Exodus Overview
Key Passage
“And Joseph said to his brothers, I’m about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land, to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
Today’s Truth
Exodus is an adventure story par excellence. It features a cruel villain (Pharaoh), an unlikely hero (Moses), overwhelming disasters (the plagues), a spectacular deliverance (crossing the Red Sea), a long journey (through the wilderness), a mountaintop experience (where Moses received the Ten Commandments), and a grand finale (the presence of God coming down to the ark of the covenant, filling the tabernacle with glory). The story features unexpected setbacks and unpredictable delays, magic tricks (from Pharaoh’s sorcerers) and miracles, feasts and festivals, music and dancing, and many close encounters with the living God. God’s purpose in all of this was to show his glory by fulfilling the promises he made to his people in the covenant. The exodus is the archetypal deliverance of the OT—the definitive salvation event that established the identity of Israel as the people of God and demonstrated the character of their Deliverer as the God who saves.
The basic framework of the book is epic. Epics begin with a nation in crisis, and this epic opens with the Israelites languishing in slavery and their would-be deliverer born under the threat of death by drowning. The story proceeds along epic lines, with a cosmic confrontation between good and evil that is happily resolved through a mighty act of rescue and a long journey to freedom. Moses is the heroic (albeit imperfect) national leader who serves as the human instrument of a divine deliverance. Like many epics, Exodus is also the story of the founding of a nation. This helps to explain how the second half of the book connects to the first: once the people of God are delivered from bondage, they meet to receive a national constitution (the Ten Commandments) and to establish a place for their national assembly (the tabernacle). Within its epic framework, Exodus also contains a wealth of subgenres: rescue story, calling story, human-divine encounter, diplomatic negotiation, plague story, genealogy, institution of a festival, song of victory, travelogue, miracle story, legal code, case law, covenant renewal ceremony, architectural blueprint, garment design, building narrative.
Discussion Questions
- Watch the Bible Project Overview of Exodus 1-18: https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-exodus/
- Write a summary of what you learned.
Application
The NT sees the OT exodus story as the pattern for the ministry and death of Christ. In him God “dwelt [lit., “tabernacled”] among us, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14). Jesus sojourned in Egypt, and then came out, fulfilling the pattern of Israel (Matt. 2:15, using Hos. 11:1). At the Last Supper, a Passover meal (cf. Exodus 12–13), Jesus referred to “the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20), echoing Moses’ words in Exodus 24:8. He also described his death as the exodus (ESV, “departure”; Gk. exodos) that he would accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). As Jesus reenacted the exodus in his own life and death, so must his followers. Baptism into his death identifies the believer with the Israelites’ passage through the Red Sea, and partaking of his spiritual food and drink identifies the believer with their experiences in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:1–3). Finally, in heaven, believers shall sing the Song of Moses and the Lamb (Rev. 15:3; cf. Exodus 15).
