What Does Exodus Teach about Israel?
Exodus means “to go out” and serves as a fitting title for this second book of the Pentateuch. This book is first and foremost a continuing revelation about God, the one who carried out the Exodus. Even so, it reveals him in conjunction with the nation of Israel, whom he carried out from Egypt. It was “the children of Israel [who] had gone out of the land of Egypt” (Exo 19:1). Therefore, whoever reads Exodus receives an informative perspective about this significant people group.
This study will provide an overview of what this book discloses about Israel. As such, it will (1) portray the Hebrew people during their captivity in Egypt, (2) summarize their deliverance from Egypt (esp. through Moses, (3) examine God’s choice of Israel as his special people, and (4) enumerate the ways that God formed them into a nation.
The Origins ofIsrael
The nation ofIsrael descended from the twelve sons of Jacob, the man whose alternate name –Israel – would become the name of their nation (1:1-6). Following the death ofthese forefathers, Jacob’s descendants lived in Egypt for 430 years (12:40).During this lengthy sojourn, his progeny multiplied exponentially (1:7),reaching a total population of about two million people (12:37).[i] Even so, they existed as a people group withina foreign nation, but not yet as a formal nation per se.
The Suffering ofIsrael
In the finalstage of this four-century sojourn, the Egyptians treated the Hebrew peoplebadly. They enslaved them and tasked them with outrageous demands thatincreased in intensity (1:8-14; 5:6-21). They also attempted to abort theinfant sons born into Hebrew households (1:15-22). In response to this awfultreatment, the Hebrew people eventually cried out to God for deliverance(2:23).
The Deliveranceof Israel
When thechildren of Israel cried out, God heard them and responded with a plan forliberation (2:23-25; 3:7-9, 16; 4:31; 6:6). This plan was not spontaneous, butit was rooted in the covenant which God had made with Abraham, Isaac, andJacob, granting their descendants ownership and residence in the land of Canaan(2:24; 6:3-5, 8; 32:13; 33:1-2). Throughout Exodus, this covenant serves as acrucial point of reference in both encouraging Israel’s ongoing obedience toGod (12:25; 13:5, 11; 20:12) and invoking God’s faithfulness to the nation,even when they had behaved rebelliously (19:19; 20:18-19). It also had servedas the basis for Joseph’s past demand that his descendants would relocate hisentombed remains to Palestine, according to which they anticipated that anevent like the Exodus would eventually occur (13:19).
The Leader ofIsrael
To deliver theHebrews from Egypt, God raised up a man from among them named Moses. Thoughthey resisted his leadership at first (2:14), they followed him eventually(4:31), only to vacillate afterward (5:21; 6:9; 14:11). When God laterdecimated the Egyptian army in the Red Sea, Israel expressed a firmerallegiance to Moses as the LORD’s servant (14:31), though they would vacillateyet again (15:24; 16:2). Ultimately, they came to trust Moses as theirintermediary. He would relay divine revelation to them because they wereterrified of encountering God for themselves (19:19; 20:18-19).
The Election ofIsrael
By deliveringthe Hebrew nation from bondage in Egypt, God validated his choice to establisha special, close relationship with them (6:7). Though they had served the cruelEgyptians, they would now serve their compassionate LORD instead (3:12). In their newfound liberated state, they wouldtransition from existence as a people group to existence as a formal nationthat God described as a “special treasure,” a “kingdom of priests,” and a “holynation” (Exo 19:4-6). God also described them as his “firstborn” son (4:22).Israel owed their existence, deliverance, and identity to God alone. They haddone nothing to merit his favor, nor had any other god aided their cause.
The Obstinanceof Israel
Despite God’sgracious deliverance and faithful care, Israel continued to manifestinsubordination and waywardness. They exhibited this tendency on at least twooccasions by complaining about their food provisions (16:3) and complainingabout their water supply (17:3). On one climactic occasion, they even turnedaway from the LORD to worship a golden calf idol in a pagan manner (32:1-6). Theydid this even though they had twice agreed to obey his commands (19:3, 8). Thoughthey repented of this decision afterward (33:4-5), their ungrateful, capriciousbehavior prompted God to describe them as a characteristically “stiff-necked”people (32:9; 33:3). Even so, he refrained from destroying them (32:14).
The Formationof Israel into a Special Nation
Altogether, Godestablished his formal, special relationship with Israel by more than removingthem from Egypt. He revealed himself to them, cared for them, and guided themin special ways. He revealed himself to them (through Moses) as the “I AM”(3:14), which provided them with a more intimate and informative awareness ofhis divine nature than he had given to the patriarchs (6:3). He showcased hissupreme, superior power over pagan deities and human governments in anunprecedented way by means of the ten plagues (9:4, cf. 7:14-12:36) and theirsubsequent deliverance through the Red Sea crossing (14:1-31). What’s more, hepresented himself to them by means of an awe-inspiring theophany at the base ofMount Sinai (19:16-20). He also guided them through the wilderness through asupernatural display of his presence as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillarof fire by night (13:21-22; 14:19-20, 24), and he demonstrated his care of themby providing food (16:11-36) and water (17:5-7) in the wilderness.
God also established his relationship with Israel as a specialnation through various formal arrangements. To begin with, he continued torequire the rite of male circumcision as their distinctive characteristic ashis people (4:26; 12:44, 48). Beyond this, he instituted the annual Passover observanceand the accompanying feast of unleavened bread so that they would remember perpetuallythat God had redeemed them (12:1-28, 43-48; 23:15; 34:18-25). Next, he ratifieda formal covenant with the children of Israel at Mount Sinai (19:1-24:18;34:12-26) and signified by perpetual Sabbath observance (31:13). This covenantprovided Israel with a formal code of moral and civil law that would enablethem to function as a formal nation and to respond to him and to one another inappropriate ways. It also provided the nation with instructions for erecting a transportablecenter for worship, called the tabernacle, where God would dwell among them (25:8-9).In conjunction with this, God also instituted a priesthood through thedescendants of Aaron (29:1-30). Through the intermediary role of the priestsand the sacrificial system, the nation would be able to approach the LORD inworship for generations to come. In summary, Exodus records how God had taughtthe descendants of Jacob both how to live and how to worship, as a nationgoverned by God.
Unlike every other nation on earth, the LORD set Israel apart as aspecial, holy nation (Exo 31:13). Though Israel quickly proved themselves to beunreliable partners after he had redeemed them (Exo 32:19), God restored hiscovenant with them (34:1, 27-28), thereby revealing his goodness, compassion,and mercy (Exo 33:19; 34:6). In this way, the nation of Israel provides theLORD with a platform from which to display his glory. Furthermore, God expectedIsrael to show kindness to foreigners and poor people due to their own pastexperience as slaves in Egypt (Exo 23:6-9), where they had been treated cruelly(Exo 5:16). Most importantly, God expected Israel to worship him exclusively inresponse to his singular election and redemption of them from bondage (Exo20:1-11). Since the one true God had exclusively chosen Israel as his people,he expected them to worship him exclusively in return.
[i] Herbert Wolf, AnIntroduction to the Old Testament Pentateuch, Kindle ed. (Chicago: Moody,1991) loc. 3365.
