The book of Exodus, as we have seen, narrates the great events of the Exodus, the deliverance from Egyptian bondage, as well as the beginnings of the wilderness wanderings. Two of the most significant occurrences of the wanderings are also reported in the book: the giving of the law and the building of the tabernacle. All three events—Exodus, law, and tabernacle—emphasize one important truth: God is present with Israel as its savior and king. We will now examine each of these three moments in the redemptive history of Israel to explore this broader theme of the presence of God.
The Exodus From Egypt
Its Significance
From the significance of the event itself as well as its reverberations through the canon, it is clear that the Exodus was God’s greatest act of salvation in the Old Testament. After all, the Israelites, God’s chosen people, were living in oppressive conditions in Egypt. They were treated as slaves and exploited as cheap labor. There are indications in the text that Israel had forgotten God during their sojourn in Egypt, but God had not forgotten them. Specifically, he remembered the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 12:1-3; 15; 17), in which he promised the patriarch numerous descendants and a land of their own (12:1-3). The Israelites originally arrived in Egypt in fulfillment of that promise, since to stay in Palestine at the time of Jacob and Joseph would have resulted in death and famine, but at the time narrated by Exodus a generation of Egyptians existed that did not know Joseph. In the midst of these conditions, God raised up a deliverer through incredible circumstances. As happens so often in the
Old Testament, God preserved his future deliverer’s life through great danger in his infancy (Exod. 1, 2). Not only did God preserve Moses’ life, but he did so in such a way that Moses was raised under the nose of Pharaoh himself (Exod. 2:5-7). God used Moses to bring Israel out of their Egyptian bondage.
That it is God who saves his people from bondage may be seen both from the plague accounts and the miraculous delivery from Pharaoh’s army at the sea. The ten plagues increase in intensity and scope as they climax in the final horrible scene of the death of the firstborn. Throughout the plagues (but explicitly beginning with the fourth), the Israelites are clearly differentiated from the Egyptians. While the territory of the Egyptians is plunged into darkness (the ninth plague [Exod. 10:21-29]), “all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived” (v. 24). Most significantly, this differentiation takes place in the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, an event commemorated in the Passover celebration (Exod. 12). Finally, Pharaoh reluctantly gave permission for Israel to leave. When Moses had first approached Pharaoh for permission to leave Egypt, Pharaoh responded by declaring, “I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go” (Exod. 5:2). After the ordeal of the plagues, Pharaoh knew that God was present with Israel and was sovereign over all that happens in Egypt.
Pharaoh’s permission for Israel to leave was reluctantly given, however, and soon Pharaoh reneged, leading his chariot troops to pursue them. It was at the sea that God manifested his powerful presence in a climactic way that was remembered in song both at the moment of deliverance (Exod. 15) and later (Ps. 77). It was then that God explicitly manifested himself as the divine warrior (Miller; Longman 1982; Longman and Reid 1995) for the first time:
The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his name. 4 Pharaoh's chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea. The best of Pharaoh's officers are drowned in the Red Sea (Exod. 15:3-4)As mentioned above, the exodus deliverance was one that helped mold Israel’s self-understanding that they were God’s people. The significance of the event is clearly seen in the way that the Exodus theme is constantly reapplied throughout the Old Testament and into the New.
Indeed, this great act of salvation becomes in essence the paradigm for future deliverances. This is most noticeable as the prophets anticipate the Babylonian captivity and Israel’s ultimate restoration. In the minds of the prophets, the Babylonian captivity was going to be a second Egyptian captivity that would ultimately be followed by a wilderness trek back into the Promised Land (e.g., Isa. 35:5-10; 40:3-5; 43:14-21; Hos. 2:14-16). In fact, such a restoration took place after the decree of Cyrus and under the leadership of such men as Ezra and Nehemiah.
Approaching the New Testament
That more is to come is signaled by the opening of the gospel of Mark, which quotes Isaiah 40:3 as well as Malachi 3:1:
It is written in Isaiah the prophet: “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way – a voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him’” (Mark 1:2-3).John the Baptist is then introduced as the one who came to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ began his earthly ministry in the wilderness, and the gospels clearly show that his life was a fulfillment of the Exodus.
The act that initiates Jesus’ ministry was his baptism. In analogy with the Exodus experience, baptism is Jesus’ Red Sea crossing (cf. 1 Cor. 10:1-6). Not surprisingly then, Jesus moved to the wilderness where he experienced forty days (corresponding to the forty years of wilderness wandering) of temptation (Matt. 4:1-11). Strikingly, the three temptations all relate to the temptations that Israel confronted in the wilderness While Christ resisted temptation, however, Israel gave in to it. Jesus’ replies to Satan confirm the analogy since all are taken from Moses’s speech recorded in Deuteronomy (8:3; 6:13; 6:16), in which he admonishes Israel not to behave as they did in the wilderness. Jesus thusdemonstrates to his followers that he is obedient precisely where the Israelites were rebellious.
The next major episode that corresponds to the wilderness temptations in the gospel of Matthew is the Sermon on the Mount. That Matthew locates the sermon on a mountain draws the reader’s attention because in Luke the sermon is given on a plain (Luke 6:17). While harmonization is possible between the two accounts, the mountain setting draws a close connection between Jesus’ sermon with its focus on law and the giving of the law on Mount Sinai.
Many other parallels may be drawn between the Israelite’s exodus experience and Christ’s earthly ministry (Stock, Dennison), but it all climaxed during his Passion. Jesus went to the cross during the time of Passover (Matt. 26:19; Mark 14:16; Luke 22:13). In essence, he became the Passover lamb who died for others (1 Cor. 5:7).
Thus in one sense Christ fulfilled the Exodus during his earthly ministry. In another sense, Christians today experience life as a wilderness wandering looking to the future for the rest that comes at the end of the Exodus (Heb. 3:7- 4:13), the entering of the Promised Land (heaven).