The astute reader of the
story of Scripture will inevitably notice that the exodus from Egypt is a
constantly recurring theme throughout the whole of the Hebrew Scriptures. Owing to this, it would make a tremendous
amount of sense for the reader to be cognizant of it as a theme in Jesus’
ministry as well, especially as the exodus was the act and is a picture of
God’s rescue, redemption, salvation, and deliverance of His people, all of
which are said to take place according to His covenant faithfulness. The messiah, who is presumed to be Jesus, is
the one that was expect to bring these things about for Israel. Thus, the idea of exodus would understandably
weigh heavily on one that seems to present Himself as that messiah.
So is it reasonable
to hear echoes of Exodus here in Jesus’ words that are recorded in the eleventh
chapter of Luke? Let us examine what follows so as to be able to find
out. Jesus says, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace,
his possessions are safe” (11:21). If the remembrance of exodus is strong
here, and we believe it to be so, then reflecting on Pharaoh, we could
certainly understand him to be a strong man, fully armed, guarding his palace
and his possessions (the enslaved Israelites). We must always bear in
mind that Jesus, as a member of the nation of Israel, would understand His life
and situation and place in the world defined by the ongoing self-understanding
of Israel, which was heavily influenced by the seminal event of Israel’s
history, which was its exodus from out of Egypt. With such thoughts in mind, and continuing on
in Luke, Jesus says, “But when a stronger man attacks and conquers him, he
takes away the first man’s armor on which the man relied and divides up his
plunder” (11:22). Could this not be read
as an analogy to what took place in Egypt?
Is it reasonable to presume that Jesus’ fellow citizens could hear His
words along these lines?
Because the plagues are
shown to be the result of Pharaoh’s stubbornness, the narrative shows them as
being primarily directed towards him so as to influence his thought and
actions, though they dramatically affected his people as well. Clearly
then, a reader is able to see Israel’s God as the stronger man attacking and conquering
him. Initially, Pharaoh had the “armor” of his magicians being able to
match the displays of power, which allowed for a hardness of heart, but that
armor was eventually removed. Furthermore, when the point is reached that
Israel is going to be released from its bondage, we find that “The Lord gave
the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, and they gave them whatever
they wanted, and so they plundered Egypt” (Exodus 12:26).
We also realize that
any use of exodus language would be somewhat readily connected to thoughts about
Israel’s expected messiah and the long-awaited establishment of the kingdom of
God (heaven come to earth). Just as the Creator God is said to have engaged
in His creation on behalf of His people to deliver them from the oppression of
Egypt and to bring them into their promised land, so there was an expectation
that their messiah, that God’s representative much like Israel, would deliver
the people of God from the subjugation of foreign rule, and deliver Israel’s
land back to them as their own sovereign possession. So it is with these
echoes of Exodus that we can comfortably understand Jesus making a messianic
claim for Himself, as He concludes His thoughts in connection with the finger
of God and the kingdom of God, by saying, “Whoever is not with Me is against
Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters” (11:23). Jesus’ hearers, if they were making the
exodus connections, would likely hear Him talking about Israel’s God being the
stronger man that would attack and plunder the Romans. However, Jesus had
a greater enemy in mind that would fall at the execution and demonstration of
power, with that enemy being death.
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