The Purpose of the Exodus

Moses was certainly in a confusing situation. On one hand, his predicament was simple, he had encountered a miraculous bush in the wilderness that spoke with power and claimed to be the God worshiped and experienced by his ancestors. The meeting was obviously powerful and the task this God proposed was explicitly laid out: God back to Egypt and entreat Pharaoh to allow the Hebrew people to go worship their God in the desert. Given the directness of the command and the power of the speaker we would like to think that we too would be willing to follow. In addition, objectively it made sense that Moses, a Hebrew raised by the Egyptian royalty and thus familiar with Egyptian culture would be the messenger sent to make this request. He had his foot in both camps as it were.

However, the Lord throws in a curve ball just at the end of Moses’ commissioning, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” (Exodus 4:21)

We don’t know what Moses’ reaction was to this caveat. The text is silent but it begs a question of the reader: if the Lord knew that Pharaoh would not let the people go (and in fact, caused it), why send Moses to speak at all? The text begins to answer that question in a second telling of Moses’ commissioning, “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay my hand on Egypt and bring out my hosts, my people the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt by great judgments. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out my hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.” (Ex 7:3b-5)

The story follows its familiar (now) course. Moses (via Aaron) obeys, with some griping and reluctance, Pharaoh remains firmly opposed. Miracles ensue. Pharaoh makes capitulatory offers but breaks his promises (like so many politicians throughout history) until finally the Lord promises one final plague, the death of the first born. While the previous plagues spared the Hebrew people from their effects, the did so tacitly. Nothing was required of the Israelites to escape hail or gnats or frogs. The text indicates that sparing them was further proof that a mighty God was favoring this people. I mean the plagues’ effects were one thing but to see that they seemed to deliberately sparing one portion of the community spoke to the dominance of this God Moses was claiming to be a messenger of. The final plague, the death of the first born, however, forced the Hebrew people had to do something. In fact, Exodus spends a considerable amount of time (ch 12-13) outlining how the people are to celebrate and remember the salvation that is about the happen in the ordinance we now know of as the Passover. Why?

There is one final clue evidenced in the encounter between the people of Israel after they had been released by a grieving Pharaoh and the Egyptian army at the coast of the Red Sea. With the people trembling before the approaching army and griping to Moses that they were better off in the oppression of Egypt (don’t be too harsh on them, our hearts easily wane as well) Moses is given further instructions by the Lord. “Why are you crying out to me? [I love the indignation the Lord responds with] Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land. As for me, behold I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them; and I will be honored through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen.” (Ex 14:15-18)

Our twenty-first century minds steeped in traditions of monotheism cause us to miss the thrust of what the first fourteen chapters of Exodus are trying to tell us. We look at the story as God calling Moses to be his mouthpiece and to free the people of Israel. We however, are not used to living in cultures where polytheism is common. The belief and worship of multiple gods was common through not only Egyptian culture but also in the world of the Patriarchs prior to Israel’s enslavement. It would not have shocked Pharaoh that the Hebrew people were claiming a god of their own, just as it would not have seemed odd for Abraham to encounter a new god who called him to follow. Looking back with our full view of the Old Testament (let alone that of the New) we bring a theology that was not developed at the time of these encounters. That a god existed was not a primary concern for the people of these cultures. The question was, ‘what kind of god was it?’

While the Patriarchs experienced and worshiped the Lord, the did so with incomplete knowledge of his character and attributes (just as the Jews worshiped with incomplete knowledge of the full plan of salvation). They knew that a god had chosen them and worshiped that god. Similarly, the Egyptians worshiped a whole host of gods who reigned (in their view) over the various elements of everyday life (fertility, harvest, death, ex.). When the Lord reveals himself to Moses at Horeb, he announces that not only is he the same god who Moses’ ancestors worshiped, he also reveals his personal name, YHWH. [There is a whole host of textual questions about this revelation that are interesting but I don’t believe change the thrust or importance of this revelation]. God begins, in the revealing of his personal name, to provide a theology to the Hebrew people. Who is this God? What is he like?

The conclusion that I see in the story of the Exodus is that the events that take place do not solely take place to free the Hebrew people from slavery. If this were the case, the Lord didn’t need Moses. We know this because Pharaoh didn’t listen to him anyway. The Lord was manipulating Pharaoh behind the scenes. To what end? I believe his purpose was to demonstrate who He was and what He was like. The children of Abraham had lived in slavery four hundred years steeped in a culture of polytheism with no recorded encounters with the God of their forefathers. It was quite likely that they had drifted from the orthodox worship of their ancestors. Moses' appearance was their reintroduction to the Lord of their fathers. Remember too that Moses' initial request was not emancipation but simply that the Hebrews could make the voyage to the desert to worship their god. Further, the exodus serves another purpose as well. In addition to calling His people back to Him and demonstrating His character to them, the witness of Moses, plagues, and division of the Red Sea also was aimed at proclaiming the supremacy of YHWH to the Egyptians. While we might not see the oppressors as the primary audience of the Lord's display of power, Scripture explicitly states that, "Then the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen." [Presumably, this was aimed at those soldiers not crushed or drowned by the returning waters.] The exodus, then, is not solely the Lord's rescue mission for his covenant people but also a display of power and faithfulness aimed at eliciting worship. The exodus is a call to praise the King of kings.

It would seem then that the purpose of the exodus was 1) to fulfill His promise to Abraham and rescue the Hebrew people from slavery 2) reintroduce the people of Israel to the Lord and His character and 3) that the Lord might be honored by both Israel AND Egypt.

As is always the case, the Lord was working on numerous levels. In accordance with His character, which is both purely faithful and just (among other things) He sought both the redemption of His people and the honor of all people. The ordeal of the rescue (plagues, Passover, Egypt's pursuit, etc) was orchestrated in such a way as to draw the unavoidable conclusion that this god is the one true God. The aim was adoration.

I wonder then, what of the the trials in our own lives? So often we see struggles and trouble as something for the Lord to remove or bring us through. We act as if it is His duty to plot for us a life free from discomfort and trial. This was certainly not true for the Hebrew people. Instead, throughout Scripture we see the Lord designing situations that demonstrate His power and push His people to trust in His faithfulness. Perhaps, as with the Exodus, our trials are designed not as an obstacle to be removed from our path but as an opportunity to trust and honor the Lord. What would our lives look like if we saw trials not as inconveniences but as opportunities to acknowledge Him and put our trust not in the saving necessarily but in who He is: faithful, powerful, and just. Let our struggles become an opportunity to honor the Lord.