Waldemar Janzen offers a fresh approach to the canonical structure of Exodus. The liberation from Egypt is a prelude to Israel's unique calling to model before the nations a new life of service under God. Exodus portrays how God, through his servant Moses, wages a dramatic battle with Egypt's mighty ruler for the release of enslaved Israel. Yet as the battle rages, Israel stands apart as a watching noncombatant, wavering between doubt and faith.
After wresting Israel from Pharaoh's enslavement, God fights for the soul of his doubting and resistant people. They ask, "Is the Lord among us or not?" Even after Israel's covenant commitment to be God's "priestly kingdom and holy nation", Israel breaks away again and worships a golden calf, a symbol of what is clear to the senses.
In the end, God's grace wrests Israel away once more, this time from captivity to its own doubts, fears, and self-centeredness. In the last chapters, Exodus portrays a people focused in faith on the imageless presence of God in its midst. Nevertheless, God still wrestles for his people even today.
The book presents essays on themes useful for teaching, preaching, and Bible study; bibliographies; charts; a map; and an index. "Believers church" refers to churches in the Anabaptist heritage of faith. The BCBC series is sponsored by six denominations: Brethren Church, Church of the Brethren, Brethren in Christ Church, General Conference Mennonite Church, Mennonite Brethren Church, and Mennonite Church.
