The God of justice can best be understood in relation to the Exodus event (Exodus chapters 13 to 15). According to Folk (1991), the Exodus event is seen by many Christian and Jewish scholars as the central event through which God is revealed in the Old Testament.167
167 Jerry Folk. 1991. Doing Theology, Doing Justice. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, pg. 70.
Jean Cardonnel in Folk (1991) therefore asserts that,
81 The specific character of the one and only God is the fact that he intervenes in the very midst of abandonment and dereliction. His divine revelation begins with the liberation of the most oppressed and tortured people who thereby move prophetically from oppression to liberation.168
The Exodus event takes place during the time when the Israelites were under the harsh rule of Pharaoh in Egypt. God is seen intervening for the oppressed Israelites. Walter Brueggemann (1976) expresses the action of Yahweh in rescuing the Israelites by asserting that Yahweh steps into the brickyard and says, “Let my people go!” whereas the gods of Egypt say, “Make more bricks.”169 Israel, groaning in slavery, cried out to Yahweh for help, and on hearing their cry Yahweh remembered the promises he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.170 As such, Yahweh’s response to the cry of the people of Israel is shown through Moses. Speaking to Moses, Yahweh said: “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt, I have heard them crying for help on account of their taskmasters.”171 Commissioning Moses, Yahweh says, “Yes indeed, the cry of the Israelites for help has reached me, and I have also seen the cruel way in which the Egyptians are oppressing them. So I am sending you to Pharaoh for you to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”172 From this background, we see Yahweh using Moses as an instrument to liberate the Israelites. Thus, God is seen coming to the aid of the oppressed. Miranda (1977) indeed notes, “God’s intervention in history has only one purpose - to serve the cause of justice, to save from injustice.”173
An increasing number of biblical scholars and theologians insist that the Exodus reveals Yahweh as a God who was allied not with the rulers of the society but with the poor and oppressed. Yahweh is the God whose ears and heart are open to the cries of the oppressed and who intervenes on their behalf.
As such, Folk (1990) states that:
174
168 Jean Cardonnel. 1991. L’Homme chretien et l’homme marxiste, in J. Fork, Doing Theology, Doing Justice.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, pg. 71.
169 Walter Brueggemann. 1976. Living Toward a Vision. New York: United Church Press, pg. 56.
170 Exodus 2:23-25.
171 Exodus 3:7
172 Exodus 3: 9-10.
173 Miranda Pillay. 1977. Marx and the Bible: Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression. London: SCM Press, pg. 78.
174 Jerry Folk. 1991, pg. 70.
82 This implies that the Exodus event reveals Yahweh’s divine revelation, which begins with the liberation of the oppressed and tortured Israelites. Furthermore, Orobator (2005) comments that,
Many liberation theologians argue that God makes the original option for the poor and oppressed people in the exodus event, which theme the prophets forcefully re-echoed, the psalmists lyrically celebrated and the wisdom literature poetically enacted. The option is further concretised by Jesus when he proclaims the good news to the poor (Lk 7:22), and announces their liberation from bondage as the cornerstone of his salvific mission (Lk 4:18-19).175
Additionally, Mlilo (2007) says, “The Exodus affirms among other things that Yahweh is true Redeemer from injustice and oppression, the great Liberator before whom no earthly power or even the mighty forces of nature can stand.”176
5.2.2 The Significance of the Exodus Event to the People of Israel
The Exodus event played a central role in the history of the Israelites. According to Mlilo (2007),
This was the fundamental experience, the defining moment for the Israelites as a nation. It was the cornerstone of their national identity and pride. For the people of Israel, therefore, the Exodus had both a political as well as a religious significance. In both spheres, the Exodus was Israel’s referral point of departure as well as the interpretation of current events and the projection of all future hopes.177
The same view is shared by Orobator (2005) when he says, “Most liberation theologians adopt the Old Testament’s account and theology of the Exodus from slavery in Egypt to the promised land and the constitution of Israel as a nation as their point of departure.”
178
175 Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator. (2005). pg. 208.
176 Luke G. Mlilo 2007. I have Seen and I have Heard: An Introduction to the Book of Exodus. St Joseph’s Theological Institute: Cedara, (unpublished), pg. 4.
177 Luke G. Mlilo. 2007. pg. 5.
178 Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator. 2005, pg. 208.
This implies therefore that the Exodus event created a bond of special relationship between the people of Israel and Yahweh. This relationship was mainly based on Yahweh’s action of liberation from Pharaoh’s oppression.
83 5.2.3 The Significance of the Exodus Event for the Christian Church
The Exodus is significant not only to the Jewish people but for Christians as well. The significance of the Exodus event can be applied to various interpretations of the human condition that calls for liberation from bondage. Mlilo has this to say,
The events leading to the Exodus experience are a fundamental element of Christian belief: for example the association, among other aspects of Jesus’ redemptive death with the Passover meal that preceded freedom from slavery. Indeed, the Eucharistic Theology of Christianity makes ‘sense’ only in relation to the Exodus event.179
Thus, in this age of HIV and AIDS, the same God who intervened on behalf of the Israelites continues to intervene on behalf of those who find themselves vulnerable to HIV. Therefore, God enters into partnership with humans in the act of saving them. Expressing the role of God in the time of HIV and AIDS, Dibeela says, “God continues to be interested in the plight of the people of the world who suffer injustices. Most of these people are in the Third World, and they suffer at the hands of globalisation and the elite in the West.”
What it implies in this regard is the fact that God’s response to the cry of the oppressed and taking their side forms the basis of the theology of liberation. Thus, the significance of the Exodus event becomes the motive for the Christian Church to take upon itself the commitment to liberate the people of God who may be found in any form of oppression.
180 In the context of this study, therefore, St Alois Catholic Rural Mission Station is called to make efforts in applying possible strategies for liberating its own women parishioners, who are living with HIV and AIDS from the burdens that make them most vulnerable to HIV and AIDS. Thus, the Church of St Alois is challenged to look around and identify different forms of slavery in its community and be the ‘Moses’, by becoming a bridge-builder and instrument through which liberation in its various forms can be attained.
We shall also see how the revelation of God’s concern for the poor and oppressed continues to be manifested by the prophets of the 8th
179 Luke G. Mlilo. 2007. pg. 6.
180 Moiseraele P. Dibeela. 2003. “International Justice”, in Musa W. Dube (ed), Africa Praying: A Handbook on HIV/ AIDS Sensitive Sermon Guidelines and Liturgy. Geneva: World Council of Churches, pp. 259-260.
century.
84