Exodus is the next book following Genesis in the order of the books of the Old Testament. The focus of the book is the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham through the formation of the Nation of Israel.

The closing chapters of Genesis tell us that Joseph, one of Jacob's sons, was sold into slavery by his brothers and was taken to Egypt by travelling merchants, who sold him to Potiphar, the Captain of Pharaoh's guards. There, Joseph rose to prominence in Egypt after suffering injustice at the hands of his master. Like Daniel several centuries later, God instilled His wisdom in Joseph and made him indispensable to Pharaoh who made him second in command of the entire Egyptian empire. That was how Abraham's descendants began to form into a nation of God's people in a land which was not their own.

The book of Exodus records both the settling of the nation of Israel in Egypt and their departure from Egypt to possess their promised land. In Exodus we read the details of the who, how, when, what, and where of the history of Israel's beginning, but not the why. That is kept in the sovereign prerogatives of God the Almighty.

We read in Exodus about:

• How God prepared Egypt to be the birthplace for the nation of Israel;
• The conditions which forced the first family to go to Israel and settle;
• The afflictions suffered by Abraham's descendants at the hands of their Egyptian masters because they felt threatened by the growth and prosperity of the emerging people of Israel;
• The birth, preparation, and appointment of Moses the first leader of the children of Israel;
• God's mighty hands by which Israel was set free and Egypt was judged;
• The miraculous exit of a whole new nation out of the hands of an overbearing nation;
• The meeting of God with His people at a place of God's choosing at Mount Horeb in Sinai;
• The formation of the nation as a Theocracy under the direct Kingship of God through His appointed servants and the giving of the law;
• The building of the Tabernacle, the place of worship.

In Exodus, we learn that God fulfilled His promise to Abraham by forming a nation out of his descendants through the lineage of Isaac and Jacob, over which He presided both as the King and as the Lord. The people served God as their King and worshipped Him as their God. In the end, the book of Exodus is the record of God's will, plan, and purpose concerning Abraham and his descendants and the historical process of the coming of the Messiah to execute God's redemption.

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