The New Exodus
Scripture References: Genesis 3:15, 1 Corinthians 15:45-49, Matthew 2:3-15, Hosea 11:1
Introduction:
Being a part of the worship team and writing these devotionals has personally helped me take a deeper look at the lyrics we are singing and how they can point us to Scripture. Leading up to Advent, I’ve had time to read through lyrics in some of our most well known Christmas hymns.
For many of us (talking about myself in particular), we hear these songs so frequently during the Christmas season that we tend to associate them to things like movies, tv, stories and other media/commercial outlets. The profound declaration and richness of God’s Word can sometimes get lost in the noise of the season. For example, I was reading through the lyrics to one of our Christmas hymns this Sunday. In the full version of the hymn, I noticed a verse that we don’t often sing and it caught my attention – big time! Here’s that verse (You’ll know the song by the lyrics in the refrain):
“Come, Desire of nations, come!
Fix in us Thy humble home:
Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring seed,
Bruise in us the serpent’s head;
Adam’s likeness now efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Final Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the new-born King”
Devotional:
This stanza which is not commonly sung today (and in fact doesn’t even appear in our hymnal), was written by Charles Wesley. It is found in his collection of original compositions: ‘Hymns and Sacred Poems’ (1739)1. It is rich in Scripture references and fulfilled prophecy. The two that jump off the page right away to me are these:
1.) “Rise, the woman’s conquering seed, Bruise in us the serpent’s head”
This calls back to the Lord’s curse on the serpent in Genesis 3:
“I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.” -Genesis 3:15 ESV
Wesley understood that from the beginning, God had a plan of redemption and victory that involved a future seed of the woman who would crush the serpent. This is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. This is one of my favorite passages, because once you see patterns of ‘seed of the woman vs. seed of the serpent’ throughout the Old Testament, leading up to Jesus in Matthew…it’s hard to ‘unsee’ them!
The other lyric from this stanza that stood out to me:
2.) “Final Adam from above, reinstate us in thy love”
This references Paul’s discussion in 1 Corinthians 15, pointing to Jesus as the ‘second or last Adam’ figure…
“Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” -1 Corinthians 15:45-49 ESV
Wesley knew his Bible! In this passage, we see a continuation of a broader discussion Paul is having regarding resurrection of the dead. When we place our faith in Jesus, he puts His ‘life-giving’ Spirit in us. We bear the image of God, the ‘final Adam from above’ and thus are given new life and promise of resurrection, because of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Wesley also realized that when we read and reflect on the birth of Jesus, we see Scriptures being fulfilled all over the place! Matthew, for instance, points to another fulfillment after the Wise men depart from visiting the newborn Messiah…
“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” -Matthew 2:13-15 ESV
The prophet Matthew is referring to is Hosea, who says:
“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.” -Hosea 11:1 ESV
Hosea calls back to the Exodus events, when God redeems Israel and brings them out of captivity in Egypt. This is fascinating, in that many Biblical scholars and commentators will point to the prophets (like Hosea and Isaiah) as prophesying a future ‘New Exodus’ and will often draw on imagery from the Exodus events (Isaiah in particular does this frequently). In the birth narrative of Matthew, we see many similarities to Exodus events which point to Jesus as the fulfillment of this ‘New Moses, New Exodus’ figure. Some scholars who cite this include: James Hamilton, Craig Keener, Dale Allison among many others…
Craig Keener points out that the Hosea reference in Matthew is not an accidental or incidental prophecy, but a deliberate move in God’s plan to show Jesus as the true Israel and a new-Exodus figure. In a lecture he gives on Matthew 2-3, he says:
“…Hosea 11, after it speaks of the first Exodus, speaks of a new Exodus, a new era of salvation…”
“And of course, that’s what Jesus has come to do. Jesus has come to restore his people. He’s come to save his people from their sins.” 2
Dale Allison, in his book ‘The New Moses: A Matthean Typology’ lays these Exodus parallels out in great detail…I’ll put a few of them in a table, because I love tables!
| Exodus (First Exodus) | Matthew (New Exodus) |
|---|---|
| Pharaoh orders the slaughter of Israelite male infants (Exodus 1:15-22) | Herod orders the slaughter of Bethlehem’s boys (Matthew 2:16-18) |
| Pharaoh fears the rise of Israel, because they are fruitful and multiplying in the land | Herod fears the birth of the ‘King of the Jews’ |
| Moses survives Pharaoh’s mass murder | Jesus survives Herod’s mass murder |
| Moses fled ‘from’ Egypt (Ex 2:15) | Jospeh, Mary, Jesus fled ‘to’ Egypt (Matt 2:13-14) |
| God tells Moses to return ‘to’ Egypt saying: “Those who sought your life are dead” (Ex 4:19) | Angel tells Joseph to return home ‘from’ Egypt saying: “Those who sought the child’s life are dead” (Matt 2:20) |
3
This is just a sample of the Exodus connections in Matthew that Allison lays out, but you get the idea!
What does this tell us?
This tells us that God in His sovereign plan sent His son Jesus to fulfill more than just a few predictions or prophetic quotes…He fulfilled ‘The Scriptures’! He was the fulfillment of prophecies, promises and patterns that we read all throughout the Old Testament. In the words of Dr. Tim Mackie of the Bible Project: “We believe that the Bible is one big unified story that leads to Jesus”
What is our response?
Worship. Awe and wonder. We stand in awe at what the birth of Jesus means. This is a new exodus for the whole world. Salvation from sin and death, now brought to new life in Christ. God showed His love towards us in redeeming us. We show our love by worship and devotion to Him. We bear His image and reflect that to the whole world…bringing more of the lost into the fold and sharing that love with everyone.
This should also strengthen our faith when we see how carefully and intentionally God crafted His plan…how it beautifully unfolds throughout the Scriptures. When I see these connections within Scripture, I can’t help but marvel at the wisdom of God!
As we go into this next week of Advent (Love)…may that be our focus: Love God and Love others. May our lives reflect the Salvation and Deliverance that was given to us through the work of Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
Sean Wagner
- Wesley, Charles. Hymns and Sacred Poems. London: William Strahan, 1739, pp. 143–145.
- Keener, Craig S. Matthew, Lecture 5: Matthew 2-3. Biblical eLearning (2024). https://biblicalelearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Keener_Matthew-_EN_Lecture05.pdf
- Allison, Dale C. Jr.The New Moses: A Matthean Typology. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2013. Pages 140-147.