Reading Exodus for God’s Mission
“In a postmodern world where neither the old orthodoxies nor the more recent positivism will hold, the preacher’s chance (both task and opportunity) is to construct, with and for the congregation, an evangelical infrastructure that makes a different communal life possible…. An evangelical infrastructure is one that mediates and operates in ways that heal, redeem, and transform.”
The book of Exodus is the stuff of Hollywood. Charleton Heston. Mel Brooks. Val Kilmer. Christian Bale. We live in a time and place where movies inform how we read this book of the Old Testament. Some of it’s faithful to the Bible. Much of it not. What do we really know of this story from the Bible?
Exodus is bursting at the seams with memorable images. The burning bush. Ten plagues. Passover. Parting the Red Sea. Manna from heaven. Ten Commandments. A golden calf. God’s glory filling the tabernacle. Where do they lead us to encounter God and find ourselves in the story?
When we ask “How do we read Exodus for mission?” what really drives that question is: “How do we read Exodus in such a way that brings healing, redemption, and transformation to my local place?” How can we position ourselves so that a new imagination is shaped in us to see where God is already working and cooperate?
I don’t think there’s another book like Exodus that shapes us for God’s mission. Yes, it’s a story about Moses. And yes, it’s a story about the children of Israel. But bigger than that, this is a book, from beginning to end, that is about God, about what kind of god God is like, and the great lengths God will go for the sake of his people in order to put the world back together. Exodus shows us God’s intentions. Exodus shows us that God’s end-game is to be present with us.
Exodus within the story of God
Exodus is part of the epic story of God in the Bible. Our story is the story of the Church. The story of the Church is the story of Jesus. The story of Jesus is the story of Israel. And the story of Israel is the story of the God who created the world and is redeeming it. The story of Exodus is foundational to the story of Israel. The story of the Red Sea is told and retold and remembered throughout the rest of the Old Testament. Jesus’ Last Supper, so central in the story of Church, is a commemoration of Passover. Every time we, even now, celebrate communion, our liturgy takes us to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus through the story of rescue from slavery in Egypt.
If there’s a “thesis statement” to be found in Exodus, its when God introduces himself to Moses at the burning bush and says, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them” (Exodus 3:7, 8).
There’s a significant pattern here. God hears. God sees. God knows. God comes to rescue. It’s the pattern at work not only in Exodus, but through the whole story of the Bible. It’s the story of the Incarnation and Christmas. God himself comes down to rescue. The writers of the New Testament recognized that this story not only happened but happened again in their day. They imagined Rome as Egypt, King Herod as Pharaoh, and resurrection as a “new exodus” from the slavery of sin.
Exodus within the story of the Pentateuch
The first five books of the Bible tell a coherent story that begins with God’s creation of the world and humanity’s rebellion, and it ends with the nation of Israel on the verge of entering the Promised Land, a new kind of Eden. The Books of Moses, or the Pentateuch, chronicle God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to put the world back together, and then unfold with just how exactly God intends to do that.
Genesis is the prologue. Exodus is the main event. Leviticus details what life looks like properly ordered around God, now that God lives in their midst. Numbers is stories during the 40 years of wandering the wilderness. Deuteronomy recaps to the next generation what God has done as they prepare to enter the Promised Land.
God sees and hears (Exodus 1–6)
The story begins with God “somewhere out there.” The cries of Abraham’s children come up. God comes down. The story will end with God taking up residence right in the middle of the people.
In this section we read the call of Moses. However, the initiative of God dominates this section, as it does the whole book. The leadership of Moses is God’s idea.
God acts (Exodus 7–15:21)
See what God does to rescue. Again, the initiative of God plays center stage. From “ten plagues,” culminating in the Passover, to the parting of the Red Sea, God acts on behalf of his people.
This is what God does. He humiliates Egypt. He does this, not because it is Egypt, but because it is human culture in fierce opposition to God’s redeeming work in the world. These are not ten random disasters, but rather targeted attacks on Egypt’s religion and way of understanding the world. The deities of Egypt are defenseless. The military of Egypt is washed away. This is what God does to save his people.
God provides (Exodus 15:22–23:33)
This section is marked by God’s provision of a covenant at the mountain. A covenant is something like a business contract but so much more than that. A covenant is based on loyalty, faithfulness, commitment, and relationship.
There’s something about being in the mountains that remind even us today that there are forces at work in the world far beyond us. We can’t control them. Can’t manipulate them. There’s a sense of awe and humility and smallness I feel when I’m in the mountains.
To this point in the story, God has shown up only in one-on-one meetings: Abraham, Jacob, Moses. For the first time, God reveals himself at once to a whole nation. Here God provides the Law, the Torah, a word that also means “wisdom” and “instructions.” In the Law, God for the first time provides the operating manual for how to be a human being. The Law represents the instructions for Humanity 2.0.
It’s critical to notice that God rescues before he communicates expectations of the relationship. The terms of the covenant don’t come first. Rescue is not conditional upon keeping the covenant. Salvation comes first. However, the next piece is conditional to faithfulness to the covenant.
God moves in (Exodus 24–40)
Our dramatic retellings of Exodus (and often our preaching and teaching) tend to focus on the spectacular miracle at the Red Sea or on the Ten Commandments. When this happens we miss perhaps the most significant piece of Exodus. Nearly half the book is dedicated to what happens next: the conditions by which God can move in and be present with his people.
This is the “why” behind everything that’s come before. What God has been after ever since Eden, ever since the rebellion of humanity found in Genesis 3–11, is to be with humanity once again. Salvation is for the sake of presence. God wants to be with.
In this section, God provides detailed instructions for a tabernacle, a portable tent, in which his presence can be in the midst of the people. Yet in all of the this, the people rebel by crafting a golden calf and calling it by God’s name (an echo of Eden’s rebellion, the Fall happening again). But the tabernacle is made, and God moves in.
The story of Exodus happened. It continues to happen. God hears the cries of his people. God sees our anguish. God knows our suffering. God has come down and is coming again to rescue us. God is rescuing us in order to be with us. Emmanuel. God with us. This is how we encounter the healing, redemption, and transformation of God through the stories of Exodus for ourselves and for our neighborhoods.
To dive deeper, I recommend Exodus and Leviticus for Everyone by John Goldingay. For how Exodus fits into the larger picture of the Bible, be sure to check out Epic of Eden by Sandra Richter and (re)Aligning with God: Reading the Bible for Church and World by Brian Russell.