Exodus "Summary" / Some Key Lessons

I have just finished a sermon series of around 30 sermons in the book of Exodus. As I look back on my notes, I realise I still can't spell Pharoh!

For the final sermon I had Exodus 40:1-5, 16-19, 30-end and Revelation 21:1-4, 22-end read and tried to give something of a summary and re-cap of some of the lessons we had learned along the way. No doubt it was very selective and inadequate but just in case it is ever of any interest or use to anyone, here are some jottings:

You remember the background to the book that God had made promises to Abraham

Promises of (1) people (2) land (3) blessing

By the time of Jacob or Israel, those promises had begun to be fulfilled.

Jacob had 12 sons who each had a family, which would become the 12 tribes of Israel.

But in the time of Joseph, of Technicolour dream-coat fame, there had been a famine in the land and Jacob had moved his family to Egypt, where God had already had Joseph appointed Prime Minister!

One of the great lessons of the book of Exodus is that God always keeps his promises.

By v7 of chapter one, God’s promise of making them a great people was well on it’s way to fulfilment:

“the Israelites were fruitful and multiplied greatly and became exceedingly numerous, so that the land was filled with them”.

They are perhaps not quite as many as the sand on the seashore or the stars in the sky, as God had promised Abraham, but they are no far off!

Pharaoh, of course, has other ideas.

He enslaves and oppresses the people and ruthlessly makes their lives bitter with hard labour (1:10-14).

 But we say how God’s plans are unstoppable.

The more the people were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread. (1v12)

 Pharaoh ordered the midwives to kill the baby boys, and they bravely disobeyed him.

We learnt that God uses ordinary people to fulfil his purposes.

God used Moses sister and mother too, to ensure that Moses was saved.

God even used Pharaoh's daughter.

Remember how Moses’ mum ended up being paid for looking after her own son!

At the end of chapter 2, we saw that God hears his people’s cry.

He remembered the covenant he had made with Abraham.

God looks on his people and is concerned about them.

God means to come to the rescue!

At the burning bush, we saw that God reveals himself.

He wants his people to know him personally, he reveals him name:

I AM

I am who I am

God promises his people deliverance and freedom.

He will bring them out by his mighty hand.

Although Pharaoh stubbornly hardens his heart, God’s plan is unstoppable.

 We saw how God acted in salvation and judgement.

 The Passover (ch 12)

The crossing of the red sea (ch 13-14) – salvation and judgement

The people’s sin and God’s gracious provision

Manna & Quails (chapter 16)

Water from the rock (chapter 17)

God gives them his law (chapters 19-23) – The 10 Words (chapter 20)

The order is important:

God saves his people

He tells them how to live in response

God makes his covenant with the people (Ex 24)

The people break the covenant in ch 32, The Golden Calf

God nevertheless has mercy on them for Moses sake

 Moses acts as the mediator / intercessor / God between (Ex 33-34)

 God forgives them for Moses sake

The greatness and glory of God

The awesome holiness of God

The tabernacle

how to build it in ch 25-31

            the actual building of it in ch 35-40

Refrain “just as the LORD had commanded Moses” (39:1, 4, 7, 21, 26, 29, 32, 42) 7x

God is to be worshiped in God’s way

The importance of obedience

The importance of putting God’s word into practice

The Tabernacle a series of no entry signs

Sacrifice - X

The Tabernacle:

1. God in the midst of his people
2. God on the move with his people
   
   
   The presence of God with his people
   Cloud – cf. Royal Standard above palace – God is in residence, even though he can’t actually be seen
   
   
   The climax of the book is the obedient completion of the tabernacle and God’s glorious presence with his people, God guiding them and going with them.
   God’s promise is fulfilled.
   
   
   This same glorious God is with us.
   God means to guide us and lead us.
   He means to bring us not to a physical, earthly promised land nation state but to heaven and after that to the new creation.
   
   
   The ultimate vision of the book of Revelation:
   God dwelling with his people
   No temple