40 Weeks of Your Life: Exodus
04-20-2006
by Vicky Beeching

The name 'exodus' means 'departure' or 'out-going'. The book is often divided into six sections, which gives us a useful recap:

Chapters 1-12: Israel growing into a people, their slavery in Egypt and deliverance from their oppressors
Chapters 13-18: Journeying from Egypt to Sinai
Chapters 19-24: God giving a covenant and laws to Israel
Chapters 25-31: Details on how the Temple system should work
Chapters 32-34: Israel worshipping the golden calf and God re-giving the commandments
Chapters 35-40: Building the 'tabernacle' and the priestly clothing and equipment

Exodus is a dramatic book - slavery, a brave escape, God descending to a mountain with smoke and lightning and writing commandments on stone with His own fingers…! It's a divine drama of a God who powerfully acts on behalf of His people and desires to teach and lead them in truth.

As we look back, I'm sure the book has many highlights for you. My favourite scene is that of Passover in Genesis 12. I love to remember that Jesus' blood is painted over the 'doorposts' of our lives, like the lambs that were sacrificed on that Passover night by the Israelites. Jesus blood marks us as saved and rescued from death and destruction.

I also love the imagery of God watching over His people like "a cloud by day, and a fire by night". He was their ever-present Protector, and He is ours today.

One of my most treasured characters in Exodus is Moses. His name in Hebrew means "drawn from the waters". God pulled him out of the river, where he would have faced certain death. He took him from poverty, slavery and destruction and brought him into the royal palace where he was adopted as a royal son. That's a cool analogy of what God has done for each of us… bringing us from death into the royal courts of the Heavenly King as one of His adopted children.

How did you find reading the details about the Temple and the laws? Sometimes that can be heavy going and seem less inspiring than other parts of Exodus! As I read through, it helped me to remember how grateful I am to be living in the shadow of the cross, in an era where Jesus has fulfilled the law and it's requirements. Every detail and measurement that I read in Exodus' requirements of the Hebrew Law, reminded me of the weight of what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

How amazing, that we don't have to come to a physical 'tabernacle' and wash in the basins and sacrifice sheep and oxen. How amazing that the 'veil' is torn in two and we can walk into the 'Holy of holies' and encounter our God! Lets celebrate that as we look back over the book of Exodus today!

Learn about Vicky Beeching in our Artist Database: http://www.cmcentral.com/artists/1078.html