In the book of Exodus in the Hebrew Old Testament, we can see an incredible story of an all-powerful God working in the lives of humans that he specifically calls his own. This people, named Israelites, in homage to one of their ancestors, Israel, were enslaved to the Egyptian people and forced to carry out immense manual labor. God uses the hostile environment and obstacles to teach the Israelites many different things before saving them from the Egyptians. God ultimately attempts to teach the Israelites three major ideas: faithfulness, sin before God, and holiness. It is important to note that one of God's primary methods of teaching His people is through verbal expression. Whether it manifests through God himself speaking to the people (which happens very rarely in the entire Bible) or through a leader or prophet, God often uses words, ideas, and commandments specific to express his desires to the Israelites. This form manifests itself in different ways. For example, in Exodus, God chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and to be his voice to the people. Moses acts as the voice of God for a long period of time, from the first time Moses tells Pharaoh to free the Israelites (Exodus 5:1), to the time Moses delivers the Ten Commandments to the people (Exodus 20), all throughout the entire period. books of Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, until Moses died at the conclusion of Deuteronomy. It is obvious that God chose Moses for a specific purpose. But more importantly, it is what God does through Moses to change his people, the Israelites. The reader can see that God desires many things for his people. The most obvious thing God is trying to teach the Israelites is faithfulness. He desires them... middle of paper ...... with the destruction of the Egyptian army and the pharaoh. Another parallel that is interesting to study is the difference in the covenants that God made with Abraham and later, the Israelites. For Abraham, God devotes only five verses describing the conditions that Abraham must meet to keep the covenant – only circumcision, but in the book of Exodus, nineteen chapters out of forty – or almost fifty percent – ​​are filled with instructions regarding specific commandments of God. And the remaining three books of the Torah are littered with all manner of obscure social and moral laws emanating from God. Works Cited The Holy Bible: New Updated American Standard Bible: Containing the Old Testament and the New Testament. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Pub. House, 1999. Print. Kugel, James L. How to Read the Bible: A Guide to the Scriptures Then and Now. New York: Free, 2007. Print.