What is going on in my brain: Josh edition, 10/8

I’ve been reading through the beginning of the Exodus story for the past few weeks and seeing as I have yet to post on this blog I thought I would share a bit of what the Lord shared with me this morning as I sat at Peets.
I will focus most of this on Exodus 4:22-23 where God tells Moses to tell Pharaoh, ‘Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me.”’. A couple pardons before I expound:
1) if this post feels like jumping into the middle of a thought or conversation that you missed the beginning of, it is because that’s exactly what it is. My conversation with the Lord concerning Exodus that has been going on for weeks now.
2) I assume some things theologically, certain roles, purposes and definitions that may not make sense since again, this is jumping into the middle of a thought process of mine, so feel free to ask questions, for definitions, and to challenge me. I love that anyways.

Exodus 4:22-23

V 22 – “Israel is my firstborn son”
1) Because Jesus came to do what Israel failed to do, that is, to be a light in the darkness of the world and to spread God’s intentions and kingdom, it is important to note that Israel is referred to as God’s son in one of its great defining narratives. This verse, according to NT Wright, represents one of two main ideas that Paul has in mind when he writes Jesus is the ‘son of God’; the other is found in Psalms 2:7, a well know Messianic psalm where the Lord says of the Messiah, “You are my Son”. So for Paul to write that Jesus was the ‘son of God’ goes far deeper than simply saying that Jesus is literally God’s son (which of course He is most importantly that as well). Paul is referring to the dual role that Jesus embodied: 1) of being for the world what Israel was supposed to be for the world and 2) that of the Messiah.

V23 – “Let my son go that he may serve me.”

1) What then is the role of Israel that Jesus took upon himself as the ‘son of God’? I believe this verse shows that one of the main roles of Israel (and there are many) was that of God’s servant. God intended to free Israel from the evil and oppression of Egypt for the very specific purpose of servant-hood, of serving the world around it in so the world around it might see the love and mercy of the Creator God.
a. God did not free them so that they could live in the Promise Land and exclude themselves from the world around them with the elitist mentality of “aren’t we so great, look at us, no one else can have what we have or be included in God’s kingdom”. In fact, it was the opposite: Israel was freed so that they could inhabit the Promise Land and be a light to the world around them, to bring God’s kingdom to the world not to hide it from them. That is why God’s call to Abraham in Genesis 12 said that his descendants would “bless all the families on earth” and that is what Jesus does that Israel did not do.
b. At the same time, this verse is a great example of God making the very clear statement that He is the one that is to be obeyed above all else and the one who will rule over every empire in the end, no matter how powerful those empires seem. For Moses to say to Pharaoh, “Let my son go that he may serve me” was basically another way of saying, “We are going to serve someone other than you and while you may claim to be divine and have all the power, actually there is another who is more powerful than you and more worthy of worship, praise and service.” It is no wonder that Pharaoh’s heart hardened.

2) Finally, all this I believe points to Jesus, for he took the responsibilities of Israel upon himself, he included all of humanity in God’s plan and salvation where Israel had excluded anyone but themselves; he brought about the Kingdom of God and his followers declared him the “Lord” of all creation in the face of Ceasar who in the Roman Empire held that title; Jesus arrived on the scene during a period when the Jews were anticipating the Messiah and yet, they failed to see that the Messiah would not come in the way they were expecting: they wanted a political and military leader and God gave them a suffering Servant whose words of hope and actions, while often dealing in the political realm, indeed often subverting it, also transcended it and who was the culmination, the great apex of the plan that God the Creator had intended since the beginning of time for all of humanity and all of creation, not just Israel. And how did Jesus do this? By first and foremost being a servant of God, a servant to all humanity and a servant to God’s creation; by practicing sacrificial love that gave his words authority and that ultimately got him killed, but then gloriously resurrected just as God had intended.