A New Exodus is a particular theological perspective that is presented in Rob Bell and Don Golden's book Jesus Wants to Save Christians. Don and Rob do an excellent job unearthing and putting in plain language a perspective of Gospel that needs more air time. But not air time in the sense of marketing and big church business. It needs air time in the daily lives of Christians.
Don and Rob begin with the profound thought that, since the very first family, humanity has been dysfunctional. We are dysfunctional in how we relate to God, creation and especially each other. Scriptures record such an escalation of trouble that at one point it is 11 times worse than when Cain killed his brother Abel over land and religious preferences. As part of the escalation we should remember that this story is being told to a specific people from a specific heritage.
Specifically speaking it is the Children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The sons and daughters of the brothers Joseph. If you remember in the biblical story Joseph is one of twelve brothers who is the most disliked. He is annoying. He has dreams of grandeur and being a 'savior' for his brothers that one day they would bow to him.
The crazy thing is that this behavior makes his brothers so jealous that they plan to kill him, but one of his brothers says, 'no, that wouldn't be right.' So instead of killing him, they sell him as a slave. They tell his father that he must have been killed by a wild animal... they even tore Joseph's multi-colored robe and dipped it in animals blood.
Needless to say, Joseph may have not been well suited for working with his brothers, but somehow as a slave he managed to be promoted. I am going skip a lot of the story here... anyway, Joseph ends up in Egypt. In Egypt he ends up serving as one of Pharaoh's top people.
Joseph leads Egypt in preparing for a famine.
The famine is a long excruciating famine... but due to Joseph's foresight, Egypt and many surrounding areas are saved. Joseph's family in his father's household, hear the news that Egypt is providing for people during the famine. They can hardly believe it. They send a group of brothers to go and check things out.
They end up standing face to face in front of Joseph and don't even recognize him. He recognizes them though. He sends them away and tells them to bring the youngest brother.
They, because they are so desolate, do what he says. When they return, Joseph reveals who he really is.
He shows mercy and grace to his brothers. And brings them and the rest of his father's family to Egypt--to save them all from the reaches of this famine.
They come and stay in Egypt. The problem... it's not long till Egypt sees this people as a nuisance and a means to get something more for themselves. This family becomes enslaved under harsher and harsher treatment, becoming brickmakers for Pharoah's large building undertakings... This is where the book of Genesis ends and the 'Exodus' begins...
