Many of us could be familiar with the narrative in the early part of Exodus. We may have been schooled in the plagues and the great deliverance from slavery in Egypt. But where is the gospel narrative in the book of Exodus?
First, the gospel is the central story of the Bible and at the bird's eye level, the pattern of what it conveys. Exo 33:12-23 shows how the structure of the gospel is woven into the DNA of this book, and that its authors, even unintentionally, were telling one story.
Second, the gospel is a power wonderfully practical for our day to day living as we struggle with fear, anxiety, doubt, guilt, and despair. In the good news of Jesus Christ is courage, peace, conviction, reconciliation and joy. It gives us wisdom to solve problems, power to overcome challenges, faith to believe promises, and hope to believe things can be better at the every day level.
Third, the gospel is a context that offers the most insightful framework to understand human reality. It explains world history, current affairs and politics, human psychology and sociology, and even the economics of a world in peril. Without wearing the deep spectacle lens of the gospel, half the time we're just confused and trying to figure out life on a minute by minute basis, tossed about by the winds of the latest trends and analysis.
Fourth, the gospel is news of eternal consequence. Heaven and hell hang in the balance. Exodus wants us to understand this. That it is about ultimate matters of Going Home, or never getting there. It is about God's Presence, whether we have it or not, whether we are reconciled to our Maker, or whether we are cast out from His presence and blotted out of His book. The gospel matters not just for this life, but the one to come.
Fifth, the gospel is beautiful and good in every way. It is aesthetically pleasing, philosophically coherent, inspiring to the heart, stimulating to the taste, delightful to the imagination. It is the hero winning his true love from captivity, it is the cosmic mystery of a glorious universe unraveled and revealed, it is the grand tragedy redeemed in consummated conclusion, it is all things made new.