The 10 Most Important Points from the Book of Exodus

I’ve worn any number of hats in my life as a church lady, but by far my favorite role has been Sunday school teacher in the women’s class. Together, we’ve plowed through everything from Nehemiah to the Psalms of Ascent, usually without a curriculum, instead using a kind of dead-reckoning that has allowed us to meander at our own pace.

The ages and stages represented in the class have varied over the years–as has my own age and stage– so last year, with a new diagnosis to absorb and lots of (delightful) family commitments in the air, I decided to use a guide for our study of the book of Exodus. Jen Wilkin’s God of Deliverance covered Exodus 1-18, taking us out of Egypt and to the base of Mount Sinai. God of Freedom picked up the journey with an in-depth look at the 10 Commandments and finished the book.

Like anyone who has done time in a pew, my students and I had “learned” the book of Exodus. We knew about the Passover and the Golden Calf. Some of us had flannelgraph evidence for the color of Moses’s robe when he stood before the burning bush.

However, to our surprise, there were treasures in the story of God’s deliverance of his people that point directly to our own deliverance. We dove into the cubits and curtain rods with renewed interest because Wilkin’s own study highlighted the Tabernacle and its contents as shadows of truth about Christ, “the one who chooses to tabernacle among us in a tent of flesh.”

The “familiar” stories we love and think we know well are more than simply fables for Sunday school life lessons. Rightly understood, they deepen our understanding of the Gospel and shine clarifying light on our reading of the New Testament. With that in mind, I’m going to share some highlights of our journey in hopes of whetting your appetite for further study of Exodus–and of the entire Pentateuch!

God of Deliverance and God of Freedom by @jenniferwilkin uncover the treasures in the book of Exodus that point directly to our own deliverance. @Lifeway @LifewayWomen

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Lessons from the Exodus

1. Before Moses became Israel’s deliverer, he was himself delivered through the care and faithfulness of at least five women.

Jochebed, his mother, and Miriam, his sister, set him adrift on the Nile. Pharoah’s daughter finds and adopts him, but even before this, Shiprah and Puah, two Hebrew midwives defy Pharaoh’s decree of death to boy infants because they feared God more than they feared Pharaoh (who, incidentally, is never named in the account other than by his title).

God works through even the most humble servant, wholly available to him. What small, unseen work are you called to do?

2. It is enlightening to read Exodus as a birth narrative in which God’s people are delivered from the small, cramped condition of slavery and into a broad and flourishing life.

They come through blood (Passover) and water (The Red Sea) through the work of their Divine Midwife. The first nine plagues were nine birth pangs with number ten being the final push. The newborn nation of Israel is then subject to growing pains, often rebelling against their Father.

Do you walk around every day in the knowledge of your costly freedom in Christ?

3. Moses’s ministry prefigures the ministry of Jesus, the true and better Deliverer.

God equipped Moses with signs to display God’s power over the natural order, over disease, and over life and death itself. Reading ahead into the New Testament, from the very beginning of his ministry, Jesus’s miracles and healings are expansions of the same glorious view of God’s sovereignty and omnipotence.

How does knowledge of God’s sovereignty and his goodness impact on the way you see your life at this moment in time?

4. Every single plague against Egypt was a direct hit to a member of Egypt’s pantheon of false gods.

Ironically, the plagues are an act of mercy, an opportunity for repentance. Rest assured, if you are his child, God will topple all your idols.

The plagues also symbolized a de-creation of Egypt. Left in ruins after the disordering of water, sky, and land, the final plague leaves the nation in darkness. Finally, the “spirit” that hovered over the homes of non-Israelite families brought death instead of life.

Looking back over your own personal Exodus, what idols did God topple in order to show his power and his pursuit of your heart?

5. Even in his direction and provision through the Wilderness, God is preparing his people for life in the Promised Land.

As an enslaved nation, Israel had no prior experience with managing surplus or the practice of rest. The command to gather only what is needed, to allow one person’s surplus to meet another person’s need, and to refrain from gathering manna on the Sabbath, trusting that God would continue to provide–these lessons would have been a steep learning curve for newly freed people who had survived by the labor of their hands.

What wrong beliefs about your own efforts rob you of the rest God commands and graciously provides?

Lessons from the Wilderness

6. God’s holiness is nothing to be trifled with!

God’s visible and audible presence with the people of Israel doesn’t provide much warm and fuzzy comfort, and it’s not intended to. Three days of preparation are required (Exodus 19:10-15) to consecrate the people for their first-ever congregational gathering. Fire on the mountain and a voice of thunder tutor God’s people in their consideration of just exactly “who may ascend the hill of the Lord.”

Does God no longer care how we approach him because of the blood of Christ? Are we ever too casual?

7. The unifying theme of the Ten Commandments is authority

God’s Ten Words to his people highlight God’s unique authority, the authority of parents, and the relational boundaries that make for peaceful flourishing. Every single “one another” in the New Testament can be traced back to one of the Ten Commandments.

What (or whom?) is your greatest challenge in God’s “as much as it lies with you, live peaceably with all men” commandment from the New Testament?

8. The Ten Commandments call believers to an expansive obedience reminiscent of Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount

In our following life, 80% is not a “passing score.” In other words, God has not called us to be merely “not-murderers,” but rather lovers and protectors of life. As Jesus said, adultery happens first in the brain. A right understanding of rules will enable right relationships with God, with family, and with the world around us.

Expand your understanding of the commandments by rewriting the “do” commandments as “don’t” and the “do not” commandments as “do.” How does this help?

9. God’s instructions for the Tabernacle are intended to create an image of home.

Furnishings, food, and a beautiful light source all point toward God’s intention to dwell with his people. The symbolic importance of every item described points toward Christ and his redemptive work and his intercession for believers. Sadly, the average Israelite would never see the deepest and most beautiful parts of the Tabernacle unless they were there for set up or dismantling.

By contrast, we have amazing access to God, for we ARE his tabernacles now, and the lampstand of his Life shines through us with a perpetual light. How are you actively tending your tent so others will bear witness to God’s presence in you?

10. Israel’s jarring descent into idolatry with the golden calf incident demonstrates our own, present-day vulnerability.

For all of us outside the Garden, slavery is more intuitive to us than freedom. Thanks be to God, Christ is our true and better Mediator, and we have Scripture as a “Tent of Meeting” where we may behold the LORD on a daily basis. In Israel’s disobedience, we come full circle to the glorious truth that the purpose of our Exodus is not a destination but a person.

What do you think would happen if you made the commitment to fix your gaze on the testimony of who God is? Will you pray, “Lord, show me your glory!” every day?

Holding You in the Light,

So, you think you “know” the book of Exodus? I’m sharing the ten most important points I gleaned from my most recent study of this record of God’s deliverance.

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