The Bible presents the Exodus as a multi-layered and important theme. I originally planned to create an infographic tracing all the scripture references referring to the Exodus but backed away from that fairly quickly as I realized that would be an enormous task since they permeate the entire Bible.
One of the things that fascinates me about the Exodus is that it points to the gospel and our future redemption in Christ. We see this in numerous ways including God passing over and saving those who had the lamb’s blood on their door, pictures of breaking free from the bondage and slavery of sin and the theme of being ushered into a new redeemed life.
In my studies I noticed the Old Testament consistently repeats the phrase “out of Egypt” to portray Israel’s redemption while the New Testament portrays redemption with the words “freedom” and “salvation”.
The Bible then joins the concepts multiple times. Matthew 2:15 quotes Hosea 11:1 which says “out of Egypt I have called my Son” and refers to Israel. This directly connects Jesus’ work to the Exodus.
Jesus said He would be leaving in Luke 9:31 when He was talking to Moses and Elijah, but the word used there is “Exodus.” Luke seems to be saying this is the ultimate “getting out.”
Hebrews 11:29 says “By faith the Israelites passed through dry land.” We see a direct parallel here between Israel’s faith and the Christian’s faith.
1 Corinthians 10:2, 6 says the Israelites were baptized into Moses when they passed through the cloud and sea and that these things were written for examples to Christians.
In short, we see a wonderful picture in God saving His people from bondage and taking them “out of Egypt” which foreshadows the greater salvation that would be realized in Christ.
With all that being said the point of the graphic I created is to illustrate the parallels between the Exodus and the gospel in the Bible.
I’ve split the graphic into two parts. The Old Testament section traces the phrase “out of Egypt”, but uses incomplete circles since the Exodus was only a type of the ultimate coming future redemption. The New Testament section traces the words “freedom” and “salvation”, but uses complete circles to represent the fulfilled redemption in Christ”. The size of the circles indicates the frequency of usage.
You probably won’t see them unless you purchase a high resolution pdf but every verse is represented inside the circles.
The infographic is available for free in two formats.
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Hi, I’m new to your blog, but I love your work. I’m curious if you only traced that phrase (“out of Egypt”) or if you studied any other repetitive parts from Exodus. I’ve been ‘informally’ researching something else from Exodus throughout the Bible.
Thanks Ryan!
I did only trace “out of Egypt.” I thought it best represented the idea of redemption especially since its mentioned so many other times in the OT.
Exodus 34:6-7 is the most often quoted passage in the OT. It is interesting to read how this self-description of God is reiterated throughout the OT in the psalms and other places. When God is described, it is often in these same terms. Though they are general attributes of his character (which seems nearly blasphemous to say), when I see them I am always drawn back to Ex 34:67.