Exploring Exodus Theology: How God’s Deliverance Shapes Identity, Ethics, and Hope

In this episode of the Scripture Study Podcast, Susan Petersen and Cindy Madsen explore "Exodus theology," examining how the Book of Exodus serves as a foundational theological pattern throughout Scripture. Drawing on scholars like N.T. Wright and Nahum Sarna, they discuss how the Exodus shaped Israel's identity, ethics, and worship. They explore typology, showing how Exodus themes prefigure Christ's life, death, and resurrection as the ultimate new Exodus. Susan Petersen also shares a personal story about forgiveness, illustrating how these ancient narratives remain relevant for believers navigating hardship today.


00:00 Introduction to the Exodus
06:07 The Exodus as Israel's Identity
12:10 The Exodus Pattern in Later History
18:50 Understanding Eschatology and Typology
25:55 Traditional vs. Modern Typology
35:43 Common Examples of Typology
38:20 Theological Themes of the Exodus
46:20 Jesus and the New Exodus
50:50 Christ's Life as an Exodus Reenactment
59:29 The Unfinished Drama of the Exodus

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The Scripture Study Podcast is your midweek Bible boost—designed to help you grow in understanding, confidence, and love for God’s word.

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Resources

Instagram (Susan Petersen)
https://www.instagram.com/susan.m.petersen/

Scholars and Authors
N.T. Wright
https://www.ntwrightonline.org/

Nahum Sarna
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sarna-nahum-m

Books
The Past Is Yet to Come by Barbara Isbell
https://www.fontespress.com/product/the-past-is-yet-to-come-exodus-typology-in-revelation/

Join Us

The Scripture Study Podcast is your midweek Bible boost—designed to help you grow in understanding, confidence, and love for God’s word.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to the Scripture Study Podcast. I'm Susan Peterson. And I'm Cindy Mathson. We're so glad you're here with us. The Scripture Study Podcast is designed to be your midweek Bible boost. Let's dig in.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Welcome back to the Scripture Study Podcast. I am your host, Susan Peterson.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

And I'm Cindy Manson.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

And we are so excited you're here. We are going to talk today about the Exodus.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Exodus, yes. And so I want to start off today with another long quote, like I did last time, last podcast. I love it. So this is another one. This time it's by N. T. Wright, who is another one of my favorite New Testament scholars. This is what he says: quote, classic Jewish monotheism came to believe that one, there was one God who created heaven and earth and who remained in close and dynamic relation with his creation, and that, too, this God had called Israel to be his special people for the sake of the larger world. Election, the choice of Israel, was the focal point of the divine purpose to act within the world, to rescue and heal the world, to bring about what some biblical writers speak of as a new creation. This twin belief in monotheism and election was never simply a pair of abstract propositions arrived at by philosophical inquiry or hypothetical speculation. It was discovered through a particular history, characteristically expressed through telling and retelling that history in one shape or another. The history was that of Abraham's family going down into Egypt, becoming enslaved, and being dramatically rescued and given their own land. Those who lived through these events explained who they were and gave shape to their continuing life by telling the story and dramatically reenacting it in various festivals. Whatever happened subsequently, whether oppression, suffering, exile, or seeming annihilation, those who belonged to the family of Abraham looked back to the story of the Exodus to rediscover who their God was and to pray that he would do for them once more those great saving acts that had constituted them as his people in the first place. Part of the story was precisely the discovery of what God's faithfulness and rescuing power would look like in practice. This God would be known as the rescuer, the one who had then accompanied his people through the wilderness, leading them in the pillar of cloud and fire, coming to dwell in their midst and giving them his law, his own self-expression of the way life should be for his people. The story of the Exodus then included within it the story of two ways in which the one true God was present and active within the world and Israel. The Shekinah, the glory of God, tabernacle within the tent in the wilderness, and later within the temple in Jerusalem, and the Torah, the express will of God for Israel, the law of Moses. In addition, a strong strand in the story was the belief that God's own spirit had rested upon and indwelt Moses, enabling him to be the leader of God's people. Some later traditions referred to the strange pillar of cloud and fire in terms of the divine spirit. Thus, the three manifestations of Yahweh's presence and rescuing love, God's presence, God's law, God's spirit, all seen to great advantage in the rescue story, the freedom story, that is the Exodus narrative, mark off the Jews' sense of who their God actually was from the theology of the surrounding nations. At its core, this is the idea that the book of Exodus is not just a historical narrative, but it's a fundamental theological pattern, a pattern of God's redemptive work, which is unfolded in the Exodus event, the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. And this is a foundational paradigm or motif that shapes the entire storyline of scripture. It's not a formal school of theology per se, but it's a recurring theological pattern which reveals God's plan for liberating his people from slavery and forming them as his covenant community. So God then will call that community into a life of justice, worship, and faithfulness, thus leading them into a new life of relationship with him. And this is often described as moving from slavery to wilderness testing and then to transformation, then to the promised land and rest. This you'll notice will become a template that later biblical writers will reuse and they'll reinterpret and they will expand. So many scholars argue that the Exodus is the central identity-shaping event for ancient Israel. It's repeatedly referenced in the laws, psalms, and prophetic writings. For example, in Psalm 106, starting in verse 6, quote, We have sinned like our ancestors. We have done wrong. We have done evil. Our ancestors in Egypt failed to appreciate your miraculous deeds. They failed to remember your many acts of loyal love and they rebelled at the sea by the Red Sea. Yet he delivered them for the sake of his reputation that he might reveal his power. He shouted at the Red Sea and it dried up. He led them through the deep water as if it were a desert. He delivered them from the power of the one who hated them and rescued them from the power of the enemy. The water covered their enemies. Not even one of them survived. They believed his promises. They sang praises to him. They quickly forgot what he had done. They did not wait for his instructions. In the wilderness, they had an insatiable craving for meat. They challenged God in the desert. And then in Leviticus 19, 33 through 34, when a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens. You shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. This is just two examples of a lot of verses that you'll read as we go throughout the Old Testament this year that will reference back to the Exodus. And it'll reference back in a positive way, like in Psalm 8, where he talks about how God delivered this people and they believed his promises, but then they forget what he's done. So they go through the wilderness testing. Like in Leviticus, when he gives the law and he's grounding the law in the fact you were a stranger. And so you need to not wrong the strangers who reside with you.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

You touched on this at the beginning, but in their ancient churches, is they would reenact these stories. That was part of it. Not all of them had the scripture. And so, in the same way that in our temple, we reenact a story, they would reenact the Exodus story. And a lot of things would point to it. Their feasts would point to it. It's still really a huge part of the Jewish church today, is the Exodus story. But that's why, because they would practice it, they would reenact it a lot.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Exactly, because they didn't have it, it was not like us where you've got your Bible sitting here in your house or multiple copies. They didn't have that. Yeah. So it was very much an oral tradition that wasn't written down till later.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Their year would follow it. They would absolutely liturgical year follow it.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Yes. Yes. I think you made a really good point because this acting out of symbolic things, it was grounded in the reality, but then it becomes symbolic. I think that if we can keep that in our mind, we're going to understand the temple better because that's what's going on in the temple. You're acting out something very important, the Garden of Eden story, which is grounded in reality, but then it's telling you something bigger. And that's exactly what you've got here with the Exodus story. And every year for them, as they act out the Passover story, they're remembering this. And they can look back and say, Well, God delivered us then. We can trust that He'll deliver us now.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Yeah. And whatever you're going through, it really shows God as the deliverer. And that was a thing they did a lot was he was a creator God and they'd act out a creation. Then he is a deliverer God. They'd act out the delivery. And so all of these things they're acting out, it's beautiful, I think.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

It's a wonderful thing.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yeah. And then they would apply again, once they found God in the story, then it's really easy to apply it to your life. And we are all sl enslaved to something. All enslaved to sin. Yeah, we are all enslaved. It's part of the curse. Yes. And so then that acting out of the deliverance every year, you're thinking, okay, what do I need to be delivered from? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

And to remember, it's not me who delivers us. No, no. God delivers us.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Will he allow us to be part of the deliverance? Yes. But it will. But he is a deliverer. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah. So that's exactly right. And the Exodus then is grounding Israel's ethics. You know, remember you were slaves in Egypt. And for example, books like Deuteronomy will constantly tie moral commands to the memory of liberation. In Deuteronomy 15, verses 12 through 15. If a fellow Hebrew man or woman is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall set him free. When you set him free, do not let him go empty-handed. Furnish him out of the flock, threshing floor, and vat with which the Lord your God has blessed you. Bear in mind, you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore, I enjoy the enjoined this commandment upon you today. So, Nahum Sarna, I quoted him before, he's a Jewish biblical scholar. He writes this the Exodus was seen primarily as an event of supreme religious significance. Just what you were saying. An experience indelibly stamped on Israel's memory and imagination, ineradicably inscribed upon the conscience and understanding of the people. It was never seen just as a historical event of the past, but became a permanent symbol in the Israelite national consciousness, continually being reenacted. It was ever new, ever imposing itself afresh upon the collective mind and memory, so that the epic of the Exodus nurtured the culture and the religion over the millennia. So the Exodus then is a pattern that's repeated in the later history of Israel. And so watch for that in the Bible. It becomes this theological lens for interpreting new events. For example, the exile in Babylon is portrayed as a kind of reverse exodus. The return from exile is framed as a new exodus, a greater deliverance, involving a way through the wilderness, provision, and return to the land of Zion. Prophets like Isaiah explicitly reuse Exodus imagery, wilderness, water, and divine guidance to promise future restoration. In speaking about the millennium, in Isaiah 11, it says, And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian Sea, and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry shod, and there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. Scholars often highlight how Exodus theology shapes biblical ethics, care for the poor, the widow, and the foreigner. So Deuteronomy 10, 17 through 19. For the Lord your God is supreme and Lord supreme, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who shows no favor and takes no bribe, but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and befriends the stranger, providing him with food and clothing. You too must befriend the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. The ethic of opposition to oppression and unjust power. You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. And that's an Exodus. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in his land. It tells us in Deuteronomy 23. And that one to me is amazing because here the Egyptians had enslaved them. And yet God still tells them, you shall not abhor an Egyptian, because at one point, when you were a stranger in the land, they helped you, they gave you land, they saved you from the famine at the time of Joseph. There's that ethic of an emphasis on communal responsibility. If a fellow Hebrew, man or woman, again, is sold to you, and this is one I read before, he shall serve you six years. And in the seventh year you shall set him free. That's an amazing concept back in the ancient Near East. This command to set them free in the seventh year. They did not always fulfill this well, but the command was God was trying to raise them up. We'll talk more about the idea of the Jubilee year and this time of freeing the slaves, freeing people who were in debt, freeing the land up from cultivation, those types of things when we get more into Leviticus and Exodus Leviticus. But he didn't always do a great job at that, but the idea was there. You are communally responsible for people. We are not going to be a people of oppression. Like there is this ethic of moral responsibility that is all coming out of the Exodus and this idea of Exodus theology.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

It also is part of the New Testament in a way where it's like, yes, this person's wronged you, but you turn the other cheek or you move on. And I think you're seeing actually a lot of Christ's teaching in there. Even though the law of Moses is eye for an eye, it's within the constraints that the Lord has set always.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

It really is true. And as we study this this year, next year, when we move to the New Testament, you're going to really be able to see how Christ is drawing his teachings out of the Old Testament. They are grounded in the Old Testament, which of course makes sense because he's the one who gave them this, right? So across the books of the Old Testament, Exodus theology shows up as God as a deliverer, right? He rescues his people from bondage. Covenant relationship. You will be my people, divine presence. God dwells among his people, right? It's this tabernacle theme. I will tabernacle with you, he says. This idea that because I redeemed you, you have a responsibility to the poor, the widows, the fatherless, and the oppressed. The pattern of salvation, past deliverance, becomes a model for future hope. Now, in the New Testament, scripture is filled with occurrences of what's called historical rehearsal, which are occasions when the people of God recount his mighty works as a means of both remembering God's action on their behalf throughout history and expressing their hope for even greater acts in the future. So the Passover is historical rehearsal. It is a retelling of the Exodus from Egypt. And as part of the Passover meal, a fifth cup of wine, which is called Elijah's cup, is left out for the prophet Elijah, and a door is left open for him because his appearance is thought to herald the coming of the Messiah. The Passover Seder traditionally ends, at least since the Middle Ages, with the phrase, next year in Jerusalem, which can be taken literally as a hope for the return of the Messiah and the rebuilding of the temple, or figuratively, in terms of a general sense of hope for freedom and divine redemption. So there's this remembering of the past, there's a forward hope for the future. Yeah. So give a definition, which is eschatology. And eschatology is the branch of theology and philosophy that's focused on the last things, including death, the afterlife, the end of history, and the ultimate destiny of humanity. It comes from the Greek words eschatos, which means last, and logi, which means study of. So basically, it's the study of religious doctrines regarding the resurrection, the second coming of Jesus, the establishment of a new heaven and a new earth, divine judgment, the apocalypse. You get the idea. Yeah. So it's a study of the end times. Well, Jewish and early Christian eschatology in particular placed profound significance on the Exodus. They maintained that in the future God would again reveal his power, his justice, faithfulness in the final deliverance of his people, just like he did in the Exodus. And this is often known as literary typology. So literary typology in biblical criticism is a method of interpretation that identifies divinely intended patterns where Old Testament people, events, or institutions, the types, prefigure or foreshadow their intensified fulfillment, the antitypes in the New Testament, particularly those concerning Jesus Christ and his redemptive work. I, Howard Marshall, describes typology as the study which traces parallels or correspondences between incidents recorded in the Old Testament and their counterparts in the New Testament, such that the latter can be seen to resemble the former in notable respects and yet go beyond them. So many scholars notice that the New Testament reinterprets the Exodus pattern. Jesus is sometimes portrayed as leading a new exodus. The Gospel of Luke uses themes of deliverance and redemption. The book of Revelation echoes plagues, liberation, and victory over oppressive powers. Even the crucifixion and the resurrection are sometimes framed as a kind of deliverance event.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

I was thinking of the story of the servant who wouldn't forgive in Matthew 18, and it's 21 through 35. I mean, I've brought this up before. He forgives his servant, and then that servant goes and takes the other servant by the throat and says, I can't forgive you. And I think that goes back to that Egypt thing where God's like, no, I delivered you. And now it's your responsibility. I had a time in my life where it was a large sum of money that was stolen from us, like in the seven figures. And I felt very justified in not in being very upset for a very long time. And everyone around me echoed that justification. And I remember I read this story and I thought, okay, let me put that through like this mathematical equation in here. And what I owe the king, if I put this, it's like trillions and trillions of dollars. And so I have to forgive because God has forgiven me for way more than that. And so that story is the Exodus story. So just connecting, what do you say? You have all these like little connections and just yes, and let them, as they come up in your mind, just follow them, follow them. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:47

I know I love that about you, Susan, that you were able to look at scripture and apply it so directly to yourself in a way that I don't know that I could have in that situation that you went through, which was big and huge and really potentially so damaging to your company and way of life and everything. And I am always awed by the fact that you were able to do that to forgive in such a well, we all will.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

And Christ puts his trust in us that we will. We all have and we all will, and we all go through hard things, you know? And the trick is always move closer to God during that time. Yeah. And then he can allow you to do things that are well outside of your wheelhouse, which that was yes, well outside. Don't look around at everyone because they'll justify you never forgiving, and they'll justify you being upset and every which I would do the same thing for my friend.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Because you love them.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Because you love them. Yeah, and you're upset for them. But look to God and what does he tell you to do? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

It's wonderful. So the traditional view of typology then understands salvation history as the working out of God's plan of redemption throughout the history of his people. Salvation history means God's plan to save humanity from sin and death and to help us return to his presence. So when you hear someone talk about salvation history, that's what they mean. If you read scripture as a record of salvation history, you will begin to notice that God's actions of leading and delivering his people reveal certain intentional patterns or types which prefigure, surpass, and ultimately replace the Old Testament type. For example, here's the type: there is an actual historical person, right? Like Moses or David, or an event like the Exodus, or an institution like the Sabbath, or the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. Then there's what's called the anti-type, which is the greater final fulfillment of that type in the New Testament, typically Jesus Christ or the church. There's some sort of a correspondence. So this is going to be a structural or thematic similarity between the type and the anti-type, like Jonah in the fish, Christ in the tomb, which Christ himself actually refers to in the New Testament. Then there's what's called an escalation. The anti-type is always superior to or an intensification of the type. Christ is greater than Solomon. Jesus says, the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, something greater than Solomon is here. And that's in Luke chapter 11. Finally, there's what's called the divine intention. It is believed that God deliberately designed the earlier history to prefigure the later event. Now, this is where there's a split between what is called traditional typology and modern typology.

SPEAKER_00 26:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

In traditional typology, there is the theological assumption that God himself intentionally designed history with symbolic patterns and that almost everything points forward to Christ. Modern typology, not surprisingly, emerges within what's called the historical critical and literary approaches, 19th and 21st century is when this starts to emerge. And this typology then is understood as a literary or interpretive pattern, often constructed by later authors or readers, not necessarily embedded by divine design. Parallels in scripture are usually treated as interpretive moves made by the biblical authors or communities, not divinely orchestrated truths. In her book, The Past is Yet to Come, Barbara Isbell writes, the modern approach to typology, guided in large part by the historical critical's tendency to snub, quote, fanciful ideas such as inspiration, unity, and historicity, refuses to make any claims that must be based on these presuppositions. This is not to suggest that they reject these presuppositions outright. Rather, they approach the study of scripture from a hermeneutic of suspicion, so that their interpretation is in no way dependent upon them. Hence, proponents of modern typology often buy into one or more of the following: a focus on the human author rather than divine inspiration, the devaluation of the canon as a cohesive whole, skepticism regarding the historical accuracy of the Old Testament, and speculation that the New Testament writers advance their own agenda by modifying the details of the first century events and recording them in the rich significance of Old Testament imagery. In certain cases, then, modern typology has become little more than a literary enterprise utilizing patterns to depict entities within the New Testament in terms of the Old Testament. Close quote. Did these authors really mean to put those symbols in there? Well, St. Augustine says, no, the human author could not possibly know all the meaning he put into his book, but the divine author does. God knows how everyone will read it and how they will receive it, and he is the author. So there is a human author and there is a divine author. So actually, there's really nothing modern about modern typology. Augustine was talking about the problems that people had a long time ago. People were arguing the same thing 2,000 years ago, which is how involved is God in the transmission of scripture? Are there patterns that are clearly present and are they human or divine? And part of the problem is it is a very difficult for a modern to believe that a prophet can speak prophetically in a specific way. So it's the reason why you have what's called, you know, you have Isaiah, and then there are many scholars that talk about Deuterot Isaiah, or and then some even tertiary Isaiah. And what that means is the real reason that you've got a Deutero Isaiah is because of the prophecy that Isaiah makes that talks about Cyrus as the one freeing the Jews. And so the thought is well, he couldn't have really made that prophecy, naming Cyrus by name an exact number of years. And so it must have been a later person writing this and using the name of Isaiah. These scholars will then say, you can see there's a difference perhaps in verbiage or there are accuracies about Babylon or Assyria or whatever we're talking about in the Old Testament that they couldn't have possibly known. Now, the advantage that we have as people who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is that in the Book of Mormon, we do have places where it will say very specifically, in 400 years, Christ will come. Or there are very specific promises, which are things that give us the opportunity of wrestling with our modern sensibility, this hyper-rationalism that we have, which says, Oh, was that really God giving these specific dates? And ultimately, you're going to have to land if you believe in the validity or the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, that yes, God can give us specific dates. He can give specific names, he can give specific instances, times, details, because he is the God who knows all things. He is past, present, and future. He knows everything. And so this is a battle that people have been fighting over, obviously, since the time of St. Augustine, probably before. Can how much does God know? How much does God put into Scripture? I'm not saying that there aren't human authors that write scripture. What I hold, I maintain, I believe there is human design, but that it is influenced by God's design. And I think that's what St. Augustine also is saying.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Yeah, I mean, I think it's either all true or it's not. And I believe that it is all true. I believe that you should assign meaning to things in your life. And the meaning should be God loves me. How am I seeing him reveal himself in his life? And if you look opening your eyes. Yes. And if you look, you will find what you look for in every situation. So I had an opportunity yesterday to go to the Sunday morning session of general conference. Well, the opening song was consider the lilies. My friend went out to her daughter's mission farewell a few, like a month ago, and her other daughter sang consider the lilies because that was a song at my friend's mission farewell 30 years ago or whatever. And her grandpa died this week. How wonderful to have your grandfather alive when you're well into your 50s. Beautiful. And I texted her and I said, Are you listening to conference right now? Your grandpa's sending you a message. Well, he died this week. This song has been in the works for six months, but God knew. Like I'm getting chills right now because she said, Yes, I'm sitting here bawling. I was crying and I don't cry a lot. But I thought that could either mean everything to her or it could mean nothing to her. And she chose to let it mean everything to her. And I do the silliest thing. It's not silly, actually. Every time I find a penny, I say, God loves me. And I find pennies everywhere. You guys, pennies are rare. A lot of stores won't take pennies. I find them everywhere. I find them in piles. I find them everywhere. And yes, it's because I look for them. But I also know that they come to me. Both things are true. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

I love that. And I know I think we get to tell our story. We get to choose what story we're going to believe. And that doesn't mean that all stories are equal. And it doesn't mean that there isn't a true story. Yes. But we get to choose which story it is that we're going to believe. And I choose to believe, like you, that God's hand is present in my life. And if I look for it, I'll see it. And that He really can work miracles. We often talk about how our age that we're in is the age of disenchantment and that we need to re-enchant our time, our age. I mean, it really started happening before this, but when you enter into the age of reason, the enlightenment era, you start to discard this idea of that you can find God and symbols of God in all kinds of things. I mean, it's a lot more complex than that. That's just a really simple way. But if we look around, the Lord tells us in scripture, you know, look at nature outside. You can see me. And right now we're in spring. It's the rebirth. It's this time when, you know what? The earth was dead, but look now, here there's flowers. Guess what? You will die. Guess what? You will be reborn. And so, and that's what he's telling us. And again, and I can't remember who it was in conference yesterday. Talked about how every morning when you get up and you see the sun rising, you know, you can remember, like we also will rise. And it's that thing that God tells us. He says, look there specifically in nature. I have given you signs of me. You can read it. It is, it's a book about me. And we have the choice. Are we going to read that as a sign of God's love? That right now I have tulips popping up and that they sat there in that cold earth, but now here they are. Yeah, I mean, that's I get to choose. Is that my story? Yes. For me, yeah, that's my story.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Everything denotes there is a God. Exactly. Yeah. And that he loves you.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Yes. Okay, so here's some common examples of typology. We talked about one of them. Jonah's three days and the fish are a type of Christ's burial and resurrection. The Passover lamb is the sacrifice in Exodus, prefigures Christ as the ultimate sacrifice for sin. Adam and Christ, Paul refers to Adam as a type of the one who is to come. And that's in Romans chapter five. The tabernacle, the temple, the dwelling place of God's presence represents Christ's body and the church. There are verses that talk about Jesus Christ came to earth and tabernacled in the flesh. So typology serves as a bridge showing the unity of the Bible, suggesting that God's salvation history is cohesive and intentional. It demonstrates how the Old Testament is not merely an independent history, but it is a foundational narrative that points toward Jesus Christ. Later in this podcast, I will talk about how Exodus theology in the New Testament presents Jesus as not only fulfilling but surpassing the Exodus. So Exodus theology then it frames salvation as God's gracious, powerful acts to rescue his people from bondage, whether literal slavery, exile, or sin, and form them through testing and covenant and bring them into his presence and his rest. It underscores that redemption is not primarily human effort, but it is divine initiative. It's aimed at worship and holy community. And this motif has profoundly influenced Christian thought. It's the core emphasis being covenantal and redemptive, pointing to Jesus Christ. He is the climax of God's saving purposes. The Exodus is often called the greatest redemptive event in the Old Testament. And it serves as a typological key to the Bible's overarching plot of God rescuing and restoring humanity into relationship with himself. At the beginning of the New Testament, Israel was still in exile, awaiting a new exodus, as had been promised in Isaiah. Well, Jesus brought that exodus to fulfillment through his death and resurrection, the means by which we as fallen humanity can enter into the throne room of God. So I want to move then from the macro level of the Exodus with Jesus as its fulfillment to the micro level of how the Exodus theme will be used and will play out in the Old Testament this year. So again, Nahum Sarna, the Jewish biblical scholar, he lays out seven ways that the Exodus theme is used for theological and didactic purposes or teaching purposes. Number one, it affirms, as in Genesis, that God's sovereignty or God's rule over nature is absolute. Unlike the pagan gods, the God of Israel does not exist in nature, but he exists outside of it and above it and is the creator of it. The fundamental teaching of the Genesis creation story is here epitomized through the series of plagues that God visits upon the deficient tyrannical Egyptian. All the plagues except the last have their roots in the phenomena of nature upon which God imposes his sovereign will. Number two, it demonstrates that human beings cannot successfully defy God's will or effectively thwart his purposes. True, God has endowed man with free will, but the tension between human will and divine will must inevitably resolve itself in the humbling of man. The Pharaoh may arrogantly dismiss Moses and Aaron with the derisive proclamation, who is the Lord that I should heed him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go. In the end, however, he must ignominiously rise in the middle of the night to summon Moses and Aaron and to announce his abject surrender. Up, depart from my people, you and the Israelites with you. Go worship the Lord, as you said. It teaches us that history has meaning and purpose. And we can be, we can rest assured, and I was in this time that God wins. Jesus wins. Times are tough right now, but Jesus wins. Number three, it's not just linking together random incidents, but instead, it is the unfolding of God's grand design. The migration of Abraham from Urab the Chaldeans, the fortunes of Isaac and Jacob and Jacob's children, the migration of the Israelites to Egypt. These are all part of a process that leads up to the Exodus in fulfillment of the divine promise to Abraham recorded in Genesis 15, verses 13 through 14. Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed, but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve, and in the end they shall go free with great wealth. Number four, it illustrates how God is the redeemer from injustice and oppression. The revelation at Sinai opens with God identifying himself as the one who brought the Israelites out of Egypt and freed them from bondage, not as the one who created the world. And this is really when you're going to see this break in the former part of the Old Testament. God is talked about most as the creator God. But hereafter, this idea of God as being the liberator, it will become the supreme characteristic attribute of the God of Israel. He is above all the great liberator. Number five, the Exodus, therefore, becomes the paradigm of future redemption. It offers a pattern for God's intervention in history in times to come. In periods of national crisis, the Exodus experience of the past serves to strengthen faith in God's redemptive powers and provides comfort and hope for the future. Number six, the religious calendar of Israel and its rituals and practices are all reinterpreted in terms of the Exodus. The new year is changed to the spring. The weekly Sabbath is rationalized as being grounded in the liberation from Egypt rather than in creation. The great agricultural festivals that relate to the rhythm of nature and the life of the soil are all reinterpreted and historicized in commemoration of the Exodus. Even the dietary laws find their ultimate grounding in the momentous event of the Exodus. Finally, with the historicizing of religion comes the ethicizing of history. That is to say, history is used as a source of ethical teachings and as a motive force for social ethics. God's redemptive acts demand a corresponding imitative human response. A host of biblical passages give eloquent expression to the idea that the experience of the slavery and the liberation must become the wellspring of moral action. In Deuteronomy 24, you shall not subvert the rights of the stranger or the fatherless. You shall not take a widow's garment in pawn. Remember that you were a slave in Egypt and that the Lord your God redeemed you from there. Therefore, do I enjoin you to observe this commandment. Barbara Isbel writes the prevalent use of Exodus type. Throughout both testaments of scripture makes it evident that the historical exodus from Egypt provided a well-established pattern and a hope for a more dramatic future deliverance, which would both fulfill and exceed the historical exodus. The Old and New Testaments are inseparably connected by a pattern of promise and fulfillment, which is woven throughout the fabric of the canon, beginning with Genesis and ending only with Revelation. This pattern is depicted clearly in God's acts of deliverance throughout the book of Exodus. And so Exodus connections are often implicit, if not explicit, when the pattern recurs later in biblical texts. And next podcast, I'll talk with you more about the plagues in Egypt and how that corresponds and shows up again in Revelation. So we can see how this pattern is continually playing out. As we watch how God moves among his people, noticing similarities or patterns within scripture and believing in the continuity of God's purpose and his action throughout history, then Exodus typology could be identified as the theological interpretation of the events of the Exodus as the divinely intended model for Jehovah's future acts of deliverance on behalf of his people. The very presence of Exodus typology throughout the biblical canon is evidence that the historical exodus from Egypt provided both the pattern and the hope for a more dramatic final deliverance, which would both fulfill and exceed the Exodus sometime in the future. As it says in Isaiah 12, in that day you will say, I praise you, O Lord. Behold, God is my deliverer. I will trust in him and not fear. For the Lord gives me strength and protects me. He has become my deliverer. Joyfully you will draw water from the springs of deliverance. At that time, you will say, Praise the Lord. So let's look at how scholars, especially in T. Wright, see Exodus theology playing out for first century Jews and forward. So the core idea is that the exile isn't really over. Even after Israel returned from Babylon, many Jews in the time of Jesus still believed that they were spiritually in exile because they were still under foreign domination. And this time it's Rome. They were still waiting for full forgiveness and restoration. They were still longing for God's return to Zion, to Jerusalem. So the exodus pattern of liberation to covenant, to the presence of God dwelling with man, had not yet reached its true fulfillment. Jesus is the one who brings the new Exodus. N. T. Wright holds that Jesus consciously acted out and fulfilled the long-awaited new Exodus. Other scholars aren't quite as assertive as N. T. Wright is. I tend to side with Wright on this one. I do think that Jesus, as the God of the Old Testament, was very consciously showing himself as the way into the promised land, or as the way into the throne room of God, as the way back into the presence. The Exodus event that God told Israel to remember encompassed the ritual of the Passover. And it included one, the deliverance, two, the going out from Egypt, three, the crossing of the Red Sea with the destruction of the Egyptian army, four, the giving of the law at Mount Sinai, five, their discipline in the wilderness, and six, God dwelling with his people in the tabernacle, preparing them to enter the promised land. This is the Exodus pattern of liberation to covenant to presence. Well, Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God is the announcement that the exile is ending. If you look at Matthew chapter 4, starting in verse 14, Matthew writes that Jesus moved from Nazareth to make his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the region of Zebulon and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet would be fulfilled. Land of Zebulon and land of Naphtali, the way by the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee and the Gentiles, the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light. And on those who sit in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned. This quote that Matthew gives is from Isaiah. It's from chapter 9, and it's verses 1 and 2. Well, four verses later, Isaiah himself speaks messianically and says, the verse that you're all going to remember for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Then back to Matthew 4. It says, From that time, Jesus began to preach this message repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near. And that was what Isaiah said, right? Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom. And that's what Jesus is coming in. So first thing he preaches, John the Baptist is in prison. Right after that, Jesus goes and starts to preach. The kingdom of heaven is near. In Matthew 9, before Jesus heals the paralytic, he says, Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven. When the scribes said among themselves, This man is blaspheming. Jesus says, which is easier to say, your sins are forgiven, or to say, stand up and walk, but so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. Then he said to the paralytic, Stand up, take your stretcher and go home. And he stood up and he went home. The crowd saw this, they were afraid and honored God, who had given such authority to men. Only God can forgive sins. Only God can save us from the enslavement of sin. So forgiveness of sins is the real sign of the return from exile. God has given his authority to Jesus. He is the king who will sit upon the throne of David. Jesus reenacts Exodus themes. His death and resurrection are explicitly called an Exodus in Luke 9:31. 40 days in the wilderness is equivalent to Israel's 40 years in the wilderness. Jesus is the greater Moses. He's a mediator, he's a lawgiver on the mountain in the Sermon on the Mount, reflecting Moses and Sinai getting the law. Jesus is the true Passover lamb, as John 1.29 tells us, as also Paul in 1 Corinthians 5, 7. Jesus is the provider of manna. He's the bread of life, John tells us. He's the source of living water. His feeding miracles are also like manna in the wilderness. It is a miracle that he provides bread to eat. His baptism echoes the Red Sea crossing.

SPEAKER_00 52:31

Or even his birth does too. Yes. 40 years in the wilderness, 40 weeks. I mean, the whole thing, yes, all of it. But every story in the Old Testament does. Every little thing denotes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 52:45

The sacrament, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the Passover. The Passover. He initiates that before his death as the firstborn son. A central thesis of MT writes is that crucifixion is the decisive Exodus event. In his book, The Day the Revolution Began, he argues that Jesus' death is the Passover moment. The death of God's firstborn son accomplished fully and finally the liberation that Israel had long awaited. But it was not a political liberation, although that day will come, but it is a liberation from the sin which so easily besets us and the inevitable judgment that must follow. One of the key biblical verses supporting this is in Luke chapter 9, verse 31, which I just mentioned. During the Transfiguration, when Moses and Elias are speaking with Jesus, I'm going to read this literally. Okay. Those having appeared in glory. So it's talking about Moses and Elias. They're the ones who have appeared. Those having appeared in glory, we're speaking of the going out of him or the exodus of him. The Greek word here is the noun exodus. The word is derived from the combination of ek meaning out of and hodos meaning the way or the road. So Jesus is the way out of slavery and of sin. Jesus is the way out of despair. Jesus is the way out of loneliness, grief, and the overwhelming weariness from the weight of this world. Jesus is our exodus. Those having appeared in glory were speaking of the going out of him or the exodus of him, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. Jesus's exodus, Jesus' coming departure, his going out, his exodus is the cross. That is the true and the only exodus. Wherefore, as it says in Hebrews 12, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus' exodus to the cross is our entrance into the throne room of God. A major insight of NT Rights is that the forgiveness of sins signals the end of exile. Forgiveness of sins in first century Judaism wasn't just personal, it also meant national restoration and end of exile. So when Jesus forgives sins, so in Mark, you can look at Mark chapter two, is the first time we're going to see that. The resurrection is the confirmation that the exodus is complete. It is the beginning of a new creation. Behold, the new is come. The Gospel of Mark begins with a quote from Isaiah 43 Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way, the voice of one shouting, In the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make his path straight. The Exodus, in other words, has begun. And then in Luke 4, 16 through 21, Jesus reads from Isaiah, and he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister. And he sat down. And the eyes of all men that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he said unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. The Exodus and the experiences connected with it bondage, liberation, presence, covenant, wilderness, redemption, and journey to the promised land form one of the most dominant and repeated themes throughout scripture. And I believe function typologically to represent the anticipation that God will, in an even greater way in the future, that God will act in an even greater way in the future. This pivotal act of deliverance in the history of Israel and the unique relationship between God and his people that emerged from it serve as the dominant model for the ultimate salvation event, the one that surpassed the first Exodus in authority and finality. James Stalker said that the Exodus is the great constitutive action of God by which he not only brought the nation of Israel into being, but also gave his plan for the salvation of mankind its final shape. The Exodus is for the Old Testament and Judaism, what the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are for the New Testament and Christianity. And for Christians, what Jesus brought to fulfillment was the purpose of the Exodus, close quote. The Exodus then is not just a past event or a recurring motif. It is an unfinished drama in which Jesus' life, death, and resurrection are the climactic new exodus. And we are the people formed by that liberation. That is the good news of the gospel. And it is our responsibility then to share that good news with the world.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:32

Oh, I love that, Cindy. That's so good. Lots of stuff to think about. Lots of stuff to think about and lots of ways that this is going to change study going forward.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:43

I hope so.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:44

Yes, yes. Okay, well, thank you guys for listening and thank you, Cindy, for all your hard work always. This is so good.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

Always good to be with you, Susan.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:52

And we will see you guys next time.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:54

Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:54

Bye. Thank you for listening to the Scripture Study Podcast, your midweek Bible boost. Everything we mentioned on this podcast, if we said there would be a link to it, it is in the show notes wherever you find your podcast. Cindy Madsen currently does not believe in or participate in social media. However, if you would like to follow along with Susan Peterson, she can be found on Instagram at susan.m.peterson. Have a good week.