The Story of Greater Exodus in Hebrews: A Narrative Reading of Hebrews 3-4

Abstract

The author of Hebrews presents Israel’s exodus story in the light of Christ’s event as the consequential continuity with the original intended goal, heading toward the true and ultimate destination of God’s promised land. For the author of Hebrews, the exodus narrative did not end with the deliverance from Egypt or at Mount Sinai, where God revealed himself to his people or even with Israel’s conquest of Canaan under Joshua. Instead, the author demonstrates that the final goal of the exodus deliverance includes something greater than the promised land. In this view, this paper argues that the author’s greater exodus narrative is one way of demonstrating the redemption of Christ for humanity in Hebrews. The Hebrews’ exodus narrative is not only about the person of Christ, who is faithful like Moses in the house of God, but also about what he has accomplished in his priestly work for the people of God, producing greater provisions than what Moses mediated for the people of God. Thus, the people of God have a firm assurance that they can enter God’s rest through a new and living way, inaugurated by Christ’s suffering death,. Just as Moses was a shepherd of his people, leading them toward the promised land, Jesus is the Great Shepherd of the whole of God’s house who leads them into the promised rest, which is greater than the earthly promised land. Hence, the book of Hebrews’ centrality of the gospel story of Christ - his incarnation, suffering death as an atonement, and his priestly ministry - hermeneutically stands on the exodus motifs in the way the greater exodus reveals the fulfillment of the anticipated goal of the exodus story.