The New Exodus Initiated
A Day of Visitation
Charles Cooper
The idea of an ethereal or celestial gathering of God and his elect is firmly rooted in the Old Testament and gloriously developed and promised in the New Testament. Perhaps we can best appreciate the meaning and significance of this great meeting in the clouds by looking closely at the Old Testament concept of God’s visitation, which seems to morph (as from caterpillar to butterfly) into the New Testament visitation of God popularly known as the rapture. This heavenly meeting of Jesus with his elect will occur near the beginning of the coming (parousia) of the Son of Man just prior to the Day of the Lord.
A very important detail often overlooked in regard to the Exodus event is the war between the “gods.” Numbers 33:4b states, “On their gods also the Lord executed judgments.” Similarly, Exodus 12:12 records, “For I will pass through the land of Egypt…and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.” Thus, God’s visitation included both deliverance and destruction. Deuteronomy 4:32-34 perhaps best summarizes God’s attitude towards this event. Moses writes:
“For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other, whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of. Did any people ever hear the voice of a god speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and still live? Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
As the events of the Exodus demonstrate, God – with unlimited sovereign power – is able to deliver his people. The unparalleled nature of the Exodus release from Egyptian bondage shows up in Jesus’ inauguration of the kingdom of God. In the birth narrative concerning Jesus, as recorded in Luke 1:68-79, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, offers a prophetic psalm of praise:
Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he has come to help and has redeemed his people. For he has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from long ago, that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us. He has done this to show mercy to our ancestors, and to remember his holy covenant—the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham. This oath grants that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, may serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him for as long as we live. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High. For you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God’s tender mercy the dawn will break upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
The value of Zechariah’s psalm of praise is that it gives “a divinely inspired commentary on the significance of the events, which have begun to take place.”[1] Zechariah indicates that the reason for his praise is God’s “visiting his people, accomplishing redemption, and raising up the horn of salvation (vv. 68-69).”[2]
The NET Bible replaces the NKJV’s translation—“He has visited”—with “He has come to help.” The ESV has “He has visited and redeemed his people.” The verb to visit (episkeptomai = episkeptomai) occurs twice in the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel (1:68, 79). Strauss concludes that Luke’s use is the only use of the “Hebraic sense” of “visitation” in the New Testament.[3] Zechariah indicates that the result of God’s visit or inspection is the “redemption of His people.” Luke 1:78 indicates that the redemption that results from God’s visit is to be seen in the actions of the Messiah, i.e. his life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. Again, Strauss concludes:
Inasmuch as the events surrounding Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and exaltation result in deliverance from the oppression of sin and Satan, they may be compared to God’s greatest act of deliverance in the past—the exodus from Egypt. Inasmuch as they have cosmic and eschatological significance, they represent the fulfillment of the prophetic hope for the coming of God’s reign and kingdom—the eschatological new exodus.”[4]
However, unlike the Exodus, the new exodus would be two-phased. The Messiah would effect both a political and spiritual deliverance of the people of Israel. A theological point made by both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts indicates that Jesus would first inaugurate spiritual deliverance, with physical deliverance to follow. Equally, the destruction of spiritual forces was begun, but their physical destruction has been reserved for the consummation.[5]
Some of the people understood that Jesus and His ministry were a visitation from God. Luke 7:16 records the people’s response to Jesus’ raising of the widow’s son from the dead. They declared, “God has visited his people!”[6] Unfortunately, only a few Jews saw the typological connections between God’s visit and subsequent deliverance in the Exodus and God’s visit and deliverance in Jesus Christ—the new Exodus. Jesus prophetically declares the consequences in Luke 19:44. Notice: “They will demolish you—you and your children within your walls—and they will not leave within you one stone on top of another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.” Jesus came presenting himself as the promised Messiah of Israel, but the leadership and the majority of the nation missed it. Strauss correctly summarizes by saying, “Jesus’ whole ministry culminating in his death in Jerusalem is thus viewed as the visitation of God to his people.”[7]
The missed opportunity of the Jews led to an opportunity for the Gentiles. Acts 15:14 declares that at the present time God is selecting “from among the Gentiles a people for his name.” This, the Apostle James declares, is a visitation of God that will be followed by His restoration of Israel.
In the massive Exodus from Egypt, God came to redeem his people. In the New Testament, Jesus redeems his people from sin. He takes his people from the spiritual kingdom of darkness. The parallels between God’s rescue of his people from Egypt and his rescue of his elect from sin are many. Suffice it to say, God began the exodus of sinners from sin to the kingdom of light – and his great redemptive work continues today.
[1] I.H. Marshall, Commentary on Luke, in NIGTC (William B. Eerdmans Company, 1983) p. 90.
[2] M.L. Strauss, The Davidic Messiah in Luke-Acts, (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995) 98.
[3] Ibid., p. 98.
[4] Ibid., 302. In relation to Zechariah’s understanding of the Lord’s ministry of redemption, I. Howard Marshall also sees a connection to the Exodus. Marshall states that “The background of” redemption “is to be seen in the OT thought of God setting his people free by his mighty act at the Exodus, which was then applied typologically to subsequent acts of deliverance.” See Marshall, Commentary on Luke, p. 90.
[5] This is evident in the eighth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. After forcing the legion of demons afflicting the tomb-living demoniac to identify themselves, the demons asked Jesus, “Have you come here to torment us before the time (Matt 8:29)?” Luke 8:31 records the demons begging Jesus, “…not to command them to depart into the abyss.” The abyss is the same place recorded as the future home of Satan in Revelation 20:1-2. All things initiated at the Lord’s first coming will be consummated at his second coming.
[6] Ad Loc the Net Bible states that the Greek should be translated ‘“visited,” here, “but this conveys a different impression to a modern reader. L(ouw)&N(ida) 85.11 renders the verb, “to be present, with the implication of concern—‘to be present to help, to be on hand to aid.’ … ‘God has come to help his people’ Lk. 7:16.” The language recalls Luke 1:68, 78.”
[7] M.L. Strauss, The Davidic Messiah in Luke-Acts, (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995) 299.
