How Exodus Challenges Our Preconceived Notions About God
God’s Work in Exodus
On Sunday mornings at our church, we generally study smaller sections of Scripture than an entire book like Exodus. But some things can only be seen from a great height. So from time to time we divert from spending multiple weeks in one book in order to have what we call “overview sermons.” Right now, we are in a series of five such studies on the first five books of the Bible. Here, we look at the second book, the book of Exodus. We will not consider just one text in Exodus, but we’ll jump around the book, taking in as much as we can. In order to help us, I offer a thesis sentence that has arisen from my own reading of Exodus over this last week and that will give focus to our investigation. This study has three points and, as you’ll see, each point will provide a part of our thesis sentence and will state something positively about God’s work. We will also find that each point challenges some misconception that people often have about God.
1. God Works Sovereignly
We begin with point one: God works sovereignly. In essence, Exodus challenges the common notion that God is passive. How many times have you heard God presented as a resource or power for improving your life, should you decide to use him? God is not a passive God at all. In Genesis, he creates the world out of nothing. He judges the world through the Flood. He calls Abraham and then fulfils his promise to give Abraham children, despite age and barrenness. And then the amazing story of Joseph occurs. Do you remember Joseph’s statement to his brothers? “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good” (Gen. 50:20).
In Exodus, the great story of God working sovereignly continues. We see this in many ways throughout this book, but perhaps we see it most clearly in the lives of the book’s two main human opponents: Moses and Pharaoh.
2. God Works Sovereignly to Save a Special People
But that is not all of what we are supposed to observe. We are also supposed to observe that God works sovereignly (now let’s add a little bit to the sentence to make our second point) to save a special people. That is transparently what God is doing in this story.
Exodus challenges the common notion that God treats all people in the same way, or that God is a committed egalitarian. No, that is not the story in Exodus. God is certainly fair; he is the standard of justice. But God does mysteriously and graciously choose to extend mercy to some. And no one can require mercy from him. It is his mercy. From a foundation of utter fairness, God chooses to extend mercy.
God works sovereignly to save a special people. That is what this book says. I hope you see that. But we will not finally understand the message of Exodus unless we see one more crucial point.
The Message of the Old Testament
Mark Dever
Author Mark Dever introduces readers to the Old Testament as a glorious whole so that they are able to see the big picture of the majesty of God and the wonder of his promises.
3. God Works Sovereignly to Save a Special People for His Own Glory
God works sovereignly to save a special people for his own glory. Above all else, throughout Exodus, God aims to display his own glory. But you will learn this only by reading the book itself. Every popular retelling or movie about the Exodus, from Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments to The Prince of Egypt, misses this entirely. Usually, the Hebrew people are presented as types of American colonists or African-American slaves. Moses is some combination of Washington and Jefferson, Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, liberator and lawgiver, concerned above all else for human liberty. But this story is not primarily about human liberty. It may have a few implications that tend in that direction, but that is not the point of this book.
In fact, Exodus directly challenges the idea that God does everything for humanity’s sake. Humans are not the ultimate purpose of creation. God’s own glory is!
The Main Point
Let’s take one more quick tour through the book to make sure that you get its main point. The whole book, you could say, is about God establishing his own fame! You see it everywhere. If you have never noticed these statements before, I think it will change the way you read Exodus, and perhaps your whole Bible.
Why does God call Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt in the first place? “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians” (Ex. 6:7). God’s purpose is for the Israelites to recognize Yahweh as their God.1
Why does God harden Pharaoh’s heart, causing him to oppose God’s own plans?
“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you. Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites. And the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it” (Ex. 7:3-5). God’s purpose is for the Egyptians to recognize Yahweh as God.
Why does Moses, amid the plague of frogs, ask Pharaoh to set the time for when God should remove the frogs from Egypt? Have you noticed this? Pharaoh answers Moses’ request, “Tomorrow.” Moses then replies, “It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the Lord our God” (Ex. 8:10) . God’s purpose is for Pharaoh to recognize that Yahweh alone is God.
Why does God, amid the plague of hail, tell Pharaoh he is pressing against him so hard? “This time I will send the full force of my plagues against you and against your officials and your people, so you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth” (Ex. 9:14). Keep in mind, he is saying this to a man whose nation had as many gods as we have people in church. The liberation this book promises is the merciful liberation from the falsehood of idolatry to the truth of worshiping the one true God.
As we continue reading in chapter 9, we find some of the Bible’s clearest statements about God’s sovereign purposes. At one point, God explicitly tells Pharaoh why he has raised him up:
“For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (Ex. 9:15-16).2
God worked sovereignly to save a special group of people so that we would behold his greatness.
Moses makes the point again when he tells Pharaoh the precise time the plague of hail will stop: “When I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands in prayer to the Lord. The thunder will stop and there will be no more hail, so you may know that the earth is the Lord’s” (Ex. 9:29).
And why don’t the plagues stop here? After all, Pharaoh had sounded repentant several verses earlier: “This time I have sinned” (Ex. 9:27). Yet his repentance does not last. God has further purposes for him. Look again at the beginning of chapter 10:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that [God always has a purpose] I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord” (Ex. 10:1-2).
And again in chapter 11, why does Pharaoh keep refusing to listen to the Lord, even though it is bringing disaster on himself and his nation? “The Lord had said to Moses, ‘Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you—so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt’” (Ex. 11:9).
Such statements come to a climax in chapters 14–15. After Pharaoh has released the Israelites, the Lord causes him to change his mind: “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord” (Ex. 14:4). The Israelites see the Egyptians approaching, but Moses reassures them, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again” (Ex. 4:13). The Lord then sends the Egyptians after the Israelites through the Red Sea:
“I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen” (Ex. 14:17).
Watching Pharaoh’s army drown, the Israelites come to the same conclusion: “And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant” (Ex. 14:31).
Throughout all these episodes, God gains the reputation he both desires and deserves among creatures made in his image. Moses’ celebratory song in chapter 15 exults in this God’s unique glory: “Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Ex. 15:11). And several verses later:
The nations will hear and tremble;
anguish will grip the people of Philistia.
The chiefs of Edom will be terrified,
the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling,
the people of Canaan will melt away;
terror and dread will fall upon them.
By the power of your arm they will be as still as a stone—
until your people pass by, O Lord,
until the people you bought pass by” (Ex. 15:14-16).
This, of course, is why the Lord sovereignly placed his people in Egypt, which we thought about at the conclusion to our study of Genesis, when Joseph’s body was placed in a coffin and buried in Egypt. Why did he leave him there? Because Egypt was a great power. Because Egypt provided the perfect stage on which God could display his glory. If God wants to make his might known and his renown great, what good would it do to triumph over a tribe of nomads or some lesser nation? God led Joseph down into Egypt and placed Israel’s children there, because he was preparing Egypt to be the special stage on which he would display his glory for all the world to witness.
And God meant for the deeds recorded in this book to be recounted, so that his fame would continue to be magnified and increased. One of the first times those deeds are recounted occurs in chapter 18, where Moses meets his father-in-law Jethro in the desert. Notice how Jethro responds to hearing what the Lord has done:
Moses told his father-in-law about everything the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake and about all the hardships they had met along the way and how the Lord had saved them. Jethro was delighted to hear about all the good things the Lord had done for Israel in rescuing them from the hand of the Egyptians. He said, “Praise be to the Lord, who rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who rescued the people from the hand of the Egyptians. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all other gods” (Ex. 18:8-11a).
That is the message of Exodus: the Lord—Yahweh—is greater than all other gods. God worked sovereignly to save a special group of people so that we would behold his greatness. He is not just another projection of human hopes or philosophical ideas. God acted in time and space, so we could see his power and worship his majesty.
God works sovereignly to save a special people for his own glory. He did then, and he still does today. That is what he is doing in the church!
Notes:
- When our newer English Bible translations have “Lord” in small caps, it stands for the Hebrew YHWH, usually transliterated as Yahweh, which is God’s name for himself.
- Though Christians sometimes argue about what Paul says in Romans 9:17, Paul is just quoting what the Lord said in Exodus 9!
This article is adapted from The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made by Mark Dever.
Related Articles
Why Did the Lord Seek to Put Moses to Death, and What Is a “Bridegroom of Blood”? (Exodus 4)
“Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it and said, ‘Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me!’” What is going on in this passage?
5 Questions about the Ten Commandments
We should love the law because we love Jesus, and because Jesus loved the law.
Does the Law of Moses Matter for Christians Today?
Moses matters for Christians, and yet he spoke in a context that’s very different from our own. The old covenant is not the covenant we’re under. We are under the new covenant.
Why Is the Pentateuch Referred to as the Book of Moses?
If Moses is behind the Pentateuch, that lends a certain massive authority to it. It's a singular book and Moses is ultimately the author, so we should listen to it.
