Exodus is the story of God actively forming a people through whom he would eventually bless the whole world. It starts with God raising up an unlikely character, Moses, to confront a cruel and obstinate Pharaoh in order to liberate the oppressed slave clans descendant from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Through mighty miracles Moses leads the people out of Egypt and into a desert wilderness that functions as foundry where God takes on the task of refining an ordinary people into "his people." He reveals himself and his covenant to them at Mt. Sinai in preparation for their onward journey to the Land of Promise that generations before God pledged to the descendants of the original patriarchs of his revelatory monotheistic faith. But no sooner had he given Moses the foundational Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, than the Israelites showed their true colors -- and the hard work of refining that lay ahead -- by shaping and worshiping an idol during Moses' absence on the mountain. But God and Moses both persevered with the difficult task of forming a people of God from "no people," as God made preparations to dwell in the midst of his work in progress -- the divine artist-potter in a workshop full of common clay.
