Exodus is a Love Story
Theme of Exodus
God loves his people
God wants his people
God dwells with his people
Connecting with God
First half: God rescues Israel from Egypt
The entire first half of Exodus is about how Israel is enslaved to Egypt, but God embarks on this epic rescue mission and gets them back.
God went through great lengths just to get his people back:
He performed miraculous plagues
He split an entire sea
He killed everyone standing in the way of him getting to his people
Why did God kill so many Egyptians in Exodus? Because they were standing in his way from getting to the people he loved. Exodus really is like a cinematic love story. It would have been far easier for God to have just abandoned Israel and found a new people to love, but he didn’t. His love is fierce and he did whatever it took to get back the people he loved.
Second half: tabernacle is built so God can dwell with Israel
The entire second half of Exodus revolves around the construction of the tabernacle. Tabernacle means “dwelling place,” which implies that God wanted Israel to have a place where he could come be in their midst and enjoy their company.
God went through great lengths to have this tabernacle built:
He supernaturally met with Moses
He supernaturally met with Moses AGAIN after Israel built and worshiped a statue of a golden cow
He provided meticulously detailed blueprints for building the tabernacle
He supplied Israel with the skill and creativity to build the tabernacle
Again, it would have been far easier for God to have just abandoned Israel in the desert than to go through all the headache of building a tabernacle. And most gods probably would have abandoned (or destroyed) Israel after their golden cow incident. But that’s not what Jehovah did. Jehovah gave them another chance. (Thank you for second chances, God!)
God also gave Israel the law which outlined the things they could do to be closer with God. God and sin repel each other, so the reason why God gave Israel the law was so that they could live in a way that didn’t repel God. God gave it to them because he wanted to be as close to them as possible.
Throughout Exodus, God repeatedly harps on “observing the Sabbath day” which was all about making time to reconnect with Him.
The entire second half of Exodus paints a picture of how much God wanted to be with his people.
Symbolism for us today
God goes through great lengths to be with his people. That includes OT Israel as well as today’s church.
God went on a rescue mission to get Israel back, while Jesus went on a rescue mission to get us back.
He wanted to live in Israel’s midst and enjoy their company, but he also does that with us today. Instead of living in a tabernacle like he did in the OT, God’s Spirit now lives directly within his people today.
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