The Gospel in Exodus: The Prince of Egypt Wakes Up

There is a great scene in one of the old James Bond movies from the 90’s where Bond is tied up in a helicopter, and the heroine who is in the backseat of the helicopter is kicking the back of his seat violently and screaming, “Wake up! Mister, WAKE UP!” Of course Bond wakes up and is able to set off the emergency ejection seat just in time. They are rocketed into the air as the helicopter explodes below. Wake up calls are a big part of our lives. Often they are the moments where our lives take a dramatic turn in some way. Probably the most well known wake-up call story is that of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”. In Exodus 2:11-12, we witness Moses’ wake up call, where God reaches down from heaven and awakens the “Prince of Egypt.”

“Now it came about in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brethren and looked on their hard labors; and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brethren. So he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no one around, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.”

Exodus 2:11-12

One of the most amazing things in the Bible is how the story of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is a picture of the gospel.  In the above verse, the Israelites are slaves in Egypt, which can be seen as an allegory of our slavery to sin, and Moses sees this and tries to deliver them by killing the Egyptian taskmaster and hiding him in the sand.  One of the ways to understand the allegory in this verse is as a picture of us trying to deal with our sin on our own, either thru the brute strength of willpower as represented by the killing of the Egyptian, or by hiding or ignoring our sin as represented by the burying of the Egyptian in the sand.

This moment in the life of Moses marks the beginning of his journey to become the deliverer of Israel.  Prior to this he has been living in Pharaoh’s palace as a prince of Egypt, oblivious to the plight of his Hebrew brothers as far as we know. This incident denotes Moses awakening to the true situation in Egypt, and he is so moved by it that he takes action. Similarly most of us grow up oblivious to the fact that we are slaves to sin, until one day we wake up from living as a “prince of Egypt” and realize all is not as it seems.

Maybe it is an addiction that wakes us up, or a friend sharing the gospel with us.  Perhaps it is a death of someone we care about, a crime that we witness, heartbreak from a rough breakup, a loss of a job, or reaching the top only to find there is nothing there – it did not deliver as promised.  Maybe there is no reason at all, we just stop and think for the first time in our lives.  Rather than just believing what we have been taught our entire lives, we decide to think for ourselves. Whatever it is, I believe that we all have at least one of these moments in our lives, when the curtain is pulled back, and we realize there is more to life than we realized, there are things going on that we have never realized, never thought about.  The question then becomes, how do we respond to this moment?  What do we do about it?

Some of us simply bury it in the sand – we shrug it off and go home to the palace, so to speak, and soon we have forgotten about it.  We get a new girlfriend, a new job.  We find a new mountain to climb.  Some of us are more prone to action and we kill the Egyptian, so to speak, deciding to do something about it right now.  Perhaps we try to fix ourselves on our own using willpower and discipline, or begin a quest to find ourselves, determining to change.  Whatever our response is at this moment, it usually does not work.  This is part of our journey of faith, the first step.  We see behind the curtain for the first time, and realize the world is not as it seems, and our decision to do something about it, whatever that is, right or wrong, is the first step.  It is often an unsuccessful step in that we are not delivered, just as Moses killing the Egyptian did not free the Hebrew slaves.  But this is part of the process of God reaching into our lives to deliver us, and our part is to wake up.

I know when this happened to me, I tried to fix things on my own.  Heartbreak had woken me up, and in an effort to recover I dated seven different girls in one summer.  When that was unsuccessful, I poured myself into work, thinking that would be the ticket. But the wakeup call was too strong, and nothing I did worked.  This wake-up call moment in my life eventually led to my being born again.  Once our life has been jostled by the power of heaven, even though we may have no idea that is what is going on, there is no earthly recovery that truly works.  Just as God upset Moses’ life, so He upsets ours, hoping that we will begin our journey to Him.

How has God reached into your life in the past?  What did He do to wake you up from the fog of childhood, or from your “prince of Egypt” life?  How did you respond?  In what ways did you “kill the Egyptian taskmaster” or “bury him in the sand”?  How did you try to fix or forget your situation?  Why didn’t your fix or cover-up work?  What had changed in you? 

Is God jostling your life now about anything?  How is He reaching into your life today to move you to action?  What has He revealed to you in your life that needs attention?  Is there slavery to sin in your life right now that you need deliverance from? Is God “kicking the back of your seat” and trying to “wake you up before the helicopter of your life explodes” in some way? How should you respond to God’s awakening at this moment in your life? What is He calling you to do?

My hope and prayer for you is that you will respond to the moments where God shows up and awakens you in some way.  Do not ignore this moment, but pay attention to it, let it cause you to think, and ask Him what He is calling you to do.  Do not act foolishly, resulting in dead Egyptians and coverups, but follow God’s leading in how to move forward into this revelation of His Spirit, and follow His direction rather than trying to fix it or forget it on your own.

Lord God Almighty, I come before you in Jesus name, and confess that I often try to fix things on my own or cover them up, rather than bringing them to You and asking for Your direction.  Often coming to You is the last thing I try, my last resort when all else has failed.  Forgive me for this.  Give me open ears and a responsive heart, that I may hear Your Spirit calling me and respond in a godly way.  Teach me to seek You first rather than waiting until everything I have tried has failed.  Lead me and guide in paths of righteousness, that I may be a blessing to those around me.  I pray these things in Jesus name, amen.