Genesis establishes the context for understanding who God is, what it means to be human in the creation, and God’s plan to rescue the creation through Abraham. In Exodus, the new creation motif that began with the patriarchs in Genesis becomes more robust as Israel—the new humanity—emerges out of the chaos of Egypt by way of the Red Sea, and the tabernacle is constructed as the microcosm of the new creation. Exodus depicts Israel as the new humanity headed towards the promised land, which is the new Eden. Land, then, is not only a key theme in Exodus, but also in the remainder of the Torah story. The word “holy” appears eight times in Exodus before chapter 25, and nearly fifty times after that. This primarily because chapters 25 and following detail the instructions for building the temple as God’s dwelling place among his people. This draws attention to the fact that God is holy and that his people must likewise be holy to dwell in his presence.
Deliverance from Egyptian Slavery: The New Adam Needs a New Land. There is good news and bad news in the opening of the book of Exodus. The good news is that Abraham’s family as the representative head of the new Adam has mushroomed into a nation. The bad news is that they hardly live in the šālôm of Eden. God’s promise of family has been fulfilled, but not the promise of land as Abraham’s descendants are slaves in Egypt. Out of his loyalty to Abraham, God commissions Moses to bring Abraham’s family out of Egypt so that they can inherit the land that God had promised (Ex 2:23–24). Within the bigger picture of Genesis 1, the Egyptian slavery is exemplary of the condition of humanity under the tyrannical reign of sin and death. As is evidenced in the story of baby Moses’ rescue from the Pharaoh’s death decree, Pharaoh, like death and the pre-cosmic chaos, will not have the final word. God is able to reach into human life and break the cycle (Is. 59:1).
The story of the burning bush serves as an introduction to the theme of God’s faithfulness to fulfill his promise of holy land. In the course of the narrative, God appears to Moses in the burning bush and the word “holy” appears for the first time in Exodus when God says, “Do not come near, take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Ex 3:5; italics added). In Genesis there was a holy day (Gen 2:3); here, however, we have holy land (Heb. ʾadmat-qōdeš). This “holy land” that appears before Moses anticipates the holy land that God has set apart for Abraham’s descendants. The new Adam—the holy people—needs a new, holy land to indwell with the Creator.[1] What is unusual is that this holy land is in the desert. As Victor Hamilton notes,
Normally, then, the wilderness the antithesis of holiness. They go together like oil and water. The one thing that can transform common, unholy ground into extraordinary, holy ground is a theophany, a (spectacular divine manifestation). And if God can transform unholy ground by the glow of his presence, might he not also be able to transform an unholy life? What God can do with the ʾădāmâ, might he not also do with the ʾādām?[2]
This land is holy in that it is set apart from the standard, corrupt space of the created order as the place where God’s special presence rests. Moses, and later Israel, is invited into that special space.
So, why must Moses remove his shoes? There is more than one possible explanation. First starters, shoes are made from animal carcasses which makes them unclean and therefore not permissible in God’s presence. Second to this is that it was customary in ancient cultures to remove footwear when invited into a home as a sign of respect for the host. It would be anachronistic to apply the priestly law code at this point in the narrative, so it seems that the latter interpretation is the more likely. This interpretation harmonizes with the controlling new creation motif. Israel, even as the new Adam, is a foreigner in God’s presence. As the story continues, it becomes evident that Moses does not know God, although he knows of God. This becomes apparent when Moses says, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” (Ex 3:13) God goes on to reveal the divine name in saying, “Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.’” Once again, Moses and Yhwh, like Israel and Yhwh, are not acquainted. Yhwh is going to make Israel his own and invite them to live in his land as guests. More specifically, their indwelling will depend upon their covenant faithfulness. They are not entitled to this land. This land is where Yhwh, and none other, reigns. As the first guest invited into God’s holy habitation on earth, Moses removes his shoes.[3]
The rather unusual divine name attests to God’s holiness. While there is no shortage of conjecture over the meaning of the Hebrew phrase ʾehyeh ʾăšer ʾehyeh, the view here is in agreement with Sarna that at the most fundamental level “[e]ither it expresses the quality of absolute Being, the eternal, unchanging, dynamic presence, or it means, ‘He causes to be.’”[4] In other words, God is utterly different than everything in the creation. He does not change, he is eternal, he is not restricted by time and space, and he is in no way dependent upon created things or beings.[5]
To get to the holy land, Israel must first be delivered from Egyptian slavery. God loosens Pharaoh’s grip on Abraham’s family through a series of plagues. In the plagues that lead up to the climatic Red Sea crossing readers hear echoes of the creation account from Genesis 1. As the plagues wreak havoc on Egypt, God demonstrates his sovereignty, oneness, and transcendence once again by making a mockery of the false gods of the Egyptian pantheon. It all comes to a climax with the division of the Red Sea. Israel emerges out of the dry land between the two walls of water just as light, life and order emerge from the watery chaos of Genesis 1, just as Adam emerged from the dust, just as Noah came out of the Ark, Abraham came out of Ur, Isaac out of Sarah, and baby Moses out of the Nile river. This is a recreation event. Israel is the new Adam. Immediately after God subdues the chaos in Genesis 1, he makes a covenant with Adam and Eve, his image-bearing vice-regents. Likewise, after the Israelites comes up out of the Red Sea as the new humanity, God makes a covenant with them (Ex. 24:3–8). God is making Israel his family of priests who share in his likeness.
The Mosaic Law and the Profile of the Image of God. The new creation motif as it relates to holiness continues in the giving of the Mosaic law at Sinai and the building of the tabernacle. God frames the covenant law code within this motif of the controlling narrative by saying, “Now therefore, if you will indeed by obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mind; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:5–6). As becomes more evident as the story unfolds, God is pointing out that (1) Israel is to be different from the nations as he is different from deities of the ancient Near Eastern pantheon (i.e., “a holy nation”), and (2) that their covenant faithfulness—in embodying the moral character of God—will serve as testimony to his existence (i.e., “kingdom of priests”). As a kingdom of priests, if the world wishes to have a part in Yhwh, then they must have a part in Abraham.
As the story progresses, God gives Moses the covenant stipulations in the Ten Commandments at Sinai (Ex. 20). Then Moses conducts the ceremony of the blood covenant between God and Israel (Ex. 24). In creating the covenant between God and Israel, Moses dashes blood on the altar as well as on the Israelites. This is reminiscent of God’s covenant with Abraham back in Genesis 15 in which God binds himself to Abraham in the manner of a fictive kinship covenant. As Israel becomes God’s people, they are mandated to look like him. This is nothing short of the image of God restored through covenant faithfulness. This is holiness. The people of Israel are to be good; they are to conform to the ethics of the One True God in their practice of monotheism.
Encoded in the covenant stipulations is the profile of the image of God as his character is revealed in the quality of life he demands of his people. God prohibits adultery because he is faithful. He prohibits murder because he loves life and honors his image in humanity. God prohibits false testimony because he is honest and true. God commands the Israelites to leave behind a portion of the harvest for the poor and to treat foreigners well because he is compassionate. Each of the 613 commands of the Torah underscores an attribute of God that he shares with his image-bearers. Behaviors, thoughts, desires, and attitudes that are in conflict with God’s character result in a regression towards chaos. When people lie, cheat, steal, and murder, cosmic order breaks down because such behavior violates his character that is built into the ordering of the cosmos. When God’s people adhere to his commands, however, they embody God’s image in the creation, and he is glorified. Their faithful obedience to his ethical code out of a heart posture of pure love and fellowship is an act of worship. They obey, like Abraham, because they trust him. Where there is a lack of obedience, there is a lack of trust, and by extension, a lack of worship.
The Hebrew word that best summarizes God’s holiness as pertains to ethics is ḥeseḏ. The various English translations for this unique, Hebrew word include: “steadfast love” (ESV, NRSV) and “kindness” (ESV, NIV). The core idea behind this term is loyalty.[6] More specifically, it is the sense of deep, steadfast loyalty that characterizes familial bonds. It is loyalty that is driven by intimate love. Grace is certainly a key concept that plays a part in this kind of love in that family members are not deeply bond to one another because of material benefit (i.e., something earned), but out of pure familial affection. This word is first used in the Bible to describe Abraham’s servant’s affection and faithfulness to Abraham when he was commissioned by Abraham to find a wife for Isaac (Gen 24:12). Even though Abraham’s servant is not Abraham’s blood relative, his affection for Abraham is as if they were blood relatives. Abraham’s servant is faithful to Abraham just as family members are faithful to one another regardless of personal gain or changing life circumstances. This ḥeseḏ describes God’s posture towards humanity and is the blueprint behind the profile of the image of God as codified in the law.
As Israel is to be like God in his ḥeseḏ, their way of life as prescribed by the law makes them utterly different from their neighbors. Israel is to be different not simply for the sake of being different, but for the sake of bringing life and order—and subsequently God’s glory—to the creation. Israel’s call to holiness serves the big-picture purpose of restoring God’s original intent to the creation. This means that Israel’s restored fellowship with God (as evidenced in covenant faithfulness) reveals the people of God to the world. Consequently, Israel is to be as different from their pagan neighbors as God is from the pagan deities.[7] In fulfilling their image-bearing vocation, Israel is to embody the character of God, who is categorically different than the pagan gods along with their human worshippers. Israel is called out of the chaos and darkness of the broken world of human rebellion and moral relativity (typified in Egypt) to live in the promised land where moral absolutes reign under the leadership of the One True God. With holiness, proper worship of the One True God is restored. Christopher Wright says,
In Old Testament terms, being holy did not mean that the Israelites were to be a specialty religious nation. At heart, the word “holy” […] means different or distinctive. Something or someone is holy when they get set apart for a distinct purpose in relation to God and then are kept separate for that purpose. For Israel, it meant being different by reflecting the very different God that YHWH revealed himself to be, compared with other gods. Israel was to be as different from other nations as YHWH was different from other gods.[8]
The Tabernacle: A Microcosm of the New Creation. As a part of the covenant stipulations, God instructs Israel to build a tabernacle (Heb. miškān) so that he can fill it with his presence and glory (Ex. 26–31). Here we have the Genesis 1 forming and filling motif once again. The tabernacle is constructed as God’s special place of residence just as creation was intended to be in Genesis 1. The tabernacle (and its later articulation the temple) is a microcosm of the creation which was the original tabernacle (Ps. 78:69) and it is to be a holy dwelling place where God’s can dwell among humanity in his glory.[9]
[1] Cf. Joshua 22:19 and Amos 7:17.
[2] Victor Hamilton, Exodus: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), 49.
[3] The practice of entering into God’s presence barefoot is upheld later on in the priesthood where the only part of the body of the priest that is to be uncovered when entering the tabernacle are the feet.
[4] Nahum M. Sarna, Exodus, The JPS Torah Commentary (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society), 1991), 17–18.
[5] For a more detailed discourse in the theology of the divine name, also see John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology: Israel’s Gospel, Vol. 1 (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2003), 332–343.
[6] Ludwig Koehler et al., The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994–2000), 336.
[7] See Psalm 115.
[8] Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God’s People (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2010), 123.
[9] For an in-depth description of the tabernacle as a microcosm of the cosmos, see Beal’s The Temple and the Church’s Mission: A Biblical Theology of the Dwelling Place of God.
