Exodus is built around its three great actors: Israel, Egypt, and God.
Israel
Exodus meant four things specifically for Israel:
- A new life was marked by the beginning of a new calendar (Exodus 12.2).
- The house of bondage gave way to new liberty by the powerful hand of God’s deliverance (Exodus 13.3).
- The Passover memorial and feast symbolized a new fellowship (Exodus 12.14).
- The deliverance of Israel from bondage marked a new assurance that God would indeed be there God (Exodus 6.7-8).
The Exodus under Moses parallels the redemption Christ brings to believers:
“Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5.7-8).
We, too, have new life, new liberty, new fellowship, and new assurance.
Egypt
Exodus meant three things specifically for Egypt:
- Their false idolatry was exposed (Exodus 12.12).
- Resistance to God is futile (Exodus 9.16).
- Egypt parallels the world:
- Its material wealth and power (Hebrews 11.26)
- Its fleshly wisdom and false religion (Exodus 8.7)
- Its ruler (Satan compared with Pharaoh)
- Its principles of force, arrogance, ambition, and pleasure
- Its persecution of the people of God (Deuteronomy 4.20)
- Its overthrow by divine judgment (Exodus 12.29; 15.4-7; plagues, death of the firstborn, drowning of Pharaoh’s army)
God
Exodus provides a go-to manifestation of God’s power. It will be an event that the Old Testament returns to again and again.
The Marvel of the Exodus Deliverance:
- A marvel of judgment (plagues, smiting of the firstborn, and the defeat of the Egyptian army)
- A marvel of grace (blood-marked dwellings are passed over and Israel is delivered)
- A marvel of might (God’s power to part the Red Sea)
- A marvel of guidance (demonstrated by the pillars of cloud and fire)
- A marvel of provision (manna and water)
- A marvel of faithfulness (God honors both the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants)
- A marvel of condescension (God meets with man in the Tabernacle; He will not forsake His people)
The Marvel of New Testament Redemption:
- Judgment – God has judged human sin at the cross of Jesus Christ and through the blood of His Son.
- Grace – We identify with Christ and escape punishment we deserve. Then, we are given righteousness we do not deserve.
- Might – The resurrection of Christ is a manifestation of God’s supreme power over sin and death.
- Guidance – The Holy Spirit leads us in the way we should go. There is no need for a physical pillar of light or fire.
- Provision – We have all the spiritual blessings in Christ. He supplies our every need.
- Faithfulness – God keeps covenant with His people. He will not leave or forsake us.
- Condescension – God makes His home in us through the Holy Spirit. Thus, we are the temple of the living God. This is simply amazing condescension.
These parallels provide an entrance for the Gospel. Baxter draws three points of comparison and three points of contrast:
Comparison
- Israel was freed from the house of bondage, namely Egypt. We, too, are freed from the bondage of sin.
- Israel celebrated their deliverance with the Passover lamb. Jesus is the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.
- Israel commemorated the Passover with a feast from that time forward. Christ is our Passover and we too remember Him as such through the Lord’s Table.
Contrast
- Means: The blood of animals was a mere shadow of the substance of Christ’s blood shed for us.
- Extent: The liberation of Israel was limited to just them, but the liberation of the Gospel is for whosoever will come.
- Effects: Israel was delivered from physical slavery in Egypt, but we are delivered from eternal slavery in Hell.
Sun and Shield 