God said to Israel: “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.” (Exodus 6:7)
We continue our series on Biblical Visions. This week we look at God’s plan to rescue Israel from slavery in Egypt.
As recorded at St. Luke’s
Heist Movies:
Do you enjoy watching heist movies? The most famous heist movies are the Italian Job, the original 1969 version starring Michael Caine and Oceans 11, not the original, but the remake from 2001 starring George Clooney.
They all tend to follow a similar plot. A master criminal gathers a team of thieves, each with their own expertise. Then he lays out his master plan of how they are going to carry out a daring robbery of a bank or vault of some kind, then the robbery takes place and the aftermath is portrayed.
In each film, there is a key scene in which the plan for the heist is explained by the master criminal. This is the scene you need to pay attention to – otherwise the rest of the movie does not make sense, although it may be still fun to watch.
You could argue that in the Bible, the book of Exodus is a heist movie. God is stealing the people of Israel from Pharaoh! Not that God is a master criminal, rather he is rescuing his people who have in a sense been stolen and ill-treated by the Egyptians, so that they can truly be his people. This is a liberation not a theft.
Nonetheless, the book does follow a pattern a bit like a heist movie. God recruits his team, Moses and his brother Aaron, to take part in the plan and in the passage we have just had read to us he lays out his rescue plan.
Biblical Vision Part 2
As we reflect in our Year of Discernment on what God may be calling us to over the coming years we are looking at some of the passages in the Bible where God lays out his vision for his people. As we reflect on these different visions through the story of God’s dealings with his people we are looking for clues and guidance on what that might mean for our vision coming out of the year of discernment.
So, what is the rescue plan God lays out in Exodus 6?
Before he gets to the plan, God begins by explaining why he is carrying out his plan. He emphasises that he is the God who made the promises to Abraham and his son and grandson, Isaac and Jacob. This plan is a continuation of the plan he presented to Abraham. God has already made Abraham into a numerous nation, but now he sees them oppressed as slaves in Egypt, he realises that he needs to come through on the rest of the plan to bring them into the promised land. Then in verses 6-8, he gives three phases to the plan.
The Heist
Phase 1 is the heist, his plan to liberate them from their slavery in Egypt: Look at verse 6:
I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians
I will free you from being slaves to them
I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgement
They do not have to do anything. God will rescue them, and he does in powerful ways – read Exodus 7-14 to see the amazing story of what God does.
The Prize
You would expect phase 3 to come next, but actually it is described in the last two statements of what God will do, which you can read in verse 8.
I will bring you into the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob
I will give it to you as a possession.
He will fulfil his promise, and his plan presented to Abraham. They will have a land of their own. You can read the book of Joshua to see how they came into the land.
The Identity
But we’ve skipped phase 2? That comes in between phase 1 and 3 in verse 7, we have the middle two statements of what God will do:
I will take you as my own people
I will be your God
Notice the sense of mutual belonging: you will belong to me, I will belong to you. This is a commitment to a special relationship. And when people enter into a relationship like this they change their identity.
These verses show that Exodus is not so much a heist movie as a romance. It is almost as if God is saying to Israel,
“I will take you as my wife
I will be your husband.”
God is not so much the master criminal, as the knight in shining armour rescuing the damsel in distress from her wicked captor, when they end up married in a happy ever after.
Now, marriage means a change of identity. Traditionally, in our culture, the woman changes her surname to that of her husband’s.
And as they come into this new relationship, the Israelites were to have a change of identity. They would no longer be slaves to Pharaoh, but God’s chosen people. Exodus 19, puts it even more clearly:
“Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:6-7)
This is the stress of Exodus. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob used to know God as El Shadai, which we translate God Almighty. But now God takes on a new identity, a kind of rebrand. For Moses and from now on he is to be called, Yahweh, which we translate the LORD, with capital letters. Notice how important this is here. Four times, God says, ‘I am the LORD.’
But why the rebrand? Verse 7 probably helps us understand:
“Then you will know that I am the LORD your God,
who brought you out from the yoke of Egypt.”
The old branding, El Shaddai, associated him with the promises made to Abraham, but the new branding emphasises that he is the one who rescues them from slavery in Egypt. He is the same God, but now he is to be seen not just as the God who promises, but the God who cares and who rescues. They owe him, their freedom, their hope, their existence as a nation.
And as they come to understand God more fully, so they come to understand what it means to live as his people. In Exodus 20, when God introduces the Ten Commandments, the foundational statements of the Law, he begins by saying:
“I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, the land of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2)
Their motivation for following God’s law, is who God is. And so, they become a people shaped by their relationship with this God. That is what will truly make them into the great nation that God promised Abraham, that is what will help them be a blessing to the surrounding nations who will see the better life that comes from living in God’s ways.
As Moses says in Deuteronomy as part of his last words:
“See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?” (Deuteronomy 4:5-8)
God’s Plan for us
All of this was God’s plan for Moses and his people at that stage of his mission.
But how does this fit with our understanding of what it is to be church today? How can it guide us as we seek to discern God’s will for our churches?
A New Rebranding – 1 Peter 1:3
God rebranded himself, so Israel had a deeper understanding of his nature at the Exodus. In the same way when Jesus comes to perform a kind of new Exodus, God undergoes another rebranding.
He is still El Shaddai or God Almighty, the God who made promises to Abraham, he is still Yahweh or ‘the LORD’ who rescued Israel from Egypt, but now God is also known as Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the focus of his action is not a rescue from slavery to a human institution, but slavery to sin and death.
So, for example at the start of his first letter, Peter describes God in this way:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! I his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.” (1 Peter 1:3)
Any church vision needs to embrace a desire to truly know the God, who reveals himself in Jesus. If we fail in that, we will fail as a church.
A Special Identity – 1 Peter 2:9
But alongside this is a special identity for us his people. In words based on those from Exodus 19, Peter describes both Jewish and non-Jewish Christians in this way:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 1:9)
Just as for the people of Israel, we are to see ourselves as those who belong to God having been rescued from darkness. Just like the people of Israel, we are not special because of what we have done, but because of what God has done for us. Our identity, our purpose, our vision needs to be rooted in the work of God in our lives, in that sense that God is dealing with us and working among us.
I wonder how good we are at looking out for that? One of the questions in the questionnaire asked about an important spiritual experience. Most of the answers focussed on the experience of life, church or a special service. Only a few mentioned God at work. Three answers stood out as encouraging in this way:
“I’ve learnt that Jesus loves me and wants me to be a part of his family even though my life hasn’t always been a good one.”
“[During] the sermon shortly after I attended … for the first time, I felt God was speaking to me.”
“My belief has grown as I see many miracles happening in this congregation.”
Perhaps part of our vision needs to be to become more aware and more happy to share what God is doing amongst us. Then we can declare more passionately his praises and be a more attractive and unique place for the world, a blessing to the nations.
A Blessing to the Nations – 1 Peter 2:11-12
Finally, just as in response to a new understanding of God’s identity as their rescuer, they were called to follow his ways, that the people of the world might be impressed, so we as Christians today are called to do the same.
A few verses later, Peter says,
“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:11-12)
As we live out our new identity as those rescued from sin and death, we will want to live lives that resist sin and so show the world the better life that God calls us to. We will want to do good, so that those around, will also want to join us in praising the God who inspires us.
In the questionnaire, when asked what changes God wants to see in the church in Ramsgate in the coming five years, the most popular responses were to do with engagement or service with the local community. That does seem to express something of the thrust of these verses. Indeed, we are doing that in increasing ways, with Play and Praise, Cafe4All, the St. George’s Community meal and having our church used for various concerts. We also look forward to the after school club for secondary school pupils starting soon.
Our vision for the coming years needs to embrace such initiatives, we want to be a blessing to the nations, to do good. But always with a hope that people will see our good deeds and not praise us, but come to praise the God who we belong to.
St. George's Church Ramsgate 