Who Are You in the Story?

When you read Exodus, do you identify with Israel or with Egypt? When you hear about the plagues and the Passover, do you find yourself protected from God's judgment or under his wrath? Are you with the redeemed or are you with the rebellious?

Who do you most want to be when you read the story, Moses (as you envision Charlton Heston with a noble white main and flowing red robe) or Pharaoh (Yul Brynner was proof that bald people can look cool, too)? Or do you settle for being one of the background characters, some random Egyptian or an unnamed Hebrew slave?

If you have read the story (and I sure hope that you have!) or if you grew up in church, you know better than to identify with Egypt or Pharaoh. So the answer is quite clear, isn't it? We know which side we would choose. But that is not the answer Moses is looking for. That is not who the Old Testament historian Asaph, author of Psalm 78, wants you to identify with.

Exodus was written so that generations upon generations of children and adults alike would read the epic, hear its stories, and "not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God" (Ps 78:8). Psalm 78 reminds us that:

· They did not keep God's covenant (v. 10).

· They forgot his works (v. 11).

· They tested God (v. 18).

· They spoke against God (v. 19).

· They did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power (v. 22).

· They lied to God (v. 36).

· They were not faithful to his covenant (v. 37).

· They rebelled against him (v. 40).

· They tested God again and again (v. 41).

· They did not remember his power or the day when he redeemed them from the foe (v. 42).

The Exodus story is directing us not to human heroes, but to the character of God, who created us in his own image, so that we will not want to be like anyone other than him.

· He performed wonders (v. 12).

· He divided the sea (v. 13).

· He led them with a cloud and all night with fire (v. 14).

· He struck the rock so that water gushed out (v. 20).

· He sent them food in abundance (v. 25).

· He restrained his anger (v. 38).

· Because he is compassionate, he atoned for their iniquity (v. 38).

Despite their sin, God cared for them. But despite his grace, “they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert” (v. 17). Despite his wonders, “they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power” (v. 22). They all went astray. So to corral his wayward flock, God raised up a shepherd after his own heart. He chose David to lead them — a reminder of God's faithfulness to his covenants, his promises of grace and salvation. “With upright heart [David] shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand” (v 72).

At the end of the day, what separates Israel from Egypt? How are our hearts different from theirs unless God grants us new ones to see him in all his goodness? And when we see who God really is, we realize that we are not like him. We recognize that we have sinned against him in countless ways just like our stubborn and rebellious fathers before us. Whether we are Israelite or Egyptian, none of us are like our Father in Heaven.

So God has chosen a better David, to lead us. Christ—in his person and in his works—is himself the perfection of the Father. And he calls us, as Asaph does in Psalm 78, to "set [our] hope in God and not forget the works of God" (Ps 78:7).

It is not because we are any different than others that God saves us. It is because God is entirely different than everyone. He is full of mercy and grace. Exodus is meant to make us want to be like God, our Father in heaven. And it is meant to point us to Christ, who alone can show us God’s fullness and who alone can bring us to the Father. Only Christ can give us his own perfection and thus make us perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect (Matt 5:48).