The Exodus from Egypt
The Exodus from Egypt
As the people of Israel groaned under the Pharaohs’ oppressive regime, they cried to God for deliverance:
God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. (Exod. 2:24)
Indeed, already God was preparing the deliverer he had chosen. By a remarkable providence Moses had actually been brought up in the Egyptian court (Exod. 2:1–10) and learned “all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” But he had had to flee for his life and was now in hiding in the Sinai peninsula (Exod. 2:15). Here, near Mount Horeb (or Sinai), where he would later receive the ten commandments for the newborn nation, God spoke to him from the burning bush:
I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. (Exod. 3:1–6)
Then God told Moses that he was about to rescue the people of Israel from their bondage and bring them at last into the land of promise. He further commissioned Moses to go to Pharaoh and demand his people’s release.
At first Moses was full of apprehension. He was frightened of Pharaoh, and even more of the response he might get from his fellow Israelites. But God reassured him:
Say to the Israelites, “The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.” (Exod. 3:15)
Moses obeyed. And the people of Israel accepted his leadership. But Pharoah, probably Rameses II who reigned over Egypt for sixty-six years (1290–1224), demurred. In biblical language, he “hardened his heart.” Not until the ten plagues had decisively demonstrated Yahweh’s superiority over all the gods of Egypt did he finally consent (Exod. 4:27–13:16). The date would have been about 1280 BC.
“The Red Sea” which the escaping Israelites crossed was probably some shallow water north of the northern tip of the Suez Gulf. The miracle lay not in the “strong east wind” which parted the waters, but in the fact that God sent it at the very moment when “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea” (Exod. 14:21).
Israel never forgot their safe exodus from Egypt by the supernatural intervention of God. They sang of it in public worship as a signal example of God’s power and mercy:
He saved them for his name’s sake,
to make his mighty power known.
He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;
he led them through the depths as through a desert.
He saved them from the hand of the foe;
from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them. (Ps. 106:8–10)
Again,
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good.
His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods….
His love endures forever.
to him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt
His love endures forever.
and brought Israel out from among them
His love endures forever.
with a mighty hand and outstretched arm;
His love endures forever.
to him who divided the Red Sea asunder
His love endures forever.
and brought Israel through the midst of it,
His love endures forever. (Ps. 136:1–2, 10–14)
The escaping Israelites, a large and ragged multitude, did not travel direct to the promised land along the coastal route known as “The Way of the Land of the Philistines.” They turned southeast to meet their God at Mount Sinai, as he had directed Moses. It took them about three months to get there, and once encamped at the foot of the mountain, they stayed almost a year.
Here God gave Israel three precious gifts—a renewed covenant, a moral law and atoning sacrifices.
The renewal of the covenant came first. God called Moses up the mountain, and told him to say to Israel:
You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. (Exod. 19:4–6)
Secondly, God gave them a moral law. Obedience to this law was to be Israel’s part in the covenant. Its essence was the ten commandments. But these were supplemented both by further “statutes” (“you shall,” “you shall not”) and by “judgments” which form a body of case law (“When a man …”). The covenant was solemnly ratified by the blood of sacrifice when the people gave a public undertaking to keep God’s law.
Thirdly, God made generous provision for the remedying of breaches of his law. He gave instructions for the building of a “tabernacle,” a rectangular tent measuring about forty-five feet by fifteen, made of dyed linen curtains stretched over a frame and covered with goats’ hair and waterproof skins. Inside were two rooms, “the holy place” and “the most holy place” or “holy of holies.” This inner sanctuary was half the size of the bigger room, from which it was separated by a curtain known as “the veil.” Outside the veil stood a golden lampstand, an incense altar and a table on which baked cakes were displayed. Beyond the veil was the sacred ark, a wooden chest containing the stone tablets on which the ten commandments were inscribed. Its golden lid, called the “mercy seat,” was flanked by cherubim, figures of celestial creatures. In heathen temples these would have formed a kind of throne for the idol. But not in Israel’s tabernacle, since the making of idols was forbidden. Instead, God manifested himself here in a kind of radiance. This was “the Shekinah,” his abiding presence in the midst of his people (for example, Exod. 25:8; 40:34).
The tabernacle was pitched in a large courtyard. Outside its east-facing door stood a copper basin called the laver, where the priests washed their hands and feet, and the great altar on which the animal sacrifices were burned.
The tabernacle’s fabric, furniture and construction are described in Exodus 25–27 and 35–40. The five standard sacrifices are explained in Leviticus 1–7, and full details for the dress, consecration and duties of the priests are given in Exodus 28–29 and the rest of the Book of Leviticus.
Specially significant is the ritual prescribed for the annual Day of Atonement (Lev. 16). The high priest was instructed to take two goats. He was to kill one as a sin offering, to take some of its blood “within the veil” and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. The blood stood for a life laid down in place of the sinner whose life was forfeit:
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. (Lev. 17:11)
The veil symbolizing God’s inaccessibility to the sinner was to be penetrated on no other day than the Day of Atonement, by no other person than the high priest, and on no other condition than the shedding and the sprinkling of blood. Then:
[Aaron] is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert…. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place. (Lev. 16:21–22)
These symbolic acts—the shedding and sprinkling of blood, the penetration of the veil and the bearing of sin—all prefigure the atoning work of Jesus Christ our Savior.