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Exodus 3:1-4:17: The Making of a Mediator

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Exodus begins with God’s people, the nation of Israel, becoming enslaved to a devilish king of Egypt. The narrator makes it clear that God sees, hears, and knows everything that is happening to his people, and that God has not forgotten his promises to make them a great nation. But in the opening narratives, God takes a back seat. He doesn’t do much as a character in the story…

Until you get to chapter 3.

Observation of Exodus 3:1-4:17

First, let me address why I’m tackling more than a single chapter. By portraying a single conversation, the passage compels us to ignore the (somewhat artificial) chapter division and to read Ex 3:1-4:17 as a single unit:

  • Moses meets the God of his father in a flame of fire – 3:1-6
  • The LORD reveals his plan to rescue his people through the hand of Moses – 3:7-10
  • Moses objects to this plan, and God responds to each objection – 3:11-4:17
    • Objection #1: Who am I? – 3:11-12
    • Objection #2: Who shall I say sent me? – 3:13-22
    • Objection #3: They won’t believe me – 4:1-9
    • Objection #4: I am not eloquent – 4:10-12
    • Objection #5: Please send someone else – 4:13-17

Repeated words in ESV: you/your (58 times), I (31x), God (28x), said (22x), Lord (18), Moses (15), out (14), hand (13), not (12)

  • Since the passage is a long Q&A between Moses and God, we shouldn’t be surprised to see words like “you” and “I” so often. But they also highlight the nature of the conversation: This discussion isn’t about merely “what” will happen, but about what “you” and “I” will do about it.
  • The repetition of “hand” is also striking. Whose hand will be mighty enough to care for these people (Ex 3:19)? Pharaoh’s (Ex 3:8)? God’s (Ex 3:20)? Or God’s hand as represented by Moses’ hand (Ex 4:2, 6, 17, etc.)?

Names and Titles:

  • God’s name—the LORD, or Yahweh—takes center stage. He is I AM (Ex 3:14), the God of their fathers (Ex 3:15), who has seen (Ex 3:16) and promises to do something (Ex 3:17).
  • Twice, the LORD repeats the list of 6 nations who must be dispossessed from the new land of promise (Ex 3:8, 17).
  • Four times, God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Ex 3:6, 15, 16; 4:5).
  • Eight times, the people to be rescued are labeled the people/children of Israel (Ex 3:9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18)—connecting them to their forefather Jacob. And once—when Moses is to speak with the king of Egypt—they are labeled as Hebrews (Ex 3:18). This latter term likely connects their identity to their ancestor Eber, in whose days the nations were divided (Gen 10:24-25). Pharaoh wanted to build another Babel (Ex 1:10-11, 14; Gen 11:3-4); he’ll get it unexpectedly, when God splits nations apart once again.
Garry Wilmore (2006), Creative Commons

Garry Wilmore (2006), Creative Commons

Interpretation of Exodus 3:1-4:17

A few possible questions:

  1. Why does God appear in a burning bush?
  2. Why won’t God just save the people himself? Why is he so committed to doing it through Moses (Ex 3:10)?
  3. Why does Moses have so many objections?
  4. Why is it so important for Moses to have God’s name to give the people?

Answers (numbers correspond to the preceding questions):

  1. Twice, the text tells us the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. First, the narrator states it (Ex 3:2). Second, Moses mentions it out loud as the reason he turns aside from his shepherding (Ex 3:3). This visual image clearly matters, as it pictures the nature of God: He who burns but does not consume. He is dangerous, but not destructive. You should come close, but not too close. Later, the book will unpack this image—on this very mountain—as the consuming fire dwells in the cloud (Ex 19:18, 24:17-18). And God will more fully reveal his name to Moses as grace and truth (Ex 34:6-7). The image in chapter 3 gives us a beautiful word picture: the bush burns (truth), but is not consumed (grace). This is the nature of God’s glory. Not grace OR truth, but both grace AND truth.
  2. This is how God has chosen to do it. God says both “I have come down to deliver them” (Ex 3:8) and “I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people out of Egypt” (Ex 3:10). Moses clearly represents God to Pharaoh (Ex 3:10) and the people (Ex 4:16). And, by having this experience with this God on this mountain (an experience the people will share later in the book – see Ex 3:12), Moses is representing the people before God. In other words, God will save his people, but the only way to do it is through a mediator.
  3. Well, how would you feel if you had already tried to deliver these people once before? And they had utterly rejected your deliverance? And you had to flee Egypt as a result? And you’ve had 40 years to stew on all this (Acts 7:30)? And you’re very happy with your new life and your new family? And you’ve made peace with being a sojourner in a foreign land (Ex 2:22)? Notice, however, that God is very patient in answering all Moses’ objections…until Moses renders a flat refusal (Ex 4:13). Only then does God’s anger burn against Moses (Ex 4:14). These people are as good as dead to Moses; but this God is not God of the dead but of the living (Mark 12:24-27).
  4. Vast theological treatises explore the philosophical ramifications of God’s self-revelation in Ex 3:14-15. Those are all well and good, but we must not overlook the purpose of this revelation in the story’s context: Moses needs some way to verify his testimony. If he goes back to Egypt, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, to these people who have already rejected him, and he speaks of a meeting with the God of their fathers on a remote mountaintop—they’ll want to verify he’s speaking about the right God. How will they know this is the same God who made those promises to their fathers? And God’s name, his self-existence, his eternality, etc.—all provide the required verification.

Train of thought:

  • At the beginning, Moses is cheerfully keeping his father-in-laws flocks (Ex 3:1).
  • At the end, he will request leave from these duties (Ex 4:18).
  • This conversation on the mountain of God transforms Moses from being indifferent to the people’s plight to being committed to rescue them. He gets there as God lays out the plan and addresses each objection.

Main Point: God must deliver his people through the hand of a mediator, however hesitant he may be.

Connection to Christ: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). And though this true mediator wished for some other way, unlike Moses he never refused his calling (Mark 15:35-36).

My Application of Exodus 3:1-4:17

Now that I am in Christ, I, too, have a mediatorial role (James 5:19-20, Jude 23). Am I willing to embrace it? “I’m not eloquent” or “Evangelism isn’t my gift” simply won’t cut it. Unless I’m willing to risk the Lord’s burning anger at my refusal.

Click here to see what I’m doing with this sample Bible study and why I’m doing it.

Ask Better Questions in Small Group Bible Study

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This week, the Logos Talk blog published a guest post Ryan and I worked on together, called “How to Ask Excellent Bible Study Discussion Questions.” The post abridges some of the lengthier material from our series on how to lead a Bible study. If you’d like to lead a small group discussion well, we recommend you master these four kinds of questions:

  1. Launching questions
  2. Observation questions
  3. Interpretation questions
  4. Application questions

Check it out!

Exodus 2: Do You Want Deliverance Or Not?

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Exodus 1 showed us a new devil attempting to take God’s place in the life of God’s people, and the chapter left us wondering what would come of his decree to drown the sons. The Lord will reveal something about himself in this chapter that none of us would ever have expected.

Observation of Exodus 2

As usual, though my list must be highly selective, I hope it still proves representative of the narrator’s intentions.

Most repeated words in ESV: Moses, said (each 10 times), child, daughter, when (each 8x), Pharaoh (7x), God, water (each 6x).

  • Because “said” repeats so many times, dialogue will become much more important in this chapter.
  • Pharaoh sought to stamp out the sons, but God will respond through the “child” of the “daughter.” Very sneaky.
  • At first, I’m inclined to overlook “when” as being significant. But upon further investigation, the repetition clues me in on an important motif: When x, then y. In other words, the event sequence matters. There is an order to things here, and God is facilitating events to happen just so.

Names/Titles:

  • It’s noteworthy that the narrator will later tell us the names of Moses’ parents (Ex 6:20) and sister (Ex 15:20). But for now, we’re meant to think of them only in terms of their literary roles: man, woman, mother, sister, and daughter.

Grammar/structure:

  • Paragraph 1 (Ex 2:1-10): A Hebrew woman delivers a fine child through the river and into the hands of Pharaoh’s daughter.
  • Paragraph 2 (Ex 2:11-15): A Hebrew man rejects the deliverance Moses attempts, and Pharaoh’s vengeance squeezes Moses out of Egypt and into Midian.
  • Paragraph 3 (Ex 2:16-22): Moses (thought to be “an Egyptian” – Ex 2:19) delivers seven Midianite daughters through well water. they cheerfully receive his deliverance by extending hospitality, a family, and a new identity as sojourner.
  • Paragraph 4 (Ex 2:23-25): The king of Egypt dies, and the God of the living knows his people and remembers his duty to them.
Steve Perin (2007), Creative Commons

Steve Perin (2007), Creative Commons

Interpretation of Exodus 2

A few possible questions:

  1. What does it mean for baby Moses to be “fine”, and why does this fact motivate his mother to hide him and save his life?
  2. Why are we given no names except Moses, Reuel (priest of Midian), Zipporah (Moses’ Midianite wife), and Gershom (Moses’ son)?
  3. Why is deliverance such a repeated theme?
  4. Why is water such a repeated theme?
  5. So what must we conclude about Moses’ behavior in murdering the Egyptian?

Answers (numbers correspond to the preceding questions):

  1. A short jaunt into a Hebrew tool reveals that the word for “fine” is the same word in Genesis 1 translated “good.” The phrase is very similar to “And God saw that it was good”—”She saw that he was good.” So, as with Exodus 1, we see more connections back to Genesis. In addition, the word used for baby Moses’ “basket” is the same word used for Noah’s “ark,” and this word occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament. With the birth of Moses, God is making a new creation, a new beginning for his people, and Moses is the firstborn of this new creation. This new beginning includes a new deliverance from water through water, just like Noah. This causes us to expect something earth-shattering will soon take place.
  2. The point is not so much who these people are, but what role they play. Pharaoh targeted the sons, so the daughters (including his own) work to undermine him. And with a “man” and a “woman” conceiving and bearing a son, we can’t help but think of the first man and woman at the first creation. This leads us to see the “new creation” idea even more clearly in Moses. And interestingly, Reuel may mean “friend of God”—the priest of Midian, who invites Moses into his home and family, stands in stark contrast to both the Egyptian and Hebrew people.
  3. God foreshadows his intentions. He will, no he must, deliver his people—because of his promises to their ancestors. Moses’ role in the story of Israel will be to deliver in God’s name. He experiences deliverance himself and takes a first stab at it.
  4. Water contributes to the “new creation” theme (see answer to question #1).
  5. Many (most?) modern readers and commentators are quick to condemn Moses’ actions here as being rash and sinful. That might be true, but the text never draws attention to the rashness or sinfulness of these actions. In fact, the chief point of tension occurs not when Moses kills the Egyptian, but when the Hebrew rejects Moses as a prince or judge over him. It is that rejection, and not the murder itself, which causes Moses to flee from Egypt to Midian. What might have happened if Israel had trusted that “God was giving them salvation by his hand”? We should note that the first martyr Stephen interprets this episode in just this way (Acts 7:23-29). We would do well to follow Stephen’s lead on how to read this story.

Train of thought:

  • Pharaoh’s decree to drown the sons has an unintended effect: the creation of a deliverer (aided and abetted by his own household!).
  • But the people who need deliverance reject the potential deliverer.
  • The deliverer must flee and take his deliverance to a different people-group, who, while outside the covenants of promise, are yet eager to receive God’s deliverance.
  • But God is not yet done with his covenant people. The people who reject and thus don’t deserve deliverance will find that their God is a God who ever hears their groaning, remembers his covenant, and knows what to do.

Main Point: God will deliver his people through the hand of his appointed deliverer…just not yet.

Connection to Christ: He came to his own, and even his own did not receive him (John 1:11). And even those who have received him, who have become children of God (John 1:12), still must wait eagerly for him to appear a second time to truly, finally save them (Hebrews 9:28).

Application of Exodus 2

Application should be as varied as the people who put it into practice. Here is mine for today.

Inward:

  • Head: Do I believe that I am delivered from sin’s penalty, but must wait eagerly to be delivered from sin’s presence once and for all?
  • Heart: Do I trust God’s appointed deliverer to be a prince and judge over me?
  • Hands: Choose eagerness instead of disillusionment when I bump into rejection and the pain of life.

Outward:

  • Head: Teach my children to trust in Jesus through the pain they face today.
  • Heart: Inspire my children to long to become agents of deliverance to the world around them, in the image of the firstborn Son of God.
  • Hands: Talk with my children about how they can present Christ to some of their friends.

Click here to see what I’m doing with this sample Bible study and why I’m doing it.

More Reasons to Read the Entire Bible Quickly

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For a few years, I’ve promoted the idea of reading the entire Bible as quickly as possible. I’ve made it my annual practice beginning on New Year’s Day for 6 years now, and it shows no sign of slowing.

What do I get out of the practice?

  1. It helps me grasp the overall story of the Bible.
  2. It reminds me the Bible is a work of literature.
  3. It gets me through the difficult parts more easily.
  4. It heightens my anticipation for Christ.

Now I have some more reasons to offer you, courtesy of Jordan Standridge:

  1. It caused me to understand that I exist for the purpose of glorifying God.
  2. It caused me to believe in the absolute sovereignty of God.
  3. It caused me to see that the sovereign God of Scripture was sovereign over my personal life as well.
  4. It was clear that God called His people to stick out from the world.
  5. It showed me that I am totally depraved.
  6. It showed me that people need God.

Standridge writes of his experience reading the entire Bible quickly in an article at The Cripplegate. Check it out!

Free OIA Summary Booklet

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OIA Bible study is a wonderful tool. With this tool, anyone can get to know the Lord Jesus by learning to study his word.

Perhaps you’ve worked through our series of posts walking you through the full process of observation, interpretation, and application. Perhaps you’ve read the book Knowable Word, which gives clearer examples and practice exercises in a manageable package. These resources have helped you to learn the OIA process, but you’d like something more.

What you could really use is a shorter booklet that merely summarizes the key principles. You don’t need all the drama or the fluff; there’s no need to pierce your ear with an awl just to prove how committed you are (Ex 21:5-6). You, like the Apostle Peter facing Ananias and Sapphira, just want the facts (Acts 5:7-9). You might use such a booklet as a reference guide to help you practice OIA, as it reminds you of the main concepts and the steps. You don’t want to have to go back to the complete book every time you have a specific question. And you don’t want to have to sift through page after page on this website to get a speedy answer or reminder. So what is there for you?

Yesterday, I would have sadly turned you away, like a bridegroom at the door of his wedding feast (Matt 25:10-12). But not today. Today, I am happy to welcome ye who are weary and heavy laden. May you find some rest for your soul.

Basic Bible Study SkillsWe’ve had a project in the hopper for many months, and I’m delighted to finally release it for general consumption. We have a short booklet outlining basic Bible study skills, and we’ve uploaded it for you to use at no cost.

You could keep this booklet on your desk as a handy reference. Or you could print it out for your study group or church book table. The booklet focuses only on the principles; it gives almost no illustrations or practice exercises. The point is simply to have all the concepts in a short reference guide.

Without further ado, you can find the booklet here:

Basic Bible Study Skills Booklet

I’ve also put these links up on the blog’s resources page, so you can find them easily in the future. Happy studying!

Many, many thanks to my colleagues who made this project come alive:

  • Jenny Carrington took the original blog material and edited it into concise form.
  • Dan Miller did the booklet design and typesetting.
  • Ryan Higginbottom scrutinized the project to make sure it was something we could cheerfully offer to our readers.
  • Caleb Olshefsky did the last-minute troubleshooting to ensure we could deliver usable formats to our readers.
Thanks for visiting Knowable Word! If you like this article, you might be interested in receiving regular updates from us. You can sign up for our email list (enter your address in the box on the upper right of this page), follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe to our RSS feed. 

More KW Articles in Spanish

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A few more articles from this blog have been translated and posted in Spanish. Thanks to Armando Valdez for taking on this work!

I created a new page that links to all the articles on Armando’s Spanish site. I’ll keep that page updated as he posts more. You can navigate to that page right from the bottom of the Resources page if you ever want to check back for more.

Check it out!

Exodus 1: Though This World, With Devils Filled, Should Threaten to Undo Us

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If I am correct that the main point of Exodus is to ask, and then answer, the question, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice?” (Ex 5:2)—we should expect chapter 1 to somehow set up this main idea. And in fact, it does so, by establishing the characters and creating the conditions under which the question must be posed.

Observation of Exodus 1

Of course, there are many, many observations to be made. For the sake of space, my list will have to be selective. But in these sample Bible studies, I plan to mention what appears to be most important.

Significant repeated words in ESV: Egypt (7 times), Israel (7x), people (7x), all (6x), midwives (6x), live/lives (5x), Hebrews (4x), multiply (4x), sons (3x).

  • This passage has much to say about the “people” and their experience in Egypt.
  • And the “people” are closely connected to the “sons.” They are called “sons of Israel” in Ex 1:1, but “people of Israel” in Ex 1:7 (though a quick look at an original language reference tool will reveal that the identical Hebrew phrase is used in both verses).
  • The passage ends with multiple attacks on the “sons” of Israel. God blesses the midwives with “families,” which presumably include sons.
  • In addition, the thread of “multiplication” carries through every paragraph.

Names and titles:

  • The most repeated words (see above) are specific names of the two primary nations.
  • The opening line highlights the names of characters: “These are the names of the sons of Israel…”
  • The narrator goes out of his way to name the two Hebrew midwives in Ex 1:15 – Shiphrah and Puah.
  • But he never bothers to name the hostile king. He’s referred to only as “king of Egypt” (4x) or “Pharaoh” (3x).

Grammar/Structure:

  • Paragraph 1 (Ex 1:1-7): Joseph, his brothers, and all his generation died in Egypt. But death could not prevent them from multiplying.
    • The language of these verses remind us of Genesis (sons of Israel, 70 persons, generation), especially Genesis 1: fruitful, increased greatly, multiplied, land was filled with them.
  • Paragraph 2 (Ex 1:8-10): A new king over Egypt wants to deal shrewdly in order to prevent further multiplication, and to keep the people of Israel in one place.
    • The language of these verses remind us of the Tower of Babel (Gen 11:1-9): unnamed figures hostile to God, “come, let us,” prevent multiplication and scattering.
  • Paragraph 3 (Ex 1:11-14): Shrewd dealing #1: Afflict them with heavy burdens. But they keep multiplying (Ex 1:12).
  • Paragraph 4 (Ex 1:15-21): Shrewd dealing #2: Murder the sons. But they keep multiplying (Ex 1:20), and the midwives get families (Ex 1:21).
  • Paragraph 5 (Ex 1:22): Shrewd dealing #3: Drown the sons.
    • This final dealing leaves us with a lingering question: Will they keep multiplying?
Crossett Library (2011), Creative Commons

Crossett Library (2011), Creative Commons

Interpretation of Exodus 1

A few possible questions:

  1. Why are the names such an important part of the chapter?
  2. Why does it matter so much that the sons of Israel keep multiplying?
  3. Why does the king of Egypt want to prevent them from multiplying?
  4. Are the midwives lying to Pharaoh, and is it okay for us to lie to evil dictators?
  5. Will the king of Egypt succeed in his shrewd dealing?
  6. So what should God’s people expect as they live in God’s world and trust in God’s promises to the saints of old?

Answers (numbers correspond to the preceding questions):

  1. The new king of Egypt didn’t know Joseph (Ex 1:8). If we read Genesis—and this chapter seriously suggests we should read Genesis to understand what’s going on here—we can know Joseph. And God knows Joseph. And his father Jacob, and Isaac, Abraham, Noah, and Adam. God knows, and God remembers. But the king of Egypt? He’s nobody. He’s a no-name. We can’t remember him (scholars still debate over which Pharaoh this was). He can’t take God’s place or stand in God’s way.
  2. God’s people will complete God’s original mission to be fruitful and multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it (Gen 1:28). If death can’t stop them (Ex 1:1-7), a devilish king of Egypt certainly won’t have any better success (Ex 1:8-22).
  3. Ex 1:8-10 portray him like one of the Babelites from Gen 11:1-9. He wants to take God’s place. He wants to have power over life and death, creation and recreation, justice and injustice. He wants the knowledge of good and evil (the authority to make his own decisions). He will work against God’s stated purposes, and keep these people in his land, in so far as it suits him if war breaks out.
  4. I have an opinion here. But, honestly, the question is so far removed from the author’s intention that it’s not worth as much time as we usually spend on it. Suffice it to say that one who deals shrewdly against God’s purposes will have shrewd dealings done against him. Such divine irony carries through the book of Exodus.
  5. You’ll have to keep reading Exodus, but (SPOILER ALERT) no. Pharaoh’s 3 shrewd dealings turn against him, as the Lord afflicts him with heavy burdens (Ex 7-10), murders his sons (Ex 11-13), and drowns his sons (Ex 14-15).
  6. There exist forces hostile to God’s promises and plans. But they will not succeed. Death cannot win. And devils (such as Pharaoh) run rampant and must rise up against us. Only in the context of such hostility will we truly find out who the LORD is, and why we should obey his voice!

Train of thought:

  • We pick up right where Genesis left off. Everyone dies, but God’s plans for fruitful multiplication prevail.
  • A new devil arises to claim God’s place.
    • He makes 3 attempts to bring an end to God’s plans for fruitful multiplication.
    • We’re waiting to discover what follows the decree to drown the sons

Main Point: The sons of God have many enemies, but none can prevent God’s promises from being fulfilled.

Connection to Christ: The Son of God himself had many enemies. None could prevent him from winning many brothers. If they had known what they were doing, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor 2:8). Their own tactics (persecution and murder) have turned against them to bring about the Lord’s greatest triumph.

Application of Exodus 1

Here is my application. You’re a different person in a different context, so you may have to come up with your own. And if yours look very different from mine, that’s okay!

Inward: When I face trials of many kinds, do I allow them to shake my confidence in the Lord?

  • Head: Don’t be surprised when hostile forces (the world, the flesh, or the devil) work against my attempts to honor the Lord. Expect this to happen.
  • Heart: Fear the Lord God more than I fear any this-worldly powers.
  • Hands: Memorize Scripture, remind myself of the truth, and keep living the Christian life. Don’t stop doing what I know to do as a Christian, just because it becomes hard to do them.

Outward: When others face trials of many kinds, encourage them not to lose confidence in the Lord.

  • Head: Encourage my children and others I disciple to expect many trials. Help them learn to interpret these trials as having no power against God’s promises.
  • Heart: Train others to fear the Lord more than they fear this-worldly powers.
  • Hands: Keep preaching the gospel and making more disciples. It’s worth it to fight for traditional marriage, religious freedom, and the uniqueness of Christ. Political nations will rise and fall, but none can stop the gospel’s advance to all tribes and peoples

Click here to see what I’m doing with this sample Bible study and why I’m doing it.

Two Things Not to Say When Leading Bible Study

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Erik Raymond writes of “A Couple Phrases I Wish Preachers Would Stop Saying So Often.” And though Raymond directs his comments at pastors, Bible study leaders would be wise to listen in:

In recent years I’ve noticed an uptick in a couple of phrases from preachers and teachers. I don’t want to go so far as to mark them as homiletical cuss words, but I do want to draw a circle around them and ask why we are saying them so much. These two phrases are “I think” and “I feel.”

Let me explain. Suppose someone is preaching through Colossians and they come to chapter 3. They then read the following words aloud:

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Col. 3:1–2)

Then they say, “I think what Paul is saying here is that we need to be seeking the things above.” After a pause, he goes on to say, “I feel like this is especially hard for us today because of all of our temptations for distractions.” Later he says, “I feel like too many of us, myself included, are really susceptible to this. I think it can really hinder our walk with Christ.”

Now what’s wrong with this phrasing? On one level, nothing. He is not saying anything wrong. But, at the same time, he is not saying it like he could. If he is not completely declawing the passage he is at least filing down its nails. He is saying it in a less authoritative and offensive way. And while he may still be bouncing the ball to his congregation for application it is a bit of a deflated ball, or at least not as pumped up as it could be.

To see how Raymond would revise such comments to sharpen their claws, you’ll have to read the full article. Check it out!

However, I will make one disclaimer. When we are not (or cannot be) certain about the meaning of a passage, “I think” would be a perfectly reasonable thing to say. Or if we move off the main point into the sub-sub-sub-points of the passage, we should also avoid confident bluster and bravado. Remember, the main points are the ones worth fighting for. And they are the points whose claws must never be pared.

Exodus Overview: Who is the LORD, That I Should Obey His Voice?

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We’ve considered the principles of Bible study in great detail. Now it’s time to put them into practice through a series of sample Bible studies in the book of Exodus. We begin with a book oveview.

While you could find many of the following points by reading a decent commentary or study Bible, you’ll have more fun—and the key points will have greater staying power in your life—if you glean them by simply reading and re-reading the book many times. To prepare this overview, I’ve consulted a few helpful sources. But I’ve spent most of my time reading Exodus 8 times in the last 3 months. I hope to read it 12 more times before the end of the year. Perhaps the repetition will lead me to change my mind at a few points.

Author

The New Testament regularly quotes or references the book of Exodus and attributes it to Moses (Mark 7:10, 12:26; Luke 20:37; John 6:32, 7:19; Rom 9:15; 2 Cor 3:13-15; Heb 7:14, 8:5, 9:19). We shall do the same.

Audience

After reading Exodus a few times, it becomes clear that the book focuses on the rescue and establishment of the people of Israel as a new nation before God. The book ends with the people at Mount Sinai, ready to move on to the land of promise. In addition, Exodus fits squarely within the flow of Exodus-through-Numbers. The book was clearly written to the Hebrews on their way to Canaan. It’s not clear, however, whether the book was “finished” for the first generation who came out of Egypt, or for the following generation. Numbers was clearly not finished until the second generation, since it reports the rebellion and death of the first generation. So Moses may have written Exodus a few decades earlier (possibly with Leviticus), for the first generation, or along with Numbers, for the second generation.

Occasion

Either way, the book of Exodus serves as a charter for this new nation. What does it mean to be not only a new sovereign state but the specially chosen people of God? When God remembers his covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, what will that mean for these frightened and fearful former slaves? And how do they know God won’t eventually abandon them?

Genre

Most of the book presents itself as historical narrative. The events that take place here will shape the nation for generations to come (such as, Ex 12:1-6). Yet this narrative has frequent sub-genres: speech, dialogue, miracle story, and law code.

About a third of the way through, we get a long poem (Ex 15:1-21). Perhaps this attention-grabbing shift signals a climax of some sort…?

Themes

Steve Day (2008), Creative Commons

Steve Day (2008), Creative Commons

Reading Exodus, you can’t miss the theme of rescue from slavery. The first part of the book (chapters 1-15) tells the story of the greatest rescue in Old Testament history. And that rescue casts a long shadow even on the laws that follow (for example, Ex 22:21).

And while we might think of Exodus as being primarily about the exodus from Egypt, that event covers less than half the book. We also see a significant chunk of laws (chapters 20-23) and tabernacle instructions/construction (chapters 25-31 and 35-40). So our summary of themes must do justice to all these major sections:

  • rescue from slavery
  • guidelines for living as God’s people
  • patterns for constructing God’s dwelling place

Interestingly, each of these three themes goes nowhere without the intercession of a mediator. God delivers the people through the hand of Moses. God issues his laws through Moses’ representation. And God passes his building instructions through the same human lips. If you happen to miss this idea early, you can no longer ignore it when the tabernacle instructions are repeated twice, in their entirety: Once in dialogue to Moses, and again as Moses’ underlings carry those instructions out.

Purpose Statements

Another thing to look for in a book overview is explicit statements of purpose from the author. In Exodus, such purpose statements abound, often placed on the lips of God.

To the Hebrews: “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians” (Ex 6:7).

Concerning the Egyptians: “The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring out the people of Israel from among them” (Ex 7:5).

To Pharaoh: “But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth” (Ex 9:16).

From Jethro, priest of Midian: “Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people” (Ex 18:11).

Regarding the tabernacle: “I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God” (Ex 29:45-46).

Beginning to end, Exodus portrays a God who wants all people and communities to know who he is and what he has done. This God wants an awareness that goes even beyond humans. He wants to take down rival deities as well. “For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD” (Ex 12:12).

Structure

The shifts in theme and genre are the literary clues we need to find the book’s structure.

  1. Narratives of deliverance – Ex 1-15
  2. Narratives of provision and preparation – Ex 16-18
  3. Legal instructions – Ex 19-24
  4. Construction instructions – Ex 25-40

Of course, that last section is shockingly interrupted with the Hebrew’s grievous sin with the golden calf (chapters 32-34). This incident suggests a larger shape for the second half of the book, as follows:

1. Covenant made – Ex 19-24

2. Tabernacle instructions – Ex 25-31

1′ Covenant broken and repaired – Ex 32-34

2′ Tabernacle constructed – Ex 35-40

Bringing these pieces together, we get the following big picture:

  1. Delivering from the house of slavery – Ex 1-15
  2. Preparing the house of Israel – Ex 16-18
  3. Constructing the house of God – Ex 19-40

Main Point

Connecting all the threads of occasion, genre, themes, purpose statements, and structure, we can state the main point of the book of Exodus in a single question:

“Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice?” –Pharaoh, king of Egypt (Ex 5:2).

Exodus unequivocally answers Pharaoh’s question in three parts: Who is Yahweh [in English Bibles, “LORD” in all caps], and why should you obey? He is the God who 1) demolishes the house of slavery, 2) prepares to rebuild, and 3) builds his house in the midst of his people.

Now we’re ready to dive into the details. This main point will guide us as we work our way through the book.

Click here to see what I’m doing with this sample Bible study and why I’m doing it.

One Very Good Reason to Read Your Bible

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Tim Challies writes of “One Very Good Reason to Read Your Bible.” And he’s absolutely right. This is about the best reason I can think of.

One of the great dangers in the Christian life is living first for self. One of the associated dangers, then, is seeing personal devotion as a practice that goes no further than my own mind, my own heart. But nothing could be farther from the truth. Your intimacy with God, your knowledge of God, your time with God, works its way outward to everyone around you. The good you can do them every day is the good of spending time with God.

Challies expands on how your daily Bible reading will benefit your spouse, your children, your neighbors, and your fellow church members. If you think you are not smart enough, or you are too busy—or if you ever struggle with finding the Bible too boring or Bible study too complicated—please lift your eyes off yourself and consider the good God would have you do for those around you. There is too much to lose if you don’t read your Bible.

Challies’s article is excellent and worth full consideration. Check it out!