4 Advancing the promise: Exodus–Deuteronomy
4
Advancing the promise: Exodus–Deuteronomy
Exodus: bound for the Promised Land
The book of Exodus, aptly named for its key event, resumes and advances the Genesis story line as it opens with ‘And’ as well as points back to creation and the promises to Abraham. The people of Israel were fruitful, and they multiplied and filled the land. It is difficult to underestimate its significant place in the Old Testament, for it provides the unifying historical and theological basis for subsequent writers to put together Israel’s history from creation to the monarchy. Stephen Dempster observes the canonical-shaping language that stems from the exodus and comments:
Exodus language becomes the grammar used to express future salvation. Whether it is Hosea speaking of Israel going up from the land (Hos 1:11 [2:2 MT]), Isaiah of leading the people through the sea again (Isa 11:15), Micah of Yahweh leading an exodus of crippled and outcasts (Mic 4:6–7), Jeremiah of a new covenant (Jeremiah 31–34.), the Exodus language of salvation is the way Israel construed its understanding of the future.
It is difficult, then, to overestimate the crucial role that Exodus plays both in the fulfilment of the land promise and the salvation of God’s people.
The promise of a recaptured kingdom would be secured through the covenant made with Abraham (Exod. 6:4, 8), a covenant that promised land, seed and universal blessing; and Exodus moves towards the realization of this covenant by showing an increasing Israelite clan bound for the Promised Land. Thus the promise to Abraham and deliverance from Egypt are determinative factors for Israel’s future. Exodus, then, may be considered the epicentre of the Pentateuch, especially in view of God’s powerful and destination-changing deliverance of his people from foreign rule. Indeed, God will ensure that his people will live in his place under his rule.
Furthermore, the multiplication of a people and movement towards inhabiting a place to live under God’s blessing is rooted in his original blessing on humanity. The promises to Israel to plant them in the land are reiterations of a former promise. This connection is forcefully illustrated in Exodus 15:17:
You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,
the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode,
the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.
At the end of the song sung by Israel after crossing the Red Sea, ‘the establishment of Israel in the land of Canaan is pictured as the planting of a tree in a mountain sanctuary, exactly the picture of Eden presented in Genesis 2 and Ezekiel 28’. Through their redemption, then, Israel inherit the role of Adam in a new Eden-like land and are the means by which God will fulfil his worldwide purposes.
By the end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus, however, fulfilment of the patriarchal promises of offspring had hardly progressed. This suspension of the story line is clearly demonstrated in Exodus 1. Genesis ends with the sons of Israel under Joseph numbering seventy people (Gen. 46:27), and Exodus begins with the same fledgling number as they come into Egypt (Exod. 1:5). A new king arises over Egypt who does not know Joseph and who enslaves Israel under the harsh oppression of the Egyptians (1:9–11). And when Pharaoh sees that the people of Israel are ‘too many and too mighty’ for the Egyptians (1:9), he commands his leaders to afflict Israel to keep them from increasing. As a result, Pharaoh, with serpent-like cunning (1:10a), embarks on a policy resulting in hard service, pain in childbearing, and death, all of which are associated with life outside the garden of Eden. But if these obstacles are not enough, more drastic measures are taken to stop the multiplication of the Israelites when Pharaoh orders the extermination of all Israelite sons (Exod. 1:8–22). These realities serve as vivid illustrations that God’s kingdom on earth had not yet come. His people were not living in his place under his rule. Rather, they were living as captives of a foreign king whose rule was opposed to God.
This background sets the scene for God to intervene powerfully on behalf of his people. As the narrative unfolds, it is clear that nothing or no one is able to thwart God’s plan. But before Israel’s course is drastically changed, there is a sharp turn in the narrative that, for the next four chapters, focuses on one man: Moses. The account of Moses – his birth, preservation and calling to lead God’s people out of captivity – marks the promise of a new start. Enns comments:
The story of Moses’ birth is also told in creation language. When his mother looked at the child after his birth, she saw that he was ‘good’ (ṭôb; 2:2). The entire Hebrew phrase is kî ṭôb, which is an echo of the refrain in Genesis 1 where God pronounces what he has created ‘good.’ The birth of Moses is not merely about the birth of one man, but represents the beginning of the birth of the people. The savior of the people is born, and it is through him that God’s people will be given a new beginning. Their slavery will end and their savior will bring them safely into their rest, the Promised Land.
This focus on genealogy will set the stage for a change in geography.
But before Israel are delivered, a massive obstacle remains before their eyes: Pharaoh. In Exodus 2:23, the cry of the people went up before God. In chapter 5:15, however, the cry of the people is before Pharaoh. ‘It is as if the author wants to show that Pharaoh was standing in God’s way and thus provides another motivation for the plagues which follow.’ In response to Israel’s cry, God commits to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians to a land flowing with milk and honey (3:8, 10; 6:6–8). As a result of Pharaoh’s ordained and willing opposition to God and failure to let his people go, God sends signs that culminate in the death of the Egyptian firstborn (chs. 7–12). Whereas Pharaoh set out to exterminate Israel’s firstborn, this great reversal from Exodus 1 reminds the reader that the salvation of God’s son (Exod. 4:22–23) will come at the cost of the Egyptians’ sons. That is, salvation comes through substitution.
Then, in what Elmer Martens calls the programmatic text of the Bible, God says:
I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgement. 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. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the LORD. (Exod. 6:6–8)
Indeed, Israel will now know their creator by a new name: Yahweh (Exod. 6:3). Through the miraculous act of the exodus (ch. 14), an event pregnant with creational overtones, God delivers his people through the chaotic waters of judgment and brings them out as a new creation, free from foreign rule. Though Pharaoh and his men change their minds about freeing Israel and make one last stand against their rival deity, they finally come to know the one true God when they experience total destruction and death in a watery grave. God will get the glory so that they will know that he is Yahweh (Exod. 14:4). Afterward, Moses and the people celebrate in a salvation song affirming Yahweh’s lordship and praising him for his unrivalled power and awesome name, for he has become their salvation (ch. 15). At last, Yahweh has delivered his people and promises to plant them in the mountain of his inheritance, where he will live with them as their great king for ever. Now that they have been delivered out of bondage, they have only to go into the land of promise.
The exodus is a momentous event for the fulfilment of God’s promises to his people. These promises form the basis of his redemptive work for Israel, and the exodus is the means to bring it about. The spectacular deliverance of Israel out of Egypt constitutes the beginning of a great journey to relocate to a new land – a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’ (Exod. 3:8, 17; 13:5; 33:3). Israel, it seems, is God’s blessed new humanity destined for a new creation from where and through whom blessing to the world will come.
Deuteronomy: the gift of land
While the Promised Land occupies a less dominant role in the previous books of the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy gives the first complete recounting of Israel’s story and brings to culmination the theme of God’s promise and gift of land. In fact, to speak of the fulfilment of promise in Deuteronomy is, in essence, to speak of the land. Deuteronomy, then, presents a highly developed theology of land.
The idolatrous and unbelieving first generation delivered by Yahweh in the exodus from Egypt failed to enter and settle into the land God had given them. The initial attempt to enter the land of promise proved unsuccessful and, as a result, the exodus generation was sent away into the wilderness. Throughout the Pentateuch, however, the promise of land to the patriarchs continued to form the backbone of God’s faithfulness to his people (Deut. 4:31; cf. Lev. 26:40–45). In Leviticus the land ‘was understood as a trust from the divine landlord, who is pictured as living in relationship with the Israelites in the land in the same way that he walked with Adam and Eve in the garden (Lev 26:12)’. An inherited problem exists, though – which the provisions of the sacrificial system and the Day of Atonement presuppose – and the only hope for the wilderness generation is the Abrahamic covenant (Lev. 26:42). Likewise, ‘Numbers establishes from its very beginning the thematic element of the land as the end to which everything drives, and its matter and movement are consistently oriented toward that goal.’ However, the theme of failure continues as the people repeatedly break covenant with Yahweh.
Now, after forty years of wandering in the wilderness, a new generation stands before Moses as he preaches to them, commissioning them to enter the land and instructing them on how they must live in it. Deuteronomy, from beginning to end, exhorts Israel to take possession of the land that the Lord promised to their fathers. At this crucial point in Israel’s history – looking back at the failure of the former generation and forward to the land God has given them to possess – the Promised Land becomes a great means of motivation. Gary Millar notes, ‘In Deuteronomy, partial fulfilment has already taken place. Yahweh has assured Israel that the land is theirs. In his grace, he has already handed over the deeds to them. This should act as an encouragement to them to go in and possess it.’ Thus Deuteronomy narrates the paradox between the Lord’s sure promise to his people, which is rooted in his faithfulness in the past, and their response.
The Promised Land is described in a number of ways. First, the land is a gift that Yahweh owns. Although God had every right to destroy Israel for their wilful disobedience and idolatry, Deuteronomy is clear that the land is an underserved gift from him. In fact, variations of the phrase the ‘land that the LORD our God is giving’ occur nearly thirty times in Deuteronomy and three times in Joshua. Put another way, the land is not earned by Israel. It is neither because of their righteousness that they inherit the land, nor is it for other nations’ wickedness that they do not possess it. Rather, God gives it to them in order that ‘he may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob’ (Deut. 9:5). Simply put, God’s gift of land was tied to his unconditional election of Israel (Deut. 7:6–11).
But in order to keep Israel from receiving the land with closed fists, God reminds them that it ultimately belongs to him. Since God is the creator of the whole earth, the land is first and foremost his land. Thus the people who are Yahweh’s inheritance have Canaan as their inheritance (Deut. 4:20–21). God possesses the land, but has granted the use and enjoyment of it to Israel. In other words, his gift comes with conditions, for life in the land requires obedience to God’s commands. Though their obedience affects their livelihood in the land, it does not nullify God’s gift of the land. Waltke writes:
Paradoxically, Israel’s role in participating in this gift [of land] is conditioned upon their trusting I AM to keep his promises to give them the Land against contrary evidence (Deut 6:18; 8:1; 11:8–9). . . . Here we see the tension of God’s prior election of Israel and Israel’s subsequent faith-obedience.
Some scholars have attempted to drive a wedge between the conditional and unconditional aspects of the land promise. But the presence of unconditionality does not necessarily exclude conditions, for unconditionality and conditionality concurrently exist in various kinds of relationships, and particularly in sonship (Deut. 14:1; cf. Exod. 4:22–23).
Secondly, the land is described as a new paradise. That is, the description of the land holds out promise of a return to an Eden-like bliss. Waltke calls these extravagant descriptions ‘metonymies of effect’. For example, the land is described as being (very) good, having luxurious pasturelands and flowers, and containing abundant fruit. The fruit of the womb and the fruit of the livestock will be blessed, and no male or female among the people or among the beasts will be barren. The prospect of a rich land in which the people will flourish and multiply suggests a return to Eden-like conditions. At this point in history, then, the second generation stood before God on the edge of a luxurious and bountiful land that offered the nation rest, security and abundance.
Thirdly, Deuteronomy contains numerous references to the creational mandate given to Adam. This task, however, is now passed on to Israel. For example, they will ‘multiply’ in the land, eventually resulting in filling the earth, which echoes God’s teleological design for Eden. Furthermore, the Lord will subdue the land and they must subdue it (Deut. 9:3). Hence the original mandate given to Adam in creation and passed down to Abraham and the patriarchs appears again. The promise of land, then, offers the restoration of relationship with and vocation under God in terms reminiscent of Eden.
Fourthly, recurring themes of ‘life’ and the ‘prolonging of days’ allude back to Eden and the life Adam enjoyed before the fall. This blessed and prolonged life is likewise connected to obeying God in the land. Hence Israel, like Adam, must obey God’s word in order to live in his place under his rule. And, in a very important passage, Israel must hold fast to Yahweh, ‘for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them’ (Deut. 30:20). Although this text should not be pressed too far, it is safe to say that, whereas the blessing throughout Deuteronomy is often connected to the land, the blessing is also Yahweh himself. Truly Yahweh is their life.
Fifthly, inheritance and rest become important aspects of the promise of land. The occupation of the land is associated with rest, adumbrated by the tabernacle while it travels with the people through the wilderness (Exod. 33:14). In Deuteronomy, these connections converge in the land. Indeed, outside the land the people will not experience God-given rest (Deut. 28:65). Each family’s inheritance has been given to them by God and is to be protected. Inheritance does not, however, exist only between individual families and God. Land is an inheritance of the entire people, which demonstrates that God views Israel as a son. In other words, land possession is connected to sonship. For example, the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 describes Israel’s relationship with God in father–son terms. Inheritance language, according to Millar, ‘invests the occupation of the land with greater significance; occupation involves the enjoyment of a filial relationship with God; it is not merely the possession of a piece of real estate’. As in Exodus, the themes of covenant, land and sonship come together. It is because Israel is Yahweh’s firstborn son that the land is given as an inheritance.
Moreover, land and rest are mentioned together and are described as gifts from God. God’s gift of rest stands in stark contrast to the experience of Israel while they were slaves in Egypt, as well as the subsequent period in the wilderness due to their disobedience. This rest, according to McKeown, ‘is not just understood in the negative sense of no longer needing to wander, but also denotes security and safety from one’s enemies (Deut. 25:19)’. Rest means freedom from enemy oppression and enjoyment of peace. However, rest is not merely a coincidental by-product of living in the land. Rather, it is a divine gift in its own right (Exod. 33:14; Deut. 3:20).
Finally, Deuteronomy 12:9–11 pulls together the thematic threads of inheritance and rest. When the people of Israel have possessed the land, rest will ensue. As Harris points out, ‘The rest that the land offers is both rest from enemies, and rest for God’s presence.’ That is, rest provides the opportunity for Israel to worship in the place God has chosen to dwell with his covenant people. On this note, Alexander rightly points out that it is impossible to consider the concept of rest without noting its association with the Sabbath. Despite differences in wording, the Decalogue in both Exodus and Deuteronomy associate these two concepts. Whereas Exodus 20:11 contains an explicit connection between the divine institution of the Sabbath and the seventh day of creation, Deuteronomy highlights God’s deliverance of the Israelites from the Egyptians (e.g. Deut. 5:15). As a result, Alexander suggests that the deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage and subsequent settlement in the Promised Land were viewed as in some manner paralleling God’s rest following the completion of his creative activity. This textual connection indicates that the rest offered in the land may be tied to the rest of God in creation prior to the fall. ‘The acquisition of the Promised Land,’ says McKeown, ‘while not explicitly described as a return to Edenic bliss, gives Israel the rest and security that was endemic to paradise.’ As a result of possessing and inheriting the land, then, Israel would enjoy the gifts of creation in a way that they were originally designed to be enjoyed. Understood in this light, then, possessing their inheritance of the Promised Land typifies entering into God’s eternal rest, to which the land of Canaan was the entrance.
The book of Deuteronomy ends with the death of Moses, a unique prophet in the history of Israel (34:10). Despite the fact that Deuteronomy does not close with the patriarchal promises fulfilled, there is a prospect of hope. The great prophet Moses passes on the role of leadership to his servant Joshua – a man full of the Spirit of wisdom (34:9) – and Moses’ last words are given to a people poised to enter the Promised Land.