For Israel's historians and poets, Israel as a people came to birth in the experience of God delivering them from bondage in Egypt. These Exodus events, beginning with the call of Moses (Exodus 3) and culminating with the deliverance at the sea (Exodus 14-15), were the central salvation events of Israel's faith. Exodus revealed a pattern of God's grace which is experienced in other settings and times, and is remembered in Israel's worship.
Yet, if Exodus is at the center of Israel's faith identity, it is not entirely without preparation. The stories of God's promise to Abraham and the lives of Israel's ancestors lived in relation to that promise are found in Genesis 12-50 and form an important prologue to the beginning of the salvation history in Exodus. In these stories peoplehood is promised but not yet realized. In fact, it is only as Israel's storytellers looked back from the promised land that those stories of the promise were fully understood.
The Call to Sojourn
After chronicling the growth of sin and alienation in all humankind (Genesis 3-11), the biblical story abruptly shifts to the call of a particular man and woman from whom a whole people will come. The biblical writers understood the story of Abraham and Sarah to be the beginning of the story of Israel, whom God has called into existence to be an instrument of grace in this sinful and broken world. It is a story which begins with a calling and a promise.
In Genesis 12:1 God calls Abram (his name is later expanded to Abraham) to leave "your country and your kindred and your father's house." God summons Abram to radical separation from those things that usually made for security in biblical times: land, family, and inheritance (the word house here means household in the sense of all of a family's retainers and goods).
In the place of that material security is given God's promise. "Go...to a land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation... and by you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3). The promise to Abraham and those who came after him has three elements: land, descendants, and mission. Abraham is given no script for how these things will come to pass. He must place his trust in God's grace and go forward in answer to God's call.
The promise tells us something of God, and it would be a mistake to see it only in terms of Abraham. The three elements indicate to Abraham and to us a God who is not limited by place (calls from one land to another) or by time (spans generations) and who is acting on the most universal scale (the blessing of all humankind). It is Abraham who becomes a part of God's history not God who becomes a part of Abraham's.
Those who receive God's promise are summoned to a particular lifestyle. The word used most often in Genesis to describe this is sojourning. This is a term in biblical Hebrew used to describe persons who live in a place, perhaps for an extended period of time, but are not totally defined by that place. They are aliens, outsiders, always looking toward a permanent home that has not yet been given.
Sojourning is sometimes translated as pilgrimage (Genesis 47:9 KJV), and this communicates the sense of purpose that is a part of sojourning, a purpose which comes from God. To be a sojourner in the biblical sense is to trust in God's promise that there is a place for us even when that is not immediately apparent. It is to know that we are a part of God's plan for the redemption of all creation and not merely our own.
Following the promise given to Abraham, the stories of Israel's ancestors in the remaining chapters of Genesis form an epic of the adventures of the promise. Story after story raises doubts about the reliability of the promise. Abraham gets poorer land while Lot gets the rich land around Sodom and Gomorrah. Sarah grows old and is still barren. After a child is miraculously born in Abraham and Sarah's old age, God tells Abraham to take Isaac out and sacrifice him.
Abraham is described as righteous, but God's promise gets handed on to Jacob, a conniving swindler who is driven from the land for his misdeeds by his brother Esau. These are only a few of the stories, but they are almost all designed to show how God's promise is sure even when human events raise doubts. God's promise can also move forward through many different human agents, righteous or conniving. It is God's faithfulness to the promise that counts.
Finally the story brings us to Joseph and his brothers (Genesis 37; 39-50). On the surface it is the story of a young man who constantly triumphs over adversity and finally comes into a position of great power in Egypt. Hebrew tradition is justly proud of one of its own who made good, and in addition forgives his brothers. The tradition sees God still moving in these events. Joseph says to his brothers in Genesis 50:20 "you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive."
There is, however, a difference in the story of Joseph. God is more hidden. Nowhere does God speak to Joseph as to Abraham and Jacob. Nowhere is the promise revealed and reaffirmed to Joseph or any of his brothers. God's activity is entirely through human agency, and modern readers are often more comfortable with this greater human role. But as God grows more hidden and human action more prominent, a danger arises even in the midst of good intentions.
Joseph brings his father Jacob and his 11 brothers with their families to Egypt. In Genesis 47 they all arise to "sojourn," but the Pharaoh invites them to "settle," and they do. The landless possess land for the first time, and one of their own, Joseph, possesses political power as well. Famine is upon the land, and Joseph's intention is to preserve life, but in so doing he first takes people's money for food (Genesis 47:14-15), then their cattle (verses 16-17), and finally their land with the people made slaves upon their own land (verses 18-25). Only the land of the priests did not become centralized under Pharaoh's control.
All of this prepares the way for the day when "there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph" (Exodus 1:8), and Israel's ancestors, the descendants of Joseph and his family, also become slaves. God and God's promises had grown dim in the story and are now eclipsed. For four centuries Israel was in Egypt with no stories of God or the children of Israel. It is a time of bondage and suffering ironically made possible by centralized royal power put in place by Joseph. It is a terrible reminder of the dangers of "settlement" and "power" when God's promise grows dim. Human action is not tempered by a sense of God's constant gift, and with the best of intentions the tools of tyranny are put in place.
The God Who Saves
Over a period of several generations, the ancestors of Israel were reduced to a position of slavery under cruel Egyptian pharaohs (Exodus 1:1-14). The Hebrews in bondage maintain some spirit and resourcefulness. The story of the Hebrew midwives outwitting the Pharaoh in Exodus 2:15-22 is a bittersweet tale of women's courage and resourcefulness contrasted with the brutal and dehumanizing power of a tyrant.
The central question of the story quickly becomes "Where does real power lie?" The Hebrews are powerless to deliver themselves from their own oppressed condition. It is God who takes the initiative. God hears their cries, calls Moses to be the instrument of deliverance, demonstrates power over even Pharaoh and mighty Egypt, and leads the people forth in a great pillar of cloud and fire.
The great dramatic climax comes when the Hebrews are seemingly cut off at the sea with the Egyptians in pursuit. In this apparently hopeless situation, they are miraculously delivered through the sea, and the Egyptians are destroyed. What has happened? To the Hebrews the answer was theological. God had delivered them "with a strong hand and an outstretched arm" (Deuteronomy 26:8). They who were "no people" became "God's people." Those whose way seemed totally cut off now found the future open before them.
In this central experience something was revealed to Israel and to us about the character of God. This is first seen clearly in the dramatic encounter of Moses with God in the burning bush (Exodus 3). God says, "I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians" (Exodus 3:7-8).
It is significant in this passage that God is revealed as one who sees and hears. This points to a caring God who takes note of Israel's oppression and suffering. Remarkably, in this verse God also claims to experience it with them. The Hebrew verb "to know" means far more than the intellectual knowledge our word implies. For the Hebrews "to know" meant a total involvement with and experiencing of that which is known. For God to "know" Israel's suffering is a revelation of unique involvement of the divine with the human condition.
From this point onward Israelite faith recognized its God as one who especially loves and cares for the oppressed, the afflicted, the poor, and the hungry. Text after text echoes the sentiment of Psalm 12:5, '"Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan, I will now arise,' says the Lord; 'I will place him in the safety for which he longs.'"
God's love for the powerless does not, however, imply an acceptance of their condition. As Exodus 3:8 makes clear, God loves them in order to deliver them. The Exodus events form the central witness for Israel to a God who saves.
At several points in the Old Testament the tradition has preserved statements of faith that recite the great salvation events of Israel's story (Deuteronomy 26:5ff.; Joshua 24). These are the events of Israel's salvation history, the mighty acts of God, and Exodus is always first among them. In God's saving activity Israel comes to know God not only as one who stands behind the ongoing created order of things (the God
who creates and blesses) but as one who has entered history in a decisive way to effect salvation. God chooses to relate to a group of insignificant slaves and call them into being as God's own people. Such a God could never be remote and removed from the realities of human events.
Exodus as Liberation
God's saving activity in the Exodus events resulted in liberation of the Hebrews from enslavement to an oppressive power. This also established a relationship between Israel and God, the Liberator. To speak of Exodus as liberation serves to guard against too easy a spiritualization of the salvation events. God's deliverance is a political event as well as a spiritual event.
Exodus as liberation reminds us of God's opposition to the powers of the world when they are exercised for oppression. In the world of the Hebrew historians and storytellers, the Pharaoh of mighty Egypt was the epitome of earthly power. As is often the case with such powers, claims to greatness were supported by religious justifications. The Pharaoh was himself said to be a god. Part of the drama of the Exodus story is the confrontation of Israel's God with this Egyptian god-king.
The Pharaoh and his representatives are recognized as tyrants who dehumanize and exploit others for their own selfish purposes. The tyrant in this story is capable of genocide (Exodus 1:8-22). As is often the case with oppressors, the Pharaoh and his loyal subjects live in fear of those they victimize (Exodus 1:12).
This recognition of the Pharaoh as an oppressor in his own right is important because of the confusion which often arises later in the story when it is said that God "hardens the Pharaoh's heart." Actually the story says sometimes that God hardened Pharaoh's heart (Exodus 7:2) and sometimes that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exodus 8:15).
We should not imagine that the story intends to imply that Pharaoh is not responsible for his own oppressive actions. The Pharaoh was an inhuman tyrant before the struggle with God through Moses began over the liberation of the Hebrew slaves. To have God harden the Pharaoh's heart is simply the storyteller's way of heightening the message that even with the greatness of Egypt's power it is God who is truly sovereign over history. In the conflict with Pharaoh the message is firmly planted in Israel's faith that those who trust in the Lord are never hopeless and helpless no matter what the worldly circumstances might be.
Exodus as liberation means moving out. This is the literal meaning of "exodus." For Israel deliverance from bondage meant being uprooted, leaving the only home known to that generation, and journeying into unaccustomed places. They could not build structures but lived in tents which could be packed for the move if the pillar of cloud or fire should move out before them.
In such circumstances bondage looked like security to some. They wished that they had stayed in Egypt or hoped to stay at one of the oases where comfortable camp was made. They "murmured" against Moses for moving them in the first place. Nevertheless, Exodus journeying with God meant readiness to move forward.
When the people of God, from biblical times to our own, recognize their beginnings in this Exodus journeying, their own life will be marked by a creative restlessness. It involves a willingness to see where God is moving ahead of us and to move forward.
Unfortunately the churches of the United States display a tendency to camp around the status quo. We become comfortable with the patterns of our church life. We do not wish to hear the summons that uproots our existence. We do not wish to see the pillar which moves out to leave our carefully built structures behind.
In Exodus, liberation was not into the promised land but into the wilderness. Israel escaped bondage only to encounter the harsh realities of the desert. Inadequate food and water, hostile enemies, and doubts about their goal made for crises. They were liberated, but the wilderness into which they were delivered was a place full of hardships and struggles.
The life of faith for Israel and for us is not a safe conduct around struggle and difficulty. The wilderness became a time for learning what it means to rely on God's providence. Salvation still leaves the people of God in the harsh realities of the world, but the difference is God's presence with them. Those who seek salvation to remove them from the world's struggles are like those who preferred the security of bondage to the difficult journey of those liberated to become God's faithful people.
Remembrance of Exodus in Israel was not only a matter of hope, it was a matter of humility. Over and over again in the Old Testament texts Israel is admonished in a manner similar to this: "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you" (Deuteronomy 15:15). The faithful community is reminded that nothing it has is of its own doing. All is the gift of God. Even its deliverance was not because of unique status before God, but simply because God loved Israel (Deuteronomy 7:7-8).
The community of faith from biblical times onward has always found it tempting when it experiences prosperity to attribute success pridefully to its own efforts and worth. Blessing is regarded as an achievement. Exodus was a reminder to Israel in the times of blessing of its own roots among the dispossessed. Remembrance of Exodus was a corrective to pride and self-sufficiency.
Exodus as a Pattern of Faith
For Israel Exodus did not remain simply as an event tied to its moorings in a distant historical memory. The experience of deliverance from bondage in Egypt became a model for understanding the experience of God's salvation in subsequent generations. Exodus was seen as a paradigm or a pattern for the facing of any crisis in the context of Israel's faith.
Israel had been confronted by a seemingly hopeless situation. They were brought up to the edge of the sea with Pharaoh's army closing in behind, but when there seemed to be no way into the future God opened up a way. Distress became unexpected deliverance, not through Israel's efforts, but through God's. Israel applied this pattern beyond that one historic moment at the sea. This pattern of distress becoming deliverance was applied in all experiences of crisis and undergirded the confidence that God is always present.
This Exodus pattern has three elements. Interestingly, one of the places in the Old Testament where the pattern can be seen most clearly in use is in the Book of Psalms. Since the Psalms are drawn from Israel's worship life they reflect the heart of Israelite faith.
In the first element, all persons and communities experience situations of distress. Human experience naturally includes crises when the future is not clear and there seem no possibilities for hope or life. In those moments persons feel powerless to find a way into the future. The largest group of psalms in the Psalter expresses this element of the pattern, the laments. They speak candidly of grief, rage, doubt, and despair. With the exception of Psalm 88, however, all these laments move toward and express trust and confidence in God's deliverance.
God's unexpected deliverance is the second element of the pattern. Exodus faith knows of God's power and grace which brings life and possibility for the future where only death and despair seemed to reign. The psalms of thanksgiving are celebrations of the experience of deliverance looking back on crisis and distress. Just as Israel at worship holds up the reality of distress it also proclaims the word of deliverance. It is worth noting that Israel is well aware that the path into God's future may open up in unexpected ways. The form of deliverance wished for is not always the shape of new possibility that comes from God. The trust is that with God new life will be possible even from the moment of worst crisis.
The third element of the Exodus pattern of faith is Israel's response in community. A community that has known and acknowledged the experience of God's salvation cannot live like other communities. What can it mean to be a delivered people? Israel's response was both in worship and ethics. In worship Israel remembered and celebrated God's great acts of salvation, including Exodus. In its way of living and relating (ethics) Israel lived out the implications of being God's people. Festival psalms that remember and celebrate Israel's faith history can be found along with prophetic psalms that challenge Israel's moral life.
The same pattern which emerged from the Exodus experience leading on to the formation of community at Sinai is a pattern still at the heart of Christian theology. It is reflected in the death and resurrection of Jesus followed by the calling forth of a community of response. In classical terms we speak of sin as the source of our distress, grace as the experience of deliverance and new life, and the church as the community of response. In many patterns of church liturgy this Exodus pattern may be seen in the movement from confession of our distress, hearing the word of new possibility in Scripture and preaching, and responding in prayer, gifts, and sending forth. The Exodus experience and its reverberations throughout the history of our Jude-Christian faith is still present at the core of our Christian faith.
Salvation as Physical and Spiritual
As a final insight to be highlighted from the Exodus experience we must call attention to the comprehensive understanding of salvation demonstrated in this story. Here at the very birth of Israel as a people it is made very clear that God's salvation involves a concern for physical as well as spiritual well-being. Exodus is not just a spiritual metaphor. Indeed, it is out of Israel's experience of God's concrete, physical deliverance that a new relationship to God is possible.
In considering the Exodus tradition, the argument is sometimes made that everyone experiences bondage of some sort and is in need of liberation. While this is true, it runs the risk of trivializing or spiritualism bondage and oppression. Some focus upon psychological or spiritual alienation in such a way that it excuses our lack of serious effort on behalf of those experiencing physical suffering in the world.
We must be aware of the inward turning, individualized character of this response as compared to the biblical concept. The biblical understanding of bondage includes physical and spiritual elements. Likewise the biblical concept of salvation is physical and spiritual. God desires our wholeness in every respect, and the Exodus story tells us of God's action to make it possible.
Exodus reminds us that we must not fall victim to the easy temptation of seeking to save the world's soul while its body is in pain. God's salvation is the promise of deliverance for spirit and body, and God is active to bring us fullness of life as whole persons. We must be reminded that spiritual alienation in our time is wedded to great systems of physical dehumanization that crush the spirit of those who suffer, corrupt the spirit of those who oppress, and dull the spirit of those who refuse to see and hear.
Bruce C. Birch was a professor of Old Testament at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. when this article appeared.
This is part two in a six-part series on the Old Testament roots of our faith, published regularly in 1984.
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