Where it fits

Exodus is the second book of the Bible and of the Law, with 40 chapters. It picks up where Genesis ends, with Jacob's family in Egypt, now grown into a nation and enslaved. Tradition credits Moses as the author. Scholars date the exodus either to about 1446 BC or to the 1200s BC, and the question is still debated. Read straight through, it takes about two and a half hours.

The big story

The book has three movements. In chapters 1 to 18, God rescues Israel. A new Pharaoh enslaves the Hebrews and orders their baby boys killed. One baby, Moses, is hidden in a basket, found by Pharaoh's daughter, and raised in the palace. After he flees to Midian for killing an Egyptian, God speaks to him from a burning bush and sends him back, revealing his name, “I AM” (3:14). Ten plagues strike Egypt, the last sparing homes marked by the blood of the Passover lamb (7–12). Israel walks through the sea on dry ground, and the Egyptian army is lost (14).

In chapters 19 to 24, God makes a covenant at Mount Sinai. He reminds Israel that he carried them on eagles' wings (19:4), gives the Ten Commandments (20) and laws for a just community (21–23), and the people agree to obey (24:3). In chapters 25 to 40, God gives plans for the tabernacle, a portable tent where he will live among them. The story is interrupted by the golden calf (32), when the people break the covenant while Moses is still on the mountain. Moses pleads for them, God forgives, and the book ends with God's glory filling the finished tabernacle (40:34–38).

Three ideas to hold on to

1. God hears and rescues. God tells Moses he has seen his people's misery and heard their cry, and has come down to deliver them (3:7–8).
2. God is who he says he is. At Sinai, God describes himself as “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger” (34:6). The rest of the Bible keeps quoting it.
3. God wants to live with his people. The last 16 chapters deal with building the tabernacle, because the goal of the rescue was God's presence among them (25:8; 29:45–46).

Passages people ask about

• Exodus 3:1–15. The burning bush and the name of God.
• Exodus 4:21; 7:3; 8:15. Pharaoh's hardened heart. The text says both that God hardened it and that Pharaoh hardened it himself, and Christians have debated how the two fit. Notice that Pharaoh is given repeated chances to let the people go.
• Exodus 14. The crossing of the sea. The Hebrew name is yam suph, often translated “Red Sea” and sometimes “Sea of Reeds,” and the exact location is debated.
• Exodus 20:1–17. The Ten Commandments.
• Exodus 32. The golden calf, a shocking failure within weeks of the covenant, and Moses' prayer for the people.

How it points to Jesus

The New Testament reads Exodus as a pattern for what Jesus does. John calls Jesus the Lamb of God (John 1:29), and Paul says Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7). Jesus held his last meal with his disciples at Passover. The manna in the wilderness points to Jesus as the bread of life (John 6:31–35), and John says the Word made his home among us (John 1:14), language that echoes the tabernacle. Moses promised a prophet like himself (Deuteronomy 18:15), and the New Testament says that prophet is Jesus (Acts 3:22).

A common misunderstanding

The Ten Commandments are often pictured as a list of rules God handed down so people could earn his approval. The order tells a different story. Before God says a single commandment, he reminds Israel that he is the one “who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (20:2). He rescued first. The commandments describe how a rescued people live in relationship with the God who saved them.