Alastair J. Roberts - Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption through Scripture

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Roberts and Wilson show how the exodus is more than a past event; it is a paradigm that shapes the storyline of the Bible and the life of the believer. The blend of rich biblical theology and beautiful writing will stir the affections of all who long for the Promised Land of the new heaven and new earth.

Matthew S. Harmon, Professor of New Testament Studies, Grace College and Theological Seminary

Alastair Roberts and Andrew Wilson have written a marvelous book. In 176 packed, lucid pages, they explore the exodus, one of the Bibles main themes from Genesis to Revelation. The authors say that Scripture is musical, and their book will leave haunting echoes of exodus ringing in your soul. Echoes of Exodus wont just teach you about exodus; it will teach you how to read. In studying it, you will learn to harmonize on the melody of God.

Peter Leithart, President, Theopolis Institute; Contributing Editor, Touchstone Magazine

I treasure books that bring the Scriptures to life, such as this one. This is what biblical theology should look like. This work by Roberts and Wilson taught me a great deal about the Bible and gave me a renewed appreciation for the exodus motif throughout Gods Word. Seminary professors, preachers, Bible study leaders, and others are going to love Echoes of Exodus .

Mark Jones, Teaching Elder, Faith Vancouver Presbyterian Church

Echoes of Exodus

Echoes of Exodus

Tracing Themes of Redemption through Scripture

Alastair Roberts and Andrew Wilson

Echoes of Exodus: Tracing Themes of Redemption through Scripture

Copyright 2018 by Alastair Roberts and Andrew Wilson

Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jeff Miller, Faceout Studios

Cover image: Bridgeman Images

First printing 2018

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture reference marked NRSV is from The New Revised Standard Version . Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: -1-4335-5798
ePub ISBN: -1-4335-5801
PDF ISBN: -1-4335-5799
Mobipocket ISBN: -1-4335-5800

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Roberts, Alastair, 1980 author.

Title: Echoes of Exodus : tracing themes of redemption through scripture / Alastair Roberts and Andrew Wilson.

Description: Wheaton : Crossway, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017012930 (print) | LCCN 2017054810 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433557996 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433558009 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433558016 (epub) | ISBN 9781433557989 (tp)

Subjects: LCSH: Exodus, TheTypology. | LibertyBiblical teaching. | RedemptionBiblical teaching. | BibleTheology.

Classification: LCC BS680.E9 (ebook) | LCC BS680.E9 R625 2018 (print) | DDC

220.6/4dc23

LC record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2017012930

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2018-03-06 11:51:21 AM

For Derek Rishmawy and Matt Anderson

Contents

For a short book, this has been long in gestation. The seeds of this project were first sown in our thinking by scholars such as Tom Wright, Tom Holland, James Jordan, Peter Leithart, Greg Beale, and Richard Hays. They were supported in earlier stages of their growth by academic mentors such as Canon David Kennedy, encouraged towards fruitfulness by Bobby Jamieson and Justin Taylor, and wisely tended and pruned by Tara Davis, Amy Kruis, and the team at Crossway.

From their first germination to their full expression, they were nourished in the rich soil of friendship. In particular, we would like to thank Derek Rishmawy and Matthew Lee Anderson, our partners in crime on the Mere Fidelity podcast, for the blessing of their wisdom, friendship, and conversation over the past few years. It is to them that this book is dedicated.

Prelude

The exodus is central to the Scriptures, central to the gospel, and central to the Christian life. Whatever book of the Bible you are reading, and whichever Christian practices you are involved in, echoes of the exodus are in there somewhere.

This is not the kind of thing you can establish through logical argument: A , therefore B , therefore C . Stories dont usually work that way. You cant prove logically that West Side Story is based on Romeo and Juliet . The echoes cannot be proved, any more than you can prove that a joke is funny. Rather, they have to be heard .

Our approach in this book starts from there. We hope to convince you that Scripture contains all sorts of connections, riffs, and themes that you may not have noticed, but we hope to do this by showing rather than by telling. Sometimes you may disagree. You may think were reaching, or you may think weve missed something. In many ways, that doesnt matter. As long as we recognize that The Lion King is based on Hamlet , we can agree to disagree on whether Nala is an anti -Ophelia, or whether we can see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the characters of Pumbaa and Timon.

Having said that, we will generally err on the side of hearing those echoes more, rather than less. Partly this is because we think those connections are actually there, both in the events themselves, through the providence of God, and in the ways the biblical writers have told their stories. Partly, though, it is because we can see a number of ways in which a greater appreciation of the unity of Scripture, especially when it comes to the theme of redemption from slavery, can help strengthen the church in the twenty - first century. Four ways in particular spring to mind.

One: much of the contemporary church, especially in evangelical circles, suffers from a rootlessness that makes it easy to lose our bearings, and even our identity. We live in a disoriented and rootless age. Novelty and self - expression are prized above wisdom and experience. Inevitably, this has affected the church, not just in its forms of worship, but in its very sense of identity. In this sort of world, there is no better way of finding our moorings than reading the Old Testament (in particular) as if it were, as Paul puts it, written for our sake (1 Cor. 9:10; see also Rom. 15:4; 1 Cor. 10:11). We view the Scriptures, and the exodus in particular, as not just their story, but as ours . Our fathers were all under the cloud, Paul tells the Corinthians (1 Cor. 10:1). They all passed through the sea. They all ate spiritual food and drank spiritual drink. And these things happened as examples for us , their great -great-etc.- grandchildren (vv. 16). We are to read about the exodus like we might read about the D - day landings: as a defining history that explains who we are. The exodus is our family story.