The covenant language reveals that it was God’s intention, right on the heels of his decision to punish the nations, that the Israelites would serve as a conduit for their return to the true God. This is one of the reasons Israel is later called “a kingdom of priests” (Exod 19:6). Israel would be in covenant with “the God of gods” and the “Lord of

(1) God’s miraculous deliverance of his people from slavery, (2) the return of the presence of God as distinguishing his people from all other peoples on the earth, and (3) the gift of the law as the means of establishing his covenant with them.

The Elohim who called himself Yahweh was not one of the many “gods” of a polytheistic religion, but a member of ranks of the deities differently called Anunnaki/Igigi/Neteru/Ilanu/Elohim, flesh-and-blood individuals who came to Earth, formed the Adam in their image using the [tzelem], and eventually passed on to him all that was necessary to create

II. The Covenant of Redemption

Exodus 3 tells of the meeting between Moses and one of the Elohim, who would later become the ruler of the people of Israel under the name Yahweh.