EXODUS MAKES GREAT THEATER.
• An exciting plot: a dramatic escape by thousands of people from an abusive despot
• Special effects: an escape accompanied by miracles galore
• Great actors: Moses, a charismatic leader, negotiating the release of God’s people
It is a gripping story.
It is a story made even more gripping because its underlying theme—leaving an unacceptable situation in search of a better one—is one to which we can all relate. Indeed, one might say that life itself is precisely such a journey. We undertake countless journeys, large and small, in search of life abundant.
These countless, private exoduses are anything but certain as to their outcome. When we first undertake them and as we undergo them, we do not know if we will succeed. Sometimes we know the destination, but often we don’t. Sometimes we know the route, but often we are reduced to aimless wandering. We exit from a known evil in search of an unknown good.
Is it any wonder that under such nebulous circumstances, we frequently wonder about the meaning of our exoduses? How can we possibly understand why evil befell us in the first place (the Job question)? How can we hope for guidance in the deserts of our journeys (the psalmist’s question)? How in the world will we know when we have arrived at the correct destination (the __ question)? In the midst of these massive uncertainties, don’t we need an anchor, a hermeneutical certainty to orient us?
In this excellent commentary on the book of Exodus, Peter Enns says, “Yes, we need such an anchor, and yes, we have such an anchor. The anchor is Jesus Christ—the story of Jesus Christ contained in the New Testament.” But since the story of Jesus Christ occurred hundreds of years after the Exodus, the meaning we seek in the Exodus and in our exoduses has special features.
(1) Life is dynamic. We are meant to move. Or, more accurately perhaps, we are not meant to stay rooted in our sufferings. It is okay to try to escape persecution, to seek better conditions elsewhere. God is not a sadist, gleefully pulling wings off insects or angels or people. We are meant to fly to seek God’s will and God’s blessings. It is true that we will likely experience some sufferings and persecution for our faith. But God does not require either that we seek suffering or that we passively endure it if and when it comes. The Exodus is not a once-for-all historical oddity but part of the Christian lifestyle.
(2) Our exodus is uncertain—at least in the details. We move not knowing everything about the reasons, the journey, or the destination. The details of Moses’ exodus only become clear in light of the life of Jesus Christ hundreds of years later. The details of our exoduses may only become clear in the future, in the events of the move itself or even later. If we wait until we know all the details we will probably never go. True exodus requires faith.
(3) Because of our faith we can be sure there is meaning in our moving even when it is not entirely clear to us. Part of that meaning is a confidence that our lives are of a single piece. Often our reluctance is rooted in an exodus’s strangeness. It doesn’t seem to fit the trajectory of our life. But that is often part of what we cannot see—how it does fit. Exodus leads to more life, not less; more exodus means more meaning.
The most important events of Moses’ exodus occurred on the journey. The discovery of God’s will at every step of the way was provided on a need-to-know basis. Moses never reached the Promised Land, but his trip was still a success—for him and for his people.
Exodus is more than a gripping story. It is the nature of our life together in Christ.
Terry C. Muck