Introduction to the Prayers of Exodus

Exodus means “going out,” and this book describes how the people of Israel “went out” into the world to become a nation of their own. Four hundred years have passed since the events at the end of Genesis, and the descendants of Israel have gone from being guests to slave workers. This is the story of how they turned back to God, and how He delivered them and made them His people.

The prayers in Exodus do not show as much variety as the prayers in Genesis. It may be because the book revolves around one major event (the Exodus) and because most of them involve some issue of suffering or a response to it. Still, there are petitions, intercessions, praise prayers, and a blessing—some of the most common types in the Bible. 

After the great variety of prayer in Genesis, Exodus allows us to learn more about prayer by concentrating on a few types. It also introduces us to the concept of how the different prayer types flow from and to one another.

Next time, we will dive into the first prayer found in Exodus, a petition from the Israelites as they cry out under the cruel hand of slavery.