The content of chapters 25-31 is essentially the same as 35-40 except the order is chiastic. The instructions are for the ark first and then the tabernacle second. But when they are built the tabernacle is first and the ark is second. In any case, it is incredibly important that 35-40 reflects 25-31 because of what happens in Exo 32-34 -- the Golden Calf episode. We should note in the next post how the Golden Calf contrasts with the tabernacle and ark. But for now the basic point is that this section of Scripture is concerned with the Second Commandment. The Second Commandment forbids worship that is not according to the pattern God has revealed in His word and commands that we worship according to the pattern God has revealed in His word. It is very important that Moses has it built exactly right (Exo 25:8-9).

This sanctuary, one of the reasons it is inappropriate to call the place where you worship a church sanctuary (the people are the church sanctuary), is to be a reflection of the heavenly sanctuary (cf. Heb 8:5). The pattern is very important. God initiated the building project and provided the materials, which came from the plunder of Egypt.

The tabernacle has a three part structure for different levels of holiness. The same pattern can be found back in Exo 24:1-18 when we were looking at Mount Sinai. Sinai and the Tabernacle are earthly replicas of the heavenly sanctuary of God. As things get closer to the ark they are more holy and the materials are more expensive (bronze, to silver, to gold, then to fine gold). Also, fewer and fewer people are permitted to enter as you get closer to the ark: any and all can be outside the camp, inside the camp only ritually clean Israelites can come, in the courtyard the laypeople could come to bring ritually clean animals for sacrifice, in the tabernacle only priest and Levites could come, and the high priest could only enter the holy of holies (a superlative -- the holiest place) once a year on the Day of Atonement. Creation itself is a temple/tabernacle: the earth is the footstool of God's cosmic temple/tabernacle. The three fold division is earth, visible heavens, invisible heaven of heavens (thus we are back to seeing connections with Gen 1).

The tabernacle is God's sanctuary on earth. The ark is His throne (cf. Jer 3:16-17) or the footstool of His throne (1 Chron 28:2). In the ark were the stone tablets of the covenant. It was common in the ancient near east (ANE) to have two copies of a covenant. The copies would be deposited in the temple of the gods of the greater king (the suzerain) and the lesser king (his vassal). Since there is only one God and the covenant is between Him and His people, the two copies of the covenant (the Ten Commandments tablets) are put in the tabernacle. The tabernacle (a tent) is at the center of the camp where ordinarily in the ANE the king would put his tent. Therefore, you are meant to connect the role of the Tabernacle with God's rule as King over Israel. It is a picture of heaven on earth -- the world as it should be -- God with us.

The creation of the tabernacle is therefore a re-creation event -- a new creation event. The Spirit is involved in both as creation in Gen 1 is the work of the Spirit of God (Gen 1:2) and those who work on the tabernacle are given the Spirit (Exo 35:31). Also the phrase "YHWH said to Moses" occurs seven times during the instructions (the first six: Exo 25:1, 30:11, 17, 22, 34, 31:1), the last time (Exo 31:12) introducing the instructions for the Sabbath. Moreover, (cf. Exo 39:32, 43) when the work is finished, Moses blesses the people and he inspects the work like God does when God declares the creation good (Exo 39:43). And the tabernacle is set up "on the first day of the first month in the second year" (Exo 40:17, NIV). Remember the first month was changed to reflect the Exodus event (Exo 12:2).

The first microcosmic picture of heaven on earth we have is the Garden of Eden. We should associate the menorah with Eden as its description resembles a tree. It is on fire, which may also mean to remind us of the burning bush. The references to images of cherubim should remind us that they guard the way to the tree of life in the epilogue of Gen 3. The tabernacle is a microcosm of heaven on earth.

As the tabernacle represented God's presence with his people on earth, the incarnation fulfills this Immanuel (God with us) principle. As John 1:14 should be best translated, "And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we looked at his glory, glory as the only one from the Father, full of grace and truth." And now Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father in the heavenly tabernacle. The OT priests ministered in the earthy shadow and copy of the tabernacle of heaven, but Jesus intercedes for us from the seat of power.

And our bodies are tabernacles for the Spirit. We are being clothed with a heavenly sanctuary (2 Cor 5:1-4). This means that our actions should flow out of our identity as holy ground. Our bodies were originally made to replicate the heavenly tabernacle (being made in the image of God). And we see a hint of this recovery of the image glory when Moses transfigured face shines and from the description of Aaron's robes. (The division of the office of mediator into prophet (Moses) and priest (Aaron) was a division of glory. This office, never meant to be separated, is reunited in Jesus). If you want to explore the significance of Aaron's robe, compare it with the tabernacle and recall those things we said about the tabernacle (there are even seven day patterns).

The book of Exodus is about New Creation. It is a creation where the rule of God (the kingdom of Heaven/God) is reestablished -- heaven on earth -- a creation where God and his people can live in harmony forevermore. This is why the book says so much about the building of the tabernacle.

I have simply retyped and reworded an earlier lecture I gave on this material that is not sourced but the teaching here is a combination of Meredith Kline and Peter Enns.

Labels: Aaron's robe, ark, exodus, Genesis 1, glory, God with us, heaven, image of God, mediator, new creation, sabbath, tabernacle, ten commandments

What we want to do here is to begin to observe some of the patterns and to see how the plagues point us back to creation (and thus forward to the new creation), point us forward to the final plague and the Exodus event, and also thus point us forward to the work of Jesus Christ who died the curse of the final plague and began the new creation of the new heavens and earth with His resurrection. You can do the work of seeing Jesus in all of this easily. Pete Enns' commentary and class discussion at WTS is the source for most if not all of these observations.

The snake incident shares some of the characteristics of the plagues and thus we will discuss it here, but the first nine plagues are each a series of three plagues. You know that this is intentional because they follow a pattern. In each series of three plagues the first two have a warning beforehand and the third comes without warning. Moreover, the first warning is always in the morning. And the instructions given to Moses and Aaron follow the pattern of "station yourself" for the first in each series, "go to Pharaoh" for the second in each series, and no formula for the one without warning. And it is also worth observing that you will see that these plagues are comprehensive -- frogs from water, gnats from earth, and flies from the air (for example).

Pharoah's magicians can imitate the plagues through the frogs, close to their strength at the Nile, but they cannot undo any of the plagues. Only God has the power to bring order out of chaos, but at least for the early plagues they are able to imitate these reversals of creation. It is also worth saying that God needs no magician to do these things.

The reason for the plagues is that Israel may know that there is no one like the LORD our God (Exo 8:10) and Israel's protection from their effects is so that they may know that He is the LORD in the midst of the earth (Exo 8:22). And they serve the same purpose for the Egyptians -- so that you may know that there is none like Him in all the earth (Exo 9:14). Other ways this is put include: "so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth" (Exo 9:16), "so that you may know that the earth is the LORD's (Exo 9:29), "that you may know that I am the LORD" (Exo 10:2), and this is the same reason laid out for everything in the book: "the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD" (Exo 14:4) and "you shall know that I am the LORD your God" (Exo 16:12), etc. Thus it is no surprise that the plagues will show us the LORD God as the creator God and show Him defeating the Egyptian pantheon.

While the translation quotes in the paragraph above are from the ESV, for the comments below see the NIV and earlier posts.

The snake incident (Exo 7:8-13) uses a different word for snake or serpent here than it did earlier in Exodus (look back at the instructions). The word here is the same word as "sea monster" from Gen 1:21. The snake was the sign of Egyptian royalty (with their cobra headdress). (As defeats of Pharaoh they were defeats of the one who claimed to be the son of a god.) And it points us forward to the Exodus event because the word "to swallow" is found only here and in Exo 15:12 for the sea swallowing Pharaoh's army.

The plague transforming water into blood (Exo 7:14-25) uses a word sometimes translated reservoirs (Exo 7:19, NIV), which is the same Hebrew word translated "collected mass" in Gen 1:10. It is a rare word. The Nile was a personified deity for Egypt with the name Hapi. Thus the first Egyptian deity is shown to be powerless. The first Pharaoh had used the Nile to try to kill the children of God. All of these water episodes point us to when God will divide the waters again and dry land appear in the Exodus event.

The plague of frogs (Exo 8:1-15) uses the word "to swarm" of Gen 1:28. It is a creation reversal because the animals are ruling instead of man. Heqet, the goddess of childbirth, was drawn with the head of a frog. Thus another false god is exposed as powerless, with the frogs coming from the Nile. And that she is the goddess of childbirth is interesting. It points us to the exodus event because it comes from the Nile and leaves behind the smell of death.

The plague of gnats (Exo 8:16-19) has these insects come from the ground like how man came from the dust (Gen 2:7). The gnats are the princes of Egypt rather than Pharaoh (cf. 1 Sam 2:6-8 and 1 Kings 16:1-3). Man as a result of the curse returns to the dust upon death. Thoughts about death point us to the Exodus event result for Egypt.

The plague of flies (Exo 8:20-32) again shows us the creation reversal motif. The land is left destroyed. There is no known reference to the Egyptian pantheon but the word "destroyed" in Exo 8:24 is the same as the destroyer in Exo 12:23, thus pointing us to the final plague and therefore to the Exodus event.

The plague on the livestock (Exo 9:1-7) again reminds us of Genesis 1 since they were created on the same day as humankind and the latter was to rule over them. Hathor, the mother and sky goddess, was depicted as a cow. Death of these livestock points us to the final plague and thus the Exodus event, which also kills animals (Exo 11:5 and 12:29).

The plague of boils (Exo 9:8-12) is an obvious blight on the creation of man. This was an attack on Pharaoh who made them make bricks. The dust causing the boils is from the kiln. The bricks were kiln-baked bricks. This skin disease would disrupt Egyptian religious practices. This is the first plague damaging human life.

The plague of hail (Exo 9:13-35) affects the plant world. A word for vegetation in Exo 9:22 is in Gen 1:11-12. The god Seth showed himself in wind and storm. The god Min was tied to the harvest schedule. Hail is often a sign of divine judgment and it does kill the humans who are outside.

The plague of locusts (Exo 10:1-20) mentions the rest of the vegetation of Genesis 1. It is a polemic against Isis and Min like the last plague. The locusts come by an east wind, just like the wind that will divide the Sea and the locusts drown in the same sea where "not one survived" (Exo 10:19 and 14:28). It is called a deadly plague and causes darkness foreshadowing the next two plagues.

The plague of darkness (Exo 10:21-29) reverses Genesis 1:3. It is a polemic against Re, the sun god. Pharaoh claimed to be the son of the sun god. Darkness is symbolic of death in Scripture (i.e. Job 17:13, Psa 143:3).

There are ten plagues, thus the tenth plague is the fullness of the plagues. Many of the first nine plagues foreshadowed it. It reverses the creation of man by bringing their death. It is a defeat of the Egyptian god of the dead Osiris. It destroyed the firstborn cattle too. Cattle were venerated in Egyptian religion. Since this is a plague on the firstborn it represents what will happen to all of the Egyptian men who come out after Israel into the Sea of Reeds. It is really part of the Exodus event and foreshadows the rest of what will happen.

Remember that these plagues also ultimately foreshadow the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For example, there was darkness before His death.

Labels: exodus, false gods, Genesis 1, new creation, pharaoh, plagues, serpent

The Hebrew people are the seed of the woman. Pharaoh is the seed of the serpent. This is fitting since you often see the Pharaohs depicted with a serpent's headdress. The new Pharaoh did not have a good relationship with Joseph or his kinsmen (he did not "know" Joseph) but the irony of ironies is that we do not know the name of this Pharaoh. This is surely intentional because Pharaoh defies God and the seed of the woman first by enslaving the Israelites, then by asking the midwives to kill the Hebrew children, and finally by ordering all of the new children to be thrown into the Nile. But it also reveals a tendency of the book to strategically use or leave out names. The threat of drowning in the Nile points us back to creation where the waters separate and dry land comes forth as well as new creation in the Exodus where the waters separate and dry land appears.

Enter Moses (Exodus 2:1ff). We know something special is about to occur because a Levite married a Levite and she conceived and bore him a son (like John the Baptist in Luke 1:5). This child is being depicted as the firstborn son and literally what she sees is new creation language "that it/he was good" (Exo 2:2) like we saw in Genesis 1. And when she could not hide him any longer she put him in an ark (the same word as the ark that Noah built and both have pitch) and placed him among the reeds. This was a traditional way to introduce a hero, like the Legend of King Sargon of Akkad who also was put in a reed basket treated with bitumen and found by a drawer of water who raised him as her own. We know that Moses will do great things. This story points us forward to the Exodus event in the Sea of Reeds. All you have to do to the word reed in Hebrew is move the dot for the vowel and you have the word extinction. This is the threat of the Nile -- extinction for Israel and this is the threat of the Sea of Reeds, the Sea of Extinction, at the Exodus event. But Moses and Israel will come through these waters as new creation.

Then all of the sudden we find out that despite the earlier portrayal Moses has an older sister. He also has an older brother but this information is conveniently left out. In Exodus 7:7, Moses is eighty and Aaron is eighty-three. So there must be a theological reason that Moses is portrayed as the firstborn son (perhaps the same reason that God would call Israel his firstborn son later in this section). And the account does not tell us anyone's names, not Moses' parents, or sister, or the name of Pharaoh's daughter, because it is driving us to the naming of Moses (2:10). And the explanation of the name is "because I drew him out of the water." Moses puts this theological meaning of his name on the lips of Pharaoh's daughter because she unknowingly points to the Exodus event in naming him something that sounds like "draw out" in Hebrew. In reality, the name Moses in Egyptian means "to give birth to" because she was claiming that he was her own son.

Moses through all of this points us forward to Jesus Christ. Jesus was the firstborn son of Mary and Joseph. He was the seed of the woman. And Herod, the new Pharaoh and seed of the serpent, would try to kill the children under two. But Joseph and Mary would flee the new Egypt (literally Israel, see Matthew 2:15). Jesus went through this Exodus from Egypt now as an individual, again at his baptism as an individual, and later would again on behalf of His people. The last time He did so as the ark of salvation for a greater Exodus.

Moses also went through three exodus events. The first was as an individual being drawn out of the water by the daughter of Pharaoh. The last was the Exodus event of his people. But the other time he went through an exodus as an individual was precipitated by a fight between two Hebrew people. First Moses sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and Moses acts as the savior of Israel. This was not murder just as what God would do later was not murder. Moses was acting as God's anointed deliverer ahead of time. And then he saw one of the Hebrews doing the same thing to another one of the Hebrews (the word kill in Exo 2:12, NIV is the same as hit in Exo 2:13, NIV -- see Exo 2:12-13, ESV). And we get a preview of Israel's rebellion and rejection of Moses -- two themes that will continue and will recur for Jesus.

So Moses flees (exodus) to the Midianites (remember it was the Midianites who brought Joseph into Egypt at the start of Book Ten of Genesis). It is not accidental that when Moses delivered Israel by killing the Egpytian they grumbled and when he delivered the daughters of Jethro they sing his praises. Jesus would receive the same kinds of reception from Israel and the Gentiles. And the passage ends with God remembering His covenant, God seeing the people, "and God knew." Pharaoh may not have known Joseph but God knew. This is also an allusion to Sodom (Gen 18:21). God saw and God knew. He was going to come down. And ultimately He did in the person of Jesus Christ.

We have stressed the first two chapters in this post to get you to slow down and see the connections. What follows are some notes on the rest of the section to help you do the same with the other chapters.

First note that the burning bush is a suspension of the normal properties of nature. We are going to see creation reversal and other suspensions of normal properties of nature throughout the book of Exodus.

Second, the name of God, YHWH, was undoubtedly already known to the people of Israel. What is new is the theological explanation of the meaning of the name.

Also, Moses acts as a shepherd, which prepares him to be the shepherd of God's people. The first sign is a snake that Moses must grab in faith -- a snake like Pharaoh. The second sign shows that God can make the unclean Hebrews clean. Moses complains that he is not eloquent. No matter what God does, Moses acts like Israel and grumbles. So as a judgment the office is split in two and Moses shares the glory of God with Aaron. The point of all this is that I Am and not Moses will deliver Israel. And all of these things point us to Jesus.

The genealogy is interesting. It slows down for Levi. Again the names mentioned are significant. The women point us to the focus of the genealogy. Moses is not the focus, Aaron is. This is because Aaron has just been chosen to help Moses. And the genealogy points to Aaron's worthiness by showing his Levitical heritage and that he is the grandfather of Phinehas who would be a hero in Numbers (and later in Joshua).

There is also something significant going on with the age of Moses. Moses was probably forty when he fled Egypt the first time (according to tradition he was), He was eighty when he led the Exodus of Israel (Exo 7:7). Thus Moses spent forty years in the wilderness after his own personal exodus and forty years in the wilderness after the Exodus event. He died at 120 years old (40+40+40).

In any case, this section of Exodus foreshadows the plagues and the Exodus event and therefore also foreshadows the work of Jesus climaxing in His exodus. Thus salvation from the land of Egypt, the house of slavery foreshadows salvation from slavery to sin.

All of my posts on Exodus include things that I originally learned from Dr. Peter Enns about four years ago. I highly suggest that you read his commentary on Exodus in the NIV Application Commentary series. They are more immediately based on my notes on Exodus for a class I taught at Roxborough Presbyterian on how Exodus points us to Jesus. Any mistakes are my own.

Labels: christ, exodus, moses, new creation, pharaoh, seed, serpent