What is the purpose of Exodus?
What is the purpose of the book of Exodus? What does God want to achieve in all those who read this book? Or, to put it another way, what was the human author’s intention in writing the book of Exodus? What difference did he want this book to make in the lives of the readers? To answer this question, it may help to narrow down our choices to two options [i] . Exodus – Looking back or looking forward? One option is that Exodus is a book that helps Israel look back at the rescue they had from Egypt, to understand it and to be motivated to obey the LORD who rescued them. As Israel entered the promised land in around 1400 BC, Exodus helped them see how great the LORD’s rescue had been: taken out of awful slavery under an evil nation, to be made the LORD’s special people and to dwell with him in the land. And by looking back at the exodus in history by reading the book of Exodus, they found their motivation for obeying the LORD and his law in the land of Israel, so that they would be