Six Themes in Exodus Everyone Should Know

V. Steven Parrish

• Publisher: Geneva Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781571532435
• eBook ISBN: 9781611649536
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

The Six Themes Everyone Should Know series introduces biblical books and their main themes. Each volume consists of six chapters that present major biblical themes; each chapter contains an introduction and three major sections:

• An explanation of the theme
• The significance of the biblical theme for the life of faith
• An exploration of implications this biblical theme offers the church for its ministry

The story of the Exodus has emboldened oppressed people for centuries. In it, God empowers human striving for freedom. Steven Parrish introduces six themes that reveal the character of God. God listened to the captives suffering and responded. Through the wilderness, God sustained the people with food, water, and law. God promised to be present to the people. And God is merciful and gracious, as demonstrated in the golden calf episode. This volume includes material for participants and guides for leading all six sessions.

God not only speaks and acts but also listens.

Chapter 1

God Listens

Scripture

Exodus 1–2 God listens to captive people.

Exodus 15:22–25; 16:1–17:7 God listens to hungry and thirsty people.

Exodus 32:1–14; 33:7–11 God listens to intercessory prayers.

Prayer

God, there are so many words—too many. Everyone is talking, and no one listens. Sometimes it feels like what we have to say—yearn to say, need to say—is squeezed out because of so many words. But you have shown yourself, again and again, to be a listening God who hears our outcries, even welcomes them. And more, we have found healing in your listening, and we thank you. Help us to become engaged listeners too, and perhaps as we listen to others, we may become agents of healing. Amen.

Introduction

The opening of the book of Exodus is tightly linked to the preceding book of Genesis. Exodus 1:1–5 reminds us that Jacob and his family, to whom we are introduced in Genesis, have made their way to Egypt. We quickly discover that by the time of the Exodus narrative the first generation of Israelite sojourners has died, but not before being faithful to the creational mandate to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). Clearly, God has been faithful to the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (12:2; 15:5; 17:6; 26:4; 28:14). They indeed have many descendants, as Exodus 1:7 makes clear. Unfortunately, the descendants reside not in the land of the promise but in Egypt. The story of Exodus will set into motion the events that will eventually bring together the twin pillars of God’s commitment to the ancestors: land and descendants.

The Israelites’ abundant growth does not go unnoticed. A new, unnamed Pharaoh sees and, alarmed by Israel’s creative potential, sets in place policies designed to thwart the reproductive capabilities of the people. First comes the policy of severe and oppressive labor. When that fails, Pharaoh commands that all newborn male children be executed. Then, the people “cried out” (Exodus 2:23).

The narrative does not say that the people cried out to God. We know only that they “cried out,” and that God heard. Perhaps “overheard” would be more precise. God’s hearing leads to divine remembering and reminds God of the pledge to the ancestors of descendants and land—a guarantee now threatened by the reckless and deadly policies of Pharaoh. God’s hearing or listening sets the exodus into motion.

The outcry of the people will have a joyful counterpart in Exodus 15. After the people are beyond the sea safely out of reach of Pharaoh, Moses and Miriam will sing songs of thanksgiving. Thus, the first significant section of Exodus has an almost lament-like structure: outcry, petitions along the way, and finally affirmation with thanksgiving. All are predicated on a God who listens.

A Basic Theme: God Listens

For faith communities the actions and speech of God have held central focus when reading Exodus. After all, the Hebrew word dabar translates as both word and act. For a period in the twentieth century, it was customary for both the church and the academy to view the bulk of the Old Testament as a witness to the mighty acts of God in history. Although that view has fallen out of favor, it is beyond question that the Bible portrays a God who acts and speaks. That it also presents a God who listens has been less noticed.

The theme of divine listening is painted against the backdrop of human outcry, complaint, petition, and inquiry. In each case, God’s attentive capacity is on bold display.

Outcry. As noted above, Israel’s initial outcry is a tormented outpouring of anguish to whomever might hear. Perhaps the reader is supposed to infer that the cry was explicitly directed to God, but the text itself is not quite that bold. It will be later, at the crossing of the sea, when the narrator tells us that the Israelites “cried out to the LORD” (Exodus 14:10). But here it is the unfocused outcry of people in misery that God hears.

Complaint. In Exodus 16 the people are between the sea and Sinai when they begin to “complain” or “grumble” because they are hungry. This complaint was explicitly directed against Moses and Aaron (16:2). The people reason that it would have been better to have stayed in Egypt where food and water were readily available. Although Moses deftly deflects their complaint and counters that the people were, in fact, complaining against God, the Lord hears and provides the gift of manna (16:12). While the people’s complaining will be treated differently in Numbers, here the Lord realizes that food and water are crucial for their survival and responds accordingly.

Petition. One of the more visible ways in which God’s listening is crucial is in petition. It was Moses’ speaking to God (“crying out”) that resulted in fresh water (15:22–25). More pointedly, following the golden calf episode (32:1–6), God is said to be genuinely angry: “. . . that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them” (32:10). In a shrewdly crafted intercession, Moses argues that God’s honor will be tarnished should God give full vent to divine wrath. As a result of divine listening, the destruction of the “calf builders” was graciously averted.

Inquiry. In Exodus 33:7–11 readers are suddenly and unexpectedly introduced to the tent of meeting. People who sought the Lord would go there, presumably to inquire about some matter. Moses would enter the tent, where he and God would have a conversation, much as friends talk to one another (v. 11). To be sure, the text talks about God speaking, but the notions of inquiry and conversation suggest very strongly that the God of the tent and the God of Exodus is a listening God.

The Life of Faith: God Listens to Us

While the Exodus affirmation that God listens may be a theme in a biblical book, it is much more than that. It is also a mark of the fundamental character of God. To put it another way, when God listens, God is acting in character. More importantly, the God we encounter in Exodus is the same Holy One who journeys with us by day and watches over us at night. The God who heard the outcry of oppressed slaves in the past is the same God who hears us and stands bound to us in covenant fidelity today. That is good news!

That the Lord listens means that God is accessible. There are no lines in which to wait, no passports, visas, voter I.D.’s, P.I.N.’s, or passwords. All that’s necessary is a cry, a complaint, a petition, or an inquiry. Accessibility to God flows from the Holy One’s character as a listening God.

The dependability of a listening God stands in stark contrast to the world that many of us experience day in and day out. The polarization that exists between political parties, factions within parties, the various “culture wars,” radical disagreements over immigration, and so on are often driven by loud and angry voices shouting at and past one another. Genuine dialogue and conversation rarely take place. Unlike the exchanges between Moses and God in the tent of meeting, we’ve become accustomed to gall and bitterness. For many people of faith, it has become an alien and disorienting world. Surely the world from which the Israelites cried out also seemed strange and disorienting. After all, Egypt was a land that once offered food and life, but new leaders transformed it into a land of oppression and death. From that context, God heard, and the events that led to liberation were set into motion. So there is a reason for us to have hope.

Finally, events and crises in life overtake us, and it seems that there is no one to whom to turn. A child lies dying in a hospital bed. A young teenager is bullied at school and on social media. A husband of fifty years is slowly slipping away into the darkness of dementia. A young mother is sinking into the depths of depression. A young husband is ensnared by the deadly grip of opioid addiction. The list seems endless, and in so many of these cases, it can seem that there is no one to whom to turn—or at least no one who is up to the task at hand.

The only petition in the desperate Psalm 88 is “Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry” (v. 2). This is a prayer that pleads to be heard from the depths of utter despair. The good news from the Exodus story is that God hears us and listens to us.

The Church: A Listening Community

In many ways, the church is a community of prayer. That is as it should be. As a community organized around the presence of God, prayer should be a central part of its life. So, no less than individuals, the church cries out, complains, petitions, and inquires. And just as God listens to individuals, God listens to the church at prayer. In fact, prayer is predicated on the theological conviction that God listens and has the freedom and wisdom to choose if and how to respond. If that were not the case, then prayer would make little sense. And so we pray, “Lord, hear our prayer.”

If the conviction of a listening God beckons us to pray, might there be another side to this “theological coin”? If the church is to sense anything instructive for its nature and being from the biblical portrayal of God, should we not be about this business of listening as well?

The church has not always been keen on listening. We have been far more focused on speaking. We have often attended to rules and regulations: what to do or not to do; who’s right or wrong. We’ve made pronouncements about orthodoxy or heresy, producing creeds and confessions. Not that these are necessarily inappropriate for the church, but what if we flipped the coin? What would it be like to become a genuine, listening community? What might the church look like if it decided, instead of speaking first and listening later, to listen along with God?

One of the many things that the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements have shown us is that there are people all around us whose voices have not been heard. One can only suspect that these are the tip of the iceberg. Tragic incidents of harassment and overt racism created contexts in which hurting people found a voice and are finally being heard. But must it take a tragedy to create a space for oppressed people to be heard? Are there not ways that the church can offer safe places for anguished and hurt people to cry out, without being judgmental or patronizing? Sometimes merely being heard is enough to provide at least a toehold on life. With a little imagination, a lot of patience, and a lot of effort, surely the church can learn the art of listening.

If the church is to be a genuine healing agent in a broken world, then those of us who are the church are enjoined to develop our capacity to listen along with God. We are beckoned to identify the people whose voices have been stifled for one reason or the other. The challenge, then, is to create the space and opportunity for the hurting people among us to shout out and be heard instead of being dismissed. That is the path that leads from brokenness to wholeness and well-being. That is the Exodus path.

For Reflection and Action

1. Have you ever experienced a sense of relief—even healing—when someone has sincerely listened to share your concerns?

2. Identify specific people or groups in your community who cry out to be heard. What are their interests?

3. Name ways that your congregation can be a better listener. What are some spec...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Listing of Six Themes Everyone Should Know series
• Introduction to the Six Themes Everyone Should Know series
• Introduction to Exodus
• Biblical Backgrounds to Exodus
• 1. God Listens
• 2. God Responds
• 3. God Engages Human Agents
• 4. God Sustains
• 5. God Is Present
• 6. God Is Merciful and Gracious
• Group Gatherings, by Eva Stimson
• Glossary
• Want to Know More?