The book of Exodus details God’s call to the people of Israel to get up and leave their position of slavery in Egypt. Exodus records more miracles of God than any other book in the Old Testament.
God rescues and delivers his people as he guides them into the unfamiliar desert. There God institutes his system of laws, gives instruction in worship and establishes his people as the nation of Israel. Exodus is a book of tremendous spiritual significance.
Author of the Book of Exodus
Moses is credited as the author.
Date Written:
1450-1410 B.C.
Written To:
The people of Israel and the people of God for all generations to come.
Landscape of the Book of Exodus
Exodus begins in Egypt where the people of God have been living in slavery to Pharaoh. As God delivers the Israelites, they move into the desert by way of the Red Sea and eventually come to Mount Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula.
Themes in the Book of Exodus
There are several significant themes in the book of Exodus. Israel’s slavery is a picture of man’s slavery to sin. Ultimately only through God’s divine guidance and leadership can we escape our slavery to sin. However, God also directed the people through the godly leadership of Moses. Typically God also leads us into freedom through wise leadership and through his word.
The people of Israel had been crying out to God for deliverance. He was concerned about their suffering and he rescued them. Yet Moses and the people had to exercise courage to obey and follow God.
Once free and living in the desert, the people complained and began to yearn for the familiar days of Egypt. Often the unfamiliar freedom that comes when we follow and obey God, feels uncomfortable and even painful at first. If we trust God he will lead us into our Promised Land.
The institution of the law and the Ten Commandments in Exodus reveals the emphasis and importance of choice and responsibility in God’s kingdom. God blesses obedience and punishes disobedience.
Key Characters in the Book of Exodus
Moses, Aaron, Miriam, Pharaoh, Pharaoh’s daughter, Jethro, Joshua.
Key Verses
Exodus 3:7-10
The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey … And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (NIV)
Exodus 3:14-15
God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
God also said to Moses, “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.’ This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation. (NIV)
Exodus 4:10-11
Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
The LORD said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? (NIV)
Outline of the Book of Exodus
Israel Enslaved in Egypt – Exodus 1:1-22
God Chooses Moses – Exodus 2:1-4:31
God Sends Moses to Pharaoh – Exodus 5:1-7:13
The Ten Plagues – Exodus 7:14-11:10
The Passover – Exodus 12:1-30
The Exodus from Egypt – Exodus 12:31-13:16
Crossing the Red Sea – Exodus 13:17-15:21
Complaining in the Desert – Exodus 15:22-18:27
The Ten Commandments and the Giving of the Law – Exodus 19:1-24:18
The Tabernacle Instructions – Exodus 25:1-31:18
Breaking the Law – Exodus 32:1-34:35
Tabernacle Construction – Exodus 35:1-40:38