Overview of the Book of Exodus

The overview of the week for this Sunday is the second book of Moses, the book of Exodus, which was written around 1450

BC. The word Exodus means a going out or a mass departure of people out of a specific area.

And of course, the book of Exodus tells of the story of the children of Israel departing from the land of Egypt.

The book of Genesis ends with the Israelites living in Egypt under the protection of Joseph, who had risen to the position of prime minister under Pharaoh.

But of course, Joseph, the son of Jacob, the son of Israel, he died, and the book of Exodus picks up about 400 years later, where a new

Pharaoh had risen to power who did not know Joseph. Certainly, he did not honor any prior arrangements.

So because the children of Israel had multiplied, Pharaoh now sees them as a threat, and he decides to enslave them.

In their affliction, they cry out to God, and God responds by raising up a deliverer.

That man, of course, was Moses. In Exodus, we read that well -known account where Moses encounters

God at the burning bush, where God reveals to Moses his name, the

Lord, or Jehovah, or Yahweh. It's rendered in the English Bible as capital

L, capital O, capital R, capital D, the Lord. God speaking through Moses and his brother

Aaron, remember, he tells Pharaoh, let my people go.

And because Pharaoh refuses, the Lord rains down plagues upon Egypt, the final plague being the death of the firstborn, which is where the

Passover is instituted. Upon that, Pharaoh relents, and to make a long story short,

Israel is then delivered through the Red Sea. Moses then receives the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.

The instructions are given for the building of the tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the priesthood, and the priestly garments, etc.

All of that is part of the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, the agreement between God and his people, the children of Israel.

The Lord says in Exodus 19, verse 5, to the children of Israel, he says,

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people.

Of course, Israel would break this agreement, but the good news is that this covenant, the

Old Covenant, was never meant to be the end all, be all. Rather, in the

New Testament, we learn in Galatians 3 .24 that the Old Covenant law was like a teacher meant to lead people to Christ, that they and we might be justified by faith and not the works of the law.