Exode
Summary Exodus is the history of how God, in keeping with the promise He made to Abraham, rescued the people of Israel, who had been slaves in Egypt, and made them His own people. Through the law and the tabernacle it shows that He is always with them, and He leads them toward the Promised Land.
- Date written
- 1445-1405 BC (traditional)
- Historical period
- The exodus and wilderness period
Background
Exodus is a book that shows how the promise God gave to Abraham in Genesis was actually fulfilled in history. God promised Abraham that his descendants would become many and that He would bless through them, and at the same time He told him in advance that those descendants would live as sojourners in another land and be oppressed, and that after He judged that land they would come out with great possessions. The exodus is the very event in which this promise and prediction were fulfilled in history exactly as spoken. The Hebrew title, ‘Shemot (Names),’ does not simply mean a list of people’s names; it carries the meaning that God does not forget the people He has called by covenant and continues to carry their history forward. This book is set in the reality of the people of Israel living as slaves under Egypt, a powerful empire of the ancient Near East. At that time Pharaoh was regarded as a god-like being, but Exodus clearly shows that even such absolute power is under the sovereignty of God. Exodus does not explain salvation as a vague religious concept. Instead, it shows God actually working and acting in the very midst of oppression and suffering. God reveals Himself as the One who remembers the covenant He made with Abraham and who hears the voice of His people crying out in their suffering.
Content
Exodus is a book recording how Israel was set free from slavery in Egypt and called once again to stand within God’s covenant. The starting point of the exodus is the declaration that “God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob,” and the history of redemption in this book begins not with human resolve or action but with God’s covenantal remembrance. The first half unfolds, through the call of Moses, the ten plagues, the Passover, and the crossing of the Red Sea, how God judges the gods of Egypt and the power of Pharaoh and redeems Israel. In particular, the Passover was not an event in which Israel saved itself but an event of salvation in which they survived by being protected by blood, and it becomes a key sign of redemption repeated throughout the rest of the Bible. The wilderness journey after crossing the Red Sea shows that liberation was not the completion of salvation but the beginning of a relational journey in which God Himself leads them. The second half centers on the covenant at Mount Sinai. God makes a covenant with the people He has already saved and reveals His will in order to sustain His relationship with them. The law is not a condition required to obtain or maintain salvation but an order of grace that God Himself provided in order to dwell among the people He had already redeemed. The regulations for the tabernacle that follow concretely reveal that God is not distant but truly dwells among and walks with His covenant people. In the end, Exodus is a book that shows the fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham, the prophecy that his descendants would be oppressed but that God would deliver them out of the judgment, and it bears witness in one continuous story to the redemptive history of God, who does not leave His people even after their liberation but leads them by His presence.