My study of Exodus began just over two years ago. It’s been a long journey, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it all. To put it simply, the book is a titan of spiritual and ethical wisdom. My main finding was that the book takes the symbols and spirit of Genesis and begins to concretize them in law and ritual. It is the start of the conceptual becoming physical, of God becoming flesh.

Exodus still has some vestiges of the old legends, but overall, it isn’t as supernatural as Genesis was. It is, in fact, a necessary complement to Genesis. It shows the world becoming more like the one that we see today. Yes, strange powers and manifestations of the divine are still somewhat expected, but we are ramping down, and eventually every intervention of the Almighty will become unique and miraculous.

To quickly summarize the events of Exodus, we began with the death of Joseph, the last of the patriarchs, then launched hundreds of years into the future, at which point the Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians. When Pharaoh tried to kill all the new males Moses was saved, and he was able to grow into a privileged position. As an adult he observed the plight of the other Israelites, and he tried to help them, but his effort ended in failure. His heart was in the right place, but he was insufficient to the task, so he fled into the wilderness instead, lived an entire life there, and presumably had no intentions of ever returning to his people.

It was at this moment, however, that God performed His first act of intervention. He called Moses to go back to the Israelites and free them. This time Moses would be successful, because this time he would not function in his own power, but in the power of the Lord. Moses took some convincing, but ultimately, he returned to Egypt, where he performed many miracles and raised many plagues, each symbolic of the evil and sin that the Egyptians had given themselves over to. This sequence of events became an epic battle between the pride of Pharaoh and the power of God. This, of course, was a type for all mankind who will cleave to their own ways to the bitter end. Ultimately, God won the contest by exercising His power of death upon both the firstborn and armies of Egypt. This, at last, broke Egypt’s grasp on Israel, and the chosen people went free.

In the second half of the book, Israel took its journey into the wilderness. The people faced adversity with the lack of food and water, but their response to this was inappropriate. Rather than seeking relief from the Lord in humility, they threatened to abandon Him. They even went so far as to create a false idol and raised a rebellion against the Lord.

In spite of all this, God continued to strive with the people, humbling them, and delivering his law by degrees to them. Only after these were properly received, He also gave them the command to build the tabernacle. It was a large task, but the people accomplished it beautifully, and in the final chapter we read how God’s presence came to dwell personally in that house, becoming a permanent fixture in the Israelite community.

This book has taken us on a grand two-part journey. First, we fell into slavery and sin; then we returned back to the Lord through miracle, repentance, and covenant. We have gone down to the deepest depths, even those of the Red Sea, then up to the highest heights, even those of Mount Sinai. This story is a recreation of fundamental archetypes that were first laid out in Genesis, such as the fall of Adam and Eve, the acceptable offerings of Abel, the consuming of the wicked in the flood, the deliverance of the righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah, to only name a few. This story takes those archetypes and adds itself to them, becoming the template for many more stories that will follow in the Biblical record.

What an epic experience this has been! I’m sad to leave it behind, and admittedly I’m unsure that I’ll be able to recognize as much richness and meaning in the following books of Moses. I’ve been surprised before, though, so I will proceed with my Old Testament analysis, picking up the book of Leviticus after a short break. During that break I will post various essays and in-between messages, probably extending for a week or two before returning to my scriptural analysis.