The Big Picture of Exodus
The book of Exodus contains some of the most iconic Bible stories—a burning bush, a staff turning into a serpent, the parting of the Red Sea. But, you don’t have to read far in the book of Exodus to realize that you’ve been transported to a distant land. It can be a challenge to put all the pieces of the story together and then to see how they relate to the gospel of Jesus Christ. What is Exodus all about? First and foremost, Exodus is about the God who saves.
God’s People Enslaved
Genesis ends with Israel’s family living and prospering in Egypt, and Exodus begins with Israel the nation still in Egypt. On one hand, we find the Israelites were still thriving as the story of the Exodus begins: “But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them” (1:7). Yet, all was not well; “Now there was a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” (1:8). This new Pharaoh together with the rest of the Egyptians feared this ever-growing foreign population among them (1:12). As a result, the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites and ordered that their male offspring be killed (1:13, 16).
“Exodus tells us about the Lord who redeems his people in order to dwell in their midst. He is the God who saves, the God who is near, and the God who redeems through the blood of lambs. ”
Out of this oppression, the Lord’s people began to call out to him, and Exodus is the story of how he rescued his people. In reading this account, it is easy to focus in on the various characters: Moses the hesitant leader, Pharaoh and his hard heart, and the grumbling people in the desert. As much as these characters captivate our attention, the story of Exodus keeps pointing us beyond the people to the God of the Exodus.
Fundamentally, Exodus tells us about the Lord who redeems his people in order to dwell in their midst. He is the God who saves, the God who is near, and the God who redeems through the blood of lambs.
The God of Exodus
As Exodus begins, God reveals himself to Moses as the God of his ancestors: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (3:6). As in Genesis, God shows himself to be the faithful one who remembers his covenant. He hears the Israelites groans and sees their oppression because he is faithful to his promise to Abraham. “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel — and God knew” (2:24-25).
God reveals himself as the one who is faithful to his covenant, and now in Exodus he shows himself to the be the Lord who redeems. As God tells Moses who he is, he says that he is “I AM WHO I AM” — Yahweh. This is God’s personal name that he reveals to Moses at the beginning of Exodus. The divine name is usually translated in our English versions as Lord. It is this name — Yahwheh — that comes to be nearly synonymous with God who redeems. Yahweh redeems his people. Yahweh is the deliverer.
The Lord delivers his people to dwell in their midst (29:45-46). From the beginning of Exodus, it is clear that the Lord is a God who is near his people. He hears their groaning and sees their suffering. However, as he redeems his people he dwells in their midst in a special way. He travels with them as a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. Then, much of the book is spent detailing the construction of the Tabernacle because it is in this tent that the Lord will dwell among his people. He redeemed them from slavery in Egypt so that they would be his people and he would be the Lord who dwelt among them.
This deliverance came through the blood of lambs. Lambs were sacrificed and their blood spread on the doorposts so that the angel of the Lord would pass over the Israelites’ houses and only the firstborn of the Egyptians would be killed. The Lord redeemed Israel his first born (4:22) through the blood of lambs.
Connecting Exodus to the New Testament
Yahweh who redeemed his people in Exodus is the same Lord of the New Testament who redeems his people from the power of sin and death. In Exodus, we come to know that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is Yahweh. As we turn to the New Testament, this same Yahweh reveals that he has from eternity past been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — Yahweh himself — is our Triune God who is three-in-one and one-in-three.
The Lord shows himself in the New Testament to be the God who delivers. He redeems from slavery to sin and death. He frees his people from the oppression of sin, and he does so in order that he might dwell with them. In the New Testament as in Exodus, God redeems his people to dwell among them. God came to his people and ‘tabernacled’ among them in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14). He is the God who is near: who hears the cries of his people and sees their oppression under sin. He is God with us, Immanuel (Matt. 1:23).
In Exodus, the Lord delivered through the blood of lambs, in the New Testament, the Lord delivers through the blood of his Son — “Christ our passover lamb” (1 Cor. 5:7). Christ is more than just the lamb of deliverance from the power of sin. He is also the lamb who delivers from the penalty of our own sin, for he is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). Christ our Lamb frees us from the power and the penalty of sin through his shed blood on the cross.
