He looks at the Scriptures that use the imagery of a sea-dragon’s slaughter to picture (1) creation and (2) the dividing of the waters of the sea and God’s defeat of Pharaoh and Egypt. Salvation is an act of new creation.” He then explains that, in some poetic Scriptures, the sea pictures chaos and the forces of evil the sea is also personified as a sea-monster. Morales writes, “Through the waters Israel has died to death and has been reborn, resurrected as the people of Yahweh. Egypt is a land of exile for Israel exile symbolises death. He notes that the sea symbolises death and Egypt symbolises Sheol, the watery realm of death.
He explores this account’s allusions to the creation and flood stories in Genesis. , including how Yahweh’s battle at the sea is described elsewhere in Scripture as the slaying of a sea dragon”. In chapter 4, Morales considers “the creation theology of the sea crossing. And God revealed Himself to Israel through His “mighty acts and fatherly compassion”. Morales explains that mankind’s exile from God led into ever-deepening ignorance of God thus the key point of the Exodus was to make God known, to reveal his “matchless glory, power, supremacy, and judgments”, to cause Pharaoh and Egypt to know that He is Lord of Heaven and Earth, and King above all gods. Israel’s suffering in Egypt is seen as their experience of the nations’ own exile from God. Chapter 3 considers Israel’s exile in Egypt, and the plagues that God sent on that land. The next five chapters cover major themes of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Within that journey there are further exoduses: Abraham’s exodus from Egypt, his vision of Israel’s exodus from Egypt (Genesis 15.7-21), Lot’s exodus from Sodom, and the near-sacrifice of his son Isaac, recorded in Genesis 22, a narrative that Morales calls “a Passover journey”, and which foreshadows Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Overall, his life was an exodus journey out of exile in Ur to a climax on Mount Moriah, the mount where the Temple would one day be built. Morales traces how Abraham’s life is stamped with the motif of exodus, the reversal of exile. Part 3 (chapters 12-14) covers the new exodus accomplished by Jesus the Messiah – His death, burial, resurrection and ascension to His Father’s right hand in heaven.Ĭhapter 2 traces the story of Abraham, followed by a literary outline of the patriarch’s life. Part 2 (chapters 8-11) deals with the prophesied second exodus. The first part (chapters 2-7) covers the Exodus from Egypt, preluded by an exploration of the life of Abraham, a life that was “exodus-shaped”. resurrection from the dead.” Thus the stage is set for the rest of the book, which comprises three parts. Ĭhapter 1 concludes by commenting that to bring the nations back to God: “will require an exodus”, which is, in fact, “the reversal of exile. But “the exile of the nations is the backdrop for the story of Israel,” the nation whom God creates to “reclaim the nations for Yahweh”. Genesis chapters 1-11 describes mankind’s increasing exile from God, an widening alienation that is reflected by escalating wickedness. After their sin, mankind―now alienated from God―began a life of exile from God outside the garden.
In his preface, the author writes, “My hope and prayer is that this book may in some small way lead readers through their own “sort of exodus,” closer to God.”Ĭhapter 1 sets the scene by taking us back to the beginning of the Bible story, and traces the story through the first 11 chapters of Genesis. His book is a rich feast of Biblical truth that both edifies the mind and stirs the heart, and I unhesitatingly commend it. Dr Morales’ book brought home to me, in a new way, how fundamental and pervasive the theme of exodus is in Scripture. The text is accompanied by footnotes, and there’s a small list of books for further reading at the end. The book is relatively brief (around 200 pages) and accessible. This book bridges the gap between books written at an introductory and popular level and those aimed at advanced students and at scholars. That salvation is for all God’s people, both Israel and those from among the nations it culminates in God’s people living in God’s presence in a new creation.
He shows that the exodus of God’s people from Egypt is the pattern for the second exodus―that is, the salvation accomplished by Jesus the Messiah.
Dr Morales demonstrates that the exodus is a central theme in the Bible it is foundational to redemptive history: the storyline of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is a story of exile and exodus. Exodus Old and New is a remarkable, compelling and deeply insightful exploration of the Exodus theme in Scripture.
0 kommentar(er)
