The Best Commentaries on Exodus

I’ve just wrapped up a sermon series covering Exodus 1–15. During my study I found the following commentaries the most helpful.

  • Durham, John I. Exodus. Vol. 3. Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1987. — Like other volumes in the Word Commentary series, Durham’s work on Exodus offers technical discussion of the Hebrew text, including addressing relevant source-critical questions. (While Durham engages in discussion of redactors and JEDPH, he takes a largely canonical approach to the text). I found his comments and summaries to get to the heart of the text, especially as it functioned in the life of Israel.

  • Pink, Arthur W. Gleanings in Exodus. Chicago: Moody Press, 1979. — Pink shines in his ability to draw out the theological and Christological implications of a given passage. For example, in his discussion of Exodus 7, “A Hardened Heart,” he notes three reasons why God allows suffering: “for the complete testing of human responsibility, the trying of the saints’ faith, and the manifestation of all the perfections and attributes of Deity” (53).

Other Resources Used:

  • Stuart, Douglas K. Exodus. Vol. 2. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2006.

  • Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Delivered. “Be” Commentary Series. Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor Pub., 1998.

  • Meyer, F.B. Moses: Servant of God. New Kinsington, PA: Whitaker House, 2014.

The Glory of Corporate Worship

In Exodus 38, Moses describes the cost of constructing the Tabernacle. In addition to various animal skins and fine linens, the Tabernacle’s curtains, supports, furniture, and sacred instruments required “29 talents and 730 shekels” of gold and “100 talents and 1,775 shekels” of silver (Ex 38:24–25). If those measurements don’t make much sense to you, they didn’t to me either. But I did some math.

According to archaeological evidence, a talent—a unit measuring an object’s weight—was between 65 and 75 pounds, and a talent was equal to 3,000 shekels.[1] So the total weight of gold used in the Tabernacle’s construction was between 1,900.795 lbs (29x65 + .243x65, since 730 shekels = .243 talents) and 2,193.225 lbs (.243x75+29x75). That’s between 30,412.72 and 35,091.6 ounces. On February 3, 2019, 1 oz of gold is worth $1,317.93. Therefore, the gold required for constructing the Tabernacle was worth between $40,081,836.07 and $46,248,272.39.

I’m just a pastor, so you’ll have to forgive me if my math doesn’t check out and for leaving it to you to figure out the silver. My point stands. The Tabernacle might seem to us like a dusty tent, but it would have been glorious to behold. And it didn’t compare to the Temple, which Solomon constructed using the “100,000 talents of gold and 1,000,000 talents of silver, and bronze and iron beyond weight” (1 Ch 22:14) that David had saved up.

The opulence of these sacred gathering places puts the world’s greatest cathedrals to shame, not to mention the plain and undecorated rooms in which we Baptists worship. But that’s alright, our worship is glorious, not for its surroundings (gold that adorns walls, doors, pulpits, or pews), but for its object. Christians gather each week in unassuming buildings, high school cafeterias, and movie theaters to enter into the presence of God through Christ, the One who “tabernacled” among us and revealed the glory of the unseen God (Jn 1:14), and that’s the glory involved in corporate worship. The gold of the Tabernacle shined bright in the sun of ancient deserts, but it was as a shadow compared to the light and glory revealed in Christ.

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1. Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Weights and Measures,” Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 2138.