Nicholas Perrin - Finding Jesus in the Exodus: Christ in Israels Journey From Slavery to the Promised Land

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J ust this spring, my wife and I decided to throw the older of my two sons a high school graduation party. While we enjoy having company, we are generally not big party-givers. But since most people I know only graduate high school once in life, this time we made an exception. We had a lot to do. First, we had to set up the rented tables and chairs; oh, and lets not forget the 20 x 20 outdoor canvas tent (a setup that, when done singlehandedly in your own front yard in broad daylight for all the neighbors to observe, can be a rather humbling experience). Second, comes the food, whichbless her heartwas mostly my wifes department. We had twelve different kinds of appetizers for fifty people: some hot, some cold, all made one at a time. Now I know why caterers sometimes charge more for appetizers than for a meal. That mystery: officially solved.

Thankfully, the party turned out to be a huge success (if I say so myself), but with all the work and rigmarole involved in such an event, you might wonder: Would we do it again? Yes, we would. In fact, we will when my second son graduates in two years. Now he might want a different sort of party, but a party he will have, not least because the precedent has now officially been established. This is the way it works in our family: Whatever we did the first time around for son #1 pretty much became a benchmark for how we did it for son #2. While we as parents have never said that we would treat each child exactly the same, we strive to be as consistent as possible. Besides, when you raise two boys seventeen months apart and you have inconsistencies in how you deal with them, there is a decent chance that one of them will let you know soon enough!

This is also more or less the way Gods redemptive purposes across history work. In ancient Jewish thought, whatever Yahweh had been willing to do for his son Israel in the past set a benchmark for what Yahweh intended to do again in the future. This means that if God provided an Exodus in the past under Moses (which he did), he would alsogiven analogous circumstancesprovide an Exodus in the future under another redeemer figure. This line of thinking was pretty well established both before the advent of Christianity and afterward, too. According to one rabbinic testimony, a certain Rabbi Berekiah declared: As the first redeemer was, so shall the latter redeemer be. What is stated of the first redeemer? And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass [Exodus 4:20]. Similarly will it be with the latter Redeemer, as it is stated, Lowly and riding upon a donkey [Zechariah 9:9] ( Ecclesiastes Rabbah 1.28). Berekiah went on to adduce numerous other parallels that will be drawn between the first Moses (the Moses of history) and the second Moses (the messianic Moses of hope). For the rabbis, as it was for the first Moses, so it would be for the still-to-be-revealed Moses to come; as it was for the first Exodus, so it will be for the last Exodus. God will implement two Exoduses (at least) for the very reason that we as parents are determined to throw as many graduation parties as we have graduating children: consistency. Or to use a more biblical sounding term, we might say: faithfulness.

This is also exactly how the Apostle Paul thought when he wrote to the Corinthians about their excesses at the Lords Supper. Speaking of the Exodus generation, Paul says that those ancestors had all drunk from the rock in the desert and that that rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). For the Corinthian believers, Paul argues, Christ again plays the role of that rock, this time through the bread of the Lords Supper. Did the disciples see differences between then and now? Obviously. But the principle is the same: What the God of Israel did for his people in the first Exodus reveals much about how God intends to operate in any subsequent God-initiated Exodus. As it turns out for Paul, Jesus Christ is something like a new Moses, the instigator of a new Exodus.

One Step Forward

In my book, The Exodus Revealed , I explored the historical backdrop to the most magnificent rescue operation in world history. In this case, Yahweh was the rescuer, Israel was the rescued, and Moses was the rescuing agent through whom this monumental event took place. Ultimately, Moses had not only freed the twelve tribes from bondage but had also brought them together as a new people, a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). God did this not simply because he pitied the Israelites but also because he wanted to extend mercy to the whole world. According to the terms of the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12, 15, 17), all the nations would be blessed through the seed of Abraham. This blessing promised to reverse the curse of the Fall, a fall that had brought creation to the brink of utter collapse (Genesis 311). Thus, the Exodus story was not only a story of Israels deliverance but also a story about the redemption of creation.

Most of us know the story of where and how everything went wrong. It began one day in Eden when the primordial couple took the serpents advice and disobeyed Yahwehs clear command regarding the Tree of Knowledge. From there, things fell apart pretty quickly. Quickly, yes, but at the same time the shockwaves of Adam and Eves sin would also continue to reverberate down through successive generations. Setting things right would take years, indeed centuries and millennia. The process initiated by the covenant with Abraham was a kind of down payment demonstrating Gods deep interest in restoring creation. This restoration was not to happen through the flip of a switch. No, instead salvation would have to come through the descendants of Abraham, the promised seed.

At the end of Genesis, we find the seed down in Egypt. They were more or less driven there on account of a famine in Canaan and Gods providential working through Josephs life. Who knows what would have become of Abrahams descendants apart from Joseph. But because God had more or less planted Joseph in Egypt, not just in Egypt but in the very court of Pharaoh, his brothers and their kin were able to join him in a land that was well provided for. And so all Israel was savedat least for the time being.

Eventually, the Pharaoh who knew and respected Joseph died, and a new Pharaoh came into power, one who knew not Joseph. In time, Israel clearlypainfully sowas no longer welcome in Egypt. More exactly, if the Israelites were welcome at all, it was only as conscripted, unpaid laborers. Pharaoh had a number of building projects scheduled, and, seeing all the potential of an enslaved army of able-bodied men, Gods chosen people were reduced to a life of oppressive service. Part of Pharaohs hope in doing so was that the population of the twelve tribes would decrease. Much to Pharaohs dismay, however, the population did the opposite, and so he did what was in his power to do: He instructed his foremen to work them all the harder.