Delivered out of Empire

The Pivotal Moments in the Old Testament Series helps readers see Scripture with new eyes, highlighting short, key texts-"e;pivotal moments"e;-that shift our expectations and invite us to turn toward another reality transformed by God's purposes and action.The book of Exodus brims with dramatic stories familiar to most of us: the burning bush, Moses' ringing proclamation to Pharaoh to "e;Let my people go,"e; the parting of the Red Sea. These signs of God's liberating agency have sustained oppressed people seeking deliverance over the ages. But Exodus is also a complex book. Reading the text firsthand, one encounters multilayered narratives: about entrenched socioeconomic systems that exploit the vulnerable, the mysterious action of the divine, and the giving of a new law meant to set the people of Israel apart. How does a contemporary reader make sense of it all? And what does Exodus have to say about our own systems of domination and economic excess?In Delivered out of Empire, Walter Brueggemann offers a guide to the first half of Exodus, drawing out "e;pivotal moments"e; in the text to help readers untangle it. Throughout, Brueggemann shows how Exodus consistently reveals a God in radical solidarity with the powerless.