90 Day Bible Reading Plan Devotional Day 8

The book of Exodus

In these three movements the three great actors in this drama of ancient history are emphasized respectively—ISRAEL, EGYPT, GOD.

THE EXODUS—AND ISRAEL

Think what the Exodus meant for Israel. It meant four things specially. First, it marked the beginning of a new LIFE. In chapter xii. 2, we read: “This month (Nisan) shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” April becomes January. The new life is marked by the beginning of a new calendar. They are to reckon anew from this event which marks their birth as a nation.

Second, the Exodus meant the beginning of a new LIBERTY. As the great host came forth from Egypt Moses thus addressed them: “Remember this day in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out

from this place” (xiii. 3). That grim word “bondage” was to be associated with Egypt for ever afterward in the memory of Israel. Egypt was distinctively “the house of bondage.” But at the Exodus Israel went out to liberty.

Third, the Exodus meant the beginning of a new FELLOWSHIP. This is symbolised in the “feast” which was instituted in connection with the Passover. “This day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations” (xii. 14). In the Old Testament the feast is ever the symbol of fellowship (see xxiv. 11).

Fourth, the Exodus marked the beginning of a new ASSURANCE. When God announced His purpose to bring about the Exodus, He thus addressed the people through Moses: “I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord” (vi. 7-8).

All this has its counterpart in the Gospel of Christ. Luke tells us that when Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ on the Mount of the Transfiguration they “spake of His decease (lit.—‘His Exodus’) which He should accomplish at Jerusalem.” Christ is the Leader of an Exodus far greater than that under Moses. The exodus under Moses is indeed a type of that which Christ has wrought for us, as we see from 1 Corinthians v. 7-8—“For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” As the Exodus under Moses meant a new life, a new liberty, a new fellowship, and a new assurance for Israel, so the Gospel of Christ means all this to the believer.

THE EXODUS—AND EGYPT

Think what the Exodus meant in relation to Egypt. It meant three things specially. First, it was the first big-scale exposure of the falsity of idolatry. The primal revelation of Himself, and of Divine truth, which God had given to the early fathers of the race, had been more and more obscured or perverted as time had elapsed, through the perverted mind and will of fallen man; and systems of idolatry had grown up (Joshua xxiv. 2, 14, 15), man having made all manner of gods for himself. Egypt at the time of the Exodus was probably the greatest kingdom on earth, and its gods were considered correspondingly great. When God would call out the people of Israel to their new life and their intended national mission of restoring the knowledge of the one true God, He would, at the same time, expose the falsity of all man-concocted deities. Thus we find God saying: “Against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord” (xii. 12) (see also Num. xxxiii. 4). This smash-up of Egypt’s gods not only compelled even the magicians of Egypt to confess: “This is the finger of God (i.e., of the true God),” but, being so conspicuous, it was a lesson to all the nations of that day (xv. 14-15; xviii. 11; and see Joshua ix. 9). It duly impressed, also, the minds of the Israelites; and we hear them singing, from the farther bank of the Red Sea: “Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods?”

Second, the overthrow of Egypt demonstrates the uselessness, sin, and folly of attempting to resist Jehovah, the God of Israel, the one true God. At the beginning of the contest Pharaoh

contemptuously asked: “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey Him?” The Exodus was designed to answer that question in a way which should be a lesson to all men for all time. Indeed, God announced to Pharaoh, through Moses: “In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power, and that My Name may be declared throughout the earth” (ix. 16).

Third, it is to be remembered that all the principal features of the Exodus possess a typical import, and that in line with this, Egypt, the scene of the Exodus, is a type of “the world,” in the morally evil sense. Egypt is a type of the world (1) in its material wealth and power (Heb. xi. 26); (2) in its fleshly wisdom and false religion (Exod. viii. 7, etc.; 1 Kings iv. 30); (3) in its despotic prince, Pharaoh, who himself is a figure of Satan; (4) in its organisation on the principles of force, human aggrandisement, ambition, and pleasure; (5) in its persecution of the people of God (Deut. iv. 20); (6) in its overthrow by Divine judgment (xii. 29; xv. 4-7). In the plagues, the smiting of the firstborn, and the drowning of the Egyptian host, we see the final tribulation, judgment and destruction of the present world-system.

THE EXODUS—AND GOD

Supremely, the Exodus was an expression of the Divine power. It was as such that it made its outstanding impact on the Hebrew mind. It became for ever afterwards, to Israel, the standard of God’s power to deliver His people. Scores of times it is thus referred to in

the Old Testament, Micah vii. 15 being representative—“According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I show unto him marvellous things.” Note the “according to,” indicating the unit of measurement.

That the Exodus should thus become the Old Testament unit of measurement is no surprising thing when we consider what a complex marvel it was. It was (1) a marvel of judgment—in the miraculous plagues, the smiting of the firstborn, and the

overwhelming of the Egyptian host in the sea; (2) a marvel of grace —in the exempting of the blood-marked dwellings, and the delivering of the Israelites; (3) a marvel of might—in the clearing of a way through the Red Sea; (4) a marvel of guidance—in the pillar of cloud

and of fire; (5) a marvel of provision—in the miraculous supplying of food and drink; (6) a marvel of faithfulness—in the Divine honouring of the Abrahamic covenant and the further covenant with the nation at Sinai; (7) a marvel of condescension—as seen in the Tabernacle,

by means of which the infinite, holy God abode, in a special way, among His redeemed people.

It is an interesting point, in the comparative study of the Scriptures, to note the change-over from this Old Testament standard to a new unit of measurement in the New Testament. The

New Testament standard of God’s power to deliver His people is seen in Ephesians i. 19-21:

The Old Testament unit of measurement is thus superseded by the greater manifestation of the Divine power through Christ. In comparing the new standard with that of the Old Testament, however, it is instructive to observe that the New Testament standard

repeats the seven wonderful characteristics marked in the Exodus. Like the Exodus, it is (1) a marvel of judgment—in the judicial dealing of God with human sin, at Calvary, and in the overthrow of Satan, with the “principalities and powers” of evil; (2) a marvel of grace—in the exempting of the blood-sealed believer from judgment and punishment, on the ground of identification with the Cross; (3) a marvel of might—in the raising up of Christ from the dead and His exaltation as Prince and Saviour far above all the powers of heaven and earth and hell; (4) a marvel of guidance—in the giving and ministry of the Holy Spirit as the new pillar of cloud and fire; (5) a marvel of provision—in the blessing of the believer with “all spiritual

blessings in the heavenlies in Christ,” and the supplying of all need “according to God’s riches, in glory, by Christ Jesus”; (6) a marvel of faithfulness—in the further developing of the Abrahamic covenant, through Christ, in whom all kindreds of the earth are blessed, in the

honouring of the later covenant through Moses, which disobedient Israel had broken, and in the revelation of the New Covenant, in Christ’s blood; (7) a marvel of condescension—in the abiding of the Holy Spirit within the believer, transforming the human personality into a “temple of the living God.”

THE EXODUS—AND THE GOSPEL

Finally—as already noted—the Exodus under Moses is a graphic type of that greater exodus in Christ: it is meant to speak to us of this; and it is well, therefore, to fix in mind the points of

comparison and contrast.

Main Points of Comparison.

1. The Exodus brought a mighty emancipation for Israel. The Gospel brings deliverance from the guilt and penalty and bondage of sin.

2. The Exodus centred in the Passover and the slain lamb. The Gospel centres in the great passover of Calvary and “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

3. The Exodus became for ever afterwards commemorated in the Passover Feast. So “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; therefore let us keep the feast” (1 Cor. v. 7).

Main Points of Comparison.

1. (In means.) The sheltering blood, in the Exodus, was merely that of an animal. In the Gospel it is “the precious blood of Christ.” In the one case many lambs are slain; in the other, One for all.

2. (In extent.) The Exodus was national and therefore limited. The Gospel is universal, its characteristic word of address being “whosoever.”

3. (In effects.) The one was deliverance from physical bondage; the other is from spiritual. The one deliverance was temporal; the other is eternal. The one opened up the way to an earthly Canaan; the other to a heavenly.

–J. Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book