SNAPSHOTS FROM EXODUS

One would hardly think that the escape of some Hebrew slaves from Egypt over three thousand years ago would be likely to capture the interest of historians through the ages, still less that it would be regarded by many as one of the most important happenings in world history. But the word “Exodus” has gathered around itself a myriad of associations that have stirred the hearts of human beings through the ages, and the phrase “Let my people go” has become the touchstone for countless liberation movements.

The Book of Exodus opens as the Children of Israel are dwelling in Egypt; they have multiplied like “the stars of heaven,” but a Pharaoh had arisen who “knew not Joseph.” Egypt is under a tyrannical despot, worshiping a pantheon of capricious gods, and embracing worldly ideals of amassing wealth while cruelly exploiting the people of Yahweh. And so the whole mechanism of oppression moves into operation: enforced labor that turned into slavery, that became attempted genocide. A “final solution” had been set in motion.

The Hebrews are suffering; there is no way they can comprehend the fact that God is about to single them out for a new journey of the spirit. It will require courage and faith, and there will be a grappling with dark forces that have held humanity captive. But along the way it will unfold undreamed of vistas of truth, that will ultimately impact all the peoples of the world. And they themselves will be transformed and brought into the destiny originally planned for them by the Lord of heaven and earth.

Meanwhile, “the people of Israel groaned under their bondage, and cried out for help.” God “heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exodus 2:23-24).

Exodus 1-15 is the story of God’s deliverance of the people from their oppression, and his reinstatement of them as his own people. One of the controlling motifs of these chapters is the revelation of God’s victorious power, in:

• the raising up of a deliverer, Moses
• sending the plagues upon Egypt
• exposing the powerlessness of the Egyptian gods
• protecting his people from the Angel of Death
• bringing them out with great spoils
• splitting the Red Sea so the people could cross

That, of course, is a very brief overview of the complex intersecting of episodes which makes up the event which we call the Exodus. Yet it is in and through these events that God disclosed his character and identity to his people. If we “zoom in” on several of these events, we can gain a new sense of their significance, and of the radical new thing that had taken place in the world.

SNAPSHOT ONE: At the Burning Bush

By the time that Moses encountered that strange sight in the desert – a bush that burned with fire but was not consumed – he had already had a chequered career. Cast adrift as a babe on the Nile, later brought up in Pharaoh’s palace, but forced to flee Egypt after murdering an Egyptian overseer who was beating a Hebrew slave, he had by this stage spent forty years tending his flock in the desert. Yet he was entirely unprepared for the great task that was now thrust upon him. The Angel who spoke to him from the midst of the bush gave him his commission: to return to Egypt and deliver God’s people from their bondage. 

Moses was fearful and reluctant, filled with a sense of utmost inadequacy. He objected that the Children of Israel would surely ask him to identify the God who had sent him. “What shall I say to them?” he asked, and God’s answer came:

I AM WHO I AM. Thus you shall say to the Children of Israel: I AM has sent me to you (Exodus 3:14).

This name revealed, first of all, the most important truth about God: that He exists, that He is. Beyond all limitations of time and space, God is eternally what He is, His personality and attributes are owing solely to Himself, and He is completely sufficient in Himself to accomplish what He wills to accomplish.

And yet this is not primarily a name which is to be understood in metaphysical categories. God is, beyond all our conceptions, a Person, and in this divine-human personal encounter, he did not reveal a number of propositions about Himself. God refuses to be identified as First Principle or to be defined in abstract qualities such as Goodness or Truth. Rather, he revealed Himself as the living God, the One who has “life in himself,” and who was the source of all life.

This self-existent, eternal Being would be seen entering into history, and revealing Himself, not just as a God of changelessness and freedom, but also One of compassion and mercy. It is in the work of salvation that that all the attributes and power of God were to be manifested, and in the Bible from henceforth the name Yahweh would remain always associated with this redemption. This would be His name forever, His memorial to all generations, as He willed to be known and remembered, not only by Israel, but by all nations. 

SNAPSHOT TWO: The Four Redemptions

Moses and Aaron appear before Pharaoh, but this first encounter is an unmitigated disaster. Not only did the king dismiss them contemptuously, but the workload placed on the Israelites increased drastically. It seems that, before the Exodus, the situation had to become even more dire; it was only when their dream of redemption appeared to be hopeless that the Israelites would finally leave.

Moses, understandably, cried out to God in perplexity, and the answer came:

Therefore say to the children of Israel: ‘I am the Lord; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with^]an outstretched arm and with great judgments. I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians (Exodus 6:6-7).

The arrangement of these promises in a series of first-person verbs, emphasizing God’s determination to carry out such mighty deeds of deliverance, is very striking. The Jewish rabbis later denoted these promises as the “four redemptions,” giving rise to the custom of drinking four glasses of wine at the Passover Seder. They move from a focus on rescue from an external enemy to the new relationship to be created between God and His people as a result of His saving acts.

The fourth promise “to take” is the Hebrew verb laqah, used many times in the scriptures, but in this particular construction denoting a marriage relationship, suggesting the profound depth of relationship God desired would exist between Himself and His people. He is declaring Himself as the Divine Bridegroom, announcing His intention to “take” His bride from her Egyptian captors. “Then,” He says, “you shall know that I am the Lord,” using the Hebrew verb “to know” which suggests not intellectual knowledge, but rather the consummation of a relationship in mutual love.

SNAPSHOT THREE: The Lamb

Through the plagues God revealed his supremacy over all the gods of Egypt, but as Pharaoh continued to harden his heart, the moment arrived when a final plague would be unleashed over the land, more terrible than all that had preceded – the slaying of the firstborn. God had already told the Israelites through Moses what they were to do:

Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight (Exodus 12:3-6).

Here it is important to imaginatively penetrate the text, for it adds a supremely important dimension to our understanding of the whole Exodus event. Each family was to take a lamb, and it was to be kept by the family for four days, from 10th to 14th Nissan. This surely means that, during this time, the family became very attached emotionally to the little creature within their home. It would become a pet, with whom the children played, which they cuddled, in which they delighted.

This helps us to comprehend the sense of betrayal, horror and outrage that would be felt as the father took the little creature and slashed its throat and the warm blood came pouring forth. This mourning is an essential, implicit part of the Exodus story.

The account provokes another question: How is it that such a seemingly weak weapon – the blood of an innocuous, gentle lamb – could prove so efficacious against a force which struck down all the firstborn of Egypt, and broke all their pride? The Israelites did not forget, from generation to generation.

SNAPSHOT FOUR: At the Red Sea

The Children of Israel may have departed Egypt but their newly-gained freedom was still under threat. They were encamped on the shores of the Red Sea; before them stretched that wide body of water, behind them, Pharaoh’s army was bearing down with 600 chosen chariots. Their plight was desperate, and the Israelites signally lost heart, but Moses encouraged his people with some magnificent words:

Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today (Exodus 14:13).

He then descended to the water’s edge and stretched forth his rod over the waves. As he stood thus, the Lord caused the sea to be driven back by a strong east wind all that night, so that the waters became divided, opening a way for the people to cross. The Children of Israel began their descent into the abyss of the sea; on their right hand and their left rose the high glassy walls of water, and the sea, which they had so much dreaded, formed protecting ramparts to them all the way.

Meanwhile the Egyptians had pursued the Israelites into the dry seabed, but when Moses stretched forth his hand again over the sea, the waters on both sides began at once to return, overwhelming the soldiers, so that the flower of the Egyptian army perished. The ransomed Israelites, safe on their far coastline, broke into a song of exultation, and as the sun rose it shed its golden beams on the calm ocean beneath which their taskmasters lay buried forever.

An inaugural definition of salvation

Moses had promised the Israelites that if they stood still, they would “see the salvation of the Lord.” In and through the events that had taken place, Yahweh had displayed before their very eyes the meaning of “salvation,” had shown them what it actually constituted and signified. It could be understood as follows:

Your enemy is about to annihilate you

You are powerless to defend yourself

God delivers you from your enemy

God then destroys your enemy¹

This salvation occurred as Moses stretched forth his hand, holding the wooden staff, over the waters. For those with eyes to see, it is a picture filled with prophetic power. For the Hebrew word for salvation is yeshua; the word from which we derive the Savior’s name, Jesus:

On whose dear arms, so widely flung,

The weight of this world’s ransom hung

The price of humankind to pay

And spoil the spoiler of his prey (Venantius Fortunatus)

A revolution in religion, philosophy and human values

Those of us who live in Judeo-Christian communities have in many ways come to take for granted the truths that have come down to us, and may find it difficult to comprehend the significance of the story of the Exodus. It is a foundational narrative that is instituting a complete revolution in thought about God, suggesting not just that there is only one God, but also radical new ideas concerning his personality and character.

Here in these chapters of Exodus a new portrait of Yahweh is being drawn for us: he is transcendent, utterly holy and separate, and yet he also draws near to men and women; he is omnipotent and all-powerful, yet he cares for the poor and oppressed. Although the spirit of the world may attempt to saturate the nations with force, wrath, suffering, and death, God’s purpose for this earth is an immersion in the heavenly elements of compassion and mercy, in order to heal and restore all peoples so they may partake in his original purpose of blessing.

1. Tony Robinson, The Scroll of the Gospel of David, p 107.