Exodus Explained

​Wouldn't it be good if all of us realize that God has a calling on all of our lives and he wants to use us in the process of deliverance for so many other people in our generation. So I think that's a really key piece that God can look past our insufficiencies. He can show us that he's an all sufficient God and that he is sovereign, and that he can use our lives to accomplish his great purposes.

Even as it comes to going back to what we came from, Moses was being called to go back into Egypt, but this time as a new man with a new calling and with a revelation of God in his heart.​

Welcome to the You Can Learn the Bible Podcast where we summarize complete Bible books in single episodes. My name is Bodie Quirk from YouCanLearnthBible.com here as always with my co-host Joey Rozek, lead pastor of Living Springs Fellowship in New Jersey. Joey, it's podcast Day man. How are you doing today?

Oh, I'm loving that. It's podcast a uh, I'm doing great. It's beautiful weather out here in New Jersey, even though it's, it's wintertime for us and

um,

Is it The Sun decided to come out for you

It did, it, it decided to come out and

today we're, getting to talk about when God's people came out. You know, We're looking at the Book of Exodus second book into this.

And, I'm so excited that we've begun this journey now hitting the books of the Bible because to me, every book of the Bible matters in the big picture of God. There's not a single book that I'm not excited that we're gonna get to go into. If we get to really explore the depths of what God has placed in there in the treasure chest of scripture.

So I'm good brother. You

man. That's good. Yeah. Oh, dude, I've been, yeah, like I said the the, uh, I don't know if if people often get a chance to get what we're trying to accomplish a complete book in a single episode. So if you're just getting started, if you're just tuning in, welcome.

The goal here is what the name is, You Can Learn the Bible. So we wanna both equip you, but we wanna inspire you. And so today we are focusing on Exodus. Exodus Explained is the goal. We are on both audio and video,

which means that if you can watch on YouTube, we do have some slides that we use, but we really try and make the audio experience primary. So of course you many, you might be listening now, but you can watch the the videos on YouTube as well, and we are excited. I wanna just get right into it, Joey, because We got a lot to cover. Exodus is one of those books I feel like

people can read Genesis and they can kind of get it, but once they get to Exodus, there's some, challenges that people hit, aren't there?

We really wanna make sure that you feel equipped and inspired to enter this book and, and to read it for yourself, but really to feel like you're ready. So that's what we wanna do. We have a, what we call a seven part framework to equip and to inspire. That's our goal. So let's get started with point number one, the essentials.

When somebody is gonna get started reading Exodus, Joey, if somebody came to you and they said, what do I need to know first, if I wanna read this book? What would be some of your answers? What are some of the essential details that they need to know to get started reading Exodus?

Yes. Once again, Exodus was written by Moses,

and you really see why, because now the character Moses is introduced. in the book of Exodus. And uh, so it's, written like Genesis was around this same period of time, between 1446, 1440 BC is the dates we're putting out there for you. But Moses is actually writing this while he's in the wilderness.

And I think what's really key is that this book gets broken up as the second book of the Torah, where we have a narrative side to it. We're gonna see the whole story of Moses and how God raised him up as a deliverer. But then we get into the second section of Exodus where you get a lot of instructions about not only God's law governing Israel, but the instructions about the tabernacle, the worship, and the sacrificial system, which will be in place.

And so this is a really key book to see how God keeps his covenant and how he's taking his people out of bondage. So rescue and revelation are the key themes with this deliverance that we've focused on Bodie. So that's what I would say is really key is we start this book of Exodus.

Right. So the purpose of Genesis is beginnings. Everything started to begin. The covenants began. God did not begin, but his relationship to his creation began. And we get to see where it goes following up here in the Book of Exodus. And so let's talk about the storyline.

So again, we started the whole podcast by trying to give you an overview of the whole Bible, and now we're going book by book. So, Exodus is of course the second book of the Bible. It follows Genesis. It's a continuation and it's an expansion of Genesis, but where does it fit in the timeline, Joey, where does it start and what does it cover in relationship to the biblical timeline?

Yeah, so if you remember, we ended off with with the life of Joseph

in the book of Genesis. So Exodus begins with the death of Joseph, and it, really gives you the narrative of what takes place and really covers 400 years of history. And it ends with the wilderness wandering.

And so, this book is about departure, the word exodus has the word "Ex" in it, and it means coming out of or departing from. So this is what this book's gonna be about.

And I think in the timeline here, it shows it really well with some key verses. Bodie, why don't you take us into those key verses and show us how this fits in the storyline.

Yeah, so right at the beginning of Exodus, you're gonna read Exodus 1:6, 1:7, and 1:8. These verses are meant to be a hinge. They're a turning point. Exodus 1:6 connects you to Genesis. Because Genesis ends with Joseph. It says, then Joseph died and all of his brothers and that generation.

So this is kind of a summary verse. Exodus 1:7, but the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. This is the nation, but they're in Egypt. They multiplied and they grew. So the land was filled with them. This one verse summarizes 400 years, doesn't it, Joey?

But it doesn't really care as much about the 400 years as much as it cares about what happens next. Exodus 1:8. Now, there was a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph. So notice the connection there in two verses, were ending Joseph and we are saying he didn't know Joseph anymore. We're in a new phase, aren't we?

Yeah. And you know what, that's a great set of three verses, and there's even one more verse I just thought of to add with that,

which is verse 12 of Exodus one, which says the more they afflicted them, the more that the Egyptians were afflicting the Hebrew slaves, the more they multiplied and grew. And do you remember that was the command given by God to Adam and Genesis be fruitful and multiply?

And here we see in Exodus that this multiplication is happening even under times of affliction, hardship, difficulty. Very important because that initial context reminds the Christian, the believer today that God is able to do great sanctifying work in us and great growth and multiplication out of us, even while we go through times of hardship and affliction,

That is important. Thank you for mentioning that. And that's actually gonna be how the book starts. We're gonna talk about the structure of the book in a second. In fact, the whole episode is we really wanna walk you through the structure uh, a little bit more intentionally because the structure really affects your experience of reading the book.

So we'll get to that in a second. But if somebody wants to know Joey, what are some of the major ideas in Exodus? What would you say are the ideas that people absolutely need to know if they're gonna get this book, if they're gonna understand why this book is part of the canon of scripture?

So the key themes of this book starts with God

because God is seeing the people of Israel. He is speaking to them. He's gonna send them, he's gonna save them, and he's going to answer their dilemma. And I love how it starts with God's self revelation in the burning bush experience. You get to Exodus three and we're gonna see how God reveals to Moses his name, the Covenant name, we often refer to God as Yahweh.

But he's, the Tetragrammaton is introduced. This "I am that I am" statement, so that's huge. And we're gonna see God's judgment coming down on Egypt and his mercy over his covenant people. We're gonna see the Passover, what a key theme that is Passover and how God's gonna Pass over judgment from his people because of the blood of the lamb and how important that is.

Of course, we're gonna see Moses as the savior figure as a rescuer and deliver, just like we saw with Joseph and Genesis. We see it with Moses here as a type of Jesus. We also have the covenant law given this is where the 10 Commandments come in, is given in Exodus 20.

We're gonna see the theme of the Tabernacle and God's Presence with and among his people. And then we're also gonna see once again, the rebellion of man, how we are prone to complain, prone to wander, and not believe in trust in our Lord. Those are the key themes in Exodus.

Yeah, but people don't deal with that anymore, do they? Joey? I mean, People,

No, no, it. Listen, nobody complains anymore. Bodie, we live in a world where everybody's content and thankful all the time. Boy, how far off is that? I so wish that we were not still wanderers in this world, but I think the world has more wanderers than people who are dwelling in the land of promise, that's the problem, and Exodus is gonna show us that.

That's why I think when we introduce some of these themes, the Bible is the word of God for all people and all generations. But these moments reveal both God and us. And so what we wanna do is we wanna walk you through with the book, and we wanna walk you through in a way, because the structure is a, is is pretty important when it comes to Exodus.

So we have said we have a seven part framework which talks about the essentials, where, what are the basics? Where does it fall in the story? What are the themes, but the structure and then what does it teach us about God and what does it offer our Christian life? Depending on the book those, we can actually deal with those separately.

But with Exodus, we're gonna actually just walk through the structure and we want to ask these question. Each of the sections as we come to them. And then at the end, we want to talk just some about our favorite things about this book. So how does that sound, Joey? Let's introduce the, larger structure of Exodus, and then as we come to each one, let's make sure we understand what it is, what it teaches us about God and what it teaches, what we can learn in our Christian life. How's that sound?

Sounds great. Yeah, , I think we're gonna hit on all these things all at once as we walk you through these chapters and kind of the story. So yeah, I think this is really a good breakdown for us today

Yeah. So I'm gonna let you start. So you just introduced us to the beginning. Chapters one and two is our first section. The theme

Yeah.

What does Moses want us to know in this first section?

Yeah. And you know, and we were talking about this even before we, we started this program that if you open up your Bible, you'll notice your Bible has a lot of headings in there. You'll see some of the subject or content shifts throughout the book. But we're gonna do some commentary for you today to help inspire you to really get the most out of these things.

And I think since God birthed the nation called Israel, which remember Jacob's name was changed to Israel when he wrestled with the Lord. Here you see the wrestlings with the Lord continue for the people. They're actually in bondage and the nation is growing, but the bondage has put the people of God in a place of affliction.

And Exodus one and two is really the people of God crying out and God listening. Hearing their prayers and seeing their affliction, and he begins to intervene. You know, It's interesting that just like in the birth of Jesus, how Herod wanted to kill all the firstborn two and under, isn't it interesting that Exodus parallels that and we see how there is a commitment of Pharaoh to try to slow down the growth of Israel, and he's trying to kill God's people. The babies that are being born and we see that Moses is one of those babies that was almost killed, but he was protected just like Jesus was protected, and Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt.

Well, Now they're in Egypt here, and we see that God has a protection for them while they're slaves. Pharaoh's ordering the killings, but baby Moses is saved, and you know what's interesting too, Bodie? We see another picture of an ark.

Remember in Genesis, there was the ark that Noah's family was in and they were being saved, and then we see Moses is placed in a little mini ark, an ark of bulrush that's placed in the Nile River. And this is where the story of Exodus really finds its launchpad and it's almost literally, like a lily pad flowing through the river, and God is protecting Moses, his very name Moses. "Moises" means drawn out.

And so his name is indicative of what he's gonna do for the whole nation because God is gonna draw out the people of Israel, just like he drew out Moses when he was a baby on the ark.

Yep. And that transitions us from chapters one and two, the section about the nation to the person,

Moses, because Moses actually grows up as an Egyptian culturally, but he is a Hebrew by descent, and God is going to choose him. Moses is not a superhero. Moses has stuttering issues. He is not confident about himself, but Moses gets called and he gets commissioned, doesn't he, Joey?

And what's so cool about this next section, in chapters three through six, as we, because chapters one and two are a setup, aren't they? We're saying that, Hey, God's being faithful, remember? There's a nation growing, but they don't have their land yet.

But they're going to, and Exodus is that story. Moses is that leader, but God, he is still the head of the story. So he sees their pain, right? He calls Moses and Moses says, I got this. He's super confident. He knows what to do. He stands up. He, no, not at all. Moses doesn't want the job, does he?

But he calls him to go to Pharaoh and to say, let my people go. And of course not just pharaoh, but Israel, his own people reject him as well. But again, this is God's project from the beginning, isn't it, Joey? So what do we need to know about this second section? I cut you off on the first one. Either, either one or two, Israel or Moses.

Before we actually get to the Exodus event, what do we need to make sure we understand about Moses and his role in these chapters three through six?

Yeah. You know, The reality of Moses. being raised up in Egypt, like you just said is a good reminder to us that we've all had our background, we've all grown up in a broken world and a world that prioritizes the wrong thing, so often Egypt was the epicenter of great architectural design. Those pyramids were amazing.

Their complexity and so much of their innovation is still being developed today. And we say, how did they do it all the way back in Egypt? What I think is important, Bodi is understanding that God uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.

God often will take a person like Moses with a stuttering problem, a speech that wasn't eloquent, and yet make him a messenger to accomplish his great will, and I, and I love how you know, oftentimes the way that God reveals himself, Bodie, has a very specific intentionality when we look at Exodus chapters three through six, and we have this incredible intervention of God in Moses' life.

See Moses grew up in Egypt, but then realized he was a Hebrew he was of Israel, and as a result, he was bothered when the Hebrews were fighting against each other. Of course, he had killed an Egyptian and he found out that the word had spread about this, and so he fled into the wilderness and it was in that desert place where not only does he get married to a wife named Zeporah, and he had his, has a son named Gersham there,

but he has this encounter with God and Bodie, every one of us has to have a true encounter with God, but Moses had an amazing one. He saw a bush that was burning with fire and it was not being consumed. And I think that's really important because God's gonna be pouring out judgment over Egypt. But Israel will not be consumed.

They will be rescued when they should have been consumed. And you see that, that's the revelation that God gives to Moses and when Moses turns and sees this bush that's not being burned, he realizes that this is now God. That's not only answering the nation of Israel's cries, but that God is saying, I wanna use you in the process and wouldn't it be good if all of us realize that God has a calling on all of our lives and he wants to use us in the process of deliverance for so many other people in our generation.

So I think that's a really key piece that God can look past our insufficiencies. He can show us that he's an all sufficient God and that he is sovereign, and that he can use our lives to accomplish his great purposes. Even as it comes to going back to what we came from, Moses was being called to go back into Egypt, but this time as a new man with a new calling and with a revelation of God in his heart.

Yep, exactly. I love it. And so Moses now is the one that God has chosen purposefully because he is not somebody who is self-reliant. He doesn't want the job, but God calls him to it. And how often have we felt that we have the, maybe the potential for something but fear or some other reason prohibits us from doing it.

And I love that Moses is a perfect example of how God is sovereign. But like you said, Joey, he uses us and he wants to involve us and that really sets up Moses' role in the Exodus story. So unless you have anything else you want to throw in, I would love to move into this, the next block, chapter six through 15.

I just wanna say one more thing One more thing is that Moses didn't feel like he can do it on his own, and I think that we actually see here remember how it was not good for man to be alone. You see another picture of a helper here Eve came along to help Adam in the work that God called him to do.

Noah had his wives and his sons, and now we see that Moses also has Aaron. He's kind of the, the lost figure in the story of Exodus. But he's with Moses the whole time as the one who's gonna be the first high priest. and as the one who is the helper, and I I can't help but just say this early on, that as much as Moses might be a type of Jesus, Aaron could be a type of the Holy Spirit who comes alongside to help and to give the words as a mouthpiece to Moses representing his leadership, and so I think that's just important to throw in

It

that he has a helper with him.

Yeah, it is important. And that sets us up. So now we have the exodus.

So in a couple minutes, how can we summarize the Exodus itself? We have the, the idea of plagues, Passover, rescue and celebration. So God assaults the Egyptian gods with the specific plagues to show his. Divine sovereignty over each one of those gods.

If you read Exodus and you're like, what in the world is going on with the toads and the Nats and all this stuff, those were an overthrow of individual Egyptian gods to show the sovereignty of Yahweh. And so those nine plagues are intended to be direct assaults. And then there's the 10th plague, which is part of the massive event Joey mentioned, which is the Passover.

I wanna have him talk about that in a second. But then God leads this huge nation out of the land of Egypt supernaturally by dividing the Red Sea and then drowning the world's strongest army behind them, which is followed by a song of rejoicing and triumph. So that is a quick summary of Exodus, but why does it matter so much, Joey, that we know about this moment when we read our scriptures?

I'm so glad that you mentioned how the 10 plagues were actually confronting the different gods of Egypt. They basically were the epitome of worshiping and serving the creature, rather than the creator. And what you see here is that God's showing his superior power, just like the New Testament says, he who is in us is greater than he is in this world.

We see that in the story of Exodus, and what I believe is so important is that each of those plagues that confront those different gods, whether it was the Nile River whether it was the sun and everything went dark, whether it was the frogs, as you mentioned, the lice the livestock being plagued, all of it, you realize that the real key plague was the last one, and the last plague was the killing of the firstborn.

Now, not only is God letting there be a reaping of what is sown, because Pharaoh had already killed many of the Hebrew children, but it also was, in a sense that Egypt, your power is coming to an end because they believed in their offspring carrying on the line of the pharaohs.

They believed in their empire, ruling everything in the world, and God says, no. What God is going to do is raise up this covenant people known as Israel, and one of the beautiful things is, that when the last plague is the killing of the firstborn, do you remember, Bodie that while judgment is taking place, there's still mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment and what God does is he tells the Israelites to put the blood of the lamb and it's interesting that a lamb was what had to be slain. It's interesting, that the blood was placed over the doorposts of the house and that when the time came for the angel who brought death to Egypt, visited all the homes, wherever the blood was applied, God would pass over that home and that home would be delivered or saved from the judgment.

And so what do we see there? The gospel. We see that Jesus is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and the blood is what is so precious. The blood that was applied to the doorposts of the house. Just like today, we need to be washed in the blood of the lamb, Jesus.

And we see that Pharaoh, who constantly kept hardening his heart. I think it's important to also mention that every judgment that God did caused Pharaoh's heart to harden more and more. Now it's even interesting. You'll notice that six times in scripture you'll see like feral hardening his heart, and on the seventh time it will mention how God hardens his heart.

He knew from the very beginning that God would always harden his heart and he revealed it, but you even see. God is showing that this rebellious Pharaoh who thinks he's much more than really what he is, he's almost a picture of Satan wanting to exalt himself. We see that his world system is crashing down because God hardens the heart of the Pharaoh and he rescues the Israelites and then they get to cross that Red Sea, even taking some of the gold of the kingdom with them, and we see the beginning of what's called the Exodus, and there's a song sung, a Rejoicing and Triumph, the Song of Miriam, the redemption song. And you really see the whole gospel kind of foreshadowed in this picture.

God's people leaving the world, out of bondage, out of the grip of Satan and into the direction to the promises that God intended for them as they head toward the promised land, as prophesied and spoken in his covenant with Abraham. So that's powerful, that this is a key part of the whole Exodus story.

What, I love that. That's so good, and I'm thinking about this because the gospel is not just the removal of a punishment. It is the invitation into new life in the same way that the Passover was a was an, separation from a judgment but that wasn't the end there, they still had to be delivered out of Egypt into the land that God promised them.

In the same way that Christ, he covers the judgment, the wrath of God, but he also leads us into newness of life. This is why the Exodus event becomes the pinnacle event that defines this people throughout the Old Testament into the New Testament.

Right Joey? The Exodus is gonna be so important, especially because of what happens next,

because now we're gonna go into the giving of the law. So now that they, they've miraculously leave and now we the next block. So we went from Israel in chapters one and two, focus on Moses, then the Exodus, and now we wanna look at the law.

We can't talk about Exodus without the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. But there's a lot of other things that go with this section, specifically the people's attitude. This should be the most thankful worshipful people ever. And of course, that's what they do right, Joey? They're faithful to the Lord. They never waiver. They never turn away. Uh, Not so much, not so much what happens after they leave, after they cross the Red Sea, and, why is it so important for us to know?

Yes. Well, Unfortunately they had left. But Egypt did not leave them. What happened was their idolatrous ways,

right there.

their idolatrous ways continued to be carried out in their lives. They were used to seeing the gods of Egypt. And while Moses is up on the mountain, Mount Sinai, receiving the law of God, and there's an incredible glory of God taking place up on that mountain with fire and smoke and everything we see the people of God began to resort back to their old ways and they actually put their gold together and they've made a golden calf.

And this was a real just eye-opening sense of how evil the heart of man can really be. As you rightly said, Bodie, they should be thankful, they should be worshiping God, but instead they're actually creating their own God. They're actually worshiping a calf. That was a part of one of the plagues that was once worshipped in Egypt.

And the commandments that are being given to Moses is think about this is up high and the people are down low. And it really shows you that mankind is never gonna be able to reach God on their own efforts and their own strength.

The Bible says we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And literally they were falling short of it. And so the commandments were perfect and pure and holy, but they were to actually expose that mankind was imperfect, unclean and unholy. And so the law was actually gonna be a mirror for them.

Eventually to see how far they strayed from God and how much they're gonna eventually need a savior down the road, who's gonna fulfill that law, and, that will be Jesus. But let me say one more thing about this. The 10 Commandments were written on stone and actually that represented their hearts.

Their hearts were hearts of stone. And the law of God is written on the hearts of men in their conscience. And it was written on these stone tablets. And the first tablet relates to man's vertical relationship with God and talks about the commandments that we need to fulfill if we were to have a right relationship with God.

But then the second set of commandments. Are about the horizontal relationship with man and how we're to treat one another. And that's why Jesus would sum up the 10 Commandments with two commandments, loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and then loving your neighbor as yourself. And so I think it's really important that we see how all of this exposes the difference between a holy God and unholy man.

Does that make sense?

Oh, I love that. And people don't often know that there's two subgroups within those 10, as you perfectly pointed out, because the way we love God is the very source of the way we treat other people for good or for ill. But I also think it's cool that even though we know that the people are going to rebel, they're gonna turn away.

Paul makes the important point in the book of Romans to say that God still selected this people and not any other people group to be the vehicle through whom ultimately Jesus would come, but that God would unite His presence to. So it's incredible to see this dichotomy between a perfect God and unholy people and a covenant union and how that goes well for a while, goes poor for a while, and that's what the Mosaic Covenant does.

It's a contract that God gives to them. When they are faithful, they receive blessing, but when they are unfaithful, they receive cursing. But this is the covenant parameters and this shows God's faithful covenant loyalty, and that's why we wanna make sure we understand the Exodus. But the law is still, God is still for them, but he is going to operate with them in a unique way that ultimately Jesus is gonna fulfill and gonna

That's right.

about the covenants before. So, I wanna talk about the presence of God in the tabernacle, Joey, but you're holding up this sign and I don't know what it means.

Yeah, I got this.

Uh, I actually just wanted to put this as you just said, that I have this in my office actually, and it's the 10 Commandments on either side with the cross of Jesus Christ right in the middle. And what's really cool about that is you realize that. All the handwritten requirements that were against us in the law was fulfilled in Jesus Christ who died for us.

And he did it as the Passover lamb who shed his blood for us. And so what you really see when you put the cross between the tablets is you just really see how much Jesus fulfills the entire Exodus story.

It's such an incredible reality how God keeps his covenant promise, which we often mention on most of these episodes, how

Yes.

is when we're faith.

He remains faithful because he cannot deny himself. So, that's

Yep.

And I think that brings us into what the next section here, right?

Yeah, exactly. So the focus of chapters 15 through 24 is the law as well as its relationship to the idolatrous wayward hearts of the people. God is still faithful, but he has to bring some judgment in that section.

But then he we focus on worship, Joey, don't we? And this is the introduction of chapters 24 through 31. The theme here is the theme of tabernacle. So in 15 through 24 is the theme of the law, giving of the law, the covenant stipulations. But all of that is to really unite not just God as an idea, but God's very presence. So Joey, we now have a really important new concept that's, going to follow with us down the study of the books of the Bible called the Tabernacle.

So in chapters 24 through 31, we talk about the tabernacle and the focus is worship, specifically the direct presence of God. But this is also one of those sections of Exodus that throws people off. So what do we need to know about this section, about the tabernacle in chapters 24 through 31?

Yeah. Well, These chapters can be a little hard for some people to get through because they're dealing with so much of the specific regulations and, things that needed to be fulfilled as people who are gonna be governed by God's law now. But remember worship first showed up in Genesis when Abraham.

Went to the mountain to sacrifice Isaac, and you realize that God would provide a sacrifice himself, and you realize that now we're looking at worship as it relates to the house of God, and so you have this covenant being confirmed with this explanation, as you said, Bodie, of the Tabernacle. And I think it's really important to say this, we use the word pattern because what a lot of people don't realize is that the tabernacle was patterned after that which already existed in heaven.

We can read about that in Hebrews chapters nine and 10, how the tabernacle was actually patterned on earth of something that already preexisted in heaven, and it's really where God dwells with man. You know that every furniture piece in the Tabernacle would be something later on that Jesus would give an I am statement about each one like the candlestick is how. He's the light of the world or the table of show bread, how Jesus is the bread of life, and on And on it goes through the whole tabernacle.

What's beautiful Bodie, is that God is showing us that the way this set it up has to be by divine design. And so God is giving the instructions to Moses for his house, the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God.

And then we have to really understand that God is focusing on worship sacrifice and the covenant relationship between God and man inside this house. That's why those chapters are so important, and they will be picked up on later on in the Bible as they become more understood in Jesus.

Does

What's fun about this? Yeah, that's good. It's, so cool because we now are gonna start to see a theme of how God's presence goes with his people, because remember that tabernacle here, the instructions here, the reason why they're so specific, like you said, we're gonna pick this up in Leviticus.

This is why I think Leviticus is so hard for people they don't understand its role in the larger story. But I liked how you framed that it's a picture of the heavenly reality. And so we'll get to that in the next episode. But here the Tabernacle has these precise instructions. But later as we see what's gonna happen, the tabernacle is going to become a permanent structure down the line, it's gonna become the temple.

So right now we see that the pattern, the reason why it's here, and it's actually gonna be repeated in chapters 35 through 39, because it's so important to God that his people pattern this accurately. And one of the things that we see in Scripture is when God is misrepresented, there are consequences. We see this all through the Old Testament, so what we might see as too many confusing or weird details, what we wanna see it through as a lens of, why would God want, why do he care, why would he care so much about that?

We wanna see it as an invitation into learning more about God and what's important to him when it comes to worship rather than this confusing ball of details that we don't understand. That's why we want you to see it's role in the book, but really it's role in the Bible. But things are gonna go bad in chapters 32 through 34.

There's gonna be some problems. But anything else, Joey that we wanna make sure we know about in this section on the tabernacle?

Perhaps just one more thing and it'll be picked up on when we hit Leviticus, which is that there, the Anointing Oil was applied to every single part of the Tabernacle and the Anointing. Oil is a type and picture of the Holy Spirit, everything. That is going to be a part of God's house has to be sealed or anointed with the Holy Spirit.

And that's what happens in the new Covenant. When we become the temple and the House of God. We have to have the Holy Spirit coming into our life and sealing us. And so I think that's important to you. Think why is this important about this compound ointment known as the anointing oil? You'll also notice that the priests were called to minister to the Lord first.

And, so the reason why it's worshipful when we talk about the house of God is that everything is directed Godward. The house of God was to get God's people looking to God and putting their focus on what pleases him, what glorifies him. And that's why that's so incredible. So that when the transition happens, as we go to now, chapters 32 and 34, we see just the opposite

rather than the focal point being on God when Moses is receiving this pattern up on the mountain, as I was mentioning earlier, this is where the golden calf incident comes in.

It starts with idolatry. And now God's judgment is coming. And, you know what's interesting, Bodie, is that the law of God at its origin, came about and brought death to the people of God because their sinful hearts were so exposed. And did you know that 3000 souls were killed at the giving of the law?

But in contrast, when we go to the New Covenant in the Book of Acts, when the House of God is being filled with the glory of God, we discovered that 3000 souls were added to the kingdom when the preaching of the gospel went forth. So the law kills, whereas grace. saves and you really see the difference in this contrast in these chapters, I think that's important to mention right up front.

I also heard, that what God spread the languages out in the Tower of Babel, notice how nobody could understand one another. At, Pentecost, now people of different languages can all understand one another but anyways, that should have been in last episode, but here we are. So in 32 through 34, so Moses goes up, and there's this idolatry, there's this golden calf. There's a basically a forgetting of God and his covenant.

Because again, the covenant thread is going through all of this and God punishes them. Moses intercedes and then Moses comes probably closer to God as a human person than any other person, maybe before the new covenant time with the disciples in the Mount of Transfiguration. But what's so cool is that the covenant is also renewed. Yes, there is judgment, but there is not forsakenness.

And I think that when we sin, we feel like, I'm gone. I'm off. I'm, God doesn't love me anymore. We feel like our sin is a disqualification rather than an opportunity to humble our hearts and get reconnected to the new covenant that God has made possible in Christ. And that's what's so cool here is we see the judgment, but we also see the mercy.

But we really see man's rebellious heart here too. So we see 32 through 34 are really important, because people will look at some of these individual events they maybe will take it out of context, Moses seeing in God, all of these things. But what do you think Moses really wants us to get by including these important chapters on the rebellion of man right here between the Tabernacle instructions and then the review of the Tabernacle instructions there in the next verses.

​what is so important here is that while the people of God at large, were in a place of idolatry, Moses is separated from the people and while he's separated from the people, remember. Chapter 33 is the chapter where the Lord meets with Moses and, Moses actually says to God, the, the expression is face to face, and it's such an intimate contact with God, even though Moses can't really fully see God, in fact he, actually cries out and says, God, unless you go before me, I don't even want to go.

This is so important that we always let the presence of God drive our lives that we're pursuing him. And Moses says, do not bring us up from here if your presence doesn't go. And you know what's interesting, Bodie, is that the Lord says to him that he had found grace in his sight, and that there was a sense in which the Lord says to Moses, I will do this thing that you have spoken, for you have found grace in my sight and I know you by name. love how personal God is with Moses here.

And then Moses says, show me your glory. And God says, I will make all my goodness. Pass before you and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. So this is that early picture of we're trying to get to the glory of God, but in this time of the law, we can't get there fully. Moses was so close and yet, still so far, and so he, only could see him from that place in the cleft of the rock, while the glory passed by Moses was not able to see in fullness.

And I think that's such an important phrase that we realized that it's only gonna be in Jesus that we can fully come to God and, approach that glory. And that's why we really need to have a clear understanding of the authority of God's word in our life and how much the word points us to Jesus, cuz the, he became the word that was made flesh and dwelt among us so that we could behold.

The glory

Yep.

of the father. Remember that?

how

Yep.

to see the glory of God, but it took Jesus to help us to see the, glory of God when the word would actually become flesh. That's what's important at this phase of the story.

And I love how Hebrews describes Jesus as the radiance of the glory of God, the very thing that Moses asked for we get to see in Christ. So man, so much happens in those two very, short chapters, but again, they're bookended by another section

that follows up on these tabernacle instructions. This is basically a review, but it's really, why would it be in there twice?

I think somebody might read this and say didn't we cover this? Like, why do I have to read this again? I think it's the significance of God's presence in and with his people. So he doesn't want them to miss how particular, how important the Tabernacle, and the temple. And ultimately the theme of presence his people with God is for the covenant, for God's working with man.

It's not just that he is for him and he's distant, like deism would say. He. wants to know us personally, and I think that is one of the reasons why that this section is included before it wraps up in chapter 40, but any thoughts, Joey, that you have on either the presence of God or the Tabernacle before we wrap up and we end up with the final section on chapter 40? I

think.

it's worth saying that God is so invested and so interested in his house. The Bible will always tell us that it's, in the revelation of God's dwelling with man, where the whole purpose of God is, unfolding. Remember when Jesus says to the disciples, who do you say that I am? And after they declare who Jesus is, he then says, and I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

Don't you notice the same parallel here? God is revealing his name, he's revealing who he is and he's focusing on the building of the house.

Yep.

it's the tabernacle. Later on it's

Right. I love it.

think that's why the emphasis is here, is because God cares about his house. Judgment begins in the house of the Lord, God is building his house, and it's the house of God where he makes his dwelling forever. And that's why Exodus lands us in this place toward the end of the book.

Yeah, exactly. And Jesus, when he is so angry that they're selling and they're ripping people off in the gospels, this is a house of prayer. And so remember the temple was patterned all the way back to what we read right here in the Book of Exodus. But ultimately we see God's presence with his people.

We've, seen that the people are not perfect. They make huge mistakes and they suffer for it. But God is with them. And now, Joey, In chapter 40,

we see God's presence filling the tabernacle, and we have these two interesting motifs, the cloud by day and the fire by night.

Why do we read those? I think people read these, like these unique moments such as the burning bush or these supernatural connections. They read them independently and they, it's like well, the Bible's weird. It's all this supernatural stuff. It can't be true. They miss what, the meaning is. The meaning is it doesn't matter that it's a cloud or a fire. It matters that God is with them and he's leading them and he's fulfilling his covenant cuz they are going to enter the land.

There's gonna be some problems. There's you know, there's obviously some problems here, but. He's not forsaken them, and I just read these Old Testament books with such a renewed hope that you don't have to be perfect in your Christian life. You have to be united to the one who is perfect. Jesus our

Amen. Well said

Any thoughts on Exodus? Cause I think we've covered quite a

bit today.

In fact, I'm gonna just go back to our wrap up slide.

This is a really tough book to summarize in one episode, but what do we really wanna make sure that we don't miss before we wrap up?

Perhaps as we were already so detailed in the breakdown of the book maybe if you take a broader look of the whole thing and see it as, as how God is sanctifying his people, so to speak how God is separating his people for holiness. They have to leave Egypt just like God's people today have to leave the world.

And we have to be released from the grip of Pharaoh. Just like today, we have to be released from the grip of Satan who wants to exalt himself against God. And in the same way that we have to answer the call of God, just like Moses did, we need the helper like Moses had, Aaron. We need the helper of the Holy Spirit.

And so I can't help but see in the big picture of Exodus. There is a beautiful illustration of the Christian life. You already said it, Bodie, none of us are perfect. Moses wasn't perfect. He was slow of tongue, slow of speech, and he didn't even get to make it into the promised land, but he does serve for us as a great picture of seeing the need to get out of the world.

And so what we have to see in this book of Exodus is that it's a wonderful reminder to us in the spiritual life of a Christian that we must release from captivity, from bondage, from the grip of Satan or Pharaoh, and we must enter we have to go through our Red Sea. We didn't talk about the Red Sea crossing, and in our baptism as we relate to Christ, we come out of this world, our old man is dead. We become a new creation, and now we wanna walk into the newness of life that God has for us.

And so I think that's, to me, that's what I'm probably most loving when I read the book of Exodus, is to see how it points us to the Christian life in an illustration. The details are always in the Old Testament and the declarations are in the new, and we really get to see how it all gets fulfilled in Christ. That, that's what I would just wanna summarize it all with at the end.

It's so good. And like we normally have this final question, what do we personally love? But man I, I think we've talked about it this whole time. We love that it displays God and it offers grace and forgiveness. And so I hope that though this is a tough book. We really feel like you can get it.

Don't let the difficulty of the book or maybe some of the challenges of some of the parts deter you from why it's there in the first place to unite you to God, to link you with God. And that's what, that's what we hope we've been able to help a little bit with in this episode. Do you have any final thoughts, Joey? Cuz then we can kind of let people know where we are going next.

Yeah, no, listen, we're gonna hit the book of Leviticus next and you're gonna see that the Bible is always building on what's already been previously revealed. You know, We already saw how the blood played a important part in the Garden of Eden when God covered Adam and Eve, and now we see blood playing an important part in Exodus where it covered the doorposts of the house so that God could pass over in judgment.

You're gonna hit Leviticus and we're gonna dive even deeper into how the blood speaks and how the sacrifices become so important. And so if you really just keep track on the narrative of the Bible, you realize that every piece of the Bible is explaining something that really helps you to know who God is and thus who we are as we follow in his plan and his purpose for our lives. So with that said, that's all I've got for today. Amen.

I love it. Yep.

Hey, just a quick reminder, if you would like your own PDF copy of the timeline we've been using, you can go to YouCanLearnthBible.com/timeline is where you can get that.

But in episode nine is,

That's good.

explain it. I'm excited about this one Joey, cause I know that Leviticus is tough for some people, but if we can help you see it in the light of the whole, it will hopefully come alive to you in ways that will really excite you about the patterns, the beauty, and the God who is the sovereign of all things.

So we just wish you grace and peace. Thank you for joining us today for this journey through Exodus, and we will see you in episode nine. Thanks a lot, grace and peace.

Lord bless you.

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