Ho Ho Ho, Let my People Go!

Nothing says Christmas like a plague of locusts, but I think Exodus: Gods and Kings is a well-timed holiday movie. The miraculous account of Moses, leading the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt is an amazing story that points directly to the life and death of Jesus – the Christmas baby.

Not even Hollywood could dream up an event like the Exodus: pestilence, catastrophic death and destruction, and a dramatic escape of 1 million people. It’s where the phrase “biblical proportions” probably came from. Kim Kardashian not withstanding.

The Old Testament of the Bible is the history book of God’s chosen people, the Israelites. The Exodus is the event that they hang their yarmulkes upon. Over 100 times in the OT God identifies himself as “the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt”. The Israelites are continually prompted to remember their deliverance from slavery and oppression.

Hopefully you know the story. If not see the movie. Or read about it in the book of …  you know, Exodus. In a nutshell, God calls Moses to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt. Pharaoh says no and there’s a bunch of plagues. With the last plague, the death of the first-born, God brings the hammer. Moses instructs his people to kill a lamb and paint the blood on the doorposts of their houses. Then God sent an angel to wipe out all the first-born sons in Egypt. But if the angel saw the blood on the doorposts, he passed over that home and nobody died. Pharaoh finally relents and the Exodus begins.

Later on God gives his people a set of rules, laws, and ceremonies. They are told to annually remember their deliverance from Egypt as well as their salvation from death with a feast. The main course: a sacrificed lamb. This feast is known as The Passover.

Fast-forward about 1,000 years to Jesus and the Christmas story: the crowded inn, the stable (possibly home to a lamb or two), and the Angel of the Lord visiting the shepherds … who were watching their … lambs. Zip ahead 33 years. On his final night, Jesus and his pals enjoy a last supper. The meal they were eating was the Passover Feast. He’s then arrested, beaten, and crucified. Jesus was killed during Passover. Was that a mere coincidence? I guess maybe. But I think not because the spiritual significance is too hard to miss. Jesus was our sacrificial lamb. Like blood on a doorpost, his shed blood allows our own personal escape from the slavery of sin and death.

I think the Exodus account is a primary reason to believe the Bible’s authenticity. What I love about the Bible, what keeps me reading through times of doubt, is that  it was written over a span of 1,500 years, on three continents, by 40 different authors and still maintains a harmony of themes and messages – like that of The Passover.

The point of the Exodus is to demonstrate the tremendous lengths God will take to save his people. He could have had Moses do an Obi-Wan-Kenobi mind warp on Pharaoh so the Hebrews could exit Egypt like a joyous crowd leaving a football game. Instead God went with the dramatics. He went overdrive on the special effects. He performed miracles and landed a definitive blow upon the Egyptians so his chosen people would know he meant business, he could be followed, and he could be trusted. It showed them that God was only one responsible for their rescue.

I imagine that the Bible’s miracles prevent many folks from believing. Just to get the Hebrews to the promised land, God toppled the walls of a fortified city and parted another large body of water. Then there are all of Jesus’ miracles. Somewhere along the way, God stopped doing the spectacularly outward feed-5,000-people type miracle and went with the quiet inward miracles. The kind that happen in your heart.

The kind of miracle that can turn a convicted felon into a worldwide prison minister. Or one that can give a former WWII POW forgiveness toward his Japanese captors. Or take a shy, stage-fright-filled kid and turn him into a teacher. It would be cool if God used a giant outward miracle to right some of the world’s issues. Instead, he’s decided to use people to feed the poor, care for the orphaned, and rescue those trapped in slavery.

Christmas itself was one of God’s quiet miracles. He ditched the special effects and went back to silent film era. No fireworks, wall-crumbling announcements, or computer-generated explosions. Instead it was just a young couple, a smelly barn, and some lowly shepherds. As with the Exodus, the birth of Jesus demonstrates the distance God will travel to save, deliver, and redeem, not just his chosen people, but all of mankind.

God gave us his son to reveal that he can be trusted and followed. To say that he alone is responsible for our salvation.

And that’s the greatest miracle of all.