For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Romans 15:4
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________


_____________________________________________________________________________________________________


EXODUS - INTRODUCTION

 A Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough

Copyright 2005 James Melough

The word Exodus means exit, departure, and here describes the departure of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage to begin their journey to the land of Canaan, that release being a type of the deliverance experienced by every sinner the instant he trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.

 

Egypt represents the world of business and pleasure, living in defiant independence of God, the time Israel spent there being symbolic of that part of the believer’s life prior to conversion. Israel’s forty years in the wilderness represents the believer’s journey through life from the moment of conversion, till death releases his soul into eternal bliss in heaven, leaving his body to return to the dust from which it came originally with the creation of Adam the human father of us all, there to await the resurrection of life, at which time it will be changed into a redeemed spiritual body, indwelt again by the redeemed soul and spirit, to dwell for ever in heaven with Christ.

 

While death has been the experience of all the generations of believers since that Passover night until the present, there is one generation that will be the exception.  It is the one mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep (die), but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”  Everything in the state of the world today points to the fact that we could well be that generation that will be raptured home to heaven without dying. 

 

As noted already, Israel’s forty years in the wilderness foreshadows typologically our experience here on earth from the moment of conversion until the Lord calls us home.  During those years they neither planted nor harvested any crops, for God fed them with manna, and supplied them with water from the smitten rock, the manna and water being types of Christ our spiritual food and drink as set before us in the written Word.

 

The exodus began with the slaying of the Passover lamb, the application of its blood to the door posts and lintels of the houses in which the Hebrews dwelt, and their feasting upon it through the night as they awaited the coming of morning when they would begin their journey to Canaan.  That lamb was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Passover Lamb, as it is written in 1 Corinthians 5:7, “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” 

 

The blood on the doors was the evidence of their faith to believe God’s word.  A Christ like life and a faithful witness for Him are the evidence by which we are privileged to show the world that we also believe His Word.

 

With the exception of Joshua and Caleb, that generation that left Egypt gradually died out during the forty-year pilgrimage, and a new generation, their children, entered Canaan; and in this we are being taught typologically, that with the exception of those portrayed by that preserved generation, we too will die physically, it being the “new man,” the spiritual, that will enter heaven, as it is written, “... flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,” 1 Corinthians 15:50.

 

Their coming to the end of the wilderness journey, and their crossing into Canaan on dry ground through a miraculously divided Jordan (the unvarying biblical symbol of death), points to what will be the experience of the last generation of believers of this present Church age: they will be raptured to heaven without dying.

 

That crossing of Jordan however, is symbolic of another spiritual truth which is stated explicitly in Romans 7:4, “... ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ....”  Faith in Christ delivers us from the condemnation of the law, for by His vicarious death He has met all its claims against us.  We are now typified by those who crossed Jordan to take possession of their God-given inheritance in Canaan.  Having become dead to the things of the world through faith in Christ, we are now responsible and privileged to enter into the enjoyment of all our spiritual blessings as typified by Israel’s taking possession of Canaan, an activity that involved warfare and work, and relative to which we are reminded that, “... we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high place,” Ephesians 6:12.

 

The book of Exodus is the typological prewritten record of our journey through the wilderness of this world as we journey home to heaven, the record of Israel’s experiences during those forty years having been preserved to teach us the blessedness of obedience, and the folly of rebellion.

[Exodus 1]

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________


     Scripture portions taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version
© 2000-2005 James Melough
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________