The Sevenfold Structure of Exodus

The second book of Moses prepares and establishes Israel as a “holy household” to mediate between heaven and earth. Thus, the literature itself follows the architecture of Creation.

In terms of the fivefold covenant sequence of the Torah, Genesis moves the narrative from Transcendence (God as Creator and Father) to Hierarchy (Man as His Son and Legal Representative). The fact that the primary structure of the book itself is sevenfold indicates that this is not only a “new creation” in some way but also a delegation of greater authority to qualified human beings. The “five” becomes “seven” through the “opening” of the Ethics step, which branches out into the three facets of human obedience: “hear God, obey God, speak for God,” or Priest, King, and Prophet. In this way, the fivefold covenant (the theory) becomes sevenfold in history (the practice).¹Of course, since God works in fractals, each of these three offices also contains all three steps, but they concern different domains: the Priest in the Garden, the King in the Land, and the Prophet … Continue reading

Just as Genesis 2 recapitulates the pattern of construction in Genesis 1 but in terms of the social order rather than the physical creation, so Exodus recapitulates the pattern of Creation but in national terms. There is repetition but also development. Thus also, instead of a vertical division-and-reunion of the waters as described in Genesis 1-9, relating to the space between heaven and earth, the parting of the Red Sea is horizontal. This tells us that the division between Egypt and Israel was one more step in the construction of a “social” model of the cosmos.

Like the Creation Week, the book of Exodus is also a process of forming and filling. However, since God was “making all things new” this required the destruction of the old order. Just as the book of Ezekiel and Revelation give us, as liturgy, the destruction of the old Temple and a vision of the new, Pharaoh’s “Adamic” building project is halted and destroyed, and God’s house is constructed, like Eve, out of the plunder. This is symbolized in the fact that Moses and Aaron were repossessing the riches which God had bestowed upon Egypt through the ministry of Joseph. The extraction of Joseph’s bones is, therefore, an antitype of the extraction of a rib from Adam. Moreover, the “bridal robes” of the Tabernacle of Moses—both the interior furnishings and the outermost garment—were coverings of striped, brightly-colored beadwork. Just as Joseph—clothed in a rainbow and crowned with an Egyptian uraeus (cobra) was the “human” answer to the outcome of Genesis 1-9, so also this new house of God was rainbow-colored and “lifted up” as a serpent on a cruciform pole, a symbolic, Noahic ascension from earth to heaven in a pillar of fire (Genesis 8:20-22).

This also relates to the nature of the ascension (whole burnt) offering in Leviticus 1 as a retelling of Genesis 1 but in terms of sacrifice—a microcosm of the destruction of “all flesh.” So, the book of Exodus is, like the cross, not a forming and a filling so much as a deforming and a defilling: a cutting of flesh, a pouring out of blood and water, and a testimony of sacrificial smoke, a cloud on a mountain—firstly in a brutal national judgment (the natural), and then in a liturgical, substitutionary judgment (the spiritual).

This Noahic element answers the statement at the beginning of Exodus which tells us that the decree of Noah—that Ham’s son Canaan would be a servant to his brothers—has been overturned by an unbelieving Pharaoh. Israel had been promised the land of Canaan but was being held captive in Egypt, the land of Ham (Psalm 105:23). Ham’s personal attempt to hijack the blessing of the firstborn on the perceived eve of Noah’s “death”²For more discussion, see Out of His Belly. was now a national, that is corporate, theft from God.

In response, God would use Israel to judge both Ham and Canaan, the father and the son. As mentioned, Egypt is a book about Hierarchy. It is a book of cutting, of division, a setting apart for sacrificial service (which is the true definition of sanctification, as opposed to the modern use of the word to describe the gradual process of spiritual maturity). It cuts off the era of the Noahic priest-kings and the Abrahamic patriarchs and heralds a new era with a centralized priesthood founded upon and bounded by genealogy. The original “one-and-many” of Genesis had grown old and was ready to pass away. In the Levitical order, the Lord was establishing a new “one” that there might eventually be a holier “many”—a priesthood of all believers.

Thus, Israel is God’s “firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22). Jesus—as Yahweh—was coming to Egypt like a thief in the same way that Jacob—fulfilling the will of God—stole the covenant inheritance from unfaithful Esau. This was not an Adamic theft but a legitimate act of repossession from the serpent.

THE “NEW CREATION” RUBRIC (BIBLE MATRIX)

Overview

Analysis

Zooming in even further, each of the seven steps of Exodus is a death-and-resurrection event in some way, some explicit (history) but some implicit (liturgy).

1. Creation – Day 1: The book begins with Pharaoh’s desire to wipe out the sons of Israel which results in Moses’ “ascension” to the very court of Egypt as a natural son but in a supernatural way—carried in an ark. The sequence ends with Moses on the mountain in the court of God—a “supernatural” Son of God—receiving a personal commission as a “human tabernacle,” a burning bush “lampstand” whose light will expose Egypt to the world. He is given three serpentine signs that correspond to Word (above: Most Holy Place – serpent fruit tree in the Garden), Sacrament (beside: Holy Place – serpent skin brother in the Land), and Government (below: Court of the Nations – serpentine flood of blood in the World), remedies for the idolatries of Egypt (see Exodus 20:4). As “covenant head,” Moses’ sojourn in the wilderness and the circumcision of his firstborn before the judgment of Egypt pictures the journey of Israel and the “second circumcision” before the conquest of Jericho (Joshua 5:2).
2. Division – Day 2: The sons of the Egyptians are then destroyed while the sons of Israel are redeemed. The first nine plagues construct a three-level “altar” upon which the tenth plague is placed as an offering.³See Plunder and Plagues. Israel, as a “corporate Abel,” had been set apart as a priestly nation of shepherds. But the animal killed and eaten at Passover could be either a lamb (wool) or a kid (hair), an allusion to Jacob (the priestly brother) and Esau (the kingly brother)⁴This also explains the ram skin and goat skin coverings of the Tabernacle. but also a promise of the future priest-kingdom in the Land.⁵Note that the firstfruits sacrifice could only be a “lamb-priest,” hence the ascension of Christ as the Levitical Firstfruits Lamb in Revelation 5 after the fulfillment of Passover at the cross.
3. Ascension – Day 3: Israel’s baptism and arrival at Sinai is “life from the dead,” the same fiery mountain rising from the “sea” of the nations that would ultimately be thrown down by the heavenly Zion (Revelation 8:8).⁶See The Highest of the Mountains. The sequence climaxes with the Conquest of Amalek, son of Esau⁷See Everlasting Arms and the Glorification of the Abrahamic nation with judges under the guidance of Jethro, a tribal priest-king after the order of Melchizedek. Corresponding to Day 3, these “elohim” are a “firstfruits” of the crop in governmental or “kingly” terms.
4. Testing: The cutting of the covenant at Sinai “slays” Israel under the Law and then the legal representatives “rise” from the sprinkled blood to dine with the Lord. The seventy elders represented the seventy nations listed in Genesis 10. This was only a temporary privilege given as a sign of future glory. Following this event, continued (and itinerant) access to the court of God would require the establishment of the Levitical priesthood, an order of “human sacrifices” in the Sanctuary. The pattern of worship in Exodus 24 is replicated today in the traditional Christian liturgy, or “covenant renewal worship.”⁸See Covenant Renewal Worship vs. Paedosacraments.
5. Maturity: The instructions for the Tabernacle recapitulate the creation of the heavens and the earth and the act of mediation between them.⁹See The Shape of Exodus 25-31.
6. Conquest – Day 6: The “Adam and Eve” tablets are broken due to Israel’s idolatry and remade under a “new covenant.” But there will be further consequences. The chiastic correspondence of Passover and the commissioning of the Levites as “covenant avengers” (an Atonement) pictures the contrast between the sword from heaven in Egypt (Division) and the sword in the hand of the Israelites in Jericho (Conquest). The sevenfold pattern is purification and qualification for the purpose of delegating divine authority. The first instance of this pattern was the cutting of Adam in Eden and his failure to qualify to bear the flaming sword upon entry into the Land.¹⁰For more discussion, see The Sword of Adam: Preterism vs. Pacifism. This is also the difference between circumcision (mitigation of judgment upon Adam’s firstborn) and baptism (investiture as a holy warrior). The idolatry at Sinai is also the referent for Israel’s High Priesthood completing Herod’s Temple as an “image of the beast” (Revelation 13) after Jesus had ascended to heaven. Just as the idolaters drank the powdered golden calf, so harlot Jerusalem would drink a cup of judgment and face the sword-oath of Jesus from heaven. This is brought into sharper focus in Numbers 5 as a test for adultery.¹¹See Moses’ New Covenant.
7. Glorification – Day 7: Finally, the new creation model is built by Spirit-filled men and inhabited by God as an image of the final, glorious state of the world, the marriage of heaven and earth. This reference to the mighty rushing “wind of the day” visit of the glory cloud in Eden (Genesis 3:8; Acts 2:2) also explains the cloud at Jesus’ transfiguration and Peter’s suggestion of the construction of “tabernacles.” This step corresponds to the Feast of Booths, or Feast of Tabernacles, but the word sukkoth literally means “clouds.”

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Art: Lawrence Alma Tadema, Death of the Pharaoh’s Firstborn Son (1872).