Deliverance explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Freedom and Liberation

  The entire chapter is a call to rise up and break the chains of bondage, drawing on the Exodus story and recent emancipation.

• Faith and Divine Justice

  God's intervention through the Passover and the Exodus is presented as a model of divine justice against oppression.

• Resilience and Sacrifice

  The spotless lamb is slain, and the people endure the night of dread, showing sacrifice and resilience in the face of oppression.

Characters to notice

• Israel

  Called to rise up and prepare for deliverance from oppression.

• Moses

  Remembered as the leader who led the ransomed hosts through the sea.

• Miriam

  Her song of triumph is recalled after the crossing of the sea.

• Mizraim

  Mourns the loss of her first-born and her dead during the Passover.

• Pharaoh

  The oppressor from whose hand the sons of Abraham are thrust out.

• Christ

  Invoked as the model for going forth in the name of freedom, love, and life.

Key passages

• “Rise up! rise up! Oh Israel, Let a spotless lamb be slain; The angel of death will o’er you bend And rend your galling chain.”

  Arise, Israel, and sacrifice a perfect lamb; the angel of death will hover over you and break your oppressive chains.

  Opening call to action invoking the Passover sacrifice.

• “And ye shall hold in unborn years A feast to mark this day, When joyfully the fathers rose And cast their chains away.”

  Future generations will celebrate a feast commemorating the day their ancestors joyfully threw off their chains.

  Institution of the Passover as a perpetual memorial of liberation.

• “Shall Israel thro’ long varied years These memories cherish yet, And we who lately stood redeemed Our broken chains forget?”

  If Israel can remember the Exodus for centuries, how can we, who have just been redeemed, forget our own broken chains?

  Rhetorical question linking ancient and recent emancipation.

• “When justice rose and sternly plead Our cause with sword and flame? And led us through the storms of war To freedom’s fairer shore, When slavery sank beneath a flood Whose waves were human gore.”

  When justice arose and argued our cause with violence and fire, guiding us through the turmoil of war to a more beautiful freedom, as slavery drowned in a sea of blood.

  Description of emancipation through the Civil War.

• “Go forth, but not in crimson fields. With fratricidal strife, But in the name of Christ go forth For freedom, love and life.”

  Go forward, not into bloody battle or civil war, but in the name of Christ for freedom, love, and life.

  Call to nonviolent action in the spirit of Christ.