Religious Value. It is well nigh impossible to overestimate the religious value of the book of Exodus. Nowhere else save in the Christian revelation is there to be found so sublime a conception of the nature of God, or a loftier and purer idea of morality as springing out of man's relationship to Him. In the OT. itself Exodus holds a fundamental position. It depicts the early civic and religious development of a people destined to occupy a unique place among the nations, and to exert upon the world the very greatest spiritual influence. In this book we see the beginning of the fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham, the original ancestor of the Hebrew people, 'in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.' The events which it records in connexion with the birth of the nation, and its deliverance from bondage, stamped themselves indelibly on the memory and imagination of succeeding generations, and are frequently employed by prophets and psalm-writers, to enforce lessons of duty and faithfulness, trust and hope, warning and encouragement: see e.g. Hosea 2:15; Hosea 12:9; Hosea 13:4; Amos 2:10; Micah 6:3; Psalms 78:12.; Psalms 81:8.; Psalms 105:23; Psalms 106, 114, 136. Much of the subsequent teaching of the OT. is but the interpretation and enforcement of the spiritual and moral truths communicated to Israel at the time of the exodus.
The great underlying idea of the book is that of revelation. God is everywhere represented as in the act of self-manifestation. He manifests His power over nature, in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and at Mt. Sinai. In every event His hand is discernible. 'He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.' He constantly speaks to Moses, giving to His servant His counsel in times of emergency, and the knowledge of His nature and will to be communicated to the people. We cannot read the book without being impressed with the writer's convietion that God, while exalted far above the comprehension of His creatures, who are able to see, not His face, but only Hie 'back parts' (Exodus 33:23), does not dwell remote from the world, but is everywhere present and active in nature and in history. This sense of the personal agency of God is expressed frequently in a very bold and anthropomorphic way, somewhat startling to us with our more abstract and spiritual conception of the divine nature and the method of its operations: see e.g. Exodus 4:24; Exodus 14:24; Exodus 24:10; Exodus 24:11. In their more fervid utterances, OT. writers in general do not hesitate to transfer human conditions, actions, and passions to the Divine Being, though the extent to which they do so diminishes with the course of time. The frequency with which this form of thought appears in Exodus is an eloquent testimony to the intensity of religious feeling that pervades the book. To us, whose conception of God tends always to be more and more abstract and attenuated, this insistence on the truth of the nearness of God and His active interference in the world of human affairs is not the least necessary and valuable lesson conveyed by the book of Exodus.
Another characteristic and fundamental idea of the book is that Israel is the chosen people of Jehovah. It is nowhere asserted that Jehovah is the God of the Hebrews only. He rules over the land of Egypt, and He is the Creator and Lord of nature. All the earth is His (Exodus 19:5). But He has chosen Israel to be 'a peculiar treasure' unto Him above all people (see on Exodus 19:3) and He enters into a covenant with them on the basis of the moral law (Exodus 24:3). This idea of the election, or selection, of Israel runs all through the OT., and even passes over to the Christian Church under the 'new covenant, (see on Exodus 19:6). It is essentially an election, not to privilege, but to duty. Israel is chosen, enlightened, instructed, disciplined, in order to communicate to the world the knowledge of God and prepare the way for the perfect revelation of His grace in Christ. It is a noble idea, that of a theocracy, a 'kingdom of God,' a people who are each and all 'priests' unto God (Exodus 19:6). Hence the duty of personal holiness and national righteousness; hence the minute ceremonial system, with its detailed prescriptions regarding the tabernacle, its furniture, the priesthood, sacrifice, etc., all emphasising the lesson that God is holy and must be served and worshipped by a holy people.
The book of Exodus has been in all ages a source whence both Jews and Christians have drawn lessons of encouragement and warning, applicable to the individual soul no less than to the Church of God. The bondage in Egypt, the deliverance, and the experiences of Israel in the wilderness, have very naturally been regarded as types of man's deliverance from the bondage of sin and error, and of God's grace and providence in guiding, defending, and supplying the wants of His people all through the pilgrimage of life. In Israel men have seen themselves, their need of redemption, their sin and weakness, their continual dependence on God, and their proneness to forget and mistrust Him to whom they owe everything; while in the record of God's gracious dealings with Israel they have read their own experience of the power and grace of the Covenant God whose name is still 'The Lord, the Lord, a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin: and that will by no means clear the guilty,' and whose promise to those who trust in Him is still, 'My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest' (Exodus 34:6; RV Exodus 33:14).