Exodus

Redemption by the blood of the lamb: God delivers Israel from bondage and brings the nation to Himself.

Exodus begins where Genesis leaves off. Jacob’s family has become a multitude, a new Pharaoh has forgotten Joseph, and the chosen people are slaves making bricks for a cruel taskmaster. Into that darkness God sends a deliverer, reveals His name, breaks the power of Egypt with ten plagues, and redeems Israel on the night of the Passover.

Redemption is only the beginning. The same God who brought Israel out of Egypt brings them to Sinai, gives them His Law, and provides a tabernacle so that He might dwell among them. The book therefore moves from slavery to salvation to service—from a people who worked for Pharaoh to a people who worship the LORD.

No book in the Old Testament pictures New Testament salvation more clearly. The slave cannot free himself; deliverance comes by the direct intervention of God, through a mediator, and only under the shelter of the blood. Paul can simply say, “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Writer: Moses
Written: About 1491–1451 BC, during Moses’ wilderness ministry.
Name: Going out; departure

Title and authorship

The Hebrew title, Veelleh shemoth, “And these are the names,” comes from the opening words. The English title comes from the Greek exodos, “a going out” or “departure,” the word Luke uses when Moses and Elias speak of the “decease” (exodos) Christ would accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). It is the Second Book of Moses.

Moses is the author. Exodus records that he wrote the words of the LORD (17:14; 24:4; 34:27), and the Lord Jesus quoted it as “the book of Moses” (Mark 12:26). Its many Egyptian terms and details fit an author trained in Pharaoh’s court.

Historical background

Egypt’s land of Goshen, the wilderness of Sinai, and the mountain of God. The Pharaoh of the oppression is never named, as was customary in Egyptian usage of the title during this period.

Israel, the redeemed nation, being taught its redemption, its Law, and the pattern of acceptable worship.

Israel in Egypt

Exodus 12:40 counts 430 years for the sojourning of the children of Israel; Paul measures the same span from the promise to Abraham to the Law (Galatians 3:17). On that reckoning Israel spent about 215 years in Egypt itself, and the Exodus occurred about 1491 BC in the traditional chronology.

The plagues and Egypt’s gods

Each plague struck at something Egypt worshiped or trusted: the Nile, frogs, livestock, the sun, and finally Pharaoh’s own firstborn, the heir of a ruler regarded as divine. “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD” (12:12).

Sinai and the tabernacle

Israel camped at Sinai for about eleven months (Exodus 19:1; Numbers 10:11). During that time the Law was given, the covenant ratified with blood (24:8), and the tabernacle built exactly according to the pattern shown to Moses on the mount, being reared up on the first day of the second year (40:17).

Key passages

Exodus 12:13

“When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Safety depended not on the character of the household but on the blood applied to the door.

Exodus 12:23

The LORD Himself passes through to smite Egypt and will not suffer the destroyer to enter a house marked by blood.

Exodus 19:5–6

Israel is offered the place of a “peculiar treasure,” “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation”—the national calling that the Law defined.

Exodus 25:8

The sanctuary expresses God’s purpose to dwell among his people.

Outline

1–6 · Bondage and the deliverer

Israel suffers under Egypt; Moses is preserved, called, and sent back to Pharaoh.

7–15 · Judgment and redemption

The plagues, Passover, departure, and Red Sea deliverance reveal the Lord’s power.

16–24 · Provision and covenant

Manna, water, conflict, wise counsel, and the law train the redeemed nation.

25–40 · The tabernacle and worship

Instructions, priesthood, Israel’s failure, covenant renewal, and construction lead to the Lord’s glory filling the tabernacle.

Original language

פֶּסַח (pesach, H6453) — “passover”

From the verb pasach (H6452), to pass or leap over, and so to spare. The LORD passes over the house where the blood is displayed. The Greek pascha carries the word into the New Testament.

גָּאַל (ga’al, H1350) — “redeem”

The kinsman-redeemer’s verb: to buy back, avenge, or restore a relative’s lost property or freedom. God speaks as Israel’s next of kin: “I will redeem you with a stretched out arm” (6:6).

אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (ehyeh asher ehyeh, H1961) — “I AM THAT I AM”

From hayah, to be. God reveals Himself as the self-existent, unchanging One. The covenant name יְהוָה (H3068), printed LORD in capitals, is related to it. Christ’s “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58) claims this identity.

מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan, H4908) — “tabernacle”

Literally “dwelling place,” from shakan (H7931), to dwell. The purpose of the tabernacle is stated plainly: “that I may dwell among them” (25:8). John writes that the Word “dwelt (tabernacled) among us” (John 1:14).

כַּפֹּרֶת (kapporeth, H3727) — “mercy seat”

The lid of the ark, from kaphar, to cover or make atonement. The Greek Old Testament rendered it hilasterion, the word Paul uses in Romans 3:25 when he calls Christ a “propitiation.”

Doctrinal study

Redemption is by blood alone

Israel was not spared because it was more righteous than Egypt. The destroyer passed over every house marked by the blood of an unblemished lamb, slain and applied as God commanded. The New Testament applies this directly: “ye were not redeemed with corruptible things... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19).

The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart

Exodus says three things: Pharaoh hardened his own heart (8:15, 32), his heart was hardened (7:13–14), and God hardened his heart (4:21; 9:12). God foreknew Pharaoh’s response (3:19) and confirmed him in the course he chose. The same sun that softens wax hardens clay; the difference lies in the vessel (Romans 9:17–18; 2:4–5).

Law as a covenant with Israel

The Law was given to a redeemed nation, not as a means of redemption. Israel answered, “All that the LORD hath spoken we will do” (19:8), placing the nation under a conditional covenant. Paul explains that the Law was “added because of transgressions, till the seed should come” (Galatians 3:19); it served as a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ.

Commentary notes

Seven truths about redemption

The unsaved man is a slave to a fierce master; freedom requires the direct, supernatural intervention of God; God uses men and their message to deliver the slave; deliverance is by blood only; once redeemed there can be no compromise with Egypt; redemption begins a life of trials; and God’s standard of holiness is absolute.

Pharaoh’s four compromises

Pharaoh offered to let Israel sacrifice “in the land” (8:25), “not very far away” (8:28), with the men only (10:11), and without their flocks (10:24). Moses refused each one. The world still offers the believer a religion that stays within its borders.

The tabernacle as a sermon

The brasen altar speaks of judgment on sin, the laver of daily cleansing by the word, the shewbread of provision, the candlestick of the Spirit’s light, the golden altar of prayer, and the ark and mercy seat of God’s presence. The mercy seat stood at the height of the altar’s grate: no one could look toward God’s presence without looking through the sacrifice.

Christ in the book

  • Moses — the prophet like unto him, rejected at first and received the second time (Acts 7:35–37)
  • The Passover lamb — “Christ our passover” (1 Corinthians 5:7)
  • The manna — “I am the bread of life” (John 6:48–51)
  • The smitten rock — “that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4)
  • Aaron the high priest — anointed, robed, and bearing the names of the tribes on his heart (Hebrews 5:4–5)
  • The tabernacle and its furniture — God dwelling among men (John 1:14; Hebrews 9:11)
  • The veil — His flesh, rent to open the way into the holiest (Hebrews 10:19–20)

Applications

Historical

  • The redemption of the nation of Israel through the Passover lamb, from bondage in Egypt toward the Promised Land, and the establishment of the covenant, the Law, the priesthood, and the tabernacle.
  • The Lord supernaturally delivers Israel from Pharaoh’s power in fulfillment of his promise to Abraham’s descendants.
  • Israel receives the law and the tabernacle instructions after deliverance from Egypt. Redemption precedes the nation’s consecration, instruction, and service.

Doctrinal

  • Exodus also looks forward to Israel’s final deliverance. The plagues of Egypt reappear in the trumpet and vial judgments of Revelation, and God’s protection of His people in Goshen anticipates His care for the remnant during the Tribulation, when they will again be delivered from a world ruler and led into their inheritance.
  • The Passover lamb anticipates Christ’s sacrifice. Manna, the smitten rock, the priesthood, and the tabernacle supply further pictures developed in the New Testament.
  • Israel’s deliverance also forms a prophetic pattern of God’s future rescue and restoration of his people from hostile world power.

Devotional

  • The believer’s redemption through the blood of Christ: from bondage in sin to freedom and a new life. Redemption leads to sanctification (13:2), and the wilderness that follows teaches dependence on God’s daily provision.
  • Israel’s experience teaches the redeemed person to trust God for daily provision and to resist the desire to return to the former life.
  • Moses’ dependence, Jethro’s counsel, and the shared labor of building teach prayer, wise delegation, and purposeful service.

Answering the critics

Many scholars deny Mosaic authorship, treating Exodus as a later priestly compilation, and dismiss the plagues and the Red Sea crossing as folklore.

Exodus itself says Moses wrote (24:4), and Christ affirmed it (Mark 12:26; Luke 20:37). The author uses more Egyptian terms than any other Old Testament writer and employs the title “Pharaoh” without a personal name, the practice of that era rather than of a later scribe. The events mesh historically, doctrinally, and typologically with the whole Bible, and the New Testament builds its doctrine of redemption on them as fact.