Reading Plan
Exodus in a Month
Every day this month we read the same chapters of Exodus on the same morning, together. No app, no plan to fall behind on, just an open Bible and one household reading the same story of slavery, deliverance, and the God who moves into a tent to be near His people. Start on September 22 and read at your own pace, but read the same passage as everyone else.
The whole plan
- 1
Exodus 1-2
A baby in a basket, and a nation about to be born
A new king forgets what Joseph did for Egypt and turns on the people who grew strong there. Midwives lie to save babies. A mother sets her son adrift in a basket instead of a river of blood, and Pharaoh's own daughter raises the deliverer under his nose. Moses grows up, kills a man, and runs. God has already started the rescue before Moses knows there is one. Notice how quietly it begins.
- 2
Exodus 3-4
I AM THAT I AM
A bush burns and does not burn up, and Moses is told to take off his shoes because the ground is holy. God gives His name, not a title but a name: "I AM THAT I AM." Moses argues. He is not eloquent, he is not brave, he does not want the job. God does not argue back with reasons Moses will like. He gives signs and a brother, Aaron, to speak for him. God calls the unwilling and equips them anyway.
- 3
Exodus 5-6
Let my people go, and Pharaoh says no
Moses and Aaron ask Pharaoh to let Israel go, and Pharaoh answers by making the work harder. The people blame Moses. Moses asks God why it is going wrong. God's answer is not an explanation, it is a promise repeated: I will bring you out, I will deliver you, I will take you for my people. Read the genealogy in chapter 6 slowly. God writes down the names of the people He is about to save.
- 4
Exodus 7-8
The first plagues, and a heart getting harder
Water turns to blood, frogs cover the land, lice and flies follow. Pharaoh's magicians can copy some of it and not all of it, and even they eventually admit this is the finger of God. Pharaoh bends when the plague is on him and straightens back up the moment it lifts. Watch how many times he almost lets go and does not. A hard heart does not soften on its own.
- 5
Exodus 9-10
Hail, locusts, and a darkness you can feel
The plagues grow heavier: boils, hail that flattens the fields, locusts that finish what the hail started, and a darkness thick enough to feel. Pharaoh's own servants tell him to let Israel go. He still will not. God tells Moses exactly why He is doing it this way, so that Egypt and Israel and everyone after them would know there is a God like this one. This was never only about Pharaoh.
- 6
Exodus 11-12
A lamb, blood on the doorpost, and a night no one forgot
God tells Israel to take a lamb without blemish and put its blood on the doorposts, so the angel of death passes over that house. This is the Passover, the meal Israel would keep for the rest of its history, the picture Paul later points to when he calls Christ our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7). At midnight the firstborn of Egypt die and Pharaoh finally lets them go. Israel walks out that night with the wealth of Egypt in their hands.
- 7
Exodus 13-14
A sea that will not stay open forever
God leads Israel by a pillar of cloud in the day and fire by night, and He leads them the long way, toward the sea, not away from trouble. Pharaoh's army corners them against the water. Moses tells the people to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, then God tells him to stretch out his hand. The sea opens, Israel walks through on dry ground, and it closes over Egypt. God did not remove the sea. He walked them through it.
- 8
Exodus 15
A song on the far side of deliverance
Moses and Israel sing the moment they are safe on the other shore, and the song names exactly what happened: the Lord is my strength and my song, and he is become my salvation. Three days later they are thirsty and complaining at Marah, and God sweetens bitter water instead of scolding them for forgetting so fast. Deliverance does not erase the wilderness. It just means you are not walking it alone.
- 9
Exodus 16-17
Bread from heaven, water from a rock
Israel grumbles for food and God sends manna every morning, enough for the day and no more, teaching them to depend on Him daily instead of stockpiling. They grumble again for water and God tells Moses to strike a rock, and water comes out of stone in the wilderness. Then Amalek attacks, and Israel wins as long as Moses' hands stay up in prayer. Every need in these two chapters gets met by God, not by Israel's planning.
- 10
Exodus 18
Advice from a father-in-law, and it was good advice
Jethro comes to visit and finds Moses trying to judge every dispute in the whole camp by himself, from morning to evening, wearing himself out. Jethro tells him to teach the people the statutes and laws and then delegate the smaller judgments to men who fear God. Moses listens. Not every good idea in Scripture comes with thunder and fire. Some of them come from a wise relative telling you that you cannot do this alone.
- 11
Exodus 19
A mountain that smoked, and a nation that trembled
Israel arrives at Sinai and God tells Moses what He wants from them before He gives them a single law: to be a peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, if they will obey His voice and keep His covenant. Then the mountain itself smokes and quakes and the people are told to consecrate themselves and not touch it. God is about to speak directly, and He wants them ready for it, not casual about it.
- 12
Exodus 20
Ten words, spoken by God himself
God speaks the Ten Commandments out loud to the whole camp, and the people are so shaken they ask Moses to stand between them and God from now on. Notice the order: no other gods, no idols, no taking His name in vain, keep the Sabbath, then honor parents, do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie, do not covet. Love God first. Love your neighbor next. Everything else in the law grows out of these two roots.
- 13
Exodus 21-22
Laws for people who were slaves last week
These chapters read like a court docket: servants, injuries, oxen, theft, seduction, sorcery, loans, widows. It can feel far from us until you remember who is reading it. This is a nation that was property a few weeks ago, and God is teaching them how to treat servants, strangers, and the poor with a justice nobody showed them in Egypt. Read verse 21 of chapter 22 twice. Vex not a widow, or fatherless child. God noticed how Israel was treated, and He will notice how Israel treats others.
- 14
Exodus 23
Do not follow a multitude to do evil
This chapter is about honesty in small places: false witness, bribes, fairness to enemies, rest for the land itself every seventh year. God also promises to send an angel before Israel into Canaan and warns them plainly not to make covenants with the nations there or their gods. He is not asking for isolation for its own sake. He is asking Israel to stay who they are becoming, not to slide back into who everyone around them already is.
- 15
Exodus 24
They saw the God of Israel, and they ate and drank
Moses reads the covenant to the people, they answer, all that the Lord hath said will we do, and blood seals the agreement. Then Moses, Aaron, and seventy elders go up and see God, and under His feet is something like a paved work of sapphire stone, and they eat and drink in His presence and live. Moses goes further up alone into the cloud for forty days to receive the tabernacle instructions. This is not distant religion. God let them see Him and sit with Him.
- 16
Exodus 25
An ark, a table, and a lamp, all built to a pattern
God gives Moses the pattern for the ark of the covenant, the table of shewbread, and the golden lampstand, down to the cubits and the metals. None of it is Moses' idea. Look after the pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount. Every piece of the tabernacle points at something: the ark at God's presence and mercy, the table at provision, the lamp at light in a dark tent. God does not leave the details to guesswork.
- 17
Exodus 26
Curtains, boards, and a veil that meant something
This chapter is fabric and wood measurements, and it is easy to skim. Slow down at the veil, the curtain that separates the holy place from the most holy place where the ark sits. Only the high priest could pass it, once a year, with blood. Centuries later that same veil tears top to bottom the moment Jesus dies (Matthew 27:51). The tabernacle is teaching Israel, in wood and cloth, exactly how far sin keeps people from God, and exactly what it will take to close the distance.
- 18
Exodus 27
A brazen altar, standing at the door
The altar of burnt offering goes at the entrance of the tabernacle courtyard, the very first thing anyone meets on the way in. Nobody reaches the ark, the table, or the lamp without passing the altar first. God is building the geography of approach into the architecture itself: sacrifice comes before presence. The chapter closes with instructions for oil to keep a lamp burning continually. Someone had to tend that light every single night.
- 19
Exodus 28
Garments made for glory and for beauty
Aaron's priestly garments are described piece by piece: the ephod, the breastplate with twelve stones for the twelve tribes, the mitre with a gold plate reading Holiness to the Lord. God says they are made for glory and for beauty, and also so Aaron bears the names of Israel's tribes over his heart whenever he goes in before the Lord. The high priest carries the whole nation with him into God's presence. He does not go in for himself alone.
- 20
Exodus 29
Consecration takes blood, not just water
Aaron and his sons are washed, dressed, and anointed, but consecration is not finished with washing and dressing. A bull and rams are sacrificed, and their blood is put on the altar and on the priests themselves, on the tip of the ear, the thumb, the big toe. God is teaching, before a single law of holiness is broken, that access to Him is bought with blood, not earned by ceremony. The priesthood itself needed a sacrifice before it could offer one.
- 21
Exodus 30
An altar of incense, a price of atonement, and oil that could not be copied
God adds an altar of incense just outside the veil, a required half-shekel from every Israelite as a ransom for his soul, a bronze laver for washing, and a specific holy anointing oil that Israel was forbidden to make for any other use. Even the smell of the tabernacle was set apart. Nothing in this room was allowed to become ordinary. God kept drawing lines around what was His so Israel would not forget it.
- 22
Exodus 31
Skilled hands, filled with the Spirit
God names Bezaleel and Aholiab and says He has filled them with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, and in all manner of workmanship, to build the tabernacle. Craftsmanship gets called a spiritual gift here, not a lesser one. Then God repeats the command to keep the Sabbath, calling it a sign between Him and Israel forever. The chapter ends with two tables of stone, written with the finger of God, coming down the mountain toward a camp that is about to fall apart.
- 23
Exodus 32
A golden calf, while Moses is still on the mountain
Moses is gone forty days and Israel gets tired of waiting. They melt their gold into a calf and call it worship. God tells Moses He will destroy them, and Moses argues with God for their lives, reminding Him of His own promise to Abraham. God relents. Moses comes down, breaks the tables he was carrying, and the camp pays a heavy price for that day. Read how fast a delivered people can forget who delivered them.
- 24
Exodus 33
Show me thy glory
God tells Moses He will not go up with this stiff-necked people, and Moses will not accept that answer. He asks God to show him His glory, and asks God to go with them Himself, not just an angel. If thy spirit go not with us, carry us not up hence. God agrees, and hides Moses in a cleft of the rock while His glory passes by, because no one can see God's face and live. Moses would rather have God's presence than the promised land without it.
- 25
Exodus 34
New tables, and a face that had to be veiled
Moses cuts two new tables of stone and goes back up the mountain, and God passes by and declares His own name: merciful, gracious, longsuffering, and yet by no means clearing the guilty. Moses comes down and his face shines so much from being with God that he has to wear a veil around the people. Paul later says that veil is a picture of a covenant that could not last (2 Corinthians 3:13). Moses reflected glory he did not create.
- 26
Exodus 35
Willing hearts bring willing gifts
Moses gathers the people and gives the Sabbath command again, then asks for an offering to build the tabernacle: gold, silver, brass, fine linen, skins, oil, spices, precious stones. Every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, brought the Lord's offering. Nobody was forced. The chapter is a list of ordinary people giving what they had, and skilled workers, men and women both, giving their hands to the work.
- 27
Exodus 36
More than enough
The workers start building the tabernacle exactly as commanded, and the people keep bringing gifts until Moses has to send word to stop, because they had brought more than enough for all the work to be made. This is a strange problem to read about: too much generosity. It happened once in Israel's history and it is worth noticing when it did. God's people, freed from slavery a year earlier, gave until the builders told them to stop.
- 28
Exodus 37
The ark gets built at last
Bezaleel makes the ark of shittim wood overlaid with gold, the mercy seat with its two cherubims, the table of shewbread, and the golden candlestick, each one built to the exact pattern God gave Moses on the mountain in chapter 25. What was only a blueprint for twelve chapters is now standing wood and gold. God's instructions were not decoration. They were followed, piece by piece, by people willing to build exactly what they were told.
- 29
Exodus 38
An altar, a court, and a careful accounting
The brazen altar, the laver, and the court hangings are finished, and the chapter ends with a precise accounting of every talent and shekel of gold, silver, and brass used in the whole project. Someone kept the books on the tabernacle. Handling God's things carelessly, even generously given things, was never treated as holy in itself. Care and honesty over money is part of the worship, not separate from it.
- 30
Exodus 39
According to all that the Lord commanded Moses
The priestly garments are finished, and the phrase as the Lord commanded Moses repeats through this chapter almost like a chorus, verse after verse. When everything is done, they bring it all to Moses, and he looks at it and blesses them. There is no shortcut praised here, no improvement on the pattern. Just obedience, checked against the instructions, and a leader glad to see it done right.
- 31
Exodus 40
The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle
Moses sets up the tabernacle exactly as commanded, piece by piece, and then a cloud covers it and the glory of the Lord fills the place so completely that Moses himself cannot enter. Exodus began with a people enslaved in Egypt and ends with God moving into a tent in the middle of their camp. That is the whole book in one sentence. God did not just bring them out. He came to live among them.
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