A People of the New Exodus

A People of the New Exodus

There is actually more texture to the story of 1 Peter 1.1-2.10 than first meets the eye. To appreciate this, we must recall the most important and foundational event in the Old Testament, the Exodus—in which God demonstrated His faithfulness and power by redeeming Israel from the grip of Pharaoh of Egypt. The Exodus story becomes the paradigm for a future restoration that will not only impact Israel but also the entire world. In a variety of ways, Old Testament prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Micah, and Zechariah spoke of a day in which God will again redeem His people from exile and slavery and fulfill His covenant that He made to Abraham (Genesis 12.1-3), Moses (Exodus 19.1-6), and David (2 Samuel 7)—a covenant that was intended to bring peace and restoration to the whole world.

In the first section of the letter (1.1-2.10), Peter describes what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf in terms of a New Exodus; and he characterizes the readers as those who have been liberated and called to a journey in the wilderness that culminates in the Promised Land. Let’s see how he does this.

Peter anchors his entire message in 1 Peter 1.3-12,  where he affirms that although his readers have not seen Jesus they nevertheless love and enjoy him (1.8).[1] This is his starting point: as a result of their new birth, the addressees of 1 Peter have had their affections re-ordered (1.3, 8-9). Nevertheless, it becomes clear very quickly that this love and enjoyment that they have for Jesus will have to be tested and therefore maintained (1.5-7), or perhaps we can even say, occasionally re-ordered, in what Peter describes as a journey. This journey motif is first hinted at in the opening of the letter (1.1-2) and is then fully developed 1 Peter 1.13-2.10.

In the letter opening (1.1-2) Peter orients his readers who are being pressured to re-order their affections with what is initially a puzzling epithet: “elect-sojourners” (1.1).[2]  For reasons that will become clear, I think it is best to regard the epithet as a shorthand for a predominant theme in the letter, which is initially developed in the 1 Peter 1.3-12 and the first main section of the letter body (1.13-2.10): followers of Jesus are to understand themselves as sojourners traveling toward their prepared inheritance.[3]

First Peter 1.3-12 begins to develop the meaning of this epithet, first by highlighting all that awaits those who have been ‘born-anew’ through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead (1.3): they have a living hope (1.3), an incorruptible inheritance that is kept in heaven for them (1.4), a prepared salvation which is to be revealed in the last time (1.5). Peter affirms that this living hope/incorruptible inheritance/prepared salvation, is the goal or telos of their faithfulness, that is, their steadfast allegiance to, or we could say affection for, Jesus Christ (1.9).[4]

These glimpses into the final stage of God’s eschatological program are balanced by a set of passages that address the trying circumstances of the 1 Peter addressees, which, as we have already learned, principally consisted of verbal abuse and social ostracism intended to redirect allegiances and affections. Those awaiting the incorruptible inheritance are in the meantime guarded by the power of God until the “last time” (1.5). Here I underscore that the language of 1 Pet 1.5 suggests a rudimentary narrative that involves a time of testing that will require God’s protection, and a prepared salvation that is to be revealed in the last time. It also projects optimism—a stalwart confidence in God’s sustaining power through the duration of this time of trouble until salvation is finally manifested. For this, the addressees can rejoice—they will be safely brought to the object of their desire; but this is tempered by the reality that the road to their inheritance will necessarily require, as our author puts it, “all kinds of trials” (1.6).[5]

This rudimentary narrative that is outlined in the 1 Peter 1.3-12 is developed into a new exodus journey in 1 Pet 1.13-2.10. Drawing on Passover language, Peter reminds his readers that they have been “redeemed with the precious blood of the lamb” who was without defect or blemish, namely Jesus (1.19). Within this narrative, Peter draws attention to the admonishment given to the original wilderness sojourners, quoting the often-repeated refrain from Leviticus (a foundational wilderness text): “be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pet 1:16; Lev. 11:44, 45; 19:2; 20:7). Several other significant OT texts are drawn on in 1 Pet 1.13-2.10, which confirm that Peter wants he readers to understand that they are participating in a new exodus/wilderness journey. Their new birth (1.3, 23) is said to be in keeping with the word that was announced in Isa 40.6-8, a passage that many scholars have noted serves as the prologue to Isaiah 40-55 and its program of restoration, regularly described in terms of a second exodus. This is followed by an allusion in 1 Pet 2.3 to Psa 34.8, “taste and see that the Lord is good”. It is likely that Psalm 34 has become operative here and in 1 Pet 3.10-12 because it models behavior which is fitting for sojourning righteous sufferers who are facing opposition and seeking to maintain their allegiance to God while they await the culmination of His will.[6]

The priesthood/holy nation imagery of 1 Pet 2.4-10, perhaps counter-intuitively, reiterates and even intensifies what Peter has been developing thus far in the letter. This can be seen in 1 Pet 2:9, where there is a conflation of terms which are derived from Exod 19:5-6 and Isa 43:20-21: “you are a chosen people (Isa 43.20), a royal priesthood (Exod 19:6), a holy nation (Exod 19:6), a people belonging to God (Exod 19:5), that you may declare the praises of him (Isa 43:21) who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” In the literary setting of Exodus 19:1-6, YHWH has gathered his freshly redeemed and newly formed people in the wilderness at the foot of Mount Sinai, and has commissioned them to be a nation of priests who have a communal vocation to reflect YHWH’s character and will. It appears that Peter’s appropriation of Exod 19:5-6, then, is intended to evoke in his readers the call of recapitulating the wilderness journey of their fathers, this time in fidelity to YHWH.

This recapitulating call is confirmed by Peter’s use of Isaiah 43 in 1 Peter 2.9, where he draws his readers, not to the first exodus, but rather to the promise of a second exodus found throughout Isaiah 40-55.[7] It is within this section of Isaiah that YHWH speaks of a new day to come, one in which He will ransom His exiled people, renew His covenant with them, and make a way in the desert for them to journey to their inheritance (cf. 1 Pet 1.3-4).

This brief survey of 1 Peter 1:1-2:10 fills out the picture that Peter wishes to paint when he opens his letter with the epithet “elect-sojourners”. The term elect reminds his readers of their privilege and obligation to orient their lives towards God in worship and obedience. That they are elect sojourners, highlights that for now, their devotion to God is to be expressed in the wilderness, where their allegiances and affections will be tested until they reach their final destination.[8] In short, Peter offers an implicit narrative through which his addressees are to view their lives: Jesus Christ has caused something to happen—as a result of his sacrificial death, the addressees have been relationally restored to God, their affections have been radically re-ordered (they are no longer conformed to their ignorant desires of the past (1.14), and they are presently awaiting the culmination of God’s will, when they will fully enjoy the object of their desire. In the meantime, as the renewed people of God, they now find themselves living in a transition period that is characterized both as fiery trials (1.6; 4.12) in which their fidelity to God will be tested, as well as a wilderness/second exodus journey in which they must diligently maintain their rightly-placed affections in order to arrive at their prepared inheritance. 

It is within this second exodus framework that Peter offers several exhortations which, to borrow from Augustine, seek to “fix the affections upon the journey towards the unchangeable life”. For example, in 1 Peter 1.13 he urges his readers to ‘hope completely in the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed’. Echoing the narrative of the exodus, he calls them to ‘gird up the loins’ of their mind (1.13; cf. Exod 12.11), that is, to understand that they are on a journey in which their affections will be tested (1.1, 3-7). Additionally, he stresses that his readers are to conduct themselves with fear while they are in this time of sojourning (1.17). The exhortation to ‘love one another earnestly from a pure heart’ (1.22) is also offered in response to their new eschatological reality that has been generated as a result of Christ’s resurrection and their subsequent new birth. Peter regards this new birth as the fulfillment of that which was promised Isa 40.6-8, the word which announced a second exodus which would be initiated through God’s suffering servant (Isaiah 40-55).

It is within this new exodus journey motif that we also encounter the exhortation to “crave the unadulterated spiritual milk” (1 Pet 2.2). Although most scholars agree that the milk metaphor in 1 Peter 2.2 has been appropriated in order to encourage spiritual and moral development on the part of the addressees, nevertheless there is no clear consensus regarding the precise referent of the imagery that one must long for in order to “grow up into salvation” (2.2). Most have argued that the unadulterated “spiritual” milk refers in some way to the divine word because that which is translated as “spiritual” (logikos in Greek) is a derivative of logos, which can be translated “pertaining to the word”.  However those who read logikos in this manner are divided about whether this divine word is a reference to the sacred scriptures, the gospel, the preached word, or the message developed in the letter itself.  Recently, Karen Jobes has challenged this reading of the milk metaphor, in part by demonstrating that the word logikos does not mean “spirtual” or “pertaining to the word”, but is better translated as “true to real nature”.[9] Furthermore, she convincingly argues that 1 Pet 2.3 implies that the milk metaphor refers to the experience that the addressees have had with the Lord.[10] Jobes concludes by arguing that logikos milk, rather than being “spiritual milk” or “word-milk” is instead nourishment that is “true to the nature of the new eschatological reality established by the resurrection of Jesus Christ and into which Peter’s readers have been reborn”.[11]  In other words, that which enables growth unto salvation is setting the affections (i.e. crave) on the true telos. What makes Jobes’ reading compelling, in my view, is that it runs with the grain of what Peter has been developing throughout 1 Pet 1.1-2.10.

What is important to note is that the exhortation to “crave the unadulterated milk which corresponds to the nature of the new eschatological reality” is part of the wider pastoral strategy that I have tried to highlight in the letter, in which Peter consistently reminds his readers that they are on a journey in which their allegiances and affections are constantly being challenged and tested. Peter urges his addressees to understand their suffering in this context of competing allegiances and affections, and reminds his readers that in order to make it to the object of their love, the incorruptible inheritance, they will need to cultivate and keep their affections fixed on Jesus.  Here I would simply contend that it is Augustine who helps us perceive and understand this pastoral strategy with greater clarity.

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[1] Paul Achtemeier, 1 Peter (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 80: “the opening two verses set the stage for what is to follow in the letter in terms of content and themes.”

[2] My translation. The ESV read  “elect exiles”; the “NIV reads “elect, strangers in the world”.

[3] Scholars have hinted at this journey motif. For example Leonhard Goppelt writes that “Peter views the church as being on the march, like Israel in the wilderness” (A Commentary on 1 Peter [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993], 152). Troy Martin writes, “[t]hey have embarked upon an eschatological journey that takes them from their new birth to the eschaton…the new birth has taken place in the past, and the reception of salvation in the eschaton remains in the future (Metaphor and Composition in 1 Peter [Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992], 152).”

[4] As David Horrell (“Whose Faith(fullness) Is It in 1 Peter 1:5?” The Journal of Theological Studies 48 [1997]:110-115) has demonstrated, it is difficult to adjudicate whether dia pisteōs (1.5) refers to God’s faithfulness in sustaining Christians, or whether the faith(fullness) of Christians is in view. It is possible, and perhaps likely, that both aspects are in view given that the letter stresses both the Christian duty to entrust themselves to God’s protection (e.g. 4,19) and the fact that suffering is in keeping with the will of God (4.19). However, I would argue that the stress in 1.5 is on the faithfulness of Christians, not least because the theme is repeated in 1.7 and again in 1.9

[5] Cf. Achtemeier, 1 Peter, 101.

[6] The variant reading in LXX Psalm 33 (MT 34) seems to confirm this: whereas the righteous sufferer in the Hebrew text is delivered from all his fears, in the Greek variant he exclaims, “I sought the Lord, and he heard me and rescued me from all of my sojournings” (LXX Ps 33.4; ἐξεζήτησα τὸν κύριον, καὶ ἐπήκουσέν μου καὶ ἐκ πασῶν τῶν παροικιῶν μου ἐρρύσατό με).

[7] B.W. Anderson, “Exodus Typology in Second Isaiah”, in B.W. Anderson & W. Harrelson, ed., Israel’s Prophetic Heritage: Essays in Honor of J. Muilenburgh (New York: Harper [1962]); M. Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Clarendon [1985]).

[8] Tim Laniak (Shepherds after My Own Heart [Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press], 225-229) develops a similar line of thought: “Peter encourages these churches as ‘aliens and sojourners’, understanding their identity as God’s renewed covenant community, freshly formed in a new wilderness of testing, and anticipating glory in their future home” (Ibid., 225).

[9] Karen Jobes, “Got Milk? Septuagint Psalm 33 and the Interpretation of 1 Peter 2.1-3,” Westminster Theological Journal 63 (2002):3; Karen Jobes, 1 Peter (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005), 136.

[10] Ibid., 139.

[11] Ibid., 140.