Lessons From Exodus

Over the summer, I led our church through a sermon series in the book of Exodus.

It is a record full of stories many are familiar with but a book many of us don't know as well as we think we do. 

I enjoyed it, I think our people did too. I titled the series "Our Deliverer is Coming" with a hat-tip to the Rich Mullins song. I chose that title because of the undeniable correlations the Exodus story has with the life and work of Jesus. 

After finishing the book, I put together a message on "Christian Lessons from Exodus" (credit to Tremper Longman's overview commentary for the inspiration. And in this post I'd like to write on that kind of idea but share some lessons that I'm cherishing in a more personal way.

So, here's three takeaways that I learned and grew to appreciate having studied this great book.

1) Monotheism???

One aspect of studying the confrontation between Yahweh/Moses and Pharaoh/Egypt was an alteration of my understanding of the Bible's concept of "Monotheism". God doesn't assert his exclusive divinity in a way I've learned it in systematic theology. No when you read of God confronting Pharaoh through Moses in  Exodus 3-12, it is put in almost polytheistic terms. 

The 'gods' of Egypt help Pharoah's magicians imitate some of God's plagues in 7:22, 8:7, 8:18-19. 
And before the final plague, God declares his coming victory like this: 

“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both people and animals, and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord.  13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are, and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt." (Exodus 12:12-13)

Egypt certainly was worshipping supernatural powers of some (evil) sort. The Exodus was about establishing Yahweh's undeniable superiority over anything mankind could label a 'god'. 

This theme continues with the first of the Ten Commandments. Read them closely and you may be surprised at how God defines his own monotheism. Now, certainly we can deduce that no other powers deserve the title of "God" and I'm not here advocating for a polytheistic worldview. But I found it interesting how Scripture defines these things in these stories.

2) Sympathy for Israel

The problem with reading Exodus is that we let the rest of the Old Testament skew our perspective. I find myself having a greater sympathy for the ancient people of Israel after going through this book. The Golden Calf abomination of chapter 32 certainly is prescient of what unfolds throughout the rest of Scripture. But they also display corporate commitment and faith at a number of points (4:29-31, 12-13, 19, 24, 39:42-43). 

They were a people coming out of centuries of subjugation, abuse, and distress. They saw God powerfully work at numerous points and they follow God's leader - and that's to their credit, even if they were imperfect. 

3) The Beauty of Christ

There were so many instances in the Exodus story where we can't help but recognize the foreshadowing and precursors of Christ. 

• Moses stands as a deliverer who sets the stage for the Deliverer. 
• Israel's path of entering then leaving Egypt is symbolically followed by Christ in his early years (Matt. 2)
• The Law is fulfilled in Christ and he offers his own 'Law' via the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). 
• Jesus "tabernacled" among us, embodying God's presence with humanity in an even greater way than in Exodus (John 1:14 cf. Ex. 35-40)
• Jesus ultimately accomplished what the Law was only alluding to - full forgiveness and fellowship with God (Heb. 10:11-14)

There are certainly more I could list. If you read through Exodus and miss the connections to Christ, you have really missed the point.

Sermon Snippets: The Bible Says What?

A common critique of the Christian faith in general and Scripture specifically is that Christians pick and choose what they want to believe and obey and what they don't. 

"You believe _____________ is a sin, but don't condemn wearing clothes of mixed fabrics as Leviticus 19:19 prohibits."

It is an oft-used "gotcha" by non-believers to point out our obvious and blatant hypocrisy.

Except it is an argument that doesn't hold water.

Almost every example critics use in their "gotcha's" comes from the Old Testament Law. And upon closer inspection, both the context of the Law and the content of the laws themselves reveals that we are not being hypocritically selective in what rules we follow and what rules we ignore.

The context of the Law reminds us that God gave Israel these commands to abide by after He freed them from 400 years of slavery in Egypt. The Law was meant to give them a national identity as they lived before Him, holy and set apart from their middle eastern neighbors. The broader Biblical context of the Law is also instructive. The Law is no longer determinative for those who follow Christ (Galatians 3). Jesus himself fulfilled the Law and becomes the true interpreter of the Law, able to define what continues to apply and what no longer has bearing on us (Matthew 5:17-48).

The content of the laws themselves is also important. While we aren't given every purpose, reason, or cultural backdrop behind these commands - we see the Israelites were repeatedly told to do these things to "be holy" (Lev. 11:44-45, 19:2, 20:7,26, 21:8). And we also do know enough about their cultural background to know that many of their dietary restrictions and things like tattoo prohibitions were about avoiding the behaviors of pagan religious rituals of the nations around them.

Most of those realities are different for us 3,500 years later. Holiness still matters (1 Peter 1:16) but how it is lived out has changed. Thankfully we can eat bacon and lobster now because God has instituted the New Covenant to replace the Old Covenant that was founded on the Law (Acts 10:9-16). 

So yes, I probably do believe ____________ is wrong because the Bible says so and I am probably wearing clothing with mixed fabrics. But that doesn't make me a hypocrite. It makes me an informed follower of Jesus and astute student of Scripture.

For further reading on this, much of the above is indebted to Dan Kimball's recent book, How (Not) To Read the Bible (Zondervan 2020).