Faith: The Exodus

I have been studying Exodus recently in my quiet times with God – and wow, what a book this is.  It is not just about the parting of the red sea, or of a burning bush or whatever else we learned about the book as kids.

Exodus is a story of economic migrants, who are initially welcomes into Egypt, but as they prosper, people start to resent and fear them and oppressive measures are imposed.  The fear that the Egyptians have of the Israelites is that they will grow and outnumber them and change their way of life.

“Then a new king came into power over Egypt. He did not know Joseph.  He said to his people, “See, the people of Israel are too many and too powerful for us.  Come, let us be wise in how we act towards them, or they will become more in number. If there is a war, they might join with those who hate us. They might fight against us and then leave the land.”   Exodus 1 v 8-10

This makes me think of what is actually happening in our world today. People are fearful of immigrants/migrants coming into their countries – be in America or the United Kingdom – and am sure other countries may be fearful of the same happening with them.

This fear has been the same throughout history – just look at Hitler in his attempt to eradicate Jews from Germany et al.  This was driven by jealously of the Jewish race and fear that they would do better than the Aryan Germans who he believed were the true and rightful residents of the country he loved.  And what came out of this fear and jealousy – oppression.

In June people in the UK voted to leave the European Union and after speaking to people, watching the news etc. it sounds like many who voted to leave did so out of fear – fear to the migrants/ immigrants and refugees coming into the UK and fear that they would steal their homes and jobs. 

However after the decision was made to ‘Brexit’ instead of ‘Remain’ many people are now fearful about what will happened in terms of ‘Brexit’ and how we will survive.  Questions are being raised about many issues throughout the four countries of the UK – Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England.  Questions like, will there be physical borders put into place between Northern and Southern Ireland? or will ‘Brexit’ affect trade with different countries? And what will happen to all the European players in the English football premier league, will they have to leave?  So many questions, so many fears.

BUT looking back at Exodus we can take hope – God was with them and He knew what He was doing – He thwarts all of Pharaoh’s plans to eradicate the threat posed by ‘the foreigners in his land’.

“So they put men in power over them to make them work hard. And they built the store-cities Pithom and Raamses for Pharaoh the king.  But the more the Egyptians made them suffer, the more they became until they spread throughout the land. So the Egyptians were afraid of the people of Israel.  The Egyptians made the people of Israel work very hard.  They made their lives bitter with hard work building with stones and with all kinds of work in the field. They made them work very hard.  Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew nurses. The name of one was Shiphrah. The name of the other was Puah.  He said, “When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth, and see the baby before the mother does, if it is a son, kill him. But if it is a daughter, let her live.”  But the nurses feared God. They did not do what the king of Egypt told them. They let the boys live.  So the king of Egypt called the nurses and said to them, “Why have you done this, and let the boys live?”  The nurses answered Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are strong. They give birth before the nurse comes to them.” So God was good to the nurses. And the people became many and strong. Because the nurses feared God, He gave them families.  Then Pharaoh told all his people, “Throw every son who is born to the Hebrews into the Nile. But keep every daughter alive.”  - Exodus 1 v 11-22

God’s hand is in everything and despite the Israelite's being in Egypt, despite them being oppressed and despite being threatened, God’s people prosper because of the promised God made to Abraham in Genesis chapters 12, 15 & 17 – the promise to bless all nation, by fulfilling all his purpose through the family of Abraham.

And the man whom God had chosen to help the Israelite's leave Egypt and flee the oppression of Pharaoh was called Moses who was a descendant of Abraham:

Abraham’s son Isaac had two sons Esau and Jacob. Jacob had twelves sons (who became the twelve tribes of Israel), one of whom was called Levi (the Levites were the ones who became the priests). Levi had three sons, one of whom was called Kohath who in turn had four sons, one of whom was Amram who was the father to Moses and Aaron. 

So the whole connection is:

Abraham -> Isaac -> Jacob -> Levi -> Kohath -> Amram -> Moses.

Exodus Chapter 2 tells the story of Moses birth to how he became exiled from Egypt by Pharaoh for killing an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew (despite being brought up Pharaoh’s daughter in the Egypt court, Moses was a Hebrew because he was born to a Hebrew family).

“Now a man of the family of Levi married a daughter of Levi. She was going to have a baby, and she gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months.  But the time came when she could hide him no longer. So she took a basket made from grass, and covered it with tar and put the child in it. And she set it in the grass by the side of the Nile. His sister stayed to watch and find out what would happen to him.

Then the daughter of Pharaoh came to wash herself in the Nile. Her young women walked beside the Nile. She saw the basket in the tall grass and sent the woman who served her to get it. She opened it and saw the child. The boy was crying. She had pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”  Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?”  Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me. And I will pay you.” So the woman took the child and nursed him.  The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter. And he became her son. She gave him the name Moses, saying, “Because I took him out of the water.” 

One day after Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers and saw how hard they worked. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people, so he looked this way and that way. He did not see anyone, so he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.  The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He said to the man who did the wrong, “Why are you hitting your neighbour?”  But the man said, “Who made you a ruler and a judge among us? Do you plan to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid. He thought, “For sure the thing I have done is known.”

 When Pharaoh heard what had happened, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses ran away from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian.  (Exodus 2 vs 1-15)

Exodus 3 tells the story of how God appeared to Moses in the burning bush and spoke to him saying

"Now come, and I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3 v 10)

Through Moses, God was planning to bring the Israelite's out of slavery and oppression, and through this he was fulfilling his promise he made to Abraham.  So in the face of our future, and what may or may not happen, we need to find confidence that however bleak the setting, God is at work in our lives – he has a bigger picture and we only get to see his plans come to fruition in bite size bits. 

The fear, the worries and the oppression is part of Satan’s on-going rebellion against God’s people so that he might defeat God’s promise of setting his people free and delivering them from oppression. But the good thing is that God is never thwarted by Satan because God is Sovereign and this has been proven throughout history.

We need to have confidence and faith in God and trust Him. God has promised to fill the earth with the glory of Christ.  Christ has promised to build His church.  God is still on the throne, and He is the one we should fear and no one else.