Story Telling

Dear reader,

                     I feel an explanation for this section is required... here we go...

   In the beginning something happened, and then something else happened and so many somethings happened right after those first somethings and unless you understand this fact, the somethings at the end of this story will make no sense at all!!! Got it?

   This is the account of a group of travelers, whose walk will change the way we see God. In the very very very beginning there was only one God and He was a Trinity and He (or Them) decided to get extremely creative an He created the heavens and the earth, then light, then separated the waters from the dry spots, then the plants and trees, then the stars, and fish and birds, then animals of the dry lands, and finally They decided to create the human beings... a man to be exact; now, that was a bold move, but not as bold as the next one: creating a woman. Then she got hungry, talked to a snake, ate what she was not supposed to eat, gave a bite to her man, and felt naked, hid from God and started blaming someone else. They got kicked out of paradise with a curse for each of the afore mentioned three new created characters. The first babies came, the first murder occurred and God made it rain for so many days that only the 8 people inside a giant boat survived, along with a lot of pairs of animals (you know, to make sure that we could have animals nowadays). The rainbow came to happen as a sign of God promising not to do that again! People got really good at building tall towers: Babel, and God confused their tongues: languages! We learn about the first set of twins in history and the older sells his "birth right" for a soup (must have been really good soup!), then younger one steals the blessing and ran away... got married to two women and had twelve sons, can you guess? Yes, the twelve tribes of Israel! But one of them gets sold into slavery, gets taken to Egypt and prospers so much that gets to be the second in charge in the whole kingdom! Gets reunited with his brothers and father years later but holds no grudge... after he dies, Israel spends 400+ years enslaved in the land of the pyramids. And then Moses was born (foreshadowing the Messiah's troubles as a baby!) Moses tells God that he is very bad with words and that He should pick someone else, God lets Moses' brother Aaron go with him as his helper. The 10 plagues happen because Pharaoh's heart is hard and will not let the Israelite slaves go:

1. The water of the Nile river turns into blood.
2. Frogs overran the countryside.
3. People and animals were infested with lice.
4. Swarms of flies cover the land.
5. A disease killed the livestock of Egypt.
6. Boils and sores infected the Egyptians and their animals.
7. Hail destroyed crops and vegetation.
8. Swarms of locusts covered the land.
9. Thick darkness cover Egypt for three days.
10. The Egyptian firstborn, both of people and animals died.

Finally, Pharaoh lets them go, only to chased them right after. God opens the Red Sea for His people to cross it and be safe from the Egyptian army (which drowns when the sea comes back to its original place). So everyone is happy and they sing songs and dance dances. Then the people complained, God gave them water. People complained again, God made food rain from heaven: Manna in the mornings. They complained about variety, for they wanted meat! God gave them quails in the afternoons... this happened everyday, for 40 years, except on Sabbath, the day of rest. They keep walking in the dessert. They needed more water and God tells Moses to strike the rock for water. Second time around, God tells him to talk to the rock, but Moses strikes this other rock too (he disobeyed God), therefore he was prohibited to go into the promised land (whenever they got there). They walked some more.

They reached Mt. Sinai, the presence of God comes down and dwells at Sinai. God talks to Moses, face to face, like a friend. Moses was up in Mt. Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights with no food or drink. Moses receives the 10 commandments from God himself. But the people of God become wicked down the mountain, so Moses comes down, and gets so upset that he breaks the tables were the commandments were written. He goes back up for another 40 days with its nights. And God makes him rewrite the tables himself this time. Moses brings the commandments to the people. God said:

1. You must not have any other god but me.
2. You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea.
3. You must not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
4. Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
5. Honor your father and mother.
6. You must not murder.
7. You must not commit adultery.
8. You must not steal.
9. You must not testify falsely against your neighbor.
10. You must not covet.

God gives Moses instructions for building his Tabernacle, so He can dwell among His people. And He gives them rules for the priests and laws for social living as well. But the people, down the mountain, were turning wicked once again, and God wanted to kill them all! Moses asked God to forgive them, and He did. But God did not want to travel with them anymore, but Moses asked Him to reconsider and travel with him. And God did for Moses was His dear friend. They built the Tabernacle, and every time the cloud lifted from it, the people of Israel would set out on their journey, following it. And when the cloud did not lift, they did not move from that land until it happened again.

God decided to teach His people about His holiness. And He told them all the details about Sacrifices and Sanctification.  All they needed to know about the offerings for Him, how to consecrate the Priests and the people in general, He also talked to them about National Atonement. In this way He was teaching them how to come to Him and then how to walk with Him.

Moses decided to retell almost 40 years of wandering in his own words. He started by telling that God asked the leaders of Israel to record the names of all the warriors by clan and family. God gave Moses and Aaron different laws and regulations for better living in community with each other and within God's standards.