Promised Deliverance

Model bloat is an automotive industry term describing the tendency of automakers to make each new generation of a car bigger (which is easier than making it better). As a result, entry-level lines such as BMW’s 3-series became bigger than their mid-level cars of a decade prior. Occasionally an automaker invents a new entry-level line. BMW called theirs the 1-series (before changing its name to 2), because 1 is a smaller number than 3. But BMW better keep the 1-series small because not much is smaller than 1.

Smallness was really the main appeal of the 1-series, both its size and impact on a buyer’s bank account. This is all relative, of course. The last of the 1-series, the rare 2013 135is, weighed 3,335 lbs (nearly 300 more than a 325is from the ‘90s, but appreciably lighter than a new 3-series) and was still priced like a BMW. It was a fine car though, with the N55 single-turbo inline-six sending 320 horsepower to the rear 18-inch wheels only. Hydraulic-assist steering gave it palpable finesse on a windy road, helped by a wheelbase 5.9 inches shorter than that of a contemporary E90 3-series. 

Some say BMW created the 1-series for pure monetary gain. A few lonely, weeping romantics say BMW did it as an answer to their cries for help. Perhaps they were thinking of something other than a vehicle, such as the most famous mass exodus in the history of humankind: The Exodus, where God intervened and was moved to justice by the cries of his children:

“The Lord said, ‘I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…’” (Exodus 3:7-8)

So begins the greatest extraction mission of all time, where an estimated two million humans (600,000 men “besides women and children” according to Exodus 12:37) left their captors and journeyed into freedom. It should not have been possible. The Hebrew slaves were Egypt’s greatest asset. Extricating this free labor that benefited every function of Egyptian commerce and culture would have been like telling 21st-century America to operate without electricity. Egypt wouldn’t let them go willingly. 

Now focus on a family in Goshen, an Egyptian suburb where God’s people were kept. This family has heard rumors of an impending escape. But such escapes rarely go smoothly. Some would surely be left behind, or killed, in order for God to save a decent majority of his people. Worry crept in.

This is the tension felt by every member of God’s family at some point in their life. They calculate the odds in their head, probe the most unsettling emotions in their heart, and combine the two into either hope or hopelessness. Will God intervene?

Perhaps this is you today. If so, try this: Insert your name and your circumstances into Exodus 3:7, and listen to God’s promise to rescue you: “I have indeed seen the misery of ______ in _______. I have heard ______ crying out because of _______, and I am concerned about _____’s suffering. So I have come down to rescue ______.”

When God speaks, he acts. He intervenes in the lives of his suffering people because their suffering is achingly familiar to him. He hears your cry for help today too, and he’s already at work planning your deliverance.

BMW’s best 1-series was the 1M – they couldn’t call it the M1 because some two-seater from the ‘70s already took it – and only a few hundred were made. They are guaranteed to make headlines at any major car auction in the future. BMW fans immediately knew 1Ms were special. After all, it was what they had been crying out for. 

John V16 is the intersection of God and cars. Please support our work and donate a V16-powered 1940 Cadillac Series 90 Sixteen to John V16. Or share this article with a friend.