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Exodus Introduction (Part 2)

Exodus
ExodusSteve Gregg

The location of Mount Sinai, where half of the book of Exodus takes place, is still uncertain. However, conservative Christians increasingly identify Jabil-al-Laz in Saudi Arabia as the probable location due to its proximity to the Midian region. The book of Exodus contains significant themes and events that find fulfillment in the New Testament, including the Passover, the tabernacle, and the manna, which serves as a prototype for God's deliverance of people from bondage. Additionally, the book of Exodus serves as a foreshadowing of the New Testament experience.

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Transcript

Continuing with our introduction to the book of Exodus, one thing that is controversial is the geography of the Exodus, especially of the wilderness wandering and where Mount Sinai is located. Only half of the book of Exodus takes place at a location called Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb. It's called by both names.
But the exact location of Mount Sinai is not really known, at least not agreed upon. Let's put it that way. It might be known, but several people think they know and they have different opinions as to where Mount Sinai is.
And depending on the location of Sinai, of course, the route that the Israelites took would be different. Now, traditionally, Mount Sinai is located in the Sinai Peninsula. I've handed out this sheet with some maps on it.
The reason there are several maps is, first of all, upper left corner is simply a picture of that region today with its modern political divisions, Jordan, Saudi Arabia. The Sinai Peninsula is part of Egypt.
And so you can sort of see how that is.
You've got the Sinai Peninsula is flanked by the Gulf of Suez on the west and the Gulf of Aqaba on the east. And it's kind of a triangular shaped peninsula. And you can see in that map, kind of right in the middle of the map, it's in very faint and small print, it says Mount Sinai.
There's a little dot there.
That is one of the traditional sites of Mount Sinai. Most of the traditional sites are in the Sinai Peninsula.
And it might seem wise to look for Mount Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula. However, we need to understand that the Sinai Peninsula is named after the traditional Mount Sinai rather than Mount Sinai being named after the peninsula.
That is to say, the fact that we call that the Sinai Peninsula doesn't mean that that's really where Sinai was, but rather it's called that because it is the traditional place where Mount Sinai is thought to have been.
And therefore, it came to be called that, the whole peninsula came to be called after it. But that might not be where Mount Sinai is.
As you can see on the map just under the one that shows Sinai region today, the traditional route and site of Mount Sinai shows in the little green, I mean, the little red arrows, excuse me, the route that some people think Israel took so that they crossed the Red Sea or the actually the Suez Canal or Gulf of Suez.
The Gulf of Suez at some point up in the northern part of it and then sort of skirted the Gulf of Suez or the Red Sea, as it's labeled on that map, down to the mountain near the southern part of the peninsula and then went back up north again and wandered around for 40 years. That's sort of the traditional idea. There are a number of mountains in the Sinai Peninsula that have at one time or another been thought to be the Mount Sinai.
One of them is called Mount Serbo, which I think I don't remember how it was identified. It was just an early Christian identification. Some monks had built a monastery there and claimed that Mount Serbo was Mount Sinai.
But Josephus had said that Mount Sinai was the tallest mountain around. And there was a nearby mountain taller than Mount Serbo called Mount Catherine. And it was identified as Sinai.
And I'm not sure if it was this location or another called Jebul Nosa, which means Mountain of Moses, which was identified by Helena, the mother of Constantine.
I don't know if you know very much about this, but when Constantine became emperor, his mother went down to the Holy Land and identified a lot of the biblical sites. This was done partly through dreams and revelations that were claimed to have been given to her or to others with her.
And so she kind of established the traditional sites of loving. And she's the authority behind the identification of one of these. I don't remember if it's Mount Catherine or Jebul Nosa.
But one of these was identified by Helena, the mother of Constantine.
And therefore, its identification is not resting on something really very historical, but something very subjective. Now, there is another theory.
Actually, a lot of theories. If you go online and look up Mount Sinai, you'll find that there's all kinds of theories about where it is. But one that is gaining some popularity among conservative Christians is to identify Mount Sinai with a mountain called Jebul Al-Lawz, which is actually in Saudi Arabia.
Now, there are several reasons for that. One is, there is a mountain there that has. It looks like the top of it is scorched.
Now, we know that Mount Sinai was burned from the fire of God burning upon it. Lots of pillars of smoke and so forth were there. And there's evidence of burned stone on the top of the mountain.
But more importantly, its location is thought to be a much
better candidate for Mount Sinai by many people for a lot of reasons. One is it's in Midian or Saudi Arabia. We know that when Moses fled from Egypt, he went to land of Midian, which, as you can see on these these maps, all of them, except the one of modern, the modern map of the region, that Midian is in the region of Saudi Arabia.
And that's where Moses met his wife, Zipporah, and married her and lived. And he tended his father-in-law's sheep. And it was there that he saw the burning bush on Mount Horeb.
That is Mount Sinai. And God told him at that mountain that after Moses would leave the children of Israel out of Egypt successfully, he would bring them to that mountain and they'd worship Yahweh there at that same mountain.
Now, if indeed the traditional site of Mount Sinai is correct in the Sinai Peninsula, that would seem to indicate that Moses had taken the sheep out of the land of Midian some great distance, hundreds of miles from home.
And it doesn't seem like that'd be very necessary. That's a long way to go from Midian. And so many feel that the true Mount Sinai must be located in Midian or Saudi Arabia.
That's where this Jabal al-Lawz is found. And there's other things about it, too. At the foot of the mountain, there's been identified an altar.
There's been identified on the stone some inscriptions that look like they're ancient Hebrew symbols. There's a region of the foot of the mountain where a large number of people could have been camped for a long period of time.
And somewhat near that place, there is a crossing of the Gulf of Aqaba that could have been the crossing of the so-called crossing of the Red Sea.
Now, the reason for saying that is that there is a ridge under the Gulf of Aqaba that crosses the Gulf. And it's how wide is it, Frank, a mile or so wide, about a mile wide, where the
water is shallow. The water on either side of this ridge is very, very deep.
But for some reason, there's this land bridge that's now covered with water, but not as deep. And if the waters would part, it would provide a land bridge the Israelites could cross over. And there's always been a problem otherwise identifying where the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.
The assumption that Mount Sinai is in the Sinai Peninsula has always made the crossing of the Red Sea apparently a
crossing of the Gulf of Suez. But if they started up in Goshen, as you can see, that's way up in the northeastern part of Egypt or the northwestern part of the Sinai Peninsula, the land of Goshen, where would they need to cross the Red Sea? If they're just going down into the Sinai Peninsula, there's really no place they need to cross. But if they were following the Arabian trade routes, see at the bottom map there, which was prepared by our own Frank here, they may have come to the place where they had to actually cross the Gulf of Aqaba.
And that would have put them over into Midian.
There's underwater videos that have been taken there in the Gulf of Aqaba that show what are apparently chariot wheels that have been encrusted with coral and stuff like that and grown over them. But there's evidence that there could have been Egyptian chariots wiped out there.
The argument is that the Sinai Peninsula at this time was under the rule of Egypt as it is now, and therefore, Moses would not have an escape from Egypt stopped and lived in the Sinai Peninsula, which was under Egyptian jurisdiction, but would have gone all the way across the Gulf of Aqaba, or at least the other side into Midian.
And the Bible says he went to the land of Midian. So there's a lot of things that seem to point in the direction of this other location that's not the traditional location of Mount Sinai.
Now, I've just been online about this for a few hours yesterday, and our website's refuting this view. And so it's very controversial. Some say that the Sinai Peninsula was actually not under Egyptian control in the time of Moses.
I don't know enough of the history to know. I just know what I read on the websites.
Some say that the Midianites may have controlled part of the Sinai Peninsula and therefore coming into Sinai Peninsula was coming into the land of Midian in those days, that they were on both sides of the Gulf of Aqaba.
I don't really know what motivates people to, you know, come up with these things unless they are true, but I don't know if they're true. The truth of the matter is I don't really care where Mount Sinai is, but it does seem to me just from what little I can tell, and my very little expertise on the ancient history of the region, that a site in Saudi Arabia does make more sense. Paul does say in Galatians chapter 4 and verse 25 that Mount Sinai is in Arabia.
Now, those who are trying to debunk this particular identification have said that Arabia extended into the Sinai Peninsula, or Sinai Peninsula was not part of Egypt, part of Arabia in those days.
I couldn't, I cannot verify or contradict that. I don't really know.
Apparently, even scholars have disagreements among themselves, which means that even if I were a scholar, I might not know. But I just want you to be aware that in the fourth chapter of Galatians and verse 25, Paul said, for this is Hagar, for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia.
And corresponds to the Jerusalem, which now is, that is symbolically corresponds, not geographically.
But therefore, Paul said that Sinai is in Arabia. And I guess one of the questions then would be, was the Sinai Peninsula considered part of Arabia in ancient times, or at least in Paul's time? Some say in Paul's time, the Sinai Peninsula was in Arabia. That's why he referred to it there.
I honestly, I don't know.
I'm reasonably convinced that the site in Saudi Arabia is a better, a better site has more in favor. But the reason I have two maps of alternatives, one is that one of the colors, one of the bottom.
And then there's the black and white one up in the top right corner. Both of them are associating Mount Sinai with the land of Midian.
But the one in the top right corner shows sort of a direction being taken that was down the edge of the Gulf of Suez.
And the one at the bottom doesn't really show a route, except it shows the Arabian trade routes, which goes more across the top. Now, the Israelites made it in what, seven days, 10 days?
Yeah, only a certain number of days from the axis to the edge of the sea. And there was probably the shortest route would be the one they would take.
So it seems to me, although, again, I'm not claiming to know this. There's too much controversy about this. Too many scholars on two different, too many different sides of this question.
But it seems to me they would take the most direct route across the Sinai Peninsula. And therefore, that Arabian trade route that is shown on the bottom map may be the best guess. However, once they'd gotten to Elath, or maybe even before that, they would have dipped south and crossed the sea at some point down there where this land bridge is.
But the reason I'm not being more specific is I'm not. Two reasons. One, there's a lot of controversy about it, and no one knows for sure.
And the second thing is, I don't really care that much. I mean, where it was. I've lived this long without knowing where it was, and I think I can live the rest of my life without knowing where it was.
Knowing where the crossing took place is not the most important thing in understanding the exodus and its importance. But it is interesting that there is a new identification that has quite a few things in his favor. And I would just suggest you go online and look up Mount Sinai if you want to read websites, you know, defending all different viewpoints on that.
Now, let's talk about the importance of Moses contribution as a man and as a writer. The book of Exodus and Moses, the author. Moses, you have to really understand, was the greatest man of the Old Testament and might have been the greatest leader in history, apart from Jesus.
And when it comes to political leaders, Jesus wasn't even a political leader. So Moses might actually stand as the greatest political leader in history, because the people that he took out of Egypt were a bunch of people who had been beaten down slaves. They had not governed themselves, probably for at least over a hundred years.
They were not, you know, trained militarily. They didn't have any governmental system. They were only linked to each other by bloodline.
They were all a bunch of relatives, millions of them. And Moses took this amorphous, rag-tag group of slaves and molded them into a nation that actually became one of the most important and powerful nations in the world at various times.
In the time of David, Israel was probably one of the most powerful nations in the world.
Even in modern times, Israel is a very powerful nation, a very important nation. And much of geopolitics is determined by things going on in Israel. No one can deny that Israel, the tiny little nation that it is, has been more significant over a longer period of history than any other nation.
Yeah, the Roman Empire was very significant in its day, but it only lasted a few hundred years, and then it fell. The Greek Empire, even America, has been very significant in its day, but it's only been a few hundred years. Israel has been important for thousands of years, and it's been central to much of the geopolitical movements of the world for a long time.
And Moses is the founder. He's like the George Washington of their country. And he led the slaves out.
He confronted Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world at the time. He confronted him face to face, challenged him, called upon him to let the people go, and then led the people out and then formed them into a nation.
Now, all of this, of course, is done under God.
God is the one who empowered Moses to do that. But one could argue that every great achievement of great men was, in a sense, subject to God's assistance or God's sovereign control, even if the leaders didn't acknowledge it.
It's just that Moses was a man through whom God worked more powerfully than anyone else in the Old Testament.
There's no man in the Old Testament who's had more miracles attributed to him. Elijah came close, and Elisha had even more than Elijah, but Moses still is the one who did the most miracles and the most significant miracles.
I mean, Elijah and Elisha come close to Moses in a number of miracles, but their miracles are individual miracles like raising a dead boy and causing an axe head to float and things like that.
Whereas the miracles that were brought through Moses were those that delivered the people from bondage, founded their nation, fed them in the wilderness miraculously for 40 years, sustained them in battle and all kinds of things.
So Moses is really the most important character in the Old Testament. And when it comes to world leaders, national leaders and founders, he may be the greatest who's ever lived.
More than that, just apart from his own personal achievements, there are the laws that he gave.
Now, of course, we Christians understand that God gave those laws. Moses was just the conduit.
God gave them to Moses and Moses gave them to Israel. So the laws of Moses do not reflect the genius of that man, but the genius of God who simply gave them to Israel through that man.
But from a human standpoint, which is what many people would look at Moses through just as a historical character, the laws he gave are ingenious.
So much so that virtually all modern civilization, at least Western civilization and many other parts of the world that have been influenced by Western civilization, now has their legal systems, their ethical systems based upon the Ten Commandments.
And other laws of Moses, you know, I say, well, it doesn't seem like our laws are following the Ten Commandments very much anymore. Well, our society is deliberately trying to throw them off.
Our society is in rebellion against God. And therefore, the pagans in our society are doing all they can to get rid of the Ten Commandments and those and that code, but they haven't even been successful yet and they control the government.
So the Ten Commandments posted on the on the wall in the Supreme Court of the United States.
But before America existed, there was England and England's common law system was based on the law of Moses and virtually all the free world has derived its concepts of justice and ethics, essentially from what Moses wrote thirty five hundred years ago.
Which is pretty amazing. And so his contribution is tremendous, besides which he was a prophet, he prophesied Christ's coming and he was just a very important, pivotal character in history.
Certainly, the exodus was the turning point in Old Testament history. There were other turning points. The flood was a turning point, too.
But in terms of God's redemption of the world and his fulfillment of his promises to Abraham prior to the coming of Christ, there was nothing as important as the contribution Moses made. Very, very central to the fate of the world.
Really, this man who lived so long ago.
Now, as Christians, one thing that shouldn't should interest us greatly is the New Testament develop of the themes of exodus, because as we've seen, the Old Testament contains many types of Christ and the exodus as we study it, if we study it through the eyes of the New Testament writers studied it, we'll see all kinds of things that refer to us.
And Christ and the Christian movement and the kingdom of God. And especially three things in the book of Exodus, though there are more.
One is the exodus itself, that is, the going out of Egypt. This deliverance from Egypt is treated not only in the New Testament, but even in later Old Testament books as an unforgettable prototype of God's deliverance of his people from bondage so that later on.
When God would deliver them from Babylon, from a Babylonian exile, they would liken this to the exodus.
It was another instance like the exodus where God delivered them out of the bondage of oppressors. But in the New Testament, our deliverance by Christ from the bondage of sin is likened to the exodus. And so in a sense, the exodus is a type and a shadow of what Christ has done for us, just as God did this for Israel, bringing them out of the bondage of Egypt.
And Egypt then would be like a type of sin. We were in bondage to sin. Pharaoh, like a type of the devil, as many would understand it.
Moses, like a type of Christ and the deliverance of the children of Israel would be like our salvation.
And so these themes are used in the Bible elsewhere. Even before you get to the New Testament, you have it in some of the prophecies about the Messiah.
For example, in Isaiah chapter 11, we have a prophecy about the Messianic age. It's a rather short chapter, but it is about the age of the Messiah. Now, I want to say this.
We haven't studied the prophets here together, so you may not be aware of it. The age of the Messiah is a topic of many Old Testament prophecies, and there is a difference of opinion among Christians as to what their fulfillment is.
Some apply them to the millennium, and some think that the age of the Messiah begins at the second coming of Jesus and that he will set up a thousand year millennial reign at his second coming and that these prophecies that talk about the Messianic age will then be fulfilled.
But through most of history, Christians have believed that the Messianic age began at the first coming of Christ, that Christ established his kingdom at his first coming, and it has not been postponed until the second coming. I am of that opinion, too, and therefore, when I read a chapter like Isaiah chapter 11, which is about the Messianic age, I believe it applies to the present age, the age of the church, that the Messiah reigns at the right hand of God and we, his subjects, follow him. For example, the opening verse, Isaiah 11 says, There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight will be in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears.
But with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth.
He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins, and faithfulness the belt of his waist.
Now, people often will say, well, this is the millennium, but it doesn't talk about the second coming of Christ, it talks about the first coming.
A rod coming from the stem of Jesse, a branch growing out of his roots, that's where Jesus was born, born from the stem of Jesse, from David. Jesse was David's father.
And so this is talking about a branch growing out of the roots, it's not coming out of heaven, this is coming out of the line of David.
This is the birth of Jesus, this is the first coming, which is the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, that's what Jesus said when he was in the synagogue of Nazareth.
In Luke chapter 4, he read from Isaiah 61, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, and so forth. The spirit of the Lord is on him.
His delight is in the fear of the Lord, he didn't judge by the sight of his eyes, he saw through the Pharisees. He didn't see them the way others did, he could see what was in their hearts.
And when it says that he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, this is a figure of speech, the rod of his mouth is his words.
And he did strike the land, he did strike the world, and he does with his words, they do judge the world. And it says the breath of his lips can slay the wicked. Actually, in the book of Hosea, God talks about how he hewed the Israelites with the prophets, with his words.
He, using the word that used to cleave wood and so forth, that he slew them with his prophets. This is a figure of speech. It's not, it's not literal, even in verse six, where it says the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and the little child shall lead them.
This is often thought to be about the millennium after Jesus comes back. But in Isaiah and the Old Testament in general,
Israel is likened to a flock of sheep. They are God's sheep, they are God's calves, they are God's goats.
They are, in other words, like domesticated animals, whereas lions and bears and wolves are what the Gentiles are likened to. Many of the prophets make it this way. Daniel is very famous for this because he sees the Gentile nations coming out of the sea.
One's like a lion, one's like a bear, one's like a leopard.
And so many times in the prophets, it speaks about the Gentiles as if they're predatory animals that prey on God's sheep. Israel, Israel are God's domesticated flock.
To say that the wolf will lie down with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion. I believe this is referring to Jews and Gentiles in Christ coming into a peaceable world.
Coexistence with the middle wall, a partition that was between them broken down and God making it himself of the two, one new man in Christ.
And it says a little child shall lead them. Jesus said, he that would be chief among you needs to be humble like a little child. There's many things in this that I believe point to the first coming of Christ.
Verse eight here says the nursing child shall play with the cobra's hole and the weaned child should put his hand on the vipers den.
Jesus said to the disciples in John chapter 10, I give you authority over serpents and scorpions over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means harm you. That's talking about disciples in the present age.
Of course, he's talking about demonic powers. But more importantly, in understanding Isaiah 11, look at verse 10.
In that day, there should be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people for the Gentiles shall seek him and his resting place shall be glorious.
This verse is quoted by Paul in Romans 1512 as being fulfilled now through Paul's ministry to the Gentiles.
Paul is in Romans 15, giving a number of Old Testament passages that justify his outreach to the Gentiles and he quotes this passage as if his ministry is part of the fulfillment of this passage. Paul certainly saw this passage as being fulfilled in the age of the church, not when Jesus comes back.
But then the reason I came to this passage all is look at the last two verses. I say 11, 15 and 16. The Lord will utterly destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt with his mighty wind.
He will shake his fist over the river and strike it in its seven streams and make men cross over dry shod. There will be a highway for the remnant of his people who will be left from Assyria as it was for Israel in the day when he came up from the land of Egypt.
Now, here, if you can get past some of the symbolic ways in which ancient nations are used to represent Gentiles in general.
And the other ways that the exodus is spoken of figuratively, the idea of God drying away through the water so that people can go through dry shod, like when he brought them out of Egypt. This is referring to what the Messiah has done in bringing salvation to us. And we'll see that in the New Testament.
The New Testament makes this point very strongly that what Jesus has accomplished is a new exodus. And this passage and Isaiah would be an example of that. Likewise, there's a similar passage and there are more.
I'm just giving you a couple of samples so you'll know the phenomenon I'm talking about in Jeremiah 23.
And Jeremiah 23, verse five says, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord that I will raise to David a branch of righteousness. This is Jesus, a king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. Now, this is the name, his name, by which he will be called Yahweh Sidcanu, which is the Lord, our righteousness.
Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that they shall no longer say, as Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, but as Yahweh lives, who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I've driven them and they shall dwell in their own land.
Now, this is on the surface talking about return, the Jews returning from exile in Babylon. That's what he talks about, you know, the lands I've driven them to, I'm going to bring them back to their own land. But it's in the context also of the Messiah coming and the return of the exiles from Babylon is seen as being sort of the same thing as the Exodus, only it's going to eclipse it in importance.
And both of them are a type of what the Messiah would do. And so we mix in the prophets, you mix these references to the return of the exiles from Babylon with references to the salvation of Messiah bring. And these things all kind of merged together in the mind of the prophets.
And so when you get to the New Testament, we see, for example, that Matthew and we've I think we've maybe mentioned this before here certainly comes up frequently in Matthew chapter two. When Matthew is talking about the childhood of Jesus and how Jesus went off into Egypt as a child and then returned, it says in Matthew 2, 15, that he was there until the death of Herod, that he's in Egypt until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophets saying, out of Egypt, I called my son. Now, Matthew sees this as referring to Jesus as a child coming out of Egypt, however, in quoting Hosea, 11, 1, he's actually quoting a verse about the Exodus in Hosea, 11, 1, which is quoted here, Hosea says, or God says to Hosea, when Israel was a child, I loved him.
And out of Egypt, I called my son, meaning I called Israel out of Egypt, the Exodus as they called them. So they went from them. They sacrificed to Baals and they burned incense to carved images.
And so he talks about how they rebelled against him in the wilderness and in the land when he brought them into their land. But he reminisces that he called Israel in its youth as a nation out of Egypt. But Matthew sees that the type of Christ.
Israel being called out of Egypt in its infancy is a type of Christ being called out of Egypt in his infancy. So we see the New Testament writers beginning to see already the Exodus corresponds with the New Testament salvation with the new covenant.
You see, the Exodus led to God making the covenant Mount Sinai.
Jesus coming led to him making the new covenant with his disciples. And so they see the Old Testament exodus as a type of that. If you look over Luke chapter nine, it's Luke's story of the transfiguration, which is found also in Matthew and Mark.
But Luke especially is helpful in seeing our point, because when Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and Luke nine thirty one, it says they appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. The word decease there in the Greek is exodus. It's the Greek word exodus there.
So they. Moses and Elijah appeared to Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, talking about the exodus that he was going to accomplish. Interesting, Moses, who had been the instrument of the first exodus, is now talking to Jesus about the second exodus that Jesus is going to accomplish when he goes to Jerusalem and dies.
And it seems obvious that the death of Jesus and the salvation that that brings to us the deliverance from sin is seen as an exodus from bondage, just as what happened in the days of Moses. If you look over first Corinthians ten Paul. Also specifically uses the word type saying that this is a type of us being saved.
The word type, as we're using it here, when you have an Old Testament type is not really used that frequently in the New Testament, but it is used here in first Corinthians ten verses one through six.
Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under the cloud and passed through the sea in the exodus. Of course, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
All ate the same spiritual food. He means manna and all drank the same spiritual drink for the drink of the spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ.
But with most of them, God was not well pleased for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now, these things became our example. The word example in the Greek is to us.
These became our types are patterns to the intent that we should not lost after evil things as they lost. Now, he says that when they came through the sea and they were baptized into Moses in the cloud of the sea and they ate the manna and they drank the water. These are all types of our experience.
What? What experience?
Well, our baptism in water, our baptism of the Holy Spirit, our feasting on Christ, the bread of life, our drinking of the living water, which is the Holy Spirit. He's saying the experience of the Israelites in the exodus and subsequent to it are types of us and our experience as Christians. So, I mean, it's a direct identification of the exodus generation with with our own experience.
One other place I want to point to, although you'll find many others in the Bible where the exodus in one way or another is likened to our salvation.
I actually to in Revelation one of the largest turn you to in Revelation chapter one and verse five. It says, And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth to him who loved us and washed us from our sins with his own blood.
The word washed there in the Alexandrian text is freed us.
There's a difference in the text. The text is receptive, says washed us by blood.
The Alexandrian text, which is older, says freed us from our sins by his blood. And it says we were freed from sin by the blood of Jesus. It's a picture of Jesus like the Passover.
The blood of the Passover freed the people from Egypt. And so there'd be a probable connection there with the exodus.
But in Revelation 15, three in Revelation 15, three, John sees in heaven a great company of the redeemed and they're singing.
And it says, And they sing a song, the song of Moses, the son of God and the song of the lamb. And then it goes on and gives their song, which isn't the song of Moses. The song of Moses is in Exodus chapter 15, the song that Israel sang when they came through the Red Sea.
What they're really singing is the song of the lamb.
But why is it called the song of Moses and the song of the lamb? Because the redemption brought forth by the lamb, by Christ, is seen as a kind of a fulfillment of the redemption brought about in the time of Moses from Egypt and the song of deliverance that the same thing today is the counterpart of the song of deliverance that they sang in the days of Moses in Exodus chapter 15. The point I'm making is that in many ways, some of them strange and some of them obscure, but some of them very direct.
The New Testament and even some of the Old Testament prophets identify the messianic salvation, which we have with the exodus of the Old Testament. And so that's one of the important ways in which Exodus serves to foreshadow our New Testament experience, the actual going out.
There's also another theme in Exodus that does this, and that is the Passover.
The Passover was that original time when they killed the lamb and they put the blood on the doorposts and the lentils of the houses and the death angel passed through Egypt.
This is the tenth plague of the ten plagues of Egypt and every house that did not have blood on the doors, lost a child. The firstborn child of the home died, probably in their sleep.
But the house that had the blood on the doors, the death angel, he said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you and I will not kill your firstborn. So the firstborn sons were redeemed, as it were, by the blood of the land.
They were their lives were spared where they otherwise would have been killed in this judgment, so that the blood of the Passover lamb actually was a shield against the judgment of God on the household.
Now, in Chapter 12 or 13, God goes and tells them that they need to every year commemorate the Passover a certain way they didn't in later years, they didn't put blood on their doors and things like that.
But they did eat a lamb and they did go through a ceremony at the table that that reminded them of this Passover event. And so the Passover event was always a commemoration of the exodus.
Now, in the New Testament, the Passover finds its fulfillment in Christ. In Luke, Chapter 22, we read of the fulfillment of the Passover.
Now, Jesus and his disciples have been keeping the Passover every year since they were children, and the Jews have been keeping it for like fourteen hundred years or more at the time of Christ.
Almost fifteen hundred years by the time he was in the room with his disciples here.
But in in Luke, 22, beginning of verse 13. Through verse 20, it says, So they went and found it, as he said to them, and they prepared the Passover, that is, the Jewish Passover, they were going to keep as they had every year.
And when the hour had come, he sat down and the twelve apostles with him, then he said to them with fervent desire, I've desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I will no longer eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. So the fulfillment of the Passover was going to take place before Jesus would eat the Passover again.
I think this is a way of saying before the next year comes around, this will have been fulfilled before the next Passover. The fulfillment of it will have taken place, and it did that next day. And then he took the cup and gave thanks and said, Take and divide it among yourselves, for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.
He did drink. He at least tasted the fruit of the vine while he was on the cross just before he said it is finished. And therefore, it would appear that the kingdom of God came at that time.
And he took bread and gave thanks and broke it and gave it to them and said, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Likewise, he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.
Now, the Jews in their Passover meal did have a certain point in their ritual at the table where they ate some Moscow, some cracker and some words were said over it of remembrance. And also where they drank several cups. There are like four cups that they drink at different points during the evening.
But when Jesus took these rituals, he transformed them because these rituals in the past were to commemorate the exodus. He says, No, when you do it from now on, you do it in remembrance of me. That is, the exodus is over.
Now there's a new covenant. Now there's a new exodus. Instead of remembering the old exodus, you need to remember me and what I'm doing for you.
That's the new thing to remember. I'm the new Passover. And that's what Paul said about Jesus, too, in First Corinthians five, beginning at verse six, he says, Your glorying is not good.
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore, purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you are truly unleavened. For indeed, Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast.
He means the feast of unleavened bread, because under the law, they kept the feast for seven days after the Passover day. They kept the feast of unleavened bread. Therefore, let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Now, Paul certainly is not saying we're supposed to keep the Jewish Passover and the Jewish feast of unleavened bread. He spiritualizes it. Christ is the Passover and our living a life unleavened by evil is our keeping the feast of unleavened bread.
That's the fulfillment of the feast of unleavened bread. Christ died for us and began as the Passover itself began the week of unleavened bread. Christ died for us, began a life of our living without the malice of without the leaven of malice and wickedness.
And our lives are now like unleavened bread, characterized by sincerity and truth. But the point is that Paul is saying that now that Christ has come, he's our Passover. We don't remember the Exodus anymore because Christ, its counterpart, Christ, its antitype has come.
It's interesting that John points out when he describes the crucifixion of Jesus in John chapter 19 and verse 33, it says that they were breaking the legs of the thieves on the cross. Crosses. And in verse 33, it says when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
And down in verse 36 and 37 says, for these things were done that the scripture should be fulfilled. Not one of his bones shall be broken. Well, where does it say that? Where's it say not one of his bones should be broken? It's in the legislation that's given for the Passover ceremony.
The lamb that they were to eat, according to Exodus 12, 46, was not to have any of its bones broken. And so John is saying Jesus' bones were not broken because he was like the Passover lamb, like it says in the law, not one of his bones should be broken. So we see that the Exodus event itself.
Finds a lot of fulfillment mentioned in the New Testament, the Passover itself is fulfilled in Christ. Then we have, of course, the tabernacle, and we'll go over this rather, rather quickly, although we'll go through it in detail when we go through it in Exodus. But the tabernacle was this portable building is really a prefab building.
That you could assemble and disassemble and move it around on ox carts, it was made of wood, essentially, its walls were made of wood that were covered with gold. And they would attach together, they were boards, really, their individual boards made it more portable. And when you set them up, you bind them together with bars so that the boards made like a solid wall on three sides of the building.
And then they covered over with four coverings, including some beautiful linen covering, but also some heavy duty coverings made of animal hides and so forth. So it was a tent with solid walls on three sides. Across the front was just a curtain and it was placed inside of a courtyard that was a curtain courtyard open to the sun, the open air.
The courtyard was rather large. The building was relatively small, 15 feet by 45 feet. It's over all size and it was divided into two compartments.
One was twice the size of the other. The smaller was called the Holy of Holies and outside the Holy of Holies was twice as much space in what they call the Holy Place. This was to be the worship shrine for Israel as they traveled through the wilderness and in the early years after they came into the promised land.
It was portable because they were moving, but even after they settled down, it was set up and not moved anymore. And it became a more or less permanent building until it was destroyed by the Philistines in the days of Eli, the priest. But the ritual of the tabernacle and its design were given in great detail.
As I said earlier in our previous letter, it's rather tedious detail for us. Since we're not concerned to build it, we might think it's not so important for us to look at the blueprints quite so carefully as they give them to us. Although the details are important.
I don't know how how important all the details are, but in measure, they are very important, at least the greater details and maybe even the smallest details. There have been many books written about the details of the tabernacle and their significance. The reason for that is because the eighth chapter of Hebrews.
Introduces the idea that the tabernacle that Moses built was a picture of spiritual or heavenly things. In Hebrews chapter eight and verse two. Hebrews eight to it says that Jesus is a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord erected and not man.
Now, the true tabernacle is in contrast to the tabernacle set up in the wilderness that we read of in Exodus. Man set up that tabernacle, but there's a true tabernacle that God set up. And we'll find as you read through the book of Hebrews, that this is in heaven, not on earth.
It talks about the priest in Hebrews eight, five, who served the copy and shadow of the heavenly things as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For God said, see that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain. Now, God said that a number of times in the course of telling Moses how to build the furniture and so forth.
The tavern makes sure you do it the way I showed you on the mountain. God showed Moses a vision, apparently a blueprint, a pattern of the tabernacle, apparently a heavenly one. And Moses was to make an earthly model of it, and he was to make sure the model was exact.
I never did get into model airplanes and model cars and stuff like some some boys do. But I was always impressed when I go to my friend's house when I was a kid and seeing the models they've made of army tanks and airplanes and helicopters and things like that. And just all the detail that was was in there, it's like down to the smallest detail.
The models reflected just a miniature of the real thing. And that's what the tabernacle is, is like a detailed model of a heavenly pattern that God had shown to Moses. Why? Because there are spiritual truths that God wanted to convey through it.
And that's why it was so important that Moses not mess with the details. Not change them in any way. By the way, there are.
I often think sometimes that way about the institution of marriage, how that it was also to be a pattern of a heavenly reality, and our society at its peril tinkers with that pattern and starts to redefine it because it's like the tabernacle in a sense is the divine institution that God designed a certain way to reflect a spiritual reality,
a heavenly reality, Christ in the church. Paul said when he said that a man leaves his father and mother and pleads to his wife and the two become one flesh. He said, this is a great mystery.
It's he says, I speak of Christ in the church. He's quoting Genesis two, twenty four. So he's saying when God invented marriage, he did it to be a picture of a heavenly reality of Christ in the church.
And, you know, that house, the household of humanity in a marriage is a is a picture like the house, the tabernacle is a picture of something like that. Now. Now, God didn't say about marriage, make sure you do it according to the pattern, but it would follow that it'd be important to do so.
For the same reason, it's important that the tabernacle is made exactly according to that, because otherwise you change the pattern, you change the message, you change the communication. The model is there to kind of communicate something to onlookers. And when you change marriage, I think it'd be as sacrilegious as changing the tabernacle because God had a purpose in designing it the way he did.
And it's not really for man to mess around with. In Hebrews, chapter nine. In verses one through five, the writers of then, indeed, even the first covenant was had ordinances of divine service and an earthly sanctuary, earthly sanctuary, the word sanctuary means holy place and talk about the tabernacle.
He says, for a tabernacle was prepared, the first part in which was the lampstand, the table and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary or the holy place. And behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of all or the holy of holies. Which had the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant overlaid on all sides of gold, in which were the golden pot that had manna, errands, robbed it, but it and the tablets of the covenant.
And above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. And then comes the most frustrating line in the Bible of these things. We cannot now speak in detail.
The reason that's a frustrating line is because there's been much effort on the part of preachers to to speak in detail about these things. But so much of what is said is really kind of an educated guess as far as what is the meaning of the gold, this or that or the silver, this or that in the tabernacle. There are book length treatments of that where Christian authors have tried to point out what they correspond to in spiritual things.
And they may be right, but we don't know if they're right because because the writer of Hebrews didn't go into detail. If he had, it'd be nice. I really wish he had spoken in detail of these things, but it would have taken him off course of his main message here.
The point is, though, it seems to indicate he could, if he had the time, he could go into great detail and tell you what these things represented. But we don't have time right now. Too bad.
But you see.
The writer of Hebrews is indicating that there is something to be learned from the details of the tabernacle. He just didn't give us a clear or thorough treatment of what that is.
In the same chapter, Hebrews 9, 11 and 12, it says Christ came as a high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. That is not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood. He entered the most holy place.
Once for all, having obtained eternal redemption, what does it Jesus entered the most holy or the holy of holies with his own blood? What the writer of Hebrews is saying is that Jesus is like the high priest who once a year would go into the holy of holies and sprinkle the mercy seat with blood. He says that that corresponds with what Jesus has done. Jesus has gone behind the veil.
He's gone into heaven where we can't see him. He's interceding for us like the high priest would intercede in the holy of holies on the Day of Atonement, sprinkling the blood on the mercy seat. And we look for him to come out just like the Israelites looked for the high priest to come out after he had done this.
He would come out again. And when he came safely out, it would be the proof that the ritual had been completed and that and that God had accepted it and that God had saved the people for another year, had forgiven them. And the writer of Hebrews pictures this as if Jesus has gone into heaven.
That's the holy of holies. And he's doing all this. And when he comes out again, that's when, you know, are the whole purpose of salvation will be all done.
And so we have these different references in Hebrews to the significance of the tabernacle corresponding to something in heaven. In Hebrews 10, verses 19 through 22, it says, For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people, according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water, scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and the people. And he's saying this is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.
Then likewise, he sprinkled the blood with blood, both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law, almost all things are purged with blood and without the shedding of blood, there's no remission. But it says in verse 23, Therefore, it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these that he's referring to, that the furniture of the tabernacle and tabernacle itself are themselves copies of heavenly things.
The pattern was in heaven. The earthly building with the copy and the copies of these things were purified with these bloods of bulls and goats. But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these for Christ has not entered the holy places made with hand, which are copies of the truth, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.
Not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place every year with the blood of another. He would then have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world, but now once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now, it says that the earthly tabernacle is a copy of the true tabernacle of the heavenly things, and that is what we will find as we study the tabernacle that, although I'm not going to speculate as much as some people do about the meaning of every little detail, but it is possible by comparing scripture with scripture to come to a fairly reasonable set of assumptions about what what the details in many cases do correspond to spiritually.
And there's some great lessons about the worship of God that we learn from the tabernacle. So those are ways in which the book of Exodus finds fulfillment in the New Testament. There are others.
I didn't mention everything.
For example, the manna in the wilderness, which is mentioned. Jesus said he was the bread sent down from heaven.
He's true manna. And there are other types of Christ throughout the book, but especially in the New Testament, the exodus itself, the Passover and the tabernacle are seen as having very important New Testament fulfillment. And so as we study through Exodus in these things, we'll be making those correspondences or comments.

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Steve Gregg discusses various parts of the book of Daniel, exploring themes of prophecy, historical accuracy, and the significance of certain events.
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In this series from biblical scholar Steve Gregg, the book of 3 John is examined to illuminate the early developments of church government and leaders
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