The Big Story
Have you ever struggled to make your way through the Old Testament?
I know I have...so many times! Especially when I am overly focused on a portion of Scripture, without looking at it through the lens of the “Big Story”.
Jen Wilkin beautifully expounds: “Each of its sixty-six books contributes to telling this Big Story–- a story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. The Bible purposes to tell us this Big Story in a thousand smaller stories, from its first page to its last.”
Exodus 6:6
With that in mind, as we read through passages like Exodus 6:6 (pictured)--when God promises the Israelite’s deliverance out of Egypt--we must acknowledge it is not an isolated verse. Rather, it is a part of the central message of the Bible: the message of the Gospel.
Exodus 6:6 says, “Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment'” (ESV).
This verse foreshadows an event hundreds of years away-- the Greatest Deliverance which only our Greatest Deliverer can fulfill.
The Big Story
Several New Testament verses have similar phrasing as this passage does, which shows how the "Big Story" of God's rescue is interwoven throughout the entirety of the Bible."For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin…" (Rom. 6:6)"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 6:23).And what is the only way through which we can be saved? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! This is what the Passover prophesied: there is salvation through the shedding of the blood of our Passover Lamb (Exo. 12:12-13; John 1:29).Exodus 6:7 continues, "I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians" (ESV).
Claim the Big Story Today
What a beautiful picture of redemption and reconciliation! Sister, God's "Big Story" of redemption, rescue, and reconciliation, through Jesus, is a story for us to claim.
Indeed, "we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation" (Rom 5:11, ESV).
