• Hebrew text – “Now these are the names”
• Greek text – “Exodus”. Which means “going out” or “departure”.
• English text – “Exodus”.

See Exodus 17:14 (The Hebrew text says “the book”) and Joshua 1:7-8. (The book of the Law was given to Joshua by Moses). Jesus and tradition also state that the book of Exodus was written by Moses.

Around 1870 B.C. the children of Israel were led into Egypt by God. This was probably for three reasons:-

• Discipline – They had become very unfaithful. E.g. They abused circumcision and they were immoral.
• To preserve them physically – There was famine in their land, but there was food in Egypt.
• To preserve them spiritually – The Canaanites were spiritually very immoral. The hardship of being slaves in Egypt and the fact that the Egyptians would have nothing to do with foreigners, meant they had to depend on God.

From the end of Genesis till the start of Exodus, there has been a gap of 350 years. We know that they were in bondage for 400 years in Egypt. When they came down into the land there was only 70 of them, now in Exodus they have multiplied and have “swarmed” all over Egypt. (See Exodus 1:7)

We read in Exodus 1:8 that a new Pharaoh comes to the throne. This dynasty was the 18th one. From the 13th until the 17th dynasty, foreigners had been on the throne, now an Egyptian was back on the throne. Now in verses 9-10 we read that the new Pharaoh persecutes the Israelites because they are so large in number. He is afraid that foreigners will again take over Egypt. So the children of Israel are put into bondage.

The formation of the nation of Israel as promised to Abraham. There are three things which make a nation:-

• People – See Deuteronomy 26:25. The nation of Israel was born in the Exodus. God calls Moses and tells him to go and tell Pharaoh to release the Israelites. Pharaoh did not recognize God as true because he worshiped other “gods”. But God is determined to show Pharaoh who He is, and so the ten plagues fall upon Egypt. The last plague was the last straw for Pharaoh, and he tells Moses to take the people of Israel out of his land. Moses takes the Israelites to the Red Sea, but Pharaoh has changed his mind and gathers his great armies to chase after the Israelites. God opens the Red Sea and the Israelites walk across to the far side. The Egyptians followed after them, but Moses lifts up his rod and the waters fall in on the Egyptians. The Israelites emerge on the other side of the Red Sea (where there is a wilderness) and then they begin their journey towards Mount Sinai. This all takes place in the chapters 1-18. This is the birth of Israel as a nation. The people are supplied.
• Constitution – In the last part of Exodus, in chapters 19-40, God gives the constitution of the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai. The basic expression of the constitution was the ten commandments. The constitution also deals with their social life, moral life and their spiritual life.(E.g. Tabernacle, priesthood and offerings).
• Common language – This they already have.

The structure of the book of Exodus can be seen by looking at the book in four geographical stages:-

• In the land of Egypt (Chapters 1-12).
• Traveling to the Red Sea (Chapters 12-15).
• Traveling to Mount Sinai (Chapters 15-19).
• At Mount Sinai (Chapters 19-40).

There are two major problems found within this book:-

• The date of the Exodus – The liberal says it took place in 1290 B.C., while the conservative scholar says it took place in 1447 B.C. The Bible favours 1447 B.C. See 1 Kings 6:1.
• The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart – We are told on 20 occasions that either “Pharaoh hardened his heart” or “God hardened Pharaoh’s heart”. There is ten for each one. So who started this hardening of Pharaoh’s heart? It was God. See Exodus 7:1-4. God wants to lay His hand upon Egypt, so that they might know that He is God. God is saying that He is going to harden the heart of Pharaoh. He will bring all these plagues upon Egypt to show that He is the God above all “gods”. See Exodus 7:10-13 and Romans 9:17. Each plague will be against an Egyptian god

• The counterfeit work of Satan – In most of the miracles performed by Moses, the Pharaoh’s magicians were able to do the same. There was some they could not do. (See Exodus 8:18; 9:11). Satan was able to counterfeit miracles then and can do the same today. There is a point were Satan cannot operate, and that is he cannot create or make something which is dead, alive. Beware of Satanic work. (See Matthew 7:22).
• The obligation to Divine Grace – They were redeemed from the land of Israel by God’s Grace. (See Romans 12:1,2). The law was given to reveal the Holy character of God, and that man could NOT make it on his own to God. He needed salvation. This comes through faith alone in Christ alone.
• Redemption by blood – The children of Israel were delivered by blood that they put on their door posts. When the angel of death came to kill the first-born, they were saved by blood. This is a picture or foreshadow of the blood Christ shed for us.