Use the ‘Exodus Principle’ to Find Peace and Freedom
How an ancient story can guide you through difficult change
Have you ever faced something that upended life as you know it?
When change gets forced on you, you look anywhere and everywhere for answers. But if you’re lucky enough to find some answers, they rarely satisfy. What you really need is a guide–a map to help you get through.
The Exodus Principal is a framework that can help you find peace and freedom during tumultuous change. It comes from the Old Testament book of Exodus, which is the story of the ancient Hebrew people moving from slavery in Egypt to freedom. But it’s also much more.
On a deeper level, the Exodus is about the transformation through when you face major change.
It’s easy to read the story of the Hebrew’s escape from slavery in Egypt and assume their lives got better. They did not.
Stepping out of terrible circumstances where they knew what to expect every day, they entered a world of uncertainty and chaos. If you’ve ever gone through a difficult or traumatic change in your life, you know what it’s like to face the unknown.
The Exodus Principle is a four-step framework to help you find your way.
Step 1: Captivity
The Exodus story begins as an immigration story.
To avoid a deadly famine, the tiny tribes of Hebrews fled to Egypt. One of their own, Joseph, had risen to the ranks of Prime Minister under the Egyptian Pharaoh and stored up enough food to feed both Egypt and Israel (see Genesis 47).
The famine ended and Joseph and his generation died and a new king came to power in Egypt. This new Pharaoh did not know Joseph and feared the Hebrews because of their growing population.
So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor.
(Exodus 1:11, NLT)
Like the Hebrews, there are parts of your life where you are captive. You may be captive physically, mentally, or spiritually. Your chains may be in the form of a habit, a lifestyle choice, a belief system, or a relationship. Everyone is captive to something that’s hurting them.
Whatever your area of captivity in life, deep down you know it’s hurting you and you want out. If you are a Christian, you have probably prayed for God to intervene and take it away.
Nothing seems to work.
As the years or decades pass, your hope of changing gets dimmer, and your faith wavers and fades. Perhaps you’ve switched from praying for change to praying for strength to survive.
Then something unexpected happens.
Step 2: Trauma
The Hebrews suffered as slaves for over four hundred years. When their chance for freedom finally came, it wasn’t pretty or easy.
Your opportunity won’t look like a gift when it comes either.
Of course, you can’t have the Exodus story without Moses, right? Born to a Hebrew slave, Moses was adopted by an Egyptian princess. When he grew up and learned of his true heritage, he killed an Egyptian slave master and ran into the desert.
But God had a mission for Moses: return to Egypt and free the slaves (Exodus 3).
Reluctantly, Moses returned and demanded Pharaoh release the slaves. But the king refused. Pharaoh’s hard heart sets the stage for an epic battle between the God of the Hebrews and the Egyptian gods.
God sent ten plagues to Egypt, culminating in the death of every firstborn child and animal except for the firstborn of the Hebrews. They enjoy God’s protection as long as they coat their doorframe with a lamb’s blood — a symbol of life in the ancient world.
Pharaoh, who suffered the loss of his own son, relented and freed the slaves.
Pharaoh sent for Moses and Aaron during the night. “Get out!” he ordered. “Leave my people — and take the rest of the Israelites with you!”
(Exodus 12:31, NLT)
Though the Exodus story doesn’t give specific details, we can imagine an event like plagues and mass death would have destroyed the Egyptian economy. Why does that matter?
Trauma and disruption led to the Hebrew’s opportunity for freedom.
In life, we all face disruptions that uproot our lives. They come when we least expect it, and they never seem like a good thing when they happen.
It’s a health crisis or a job loss. It may come through a breakup or a financial disaster.
Whatever form it takes, the shakeup will be traumatic and force us into changes we refused to make ourselves. When this happens, the time for waiting and hoping and praying is over. It’s time for action.
Step 3: Disorientation
For the first time in centuries, things were looking good for the Hebrews.
They left Egypt under Moses’ leadership, and the Egyptians feared them and their God so much they gave the Hebrews gold and silver as they departed (Exodus 13:16, NIV). The Hebrews took the gifts from their captivity, much of which they gave to help create a new system of living later.
But the former slave’s celebration was short-lived. Now that they were in the desert, they traveled on foot to their new homeland. The Egyptians soon gathered their forces and pursued the Hebrews to the Red Sea, hoping to recapture them.
After much anxiety, the Hebrews escaped, but they still had no food or water.
“If only the Lord had killed us back in Egypt,” [the people] moaned. “There we sat around pots filled with meat and ate all the bread we wanted. But now you have brought us into this wilderness to starve us all to death.” (Exodus 16:3, NLT)
Leaving the only life they’d ever known caused a lot of disorientation for the Hebrews. Even though they wanted to escape, slavery was all they knew. Their captivity was familiar to them. Facing the world outside was not.
Now, can I tell you a dirty little secret? You’re comfortable in your captivity.
I know, I know, how dare I say that! I’m honestly not trying to be snarky. I have no idea what you’ve gone through and no right to say you want to stay there. But I’ve learned something about human nature.
You don’t know how comfortable you are until something forces you to make a change.
I don’t mean you want to stay where you are, but even a bad situation can be familiar. What is familiar carries a certain comfort.
Yes, you may want to change or get out. That relationship or habit might be hurting you and holding you captive. Your job might be bad for your mental health. But leaving or quitting on your own is harder than you’d think, isn’t it?
The hardest part of change is facing the unknown and longing for the comfort and familiarity of your old life.
Step 4: Reorientation
After the trauma of ten plagues, being thrown out of Egypt, walking through the desert, being chased by their former captors, and finally escaping through a path in the sea, the former Hebrew slaves were exhausted.
When you face a major change, you always have to survive a series of hard events. It happens even if the change you’re going through will eventually turn out good for you.
Even though the Hebrews were physically free, they were not emotionally free of their past.
Finding that level of freedom would take the Israelites generations to achieve. But to help them start, Moses (in consultation with God on Mt. Sinai) produced the Ten Commandments. These laws were meant to lay the foundation for the nation of Israel going forward. Their purpose was to help the Israelites reorient their identities from being slaves in Egypt.
So Moses returned from the mountain and called together the elders of the people and told them everything the Lord had commanded him. (Exodus 19:7, NLT)
When you face a major change and feel disoriented, you ask questions like:
- Why did this happen to me?
- What does this all mean?
- How am I going to survive this?
- What does this mean for my future?
You can start formulating answers to those questions by establishing (or learning) the new laws of the land. What does that mean in real life?
These laws could be literal, like learning the rules for working at a new company. Or they may be more symbolic, like establishing boundaries for a healthier diet. Chances are, you’ll need a good mixture of both to reorient your life and start putting it back together again.
Creating a sense of order out of the chaos you’ve faced takes time. The trickiest part is you will want to rush through it to get back to “normal.” But normal is gone.
The longer you cling to the way things were in Egypt, the more miserable you’ll be.
Final Thoughts
Everyone faces major life changes. The Exodus Principle gives you a framework for navigating the world when change gets forced on you.
- Captivity
- Trauma
- Disorientation
- Reorientation
Knowing the Exodus Principle framework doesn’t magically make life easy. But it gives you a map. And if you know how to read the map correctly, you’ll know where you are in your journey, and maybe you won’t feel so lost.