Exodus is a word that means exit. The way out. It’s called that because what we find in this book is how the people of Israel found their way out of Egypt. When they had gone to Egypt, they were just a family. A big family, sure. 70 odd people. I don’t know about your family, but that’s bigger than mine. They were the children of Abraham.
But 430 years later they had to leave. For reasons that will become clear as I tell the story later, they had become slaves, and oppressed by the Egyptians. Treated like beasts of burden, like breeding stock. Not like human beings, but like animals.
But God provided them with a way out. He rescued them and brought them to himself. He engineered their exit, their exodus. It’s a great story. But two other things make that story even more important.
Firstly, 800 years later when Israel was all but destroyed by the Babylonians and thousands of people were led into exile, the prophets of Israel put their hope in a new exodus. That God would rescue them a second time. That God would help them find their way out again.
And secondly, the writers of the New Testament help us see that God kept that promise in Jesus. We were all slaves in different ways. Trapped by our fears and prejudices, enslaved by the consequences of our bad behaviour and our poor choices. We treated each other and even ourselves like animals and not like human beings at all. We were lost without God and without hope. But God has provided us with a way out. An exit from our slavery. He has brought us to himself and made us his people.
So what we find in the book of Exodus is the gospel. And I hope that as you hear the story of Exodus, you hear your own story of deliverance as well.
Click the links for the messages in this series:
Exodus 1 & 2 – Born to Save http://corowapc.org/born-to-save/
Exodus 2 & 3 – The True Start https://corowapc.org/the-true-start/
Exodus 5 to 11 – Ignorance and Unbelief https://corowapc.org/ignorance-and-unbelief/