Exodus Old Testament

Introduction

Exodus explains God’s rescue of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. This entire historical event serves as a foreshadowing or “type” for how God will save people through Jesus from the world-system and hell itself. Moreover, the presence of abundant miraculous activity demonstrates that God is trying to arrest our attention in this book. Many themes spring from the pages of this book:

Slavery and freedom. The Jewish people go from a position of abundance and peace under Joseph to 400 years of languishing in Egyptian slavery. When God breaks them out of this imprisonment to Pharaoh, they become his servants, rather than Pharaoh’s servants. Paul picks up on this motif in his letters, calling himself a “slave” (Greek doulos) of Christ.

God’s power over the Egyptian deities. One of the keys to interpreting the ten plagues is understanding that these were power plays against the impotent Egyptian deities. God was showing that he is the one, true God. Other gods are false.

The grumbling and unbelief of God’s people. After God saves the people from the cruel slavery of Pharaoh, they often want to go back! This might astonish us to read, but many Christians have the same profile. Christ rescues them from slavery to the world, but they secretly (or openly!) desire to go back to it.

Exodus answers the question: Who is Yahweh? Pharaoh doesn’t know (Ex. 5:2), the people don’t know (Ex. 6:6-7), and Moses doesn’t even know (Ex. 3:13). By the end of the book, you begin to get a solid grasp on this question.

Authorship

See our article Authorship of the Pentateuch

Date

See our article Date of the Exodus

Canonicity

This book is tied up with Genesis’ authority and canonicity, because it begins with a conjunction (“And these are the names of…”). Grisanti writes, “This seemingly obscure statement at the beginning of Exodus suggests a strong connection with the narrative of Genesis. The conjunction points to the connection of this statement with whatever precedes, in this case the end of the book of Genesis.”

The five books of Moses equal one seventh of the entire Bible. Moses himself is mentioned 80 times in the NT—more than any other figure in the OT. So we owe it to ourselves to understand this important section of Scripture.

Resources

To help your study and preparation, consider listening to these teaching series from various sources:

• Walter C. Kaiser Jr., “Exodus,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1990).

• Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 2, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973).

• Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, vol. 2, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006).

• Dr. James Allman, Exodus (online class from Dallas Theological Seminary).