Christ In Exodus
Christ in Exodus
Bro Yeow Chin Kiong | 3 May 2026 | John 1:17–18
John 1:17–18
"For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him."
How do you read the Old Testament? Do you read it as a collection of ancient stories — interesting, perhaps even inspiring, but distant from the Gospel? Or do you read it with the New Testament as your spectacles — putting them on first, and then looking at every story, every character, every law, every symbol, asking: what does this have to do with Jesus Christ?
That second way of reading is the key that unlocks the whole Bible. The New Testament illuminates the Old. And nowhere is this more richly demonstrated than in the book of Exodus — a book so dense with pictures of Christ, containing more foreshadows of the coming Saviour than any other single book in the Old Testament.
Moses — The Foreshadow of the Deliverer
The most immediate picture of Christ in Exodus is Moses himself. From the very circumstances of his birth, the parallels are striking. When Jesus was born, King Herod ordered the slaughter of infant boys in Bethlehem, trying to destroy the one who had been born King of the Jews. So too, when Moses was born, Pharaoh commanded that all newborn Hebrew boys be killed — and Moses was preserved through the courage of the midwives and the hidden protection of God. The deliverer could not be destroyed before his time.
Moses went through forty years of testing in the wilderness before he was sent to lead Israel. Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness, tested by the devil, and overcame every temptation by the Word of God. Both were prepared through suffering before they were sent to deliver.
And Moses was a deliverer on a scale that staggered the imagination. When Israel came out of Egypt, the number of men on foot — not yet counting women and children — was six hundred thousand:
Exodus 12:37
"Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children."
Numbers 1 records the more precise count of 603,550 men above the age of twenty. This was the deliverance of an entire nation from the land of pain, evil, and suffering. Yet Moses was only a foreshadow — a preview. Jesus Christ is the ultimate Deliverer, freeing not a nation from physical slavery but all of humanity from sin and its eternal consequences. Where Moses delivered a people from Egypt, Christ delivers a people from death itself.
And just as Moses had to intercede repeatedly for a people who complained, rebelled, and tested God's patience at every turn — going before God again and again to plead for their forgiveness — so Jesus is our Intercessor and Mediator. At Gethsemane, when every disciple fell asleep, He prayed alone. On the cross, He bore what none of them could bear. He is the greater Moses — not merely a man appointed by God, but the Son of God, who did not merely point to the cross but walked up it.
We must not confuse the foreshadow with the reality.
Moses was fully human, chosen by God, but he was a shadow of the one who was to come, Jesus.
The Burning Bush — The Pre-Incarnate Christ
Who spoke to Moses from the burning bush? The voice identified itself as "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" — and yet no man has ever seen God the Father. The Gospel of John makes this clear: "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him" (John 1:18). So who was the divine personality at the burning bush?
As far as we can tell from Scripture, it was Jesus — the pre-incarnate Word of God, who was with the Father from the very beginning (John 1:1–3). It was the one who would later take on human flesh in the womb of Mary.
Jesus Himself pointed back to the burning bush passage to settle a debate about the resurrection:
Mark 12:26–27
"But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken."
He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive — their bodies are in the dust, but their souls are with God, existing somewhere in His creation. The soul is not extinguished at death. It goes back to God who gave it.
Acts 7:30–36
"And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai. When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, 'I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' And Moses trembled and dared not look. Then the Lord said to him, 'Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.' This Moses whom they rejected, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' is the one God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years."
The Passover Lamb — The Lamb of God
When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him at the Jordan, he said something that would have made no sense without Exodus. He said:
John 1:29
"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!""
Why a lamb? Because Israel knew exactly what a lamb meant. At the first Passover, each household was commanded to take a lamb — without blemish, without spot — and slaughter it. Its blood was to be applied to the doorposts and the lintel of their homes. When the angel of death passed through Egypt to take the firstborn of every house, it would pass over every home marked by that blood. Not because the people inside were righteous. Because the blood was there. That is mercy — not receiving the death you deserved, because an innocent life was given in your place.
The connection is made explicit in the New Testament:
1 Corinthians 5:7–8
"Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."
1 Peter 1:18–19
"knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot."
Without blemish. Without spot. The Passover lamb of Exodus was a precise pre-enactment of what Christ would do on the cross. And the unleavened bread — made without yeast, representing purity, made in haste as Israel fled Egypt — pointed forward to the sincerity and truth that should mark the life of every Christian. Without Exodus, John the Baptist's words at the Jordan are just a metaphor. With Exodus, they are a declaration that the moment Israel had been waiting for since the night of the first Passover had finally arrived.
The Rock and the Manna — Christ Sustains in the Wilderness
For forty years — Israel wandered in the wilderness. In that wilderness, God provided water from a rock and manna from heaven. Both, the New Testament tells us, pointed directly to Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:1–5
"Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness."
That Rock was Christ. The water that poured from the rock in the desert and kept a nation alive for forty years was, in a way we may not fully understand, a provision of the one who would one day say:
John 4:13–14
"Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.""
Ordinary water sustains the body for a day. The water Christ gives sustains the soul into eternity. And so with the manna — the bread that fell from heaven every morning and fed a nation that had no food of their own. Jesus connects Himself to it directly:
John 6:30–35
"Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.""
Moses did not give the bread from heaven — God did. And now God has given the true bread from heaven: His Son. The manna of Exodus was real and miraculous, but it sustained physical life for a day. Jesus, the Bread of Life, sustains spiritual life forever. Old Testament story; New Testament reality. The story is not merely a story — it is a shadow of something greater, and every Sunday when we break bread together, we are celebrating what the manna in the wilderness was always pointing toward.
The Tabernacle — God Pitching His Tent Among Us
The tabernacle — the great tent where Israel met with God in the wilderness — is one of the most detailed pictures of Christ in the entire Old Testament. It was the place of God's presence. The high priest was the intermediary, entering the holy of holies on behalf of the people. Moses alone could enter the most sacred space. Everything about its design, its furnishings, its rituals, was a shadow of the heavenly reality to come:
Hebrews 8:3–6
"For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises."
The earthly tabernacle was a copy. A shadow. A pattern. And then Jesus came:
John 1:14
"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
The word translated "dwelt" in John 1:14 is the Greek word eskenosen — from skene, meaning tent or tabernacle. Literally: the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. He pitched His tent with us. He did not merely send a message or a law from a distance. He came. He moved in. He set up His dwelling in the middle of our camp. The tabernacle of Exodus was always pointing to this moment — God come among His people not in a tent of fabric and wood, but in a body of flesh and blood.
In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul calls our bodies the tents we currently inhabit — temporary dwellings that will one day be exchanged for something better. The language is not coincidental. It reaches back to the tabernacle, and forward to the resurrection. We are living temples of the Holy Spirit, awaiting the day when our tent is exchanged for a dwelling that will never decay.
A Kingdom of Priests — Who We Are in Christ
At Mount Sinai, God spoke these words to the people of Israel:
"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 19:5–6)
A kingdom of priests. Not just a nation with priests — the whole nation was to be priestly. Every Israelite was called to be set apart, holy, serving God, representing Him to the world. And now, the New Testament applies this same identity to the Church:
1 Peter 2:9–10
"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy."
Revelation 1:5–6
"and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."
Titus 2:11–14
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works."
Ephesians 1:13–14
"In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory."
His own special people. A chosen generation. A royal priesthood. A holy nation. This is not language reserved for ancient Israel alone. This is who we are — the church of Christ, called out of darkness into marvellous light, washed by the blood of the Lamb without blemish, sealed by the Holy Spirit, made kings and priests to God.
God was immensely interested in the Israelites. They complained. They rebelled. They tested His patience at every turn through the forty years in the wilderness. And still He tolerated them — because they were special to Him. They were His. And the same is true of us. We are not better. We are not more deserving. But we are His. And that changes everything about how we ought to live — the conduct, the attitude, the service, the way we treat our neighbours and our enemies. We are kings and priests. We have a responsibility to match the identity we have been given.
The Invitation — Read Exodus With New Eyes
The book of Exodus is not merely the story of Israel's escape from Egypt. It is a portrait gallery of Jesus Christ — painted centuries before He was born.
Moses the deliverer, the intercessor, the mediator.
The burning bush where the pre-incarnate Christ spoke.
The Passover lamb whose blood bought life.
The manna from heaven that fed a starving people.
The rock that poured out water in the desert.
The tabernacle where God pitched His tent among His people.
And the extraordinary declaration that this people — this complaining, failing, wandering people — were His own special people.
We are the continuation of that story.
Everything that was foreshadowed in Exodus has been fulfilled in Christ — and we now live on the other side of that fulfilment, called to be what Israel was always meant to be: a people through whom the whole world can see the glory of God.
