Eternal Exodus

Micah foretells the Christ: "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me, the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting." (5:1)

This is one place the Church has looked to for evidence of the eternal generation of the Son. The Ruler who is to be born in Bethlehem is the One who is eternally begotten of the Father, whose "goings forth" are from everlasting.

In the Septuagint, His "goings forth" are literally "exoduses." God is eternally the God of the Exodus. The Son has always "gone forth" from the Father, always coming up out of the Father through the power and love of the Spirit. It is therefore no surprise that God brings Israel, His son, out of bondage from Egypt and her gods (Ex. 4:22-23).

For Pharaoh to kidnap Israel, the son of God, is a Trinitarian heresy. God must deliver His people because He is Father, Son, and Spirit. If Israel is God's son, then the Spirit will come and beget the son. And thus at Passover, the son is born and comes out of the womb of Egypt, through the blood and the water.

And the Christ did come, the eternal Son, the Son who is eternally begotten, the Son eternally in exodus from and to the Father through the working of the Spirit. But now in history, in the flesh of man, He comes forth from the Father through blood and water and back to the Father. There are thee that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water and the blood, and these three agree as one (1 Jn. 5:8, cf. Jn. 19:34).