“God fearing” has always struck me as a ridiculous statement. It’s supposed to be a positive, like, that person respected God. No. Jesus preached of a loving God. He was delusional, apocalyptic, and a product of his time and circumstances, but he said his god loved everyone. Throw that tired shit away.
Old Testament God is a big mean motherfucker and he will fuck you up unless you follow his very strict rules. In fact, he won’t just fuck you up, he will fuck up your entire tribe collectively because you didn’t follow the rules.
Largely because he wasn’t the only God kicking around. Jehovah was originally just another local deity, but he beat up the others. You really were supposed to be afraid of the awesome power your god wielded. Ties back to the language of “you shall have no other gods before Me” - they were around, and they were real, but Jehovah was the baddest of them all.
Moses didn’t try to convince the Egyptians to worship Jehovah, he tried to make them scared of Jehovah.
The funny thing is that they were enslaved by the Babylonians. And they did wander through the desert back to their homeland once they were freed. A much bigger desert.
Because if it took them 40 years to cross the Sinai, something was seriously wrong.
So my guess is that at some point, some Hebrew King was like, “you know what? I like the Persians. They run Babylon now. And FUCK THOSE EGYPTIAN MOTHERFUCKERS! We’re changing the story!” And since the King was the voice of Yaweh on Earth, now they were freed from Egypt.
“God fearing” has always struck me as a ridiculous statement. It’s supposed to be a positive, like, that person respected God. No. Jesus preached of a loving God. He was delusional, apocalyptic, and a product of his time and circumstances, but he said his god loved everyone. Throw that tired shit away.
You’re thinking New Testament God.
Old Testament God is a big mean motherfucker and he will fuck you up unless you follow his very strict rules. In fact, he won’t just fuck you up, he will fuck up your entire tribe collectively because you didn’t follow the rules.
Largely because he wasn’t the only God kicking around. Jehovah was originally just another local deity, but he beat up the others. You really were supposed to be afraid of the awesome power your god wielded. Ties back to the language of “you shall have no other gods before Me” - they were around, and they were real, but Jehovah was the baddest of them all.
Moses didn’t try to convince the Egyptians to worship Jehovah, he tried to make them scared of Jehovah.
I like how the Egyptians considered the Israelite god to be an evil spiteful desert war God that lied about how his people were treated.
There’s zero evidence that they were enslaved by the Egyptians and then revolted. But thanks to one king and centuries of retoric, here we are.
The funny thing is that they were enslaved by the Babylonians. And they did wander through the desert back to their homeland once they were freed. A much bigger desert.
Because if it took them 40 years to cross the Sinai, something was seriously wrong.
So my guess is that at some point, some Hebrew King was like, “you know what? I like the Persians. They run Babylon now. And FUCK THOSE EGYPTIAN MOTHERFUCKERS! We’re changing the story!” And since the King was the voice of Yaweh on Earth, now they were freed from Egypt.