God’s Love for Jesus in Exodus
We all know the story of how God used Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt… but as I was reading Exodus 4 this morning, I saw a connection I never realized before.
We usually quote Moses as saying the phrase “let my people go,” but in Exodus 4 God describes it a little differently. When he’s giving Moses his message for Pharaoh, God says:
“Israel is my son, my firstborn. Let my son go so that he may serve me. Since you have refused to let him go, I will kill your son, your firstborn.” —Exodus 4:22–23
Instead of saying the famous phrase “let my people go,” God originally told Pharaoh to let his son go. God was referring to Israel in this passage, but I think that he was also talking about Jesus.
Even though Jesus wouldn’t be born for another few thousand years, Jesus’s seed already existed within the Israelite people. There were some very real and very powerful spiritual forces at work in Egypt that had captured God’s son and were holding him hostage. So when God unleashed the plagues on Egypt, he wasn’t just putting on a firework show—he was on a critical rescue mission to rescue his son from the hands of his enemy.
God loves his son dearly and fiercely, and went to great lengths to rescue him and get him back. It’s really beautiful to see how intensely God loves his son, and it also shows how dearly and fiercely he loves us since his son would then pave the way for us to have a relationship with God.