Pharaoh, Frogs, and Freedom
Sermon Notes
Overview
We’ve been talking quite a bit over past several months about the fact that freedom is not simply an event but a process, that we have not only been set free but that we now need to learn to live free. That said, it is, nevertheless, important to recognize that there was an event. There was a decisive moment in which our freedom was won, and understanding what happened in that moment is integral to our journey into freedom. In other words, the liberation event sets a trajectory that defines the journey, the natural result of which is freedom. However, if we overlook or misunderstand that event, we, despite, having been set free, will end up a destination that bears no resemblance to true freedom. In fact, we will end up back where we started; we will end up in slavery.
The decisive moment of deliverance in the Exodus story is recounted in chapters 7-11, the story of the plagues. Often in church circles, we have (mis)understood these ten plagues as creative punishments directed against the people of Egypt for their oppression of their Hebrew slaves. However, this simply not the case. This is not how the people who lived through those plagues would have experienced them. Remember, the Ancient Near East had not experienced the scientific revolution and so did not suffer from the modern illusion that the world is simply a collection of natural systems and phenomena. They knew that reality is both natural and supernatural, that the world through which we all move cannot fully be explained by what we can see and touch but that behind everything observable is something mysterious. In other words, theirs was a world of gods and goddess, of spiritual powers who reigned over and affected physical spaces. So, when those spaces started to go awry—the Nile, itself a god, turned to blood; the frogs, a symbol of fertility and life, began to pile up in rotting heaps; the sun, Ra himself, was blotted out—they knew exactly what was going on. Their gods were under siege.
You see, we must interpret these events in the way that the writer intended and the early readers understood. These are not the capricious and creative acts of a powerful deity directed at the people of Egypt. They are, instead, strategic strikes by the powerful Deity, the great God, against the gods of the empire, the spiritual forces that held His people enslaved. The plagues are the story of Yahweh at war on behalf of His people.
Now, why is it important that we understand them as such? Well, as I mentioned earlier, the moment of liberation defines the journey of freedom. If this great liberation event was God’s victory over the gods of Egypt, then the Israelite journey of freedom was not simply one away from Egypt but also away from the gods of Egypt. The problem with this, of course, was that the Israelites themselves had been brought up worshipping the gods of Egypt. Remember, this was a people that had lived in Egypt for 400 years; they were far more Egyptian than they were Israelite (in fact, the concept of Israel as a nation simply didn’t exist yet). When Moses came to them to say, “God says that you’re free,” their reply must have been something along the lines of, “Who?” or, “Which god?” So, the plagues were as much statement to they Israelites as they were to the Egyptians. They were a declaration to them of the greatness and goodness (greatness at work on their behalf) of God. It is not just that Yahweh defeated the gods of Egypt; it’s that His people saw Him defeat the gods of Egypt and that they, henceforth and always, treat those gods as defeated and treat Yahweh as the one true God who fights on behalf of His people. This is why Yahweh is so vehement about His hatred of idolatry. He has rendered the oppressive powers impotent, but when they are idolized, they are ascribed a power that they do not deserve, that the one true God has decisively demonstrated belongs to Him alone.
And, this is exactly what the Israelites did. Rather than leaving the defeated gods of Egypt in Egypt, they carried them with them (literally) on their journey toward the Promised Land and freedom, which, if we understand the liberation event properly, is an impossibility. One simply cannot journey toward freedom while carrying idols; those two things are mutually exclusive. The Israelites failure to learn the lesson of the plagues caused them to relive the plagues over and over again. After all, the natural end of idolatry, the plagues show us, is death. And, because this people could not leave the gods of Egypt in Egypt, they never entered the Promised Land, never experienced the fullness of the freedom God had won for them.
Of course, we’re on this journey through the book of Exodus together because it is not simply their story; it is our story. We too have a dramatic liberation story, a decisive moment when we were set free from every oppressive power. Paul described this moment in Colossians 2:
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:13-15)
Our moment of liberation, like the people of Israel’s, comes in the form of a decisive victory over the powers that hold God’s people in slavery. The only difference between this story and the Exodus narrative is that rather than visiting the plagues upon the world, in the Gospel, God takes the plagues upon Himself. He defeated the powers by allowing them to nail Him to the cross. Then, in the biggest plot twist in history, He came down from the cross into new life, and left the powers hanging there. And now, He invites those of us who He has set free to live free. Knowing what we now know about the great liberation moment, the cross, we understand that this freedom is not a get out of jail free card that we cash in when we, well, cash in. He set us free from the powers so that we can live, here and now, increasingly free from the powers. We, who lay our burdens at the cross, are supposed to leave them there and walk away with Jesus into new resurrection life.
And, it’s appropriate that we’re having this conversation at this time of year, during the Lenten season. This is what Lent is all about. During Lent we lay down things that, left unchecked, can become idols for us. We journey with Jesus to the cross, dying to ourselves, forsaking the gods of empire, along the way. And, when we arrive at the cross, painful though the journey might have been, we discover that a great reversal has taken place. We thought we were dying, but we are actually coming alive. We walk away into new life and leave the powers, leave our idols, nailed to the tree.
Discussion Questions
Reflect on the idea that our view of the salvation event (plagues, cross) shapes our view of freedom. What does that look like in our lives?
What are the gods of our empire that Yahweh has defeated, that we often try to revive?
What is one idol that God is pointing at in your life and asking you to leave on the cross?
How might the Lenten journey help with that? How can we pray with you in it?
How can we as a whole church embody the freedom that Jesus has won for us on the cross? What should be some key features of our community if we are truly learning to live free?