The second book in the Canonized Bible is Exodus. The Hebrew name for this book is Sh'mot and it does not mean "to leave". Sh'mot means "names". As you can see the first few lines from this book are about the names of the descendants of Israel who were in Egypt. There were 70 descendants of Israel. All of them came to be with Joseph, a child of Israel (Jacob), who had become 2nd most powerful man in the land. Yet by the time we pick up the story, a new king (Pharaoh) had risen to power and he didn't know of Joseph. All he knew is that this people had multiplied and filled the land. This book deals with names more than it does about an escape. It can be separated into 3 main parts (with many other subsections). The following is a breakdown of what it is all about.
- Exodus 1:1-12:51, the dehumanization of Israel. Pharaoh tries to wipe out the names of all the Israelites by hard labor, genocide of male infants, and a refusal to allow them to be a people of their own.
- Exodus 13:1-20:26, the deliverance of Israel. Once Israel had been set free, God would start to re-establish the name of Israel throughout the region by starting their journey to the Promise Land.
- Exodus 21:1-40:38, the rules for Israel. To get their name back they had to prove themselves worthy and were given a set of rules to live by so their names would not be wiped off the face of the earth.
This book is the manual for being Jewish. However it is a direct parallel to the life of Christ and what He means to the world. We are dehumanized as believers in Christ but He delivers us from this world with rules to live by. It shows how God remembers us (those who love Him). It shows how God cares for us (taking our oppression away) and shows how much He wants us to be with Him (living by the law-Christ). It is also an analogy of what God can do in our life. He first prepares us. He then redeems us for His purpose and then He reveals to us what that purpose is.
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