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by
Doug Ward |
Christian Egyptologist James K. Hoffmeier of
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School is often asked about the identity of the
Pharaoh who ruled Egypt at the time of the Exodus of the children of Israel. This
is a longstanding puzzle for both professional and amateur historians.
Unfortunately, the book of Exodus does not identify the obstinate Pharaoh who
would not relinquish his Israelite slaves until Egypt suffered ten terrible
plagues.
Why
does the Pharaoh of the Exodus remain anonymous in the Bible? Dr. Hoffmeier addressed this question in a sermon delivered at
Oxford Bible Fellowship in Oxford, Ohio, on March 5, 2017. The answer, he
asserted, is that the book of Exodus is concerned with a different question:
Who is the God of the Exodus?
The
unnamed Pharaoh himself raised this question when Moses and Aaron came to him
to demand the release of the Israelites. "Who is the Lord, that I should
obey his voice and let Israel go?" he haughtily replied. "I do not
know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go" (Exod 5:2).
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Yada,
Yada, Yada |
Hoffmeier observed that the verb "to know"
(yada in Hebrew) that we see in Exodus 5:2 appears repeatedly in Exod 1-14 and points to a key theme in the narrative. We
first encounter this verb in Exod 1:8, which begins
the story of how the Israelites came to be slaves in Egypt: "Now there
arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph." The king's lack of
knowledge does not mean that he was unaware of Joseph's existence, but instead
that he behaved as if Joseph's contributions to Egyptian society did not
matter.
In
the Hebrew Scriptures verbs like "know", "see",
"hear", and "remember", that today we might associate with
purely sensory or cognitive activities, imply actions that accompany those
activities. It is helpful to keep this in mind when we read about God's
response to Israel's suffering in Exod 2:23-25. The
text says that God "heard their groaning", "remembered his
covenant", "saw the people of Israel", and "knew." The
message is that God was well aware of Israel's plight and already had been
taking action-for example, in protecting and preparing Moses for his future
leadership role-in order to carry out his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Many
people would learn the answer to Pharaoh's question, beginning with the
Israelites themselves. God told Moses, "I will take you to be my people,
and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has
brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians" (Exod 6:7). Hoffmeier pointed out
that the Hebrew phrase translated "I will take you" is the one used
in the Bible when a man "takes" a bride. God was entering into an
intimate relationship with Israel, a relationship that the Bible compares to a
marriage (Ezek 16). Through the experiences of the
Exodus and the ensuing years in the wilderness, Israelites would have the
opportunity to come to know God well. They could also convey this knowledge to
future generations by repeating the stories of God's mighty works (Exod 10:2).
A
series of plagues would introduce the Egyptian people to the God of Israel.
"The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord," God said, "when I
stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among
them (Exod 7:5). The events at the Sea of Reeds would
send a particularly clear message to the Egyptians. "And the Egyptians
shall know that I am the Lord, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his
chariots, and his horsemen" (Exod 14:18).
The
messages conveyed by the plagues were especially intended for Pharaoh as leader
of the Egyptians and the most powerful ruler in the region. He was to
understand, as Moses said, that "there is no one like the Lord our
God" (Exod 8:10; see also 9:14). The God of
Israel was not one of Pharaoh's peers, or some minor territorial deity.
Instead, he was the ruler of all the world (Exod
9:29).
|
Proclaiming
the Gospel |
The miracles of the Exodus were also destined to be known far beyond the
borders of Egypt. God told Pharaoh through Moses, "But for this purpose I
have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in
all the earth" (Exod 9:16).
The
Exodus announced a gospel of salvation that spread to people from countries
throughout the Near East. When the Israelites left Egypt, they were accompanied
by a "mixed multitude" (Exod 12:38) that
probably included other slaves from a number of nations. Moreover, news of the
Exodus traveled far and wide. Jethro the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, would
soon confess, "Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods" (Exod 18:11).
Forty
years after that, people in Canaan still remembered what God had done. When the
Israelites arrived there, the innkeeper Rahab stated that "we have heard
how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of
Egypt" (Joshua 2:10). Based on what she had heard, Rahab concluded that
"the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth
beneath" (v. 11).
Generations
later the Philistines, who came to Canaan from across the Mediterranean, still
knew about the Exodus. When a new round of plagues accompanied the Philistines'
capture of the Ark of the Covenant, their priests and diviners admonished them
to "give glory to the God of Israel" (1 Sam 6:5). These priests
added, "Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh
hardened their hearts?" (v. 6)
The
events of the Exodus still speak to us even today. Dr. Hoffmeier
closed his message by highlighting four truths conveyed in Exod
1-14. First, the Israelites could not save themselves. They were "dead in
their sins" (Eph 2:5), and God initiated their
salvation. Second, God is always acting, even when we do not notice, as was the
case when the Israelites suffered in slavery. Third, God continually reveals
himself and his salvation to his human creation, as he did through the Exodus.
Finally, God uses human beings as instruments of blessing and salvation for
others. Moses was such an instrument at the time of the Exodus, and we can
think of modern examples from our own lives.
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On 19 Mar 2017, 17:09.
