Exodus

Author: Moses
Date of Writing: 1450-1410 BC
Type of Book: Second book of the Pentateuch, the book of the Law
Theme: God's deliverance of the children of Israel

The word Exodus means simply "exit", so named after the central event in the book, when God delivered the children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt.  Exodus begins with the word "now", which could also be translated "and".  It is just the continuation of Genesis, as Moses chronicles the history of the nation of Israel.  Some so-called scholars question Exodus' authorship, but I'll take the word of Jesus when He quoted from Exodus and called it "the book of Moses" (Mark 12:26).

Genesis ended with the sons of Jacob moving to Egypt to escape the famine in the land of Canaan.  Exodus picks up the story four hundred years later as the children of Israel became slaves in Egypt.  During this time, they had multiplied as a people to the extent that the seventy people who originally went to Egypt had become over two million.

The life of Moses is divided into three periods of forty years.  He spent the first forty years of his life living in the  house of Pharaoh as the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter.  For the next forty years, he lived in the wilderness, as God was preparing him to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt.  Then, for the last forty years, he was the leader of Israel.

The book of Exodus begins to outline the various commandments of the Law that God gave the people at Mount Sinai.  By giving the plans for the tabernacle and the Law to the people, God was giving insights into who He is, as well as allowing them to discover that they could never fulfill the righteous requirements of a holy God.  And when we read about the Passover, the Ten Commandments and the entire sacrificial system, we see prefigured the One who would be provided to save mankind, Jesus Christ Himself.

-by Pastor Chuck Smith from The Word for Today Bible