Theological Commentary: Click Here
In Exodus we
finally meet the event for which this book is named: the exodus. For today, I am going to take a broad
overview approach to the passage. Notice
that we start and end with talk of the Passover. In the middle, we have a brief conversation
involving Pharaoh and Moses discussing how the people should leave.
Personally,
I believe that the emphasis of this passage is on the Passover. The exodus happens, and it is that for which
the people have been hoping. But I
believe that the power of this passage is indeed in the Passover, not the
exodus itself.
Look at what
happens in the Passover. God sends His
angel of death – yes, His angel of death – around to check on the people. Those who have been obedient to God by killing
the lamb and putting its blood on the doorposts do not experience God’s
wrath. Those who have not been obedient
and who have ignored God’s warning get a taste of God’s wrath. Fundamentally, this passage is about
obedience. Those who are obedient are
spared. Those who are disobedient
discover wrath.
Furthermore,
notice the scope of the action. Among
those who are afflicted with wrath are Pharaoh, the lowest of those in jail,
and all the people in the middle. God’s
wrath is neither caused nor mediated by a person’s status. Furthermore, look at those who are
spared. Every obedient person is spared
from Moses’ own family all the way down to the poorest of the obedient. Human understanding of status has no
implication upon God’s mercy, either.
What God looks
for in terms of followers are the obedient.
It isn’t about status. It isn’t
about skill. It isn’t about
popularity. After all, what can we bring
to the table that God Himself cannot give to us? No, what relationship with God is about is
obedience to Him. That’s why the
Passover is such a powerful event. We
are obedient to Him. He is merciful to
us. That how grace works. That’s the pattern God desires to set up in
this event as a foreshadowing of what God does in Christ.
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