Through the Bible - Exodus

Now all these things happened unto them, unto the children of Israel, as examples. And they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the age are come. (1 Corinthians 10:11)

Exodus is the great story of redemption—how God reaches into a coffin in Egypt to deliver dead man and then comes to dwell in his midst.

From Genesis to Exodus: Inadequacy to Redemption

As we go through the Scriptures a book a week, Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 10 that these things were written for our admonition, as examples to you and me. From them we learn more about who God is and how great He is.

Last week we looked at Genesis, which shows us man's inadequacy without God. It begins with God—"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"—and God goes on to create man. Yet the very last verse of Genesis ends with man in a coffin in Egypt. Creation began with God but ends with man dead in sin in the world.

Where Genesis is about man and his inability without God, Exodus is extremely about God. He is the central focus—His power, His grandeur, His ability to redeem man. The major theme of the book is redemption: God's power to redeem lost and dead man. And that is exactly where we find Israel—dead, a coffin in Egypt.

Israel Multiplies in Egypt

Exodus means the departure of a great number of people. When the family of Israel went down into Egypt, they numbered only 70. The first six verses of chapter 1 restate that. But between verse 6 and verse 7 some 400-plus years pass. Now there are 640,000 men over the age of 20, not counting women and children—roughly two or three million people. They had large families, not just two and a half kids in a nice little yard.

This was strenuous for Egypt. In their midst lived two or three million people who spoke a different language, had a different culture and religion, and lived a different way of life. They were shepherds who settled in the Nile Delta, the land of Goshen—perfect for cattle, sheep, and goats. But the Egyptians hated shepherds; shepherds were an abomination to them.

A Pharaoh arose who did not know Joseph. In Genesis, Joseph saved Egypt from famine, interpreting Pharaoh's dream of seven years of plenty and seven of famine and becoming second in command. But 400 years later this new Pharaoh sees a large foreign people in the north and grows concerned—almost like having two or three million illegal immigrants who might rise up against him if a warring nation came.

Pharaoh's Cruelty and Israel's Strength

Pharaoh commanded the Hebrew midwives to kill every male child, but they feared God and would not do it. So Pharaoh charged all his people to cast the sons into the Nile River. No doubt he spun this as religious, since the Nile was considered one of Egypt's greatest gods—their very livelihood. But Israel would not do it.

So Pharaoh set harsh taskmasters over them and made them slaves. Yet the more he afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew (Exodus 1:12). That is a spiritual principle for us: persecution and hard times make us strong, like steel tempered in the fire.

We can pinpoint when this happened. In 1 Kings 6:1 we read that Solomon began building the temple 480 years after Israel left Egypt. Solomon became king around 970 B.C. and began the temple around 966. Add 480 years and you reach about 1445–1440 B.C. for the exodus. Moses was 80 at the exodus, so add 80 years—Moses was born around 1520–1525 B.C.

God Begins with a Baby

Look at secular history and find who was Pharaoh at that time. This was the 18th dynasty—one of Egypt's most famous, the line that includes King Tutankhamen. The Pharaoh during Moses' birth was named Tutmoses. Interesting how close that is to Moses.

While Pharaoh decreed that every male child be cast into the Nile, the children of Israel cried out to God—and God began to work the way He often does: with a baby. A Hebrew child was born under the sentence of death. His mother hid him three months, then made a waterproof ark and placed him among the reeds of the Nile, partially obeying the king's command.

Pharaoh's daughter came to bathe, saw the ark, and opened it. The child cried, and her heart melted; she took him as her own. God has a sense of humor: the baby's older sister was watching and offered to find a Hebrew nurse—so Moses' biological mother was paid by Pharaoh to nurse her own son. When the child had grown, Pharaoh's daughter named him Moses.

Tutmoses had two daughters and no sons—interesting given his decree. One of them, Hatshepsut, became a Pharaoh of Egypt, and there is a real possibility she drew Moses from the river. Josephus tells us Moses grew in stature until he was in line to be Pharaoh. Every time we look at archaeology, it proves once again that the Bible is true.

The Cry for a Deliverer

Emotionally these people were drained—slaves crying out for a deliverer. That is the heart of lost, dead man. When man is in the coffin in Egypt, his heart cries out for deliverance. People look for it in power, in pleasure, in substance abuse, in relationships—all kinds of things to escape the status quo. Israel cried out for someone to deliver them.

At about 40, Moses went to behold his people and saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. He killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand—which tells us Moses was no slouch; he was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was strong. When it became known, Pharaoh sought to kill him, likely also fearing Moses would seize the throne by force. So Moses fled to the deserts of Midian, joined himself to Jethro the priest, married Zipporah, and for the next 40 years became a shepherd—the very thing Egypt counted an abomination. God was preparing him.

The Revelation of God's Character

While Genesis gives the revelation of God's will, Exodus gives the revelation of God's character. God appears to Moses in a burning bush that was not consumed. When Moses approached, a voice said, "Take the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground."

Moses asked who was sending him. God said, "I AM"—the eternal, ever-existing One. There was never a time when God was; He is always I AM. God revealed His heart as a loving God who sees His children and wants to deliver them: "Moses, I'm going to use you to deliver my people."

Moses immediately said he was insufficient—and God did not disagree; you cannot do it on your own. But when Moses essentially said, "Lord, You can't do it," God answered, "Who made your tongue?" God can do whatever He wants. He gave Moses signs—the rod that became a snake, the hand that became leprous and was made clean—and told him the Pharaoh who sought his life had died. It was time to tell the next Pharaoh to let His people go.

Israel in Egypt: The Plagues

The book divides into three sections: Israel in Egypt, Israel in the wilderness, and Israel at Mount Sinai. Moses went to his own people first, then to Pharaoh. Josephus says Pharaoh laughed at Moses—he would not release Egypt's workforce, the slaves building the temples and obelisks.

God told Moses that Pharaoh would not listen, and that He Himself would harden Pharaoh's heart. Why? The answer is in Exodus 10:1–2: "I have hardened his heart... that I might show these signs before him," and that Israel would tell their children "that you might know that I am the Lord." The first reason was so Israel would know God is the one true God. The second, in Exodus 14:17, is that "the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord." God does His work that the world will know He is God.

God came into Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and brought ten plagues, each striking a god of polytheistic Egypt. He turned the Nile—their greatest god—to blood. He sent frogs, which they worshiped. He turned the dust to lice; the magicians could duplicate the earlier signs but could not fix them, and they could not duplicate the lice, confessing, "This is the finger of God," because God creates from nothing.

Then came the flies (or beetle—they worshiped the scarab beetle), disease on the livestock (they worshiped the bull, later echoed in their golden calf of Exodus 32), boils, hail that burned their crops, and locusts that ate what the hail left. But God set a separation: Israel had no flies, no frogs, no bloody water—they were protected. The ninth plague was thick, oppressive darkness for three days while Israel had light.

The Passover and the Exodus

The tenth and final plague was the death of the firstborn, and here the Passover was instituted. Every firstborn son in Egypt and the firstborn of the livestock would die when the destroyer came. There is even a legend that, since Passover fell on the 14th, the day before was Friday the 13th—the origin of that superstition.

Each family was to take a lamb of the first year without spot or blemish, sacrifice it, and put the blood on the doorposts and lintels. When God passed through, He would not allow the destroyer to enter those homes. The blood was a covering—just as you and I are redeemed by the blood of the precious Lamb of God, Jesus, whose blood atones for our sin so the destroyer cannot put us to death.

When the firstborn died, Pharaoh's people drove Israel out, and they left on a high hand. But God hardened Pharaoh's heart again, and he gathered his chariots and army to pursue. In His providence God led Israel down a valley between two mountains, Pi-hahiroth and Migdol, with the Red Sea before them and the Egyptian army behind—completely boxed in.

The Red Sea and the Power to Redeem

Why box them in? Because God's works display His strength and His power to redeem. "Why do you cry to me?" He said. "Tell the children of Israel to go forward." Moses stretched out his staff, the waters parted, and Israel crossed on dry ground. God again hardened Pharaoh's heart so he would follow into the sea.

I have always asked: if God could harden Pharaoh's heart, why not simply send him home? Because one of Egypt's supreme deities was Pharaoh himself, and God would have honor over him, showing He is greater than Pharaoh and greater than all the gods of the world. In the Bible Egypt pictures the world; God shows Himself greater than everything in it.

As the Egyptians pursued, God troubled their chariots; the wheels fell off and they cried, "Surely God is against us." When Israel reached the far shore, God closed the waters over Pharaoh and his army. The next morning Israel saw the Egyptian bodies on the beach—the whole army destroyed by the mighty hand of God, something no man could do.

This is the heart of Exodus: there is nothing you and I can do in our own strength to deliver ourselves from the death and slavery of this world. God must do it. Man is inadequate, but God comes to redeem, to bring man out of death and into new life.

The Red Sea as Baptism

The Red Sea crossing matters deeply for us. When Israel took the blood of the lamb and put it on the doorpost, that was an act of faith—but they were still in Egypt. The Lord passed over them, yet they were not out of Egypt until they stepped out of the Red Sea and into the wilderness.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10 that the Red Sea was like baptism for Israel—going down into the water and coming up on the other side. When you are baptized with Christ, Romans 6 says, you identify with His death, burial, and resurrection and confess you are dead to the old life. Like Israel leaving Egypt behind, baptism declares: I'm dead to the world; I've trusted in Your blood, and I'm leaving the old life behind. We still remember Egypt—and we'll see that cause problems for Israel in Numbers—but we are no longer in it.

Israel in the Wilderness

It wasn't until Israel crossed the Red Sea that they began to sing praise; nearly all of Exodus 15 is their song. When you leave the things of the world, you begin to praise God. And God did not dwell among His people, nor have them build the tabernacle, until they were out of Egypt.

After three days without water they came to Marah, but the waters were bitter. God showed Moses a tree, and when it was cast in, the waters became sweet. You will go through bitter, difficult times as a Christian—but bring the tree, the cross of Christ, into those circumstances, and bitterness turns to sweetness, because at the cross is the remembrance that this is not all there is.

Next they came to Elim with twelve wells and seventy palm trees—a picture of Psalm 1's righteous man, like a tree planted by rivers of water bringing forth fruit. Then in the wilderness of Sin the people complained for lack of food, recalling Egypt's bread and meat. God sent quail at evening and, in the morning, manna—"what is it?"—bread from heaven.

The manna pictures the Word of God. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word from the mouth of God. They gathered every morning; he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They couldn't store it overnight—it bred worms—and the sun melted what wasn't gathered early. The sun pictures trials; we must glean God's Word every morning, ready for the heat when it comes.

At Rephidim there was no water. Living water pictures the Holy Spirit; we cannot camp anywhere in this wilderness without His power. God told Moses to strike the rock of Horeb, and water came forth. Then Amalek came and fought Israel. Amalek is a type of the flesh, and the Lord swore He would have war with Amalek "from generation to generation." Joshua—the same name as Jesus in the Greek—fought Amalek, just as Jesus fights for us against the flesh. Moses held up his hands in prayer and praise; when his hands fell, Amalek prevailed, so Aaron and Hur held up his hands. The flesh is defeated as we seek Jesus in prayer and praise, and we need the fellowship of brothers and sisters in that battle.

Israel at Sinai: The Law and the Tabernacle

At Sinai God gave His people two inseparable things: the law and the tabernacle. He told Moses to have the people sanctify themselves, for tomorrow He would come. The next day the mountain blazed with fire, smoke rose to heaven, thunder and lightning came, and a trumpet blasted—the voice of God.

In the law God reveals His holy, righteous, and unchangeable (immutable) character. Paul says in Romans 7:12 that the law is holy, just, and good, and Jesus says the law will not pass away. Three times Israel said, "Everything that God has said we will do and be obedient." That is the ambition of our hearts—even though only 40 days later they broke their word. From chapters 20 through 24 the law is given, including the Ten Commandments.

God also commanded a tabernacle, because He brought His people out of Egypt to dwell among them. The fellowship man destroyed in Genesis 3—when Adam walked with God in the cool of the day but then sinned—God now makes a way to restore. Notice He begins the tabernacle instructions with the holy of holies, the inner room where His presence dwells, not the outer courts. God always starts with the heart. He doesn't say, "Clean up the outside first." Just as He promised Jeremiah and Ezekiel a new heart, He deals with the holy of holies first—the part no one else sees.

The Glory Fills the Tabernacle

God gave Moses the plans, and the skilled workmen Aholiab and Bezalel, filled with His Spirit, built it. By Exodus 40 the tabernacle is raised—two years after leaving Egypt, about ten months at Sinai. Seven times the chapter says Moses "did as the Lord commanded" (verses 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 32). Then, when the work was finished, the cloud covered the tent and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, so that Moses could not enter.

Remember, Genesis ended with man dead in a coffin in Egypt; Exodus ends with God coming down to fill His tabernacle. When Moses did what the Lord commanded, the glory descended.

Do we have a physical tabernacle today? No. But the law and the temple are inseparable. The tabernacle was where Old Testament man met God; the sacrifices were how he approached God—they did not save him. Israel was saved out of Egypt by God's mighty hand, not by sacrifices, just as God brings us out of the world by His power. His law has not passed away, but we have no physical tabernacle because 1 Corinthians 6 says you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. When we follow the Lord as Moses did, this temple is filled with the aroma, the glory, the presence of God. God redeemed us out of Egypt not only to save us but to tabernacle among us, restoring fellowship.

What Makes a People Holy

Next week we come to Leviticus, whose theme is holiness. But notice how something is made holy, back in Exodus 3:5: "Put the shoes off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." What made that dirt holy? The presence of God. What made Israel a holy people? That God dwelt in their midst. What makes you holy today—keeping the law? No. It is God dwelling in you—Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Each part of the tabernacle points to our relationship with God. The bronze laver of water pictures the Word of God; the lamp pictures the Word as a light to our feet; the table of showbread pictures living by every word from God's mouth; the only sacrifice we New Testament believers are called to offer is the sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13); and the altar of incense pictures our prayers rising to God.

But what made the tabernacle holy was the presence of God in the holy of holies. Yes, God calls us to praise, to His Word, to prayer—but what makes you and me holy is the same thing that made Israel holy: His presence. That is what Exodus is all about—the redemption plan of a God who loves His people, and the character and nature of the God who came down to dwell with them.