Notes and Outline on
the Book of Exodus
Outline by Dr. Terence E.
Fretheim
Professor Dr. Donald
Fowler
Notes taken by Jesse A.
Griffin
Introduction
Authorship
Moses
The text claims that Moses is the
author
The historical materials are
clearly Mosaic as well
It may very well have been
edited, but there is no possible way to know
Theme
The major theme is not the Exodus
The real title of the book is
“These are the Names of”
This is steering in a
theological direction bigger than just the Exodus
We are going to learn the
theology of Exodus, not the history
The Exodus title came from the
Septuagint
This title reminds us of God’s
promises to Abraham
A main theme of Genesis is God
keeping His promises to Abraham
Genesis closes with a reminder
that the promise of land is still distant
This original title ties it back
to Genesis and God’s promises
Major theme: God is present with
Israel
Literary Envelopes
Genesis 17:1-8 comprises the whole
OT story
The Abrahamic covenant is
fulfilled:
The Mosaic covenant fulfills the
land promise
The Davidic covenant fulfills
the progeny promise
The New Covenant fulfills the
blessing to the nations covenant
There must be a system that
accepts discontinuity where there genuinely is differences, but we
must highlight continuity between the covenants where it exists
The Old Covenant is with a
specific nation, the New Covenant is not limited to a people, it is
for all nations
There are aspects of the OC that
reappear in the NC
All the covenants work together
to create a complete picture, a plan that God is fulfilling
They are moving us toward a
reunion, the redemption
Wherever there is promise, there
is threat to the promise
End of Genesis – Joseph died
and the 70 with him and they are in the wrong land!
Beginning of Exodus –
Israelites fruitful and multiply
All throughout the OT this
pattern is continued
God conquers all threats
We will be studying Pharaoh’s
incarnational evil
When did the Exodus occur?
Growth and Bondage in Egypt -
Ch. 1-2
Chapter 1:7 – brings us back to
Genesis creation language
Four of the verbs in this verse
come from the Genesis account
The original command to be
fruitful and multiply is applied directly to the Israelites
God is able to keep His promises
Verse 8 – Pharaoh embodies all
the chaos and evil because he has no name
He is the incarnation of the
threats to God’s promises
He is the antithesis of God who
does not have a specific name yet – eventually Yahweh
It is hard to believe that there
was a Pharaoh who did not know who Joseph was
The Egyptians kept careful
records of all rulers and leaders
Odds are he did not forget
yadah becomes a covenant
word when it does not mean “to know” in the technical sense
Thus, Pharaoh refused to honor
the covenant that was made with Joseph and his descendents
It is thought that this was one
of the early 18th dynasty Pharaoh’s who expelled the
Hyksos
hega koswe (Egyptian) –
kings of foreign lands
They were of Amorite descent
They ruled in Northern Egypt
They were a powerful opponent
of the Egyptians
Egyptians were of
Mediterranean descent, short and sleek
The Hyksos were much larger,
stronger, and had weapons of war – composite bow
This Pharaoh that came to power
was probably from the Egyptians and hated the Hyksos and the
Israelites (i.e. the Semites)
From Joseph’s death to now is
about 3.5 - 4 centuries
Verse 9 – Exaggeration
At the most there were 2.5
million Israelites
The Egyptians clearly
outnumbered them
Pharaoh needs an excuse to make
a large workforce
Fully 90% of Egyptian land was
owned by temples
Pharaoh sees this as an
opportunity to establish a greater power by harnessing the
Israelites
Akhenaton (a Pharaoh to soon
follow) clearly tried to reject the power of the Priests – he
failed however
Pharaoh recognizes that these
people are a people, the Israelites before they recognize
themselves as a people group
Leitwort – leading word
Characteristic of Hebrew
narrative
Major vehicles for communicating
theological emphasis
Cannot find in most English
translations – NASB or ESV are the best for studying the Bible
yadah – to know; this
word almost always carries with it covenant connotations
Verse 10
Wisely/shrewdly – only used
here in the whole OT – significant of the unique theologically
situation
Pharaoh’s attempt to be in
control of God’s people results in the loss of the people
noseph – join
themselves; rhymes with Joseph
Pharaoh’s shrewdness is the
agency for prompting Israel to go up to the Promise Land
Verse 11
“hard labor” – same word
Solomon uses to force the Israelites to serve the royal interests
“Ramses”
Was used much earlier than the
13th century
The city was being built before
the birth of Moses
It is also a storage city not a
capital city
Not a reference to Ramses II
Verse 12
God’s will is being done in
unobtrusive ways
God is doing what He normally
does – He uses human beings to accomplish His will
Pharaoh is assuming the role of
“decreator”
God will soon become an
interventionists
rabah – “multiplied”
– evidence that God is still fulfilling His promise to Abraham
peats – “spread out”
Birth episode in Genesis 38
Micah 2:13 it is used of Christ
– foreshadow of the one who will spread out for them, Christ
Dread of Egyptians
A logical response to their
dread would be to send the Israelites out of the land
This dread is from God
Verses 13-14
Sophisticated chiasm around the
word “serve”
“Serve” – ‘ebed –
leitwort – Chapter 2:11, 13, 17
In forcing the Israelites to
serve in this capacity Pharaoh is acting as the “decreator”
Adam and Eve were created to
serve the land
Pharaoh is forcing the
Israelites to serve him, not the land
The ability to work is a gift
from God
By Pharaoh forcing them to work
nonstop he is violating the creation order law of resting on the
Sabbath
This word has creational
overtones
Used over 70 times in Exodus
“Mortar and bricks” –
reminiscent of the Tower of Babel
Verse 15-22 – passage is
dripping with irony
Echoes of Genesis 1–2
The Creator God can assist
Hebrew women in birth in order to foil the decreator’s plan
“Be fruitful and multiply”
Echoes of Genesis 6
Throwing all babies into the
Nile similar to the flood
God sent the flood because of
violence and polygamy
God decreates in Genesis 6
based on justice
Pharaoh assumes God’s role as
decreator based on injustice
God continues His plan through
Hebrew midwives who fear Him and not Pharaoh
The midwives serve as a model
for Israel and all people
One theme of the Bible is
fearing the Lord
Central theme of Proverbs –
fear the Creator God
Contrast of males and females
may go back to the “sons of God” having relations with the
daughters of Eve
It was a cultural plus to be
able to outwit the one who was in power – i.e. God works through
the Hebrew culture and uses midwives to “outshrewd” the
alleged shrewd Pharaoh
Theme of the first chapter
Successful multiplying
Last word – “to keep alive”
Sets the foundation for the
book: life will triumphant over death
God’s work in Chapter 1 is
thoroughly unobtrusive
In chapter 2 God will begin
raising up a counterpart to Pharaoh; Israel’s first king
Chapter 2:1-3
“beautiful” – tob
Clearly echoes Genesis 1, 2
Creation is good; very good
There is always a threat, here
it is Pharaoh
“wicker basket” – tub
Same word as “ark” in
Genesis 6
The mother is acting on behalf
of God
The floating ark preserves Noah
and his family; the ark floating on the Nile preserves the
Israelite family
In Egyptian thought the Nile is
a sacred deity
This deity becomes the agency
of saving Israel
Verses 2:5-6
Pharaoh is taking away life, but
his own daughter is saving life
In chapter 1 and 2 God uses
women to accomplish His plan
Moses’ mother follows
Pharaoh’s command to put the child in the river
Strong irony is found in the
fact that God uses the underdog, those without power to accomplish
his plan
The ways of men are to
accumulate power and use it; God, however, makes use of those
without power
We are so obsessed with success
that God’s sovereign will is not always reflected in success as
we think of it
Verses 2:7-10
Moses’ very name reflects
God’s ultimate plan for Israel, to draw them out of the water
Unwittingly, Pharaoh’s
daughter is fulfilling God’s plan
Moses’ mother even gets to
nurse him for money!
The shrewd Pharaoh is made to
look like a fool because he is outdone by midwives and his own
daughter and he raises the very one who will lead the Israelites
out of slavery
Water is symbolic of chaos; God
is drawing his plan out of chaos
Verse 2:11
We know nothing about Moses’
biography; his growth, education, household experiences, etc. –
foreshadow of Jesus’ story
God chooses to be unobtrusive in
how He uses Moses
God will not become the
interventionists until He has fully prepared Moses
Sets the stage for Moses to be
“God on earth;” not because he is God but because God who
cannot be seen will do His work through Moses who can be seen
Directly related to Pharaoh’s
claim to be incarnate deity
God is not incarnated; but He
will work through His creation
An anticipation, a type of
Jesus
“Goes out,” “sees”
Verbs that are used of God also
Anticipates Moses’ role as
deliverer
“One of his brethren” –
Clear that Moses is on Israel’s side
Lietwort – “Strike down” –
same verb used in verse 12
Theme: God accomplishes His will
independent of direct divine intervention
God’s will is effected very
powerfully by ordinary means
In Exodus, it is largely through
women who fear the Lord
God accomplishes as much through
unobtrusive means as he does through obtrusive means
God, the Creator, is always
faced with decreators
God will accomplish His greatest
work in America through common everyday people, not politicians
and not celebrities
The divine choice of Moses is the
beginning of the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham that kings
will come forth from his seed
Verse 2:12
Moses “strikes down” the
Egyptian
Just like verse 11 the Egyptian
strikes the Hebrew
This verb is used repeatedly in
Moses life; often when he is doing the Lord’s work
This is the verb used when
Moses strikes the rock (Numbers)
Striking for God is good; but
independent of God’s will results in Moses’ death
Moses’ action here is at the
core of the Mosaic Law; lex taliones
This anticipates Moses in his
capacity as lawgiver
Verse 2:13
“Striking”
Word surfaces again
Anticipates future and past
controversies between tribes
God raises up a deliverer and
the first activity Moses must overcome after deliverance is
keeping the people at peace
Verse 2:14
Typical that they do not
understand that God has raised him up
Moses probably didn’t
understand that God had raised him up for this either
They don’t understand God’s
will because he is working unobtrusively
God’s people consistently
reject the prophets that God sends
Similar to Jesus; Stephen’s
speech
Verse 2:15
Moses’ experience is exactly
the same as Israel will have
Enter into conflict with the
Egyptians
Moses becomes the subject of a
murderous edict from Pharaoh
Moses will try to “flee”
(same verb as 14:5) for his life
Goes to Mt. Sinai
Moses testifies to being a ger
– sojourner
In order to be God’s
acknowledged leader Moses has to experience the same events as
Israel in advance
The same typology occurs in
Christ’s life – Jesus relives the same events as Moses and
Egypt experiences
Ironically, Israel rejects Moses
and Midian accepts him; Israel rejects Jesus and Gentiles accept
Him
Moses “sees, strikes, delivers”
God does the same thing
The verb “see” implies
action in the context
Same sequence in Judges
God acting on behalf of Israel
as Israel’s king
The act of life-giving activity
must occur in the context of justice
Establishing justice is
creational activity
Characteristic of Hebrew prayer
is for justice
Characteristic of Christian
prayer is for mercy
Verse 2:15
Moses sits by a well like Jacob
He gets a wife like Jacob!
Concept of the well is a
legitimate typology
The well gives water and
therefore life
The well gives social contact
and therefore a wife
Verse 2:16
Priest of Midian has 7 daughters
Implies great abundance
God has supplied plenty on
behalf of Moses
Priest of Midian foreshadows
Moses and his encounter with God
Verse 2:17
Moses becomes a deliverer once
more
Then proceeded to help water
them
Verse 2:18-19
Moses apparently looked like an
Egyptian
He is not recognized as a Hebrew
Probably wore dark eye makeup
Moses drew the water from the
well; just like his name means “drawn from water”
Verse 2:20-21
Hospitality is thought of in
terms of justice
Moses shows hospitality to
Jethro’s daughters
Jethro then shows hospitality
to Moses
Moses also receives a wife
Verse 2:22
Names the son “Gershom” –
sojourner there
The name anticipates the
condition of Israel
Verse 2:23
Moses has to flee Egypt and
receives a child
Pharaoh stays in Egypt and dies
No matter how spectacular the
decreators are, they are still mere men who die
Human fame is always
contextualized by the reality that humans die
Groaning
Reminiscent of Cain and Abel
Cycle of events in Judges
God’s will is done at the well,
not on the mountain
Make the most of people
encounters
This is the primary way in which
God moves
There is no such thing as an
insignificant conversation
Study Jesus at the well
He repeatedly asks questions
that draw the woman out of herself and toward Him
He nurtures the conversation to
something important
Jesus investigates the woman
Verse 2:24-25
God remembers in the sense that
He chooses to be true to the covenant that He made
God saw – implies action
“Took notice”
Lietwort – yada
God knows Israel; He will act
on their behalf
He will act faithfully to His
covenant
The text is literature; that is
where most of the theology is contained
Moses and God: Call and
Dialogue - 3:1-7:7
Longest call narrative in the
Bible - 3:1-6:1
Moses objects 8 times to the
Divine call
This clearly shows God’s
patience
Patience that comes from the
fact that a covenant has been established
God will be true to His
covenant, no matter what
Includes all the elements of a
typical call
Theophany
Introductory word
Divine commission
Moses’ objection
God’s reassurance
Sign
Dialogue is not very common in
narrative
One of the longest dialogues
between God and man
Words are agencies that God
uses to accomplish His will
Communication is evidence of
God
The Trinity is based on
communication
Speech is one of the great
messages of the Bible; the violation of speech is one of God’s
most sensitive ethical issues
This may be a paradigm of how
God wants to relate to all of us
God obviously enjoys dialogue
Verse 3:1
Moses is a shepherd – he
doesn’t really have the choice to be anything else
Mount Horeb
Horeb is Hebrew for
“wasteland”
Not certain whether it was
called the mountain of God before this event or because of this
event
Verse 3:2-5
Moses is drawn to the bush by
curiosity
The name of the bush is a dead
rhyme to mount Sinai
The bush becomes a foreshadow
of God revealing Himself to Moses on mount Sinai
God does not let Moses comes
near
“Close, but no closer” is
a very important point
“Moses, Moses,” similar to
1 Samuel 3
No one in the OT was ever
accorded the relational privileges that Moses had with God –
Num. 12:6ff
Begins to set the stage for
the incarnation
Moses is the incarnation of
God’s will
Yet as close as Moses got to
God, he could not see Him
God speaks to Moses 13 times
God stops him from coming
closer; perhaps he could have contaminated the holy ground
Verse 3:6
God is the same God of Moses’
fathers, the God of the covenant
Literary and theological
envelope – God’s presence
Moses is aware that he is in
God’s presence, he hides his face
In chapter 33 Moses asks “show
me Your glory”
Words of sight are used 9 times
in this short passage
Verse 3:7-8
Same verbs in 2:24-25
I have seen, heard, know
These words mean that God is
eternally true to His covenant
God will come and deliver the
Israelites
God will fulfill His promise of
the land
“Land flowing with milk and
honey”
Canaanite proverb
Should not be taken literally
It just means that it is good
land
God lists the nations He will
defeat
List occurs several times
Last people group is always
Jebusites
God anticipates that
Jerusalem will be important
This city is not very
important yet
Ultimately, God has in mind
that Jerusalem will be the resting of the tabernacle
Verse 3:9-11
“Behold”
Should not really be
translated as such
This Hebrew particle has two
uses:
To introduce vividness
To introduce immediacy
At this very moment God is
hearing Israel’s cry
Better translation, “At this
very moment,”
Irony between Moses’ first
response, “here am I,” but now that he has heard Pharaoh it
changes to “who am I?”
It is a measure of Moses that
he is conscience of his limitations
Moses is not infatuated with
his own gifts
He has a realistic evaluation
of himself
The problem is his evaluation
of God
Similar to Isaiah, “I am a
man of unclean lips”
We have lost our sense of
God’s greatness; we are more impressed with leadership
strength rather than the distance between Moses and God
God does not answer Moses with
self-help therapy
God answers him with a more
completely view of Himself
God is God and is able to use
insignificant people
Verse 3:12
Theme: Presence of God
Hebrew verb – “I will be”
Significant that Jesus also
said “I will be with you”
Envelope with God taking up
residence in the tabernacle
The sign does not help!
It is at the wrong end
The sign occurs after
everything else occurs
Reminds us that this is a
process
Verse 3:13
Moses needs a personal name
He already knows the name
Yahweh
Moses is anticipating that God
is going to establish a covenant
If he is going to the people
then the people are going to ratify a covenant and they need a
name to make the covenant with
Moses wants to know what is
the name for the covenant
Moses is still traumatized by
the mention of Pharaoh
Verse 3:14-15
“I am who I am”
Wordplay between “I will be”
and Yahweh
Could be “I will be who I
am, I am who I will be”
Not sure of the exact
translation
The idea is Divine presence
Name is confirmation of the
promise
It is not the revelation of the
divine name here, but it is the revelation of the meaning of the
divine name
The divine name envelopes the
book – from here to the revealing of God’s name to Moses in
Exodus 34
Verse 3:16
Through the elders Moses can
contact and influence the whole people
God has made an appearance
This is significant because
God has been absent for 400 years
This will be actualized when
God makes Himself visible to all Israel
“I am concerned” –
actually means “I have visited you”
God is a relational being
The Law is the evidence that
there is a relationship and a blessing
Verse 3:18
“Will listen” – God is
speaking about the ultimate reality, not the short term
God says Moses is supposed to
go with the elders
The reality is that the elders
never went
Aaron probably replaced the
elders
“God of the Hebrews” –
double entendre, refers to Acadian phrase that was known
“3 days journey”
Semitic idiom which means “A
long journey”
Probably not technical sense
of 3
Like the story of Nineveh
Moses probably has in mind
going to Mount Sinai
Verse 3:19-20
“Under compulsion”
I know he will not let you go
except by a “mighty hand”
This “mighty hand” is the
power of God in the hand of Moses
It is the hand of Moses that
effects the power of God
The hand of Moses is
exemplified specifically in his staff
God knows exactly what it will
take to bring Pharaoh to the point where he issues the decree
“let the people go”
Verse 3:21-22
Interesting event that has been
confirmed historically
Reminder that God is intent at
making the point that He is just
The Egyptians have unjustly
oppressed the Hebrews; they have taken their wealth and dignity
The Hebrews will eventually
take that plunder from God and turn it into their own god
“Plunder” rhymes with
“deliver”
Verse 4:1
There is a reasonability to
Moses’ objection but it is dwarfed by the fact that he is in
the very presence of Yahweh
The Hebrews actual did question
Moses
However, God has the ability to
empower Moses to do whatever He wishes
Verse 4:2
“What is this?” rhymes with
“staff”
God immediately fixates on
Moses’ hand
The divine purpose in asking
questions is to allow for interaction and relationship; not that
He doesn’t know
The staff in Moses’ hand now
becomes a motif for the rest of his life
The staff is the power from God
and it is his own failure that keeps him from entering the
Promise Land
Verse 4:3
This snake is clearly poisonous
because Moses flees
If it were the Cobra it would
virtually be able to outrun Moses
Verse 4:4
Grabbing snakes by the tail is
not a good strategy
No reason for Moses’ courage
to pick up the snake
Egyptians were infamous for
their ability to do magic; is this just a magical sign?
The Egyptian cobra goddess was
a symbol of Pharaoh’s power
There is no more powerful
symbol of Pharaoh’s power than the cobra goddess Buto
This is a clear polemic
against Pharaoh
Pharaoh has a shepherds crook
which is a symbol for king
Moses is becoming God’s king
Pharaoh also has a flail
Once described as a whip
It is now believed to be the
instrument used by early goat herders
Both these instruments take us
back to the earliest instruments of kingship – a shepherd
Moses will be God’s king,
even king of Egypt’s king
Moses is now Israel’s
divinely appointed king
Verse4: 6-7
In case Moses did not
understand the first sign
Moses’ hand is being uniquely
isolated as the means by which God will do His mighty work
The hand can become clean as
well as unclean
The hand is so powerful as to
overpower Pharaoh
The hand also becomes the
downfall of Moses
Will the power in Moses’
hand stay good, or become unclean?
God is uniquely commissioning
Moses as His king
Leadership in this capacity
must be accompanied by obedience to God
Any king of Israel is only king
so long as he is willing to obey God – an evil king will never
go unpunished
Anticipates king Uzziah – 2
Chronicles; he sought to burn incense before God and he was
struck with leprosy
Verse 4:8-9
Things appear in threes
Not good evidence for open
theism
Nile turns to blood
Obvious polemic against the
lifeblood of Egypt, the Nile
Against the god of the Nile,
Nun
1 – Nun was at the heart of
the ancient pantheon
2 – the Nile was at the
heart of their agriculture system
3 – Water is the most vital
means of effecting spiritual cleansing – In the Egyptian
religion water was at the heart of salvation
These signs convince the
Israelites but not Pharaoh
It is Moses’ hand that
reaches into the Nile and pours it out
Envelope: unique investment of
God’s power in Moses
This is how God relates to
Israel in the OT
If God’s appointed leader is
faithful then they are blessed
If God’s appointed leader is
faithless then they are punished
Moses was clearly a king
Verse 4:10
Num. 12:3 – Moses was more
humble than anyone else
The biblical word “humble”
does not mean what it does in English
What the Hebrew word really
means is “pious”
Thus, Moses is the man who
understands his relationship with God better than anyone else
God is king, Moses is His
slave
Egyptian – hom is the
word for priest and servant
Two categories of priests in
Egyptian religion
Kher-hebet – “servant
of the god,” priest who was responsible to speak
Sem – silent, he
carried and presented offerings
Perhaps Moses has in his mind
that Aaron could be the lector priest and he could be the servant
in the background
His protest, essentially, is a
lack of faith
Acts 7:22
Verse 4:11-12
Isaiah 45:5-7; Psalm 139:1-6
God causes calamity
We do not know if He
sovereignly causes all calamity
The proper response in any
situation is putting one’s faith in God
Thus, God’s response is that
“I have made you”
Each person is uniquely shaped
by God
Short command, “Go”
Moses’ protest is wordy
God’s command is plain and
simple
God also gives a promise
God promises His presence
He also promises that to teach
Moses what to say
Large emphasis on mouth in this
short passage
Egyptian religion had a
ceremony called The Opening of the Mouth
If the Egyptians could make a
statue alive than how much more can the God of Heaven make Moses
speak
Verse 4:13
Moses’ remark is deferential
He is not saying clearly “don’t
send me” but he is resisting and asking that God would send
another
Verse 4:14-17
God is angry
God agrees to the commissioning
of Aaron
God creates distinctions
God speaks to Moses, Moses to
Aaron
Only Moses can take the staff
in his hand
Aaron and Miriam both fall
into the leadership trap and try to elevate themselves
God’s sovereignty works with
us, not just above us
There is a real relationship
between God and man
God does not turn us into
robots
God is not content to just
impose His sovereign will
The mystery is that God uses
bad choices on our part to further the relationship
Similar to Christ’s
fellowship with Judas knowing that he will betray Him
Further, Christ chose His
three closest friends to go with Him to the garden of Gethsemane
knowing that they would fail Him in His hour of greatest need
Aaron’s name means “joined
together;” it anticipates Moses and Aaron becoming a team
Verse 4:18
Patriarchal society
Moses needed Jethro’s
permission
Verse 4:19-23
Anticipates much of the rest of
the story
Pharaoh’s heart hardened
Three different words for
“hardened”
Several different references
made to this topic
Yahweh hardens Pharaoh’s
heart; Pharaoh hardens his heart; some texts do not mention the
agent
There is a mutual hardening of
Pharaoh
It is Pharaoh
It is God
Priority (who hardened first)
is not the point
Egyptian theology does not
allow Pharaoh to repent – he thinks he is god
One of the ways God makes
Himself known is displaying His sovereignty
Any Pharaoh would have reacted
in this same way
Romans 9 – God is free to do
what He wants
Pharaoh’s hardening is only
in relation to him not letting the people go
This whole circumstance
creates the opportunity for God to display His power
The salvation message in this
book is that nothing can stop God from fulfilling the divine
plan to redeem Israel
Prediction of the death of the
firstborn
Verse 4:24-26
Perhaps the most difficult
passage in this book to make sense of
Who is he?
Could be Moses; which would be
bizarre
Cold be Gershom; Moses’
firstborn son
Zipporah intervenes once again
and continues the theme of female heroines throughout the book
“Foot” – actually means
genitals
“Threw” – actually says
she “touched”
Thus, she touched her son’s
foreskin at Moses’ genitals
This act apparently was how
she saved Moses
It is thought that this is a
foreshadow of the Passover where the blood on the door posts
saves the firstborn
The blood of the first born
expiated the sin of someone – either that Moses wasn’t
circumcised or his son wasn’t, or both
The angel of the Lord was
merely “seeking” his death, not necessarily decreed his death
There is a clear connection
between this passage and vs. 23
For more information on this
topic see Word Biblical Commentary by John
Duram
Verse 4:27
met - same verb as in
vs. 24
Not sure why the text mentions
the kiss though it was customary
Verse 4:29-31
Aaron speaks
“He” performed the signs
Not sure who this is
Most likely Moses
The text moves a lot faster
than what happened in real life counting the journeying and the
gathering of the elders
The people believe
The people “bowed low and
worshiped”
They are not entirely sure Who
they are worshipping
Their belief fulfills God’s
statement to Moses
Statement appears again in
12:27
They do this again at Passover
Verse 5:1
Open ended
Moses is not saying that we are
all leaving
Not certain how they got an
audience with Pharaoh
Verse 5:2
Who is Yahweh?
That answer follows in the
rest of the text
Specifically chapter 6
I do not know Yahweh
Reminiscent of the previous
Pharaoh’s statement, “I do not know Joseph”
It is a covenant word that
means he refuses to accept what Yahweh has to say
Besides all this, he will not
let the people go
Verse 5:3-9
Pharaoh does not care what God
does to Israel
“Labor” appears 7 times –
also the word for “serve”
Who will they serve? Creator
God, or decreator god?
All of the earth’s tyrants
respond to threats with greater harshness
Joshua 24 – “choose you
this day who you will serve”
Verse 5:10-14
“Thus says Pharaoh”
Messenger formula
Antithesis to 5:1
Nothing grows outside of .5 a
mile of the Nile
Verse 5:15-20
Characteristic of decreators is
to use the enslaved to abuse the enslaved
The human heart in all its
evilness is exposed here in the lives of the Hebrew foreman
Verse 5:21-23
Everyone blames the Lord
If you are in a position of
leadership, this experience is going to happen you
People see doubt as an
opportunity for unbelief rather than a chance to grow closer to
God
The people you are leading
will complain
Why would Yahweh move things
along so low?
To develop Moses’ character
Reveals God’s character; His
patience
Relationship, covenant
relationship
God is faithful
The higher the form of
communication the more intimacy
Disappointments are
opportunities to make healthy changes
God gives Israel the
opportunity to bond with Him in a true relationship
Forces Israel (and Moses) to
learn dependency
Verse 6:1
Lietwort is “compulsion” –
mighty hand
Pharaoh will only act under
compulsion
Restatement - 6:2-7:7
Verse 6:2-8
Envelope (or chiasm) – “I
am Yahweh”
JEDP system
OT is a patchwork of various
editors
J – Yahwist –
10-9th
E – Elohist – 9-8
D – Deuteronomist –
7-6
P – Priestly –
Exile
This system was started in
1600’s
This system cannot be made to
work “neatly”
Almost no one agrees with how
this works across the whole OT
They “know” it works, but
no one can agree on how
C.S. Lewis refers to modern
scholars as “Chronological snobs”
They have a sense of
superiority at the expense of the ancients
Thus, Scribes who are nearly
inerrant and incredibly meticulous are made to look like fools
if this JEDP system is true
The notion that Israel at one
time did not know the divine name is false
God appearing seems to be
related to El Shaddai
This passage is the 7th
mention of God’s appearance as El Shaddai
God seems to have appeared to
the Patriarchs as el
This is probably because
Abraham associated this name with God
Shaddai is most likely
an epithet
God is addressing one of His
promises to Abraham, that his descendents will be numerous
Now God is changing his name in
order to address another part of the Abrahamic promise
Yahweh is the name that God is
going to use to fulfill another part of the covenant
Verb root is “to be”
This name has the new
significance of one of the themes; presence of God with Israel
[Insert chart from OT book]
Thus, El Shaddai
revolves around descendents; Yahweh revolves around land
In Exodus 3 God revealed to
Moses the contextual meaning of the divine name Yahweh, “I will
be with you”
In this passage God is saying
“Because I am with you I will fulfill my covenant to give you
the land”
“I did not make Myself
known…” (vs. 3)
Does not mean “know about”
Means that God is now making
His covenant with Israel concerning land (vs. 4)
The gospel message in the OT:
“Bring out,” “deliver,” “redeem”
This Exodus story has frequent
allusions to Genesis 6
Here the land is filled with
violence upon Israel
Here, just like the ark, God
brings out, delivers, and redeems Israel
Instead of just saving the
elect family, it moves to the elect nation
Formula, “I am Yahweh”
means divine presence
John uses this as a revelatory
formula all the way through his gospel
Verse 6:9-13
This is an excuse – “An
excuse is just a lie stuck in the skin of reason”
Anytime our eyes are on
ourselves, rather than God, we subject ourselves to failure
Verse 6:14-27
Genealogy
The purpose is to show the
leaders of Israel
Explain who helped to lead
Israel out of Egypt
Verse 6:28-30
Even ineffective communication
is better than no communication
Moses uses a substitute excuse,
he is clearly afraid
The real issue is “I’m
afraid and I’m not convinced we are going to pull this off”
Verse 7:1
Moses will be God, and Aaron
his prophet
This anticipates the
incarnation of Christ
Jesus is the one who will truly
be God in the flesh and will bring out, deliver, and redeem His
people
Correct understanding of this
book is essential for the proper interpretation of the gospel of
John
It doesn’t matter how
relationships start out, it matters how they end up
It’s not how bad things go,
its how you continue on
Relationships should not be
based on good times only
God does not hold Moses’
objections and hurtful actions toward Him against Moses
Verse 7:3
God didn’t have to harden
Pharaoh’s heart
It is clear that Pharaoh was
not going to let the people go
Lietwort – “Signs and
wonders”
Code words throughout Exodus
Also appear in Acts 1-15
Formula that is referring to
the miracles that God will do to demonstrate to the whole world
that He is the real God, even though He can’t be seen
Verse 7:7
The ages remind us that God is
the giver of life
Pharaoh’s didn’t live to be
80
The Plagues - 7:8-11:10
Verse 7:9-10
Hebrew: tanin –
translated “serpent” unusual Hebrew word (only appears 12
times)
Often suggests cosmic type of
serpent
This is certainly not a normal
kind of snake
The imagery here is different
than the first time
This serpent is mythical
Not exactly sure, but it is
extra-normal
It is also able to eat all the
snakes of Pharaoh’s magicians
Verse 7:11-13
It could very well have been
demonic arts
Pharaoh’s magicians really did
perform miracles – Satan has the ability to perform miracles
Very important to note that
God’s miracles are better and overpower Satan’s
Pharaoh of course was hardened
Verse 7:14
God takes time to tell Moses
what Pharaoh is thinking
God is orchestrating the events
through Moses
Verse 7:15-25
Emphasis on staff of Moses and
Aaron
Both are divinely accredited
Both are the agency for turning
the Nile to blood
The Nile
Egypt gets maybe 2” of rain
each year
The Nile is its life-source
It is the means by which they
get drinking water and farming water
We cannot make sense of why we
have the plagues in the order that we have them – It is
significant, however, that the first plague strikes the Nile
God strikes more than just the
Nile
The Egyptians built reservoirs
These reservoirs filled up when
the Nile flooded every year
God turns every supply of water
to blood
This plague is a polemic
against Egyptian physical and theological life
Against the Nile deities
Khnum – guardian of the Nile
Hapi – spirit of the Nile
(chief deity)
Both male and female
characteristics
The Nile represented
fertility
When the Nile is turned to
blood God is attacking the action of Hapi
Osiris – Nile was
bloodstream
The text continues to show a
sophisticated knowledge of Egyptian theology
Digging in the ground for water
This sign has not undone the
primeval deity Nun
Nun stretched under the earth
and was found as water in the earth
Envelope: the first and the last
plagues are marked by blood
Envelope: the first and the last
plagues have to do with water
Echoes of Pharaoh’s edict to
throw Hebrew sons into the Nile The Nile is essential in the
functioning of their religion
Ritual cleansing through the
water of the Nile was essential to rebirth
Rebirth is no longer possible
in their religion when the Nile is polluted
Pharaoh was unconcerned
Seven days, loaded number
Hebrew: nagaph (technical
word)
Verb form occurs 45 times – 18
of which are God delivering a blow to Egypt
33 derived forms – 30 of which
are God delivering a blow to Egypt
Yahweh is doing more than just
delivering a plague, He is judging
Three words that dominate the
plague accounts
Serve
All – over 50 times in these
plague accounts
Land – over 50 times in these
plague accounts
“All the land”
Echoes Genesis
“Fill all the land…”
“All the land filled with
violence…”
Both the people and the land
suffer the same fate
Verse 8:1-2
Egyptian deity
Heqt – form of frog
God of resurrection
Resurrection was through the
Nile
Associated with fertility
Associated specifically with
birth
Female deity
Servant of Heqt – means
midwives
Not a pleasant happening
Possibly this plague was chosen
because of the theological claims of this deity
Enhances the qualities of God
as life-giver
Highlights God’s ability to
multiply His people in the midst of Pharaoh’s attempt to kill
them
The land is now teeming with
frogs
Counterclaim by God that He is
the one who grants fertility
Verse 8:3-8
Once again, if the magicians
actually mimic the miracle, they only make it worse! They could
be considered to be serving God indirectly
“Entreat”
Not the word “pray”
More similar to “ask” or
“make a request”
Pharaoh has not assumed any
religiosity
The reason for the first two
plagues are likely theological
The next four plagues are
designed to make life miserable for the Egyptians and Pharaoh
The last four involve loss of
human life
Verse 8:9-11
When would you like to be
frogless?
Tomorrow
Shows the sovereignty of God in
being able to do whatever He wants whenever He wants
Verse 8:12-15
“Cry out”
Used in chapter 2 when the
Israelites cried out to the Lord
Not normally a prayer word
A subtle way in which Moses is
interceding on behalf of Israel
The death of the frogs would
have caused disgusting smells and clean up
Pharaoh still refuses to let
them go
He hardened his own heart
Yahweh and Pharaoh work
together to hardened his heart
Verse 8:16-19
Not sure what they were
Could be gnats
Could be mosquitoes, maggots
Could just be translated swarms
Magicians are not capable of
replicating
Each time the magicians loose
power
“This is the finger of God”
Deut. 9:10 – ten
commandments written by God’s finger
Luke 11:20 – Jesus casting
out demons by the finger of God
Could be a reference to
Aaron’s staff
It is not sure that they are
referring to Yahweh God
The primary theological theme
that is going on is that Yahweh is present
By the 18th dynasty
90% of the land was owned by temples
Pharaoh was the most powerful
single man but their religious temples and priests held the
majority of the power as a group
It could be that Pharaoh hardens
his heart because he has no choice
Pharaoh may not have all the
power necessary to let the Hebrews go
Thus, when the priests/magicians
report that “this is the finger of God” they may be reporting
the status of what they think
Verse 8:20-21
Not sure why Pharaoh went down
to the water
Wasn’t for cleaning because
its dangerous
Could have been something
religious
Language similar to the frog
plague, only insects
Purpose is obviously just to
make life miserable
Verse 8:22-24
Purpose is to show that God is
in their midst
Israel set apart
“Division between My people…”
Hebrew root: padah
Means redemption
NASB – set apart
There is no semantic domain
for “distinction,” or “division”
The word padad has the
division idea
Hebrew: sahat
“Laid waste”
Echoes Genesis 6 – land laid
waste via the flood
This word reappears three times
in chapter 12
Echoes God’s determination to
be true to the covenant He has made with Israel
Verse 8:25-26
Not sure, but it seems like
Pharaoh is avoiding the name Yahweh
This is a movement in the right
direction
“Abomination”
Gen. 43:32, 46:34
Moses is echoing the words of
Joseph’s story when the Egyptians would not eat with the
Semites or shepherds
To the Egyptians, Semites are
an abomination
To the Egyptians, animal
sacrifice is an abomination
Throughout the plagues Aaron has
a discernable decline in the role he plays
Verse 8:27-32
None left – shows the power of
God
Jeremiah 38
Zedekiah king of Judah, so he
arrests Jeremiah and tortures him and then releases him
Then Zedekiah asks Jeremiah to
come talk to him by night
Zedekiah feels like he can’t
surrender to the king of Babylon because he thinks the people
around him will assassinate him
To some degree we wonder if
Pharaoh was encountering the same problems
Verse 9:1-3
For the first time these people
are referred to as Hebrews
Catastrophic consequences if
Pharaoh refuses
Over 200 times the phrase “hand
of the Lord” is used and followed by judgment
Verse 9:4-7
Nothing will happen to Israel
Tomorrow – repeat from when
Pharaoh said remove the plague tomorrow
Loss of livestock means loss of
work, food, status
Hebrew: shalach “Send”
Pharaoh sends messengers to
check on Israel
But he will not send Israel
away
Verse 9:8-12
Last time Aaron plays an active
role
The boils that God sends on the
Egyptians are the same boils that God threatens to give to Israel
in Deuteronomy
Also the boils in Job’s
experience
“Could not stand” – may be
literal
The previous plague may have
killed all the animals that were penned up, and this one may
affect those in the fields
Verse 9:13-17
Hebrew napah
Blows or strike
This is the only time in the OT
where this word is used in the plural
Used for the judgment of God
God wants His name to be known
As present
As Creator God
Both for Egypt and Israel
The whole story shows God’s
grace
He is true to His covenant
These plagues show God’s grace
and compassion on Israel’s part
Shows the triumphant of God’s
grace
There is a sense in which we are
all Egyptians – or worse than them because we are not ignorant
Verse 9:18-26
Egypt rarely if ever gets hail
Moses’ staff is used to effect
God’s will
Echoes of
Flood
Language of Theophany
Another artful way to show that
God is present
These words reappear (except
the hail) in chapter 19
Sodom and Gomorrah
“Every plant,” “every
tree”
All never means all
For emphasis
Wholesale destruction
Land of Goshen is protected once
again
Verse 9:27-30
What is Pharaoh saying?
Is he truly repenting of a sin?
Main Hebrew word for sin means
“to miss the mark”
Not necessarily moral
Pharaoh was saying that he
made a mistake, made a bad judgment
Not claiming that Yahweh is
righteous but rather just that He was right in this situation
Foxhole repenter!
Creational language
Verse 9:31-35
Side note describing what was
ruined
There was still vegetation left
for the locusts
Pharaoh hardens his heart again
Similar to the Canaanites who do
not relent
Verse 10:1-6
Obviously the hail did not
destroy everything
God is the Creator of all land
and all people
The locusts will destroy
anything that was left
Verse 10:7-11
Pharaoh’s servants
Interesting that the servants
of Pharaoh are reasonable
They suggest that the men
go
Don’t you know that
Egypt is destroyed
Ironic word
Alludes to Pharaoh’s
statement, “I do not know Yahweh”
Pharaoh does not understand what
Yahweh has done
“The Lord will certainly need
to be with you if you take your little ones along” - NLT
Pharaoh is making a wordplay on
Yahweh
He understands that Yahweh
means God’s presence
Pharaoh has made a mockery of
Yahweh
Verse 10:12-15
Locusts
Life threatening
Completely destroy the land
They are used primarily for
divine judgment in the Old Testament
Used for divine judgment in the
great Day of the Lord
Revelation
Iron jaws – metaphorical
Most of John’s Day of the
Lord language is taken from the Old Testament prophets
Devastating event
In any normal country this would
destroy the population
Because of Egypt’s climate it
can replant everything in a couple months and at least survive
The temple complex’s had vast
storage bins
Egyptian theology
Isis, the god of life
Seth, protector the crops
Reminder that Yahweh is present
If Pharaoh is truly a god he
should be able to provide life for his people
Verse 10:15-20
Refers to the plague as a death
It really just prefigures the
final plague which is truly death
yom suph
Literally “Sea of Reeds”
Not actually the Red Sea
The locusts were sent into just
like Pharaoh’s army will be sent into the Sea of Reeds
Not completely sure where the
Sea of Reeds is
Verse 10:21-23
Egyptian theology
Osiris, giver of life –
Pharaoh’s deity
The sun shone virtually
everyday
Darkness
Thick darkness
Could be felt
Goshen is not affected
Moses asks for a three-day
journey into the wilderness
Amos 5
First of the prophets to
mention darkness in the Day of the Lord
Egypt’s darkness foreshadows
the Day of the Lord
This anticipates the last of the
plagues
The death of the first born
occurs in the night
This plague makes death itself
tangible
Echoes creation – return to
the chaotic darkness before light
Verse 10:24-29
Pharaoh’s hard heart once
again
Envelope: “see my face”
Moses says Pharaoh will never
see his face again because he will die
Yahweh tells Moses that he
cannot see His face and live
Irony
Pharaoh, who claims to be god
and can be seen, will no longer be seen
Yahweh, who cannot be seen,
will reveal to Moses what can be seen
The Israelites don’t believe
any more than the Egyptians
Verse 11:1-10
Hebrew: naga
Means “to touch”
In this case it means to touch
negatively
Connects this plague with the
Israelites who are supposed to “touch” the blood to the
doorpost
Mentions the two social
extremes, from Pharaoh to slave
Hebrew: tsach
Means “cry” or “outcry”
Root that appeared all the way
through chapters 1-2 when the Israelites were crying out
The narrative is now interrupted
The style changes to liturgy
Takes a whole chapter to explain
the founding of Passover
There seems to be a sequence in
which liturgy encloses the stories and liturgy encloses the entire
sequence
Very well may be that liturgy
was regarded as some sort of exalted language
This technique has the ability
of heightening the tension
From Passover to Praise -
12:1-15:21
Verse 12:1-14
Ezekiel 45:18-20
The only other place in the
Bible where blood is placed on the door
Blood smeared on the doorway of
the temple
Hebrew: pesach
Passover
One of the more important
theological words
Not mentioned very much in the
OT
Hezekiah, Josiah
One of the three great holy
days of the year
Pesachim
This is a document in the
Mishna
Devoted to explaining how
Passover was done
Dates around 300 A.D.
Not exactly sure how accurate
it is in explaining the OT observance of it
Good reason to think that it is
largely reliable
Passover (a.k.a. Feast of
Unleavened Bread)
All the people would gather in
the outer temple
They would gather together in
companies, family oriented
The priests would stand in two
rows
In one row each priest had a
silver basin which caught the blood
In the other row each priest
had a gold basin which caught the blood
After the blood was collected
it was passed from hand to hand all the way to the end of the
line
At the end of the line the last
priest took hyssop and dipped it in the blood and sprinkled it in
ritual manner on the alter
All the while everyone was
singing the Hallel (Psalm 113-118)
Hebrews 11:28 alludes to some
of this
Hyssop
Mentioned only a few other
times in the Bible
Numbers 19:1-10, Psalm 51:7
Jesus is clearly identified as
the Passover Lamb in Christian theology
It is some what confusing in
trying to merge Deuteronomy 16 and this passage
Should be viewed in similar
manner as the Synoptic problem
There are clear differences,
but they are not extreme
Feast of Unleavened Bread
Causes problems because the
Israelites were supposed to eat hurriedly and be ready to leave
for the Passover
Many commentators argue that
Moses picked up this tradition and merge it with the Passover
event
It is surprising to have a 7
day feast climaxed by an urgent meal, but that is the clearest
reading
Perhaps 7 is just a number
that evokes the creation week that describes a new act that God
will do
Verse 12:21-28
Hebrew: ebed
Means “serve”
Brings up the struggle between
Yahweh and Pharaoh in who Israel will serve
“observe this servitude
forever”
Lex taliones
The punishment must fit the
crime
The smiting of the firstborn is
justice for the massacre of the Hebrew babies earlier
The point of the first 6
chapters is establishing the ethic of why God will send the
plagues on the Egyptians
Because God is present, justice
is done
Exodus 34:6-7
Christians identify with God
through His mercy
Jews identifies with God
through His justice
Both traditions are biblical
Both need to be combined to
get an accurate view of who God is
New Testament justice occurs
primarily in the end times (“in that day”)
Unfortunately, we read about
Israel’s suffering as if it didn’t matter because we know the
end of the story
Verse 12:29-32
Hebrew: ebed
Really “serve”
Pharaoh consents to their
serving God
Pharaoh is not as urgent and
adamant that they leave as he was that they stay earlier on
“Take everything with you”
“Bless me also”
Pharaoh is the quintessential
decreator
He cares about no one but
himself
Clearest modern example is
Soddam Husain
Verse 12:33-36
Lex taliones
The Egyptians had plundered the
Israelites for centuries
Now the Israelites have the
chance to plunder Egypt
Getting out of Egypt isn’t
really changing anything spiritually
The Exodus is not the climatic
event, but only the beginning of a journey to deal personally and
relationally with Yahweh
Verse 12:37-41
Not sure where Succoth was at
House of Rameses
600,000 men
This means that there are over
2 million people
On top of this there is cattle
and other livestock
This is a difficult number to
understand
There have not been any
legitimate attempts to discount this number, however
Hebrew: bene yisrael
Children of Israel
The consonantal number is 603,
551
This number is only 1 digit
removed from the exact account in Numbers
Are the numbers intended to be
mathematical units or not?
We can’t be sure
Apparently there are several
people in this group that are not biological Israelites
430 years
In Genesis it says 400 years
In Galatians it says 250 years
Several differing numbers
1 Kings 6:1 – 480=1446 as the
mathematical number for the exodus
12x40=480: could argue for
symbolic interpretation
However, Judges 11:26 – 300
years, that puts us in the vicinity of 1446
It is important to note that the
biblical text, Exodus, is not concerned with the who, what, when,
where… what is important is the theology
If the Bible is quick to
emphasize the theology then we ought to do the same
Emphasize what occurred rather
then when it occurred
Verse 12:42-51
Hebrew: shimmurim –
“keeper”
NASB – “to be observed”
This word occurs only in this
verse out of the whole Bible
It has a brilliant rhetorical
effect
“It is a night for keeping by
Yahweh, it is night for keeping by the Israelites”
The writer is enhancing the
notion that this night will be celebrated forever
This ties Israel and Yahweh
into a relationship that is renewed annually at Passover
Ordinance of the Passover
No foreigners
Must be circumcised
No servants
Must be inside – if it is
taken outside or a bone is broken then it is possible that it
could be found by non-Israelites
The Israelites had been
preparing for this moment
Marched in formation, probably
by clans, so that they could protect their families
Incredibly difficult to maneuver
that many people
We are told more about how the
Passover is supposed to be kept and not very much about the actual
exodus
Likewise, several chapters are
devoted to the plagues
Theology
Verse 13:1-2
Yahweh seems to be saying, “On
the basis of the fact that I killed the firstborn of Egypt you are
to return the firstborn to me”
Israel has already been called
Yahweh’s firstborn
There must be a sacrifice to the
Lord on the basis of the fact that the firstborn belongs to God –
redemption (pada)
This stands for all the
firstborn: sons, daughters, slaves, animals
Verse 13:3-4
Very important concept: Remember
Signs on the hand, forehead,
etc.
This was later taken literally
in Judaism
What does it mean to remember?
Part of it is ritual (i.e.
Passover)
Surely more than pure static
ritual is requested
The Jewish tradition was that
you relive it
Passover was done in such a way
that encourages the believer to relive the exodus moment
In the ritual of the Christian
calendar how can we relive the event, rather than just
memorializing it?
Two events in particular: The
Lords Supper and Easter
The challenge is creating a
situation where this can be experienced thousands of years later
Abib is the month
Verse 13:5
List of the nations
Almost always ends with the
Jebusites
They are the inhabitants of
Jerusalem
Interesting, because Jerusalem
does not become the centerpiece of the war until the time of
David
Conquest
Joshua fights three major
battles
The first is in the area of
Jerusalem and he defeats the Jebusites in battle, but does not
take over the city
Priority of Judah in the text,
Jerusalem was in their territory
Hittites were far to the north
Amorites were in the area of
chazor
Hivites
Not sure who or where they are
Could be a mistake and might be
the Horites
Milk and honey
Canaanite proverb
Should not be taken literally
The land was much more luscious
than it is now
Verse 13:6-10
Absolutely no leaven
Tell your son
In almost all the perpetuating
of the ceremonies it is the father telling the son
This is God’s way of
continuing His relationship with Israel
Deut. 6:7 – “teach” means
“repeat”
Our culture is different, we
hire out everything
We expect the schools to teach
our kids
We expect youth pastors to
teach our kids
However, the clearly stated
means of teaching God’s plan in the Bible is fathers telling
sons (or mothers telling daughters)
The methodology is repeating
God’s plan has always been
through the family
This teaching must be pervasive
It cannot be a 20 minute family
devotional
Verse 13:11-16
Firstborn theology
The donkey is not supposed to be
sacrificed, but because it is the firstborn it must be redeemed
Verse 14-16 is the Old Testament
Kerygma
Those facts demand a faith
response
The Law hasn’t been given yet
but when it is then that becomes the way a Hebrew responds in
faith
Verse 13:17-18
“The way of the Philistines”
Anachronism – phrase from a
later time imposed back onto the text
The Philistines were not there
in Moses’ time
This path was heavily guarded
by the Egyptians
God doesn’t send them down
this path because He knows that they are not ready to fight
It is very easy for us to look
at these events as a flight from Egypt to Israel
In reality, it is a journey
toward something, not necessarily Canaan
This is a journey toward
establishing the fact that Yahweh is present
This means a full and final
defeat of Pharaoh and his armies
This is why they meander and
take their time
Yahweh is drawing Pharaoh into
a battle
If Israel had gone three days
straight into the wilderness then Pharaoh couldn’t have
followed
Verse 13:19-22
Since God gave this land to
Israel it is imperative that they all be buried in the land
Furthermore, it is important to
be buried with your family, in the same cave
The Israelites carried false
deities with them in the wilderness according to Amos
Yahweh is demonstrating that He
is the divine warrior
Verse 14:1-4
They turn around so that the
water is to the east of the Israelites
This provokes Pharaoh to come
after them
Hebrew wordplay: kabod
Same root for harden his heart
Same root for I will receive
honor
Verse 14:5-9
Each Egyptian chariot had 3
soldiers in it
1 soldier drove
1 soldier protected with a
shield
1 soldier fought
Pharaoh’s 600 chariots are the
main striking force
The other chariots are used for
enveloping purposes
Could have upwards of 1200-1500
chariots
Used in this passage
14 times every chariot
12 times every horseman
The entire army
The Hebrews don’t have hardly
any weapons
Verse 14:10-12
The Israelites are scared to
death
Sarcastic response
Pharaoh had no intention of
killing them, he wanted his slaves back
We convince ourselves that if we
see miracles that they will somehow fix everything
Exodus points out that miracles
do not solve the human problem
The Israelites attack Moses just
like in 5:21, 6:9, 15:24
The greatest challenge that we
will have in our whole life is relational
Echoes Adam and Eve, blaming
pattern – Gen. 3
This sets the pattern for the
human relationship
This is why divorce is so
rampant
God shows His love by
sustaining relationship with us despite or childish actions
Verse 14:13
Moses doesn’t take it
personally
It seems that never seeing
Egyptians again will solve all the problems!
The reality is that after the
Egyptians drown there are new avenues and new people for our
selfishness and our fear
We live our lives subservient to
the philosophy of “if only…”
This is the way we think
If only
Philippians 4:13 – I have
learned the secret of success, to be content in all things
Verse 14:14-18
This whole story reverberates
the language and ideas of Genesis
“Dry land” – same word as
in Genesis
The Creation God is reminded
them that He can create dry land for them, as their backs are to
the sea
Genesis 6-9; God drowns the
wicked and the dry land is the evidence of God’s grace
The word “to harden” and “to
honor” come from the same Hebrew root
Verse 14:19-22
God has led the Israelites to a
position where their back is to the sea
The only thing separating them
from destruction is the Lord as He moves the cloud in between the
Israelites and the Egyptians
Moses lifts his staff and the
Lord creates dry land
God is going to great extremes
to perpetuate His relationship with them – for God to be true to
the covenant
Verse 14:23-25
Pharaoh acts as if the plagues
never happened!
He makes a very poor military
decision by putting his whole army in the sea
The chariots may have struggled
from the mud or sandy ground
Verse 14:26-28
The divine symbol, Moses’
staff, raises once more and the sea engulfs the Egyptians
The Creator God is stronger than
the decreator god
No survivors
Verse 14:29-31
This is not the way that normal
relationships work
In all the OT Yahweh only drowns
the Egyptians once
This is an act to demonstrate
that Yahweh is present
True relationships are those
that occur and function on more realistic levels like: obedience,
faith, and trust
It is no accident that Yahweh
calls for the above 3 things when the waters settle
Real relationships have to have
law, they cannot be sustained on modern western weddings
It is indeed an incredible
demonstration of God’s power – but if we say this everyday it
wouldn’t change a single thing in our lives
Clearly, as will be seen, this
event does not solve the relational problems of faith and trust
Oscar Wildes – “If the gods
wished to punish us they would simply answer our prayers”
Unfortunately our prayers are
based on our “if only’s”
If we believe in Him we will
obey Him; if we don’t we will believe in ourselves
Verse 15:1-18
The victory is celebrated with
poetry
Poetry is very hard to translate
but it is beautiful in the Hebrew
Verse 8 likens the east wind to
God’s nostrils
Verse 9 gives 6 first person
references
Yahweh will reign forever –
that’s the heart of the story
This has evidence that parts of
the poem was reworked at a later date
Demonstrates that in the Jewish
tradition historical events are memorialized in song
Verse 15:19-22
The story of Moses begins with
women and the act of deliverance is closed with women
The faithful activity of women
creates an envelope from Exodus 1-15
Similar to when David succeeds
in battle against the Philistines
Women are named in chapter 1-2
when Pharaoh isn’t!
Summary
Pattern
It is inevitable that we will
cry out – that’s apart of life outside of the garden
Yahweh then gives us a word and
a deed
That word and deed results in
deliverance
The deliverance results in
songs of praise
When Adam and Eve sinned were
they cursed?
NO!
Adam and Eve were punished
Satan was cursed
In a fallen world there will
always be thorns and thistles
Life will never be like it was
in the garden
There is eternally adversity in
real-world living
Without pain we wouldn’t know
our need for relationship with God
We would never desire a
relationship with God without thorns and thistles
The people who are highlighted
in Revelation were over comers
It was significant for the
Israel to go through a difficult time for them to understand their
need for a relationship with God
God who is the author of all
historical events uses those events consistently to force us back
into a relationship with Him
Psalms
The person in the Psalms
experiences orientation
Orientation means life is
good, life is smooth nothing is going wrong
God then brings about
disorientation
Disorientation is when our
lives are interrupted we are now in pain and we don’t like it
This can come from God
Himself, Satan, life experience, ourselves, wherever
It is precisely in that mode of
disorientation that we have a pure form of lament
This is where God finds us
God then brings out new
orientation
Without disorientation there
will be no change, there will be no new orientation
The consistent result of new
orientation is praise
This Psalms pattern is a
microcosm of what happens in the book of Exodus
This pattern is how our personal
relationships work as well
Most of us are content to live
in orientation
But the true life is found in
new orientation which comes through disorientation
Marriage
One of the most important words
in marriage is change
If you don’t do it, you won’t
make it
You have to adapt to the
different seasons of life
When the hard times come are we
going to demand that we need to go back to the old or will we
press on to the new?
Curiously, even if where we are
at is miserable we want to stay; we do not want to change
All of God’s saving acts in
the OT refer back to this Sea of Reeds story
Why is there so little text
given to such a major event?
This story is another event in
the story that shows that God is present
The major event in the NT
(Jesus’ death and resurrection) is told in just a few verses
also
They were thinking
theologically whereas we think historically
The Wilderness Wanderings -
15:22-18:27
Verse 15:22-27
Yahweh is celebrated as a
warrior
He uses no weapons
He uses His creation
Military might in the
Scriptures is almost always pictured negatively
The church is in the same
capacity as the Remnant was in OT Israel
Yahweh is healer
God is not interested in
answering every complaint with a positive response
God is using these events to
teach them how to function in a relationship with Him
Relationships
Communication
Commitment
How does belief occur?
Conflict
Without conflict you are not
exposing the weak points in your relationship
The result of the first plague
is that they cannot drink the water
Now the same problem occurs
again
Why would God juxtapose the
trial and the plague?
God’s saving acts are
consistently anchored in history
By putting the Israelites in
the same position as the Egyptians God is reminding them that
He has the power to plague and the power to reward
God is establishing the
theology of His presence
Not sure where Elim is at
Verse 16:1-4
Wilderness of Sin
This is the name of the moon
god
The move on the 15th
day also, which means there was a full moon
Perhaps reminiscent of Genesis
1 creation
Miracle after miracle and yet
complaints still arise
“Grumbling”
Dominant characteristic of this
chapter
Appears 7 times in this chapter
Grumbling is a form of relating
Most likely destructive but
still relating
Counterproductive
God is committed to deepening
and continuing His relationship with Israel
Sharing negative thoughts in a
constructive manner is essential to a relationship
By in large, rarely is the
fight about what the problem is
There is usually an underlying
cause
What is the real occasion for
the grumbling?
It’s really lack of faith
not lack of water
It is our nature to use a
substitute rather than what we are really concerned about
The way in which
grumbling/disagreement are approached is most important
God embraces our doubts and
concerns in the Psalms – the idea of new orientation
mentioned above
Verse 16:5
Same verb used for raining hail
on the Egyptians
Here bread is giving by means of
“rain”
The 8th plague –
locust come up and cover the land
Here quail come up and cover the
land
“My law”
Ironic because the Law hasn’t
been given yet
The most dominant theological
point in this chapter is the emphasis on the 7th day
This is a law that has been in
place since the beginning of time
This is a creation order law
We are not under any of the
Law
However, this law precedes the
giving of the Law and should indeed have some consequence for us
Adam and Eve most likely
followed intuitively if not specifically the Sabbath law
We are not under Sabbath laws
(the ones contained in the Mosaic Law and Jewish traditions) but
we are under the Sabbath concept and as believers we should in
some way sanctify a Sabbath day
This does not necessarily have
to be Saturday but it really does need to be done
Verse 16:7
The primary thing that God wants
is for the Israelites to see His glory
God knows that providing food
will not solve the problem
Intersects with Moses in Exodus
32 about “show me Your glory”
The bread and the quail are not
the answer to their problems, seeing the glory of the Lord is the
final answer (John 1:14)
Verse 16:8-30
Image of God
Being made in the image of God
means more than a statue
It includes that we can do what
no other part of the creation can do, talk
This is a unique gift to humans
Too often the gifts that He
gives are the ones that we abuse
When we are grumbling we are in
a decreator role
Communication is the single most
important thing in life
They called it Manna which means
“what is it?”
God speaks a lot about gathering
it
God says only take what you can
use
“Gather” appears 9 times in
this short unit
Gather 6 days and gather twice
as much as you need so you can rest on the Sabbath
Gathering commands
Gather
Gather in a precise way
Don’t gather on the 7 day
This story is repeated in John 6
The gather story goes directly
back to Genesis
Adam and Eve were provided with
free food but they had to gather it
They were given similar
instructions
Don’t gather from the tree of
knowledge of good and evil
Primary point is that God is
King
As King God provides for His
people
Just as in Genesis 1-2 God
works through a vice-regent (Adam and Eve)
Here the vice-regent is Moses
1 Thessalonians – If you do
not work you do not eat
God the King provides for us but
our responsibility is to gather/work
When human beings receive
without working something bizarre happens
Something bad happens to our
thinking when we do not work and yet receive
Work is spiritually nurturing
Work is God’s gift to us
We are made in His image –
God works, we work; God rests, we rest
There are also specific ways to
work (cf. all the gathering rules)
The climax is you must rest
The Sabbath law is given
authority long before the Mosaic Law
It is based on creation order
We might be missing out on the
blessing of God by not being true to His Sabbath model
It is equally important for
your spiritual well being to rest
It is spiritually nurturing to
rest
God has instituted the rhythm
of life in Genesis 1-2
There are consequences for
choosing to live our lives outside of His rhythm
Rest means strengthening our
relationships
With God
With others
The commandment to love God and
love others comes into play
Verse 16:31-36
Joshua 5:12 says when the Manna
stopped
Even in that situation they are
still in a gathering position
Verse 17:1-4
They were in a tough situation,
you can only go 3-4 days without water
They insist on putting God to
the test
Instead of using communication
whereby they might have a healthy way of relating they choose to
attack their leader
They are ready to kill Moses
God is trying to get the
Israelites to learn how to follow a leader
[Moses and Monarchy]
Verse 17:5-7
This is the third time out of 4
complaints that Moses is afraid for his life
Serious lessons need to be
learned about how they relate to God
“Strike”
Same staff Moses used to strike
the Nile
Now he uses it to strike the
rock and bring forth good water
Water symbolizes life
God consistently requires that
His work be done through Moses
Moses uses his staff which is
clearly a symbol of kingship
For the next 4 centuries the
Israelites will not follow their leaders
Foreshadow that Israel will not
follow Christ
Furthermore, foreshadows the
church
God is trying to prepare Israel
to accept and follow a king
If God raises up a leader then
he is god to the people
When we try to manipulate God to
fit us that is testing God
Testing is demanding that God
meat us on our terms
Trusting is the exact opposite
of testing
Verse 17:8-16
The Amalekites may have attacked
because there is water at that place now
There has never been water there
before but there is now
The Amalekites are one of the
most hated of ancient peoples
God has just created water and
now Amalek is acting as a decreator by trying to take it away
God does not fight the battle
for them this time but uses Joshua
This is the first mention of
Joshua as a military leader
He was somehow at the status of
a major general over Israel
Moses (and his staff) is still
the medium which God uses to win the battle
God centralizes His personal
power and authority in Moses
Not one king in Israel ever had
the power that Moses had
God intended to relate to
Israel through a king
This is a God’s model for
Israel
God’s number one plan (which
goes back to Gen. 49) was to raise up royal leaders
The problem is not kingship; it
is not good or bad
If it functions according to
God’s rules then it is good
If it functions according to
man’s rules then it is bad
Kingship that revolves strictly
around authority is wrong
God’s model was to invest
Himself fully in one man and use him as he is in a proper
subservient relationship with God
Moses is the kind of man God
wants to use
Utterly obedient
Humble – pious
Speaks to God face to face
The way Moses led Israel is the
way that God’s wants successive leaders to lead Israel
The Amalekites continue to
remain throughout the OT as an enemy of God’s people
They “kind of” replace
Pharaoh
They become decreators
Chapter 18:1-16
This chapter tells far more
about the transfer of authority than the actual Exodus itself
Moses’ father-in-law plays a
large role and then disappears
There is more happening here
than a family reunion
It is possible that the text is
reflecting Jethro’s commitment to becoming a follower of
Israel’s God
There is sort of a conversion
sequence
Jethro hears, speaks with
Moses, is convinced, they go into a tent (a predecessor of the
tabernacle?), Yahweh is greater than all other gods (faith
affirmation), had a meal with all elders of Israel
This order of events very well
may be a covenant being made here
If so, it is a covenant made in
light of God’s saving acts of humanity through Israel
Chapter 18:17-27
Moses is judging before Sinai
There are already laws
Echoes chapter 2 – when there
is a dispute between two Hebrews
Some say this is the foundation
of the institution of the judicial system of Israel
There is probably more to it
than that
What does this establish about
kingship?
In the ancient near east the
king in all cultures was specially franchised with keeping the
law – justice
This is one of the most
important tasks of a king
Moses is king
Moses, as a king, has a prime
responsibility to establish justice
Everyone must enjoy justice
David is not attending to the
affairs of his kingdom in 2 Samuel 15, Absalom is doing it
Kingship must be established
around laws
Administrative issue that is to
the benefit of everyone
Delegation
Moses is not on an ego trip
They are probably following
customary law at this time
Deuteronomy 17:14-20
Passage may be similar to
Numbers 11:17
Two main points of this passage
Conversion of Jethro to a
follower of the Lord
Establish Moses’ kingship and
how it functions
Law and Covenant - 19:1-24:18
Chapter 19:1-6
Climax of the entire book is
right here, chapters 19-20
Arrived at Sinai at the exact
day of the new moon
They will stay here for 11
months
“I bore you on eagles’
wings”
Deut. 32:11
Terminology is redemptive
Creation account (Gen. 1:2) is
related through bird terminology
“Spirit of God was moving
over the surface of the waters”
Same verb that means “nesting”
More than just a covenant is
going on
God is calling a unique people
for Himself
My own Possession (special)
Kingdom of Priests
Missionary imperative
All Israel is assigned a task
of ministering to other nations
Their task is to obey the law
to save the world
God is saving Israel in order
to save all the nations of the earth
Holy nation
Chapter 19:7-17
“All that the Lord has asked
we will do” – reminiscent of Joshua 24
Perhaps this is not a making of
a new covenant
It is an extension of the
Abrahamic covenant
There is something new, but
perhaps not a whole new covenant
If it is not a brand new
covenant than perhaps it is Israel agreeing to keep the laws of
the land
Covenant (cf. on “The Whole
Law as Ethical”)
There is no such thing as an
unconditional covenant
They are all unending
Because they are divinely
ordained they continue for all time
All covenant’s are organized
under the Abrahamic covenant
Only place in the OT where all
the people are said to have heard
Only place in the OT where God
is heard without an intermediary
This also happens so that the
people will believe Moses
Forever does not mean forever
God will work powerfully through
Moses and they are expected to follow
Symbolizes their cleansing
Anticipates Leviticus
An individual must prepare
himself/herself to come into the presence of God
God has graciously come down in
their midst and shows Himself to all Israel
God says come close, but no
closer than this
There is a contrast here with
the NT
Jesus Christ has removed the
border between God and us
Sex is forbidden because of the
possibility of blood which would make one unclean
Chapter 19:18-25
These events and this Theophany
must be interpreted in relational terms
One of the best developed
Theophanies in the Bible
Theophany – God of light
God on a mountain top
Distance between God and people
People must wash and get ready
Thunder and lightning
Same word as in Gen. 3:8
Before the fall it was not as
frightening
Thick cloud
Trumpet sound – supernatural
ram’s horn
If God is relational, why is He
scarring the living day lights out of them?
Puts the relationship in the
proper perspective
It is explaining that they have
to understand how to relate to God
Shows the high price of sin
Before the fall it was not this
way
After fall it has to be this
way
God has come down
This is a certain revisit from
before the fall
It is as if God has rescued the
human race by coming down to dwell permanently
This is the first time from
before the fall that He comes down for residency
God only takes His presence
away at the end of the OT in order to send Christ down
It would be easy to interpret
these events in the OT terms of clean and unclean
However, it is more accurate to
recognize that God is choosing to relate to them through the
person of Moses
This is the mediator concept
This is a model of what Christ
will do
The people were clean, they had
sanctified themselves
God has chosen to speak through
His divinely chosen mediator(s)
Priests
There was some sort of
organization before the organization
Not sure how they came to be or
why, but they were there
There was animal sacrifice
before the Law
This is not the beginning of a
new distinct covenant, but the edge of fulfilling the Abrahamic
covenant
The primary reason for the
giving of the law revolves around the concept of land
Most of the Mosaic laws revolve
around how people live with one another in the land
Also how they live with God in
the land
Perhaps it is more accurate to
think about this in terms of fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant
Chapter 20:1-2 and Background
God proceeds to give them the
ten commandments
In Jewish thought, these are
referred as “the ten words”
The ten words are introduced by
the preamble in verse 2
The reason for obeying the law
is the identity and activity of the One giving them
This is not mere legalism
These are laws given in the
context of relationship
Keeping law for the sake of law
keeping is useless; but keeping law for the sake of relationship
is what it is about
The ten are not magical
This list is only reduplicated
in Deut. 5
The other 6 or so times they
are mentioned they are not exactly the same
The point is the concept of
these, not the exact word for word laws
The ten revolve around four
concepts (from Survey of OT by Hill and Walton)
Authority – 1, 5
Dignity – 2, 6, 7, 8
Commitment – 3, 9
Rights and Privileges – 4, 10
A surer foundation:
The first four are how we are
to relate to God
The last six are how we relate
to other people
This is in accordance with
Jesus in Matthew 22:37-29
Ironically, law is situated
permanently in the context of relationship
Love is related directly
to doing
Most important theological word
in the OT: hesed
Steadfast love
The kind of love that you show
precisely because you are in a covenant relationship
The relationship comes first,
then the law
The laws exist to show us how
we relate
Important to remember that
Israel was God’s people before the law
The law was given in order
further the relationship between the two
Jesus, “If you love Me, obey”
Matthew 5 – “Not one jot or
tittle will pass away”
Whatever Christ was saying, he
was confirming the Law
He came to fulfill the Law
How can Christ say that when by
this time there are already laws that cannot be kept
The Law of Moses was given to a
specific people for a specific time in a specific place
In what sense is the Law
eternal?
All Scripture becomes useful
because all Scripture is applicable
The secret: the Law is eternal
in the sense that every law ever given has a truth behind it
that does not fade
Every law has timeless
truth to it
Essentially, everybody has
rights
It would be ludicrous to take
Paul’s commands literally
i.e. to Timothy “take a
little wine for your stomach” literally
It really means, go to the
doctor for us
It is law for relationship’s
sake, not law for law’s sake
Wherever there is
relationship there has to be law
The more intimate the
relationship the more laws
Law has no life apart from
relationship
The fact that God wanted
everyone to hear seems to suggest that He wanted everyone to feel
that personal relationship with Him
We are not legally under
the law; if so then we are also under the punishments
But truthfully we are
under the law
Chapter 20:3-17 – Ten Words
The first law excludes all
others, relationally specific; like marriage
What is so wrong with image
making?
We assume the role of creator
when we make an image
We become pseudo-creators
We bear the image and likeness
of God
God created us
“Image and likeness”
usually refers to statues
God created us as statues in
that we are like Him because we are alive
Third or fourth generations
God is teaching that nationally
God’s judgment can fall on subsequent generations
Shows His justice
Do not take the name of the Lord
your God in vain
We usually think of this in
obscenities or using it in vulgarity
Not True
This is just bad taste
It means choosing to be part of
this covenant and then not being true it
All covenants were concluded
with the employment of the divine name to seal it, so to break
the covenant would be to violate the name
This is a major reason why
divorce is such an atrocity, marriage is taking an oath under the
divine name
Jesus said specifically, “Let
your yes be yes, and your no, no”
Remember the Sabbath
Already discussed in the
context of creation (cf. above)
The law is as much an act of
worship as it is avoidance of work
Wherever there is a law there
is danger of legalism
This is a part of
creation-keeping
Sabbath keeping must result in
worship
It is the presence of worship
as much as the absence of work that is the point of the command
Honor your father and mother
This seems to be more of a
command for grown children in light of elderly parents
Jesus was infuriated with the
Pharisees concerning their practices about this
Qorban – claiming
that their work and money were dedicated to God
The reality is that they need
to care for their parents
Nursing homes are very
questionable in light of this command
“That your days may be
prolonged”
Model for creation order
Not so much an absolute
command
In situations where a choice
must be made Jesus said that we are to choose Him first – “hate
father and mother”
You shall not murder
We don’t have the right to
murder because human beings are made in God’s image
Murdering with your speech is
every bit as culpable as literally (James, Proverbs)
This command is addressing
individuals in a relational format
What effect does this have on
capital punishment? War?
Does the state have the right
to exercise these functions?
Clearly in the OT God
sanctioned capital punishment, but that does not mean that that
is God’s desire for all nations for all times
Paul sanctions state authority
in Romans 13 (the same authority that ultimately executed him)
This is also a creational order
law, not just a part of the Law of Moses
You shall not commit adultery
Simply a violation of creation
order
Violation of covenant keeping
Reminds us of the primacy of
the family unit
The perpetuation of the family
is sacred
God often times works through
the sin itself
In David’s case his multiple
wives caused a lot of problems
His children went against each
other and against David and caused a lot of problems in his
family later in his life
You shall not steal
A violation of a person, not
just taking there stuff
What makes this a crime is that
the person is violated
Possessions are not as
important as persons
Stealing is a relational crime,
not just wealth
It is the act of violation of
the community that makes it a crime
You shall not bear false witness
against your neighbor
This is a great deal more than
just testifying in a court room
It includes anything that
undermines someone else’s reputation
Anytime one’s speech tears
someone else down
This is very destructive in a
local church context
You shall not covet your
neighbor…
The problem here is more than
just illicit desires
In Hebrew thought it is
inevitable desires that lead to actions
Must not covet anything that
belongs to another person
Huge problem in our culture
Paul gave the anecdote – “I
have learned to be content in whatever state I am in”
Summary
These commands establish
relational principles
These ten words form the basis
of all law as we know it
We need to recognize that all
the laws are based on relationship to God and to one another
It is not adequate to avoid
breaking these ten
The real goal is deepening the
relationship of the community
Our success is measured by our
ability to deepen community relationships
Our obedience to God should
flow from the right heart attitude
Chapter 20:18-26
Giving of the law was punctuated
with a Theophany
people in right frame of mind:
fearful
Elevates Moses to a unique
position regarding the people
The alter you are making must
not be a permanent alter
Perhaps this is anticipating
the day when they will come into the promised land
At that time there will be a
permanent alter in the temple
Nakedness not exposed echoes
Noah
How do we think about law?
We tend to read law as if each
law is sacred and eternal
The reality is most of these
are time-bound
In other words, the slave laws
no longer are useful because we do not have slaves
At least ten times there are
laws about oxen – we don’t have oxen!
Every law has a principle behind
it that is eternal
The whole Mosaic Law needs to
be thought of like this
In Judaism the law took on a
specific nature – 613 laws
That is not the correct way to
think about it
It is the truths that
originated the laws in the first place
We should not have a static
concept of the law, but dynamic
The 613 laws might be
emblematic of the fact that we need law
We seem to have codified the
law, rather than seeing that these Ten Words need to be applied
in every case
Jesus – “Not one jot or
tittle will pass away”
Jesus consistently uses
hyperbole
Perhaps this is related
Jesus reserves the right to
himself to apply law as he saw fit
Law needs to be fluid because
times change and situations are unique
21:7-11
About selling women into
slavery
This law cannot continue today
The principle is equal rights
Paul’s entire ethic is based
on the Torah in light of Jesus
Paul said that the Law must
take a subordinate role to Christianity
In the OT the Law was the
organizing principle
In the NT Christianity is the
organizing principle and the law is subordinate
All law is current for Israel
in so far as it does not interfere with a Christian mandate,
i.e., that all people come to Christ
All law must be administered
under the twin heading of “love God and love one another”
There is a huge difference
between law-keeping and legalism
Legalism is commitment to an
enshrined code
Law-keeping comes from a
commitment to a relationship
Have we codified law when it was
not intended to be codified?
The Ten Words are largely
creational
Recognition of equality of all
persons under the law
In God’s perfect plan there
is no hierarchy
In the garden there was
perfect union
Valuing of human life over
property
Human life is far more sacred
than any form of property
This is a unique principle in
the Ancient Near East
Mixture of the secular and
spiritual
Divisions in law between
secular and sacred are superficial
All of life is in one category
Philosophy of Hebrew law is lex
taliones
There must be a just
punishment for the crime
“Eye for an eye, tooth for a
tooth”
Hebrew law is built around the
concept of retribution
The criminal must make
restitution to the victim
Restitution is necessary for
justice
Chapters 21-24
Widely referred to as the book
of the covenant
In every case, these are simply
an expansion of laws from the Ten Words
This was not designed to be a
“law code” but rather an expansion on the Ten Words
In essence, these are examples
of how the Ten Words apply
When you start with “idea
commandments” like the Ten Words it expands exponentially in
order to suffice for all the different situations
A lot of the laws in these
chapters may very well be specific decisions that judges made in
individual situations
We consistently underestimate
the fact that God inspired the judges to make truthful decisions
Chapter 23
Immediately juxtaposed to the
commandments is a land statement
The first commandment is
repeated at the end
Chapter 24
Every last component of covenant
making is in this chapter
Whether a new covenant is
being made or whether it is an extension of the Abrahamic
Covenant, it is covenant language
Echoes Joshua 24
Echoes New Testament Upper Room
“This is the blood of my
covenant”
Covenant meal
This is a covenant meal that is
supposed to be repeated at least once per generation
Echoes the love feast at the end
of the ages
Meal sharing (in Ancient Near
East) is always in the context of covenant relationship
Communion
We should look at communion as
if we are taking a covenant, not a memorial
The meal should be a renewal of
the covenant
Pledging ourselves to be true
to the covenant once again
If this is true than we have
equated the New Covenant with law
“If you love Me, you will
obey My commandments”
Law is the written evidence
of grace
1 Corinthians 11
Violating koinonia
This is violating covenant
Verse 9-11
We know that they could not
have seen God
Several passages state that
humans cannot see God
What it has to mean is that
they saw a Theophany
They saw some form of God that
he wanted make visible
Why does he say that they
“beheld God” when everyone knew they didn’t?
Divine presence = relationship
God is enhancing their
relationship
This is the establishment of
the relationship
God does work in a hierarchical
relationship
Verse 12-18
Joshua is only mentioned 3
times in Exodus, chapter 17, 24, 32
For Moses and Joshua to be
absent for 40 days is certainly a risky thing
The number 40 is used 85 times
in the Scriptures
Shakespearean foreshadow – we
know something bad is going to happen
Summary
Chapter 19-20
Establish Moses as Mediator –
19:16-35
The purpose for the Theophany
is to center reverence and attention of the people on God who is
giving them Law
That they may be “tested”
(15:25; 16:4) in light of Law keeping
The 10 Words: only Dt. 5:5-21
is exactly parallel. 10th Law first appears in 34:28
and the division into two tablets is first stated in 34:1. Notes
difference from Dt. 5 in 20:9-11
Chapters 20:22-23:33 – The
Book of the Covenant. This is clearly an expansion of the Ten
Words. How should the expansion be viewd?
23:20-33 – Law and promise
(characteristic of relationship)
Chapter 24:1-18 – Covenant
formation
Chapter 25-31 – Tabernacle
(forms of worship because of Divine Presence on Journey)
To describe in detail an idea
of something that is not yet
To create a concept in the
minds of those who have no concept
To anticipate apostasy and
indifference by emphasizing detail
Apostasy is begun by ignoring
the details of God’s commands
This turns into something
bigger and bigger
To emphasize consequence and
character of Divine Presence
Chapter 32 is an exact contrast
with 25-31
God initiated People
initiated
Willing offering
requested Golden Calf
Painstaking preparations Aaron
commands gold
Lengthy building
process Hastily constructed
Safeguard holy, present
God God is accessible to all
Invisible God Visible god
Personal active
God Impersonal statue god
Moses Aaron
Leadership motif
When Moses is on the mountain
there is chaos in the camp
This sets the stage for
Israelites history
When Israel is without a
leader for 4 centuries after Joshua dies the results are the
same as chapter 32
The model given is that God
interacts through a mediator leader like Moses
The Plan for the Tabernacle -
25:1-31:18
God consistently uses known
constructs to reveal new truths
In the vast majority of cases
God uses things already known to reveal himself
Ancient Near East
All deities had place of
residence
Every major deity had a city
that he/she was king of
The deity had a dwelling place
Every temple faced east
Every temple had sacrificial
areas
Using known constructs is
inherently given to problems because the people may import the
religious ideas of the known construct on to God’s use of the
construct
Differences between the
Tabernacle and other temples
Portable sanctuary
Purpose of the temple is for
relationship vs. being fed in the pagan gods
That God might be with his
people and his people might learn how to be with their God
God seems to have in his plan
from the beginning that Jerusalem would be the resting place of
the tabernacle
Tabernacle words
ohel - tent
Tent of the Lord
House of the tent
Tent of the house of God
moed – tent of meeting
(over 125 times)
mishcen – dwelling
place
mikdosh – holy place,
sanctuary
What really stands out is that
this is the meeting place
Tent of meeting should
be the primary reference to it
Symbol of all creation
Garden 25-31
The tabernacle is presented in
perfection
And also all of the other
religious things
Fall 32
The fall of Israel
Sin occurs when Adam is gone,
here Moses is gone and sin occurs
Redemption 33-40
God restores the relationship
Exactly like in Genesis 3
God reaffirms his presence with
Israel by restating all the tabernacle and religious laws and
regulations
Moses becomes the divine
mediator
Moses is the prototype for all
redemption
-
Matthew’s Gospel has two
primary motifs
Moses
Tabernacle
One third of the book of Exodus
is about the tabernacle
Three important aspects
God didn’t have a specific
place to reveal himself until the tabernacle
The tabernacle clearly
accomplishes a greater intimacy than what was occurring in the
garden
In the garden God is a voice,
like a wind
Here, God is much more visible
The tabernacle now provides a
fixed place for God’s presence
Importance of obedience to divine
command
Chapters 25-31 has at least 7
speeches
The Sabbath is a major motif in
the tabernacle construction
Shift from mountain to the
tabernacle is important spatially and theologically
Leaves the typical dwelling
place of the gods and lives with the people
It is remarkable that a being
such as God would choose to be present with Israel
The NT uses this model for its
own Christological theology
Jesus was transfigured on the
mountain, like Moses
They both gave a law
Both interceded and rescued
their people
John’s gospel is built around
these two ideas
Jesus is the divine logos
The tabernacle is now present
in the person of Jesus
God entered into history in
space, not merely time
Is there such a thing as a holy
place?
Only because of God’s
presence
A site can be sanctified (set
apart) but it is not holy
If God is not present than
places are not holy
Because of Christ places are
not holy, people are sanctified and holy because Christ is
present in the Christian
Important concepts that come
from a specific place
Brings order to the worship of
God
Provides a tangible aspect for
divine presence
Provides stability in the
midst of chaos
Portability of the tabernacle
It’s built in such a way that
it can move easily
The portability of the
tabernacle is to get them to the land of promise
It is not superior or inferior
to the temple
Any place is holy where the
tabernacle rests
Jerusalem is not an inherently
holy spot
Jerusalem is only holy because
the tabernacle is there
The problem is not that we can’t
see God or that we can’t see miracles or that we are so sinful;
the key is we need to enhance our relationship with God. This
comes through loving God and loving others.
The Fall and Restoration of
Israel - 32:1-34:35
Chapter 32:1-6
Calves
Aaron did not think that he is
worshipping another God
They are most normally
associated with Baal
They were creating an image of
Yahweh
Yet God made it clear that
there is to be no concrete images made of him
The Israelites were looking for
a confirmation of a practice in the Ancient Near East
When an army was moving they
had the image of their god in the front
The Israelites wanted this
calf to serve that purpose
“Eat and drink, and rose up to
play”
Hints of Canaanite religious
practices
Basically an orgy
Ironic echo of Exodus 24 when
they first made the covenant
“Play” is from the Hebrew
word for laughter (Isaac)
There is no such thing as an act
without a consequence
Moses insisted that he was not
qualified for the role
This event now takes place as a
consequence of Moses’ objections to God
There is one enemy that rivals
God’s power: fear
The Israelites are scared to
death
They are stuck in the
wilderness with no idea of what to do or where to go
They are pleading for a
presence, they ask that the calf might “go before them”
They manufacture a substitute
for a real relationship
Fear is the worst thief alive
What is fear?
It is rooted in
self-preservation
We think that we must remove
ourselves from danger and threat
Fear is usually involuntary
but we must have a faith response to it
Faith will not come when you
are focusing on danger and insecurity
We are afraid of all the wrong
things, we should fear God (Matt. 10:28)
What is the solution to fear?
Knowledge helps some
Anecdote for fear: 1 John –
“perfect love casts out all fear”
If we focus on love than we
conquer fear
We love God
We love others
It is impossible to not
experience fear but it is critical that we do not make decisions
out of fear but rather out of love
We are in the wilderness for
all of life – we were built for a garden but we won’t ever
see it until after this life
You can’t have a closer
relationship with one another than you have with God
Chapter 32:7-10
At least 15 verbs
God is undoubtedly angry
He calls Israel “your people”
He is truly hurt by their bad
decision
Violated relationships is one of
the most hurtful things
Echoes Abrahamic covenant
Chapter 32:11-14
Moses avoids a power struggle
with God and communicates 3 good reasons he shouldn’t do this
Appeal to reasonableness
Appeal to Reputation
Appeal to Promise
This is not a model for open
theism; God is modeling how to relate to him
God is showing the human side of
his being in order that human beings might know how to relate to
him
Chapter 32:15-18
“cry, cry, singing” is all
the same word
May echo Genesis, the same word
is used for “voice”
Chapter
32:19-20
The
broken tablets
Represent the broken covenant
Moses was angry!
God did not tell Moses to break
them
God did not threaten to break
the covenant
For all of God’s justice, he
never said that he would break the covenant
Relationships for God are not
conditional
Why would Moses make them drink
the gold?
Could be contrasted with the
covenant meal they just had
They are taking complete
ownership of their guilt
They ingest their violation,
the guilt becomes part of you
Chapter 32:21-29
Aaron is afraid to take
ownership of what he has done
Echoes Genesis 3, the loss of
the garden
He does not show himself to be
the leader he was expected to be
Every relationship we are in
coexists with the reality that we are not truthful, that we are
the image bearers that we should be, we are defensive
Moses is speaking on behalf of
the Lord
The Levites are fully aware of
the instigators in this situation
Why didn’t Aaron die?
He was the instigator
He was just passive and
responded to the pressure
This doesn’t explain it
Over 3,000 men die
Clearly, these are those who
caused this and God is executing judgment on them
Chapter 32:30-35
Not sure at all how many were
smitten by God
Not very many because the census
that is taken a little later reveals about the same number
Somewhat of a disturbing justice
God ordering the destruction of
men is quite disturbing
Justice is done however
We force God into our sense of
justice
We do not understand how God
works all the time
He is way more consistent in
what he does than we are in what we do
Chapter 33:1-6
If we interpret this account in
light of Genesis then this is part of their punishment, to leave
In Genesis 3 they leave the
garden, here they leave so that God can take them to the alternate
place of the promise land
Three commonly held views for
the identity of the angel (in Hebrew the word for “angel” is
also that for “messenger”)
Moses
The angel of the Lord (malach
Yahweh)
An angel
Whatever is happening with the
angel, we can say for sure that it is a relationship that is not
desirable
Exodus 4:19 the “pillar of
God” is called the angel of God so it could be talking about
his visible presence
Moses immediately confronts God
“Sad word”
Hebrew: ra
Evil or calamity
These are the same kinds of
ornaments that they used to make the golden calf
As a sign of their repentance
they are asked to rid themselves of these ornaments
The ornaments represent normalcy
God is saying to them that they
should have a period of morning
They have done a bad thing and
by stripping themselves of normalcy it reminds them daily of what
they had done
Perhaps there is something
spiritually healthy about revisiting our failures
It reinforces our abilities to
never go there again
Chapter 33:7-11
Switches to more of a model sort
of language
This is sort of a parenthesis
describing how God would function with them
God’s presence is clearly
highlighted; especially in light of verses 1-6
Without the ornaments of
normalcy you are more aware of God’s presence and your
relationship to him
It is remarkable to see the
focus on Moses
Joshua is being mentioned
because he is going to be the new Moses
There is a Christology here
Clearly the gospels use this as
a type of Jesus (and Hebrews)
No one went into the presence
of the Lord except Moses
Christ becomes the tent of
meeting
Chapter 33:12-16
In this passage 5 times favor
has mentioned
“Known you by name” is
emphasized
“Your people” is emphasized
Moses recognizes the importance
of God’s presence in the journey
Ongoing repetition of the divine
promise, “I will be with you”
No matter whether we feel it or
not; or conscious or not, God has made a life long promise, he is
present
When they are traveling in the
wilderness that is a scary feeling. They want that comfort of
seeing God’s visible presence. They are asking to see God
moving out in front of us. This is the point of John 1. Like the
Israelites we don’t physically see him which causes us much
frustration.
Chapter 33:17-23
“Known you by name” is
covenant language
This can’t be a new covenant
What promise is God making
here?
That Moses will permanently be
the man whom God has appointed to lead the people
God will work through Moses
This affirmation elicits a
surprising response
It seems like Moses is asking
for some kind of sign to confirm this
Hasn’t Moses already seen
God’s glory?
Moses has clearly moved from
What is looking for?
Moses could just be asking for
something more
“Glory” actually means
“heavy, numerous, rich”
So if this is the case what is
it that he hasn’t seen yet
Moses hasn’t seen God’s
face
“Show me your face, show me
your personhood”
Moses could be asking for a
confirmation of this new relationship
Give me another Theophany to
confirm this
Give me another manifestation
of yourself to demonstrate this
Clearly, no matter the specific
exegesis, he is asking for a closer and deeper relationship
Hebrew word “face” can also
just mean presence
Ultimately, it is in the
incarnation that we see God
Envelope: Burning bush to this
revelation
We tend to make more of this
than we ought to
The OT makes Moses’
relationship to God very unique and unprecedented
God can’t be seen; neither
his back or face
The Hebrew word probably means
“residue”
Whatever this is it is a
Theophany because God doesn’t have a back to be seen
Chapter 34:1-9
The Theophany
Moses is actually being shown
God’s attributes
In Exodus 3 the divine name had
the emphasis of God’s presence
Here there is an emphasis on
the attributes of the divine name
Emphasizes two major things
God is a covenant God
God is just
Because of this Moses intercedes
again asking that Yahweh go with them
This model continues right into
the NT
Jesus is as faithful to
perpetuating the covenant as Yahweh
Jesus is every bit as just as
Yahweh
This is a definitive moment in
the OT
God has approved the
continuation of the covenant
God has most clearly given a
self-identification
In the whole OT this is the most
unique revelatory moment concerning Yahweh
This is also a unique
accreditation of the divinely chosen mediator, Moses
It is God’s model to work
through a divinely chosen and anointed mediator
There is a remarkable tension
between the God in the bush where Moses falls flat on the ground
and the God who wishes to stand besides us (vs. 5)
Chapter 34:10-35
God seals the covenant by
proclaiming that he will do miracles – typology for Christ
Reminds them of several laws
God is orchestrating a perpetual
relationship
Christology
40 days and 40 nights
Moses was transfigured and his
face shone
Verses 29, 30, 35
Moses’ face is said to have
shone 3 times
The veil is mentioned 3 times
Moses spoke with God 3 times
God spoke with the Israelites 3
times
If you add that Yahweh spoke to
Moses one time (earlier) we come up with 7
There is no further speech in
Exodus, this is the end of God speaking
NT
2 Corinthians 3
Paul is using the veil event
typologically
Hebrews also uses this commonly
Only the NT itself can
determine a type
The NT normally only uses
analogy
The Gospels are the basis for
the NT
The biggest problem we have in
reading the Gospels is that we read them as Christians
We constantly miss the OT
analogies and connections
The covenant was made in Chapter
19-20
What we have here is the
reaffirmation
The reason for the
reaffirmation is that Israel violated the covenant
The Lord’s Supper is at its
core a covenant renewal ceremony
We all need to cleanse
ourselves and ask forgiveness of our sins as we enter into the
Lord’s Supper
God Fills the Tabernacle -
35:1-40:38
Building of the tabernacle
The means by which the tabernacle
was built was by God’s Spirit filling men and women to
make their contributions to construct the tabernacle
The filling of the Spirit
is almost always related to a task (not emotional)
Echoes of Eden: There was more
than enough materials and supplies
They have to be ordered to stop
giving!
The biblical model (even in the
OT) is giving to meet the need
Creation order is giving to meet
the need
“Thus Moses finished the work”
The Israelites constructed the
components
But only Moses put them together
Demonstrates the centrality of
God’s anointed figure
Conclusion
The story ends with the
tabernacle being filled with the glory of God
“Through all their journeys”
are the last words in Exodus
This anticipates the book of
Numbers, where all these journeys are recorded
Analysis of typology
There is clear comparison
between Moses and Jesus in Matthew
John’s Gospel
The Prologue identifies Jesus as
Yahweh
In the creation Jesus precedes
Moses
The pericope climaxes in the
middle, probably vs. 12
Clear identification between
Jesus and Moses
Clarification of the divine
name; logos
In the person of Christ the
glory is incarnate and we all can see what Moses asked for
The greatest revelatory moment
in the OT is poignantly paused with the reality that Moses cannot
see God
However, we can see the glory of
God!
Clear connection between Jesus
and the tabernacle
“Full of grace and truth”
Exodus 34:6 again
Same concepts
This is the only time that grace
appears in all of John’s Gospel
Grace is really hesed,
steadfast love
Comparison with the
notion that in the OT God revealed to Moses law (which is true)
and in the NT we are now able to see hesed and grace, we
can now see in the incarnate Christ
Jesus is the answer to Moses’
request
The point is not that Moses was
inferior or Christ was superior; the point is revelatory
Relationship reaches a new level
because God is incarnate
Intimacy comes to a new level
that has not been possible in the past
The rest of the Gospel explains
this
Sevenfold use of “I
am”
The idea is established in the
prologue
Climax is in Chapter 18:5 –
“I am”
Peter’s denial is
intensified when in his fear he says “I am not”
Glory of God
Clearly seen in Chapter
12:27-29
Will be actualized in the
physical death and resurrection
Miracles (chiasm)
Water to wine – wedding
Resurrecting son
Healing of the lame man
Feeding of the 5000
(Response is Rejection)
Healing of the blind man
(Jesus as shepherd in 10)
Raising of Lazarus
Piercing of Jesus’ side with
water and blood
The book of John is enveloped
around water and blood and the institution of the covenant in
marriage
The centerpiece is the feeding
of the 5000 (John 6)
The language is overtly out of
Exodus
Jesus himself makes the
connection to manna
They reject him
Like the grumblings of Israel
The revelatory features that
were happening in Exodus are happening with Christ
This is not about the church, it
is about Israel
John was trying to convince his
Jewish audience that Jesus is the Messiah
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