The book of Exodus reveals that God desires to rescue His people from everything other than Himself, that He wants to deliver them from everything that is not God. After the exodus from Egypt, God’s people saw a heavenly vision by which they came to know God Himself and, in addition, to know the kind of living that is in accordance with God. Then they could be built up as God’s dwelling place on earth. This is the basic concept of the book of Exodus.
God longs to rescue His chosen people from every form of usurpation and preoccupation so that they may have nothing besides God Himself. After the children of Israel had been delivered from Egypt and had passed through the Red Sea, they came to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. At one time, God’s people were in Egypt, living an Egyptian life and performing Egyptian labor under the tyranny of Pharaoh. Although many of them may have had no thought of God, they were nevertheless God’s chosen people, for they had been predestinated by God to be separated unto Him. The first chapters of Exodus reveal that God’s people had been usurped by Satan and were held in bondage under Satan’s hand. At that time, everything related to them was Egyptian. There was nothing about them that was for God. Therefore, God came in to deliver them, to separate them, to release them from Satan’s usurpation and Egypt’s preoccupation, and to bring them to the mountain of God, where there was nothing at all Egyptian. There at the mountain of God the people God had chosen could be alone with Him. When the children of Israel came to Mount Horeb, God was their center, their purpose, their business, and their very life. He was even their home. God was everything to them. In the wilderness, especially at the mountain of God, Mount Horeb, the children of Israel had nothing but God. Many Christians today talk about being saved. But very few realize that to be saved is to be brought to a place where there is nothing but God.
More than any other book in the Bible, the book of Exodus exposes the world. Although the New Testament speaks a great deal about the world, even telling us that the whole world lies in the evil one (1 John 5:19), it does not present a clear picture of what the world is. For this, we must come to the book of Exodus, which is a book of pictures. If we read chapters five through twelve in a proper way, we shall see a series of vivid pictures portraying the nature and meaning of the life of the world.
God wants His people to see the world for what it is. If the element of the world remains in us, we shall be damaged in relation to the fulfilling of God’s purpose. When the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they remembered the enjoyment they had in Egypt. They recalled the taste of the leeks, the onions, and the garlic (Num. 11:5). Due to this remembrance they had a problem with God’s dwelling place. The same is true of Christians today. Because many Christians are still in Egypt, they can have nothing to do with God’s dwelling place. Even those who have been separated from Egypt may still remember the pleasure of Egypt. Hence, we all need to see a clear picture of the life and living in Egypt.
Not only were the ten plagues a warning and a punishment to the Egyptians, but they were also a revelation, an unveiling, to God’s people. By means of these plagues, the children of Israel must have come to see the actual situation of Egyptian living. As a result of these plagues, they must have come to loathe their living in Egypt. God wanted the life in Egypt to be exposed so that His people would hate it and want to flee from it. Therefore, God’s purpose in sending the ten plagues was not only to warn the Egyptians and to punish them. It was also to show His own people what the world was.
The world also needs to be unveiled to God’s people today. God wants His people to be His dwelling place on earth. However, this desire can be fulfilled only if we have been delivered from the world and have nothing besides God Himself. In these days we have been emphasizing the need for the building up of the churches. But if we want to see the churches built up in a practical way, we must come fully out of the world.
On the negative side, the book of Exodus unveils the world. On the positive side, it reveals God’s dwelling place. Firstly, the true nature, meaning, and issue of life in Egypt are exposed to God’s people. God’s intention in giving this revelation is to cause His people to become disgusted with Egypt, to leave Egypt behind, and to be separated to God for His dwelling place. The principle is the same today. If we have not been separated from the world, we cannot become God’s dwelling place. For the building up of His dwelling place, we must see the world as it really is. Furthermore, we must loathe the world’s way of living and be willing to forsake it.
If we see God’s purpose as it is disclosed in the book of Exodus, it will be easier for us to understand the significance of the plagues. God’s intention in sending the plagues was not only to punish the Egyptians; it was also to expose the Egyptian living. Like the Egyptians in the book of Exodus, the people in the world today have no understanding of the actual situation of life in the world. The worldly people have all been drugged. Under the influence of Satan’s drugging, they are happy with their life in the world. They have no realization of what it is to live without God in the world. In their experience, the water of the world needs to be turned into blood. Then they will know the nature of life in the world and the result of living in the world. The nature of life in the world is death, and the result of living in the world is also death.