Building Up the Culture of the Family of God: From the Family of Faith to a Holy Place

            Although Exodus follows immediately from Genesis, there seems to be little connection between the two in the kind of story that is being told. At the beginning of Exodus, Moses does remind us very briefly of the ending history of Genesis. He names the twelve sons of Jacob (or Israel), tells us that after Joseph’s death the children of Israel multiplied greatly and that a Pharoah arose who did not know Joseph. He then plunges into the account of the children of Israel’s oppression as slaves in Egypt, the birth and preparation of Moses as a leader, and the birth of Israel as the people of God, a holy nation.

            The thread that runs through both books, as through the entire Old Testament, is that the one true God is present and dealing graciously with his chosen ones. Even more, this gracious God has promised a Seed who would come from Abraham’s line, be born of a woman without a man, and who would crush the power of Satan by dying in the place of sinful man.

            But after the historical account of the creation and flood, with some details about the beginning generations of man from Adam and Eve, and then from Noah, the narrative focuses almost exclusively on one man and his family: Abraham. It appears that the one, holy, Christian Church is one man with his family. It is a preaching of faith in the true God and his promise of the Savior. The Word of God resides in one household, is taught by one preacher, and seems constantly to be on the verge of extinction.

            But after the historical account of the creation and flood, with some details about the beginning generations of man from Adam and Eve, and then from Noah, the narrative focuses almost exclusively on one man and his family: Abraham. It appears that the one, holy, Christian Church is one man with his family. It is a preaching of faith in the true God and his promise of the Savior. The Word of God resides in one household, is taught by one preacher, and seems constantly to be on the verge of extinction.

We also know that Abraham and his family had been idolators in Ur of the Chaldees, deep in the heart of Mesopotamia in the delta of the Tigris and the Euphrates. The true Church of the living God had become a small minority religion scattered here and there throughout the ancient world. The lifestyle, the morality, the customs and habits of the ancient world descended into unholy chaos, a darkness which was always seeking to overcome the light of the Gospel of the coming Savior.

Even the family of Abraham often proved unreliable. Nephew Lot’s family was overcome by the effeminate and sodomitic culture of Sodom and Gomorah. Abraham’s son Ishmael mocked and rejected the promise given to his half-brother Isaac. Abraham’s grandson Esau wanted to kill his brother who had received the promise of the Savior. Grandson Jacob’s family hoarded and honored various household idols, went on a murderous rampage in the neighboring town of Shechem, and betrayed and sold one of their own brothers into slavery. The Church of the living God was a small and beleaguered household, living among neighbors sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile. As we have seen in our own times, the church has troubles, sometimes even enemies, right in her midst.

Genesis is the history of a Christian family, a story of justifying faith in Jesus Christ. But isolated families cannot build or sustain a culture that is able to withstand the menacing cultures around them. As Hebrews 11 tells us, they could build no permanent home, no lasting city. This is the picture of a very deep reality of our lives as Christians. Our faith in God and our hope for better things is rooted firmly in “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

In Exodus 1, the Christian family has grown into great people, numerous, enslaved, and leaderless. As we will explore in our coming articles, in Exodus we see another picture of our Christian life, a picture of life as a holy nation, a royal priesthood, a consecrated and unique people of God.

But that history takes some telling. At the beginning of Exodus they were not a people, not royal, not a priesthood, not consecrated or unique. God created a new and wonderful thing in Exodus, as we shall see. And we will rejoice in this new and wonderful thing he has done in our midst, making us into a Christian people of God.