Another contrast between Genesis and Exodus is seen in the matter of the Lord’s care for His people. After Abraham was called, he began to follow the Lord. Not knowing where he was to go, Abraham enjoyed the presence of the Lord as his living road map. He simply journeyed according to the Lord’s presence. Although Abraham traveled the long distance from Chaldea to the land of Canaan, the book of Genesis does not tell us how the Lord supported him or took care of him. We know, of course, in a general way that the Lord supplied Abraham with all he needed, but in Genesis we do not have the same kind of specific instances showing the Lord’s direct care for Abraham as we have in Exodus showing His care for His people. In Exodus from the very beginning we have a clear and detailed record of how the Lord took care of His redeemed people. When they were short of food, He supplied them with manna. When they had no water to drink, He gave them living water out of the cleft rock. In Exodus we see not only the Lord’s leading but also a vivid portrait of how the Lord took care of the daily needs of His redeemed people. In this matter Exodus is more detailed and solid than Genesis. Not even in the New Testament do we find such a picture of the spiritual life supply. This should cause us to be impressed with the significance and importance of the book of Exodus.
Some further comparisons will make this impression even stronger. Although the Lord led Abraham by His presence, the Lord’s leading in Genesis is rather vague and abstract. In Exodus, however, it is much more solid and substantial, for in Exodus the Lord led His people by means of the pillar, something strong and solid. As we all know, in the daytime the Lord’s presence was a pillar of cloud, and during the night it was a pillar of fire. Because the Lord’s leading had a visible substance, all the people could recognize it.
In Genesis 18 God visited Abraham and ate with him; He stayed with Abraham for part of a day. However, in Genesis there is no clear revelation regarding the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place. In Exodus there is not only the revelation of the pattern of God’s dwelling place, but there is also a detailed record of the actual building of God’s dwelling place in a practical way. In Genesis God appeared to His chosen people again and again, but He did not have a substantial dwelling place among them. The book of Exodus, however, records in a very full way both the revelation and the building of the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth.
A further contrast between Genesis and Exodus is seen in the difference between individual experience and corporate experience. The experience in Genesis is primarily individual, but the experience in Exodus is corporate. Abraham, for example, was called as an individual. Even what the Lord gained by transforming Jacob into Israel was an individual matter. Jacob had twelve sons, but all except Joseph were below the standard. The entire experience portrayed in Exodus, on the contrary, is corporate. The redemption, the leading, the revelation, and the building are all corporate matters.
In our spiritual experience there are two sides, the individual side and the corporate side. No doubt, the individual side is basic, but the corporate side is richer, higher, and greater. The ultimate consummation and completion of our experience as believers is not individual; it is corporate. In Genesis we have the basic, individual experience, but in Exodus we have the ultimate, corporate experience.
Consider as an illustration the use of the name “Israel” in these two books. The book of Genesis concludes with an individual Israel, but the book of Exodus concludes with a corporate Israel. Exodus 14:30 says, “Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore.” In this verse the word “Israel” is used in a corporate way to refer to all the Israelites. But in Genesis the name “Israel” is used in a personal and individual way to refer to the transformed Jacob (Gen. 35:10, 21). In Genesis Israel is an individual person, but in Exodus Israel is a corporate people. The individual Israel at the end of Genesis can be compared to a little sprout of a seed, but the corporate Israel at the end of Exodus is like a full-grown tree bearing fruit. The corporate Israel, composed of the descendants of the individual Israel, is the increase and enlargement of the individual Israel. In Exodus 40 we have not an Israel limited to one person, but an Israel enlarged to be a corporate entity composed of the descendants of the individual Israel. It is vital that we see this.
Furthermore, in Exodus salvation is not an individual matter; rather it involves all the children of Israel. At the time of the exodus from Egypt there were approximately two million Israelites, all of whom were saved simultaneously; they passed through God’s judgment at the same time.
On the one hand, we Christians were saved individually and personally. However, on the other hand and in the eyes of God, we were saved together. We were saved corporately. This is Paul’s concept in Ephesians 2:6, where we are told that we were raised up together and seated together in the heavenlies. The word “together” in this verse means with one another. In the eyes of God, we all were raised up at the same time. Peter was not raised up at one time; Stephen, at another; and Paul, at still another. No matter when we were born, we were all raised up in Christ corporately at the same time.
Although we were redeemed collectively, in a sense, we are called individually. None of us was called when the Apostle Paul was called. Concerning God’s calling, there is an individual element; however, with God’s redemption there is nothing individual, but everything is corporate.
We have pointed out that at the end of Genesis we have an individual Israel. But in the last chapter of Exodus, we have a corporate vessel, God’s habitation, God’s dwelling place with man on earth. Through this contrast we can see the difference between the line in Genesis and the line in Exodus. In Genesis there is the line of individual spiritual experience, whereas in Exodus there is the line of corporate experience. In Genesis basically two people, Abraham and his wife, came out of Chaldea, but in Exodus over two million people came out of Egypt. What a contrast!