“‘Woe to us! Who shall deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. Take courage and be men, O Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews, as they have been slaves to you; therefore, be men and fight'” (1 Sam 4:8-9).
Being a sensitive reader of Scripture requires us to pay special attention whenever an analogy is explicitly referenced within the biblical text itself since most analogies are implicit. Here, the Philistines themselves draw an analogy to the exodus story and the plagues in Egypt. By doing so, they literally hand us the interpretive keys to unlock the meaning of the storyline which follows. Even though the Philistines assume they’ve defeated Israel’s God by capturing the ark, God strikes them with plagues just has he had to the Egyptians (1 Sam 5), and defeats them singlehandedly. By providing such literary clues through the lips of the Philistines, the author of Samuel wants us, in fact begs us, to read what follows as a “new exodus,” thereby also casting the prophet Samuel as a “new Moses.”
And this exodus analogy is not only crucial for evaluating the “narrative present” (i.e., the story right before us), but also lays the foundations for the LORD’s future deliverances as well. We shouldn’t be surprised therefore, when the book of Revelation describes the future plagues (hail, darkness, water to blood) as yet another, in fact, the final exodus, when the LORD, through his Messiah (Yeshua), finally defeats the most evil Pharaoh this world has ever known.
Passover, therefore, is not just the celebration of a past redemption. It is a victorious token of the future redemption, when God’s people shall never ever know the bitterness of slavery again!
“And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED'” (Rev 15:3-4).
