Page 24 - Biblical Backgrounds

The exodus conception in Jewish thought:
The exodus is the story of how God delivered His people and brought them to the land He promised. It
was seen by Jews as proof of Yahweh’s supremacy over the powers of the earth and the cosmos.
Because of the miraculous intervention of God on their behalf, the vivid memories of the events of the
exodus largely shaped the Jewish view of God’s interaction. Michael Fishbane explains that “the exodus
45
tradition was used, from the first, as a paradigmatic teaching for present and future generations.” In
other words, it became the primary teaching pattern to teach the next generations. This continued
throughout the exiles during the empires of Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. Exodus 13:8 makes this
pattern of teaching standard when Moses said to the people, “You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is
because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt” (ESV). The work of God in the exodus is
what gave hope to the Jews in the exiles that were to come. God had delivered once and established His
people in the promised land. He would do so again. This language is seen throughout Isaiah. Isaiah says
that because of the sin of the people of God, there will be an exile. The people will be delivered by God,
46
who will establish His kingdom in Jerusalem and reign on the throne of David.

This view of the exile and the saving work of God is picked up by the predominantly Jewish early church.
Notice that in Hebrews, the Christians are told not to go back and perish with the Jews but to come out
from among them into the wilderness and seek the city that was to come. God was going to establish
the New Jerusalem. If they were faithful, they would receive the promise.

Revelation also takes up the language of the exodus concept. There is great oppression on earth as the
whore of Babylon, and the dragon persecutes God’s people. God supernaturally defends His people. He
destroys the evil empire, judges it for its wickedness, and establishes His kingdom where He will reign
from Jerusalem. Then God brings down the new heavens and the new earth. In them is a New
Jerusalem.

Jesus’ own work can be seen as a second exodus. Through His blood, He conquered sin and death to set
the captives free. He is taking them to a new land He promises. One in which He will reign on the throne
of David forever. This is why Jesus, and later John, use the terminology of passing from death to life
(John 5:24 and 1 John 3:14).

Jeremiah’s Prophecy
Of the later prophets, Jeremiah had the most to do with Egypt. Late in his life, he was taken by force to
Egypt, where he apparently lived out the rest of his life (see Jer. 43:5–7). Earlier in his ministry, Jeremiah
had insisted that the kingdom of Judah should bow to the yoke of Babylonia and not align itself with
Egypt. This anti-Egypt, pro-Babylonia position did not find adherents among the leaders of Judah. The
results, of course, were disastrous for Jerusalem and the surrounding country.

When Jeremiah was forcibly kidnapped to Egypt by Jews who had assassinated Nebuchadnezzar’s
governor, Gedaliah, it appeared that Egypt would again be a place of safety. But Jeremiah made it clear
to his Jewish captors that it would not be so. In chapter 44, he addressed all Jews living in Egypt,
prophesying that, rather than a shelter from troubles, Egypt would be for them a place of punishment.
The Jews in Egypt would be so thoroughly destroyed, he said, that only a “small number” would return
to the land of Judah (Jer. 44:28). Finally, Jeremiah prophesied that the sword's scourge would be so

45 Michael Fishbane, “The Exodus Motif/The Paradigm of Historical Renewal,” in Text and Texture: A Literary
Reading of Selected Texts, ed. Fishbane (Oxford, England: One World, 1998), 121.
46 R. Michael Fox. Ed. Reverberations of the Exodus in Scripture. United States: Pickwick Publications, 2014.

22