Exodus 14-17: Come Follow Me with Sam

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Exodus as a Liberation Chiasm

As we are about to reach a pivotal point in the book of Exodus I think it is a good time to point out that the book of Exodus is the story of the liberation of the Israelites from terrible bondage. It first tells the story of physical liberation from the hands of the Egyptians, then it tells the story of spiritual liberation from the traditions of the Egyptians.

Chapters 14-17 help to emphasize the point that while the Lord has made His people physically free, They are not yet spiritually free. Once in the desert, they are angry with Moses enough to stone him. Knowing only bondage, they expect a God who will take care of them in soft bondage of having an easy life with all their needs provided for rather than the Egyptians who took care of them in a harder bondage of work. God does not want them to be in bondage at all, soft or hard. He wants them to be free. at this point they are free physically to go where ever they want. Unfortunately they find they are not spiritually free. They cannot imagine an existence where everything is not provided for them. They complain to moses about everything and wait for him to provide it for them, whether water, or food or nourishment, or protection, or even, skipping ahead to chapter 18, little things. They cannot resolve anything by themselves.

In an almost chiasmus like structure, Moses has written the first half of Exodus to show progression to this stage. The tipping point is going to come in the next reading 18-20, where God invites Israel into His presence, the ultimate experience of enlightenment, awareness, freedom and power. God then gives the laws whereby if they follow, they can achieve spiritual freedom. unfortunately, the people rebel against this and raise the calf, ending in a miserable spiritual state parallel to the physical state they were in at the the beginning of the book of Exodus. the last few chapters are dedicated to the construction and ordinances of the tabernacle, the temple of God, as a promise that they one day can be spiritually freed in parallel construction of the promise of God at the beginning of Exodus that they would be physically freed.

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