My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Biblical Theology
This book is a biblical theology of the theme of the exodus (or more accurately, exile and restoration from exile) throughout Scripture. I’m thrilled to see the recent increase in popularity of biblical theology. I believe much needless division in the church has been the result of an over emphasis of systematic theology and neglect of biblical theology. Books like this one will do a lot to remedy that problem.
The New Exodus
The most helpful of Morales’ points is his discussion of the new exodus—the promise from the early pages of Scripture that there would someday be a true, final exodus that would fulfill all that was left unfulfilled in the historical exodus.
He begins by showing how the exodus pattern is all over Scripture. Moses even presents the story of God calling Abraham with terminology from the exodus. Though it happened prior to the exodus, the readers of Genesis would be familiar with exodus language and would recognize it in the way the Abraham story was conveyed. It is a design pattern of God calling his people out of places of death to salvation.
Called Out of Exile
The story of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt showcases God’s power over the pagan gods, the creation, and the forces of evil personified by the great serpent. The Passover shows that the deliverance was not merely a rescue from bondage, but a salvation from death. The author shows how the Exodus from Egypt is simply a continuation of the theme of rescue from exile that begins with humanity’s exile from the Garden of Eden. All of Scripture is the story of God delivering man out of exile.
And like each of the rescue stories, Israel’s return from Babylon fulfills the promise only in a very limited way. The Jews understood this and looked for a future completion of the promise of restoration from exile. They knew they were still in exile even in Jesus’ time. Though they were in the land, they had no king and nothing close to what the prophets had promised regarding the return from exile.
The final fulfillment would come from the servant of the LORD who represents Israel who would suffer and redeem.
Fulfillment
Morales does a wonderful job throughout of showing the fulfillment of all these themes in Jesus. Sometimes the effort to show how Jesus fulfills Old Testament themes can be a bit forced, but that is not the case in this book. The connections the author draws are very clear.
I highly recommend this book. And for those who don’t want to take the time to read the whole volume, much can be gained from listening to the podcast interview of the author on The Naked Bible Podcast, January 9, 2022
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