Genesis 39:1-23
Exegesis asks questions
The exegete does not come to his text with answers but with questions. There are primarily two questions to ask: ‘What did the text mean?’ and ‘What does the text say?’ These two central questions about a text’s meaning and message are answered by asking the text a number of other questions, and it is these questions we will study in this chapter.
The person and work of Christ are also presented in Old Testament passages by way of typology. A type is a prophetic picture of Christ’s person and work. It is a real person, place, object, event, etc., which God ordained to act as a predictive pattern or resemblance of Christ’s person and work. A type is distinguished from an allegory by the following characteristics: (i) Its words may concern a story, an object, a person, or an event; (ii) The story, object, etc., is true, real and factual; (iii) The same truth is found in both the type and the antitype (fulfilment); (iv) The same truth is enlarged, heightened and clarified in the antitype.
God’s law should never be preached as the way to salvation. Its purpose was to show the people’s need of salvation and also the appropriate response to salvation—grateful obedience. That’s why God’s law is set in a redemptive context in both Exodus 19:4 and Exodus 20:2. The Lamb came before the Law. The pattern was redemption, relationship, response and reward. God’s redemption brought them into relationship with him, and they were to express their gratitude by responding with grateful obedience, to which God would further add his blessing.