walk through a longer route so people who were following him could get rid of the bad habits gained while in Egypt.

8. The tribulations of the walk were big and made worse by the obsession of ignorant people. While their prophet was receiving the ten commandments, his people were sacrificing cows and not appreciating God’s help with complaints.

9. Moses, as we know, died before they arrived in the Promised Land and no other prophet like him appeared in Israel. His laws were somehow so anticipated that seemed a miracle. Moses didn’t want power for himself or for his people. What he wanted was to begin a nation that was stable and unified with precise laws and respect by Jehovah.

10. Thanks to Moses, Israelis could give the idea of an unique God to the world. According to Emmanuel, while religious cults lost themselves in division, “only Judaism was strong enough in energy and unity to cultivate monotheism and establish the bases of an universal law under the Divine Inspiration”. For this reason, even with the difficulties and the sufferings of these people, “Israelis must have the respect and love from all the communities of the Earth. They were the only people who were united enough to cultivate the true idea of God, through the sufferings of slavery and desert”.  (O Consolador, question 263)

Answer Key