The Exodus is the defining salvation event of the Old Testament. For 400 years the Israelites had been enslaved in Egypt. God raised up Moses, confronted Pharaoh, struck Egypt with ten plagues of ascending severity (water to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock disease, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the death of the firstborn), and delivered Israel through the parting of the Red Sea. The Exodus is loaded with theology. First, it reveals God's power: the gods of Egypt were publicly defeated by the God of Israel. Second, it reveals God's covenant faithfulness: He remembered His promise to Abraham (Exodus 2:24). Third, it establishes Passover as the central Jewish feast, with the blood of the lamb on the doorposts as the sign of redemption (Exodus 12). Fourth, it inaugurates the Mosaic Covenant at Sinai, giving Israel the Law. Fifth, it is the template of redemption for all of Scripture — Isaiah prophesied a new Exodus from exile; Jesus' death and resurrection are called an "exodus" in Luke 9:31 (the word translated "decease"); Revelation pictures the saints on the sea of glass singing "the song of Moses" (Revelation 15:3). Every Christian has had an exodus: a passage from slavery to sin into the freedom of sons, from the house of bondage into the promised land. Paul explicitly uses Exodus typology in 1 Corinthians 10: the Red Sea is baptism; the manna is communion; the wilderness is the Christian life; the land is the hope to come. Understanding the Exodus is essential to understanding the Bible; and understanding it as type is essential to understanding the cross.