Category: Exodus

Satan: God’s Good Farmer (Exodus 1:1–22)

God was faithful to His covenant; in Egypt He made of Jacob a great nation (Genesis 46:3–4), and, in Egypt, they were afflicted (Genesis 15:13–14). Affliction and multiplication were both His brushstrokes. He steps back from the canvass saying, “Very good!” God’s blessing brought persecution; both were part of His plan.

The multiplication led to the oppression, but that isn’t what Moses says in v. 12. He doesn’t say the more they multiplied the more they were oppressed, but, the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied. The serpent tries to stomp out the seed but his stomping is God’s sowing. The people of God are like cells that when you cut them they don’t die, they multiply. God writes blessing bigger than the serpent’s eraser. He also puts a pencil lead into Satan’s eraser. The greater his rage, the more marks there are. The more marks there are, the greater his rage. Repeat cycle. God turns the serpent’s eraser into a pencil to tell His tale.

It always works this way. When the serpent bit the heel of the Seed of the woman, the Seed did die, but He sprouted from the ground the Firstfruits of the harvest. When death tried to kill Life, Life wasn’t extinguished, it was multiplied.

The serpent tries to stomp the seed of Abraham plural. He only makes it more plural. Cells are split, the body of Christ grows. The church caught on quickly. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,” says Tertullian. Satan still rages, meaning, he still writes—God’s story. In 1920 the church in China comprised an estimated 2.3 million souls. Now, some say conservatively, thanks to hostile communism, there are 100 million. One could say that the persecution was a brutal as the growth was exponential, but the persecution came first. The more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied. As punishment for his sin against man, God is making Satan write Exodus 1:12 on the board a trillion times, and then, hell to follow.

God has not forgotten His covenant. He is multiplying His people still. He is using the serpent still. Don’t get comfortable in this world, find peace in God’s covenant. We’re in Egypt. God is multiplying, but we’re not home yet. The greater Moses has come, and is sure to return.

The Genesis of Exodus

“These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them.” —Exodus 1:1–7

Thus begins Exodus. Or, does it? That intro sounds very Genesis-y doesn’t it? Exodus isn’t stand alone. It’s volume two of a five volume work by Moses. To read Exodus rightly, start with Genesis. It’s only our familiarity with the stories that makes us think we know what’s going on. Ever been with friends who are watching the second or third film in a trilogy of which you haven’t viewed the preceding titles? You have all kinds of questions. “Who are these people? Why are they doing that? How are they related? What is the backstory?” Likewise Exodus. “Who is Israel? Why are they in Egypt? Who is YHWH? What is the covenant He made with Abraham and how does it relate to these people?”

Inversely, to read Genesis well, you must understand it as the preface to Exodus; a prequel that came out later. We often read Genesis as though it were recorded by an automaton in real time as the events unfolded, handed down from one patriarch to the next. Not so. The events recorded in Genesis were received by Moses for the people of God at the time of the Exodus, far removed from the events recorded there.

Why the time delay? Because what happens in Exodus has its roots in the foundation of the earth. The seeds of the exodus were planted before God made the dry land appear on the third day. Sin didn’t catch God by surprise. All through Genesis you’re waiting for a child. A seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent and bring redemption—God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule—shalom, very good. Again and again, the children of the serpent seek to crush the children of the promise. The children of the promise endanger things with their own sins, but from the refuse of man’s sin God causes grace to grow. Children are born, but repeatedly, they disappoint. They’re only shadows.

Then, Exodus. Once again the serpent is trying to kill the seed. A child is born. He catches his mother’s eye. He is saved. He grows old. He delivers God’s people, leads them to a mountain to receive God’s rule, and from there, to God’s place. But he too is only a shadow. Millenia later the Seed of the woman would be born of a virgin. A small king again would try to eliminate the Seed, but He would escape, to Egypt. He would be the greater Moses, the greater Passover, the greater Deliverer, the Lord of the greater Exodus. Because of Him, God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule—shalom, very good.