Outline Of Exodus

I. Beginning of Bondage in Egypt (1).

II. Birth, Call, and Training of Moses (2—7:18).

III. The First Nine Plagues (7:19—10:29).

IV. The Passover and the Death of the Firstborn (11:1 — 12:30).

V. The Exodus front Egypt (12:31 — 15:21).

VI. The Journey to Sinai (15:22—19:2).

VII. The Giving of the Law (19:3—24:18).

VIII. The Tabernacle and the Priesthood (25—40).

A. Instructions for building of tabernacle (25—27, 30—31).

B. Consecration of the priesthood (28. 29).

C. Idolatry (32, 33).

D. Covenant renewed (34:1—35:3).

E. Preparation of tabernacle furnishings (35:4—38:31).

F. Preparation of priestly garments (39).

G. Erection of the tabernacle (40).

Chapter 1

Historically, Exodus is the story of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. Doctrinally, it is the story of redemption, based on the blood of the Passover lamb, displayed in the crossing of the Red Sea, and resulting in God’s dwelling among His people in the Tabernacle.

To really enjoy the book of Exodus, we need to look for Christ in it. Moses, the Passover lamb, the rock, and the tabernacle are only a few of the types (symbols) of the Lord Jesus, many of which are referred to elsewhere in Scripture (see, for example 1 Cor. 5:7; 10:4; Heb. chs. 3—10). May the Lord do for us what He did for the two disciples on the road to Emmaus—interpret to us in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself (Luke 24:27).

Lesson 1: Creation
Genesis 1:1-31
Golden Text: 2 Corinthians 5:17

I. Creation; V. 1.

1. The Time, “Beginning;” Cp. John 1:1-3; Proverbs 8.

2. The Person—God. Cp. Colossians 1:16-18.

3. The Act—“Created.” Hebrews wd. “Bara” = to create out of nothing. This word is used three times in Genesis 1 and marks the introduction of three great spheres of existence, (1) Of matter, v. 1; (2) of animal life, v. 21; (3) of spirit, v. 21.

II. Chaos; V. 2. The earth not created so. Isaiah 45:18 (“Vain” = without form). It became without form and void—perhaps thru fall of Satan. Isaiah 14:12-17. Note the condition of the earth—typical of state of the unsaved today.

1. Formless. No aim, no object in life, no definiteness. Job 14:4; Eccl. 9:3; Jeremiah 16:12; Romans 8:5-8; Philippians 2:21; Isaiah 57:20.

2. Void—empty, dissatisfied. Cp. Psalm 94:11; Ecc. 1:13; 2:11; Acts 14:15-17; Galatians 6:7-8; Jeremiah 2:13.

3. Dark. Cp. John 1:5; 3:19, 20; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 1: 13; Acts 26:18; 2 Corinthians 4:3-4.

III. Restoration; Vs. 2-31. The stages of restoration illustrative of stages in new creation, or regeneration. John 3:3.

1. Chaos; V. 2. Cp. Psalms 14:2, 3; Isaiah 57:20; John 3:18-20; Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:10-19.

2. The Spirit’s moving; V. 2. Conviction. Cp. John 16:8-11; Acts 2:18, 37, etc.

3. Light; V. 3. Cp. John 8:12; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 5:8; 1 Peter 2:9; Psalm 119:130.

4. Division; Vs. 4-7. Cp. John 3:36; 7:43; 9:16; 10:19; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Leviticus 11:44-47.

From the Editor’s Notebook

W. Ross Rainey

Christ The Lord Is Risen Today

Christ the Lord is risen today,
Sons of men and angels say:
Raise your joys and triumphs high,
Sing, ye heav’ns and earth reply.

Lives again our glorious King,
Where, O death, is now thy sting?
Dying once He all doth save,
Where’s thy victory, O grave?

Love’s redeeming work is done,
Fought the fight, the battle won,
Death in vain forbids Him rise,
Christ has opened Paradise.

This popular Easter hymn by Charles Wesley (1707-1788) originally had eleven stanzas of four lines. In many formal churches it has become traditional to use it as the processional hymn at every Easter sunrise service.

The tune generally used is entitled “Easter Hymn” and was composed in the fourth century. It is interesting to note that Charles Wesley’s “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” was sung for 100 years to the “Easter Hymn” tune, until the 1840 adaptation of Mendelssohn’s tune to Wesley’s Christmas carol.

Pointers on the Pentateuch

Exodus: The Book of Redemption

Key Word: Redemption.

Message: Redemption by purchase (i.e., blood) and by power.

Ex. 34; 2 Cor. 3

It is important to see that there were two distinct occasions in which we find tables of stone, according to God’s command, committed, though in a different way, to man. On the first occasion, as we know, there was total ruin; and when God uttered His commands then, afterwards written down, there was no shining of the face whatever; there was no Moses transfigured by the power of glory. Law, pure and simple, never made the face of man to shine; it is not the intention of law; nor is it the result of law. Law, simply as such, is characterized by darkness and tempest, by thunder and lightning, by the voice of God dealing with the guilty — more tremendous than all together. And so it was on the first occasion when the law was announced by God Himself, and the tables were broken (before ever they reached man) by the indignant law-giver.

On the second occasion what a difference! The lawgiver was called into the presence of God, who thereon was pleased to give a mingling of mercy along with law. There was a covenant expressly made of this combined composite character. It was not law alone, and not grace alone, but rather the mingling of grace along with law. For it would have been perfectly impossible for God to have carried on dealings with Israel, or to have brought them even into the land, unless there had been this mingling of grace and mercy with law. Consequently on this occasion the law was still committed to man; but it was shut up in the ark, not displayed with all its terrors before the eyes of men; it was enclosed, as we know, in the testimony.

Ex. 2; Acts 7; Heb. 11

(BT Vol. N2. p.376.)

The same principles which accompany the moral deadness of the unbeliever, may be found in the believer, weakening and hindering his simplicity in following Christ. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” It is true, the believer is not in the flesh (Rom. 8:8), and through grace he can please God; yet the flesh is in him, and, so far as it is unjudged, it will prove a sure and sad obstacle in the path of faith. Hence there is not an evil in the unregenerate heart of man which the regenerate can afford to despise. The tendency, nay, the root of all, is in his own heart, although, as a believer baptised unto Christ’s death, he is entitled to say that he is crucified with Christ-the flesh crucified with its affections and lusts. This is his weapon. He has died, and he that thus died has been freed (or justified) from sin. And if dead, how shall we live any longer therein? But then, although in God’s estimate this is a fact, for He has identified the believer with the death and resurrection of Christ, yet it is a fact which faith alone realises.

Introduction

There can hardly be a greater contrast than between the first book of Moses called Genesis, and the second called Exodus. For the former is the book of beginnings, and hence exhibits the most striking variety, so as to present the germs of almost all the truths or topics expounded in other books of scripture-creation, relationship with God and one with another, temptation and fall of man, revelation of grace and the enemy’s defeat, sacrifice, and sonship in faith and without it, the world, etc. It is needless to pursue here what is manifest, and fully explained in its own place.

But in the abundance of Genesis one vast truth is not included, redemption. It is the characteristic subject which fills the book of Exodus: first, the evil and wretched state of God’s people which called for it from God; second, the accomplishment of it, as far as the type went; and, third, the blessed consequence of it in God’s dwelling in the midst of the redeemed.

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