Podcast: The Greatest Act of Redemption in the Entire Old Testament (Ian Vaillancourt)

January 30, 2023 by: Crossway

This article is part of the The Crossway Podcast series.

What the Exodus Accomplished and Foreshadowed

In today's episode, Ian Vaillancourt talks about why the story of the exodus is so central to the Old Testament as a whole and how the story of Israel’s rescue from Egypt pointed forward to the coming of Christ in more ways than one.

The Dawning of Redemption

The Dawning of Redemption

Ian J. Vaillancourt

In this accessible book, Ian J. Vaillancourt gives Christians a helpful introduction to the Pentateuch as the essential first act in the Bible’s grand story of redemption.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | RSS

Topics Addressed in This Interview:

01:00 - A Template for Redemption

Matt Tully
Ian, thank you so much for joining me today on The Crossway Podcast.

Ian Vaillancourt
It’s great to be here, Matt. Thanks so much for having me.

Matt Tully
We’re going to talk about the story of the exodus today, Israel’s escape from slavery and Egypt. It’s obviously an important story that many of us who have grown up in the church would be pretty familiar with. We know the story; it’s illustrated in every children’s bible we’ve ever picked up. But you argue that it’s really foundational to the whole Bible in a pretty profound way, maybe in a way that we don’t always fully grasp. Unpack that for us. Why is the Exodus so important for all of Scripture?

Ian Vaillancourt
Well, first of all, it’s the greatest act of redemption in the entire Old Testament. When Yahweh ushered Israel out of Egypt, he accomplished something. He accomplished the impossible and delivered his people out of slavery, out of bondage, and eventually gave them their own land. So that’s the greatest act of redemption in the Old Testament. Later on in the exile—the loss of kingship, the loss of land, the loss of temple—the prophets were prophesying and casting the coming deliverance as a second exodus. They’re casting it in a similar light as the exodus. And ultimately those hopes are unmet at the end of the Old Testament. But then we meet Jesus, and the New Testament casts Jesus as fulfilling that promised second exodus promised in the prophets. So that’s why the chapter in the book is called, “Exodus: Redemption Accomplished and Foreshadowed”—because it’s also foreshadowing the coming return from exile that’s ultimately accomplished in Jesus.

Matt Tully
Theologians and Bible scholars will often point to the Exodus as paradigmatic for the rest of the Bible. There’s all these other stories in the Bible that sort of—how would you describe it? Do they mirror or sort of reflect some of the same basic ideas from the story of the exodus?

Ian Vaillancourt
They use similar language. They cast what’s coming in the light of, and part of that is we’re simple people, and God speaks to us where we’re at. I’m going to do this great thing again, and it’s actually going to be bigger and better.

Matt Tully
We go from Abraham as sort of the beginning of the people of God, and then refresh our memory: How did they actually get to slavery in Egypt?

Ian Vaillancourt
I’ll just back up. In Genesis 1–11 is lots of years of world history—ancient history. And then from Genesis 11:27 to the end of the book, we’ve got four generations in one family: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve sons of Jacob.

Matt Tully
Culminating in Joseph.

Ian Vaillancourt
Well, Judah.

Matt Tully
Joseph is the one we think of when it comes to going to Egypt, but you say that the focus is still on Judah as the heir.

Ian Vaillancourt
Yeah. Ultimately, it’s the twelve, and Joseph’s super important. Steven mentions Joseph in Act 7 as pivotal, and, of course, he’s super important, but he’s best supporting actor. I would say that because Judah’s in the line of Christ and because of the way the end of Genesis flows. Judah is the one that kind of emerges as the leader, as the carrier of the blessing, and ultimately the lineage of the Messiah. But anyway, we’ve got the story there, and then we’ve got a bit of a reverse exodus that happens at the end of Genesis because there’s famine in the land. Jacob and his eleven sons are starving, and ultimately Joseph, who they don’t know is alive, is in Egypt and he’s blessing with grain. Ultimately, at the end of the day, they’re brought to Egypt and they are saved from starvation.

Matt Tully
What do you make of this: I’ve heard some Bible scholars argue that actually the decision of Joseph’s actions to bring his family to Egypt and the decision of Jacob to take his family to Egypt was a bad decision, that the text actually portrays that as a negative thing, leading to, ultimately, slavery. Do you buy that? Is that supported, would you say, in the biblical text?

Ian Vaillancourt
I don’t buy that. I’m not of that school.

Matt Tully
Have you heard that kind of thinking?

Ian Vaillancourt
Oh, yeah. I won’t name names. People I really respect and, in fact, have my students read and I say, Here’s a point I disagree, but this is an incredible book. But some people think there’s a downward spiral in Genesis, ending in Egypt, the grave. But I see this trajectory of covenants—the Abrahamic Covenant, creation, Noah, Abraham. Those are pretty high points. I don’t think that’s a downward spiral. And then at the very end of the book, “you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, for the saving of many lives.”

Matt Tully
And by that, the “good” he’s referring to is the fact that now he can bring all these people to Egypt and save them.

Ian Vaillancourt
Yeah. And even Joseph didn’t foresee what was coming. Joseph saw that a lot of people are being saved from starvation. His family is being saved from starvation. He would’ve understood something of covenant because of his lineage. So that’s hugely significant for him. But he didn’t see Messiah and you and I sitting here today as believers in Jesus as part of the fruit of that. And so I see Genesis ending on a pensive high note. There’s this salvation, and there’s this sense in which we can trust Yahweh, but it’s pensive because it is true that Abram had failure of faith, so he went to Egypt when there’s a famine.

Matt Tully
There’s already a little bit of a pattern, and we see that come back in Scripture, of God’s people leaving the promised land and going to Egypt for some kind of salvation. So you don’t think any of that is at play in this story.

Ian Vaillancourt
I think there’s a pensive high note. This isn’t the way it’s ultimately going to be, but this is from God. God intended it for a good. And so God’s in this, but we’ve got to get back. And so that’s the story of the exodus later.

Matt Tully
Is there any hint, in the story of the Exodus or elsewhere in Scripture, that Israel is responsible for the fact that they became enslaved in Egypt? Again, so often we see in the prophets later this idea of this slavery that God is going to put people under as a result of their own rebellion, their hardheartedness. Do we see any indications of that being the cause of why Israel became enslaved?

Ian Vaillancourt
No, quite the opposite, isn’t it? God’s people were living under his blessing, so they were multiplying. And Egypt said, We either enslave these people or we get overrun by them. And a new Pharaoh who did not know Joseph arose and . . . . So, quite the opposite.

08:09 - Unpacking the Story of Moses

Matt Tully
That brings us to the story of Moses. Help us understand this. Again, this story is one that we’re so familiar with, but there are so many little details that I think have a lot of significance and meaning as we kind of dig into them. You argue that there is a really deeper significance to how even the story of Moses fits into the broader narrative of the exodus and the story of Scripture. Unpack that a little bit for us.

Ian Vaillancourt
First of all, I’ll mention that we are anticipating an exodus already because of Genesis 15—God’s covenant with Abram. And so that’s another thing I’ll mention about the end of Genesis: we’re anticipating that there’s going to be an exodus. So, that’s another reason I think—

Matt Tully
We know God’s not going to leave his people in this slavery state.

Ian Vaillancourt
That’s right. And then when we meet Moses, chapter one of Exodus casts a big picture of here’s what’s going on with God’s people. And then chapter two narrows down to one family. When we see that happening in Scripture, maybe this is an important person.

Matt Tully
That’s another pattern that we see repeated.

Ian Vaillancourt
That’s a pattern we see repeated in the way God tells his story of redemption in the Bible, and there’s this obstacle. Often, the obstacle is a wife who can’t have kids. But in this case, the obstacle is a Pharaoh who’s going to kill every baby born to the Jews, every male.

Matt Tully
It goes back to their fear, which is they’re growing, they’re spreading, there’s more of them. And so by killing all the men, that allows them to sort of cut that off.

Ian Vaillancourt
That’s right. And by the way, that’s going to come up again in the Gospel of Matthew when Jesus is born. So that’s a little teaser hint that God, in order to communicate well to us, makes sure that he casts things in a similar light. We can say, Oh, I can see a pattern here.

Matt Tully
There’s like a rhyming to Scripture sometimes it seems.

Ian Vaillancourt
And he wove that into history, in his inspiration of the authors of Scripture to record that history. They interpret history for us theologically, and they draw that out to show us.

Matt Tully
Here’s another question I’ve always had about Moses and why God chose to do things in a certain way, and I wonder if there’s something in the text that would help us understand that. I think we all understand the idea that Moses is raised up and used by God as a deliverer figure, leading the people of Israel—his own people. Why, though, did God write the story in the way where he’s actually brought up in Pharaoh’s own house, raised by Pharaoh’s own daughter in this kind of position of privilege, but then is pretty decisively kicked out by choice (and sort of not by choice) and he hen leaves the house? What purpose does that serve in the story?

Ian Vaillancourt
Well, one purpose is irony. He’s saved by Pharaoh’s daughter from drowning.

Matt Tully
From her own dad.

Ian Vaillancourt
From her own dad. And then she pays his mom to nurse him. And so that’s the beginning of it.

Matt Tully
Are we meant to read that and say, Wow! Look at how God is working, even through this evil, to accomplish his good purposes! Is it like another version of the story of Joseph, in a sense?

Ian Vaillancourt
Yeah, in a sense. And then he would’ve had every privilege, but he also would’ve had an elite education. I think that’s what Stephen, in Acts 7, talks about Moses being trained in all the wisdom of Egypt. That would’ve prepared him for the task of writing the Pentateuch.

Matt Tully
Are we supposed to assume that the other Egyptians—that Pharaoh and others—knew he was an Israelite, a Jewish person? Or would they have thought he was an Egyptian?

Ian Vaillancourt
I would think that they would know he’s a Jew. You caught me off guard.

Matt Tully
I’ve always wondered that. Was he like a second-class citizen in the house of Pharaoh, or was he embraced?

Ian Vaillancourt
He wasn’t treated as a second-class citizen. He was raised there, and he was given every privilege. I really like D. L. Moody’s comment that Moses spent forty years thinking he was a somebody, forty years learning he was a nobody, and then forty years learning what God can do with a nobody. I just think that’s a pretty cool trajectory of Moses’ life. In those first forty years of privilege, he’s getting an elite education. He’s in the superpower nation. He’s in the house of the most powerful person in the most powerful nation in the known world of the day.

Matt Tully
And that’s going to come back when we get to the plagues, where we see God humbling the most powerful person in the whole world.

Ian Vaillancourt
Yeah, after he’s humbled Moses forty years.

Matt Tully
Let’s move on to his Moses’ defection from Egypt. Again, that’s another story that’s always kind of confused me. As a reader today, are we supposed to be viewing what Moses did to protect his fellow Jew as a good thing? Or was that something that we would rightly condemn Moses for? How are we supposed to view his killing of that Egyptian who was being harsh towards the Israelites?

Ian Vaillancourt
I don’t know that the text portrays it as a good thing. It seems as though the text is basically saying, Here’s what happened. Well, he would one day be a deliverer of God’s people, but I would suggest in this instance he’s attempting deliverance in his own way and in his own timing—by murder and then hiding his body in the sand. The text plays that out in that word got out and Moses had to flee from Egypt. But he’s been called as a redeemer, and he’s been preserved as a redeemer. I’ll mention, too, that early as a baby, the Hebrew word used for the basket that he was putting in the Nile River is a teva, and the only other time that that word is used in the Old Testament is Noah’s ark is a teva. And so he’s delivered through—and water’s portrayed as chaos. The Nile River was not a trickle. It’s this raging, big body of water. So he was delivered by means of a teva, and then rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter and all the irony with that. So, he’s been identified as the human means of deliverance by Yahweh, and he’s been prepared for it. He’s been tagged—the teva and the narrative focus.

Matt Tully
So the reader is kind of seeing, Okay, this is the guy.

Ian Vaillancourt
This guy is special. We’ve got a whole chapter devoted to his birth and first forty years in chapter two, and, really, his next forty years as well, and then at the end of chapter two it’s, “and God saw and God knew the suffering of his people.” I love that. That’s just such a beautiful—

Matt Tully
Dig into that a little bit more. That’s a verse that, again, we might be tempted to quickly read through, but in the book, and even here, you kind of want to slow down and help us think about what that’s saying.

Ian Vaillancourt
The last couple verses of Exodus say, “During those many days, the king of Egypt died and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew.” I like to say that God remembering his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not like telling me to remember my wife’s birthday. Like, recall it to mind.

Matt Tully
It’s not like God forgot.

Ian Vaillancourt
It’s not like God forgot. When I was in pre-marital counseling, my pastor probably said something like, Spoil your wife on her birthday instead of saying, Remember her birthday. I remembered. I didn’t do anything, but I remembered. I ticked that box. No, I spoil her on her birthday. But God remembering his covenant—not only calling to mind, and God doesn’t forget—but this is the Bible’s way of saying this is front and center. He’s about to act. He’s not a God whose timing is willy-nilly. He chooses to act in the perfect time that he has set, and this the Bible’s way of communicating he’s about to do that. And then linking it with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is linking this with the covenant commitment he made to Abraham in Genesis 15 and saying, I’m about to act on that. These people that have grown to a million, I’m going to act on that. And then the last verse is just beautiful: “and God saw the people of Israel, and God knew.” That Hebrew word for “knew” is yada. And it’s an intimate knowing; it’s not just an intellectual understanding.

Matt Tully
I think that’s the question: Knew what?

Ian Vaillancourt
He was intimately acquainted. He understood what was happening, but he’s intimately acquainted.

Matt Tully
And in the context, it would be he’s acquainted with their suffering. He understands that they’re suffering deeply and he’s about to intervene.

Ian Vaillancourt
He’s about to intervene.

Matt Tully
That’s so beautiful.

Ian Vaillancourt
It is beautiful. He cares.

17:22 - The Significance of the Covenant Name of God

Matt Tully
Another scene that happens right before the actual exodus, the plagues, and all of that that further reveals who God is to his people is, of course, the burning bush. Moses comes and he’s confronted with this bush, and it’s, again, another one of those stories that we all know so well, and it’s in that context soon after that that God reveals his covenant name to Moses. Help us understand that. That’s another one of those things that is often a little bit perplexing to us as Christians. We all might know, Oh yeah, it’s Yaweh; it means “I am.” But what does that mean? What is he actually telling Moses?

Ian Vaillancourt
Well, a literal translation of what he says is, “Go, and I will be who I will be.” That’s a literal translation of what Yaweh says to Moses. “And this is the name by which I’m known, I will be who I will be.” The idea is, I am the never-changing one; you can count on me. And if he’s the God who’s remembering and acting in light of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—covenants—he’s not changing. And although the people’s— and this is key for us today because we feel this, don’t we?—although the people’s life situation felt like God doesn’t see and God doesn’t know and God’s not acting—

Matt Tully
It’s been 400 years.

Ian Vaillancourt
It’s been 400 years. But the opposite is actually the case. At the end of chapter two, we’ve got God seeing and God knowing, and then in chapter three we’ve got him saying, I will be who I will be. I am the unchanging one.

Matt Tully
So that’s like a further reaffirmation of this idea that says, I am the same God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and I will continue to be that God to you forever.

Ian Vaillancourt
Yeah.

Matt Tully
That’s such a fascinating way to do it. He’s saying this is his name. Why? He could have just described this as, I will be to you as I have always been to your people. Instead, he inserts that into this idea of his name. Why does he do that?

Ian Vaillancourt
Well, in the book I quote Bruce Waltke, and I was really helped by his insight in Exodus 3 when God reveals his name. When Moses asks God for his name, he’s not asking, according to Bruce Waltke, for God’s name as a label, like you’re Matt and Ian. He’s asking for the meaning of his name. In response we hear, I am who I am. I will be who I will be. I’m the unchanging one. And later in chapter six we’ve got a similar kind of thing going on, and I won’t unpack all of that, but that’s more what’s the significance of the name of Yaweh? So we’ve got meaning and significance. And really, in Genesis, I think it’s 165 times the name Yaweh appears, so the name Yaweh is known before this. In Exodus 3 Moses is asking the meaning of the name Yaweh, and in Exodus 6 it’s the significance of the name Yaweh that’s revealed. But the name Yaweh, I think it’s about 165 times in the book of Genesis it occurs.

Matt Tully
So we’re not meant to read that as that’s just because Moses is using that name kind of retroactively, but that wasn’t actually what they would’ve called God?

Ian Vaillancourt
Some people say that, but when I dig into the text, there’s Genesis 4:26: “At that time, people began to call upon the name of Yaweh.” It would be pretty hard for Moses to say, I’m inserting the name Yahweh here. The text is actually saying, At that time, people began to call on the name of Yaweh. And I’m just going to do a sidebar here for our listeners. In our English Bibles, we see “the LORD,” and “Lord” is all capitals—capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That is a signal for us that it’s the Hebrew name, YHWH.

Matt Tully
Why do our English Bibles so often do that?

Ian Vaillancourt
Well, there’s a couple things. They’re following convention in some ways. It began with Martin Luther when he was translating the Bible into German. He translated “Herr,” I believe, all caps for YHWH, and HErr, I believe, for “Adonai.” And so that was a signal that he’s doing it. But Jews today don’t pronounce the name of Yaweh, talking about the early commandments.

Matt Tully
Isn’t there also a connection to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament that Jews in Jesus’s day would’ve had access to and used?

Ian Vaillancourt
Yeah. They’re translating it kurios.

Matt Tully
Yeah, Lord.

Ian Vaillancourt
So there’s that, but it’s his name.

Matt Tully
It’s the covenant name of God.

Ian Vaillancourt
It’s the covenant name of God. So when I’m doing my personal devotional Bible reading, in my head, when I see “the LORD,” I read in my head, Yahweh, to remind myself this is the personal covenant God. He’s the unchanging God. I can count on him. This is his covenant name. When we read the Old Testament like that, this begins to jump off the page. We, as English speakers, we see “the LORD” and we see a title. Well, that has absolutely no bearing on any meaning. But when we see, “at that time, people began to call on the name of Yahweh”—wow! And then throughout Genesis, the name Yahweh is used, but Yaweh actually says to Abram, “I am Yahweh.” So he’s quoting Yaweh saying, “I am Yahweh.” And then the people in Genesis are speaking, “Oh, Yahweh!” So direct address from Yahweh to people, from people to Yaweh, and also that Exodus 4:26, “At that time, people began to call upon the name of Yaweh.” I would suggest, though, and others with me like Bruce Waltke and others, that in Genesis El or Elohim—the generic “God,” what we say is God, and in the context as Christians we know who we’re talking about, and it’s the same with the Old Testament—that’s the more prominent name used. And so when places are named, like Bethel, it’s beth, the Hebrew word for “house,” and El is the short form for Elohim, which is God. So, “house of God.” And so we’ve got these place names named “House of God.” We’ve got the name “God” being used a ton. The name Yaweh is used and known, but the full meaning and significance of the name Yahweh, according to Exodus 3 and Exodus 6, has not yet been revealed until the most monumental event in the Old Testament happens, which is the Exodus from Egypt. And then after that, you have these “yahs” at the end of people’s names—Elijah, Eli-ya.

Matt Tully
So those are all hooking into God’s name.

Ian Vaillancourt
Yeah. Elijah is “my God is Yahweh (Adonijah).” In our English it’s jah but in Hebrews it’s yah at the end.

Matt Tully
Oh, wow.

Ian Vaillancourt
And so this is more prominent.

24:40 - The Plagues: A Return to Pre-Creation Chaos

Matt Tully
So let’s jump ahead to the actual Exodus proper and the plagues. Again, we all know these stories—water to blood, frogs, lice, death of livestock, all these things. And you argue in the book that each of the plagues, in different ways, represents a return to “pre-creation chaos.” What are you getting at with that?

Ian Vaillancourt
Well, basically if Egypt is going to oppress Yaweh’s special covenant people, Yaweh is going to, in a temporary and piecemeal way—in a sense he’s flexing his muscles and saying, Look what I can do. You think you’re the greatest superpower of today, but I’m Yaweh. John Currid has a chart that I reproduce in the book, with permission, and it’s really helpful. He links the different days of creation to different plagues. Day one, light created out of darkness; plague nine, darkness prevailing over light. I’ll just do one more. Day two, waters ordered and separated; plague one, chaos by changing water to blood.

Matt Tully
So he’s kind of undoing the days of creation—

Ian Vaillancourt
In this temporary and piecemeal way. And so Genesis 1:2 is, “And the earth was Tohu va-Bohu”—formless and empty—“and darkness was over the face of the deep.” And then it jumps into the days of creation. And the first three days are forming the formless. The next three days are filling the emptiness. But in the plagues, there’s this temporary and piecemeal return to pre-creation chaos. *If you’re going to do that, I’m going to do this. And it climaxes with the death of the firstborn son. Humanity, created in the image and likeness of God, is the crown and climax of creation, and you, Pharaoh, act as though you are a god and you’re worshiped by your people as a god. But if you’re going to oppress my people, I’m going to kill the firstborn across your entire land, including your firstborn son who would’ve been Pharaoh. And so it’s sobering, but it’s awesome that that power is working for his people. It’s also a link back to creation, that in creation lots of stuff happened that we don’t know about. We don’t know what Moses had for breakfast before he confronted Pharaoh. We don’t know if snakes had legs before the fall into sin. The Bible doesn’t tell us a lot. It tells us all we need for life and godliness. But it begins with creation to show that God’s not a regional deity. He’s over all.

Matt Tully
Which is how much of the world back then thought about their gods, right? Gods kind of ruled over certain areas.

Ian Vaillancourt
They’re localized, and they vie with each other for power. But there’s only one, according to the Bible, and he is over all. And so by doing this, he’s saying, I am that God, and I’m going to get my people out. So, pretty beautiful.

27:51 - The Echoes of Exodus in the New Testament

Matt Tully
So then maybe speak a little bit more to the thing you’ve been hinting at and kind of alluded to a little bit throughout. We see these echoes of the exodus throughout all of the Bible, but especially maybe culminating in the life and ministry of Christ. What are a couple of those connections to Christ and his life and death and resurrection that we should see as distinct connections back to this story?

Ian Vaillancourt
I’ll just mention that the prophets are promising restoration for repentance under the terms of the covenant, and so they’re looking back and seeing Deuteronomy 28 and 30. Deuteronomy 28 is blessings for covenant keeping, and most of the chapter is curses for covenant breaking, which will include “exile from the land I’m about to give you.” What do you do when you’re in exile? The very one that you would approach is the one who cast you out because of your own sin. Deuteronomy 30:1-10 teaches restoration for covenant repentance. What you do is you approach that very God—he’s the God of the covenant—in a repentant, humble way, and give yourself to him and say, I am yours. I’m going to live in light of who I am. You’ve redeemed me. There’s this promised restoration, and that promised restoration in the Prophets is cast as a second exodus. And so Isaiah 11:1–16 is one example of that. But that never was accomplished in the Old Testament. You think of when the foundation of the temple was laid in the book of Ezra, the younger men were rejoicing and saying, “For he is good, for his hesed—his steadfast love endures forever.” And the older men were crying. Now, these older men weren’t entitled snowflakes saying, No, I want bigger and better! I’m used to more opulence! No, they were listening to the prophets, first of all, like Ezekiel 40 to 48. The second temple, the new temple, is going to be bigger and more glorious than the first. And they remembered the old temple and they saw this pathetic thing. It’s way smaller. So that’s an indication for us that we’re still waiting. So yes, the rebuilding of the temple in Ezra is something massively to celebrate, but it’s not what’s hoped for and what’s been promised. And the other key is in 2 Samuel 7: there’s always going to be a king reigning on the throne of David. But in the return from exile, it’s this kind of beginning of a second exodus, yes, but there’s no king anymore. They don’t have that proper king, and people vie for that, but it’s not until Jesus is born, as king of the Jews. Where’s the one who would be born king of the Jews? And who would die as king of the Jews? What did the sign say on his cross? “This is Jesus, king of the Jews.” And then who was raised from the dead, conquering death for us, who ascended to heaven, and in line with Psalm 110:1, he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, reigning until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet. Jesus fulfilled that. And so that’s one kind of messianic thing. Two scenes I’ll draw out from the New Testament. At the last supper, Jesus was eating with his disciples. Now, he wasn’t just coming over for a potluck, or he wasn’t even coming over for someone’s famous steak dinner. This was a Passover meal he’s celebrating. And that’s right out of the exodus. The Passover is remembering that on the night that the firstborn sons of Egypt were killed, the angel of death passed over the houses with blood on their doors—we didn’t get into that, but it’s in the book—so that the people of God were supposed to celebrate this Passover every year.

Matt Tully
You’re saying it’s not a coincidence that Jesus celebrates this, the pinnacle of the Jewish year, right before he goes to the cross.

Ian Vaillancourt
No, he’s remembering the exodus. But he changes it. He says, This is my body and this is my blood given for you.

Matt Tully
Which is saving you from death.

Ian Vaillancourt
Yeah. And he’s saying, Jeremiah 31:31–34, Ezekiel 36—this new covenant that’s promised in the Old Testament. This is the new covenant in my blood. I’m fulfilling that, and it’s a better exodus. It’s what the exodus ultimately foreshadowed and pointed to*. And we got this other scene in Luke. In the transfiguration in Luke 9, Jesus’s clothes became dazzling white, and he’s on the mountain. He’s talking to Moses and Elijah.

Matt Tully
This is one of those perplexing scenes that we don’t always know what to do with.

Ian Vaillancourt
He’s peeling back his glory and revealing it, and he’s talking to Moses and Elijah, representing the law and the prophets—the first two-thirds of the Old Testament. But in Luke 9:30, Moses and Elijah appeared, spoke with Jesus of his coming departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. The English word departure is translating the Greek word exodos. That’s how it’s pronounced. And so they’re talking to Jesus, and I would suggest that’s meant to be a front and center link that his coming exodus is happening.

Matt Tully
He’s about to accomplish this exodus.

Ian Vaillancourt
He’s about to accomplish his exodus in Jerusalem. Theologians talk about the doctrine of union with Christ—when I turn for my sins and trust Christ, I’m united with him in his death and resurrection. Therefore, his exodus, he accomplished it for me, and he’s delivered me from sin, Satan, hell to this glorious inheritance of the saints. It’s just a beautiful thing.

Matt Tully
What a beautiful story. I know there are so many other connections in the life and ministry of Jesus to this foundational story that we can’t get into today, but thank you so much for taking the time to walk us through this incredible story in our Bibles.

Ian Vaillancourt
Thank you so much for having me. It’s a joy.

Popular Articles in This Series

View All

Podcast: Help! I Hate My Job (Jim Hamilton)

January 06, 2020

Jim Hamilton discusses what to do when you hate your job, offering encouragement for those frustrated in their work and explaining the difference between a job and a vocation.

Crossway is a not-for-profit Christian ministry that exists solely for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel through publishing gospel-centered, Bible-centered content. Learn more or donate today at crossway.org/about.