Exodus Panorama
Exodus begins with the miserable life of the children of Israel. They were slaves in the land of Egypt, and "were groaning and crying because of their hard work" (2:23). How could these people be saved from the bondage of Pharaoh? How could they get out of Egypt and enter the promised land of Canaan? Exodus is the answer to these questions. This problem is also a fundamental problem for all mankind. Exodus shows us the process of a soul being released from the bondage of Satan. Exodus, then, is the answer to humanity’s fundamental question.
The content of Exodus is as follows: the journey from the land of Egypt to Mount Sinai (chapters 1-18); the establishment of the law and the establishment of the tabernacle at Mount Sinai (chapters 19-40).
Exodus Chapter 1 tells the story of how 70 descendants of Jacob went to Egypt and prospered there, forming a large family. This is the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham - "Look up to heaven and count the stars, can you number them?" He also said to him: "So shall your descendants be" (Genesis 15:5). God promised Abraham - "Your descendants will be strangers in another land and serve its people, and the people of that land will mistreat them for four hundred years. And I will punish the nation they serve, and they will bring A great deal of wealth came out of it."
The last two verses of Exodus Chapter 2 record: “God heard their cry, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God cared for the Israelites and knew their "Bitterness." (2:24-25) Here, I want to emphasize that the exodus from Egypt occurred not because of their cry, but because of the fulfillment of God's previous covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In this way, this question inevitably arises - why did God send the children of Israel to Egypt and then rescue them? First, because “the iniquity of the Amorites has not yet been completed” (Genesis 15:16). Second, God wanted to preserve the purity of the bloodline into which the Messiah would be born. Because their numbers were small, if they continued to stay in the land of Canaan, they would be in great danger of being assimilated by the world (see Genesis 38:1-2, 45:5-7). Third, God will reveal His plan of salvation through the Exodus.
The theme of Exodus is "redemption." According to Chapter 6 verses 6-8, we can see that God has given three promises. Verse 6 – “I will redeem you”; Verse 7 – “I will make you My people (whom I have rescued)”; Verse 8 – “I swore to Abraham, I will bring you into the land of Satan and Jacob, and I will give it to you as an inheritance."
The so-called "redemption" means to pay the ransom price on behalf of the person who was sold as a slave and to rescue him. Now, the children of Israel have become slaves to Pharaoh, carrying a heavy burden and being bound physically and mentally to a life of hard labor. God promised to rescue them from the land of Egypt, make them his own people, and lead them into the land of Canaan.
So, what method did God use to save them? The method is the “Passover Lamb” that appears in Chapter 12. God commanded the Israelites to take a one-year-old male lamb without blemishes and keep it until dusk. Then the entire congregation of Israel would kill the lamb. Each family was to take some blood and put it on the left and right doorframes and lintels of the house where the lamb was eaten. , no one is allowed to leave the house until the next morning. God will patrol the land of Egypt and destroy all the firstborn in the land. God said: "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." (12:13) The destroying angel came to the left and right doorframes of the house and When I saw the house where the blood of the lamb was smeared on the door lintel, I saw the blood and thought, "It turns out that death has come to this house. I don't need to go in anymore." So he crossed the door and left.
What we should remember here is that there was death in the house of Israel, but the sinless lamb died and shed its blood for them. God did not pass over them until he saw the blood. It would not be fair if God passed over them without seeing the blood. Doing so cannot be justified in terms of God’s righteous attributes. This is the doctrine of salvation. This is what happened in the Old Testament. The deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt was all due to the blood of the Lamb. This typifies God’s redemption for us through the Lamb, Jesus Christ. One of the purposes of God leading Israel out of Egypt was to give us this revelation. The apostle Paul said: "Christ, our Passover lamb, has been slain." (1 Corinthians 5:7) God's purpose of redeeming them is-"I will make you my people" (6:7). In other words, God redeemed them in order to make them His people.
There are some changes in their names in Chapter 6 that we should pay attention to. They were originally "the children of Israel" (6:5), that is, the children of Jacob. But they later became Pharaoh's servants, that is, they became "slaves." After God redeemed them, he regarded them as "God's people." After Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea, he praised: "In your love you have led your redeemed people; in your power you have led them to your sanctuary." (15:13) Because they were "redeemed", they became "God's people." Therefore, when Moses spoke before Pharaoh, he always said, “Let my people go, that they may serve me.
But Pharaoh's response was - "Who is the LORD that I should obey his voice and let the Israelites go?" ” (5:2)
The plague God sent on Egypt was to make people know “who the Lord is” (Romans 9:17), and the Bible says: “And he will destroy all the gods of Egypt” (12 :12). A decisive battle broke out between Moses, who represented the God of Yahweh, and Pharaoh, who represented the Egyptian god. As a result, the god of this world was judged by the blood of the lamb, and the Israelites crossed the Red Sea and were completely separated from Pharaoh's rule. The Bible says that crossing the Red Sea typified today's baptism (1 Corinthians 10:2). God commanded his people to gather at Mount Sinai. He did not want his people to be a lawless people (Acts 2). :23), therefore the law was given to them, so that they might be God's people worthy of the name. Deuteronomy 4:6 says - When God's people act according to all the laws, the Gentiles will say: " The people of this big country are really wise and intelligent. ”
Why can they only love and serve God? Because God redeemed them and regarded them as his own people. Therefore, when God gave them the Ten Commandments, he stated it in advance in the preface "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ” (20:2) Then he said: “You shall have no other gods before me.” " (20:3) God not only gave them the law, but He wanted to be their God, but He was not willing to descend on Mount Sinai today and on some other mountain tomorrow. Therefore, God told Moses - "Be for me Make a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (25:8). What could be more glorious for sinners like mankind? This is the answer to God’s coming into the world clothed in a human tabernacle, that is, as a human being. Manuel’s type.
If you want to summarize God’s grace to mankind, there are the following points: ① Redeem mankind and make them his people; ② Give them laws to make them his own people. They became God's people worthy of the name; ③ God gave them a sanctuary and ruled among them personally. Stephen called it the "wilderness church" (Acts 7:38). The book of Egypt begins with the Israelites sighing and crying out for hard labor, and ends with the glory of God filling the tabernacle. In other words, it begins with mankind reaching a point of despair on its own strength, and finally God steps in to solve the problem, and everything ends with glory. Christ is revealed in the Passover Lamb (12:1-28), the manna (16:1-36), the rock out of water (17:5-6), and the tabernacle filled with the glory of God (40:3-4) .
Why does God provide them with "manna" to eat every day? Because they are "his people". When they are thirsty, God gives them water to drink. When they are sick, God comes to heal them. (15:26). During the forty years of living in the wilderness, their clothes were not worn out and their shoes were not worn out (Deuteronomy 29:5). In the wilderness where the temperature difference between day and night was large, God used clouds. The pillar and the pillar of fire protected them and guided them from being lost. God took full responsibility for his people. In one sentence - "The Lord is my shepherd, I will not be in want." " (Psalm 23:1)
Brothers, I hope you will remember that whether God redeemed the Israelites from Egypt, gave them the law, or built a tabernacle for them, all of this came from God's love.
Let us saved people love our God with all our hearts!
Meditation
1. What are the three reasons why God sent the children of Israel to Egypt and brought them out again?
2. What method has God prepared to use to save them?
3. How does Exodus reveal Christ?