Prophecy and Fulfillment The archetype, prophecy and fulfillment, is demonstrated in Jean Stafford's "The Liberation" and in the life of Moses, as recorded in the Bible. This archetype involves the prediction of an occurrence, and then it occurring. Polly, of "The Liberation", and Moses have many similar experiences when they must confront their family and deliver important news. Polly had the unfortunate task of telling her elderly aunt and uncle that she was getting married to a man in Boston. She knew that she would be viewed as a traitor to her family for leaving her hometown. Previous deserters were "spoken of thereafter as if they were unredeemed, treasonous, and debauched" (Stafford 71). Polly knew her aunt and uncle would pull out all the stops to try and get her to reconsider her actions. In short, making her feel as though she was betraying her ancestors. Upon approaching the house, she sat and planned out what she would say to convince them. Polly was nervous and unsure of herself, but knew she had to tell them, or she would never have another chance at happiness. Moses was given a message from the Lord through the burning bush (Leeming 249). He was told to return to Egypt and to free his people from captivity. Moses showed his uneasiness, but God pushed him and reassured him that he would be by his side. However, He continued on to say that He knew Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go and that He would "stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt will all my wonders" (Leeming 250). Moses did as the Lord told him and confronted Pharaoh, someone he considered family for many years. Moses pleaded with Pharaoh to release the slaves. But as the Lord predicted, Pharaoh did not listen and Egypt was now subject to the wrath of God. He watched as the plagues destroyed the vast Egyptian Empire and a sense of betrayal to his "family" swept over him, but he knew this was as it should be. Moses and Polly had to confront those closest to them and they were forced to see the pain and suffering it brought to them.
When God first approaches Moses in the form of a burning bush, God says “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering. Therefore I have come down to rescue them from the hands of the Egyptians and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land,” (Exodus 3:7). Moses however, questioned God’s judgement, saying, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11). Moses continues to question God throughout the rest of the chapter, but eventually begins his journey to rescue his
Theologian Vern S. Poythress wrote, “Theological systems, whether dispensationalist, covenantal, Calvinist, Arminian, or even modernist, have a profound influence on the way we approach a given [biblical] text.” There is no portion of scripture that is more influenced by the theological system of dispensationalist than that of biblical prophecy, particularly in the area of God’s redemptive plan from for humanity. The purpose of this essay is to establish that an appropriate understanding of biblical eschatology can best be achieved through a dispensational theological perspective.
Moses' journey begins in Egypt. This is a land where the Pharaoh has ultimate control and power over the people. Campbell refers to this greedy, egocentric, possessive leader as the tyrant. At this time, Egypt is noticing a huge increase in the number of Hebrew slaves (Exodus 1:9). In order to maintain possession of the land, Pharaoh must stifle the future threat that the increasing population of Israelites represent. To do this he orders the first born son of every Hebrew to be thrown into the Nile. However, baby Moses floats to the Pharaoh's daughter and Moses is raised as an Egyptian prince. He grows up different than any other Hebrew. He learns how to become soldier for his Pharaoh, but something is always troubling him. One day Moses sees an Egyptian striking a Hebrew slave and Moses intervenes and kills the Egyptian (Exodus 2:12). The next day he sees two Hebrews struggling, and tries to intervene, but he discovers that his murder of yesterday is known. This conflict symbolizes what Campbell says is the "call t...
God’s people found themselves in captivity in Egypt after the death of Joseph and the Pharaoh that had knowledge of the good done by children of Israel (Ex. 1:8-14). God saw the oppression of His people and sent Moses and Aaron to deliver His people from slavery (Ex. 3:10, 4:14-16).
Even though Moses, was raised as an Egyptian, he knew that he was truly Hebrew. After seeing an Egyptian taskmaster cruelly beating a Hebrew, Moses became so furious that he murdered the Egyptian. Fearing that the Pharaoh would find out what he had done, Moses fled to the wilderness, “the eternal safe retreat of outcasts from ancient society and of those in revolt against authority.” Moses found himself in the Sinai Desert amongst other ...
This section of exodus focuses on Moses, an Israelite who was raised as an Egyptian, who has fled from Egypt after the Pharaoh tried to kill him for killing an Egyptian man. By Exodus 3:1 Moses is married to Zipporah daughter of Jethro who gives him a job working as a shepherd. While tending to his animals Moses arrives at Horeb also known as Mount Sinai or the Mountain of God. Here Moses has his first theophany with God in the form of a burning bush. During this passage God talks to Moses telling him what he needs to do: go to Egypt and convince the Pharaoh to let the Egyptians go by performing a series of miracles. What god is asking Moses to do is intimidating. At this time the Pharaoh was the ruler of Egypt who had a powerful army and the Israelite’s weren’t going to be easy to convince that God sent him. Despite the “signs” Moses is reluctant to take the role beca...
According to Max Dublins THE POWER OF PROPHECY, He seems to want to give a feeling that prophecy is all in the listeners mind and that Prophets are mostly very manipulative people and can influence people greatly. I tend to agree with this to some degree.
This essay will argue that the eschatology of the Book of Revelation forms an integral part of John’s attempt within the pages of his book to form a literary world in which the forms, figures, and forces of the earthly realm are critiqued and unmasked through the re-focalization of existence from the perspective of heaven. It will attempt to show that, in response to the social, political, religious, and economic circumstances of his readers, the Book of Revelation forms a counter imaginative reality. Through drawing upon an inaugurated sense of eschatology and evocative imagery, John is able to pull the reader in and show them the true face of the imperial world and consequences of its ideology, forcing the reader allegiance to fall with either ‘Babylon’ or the New Jerusalem.
Moses never truly achieved his goals to free his people from persecution and establish a safe and secure homeland, but he did appoint people to lead after him and left them with the Book of Deuteronomy. In these sermons, Moses recalls the trials and tribulations of 40 years in the wilderness to show the struggles his people have made so far. He also demands that they follow his teachings and, more importantly, the Ten Commandments. He leaves them by telling them to observe one and only one God, his God. Shortly thereafter, Moses died at the age of 120 and paved the foundation for the creation of Israel.
He then utilizes this to speak to Egypt in their sinful ways in the slavery of his people. God furthers this to indicate his power, embodying belief of him in his people, through victory amidst prevailing humanity. Equally, his glorious promises were the saving salvation, yet reiterate belief in him to follow his ways for redemption (Guzik). “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided. . So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen” (14 Exod.: 21-23). All the Egyptians and the Pharaoh perished by Moses’s guidance, and God’s wrath as the Red Sea devoured
Literalist fundamentalists read Revelation’s multivalent visions as predictions of doom and threat, of punishment for the many and salvation for the elect few. Scholarly scientific readings seek to translate the book’s ambiguity into one-to-one meanings and to transpose its language of symbol and myth into description and facts. In Elisabeth Schûssler Fiorenza’s The Book of Revelation: Justice and Judgment, a third way of reading Revelation is depicted. The collection of essays in this book seeks to intervene in scholarly as well as popular discourses on the apocalypse from a liberationist feminist perspective.
As a one reads through the Old Testament, he will find the story as it unfolds of the children of Israel. Beginning in the book of Exodus the children of Israel are in Egyptian bondage and being forced to work as slaves. God appears to Moses in a burning bush and tells him that He [God] has heard His people and He is going to deliver them out of bondage. God at that time tells Moses that He has chosen him to be the leader of this people. After God brings ten plagues against Egypt the children of Israel are driven out of the land, and God promises to lead them to a land “flowing with milk and honey.” On their way to the “Promised Land” they cross the Red Sea in which Pharaoh and the Egyptian army is defeated by God. Then they go to Mount Sinai to receive the Law. After receiving the law they then go to the Promised Land, and there Moses sends twelve spies into the land. Ten of these spies come back and give a bad report to Moses and the children of Israel. Since they did this Israel was punished by God and made to wonder in the wilderness for forty years during which time all who were over the age of twenty perished. The only two that did not die was Caleb and Joshua who had come back with a good report, and told Moses and the children of Israel to go up at once and take the land. Once they had completed the wilderness wondering they returned to the Promised Land and took the land under the new leadership of Joshua. However, Israel did not drive out all the inhabitants as the Lord God had commanded them, thus the inhabitants that were not driven out would be a snare to them. Once they had established themselves in the land they began to chase after the gods of the inhabitants before them. God then sent judges to deliver them which ...
Moses and the Plagues in which God punishes the Egyptians with ten plagues and secures the Israelite’s freedom (Exodus 7:14).
In the Biblical Book of Exodus, Moses was not originally supposed to be born under the Pharaoh’s rule because he was an Israelite male. Pharaoh decreed all Hebrew boys born were to be killed in the Nile River. Moses survived because Pharaoh’s servants feared God more. This law was one of Pharaoh’s ways to oppress the Hebrew people. It was a tactic to keep the majority of the population from growing as well as implementing slavery. However, that did not stop the Israelites from multiplying in size: “’And now indeed the cry of the Israelites has come to me, and I have also seen how severely the Egyptians oppress them. So now go, and I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt’” (New English Translation, Exodus 3:9-10). In this passage, God is speaking to Moses in the form of a burning bush that he has seen the hardships Pharaoh put the Israelites through, and that he will deliver them from their sufferings. M...
over the Egyptian gods. Each plague was an attack on a particular Egyptian god. Moreover, not only was God’s purpose to reduce Pharaoh’s resistance and free the Israelites with the plagues, it also displayed God’s power conquering over the Egyptian gods; proving He is the one true God (Holiday Celebrations). Because of the plagues, Pharaoh finally surrendered and freed the Israelites from slavery.