Book of Exodus

“ If the events recorded in the Second Book of Moses—which I believe are true—really never occurred, then nowhere and at no period has a historical event of equally momentous result taken place. For thousands of years the story of the Exodus has lived in the minds of numberless people as something actual, and it still retains its vitality. ”

“ There we have the creation of the world in history, here the redemption of the world in type. The Greek translators called this book Exodus (which signifies a departure or going out) because it begins with the story of the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt. Some allude to the names of this and the foregoing book, and observe that immediately after Genesis, which signifies the beginning or original, follows Exodus, which signifies a departure; for a time to be born is immediately succeeded by a time to die. ”

“ EXODUS The book of Exodus—so named in the Greek version from the march of Israel out of Egypt—opens upon a scene of oppression very different from the prosperity and triumph in which Genesis had closed. Israel is being cruelly crushed by the new dynasty which has arisen in Egypt (i.) and the story of the book is the story of her redemption. Ultimately it is Israel's God that is her redeemer, but He operates largely by human means; and the first step is the preparation of a deliverer, Moses, whose parentage, early training, and fearless love of justice mark him out as the coming man (ii.) ”

“ We can trace the Bible to the time of the Cæsars, beyond that to the translation of the Septuagint, and beyond that we can carry the proof up to the separation of the Jews and Samaritans; we can ascend up to the time when we discover that the law must have been given by a person called Moses to a people in the wilderness, at a time when idolatry was universal, and just as we have the facts recorded in the nineteenth and twentieth chapters of the book of Exodus. ”

“ We shall see hereafter that the story of the Exodus is unique in this respect, that in training a people tainted with Egyptian superstitions, no ‘similitude’ is seen, as when there wrestled a man with Jacob, or when Ezekiel saw a human form upon the sapphire pavement.
[48]
Man is the true image of God, and His perfect revelation was in flesh. But now that expression of Himself was perilous, and perhaps unsuitable besides; for He was to be known as the Avenger, and presently as the Giver of Law, with its inflexible conditions and its menaces. ”

“ To Abraham and to Jacob He appeared in human form, and again to Joshua; but in the interval, never. So now they see Him by day in a pillar of cloud to guide them on the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. The glory of the nation was that manifested Presence, lacking which, Moses besought Him to carry them up no farther. [207] Nothing in the Exodus is more impressive, and it sank deep into the national heart. ”

“ To do this, and also to lead mankind to liberty, to rescue them from sensuous worship, and prepare them for a system yet more spiritual, to teach the human race that life is not repose but warfare, pilgrimage and aspiration, and to sow the seeds of beliefs and expectations which only an atoning Mediator and an Incarnate God could satisfy, this was the meaning of the Exodus. ”

“ In concluding the comments on the Book of Exodus, I ask what is the result of our investigation? We have found the Book to be thoroughly worthless as a relation of actual occurrences, even when tested under the most favourable auspices; it repeatedly and in important particulars contradicts itself. It cannot be a revelation from God, because it pictures an all-wise God choosing a man with an impediment in his speech, to be a preacher, and relates that when the man {pg65} hesitated on account of his infirmity, God became angry at a difficulty of his own creation, and which Moses could not help. ”

“ For the Scripture doth so do in many passages of the prophetic sayings....In the plagues therefore of the Egyptians, which are in the book which is called Exodus, where the Scripture hath been especially careful, that those things whereby they were afflicted should be all related in order, there is not found what this Psalm hath, “and He gave to the mildew their fruits.” This also wherein, when he had said, “and He gave over to the hail their beasts,” he hath added, “and their possession to the fire:” of the beasts slain with hail is read in Exodus ”

“ Thus, in the conjunction which binds these Old Testament narratives together, is found the germ of that instinctive and elevating phrase, the Philosophy of History. But there is nowhere in Scripture the notion which too often degrades and stiffens that Philosophy—the notion that history is urged forward by blind forces, amid which the individual man is too puny to assert himself. Without a Moses the Exodus is inconceivable, and God always achieves His purpose through the providential man. ”

“ But as all redemption is unto a relationship with God of which worship, fellowship, and service are expressions, so Exodus, in the giving of the law and the provisions of sacrifice and priesthood, becomes not only the book of redemption, but also, in type, of the conditions upon which all relationships with God exist. ”

“ If this ancient Book of Exodus yields solid results to a sober devotional exposition in the nineteenth Christian century, if it is not an idle fancy that its teaching harmonises with the principles and theology of the New Testament, and even demands the New Testament as the true commentary upon the Old, what follows? How comes it that the oak is potentially in the acorn, and the living creature in the egg? No germ is a manufactured article: it is a part of the system of the universe. ”

“ So when the one generation has passed away there is the other to take up the work. Thus the text is a fitting introduction to the continuance of the history of the further unfolding of God's plan which occupies the Book of Exodus. ”

“ Exodus and Science, Scientific research has gone far toward establishing the truthfulness of the Exodus record, but has brought to light nothing that in any way discounts it. It has shown who the Pharaoh of the oppression and Exodus was (Rameses. II, the Pharaoh of the oppression and Merenpth II, the Pharaoh of the Exodus.) and has discovered Succoth. It has shown that writing was used long before the Exodus and has discovered documents written before that period. It has thus confirmed the condition of things narrated in the Bible.
Analysis.
I. Israel in Egypt, 1:1-12:36.
1. The bondage, Ch. ”

“ Finally, if the critical views be correct, in Exodus we have the motive for the observance of the Sabbath raised to the universal and eternal, by being brought into connection with the creative activity of God.
If the progression now traced out be real, then we have in it a classical instance of the manner in which Divine commands were given and dealt with in Israel. Given in the most general form at first, they inevitably open the way for progress, and as thought and experience grow in volume and rise in quality, so does the understanding of the law as given expand. ”

“ Besides, in this fearful and sudden death of the first-born in every place there was felt, as never before, the presence of some awful power immediately back of this plague, which seemed to them to presage the approach of the destruction of the entire nation, and hence their outcry, “We be all dead men,” Exod. 12:33.
The Exodus, or the “departure,” began immediately, and Moses and Aaron, who had anticipated the result of this last plague, had prepared all the Israelites by giving them sufficient notice for a hurried flight. ”

“ The poem is steeped in a sense of gratitude. In the great deliverance man has borne no part. It is Jehovah Who has triumphed gloriously, and cast the horse and charioteer—there was no “rider”—into the sea. And this is repeated again and again by the women as their response, in the deepening passion of the ode. “With the breath of His nostrils the waters were piled up.... He blew with His wind and the sea covered them.” And such is indeed the only possible explanation of the Exodus, so that whoever rejects the miracle is beset with countless difficulties. ”

“ No book in the Pentateuch makes so little the impression of a unity. The phenomena of Exodus are here repeated and intensified; a narrative of the intensest moral and historical interest is broken at frequent intervals by statistical and legal material, some of which, at least, makes hardly any pretence to be connected with the main body of the story. ”

“ For if God had not accorded this in the typical exodus, no one could now be saved in our true exodus; that is, in the faith in which we have been established, and by which we have been brought forth from among the number of the Gentiles. For in some cases there follows us a small, and in others a large
amount of property, which we have acquired from the mammon of unrighteousness. ”

“ The whereabouts of these store-cities, and the precise meaning of the term applied to them, has been a matter of much conjecture, and the story has sometimes been set aside as a myth. To Pithom there is no clear historical reference in any other book except Exodus. ”

“ This is probable, whatever theory of the route of the Exodus one may adopt; and it is still open to every reader to adopt almost any theory he pleases, provided that two facts are borne in mind: viz., first, that the narrative certainly means to describe a miraculous interference, not superseding the forces of nature, but wielding them in a fashion impossible to man; and second, that the phrase translated “Red Sea” [25] (xiii. 18, xv. 4) is the same which is confessed by all persons to have that meaning in chap. ”

“ That is supernatural. If that did not take place, the man who wrote Genesis wrote a lie, and out goes Genesis. In Exodus you find the ten plagues which came upon Egypt. If that is not true, the writer of Exodus was a liar. Then in Leviticus it is said that fire consumed the two sons of Aaron. That was a supernatural event, and if that was not true we must throw out the whole book.
In Numbers is the story of the brazen serpent. ”

“ Verse 30 Thus the Lord saved Israel
Redemption: (Exodus type) Summary. Exodus is the book of redemption and teaches:
(1) redemption is wholly of God Exodus 3:7,8; John 3:16. (2) redemption is through a person. (See Scofield "Exodus 2:2") . John 3:16,17. (3) redemption is by blood Exodus 12:13,23,27; 1 Peter 1:18. (4) redemption is by power Exodus 6:6; 13:14; Romans 8:2.
(See Scofield "Isaiah 59:20") . See Scofield "Romans 3:24".
The blood of Christ redeems the believer from the guilt and penalty of sin. 1 Peter 1:18 as the power of the Spirit delivers from the dominion of sin. ”

“ The artifice succeeds, the assassins are thrust out instead of being chastised." (Quoted from pp. 99-100 "The Hebrews and the Red Sea," by Alexander W. Thayer; Andover, Warren F. Draper, 1883.) With respect to the census of the Exodus, my friend Mr. Thayer, who has long and conscientiously studied the subject, kindly supplied me with the following notes and permitted their publication.
Trieste, October 11, 1887. ”

“ The over-ruling divine providence seen in the career of Joseph, with the present day lessons from the incidents of his life. (7) The fundamental value of faith in the life and destiny of men. (8) The Messianic promises, types and symbols of the entire book. List and classify them.
CHAPTER II.
Exodus.
Name. The name Exodus means a going out or departure.
Subject The subject and key-word of the book is redemption (3:7, 8; 12:13 etc.) , particularly that half of redemption indicated by deliverance from an evil plight. ”

“ The preparation of Israel and Moses for the deliverance. (2) The conception of God found in Exodus: (a) As to his relation to nature, (b) As to his relation to his enemies, (c) As to his relation to his people, (d) As to his nature and purposes. (3) The conception of man found in Exodus. (a) The need and value of worship to him, (b) His duty to obey God. (4) The plagues. (5) The divisions of the decalogue: (a) Those touching our relation to God. (b) Those touching our relation to men. (6) The different conferences between Jehovah and Moses, including Moses' prayer. ”

“ What needs there speak of Exodus, where there is such diversity in what is said about the tabernacle and its court, and the ark, and the garments of the high priest and the priests, that sometimes the meaning even does not seem to be akin? And, forsooth, when we notice such things, we are forthwith to reject as spurious the copies in use in our churches, and enjoin the brotherhood to put away the sacred books current among them, and to coax the Jews, and persuade them to give us copies which shall be untampered with, and free from forgery! ”

“ Yes—they want a living God. And they have a living God—even the God who interfered to bring the Israelites out of Egypt with signs and wonders, and a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and executed judgment upon Pharaoh and his proud and cruel hosts. And when they read in the Bible of that God, when they read in their Bibles the story of the Exodus, their hearts answer, This is right. ”

“ For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.
For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.—Exodus, ix. 13, 14, 15.
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. ”

“ If a man who had never read the Bible before wished to amuse himself during a spare hour among its pages, we should recommend him to try the first fourteen chapters of Exodus. A more entertaining narrative was never penned. Even the fascinating Arabian Nights affords nothing better, provided we read it with the eyes of common sense, and without that prejudice which so often blinds us to the absurdities of "God's Word." ”