Introduction - Fear & Knowledge
As Frodo Baggins and his friends try and evade the unfriendly intentions of the Black Riders as they escape the Shire in the Lord of the Rings, they end up trespassing on a farm belonging to a certain Farmer Maggot who keeps ferocious dogs. Frodo has been terrified of the him and the dogs since his childhood when the farmer caught him trespassing then for mushrooms and gave him a hiding.
In fact, on this occasion the farmer helps the friends out with good advice, food and transport. And the one person Frodo feared meeting in this part of the country turns out to be their best ally.
Our actions are often driven by fear as much as desire. We fear those who are stronger than us, who are different to us, who threaten and abuse us, and those we do not know and understand. Fear is a theme of the book of Exodus.
It is not simply a matter of fear however. Frodo's distrust of Farmer Maggot had sprung from a childhood experience where he had formed an impression of the hobbit based on the information afforded by the incident. In other circumstances, Frodo's impression of Maggot would have been quite different. For example, had he worked with the farmer for a week he might have observed that Maggot was trustworthy and a loyal friend, hospitable and intelligent.
The point is that our reactions to others are based on observation of facts about them. From the moment we meet someone we draw conclusions about them based on how they dress and talk, thier hair cut, the car they drive, so on and so forth. We are processing information. Sometimes, as we get to know people better (get more information about them) we find that our first impressions are quite wrong. I am one of many atheists who has come to recognise that my former anit-God position was based on too little information about God. I did not know him. As I came to know more about him I came to know him in a personal sense.
That is the normal pattern. knowledge leads to relationship. Knowldge is also a theme of Exodus and the major theme of this first chapter where we find Pharaoh who does not know Joseph and his God and the midwives who know God.
Name
We know the book by its Greek title that concentrates on the flight of the Israelites, but in Hebrew its name is taken from the first two words of the book: El-leh shem meaning ‘These are the names..” It is a book of names.
Names were much more important to people in biblical times when they were more closely related to a person’s nature or character, and described their identity. We can see from the names chosen in the Bible that children's names related to the circumstances into which they were born. Names too is a major theme of this book. Some commentators see the main thrust of Exodus being the revealing of God’s character and we will discover later on that calls himself Yahweh meaning, at its simplest, “I am”.
Date - History
It is not clear if the Exodus occurred at the time of Amenhotep II (1400s BC) or Ramases II (1200s BC), but whilst we leave the archaeologists to figure this out, the important point is that we are looking at history, and not myth, although it is history presented in a way that reveals spiritual truth. History is literally that in one sense - HIS story - the story of Jesus Christ, Creator, Sustainer, Saviour and Judge. Exodus is together make The Law, and which are reportedly written initially by Moses.
The storyline really follows straight on from Genesis although there has been a 400 year break in the action, just as there is a 400 year break in the action between Malachi and the NT. In each circumstance the period ends with God raising up a great man to save his people from an act of judgement. The first 400 year break heralds the Egyptian exodus led by Moses, a Jesus prototype. The second 400 years end with the arrival of Jesus himself and this time the exodus is of quite a different order altogether. The new 'children of Israel' are still passing through a spiritual sea of reeds and desert on their march to the promised land of the new heavens and new earth.
God’s Plan
We live at a similar time, when God is silent in terms of inspired, revealed Scripture although the break this time is well over 400 hundred years. Although he is silent, it does not mean he is not at work in the world and busy playing lead guitar with the Angelic Rocks’ at the Great Gig in the Sky or some such similar activity! No, he has been carrying out his promises and plans in action – it’s just there’s nothing more to say right now. We will soon see that God has been hard at work between the end of Genesis and the start of Exodus.
God has been at work on his promise to Abraham and waiting for two conditions to be met.
Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure”. (Gen. 15:13-16)
Verse 7 is also a Genesis allusion showing how God has been active through his people in the intervening years, and it is stated three times for stress. After the flood, Noah’s family are told to be fruitful, and we can see that they have been. They have multiplied from a family (verses 1-5) to a nation (verse 7). Exile in Goshen has created the conditions of safety and prosperity necessary for the original 70 members of Israel's household to flourish. Furthermore, The Israelites came from a land where a nomadic lifestyle was the norm, and through their stay in Egypt God has turned his people into an organised, settled society
This doesn’t tell the whole story however, because by the time of this book, the Israelites are no longer prosperous but are suffering at the hands of their hosts. They still increase in number, and surely this is because they have God’s blessing.
Remember that there is a line of curse and a line of blessing in the Bible. From the Flood there are three families that God uses to repopulate the cleansed world, the sons of Noah: Ham, Shem and Japheth.
In Genesis 10 we read how Ham disgraces himself and is cursed. The Egyptians are descended from Ham. Indeed, in Psalm 105:23 Egypt is specifically called the ‘land of Ham’. Blessing goes to Shem and the Israelites are descendents of Shem, through Eber whose name form the root of the word Hebrew. Those of us descended from Japheth receive something of the blessing through Shem.
Returning to Exodus, God brings about the end of Israel's Egyptian sojourn through their prosperity and increase in numbers which causes fear and alarm in Pharaoh and the host nation.
Fear
We started our study considering fear. In this opening chapter there is a contrast of fear between Pharaoh who fears people and worldly things, and the midwives who fear God. Let's look briefly at just how they deal with the problems in front of them.
Pharaoh strives on an entirely human basis, but the midwives deal with their problem by first honoring God, although we would forgive them, in the circumstances to be very afraid of Pharaoh. The midwives are Israelites and the word Israel means ‘striving with God' or 'God strives'. God is their primary focus.
Pharaoh
The numerical increase in Israelites undoubtedly caused a shift in the political and military situation in Egypt that alarms Pharaoh and his advisors so that they are goaded into political and social action but the root cause of Pharaoh's problems is to be found in verse 8. He does not know about Joseph. And by extension, he does not know about Joseph's God.
As a result of his ignorance, Pharaoh sets about a plan which he describes as ‘shrewd’ in verse 10. Early on in Genesis (3:1) Satan is described as ‘shrewd’ (crafty) and it seems to me that this word has been deliberately repeated. Pharaoh imposes an authoritarian domination which leads to oppression, enslavement and ultimately murder. When we study Revelation 13 we can see that he is employing the classic tactics of the Beast, or Antichrist.
Pharaoh concentrates his efforts on boys and this is intimately tied in with Satan’s plans concerning 'the seed line'. After the judgements of Genesis 3, Satan is trying to stop the birth of a son of Adam and Eve from coming to destroy him, this serpent crusher that God promises in Genesis 3:15. The seed line is why names, families, and relationships are so important to this book, and why it starts, ‘These are the names...” The Bible is still about the business of looking forward to the coming of the serpent beater, the Messiah who will come from the line of blessing.
In Exodus, because Pharaoh does not fear God he ends up doing the work of Satan. Certainly, the master of fallen angels is all too ready to make use of peoples' ignorance and resulting fearlessness of God. He soon leads them down paths of great cruelty and immorality. May the Lord prevent us and our loved ones from serving him at all.
Midwives
If we were betting people we would undoubtedly put our money on Pharaoh’s plan working and Israelite midwives finding that life was a bit on the short side. Note that the women are rewarded for their service to God by being given families (relationships!) but let's briefly survey what characteristics they display in their service to God.
Firstly, they know of God and trust God to the extent that they have learnt to fear him more than even their earthly ruler, Pharaoh. We see in them an incredible courage. As they stand before this capricious human ruler who could easily demand their lives for disobedience, they trust God implicitly and stand for God's law first and foremost. In my book, such courageousness is truly remarkable. They speak out for God and take action. Well, in this particular case they don't do anything, because doing nothing is what saves the children from Pharaoh's edict of death.
Do you see the logical progression here? Know, fear, speak, act. Knowledge of God leading to a fear of God. This causes them to speak out about what is important to God and to live out their faith in action. In all this is the establishing of a relationship.
At this point we might take note of the sub-theme of protection: Pharaoh should have protected Israelites but didn’t, and so God does not protect him. The midwives do protect the Israelites and so God protects them. And on a bigger scale, God protects his people.
As for God achieving his plans, both sets of people, Pharaoh and the midwives, play into God's hands. Pharaoh’s actions actually bring about exactly what he feared most, and the Israelites do indeed route the Egyptians economically and militarily, albeit at the hands of their God! The factor Pharaoh had left out of his calculations was Israel’s relationship with God. Whilst Israel were weak, God was strong, and in control. Had Pharaoh known Joseph, he would have known God and not made the blunders he did.
Conclusions
What lessons might we draw from this?
1. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10) Wisdom is firstly about knowing intellectually, or knowing facts which you then follow through to their logical conclusion and apply in your life.
2. You find refuge and safety in God (Psalm 2:12) rather than by ignoring or opposing him.
3. Fearing God leads to relationship with God and being part of his plans and promises – part of the blessing. This is also about knowing but in a personal sense.
God is the one to be feared above all others (and that includes any awful boss you might work under), but we don’t need to fear a capricious or arbitrary nature in him but only his justice. It involves respecting his right as creator to rule over our lives and destiny and not to go our own way.
This intellectual knowledge (fear) of God leads to a personal knowledge of, or relationship with God. To know and be known by God in this way is to part of his Exodus people. Whether we chose to ignore Christian truth or respond to it has eternal consequences...
It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10: 31)
Do we seek God’s blessing or do we make do with the curse? Hopefully, as we explore this book further we will uncover how the Christian believer develops in his or her walk with the Lord.