Exodus and Wilderness
- When
- c. 15th or 13th century BC
- Written by
- Moses, by tradition
- Chapters
- 40
The big idea
God hears his people’s cry, frees them from slavery in Egypt, binds them to himself in covenant at Sinai, and comes to dwell among them in the tabernacle.
Themes
- Deliverance
- Covenant and law
- The name of God
- God’s presence among his people
Memory verse
I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Key passages
- 3The burning bush
- 12The Passover
- 14Crossing the Red Sea
- 20:1–17The Ten Commandments
- 40:34–38Glory fills the tabernacle
Links to other Scripture
- John 1:14The Word dwelt among us
- 1 Corinthians 5:7Christ our Passover
- 1 Corinthians 10:1–4The rock was Christ
- Hebrews 9:1–14The true tabernacle
Read the text
Choose a chapter to read it here in the King James Version. Verses with a dotted underline have notes from Bible scholars. Tap one to open them.
Notes from
Chapters
King James text and the commentaries of Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Gill, Clarke, Calvin, and Keil and Delitzsch are in the public domain. Tyndale Open Study Notes are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, from tyndaleopenresources.com. Texts were reformatted for this site.
Journal prompts
Keep a journal or notebook for your study. Write your answers there, in your own words.
- Where do you see Christ in this book?
- God heard his people’s cry before they saw any rescue. What are you crying out about right now, and do you believe he hears it?
- The Passover lamb stood in the place of the firstborn. What do you do with the idea that something was given in your place?
- God filled the tabernacle with his glory and stayed. Where have you sensed his presence nearby, and where do you feel its absence?
- In one sentence, this book is about…