Exodus — the book of God’s redemption. The title comes from the Septuagint and means simply “the departure” or “the going out.”

The story takes place in two locations: Egypt and Sinai. The children of Israel were taken from Egypt by the power of God — manifested against the gods of Egypt and through the blood of the Lamb — in order to worship God at Sinai.

You and I have been taken out of death, ignorance, sin, and this world through God’s power manifested in the shed blood of Jesus and His resurrection. This book teaches us the thrilling fact that we are saved in order to learn how to worship.

Israel in Egypt (1:1-19:2)

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The oppression in Egypt (1:1-2:25)

The date of the Exodus can be calculated from the reference in 1:11 to the city of Rameses — founded by Sethos I and completed by his son Rameses II, placing the Pharaoh of these chapters around 1304 BC. Read Hebrews 11:23 for insight into the faith of Moses’ parents.

This oppression was the fulfillment of Genesis 15:13. Note 2:24 — the basis of the deliverance was the covenant God had made with Abraham — the binding promise He had given generations earlier. Compare Psalm 136:10, where the basis is given as lovingkindness — a word meaning action taken out of a prior covenant commitment.

And inside that decree, one act of nerve. Male children were being thrown into the Nile — a river Egypt held sacred. Moses’ mother refused, and what she did was not blind hope: she waterproofed a basket, put the child in it, and floated him on the very river that was supposed to take him. It is at least possible she was counting on Pharaoh’s daughter to read a child delivered by the sacred Nile as a gift rather than a Hebrew to be drowned. Hebrews 11:23 calls it faith: “Faith led Moses’ parents to hide him for three months after he was born… they were not afraid to disobey the king’s order.”

The call of Moses (3:1-4:17)

Read Hebrews 11:24-27 alongside these verses for insight into why Moses left Pharaoh’s court.

The burning bush: the fact that the bush was not consumed tells us the flame was self-sustaining — it was the very Presence and Glory of God. Compare Exodus 13:21-22 and Acts 2:3.

Note the revelation of God’s name in 3:13-15. He describes Himself as “I AM.” This indicates three things:

• The self-existent One who depends on nothing — the source of life in Himself
• The eternal who is always all that He was and is now what He always will be — the “I AM”
• The self-sufficient — whatever the need of His people, He would say “I AM that supply”

The judgments (5:1-11:10)

The first nine plagues cover a period from May through the following April, corresponding to the annual flooding of the Nile. They fall into three groups of three, followed by the final death of the firstborn:

• Plagues 1-3 — affected Goshen and Egypt alike. Israel saw their God at work.
• Plagues 4-6 — took place only in Egypt, declaring the Lord as Lord over Egypt.
• Plagues 7-9 — declared Him Lord of all the earth.

Take special note of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. The most terrible judgment God can inflict is to let a man have what he wants (Romans 1:24, 26, 28). The Hebrew words for “hardening” reveal a progression:

• Firm, stiff, tough — Exodus 7:13, 22; 8:19; 9:35
• Heavy, dull, unresponsive — Exodus 7:14; 8:15, 32; 9:7, 34
• Made hard — Exodus 13:15; the final irreversible condition

Pharaoh hardened his own heart through the first five plagues. After the sixth, God hardened it. After the seventh, Pharaoh hardened it again. Only after the eighth did God continue the hardening. He had seven opportunities to repent. Read II Thessalonians 2:8-11 for further perspective.

The plagues

“…and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am Yahweh.”

Exodus 12:12 · LSB

#	Plague	What it struck at	Significance
1	Nile turned to blood	Hapi, god of the river — and Osiris, whose lifeblood the Nile was said to be	Egypt’s worshiped source of life now ran with death
2	Frogs	Heqet, the frog-headed goddess of birth	Nothing in the water lies outside Jehovah’s control
3	Gnats out of the dust	Geb, god of the earth	The very ground of Egypt turned against it — nothing fashioned from the dust is beyond His reach
4	Swarms	The air of Egypt itself	The swarms filled Egypt and never touched Goshen — the first plague to divide Israel from Egypt
5	Death of the livestock	Apis the bull, and Hathor the cow	Egypt’s herds died while Israel’s did not — nothing that walks the earth is beyond Him
6	Boils	Egypt’s healers — Sekhmet, Imhotep, Thoth	No sickness lies outside His control
7	Hail	Nut, goddess of the sky, and Shu, god of the air	Jehovah rules the sky — and even the pagans began to take notice (v.20); “The earth is the Lord’s” (v.29)
8	Locusts	Neper, god of the grain — and the border Egypt’s gods could not reach past	Blown in on an east wind and carried out on a west — His reach does not stop at Egypt’s border
9	Darkness	Ra, god of the sun	Jehovah commands light and dark alike — and Ra’s name was carried by Egypt’s own kings
10	Death of the firstborn	Pharaoh’s own divinity, and the son who would carry it	Life itself is God’s to give — the judgment named from the very first. Ten = completion.

The final judgment and deliverance (12:1-15:21)

Read Hebrews 11:28-29 for the faith dimension of these events.

The blood on the doorposts was a sign both to the people and to God (12:13). It declared that God had accepted the substitute lamb He had provided, and it showed that the people had claimed their share in the covenant. The Passover is a perfect foreshadowing of Jesus.

Read John 1:29; I Peter 1:2, 19; John 19:36; I Corinthians 5:7.

Six hundred thousand men came out of Egypt (Numbers 1:46) — with their families, roughly three million people. Read the Song of Moses in chapter 15 carefully and note its triumph and faith.

The Red Sea to Sinai (15:22-19:2)

See the following pages for the journey from Egypt to Sinai — the geography, the Passover parallels, and the parallels to the journey of faith.