Exodus - an Authentic Record of Events

The Bible is the inspired word of God. This page is a continuation in a series of articles about the Bible as God’s word.

Part 21  Exodus - an Authentic Record of Events

More predictions to Christ’s work are to be seen during Israel’s stop at Mount Sinai.

1. The old covenant at mount Sinai

“And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying...'Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.

'And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel” - Exodus 19:3. We note also a negative feature in the Law, which identified and placed prohibitions on various undesirable features of human nature.

“Thou shalt not...” nine times in the Ten Commandments, the opening summary of the Law of Moses - see Exodus 20:4.

2. The new covenant in Christ

“[Jesus] is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises... ‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant [see Jeremiah 31:31] ...not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them,’ says the Lord.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” - Hebrews 8:6. And we also take note of the contrast between the nine “thou shalt nots” in the Ten Commandments, and what Jesus declared in Matthew 5:3 - “Blessed are ....” occurs nine times in the introduction to the Gospel in the Sermon on the Mount. Another foreshadowing of Christ’s work is seen in what God had in store for Israel if they remained faithful to Him.

3. A Kingdom of Priests - proposed for natural Israel

“And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, ‘Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself.

'Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ ” - Exodus 19:3.

4. A Kingdom of Priests - reserved for ‘a nation bearing the fruits of it’ – Matthew 21:43.

“They [the redeemed] sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth’ ” - Revelation 5:9. There are more features of the events in Exodus, and these pointed forward to the role of Christ as the saviour of his people.