In the book of Exodus, the Israelites had only one thing going for them,
and that was God himself. What Exodus shows is that their God
had one overriding purpose: namely, to glorify himself. The book of Exodus
is so rich that it is hard to reduce it to a single theme or emphasis. Different
commentators have made various suggestions about what ties the whole
book together, and some have doubted whether there is anything to unify
the book at all. However, the theme of Exodus is very simple — so simple
it can be expressed in four short words:
saved for God's glory.
In one sense, of course, God does everything for his glory. In his famous
"Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World,"
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) wrote, "The great end of God's works, which
is so variously expressed in Scripture, is indeed but ONE; and this one end
is most properly and comprehensively called THE GLORY OF GOD."
The chief end of God is to glorify himself in all he is and all he does. But
this is especially true of the exodus. One of the most glorious things God ever
did was to save his people out of Egypt. The exodus was for his glory. As
the psalmist wrote, "When our fathers were in Egypt . . . he saved them for
his name's sake, to make his mighty power known" (Ps. 106:7, 8).
God makes his glorious purpose known throughout the book of Exodus.
Whenever Moses told Pharaoh to let God's people go, the reason he gave was
so they could glorify God. Pharaoh heard it over and over again: "Let my
people go, so that they may worship me" (e.g., Exod. 9:1). But Pharaoh
would not let God's people go. From the human standpoint, this was because
his heart was hard. But from the divine perspective, God hardened Pharaoh's
heart so that he could glorify himself. Three times God promised to gain
glory for himself through Pharaoh: "The Egyptians will know that I am the
LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen"
(Exod. 14:18; cf. Exod. 9:16; 14:4, 17; Rom. 9:17).
God did gain glory for himself — at Pharaoh's expense! And as soon
as his people escaped from Pharaoh's clutches, they glorified God. The crossing
of the Red Sea was followed immediately by the Song of Moses, in
which the people praised God for being "majestic in holiness, awesome in
glory, working wonders" (Exod. 15:11). As the Israelites traveled farther into
the desert, they saw "the glory of the LORD appearing in the cloud" (Exod.
16:10). Finally they arrived at God's holy mountain, where they again witnessed
God's glory in thunder and lightning (Exod. 24:15-17). They also heard it in the words of the covenant, which were given to help them glorify God.
Tragically, while the Israelites were waiting for Moses to come back
down the mountain, they started dancing around a golden calf. God was so
angry with them that he was ready to destroy them. Why? Because although
they were saved for God's glory, they were not giving him the glory. But
Moses interceded, asking God to have mercy on them, and he made his
appeal on the basis of God's glory (Exod. 32:11-14). If God destroyed the
Israelites, Moses argued, then the Egyptians would not glorify him as the
God who saved his people. Afterward Moses went back up the mountain, and
there he asked to see the glory of God (Exod. 33:18-23). And see it he did,
glimpsing the back of God's glory. When Moses came back down from the
mountain, he himself was glorious, radiating with the brightness of God's
glory (Exod. 34:29-35).
The last chapters of Exodus contain detailed instructions for building the
tabernacle. Rather than being irrelevant to the exodus, as some have thought,
these chapters explain the whole point of the adventure. We are saved to
glorify God, which means worshiping him the way he desires to be worshiped.
Concerning the tabernacle, God said, "the place will be consecrated
by my glory" (Exod. 29:43). Thus the climax of the whole book comes at
the very end: "Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of
the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting
because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle" (40:34, 35).
From beginning to end, the exodus was for the glory of God. The whole
glorious adventure shows that the God of Israel is the God who saves.
Anyone who wants to be saved may call on his name and on the name of
his divine Son, the Savior, Jesus Christ. This is what the psalmist did at the
end of Psalm 106, the "Exodus Psalm." After recounting the entire epic —
explaining how God saved his people out of Egypt in spite of their sin —
the psalmist invites us to call on God for our own salvation: "Save us, O
LORD our God, and gather us from the nations" (v. 47a). We do not deserve
to be saved from sin any more than the Israelites deserved to be brought out
of Egypt. But God saves us for his glory, so "that we may give thanks to
[his] holy name and glory in [his] praise," saying, "Praise be to the LORD, the
God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting" (vv. 47b, 48a).
