BibleProject | Discovering the Exodus Way Theme in Scriptureਨਮੂਨਾ

Heaven Joining Earth: Humanity’s Ultimate Exodus

Today, we’re reading three excerpts from the Apostle Paul’s letters to three different church communities. In each passage, Paul’s choice of words act as hyperlinks to previous exodus narratives. Notice how he emphasizes freedom from enslavement, letting readers know that the way of life he describes bears characteristics from the exodus of the past. Paul is describing the ultimate exodus—humanity’s departure from the power of sin and evil (see John 8:34; Eph. 6:12).

Just as God redeems Israel, his firstborn “son,” from slavery in Egypt (Exod. 4:22), now he rescues people out of enslavement to the powers of sin and evil through his Son, Jesus. And as today’s video points out, he doesn’t instantly transport people from the corrupt world to a blissful Heaven above. As Jesus prays, humanity’s ultimate exodus from evil will look like Heaven and Earth uniting: “Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

Paul encourages people to clean sin from their lives like early Israel cleaned yeast from their kitchens, making sure none went with them on their exodus out of Egypt. He wants people to live as free agents who do God’s will and never again return to slavery and fear. He says we are God’s children, like the children of Israel, and we will endure suffering but ultimately experience total renewal.

As we’ve watched the Exodus way theme unfold, we’ve consistently seen how God’s powerful love redeems people out of slavery and leads them through transformation, preparing them to enter into the better world God promises. The Exodus way transforms us into people who leave sin behind, step out of the shackles of sin and evil, and continuously partner with God by doing his will in Heaven here on Earth.

Reflection Questions:
We often think about sin in terms of bad personal choices. What changes when we also think about sin as enslavement or bondage and sinners as people suffering under an evil overlord?

The video mentions a popular understanding of salvation as the notion that God simply takes us away from a corrupted world to his promised world (his heavenly Kingdom). But the video clarifies that this isn’t really the focus of Scripture. Based on the video and all you’ve learned so far, how has your understanding of the way God rescues people changed or deepened?