The Mixed Multitude

May 17, 2007, 1:00 pm; posted by
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Exodus 12:38 — “And a mixed multitude went up also with them…”
Numbers 11:4 — “And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting…”

When God called his people out of Egypt they were accompanied by a “mixed multitude.” But who were they? Why would they throw their lot in with a band of slaves who had been living under the oppression of the Pharaohs? Why, if they were so enamored with the foods and other comforts of Egypt, would they accompany the Hebrews out into the desert to worship a God they did not know? And how was it that they come to be such a catalyst for discontent? They were the opportunists, the hangers-on, those who wait to see which way the wind will blow, then choose to side with the group winning at that moment. And they will always plague God’s people during times of ease by fomenting rebellion.

During the days of the Exodus the land had been destroyed by plagues. Crops were gone, cattle decimated, and the manhood of Egypt lay dead in cradle and field. A mammoth battle had raged and God had showed himself mighty by delivering his people, leaving a ruined empire behind. For this mixed multitude the only choice was to throw in their lot with the “scum of the earth,” former slaves they would not have shared a meal with before.

And so we see the same thing in 4th-century Rome. Christianity has raged like a wildfire across the landscape. Its early adherents lived as slaves, owning no property, with no rights under the law — yet it conquered. They fed the lions in the Colosseum and served as human torches for the garden parties of the Emperor. Once again God shows his might, but before long, the mixed multitude slunk back to take the coattails of the Christian church and ride out the shift in fortunes. Constantine began to show favoritism to Christians and suddenly it was advantageous to follow Jesus. John Lord’s Beacon Lights of History quotes one pagan general as saying, “If the Emperor would make me Bishop of Rome, I too would become a Christian.” With this the prevalent attitude, the church was soon filled with scoundrels and fortune seekers.

Constantine also issued decrees exempting the clergy from taxes and military service. What a wonderful profession the ministry had now become — no taxes, and other saps must fight the Goths and Vandals. The mixed multitude was among us again, lusting after the flesh, fomenting rebellion and discontent. And how similar! Rome was soon a shell of its former power, sacked by barbarians thrice the next century, abandoned even by the Emperor.

The mixed multitude was then absorbed, changing the church completely, until finally Leo the Great ascended to the bishopric of Rome in the 5th century, filling the void of power by forging the Catholic Church from this half pagan-half Christian multitude. It became a world power modeled after — sitting on the foundation of — the fallen empire.


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