Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
EXODUS 17:8-13
In those days, Amalek came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua:
– Choose some men, make a sortie, and attack Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.
Joshua did as Moses told him and attacked Amalek. Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. As long as Moses kept his hands raised up, Israel had the advantage; but if he lowered his hands, Amalek had the advantage.
And since Moses’ hands grew heavy, his companions took a stone and put it under him to sit on; Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on each side.
Thus they kept his hands raised up until sunset. Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
The people of Israel are in the Sinai desert, on their way to Mount Horeb, about a month after leaving Egypt and crossing the sea. They are passing through a territory controlled by the desert nomads, the Amalekites, who naturally attack them. Historically, this is one of the many warlike episodes recounted in the book of Exodus.
This is an ancient text. It belongs to the “Elohist” tradition, meaning it was composed around 650 BC (incorporating much older traditions) and later used by the authors who gave the final form to the Pentateuch. Perhaps it originally formed part of a war chronicle, probably preserved by the tribe of Ephraim (the main protagonist of Exodus and the core of the Northern Kingdom).
But the compilers have been concerned with giving it meaning: the entire epic of Exodus has the same meaning: If Israel is faithful to God, it has nothing to worry about: the Lord will defeat all enemies.
This was the basic theme of the famous crossing of the sea: in the Yahwist-Elohist tradition (already fused in our text), the people do not move, the Lord does everything. The same message is received in The Water from the Rock, the quails, the manna: You be faithful to God, and He will take care of everything.
The victory over Amalek is therefore read from faith: as long as Moses does not tire of praying, the Lord fights for Israel. If Israel relies on its own strength, its enemies prevail.
This lesson will be the core of the faith of the Deuteronomic Circle, and the one that will inspire both Deuteronomy and the books we call “historical,” as we saw last Sunday in relation to the Second Book of Kings.
We cannot help but reflect on the dangerous primitivism of this text (parallel to many others in the Old Testament). Israel (Moses) asks for victory over its enemies: that God help him kill, that God annihilate his enemies. And God grants it. God kills the Amalekites.
The entire Old Testament is full of these interpretations by Israel, similar to those made by all the ancient peoples of the world when they are at war with their enemies, because all understand that their GOD is there to protect them from their enemies and even to annihilate them. And in this, it is shown that THEIR GOD is stronger than the gods of the others.
When this did not work historically, when Israel was devastated and the Temple destroyed, it was understood as punishment for infidelity. This leads us to think that if Israel had been faithful, we would all now be subject to them, and we would worship God in the Temple of Jerusalem, according to the Promise (or we would be dead, by the power of Yahweh).
And none of this is true.
All that faith of Israel, the essence of the Deuteronomist, is false. God is not for the triumph of a people, there is no chosen people over (or against) the others, God is not the property of anyone, God does not help to kill anyone, it is we who kill against His Will…
That “faith” of Israel is neither the Word of God nor should it appear in our Eucharist, because the message of Jesus is exactly the opposite.
At the end of the first reading, “Word of God” will be proclaimed, and people will say yes… Well, no. It is time to demystify the expression “Word of God” and read the Old Testament as a prehistory of Jesus, often very distant and very contaminated by beliefs that are not the Word of God at all.
2 TIMOTHY 3:14-4:2
Remain in what you have learned and have been entrusted with, knowing from whom you learned it and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures. They can give you the wisdom that through faith in Christ Jesus leads to salvation.
All Scripture inspired by God is also useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
We continue with the “continuous reading” of this letter. We do not find in this text any idea that we have not already dealt with on previous Sundays.
José Enrique Galarreta, S.J.