An Attempt to Reverse Creation (Exodus 1-2:14)
Have you ever felt like this world is undoing everything God created as good? This is nothing new and was undoubtedly what the ancient Israelites experienced in Egypt.
Exodus 1-2:14
Today's Scripture Passage
A Few Thoughts to Consider
Have you ever felt like this world is undoing everything God created as good?
This is nothing new and was undoubtedly what the ancient Israelites experienced in Egypt. Turning to Exodus 1, we notice clear parallels between Exodus and Genesis. The first six words of Exodus 1:1 are the same as Genesis 46:8, and the language of creation is sprinkled throughout the Exodus text. This connection to Genesis is intentional.
By establishing a connection to the creation narrative, the author of Exodus helps readers take a step back and see where this narrative fits into the broader context. Peter Enns writes, “It is only in seeing their situation from the broad, divine point of view that the readers can hope to gain a full understanding of their lot in life.”[1] And it helps us see the real horror of Egyptian cruelty wasn’t just what they did to humanity, but it was also their attack on God.
Enns goes on to write:
The very oppression of the Egyptians in wanting to reduce the number of Israelites is antithetical to the created order. This is the sin of Egyptian slavery, which anticipates a point to be elaborated in subsequent chapters: Since the increase of the Israelites in Egypt is a fulfillment of the creation command, it is fitting to speak of the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt in creation language and to punish the Egyptians by means of a series of creation reversals (the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea).[2]
God had created his people and given them a covenant. Now, by commanding the male newborns to be killed, Pharaoh’s treatment of the Hebrew people not only seeks to undo God’s creation command but also the promise given to Abraham that in his seed, all of the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 22:18).
The Hebrew people needed a redeemer to deliver them because, as Chapter 1 notes, they were under political slavery (8-10), economic slavery (11-14), social slavery (15-22), and spiritual slavery (1:8-2:25; 9:1).[3] Life looked bleak, but just when things were at their darkest, a man named Moses entered the picture.
