Exodus, Part 1
(avg. read time: 9–17 mins.)
As the Passover season is coming up, I think now would be a good time to explore a crucial aspect of the OT: the functions of the exodus. The exodus is the central historical salvific event in the OT. It is the paradigm and reference point for all other events. Even elements of eschatological hope are at times described in terms of a new exodus. But I treat that as a separate category that I will address more fully another time. For now, I will divide this series into three parts. This first part concerns the build-up, occurrence, and more immediate aftermath of the exodus within the bounds of the Torah. The second part will examine the exodus in the OT outside of the Torah. The third part will examine the exodus in Second Temple Jewish texts outside of the Tanakh. This analysis through the first two parts will generally be in a mix of canonical and thematic order, meaning that I generally follow the canonical order and arrange topics accordingly, but the topics may attract texts regardless of where they are in canonical order.
The major exception to this order is the need to note the significance of the name YHWH. God goes by several names in the OT. But the name that functions as a more or less “proper name” for God is YHWH. This name is specially associated with the exodus, as seen in Exod 3:14–16. The name YHWH is the one of which God says in Exod 3:15, “This is my name in perpetuity, and this is my remembrance to generation after generation.” And in 6This is not to say that every time the name YHWH is invoked that it evokes the exodus, but given how important this name is—such that pronunciation of it is avoided, replaced in reading aloud with Adonai—and the importance of this story associated with it, the exodus played a major role in the honor given to the name YHWH as the prime name of God, the one by which he is most typically identified.
The centrality of the exodus is such that one could describe Genesis as a prologue to it. Besides providing more general origin stories, it also provides the origin story of Israel and groups akin to them (e.g., the Ishmaelites and Edomites). And, of course, Genesis ends with the family of Israel in Egypt, setting the scene for the events of Exodus. More specifically, there are a few foreshadowing references to the exodus in Genesis. When YHWH speaks to Abram in a dream in Gen 15 prior to the execution of the ritual of making a covenant with him, he informs Abram that his descendants will be aliens and oppressed slaves in a foreign land before they are given possession of this promised land. But YHWH also promises to execute judgment on the nation that enslaves them and to bring them out again to possess this promised land (Gen 15:13–16). The exodus is thus already set up as the essential means by which God fulfills covenantal promises to Abram/Abraham.
God repeats a shortened version of this promise to Jacob, as related in Gen 46:4, that God will be with Israel in Egypt and make Israel a great nation there, after which he will bring them out again. From the time of Abraham to the generation of Jacob’s children, this family had resided somewhere in the land of promise in anticipation of the day when it would be received in full. But they would ultimately need to leave this land in order to gain it again. This is also the first of many cases in which the hiphil of עלה is used to refer to God’s action of “bringing up” Israel from Egypt.
This form of the verb appears again in Joseph’s statement in Gen 50:24–25. As was passed on to him by his father—and as was passed on to him by his father and his father’s father—he expects that God will come and bring Israel up out of Egypt. And when that happens, he asks for his people to carry his bones out of Egypt to bury them in the promised land. He is thus making a personal application of this hope for the exodus, a hope which is fulfilled for him in Exod 13:19.
This hiphil form of the verb also appears several times in Exodus, both in anticipation of the central event of deliverance (Exod 3:8, 17) and in past reference to the same (17:3; 32:1, 4, 7–8, 23; 33:1). The first of these verses also introduces another verbal idea with the hiphil of נצל (translated as “rescue” or “deliver”). This particular description of God rescuing or delivering his people from the Egyptians is almost peculiar to Exodus. It will appear again in reference to the exodus in 5:23; 6:6; 18:8–10. It is also used in the origin story of Passover to refer to God sparing the children of Israel in the judgment executed on the firstborn (12:27), as well as by Moses to describe God saving him from the sword of Pharaoh (18:4). Indeed, the exodus is the quintessential act of deliverance for the nation as the first reference point for being delivered from the hands of a national enemy.
Yet another verbal idea, similar to the hiphil of עלה without the extra directional dimension, is introduced in Exod 3:10–12 with the hiphil of יצא to refer to “bringing out” Israel from Egypt and the situation they had there. This is the most frequently recurring verbal idea associated with the exodus. In this book itself, it reappears in reference to the promised exodus in 6:6–7, 13, 26–27; 7:4–5; 12:17. It also reappears in reference to the exodus as a present or past event in 12:42, 51; 13:3, 9, 14; 14:11; 16:3, 6, 32; 18:1; 20:2; 29:46; 32:11–12.
In both Exod 3 and 6, there is also a description of God as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” that thereafter becomes typically associated with the exodus. In Exod 2:24, God remembering his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is what sets the events of the exodus in motion. As God speaks with Moses and gives him the message to speak to Israel, he identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to provide the reason for them to expect the coming exodus and to accept Moses as God’s executor of the same (3:6, 15–16; 4:5; cf. 6:3–8). The covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and God’s remembrance of the same are also linked to the exodus in 32:13 and 33:1. This relationship will also be referenced as the exodus reaches its endpoint in entry to the promised land in Num 32:11; Deut 1:8; 6:10; 9:5, 27; 29:13; 30:20; 34:4. Once again, the exodus is a crucial means of God fulfilling his promises to the ancestors.
Another element of traditional exodus descriptions introduced in Exod 6:6 is the description of the outstretched arm as the principle of power by which God brings Israel out of Egypt. Elsewhere, this description is supplemented with the image of the “mighty hand” (Deut 4:34; 5:15; 7:19; 11:2; 26:8; Ps 136:12; Jer 32:21). Still other cases apply the more direct description of great power as the complement of the outstretched arm (Deut 9:29; 2 Kgs 17:36; cf. Jer 27:5). This same imagery of redemptive power is invoked in later texts that allude to the imagery of the exodus without directly referencing the event (1 Kgs 8:42; 2 Chr 6:32). As exile is being threatened, this imagery is turned on Israel (Jer 21:5), but I will return to this point in the next part.
One final element provided by Exod 6 appears in v. 7, which describes the exodus as the event by which God takes Israel as “my people” and declares himself “your God.” This notion will reappear throughout the OT in some variation of the hope and desire that “They will be my people and I will be their God” (Lev 26:12; Deut 26:18–19; Jer 11:4; 24:7; 30:22; 31:1, 33; 32:38; Ezek 11:20; 14:11; 34:30; 36:28; 37:23, 27; Hos 1:9; 2:23, 25; Zech 8:8; 13:9). Many of these texts present eschatological promises and frame this declaration in the context of a new exodus, and so I will not be covering them in this series. In any case, the statement tends to present the hope for either a fully realized or reconciled relationship in the context of a hope for some climactic delivering action by which God identifies the people as “my people” and identifies himself as “their God.” The precedent and paradigm for this relationship was first established in the exodus.
Another feature of Israelite tradition that the exodus established was the celebration of the Passover, another means by which the Israelites identify themselves as God’s people and the God who delivered them out of Egypt as their God. The institution narrative is provided in ch. 12, including instructions on ritual observance for generation after generation. This holy day celebrates the capstone of a series of events whereby God distinguished Israel as his people, which was then immediately followed by the actual exodus journey from Egypt (cf. Num 9:1–14). The same series of events is likewise commemorated with the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the consecration of the firstborn according to Exod 13:1–16 (cf. 23:15; Num 3:11–13; Deut 16:1–8). Later in the Torah it will also be explicitly tied to the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles/Booths in Lev 23:33–43, since that feast celebrates the time in the wilderness as God led Israel from Egypt to the promised land (and thus leads Israel to remember who they are, how they arrived where they are, and that the promised land is the gift of God, not their inalienable possession).
Of course, the most remarkable event of the exodus journey came in the crossing of the Sea of Reeds. This event demonstrated the inexorable, faithful love of God making a way where there is no way. It also demonstrated once more the distinction God made between his covenant people and their enemies, both in the separation made between the Egyptians and the Israelites by the pillar of cloud of God’s presence, as well as in the drowning of the Egyptian pursuers in the same sea through which God made a way of escape for his people. This event called forth two traditional songs of response exalting the Lord: the Song of the Sea in 15:1–18 and the briefer Song of Miriam in 15:21. The first song is one of the primary reference points for the imagery of YHWH as Divine Warrior, the significance of which I have noted elsewhere. It is also one of the early texts for describing God in kingly terms. Indeed, v. 18 is the first time the verb מלך is applied to YHWH, as it is said that he will reign forever and ever (or, as I have translated the LXX version, he will be “King of the ages forever”). This declaration emerges from this glorious salvific event and thus set a precedent for associating God’s kingship with such events, as well as expectations of the eschatological kingdom of God to be instituted through even more glorious salvific events. But again, that is a story for another time.
In the aftermath of this particular story, between the crossing of the Sea of Reeds and the arrival at Mt. Sinai there are multiple stories of miraculous provision in the wilderness. This aspect of the story would also become an important thematic association with the exodus in later prayers and portrayals of the future. Such miraculous provision also fits the larger significance of the exodus as a demonstration of God in his faithful love making a way where there is no way. This same point is made in the summary statement of Deut 29:2–6 as Israel is reminded of how God has provided for them and how their clothes and sandals have not worn out.
But even more importantly, the exodus is the foundational event for Israel’s covenantal relationship. I have already noted how the exodus is crucial to God fulfilling covenantal promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But we are also told that the exodus is crucial to the children of Israel establishing their own more well-defined covenantal relationship with God. The exodus is the event that made it possible for Israel to receive the Torah and to be defined as the community that lived by Torah.
We can in fact see the importance of the exodus for this purpose explicitly stated at multiple points. In Exod 19:4–6, when God defines Israel’s purpose as to be his treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation, he opens this statement with reminding Israel how he carried them out of Egypt and brought them to himself. Likewise, at the opening of the Ten Commandments (Exod 20:2 // Deut 5:6), the basis of the relationship is established by YHWH identifying himself as the Lord God who brought Israel out of Egypt (for similar framing of the covenantal relationship as a whole, see Lev 26:9–13, 45). This is the theological indicative that grounds the ethical imperatives that follow. In the process of God giving instruction to Moses about constructing the tabernacle, he gives Moses a purpose for why he brought Israel out of Egypt: that he may dwell (or perhaps more literally “tabernacle”) among them (Exod 29:46). God brought them out of Egypt to establish his sanctuary among them and thereby to work towards solving the problem caused by Gen 3 and subsequent history of humans being exiled from God’s presence because of their sin and getting caught in a “sinward” spiral defined by its endpoint of death in enmity with God. The initial events of the exodus hinted at this purpose in the presence of God in the form of the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night (13:21–22). But the construction of the tabernacle, even as it is also a movable location (being necessary while the people were not yet settled in their promised land), suggests a longer-term residence with the people. By such means as God will enact through the covenant people, God purposes reconciliation with the creatures he made to be the bearers of his image and likeness, those he wills to dwell with and to give life, light, and love of himself. Of course, we are also reminded in ch. 32 that it is important to clearly identify who it was that brought Israel out of Egypt. For when Aaron, at the demand of the people, made a golden calf to designate as the god who brought Israel up out of Egypt, this represented such a foundational breach in the relationship, that it could have destroyed the people of Israel. If YHWH was not the God who brought them out of Egypt, neither could they be Israel as God had defined them (“my people”; cf. Deut 9:11–12, 25–29).
References to the exodus also play important roles in several laws of the Torah. For example, God commands the Israelites not to wrong or oppress resident aliens in their midst because they were themselves resident aliens in Egypt, so that the indicative identity statement produces the ethical imperative (Exod 22:21; 23:9; Lev 19:34; Deut 10:19; cf. Deut 23:7; 24:18, 22). Of course, this command is among many that are binding on the Israelites for many generations after the exodus and the wilderness wandering many years removed from the personal experience of residing as alien slaves in Egypt. In order to keep the awareness of this identity alive, future generations would need to continue telling this story of their collective past. Such constant remembrance aids the empathy for the situation of the resident aliens and the proper conduct that flows from it (in the context of the Torah, there is no evidence of a conception of affection without action). After all, this story was a reminder of where the people came from and how they would not be where they are today without the grace of God, grace that they need to extend to others, especially those in similar situations.
The food laws are linked to the foundational indicative-imperative link of “be holy because I am holy” (Lev 11:44). This in turn is tied with a combined identity and purpose statement that YHWH is the one who brought Israel up out of Egypt to be their God (11:45). The exodus is also tied to justice in using accurate, honest scales and measurements, because YHWH is their God who brought them out of Egypt, so they shall keep this and all his other statutes and ordinances (19:36–37; cf. 20:22-26). The event is also brought to bear on laws concerning loaning, debt, and slavery (25:35–43; cf. Deut 15:12–15). It is also presented as the basis for the reasoning behind the Jubilee laws in Lev 25:54–55.
In some other narrative portions of the Torah, the exodus serves as the narrative context cited within the story itself. When Israel rebels in Num 14 after hearing the reports of the scouts about the land of Canaan, it comes up in the conversation Moses has with God as he argues that God surely would not bring Israel out of Egypt just to destroy them here (14:13–23). But more ironically, some of the rebels insist that the entire course of the exodus should be reversed, and the Israelites should go back to Egypt (14:1–4). This insistence thus serves as a rejection of God’s purposes for the exodus on par with their idolatry at Sinai. It is also the narrative context invoked by the messengers to Edom when they seek permission to pass through the land in Num 20. In fact, in the historical recap, the narration jumps from how God brought Israel out of Egypt to the fact that they are now at Kadesh (Num 20:14–16). And while the other references within the story of Balaam are in oracular texts rather than prose narrative texts, Balaam still invokes the exodus to explain why he cannot curse Israel (Num 23:21–22; 24:8).
As the Torah comes to a close in Deuteronomy, the importance of the exodus is once again reasserted at multiple junctures (besides cases I have noted already). As in Exod 19, Deut 4:20 affirms that God enacted the exodus for the purpose of making the people of Israel his own possession. Indeed, the exodus marks Israel out as nation with a unique history and a unique origin (4:32–34; cf. 10:21–22). The exodus is also connected with God’s love for Israel’s ancestors (4:37–38; 7:7–8). The coming out of Egypt is also connected with the framing of the Torah, both in the introduction to it (4:44–46) and in the opening of the Ten Commandments (5:6; cf. 6:20–25; 7:7–11). Interestingly, while the fourth commandment about the Sabbath is connected to God’s creative action in Exodus, in Deuteronomy its basis is given as God’s redemptive action in bringing Israel out of Egypt (5:15). And even as the exodus is linked to remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy, the exodus is also linked elsewhere with what is a prominent theme in Deuteronomy of remembering or not forgetting (the direct statements alone appear over two-dozen times in the book). Such statements are connected to the recitation of the Shema (6:4–12), the task of driving out the nations from the promised land (7:17–19; cf. 20:1), keeping the Torah in the midst of prosperity (8:11–18; cf. the regulations for the king in 17:16–17). It is also a crucial aspect of the historical recap Moses gives prior to outlining God’s promises for obedience to the Torah (11:1–12), being a reminder of what God has already done. Another historical recap is presented in the ritual of offering firstfruits (26:1–11), which includes remembering that God “brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, an outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders” (26:8). A different context in which properly remembering who God is and what God has done is emphasized is the context of idolatry, as false prophets and others who talk the Israelites into worshipping other gods, they are said to be working against YHWH who brought the people out of Egypt (13:5, 10–11). The ultimate result of failure in keeping the covenant is exile from the promised land, described in terms of a reverse exodus (28:68; 29:22–28 cf. 28:60).