What is Exodus ?

The unity of the biblical witness and of the drama of redemption to which it bears witness also underlines the relevance of Old Testament narratives of exodus to the people of God in the twenty-first century.

In introducing us to the figure of Christ, each of the Gospels employs exodus themes in various ways. Christ is the son called out of Egypt. He is the boy child rescued from the murderous king.

He is the man who passes through the water and spends a period of forty days being tested in the wilderness. He is the manifestation of the Father’s glory that eclipses the glory of the Mosaic revelation received at Sinai. He is the one who authoritatively teaches a new ‘law’ from a mountain.

The memorialization of the exodus isn’t merely backward-looking but anticipates a greater exodus yet to come.

Prophets like Isaiah presented the exodus as the model for a deliverance that God would bring about for his people in the future.

The exodus was a declaration of God’s good purpose for his people—that they, being liberated from their enemies, might serve him without fear all the days of their lives—and each celebration of the exodus looked forward to the day when that purpose would be fully realized.

The memory of the exodus was charged with hope and expectation.

Part of the power of figural reading and of recurring patterns such as that of exodus is that they enable us to bring events, persons, and things into illuminating relations and juxtapositions.

For instance, there are a number of connections between Moses and Joshua as a pair and Elijah and Elisha as a pair. Like Moses, Elijah is a prophet who spends most of his ministry in the desert, who delivers God’s judgment against an oppressive Pharaoh-like king (Ahab), and who encounters God at Mount Horeb.

Like Joshua, Elisha’s comes to prominence with a miraculous crossing of the Jordan near Jericho. He then performs several miracles and achieves victories in the land.

Recognizing an exodus pattern in the ministry of Elijah and Elisha helps us to get a firmer grasp on what God accomplished through them.