Why study Exodus? The book of Exodus relates the story of the rescue of God’s chosen people from slavery in Egypt where they had resided for over 400 years. God chose Moses to lead His people out of the land and brought them to Mount Sinai where God enacted a covenant with them. God gave His people many instructions and laws to govern all aspects of their lives. God also instructed them to build a tabernacle in which He would place His name and where they would worship Him.
A simple outline of Exodus
God’s People Remembered: Exodus 1-6
God’s People Rescued: Exodus 7-18
God’s People Restored: Exodus 19-40
God’s People Remembered: Exodus 1-6
What began for God’s people in Egypt enjoying a peaceful place to live later turned into a place of bondage and hardship as succeeding Pharaohs forgot the history of Joseph and his saving of Egypt. God’s people, the Hebrews were feared because of their great numbers and eventually one Pharoah enslaved them and cruelly used them as forced labour. God knew of their hardship and remembered His covenant with them. He chose Moses, a Hebrew who had grown up in Pharoah’s palace, to be their leader. Moses, after fleeing Egypt, spent forty years in exile in Midian where God called Him to return to Egypt to lead them to freedom.
God’s People Rescued: Exodus 7-18
God knew that Pharaoh would not release His people brought ten plagues upon the Egyptians, the last being the death of every firstborn of the Egyptians but not of the Israelites. God instructed His people to prepare a lamb for each household for a special feast (the Passover) and put its blood on the door frames of their houses. God caused the death of all the firstborn of the Egyptians and their livestock but passed over the houses of the Israelites and did not kill their firstborn. After this event, Pharoah let the Israelites leave Egypt but soon relented of his decision and instructed his army to pursue them. The Egyptians came upon the Israelites on the western shore of the Red Sea where it seemed that the Israelites were doomed. However, God caused the waters of the Sea to part and His people walked on the ground between the waters that had been parted. God had held the Egyptians back but after the Israelites reached the eastern shore of the Sea. God then allowed the Egyptians to go into the parted waters. God released the waters which overcame the Egyptians, and their entire army was drowned in the waters of the Sea. God then led His people to defeat the Amalek’s, a people who were loathsome to God.
God’s People Restored; Exodus 19-40
God brought His people to the mountain of Sinai where He gave them laws and instructions, as a covenant with them. These included what is known as the ten commandments. God also gave them instructions on how to live a holy life before Him and with each other. God instructed them to build a tabernacle in which He would place His name and where they could worship Him. The tabernacle had an outer court where burnt offerings were made to God. The interior of the tent of the tabernacle had two sections, a holy place containing a table for bread, a golden lampstand for light and an altar for the burning of incense. The second interior section was called the most holy place which housed the ark of the covenant.
Suggested Verses to Memorize from Exodus
3:5 Then he said, do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.
3:14 God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.
19:5-6 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.
20:3-17 The Ten Commandments
3 You shall have no other gods before me.
4 You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
13 You shall not murder.
14 You shall not commit adultery.
15 You shall not steal.
16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.
34:5-7 The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.
Resources for studying Exodus
See the article on how to study the Bible for suggestions on the method of Bible study and recommended resources to obtain. Suggested commentaries and studies are listed below for a more extensive study. Some are available on-line in a pdf format.
Commentaries
1. Stuart, Douglas K. Exodus, New American Commentary, Broadman and Holman, 2006.
2. Kaiser, Jr. Walter C. Exodus, Vol. 2, The Expositors Bible Commentary, Rev. Edition, Zondervan, 2008.
3. Constable, Thomas. Notes on Exodus, latest edition. Online at Plano Bible Chapel.
4. Hamilton, Victor P. Exodus: An Exegetical Commentary, Baker, 2011.
5. Cole, R. Allan. Exodus, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, InterVarsity, 1973.
Studies
1. Aldrich, Roy L. The Mosaic Ten Commandments Compared to Their Restatements in the New Testament. Bibliotheca Sacra 118:471 (July-September 1961):251-58.
2. Barrick, William D. The Mosaic Covenant. Master’s Seminary Journal 10/2 (Fall 1999) 213-232
3. Chisholm, Robert B., Jr. Divine Hardening in the Old Testament. Bibliotheca Sacra 153:612 (October-December 1996):410-34.
4. Davis, John J. Moses and the Gods of Egypt. Baker Book House, 1971.
5. Merrill, Eugene H. Kingdom of Priests. Baker Book House, 1987.
6. Packer, J. I. Keeping the 10 Commandments. Crossway, 2008.
7. Rooker, Mark F. The Ten Commandments: Ethics for the Twenty First Century. B&H Publishing Group, 2010.
8. Sailhamer, John H. The Pentateuch as Narrative, Zondervan Academic, 1995.
9. Soltau, Henry W. The Tabernacle, the Priesthood and the Offerings. Kregel, 1972.
10. Levy, David M. The Tabernacle: Shadows of the Messiah. The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry Inc. 1993.
11. Swindoll, Charles R. Moses: A Man of Selfless Dedication. Word Publishing, 1999.