The Theme of Exodus Part 1
The primary topic and meaning of Exodus is redemption. The events in Exodus really did happen. But it is more than just history. What happened to them physically happens to us spiritually. The Bible tells us that we are to learn from these events.
1Co 10:9 Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents.
1Co 10:10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.
This is clearly a reference to the first few books of the Bible.
1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
These things were recorded for our example and our admonition.
Rom 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
We are clearly to learn more than just history from the Old Testament. We are to learn spiritual truths.
The first thing that I want us to look at is the condition of the children of Israel at the start of Exodus. Let’s look at them before they are redeemed from bondage by God.
Exo 1:13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour:
Exo 1:14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, [was] with rigour.
They are under taskmasters and they are afflicted.
In the Bible, Egypt is a type of the world and Pharaoh is a type of Satan. And he is a cruel taskmaster. They were serving pharaoh and all they got for it was affliction.
The lost person is also in bondage by the cruel taskmaster Satan and in the end all they will get is affliction.
Joh 8:44 Ye are of [your] father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
And the Israelites were serving the Egyptian Gods, they were doing the lusts of their father the devil.
Eze 20:6 In the day [that] I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which [is] the glory of all lands:
Eze 20:7 Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I [am] the LORD your God.
Eze 20:8 But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.
God says that they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. They did not cast them away. Now you cannot cast something away unless you have it. And you cannot forsake something unless you are partaking in it.
Jos 24:14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.
The Israelites were serving the gods of Egypt. They were sinners in bondage serving false gods.
And their minds were blinded by the god of this world.
2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Their condition is a picture of a lost man before salvation. They are serving someone who could care less about them. In fact they are serving someone who wants to do them harm. They are in bondage with no way to escape on their own. That is the state of a lost person.
Then Moses comes with signs from God. Moses is one of the great types of Christ in the Bible.
Moses was given a rod by God. This sign was to show that Moses (a type of Christ) is able to deal with the serpent (a type of the devil). Moses could make it a serpent and then a rod as he saw fit. Moses had power over it.
The Rod also typified Jesus. Jesus is called the Rod of God in Psalm 110:2. The rod was cast down. Jesus came down to earth. The rod became a serpent. In what way did this picture Jesus? A serpent is a picture of sin and Jesus was made to be sin for us.
Jesus took our sin. Jesus literally bore our sin in His own body on the cross.
The rod was then picked up and was returned to its former state. After Jesus was made sin for us he was lifted up and returned to his former glory.
The second sign was the hand turning to leprosy. Leprosy is a type of sin. The Lord tells him to put his hand into his bosom (next to his heart) and when he took it out it was leprous. This shows that mans heart is wicked.
Jer 17:9 The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?
God tells him to put his hand into his bosom again and when he took it out it was normal. It was restored. It was the heart that affected the hand and not the hand that affects the heart.
With the heart man believeth unto righteousness. It is the heart; it is faith that cleanses and not the work of the hands. The first sign showed that the great deliverer would destroy the works of Satan and the second sign showed that He would take away our sin.
The Third sign that Moses was given was the water turning to blood. This sign tells of the consequence of refusing to believe the first two signs. The water turned to blood speaks of life giving place to death.
And this is true today. All those who refuse to believe that Jesus is God who became incarnate and who took our sin and died to pay our sin debt and then rose again all they have to look forward to is eternal death. If you reject eternal life that is given freely in Jesus then what you have is eternal death.
Moses then goes and tells Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go.
Before God deals in judgment he deals in grace. Before God brought the flood he sent Noah to warn and preach to them. Before God destroyed Jerusalem, he sent his own son followed by the apostles, and so it is today. God is dealing with us in grace and long-suffering sending his servants bidding men to flee from the wrath and judgment to come.
God is giving Pharaoh a chance to get saved and do right. Pharaoh’s response is who is the Lord? I do not know him. He refuses to let them go. Not only does Pharaoh not know the Lord, but he did not want to know the Lord. Pharaoh had a free will to choose and he chose to harden his own heart. It is true that the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart but Pharaoh hardened his own heart first.
God is not willing that any should perish and that would include Pharaoh. However, Romans 1:28 tells us that those who “did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind?” This is what happened to Pharaoh. He was given over to a reprobate mind.
Pharaoh responds by increasing the burden to the Hebrews by no longer giving them straw to make bricks.
When Satan first recognizes the first advances of the Holy Spirit towards a sinner he puts forth every effort to retain his victims. He will do everything that he can to hinder the deliverance of his people. The people had to scatter throughout the land of Egypt to gather stubble to make bricks. He increased their occupation with material things to try to expel all desires of God from their heart. Satan still operates this way today; he will put up a fight to keep a sinner in bondage.
The taskmasters beat the children of Israel for not fulfilling their quota of bricks.
Instead of turning to God the officers of the Israelites cry to Pharaoh. They did not go to God but instead they go to the god of this world. The pleading to Pharaoh does them no good. Going to the world for deliverance will never accomplish anything.
When they see Moses and Aaron they accuse them of making them to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh. These were God’s preachers delivering God’s word. Afflicted sinners under the burdens of sin will also attack God’s preachers today. This is to be expected.
God tells Moses that He will deliver them and then He tells Moses the reason that he will do this. It is because He made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was all based on what God would do. It was an unconditional covenant that God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was not dependent on anything that they did. They did not have to do anything to earn it and they did not have to do anything to keep it.
God instructs Moses to tell the children of Israel that He will bring them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and that He will redeem them, that He will do it with great judgments, and that he will take them to the Promised Land.
It is the same with us today.
God would not only give them relief from their burdens, but he was also going to get them out of the land of bondage. This is God’s way. When a sinner gets saved he is removed from the bondage of sin but God does not want to stop there, he also wants to remove us from the world.
He would have us as a pilgrim in the wilderness in communion with Him and not sitting in the fleshpots of the world.
Moses tells this to the children of Israel but they would not hearken to him because of the cruel bondage. They were a picture of the lost people around us. They were groaning in cruel bondage and ignorant of the grace, which God has in store for them, and they were unable to value the promises of God.
While in bondage to Satan the promises of God fail to bring any relief. Relief never comes until the shed blood of the lamb is applied.
After the first 3 plagues that showed the Rod coming down and defeating the worlds serpent and then being raise and restored and the plague that showed the heart of man is sinful and the plague that showed life turning to death then comes all of the other plagues, which were an attack on the gods of Egypt.
We will not take the time to go thru all of the plagues, but I quickly want to mention the frogs.
The Egyptians worshiped frogs and the frogs invaded their land. Pharaoh’s magicians also bring frogs upon the land. The magicians could bring frogs but they could not make them go away. Satan’s ministers could only bring more evil upon them.
Only God can bring deliverance.
Then we have the final plague. And to escape this judgment they had to kill an innocent lamb.
The Bible says that the whole congregation was to kill it singular even though thousands of lambs were killed that night. This is because they all represented the one Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world.
They were all a picture of Jesus.
But it was not enough to kill the lamb, the blood had to be applied. A savior provided is not enough to save us, we must apply it personally. The death angel would only pass over if he saw the blood.
And eternal death will only pass over us if God sees that the blood has been applied to the door posts of our heart.
Only once was the Passover blood needed to escape the death angel, all the other Passovers were held as a memorial. Only once do we need to apply the blood to be saved from hell.
Moses says to the people that they are to remember this day and how the Lord brought you out by his strength. They were saved by His strength and not by anything that they did. We are saved by grace and not of works.
The Israelites travel to the Red Sea and a pillar of cloud moves to behind them and separates them from the Egyptians.
The cloud typified the Holy Spirit in many ways. The cloud was not given to Israel until they had been delivered from Egypt. The order was first the slaying of the lamb then the giving of the cloud. First Jesus died then the Holy Spirit came. First a sinner must appropriate by faith the death of Christ and then the coming of the Holy Spirit indwells that soul.
The cloud was a gift. The people did not ask for the cloud. The Holy Spirit was given as a gift. The cloud was given to guide Israel; the Holy Spirit was given to guide us. God spoke from the cloud. The Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts. Even with all their failings the cloud never left them in the wilderness. The Holy Spirit will not leave the redeemed (John 14:16).
After Moses and the children of Israel get across the Red Sea they sing a song unto the Lord. This is the first song recorded in scripture. Moses says that he will sing because the Lord has triumphed gloriously. He sings, the Lord is his strength, song, and salvation.
Not only did they sing to the Lord, but they sang about Him. The song was all about God and nothing about themselves The word Lord occurs 12 times in this song and pronouns referring to God are found 33 times. It was a song of redemption and redemption is all about God.
It is fitting that the first song in scripture is a song of redemption and that it proceeded from the hearts of a redeemed people. Only the redeemed can really praise God.
After they are in the wilderness the theme of redemption continues with the tree that cures the bitter water, the smitten Rock that gave the water of life. And in 1 Cor. 10:1-4 we are told that that Rock was Christ.
Then comes the giving of the Ten Commandments that show that man cannot redeem himself.
And then come all the instructions on how to build the tabernacle. The Tabernacle and everything in it speaks and points to Christ. The Tabernacle’s theme is the redemptive work of Christ. How fitting it is that the instructions for the tabernacle are placed in the book whose theme is redemption.
The major theme of Exodus is redemption.
The book started with showing us what it is like before redemption. The people were in bondage under a cruel taskmaster.
Then men of God came with the message of God. To get redeemed you must hear the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Then the people applied the blood of the Lamb by faith and the death angel passed over them. They believed what God said and acted on it in faith. That is the same way that we are redeemed.
After they were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, then God brings them out of the world and delivered them from the power of Pharaoh who is a type of Satan.
They were no longer Pharaoh’s property. And once we are saved we are no longer the children of wrath, but sons.
After they are redeemed we find them singing, praising God. Only a redeemed people can really praise God.
Then we have the giving of the Ten Commandments, which shows that man cannot redeem himself.
And then comes all of the instructions of the tabernacle, which all points to the redemptive work of Christ.
The theme of Exodus is redemption.
See more Themes from Old Testament Books