We’ve got an interesting topic this week. It’s something that for some reason I hadn’t seen before, and somehow I came across it the other day. It involves some connections that I believe are a YHWH-given in order for us to have some additional detail about our future.
We’ll start with a seemingly innocuous verse in Luke where he records the subject of the conversation between Yeshua, Elijah and Moses (Luke 9:31). While it is interesting that he notes Elijah and Moses “appeared in glory,” which alludes back to our understanding of the different second comings of Yeshua (one in the Father’s glory, one in His glory), the part we’re going to key in on is what Yeshua was going to accomplish soon in Jerusalem. Most translations call it “His departure,” while the King James versions call it “His decease,” and, of course, Luke is referring to Yeshua’s crucifixion and death.
The interesting part though, is the Greek word used. It’s only used in two other places in the New Testament. One gives us a connection to the Old Testament (Hebrews 11:22), and the other confirms the fact that Luke’s verse is talking about Yeshua’s death (2 Peter 1:15). In Peter’s second letter, he talks about striving to do his best at preparing his fellow believers, so that after his departure they will be able to remember everything he taught them.
We know Peter is talking about his death because a couple verses earlier he mentions living in the “tent” of his body (2 Peter 1:13), and in the next verse he talks about his tent being “laid aside” soon (2 Peter 1:14). So, what word is used by Peter here and by Luke and the writer of Hebrews in the other verses? It’s a word that, while you don’t know or speak Greek, is very familiar to you: ἔξοδος.
Are you sure you’re not familiar with that one? How about if we use the transliteration: exodos. I told you it was familiar to you! That brings us to the third and final verse this word is used in. The writer of Hebrews used this word when talking about, you guessed it, the Israelite’s exodus from Egypt.
This gives us an interesting connection between death, more specifically Yeshua’s death, and one of the most pivotal events recorded in the Old Testament. We’ll get to that in a moment, but first we’re going to look at the Greek word and break it down a bit. It’s a combination of two other Greek words: ek, meaning “out of,” and hodos, meaning “way” or “road.” In other words, it literally means “out of the way,” or, “out of the road.”
You might remember the first word from when we took a look at the word ekklesia, the term Yeshua used to refer to His believers, His called out ones. The second word, while it certainly is used extensively in scripture to mean an actual road, is the same one used for what the Jews started calling the group of believers in Yeshua. As we’ve noted before, there were multiple sects of Jews, including the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, etc. The new sect of Jews who believed in Yeshua was called The Way (Acts 9:2). This was the term Saul (who became Paul) used when seeking out these individuals in order to arrest and persecute them.
As you likely could deduce, they weren’t called the Way because they were really good at building roads. This term is also used metaphorically to mean a certain path or journey an individual is on. For instance, the believers in Yeshua are on the narrow path of living their lives the way Yeshua taught us to. In fact, that’s another use of the word hodos in scripture. When Yeshua was teaching about the wide way to destruction and the narrow way to life (Matthew 7:13-14), hodos was the word used. As a side note, did you also know that the Greek word used for “narrow” in that verse actually means compressed, or afflicted? It’s the same word used in multiple other places to refer to the affliction the believers were receiving (2 Corinthians 1:6, 4:8, 7:5, 1 Thessalonians 3:4, etc.), so rather than a path that’s narrow in width, Yeshua was referring to a path that is tough, involving oppression and trouble.
So, we’ve got a word that means “out of the way” and not only is it used to mean death, it’s used to refer to the historical event of the deliverance of the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. It’s important to recognize the significance of this usage in the New Testament though. Death is written of in New Testament scripture quite often, but in only the two verses we saw above is the word exodos used. In most places, the word thanatos is used, and this word occurs 120 times in the New Testament. This word was even used when referring to the “type of death” Yeshua would die (John 18:32).
Is the reason for associating exodos with Yeshua’s death that we might glean something about our death from what the Israelites went through while escaping pharaoh and his army? Perhaps, but before we get into that we’re going to look at how the equivalent Hebrew word is used in the Old Testament. We’ve done this before, but one way to get an idea of what Hebrew word would translate into a given Greek word is by looking at where that Greek word is used in the Septuagint version and which Hebrew word is used there.
When we do that with exodos, we find that it’s associated with the Hebrew word that’s pronounced yah-tsah. This word means “to go out,” “to bring forth,” or “depart.” This is the word used when, during the account of creation, the earth “brought forth” vegetation and living creatures (Genesis 1:12, 24). It’s also used when the Israelites were told to keep the Feast of Tabernacles at the “going out,” or end of the year (Exodus 23:16), which is an interesting thought. Now, we are starting to get into the idea of a transition rather than a discrete event like death is usually considered.
Another interesting connection we find in the Septuagint is that exodos is sometimes used when referring to a border, or the limit of a certain territory. For instance, when describing the extent of where a certain family lived, the borders of Sharon was mentioned (1 Chronicles 5:16), and for that, the Hebrew word to-tsaw-AH is connected with exodos. This word is actually derived from yah-tsah, which makes sense with this idea of it being a transition. A border is really just a transition from one territory to another, isn’t it?
Are you starting to get a better picture of the deeper meaning of exodos and why it was connected with Yeshua’s death? To continue with this study, let’s review some of the key aspects of the Israelite’s exodus. We might just find something interesting.
We know that in the events leading up to the Israelites leaving Egypt, there were plagues sent by YHWH onto the Egyptians (Exodus 7:14-12:30). The actual departure, or exodos, of the Israelites started after that, however. Their transition started in the middle of the night, after the firstborn sons of all the Egyptians, including pharaoh’s, were killed by YHWH (Exodus 12:31-32). It’s worthy to note though, the method by which YHWH motivated the Israelite’s oppressors to cast them out.
Yes, there were some plagues imposed on the Egyptians, and yes, those plagues were largely associated with the false gods the Egyptians worshipped. But it might be confusing when you read pharaoh’s response to the plagues and how YHWH influenced him. Multiple times, we read that YHWH hardened pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 9:12, 10:1, 20, 27, 11:10), but He didn’t do that until after pharaoh had hardened his own heart over and over again. In other words, it wasn’t until pharaoh had decided in his heart what he was going to do, to not let the Israelites go, that YHWH intervened to harden his heart and bring to completion the remaining plagues. By the eighth plague, we see that every time pharaoh’s heart was hardened it was by YHWH.
Now, this is not to say that if pharaoh had finally repented and let the Israelites go YHWH would have taken the same course of action. It’s more so that pharaoh had already decided he wasn’t going to repent, so YHWH brought on His full judgment and wrath on pharaoh and his people. This is similar to when Paul writes that YHWH gave people over to their sinful desires when they had already decided in their heart to ignore the obvious signs of His existence in creation (Romans 1:20-25). He desires people to repent and turn to Him, but until they do, they are subject to His full wrath and judgment.
But we’re talking about the Israelites’ exodus here, aren’t we? So let’s get back to that. When their departure finally happened, the Egyptians were actually urging the Israelites to leave (Exodus 12:33). It happened at a moment’s notice, with the Israelites not even having time to leaven their dough (Exodus 12:34). While there were signs that the event was impending, the plagues, the actual event commencement was essentially a surprise.
This is similar to Yeshua’s death, where the commencement of His trial and crucifixion was not necessarily known but the fact that there were more and more challenges by religious leaders was a sign it was going to occur at some point. It’s also similar to man’s death, with a few exceptions due to circumstances. Unless someone dies due to an instantaneous event that occurs, there are signs that the death is coming but the actual moment it occurs is unknown.
The real interesting part about the exodus though, is its most significant event. The Israelites seemed to have come to a dead end, with pharaoh and the Egyptian army right behind them. YHWH parted the sea, allowing the Israelites to cross on dry land, but when the Egyptians followed, He caused the sea to return and drown the whole army (Exodus 14:27-28).
Do you remember anything significant about the sea from our past studies? If you recall, we found out that symbolically, the sea is interchangeable with the abyss, which is also called the bottomless pit, in Revelation. When we found that out, we saw that the quote Paul made in Romans connected the sea with death (Romans 10:6-8). By this, we can see that the crossing of the sea during the exodus of the Israelites is symbolic of the passing through death to life, and that’s exactly what Yeshua’s death has given us the ability to do.
The sea not only symbolized death during the exodus, it literally became death to the Egyptians as their judgment for going against YHWH and pursuing His chosen people. The Israelites were spared from that death, but Yeshua actually went through it and came out the other side into life because His lack of sin enabled His resurrection. Through this, we are given the opportunity to do the same thing He did: come out the other side of death into life. Yeshua’s exodus can become our exodus, if we place our belief in Him (John 3:16).
To be sure, there are many lessons and connections we can learn about the exodus in general, and perhaps we’ll get into those in a future study. For this week, I hope you found it enlightening that there is a “hidden gem” in scripture connecting Yeshua’s death and resurrection with the exodus and its symbolism. There’s a reason events like these were a part of YHWH’s plan and why He preserved the recording of these events in scripture through thousands of years for us to gain insight from!
We hope you have a wonderful week! Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!
-Rob and Sara Gene
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