I truly believe that we as people need times to reset our thinking. I have two kids at home and there are times when going to the bathroom feels like a time to reset and refocus. This likely sounds weird for those who do not have kids and all too common for parents of toddlers. I believe that events like Christmas and Easter can do that for believers.
Similar to what I said in the last post, I have found myself enamored by Jesus and our great salvation accomplished through Him being found throughout the entirety of Scripture. Yesterday we looked at glorious promises given and how Joseph seemed to foreshadow the great salvation that would be accomplished by Christ. Now we will consider the story of our salvation in the Exodus and Conquests of Joshua.
The Enslavement Of God’s People And The Rescue Of A Prophet
After the time of Joseph there was tremendous growth in their population. The growth was so great that the Pharaoh feared that there would be an uprising of the Hebrew people and that the Egyptian government would be overthrown (Exodus 1:9-10). This Pharaoh decided to set taskmasters over the people of Israel and afflict heavy burdens upon them. The thought was that this would cause them to quit multiplying so much. But, interestingly, the opposite happened. So, Pharaoh adapted his plan. He would make the people of Israel slaves (Exodus 1:11-14).
It seems that things were just not working out as Pharaoh had planned. He made further plans to have all the sons of the Hebrew people killed. If a Hebrew woman gave birth to a son, then the child was to be killed. But, the Egyptian midwives had a problem with that and told Pharaoh something that now seems quite hilarious. They said that the Hebrew women were more vigorous than Egyptian women and “give birth before the midwife comes to them.” (Exodus 1:19). As a side note, my wife must be quite vigorous, I wasn’t sure that we were going to make it to the hospital before our second child was born. In fact, she got there so late that the epidural barely had time to kick in before she was pushing. I might give her a nickname with the word “vigorous” in it. Now back to the story.
Now Pharaoh would take things further and call for every son born to the Hebrews to be cast into the Nile River. The next thing that we read is the birth of Moses. If you had not seen or heard this story before it would be quite a thrilling tale, for his mother in desperation to keep him safe hid him. But, when it became evident that she could conceal her child no longer she made a basket that was floatable and put it in the reeds by the riverbank. Moses’ sister watched the basket from a distance and saw Pharaoh’s daughter take interest in the child and command that the child be cared for…in the house of Pharaoh of all places. Moses became the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. God would rescue His people.
Moses failed in many ways, but the plan of God did not fail. After some time and God speaking to Moses through a burning bush, Moses was commanded to go to Pharaoh and declare the release of the people of Israel.
The Blood Of The Lamb And The Escaping Of Enslavement And Wrath
Pharaoh was not about to willingly allow such a large labor force to leave his proximity. Having a large minimum wage number of workers can make McDonald’s CEO’s wealthy, but can you imagine not having to pay people at all. Pharaoh knew that this would be quite a blow to him. There is no way that he could get as much work done if they were to leave. So, Pharaoh refused. The interaction between Moses and Pharaoh is enthralling, but we will not discuss it here. So, God brings plagues upon Pharaoh until the people are released. Here is a list of the plagues that God brought.
- Water turned to blood
- Frogs…lots of them
- Gnats…lots of them
- Flies…lots of them
- The death of Egyptian livestock
- Boils and sores on the people and animals
- Hail
- Locusts…lots of them
- Darkness covered the land
- And one more that we will discuss now.
The last plague is the most gut wrenching to discuss. The message that God had delivered to His people was that there would be one final plague, the death of the firstborn of Egypt. God promised not to touch the Israelites.
“But not a dog shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast, that you may know that the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel.” – Exodus 11:7 ESV
Then God does something interesting. He could have left it at that. He could have gone from here and just rescued His people out of Egypt after the killing of the firstborn. But He did not. He instead gave them a picture of the salvation that was to come.
Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their father’s houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the congregation of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.
“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it….It is the Lord’s Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.” -Exodus 12 3-7 & 11b-13 ESV
God’s wrath was going to fall upon Egypt, but not on God’s people. God’s people were to kill a lamb and spread its blood on the two doorposts. Every house that had the blood spread on the doorposts God would “pass over”.
We see here a foreshadowing of what God was going to do in the future. He would send His Son to die on a cross for the sins of God’s people. All people who have trusted in Christ have the blood of the Lamb spread over them, God will pass over. They will not receive His wrath, but instead receive His grace and mercy.
The Giving Of The Law…And Guilt
So, after God’s people made it to safety God delivered to them His Law. They are called the Ten Commandments. The people were expected to obey this law for it was a statement about the Holy character of Yahweh whom they now served and had delivered them out of Egypt. There is a tremendous problem here. The people could not keep God’s Law. They failed much like we do today.
Paul explains that God did not give the Law so that it would somehow save them or keep them in right standing with God. It was given to them so that they would see that they are sinful and need a Savior. In other words the ultimate purpose of the Law is to cause people to see their need for a Savior (Galatians 3:19-23). The Law does exactly what it was always intended to do. It forces us to look to Jesus.
A Prophet Greater Than Moses
In Deuteronomy 18:15 we are told that God would one day rise up “prophet like Moses”. If you have been reading this post and the last one then you’re likely not surprised to hear me say that this person was Jesus. But, as God of the Universe who ushered in a greater salvation it is no stretch to say that He was a prophet greater than Moses.
Here are a few reasons I say this about Jesus.
- Moses stood on a mountain and delivered the Ten Commandments. Jesus stood on a mountain and delivered the Sermon on the Mount where He delivered a new law. The formula read repeatedly is “You have heard it said but I say to you” as Jesus authoritatively expands the Law of Moses.
- Moses performed many miracles. Jesus also performed many miracles. Yet, Moses never raised anyone from the dead, nor did he rise from the dead.
- The salvation accomplished by Jesus far outshines that of Moses. Moses freed the Israelites from their physical bandage as slaves as God conquered Egypt through him. Jesus conquered sin and death freeing people from the clutches of Satan and their bandage to sin.
- For all these reasons, among others, Jesus was the Prophet greater than Moses.
This understanding of Jesus is pretty well documented by theologians. In his excellent book on Cannon Michael J. Kruger shows how Matthew sees his gospel as a continuation of the Biblical story line. He then says this about Matthew’s Gospel and its parallels with Moses,
If indeed Matthew is intending to record God’s long-awaited deliverance of his people Israel – a second exodus, if you will – then it should come as little surprise that Matthew is so keen to portray Jesus as a second Moses. Such Moses typology in the Gospel of Matthew is well-documented; for example, Jesus’ life is threatened as a baby and yet he is rescued (Exodus 2:1-10; Matthew 2:1-18); Jesus recapitulates the original exodus from Egypt (Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2:15); Jesus launches His ministry by passing through waters of baptism in the desert (Exodus 14; Matthew 3:13-14; compare 1 Corinthians 10:2); Jesus performs miracles and feeds the people in the wilderness (Exodus 16; Numbers 11; Matthew 14:13-20), and so on. It is particularly noteworthy that in Matthew 5:1 Jesus delivers his “law”. – Michael J. Kruger, The Question of Cannon, 2013 p. 146
A Conquering Namesake
God brought His people out of Egypt with one last miracle. Pharaoh allowed the Children of Israel to leave. But he later changed his mind. He chased down the people of Israel and they were stuck with an army chasing them and a large body of water in front of them. They thought at this moment all hope was lost. And, through Moses, God caused the waters to part and the people of Israel crossed to the other side without harm. But it was not so for Pharaoh’s army. They were washed away as the waters came back together.
Even with this amazing miracle the people of Israel lacked faith in God. He was bringing them to the land that had been promised to Abraham, but they feared the people of the land and turned back. They were sentenced to 40 years of wandering in the desert. Moses would die getting to see the Promised Land, but not crossing over. A man named Joshua would lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land.
The Promised Land was taken by force. Blood was spilled all over the land in the taking of the Promised Land. God had commanded that there be a wholesale slaughter of the people that lived in the land. There practices were not to exist in the Promised Land, but neither were the people who had formerly inhabited the land. Joshua was going to be the tool God used to rescue God’s people and usher them into a land that was totally set apart for Him.
This seems weird. It also seems odd for a person to see this as a glorious story of my salvation. But again we have a physical picture of a greater reality.
The Promised Land was to be pure and completely set apart for God. Nothing impure was to dwell there and the only inhabitants that lived there were to be set apart for Yahweh. Joshua was going to be the man who led the military campaign that would accomplish this.
Jesus’ Hebrew name was Jeshuah. If you speak with a native Hebrew person who has converted to Christianity they declare that Jeshuah is Lord. It is the equivalent to my saying “Jesus is Lord”. Joshua’s Hebrew name was…you guessed it, Jeshuah. Jesus and Joshua share the same name. Translate Jeshua into Greek and then English then you have the name Jesus. But, there are similarities between the two that go well beyond the sharing of a name. They both conquered and received a land for God’s people. They simply conquered in different ways and one conquered a greater enemy and will attain a much more glorious land.
Joshua ushered God’s people into the Promised Land that is a small chunk of land. He did so by the conquering of the Promised Land. The military battles in the Book of Joshua are tremendous stories of God’s faithfulness to His people. But, as it was with Moses so it is with Joshua. Jesus ushers God’s people into the greater promised land by conquering a much greater enemy: death and evil. The New Heavens and New Earth that believers will live in for eternity is the Promised Land. It is a place completely and totally devoted to the Lord. The enemies conquered were sin and death. The means by which He brings people into this glorious Promised Land is His finished work. The means of His doing so were not the sword, but rather His life, death, and resurrection.
Again, what a glorious Savior! What a glorious story!
R. Dwain Minor
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