: Mark R. Glanville
: Craig G. Bartholomew
: Freed to Be God's Family The Book of Exodus
: Lexham Press
: 9781683594475
: Transformative Word
: 1
: CHF 8.30
:
: Religion/Theologie
: English
: 104
: Wasserzeichen
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB
Family provides community, identity, and shared values. In the book of Exodus, God frees Israel from slavery to Egypt. But they are not left as orphans. Rather, the redeemed are made into a new family--God's family. In Freed to be God's Family, Mark R. Glanville argues that the central motif of Exodus is community. God wants a healthy, dynamic relationship with the redeemed. As family members, Israel is called to learn God's ways and reflect God's character to the world. Freed to be God's Family is a concise and accessible guide to the message and themes of Exodus. Each chapter keeps the big picture central and provides probing questions for reflection and discussion.

Mark R. Glanville is associate professor of pastoral theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia, and author of Adopting the Stranger as Kindred in Deuteronomy. Mark has also pastored for over a decade in Canada and Australia.

INTRODUCTION

The book of Exodus is all about community. It is the real story of a society that was being reshaped as “family,” under the lordship of Yahweh. At the opening of the book of Exodus, the Israelites were enslaved brick-workers in Egypt—before Yahweh intervened. In Egypt, human relationships were deeply fractured. The beating of a Hebrew slave and the destruction of male babies had become permanent symbols of the atrocity of slavery (Exod 1:15–22; 2:11–15). Yahweh emancipated Israel from slavery in Egypt and brought the nation to Mount Sinai so that they might be established in covenant relationship with God. God’s laws shaped Israel to operate the way that God had always intended for communities to operate: in love, as kindred. The book of Exodus is all about the formation of this renewed community that lives together before the face of God. It shows us the joy, the freshness, the hope, and the imagination that a community can experience when it is transformed by the love of God.

While this book is the ancient story of an ancient community that encounters the love of God, it also contains an implicit invitation to Christ-followers today: to consider how Christ’s word and Christ’s presence may be nourishing our communities and our relationships in the direction of family. A thread weaving through the biblical story, one overtone within the heartbeat of Scripture, is Christ’s renewing us as sisters and brothers, by God’s gracious presence. To be sure, this dynamic of community is not the only theme in Exodus. However, God’s reshaping of community is central to this book, and this is the lens through which we will view Exodus in our journey together. As you read through this ancient story, consider: Is there an invitation for your own worshiping community in the book of Exodus? What fresh ideas and imaginings is the Holy Spirit stirring in you and in your community as you read?

The call to community in the book of Exodus has very practical implications. To connect our own lives with Israel’s journey from Egypt to Sinai, let me share with you a project that our worshiping community in Vancouver, British Columbia, is embarking on. (I was pastoring here at the time of writing, before stepping aside to teach at Regent College.) During the time of writing this book, our church has taken fresh steps toward community. We have, at long last, broken ground and begun the construction process for a housing project. We are transforming our church car park into a four-story affordable housing complex with twenty-six self-contained units and also tons of community space and plots for communal gardening. We call it the “Co:Here” building. While the rocketing cost of housing in Vancouver is splintering human relationships and also our r