Real Hope: A Study in ExodusPrimjer

Leaving And Living

The Summary of Exodus

The ‘exodus’ was the mass departing of the people of Israel from their cruel bondage in the land of Egypt and occurred historically about 1462 BC. It’s important to remind ourselves of the significance of this book in the context of ‘redemptive history’. In summary, God had called Abraham and his family to become God’s ‘special people’ and His representatives on earth at that time. They had come to live under the protection of the Egyptians, but, as time evolved, a new leader (Pharoah), took advantage of them and held them as slaves under bondage. This ultimately meant that the Israelites were also not free to establish their own nation and serve God as He had decreed.

They could not be ‘living for God’ until they were ‘leaving their bondage’. This leaving-living scenario reminds me of the incredibly important line in the Christian wedding vows when the celebrant asks the couple, ‘Will you forsake all others so you can now be joined to your spouse alone?’ It takes a complete break with the past to set up success for the future.

And so it is with God. Through Moses, God extracts Israel from this foreign Egyptian culture, philosophy and gods to be under the influence of the God of Heaven alone. Only then, as the rest of Exodus explains, can God begin to teach Israel of His Ways to live, and how to live for Him.

Written by JOHN SCOTT