An Overview of Exodus

by David Gooding

The biblical authors used the literary conventions of their day to convey their message. These included structures and patterns less obvious to us in our modern age. David Gooding brought his expertise in ancient literature to the biblical text, and these study notes represent his thinking about the structure, patterns and thought-flow of Exodus.

When speaking to groups of Bible students, he often said, ‘When it comes to Bible study, there is structure, pattern and thought-flow, and the greatest of these is thought-flow. Here are the thoughts of God expressed. Our job is to follow the thought-flow’. He taught that the most important thing to grasp in biblical interpretation is the way the author develops his message, and that discerning structure and patterns within the text should always be directed towards that end.

David Gooding developed these study notes over many years and distributed them at public and private talks. The study notes are not meant to be the last word on the book, and may not cover it entirely. The Myrtlefield Trust offers them to Bible students, preachers and teachers in order to stimulate further thinking about the book, so that its message may be better understood.

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Study Notes

An Overview of Exodus

The Process of Liberation (Exod 1:1–17:16)				The Goal of Liberation (Exod 18:1–40:38)
Setting: Israel enslaved: Moses rejected as judge: Moses flees to Jethro.				Setting: Israel free: Jethro comes to Moses: Moses organises Israel’s judges.
Prelude to Liberation (Exod 1:1–10:29)		Liberation Effected and Maintained (Exod 11:1–17:16)		The Goal Proposed (Exod 18:1–31:18)		The Goal Rejected, Restored and Achieved (Exod 32:1–40:38)
Movement I (Exod 1:1–6:27)	Movement II (Exod 6:28–10:29)	Movement III (Exod 11:1–13:16)	Movement IV (Exod 13:17–17:16)	Movement V (Exod 18:1–24:11)	Movement VI (Exod 24:12–31:18)	Movement VII (Exod 32:1–34:35)	Movement VIII (Exod 35:1–40:38)
Fire in the bush (Exod 3:2).	Fire on the earth (Exod 9:23).	The lamb roast in fire (Exod 12:9).	Guiding pillar of fire (Exod 13:21).	Fire on the mount (Exod 19:18).	The continual burnt sacrifice (Exod 29:38–40).	Burning wrath against israel (Exod 32:10).	Fire in the tabernacle (Exod 40:38).
Promise to Israel of liberation and wealth.	Demand to Pharaoh: Let Israel go to serve God.	The one plague more as judgment.	Escape through sea and desert.	The Goal is God himself. Proposal that Israel be God’s special treasure and privileged priesthood. The conditions: Law and Covenant.	Implementing the proposal. Israel to offer wealth for sanctuary and daily sacrifice to God.	Israel’s wealth set up as a false god and goal. The false Festival: These be thy gods that brought thee out of Egypt. Moses’ intercession.	Israel repent, offer wealth, make and present Tabernacle and vestments.
Lord’s name = God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel’s privileged role as firstborn. Israel’s fluctuating faith. Then they repudiate Moses.	Lord’s name = God of Nature. The plagues as evidence. Pharaoh’s fluctuating unbelief. Then he defies Moses and God.	The lord’s passover. Israel’s firstborn NOT privileged. Israel given great wealth. Festival instituted lest Israel forget the true meaning of Liberation.	Lord’s name = Man of War, the Lord who heals, the Lord My Banner. Route chosen lest Israel repent and go back. Israel’s song of faith. Then they rebel against Moses.	Lord’s name = The Lord who brought you out of Egypt.	Israel’s names to be presented before God on jewels of breastplate.	Lord’s name = Compassionate, Gracious, Loving, Jealous.	Israel’s names engraved on jewels of breastplate. God’s glory fills the Tabernacle.

Some Comparisons of the Two Halves of Exodus

I	V
1. Israelites reject Moses as judge: he flees to Jethro (Exod 2:14–22).	1. Jethro advises Moses how to organise Israel’s judges. Moses becomes the mediator of the law (Exod 18).
2. God’s Self-revelation in the flames of the burning bush (Exod 3).	2. God’s Self-revelation in the flames of Sinai.
3. Israel’s deliverance based on God’s covenant with Abraham (Exod 2:24).	3. Israel’s status, role and behaviour dependent on the covenant at Sinai (Exod 19–24).
4. Israel, God’s firstborn (Exod 4:22).	4. Israel, God’s special treasure from among all nations, priests, a holy nation (Exod 19:5–6).
II	VI
1. ‘Let my people go that they may serve me’ (Exod 9:1).	1. Directions for the Tabernacle and priesthood (Exod 25–31).
2. The finger of God intervening in the physical world (Exod 8:19).	2. The finger of God in the revelation of the Law (Exod 31:18).
3. God’s presence in the created world: the difference between the Israelites and the Egyptians is a sign to Pharaoh ‘that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth’ (Exod 8:21–23).	3. God’s presence among his redeemed people: ‘a sanctuary that I may dwell among them’ (Exod 25:8). Israel’s observance of God’s Sabbath rest after the creation of the world, a sign between God and Israel . . . ‘that I am the Lord who sanctifies you’ (Exod 31:12–17).
III	VII
1. Israelites ask Egyptians for gold and silver (Exod 11:2–3; 12:35–36).	1. Israel turns some of the gold into the golden calf (Exod 32:2–4).
2. ‘I have brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt’ (Exod 12:17).	2. ‘These are your gods which brought you up out of the land of Egypt’ (Exod 32:5).
3. ‘You shall keep it as a feast (hag) to the Lord . . . forever’ (Exod 12:14).	3. ‘Tomorrow is a feast (hag) to the Lord’ (Exod 32:5).
4. Sanctification of Israel’s firstborn to the Lord (Exod 13:1–2, 11–16).	4. Consecration of the Levites to the Lord (Exod 32:26–29). The sanctification of the firstborn (Exod 34:19–20).
5. The Lord passes over the door to protect the firstborn (Exod 12:13, 23).	5. The Lord puts Moses in the cleft of the rock and covers him with His hand to protect him (Exod 33:20–33).
IV	VIII
1. ‘The Lord went before them . . . in a pillar of cloud by day, and by night in a pillar of fire’ (Exod 13:21–22).	1. ‘The cloud . . . was on the Tabernacle by day, and . . . fire by night . . . throughout all their journeys’ (Exod 40:38).
2. ‘You have guided them to your holy habitation . . . you will bring them into the place which you have made for yourself to dwell in, thy sanctuary . . .’ (Exod 15:13, 17).	2. The making, presentation, and erection of the Tabernacle for God to dwell in.
3. The Sabbath in relation to gaining one’s daily bread (Exod 16:22–36).	3. The Sabbath in relation to building the Tabernacle (Exod 35:1–3).
	4. So Moses finished the work (Exod 40:33).
4. ‘They looked toward the wilderness and the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud’ (Exod 16:10).	5. ‘The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle’ (Exod 40:34, 36).

Study Notes 3–23

Due to the many illustrations in these study notes they are only available as a PDF download.

What Kind of Epic is Exodus?

[Editor's note] These notes were used by Dr Gooding for his lectures at Dr Devlin’s extramural class at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Obvious Epic Proportions of Exodus

1. Moses’ defiance of the tyrant, Pharaoh: the plagues on Egypt: escape from slavery: drowning of Pharaoh’s army: the long journey to the promised land, and entry into it.
2. Its prototypical influence: emancipation of slaves, ‘let my people go’; Marxism’s destruction of capitalism, class warfare and Marxism’s ‘promised land’; Chinese communists’ ‘long march’; liberation theology.

Recital of Past Formative Events in a Nation’s History

Homer’s Iliad; Virgil’s Aeneid; Jewish Passover.

The Battles of Ancient Heroes

1. Iliad; Aeneid; the Taín.
2. Israel: no fighting at Exodus; little fighting on journey; fighting at end (Joshua); the ‘age of the heroes’—book of Judges; single combat, David and Goliath—1 Samuel.

The Journey

1. Journeys involving fantastic geography: Gilgamesh Epic, Odyssey, Aeneid.
2. Israel’s long journey: no fantastic geography.

The Goal of the Journey

1. Odyssey: get home!
2. Gilgamesh: quest for immortality.
3. Aeneid: founding of a new race and empire.
4. Israel: promised land of their own.

Fighting at End of Journey

1. Odyssey: slaying of suitors: who is the true husband, lord and king?
2. Aeneid: fighting with tribes in Italy and with Turnus: who is to be the governing race?
3. Israel: battles against Jericho, etc. What kind of society?

Sense of Destiny

1. Aeneid: against the background of the fall and sack of Troy, Aeneas senses a god-given destiny to found a new order.
2. Israel: against the background of the great cities and cultures of the ancient Middle East, Israel’s sense of a God-given destiny.

The Difference Between Primary and Secondary Epic

1. Primary: Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
2. Secondary: Virgil’s Aeneid.
3. In which category should the Exodus be placed?
4. Christopher Booker’s category: ‘A Quest Story’, and the basic elements in such stories

An Informal Summary of the Exodus Epic

Resumé

1. Exodus is a quest story: its closest ancient parallel, the Aeneid; but no fantastic geography or history; an epic played out in the real world.
2. Dr Devlin’s perceptive question: ‘Can there be such a thing as a modern epic?’

The Roots of the Exodus Epic

1. Abraham, a nomad pastoralist, against the background of the famous ancient cities (Gen 10:10–12; 11:4–9).
2. The promise: a large nation descended from him, with a land of their own, and kings; and this to the benefit of all other nations.

Some Obstacles on the Journey Towards Fulfilment

1. The story of Joseph and his brothers Internal jealousy and disloyalty to the family of Israel threaten to prevent it from ever becoming a unified nation. Joseph’s treatment of his brothers secures their future.
2. The glory that was Egypt Under Joseph, Egypt’s culture was ideal for Israel’s development; but eventually it enslaved them, denied their destiny and obstructed its attainment.
3. Pharaoh’s defiance and the nine plagues The issue at stake: who or what ultimately controls earth’s ecosystems?
4. Sinai: Covenant with the unseen God versus following the visible golden calf Israel, losing faith in the unseen and his ten words and preferring the visible, lose their sense of direction. E. Giants in the promised land Unnerved by the phenomenon of abnormally huge and sinister human beings, Israel’s majority reject the idea of entry into the promised land as impracticable.

Occupation of the Promised Land

1. Israel is warned in advance that its occupation will not be uninterrupted, if they compromise with fertility-gods, cultic prostitution, child-sacrifice, etc. (see Deut 29:22–28).
2. First major fulfilment of the promise: David unites the tribes, founds Jerusalem; Solomon builds temple. But eventually, the Babylonian exile.

The Ongoing Epic

1. Isaiah, the new Exodus, the restoration of Israel, and its partnership with Assyria and Egypt.
2. Modern Israel and the aliyah.
3. The Christian interpretation of the Exodus Epic. The Alternative Epic Man versus the universe: a tragic hero (cf. C. S. Lewis, ‘The Funeral of a Great Myth’).

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