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The Continuity of the Bible

Adult Class

Winter 2005/2006

Lesson 6: The Exodus and the Promises

 

            As we have looked across the early part of the Bible, God has intervened in the world in amazing ways. He has put into motion the redemptive plan that He had before the creation of the world and He has offered assurances to humanity through a series of promises and covenants. By the time of the Exodus, the promises to the descendants of Abraham are adding up.

            Some of these promises had been fulfilled, some were in the process of fulfillment, some were for the distant future and some were for the near future. All of them were important to God's plan for the redemption and salvation of all humanity.

            The book of Exodus opens with the story of Moses and God's interaction with him. When God chooses to speak to Moses, He speaks of "my people" (Exodus 3:10). Although 400 years had passed since the time of Abraham, God had not forgotten His promises or His plan. Enough time had passed and it was now time for His people to come back to their own land.

            In Exodus 19:5, God offered the people a covenant and in verse 8 they accepted it and declared they would keep God's word. In Exodus 24, the covenant ceremony took place when Moses showered the people with blood to consecrate them in a very special way. It was the "blood of the covenant" (Exodus 24:8), and it was understood to be the signal moment of acceptance and ratification of the covenant with God. Jesus used the same kind of language in instituting the Lord's Supper in Matthew 26:27-28.

            The rest of the Exodus books continue the discussion and explanation of the covenant with all its holiness features. A holy Tabernacle was built that was staffed by a specially selected priesthood. The entire book of Leviticus is called a "holiness code."  The promise of the land was repeated to Moses just before his death (Deuteronomy 34:1-4), but it remained for Joshua to subdue and divide the land.

            The people entered the Promised Land in Joshua, and the covenant was ratified and observed in Joshua 5 with the mass circumcision of the men and the observance of the Passover by all. The covenant was again ratified in Joshua 8:30-35. By Joshua 11:23, the land had been taken for all practical purposes. And the declaration is made in Joshua 21:43-45 that all God's promises in the Exodus had been fulfilled. Joshua himself made it explicit in Joshua 23:14.

            The Exodus was the watershed event for the people of Israel. In that event they became a separate nation, with a culture and a legal system and a territory. It was from that nation that God continued His redemptive work.

            The similarities between the Exodus event and the redemptive work of Christ are powerful and humbling:

  1. God chose for Himself a people for His own possession. Consult 1 Peter 2:9-10 for the New Testament corollary to that action.
  2. God drew His people out of an existing nation by means of a demonstration of great power. Both Deuteronomy 4:32-35 and Revelation 5:9 point out God's ability to take for Himself one people out of another people.
  3. God gave His people a covenant and a holy way of life. Deuteronomy 10:12-13 along with 12:32 and Hebrews 9:15 point out the need for a new way of life under the covenant with God.
  4. God fulfilled His promise of a future blessed state for His people. This is clearly fulfilled in the conquest and settling of the Promised Land for the Israelites. This is yet to be established for New Testament Christians, yet the promise still stands (Hebrews 9:27-28).

            The Exodus was the demonstration of God's dramatic care for His people in order to bring about His plan in Jesus Christ. It was not an end in itself; it was an important step in the progression of His plan. Genesis through Joshua aims at the cross of Christ. It is only from our perspective that we can see this clearly.