Exodus is not just a book with stories for children, it continues the weighty foundational role and themes of Genesis.  Does God keep His promises?  How will He redeem His people?  What kind of God is He?  What is their relationship with Him?  I suspect Exodus may well be under-preached in light of its significance.  It is a book that is quoted and alluded to repeatedly in the rest of the Old Testament, and in the New Testament as well.  Here are three momentous moments not to be passed over:

1. Passover in chapter 12.  Here is the moment that the Jewish people would look back on for centuries to come.  With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, the LORD delivered His people from captivity in Egypt and launched them on their journey to home.  The hardened heart of Pharoah was baked solid as God prepared to deliver His people, with the showdown between the LORD and the gods of Egypt being decisively won.  And at the very heart of this key moment in human history?  A perfect and innocent lamb slain to provide blood protection for the people who trusted God’s word.  The LORD himself protecting them from the destroyer.

2. Sinai in chapters 19-20.  Delivered safely into the wilderness the kingdom of priests arrived at the place where God would meet with them. It was an impressive encounter, perhaps too much for them to bear.  The kingdom of priests seemed to shrink back in fear (as Moses tells us later on), and the first boundary markers of the Law were established for them, along with a simple earthen altar.  If God had called His son out of Egypt, then the familial imagery seems to move to the marital at Sinai – covenant commitments both ways, but would both prove faithful?

3. Glory in chapters 32-34.  The revelation of the Law given in Exodus and Leviticus has a progressive development, apparently instigated by failure on the part of the people.  Despite chapter 24 and their fellowship with the LORD, they were unfaithful to Him in profoundly flagrant ways before the Golden Calf.  God’s anger raged hot, for He is Jealous, but Moses interceded for His presence to go on with them.  Amazingly, while on the mountain with the LORD Moses dared to ask to see His glory.  How could he have confidence to make such a request?  Earlier in the same chapter we are told of his regular face to face conversations with the LORD whose tent was pitched down near the people.  But the LORD up on the mountain could not be seen.  Yet Moses got that wonderful encounter with the trail of God’s glory.  And what did God reveal?  A stronger power than that image of power, the golden calf?  Absolutely.  He was given a divine glimpse of God’s goodness and covenant loyalty and mercy.  Not a weak God, for He does deal with sin.  A powerful God whose power of character overwhelms our conceptions of raw force.

So much to preach, and this post has only scratched at the surface!