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Exodus Preaching Series Study Guide

www.peopleschurch.co.uk/resources

Journey Towards God’s

Promised Land...

PREACHING SERIES 2011


Introduction to the series

Would the last person to leave please turn out the lights...

We began this preaching series in January 2011 – looking at the book of Exodus, the second

book of the Bible, for the whole year. The inspiration for this series (not least in the fact that

it’s a truly wonderful and remarkable story of God’s faithfulness, holiness and grace) stems

back to the NWBA ministers conference in Spring 2010. During a time of prayer, as ministers

were praying for one another, one person was praying for me and our church, and felt that

God gave him words of encouragement for the church here in Partington, that the church

was like the Israelites, on the verge of the Red Sea, about to step forward, journeying

through to God’s promised land for the church.

Stepping forward involves faith, and seeing God, the God of Israel, doing the miraculous to

make a way for his people in seemingly impossible circumstances. I took these words of

encouragement home with me from the conference, and during a two week holiday in the

summer of 2010, began studying the Exodus as part of my reading and spending time with

God.

This doesn’t often happen, it rarely happens, but as I was reading through Exodus, I felt

preaches come to mind, points, titles, things that God was highlighting to me. Often

discerning what to preach on is a long process, involving a lot of prayer, creating space for

God to speak, etc – but here, within 14 days of being away, I had about 15 preaches written

out in bullet point form. God was on it!

I continued to seek God on our return from the holiday – and within a couple more weeks

was about three quarters through Exodus and with more preaches ready to go... so we

began 2011 looking at this incredible journey that God calls the Israelites to.

Exodus is about leaving – and when God’s in it, that can only be a good thing – leaving

where we are currently to journey to where God wants us to be, to journey to being the

people God calls us to be – Exodus can be scary, can be exciting, can be unclear – but when

God calls us to step forward in faith, and reminds us of his promises for us, we must go.

All the preaches are available to download as MP3 files in our sermon archive page, and

where we had technical difficulties, we have provided transcripts of the preaches, so this

isn’t an ‘in depth study guide to the whole 40 chapters of Exodus’ but hopefully it will whet

your appetite to listen to the preaches.

Jonathan


Introduction to the Book

As we journey through Exodus, we’ll see so much that resonates with our lives – people

going through personal struggle, faced with obstacles, God coming through for people when

it’s physically impossible but God does it anyway, spiritual warfare, the battle of the mind,

meals, celebrations – it may be set in the middle east, but the Bible is a book for human

nature, not just for a culture, and human nature has not changed much at all. So we’ll

probably see our own lives in a number of places here. This Exodus journey is a journey we

can relate to because we have probably all had moments and will go on having moments of

running away from God, God calling us back, God calling us out of our comfort zone to do

something we can’t do in our own strength, moments of closeness and re-committing to

God and moments where we’ve gone back on what we’ve said we’d do, moments of grace

and moments of re-commissioning, moments of closeness where God has spoken.

And while there are stories and sub plots here, there are a number of mega-themes within

the book that as you work through it you’ll probably visit more than once: God’s faithfulness

to his people, God’s provision, God’s sovereignty, and it’s also part of the bigger story of the

Bible – that God creates, God loves, creation rejects God, God out of his goodness chooses a

people to be his own and to be a light to the nations and that these people don’t always get

that right.

Setting the scene, In Genesis God makes a promise to Abraham that he will be the father of

many nations and that he will give these Israelites a land to call their own. Exodus comes

after the book of Genesis, and by the end of the book of Genesis, the Israelites are living in

Egypt, under Egyptian rule as fairly content people, but knowing that one day, God will call

them and guide them to this promised land, this land flowing with milk and honey and good

things. Joseph speaks before his death and says ‘God will surely come to your aid, and take

you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… and

Joseph made his family promise that they’d take his bones into this promised land when

they went. That’s where Exodus begins...


The author of Exodus is Moses. Many statements within the book of Exodus point to Moses

as the author (see 17:14, 24:4, 34.27). Joshua 8:31 refers to the command given in Exodus

20:25 as being ‘written in the book of the laow of Moses, and passages such as Mark 7:1-

and 12:26 point to Moses being the writer too. In addition to this, many of the details of the

passage would not provide us with the insight they do if they weren’t written by the man

himself!

There are many, many themes within the Exodus – all pointing us to the glory of God. God’s

sovereignty over all things, God’s heart for his people, God’s holiness, God’s miraculous

provision, God’s mercy and grace, God’s faithfulness – to his people, to his promises, God’s

patience with his people, God’s commandments and guidance for life, God’s glory, his

weighty presence – God’s intervention in the life of his people. It all points us to God...

Exodus begins with a people, oppressed and crying out to God, and Exodus ends, while not

the end of the journey itself, it ends with God’s glory falling on his people, who he has

delivered from slavery. Exodus begins with God’s people wondering if God still hears their

call, and it ends with God’s spirit, his presence dwelling among them.... Exodus leads us to

praise God for who He is, majestic creator and sovereign Lord.

Overview of the book:

The oppression of the Israelites in Egypt, God’s people cry out to God for deliverance (Ex 1)

The birth of Moses, and God’s sovereign protection for him amidst the slaughter of many.

The life of Moses – journeying from being a young man, with temper issues and a murder to

his name – Moses flees to Midian, gets married and leads a quiet life working in the fields

for his father in law. (Ex 2)

God hears the cry of the Israelites, and promises He will deliver them. God’s call to Moses ,

the sign of the burning bush and Moses’ return to Egypt. Moses is unsure of himself, yet

God calls him and eventually, he follows in obedience. (Ex 3 -4)

Moses and Aaron challenge Pharaoh and the plagues begin... each plague a direct attack on

Egyptian idolatry and polytheism, with the God of Israel showing himself to be the true God,

greater and more powerful than the supposed gods of Egypt. (Exodus 5-11)

The Passover and the exodus occurs – as death comes to every household in Egypt, God

grants mercy to those who have called on his name – they remember God’s deliverance and


begin their journey out of Egypt. We see within this God’s miraculous intervention (Ex 12-

14)

The Israelites celebrate, then the Israelites complain, grumbling at Moses for the position

they find themselves in. God provides miraculously for his people with manna from Heaven

(Ex 15-16)

God’s miraculous provision again as water comes from the rock (Ex 17)

Jethro, Moses’ father in law, visits and instructs Moses to share the load he is carrying and

find suitable men and appoint them as judges (Ex 18)

God calls Moses to Mount Sinai, gives him the commandments and expands on these

commandments with detail of how they apply to life situations, with some additional

instruction (Ex 19-23)

God confirms his covenant with Israel. Israel confirm the covenant with God. (Ex 24)

God gives detailed instruction for the building of the Tabernacle – a place to meet and

worship, offer sacrifices and be put right with God. God appoints priests and Moses as high

priest to oversee the tabernacle. The tabernacle uses a great deal of significant imagery,

pointing us to God, his glory, the place of sacrifice and more (see transcript for preaches :

The house of God part 1 and 2) (Ex 24-31)

While Moses is in the presence of God, the Israelites become restless, ignore God’s

command and make an idol to worship. Moses returns and is dismayed (Ex 32)

Moses finds time away from the camp to meet with God (Ex 33)

God in his grace, gives the Law to Israel again, showing mercy to his people (Ex 34)

The account of the tabernacle being built exactly as instructed is recorded (Ex 35-39)

Moses dedicates the tabernacle to God, and God’s glory falls, dwelling in the Most holy

place among God’s people


Zooming in a little – some key ideas

There are many themes within the book of Exodus – yet one we see throughout the book is

God’s call to Israel to serve and worship only Him – to have no other gods and to not make

idols to worship – yet, after all God has done for Israel, we see the Israelites in a moment of

madness making up an idol to dance around and put above God.

Another key theme in the book of Exodus is Moses making time, and putting time aside to

be in the presence of God – we see it when the commandments are given, we see it when

he’s up on the mountain of the Lord for 40 days and nights, and we see it again in Exodus

33, where Moses goes outside the camp, away from it all – to spend time in the glorious

presence of God.

Exodus 32 and 33 show us plenty to practically get our teeth into... in a society today that is

very fast paced, with many demands, pulls from all sorts of directions, Exodus 32 and 33

show us 2 important aspects to life to think through – Have we put things above God? And

will we carve out time amidst our busy lives, to spend time with the glorious God of the

universe?

Idolatry and God’s Patience with Israel... Exodus 32 and the Golden Calf

In the preach idolatry was described as ‘when we put anything or anyone above God’ and

we see Israel make their own gods to worship ahead of Yahweh, the real God! – Are there

areas of your life where you realise you have taken your eye off your relationship with God

and allowed other things more importance / centre stage?

Eg jobs, money, house, friendships, hobbies etc.

A couple of ways to see where our ‘gods’ can be found, are to look at how we spend our

money, and how we spend our time – think about these factors for a few minutes – are

there now things you can see have taken precedent over relationship with God?

In the passage we saw Aaron shirk his responsibilities and try to pass the blame – he wasn’t

willing to say sorry or be accountable. What responsibilities has God given you? What

responsibilities do you have before God? Not just in terms of church roles but in terms of

personal life and conduct etc. Are you accountable to anyone? What steps can we take to

make sure we honour God with the responsibilities he gives us? Is there pride within you

stopping you from saying sorry and being accountable when in the wrong? If so – where

does this stem from, and will you take steps to remove this pride?

Israel’s sin at the time seemed quite attractive – but it ended with a bitter taste (the cow

ground up and in their water) and with judgement on their sin... As is the case with sin,


something that looks appealing ends up with dire consequences – how can we take steps

personally and also support one another to ensure we recognise what is sin and that we see

the warning signs before getting into it?

God’s call to Israel was ‘remember – I’m the God who led you out of Egypt’ and ‘I will bring

you into the promised land’ – can you remember specific times where God has got you

through, and times where God has delivered his promises? 1 or 2 (or everyone!) share some

of these experiences with the group – it builds our faith when we here of God’s faithfulness!

Are there any promises of God you are still holding on to that haven’t happened yet? These

could be shared and the group could pray for one another – to not forget God like the

Israelites did...

Making Time to be in the presence of God, the One who we walk with... Exodus 33

Thinking back to the passage – Moses carves time into his busy life to be with God – to go to a lonely

place and spend time in the presence of God. Discuss the best time of day and the best place for

you to carve out time to be with God. Do you have to find a lonely place? What are the things that

distract you / get in the way of you spending quality time with God?

The people watched Moses – what do people see when they watch you? What would you like them

to see? Are these two things different and what steps can you take to change?

Following on from this, we touched on Paul’s challenging words – ‘imitate me as I imitate Christ’ –

how does this verse make you feel? If people were to imitate you, what would they be like?

Moses talked to God like a friend – how do you approach God? In the preach we talked about some

differing approaches – which of these resonates with you? – Arrogance – Fear – Flippant – Legalistic

– Disinterested – Apathetic – Worried – Deep friendship?

What steps do you think you can take to develop a deep friendship with God?

Moses talks with God about the spirit of God needing to go with them or there being no point going

– the spirit as the distinguishing mark of Christian life. We then touched on being a people of both

the fruit and the gifts of the spirit. Could you be more open to the leading and guidance of the Holy

Spirit? How do find that God leads and guides you? (through the word? Visions? Feelings? ) Has God

ever used you in ways that make people sit up and notice the reality of God? If not, can you put your

finger on what may be getting in the way? Ie busyness / lack of obedience / unwilling to believe God

could work through you in this way?

The prayer of Moses’ heart – 1.show me your ways so I can walk in them 2. We need your spirit to go

with us or there’s no point. 3. We need your spirit to be a distinctive people 4. Show me your glory

Exodus Preaching Series Study Guide As you look at these 4 stages of Moses’ prayer how easy would you find it to echo these words? Are

you reluctant, or hungry? Wary or open? Talk around what may be stopping us being all we are

called to be in Christ...

A Little Bit More on Over-arching mega-themes and Big Ideas in Exodus

1. Pointers to Jesus and his work

We read of the Passover, the celebration of God’s sparing Israel judgement through the

sacrifice of a spotless lamb, without defect, atoning for their sins – Jesus is our Passover

lamb, his blood was shed for us, atoning for our sin. Here’s some examples of pointers to

the work of Jesus:

Exodus 12 5The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them

from the sheep or the goats. 6 Do not break any of the bones. 47 The whole community of Israel must

celebrate it.

In these extracts from Exodus 12 we can see how Jesus takes on the role of the sacrificial lamb. The

sacrifice has to be ‘without defect’ – an offering worthy of the Lord. As our redeemer, Jesus is the

only one who is ‘without defect’ as we are all sinners, but Jesus is sinless. He is the perfect sacrifice

that God requires.

Among the restrictions placed on this Passover lamb, we read that none of its bones are allowed to

be broken – this is paralleled by Jesus who died a fast death on the cross, and so, unlike for most

other people crucified, none of his bones were broked.

Exodus 13 Consecration of the Firstborn 1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether man or animal." 3 Then Moses said to the people, "Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the LORD brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving. 5 When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites—the land he swore to your forefathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ceremony in this month: 6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the LORD. 7 Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. 8 On that day tell your son, 'I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.' 9 This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that the law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. 10 You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year. 11 "After the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he promised on oath to you and your forefathers, 12 you are to give over to the LORD the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD. 13 Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons. 14 "In days to come, when your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' say to him, 'With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man

Exodus Preaching Series Study Guide and animal. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.' 16 And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand."

Exodus 13 records how the firstborn was sacrificed to redeem the sons of Israel, rather than leaving them to die. This leads us to Paul’s writing where he calls Jesus the ‘firstborn of all creation’ – people have said this means Jesus was pre-existent, or ‘the first of all’ or whatever, but if we read it with Exodus in mind, the role of the firstborn is ‘the sacrifice who redeems the children of Israel’ – so, Jesus being the firstborn is more about his status as ‘the perfect without defect redeemer lamb’ who through his sacrifice redeems creation, more so than ‘it means he was born, but also first..’ etc.

Exodus 14 – a pointer to Baptism and the work of Jesus. As we pass through the waters of baptism,

we are freed from slavery to sin and can enter the promised land as God’s people. This parallels

Israel’s passing through the waters of the red sea to the promised land of Canaan and freedom to be

God’s people.

Exodus 24: 8 Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, "This is the blood of the

covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words."

We read in Exodus 24 of the blood of the sacrifice being ‘the blood of the covenant’ and

infact Jesus says his blood is the blood of the new covenant as he celebrates Passover with

his disciples – pointing to his own death as being the ultimate fulfilment of Passover. You

could even say that Jesus is the new and better Moses, leading us on our own exodus

journey out of slavery to sin and into new life in him.

2. God’s incredible, miraculous intervention

Time and time again throughout the Exodus story we see God intervene – the signs to

Pharaoh, the parting of the red sea, water from the rock, manna from heaven to provide,

the Lord who heals you of all your diseases, the battle belonging to the Lord as Moses lifted

his hands to heaven – all the way through we see God’s incredible involvement – miracles.

God is the God of miracles and as we read Exodus we can’t help but be challenged by the

way God intervened – not just miracles in Exodus but all the way through the bible really –

have we neglected this aspect of our faith in God? Dismissing it as something for then but

not now... overlooking it as something that could get problematic or messy and we like

structure – yet Messy church is a craze taking off all over the country! God’s miraculous

intervention is something we mustn’t overlook – we see it here in Exodus, we see it through

the Bible, we see it in the early church. God is the God of miracles and he’s the same God

today!


3. God’s hand on Moses’ life

(which has implications for us – God isn’t just interested in Moses, but in all of us!) All the

way through the book of Exodus we’ve seen this deep relationship between God and Moses.

God’s provision for Moses at birth, his protection of him as an infant, his call to him through

the burning bush, his instruction, his encouragement, his power, his intervention, the

encounters Moses has had with God – it speaks of a life of ups and downs, highs and lows,

but a life lived in relationship with God. God, intimately interested in Moses and his life.

Even in the details of instruction, and his faithful constant provision of manna in the desert.

We follow the same God, we worship the same God. God is interested in your life, God has

plans for your life, God will speak into your life... God will direct you for your life, if you will

make space for him. What we see as part of this is God’s unfolding plan for Moses – at first,

God called Moses back to his people, and then he called him to challenge Pharaoh, and then

he called him to cross the red sea, and then he called him to walk towards Sinai.... it was an

unfolding plan. It was God’s plan. If God had said right at the outset, I am going to call you to

do this and this and this and this and this will happen and that will happen and there’ll be 40

years in the wilderness and the people will moan and the people will go back on their word,

and all this... Moses may not have said yes – but God revealed his plan to Moses as Moses

stepped forward in faith. Today, we may be asking that question, God what have you got for

me in 5 years time, God, what’s the big plan, what’s the big picture, where will I be in 10

years or 20 years? And I believe the challenge from Moses life is, just step forward in faith

for what God has said is next. That’s all you can do. Just step forward into what God has

asked of you, don’t worry about 40 years from now, God will guide you, God will reveal it.

Just obey in the now...

4. God’s desire to be with his people – God’s glory with God’s people

We see a real desire for deep relationship with people, from God – God out of his grace

chooses Israel to be his people, he calls them, he comes down to be with them – God

initiates it and man responds.

As this book concludes, it is fitting that the chapter closes , the book closes, with God’s

presence coming down, the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, and wherever God’s

people went, his presence went with them, they didn’t move til his presence lifted, and

when God’s presence lifted, they followed. God’s weighty glory among his people, God’s

people amidst God’s presence, obediently following, joyfully walking with God, wherever he

led them. What a beautiful picture, what a glorious relationship. God leading, his glory

present, his people responding. What will you be known as as a Christian? What will we be

remembered for as a church? I pray it would be that we’d be a people of God’s presence, a

people of the spirit, joyously following God’s lead and stepping into whatever he has for us.

Amidst the busyness, amidst programmes, amidst our great plans, let’s not forget to be

people of his presence, sharing his glory with the world.


In conclusion

One writer says this – ‘Exodus concludes with an elaborate discussion on the theology of worship.

Though costly in time, effort and monetary value, the tabernacle, its meaning and function, points to

the chief end of humanity: ‘to glorify God and enjoy him forever.’ By means of the tabernacle, the

omnipotent, unchanging and transcendent God of the universe came to dwell or ‘tabernacle’ with

his people, thereby revealing his gracious nearness as well. God is not only mighty on Israel’s behalf,

he is also present in her midst. ‘

The setting for this is God’s liberation for his people, freeing them from Egyptian bondage, entering

into covenant relationship with them, and doing so through his chosen mediator – in this case

Moses, pointing us to God’s purposes in history – his purposes he would fulfil through Israel and

ultimately through Jesus Christ, the supreme Mediator.

What now?

Enjoy getting stuck into Exodus, download the MP3s, pray, seek God, and work out the journey God

is taking you on, where is he taking you from? What is he taking you into ? What sort of disciple is he

calling you to be?

For more go to www.peopleschurch.co.uk/resources

http://www.peopleschurch.co.uk/resources


Notes

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