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 blessed in the land, and not cursed.

Another option is that Exodus is a book that helps Israel look forward to a future ‘new exodus’ rescue that the LORD will do. The ‘first’ exodus from Egypt is a model that teaches us about a coming second exodus which will be like the first one, but a whole lot better, and will fulfil all of the LORD’s promises of blessing and his plans for creation set up in Genesis. And so as Israel entered the promised land in around 1400 BC, Exodus helped them to have faith in a future rescue that the LORD will do, which really will deal with their biggest problems and give them the best life they could imagine.

Two options – one that mainly looks back at the exodus as the rescue event and motivates obedience to the LORD in order to be blessed in the land; the other that mainly looks back at the exodus as a model for the future rescue event and motivates faith in the LORD’s coming rescue. But - how do we know which one is right?

The Pentateuch – Looking back or looking forward?

To answer this, it will help to zoom out. The author of Exodus did not write it as a stand-alone book, but as part of his five-volume work called the Pentateuch (otherwise known as the Law or the Torah), composing the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. So, to think carefully about the purpose of Exodus, we need to think carefully about the purpose of the Pentateuch as a whole.

Deuteronomy – a forward-looking book

A common conception about the Pentateuch is that it is a backward-looking book designed to motivate obedience in Israel to their laws, so that they would be blessed and not be cursed. Indeed, from a cursory glance at Deuteronomy, it may look like a book that wants you to obey the law to get the good life in the land, and not to disobey the law and face horrible curses and punishment because of your disobedience (Deuteronomy 28, specifically v1 and 14, are one instance among many when this idea is put forward).

However, this is not the aim of Deuteronomy. God already knows that his people will disobey (31:16), and that he will curse them and send them into exile. Yet God makes a wonderful promise of blessing beyond exile, where they return to the land, all because of his own mercy and him giving them new obedient hearts (30:6). So, Deuteronomy ends not with a call to blessing through obedience in the land, but with a call to blessing through faith in the LORD’s promise of return[ii].

In other words, Deuteronomy is a book looking forward to a future rescue, where the LORD will show his people mercy and give them the best life possible with him. Therefore, Deuteronomy wants its readers to have faith in this future rescue that the LORD will do.

The Pentateuch – a forward-looking book

It is no surprise that Deuteronomy has this aim given what has gone before in Genesis-Numbers. Genesis is a book focused on the LORD fixing the world through his promise of blessing made to Abraham, and Genesis says that the way this promise will come true is through the exodus (15:12-16). In short, the exodus is the way creation will be put right, and the way for humanity to have the good life with God again.

Except, in Numbers, the first exodus fails to do this. Instead, the LORD would not give his people the good life with him, because they did not believe in him (14:11 the people did not believe, 20:12 Moses and Aaron). Therefore, the first exodus ended with death in the wilderness rather than creation being put right.

Yet, in Numbers, we also find hope of a new exodus – a second exodus, focused on the LORD’s King as the one who would put creation right and give God’s people the good life (chapter 24, compare 24:8 talking about the second exodus with 23:22 talking about the first exodus). God’s promise from Genesis will still come true – but it will come true in the second, new exodus. It is this new exodus that Deuteronomy is looking forward to and is calling its readers to hope in too. The hope of the Pentateuch is a new exodus.

Taking stock – the limits to a backward-looking purpose in Exodus

Remember our initial question – what is the purpose of the book of Exodus? How should this book change us? What should it make us do? So far, we have seen the author’s purpose in the Pentateuch is for his readers to hope in a new exodus: a coming incredible rescue, like the first exodus, but even better.

In light of this, there is a limit to which the book of Exodus can be primarily backward-looking to the first exodus as the big rescue event. This is because the author of Exodus thinks that that exodus ultimately failed, and that the great work of the LORD is still yet to come when he does his future ‘new exodus’ rescue.

Therefore, whilst it would be good for those Israelites hearing Exodus as they go into the promised land in the Joshua generation to look back and give thanks for their rescue from Egypt, it would not be enough. This is because the author of Exodus, the author of the Pentateuch, has a much bigger and a much better rescue that he wants these Israelites (and us) to hope in.

Exodus – a book teaching us about the new exodus

Given the context of the purpose of the Pentateuch, we have a rough guide for the purpose of Exodus – to teach us about our rescuing LORD and the kind of rescue he gives his people, so that we look forward to his coming ‘new exodus’ and have faith in him as the new exodus rescuer.

And this purpose seems to fit well with the book of Exodus. Exodus as a book is surprisingly positive. Just think of its very positive telling of the wilderness narrative in chapters 15-17 with its emphasis on the LORD’s massive 40-year-long kindness to a very disobedient people, especially in contrast to the much more negative picture of the same narrative given in Numbers. Or think of how positively the book ends, where the people receive forgiveness in Exodus 34 for their catastrophic evil two chapters earlier, which leads to new hearts that love the LORD and want to obey him and dwell with him in chapter 35, and by chapter 40 it looks like a whole new creation has come and the LORD again is dwelling with humanity – there could hardly be a better ending to the story than this!

The book of Exodus is deliberately written in a positive way, because it is written to teach us (using the first exodus) about all the good things in the coming new exodus rescue that we need and that we will receive from the LORD.

The joy of Exodus – a Christian book about the Christian rescue

Seeing this makes Exodus a really exciting book to read as a Christian. This is because it was written for us to teach us about the great rescue the LORD will do through his new Moses, Jesus. It is a rescue that already has begun, as the LORD has brought forgiveness to his people through the new Moses, Jesus. It is a rescue that will fully be realised when Jesus returns, and the LORD rescues his people from a world of evil and death (which looks just like Egypt) to a whole new creation to dwell with him forever.

It is this great rescue that the author of Exodus wants to teach us about and wants us to hope in as we read his book. So, what a joy it is to read Exodus as a Christian: to learn about what the LORD has already done for us in Jesus, to learn about what the LORD will do for us in Jesus, and to shape our lives around these things.

 

I love chatting about these things with people, so if you have any comments or questions, I would love to hear from you. Email me at tobyirvine97@gmail.com

---

[i] Note that it is purpose of Exodus, rather than its content, that is the focus of this blog. This means that I am not discussing so much of ‘how’ the purpose is achieved (for example, the book teaching us about who the LORD is and giving us a positive picture of what his rescue is like), but rather ‘what’ the purpose is. This does not mean I do not think the ‘how’ is important – it is just not in the scope of this writing.

[ii] Deuteronomy climaxes in chapters 32 and 33, both incredibly future focused chapters. Deuteronomy 32 is a song which all of Israel had to learn off by heart: it made clear their problem of disobedience that would manifest itself in the land and the exile that would result, but also made clear the hope of a day of judgement against all disobedience and evil in the world, which would be a day of vindication for Israel because of their atonement from the LORD (v43b). In light of this, Deuteronomy 33 follows on as a celebration of all the blessing Israel could look forward to on this day of judgement against the world, when the LORD would bless them through atonement and give them the best life possible. Chapter 34 leaves you waiting for the prophet like Moses who would come and bring this judgement on the world, and atonement and blessing to God’s people. In short, Deuteronomy is a very future focused book that leaves you hoping for the LORD’s coming rescue from a world of evil and death to life with the LORD and everything you could ever want alongside it.