“If you should say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I; how can I dispossess them?’ you shall not be afraid of them; you shall well remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: the great trials which your eyes saw and the signs and the wonders and the mighty hand and the outstretched arm by which the LORD your God brought you out. So shall the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid” (Deut 7:17-19).
These verses in Deuteronomy 7 are a really big deal. Whenever God’s people start fearing the future, God tells them to remember the past: specifically, the exodus from Egypt. God promises he will act in the future just as he has acted in the past. As exaggerated as it may sound, these verses are a hermeneutical key which unlocks many of the eschatological promises in the Hebrew Bible and also in the Greek New Testament.
New Exodus
The prophets and apostles obviously took this passage in Deuteronomy 7 to heart since the Bible is filled with prophecies about a “new exodus.” Isaiah frequently borrows unique vocabulary from the story of the first exodus to describe the future: God will once again part the seas for his people (Isa 11:15-16), and then they will sing a new song (Isa 12:2; see Exod 15:2). All the nations will “see the salvation of our God” (Isa 52:10; Exod 14:13), as the people “go out” (Isa 52:11; see Exod 12:31) from their captivity. Israel, however, will not “go out in haste” (Isa 52:12; see Exod 12:11; Deut 16:3), because the LORD will “go before them” (Isa 52:12; see Exod 13:21) and also be their “rear guard” (Isa 52:12; see Exod 14:19).
God promises he will act in the future just as he has acted in the past
According to Zechariah, when the Messiah comes he will “split” the Mount of Olives so the people can pass through (Zech 14:4), an obvious allusion to the “splitting” of the Red Sea (Exod 14:16, 21). According to Revelation, God will strike the world with plagues of “darkness (Rev 16:10; Exod 10:21-22), “boils” (Rev 16:11; see Ex. 9:9-11) and “hail” (Rev 16:21; see Exod 9:18-25), also language borrowed directly from the story of the first exodus.
“Second Moses”
Consider likewise how frequently the authors of the New Testament describe Yeshua as a “second Moses.” Why, after all, is Yeshua’s first sign in John’s Gospel the turning of water into wine (John 2:1-11; see Exod 7:20)? And why did Herod slay all the male children in the story of Yeshua’s birth (Matt 2:16; see Exod 1:22; 2:1-2)?
In addition to Deuteronomy 7’s great hermeneutical importance, let us also consider its practical importance as well. For the best medicine against fearing what might happen tomorrow is remembering what God has already done time and again in the past.
“This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness” (Lam 3:21-23).
