Finding the Right "YES!"

A Journey from Inbox to Sandbox and Beyond

I was at my desk next to the giant windows in my faculty office at Prairie College on a frigid day sparkling with sunshine. Outside the grass had been wearing its snowy blanket for months already, with more months of winter to come. We were just beginning the winter term (calling it spring would have been a cruel joke). To be precise, it was January 22, 2019 when the email landed in my inbox. The subject line read: “Introductions & An Invitation.” It was from a man I had only briefly met once at a seminary reception. I eagerly read the invitation, wondering what it held.

I was stunned.

A colleague poked his head in my office at that moment to ask me a question, startled to see tears rolling down my cheeks. I smiled and reassured him that everything was quite alright, more than alright. I knew that email would change the trajectory of my career, and therefore my life. Dr. Bill Arnold was asking if I might be interested in writing a 750-page commentary on the book of Exodus for the Baker Commentary on the Old Testament: Pentateuch series.

I was a “junior” scholar tucked away on the plains of Alberta in just my second year of my first full-time faculty position. Although I was in my early 40s, I was new to the academy and had only published my dissertation, nothing else. How had this come to me?

I had invested five years immersed in writing my doctoral dissertation on a single verse of Exodus—a verse which I came to love. Exodus 20:7 had gripped me. To write a commentary on the whole book would be a dramatically different kind of project—in scope and in pace—with the potential of helping me grasp the bigger picture. How would it change me? I knew it would take years—at least five and maybe as many as ten. Exodus would be my constant preoccupation. It would shape the way others saw me and the other projects I would be asked to do.

A New Trajectory

My doctoral mentor’s career can be divided into the eras in which he wrote each commentary. First, Dan Block wrote his Ezekiel commentary for NICOT while he taught at Bethel, then the NAC commentary on Judges and Ruth during his decade at Southern, and finished his NIVAC Deuteronomy at Wheaton. Each of these eras lasted a decade, and each one marked him as an expert. By the time he reached Wheaton College, these writing projects had spawned innumerable conference papers and public lectures, classes and doctoral projects, sermons and Sunday School Classes. During my years at Wheaton he launched a new commentary series as its general editor and wrote commentaries for that series on Obadiah and Ruth.

Wheaton was a new era for him of publishing collections of essays, major works on worship and covenant, and of shepherding others in their writing. Each commentary Dr. Block wrote was the nucleus of his research around which the electrons of his insight spun and danced. He knew the text of these books inside and out. He could articulate their themes and contributions to biblical theology effortlessly. He could cite examples of Hebrew constructions without looking them up. Having imbibed these texts consistently and doggedly each for a decade, they had become part of him, marking every future project (and loading its Scripture index with references).

When I shared the news of this invitation with my husband, he immediately intuited what this would mean. “Of course!” he said without hesitation. “This is what you trained to do!”

And so we said YES. Yes to years of quietly, patiently reading and and exploring and wondering and writing and revising and tracking wordcount. Yes to dinner table conversations and book purchases and trips to Egypt. Thanks to the pandemic, I had loads of time to write at the beginning, and the imagination to start a YouTube channel so that I could share what I was learning with others. The community of fellow learners that has grown up around me on YouTube has been a wonderful gift.

The project followed me to California, where I’ve labored on it hour after hour through the summer months and early mornings of the school year in a faculty office that looks out on palm trees all year round. The grass is always green, and the ground is never blanketed with snow, but the same sun still shines. For five more years, I have plodded along, verse by verse (and video by video). I’ve learned about midwifery and divination, about warfare and religious artifacts. I’ve read excavation reports and studied tomb walls and scoured the photos I took in Egypt. I’ve combed through ancient law collections and explored metaphors. I’ve read monographs and journal articles and every page of more than a dozen Exodus commentaries. I’ve sketched furniture designs and color-coded chapters at a time to discern their literary design.

Playing in My Sandbox

Over these years, if I ever felt languid or angsty or blah, my mom would ask if I had played in my “sandbox” lately. Both of us knew that the best cure for anything that ailed me was to get back to Exodus. To be clear—Exodus was never a slog. The work regulated and calmed me, bringing me deep joy. That joy has spilled out into my classes and sermons, podcast interviews and other writing projects. Exodus is my nucleus, and I can hardly believe this journey is nearing its destination!

Here we are, seven years later, and I’ve just hit “send” on the project of a lifetime. Already the complete project has landed in Bill Arnold’s inbox.

573 pages, single-spaced
3118 footnotes
272,745 words
28 pages of bibliography

Here’s one thing I’ve learned: we don’t know what we don’t know. When God told Moses his name, “I will be whoever I will be,” he was inviting Moses to a lifetime of discovery. He told the people repeatedly, “then you will know that I am Yahweh.” The name Yahweh meant little to Moses until he had seen Yahweh’s power and protection, provision and presence. When I said yes to Exodus, how could I have imagined the years of joy it would bring? I had an inkling, but now I know. On the pages of this book I have encountered the God who set Israel free for a lifetime of worship.

I still have work ahead of me. The massive, 270,000-word project (almost triple my dissertation!) will go through rounds of editing and revision with Bill Arnold, and with Brandy Scritchfield at Baker, and with the copyediting team. I’ll read it over and over again, as I’ve done this month, making sure everything is ready for you. That process will take about 16 months. I’m hoping we can release the commentary next Fall (2027). When it’s ready for pre-order, I’ll be sure to let you know!

No, I am not done with Exodus. This is a book that won’t let go of me. I have other resources in mind that I want to share with all of you. As I anticipated, Exodus has changed my life. I hope you’ll give it a chance to change yours, too.

Exodus While You Wait

While you wait for the commentary, you can dive into any of the following resources:

• my FREE Torah Tuesday on Exodus playlist on YouTube (165 videos and counting, ranging from 5-20 minutes each!)

• my FREE video courses on Exodus for the BibleProject or Biblical Training (13+ hours of content in each course)

• my Admirato video courses on Engaging the Torah, the Life of Moses, or Christians and Old Testament Law (this last one is FREE!)

• my SeminaryNow video course on Bearing God’s Name

• pre-order my children’s book, written with Nijay Gupta for kids ages 8-12, which highlights the women of Exodus among 25 Fierce and Faithful women of the Bible (coming in October!)

What’s Next?

I hope you’ll join me for a FREE Livestream of my public lecture at Calvin University (on my birthday-August 3!) entitled Exodus through Egyptian Eyes. I have so much to share about this remarkable book.

Since that momentous day in January 2019, many more invitations have landed in my inbox. I have said no to most of them, realizing my finitude. But I have prayerfully agreed to a handful of other projects. Knowing how life-giving this commentary project has been, I’ve said yes to two more commentaries that will shape me in the years to come: Luke (Through Old Testament Eyes) and Ezekiel (Story of God). I also have projects in the works on the Psalms, on Multiculturalism in the Bible, and on themes in Exodus.

I’m also turning in a new direction by serving as academic editor for two projects for IVP Academic and Zondervan Academic. I’ll have the joy of recruiting contributors and working alongside them to bring their writing to press. Stay tuned for more details on these exciting new projects!

Deciding when to say YES can be daunting. But this YES to Exodus was one of the best YES’s of my life. I’m so grateful for the invitation!