Episode Transcript
God chose Israel because He desires to save an otherwise wicked and violent humanity—never again cursing the ground or destroying every living thing on account of human sin. He is patient with people, not wanting anyone to perish but all to come to repentance. God told Abraham that his descendants would spend 400 years in captivity in a foreign land before inheriting the land of Canaan. The do, indeed, travel to Egypt and are eventually enslaved there. After 400 years, God does free them and bring them to the land of Canaan. If God is taking intentional steps toward defeating death in a way that does not leave people behind or destroy humanity, what purpose does this 400 year captivity serve? Why reign plagues on the Egyptian nation? Why submit His chosen nation to such oppression to begin with?
Moses has lived in Midian for some time. God spoke to him in the burning bush. He has traveled back to Egypt, and God speaks to him and Aaron again.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.” So Moses and Aaron did it; as the Lord commanded them, thus they did. Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1-7).
We have asked this question at every turn of the page in this grand story. Why the process? Why not simply smite Egypt or never allow His people to go into captivity at all? If God’s desire was simply to free His people, why harden Pharaoh’s heart? Why not simply work things together such that Pharaoh was a nice guy? Why continue to allow nations, like Canaan and Egypt, to be wicked and denigrate into the sort of violence we saw in Genesis 6?
In the last chapter, we saw God wait until Canaan’s iniquities were complete before He judged the nation and condemned the people there to just destruction. God does not do that with Egypt, here. Instead, God acts with Egypt in order that the Egyptians will know He is Yahweh (v. 5). Some in Egypt will be destroyed, but through Israel much of Egypt will know who the true God is. God is not allowing Egypt to complete her iniquities and so earn destruction. He is intervening like He did with Babel. Thus, we see that God is not interested in destroying every wicked nation. He is interested in saving many people within wicked nations for the good of His world. What have we learned? God is patient with people, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. Such is the case with Egypt. God has a purpose for hardening Pharaoh’s heart and showing His own strength against some. When people know about Him, they learn His ways and the whole world is better for it. Egypt will influence much of the world for centuries to come.
We would expect to be able to observe the historical record and see the people change. If we accept the early date of the Exodus (c. 1450 BC), there is a period of cultural and socio-economic upheaval in Egypt following the Exodus of the Israelites. In The Admonitions of Ipuwer, a Middle-Kingdom scribe describes what he experienced during this timeframe. He complains that the rich lost their wealth and that the lower classes in Egypt had too much. His words speak to such a society in which many people, not only the Israelite slaves but Egyptian citizens, were oppressed by the rich and powerful. The rich maintained a high-quality of life at the expense of the poor. Following the Exodus, that changed. Egypt apparently became a more just place to live. We call it an intermediate period or dark age because of the political upheaval, but many abuses of the elite were revealed. God’s purpose for intervening in Egypt was accomplished. To some degree, the Egyptians knew He was God and society changed—much to the disgust of the religious and political elite. God opposed the proud and gave grace to the humble. I am still in the midst of researching Middle Kingdom literature, but this trajectory seems in line with what we see God doing in the story. He is not only doing it for Israel, but for Babel and Egypt. The Holy Spirit is contending with people. God is keeping His promise to the whole world. He is intervening as a normative practice. Only on special occasion now does God oppose a nation like Canaan to bring it to utter destruction.
It appears that God is not only saving Israel from Egypt. He is beginning to save Egypt from itself. He will succeed.
In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing allegiance to the Lord of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction. In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord near its border. It will become a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will deliver them. Thus the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day. They will even worship with sacrifice and offering, and will make a vow to the Lord and perform it. The Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the Lord, and He will respond to them and will heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrians will come into Egypt and the Egyptians into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third party with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance” (Isaiah 19:18-25).
God’s promise was not that He would merely save a nation from slavery. It was a promise to save the whole world—being patient with people because He does not desire any to perish but all to come to repentance. Here, we see that He is accomplishing His plan in and for Egypt along with Israel. He will not curse the ground on account of people. He will not destroy every living thing like He had to do following Genesis 6 (cf. Genesis 8:21-22). He is intervening and rescuing people from the intentions of their own hearts.
We often make the mistake of thinking that once nations get so bad, God will completely ruin them. He did so with a couple nations and cities—Canaan and Sodom come to mind, and there were none righteous (cf. Genesis 15:16; 18:17-33). Normally, though, God seems much more interested in saving nations. It is not true that evil people will decide the fate of a nation. God will. Since He is good, He intervenes to draw nations to Himself. His agenda is not destruction. He wants people to know Him. In knowing Him, we become just, merciful, and peaceful.
