Book of Exodus - Bible Survey

Exodus means "Going out." Deliverance is its great theme. Here we find Israel grown to a great nation, but under bondage to the Egyptians as slaves. After much trouble and anguish, and after God's sending many dreadful plagues upon Egypt, Israel is liberated. First in chapter 12, the blood of the lamb sprinkled on the doorposts and lintel of the houses was typical of our redemption from the guilt of our sins by the blood of Christ. Secondly, the parting of the Red Sea and Israel's safely crossing before the Egyptians were trapped and drowned is a type of our redemption by the power of God from the bondage of sin and of the world, a redemption accomplished through the death and resurrection of Christ.

Exodus enters upon the great subject of redemption. God will have a people for Himself that He may dwell amongst them; consequently this nation must be holy, for God is holy. (See Ex. 19:4-6; 29:43-46.) Hence the state in which God's grace formed this people is given in detail, as well as their moral condition, and the attitude of their heart toward God. Their deliverance from Egypt, and the power of Pharaoh, occupies a large portion of the book, and this prepares the way morally for the establishment of the sanctuary in which God deigned to dwell in their midst, and of which we have the first mention in chap. 15:17. (See also chap. 25:8.)

In the controversy between Jehovah and the gods of Egypt, their powers had proved of none effect. Effective indeed they were to hold Egypt in thrall, ineffective altogether to shelter the people from the finger of God.

To Israel, "in the land of Egypt," in the midst of the corruption of the truth, God gave His great sign of deliverance, and the sign unmistakably points to His redemption which is in Christ. The token of divine deliverance was death the death of the sacrifice. "The blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are." (Ex. 12:13.) Being about to bring His people out of the land of bondage, Jehovah would do so in a way to the glory of His own righteousness, and by a sign which was never to be forgotten in Israel's generations. The plagues sent upon Egypt had accomplished their purpose in relaxing the grasp of the oppressor, but, by the Passover, Israel learned God's way of their redemption and His righteous requirements in judgment in relation to themselves. The sign of God's deliverance was upon the lintel and the door posts of every house, and thus Israel could dwell secure in the hour of judgment under God's sheltering wings.

For God’s people Israel, His intervention to set them free from the bondage and oppression of Pharaoh was a very great event, and God would have them feel that their deliverance could only be accomplished through death. God’s righteous judgment was about to reach its height in Egypt in the death of the firstborn, and His people could only escape this judgment through the shedding and sprinkling of the blood of the Paschal lamb. Nor was the feeling of redemption by blood to pass with the event in Egypt; there was to be a memorial feast celebrated annually “by an ordinance for ever.” God would have this great truth to be constantly impressed upon His people, and to assure that this was done it is numbered among the “feasts of Jehovah” given by God to Moses, and recorded in Leviticus 23.

We have seen in the former part of this book the actings of God on behalf of a people who were in bondage in what is to us the Egypt of this world. He acts from Himself, but, nevertheless, according to their wretched condition. "I have heard their groanings, and am come down to deliver them." In order to effect this deliverance in righteousness - for they were sinners equally with the Egyptians - He sheltered them by the blood of the Passover lamb from the judgment which fell upon the firstborn. The tenth plague differed from the others in that it was no longer by the rod of Moses that the Lord smote the Egyptians, but, as it were, God was Judge Himself. "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn." Having sheltered them as sinners by blood from His own righteous judgment, He can now be their Deliverer, and as such He opened a way through the Red Sea, thus delivering them from Egypt that He might bring them to Himself in the power that redeemed and delivered them. This was fully effected when they encamped at the mount of God, and we have seen that up to this point all had been grace in the actings of God on their behalf. The history is entirely a record of this grace. Their wants and murmurings only brought out what He was for them. The question of what they were, who were recipients of such favour, had not yet been raised.

God dwelling in the midst of His redeemed people is one of the great truths of the Bible. The book of Exodus is occupied with the details involved in this great and wonderful blessing (Ex. 25-40). After the nation of Israel was delivered from its tyrant Pharaoh, God gave directions to the nation through Moses, the man of God, concerning the Sanctuary. He desired to dwell in the midst of His redeemed and covenanted people. The pattern was given to Moses by God, and Moses obediently directed the building of the Tabernacle according to that pattern. When the Tabernacle was completed according to God's will, His glory filled the beautiful structure. From out of the Tabernacle God gave instructions how He was to be approached in worship, etc. (Lev. 1:1). God was worshipped and the people were blessed.

There is another thing demanding our notice. So far, everything that has been considered is connected with the purposes of God. But in the second verse there is an exception. No sooner can they say, "The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation," than they add, "He is my God, and I will prepare, Him an habitation;* my father's God, and I will exalt Him." This is different from The sanctuary which Thy hands have established, in the seventeenth verse. That looks on to the accomplishment of the purposes of God in the establishment of the kingdom and the temple at Jerusalem. But this was to be a present thing: "I will prepare Him an habitation." It is in fact the tabernacle. This will come more properly before us in subsequent chapters; but it may be noted here that this is the first time mention is made of a habitation for the Lord with His people. He had saints before this, but not a people; and until redemption was accomplished He never dwelt on earth. He visited His saints, and appeared to them in many ways, but He never had His dwelling-place in their midst. But as soon as expiation for sin has been made by the blood of the lamb, and His people have been brought forth out of Egypt, saved through death and resurrection, then He inspires their hearts to build Him a habitation.† He led them by the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, as soon as they commenced their exodus; but He could not have a dwelling-place in Egypt, in the territory of the enemy. But when they are brought on to new ground, He can identify Himself with them, dwell in their midst, and be their God, and they His people. It is so also in Christianity. Not until atonement had been made, and Christ had risen from the dead and ascended up on high, did God form His present habitation on earth through the Spirit. (Acts 2; Eph. 2) It is so with the individual believer. It is not until he is cleansed by the blood of Christ that his body is made a temple of the Holy Ghost. The truth therefore is, that God's dwelling upon earth is founded upon a completed redemption. And what an immense privilege. Although the wilderness was no part of the purpose of God, yet, in His ways with His people, they wandered there forty years. How blessed, then, for these weary pilgrims, looking onward to the inheritance, to have the habitation of God in their midst; a place where they could approach Him, through the appointed priests, with sacrifices and incense; the centre, too, of their encampment. How it would inspire the hearts of the godly with courage to behold that tabernacle, with the cloud resting upon it, the symbol of the divine presence. Hence the agonizing cry of Moses, after the people's failure, "If Thy presence go not, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us?" (Ex. 33:15-16.) Nor should it be forgotten that God has also now His dwelling-place on earth. This truth is, amid the confusions of Christendom, in danger of being ignored. But, spite of our failure, God does dwell in the house which He has formed, and will dwell in it until the return of the Lord. This truth should inspire us also with strength and consolation; for it is no mean privilege to be brought out of the sphere, and from under the power, of Satan into the scene of the presence and the power of God. It is the only place of blessing on earth, and happy are they who have been made sharers of it through the grace of God in the power of the Holy Ghost.

"Wherefore say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgements. And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in to the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord. " (Ver. 6-8.) All this speaks the purest, freest, richest grace. Jehovah presents Himself to the hearts of His people as the One who was to act in them, for them, and with them, for the display of His own glory. Ruined and helpless as they were, He had come down to show forth His glory, to exhibit His grace, and to furnish a sample of His power, in their full deliverance. His glory and their salvation were inseparably connected. They were afterwards reminded of all this, as we read in the book of Deuteronomy. "The Lord did not set His love upon you nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people; but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers, has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." (Ex. 7:7-8)

We have said that Israel was called out of Egypt where they were in captivity under the power of Pharaoh. Egypt represents to us the world in its state by nature, enjoying indeed the providential goodness of God, but alienated from Him. He is not acknowledged as the source of their prosperity, but the providential supply is claimed as their own. "My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself." (Ezek. 29:3.) It is there the people of God's inheritance are held captive by its prince, serving divers lusts and pleasures. In accomplishing their deliverance from such a bondage God had to meet the sinful state of the people, and also to annul the power of the enemy. When Pharaoh refused to let them go in obedience to the demand of Jehovah, their deliverance must be accomplished by judgment; but if God acts in judgment He is no respecter of persons, for He is righteous. Consequently He must judge sin wherever He finds it, whether in an Israelite or an Egyptian. In grace He provided a shelter for Israel by the blood of the paschal lamb being sprinkled upon the lintel and doorposts of their houses. Thus were they secure in that night when God executed judgment against Egypt by slaying their firstborn. Their deliverance thus was according to righteousness, but it must be fully accomplished by freeing them from the place of their captivity as well as from the power that held them. Through the waters of judgment which overwhelmed the enemy, Israel passed into liberty - free now to be Jehovah's people and to go on to their inheritance with Him. This now is the theme of their song: "Jehovah hath triumphed gloriously." All is of Himself. He who sheltered them has now delivered them. He is manifestly their God. "He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him." Thus they sing. They anticipate too the full accomplishment of His purpose concerning them. He who led forth a redeemed people would bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of His inheritance. The power already manifested on the banks of the Red Sea was a pledge of the overthrow of the enemy in whatever way he might assail.

The book of Exodus supplies the first answer, showing unequivocally that it is by a redeemed people. On what other ground could it be possible to approach God so as to fulfil His purpose? The message sent by the hand of Moses to the people, on their reaching Sinai, was, "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself" (Exodus 19:4).