Three Thoughts on Exodus Chapter One (Exodus 1:1-22)
(1-7)
Exodus picks up right where Genesis left off… in a sense. The names of Jacob’s family that moved to Egypt are mentioned but, centuries have passed. We are told in various passages that it is about a four-hundred-year period. This is significant because of the promise God made to Abraham, that his descendants would return to claim the land in four hundred years. But it also an interesting coincidence that the period of “silence” before the events of the New Testament is four hundred years. The Exodus event and the cross are similarly significant in salvation history. The Exodus is, among other things, a spiritual foreshadowing of the salvation event on the cross.
(8-14)
The evil that Israel will be saved from here is slavery, but more than that, it is slavery and oppression motivated by racism. This is no small fact. When sin was inflicted upon creation by humanity, it broke relationships across every spectrum. Humanity’s relationship to God, the bond between the man and his wife, families, the relationships between people and people groups, were all destroyed. The “fear of the other” and the violence it has inspired throughout history is one of the most devastating results of the fall. And that same fear is an evil that has impacted the people of God—both Israel and the church—throughout history. And sadly, it is not just the fact that we are targets of this fear. We have wielded it as well. We continue to do so today. God didn’t just save His people from slavery. He pulled them out of racial oppression. How can we embrace this evil still?
(15-22)
Yes, it is true. People will remind you that God ordained and used Pharaoh to accomplish His plan. Pharaoh was “God’s man” in this sense. Perhaps it is better to think of him as a tool in God’s hands. That said, you cannot take that fact and use it to justify supporting evil leadership. And, while the Bible does encourage believers to submit to earthly, God-ordained leadership, there are example after example where we see people resisting immoral authority. Here in Exodus it is the midwives who disobey Pharaoh’s command to kill the Hebrew babies. Don’t be caught on the side of evil using the argument that God needs that evil to accomplish His good plan! Resist immoral, indecent, despicable powers!
Exodus picks up right where Genesis left off… in a sense. The names of Jacob’s family that moved to Egypt are mentioned but, centuries have passed. We are told in various passages that it is about a four-hundred-year period. This is significant because of the promise God made to Abraham, that his descendants would return to claim the land in four hundred years. But it also an interesting coincidence that the period of “silence” before the events of the New Testament is four hundred years. The Exodus event and the cross are similarly significant in salvation history. The Exodus is, among other things, a spiritual foreshadowing of the salvation event on the cross.
(8-14)
The evil that Israel will be saved from here is slavery, but more than that, it is slavery and oppression motivated by racism. This is no small fact. When sin was inflicted upon creation by humanity, it broke relationships across every spectrum. Humanity’s relationship to God, the bond between the man and his wife, families, the relationships between people and people groups, were all destroyed. The “fear of the other” and the violence it has inspired throughout history is one of the most devastating results of the fall. And that same fear is an evil that has impacted the people of God—both Israel and the church—throughout history. And sadly, it is not just the fact that we are targets of this fear. We have wielded it as well. We continue to do so today. God didn’t just save His people from slavery. He pulled them out of racial oppression. How can we embrace this evil still?
(15-22)
Yes, it is true. People will remind you that God ordained and used Pharaoh to accomplish His plan. Pharaoh was “God’s man” in this sense. Perhaps it is better to think of him as a tool in God’s hands. That said, you cannot take that fact and use it to justify supporting evil leadership. And, while the Bible does encourage believers to submit to earthly, God-ordained leadership, there are example after example where we see people resisting immoral authority. Here in Exodus it is the midwives who disobey Pharaoh’s command to kill the Hebrew babies. Don’t be caught on the side of evil using the argument that God needs that evil to accomplish His good plan! Resist immoral, indecent, despicable powers!
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