Whom will you serve? (Introduction to Exodus)
As we start a new year, many set new goals for themselves such as learning a new skill, losing weight, eating healthier, exercising more or spending less. Many of these resolutions fall by the wayside as the weeks turn into months and life’s pace accelerates. We tend to overwhelm ourselves by trying to fix everything in our lives in one go and we underestimate how long it takes to help set new habits.[1] The Book of Exodus that we are going to start on shows an enormous change in the life of Israel as they move out of Egypt and head towards the Promised Land. The process is a lengthy one because the journey is not simply physical but involves a spiritual transformation and such change does not happen overnight.
The exodus has become synonymous with ideas of freedom from oppression, but I remember my surprise when I first discovered that the word ‘freedom’ is never mentioned in the account. The repeated phrase from God is that Pharaoh should let ‘my people go, so that they might serve Me’. Pharaoh imposes hard labour on Israel, while God calls them into His service (the Hebrew word ‘avodah’, is the same for service and labour/work). The difference is that Pharaoh’s service involves injustice, oppression and back-breaking work; the ‘yoke’ God imposes on His people through the Law is meant to make their lives complete and meaningful, creating a society ruled by God with justice and fairness. Such a transition from the service of one master into another will encompass a new identity, a substantial alteration of habits and ways of thinking. It will take time to prepare a leader, Moses (Exodus 2-4), and to wrest the people from their hard taskmaster (Pharaoh). In the process, the revelation of God’s power in the ten plagues (Exodus 5-13) is as important for Egypt to see, as it is for Israel. In our Christian thinking, the account culminates in the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 14-15) as the centre of the story, but structurally this is only the first step. The account develops through the wilderness events where Israel learns its first lessons of faith and obedience (Exodus 16-18) and finds its climax in the giving of the Law at Sinai (Exodus 19-24). It is not enough to renounce the service of one master, it is essential that God’s people commit to and learn the service of the LORD.
The story of the exodus symbolises well the spiritual transition we undergo when we turn to God, but the journey is not complete when God removes us from the dominance of Satan. Old habits die hard and learning new ones under God’s rule takes time. What habits do we need to break, establish or reinforce in the New Year? It is best to start small, be specific and take one habit at a time before moving on to a new goal, while never losing sight of that larger question, ‘Will you serve the LORD?’.
[1] It is estimated that it takes about two months for a new habit to become automatic.
