Difference between Exodus and ISIS Killings
Biblical Interpretation
Insight into Exodus:
At the end of the biblical book of
Genesis, Joseph and his eleven brothers go to Egypt to live. They have many
children and their children have many children. Eventually, there are so many
of them that Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, begins to fear that they—the Hebrews
will rise up against him. To prevent this, Pharaoh enslaves the Hebrews.
According to tradition, these slaves are the ancestors of the Jewish people.
Pharaoh is cruel. He takes away the Hebrews’ freedom and makes them work very
hard.
Despite having enslaved the Hebrews,
Pharaoh continues to fear them. So he comes up with another plan: he will send
soldiers to kill all the Hebrew baby boys. One of these babies is named Moses.
To save his life, his mother and sister place him in a basket and set it in the
river. They hope he will be found by someone who will take care of him as a
son. The basket floats down the river and is discovered by Pharaoh’s daughter.
She saves Moses and, not knowing he is a Hebrew, raises him as a prince of
Egypt.
Moses grows up he sees an Egyptian
guard beating a Hebrew slave. Angered by the brutality, he kills the guard.
Moses then flees for his life. He runs away to the desert where he becomes a
shepherd. Then one day, while he is taking care of his sheep, he sees a burning
bush. God’s voice calls out to him from the bush, commanding him to return to
Egypt and free the Hebrews from slavery.
In Egypt, Moses and Aaron assemble the
elders of Israel to tell them that the time of their redemption has come. The
people believe; but Pharaoh refuses to let them go and even intensifies the
suffering of Israel. He increases the burden of labor on his Hebrew slaves,
commanding their taskmasters to cease bringing the Israelites straw to make the
bricks. Now, they must go to the fields to collect the straw themselves, but
maintain the same quota of brick production.
So to show the power of God and to
give warning to Pharaoh, God unleashes 10 plagues, one after another when
Pharaoh refuses each time to leave the people of Israelites free. The 10
Plagues are:
- Aaron strikes the Nile, the waters turn to blood;
- Swarms of frogs overrun the land;
- Lice infest all men and beasts. Still, Pharaoh remains stubborn;
- Hordes of wild animals invade the cities,
- a pestilence kills the domestic animals,
- painful boils afflict the Egyptians.
- Fire and ice combine to descend from the skies as a devastating hail.
Still, "the heart of Pharaoh was
hardened and he would not let the children of Israel go; as God had said to
Moses."
The people of Egypt have suffered too
much. They beg Pharaoh to let the Jews go. When Moses comes to warn Pharaoh of
the eighth plague, Pharaoh says: You say that you want to go serve your God?
I'll let the men go, as long as the women and children stay behind. No, says
Moses, we must all go, men women and children, cattle and herds. Pharaoh once
again refuses.The next plagues descends upon Egypt.
8. a swarm of locusts devours all the
crops and greenery;
9. a thick, palpable darkness envelops
the land.
The Israelites are instructed to bring
a "Passover offering" to God: a lamb is to be slaughtered and its
blood sprinkled on the doorposts and lintel of every Israelite home, so that
God should pass over these homes when He comes to kill the Egyptian firstborn.
The roasted meat of the offering is to be eaten that night together with matzah
(unleavened bread) and bitter herbs.
Then God brings the tenth plague upon
Egypt,
10. all the firstborn of Egypt are
killed at the stroke of midnight of the 15th of the month of Nissan.
So there was ample warning to Pharaoh
and people of Egypt about the power and might of our God and they refuse to
believe. Our God gave them 9 times to let go the people of Israelites and they
refused to do so. So God took the 10th plague of killing the firstborn of
everyone who does not have their doorpost sprinkled with blood. Even Egyptians
were told about this and they did not believed. Some of them believed in our
God and they were saved along with the Jews. Another reason is that God created
everything that is in this universe, and as a creator He has the right to take
what he created. So one who created the first born child took them back. And it
is not like God just killed all of the Egyptian first born child, but God gave
opportunity to them also to save their firstborn and some of them did and they
also got saved along with Jews. According to Exodus 12:38, A mixed multitude
also went up with them, along with flocks and herds, a very large number of
livestock.
There are more evidences to this other
than Bible to say that what was done during passover was justified. For more
than 2,000 years Jewish sages have wondered what was happening within Egyptian
society and have written midrash (literary explanations) about factors that are
not in the Bible but might explain the Egyptians’ plight. One of them says like
this:
When God sent the plague of the firstborn ... all the
firstborn Egyptians went to speak to their fathers and said “Everything which Moses has said
has come true, don’t you want us to live? Let us get the Hebrew slaves out of
our homes now. Otherwise we are dead.”
The fathers answered “even if all of Egypt dies they are not leaving.”
All the firstborn gathered in front of Pharaoh and screamed “Please remove the Hebrews, because
of them evil will befall us and you.” Pharaoh said to his servants, “Remove the protesters and break
their knees.” What did the young Egyptians do? Each took a sword and killed his
father.
(Midrash Tehillim
136:6) (What is Midrash Tehillim? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midrash_Tehillim)
If, according to this interpretation,
the first-borns all killed their fathers, then they were all guilty of murder.
They likely were all sentenced to death and killed by Pharaoh’s army. In other
words, in the eyes of this midrash, the firstborn of Egypt are killed because
of the stubborn patriarchs and authoritarian leadership.
Not only does this midrash give us a
story in which responsibility for the death of the firstborn is shifted away
from God, but it creates a dynamic in which the firstborn of Egypt rebel
against the decrees of Pharaoh.
So, does Passover celebrate the death
of innocent Egyptians?
The short answer to that question is
no. It celebrates the defeat of a murderous despot and his narrow-minded,
bloodthirsty army. It commemorates a tragic tale when fathers refused to listen
to their children’s pleas. And it marks the long road to freedom as the Hebrews
let go of their slavery mentality. But the death of ordinary Egyptians is not
marked by joy. And one thing to note here is that this is not done to convert anyone
to believing in something that is not true, but instead done to free the God’s
promised people from the clutches of Egypt.
Insight into ISIS Killings:
Now on the other hand coming to ISIS,
they are killing people for not converting to Islam. They are not doing this
for giving freedom for anyone from any nation. They are following the things
written in Quran and doing this killings in the name of their god Allah. Quran
itself is a book that was written after 600 years of Jesus Christ, and is told
that God revealed the things to the guy named Muhammad. The Islamic religion claims that the Qur’an,
revealed allegedly by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad beginning in
610 A.D., is the inspired and inerrant word of God. Such an assertion, however,
is highly problematic, and many, many arguments could be given to convincingly
refute it. (http://crossexamined.org/simple-reason-quran-word-god/)
Now ISIS is doing this to make more
muslim nations and forcefully making people to follow Islam or else kill them.
ISIS members want an Islamic state or caliphate run according to Islamic Sharia
law. A caliphate is an Islamic state. It’s led by a caliph, a person considered
to be a political and religious successor to the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.
Throughout history there have been eight caliphates, though there is some
debate about which of these were legitimate. It’s not a case of just wanting to
set up a caliphate. ISIS believes it is a legitimate state right now, rather
than a rebel group. It wants recognition by the rest of the world and for all
Muslims to recognize its version of Islam. ISIS believes a prophecy from the
Prophet Muhammad means the end of the world is coming. The 1,300-year-old
prophecy says the Day of Judgement will come after an epic battle between
Christians and Muslims.
So if you see you cannot even compare the killings of
ISIS with what happened in Exodus.
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