It can seem like faith would be easier if we could only see—miracles, God, whatever, just anything more than what we see now. But this is never the case. We, like Israel, are a forgetful bunch. The divine splendors of yesterday fade quickly, and our fidelity wanes. Emancipation was not won by us, neither will our inheritance be. Faith in Yahweh begins and ends with the knowledge that it is God who carries us, always.

It can be easy to subjugate God to our specific ways of worshipping or talking about God. In God’s grace, patience, and willingness to condescend to us, we can forget that Yahweh is also the fiery God of emancipation. As we edge closer to Easter, we should hold in tension the terrifying power, authority, and strength able to wrest sin and death to the ground, and Yahweh’s insistence on accomplishing this through His own debasement, and humiliation. All at once, at Jesus’ crucifixion, the humility and the power of God are most clearly disclosed.

The Exodus makes one thing apparent. God's vision for the world excludes and refuses to tolerate the exploitative nature of empire. Thus, the lesser-known laws following on the heels of the ten commandments curb the predatory greed that is the empire's life force. The new society of Yahweh is not one of predation but neighborly love.