I'll read chapter one, but we're not actually going to go through chapter one. We'll do that next week.
Scripture Reading: Exodus 1
We're going to do an introduction to the book of Exodus. Typically, when you start a new book, it's good to consider sort of an overview of the book and look at sort of how it's put together, the author, and that sort of thing. So I'll read chapter one beginning. There is an echo.
Okay, so Exodus chapter 1, beginning in verse 1. Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt. Each man and his household came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
All those who were descendants of Jacob were 70 persons, for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, all his brothers, and all that generation. But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
And he said to his people, Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply. And it happened in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land. Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens.
And they built four pharaohs' supply cities, Pithom and Ramesses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. and they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor, and they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shifra and the name of the other, Pua. And he said, when you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but save the male children alive.
So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, why have you done this thing and saved the male children alive? And the midwives said to Pharaoh, because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and grew very mighty. And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that He provided households for them.
So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive. As I said, we're going to do an overview of this book.
Introduction
I want to look first at the title and author, secondly, the outline of the book, and then thirdly, the contents of the book of Exodus. We'll just run quickly through that, noting a few things along the way, and then end with some theological themes that we find in the book of Exodus.
Title and Authorship
In the first place, it's called Exodus after the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. In the Hebrew canon, the book takes its title from the two Hebrew words. It's translated with more English words. Now, these are the names.
That's the title in the Hebrew, but with reference to the Greek It is exodus, and that simply means movement from one geographical area to another, so they move from Egypt to the land of promise or to Canaan. Departure, path, or course. As well, it means departure from among the living, and it refers specifically to death. Now, that's an interesting use. in the book of Luke, in Luke chapter 9, at the Mount of Transfiguration, we see that when Moses and Elijah appear to the Lord Jesus, they are speaking about His exodus.
They are speaking about His departure. In Luke 9.30, it says, And behold, two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem." And then we see the word in Hebrews chapter 11 with reference to Joseph. We read this last week. By faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones." So the central theme of the book is ultimately the movement of the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt and into the land of promise as God had promised.
Now the first word that we have in the English Bible is translated in the New King James as now, probably better translated as and, and that connects us intimately to what precedes. If you look at chapter 50 and verse 26 in the book of Genesis, it says, so Joseph died being 110 years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin, in Egypt. So we see them, the children of Israel, in the land of Egypt. And now we have the names of the children of Israel who had come to Egypt.
So several hundred years have transpired, and now we pick up with the people of God in this strange land. They are dominated by Pharaoh and by his people, and ultimately they are slaves in this land. And ultimately that's what the book of Exodus is about, the deliverance by God. So the statement in Genesis 15, you'll remember that covenant that God made with Abraham.
In Genesis 15 at verse 13, God said to Abram, know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them 400 years. So that was a prophetic statement concerning the children of Israel that they would in fact end up in bondage. But in verse 14, God goes on with Abraham to say, and also the nation whom they serve, I will judge. Afterward, they shall come out with great possessions.
In fact, Joseph says that as recently as Genesis 50 in verse 24 when he writes or when he says, but God will surely visit you and bring you out of his land to the land, or out of this land, to the land of which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob. So there is a close and intimate connection between these two books, and ultimately the first five books of the Bible, we refer to that as the Pentateuch, and we know that Moses is the author. One man says, the book itself is not a separate independent work, but a subsection of what has virtually always been understood as a five-part work, the Pentateuch. So what ends here in Genesis picks right up in the book of Exodus.
When we get to the book of Exodus, we'll see that it ends with the Shekinah glory of God manifested in the tabernacle, but the inability of the people of Israel to enter in. And that's where the book of Leviticus picks up. God prescribes to the children of Israel how they may in fact enter into the presence of God, and that's the purpose for the book of Leviticus. So you see that there is consistency and continuity between these five books of Moses.
Outline of Exodus
Now secondly, with reference to the outline, it's a very easy book to outline in large sections. There's only really two sections. From chapters 1 to 18, they are in Egypt, and then from 19 to the end, they are at Sinai. Now certainly there's other things that go along with that, but you might look at it as redemption.
God redeems His people out of the land of Egypt, and then covenant. He establishes His covenant with the nation of Israel there at Sinai, and He has them swear faithful fidelity to the terms of the covenant in Exodus chapter 24. In terms of a detailed outline, you have first Israel's Egyptian oppression and God's choice of a deliverer. We see that with Moses.
And then secondly, Moses' call, commission, and challenge. Then you have the 10 plagues, the Passover, and the Exodus, the wilderness journey to Sinai, the law given by God to the nation, and then rebellion, renewal, and fulfillment of God's instructions for the tabernacle. So that's sort of a detailed outline. But a good homiletical outline, I think a good way for us to just sort of remember the major emphases in the book is simply three D words.
And the first is deliverance. God delivers His people, and you see that in chapters 1 to 19. The second D word is demand. God commands His people.
He gives them law. We see that in chapters 20 to 24. And then the final D is dwelling. From chapter 25 all the way to chapter 40, which is the largest section of the book, it is taken up with God dwelling in the midst of His people.
So the command with reference to building the tabernacle and the establishment of the tabernacle is so that God can in fact commune with His people, His covenant people, that He had indeed redeemed out of the land of Egypt. So deliverance, demand, and dwelling.
Contents of the Book
Now thirdly, in terms of the contents of the book, we'll slow down a bit here. Birth and call of Moses is most important. Moses is certainly typical of our Lord Jesus Christ. So you have his preparation, his importance, and then ultimately his role.
Moses as Covenant Mediator
Moses functions as a covenant mediator. And as I think I told you when we're going through the book of Matthew, in Matthew's gospel, Matthew takes pains to present to us Jesus as the fulfillment of what Israel should have been. In other words, Jesus is not only the man that Adam was supposed to be, but Jesus is the man that Israel was supposed to be. In many respects, Israel was an Adamic-like figure.
They were put into the land, they were given probation, they were given a covenant of works, They were called upon by God to function in accordance with His covenant, and they failed. So Jesus is the last Adam. But as I said, in the Gospel of Matthew, persons have well seen this parallel between Moses and Jesus. In the first place, both Exodus and Matthew begins with genealogy.
In the second place, you have the birth of the Deliverer. Here, Moses in Exodus, and there, Jesus in Matthew. Thirdly, you have Pharaoh persecuting Israel. In Matthew's gospel, you have Herod oppressing the Jews.
You have Moses flee from Egypt, and you have Jesus flee to Egypt. As well, you have Pharaoh kill the male children, as we saw in this particular section, and then Herod kills the male children at the time of our Lord Jesus Christ. Israel goes through the Red Sea. Jesus goes through the waters of baptism.
On the other side of the Red Sea for the nation of Israel, Israel is tempted in the wilderness for 40 years. Now when we see Jesus pass through the waters of baptism, the Spirit leads Him out to the wilderness, and there He's tested for a period of 40 days. So the parallels are very strong and very much indicate the reality that Christ fulfills what Adam failed to do, and Christ fulfills what Israel failed to do. And then ultimately, we have the giving of the law at Sinai.
And again, when you look back at Matthew's gospel, you have something very similar in the Sermon on the Mount. In chapters 5, 5.1 to 7.29, Christ assumes that position as lawgiver. He's not giving a brand new law. Rather, he is indeed clarifying and interpreting properly the law originally given by Moses.
When he makes that series of antitheses, when he says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, but I say to you, He is not rescinding the Law of Moses. He is not bettering the Law of Moses. Rather, he is showing the original intent of the Law of Moses, because as far as Israel was concerned, and their Pharisaic and Scribal interpreters were concerned, as long as you didn't actually stop someone's heart from beating, you were not guilty of violating the commandment prohibiting murder. Well, Jesus shows us that the original intention with reference to the sixth commandment not only governed external, you know, killing somebody, but that internal disposition, whether it be character assassination or just a hatred without cause or anything like that.
So there are these great parallels between Moses and Jesus that we find in the book of Exodus and as well in the book of Matthew. So you have the birth and call of Moses, which is most important for all that follows in this particular book, the rest of the Pentateuch as a whole. And then
Redemption and the Plagues
you have the redemption of Israel, and that covers about chapter 5, verse 1 to chapter 15 and verse 21. And there you see the judgment upon Pharaoh, but you also see judgment upon the gods of Egypt. In fact, if you turn to Exodus chapter 12 for just a moment, when God announces the Passover, when God announces that He will indeed strike the firstborn in Egypt, He demonstrates or underscores one of the reasons behind this. Again, it was to deliver His people from that bondage, it was to render judgment upon the Pharaoh who had rose against His people and subjugated them, but it was also a judgment against the gods of Egypt. plagues has, as a particular end, the repudiation of a god associated with those things in the land of Egypt.
So if you look at Exodus 12.12, for I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. One man makes this observation, John Currid. He says, at the center of the plague narrative is a contest.
But it is not primarily a contest between Moses and Pharaoh, or between Moses and the Egyptian magicians, or for that matter, between Israel and Egypt. This is heavenly combat. That is a war between the God of the Hebrews and the deities of Egypt. The biblical writer accurately sees that the matter at hand is theological.
It is a question of who is the one true God, who is sovereign over the operation of the universe, and whose will is going to come to pass in heaven and on earth. So never forget that as we move through with reference to the plagues. Yes, it is God's vindication and deliverance of his people, but it's also the execution against the gods of Egypt. This man continues on and says, mockery of Egyptian polytheism is a central focus of the plague account.
And all those things underscore that the Lord God of Israel is in fact the true and living God.
The Passover and Exodus
Also, in chapter 12, we have the Passover and the Exodus. If you look over in chapter 12, specifically at verse 21, it says, then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said to them, pick out and take lambs for yourselves according to your families and kill the Passover lamb. And you shall take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood that is in the basin. And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning, for the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians.
And when he sees the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, the Lord will pass over the door and not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you. And you shall observe this thing as an ordinance for you and your sons forever. It will come to pass when you come to the land which the Lord will give you, just as he promised that you shall keep this service. And it shall be, when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service?
That you shall say, it is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He struck the Egyptians and delivered our households. So the people bowed their heads in worship. Then the children of Israel went away and did so, just as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron. So they did.
So there was this sacrificial animal. The blood is splashed up on the doorway, so that the angel of the Lord, on the night that he goes to slay the firstborn in Egypt, sees that blood and passes over it. Again, that is typical concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 5.7, the Apostle says, for indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
So, of course, God does bring them out, they are delivered, and that ultimately ends with this Song of Moses in Exodus chapter 15, where they rejoice in the goodness and the kindness of God. Think through that threefold motif or sort of thematic structure that you have in the Heidelberg, guilt, grace, gratitude, the same sort of thing. They are in bondage, they are delivered by God, and they express their gratitude to Him for the great deliverance that He wrought in their lives. Now after this particular section,
Journey to Sinai
they then journey to Sinai. Now this journey to Sinai is marked by murmuring and complaining along the way. You have the complaint at Merah at the end of chapter 15, you have the manna from heaven in chapter 16, and then water from the rock in chapter 17. And then that brings us ultimately to the foot of Sinai in Exodus chapter 19.
As I said, you have deliverance, you have demand, and then you have dwelling.
The Law: Moral, Judicial, Ceremonial
With reference to demand, we learn a lot about God's law in the book of Exodus. But before we get to chapter 20, look at Exodus 19.6. This is sort of a mission statement concerning God's purpose with reference to the nation. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel." Again, that was ultimately what Adam was supposed to do. Adam was a priestly figure. We often look at him as a farmer. Well, first and foremost, Adam was a priest, and he was charged with mediating God's blessings to the creation as a whole, and then offering the creation as a whole back up to God.
He was tasked with expanding that garden sanctuary to encompass the entirety of the earth. Well, obviously, Adam failed. The nation of Israel was given this mandate. They were to be a kingdom of priests.
Well, they ultimately failed. Because of the success of our Lord Jesus Christ, the church now takes on this particular identification. All that was purpose for Israel of old now is realized in the new Israel. You see that in 1 Peter 2.
You see that in the book of Revelation. You see the language of Exodus 19.6 applied to the church of our Lord Jesus. Another reason why dispensationalism is wrong. They maintain two peoples of God.
They maintain a Jewish people and then a Gentile people. There is one people of God made up of Jews and Gentiles. we have solidarity and unity in our Lord Jesus. That's Paul's point in Ephesians 2 and as well in the book of Galatians, specifically in chapter 3. And then when at the end in Galatians 6 16, Paul says, and may peace be upon the Israel of God, he is talking about the church. just like when he's talking about true circumcision in Romans chapter 2.
It's not outward, it's the heart. A spiritual or an earthly Gentile that's a believer in Jesus Christ is called a Jew in Romans chapter 2. A Jew who is physically circumcised, who is not a believer in Christ, is a Gentile as far as the biblical data is concerned. And so we see unity in the book of Exodus when we compare it to New Testament documents to see the sorts of things that Israel fails Christ achieves, and in Christ, the church receives those blessings and those benefits.
So the mission is reflected in 19.6, and then of course the people are at the foot of Sinai in chapter 19, and then that brings us to chapter 20, and this is foundational to God's law. This is called the moral law, the Ten Commandments. Our confession speaks concerning the moral law. It says the same law that was first written in the heart of man, so the confession makes that link between what Adam received in the garden and what is published in Sinai in terms of God's Ten Commandments.
It's not something absolutely different. Adam received the law of God, Israel receives the law of God, and the confession makes that statement. So the same law that was first written in the heart of man continued to be a perfect rule of righteousness after the fall and was delivered by God upon Mount Sinai in Ten Commandments and written in two tables, the four first containing our duty towards God and the other six our duty to man. It's a great summary statement concerning the moral law of God Almighty.
So it's given at creation by God to Adam. It's codified or summarized in the giving by God at Sinai to the nation of Israel. We see in the rest of Scripture that that moral law is not done away with. Yet another reason why dispensationalism is wrong. because they teach that the moral law of God is no longer binding on the New Covenant Church.
Nothing can be further from the truth when you compare the documents written to the New Covenant Church. They always invoke the moral law of God and treat it as abiding and valid for the people of God in a New Covenant situation. Now, in terms of the contrast between the law of Egypt and the law given by God at Sinai, again, Kurd makes this observation. He says, of all the tens of thousands of texts that survived from ancient Egypt, there has not been discovered a single legislative code.
Now, that doesn't mean there aren't legislative codes. The Babylonians had the Code of Hammurabi, and there was a lot of similarity, or there are a lot of similarities between that law code and what we find in the Old Covenant. But in terms of Egypt, all of these archaeological findings haven't yielded anything that was legislative in nature. He says, the reality was that the pharaohs were the definers and executors of justice and law.
I found this to be chilling because I think we're living in a time like this where objectivity and where law and statutes have gone out the door and we're basically at the whims of men and women who, from day to day, decide sort of new things. Well, that was the way it was in the time of the pharaohs. So he says the reality was that the pharaohs were the definers and executors of justice and law. They enacted new laws and changed old laws by their own prerogatives.
It was the Pharaoh who pronounced, thus says, and he could change or alter a law capriciously. That means at will, means arbitrarily, means if he decided to at any given point. You have to appreciate how bad of a scenario that is. We do not want lawmakers that have that capability or that ability to change on a dime.
We want objectivity. We want standards of justice so that they simply enforce or enact those things. He goes on to say, thus says, and he could change a law or alter a law capriciously, which explains why there is no known codified law in ancient Egypt. He says, the Lord, to the contrary, is not capricious, but he reveals his law, which stands forever.
He gives it in writing, and specifically with reference to the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments, it is that aspect of God's law. There are three divisions or threefold division of the law. We'll look at the other two in just a moment. But with reference to the Ten Commandments, God says that he wrote them with his own finger.
Again, we know he spoke to Moses. Moses ultimately was the one who wrote those things down. But with reference to the Decalogue, God spoke that, God writes that, and God enshrines that. And when you look at the Ten Commandments, Most likely all ten were on both tablets.
One copy was the king and one copy was the subject. And those two were placed in the Ark of the Covenant for safekeeping. So that's the covenant sort of establishment between Yahweh and between the nation of Israel. Now, of course, the people react at the end of chapter 20, and then we enter into what's called the Book of the Covenant in chapter 21 to 23.
And this covers what we call judicial law. As I said, there is a threefold division in God's law. You've got moral, judicial, and then the next is ceremonial. But with reference to judicial, our confession says this.
To them also he gave sundry judicial laws, which expired together with the state of that people, not obliging any now by virtue of that institution, their general equity only being of moral use." Now specifically, these laws, and they're amplified later in more detail in the book of Deuteronomy, but it was essentially for this commonwealth, for this body politic, this was to regulate them for life in the land. But at the very sum and substance of these laws, of these judicial laws, was the Ten Commandments. So when you look at a law, for instance, that penalizes somebody who has a goring ox, if that ox gets out and gores somebody and kills them, the ultimate sort of essence of that law is the Sixth Commandment. So, essentially what you have in the Book of the Covenant, in terms of judicial law, is how do we take these ten principles, these ten words, and apply them in concrete, specific application in our civil situation.
If you look at 21.1, it says, now these are the judgments which you shall set before that. Again, this is an unfolding of the Ten Commandments and how they function to regulate life in society. Now, our confession says that the judicial law expired with the state of that people. In other words, when the theocracy was ultimately judged and shut down by God, when the nation of Israel entered into the rank and file of every other nation, those judicial laws binding a people in a particular land we're no longer binding.
But the Confession highlights this principle of general equity. And general equity means that we ought to be able to look at these laws and get wisdom from them on how we should apply God's commandments in our own scenario. And if anyone has Francis Turretin, I would encourage you to read him on these subjects because these men, old reform brethren, thought through these things. And he starts to get at this idea of general equity or how we utilize judicial laws that expired with the Commonwealth.
How do we put them into practice today? He says, one, that what prevails not only among the Jews, but also among the Gentiles, following the light of right reason, is of common right. In other words, there might be things that specifically apply to Jews. So Turretin is going to argue that if it only applies to Jews, most likely there isn't an application for us.
But if it's Jew-Gentile, then we can see operation in terms of application. He says, second, what is found to be conformed to the precepts of the Decalogue and serves to explain and conform it. Again, taking an illustration from the Decalogue. You were told on a flat roof you were to have a fence around it so persons wouldn't fall off and die.
Well, I think that's pretty easy to extrapolate from that. The Sixth Commandment is the binding principle. How do we apply that in our own scenario? Well, we should put a fence around our swimming pool so our neighbor kid doesn't die in it.
So there are ways that we can apply this judicial law of Moses, even though the body politic expired. And then he says, the things so repeated in the New Testament that their observance is commended to Christians. So there are things directly applied from the judicial law to the people of God in the New Covenant. Obviously, that is binding.
But back to 21.1. It says, now these are the judgments which you shall set before them. Again, it's a detailed law code to govern them when they enter into the land of promise, how they are to function one toward another. Walt Kaiser says, while these judgments deal mainly with temporal matters, they nevertheless are based on one or another expressed commandment in the Decalogue.
It is most appropriate, therefore, that these judicial and political regulations given by God to Moses when Moses approached the thick darkness where God was should be set alight alongside the Decalogue. The two belong together in time as well as in interpretation. So though the Confession says it expires with that people, it doesn't mean it's meaningless. It doesn't mean we skip that section.
Rather, it means we move our way through that section, recognizing which of the commandments is sort of at the core of that, and then how we can apply that or how we can find the general equity so that we can see God's law govern us in our own situation. Now, the various laws that are dealt with in this brief section are laws concerning slaves, laws concerning homicide, laws concerning bodily injury, laws concerning property damage, laws concerning society, laws concerning justice and neighborliness, and then laws concerning feasts. Now, when we get to feasts, that then starts to tend into what we call the ceremonial law. So you've got the moral law, which is the Ten Commandments, always abiding, always applicable to every believer, every non-believer, whatever covenant sort of transaction you find yourself in.
If you're in the old or you're in the new, you're under God's law in terms of the Ten Commandments. The moral law is forever binding. The judicial law for the people of God in the land at that particular time, it expires with that commonwealth, but the general equity abides. Ceremonial law does not affect us as New Covenant Christians.
The ceremonial law was fulfilled by Jesus. And the ceremonial law, by and large, was typical. It prefigured the various aspects of the coming of Christ in terms of His person and work. Again, our confession describes it this way, besides this law, commonly called moral, God was pleased to give to the people of Israel ceremonial laws, containing several typical ordinances, partly of worship, prefiguring Christ, His graces, actions, sufferings, and benefits, and partly holding forth diverse instructions and moral duties, all which ceremonial laws being appointed only to the time of Reformation, not the 16th, century, not the 1500s, not the, you know, Luther pounding the 95 theses on the wall at Wittenberg.
The time of Reformation, according to Hebrews 9, is the New Covenant. I almost said dispensation. I could say that, but I don't want to confuse anybody, but the New Covenant administration of our Lord Jesus. That's the time of Reformation in Hebrews 9. goes on to say, all which ceremonial laws being appointed only to the time of Reformation are by Jesus Christ the true Messiah and only lawgiver, who was furnished with power from the Father for that end, abrogated and taken away.
So the various laws governing Israel in terms of ceremonial, with reference to feasts, with reference to worship in the tabernacle, and then the temple, with reference to the sacrificial system, those things prefiguring Christ were fulfilled by Christ, and therefore are no longer binding on the people of God. We are not subject to Israel's religious calendar. We're not subject to the dietary regulations on Israel's menu. We are not prohibited from mixing fibers, for instance, or from eating lobster, or shrimp, or other sorts of things, or bacon.
Those were things that were distinctly for the nation of Israel to separate them from the nations around them. And again, they were ceremonial, pointing forward ultimately to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Covenant Ratification at Sinai
Now go to Exodus chapter 24. You see, at the end of the giving of the law, there is a ratification ceremony. And essentially the people are told what they need to do when they go into the land. And in Exodus chapter 24, verse 3, we read, so Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments.
And all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the Lord has said, we will do. So they enter into this covenant of works very happily, very confident that they're going to be able to do this. Now it's no accident that we get to chapter 32 and they're dancing around golden calves. So this is ultimately what happens when you swear fidelity with reference to a covenant of works.
We are sinners. We have issues. We have big problems. We cannot obey God's law the way God calls us to.
So for them to say all the words which the Lord has said we will do. They claim that again down in verse 7. All that the Lord has said we will do and be obedient. Now notice verse 8.
Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, this is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words. So the covenant is ratified. The persons swear fidelity to Yahweh. and now we see how they function. They don't do too well, and it shows us the futility, ultimately, of a covenant of words.
Not because of the futility of God's just sort of administration of things, but futility in our inability because of our deadness in Adam and our lack of ability to comply with the demands of God's law. Remember, God doesn't call us to try our best. God doesn't give us participation trophies. God calls us to perpetual, exact, and entire obedience to His law.
Love to God and love to man 24-7. No other thoughts, but love to God and love to man. Obviously, we are sinners and we don't do that. That's why we need the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many persons have seen that when we look at this book, and when we look at the Pentateuch as a whole, and we look at this covenant that was made with Israel, some see it as an administration of the covenant of grace. Westminster Confession of Faith sees it as an administration of the covenant of grace. Our Baptist brothers did not put it in that way in their confession. They saw it as a covenant of works, a republication as to what was given to Adam in the garden.
God does this with Israel. And again, the reasons for this is to prepare them and to teach them and to show them ultimately their need for the Lord Jesus Christ. As well, it had the very utilitarian effect of at least restraining them outwardly so that they couldn't possibly undo themselves to the point where there would be no Messiah that comes from that particular nation. So I take that particular interpretation that the Old Covenant was in fact a covenant of works, a republication, similar to what God gave to Adam in the garden, he gives to Israel in their experience they fail.
So when Jesus comes, it has been well said, the covenant of grace was for Jesus a covenant of works, kept for us. When you look at Jesus, he's in a covenant relationship with his Father, and it means works, it means obedience, it means every jot and diddle. So the covenant of grace for us is the covenant of works kept for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. That's sort of a theological connection between what we have here in the book of Exodus and what will follow later on in New Covenant religion.
Now, once the deliverance has been dealt with and the demand has been dealt with, as I said,
The Tabernacle and God's Dwelling
chapters 25 to 40 take up dwelling. God is going to dwell in the midst of his people. So the tabernacle is, the instructions are given in chapter 25 to chapter 31. There are instructions given, detailed instructions for how to build or construct the tabernacle.
And then there is this golden calf situation and covenant renewal, and then the book ends with the construction of the tabernacle. But going back for just a moment, so the instructions beginning in chapter 25. Notice the sort of purpose in verse 8. And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.
You see, at the very beginning, when Adam and Eve were created, God dwells with them. He communes with them in the cool of the day. When Adam and Eve sin and transgress against God, they run from God, but God comes after them. God kills animals and covers them.
God provides atonement, and on the heels of that, or even prior to killing the animals and atoning for their sin, God makes the promise concerning His Son, the seed of the woman that would crush the serpent, the seed of the woman that would crush the devil, Genesis 3.15. So it's God who comes after sinners. It's not sinners that go after God. Sinners typically run from God the way that Adam and Eve do.
Sinners run from God the way that Paul describes in Romans chapter 3. There is no fear of God before their eyes. There is none who seeks after you. They all have gone astray.
That's us in Adam. It is God who initiates and God who comes. Remember back in Genesis chapter 12. God comes to Abram and calls him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to make him a people, to make him a nation, to make him the one from whom Messiah will come. and in whom all the families of the earth will be blessed." There's one thing you ought to learn from reading your Old Testament.
God seeks after us. We are not seeking after Him. God is seeking after us. God makes covenant.
God keeps us. God protects and God provides. God is full of grace and mercy. It's very irritating when you meet people and they say, well, you know, that Old Testament is filled with blood and guts and war and all that sort of thing.
No, it's filled with a God of love and mercy and kindness and grace. The God of Old and New Testament is a God who abounds in mercy. I mean, it was the prophet Micah who highlights that in Micah chapter 7. When God manifests His glory to Moses, He describes it in terms of compassion and grace and mercy.
We are simply wrong to have this attitude that the Old Testament depicts sort of this angry, vengeful God of the Hebrews that was about genocidal mayhem on all those poor, innocent Canaanites that happened to inhabit the land. They were wretched, vile, wicked people, and God raises up Israel to go in and chasten them. When Israel apes them and Israel becomes like the Canaanites, then God raises up Assyria and then Babylon to deal with them. Again, His law is not capricious.
He doesn't suspend His justice or righteousness. When His people act in the same manner, they reap the same consequences or judgment. But in essence, we have God who is full of grace, compassion, and kindness, and who wants to dwell among them. It's a glorious and a wonderful thing.
So these instructions are given, chapter 25 to 31. We have the golden calf incident in chapter 32, the meeting of Moses and God in chapter 33, and then covenant renewal in chapter 34. That's something else that you will see as you move through the Old Testament. There are many instances and many times among the children of Israel that they renew covenant with God.
What does that underscore? Well, it certainly underscores their sin, because if they didn't sin, they wouldn't need to renew the covenant. But it underscores God's patience. It underscores his forbearance.
It underscores his long-suffering. Every time there's a covenant renewal ceremony, it preaches God's patience. He doesn't just decimate them. He doesn't just destroy them.
He doesn't just obliterate them, but rather he continues to renew covenant with them and keep them in the land until such time as they fill up the measure of their guilt, and they are expunged from the land." This, again, according to his promise, he didn't lie to them. He told them flat out in Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, if you go into the land and you obey, things will be great. If you go into the land and you disobey, things won't be great. So everything they reaped, they knew what they were doing.
They knew what was published. They knew what the law code stipulated. They knew what their response was supposed to be and what they would receive if they broke the law. So when God does bring judgment upon them, no one can cry foul.
No one can cry, well, that's not fair. Nobody can say, well, that seems capricious or unjust. He warned them. He pleaded with them through the prophets.
He renews covenant with them time and time again. And ultimately, because they fill up the measure of their guilt, He does bring judgment to bear upon them. He is not only gracious and merciful and compassionate and loving and kind, but He is just and He is righteous and He must punish sin. And that's underscored as well.
And so we see that sort of situation here in Exodus 32. But even then, renewal, and God is gracious to them. And then they actually construct the tabernacle. That's from chapters 35 to 40.
And if you look at the end in chapter 40, We have that blessed, beautiful thing. It's realized what God had called them unto. In verse 34 of chapter 40, then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
So you see, that's a problem. The book ends with tension. The book ends on a note of despair, ultimately. They build the house for God.
God comes to dwell in the house. But they're so filthy and wretched, they can't go and meet with God. Not even Moses. And Moses is the holiest one among them.
The text is conspicuous. Verse 35. Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. This is resolved in the book of Leviticus.
The first nine chapters deal at great length with sacrifice. And the way of approach to a holy God is in the language of Michael Morales, through a bloody knife and a smoking altar. You don't just wander into the presence of a holy God when you're a sinner like you and I. There must be atonement, there must be cleansing, there must be purification, and that's what was provided by God in the ceremonial law.
He raised up a priesthood. He raised up a place where they would meet for worship. There was a sacrificial system. There were stipulations given by which an Israelite could come and meet with God in the house of God.
And again, it's all typical, pointing forward ultimately to what we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word became flesh and did what? He tabernacled among us, literally. He dwelt among us.
The language of tabernacle is conspicuous. We go from tabernacle, which was a mobile, sort of a temporary place, until the time of Solomon when he built the temple. But when John tells us in his prologue concerning the Word becoming flesh, it's so that the Word becoming flesh could tabernacle among us. In other words, God in Christ has come to reconcile the world unto himself.
William J. Dumbrill says, with reference to the tabernacle, finally the remaining chapters of Exodus, 35 to 40, remind us that redemption leads inevitably to worship. See the movement in the book. You have deliverance, demand, dwelling.
God delivers. Why? So we can do our own thing? No.
He delivers so that we can commune with Him. He delivers in this New Covenant era for the same reason. Is it so that we can just lay on our couch and do whatever it is we want? No, we're supposed to come to the house of God.
We're supposed to worship the true and living God. We're supposed to meet with Him, because that's the scheme, that's the plan. He redeems us in order to commune with Him, and I think it's beautiful that much of the book takes up that theme of God dwelling in the midst of His people. Again, He's not the one that we should tell people, oh, you can't go to that God.
He's unapproachable. How much more approachable could God be? He makes the tabernacle, He makes the temple, and then He comes in the person of His Son to receive sinners unto Himself. There is no reason we should ever preach an unapproachable God.
Unapproachable in your sin, unapproachable in your rebellion, unapproachable in your transgression and filth, but certainly approachable in and through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that cleanses us from that filth, from that rebellion, and from that transgression. The God of Scripture is a seeking God. The God of Scripture is a glorious God. The text I quoted on Sunday.
What's Jesus say to those grumblers at the site of the salvation of Zacchaeus? The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. It is a glorious and a beautiful thing. And remember that Zacchaeus in that particular instance, he's a rich man, isn't he?
It's in that same chapter just previous to that where Jesus taught the impossibility or how hard it would be for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, and then the disciples are exasperated and say, who then can be saved? And Jesus says, with men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. So you have that, and then you have Zacchaeus, who is a camel going through the eye of a needle with God. all things are possible.
And the underlining sort of emphasis by Jesus is that the Son of Man came in to seek and to save that which was lost. So the book ends on that note of there is God in the midst of the people, but the people yet cannot enter in, and that's where the book of Leviticus answers the question, how does sinful man dwell with a holy God? That's why Leviticus prescribes sacrifice, blood and approach in that vein.
Theological Themes in Exodus
Now, in terms of some theological themes, we certainly get the doctrine of God. We get the doctrine of God as the eternal and immutable God. Exodus 3.14, I am who I am. As well, we get God as the living and true God, 1212.
If he comes to execute judgment against the gods of Egypt, what is he showing? By contrast, he is, in fact, the true and living God. In terms of the doctrine of salvation, turn to Exodus chapter 6. The doctrine of salvation is another theme obvious in the book.
Perhaps you've heard of liberation theology. Anybody ever heard of that? Okay, liberation theology is wrong. They invoke the Book of Exodus, they try to make their case with the Book of Exodus, but liberation theology is Marxism.
That's not what the Book of Exodus is about. Please do not get that in your head, that God is a cosmic Marxist and he wants a bunch of commies and that's why he orchestrated the Book of Exodus. That's not it at all. So when you hear that language of liberation theology, it is to be jettisoned, it is to be rejected, it is to be resisted, it is a misuse, a political reading, a Marxist political reading of the book of Exodus.
So liberation theology, bad. In terms of liberation, I mean, I don't even like using that word because it almost sounds like liberation theology. So we'll call it deliverance or redemption. That's what God does here in the book of Exodus.
But if you look at Exodus 6, 6-8, you see in the first place that the Lord redeems his people. Verse 6, I will bring you out. I will rescue you. I will redeem you.
It's like we saw in Ezekiel 36 when we looked at that on Sunday night. Over and over and over again, God says, I will, I will, I will. We talk about salvation being monergistic, one working in the matter of salvation. And the monergistic person or the monergistic being is God.
He's the one working in terms of salvation. It does not depend upon him who wills or upon him who runs, but on God who shows mercy. Romans 9, 16. So the Lord redeems his people.
Secondly, the Lord God establishes his covenant with his people. Notice in verse 7, I will take you as my people and I will be your God. That sort of, I will be your God, you will be my people, that some have called the Immanuel principle, right? Immanuel means God with us.
And you see that Immanuel principle running through biblical covenants where God promises that he would be their God and they would be his people. Thirdly, the Lord God reveals himself to his people. Notice in 7b, then you shall know that I am the Lord your God. Again, he doesn't hide himself.
He doesn't portray himself as obscure. I mean, there is a sense on the one hand he is most approachable. On the other hand, he's unapproachable in terms of in terms of His beauty and His glory and His majesty and His holiness, and the way of approach is ultimately through a mediator. But God reveals Himself to His people, and He shows that again and again.
And then finally, the Lord God fulfills His promises in verse 8. Isaac and Jacob. So everything we saw in the book of Genesis comes to fruition. God doesn't make these promises and renege on them, but rather he carries them out, he is faithful, and he executes that on behalf of his people.
You've got the doctrine of God, you've got the doctrine of salvation, you've certainly got the doctrine of the law, that threefold division, very important for the rest of, you know, interpreting Bible, theology, ethics, all of that sort of thing. Persons that are mistaken upon the law of God typically have big problems theologically. Now I'm not saying everybody who's right on the law of God is necessarily a, you know, a John Calvin in terms of theology, but they go hand in hand. To mess up on the law is to mess up on a huge aspect of God's holy word.
And then ultimately the promise of Christ. It's not just one passage here or one passage here. The entirety of the ceremonial law should be appreciated in the language of our confession of faith. Everything that we see here in terms of worship, in terms of approach, in terms of sacrifice, all of that prefigures our Lord Jesus Christ.
So even if Paul didn't say in 1 Corinthians 5.7 that Jesus is our Passover sacrifice, We know theologically and based on what God's law says that this ceremonial aspect points us forward ultimately to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So that's where we're hoping to go in the next few weeks.
Closing Prayer
That's it. I'll pray, and then if there's any questions, we can entertain that. Father in heaven, we thank you for the book of Exodus. We thank you for your power in redeeming your people out of bondage, out of sin, out of misery.
We thank you, Lord, as well for the law that instructs us in so many glorious and wonderful things. We know we're not saved by it. We're saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus, but he points us to that moral law as a pattern for our sanctification. And we rejoice in that.
We rejoice as well in the use of the law to stir up the hearts of sinners and to show them their need for the Redeemer. And God, I pray that that use of the law would be proclaimed from many, many pulpits to call sinners to repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus. And God, we praise you for that theme of dwelling. We praise you that you are a God who communes with your people. not just in the age to come, but even now as we read our Bibles, as we pray, as we meet together for corporate worship, we know that you are in the midst of your people, and this encourages us, and this strengthens us, and we praise you for it.
And we would ask even now, Lord God, that you would give us the mind of Christ as we think through these things, and help us to respond in a way that is biblical, in a way that is pleasing to you. And we ask through Christ our Lord, amen.
Questions and Answers
Any questions or comments?