Commentaries on the Pentateuch: Exodus
Overview
The law and the prophets are meaningless without the atonement, and the atonement is stripped of its meaning when separated from the law and the prophets. For the sovereign Creator of all things to enter into a covenant with man is an act of pure and total grace. At the same time, a covenant is a treaty of law whereby God declares that the way of peace with him is to talk in terms of his law, the way of righteousness or justice. These themes and more are integral to an understanding of the book of Exodus, as well as understanding redemption itself.
The comparisons between Israel's deliverance from Egypt and the redeemed deliverance from sin is brought to life in this second in Rousas John Rushdoony's Pentateuch series. In it, he makes it clear that God's covenant is brought to its perfection in Jesus Christ, and both the law and the prophets are validated.
Top Highlights
“Where God’s law prevails, restitution is to the person offended. In statist law, it is the state which is offended and exacts a penalty in the form of fines or imprisonment. The result is not a restoration of order but an increase of statist power and control over all. Biblical restitution restores the balance by penalizing the offender to effect restoration to the offended. This is justice.” (Page 313)
“We now have a generation which cannot execute hardened, habitual criminals, nor murderers, nor anyone else deserving death. Yet it favors abortion and the death of millions thereby; every year it legalizes sodomy; it is permitting euthanasia; and, as it steadily increases the murderous scope of its evil, it rejects God’s righteous judgments as cruel. Such men are tender-hearted towards evil and merciless towards God, His people, and His laws. They are the modern Egyptians.” (Page 127)
“Our Lord places the fulfillment of our responsibility to our parents above our responsibility to God as a practical test of faith.” (Page 260)
“In Biblical law, restitution is mandatory to the offended person” (Page 273)
“The common use of oaths is on taking office, and before giving testimony in a court of law. In the Name of God as the absolute Truth (John 14:6), we affirm in our oath our intention to uphold God’s justice. The fact of the oath is basic to social order. It declares that there is an order and a Person beyond man and this world Who is the supreme Judge over all creation and whose word and order alone endure. In oath-taking, we appeal to that order and declare our faith in His eternal justice in the face of all human tyrannies.” (Page 253)
- Title: Commentaries on the Pentateuch: Exodus
- Author: Rousas John Rushdoony
- Publisher: Ross House Books
- Publication Date: 2004
- Pages: 554
Rousas John Rushdoony (1916–2001) was was a well-known American scholar, writer, and author of over thirty books. He earned degrees from the University of California, received theological training at the Pacific School of Religion, and received an honorary Doctorate from Valley Christian University for his book The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum.
Rushdoony was an ordained minister and served as pastor at two California churches. He served for almost nine years as a missionary to the Shoshone and Paiute Indians in a remote area of Nevada. It was during this time as a missionary that Rushdoony began writing. The Institutes of Biblical Law and Commentary on the Pentateuch are just a few of the titles that Rushdoony has penned.
The Chalcedon Foundation, an educational organization devoted to research, publishing, and cogent communication of a distinctively Christian scholarship to the world at large, was founded by Rushdoony in 1965. He served as the editor of The Chalcedon Report, the monthly magazine of the Chalcedon Foundation.
Rushdoony also published the Journal of Christian Reconstruction and was an early board member of the Rutherford Institute which was founded by John W. Whitehead.
