Book Review: Echoes of Exodus

This book review was included in the Novmeber 2018 Meadowcroft Monthly. For an archive of all book reviews, click here.

I love a book that deepens my appreciation for the beauty of the Bible. Over the years, as I’ve often struggled with doubt, the beauty of God’s Word has always been a significant reason for me to keep believing. The goodness of God’s Word points us to the goodness of God. For that reason, I was really helped by Echoes of Exodus by Andrew Wilson and Alastair Roberts.

The thesis put forth by Wilson and Roberts is that the Exodus is a

controlling metaphor in Scripture. They set out to show that all of the Bible is exodus-shaped, and how this understanding gives us a deeper appreciation of the beauty of the Bible, as well as a deeper understanding of God’s goodness to us and our call to follow Him in response.

The authors walk through pretty much the whole Old Testament and show exodus themes throughout, including in many books you wouldn’t expect (Esther, etc.) They work their way up to the four Gospels, which they call “the crescendo” of an exodus-shaped Biblical story. “The life of Jesus is an exodus, hidden in plain sight.” The ultimate exodus of Jesus is his death and resurrection.

One of the emphases I really appreciated was that understanding the exodus helps us to see not only the privilege of following God, but the challenge. They apply this understanding to Paul’s writings:

One summary we hardly ever use (for the Gospel), but which appears in Paul’s writings all the time...goes something like this: we were slaves. We were slaves to sin, death, fear, the flesh, and the Devil. But at just the right time, God rescured us. He defeated our enemy and redeemed us through the blood of his Son, taking us through the waters of baptism, uniting us to himself, giving us his Spirit to lead us and guide us, and providing us all we need. He did all this, not so that we could do our own thing, but so that we could do his thing. And he is taking us on toward a new creation of resurrection and victory, milk and honey. In other words: Paul’s gospel is an exodus.

The book finishes with a section on “Living in the Exodus.” I loved the image that the authors painted of the church’s work:

The task of the church can be described in all sorts of ways, but one of my favorites is this: we are called to make the echoes of the exodus louder... People all around us, going about their daily business, do not recognize the Pharaohs and the plagues, the manna from heaven and the chariots in the deep. Part of the task of the church is to amplify the music of redemption, so that they (and we) might hear it for what it truly is.

I highly recommend this book - it is deep, but very readable and great for personal or group study.