Explores the two pivotal Old Testament events that shaped the experience of Israel as God's chosen people. "One might be viewed as the pinnacle of their long history; one might be viewed as the absolute pit," writes Smith. The experience of Exodus created the core of Hebraic ethical and moral law and brought the people of Israel into a new understanding of the nature of their God and their relationship with that God. The Exile marks the anguished end of their autonomy as the defeated Israelites are banished from their land and marched off to faraway Babylon. The experience of Exodus and Exile speaks to people of faith today: "The only certainty as we ride that perpetual pendulum swinging between gain and pain, virtue and vice, victory and defeat is the unfailing presence of God. That's enough."