Notes on the book of Exodus
by Charles Henry Mackintosh · English · Gutenberg #40596 · 599,366 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: Notes on the book of Exodus
Author: Charles Henry Mackintosh
Release date: August 27, 2012 [eBook #40596]
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Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES ON THE BOOK OF EXODUS ***
NOTES
_on the book of_
EXODUS
_by_
C. H. MACKINTOSH
"_He led them forth by the right way_"
LOIZEAUX BROTHERS
_Neptune, New Jersey_
FIRST EDITION 1880
TWENTY-SEVENTH PRINTING 1965
LOIZEAUX BROTHERS, Inc., PUBLISHERS
_A Nonprofit Organization, Devoted to the Lord's Work
and to the Spread of His Truth_
NEPTUNE, NEW JERSEY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION
The writer cannot suffer a new edition of this volume to issue from
the press without a line or two of deep thankfulness to the Lord for
His grace in making use of such a feeble instrumentality in the
furtherance of His truth and the edification of His people. Blessed be
His name, when He takes up a book or a tract, He can make it effectual
in the accomplishment of His gracious ends. He can clothe with
spiritual power pages and paragraphs which to us might seem pointless
and powerless. May He continue to own and bless this service, and His
name shall have all the praise.
_C. H. M.
Dublin, April, 1862_
PREFATORY NOTE
TO THE AMERICAN EDITION
As several persons in America have, without any authority whatever
from me, undertaken to publish my four[1] volumes of "Notes," I deem
it my duty to inform the reader that I have given full permission to
Messrs. LOIZEAUX BROTHERS to publish an edition of those books in such
form as they shall consider most suitable.
C. H. MACKINTOSH.
_6 West Park Terrace, Scarborough,
May 1st, 1879._
[1] Now six.
In manuscript and proof-sheets, we have been traveling over a deeply
instructive and most interesting portion of the Word of God-THE BOOK
OF EXODUS.
Redemption by blood occupies a prominent place therein,--it
characterizes the book. God's many mercies to His redeemed, in the
display of His power, the patience of His love, and the riches of His
grace, flow from it. The great question of Israel's relationship to
God is settled by the blood of the lamb. It changes their condition
entirely. Israel within the blood-sprinkled door-posts was God's
redeemed, blood-bought people.
God being holy, and Israel guilty, no happy relationship could exist
between them till judgment had been accomplished. Sin must be judged.
A happy friendship once existed between God and man, on the ground of
innocence; but sin having entered and snapped the link asunder, there
can be no reconciliation but through the full expression of the moral
judgment of God against sin. We can only have "life through death."
God is the God of holiness, and He must judge sin. In saving the
sinner, He condemns his sin. The cross is the full and perfect
expression of this.
Typically, this was the great question, on "the evening of the
fourteenth day of the first month"; namely, _How can God exempt from
judgment, and receive into His favor, those whom His holiness
condemns?_ To this most solemn question, there was but one answer that
would satisfy the demands of the God of holiness, and that was the
_blood of the Lamb of His own providing_. "When I see the blood, I
will pass over you." This settled the all-important question. It was
one of life or death, of deliverance or judgment. The blood-sprinkled
door-post was a perfect answer to all the claims of holiness, and to
all the need of the congregation. All was settled now. God was
glorified, sin judged and put away, and Israel saved through the blood
of the lamb.
Blessed truth! Israel was now at peace with God, a sheltered, saved,
and happy people, though still in Egypt--the land of death and
judgment. God was now _pledged_ to deliver Israel,--precious type of
the perfect security of all who are trusting to the blood of Christ!
They were securely and peacefully feeding on the roasted lamb, when,
"at midnight, the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt,
from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the
first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon, and all the
first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his
servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt;
for there was not a house where there was not one dead" (xii. 29,
30.). "But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move
his tongue, against man or beast; that ye may know how that the Lord
doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." (xi. 7.)
But why, some may ask, put this difference? The Israelites were
sinners as well as the Egyptians. True, on this ground there was "no
difference;" but, in type, the judgment of God against sin had been
expressed in the death of the unblemished lamb. The blood "on the
lintel and the two side-posts" was the proof of this. It proclaimed,
with a loud voice, that the lamb was slain, the ransom paid, the
captive freed, justice satisfied, and the hour of Israel's deliverance
fully come. _It was the blood that made the difference, and nothing
else_; "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Rom.
iii. 23.)
But oh, what a difference! The one, divinely shielded from the sword
of judgment; the other, defenceless and slain by it: the one,
feasting on the rich provisions of grace; the other, compelled to
taste the bitterness of the cup of wrath. The destroying angel entered
every house, throughout all the land of Egypt, that was not sprinkled
with the blood. The first-born of Pharaoh on the throne, and the
first-born of the captive in the dungeon, fell together.
No rank, age, or character escaped. The day of God's long-suffering
was ended, and the hour of His judgment was come. One thing alone
guided the angel of death on that dark and dreadful night, and that
was, WHERE THERE IS NO BLOOD, THERE IS NO SALVATION.
Dear reader, this is as true now as it was then! Where there is no
blood, there is no salvation,--"without shedding of blood is no
remission." Can any question be of such importance to you as this one:
Am I shielded by the blood of Jesus? Oh! have you fled for refuge to
the blood that was shed on Calvary? There, "Christ, our passover, was
sacrificed for us." His blood is represented as being sprinkled on
"the mercy-seat above." There, God's eye ever sees the blood of our
true paschal Lamb. Have you faith in that precious blood? Though
deeply sensible of your guilt, can you say in truth, This is my only
hiding-place: I do depend upon the blood? Then rest assured that you
are perfectly safe--that you are eternally saved. You have God's own
word for it--"When I see the blood, I will pass over you."--"We have
redemption _through His blood_, the forgiveness of sins, according to
the riches of His grace."--"But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes
were far off, are made nigh _by the blood of Christ_."--"Whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation _through faith in His blood_." (Eph. i.
7; ii. 13; Rom. iii. 25.)
"Happy they who trust in Jesus,
Sweet their portion is and sure."
But, on the other hand, if the blood of Jesus is neglected or
despised, there can be no security, no peace, and no salvation. "How
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" (Heb. ii. 3.)
Unless the destroying angel sees the blood, he enters as the judge of
sin. Every sin must be punished, either in the person of the sinner,
or the sinner's substitute. This is a deeply solemn truth; but how
blessed to know that "Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for
the unjust, that He might bring us to God." "For He hath made Him to
be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God In Him." (1 Peter iii. 18; 2 Cor. v. 21.) To
neglect this divine Substitute, and the shelter which He has provided,
is to expose the soul to the unrelenting judgment of God. No sin,
however small, can escape judgment, either on the cross of Christ, or
in the lake of fire. Oh, the priceless value of that blood which
"cleanseth us from ALL sin"!--which makes us clean enough for heaven!
Redemption being now accomplished, and Israel divinely prepared, they
commence their journey. But observe, in passing, _how_ they start.
Before taking one step, every question between the conscience and God
is divinely settled. They are forgiven, justified, and accepted, in
His sight. Hence it is written, "When Israel was a child, then I loved
him, and called my son out of Egypt." (Hosea xi. 1.) Blessed type of
the real condition in which every true believer begins his Christian
course! He may not see this blessed truth, or he may have a very
feeble apprehension of it, as Israel had, but that does not alter the
fact. God acts according to His own knowledge of the relationship, and
the affections which belong to it. We see this in the glorious
deliverance of His beloved people at the Red Sea, in the manna from
heaven, the water from the flinty rock, and in the pillar of His
presence, which accompanied them in all their wanderings. He ever acts
according to the purposes of His love, and the value of the blood of
Jesus.
Once more, dear reader, allow me to ask. Are you sure that you are
under the safe shelter, the secure refuge, the blessed hiding-place,
of the Redeemer's blood?
But I must now leave my reader, earnestly recommending him to pursue
the journey across the wilderness in company with God and His
redeemed. He will find the "Notes" most useful. They convey truth,
agreeably and intelligently to the heart, the conscience, and the
understanding. May many find them to be a real oasis in the desert.
The journey will prove a most profitable one if we thereby learn more
of the natural unbelief of our own heart and the abiding faithfulness
of God's. He never changes, blessed be His name; and the blood of the
slain Lamb never loses its efficacy.
"Blest Lamb of God! Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power,
Till every ransomed saint of God
Be saved to sin no more."
May the Lord graciously own and use the following "Notes" for His own
glory and the blessing of many souls.
_A. M._
_London_
CONTENTS
_Page._
CHAPTER I, 1
" II. 1-10, 9
" II. 11-25, 17
" III, 33
" IV, 58
" V. & VI, 78
" VII.-XI, 95
" XII, 126
" XIII, 163
" XIV, 172
" XV, 191
" XVI, 206
" XVII, 224
" XVIII, 238
" XIX, 247
" XX, 254
" XXI.-XXIII, 272
" XXIV, 280
" XXV, 284
" XXVI, 298
" XXVII, 313
" XXVIII. & XXIX, 319
" XXX, 335
" XXXI, 349
" XXXII, 355
" XXXIII. & XXXIV, 364
" XXXV.-XL, 369
NOTES
ON
THE BOOK OF EXODUS
CHAPTER I.
We now approach, by the mercy of God, the study of the Book of Exodus,
of which the great prominent theme is redemption. The first five
verses recall to the mind the closing scenes of the preceding book.
The favored objects of God's electing love are brought before us; and
we find ourselves very speedily conducted, by the inspired penman,
into the action of the book.
In our meditations on the Book of Genesis, we were led to see that the
conduct of Joseph's brethren toward him was that which led to their
being brought down into Egypt. This fact is to be looked at in two
ways. In the first place, we can read therein a deeply solemn lesson,
as taught in Israel's actings toward God; and, secondly, we have
therein unfolded an encouraging lesson, as taught in God's actings
toward Israel.
And, first, as to Israel's actings toward God, what can be more deeply
solemn than to follow out the results of their treatment of him who
stands before the spiritual mind as the marked type of the Lord Jesus
Christ? They, utterly regardless of the anguish of his soul, consigned
Joseph into the hands of the uncircumcised. And what was the issue, as
regards them? They were carried down into Egypt, there to experience
the deep and painful exercises of heart which are so graphically and
touchingly presented in the closing chapters of Genesis. Nor was this
all. A long and dreary season awaited their offspring in that very
land in which Joseph had found a dungeon.
But then God was in all this, as well as man; and it is His
prerogative to bring good out of evil. Joseph's brethren might sell
him to the Ishmaelites, and the Ishmaelites might sell him to
Potiphar, and Potiphar might cast him into prison; but Jehovah was
above all, and He was accomplishing His own mighty ends. "The wrath of
man shall praise Him." The time had not arrived in which the heirs
were ready for the inheritance and the inheritance for the heirs. The
brick-kilns of Egypt were to furnish a rigid school for the seed of
Abraham, while as yet "the iniquity of the Amorites" was rising to a
head amid the "hills and valleys" of the promised land.
All this is deeply interesting and instructive. There are "wheels
within wheels" in the government of God. He makes use of an endless
variety of agencies in the accomplishment of His unsearchable designs.
Potiphar's wife, Pharaoh's butler, Pharaoh's dreams, Pharaoh himself,
the dungeon, the throne, the fetter, the royal signet, the
famine--all are at His sovereign disposal, and all are made
instrumental in the development of His stupendous counsels. The
spiritual mind delights to dwell upon this,--it delights to range
through the wide domain of creation and providence, and to recognize,
in all, the machinery which an All-wise and an Almighty God is using
for the purpose of unfolding His counsels of redeeming love. True, we
may see many traces of the serpent,--many deep and well-defined
footprints of the enemy of God and man,--many things which we cannot
explain nor even comprehend; suffering innocence and successful
wickedness may furnish an apparent basis for the infidel reasoning of
the sceptic mind; but the true believer can piously repose in the
assurance that "the Judge of all the earth shall do right." He knows
right well that--
"Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His ways in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain."
Blessed be God for the consolation and encouragement flowing out of
such reflections as these. We need them every hour while passing
through an evil world, in which the enemy has wrought such appalling
mischief, in which the lusts and passions of men produce such bitter
fruits, and in which the path of the true disciple presents
roughnesses which mere nature could never endure. Faith knows, of a
surety, that there is One behind the scenes whom the world sees not
nor regards; and, in the consciousness of this, it can calmly say, "It
is well," and, "It shall be well."
The above train of thought is distinctly suggested by the opening
lines of our book. "God's counsel shall stand, and He will do all His
pleasure." The enemy may oppose, but God will ever prove Himself to be
above him; and all we need is a spirit of simple, childlike confidence
and repose in the divine purpose. Unbelief will rather look at the
enemy's efforts to countervail than at God's power to accomplish. It
is on the latter that faith fixes its eye. Thus it obtains victory and
enjoys abiding peace. It has to do with God and His infallible
faithfulness. It rests not upon the ever-shifting sands of human
affairs and earthly influences, but upon the immovable rock of God's
eternal Word. That is faith's holy and solid resting-place. Come what
may, it abides in that sanctuary of strength. "Joseph died, and all
his brethren, and all that generation." What then? Could death affect
the counsels of the living God? Surely not. He only waited for the
appointed moment--the due time, and then the most hostile influences
were made instrumental in the development of His purposes.
"Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And
he said unto his people, 'Behold the people of the children of Israel
are more and mightier than we: come on, let us deal _wisely_ with
them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that when there falleth
out any war they join also unto our enemies and fight against us, and
so get them up out of the land." (Ver. 8-10.) All this is the
reasoning of a heart that had never learnt to take God into its
calculations. The unrenewed heart never can do so; and hence, the
moment you introduce God, all its reasonings fall to the ground. Apart
from, or independent of, Him, they may seem very wise; but only bring
Him in, and they are proved to be perfect folly.
But why should we allow our minds to be, in any wise, influenced by
reasonings and calculations which depend, for their _apparent_ truth,
upon the total exclusion of God? To do so is, in principle, and
according to its measure, practical atheism. In Pharaoh's case, we see
that he could accurately recount the various contingencies of human
affairs,--the multiplying of the people, the falling out of war, their
joining with the enemy, their escape out of the land. All these
circumstances he could, with uncommon sagacity, put into the scale;
but it never once occurred to him that God could have anything
whatever to do in the matter. Had he only thought of this, it would
have upset his entire reasoning, and have written folly upon all his
schemes.
Now, it is well to see that it is ever thus with the reasonings of
man's sceptic mind. God is entirely shut out; yea, the truth and
consistency thereof depend upon His being kept out. The death-blow to
all scepticism and infidelity is the introduction of God into the
scene. Till He is seen, they may strut up and down upon the stage with
an amazing show of wisdom and cleverness; but the moment the eye
catches even the faintest glimpse of that blessed One, they are
stripped of their cloak, and disclosed in all their nakedness and
deformity.
In reference to the king of Egypt, it may assuredly be said, he did
"greatly err," not knowing God or His changeless counsels. He knew not
that, hundreds of years back, before ever he had breathed the breath
of mortal life, God's word and oath--"two immutable things"--had
infallibly secured the full and glorious deliverance of that very
people whom he was going, in his wisdom, to crush. All this was
unknown to him, and therefore all his thoughts and plans were founded
upon ignorance of that grand foundation-truth of all truths, namely,
that GOD IS. He vainly imagined that he, by his management, could
prevent the increase of those concerning whom God had said, "They
shall be as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the
sea-shore." His wise dealing, therefore, was simply madness and folly.
The wildest mistake which a man can possibly fall into is to act
without taking God into his account. Sooner or later, the thought of
God will force itself upon him, and then comes the awful crash of all
his schemes and calculations. At best, everything that is undertaken
independently of God, can last but for the present time. It cannot, by
any possibility, stretch itself into eternity. All that is merely
human, however solid, however brilliant, or however attractive, must
fall into the cold grasp of death, and moulder in the dark, silent
tomb. The clod of the valley must cover man's highest excellencies and
brightest glories; mortality is engraved upon his brow, and all his
schemes are evanescent. On the contrary, that which is connected with,
and based upon, God, shall endure forever. "His name shall endure
forever, and His memorial to all generations."
What a sad mistake, therefore, for a feeble mortal to set himself up
against the eternal God,--to "rush upon the thick bosses of the shield
of the Almighty"! As well might the monarch of Egypt have sought to
stem, with his puny hand, the ocean's tide, as to prevent the increase
of those who were the subjects of Jehovah's everlasting purpose.
Hence, although "they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them
with their burdens," yet, "the more they afflicted them, the more they
multiplied and grew." Thus it must ever be. "He that sitteth in the
heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision." (Ps. ii.
4.) Eternal confusion shall be inscribed upon all the opposition of
men and devils. This gives sweet rest to the heart in the midst of a
scene where all is apparently so contrary to God and so contrary to
faith. Were it not for the settled assurance that "the wrath of man
shall praise" the Lord, the spirit would often be cast down while
contemplating the circumstances and influences which surround one in
the world. Thank God, "we look not at the things which are seen, but
at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are
temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." (2 Cor. iv.
18.) In the power of this, we may well say, "_Rest_ in the Lord, and
_wait patiently for Him_: fret not thyself because of him who
prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices
to pass." (Ps. xxxvii. 7.) How fully might the truth of this be seen
in the case of both the oppressed and the oppressor, as set before us
in our chapter! Had Israel "looked at the things that are seen," what
were they? Pharaoh's wrath, stern taskmasters, afflictive burdens,
rigorous service, hard bondage, mortar and brick. But, then, "the
things which are not seen," what were they? God's eternal purpose, His
unfailing promise, the approaching dawn of a day of salvation, the
"burning lamp" of Jehovah's deliverance. Wondrous contrast! Faith
alone could enter into it. Naught save that precious principle could
enable any poor, oppressed Israelite to look from out the smoking
furnace of Egypt, to the green fields and vine-clad mountains of the
land of Canaan. Faith alone could recognize in those oppressed slaves,
toiling in the brick-kilns of Egypt, the heirs of salvation, and the
objects of Heaven's peculiar interest and favor.
Thus it was then, and thus it is now. "We walk by faith, not by
sight." (2 Cor. v. 7.) "It doth not yet appear what we shall be." (1
John iii. 2.) We are "here in the body pent," "absent from the Lord."
As to fact, we are in Egypt, yet, in spirit, we are in the heavenly
Canaan. Faith brings the heart into the power of divine and unseen
things, and thus enables it to mount above everything down here, in
this place "where death and darkness reign." O, for that simple
childlike faith that sits beside the pure and eternal fountain of
truth, there to drink those deep and refreshing draughts which lift up
the fainting spirit and impart energy to the new man, in its upward
and onward course!
The closing verses of this section of our book present an edifying
lesson in the conduct of those God-fearing women, Shiprah and Puah.
They would not carry out the king's cruel scheme, but braved his
wrath, and hence God made them houses. "Them that honor Me I will
honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed." (1 Sam.
ii. 30.) May we ever remember this, and act for God, under all
circumstances!
CHAPTER II. 1-10.
This section of our book abounds in the weightiest principles of
divine truth--principles which range themselves under the three
following heads, namely, the power of Satan, the power of God, and the
power of faith.
In the last verse of the previous chapter, we read, "And Pharaoh
charged all his people, saying, 'Every son that is born ye shall cast
into the river.'" This was Satan's power. The river was the place of
death; and, by death, the enemy sought to frustrate the purpose of
God. It has ever been thus. The serpent has at all times watched with
malignant eye those instruments which God was about to use for His own
gracious ends. Look at the case of Abel, in Genesis iv. What was that
but the serpent watching God's vessel and seeking to put it out of the
way by death? Look at the case of Joseph, in Genesis xxxvii. There you
have the enemy seeking to put the man of God's purpose in the place of
death. Look at the case of "the seed royal," in 2 Chronicles xxii; the
act of Herod, in Matthew ii; the death of Christ, in Matthew xxvii. In
all these cases, you find the enemy seeking, by death, to interrupt
the current of divine action.
But, blessed be God, there is something beyond death. The entire
sphere of divine action, as connected with redemption, lies beyond the
limits of death's domain. When Satan has exhausted his power, then God
begins to show Himself. The grave is the limit of Satan's activity;
but there it is that divine activity begins. This is a glorious truth.
Satan has the power of death; but God is the God of the living, and He
gives life beyond the reach and power of death--a life which Satan
cannot touch. The heart finds sweet relief in such a truth as this, in
the midst of a scene where death reigns. Faith can stand and look on
at Satan putting forth the plenitude of his power. It can stay itself
upon God's mighty instrumentality of resurrection. It can take its
stand at the grave which has closed over a beloved object, and drink
in, from the lips of Him who is "the resurrection and the life," the
elevating assurance of a glorious immortality. It knows that God is
stronger than Satan, and it can therefore quietly wait for the full
manifestation of that superior strength, and, in thus waiting, find
its victory and its settled peace. We have a noble example of this
power of faith in the opening verses of our chapter.
"And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a
daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bare a son; and when she
saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when
she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes and
daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and
she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. And his sister stood
afar off, to wit what would be done to him." (Chap. ii. 1-4.) Here we
have a scene of touching interest, in whatever way we contemplate it.
In point of fact, it was simply faith triumphing over the influences
of nature and death, and leaving room for the God of resurrection to
act in His own proper sphere and character. True, the enemy's power is
apparent, in the circumstance that the child had to be placed in such
position--a position of death, in principle. And, moreover, a sword
was piercing through the mother's heart in thus beholding her precious
offspring laid, as it were, in death. Satan might act, and nature
might weep; but the Quickener of the dead was behind the dark cloud,
and faith beheld Him there, gilding heaven's side of that cloud with
His bright and life-giving beams. "By faith Moses, when he was born,
was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper
child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment." (Heb. xi.
23.)
Thus this honored daughter of Levi teaches us a holy lesson. Her
"_ark_ of bulrushes, daubed with slime and _pitch_," declares her
confidence in the truth that there was a something which could keep
out the waters of death, in the case of this "proper child," as well
as in the case of Noah, "the preacher of righteousness." Are we to
suppose, for a moment, that this "ark" was the invention of mere
nature? Was it nature's forethought that devised it? or nature's
ingenuity that constructed it? Was the babe placed in the ark at the
suggestion of a mother's heart, cherishing the fond but visionary hope
of thereby saving her treasure from the ruthless hand of death? Were
we to reply to the above inquiries in the affirmative, we should, I
believe, lose the beauteous teaching of this entire scene. How could
we ever suppose that the "_ark_" was devised by one who saw no other
portion or destiny for her child but death by _drowning_? Impossible.
We can only look upon that significant structure as faith's draft
handed in at the treasury of the God of resurrection. It was devised
by the hand of faith, as a vessel of mercy, to carry "a proper child"
safely over death's dark waters, into the place assigned him by the
immutable purpose of the living God. When we behold this daughter of
Levi bending over that "ark of bulrushes," which her faith had
constructed, and depositing therein her babe, we see her "walking in
the steps of that faith of her father Abraham, which he had," when "he
rose up from before his dead," and purchased the cave of Machpelah
from the sons of Heth. (Gen. xxiii.) We do not recognize in her the
energy of mere nature, hanging over the object of its affections,
about to fall into the iron grasp of the king of terrors. No; but we
trace in her the energy of a faith which enabled her to stand, as a
conqueror, at the margin of death's cold flood, and behold the chosen
servant of Jehovah in safety at the other side.
Yes, my reader, faith can take those bold and lofty flights into
regions far removed from this land of death and wide-spread
desolation. Its eagle gaze can pierce the gloomy clouds which gather
around the tomb, and behold the God of resurrection displaying the
results of His everlasting counsels, in the midst of a sphere which no
arrow of death can reach. It can take its stand upon the top of the
Rock of Ages, and listen, in holy triumph, while the surges of death
are lashing its base.
And what, let me ask, was "the king's commandment" to one who was in
possession of this heaven-born principle? What weight had that
commandment with one who could calmly stand beside her "ark of
bulrushes" and look death straight in the face? The Holy Ghost
replies, "They were not afraid of the king's commandment." The spirit
that knows aught of communion with Him who quickens the dead, is not
afraid of anything. Such an one can take up the triumphant language of
1 Cor. xv., and say, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is
thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the
law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ." He can give forth these words of triumph over a
martyred Abel; over Joseph in the pit; over Moses in the ark of
bulrushes; in the midst of "the seed royal," slain by the hand of
Athaliah; amid the babes of Bethlehem, murdered by the hand of the
cruel Herod; and far above all, he can utter them at the tomb of the
Captain of our salvation.
Now, it may be there are some who cannot trace the activities of
faith, in the matter of the ark of bulrushes. Many may not be able to
travel beyond the measure of Moses' sister, when "she stood afar off,
to wit what would be done to him." It is very evident that "his
sister" was not up to "the measure of faith" possessed by "his
mother." No doubt she possessed deep interest and true affection, such
as we may trace in "Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sitting over
against the sepulchre" (Matt. xxvii. 61.); but there was something far
beyond either interest or affection in the maker of the "ark." True,
she did not "stand afar off, to wit what would be done to" her child,
and hence, what frequently happens, the dignity of faith might seem
like indifference, on her part. It was not, however, indifference, but
true elevation--the elevation of faith. If natural affection did not
cause her to linger near the scene of death, it was only because the
power of faith was furnishing her with nobler work in the presence of
the God of resurrection. Her faith had cleared the stage for Him, and
most gloriously did He show Himself thereon.
"And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river;
and her maidens walked along by the river's side: and when she saw the
ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had
opened it, she saw the child; and, behold, the babe wept. And she had
compassion on him, and said, 'This is one of the Hebrews' children.'"
Here, then, the divine response begins to break, in sweetest accents,
on the ear of faith. God was in all this. Rationalism, or scepticism,
or infidelity, or atheism, may laugh at such an idea. And faith can
laugh also; but the two kinds of laughter are very different. The
former laughs, in cold contempt, at the thought of divine interference
in the trifling affair of a royal maiden's walk by the river's side:
the latter laughs, with real heartfelt gladness, at the thought that
God is in everything. And, assuredly, if ever God was in anything, He
was in this walk of Pharaoh's daughter, though she knew it not.
The renewed mind enjoys one of its sweetest exercises while tracing
the divine footsteps in circumstances and events in which a
thoughtless spirit sees only blind chance or rigid fate. The most
trifling matter may, at times, turn out to be a most important link in
a chain of events by which the Almighty God is helping forward the
development of His grand designs. Look, for instance, at Esther vi. 1,
and what do you see? A heathen monarch spending a restless night. No
uncommon circumstance, we may suppose; and yet, this very circumstance
was a link in a great chain of providences at the end of which you
find the marvelous deliverance of the oppressed seed of Israel.
Thus was it with the daughter of Pharaoh, in her walk by the river's
side. Little did she think that she was helping forward the purpose of
"the Lord God of the Hebrews." How little idea had she that the
weeping babe in that ark of bulrushes was yet to be Jehovah's
instrument in shaking the land of Egypt to its very centre! Yet so it
was. The Lord can make the wrath of man to praise Him, and restrain
the remainder. How plainly the truth of this appears in the following
passage!--
"Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, 'Shall I go and call to
thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for
thee?' And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, 'Go.' And the maid went
and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her,
'Take this child away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy
wages.' And the woman took the child and nursed it. And the child
grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her
son. And she called his name Moses; and she said, 'Because I drew him
out of the water.'" (Chap. ii. 7-10.) The beautiful faith of Moses'
mother here meets its full reward; Satan is confounded; and the
marvelous wisdom of God is displayed. Who would have thought that the
one who had said, "If it be a son, then ye shall kill him," and,
again, "Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river," should
have in his court one of those very sons, and _such_ "a son." The
devil was foiled by his own weapon, inasmuch as Pharaoh, whom he was
using to frustrate the purpose of God, is used of God to nourish and
bring up Moses, who was to be His instrument in confounding the power
of Satan. Remarkable providence! Admirable wisdom! Truly, Jehovah is
"wonderful in counsel and excellent in working." May we learn to trust
Him with more artless simplicity, and thus our path shall be more
brilliant, and our testimony more effective.
CHAPTER II. 11-25.
In considering the history of Moses, we must look at him in two ways,
namely, personally and typically.
First, in his personal character, there is much, very much, for us to
learn. God had not only to raise him up, but also to train him, in one
way or another, for the lengthened period of eighty years, first in
the house of Pharaoh's daughter, and then at "the backside of the
desert." This, to our shallow thoughts, would seem an immense space of
time to devote to the education of a minister of God. But then God's
thoughts are not as our thoughts. He knew the need of those forty
years twice told, in the preparation of His chosen vessel. When God
educates, He educates in a manner worthy of Himself and His most holy
service. He will not have a novice to do His work. The servant of
Christ has to learn many a lesson, to undergo many an exercise, to
pass through many a conflict, in secret, ere he is really qualified to
act in public. Nature does not like this. It would rather figure in
public than learn in private,--it would rather be gazed upon and
admired by the eye of man than be disciplined by the hand of God. But
it will not do. We must take God's way. Nature may rush into the scene
of operation; but God does not want it there. It must be withered,
crushed, set aside. The place of death is the place for nature. If it
_will_ be active, God will so order matters, in His infallible
faithfulness and perfect wisdom, that the results of its activity will
prove its utter defeat and confusion. He knows what to do with nature,
where to put it, and where to keep it. O, that we may all be in deeper
communion with the mind of God, in reference to self and all that
pertains thereto! Then shall we make fewer mistakes; then shall our
path be steady and elevated, our spirit tranquil, and our service
effective.
"And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he
went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens; and he spied
an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this
way and that way, and when he saw there was no man, he slew the
Egyptian, and hid him in the sand." This was zeal for his brethren;
but it was "not according to knowledge." God's time was not yet come
for judging Egypt and delivering Israel; and the intelligent servant
will ever wait for God's time. "Moses was grown," and "he was learned
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians;" and, moreover, "he supposed his
brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver
them." All this was true; yet he evidently ran before the time, and
when one does this, failure must be the issue.[2]
[2] In Stephen's address to the council at Jerusalem, there is an
allusion to Moses' acting, to which it may be well to advert. "And
when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his
brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong,
he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the
Egyptian; for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that
God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not." (Acts
vii. 23-35.) It is evident that Stephen's object, in his entire
address, was to bring the history of the nation to bear upon the
consciences of those whom he had before him; and it would have been
quite foreign to this object, and at variance with the Spirit's rule
in the New Testament, to raise a question as to whether Moses had not
acted before the divinely appointed time.
Moreover, he merely says, "it came into his heart to visit his
brethren." He does not say that God sent him, _at that time_. Nor does
this, in the least, touch the question of the moral condition of those
who rejected him. "They understood not." This was the fact as to them,
whatever Moses might have personally to learn in the matter. The
spiritual mind can have no difficulty in apprehending this.
Looking at Moses typically, we can see the mission of Christ to
Israel, and their rejection of Him, and refusal to have Him to reign
over them. On the other hand, looking at Moses personally, we find
that he, like others, made mistakes and displayed
infirmities,--sometimes went too fast and sometimes too slow. All this
is easily understood, and only tends to magnify the infinite grace and
exhaustless patience of God.
And not only is there failure in the end, but also manifest
uncertainty, and lack of calm elevation and holy independence in the
progress of a work begun before God's time. Moses "_looked this way
and that way_." There is no need of this when a man is acting with and
for God, and in the full intelligence of His mind, as to the detail of
his work. If God's time had really come, and if Moses was conscious of
being divinely commissioned to execute judgment upon the Egyptian, and
if he felt assured of the divine presence with him, he would not have
"looked this way and that way."
This action teaches a deep practical lesson to all the servants of
God. There are two things by which it is superinduced, namely, the
fear of man's wrath, and the hope of man's favor. The servant of the
living God should neither regard the one nor the other. What avails
the wrath or favor of a poor mortal to one who holds the divine
commission and enjoys the divine presence? It is, in the judgment of
such an one, less than the small dust of the balance. "_Have not I
commanded thee?_ Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid,
neither be thou dismayed: for _the Lord thy God is with thee_
whithersoever thou goest." (Joshua i. 9.) "Thou, therefore, gird up
thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them _all that I command thee_:
be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For,
behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar,
and brazen walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah,
against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against
the people of the land. And they shall fight against thee, but they
shall not prevail against thee; for _I am with thee_, saith the Lord,
to deliver thee." (Jer. i. 17-19.)
When the servant of Christ stands upon the elevated ground set forth
in the above quotations, he will not "look this way and that way;" he
will act on wisdom's heavenly counsel--"Let thine eyes look straight
on, and thine eyelids look straight before thee." Divine intelligence
will ever lead us to look upward and onward. Whenever we look around
to shun a mortal's frown or catch his smile, we may rest assured there
is something wrong; we are off the proper ground of divine service. We
lack the assurance of holding the divine commission and of enjoying
the divine presence, both of which are absolutely essential.
True, there are many who, through profound ignorance, or excessive
self-confidence, stand forward in a sphere of service for which God
never intended them, and for which He therefore never qualified them.
And not only do they thus stand forward, but they exhibit an amount of
coolness and self-possession perfectly amazing to those who are
capable of forming an impartial judgment about their gifts and
merits. But all this will very speedily find its level; nor does it in
the least interfere with the integrity of the principle that nothing
can effectually deliver a man from the tendency to "look this way and
that way" save the consciousness of the divine commission and the
divine presence. When these are possessed, there is entire deliverance
from human influence, and consequent independence. No man is in a
position to serve others who is not wholly independent of them; but a
man who knows his proper place can stoop and wash his brethren's feet.
When we turn away our eyes from man, and fix them upon the only true
and perfect Servant, we do not find Him looking this way and that way,
for this simple reason, that He never had His eye upon men, but always
upon God. He feared not the wrath of man, nor sought his favor. He
never opened His lips to elicit human applause, nor kept them closed
to avoid human censure. This gave holy stability and elevation to all
He said and did. Of Him alone could it be truly said, "His leaf shall
not wither, and _whatsoever_ he doeth shall prosper." Everything He
did turned to profitable account, because everything was done to God.
Every action, every word, every movement, every look, every thought,
was like a beauteous cluster of fruit, sent up to refresh the heart of
God. He was never afraid of the results of His work, because He always
acted with and for God, and in the full intelligence of His mind. His
own will, though divinely perfect, never once mingled itself in aught
that He did, as a man, on the earth. He could say, "I came down from
heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me."
Hence, He brought forth fruit "_in its season_." He did "_always_
those things which pleased the Father," and therefore never had any
occasion to "fear," to "repent," or to "look this way and that way."
Now in this, as in everything else, the blessed Master stands in
marked contrast with His most honored and eminent servants. Even a
Moses "feared," and a Paul "repented;" but the Lord Jesus never did
either. He never had to retrace a step, to recall a word, or correct a
thought. All was absolutely perfect: all was "fruit in season." The
current of His holy and heavenly life flowed onward without a ripple
and without a curve. His will was divinely subject. The best and most
devoted men make mistakes; but it is perfectly certain that the more
we are enabled, through grace, to mortify our own will, the fewer our
mistakes will be. Truly happy it is when, in the main, our path is
really a path of faith and single-eyed devotedness to Christ.
Thus it was with Moses. He was a man of faith--a man who drank deeply
into the spirit of his Master, and walked with marvelous steadiness in
His footprints. True, he anticipated, as has been remarked, by forty
years, the Lord's time of judgment on Egypt and deliverance for
Israel; yet, when we turn to the inspired commentary, in Hebrews xi,
we find nothing about this; we there find only the divine principle
upon which, in the main, his course was founded. "By faith Moses,
_when he was come to years_, refused to be called the son of
Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the
people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in
Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith
he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as
seeing Him who is invisible." (Ver. 24-27.)
This quotation furnishes a most gracious view of the actings of Moses.
It is ever thus the Holy Ghost deals with the history of Old Testament
saints. When He _writes_ a man's history, He presents him to us as he
is, and faithfully sets forth all his failures and imperfections. But
when, in the New Testament, He _comments_ upon such history, He merely
gives the real principle and main result of a man's life. Hence,
though we read, in Exodus, that "Moses looked this way and that
way"--that "he feared and said, 'Surely this thing is known,'" and,
finally, "Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh;" yet we are taught, in
Hebrews, that what he did, he did "by faith"--that he did not fear
"the wrath of the king"--that "he endured as seeing Him who is
invisible."
Thus will it be, by and by, "when the Lord comes, who both will bring
to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest _the
counsels of the hearts_: and then shall every man have praise of God."
(1 Cor. iv. 5.) This is a precious and consolatory truth for every
upright mind and every loyal heart. Many a "counsel" the "_heart_"
may form, which, from various causes, the _hand_ may not be able to
execute. All such "counsels" will be made "manifest" when "the Lord
comes." Blessed be the grace that has told us so! The affectionate
counsels of the heart are far more precious to Christ than the most
elaborate works of the hand. The latter may shine before the eye of
man; the former are designed _only_ for the heart of Jesus. The latter
may be spoken of amongst men; the former will be made manifest before
God and His holy angels. May all the servants of Christ have their
hearts undividedly occupied with His person, and their eyes steadily
fixed upon His advent.
In contemplating the path of Moses, we observe how that faith led him
entirely athwart the ordinary course of nature. It led him to despise
all the pleasures, the attractions, and the honors of Pharaoh's court.
And not only that, but also to relinquish an apparently wide sphere of
usefulness. Human expediency would have conducted him along quite an
opposite path. It would have led him to use his influence on behalf of
the people of God--to act _for_ them instead of suffering _with_ them.
According to man's judgment, providence would seem to have opened for
Moses a wide and most important sphere of labor; and surely, if ever
the hand of God was manifest in placing a man in a distinct position,
it was in his case. By a most marvelous interposition--by a most
unaccountable chain of circumstances, every link of which displayed
the finger of the Almighty--by an order of events which no human
foresight could have arranged, had the daughter of Pharaoh been made
the instrument of drawing Moses out of the water, and of nourishing
and educating him until he was "full forty years old." With all these
circumstances in his view, to abandon his high, honorable, and
influential position, could only be regarded as the result of a
misguided zeal which no sound judgment could approve.
Thus might poor blind nature reason. But faith thought differently;
for nature and faith are always at issue. They cannot agree upon a
single point. Nor is there anything, perhaps, in reference to which
they differ so widely as what are commonly called "openings of
providence." Nature will constantly regard such openings as warrants
for self-indulgence; whereas faith will find in them opportunities for
self-denial. Jonah might have deemed it a very remarkable opening of
providence to find a ship going to Tarshish; but, in truth, it was an
opening through which he slipped off the path of obedience.
No doubt it is the Christian's privilege to see his Father's hand, and
hear His voice, in everything; but he is not to be guided by
circumstances. A Christian so guided is like a vessel at sea without
rudder or compass; she is at the mercy of the waves and the winds.
God's promise to His child is, "I will guide thee with Mine eye." (Ps.
xxxii. 8.) His warning is, "Be not as the horse or as the mule, which
have no understanding; whose mouth must be held in with bit and
bridle, lest they come near unto thee." It is much better to be
guided by our Father's eye than by the bit and bridle of
circumstances; and we know that, in the ordinary acceptation of the
term, "providence" is only another word for the impulse of
circumstances.
Now, the power of faith may constantly be seen in refusing and
forsaking the apparent openings of providence. It was so in the case
of Moses. "By faith he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter," and "by faith he forsook Egypt." Had he judged according to
the sight of his eyes, he would have grasped at the proffered dignity,
as the manifest gift of a kind providence, and he would have remained
in the court of Pharaoh as in a sphere of usefulness plainly thrown
open to him by the hand of God. But, then, he walked by faith, and not
by the sight of his eyes; and hence he forsook all. Noble example! May
we have grace to follow it!
And observe what it was that Moses "esteemed greater riches than the
treasures in Egypt;" it was the "reproach of Christ." It was not
merely reproach _for_ Christ. "The reproaches of them that reproached
Thee have fallen upon Me." The Lord Jesus, in perfect grace,
identified Himself with His people. He came down from heaven, leaving
His Father's bosom, and laying aside all His glory, He took His
people's place, confessed their sins, and bore their judgment on the
cursed tree. Such was His voluntary devotedness; He not merely acted
_for_ us, but made Himself one _with_ us, thus perfectly delivering us
from all that was or could be against us.
Hence we see how much in sympathy Moses was with the spirit and mind
of Christ in reference to the people of God. He was in the midst of
all the ease, the pomp, and dignity of Pharaoh's house, where "the
pleasures of sin," and "the treasures of Egypt," lay scattered around
him in richest profusion. All these things he might have enjoyed if he
would. He could have lived and died in the midst of wealth and
splendor; his entire path, from first to last, might, if he had
chosen, have been enlightened by the sunshine of royal favor: but that
would not have been "faith;" it would not have been Christlike. From
his elevated position, he saw his brethren bowed down beneath their
heavy burden, and faith led him to see that his place was to be _with_
them. Yes; with them, in all their reproach, their bondage, their
degradation, and their sorrow. Had he been actuated by mere
benevolence, philanthropy, or patriotism, he might have used his
personal influence on behalf of his brethren. He might have succeeded
in inducing Pharaoh to lighten their burden, and render their path
somewhat smoother, by royal grants in their favor; but this would
never do, never satisfy a heart that had a single pulsation in common
with the heart of Christ. Such a heart Moses, by the grace of God,
carried in his bosom; and, therefore, with all the energies and all
the affections of that heart, he threw himself, body, soul, and
spirit, into the very midst of his oppressed brethren. He "chose
rather to suffer affliction _with_ the people of God." And, moreover,
he did this by "faith."
Let my reader ponder this deeply. We must not be satisfied with
wishing well to, doing service for, or speaking kindly on behalf of,
the people of God. We ought to be fully identified _with_ them, no
matter how despised or reproached they may be. It is, in a measure, an
agreeable thing to be a benevolent and generous spirit, to patronize
Christianity; but it is a wholly different thing to be identified with
Christians, or to suffer with Christ. A _patron_ is one thing, a
_martyr_ is quite another. This distinction is apparent throughout the
entire book of God. Obadiah took care of God's witnesses, but Elijah
was a witness for God. Darius was so attached to Daniel that he lost a
night's rest on his account, but Daniel spent that self-same night in
the lion's den, as a witness for the truth of God. Nicodemus ventured
to speak a word _for_ Christ, but a more matured discipleship would
have led him to identify himself _with_ Christ.
These considerations are eminently practical. The Lord Jesus does not
want patronage; He wants fellowship. The truth concerning Him is
declared to us, not that we might patronize His cause on earth, but
have fellowship with His Person in heaven. He identified Himself with
us, at the heavy cost of all that love could give. He might have
avoided this. He might have continued to enjoy His eternal place "in
the bosom of the Father." But how, then, could that mighty tide of
love, which was pent up in His heart, flow down to us guilty and
hell-deserving sinners? Between Him and us there could be no oneness,
save on conditions which involved the surrender of everything on His
part. But, blessed, throughout the everlasting ages, be His adorable
name, that surrender was voluntarily made. "He gave Himself for us,
that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify _unto Himself_ a
peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus ii. 14.) He would not
enjoy His glory alone. His loving heart would gratify itself by
associating "many sons" with Him in that glory. "Father," He says, "I
will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be _with Me_ where I am;
that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou
lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." (John xvii. 24.) Such
were the thoughts of Christ in reference to His people; and we can
easily see how much in sympathy with these precious thoughts was the
heart of Moses. He unquestionably partook largely of his Master's
spirit; and he manifested that excellent spirit in freely sacrificing
every personal consideration, and associating himself, unreservedly,
with the people of God.
The personal character and actings of this honored servant of God will
come before us again in the next section of our book. We shall here
briefly consider him as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. That he was a
type of Him is evident from the following passage,--"The Lord thy God
will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy
brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall hearken." (Deut. xviii. 15.)
We are not, therefore, trafficking in human imagination in viewing
Moses as a type; it is the plain teaching of Scripture, and in the
closing verses of Exodus ii. we see this type in a double way: first,
in the matter of his rejection by Israel; and secondly, in his union
with a stranger in the land of Midian.
These points have already been, in some measure, developed in the
history of Joseph, who, being cast out by his brethren according to
the flesh, forms an alliance with an Egyptian bride. Here, as in the
case of Moses, we see shadowed forth Christ's rejection by Israel, and
His union with the Church, but in a different phase. In Joseph's case,
we have the exhibition of positive enmity against his _person_: in
Moses, it is the rejection of his _mission_. In Joseph's case, we
read, "They hated _him_, and could not speak peaceably unto _him_."
(Gen. xxxvii. 4.) In the case of Moses, the word is,--"_Who made thee
a prince and a judge over us?_" In short, the former was personally
hated; the latter, officially refused.
So also in the mode in which the great mystery of the Church is
exemplified in the history of those two Old Testament saints.
"Asenath" presents quite a different phase of the Church from that
which we have in the person of "Zipporah." The former was united to
Joseph in the time of his exaltation; the latter was the companion of
Moses in the obscurity of his desert life. (Comp. Gen. xli. 41-45 with
Exod. ii. 15; iii. 1.) True, both Joseph and Moses were, at the time
of their union with a stranger, rejected by their brethren; yet the
former was "governor over all the land of Egypt;" whereas the latter
tended a few sheep at "the backside of the desert."
Whether, therefore, we contemplate Christ as manifested in glory, or
as hidden from the world's gaze, the Church is intimately associated
with Him. And now, inasmuch as the world seeth Him not, neither can it
take knowledge of that body which is wholly one with Him. "The world
knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." (1 John iii. 1.) By and by,
Christ will appear in His glory, and the Church _with_ Him. "When
Christ our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear _with_ Him in
glory." (Col. iii. 4.) And again, "The glory which Thou gavest Me I
have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them,
and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the
world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them as Thou
hast loved Me." (John xvii. 22, 23.)[3]
[3] There are two distinct unities spoken of in John xvii. 21, 23. The
first is that unity which the Church is responsible to have
maintained, but in which she has utterly failed. The second is that
unity which God will infallibly accomplish, and which He will manifest
in glory. If the reader will turn to the passage, he will at once see
the difference, both as to character and result, of the two.
Such, then, is the Church's high and holy position. She is one with
Him who is cast out by this world, but who occupies the throne of the
Majesty in the heavens. The Lord Jesus made Himself responsible for
her on the cross, in order that she might share with Him His present
rejection and His future glory. Would that all who form a part of such
a highly privileged body were more impressed with a sense of what
becomes them as to course and character down here! Assuredly, there
should be a fuller and clearer response, on the part of all the
children of God, to that love wherewith He has loved them, to that
salvation wherewith He has saved them, and to that dignity wherewith
He has invested them. The walk of the Christian should ever be the
natural result of realized privilege, and not the constrained result
of legal vows and resolutions,--the proper fruit of a position known
and enjoyed by faith, and not the fruit of one's own efforts to reach
a position "by works of law." All true believers _are_ a part of the
bride of Christ; hence, they owe Him those affections which become
that relation. The relationship is not obtained because of the
affections, but the affections flow out of the relationship.
So let it be, O Lord, with all Thy beloved and blood-bought people!
CHAPTER III.
We shall now resume the personal history of Moses, and contemplate him
during that deeply interesting period of his career which he spent in
retirement--a period including, as we should say, forty of his very
best years--the prime of life. This is full of meaning. The Lord had
graciously, wisely, and faithfully led His dear servant apart from the
eyes and thoughts of men, in order that He might train him under His
own immediate hand. Moses needed this. True, he had spent forty years
in the house of Pharaoh; and, while his sojourn there was not without
its influence and value, yet was it as nothing when compared with his
sojourn in the desert. The former might be valuable; but the latter
was indispensable.
Nothing can possibly make up for the lack of secret communion with
God, or the training and discipline of His school. "All the wisdom of
the Egyptians" would not have qualified Moses for his future path. He
might have pursued a most brilliant course through the schools and
colleges of Egypt. He might have come forth laden with literary
honors--his intellect stored with learning, and his heart full of
pride and self-sufficiency. He might have taken out his degree in the
school of man, and yet have to learn his alphabet in the school of
God. Mere human wisdom and learning, how valuable soever in
themselves, can never constitute any one a servant of God, nor equip
him for any department of divine service. Such things may qualify
unrenewed nature to figure before the world; but the man whom God will
use must be endowed with widely-different qualifications--such
qualifications as can alone be found in the deep and hallowed
retirement of the Lord's presence.
All God's servants have been made to know and experience the truth of
these statements. Moses at Horeb, Elijah at Cherith, Ezekiel at
Chebar, Paul in Arabia, and John at Patmos, are all striking examples
of the immense practical importance of being alone with God. And when
we look at the Divine Servant, we find that the time He spent in
private was nearly ten times as long as that which He spent in public.
He, though perfect in understanding and in will, spent nearly thirty
years in the obscurity of a carpenter's house at Nazareth ere He made
His appearance in public. And even when He had entered upon His public
career, how oft did He retreat from the gaze of men, to enjoy the
sweet and sacred retirement of the divine presence!
Now we may feel disposed to ask, How could the urgent demand for
workmen ever be met if all need such protracted training, in secret,
ere they come forth to their work? This is the Master's care--not
ours. He can provide the workmen, and He can train them also. This is
not man's work. God alone can provide and prepare a true minister. Nor
is it a question with Him as to the length of time needful for the
education of such an one. We know He could educate him in a moment, if
it were His will to do so. One thing is evident, namely, that God has
had all His servants very much alone with Himself, both before and
after their entrance upon their public work; nor will any one ever get
on without this. The absence of secret training and discipline will
necessarily leave us barren, superficial, and theoretic. A man who
ventures forth upon a public career ere he has duly weighed himself in
the balances of the sanctuary, or measured himself in the presence of
God, is like a ship putting out to sea without proper ballast: he
will doubtless overset with the first stiff breeze. On the contrary,
there is a depth, a solidity, and a steadiness flowing from our having
passed from form to form in the school of God, which are essential
elements in the formation of the character of a true and effective
servant of God.
Hence, therefore, when we find Moses, at the age of forty years, taken
apart from all the dignity and splendor of a court, for the purpose of
spending forty years in the obscurity of a desert, we are led to
expect a remarkable course of service; nor are we disappointed. The
man whom God educates is educated, and none other. It lies not within
the range of man to prepare an instrument for the service of God. The
hand of man could never mould "a vessel meet for the Master's use."
The One who is to use the vessel can alone prepare it; and we have
before us a singularly beautiful sample of His mode of preparation.
"Now, Moses kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of
Midian; and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came
to the mountain of God, even to Horeb." (Exod. iii. 1.) Here, then, we
have a marvelous change of circumstances. In Genesis, chapter xlvi.
31, we read, "Every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians;" and
yet Moses, who was "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," is
transferred from the Egyptian court to the back of a mountain to tend
a flock of sheep, and to be educated for the service of God.
Assuredly, this is not "the manner of man." This is not nature's line
of things. Flesh and blood could not understand this. We should have
thought that Moses' education was finished when he had become master
of all Egypt's wisdom, and that, moreover, in immediate connection
with the rare advantages which a court life affords. We should have
expected to find in one so highly favored, not only a solid and varied
education, but also such an exquisite polish as would fit him for any
sphere of action to which he might be called. But then, to find such a
man with such attainments, called away from such a position to mind
sheep at the back of a mountain, is something entirely beyond the
utmost stretch of human thought and feeling. It lays prostrate in the
dust all man's pride and glory. It declares plainly that this world's
appliances are of little value in the divine estimation; yea, they are
as "dung and dross," not only in the eyes of the Lord, but also in the
eyes of all those who have been taught in His school.
There is a very wide difference between human and divine education.
The former has for its end the refinement and exaltation of nature;
the latter begins with withering it up and setting it aside. "The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they
are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned." (1 Cor. ii. 14.) Educate the "natural man" as
much as you please, and you cannot make him a "spiritual man." "That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit." (John iii. 6.) If ever an educated "natural man"
might look for success in the service of God, Moses might have counted
upon it; he was "grown," he was "learned," he was "mighty in word and
deed," and yet he had to learn something at "the backside of the
desert" which Egypt's schools could never have taught him. Paul learnt
more in Arabia than ever he had learnt at the feet of Gamaliel.[4]
None can teach like God; and all who will learn _of_ Him must be alone
_with_ Him.
[4] Let not my reader suppose for a moment that the design of the
above remarks is to detract from the value of really useful
information, or the proper culture of the mental powers. By no means.
If, for example, he is a parent, let him store his child's mind with
useful knowledge; let him teach him everything which may, hereafter,
turn to account in the Master's service: let him not burden him with
aught which he would have to "lay aside" in running his Christian
course, nor conduct him, for educational purposes, through a region
from which it is well-nigh impossible to come forth with an unsoiled
mind. You might just as well shut him up for ten years in a coal mine
in order to qualify him for discussing the properties of light and
shade, as cause him to wade through the mire of a heathen mythology in
order to fit him for the interpretation of the oracles of God, or
prepare him for feeding the flock of Christ.
"In the desert God will teach thee."
There it was that Moses learnt his sweetest, deepest, most influential
and enduring lessons. Thither, too, must all repair who mean to be
educated for the ministry.
Beloved reader, may you prove, in your own deep experience, the real
meaning of "the backside of the desert"--that sacred spot where nature
is laid in the dust, and God alone exalted. There it is that men and
things, the world and self, present circumstances and their
influences, are all valued at what they are really worth. There it is,
and there alone, that you will find a divinely-adjusted balance in
which to weigh all within and all around. There are no false colors,
no borrowed plumes, no empty pretentions there. The enemy of your soul
cannot gild the sand of that place. All is reality there. The heart
that has found itself in the presence of God, at "the backside of the
desert," has right thoughts about everything. It is raised far above
the exciting influence of this world's schemes. The din and noise, the
bustle and confusion of Egypt do not fall upon the ear in that distant
place. The crash in the monetary and commercial world is not heard
there; the sigh of ambition is not heaved there; this world's fading
laurels do not tempt there; the thirst for gold is not felt there; the
eye is never dimmed with lust, nor the heart swollen with pride there;
human applause does not elate, nor human censure depress there. In a
word, everything is set aside save the stillness and light of the
divine presence. God's voice alone is heard, His light enjoyed, His
thoughts received. This is the place to which all must go to be
educated for the ministry; and there all must remain if they would
succeed in the ministry.
Would that all who come forward to serve in public knew more of what
it is to breathe the atmosphere of this place. We should then have far
less vapid attempts at ministry, but far more effective
Christ-honoring service.
Let us now inquire what Moses saw and what he heard at "the backside
of the desert." We shall find him learning lessons which lay far
beyond the reach of Egypt's most gifted masters. It might appear, in
the eyes of human reason, a strange loss of time for a man like Moses
to spend forty years doing nothing save to keep a few sheep in the
wilderness. But he was there with God, and the time that is thus spent
is never lost. It is salutary for us to remember that there is
something more than mere _doing_ necessary on the part of a true
servant. A man who is always doing will be apt to do too much. Such an
one would need to ponder over the deeply-practical words of the
perfect Servant, "He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear
to _hear_ as the learned." (Is. l. 4.) This is an indispensable part
of the servant's business. The servant must frequently stand in his
master's presence, in order that he may know what he has to do. The
"ear" and the "tongue" are intimately connected, in more ways than
one; but, in a spiritual or moral point of view, if my ear be closed
and my tongue loose, I shall be sure to talk a great deal of folly.
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift _to hear_,
slow _to speak_." (James i. 19.) This seasonable admonition is based
upon two facts, namely, that everything good comes from above, and
that the heart is brimful of naughtiness, ready to flow over. Hence
the need of keeping the ear open and the tongue quiet,--rare and
admirable attainments!--attainments in which Moses made great
proficiency at "the backside of the desert," and which all can acquire
if only they are disposed to learn in that school.
"And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out
of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold the bush burned with
fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, 'I will now turn
aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.'" (Chap.
iii. 2, 3.) This was truly "a great sight"--a bush burning, yet not
burnt. The palace of Pharaoh could never have afforded such a sight.
But it was a gracious sight as well as a great sight, for therein was
strikingly exhibited the condition of God's elect. They were in the
furnace of Egypt; and Jehovah reveals Himself in a burning bush. But
as the bush was not consumed, so neither were they, for God was there.
"The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge." (Psalm
xlvi.) Here is strength and security--victory and peace. God _with_
us, God _in_ us, and God _for_ us. This is ample provision for every
exigence.
Nothing can be more interesting or instructive than the mode in which
Jehovah was pleased to reveal Himself to Moses, as presented in the
above quotation. He was about to furnish him with his commission to
lead forth His people out of Egypt, that they might be His
assembly--His dwelling-place, in the wilderness and in the land of
Canaan; and the place from which He speaks is a burning bush. Apt,
solemn, and beautiful symbol of Jehovah dwelling in the midst of His
elect and redeemed congregation! "Our God is a consuming fire," not to
consume _us_, but to consume all in us and about us which is contrary
to His holiness, and, as such, subversive of our true and permanent
happiness. "Thy testimonies are very sure; holiness becometh Thy
house, O Lord, forever."
There are various instances, both in the Old and New Testaments, in
which we find God displaying Himself as "a consuming fire." Look, for
example, at the case of Nadab and Abihu, in Leviticus x. This was a
deeply solemn occasion. God was dwelling in the midst of His people,
and He would keep them in a condition worthy of Himself. He could not
do otherwise. It would neither be for His glory nor for their profit
were He to tolerate aught in them inconsistent with the purity of His
presence. God's dwelling-place must be holy.
So, also, in Joshua vii. we have another striking proof, in the case
of Achan, that Jehovah could not possibly sanction, by His presence,
evil, in any shape or form, how covert soever that evil might be. He
was "a consuming fire," and as such He should act, in reference to any
attempt to defile that assembly in the midst of which He dwelt. To
seek to connect God's presence with evil unjudged is the very highest
character of wickedness.
Again, in Acts v, Ananias and Sapphira teach us the same solemn
lesson. God the Holy Ghost was dwelling in the midst of the Church,
not merely as an influence, but as a divine Person, in such a way as
that one could lie to Him. The Church was, and is still, His
dwelling-place; and He must rule and judge in the midst thereof. Men
may walk in company with deceit, covetousness, and hypocrisy; but God
cannot. If God is going to walk with us, we must judge our ways, or He
will judge them for us. (See also 1 Cor. xi. 29-32.)
In all these cases, and many more which might be adduced, we see the
force of that solemn word, "Holiness becometh Thy house, O Lord,
forever." The moral effect of this will ever be similar to that
produced in the case of Moses, as recorded in our chapter. "Draw not
nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for _the place
whereon thou standest is holy ground_." (Verse 5.) The place of God's
presence is holy, and can only be trodden with unshod feet. God,
dwelling in the midst of His people, imparts a character of holiness
to their assembly, which is the basis of every holy affection and
every holy activity. The character of the dwelling-place takes its
stamp from the character of the Occupant.
The application of this to the Church, which is now the habitation of
God, through the Spirit, is of the very utmost practical importance.
While it is blessedly true that God, by His Spirit, inhabits each
individual member of the Church, thereby imparting a character of
holiness to the individual; it is equally true that He dwells in the
assembly, and hence the assembly must be holy. The centre round which
the members are gathered is nothing less than the Person of a living,
victorious, and glorified Christ. The energy by which they are
gathered is nothing less than God the Holy Ghost; and the Lord God
Almighty dwells in them and walks in them. (See Matt. xviii. 20; 1
Cor. vi. 19; iii. 16, 17; Eph. ii. 21, 22.) Such being the holy
elevation belonging to God's dwelling-place, it is evident that
nothing which is unholy, either in principle or practice, must be
tolerated. Each one connected therewith should feel the weight and
solemnity of that word, "The place whereon thou standest is holy
ground." "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy."
(1 Cor. iii. 17.) Most weighty words these, for every member of God's
assembly--for every stone in His holy temple! May we all learn to
tread Jehovah's courts with unshod feet!
However, the visions of Horeb bear witness to the grace of the God of
Israel as well as to His holiness. If God's holiness is infinite, His
grace is infinite also; and while the manner in which He revealed
Himself to Moses declared the former, the very fact of His revealing
Himself at all evidenced the latter. He came down because He was
gracious; but when come down, He should reveal Himself as holy.
"Moreover he said, 'I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' And Moses hid his face; for
he was afraid to look upon God." (Verse 6.) The effect of the divine
presence must ever be to make nature hide itself; and when we stand
before God with unshod feet and covered head--_i.e._, in the attitude
of soul which those acts so aptly and beautifully express, we are
prepared to hearken to the sweet accents of grace. When man takes his
suited place, God can speak in the language of unmingled mercy.
"And the Lord said, 'I have surely seen the affliction of My people
which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their
taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of
that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey.... Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of
Israel is come unto Me; and I have also seen the oppression wherewith
the Egyptians oppress them.'" (Ver. 7-9.) Here the absolute, free,
unconditional grace of the God of Abraham, and the God of Abraham's
seed, shines forth in all its native brightness, unhindered by the
"ifs" and "buts," the vows, resolutions, and conditions of man's legal
spirit. God had come down to display Himself, in sovereign grace, to
do the whole work of salvation, to accomplish His promise made to
Abraham, and repeated to Isaac and Jacob. He had not come down to see
if, indeed, the subjects of His promise were in such a condition as to
_merit_ His salvation: it was sufficient for Him that they _needed_
it. Their oppressed state, their sorrows, their tears, their sighs,
their heavy bondage, had all come in review before Him; for, blessed
be His name, He counts His people's sighs, and puts their tears into
His bottle. He was not attracted by their excellencies or their
virtues. It was not on the ground of aught that was good in them,
either seen or foreseen, that He was about to visit them, for He knew
what was in them. In one word, we have the true ground of His gracious
acting set before us in the words, "I am the God of Abraham," and "I
have seen the affliction of My people."
These words reveal a great fundamental principle in the ways of God.
It is on the ground of what He is that He ever acts. "I AM," secures
all for "MY PEOPLE." Assuredly, He was not going to leave _His_ people
amid the brick-kilns of Egypt, and under the lash of Pharaoh's
taskmasters. They were His people, and He would act toward them in a
manner worthy of Himself. To be His people,--to be the favored objects
of Jehovah's electing love--the subjects of His unconditional promise,
settled everything. Nothing should hinder the public display of His
relationship with those for whom His eternal purpose had secured the
land of Canaan. He had come down to deliver them; and the combined
power of earth and hell could not hold them in captivity one hour
beyond His appointed time. He might and did use Egypt as a school, and
Pharaoh as a schoolmaster; but when the needed work was accomplished,
both the school and the schoolmaster were set aside, and His people
were brought forth with a high hand and an outstretched arm.
Such, then, was the double character of the revelation made to Moses
at Mount Horeb. What he saw and what he heard combined the two
elements of holiness and grace,--elements which, as we know, enter
into and distinctly characterize all the ways and all the
relationships of the blessed God, and which should also mark the ways
of all those who in any wise act for, or have fellowship with, Him.
Every true servant is sent forth from the immediate presence of God,
with all its holiness and all its grace; and he is called to be holy
and gracious--he is called to be the reflection of the grace and
holiness of the divine character; and, in order that he may be so, he
should not only start from the immediate presence of God at the first,
but abide there, in spirit, habitually. This is the true secret of
effectual service.
"Childlike, attend what Thou wilt say,
Go forth and do it, while 'tis day,
Yet never leave my sweet retreat."
The spiritual man alone can understand the meaning of the two things,
"go forth and do," and, "yet never leave." In order to act _for_ God
outside, I should be _with_ Him inside. I must be in the secret
sanctuary of His presence, else I shall utterly fail.
Very many break down on this point. There is the greatest possible
danger of getting out of the solemnity and calmness of the divine
presence, amid the bustle of intercourse with men, and the excitement
of active service. This is to be carefully guarded against. If we lose
that hallowed tone of spirit which is expressed in "the unshod foot,"
our service will very speedily become vapid and unprofitable. If I
allow my work to get between my heart and the Master, it will be
little worth. We can only effectually serve Christ as we are enjoying
Him. It is while the heart dwells upon His powerful attractions that
the hands perform the most acceptable service to His name; nor is
there any one who can minister Christ with unction, freshness, and
power to others, if he be not feeding upon Christ, in the secret of
his own soul. True, he may preach a sermon, deliver a lecture, utter
prayers, write a book, and go through the entire routine of outward
service, and yet not minister Christ. The man who will present Christ
to others must be occupied with Christ for himself.
Happy is the man who ministers thus, whatever be the success or
reception of his ministry. For should his ministry fail to attract
attention, to command influence, or to produce apparent results, he
has his sweet retreat and his unfailing portion in Christ, of which
nothing can deprive him. Whereas, the man who is merely feeding upon
the fruits of his ministry, who delights in the gratification which it
affords, or the attention and interest which it commands, is like a
mere pipe, conveying water to others, and retaining only rust itself.
This is a most deplorable condition to be in; and yet is it the actual
condition of every servant who is more occupied with his work and its
results, than with the Master and His glory.
This is a matter which calls for the most rigid self-judgment. The
heart is deceitful, and the enemy is crafty; and hence there is great
need to hearken to the word of exhortation, "Be sober, be vigilant."
It is when the soul is awakened to a sense of the varied and manifold
dangers which beset the servant's path, that it is, in any measure,
able to understand the need there is for being much alone with God: it
is there one is secure and happy. It is when we begin, continue, and
end our work at the Master's feet, that our service will be of the
right kind.
From all that has been said, it must be evident to my reader that
every servant of Christ will find the air of "the backside of the
desert" most salutary. Horeb is really the starting-post for all whom
God sends forth to act for Him. It was at Horeb that Moses learnt to
put off his shoes and hide his face. Forty years before, he had gone
to work; but his movement was premature. It was amid the
flesh-subduing solitudes of the mount of God, and forth from the
burning bush, that the divine commission fell on the servant's ear,
"Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou
mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."
(Ver. 10.) Here was real authority. There is a vast difference between
God sending a man, and a man running unsent. But it is very manifest
that Moses was not ripe for service when first he set about acting. If
forty years of secret training were needful for him, how could he have
got on without it? Impossible! He had to be divinely educated and
divinely commissioned; and so must all who go forth upon a path of
service or testimony for Christ. O, that these holy lessons may be
deeply graven on all our hearts, that so our every work may wear upon
it the stamp of the Master's authority and the Master's approval.
However, we have something further to learn at the foot of Mount
Horeb. The soul finds it seasonable to linger in this place. "It is
good to be here." The presence of God is ever a deeply practical
place; the heart is sure to be laid open there. The light that shines
in that holy place makes everything manifest; and this is what is so
much needed in the midst of the hollow pretension around us, and the
pride and self-complacency within.
We might be disposed to think that the very moment the divine
commission was given to Moses, his reply would be, Here am I, or,
Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? But no; he had yet to be brought
to this. Doubtless, he was affected by the remembrance of his former
failure. If a man acts in anything without God, he is sure to be
discouraged, even when God is sending him. "And Moses said unto God,
'Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth
the children of Israel out of Egypt?'" (Ver. 11.) This is very unlike
the man who, forty years before, "supposed that his brethren would
have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them." Such is
man!--at one time too hasty; at another time too slow. Moses had
learnt a great deal since the day in which he smote the Egyptian. He
had grown in the knowledge of himself, and this produced diffidence
and timidity. But then he manifestly lacked confidence in God. If I am
merely looking at myself, I shall do "nothing;" but if I am looking at
Christ, "I can do all things." Thus, when diffidence and timidity led
Moses to say, "Who am I?" God's answer was, "Certainly _I_ will be
with thee." (Ver. 12.) This ought to have been sufficient. If God be
with me, it makes very little matter who I am, or what I am. When God
says, "I will send thee," and "I will be with thee," the servant is
amply furnished with divine authority and divine power; and he ought,
therefore, to be perfectly satisfied to go forth.
But Moses puts another question; for the human heart is full of
questions. "And Moses said unto God, 'Behold, when I come unto the
children of Israel and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers
hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His name?
what shall I say unto them?'" It is marvelous to see how the human
heart reasons and questions, when unhesitating obedience is that which
is due to God; and still more marvelous is the grace that bears with
all the reasonings and answers all the questions. Each question seems
but to elicit some new feature of divine grace.
"And God said unto Moses, 'I AM THAT I AM;' and He said, 'Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.'"
(Ver. 14.) The title which God here gives Himself is one of wondrous
significancy. In tracing through Scripture the various names which God
takes, we find them intimately connected with the varied need of
those with whom He was in relation. "Jehovah-jireh" (the Lord will
provide), "Jehovah-nissi" (the Lord my banner), "Jehovah-shalom" (the
Lord send peace), "Jehovah-tsidkenu" (the Lord our righteousness),--all
these His gracious titles are unfolded to meet the necessities of His
people; and when He calls Himself "I AM," it comprehends them all.
Jehovah, in taking this title, was furnishing His people with a blank
check, to be filled up to any amount. He calls Himself "I AM," and
faith has but to write over against that ineffably precious name
whatever we want. God is the only significant figure, and human need
may add the ciphers. If we want life, Christ says, "I AM the life;" if
we want righteousness, He is "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS;" if we want
peace, "He is our peace;" if we want "wisdom, sanctification, and
redemption," He "is made" all these "unto us." In a word, we may
travel through the wide range of human necessity, in order to have a
just conception of the amazing depth and fullness of this profound and
adorable name, "I AM."
What a mercy to be called to walk in companionship with One who bears
such a name as this! We are in the wilderness, and there we have to
meet with trial, sorrow, and difficulty; but, so long as we have the
happy privilege of betaking ourselves, at all times and under all
circumstances, to One who reveals Himself in His manifold grace, in
connection with our every necessity and weakness, we need not fear
the wilderness. God was about to bring His people across the sandy
desert, when He disclosed this precious and comprehensive name; and
although the believer now, as being endowed with the Spirit of
adoption, can cry, "Abba, Father," yet is he not deprived of the
privilege of enjoying communion with God in each and every one of
those manifestations which He has been pleased to make of Himself. For
example, the title "God" reveals Him as acting in the solitariness of
His own being, displaying His eternal power and Godhead in the works
of creation. "The Lord God" is the title which He takes in connection
with man. Then, as "the Almighty God," He rises before the view of His
servant Abraham, in order to assure his heart in reference to the
accomplishment of His promise touching the seed. As "Jehovah," He made
Himself known to Israel, in delivering them out of the land of Egypt,
and bringing them into the land of Canaan.
Such were the various measures and various modes in which "God spake
in times past unto the fathers, by the prophets" (Heb. i. 1.); and the
believer, under this dispensation or economy, as possessing the Spirit
of sonship, can say, It was my Father who thus revealed Himself, thus
spoke, thus acted.
Nothing can be more interesting or practically important in its way
than to follow out those great dispensational titles of God. These
titles are always used in strict moral consistency with the
circumstances under which they are disclosed; but there is, in the
name "I AM," a height, a depth, a length, a breadth, which truly pass
beyond the utmost stretch of human conception.
"When God would teach mankind His name,
He calls Himself the great 'I AM,'
And leaves a blank--believers may
Supply those things for which they pray."
And, be it observed, it is only in connection with His own people that
He takes this name. He did not address Pharaoh in this name. When
speaking to him, He calls Himself by that commanding and majestic
title, "The Lord God of the Hebrews;" _i.e._, God, in connection with
the very people whom he was seeking to crush. This ought to have been
sufficient to show Pharaoh his awful position with respect to God. "I
AM" would have conveyed no intelligible sound to an uncircumcised
ear--no divine reality to an unbelieving heart. When God manifest in
the flesh declared to the unbelieving Jews of His day those words,
"Before Abraham was, I _am_," they took up stones to cast at Him. It
is only the true believer who can feel, in any measure, the power, or
enjoy the sweetness, of that ineffable name, "I AM." Such an one can
rejoice to hear from the lips of the blessed Lord Jesus such
declarations as these:--"_I am_ that bread of life," "_I am_ the light
of the world," "_I am_ the good Shepherd," "_I am_ the resurrection
and the life," "_I am_ the way, the truth, and the life," "_I am_ the
true vine," "_I am_ Alpha and Omega," "_I am_ the bright and morning
star." In a word, he can take every name of divine excellence and
beauty, and, having placed it after "I AM," find JESUS therein, and
admire, adore, and worship.
Thus, there is a sweetness, as well as a comprehensiveness, in the
name "I AM," which is beyond all power of expression. Each believer
can find therein that which exactly suits his own spiritual need,
whatever it be. There is not a single winding in all the Christian's
wilderness journey, not a single phase of his soul's experience, not a
single point in his condition, which is not divinely met by this
title, for the simplest of all reasons, that whatever he wants, he has
but to place it, by faith, over against "I AM" and find it all in
Jesus. To the believer, therefore, however feeble and faltering, there
is unmingled blessedness in this name.
But although it was to the elect of God that Moses was commanded to
say, "I AM hath sent me unto you," yet is there deep solemnity and
reality in that name when looked at with reference to the unbeliever.
If one who is yet in his sins contemplates, for a moment, this amazing
title, he cannot, surely, avoid asking himself the question, How do I
stand as to this Being who calls Himself, "I AM THAT I AM"? If,
indeed, it be true that HE IS, then what _is_ He to _me_? What am _I_
to write over against this solemn name, "I AM"? I shall not rob this
question of its characteristic weight and power by any words of my
own; but I pray that God the Holy Ghost may make it searching to the
conscience of any reader who really needs to be searched thereby.
I cannot close this section without calling the attention of the
Christian reader to the deeply interesting declaration contained in
the fifteenth verse,--"And God said, moreover, unto Moses, 'Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent
me unto you: _this is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all
generations_.'" This statement contains a very important truth--a
truth which many professing Christians seem to forget, namely, that
God's relationship with Israel is an eternal one. He is just as much
Israel's God now as when He visited them in the land of Egypt. Only,
because of rejecting their Messiah, they are, in His governmental
dealings, set aside for a time. But His word is clear and emphatic:
"This is My name forever." He does not say, This is My name for a
time, so long as they continue what they ought to be. No; "This is My
name _forever_, and this is My memorial unto _all generations_." Let
my reader ponder this. "God hath not cast away His people which He
foreknew." (Rom. xi. 2.) They are His people still, whether obedient
or disobedient, united together or scattered abroad, manifested to the
nations or hidden from their view. They are His people, and He is
their God. Exodus iii. 15 is unanswerable. The professing church has
no warrant whatever for ignoring a relationship which God says is to
endure "forever." Let us beware how we tamper with this weighty word,
"forever." If we say it does not mean forever when applied to Israel,
what proof have we that it means forever when applied to us? God
means what He says; and He will, ere long, make manifest to all the
nations of the earth that His connection with Israel is one which
shall outlive all the revolutions of time. "The gifts and calling of
God are without repentance." When He said, "This is My name forever,"
He spoke absolutely. "I AM" declared Himself to be Israel's God
forever; and all the Gentiles shall be made to bow to this; and to
know, moreover, that all God's providential dealings with them, and
all their destinies, are connected, in some way or other, with that
favored and honored, though now judged and scattered, people. "When
the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He
separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according
to the number of the children of Israel. For the Lord's portion is His
people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance." (Deut. xxxii. 8, 9.)
Has this ceased to be true? Has Jehovah given up His "portion," and
surrendered "the lot of His inheritance"? Does His eye of tender love
no longer rest on Israel's scattered tribes, long lost to man's
vision? Are the walls of Jerusalem no longer before Him? or has her
dust ceased to be precious in His sight? To reply to these inquiries
would be to quote a large portion of the Old Testament, and not a
little of the New; but this would not be the place to enter
elaborately upon such a subject. I would only say, in closing this
section, let not christendom "be ignorant of this mystery, that
blindness _in part_ is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the
Gentiles be come in. And so _all Israel shall be saved_." (Rom. xi.
25, 26.)
CHAPTER IV.
We are still called to linger at the foot of Mount Horeb, at "the
backside of the desert;" and truly, the air of this place is most
healthful for the spiritual constitution. Man's unbelief and God's
boundless grace are here made manifest in a striking way.
"And Moses answered and said, 'But, behold, they will not believe me,
nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, The Lord hath not
appeared unto thee.'" How hard it is to overcome the unbelief of the
human heart! How difficult man ever finds it to trust God! How slow he
is to venture upon the naked promise of Jehovah! Anything, for nature,
but that. The most slender reed that the human eye can _see_ is
counted more substantial, by far, as a basis for nature's confidence,
than the unseen "Rock of ages." Nature will rush with avidity to any
creature stream or broken cistern, rather than abide by the unseen
"Fountain of living waters."
We might suppose that Moses had seen and heard enough to set his fears
entirely aside. The consuming fire in the unconsumed bush, the
condescending grace, the precious, endearing, and comprehensive
titles, the divine commission, the assurance of the divine
presence,--all these might have quelled every anxious thought, and
have imparted a settled assurance to the heart. Still, however, Moses
raises questions, and still God answers them; and, as we have
remarked, each successive question brings out fresh grace. "And the
Lord said unto him, 'What is that in thine hand?' And he said, 'A
rod.'" The Lord would just take him as he was, and use what he had in
his hand. The rod with which he had tended Jethro's sheep was about to
be used to deliver the Israel of God, to chastise the land of Egypt,
to make a way through the deep, for the ransomed of the Lord to pass
over, and to bring forth water from the flinty rock to refresh
Israel's thirsty hosts in the desert. God takes up the weakest
instruments to accomplish His mightiest ends. "A rod," "a ram's horn,"
"a cake of barley meal," "an earthen pitcher," "a shepherd's
sling,"--anything, in short, when used of God, will do the appointed
work. Men imagine that splendid ends can only be reached by splendid
means; but such is not God's way. He can use a crawling worm as well
as a scorching sun, a gourd as well as a vehement east wind. (See
Jonah.)
But Moses had to learn a deep lesson, both as to the rod and the hand
that was to use it. He had to learn, and the people had to be
convinced. "And He said, 'Cast it on the ground.' And he cast it on
the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Put forth thine hand and take it by the
tail.' And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod
in his hand; 'that they may believe that the Lord God of their
fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
hath appeared unto thee.'" This is a deeply significant sign. The rod
became a serpent, so that Moses fled from it; but, being commissioned
by Jehovah, he took the serpent by the tail, and it became a rod.
Nothing could more aptly express the idea of Satan's power being
turned against himself. This is largely exemplified in the ways of
God. Moses himself was a striking example. The serpent is entirely
under the hand of Christ; and when he has reached the highest point in
his mad career, he shall be hurled into the lake of fire, there to
reap the fruits of his work throughout eternity's countless ages.
"That old serpent, the accuser, and the adversary," shall be eternally
crushed beneath the rod of God's Anointed.
"Then the end--beneath His rod,
Man's last enemy shall fall;
Hallelujah! Christ in God,
God in Christ, is all in all."
"And the Lord said furthermore unto him, 'Put now thine hand into thy
bosom.' And he put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out,
behold his hand was leprous as snow. And He said, 'Put thine hand into
thy bosom again.' And he put his hand into his bosom again, and
plucked it out of his bosom; and, behold, it was turned again as his
other flesh." The leprous hand and the cleansing thereof present to
us the moral effect of sin, as also the way in which sin has been met
in the perfect work of Christ. The clean hand, placed in the bosom,
becomes leprous; and the leprous hand, placed there, becomes clean.
Leprosy is the well-known type of sin; and sin came in by the first
man and was put away by the second. "By man came death, by man came
also the resurrection of the dead." (1 Cor. xv. 21.) Man brought in
ruin, man brought in redemption; man brought in guilt, man brought in
pardon; man brought in sin, man brought in righteousness; man filled
the scene with death, man abolished death and filled the scene with
life, righteousness, and glory. Thus, not only shall the serpent
himself be eternally defeated and confounded, but every trace of his
abominable work shall be eradicated and wiped away by the atoning
sacrifice of Him "who was manifested that He might destroy the works
of the devil."
"And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two
signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the
water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which
thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land."
This was a solemn and most expressive figure of the consequence of
refusing to bow to the divine testimony. This sign was only to be
wrought in the event of their refusing the other two. It was first to
be a sign to Israel, and afterwards a plague upon Egypt. (Comp.
chapter vii. 17.)
All this, however, fails to satisfy the heart of Moses. "And Moses
said unto the Lord, 'O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore
nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant; but I am slow of speech,
and of a slow tongue.'" Terrible backwardness! Naught save Jehovah's
infinite patience could have endured it. Surely, when God Himself had
said, "I will be with thee," it was an infallible security, in
reference to everything which could possibly be needed. If an eloquent
tongue were necessary, what had Moses to do but to set it over against
"I AM"? Eloquence, wisdom, might, energy,--everything was contained in
that exhaustless treasury. "And the Lord said unto him, 'Who hath made
man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the
blind? have not _I the Lord_? Now, therefore, go, and I will be with
thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.'" Profound, adorable,
matchless grace! worthy of God! There is none like unto the Lord our
God, whose patient grace surmounts all our difficulties, and proves
itself amply sufficient for our manifold need and weakness. "I THE
LORD" ought to silence forever the reasonings of our carnal hearts.
But, alas! these reasonings are hard to be put down. Again and again
they rise to the surface, to the disturbance of our peace, and the
dishonor of that blessed One, who sets Himself before our souls, in
all His own essential fullness, to be used according to our need.
It is well to bear in mind that when we have the Lord with us, our
very deficiences and infirmities become an occasion for the display
of His all-sufficient grace and perfect patience. Had Moses remembered
this, his want of eloquence need not have troubled him. The apostle
Paul learnt to say, "Most gladly, therefore, _will I rather glory_ in
my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore
_I take pleasure_ in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in
persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake; for when I am weak,
then am I strong." (2 Cor. xii. 9, 10.) This is, assuredly, the
utterance of one who had reached an advanced form in the school of
Christ. It is the experience of one who would not have been much
troubled because of not possessing an eloquent tongue, inasmuch as he
had found an answer to every description of need in the precious grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The knowledge of this truth ought to have delivered Moses from his
diffidence and inordinate timidity. When the Lord had so graciously
assured him that He would be with his mouth, it should have set his
mind at rest as to the question of eloquence. The Maker of man's mouth
could fill that mouth with the most commanding eloquence, if such were
needed. This, in the judgment of faith, is most simple; but, alas! the
poor doubting heart would place far more confidence in an eloquent
tongue than in the One who created it. This would seem most
unaccountable, did we not know the materials of which the natural
heart is composed. That heart cannot trust God; and hence it is that
even the people of God, when they suffer themselves to be in any
measure governed by nature, exhibit such a humiliating lack of
confidence in the living God.
Thus, in the scene before us, we find Moses still demurring. "And he
said, 'O my Lord, send, I pray Thee, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt
send.'" This was, in reality, casting from him the high honor of being
Jehovah's sole messenger to Egypt and to Israel.
It were needless to say that divinely-wrought humility is an
inestimable grace. To "be clothed with humility" is a divine precept;
and humility is unquestionably the most becoming dress in which a
worthless sinner can appear. But it cannot be called humility to
refuse to take the place which God assigns, or to tread the path which
His hand marks out for us. That it was not true humility in Moses is
obvious from the fact that "the anger of the Lord was kindled against
him." So far from its being humility, it had actually passed the limit
of mere weakness. So long as it wore the aspect of an excessive
timidity, however reprehensible, God's boundless grace bore with it,
and met it with renewed assurances; but when it assumed the character
of unbelief and slowness of heart, it drew down Jehovah's just
displeasure; and Moses, instead of being the sole, is made a joint,
instrument in the work of testimony and deliverance.
Nothing is more dishonoring to God, or more dangerous for us, than a
mock humility. When we refuse to occupy a position which the grace of
God assigns us, because of our not possessing certain virtues and
qualifications, this is not humility, inasmuch as if we could but
satisfy our own consciences in reference to such virtues and
qualifications, we should then deem ourselves entitled to assume the
position. If, for instance, Moses had possessed such a measure of
eloquence as he deemed needful, we may suppose he would have been
ready to go. Now the question is, How much eloquence would he have
needed to furnish him for his mission? The answer is, Without God, no
amount of human eloquence would have availed; but with God, the merest
stammerer would have proved an efficient minister.
This is a great practical truth. Unbelief is not humility, but
thorough pride. It refuses to believe God because it does not find in
_self_ a reason for believing. This is the very height of presumption.
If, when God speaks, I refuse to believe, on the ground of something
in myself, I make Him a liar. (1 John v. 10.) When God declares His
love, and I refuse to believe because I do not deem myself a
sufficiently worthy object, I make Him a liar, and exhibit the
inherent pride of my heart. The bare supposition that I could ever be
worthy of aught save the lowest pit of hell, can only be regarded as
the most profound ignorance of my own condition and of God's
requirements. And the refusal to take the place which the redeeming
love of God assigns me, on the ground of the finished atonement of
Christ, is to make God a liar, and cast gross dishonor upon the
sacrifice of the cross. God's love flows forth spontaneously. It is
not drawn forth by my deserts, but by my misery. Nor is it a question
as to the place which I deserve, but which Christ deserves. Christ
took the sinner's place on the cross, that the sinner might take His
place in the glory. Christ got what the sinner deserved, that the
sinner might get what Christ deserves. Thus _self_ is totally set
aside, and this is true humility. No one can be truly humble until he
has reached heaven's side of the cross; but there he finds divine
life, divine righteousness, and divine favor. He is done with himself
forever, as regards any expectation of goodness or righteousness, and
he feeds upon the princely wealth of another. He is morally prepared
to join in that cry which shall echo through the spacious vault of
heaven, throughout the everlasting ages, "Not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto Thy name give glory." (Psalm cxv. 1.)
It would ill become us to dwell upon the mistakes or infirmities of so
honored a servant as Moses, of whom we read that he "was verily
faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those
things which were to be spoken after." (Heb. iii. 5.) But, though we
should not dwell upon them in a spirit of self-complacency, as if we
would have acted differently in his circumstances, we should
nevertheless learn from such things those holy and seasonable lessons
which they are manifestly designed to teach. We should learn to judge
ourselves and to place more implicit confidence in God,--to set self
aside, that He might act in us, through us, and for us. This is the
true secret of power.
We have remarked that Moses forfeited the dignity of being Jehovah's
sole instrument in that glorious work which He was about to
accomplish. But this was not all. "The anger of the Lord was kindled
against Moses; and He said, 'Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I
know that he can speak well: and also, behold, he cometh forth to meet
thee; and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. And _thou
shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth_: and I will be with
thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.
And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even
he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him
instead of God. And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith
thou shalt do signs.'" (Chap. iv. 14-17.) This passage contains a mine
of most precious practical instruction. We have noted the timidity and
hesitation of Moses, notwithstanding the varied promises and
assurances with which divine grace had furnished him. And now,
although there was nothing gained in the way of real power, although
there was no more virtue or efficacy in one mouth than in another,
although it was Moses after all who was to speak unto Aaron; yet was
Moses quite ready to go when assured of the presence and co-operation
of a poor feeble mortal like himself; whereas he could not go when
assured, again and again, that Jehovah would be with him.
Oh! my reader, does not all this hold up before us a faithful mirror
in which you and I can see our hearts reflected? Truly it does. We are
more ready to trust anything than the living God. We move along with
bold decision when we possess the countenance and support of a poor
frail mortal like ourselves; but we falter, hesitate, and demur when
we have the light of the Master's countenance to cheer us, and the
strength of His omnipotent arm to support us. This should humble us
deeply before the Lord, and lead us to seek a fuller acquaintance with
Him, so that we might trust Him with a more unmixed confidence, and
walk on with a firmer step, as having Him _alone_ for our resource and
portion.
No doubt the fellowship of a brother is most valuable,--"Two are
better than one,"--whether in labor, rest, or conflict. The Lord
Jesus, in sending forth His disciples, "sent them two by two,"--for
unity is ever better than isolation;--still, if our personal
acquaintance with God, and our experience of His presence, be not such
as to enable us, if needful, to walk alone, we shall find the presence
of a brother of very little use. It is not a little remarkable that
Aaron, whose companionship seemed to satisfy Moses, was the man who
afterwards made the golden calf. (Exod. xxxii. 21.) Thus it frequently
happens, that the very person whose presence we deem essential to our
progress and success, afterwards proves a source of deepest sorrow to
our hearts. May we ever remember this!
However, Moses at length consents to go; but ere he is fully equipped
for his work, he must pass through another deep exercise,--yea, he
must have the sentence of death inscribed by the hand of God upon his
very nature. He had learnt deep lessons at "the backside of the
desert;" he is called to learn something deeper still, "by the way in
the inn." It is no light matter to be the Lord's servant. No ordinary
education will qualify a man for such a position. Nature must be put
in the place of death, and kept there. "We had the sentence of death
in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which
raiseth the dead." (2 Cor. i. 9.) Every successful servant will need
to know something of this. Moses was called to enter into it, in his
own experience, ere he was morally qualified. He was about to sound in
the ears of Pharaoh the following deeply solemn message: "Thus saith
the Lord, 'Israel is My son, even My first-born: and I say unto thee,
Let My son go, that he may serve Me: and if thou refuse to let him go,
behold I will slay thy son, even thy first-born.'" Such was to be his
message to Pharaoh,--a message of death, a message of judgment; and,
at the same time, his message to Israel was a message of life and
salvation. But, be it remembered, that the man who will speak, on
God's behalf, of death and judgment, life and salvation, must, ere he
does so, enter into the practical power of these things in his own
soul. Thus it was with Moses. We have seen him, at the very outset, in
the place of death, typically; but this was a different thing from
entering into the experience of death in his own person. Hence we
read, "And it came to pass, by the way in the inn, that the Lord met
him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut
off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and said,
'Surely, a bloody husband art thou to me.' So He let him go: then she
said, 'A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.'" This
passage lets us into a deep secret in the personal and domestic
history of Moses. It is very evident that Zipporah's heart had, up to
this point, shrunk from the application of _the knife_ to that around
which the affections of nature were entwined. She had avoided that
mark which had to be set in the flesh of every member of the Israel of
God. She was not aware that her relationship with Moses was one
involving death to nature. She recoiled from the cross. This was
natural. But Moses had yielded to her in the matter; and this explains
to us the mysterious scene "in the inn." If Zipporah refuses to
circumcise her _son_, Jehovah will lay His hand upon her _husband_;
and if Moses spares the feelings of his wife, Jehovah will "seek to
kill him." The sentence of death must be written on nature; and if we
seek to avoid it in one way, we shall have to encounter it in another.
It has been already remarked that Zipporah furnishes an instructive
and interesting type of the Church. She was united to Moses during the
period of his rejection; and from the passage just quoted, we learn
that the Church is called to know Christ as the One related to her "by
blood." It is her privilege to drink of His cup, and be baptized with
His baptism. Being crucified with Him, she is to be conformed to His
death--to mortify her members which are on the earth--to take up the
cross daily, and follow Him. Her relationship with Christ is founded
upon blood, and the manifestation of the power of that relationship
will necessarily involve death to nature. "And ye are complete in Him,
which is the head of all principality and power; in whom also ye are
circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off
the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through
the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead."
(Col. ii. 10-12.)
Such is the doctrine as to the Church's place with Christ,--a doctrine
replete with the richest privileges for the Church, and each member
thereof. Everything, in short, is involved:--the perfect remission of
sin, divine righteousness, complete acceptance, everlasting security,
full fellowship with Christ in all His glory. "Ye are _complete_ in
Him." This, surely, comprehends everything. What could be added to one
who is "complete"? Could "philosophy," "the tradition of men," "the
rudiments of the world," "meats, drinks, holy days, new moons, or
Sabbaths"? "Touch not" this, "taste not" that, "handle not" the other,
"the commandments and doctrines of men," "days, and months, and times,
and years,"--could any of these things, or all of them put together,
add a single jot or tittle to one whom God has pronounced "complete"?
We might just as well inquire if man could have gone forth upon the
fair creation of God, at the close of the six days' work, to give the
finishing touch to that which God had pronounced "very good."
Nor is this completeness to be, by any means, viewed as a matter of
attainment,--some point which we have not yet reached, but after which
we must diligently strive, and of the possession of which we cannot be
sure until we lie upon a bed of death, or stand before a throne of
judgment. It is the portion of the feeblest, the most inexperienced,
the most unlettered child of God. The very weakest saint is included
in the apostolic "_ye_." All the people of God "_are_ complete in
Christ." The apostle does not say, Ye _will_ be, Ye _may_ be, _Hope_
that ye may be, _Pray_ that ye may be: no; he, by the Holy Ghost,
states, in the most absolute and unqualified manner, that "ye _are_
complete." This is the true Christian starting-post; and for man to
make a goal of what God makes a starting-post, is to upset everything.
But, then, some will ask, Have we no sin, no failure, no imperfection?
Assuredly we have. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John i. 8.) We have sin
_in_ us, but no sin _on_ us. Moreover, our standing is not in _self_,
but in Christ. It is "_in Him_" we "are complete." God sees the
believer in Christ, with Christ, and as Christ. This is his
changeless condition--his everlasting standing. "The body of the sins
of the flesh" is "put off by the circumcision of Christ." The believer
is not in the flesh, though the flesh is in him. He is united to
Christ in the power of a new and an endless life, and that life is
inseparably connected with divine righteousness in which the believer
stands before God. The Lord Jesus has put away everything that was
against the believer, and He has brought him nigh to God, in the
self-same favor as that which He Himself enjoys. In a word, Christ is
his righteousness. This settles every question, answers every
objection, silences every doubt. "Both He that sanctifieth and they
who are sanctified are all of one." (Heb. ii. 11.)
The foregoing line of truth has flowed out of the deeply interesting
type presented to us in the relationship between Moses and Zipporah.
We must now hasten to close this section, and take our leave, for the
present, of "the backside of the desert," though not of its deep
lessons and holy impressions, so essential to every servant of Christ,
and every messenger of the living God. All who would serve
effectually, either in the important work of evangelization, or in the
varied ministries of the house of God--which is the Church--will need
to imbibe the precious instructions which Moses received at the foot
of Mount Horeb, and "by the way in the inn."
Were these things properly attended to, we should not have so many
running unsent--so many rushing into spheres of ministry for which
they were never designed. Let each one who stands up to preach, or
teach, or exhort, or serve in any way, seriously inquire if, indeed,
he be fitted and taught and sent of God. If not, his work will neither
be owned of God nor blessed to men, and the sooner he ceases, the
better for himself and for those upon whom he has been imposing the
heavy burden of hearkening to him. Neither a humanly-appointed nor a
self-appointed ministry will ever suit within the hallowed precincts
of the Church of God. All must be divinely gifted, divinely taught,
and divinely sent.
"And the Lord said to Aaron, 'Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.'
And he went and met him in the mount of God, and kissed him. And Moses
told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the
signs which He had commanded him." This was a fair and beauteous
scene--a scene of sweet brotherly love and union--a scene which stands
in marked contrast with many of those scenes which were afterwards
enacted in the wilderness-career of these two men. Forty years of
wilderness life are sure to make great changes in men and things. Yet
it is sweet to dwell upon those early days of one's Christian course,
before the stern realities of desert life had, in any measure, checked
the gush of warm and generous affections,--before deceit and
corruption and hypocrisy had well-nigh dried up the springs of the
heart's confidence, and placed the whole moral being beneath the
chilling influences of a suspicious disposition.
That such results have been produced, in many cases, by years of
experience, is, alas! too true. Happy is he who, though his eyes have
been opened to see nature in a clearer light than that which this
world supplies, can nevertheless serve his generation by the energy of
that grace which flows forth from the bosom of God. Who ever knew the
depths and windings of the human heart as Jesus knew them? "He knew
_all_, and needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what
was in man." (John ii. 24, 25.) So well did He know man, that He could
not commit Himself unto him. He could not accredit man's professions,
or endorse his pretensions. And yet, who so gracious as He? Who so
loving, so tender, so compassionate, so sympathizing? With a heart
that understood all, He could feel for all. He did not suffer His
perfect knowledge of human worthlessness to keep Him aloof from human
need. "He went about doing good." Why? Was it because He imagined that
all those who flocked around Him were real? No; but "because God was
with Him." (Acts x. 38.) This is our example. Let us follow it,
though, in doing so, we shall have to trample on _self_ and all its
interests, at every step of the way.
Who would desire that wisdom, that knowledge of nature, that
experience, which only lead men to ensconce themselves within the
inclosures of a hard-hearted selfishness, from which they look forth
with an eye of dark suspicion upon everybody? Surely, such a result
could never follow from aught of a heavenly or excellent nature. God
gives wisdom; but it is not a wisdom which locks the heart against
all the appeals of human need and misery. He gives a knowledge of
nature; but it is not a knowledge which causes us to grasp with
selfish eagerness that which we, falsely, call "our own." He gives
experience; but it is not an experience which results in suspecting
everybody except myself. If I am walking in the footprints of Jesus,
if I am imbibing, and therefore manifesting, His excellent spirit, if,
in short, I can say, "To me to live is Christ;" then, while I walk
through the world, with a knowledge of what the world is; while I come
in contact with man, with a knowledge of what I am to expect from him;
I am able, through grace, to manifest Christ in the midst of it all.
The springs which move me, and the objects which animate me, are all
_above_, where He is, who is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and
forever." (Heb. xiii. 8.) It was this which sustained the heart of
that beloved and honored servant, whose history, even so far, has
furnished us with such deep and solid instruction. It was this which
carried him through the trying and varied scenes of his wilderness
course. And we may safely assert that, at the close of all,
notwithstanding the trial and exercise of forty years, Moses could
embrace his brother when he stood on Mount Hor, with the same warmth
as he had when first he met him "in the mount of God." True, the two
occasions were very different. At "the mount of God" they met and
embraced, and started together on their divinely-appointed mission.
Upon "Mount Hor" they met by the commandment of Jehovah, in order
that Moses might strip his brother of his priestly robes, and see him
gathered to his fathers, because of an error in which he himself had
participated. (How solemn! How touching!) Circumstances vary: men turn
away from one; but with God "is no variableness, neither shadow of
turning." (James i. 17.)
"And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the
children of Israel; and Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had
spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And
the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the
children of Israel, and that He had looked upon their affliction, then
they bowed their heads and worshiped." (Ver. 29-31.) When God works,
every barrier must give way. Moses had said, "The people will not
believe me." But the question was not as to whether they would believe
him, but whether they would believe God. When a man is enabled to view
himself simply as the messenger of God, he may feel quite at ease as
to the reception of his message. It does not detract, in the smallest
degree, from his tender and affectionate solicitude in reference to
those whom he addresses. Quite the contrary; but it preserves him from
that inordinate anxiety of spirit which can only tend to unfit him for
calm, elevated, steady testimony. The messenger of God should ever
remember whose message he bears. When Zacharias said to the angel,
"Whereby shall I know this?" was the latter perturbed by the question?
Not in the least. His calm, dignified reply was, "I am Gabriel, that
stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to
show thee these glad tidings." (Luke i. 18, 19.) The angel rises
before the doubting mortal, with a keen and exquisite sense of the
dignity of his message. It is as if he would say, How can you doubt,
when a messenger has actually been dispatched from the very
presence-chamber of the Majesty of heaven? Thus should every messenger
of God, in his measure, go forth, and, in this spirit, deliver his
message.
CHAPTERS V. & VI.
The effect of the first appeal to Pharaoh seemed aught but
encouraging. The thought of losing Israel made him clutch them with
greater eagerness and watch them with greater vigilance. Whenever
Satan's power becomes narrowed to a point, his rage increases. Thus it
is here. The furnace is about to be quenched by the hand of redeeming
love; but ere it is, it blazes forth with greater fierceness and
intensity. The devil does not like to let go any one whom he has had
in his terrible grasp. He is "a strong man armed," and while he
"keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace." But, blessed be God,
there is "a stronger than he," who has taken from him "his armor
wherein he trusted," and divided the spoils among the favored objects
of His everlasting love.
"And afterward, Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh,--'Thus
saith the Lord God of Israel, Let My people go, that they may hold a
feast unto Me in the wilderness.'" (Chap. v. 1.) Such was Jehovah's
message to Pharaoh. He claimed full deliverance for the people on the
ground of their being His, and in order that they might hold a feast
unto Him in the wilderness. Nothing can ever satisfy God in reference
to His elect, but their entire emancipation from the yoke of bondage.
"Loose him and let him go" is really the grand motto in God's gracious
dealings with those who, though held in bondage by Satan, are
nevertheless the objects of His eternal love.
When we contemplate Israel amid the brick-kilns of Egypt, we behold a
graphic figure of the condition of every child of Adam by nature.
There they were, crushed beneath the enemy's galling yoke, and having
no power to deliver themselves. The mere mention of the word _liberty_
only caused the oppressor to bind his captives with a stronger fetter,
and to lade them with a still more grievous burden. It was absolutely
necessary that deliverance should come from without. But from whence
was it to come! Where were the resources to pay their ransom? or where
was the power to break their chains? And even were there both the one
and the other, where was the _will_? Who would take the trouble of
delivering them? Alas! there was no hope, either within or around.
They had only to look up. Their refuge was in God. He had both the
power and the will. He could accomplish a redemption both by price and
by power. In Jehovah, and in Him alone, was there salvation for
ruined and oppressed Israel.
Thus it is in every case. "Neither is there salvation in any other;
for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we
must be saved." (Acts iv. 12.) The sinner is in the hands of one who
rules him with despotic power. He is "sold under sin"--"led captive by
Satan at his will" fast bound in the fetters of lust, passion, and
temper,--"without strength," "without hope," "without God." Such is
the sinner's condition. How, then, can he help himself? What can he
do? He is the slave of another, and everything he does is done in the
capacity of a slave. His thoughts, his words, his acts, are the
thoughts, words, and acts of a slave. Yea, though he should weep and
sigh for emancipation, his very tears and sighs are the melancholy
proofs of his slavery. He may struggle for freedom; but his very
struggle, though it evinces a desire for liberty, is the positive
declaration of his bondage.
Nor is it merely a question of the sinner's _condition_; his very
_nature_ is radically corrupt--wholly under the power of Satan. Hence
he not only needs to be introduced into a new condition, but also to
be endowed with a new nature. The nature and the condition go
together. If it were possible for the sinner to better his condition,
what would it avail so long as his nature was irrecoverable bad? A
nobleman might take a beggar off the streets and adopt him; he might
endow him with a noble's wealth, and set him in a noble's position;
but he could not impart to him nobility of nature; and thus the nature
of a beggarman would never be at home in the condition of a nobleman.
There must be a nature to suit the condition; and there must be a
condition to suit the capacity, the desires, the affections, and the
tendencies of the nature.
Now, in the gospel of the grace of God, we are taught that the
believer is introduced into an entirely new condition; that he is no
longer viewed as in his former state of guilt and condemnation, but as
in a state of perfect and everlasting justification; that the
condition in which God now sees him is not only one of full pardon,
but it is such that infinite holiness cannot find so much as a single
stain. He has been taken out of his former condition of guilt, and
placed absolutely and eternally in a new condition of unspotted
righteousness. It is not, by any means, that his old condition is
improved. This is utterly impossible. "That which is crooked cannot be
made straight." "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his
spots?" Nothing can be more opposed to the fundamental truth of the
gospel than the theory of a gradual improvement in the sinner's
condition. He is born in a certain condition, and until he is "born
again" he cannot be in any other. He may try to improve, he may
resolve to be better for the future--to "turn over a new leaf"--to
live a different sort of life; but, all the while, he has not moved a
single hair's breadth out of his real condition as a sinner. He may
become "religious," as it is called,--he may try to pray, he may
diligently attend to ordinances, and exhibit an appearance of moral
reform; but none of these things can, in the smallest degree, affect
his positive condition before God.
The case is precisely similar as to the question of _nature_. How can
a man alter his nature? He may make it undergo a process, he may try
to subdue it--to place it under discipline; but it is nature still.
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh." There must be a new nature
as well as a new condition. And how is this to be had? By believing
God's testimony concerning His Son. "As many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God, even _to them that believe on
His name_: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John i. 12, 13.) Here we
learn that those who believe on the name of the only begotten Son of
God, have the right or privilege of being sons of God. They are made
partakers of a new nature: they have gotten eternal life.--"He that
believeth on the Son _hath_ everlasting life" (John iii.
36.).--"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that _heareth_ My word, and
_believeth_ on Him that sent Me, _hath_ everlasting life, and shall
not come into condemnation; but _is_ passed from death unto life"
(John v. 24.).--"And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John xvii.
3.).--"And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son _hath_ life." (1
John v. 11, 12.)
Such is the plain doctrine of the Word in reference to the momentous
questions of condition and nature. But on what is all this founded?
How is the believer introduced into a condition of divine
righteousness and made partaker of the divine nature? It all rests on
the great truth that "JESUS DIED AND ROSE AGAIN." That blessed One
left the bosom of eternal love, the throne of glory, the mansions of
unfading light; came down into this world of guilt and woe; took upon
Him the likeness of sinful flesh; and, having perfectly exhibited and
perfectly glorified God in all the movements of His blessed life here
below, He died upon the cross, under the full weight of His people's
transgressions. By so doing, He divinely met all that was or could be
against us. He magnified the law and made it honorable; and, having
done so, He became a curse by hanging on the tree. Every claim was
met, every enemy silenced, every obstacle removed. "Mercy and truth
are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."
Infinite justice was satisfied, and infinite love can flow, in all its
soothing and refreshing virtues, into the broken heart of the sinner;
while, at the same time, the cleansing and atoning stream that flowed
from the pierced side of a crucified Christ, perfectly meets all the
cravings of a guilty and convicted conscience. The Lord Jesus, on the
cross, stood in our place. He was our representative. He died, "the
just for the unjust." "He was made sin for us." (2 Cor. v. 21; 1
Peter iii. 18.) He died the sinner's death, was buried, and rose
again, having accomplished all. Hence, there is absolutely nothing
against the believer. He is linked with Christ, and stands in the same
condition of righteousness. "As He is, so are we in this world." (1
John iv. 17.)
This gives settled peace to the conscience. If I am no longer in a
condition of guilt, but in a condition of justification,--if God only
sees me _in_ Christ and as Christ, then, clearly, my portion is
perfect peace. "Being justified by faith, we _have_ peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. v. 1.) The blood of the Lamb has
canceled all the believer's guilt,--blotted out his heavy debt, and
given him a perfectly blank page, in the presence of that holiness
which "cannot look upon sin."
But the believer has not merely found peace with God; he is made a
child of God, so that he can taste the sweetness of communion with the
Father and the Son, through the power of the Holy Ghost. The cross is
to be viewed in two ways: first, as satisfying God's claims; secondly,
as expressing God's affections. If I look at my sins in connection
with the claims of God as a Judge, I find, in the cross, a perfect
settlement of those claims. God, as a Judge, has been divinely
satisfied--yea, glorified, in the cross. But there is more than this.
God had affections as well as claims; and, in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ, all those affections are sweetly and touchingly told out
into the sinner's ear; while, at the same time, he is made partaker
of a new nature which is capable of enjoying those affections and
having fellowship with the heart from which they flow. "For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He
might bring us to God." (1 Peter iii. 18.) Thus, we are not only
brought into _a condition_, but unto _a Person_, even God Himself, and
we are endowed with _a nature_ which can delight in Him.--"_We also
joy in God_, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now
received the reconciliation (margin)." (Rom. v. 11.)
What force and beauty, therefore, can we see in those emancipating
words, "Let My people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the
wilderness." "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath
anointed Me to preach the gospel; He hath sent Me to heal the
broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering
of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." (Luke
iv. 18.) The glad tidings of the gospel announce full deliverance from
every yoke of bondage. Peace and liberty are the boons which that
gospel bestows on all who believe it, as God has declared it.
And mark, it is "that they may hold a feast to _Me_." If they were to
get done with Pharaoh, it was that they might begin with God. This was
a great change. Instead of toiling under Pharaoh's taskmasters, they
were to feast in company with Jehovah; and, although they were to pass
from Egypt into the wilderness, still the divine presence was to
accompany them; and if the wilderness was rough and dreary, it was the
way to the land of Canaan. The divine purpose was, that they should
hold a feast unto the Lord in the wilderness, and in order to do this,
they should be "_let go_" out of Egypt.
However, Pharaoh was in no wise disposed to yield obedience to the
divine mandate. "Who is the Lord," said he, "that I should obey His
voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel
go." (Chap. v. 2.) Pharaoh most truly expressed, in these words, his
real condition. His condition was one of ignorance and consequent
disobedience. Both go together. If God be not known, He cannot be
obeyed; for obedience is ever founded upon knowledge. When the soul is
blessed with the knowledge of God, it finds this knowledge to be life
(John xvii. 3.), and life is power; and when I get power, I can act.
It is obvious that one cannot act without life; and therefore it is
most unintelligent to set people upon doing certain things in order to
get that by which alone they can do anything.
But Pharaoh was as ignorant of himself as he was of the Lord. He did
not know that he was a poor, vile worm of the earth, and that he had
been raised up for the express purpose of making known the glory of
the very One whom he said he knew not. (Exod. ix. 16; Rom. ix. 17.)
"And they said, 'The God of the Hebrews has met with us: let us go, we
pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the
Lord our God; lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.'
And the king of Egypt said unto them, 'Wherefore do ye, Moses and
Aaron, let the people from their work? Get you unto your burdens ...
let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labor therein;
and let them not regard _vain words_.'" (Ver. 3-9.)
What a development of the secret springs of the human heart we have
here! What complete incompetency to enter into the things of God! All
the divine titles and the divine revelations were, in Pharaoh's
estimation, "vain words." What did he know or care about "three days'
journey into the wilderness," or "a feast to Jehovah"? How could he
understand the need of such a journey, or the nature or object of such
a feast? Impossible. He could understand burden-bearing and
brick-making; these things had an air of reality about them, in his
judgment; but as to aught of God, His service, or His worship, he
could only regard it in the light of an idle chimera, devised by those
who only wanted an excuse to make their escape from the stern
realities of actual life.
Thus has it too often been with the wise and great of this world. They
have ever been the most forward to write folly and vanity upon the
divine testimonies. Hearken, for example, to the estimate which the
"most noble Festus" formed of the grand question at issue between Paul
and the Jews:--"They had certain questions against him of their own
superstition, and _of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to
be alive_." (Acts xxv. 19.) Alas! how little he knew what he was
saying! How little he knew what was involved in the question, as to
whether "Jesus" was "dead" or "alive"! He thought not of the solemn
bearing of that momentous question upon himself and his friends,
Agrippa and Bernice; but that did not alter the matter; he and they
know somewhat more about it now, though in their passing moment of
earthly glory they regarded it as a superstitious question, wholly
beneath the notice of men of common sense, and only fit to occupy the
disordered brain of visionary enthusiasts. Yes; the stupendous
question which fixes the destiny of every child of Adam--on which is
founded the present and everlasting condition of the Church and the
world--which stands connected with all the divine counsels,--this
question was, in the judgment of Festus, a vain superstition.
Thus was it in Pharaoh's case. He knew nothing of "the Lord God of the
Hebrews"--the great "I AM," and hence he regarded all that Moses and
Aaron had said to him, in reference to doing sacrifice to God, as
"vain words." The things of God must ever seem vain, profitless, and
unmeaning to the unsanctified mind of man. His name may be made use of
as part of the flippant phraseology of a cold and formal
religiousness; but He Himself is not known. His precious name, which,
to a believer's heart, has wrapped up in it all that he can possibly
need or desire, has no significancy, no power, no virtue for an
unbeliever. All, therefore, connected with God--His words, His
counsels, His thoughts, His ways,--everything, in short, that treats
of or refers to Him, is regarded as "vain words."
However, the time is rapidly approaching when it will not be thus. The
judgment-seat of Christ, the terrors of the world to come, the surges
of the lake of fire, will not be "vain words." Assuredly not; and it
should be the great aim of all who, through grace, believe them now to
be realities, to press them upon the consciences of those who, like
Pharaoh, regard the making of bricks as the only thing worth thinking
about--the only thing that can be called real and solid.
Alas! that even Christians should so frequently be found living in the
region of sight--the region of earth--the region of nature--as to lose
the deep, abiding, influential sense of the reality of divine and
heavenly things. We want to live more in the region of faith--the
region of heaven--the region of the "new creation." Then we should see
things as God sees them, think about them as He thinks; and our whole
course and character would be more elevated, more disinterested, more
thoroughly separated from earth and earthly things.
But Moses' sorest trial did not arise from Pharaoh's judgment about
his mission. The true and whole-hearted servant of Christ must ever
expect to be looked on, by the men of this world, as a mere visionary
enthusiast. The point of view from which they contemplate him is such
as to lead us to look for this judgment and none other. The more
faithful he is to his heavenly Master, the more he walks in His
footsteps, the more conformed he is to His image, the more likely he
is to be considered, by the sons of earth, as one "beside himself."
This, therefore, should neither disappoint nor discourage him. But
then it is a far more painful thing when his service and testimony are
misunderstood, unheeded, or rejected by those who are themselves the
specific objects thereof. When such is the case, he needs to be much
with God, much in the secret of His mind, much in the power of
communion, to have his spirit sustained in the abiding reality of his
path and service. Under such trying circumstances, if one be not fully
persuaded of the divine commission, and conscious of the divine
presence, he will be almost sure to break down.
Had not Moses been thus upheld, his heart must have utterly failed him
when the augmented pressure of Pharaoh's power elicited from the
officers of the children of Israel such desponding and depressing
words as these,--"The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have
made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes
of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us." This was
gloomy enough; and Moses felt it so, for "he returned unto the Lord,
and said, 'Lord, wherefore hast Thou so evil entreated this people?
Why is it that Thou hast sent me? For since I came unto Pharaoh to
speak in Thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast Thou
delivered Thy people at all.'" The aspect of things had become most
discouraging, at the very moment when deliverance seemed at hand;
just as, in nature, the darkest hour of the night is often that which
immediately precedes the dawn of the morning. Thus will it assuredly
be in Israel's history in the latter day. The moment of most profound
darkness and depressing gloom will precede the bursting of "the Sun of
Righteousness" from behind the cloud, with healing in His wings to
heal eternally "the hurt of the daughter of His people."
We may well question how far genuine faith, or a mortified will,
dictated the "_wherefore?_" and the "_why?_" of Moses, in the above
quotation. Still, the Lord does not rebuke a remonstrance drawn forth
by the intense pressure of the moment. He most graciously replies,
"Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand
shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out
of his land." (Chap. vi. 1.) This reply breathes peculiar grace.
Instead of reproving the petulance which could presume to call in
question the unsearchable ways of the great I AM, that ever-gracious
One seeks to relieve the harassed spirit of His servant by unfolding
to him what He was about to do. This was worthy of the blessed
God--the unupbraiding Giver of every good and every perfect gift. "He
knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust." (Ps. ciii. 14.)
Nor is it merely in His actings that He would cause the heart to find
its solace, but in Himself--in His very name and character. This is
full, divine, and everlasting blessedness. When the heart can find
its sweet relief in God Himself--when it can retreat into the strong
tower which His name affords--when it can find, in His character, a
perfect answer to all its need, then, truly, it is raised far above
the region of the creature, it can turn away from earth's fair
promises, it can place the proper value on man's lofty pretensions.
The heart which is endowed with an experimental knowledge of God can
not only look forth upon earth, and say, "All is vanity;" but it can
also look straight up to Him, and say, "All my springs are in Thee."
"And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, 'I am the Lord: and I
appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God
Almighty; but by My name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. And I have
also established My covenant with them to give them the land of
Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And
I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the
Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant.'"
"JEHOVAH" is the title which He takes as the Deliverer of His people,
on the ground of His covenant of pure and sovereign grace. He reveals
Himself as the great self-existing Source of redeeming love,
establishing His counsels, fulfilling His promises, delivering His
elect people from every enemy and every evil. It was Israel's
privilege ever to abide under the safe covert of that significant
title--a title which displays God acting for His own glory, and
taking up His oppressed people in order to show forth in them that
glory.
"Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, 'I am the Lord, and I will
bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid
you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched-out
arm, and with great judgments; and I will take you to Me for a people,
and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your
God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
And I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which I did swear
to give it unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to
you for a heritage: I am the Lord.'" (Ver. 6-8.) All this speaks the
purest, freest, richest grace. Jehovah presents Himself to the hearts
of His people as the One who was to act _in_ them, _for_ them, and
_with_ them, for the display of His own glory. Ruined and helpless as
they were, He had come down to show forth His glory, to exhibit His
grace, and to furnish a sample of His power, in their full
deliverance. His glory and their salvation were inseparably connected.
They were afterwards reminded of all this, as we read in the book of
Deuteronomy,--"The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you,
because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest
of all people: but because the Lord loved you, and because He would
keep the oath which He had sworn onto your fathers, hath the Lord
brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house
of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt." (Chap. vii. 7,
8.)
Nothing is more calculated to assure and establish the doubting,
trembling heart than the knowledge that God has taken us up _just as
we are_, and in the full intelligence of what we are; and, moreover,
that He can never make any fresh discovery to cause an alteration in
the character and measure of His love. "Having loved His own which
were in the world, He loved them unto the end." (John xiii.) _Whom_ He
loves and _as_ He loves, He loves unto the end. This is an unspeakable
comfort. God knew all about us--He knew the very worst of us, when He
manifested His love to us in the gift of His Son. He knew what was
needed, and He provided it; He knew what was due, and He paid it; He
knew what was to be wrought, and He wrought it; His own requirements
had to be met, and He met them. It is all His own work. Hence, we find
Him saying to Israel, as in the above passage, "I will bring you out,"
"I will bring you in," "I will take you to Me," "I will give you the
land," "I am Jehovah." It was all what _He would do_, as founded upon
what _He was_. Until this great truth is fully laid hold of, until it
enters into the soul, in the power of the Holy Ghost, there cannot be
settled peace. The heart can never be happy, or the conscience at
rest, until one knows and believes that all divine requirements have
been divinely answered.
The remainder of our section is taken up with a record of "the heads
of their fathers' houses," and is very interesting, as showing us
Jehovah coming in and numbering those that belonged to Himself, though
they were still in the possession of the enemy. Israel was God's
people, and He here counts up those on whom He had a sovereign claim.
Amazing grace! To find an object in those who were in the midst of all
the degradation of Egyptian bondage! This was worthy of God. The One
who had made the worlds, who was surrounded by hosts of unfallen
angels, ever ready to "do His pleasure," should come down for the
purpose of taking up a number of bond-slaves with whom He condescended
to connect His name. He came down and stood amid the brick-kilns of
Egypt, and there beheld a people groaning beneath the lash of the
taskmasters, and He uttered those memorable accents, "Let _My_ people
go;" and, having so said, He proceeded to count them up, as much as to
say, These are Mine; let Me see how many I have, that not one may be
left behind. "He taketh up the beggar from the dunghill, to set him
amongst the princes of His people, and to make him inherit the throne
of glory."(1 Sam. ii.)
CHAPTERS VII.-XI.
These five chapters form one distinct section, the contents of which
may be distributed into the three following divisions, namely, the ten
judgments from the hand of Jehovah, the resistance of "Jannes and
Jambres," and the four objections of Pharaoh.
The whole land of Egypt was made to tremble beneath the successive
strokes of the rod of God. All, from the monarch on His throne to the
menial at the mill, were made to feel the terrible weight of that rod.
"He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron whom He had chosen. They showed
His signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness
and made it dark; and they rebelled not against His word. He turned
their waters into blood, and slew their fish. Their land brought forth
frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings. He spake, and
there came divers sorts of flies and lice in all their coasts. He gave
them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. He smote their
vines also, and their fig-trees; and brake the trees of their coasts.
He spake, and their locusts came, and the caterpillars, and that
without number, and did eat up all the herbs in their land, and
devoured the fruit of their ground. He smote also all the first-born
in their land, the chief of all their strength." (Ps. cv. 26-36.)
Here the inspired Psalmist has given a condensed view of those
appalling inflictions which the hardness of Pharaoh's heart brought
upon his land and upon his people. This haughty monarch had set
himself to resist the sovereign will and course of the Most High God;
and, as a just consequence, he was given over to judicial blindness
and hardness of heart. "And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh,
and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had spoken unto Moses. And
the Lord said unto Moses, 'Rise up early in the morning, and stand
before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the
Hebrews, Let My people go, that they may serve Me, For I will at this
time send all My plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and
upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like Me in
all the earth. For now I will stretch out My hand that I may smite
thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from
the earth. And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for
to show in thee My power, and that My name maybe declared throughout
all the earth.'" (Exod. ix. 12-16.)
In contemplating Pharaoh and his actings, the mind is carried forward
to the stirring scenes of the book of Revelation, in which we find the
last proud oppressor of the people of God bringing down upon his
kingdom and upon himself the seven vials of the wrath of the Almighty.
It is God's purpose that Israel shall be pre-eminent in the earth;
and, therefore, every one who presumes to stand in the way of that
pre-eminence must be set aside. Divine grace must find its object; and
every one who would act as a barrier in the way of that grace, must be
taken out of the way,--whether it be Egypt, Babylon, or "the beast
that was, is not, and yet is," it matters not. Divine power will clear
the channel for divine grace to flow, and eternal woe be to all who
stand in the way. They shall taste, throughout the everlasting course
of ages, the bitter fruit of having exalted themselves against "the
Lord God of the Hebrews." He has said to His people, "No weapon that
is formed against thee shall prosper," and His infallible faithfulness
will assuredly make good what His infinite grace hath promised.
Thus, in Pharaoh case, when he persisted in holding, with an iron
grasp, the Israel of God, the vials of divine wrath were poured forth
upon him; and the land of Egypt was covered, throughout its entire
length and breadth, with darkness, disease, and desolation. So will it
be by and by, when the last great oppressor shall emerge from the
bottomless pit, armed with satanic power, to crush beneath his "foot
of pride" the favored objects of Jehovah's choice. His throne shall be
overturned, his kingdom devastated by the seven last plagues, and,
finally, he himself plunged, not in the Red Sea, but "in the lake that
burneth with fire and brimstone." (Comp. Rev. xvii. 8; xx. 10.)
Not one jot or one tittle of what God has promised to Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob shall fail. He will accomplish all. Notwithstanding all that
has been said and done to the contrary, God remembers His promises,
and He will fulfill them. They are all "yea and amen in Christ."
Dynasties have risen and acted on the stage of this world; thrones
have been erected on the apparent ruins of Jerusalem's ancient glory;
empires have flourished for a time, and then fallen to decay;
ambitious potentates have contended for the possession of "the land of
promise"--all these things have taken place; but Jehovah has said
concerning Palestine, "The land shall not be sold forever: for the
land is Mine." (Lev. xxv. 23.) No one, therefore, shall ever finally
possess that land but Jehovah Himself, and He will inherit it through
the seed of Abraham. One plain passage of Scripture is quite
sufficient to establish the mind in reference to this or any other
subject. The land of Canaan is for the seed of Abraham, and the seed
of Abraham for the land of Canaan; nor can any power of earth or hell
ever reverse this divine order. The eternal God has pledged His word,
and the blood of the everlasting covenant has flowed to ratify that
word. Who, then, shall make it void? "Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but that word shall never pass away." Truly, "there is none like
unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and
in His excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and
underneath are the everlasting arms; and He shall thrust out the enemy
from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then shall dwell
in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn
and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, O
Israel, who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield
of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thy enemies
shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high
places." (Deut. xxxiii. 26-29.)
We shall now consider, in the second place, the opposition of "Jannes
and Jambres," the magicians of Egypt. We should not have known the
names of these ancient opposers of the truth of God, had they not
been recorded by the Holy Ghost, in connection with "the perilous
times" of which the apostle Paul warns his son Timothy. It is
important that the Christian reader should clearly understand the real
nature of the opposition given to Moses by those magicians, and in
order that he may have the subject fully before him, I shall quote the
entire passage from St. Paul's epistle to Timothy. It is one of deep
and awful solemnity.
"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For
men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without
natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent,
fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady,
high-minded, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God; having a
form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive
silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever
learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as
Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth:
men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall
proceed no further; for their folly shall be manifest unto all, as
theirs also was." (2 Tim. iii. 1-9.)
Now, it is peculiarly solemn to mark the nature of this resistance to
the truth. The mode in which "Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses" was
simply by imitating, as far as they were able, whatever he did. We do
not find that they attributed his actings to a false or evil energy,
but rather that they sought to neutralize their power upon the
conscience, by doing the same things. What Moses did they could do, so
that after all there was no great difference. One was as good as the
other. A miracle is a miracle. If Moses wrought miracles to get the
people out of Egypt, they could work miracles to keep them in; so
where was the difference?
From all this we learn the solemn truth that the most satanic
resistance to God's testimony in the world is offered by those who,
though they imitate the effects of the truth, have but "the form of
godliness," and "deny the power thereof." Persons of this class can do
the same things, adopt the same habits and forms, use the same
phraseology, profess the same opinions as others. If the true
Christian, constrained by the love of Christ, feeds the hungry,
clothes the naked, visits the sick, circulates the Scriptures,
distributes tracts, supports the gospel, engages in prayer, sings
praise, preaches the gospel, the formalist can do every one of these
things; and this, be it observed, is the special character of the
resistance offered to the truth "in the last days"--this is the spirit
of "Jannes and Jambres." How needful to understand this! How important
to remember that, "_as_ Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, _so_ do"
those self-loving, world-seeking, pleasure-hunting professors "resist
the truth." They would not be without "a form of godliness;" but,
while adopting "the form," because it is customary, they hate "the
power," because it involves self-denial. "The power" of godliness
involves the recognition of God's claims, the implanting of His
kingdom in the heart, and the consequent exhibition thereof in the
whole life and character; but the formalist knows nothing of this.
"The power" of godliness could never comport with any one of those
hideous features set forth in the foregoing quotation; but "the form,"
while it covers them over, leaves them wholly unsubdued; and this the
formalist likes. He does not want his lusts subdued, his pleasures
interfered with, his passions curbed, his affections governed, his
heart purified. He wants just as much religion as will enable him "to
make the best of both worlds." He knows nothing of giving up the world
that is, because of having found "the world to come."
In marking the forms of Satan's opposition to the truth of God, we
find that his method has ever been, first, to oppose it by violence;
and then, if that did not succeed, to corrupt it by producing a
counterfeit. Hence, he first sought to slay Moses (Chap. ii. 15.), and
having failed to accomplish his purpose, he sought to imitate his
works.
Thus, too, has it been in reference to the truth committed to the
Church of God. Satan's early efforts showed themselves in connection
with the wrath of the chief priests and elders, the judgment-seat, the
prison, and the sword. But in the passage just quoted from 2 Timothy,
we find no reference to any such agency. Open violence has made way
for the far more wily and dangerous instrumentality of a powerless
form, an empty profession, a human counterfeit. The enemy, instead of
appearing with the sword of persecution in his hand, walks about with
the cloak of profession on his shoulders. He professes and imitates
that which he once opposed and persecuted; and, by so doing, gains
most appalling advantages for the time being. The fearful forms of
moral evil which, from age to age, have stained the page of human
history, instead of being found only where we might naturally look for
them, amid the dens and caves of human darkness, are to be found
carefully arranged beneath the drapery of a cold, powerless,
uninfluential profession; and this is one of Satan's grand
masterpieces.
That man, as a fallen, corrupt creature, should love himself, be
covetous, boastful, proud, and the like, is natural; but that he
should be all these beneath the fair covering of "a form of
godliness," marks the special energy of Satan in his resistance to the
truth in "the last days." That man should stand forth in the bold
exhibition of those hideous vices, lusts, and passions which are the
necessary results of departure from the source of infinite holiness
and purity, is only what might be expected, for man will be what he is
to the end of the chapter. But on the other hand, when we find the
holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ connected with man's wickedness and
deadly evil,--when we find holy principles connected with unholy
practices,--when we find all the characteristics of Gentile
corruption, referred to in the first chapter of Romans, associated
with "a form of godliness," then, truly, we may say, these are the
terrible features of "the last days"--this is the resistance of
"Jannes and Jambres."
However, there were only three things in which the magicians of Egypt
were able to imitate the servants of the true and living God, namely,
in turning their rods into serpents (Chap. vii. 12.), turning the
water into blood (Chap. vii. 22.), and bringing up the frogs (Chap.
viii. 7.); but in the fourth, which involved the exhibition of life,
in connection with the display of nature's humiliation, they were
totally confounded, and obliged to own, "This is the finger of God."
(Chap. viii. 16-19.) Thus it is also with the latter-day resisters of
the truth. All that they do is by the direct energy of Satan, and lies
within the range of his power. Moreover, its specific object is to
"resist the truth."
The three things which "Jannes and Jambres" were able to accomplish
were characterized by satanic energy, death, and uncleanness; that is
to say, the serpents, the blood, and the frogs. Thus it was they
"withstood Moses;" and "so do these also resist the truth," and hinder
its moral weight and action upon the conscience. There is nothing
which so tends to deaden the power of the truth as the fact that
persons who are not under its influences at all, do the self-same
things as those who are. This is Satan's agency just now. He seeks to
have all regarded as Christians. He would fain make us believe
ourselves surrounded by "a Christian world;" but it is counterfeit
Christianity, which, so far from being a testimony to the truth, is
designed by the enemy of the truth, to withstand its purifying and
elevating influence.
In short, the servant of Christ and the witness for the truth is
surrounded, on all sides, by the spirit of "Jannes and Jambres;" and
it is well for him to remember this--to know thoroughly the evil with
which he has to grapple--to bear in mind that it is Satan's imitation
of God's reality, produced, not by the wand of an openly-wicked
magician, but by the actings of false professors, who have "a form of
godliness, but deny the power thereof," who do things apparently right
and good, but who have neither the life of Christ in their souls, the
love of God in their hearts, nor the power of the Word in their
consciences.
"But," adds the inspired apostle, "they shall proceed no further, for
their folly shall be manifested unto all, as theirs also was." Truly
the "folly" of "Jannes and Jambres" was manifest unto all, when they
not only failed to imitate the further actings of Moses and Aaron, but
actually became involved in the judgments of God. This is a solemn
point. The folly of all who are merely possessed of the form will, in
like manner, be made manifest. They will not only be quite unable to
imitate the full and proper effects of divine life and power, but they
themselves become the subjects of those judgments which will result
from the rejection of that truth which they have resisted.
Will any one say that all this has no voice for a day of powerless
profession? Assuredly it has. It should speak to each conscience in
living power; it should tell on each heart, in accents of impressive
solemnity. It should lead each one to inquire seriously whether he is
testifying for the truth, by walking in the power of godliness, or
hindering it, and neutralizing its action, by having only the form.
The effect of the power of godliness will be seen by our "continuing
in the things which we have learned." None will continue, save those
who are taught of God; those, by the power of the Spirit of God, have
drunk in divine principle, at the pure fountain of inspiration.
Blessed be God, there are many such throughout the various sections of
the professing Church. There are many, here and there, whose
consciences have been bathed in the atoning blood of "the Lamb of
God," whose hearts beat high with genuine attachment to His Person,
and whose spirits are cheered by "that blessed hope" of seeing Him as
He is, and of being eternally conformed to His image. It is
encouraging to think of such. It is an unspeakable mercy to have
fellowship with those who can give a reason of the hope that is in
them, and for the position which they occupy. May the Lord add to
their number daily. May the power of godliness spread far and wide in
these last days, so that a bright and well-sustained testimony may be
raised to the name of Him who is worthy.
The third point in our section yet remains to be considered, namely,
Pharaoh's four subtle objections to the full deliverance and complete
separation of God's people from the land of Egypt. The first of these
we have in chapter viii. 25.--"And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron,
and said, 'Go ye, _sacrifice to your God in the land_.'" It is
needless to remark here, that whether the magicians withstood, or
Pharaoh objected, it was, in reality, Satan that stood behind the
scenes; and his manifest object, in this proposal of Pharaoh, was to
hinder the testimony to the Lord's name--a testimony connected with
the thorough separation of His people from Egypt. There could
evidently be no such testimony had they remained in Egypt, even though
they were to sacrifice to Him. They would have taken common ground
with the uncircumcised Egyptians, and put Jehovah on a level with the
gods of Egypt. In this case, an Egyptian could have said to an
Israelite, I see no difference between us; you have your worship and
we have ours; it is all alike.
As a matter of course, men think it quite right for every one to have
a religion, let it be what it may. Provided we are sincere, and do not
interfere with our neighbor's creed, it does not matter what shape our
religion may happen to wear. Such are the thoughts of men in reference
to what they call religion; but it is very obvious that the glory of
the name of Jesus finds no place in all this. The demand for
separation is that which the enemy will ever oppose, and which the
heart of man cannot understand. The heart may crave religiousness,
because conscience testifies that all is not right; but it craves the
world as well. It would like to "sacrifice to God in the land;" and
Satan's object is gained when people accept of a worldly religion, and
refuse to "come out and be separate." (2 Cor. vi.) His unvarying
purpose from the beginning has been to hinder the testimony to God's
name on the earth. Such was the dark tendency of the proposal, "Go ye,
sacrifice to your God in the land." What a complete damper to the
testimony, had this proposal been acceded to! God's people in Egypt
and God Himself linked with the idols of Egypt! Terrible blasphemy!
Reader, we should deeply ponder this. The effort to induce Israel to
worship God in Egypt reveals a far deeper principle than we might, at
first sight, imagine. The enemy would rejoice, at any time, by any
means, or under any circumstances, to get even the semblance of divine
sanction for the world's religion. He has no objections to such
religion. He gains his end as effectually by what is termed "the
religious world" as by any other agency; and hence, when he can
succeed in getting a true Christian to accredit the religion of the
day, he gains a grand point. As a matter of actual fact, one knows
that nothing elicits such intense indignation as the divine principle
of separation from this present evil world. You may hold the same
opinions, preach the same doctrines, do the same work; but if you only
attempt, in ever so feeble a manner, to act upon the divine commands,
"From such turn away" (2 Tim. iii. 5.), and "Come out from among
them" (2 Cor. vi. 17.), you may reckon assuredly upon the most
vigorous opposition. Now how is this to be accounted for? Mainly by
the fact that Christians, in separation from this world's hollow
religiousness, bear a testimony for Christ which they never can bear
while connected with it.
There is a very wide difference between human religion and Christ. A
poor, benighted Hindoo might talk to you of his religion, but he knows
nothing of Christ. The apostle does not say, If there be any
consolation in religion; though, doubtless, the votaries of each kind
of religion find what they deem consolation therein. Paul, on the
other hand, found his consolation in Christ, having fully proved the
worthlessness of religion, and that, too, in its fairest and most
imposing form. (Comp. Gal. i. 13, 14; Phil. iii. 4-11.)
True, the Spirit of God speaks to us of "pure religion and undefiled;"
but the unregenerate man cannot, by any means, participate therein;
for how could he possibly take part in aught that is "pure and
undefiled"? This religion is from heaven, the source of all that is
pure and lovely; it is exclusively before the eye of "God and the
Father;" it is for the exercise of the functions of that new nature
with which all are endowed who believe on the name of the Son of God.
(John i. 12, 13; James i. 18; 1 Peter i. 23; 1 John v. 1.) Finally, it
ranges itself under the two comprehensive heads of active benevolence
and personal holiness,--"To visit the fatherless and widows in their
affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James i.
27.)
Now, if you go through the entire catalogue of the genuine fruits of
Christianity, you will find them all classed under these two heads;
and it is deeply interesting to observe that, whether we turn to the
eighth of Exodus or to the first of James, we find separation from the
world put forward as an indispensable quality in the true service of
God. Nothing could be acceptable before God--nothing could receive
from His hand the stamp of "pure and undefiled," which was polluted by
contact with an "evil world." "'Come out from among them, and be ye
separate,' saith the Lord, 'and touch not the unclean thing; and I
will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My
sons and daughters,' saith the Lord Almighty." (2 Cor. vi. 17, 18.)
There was no meeting-place for Jehovah and His redeemed in Egypt; yea,
with them, redemption and separation from Egypt were one and the same
thing. God had said, "I am come down to deliver them," and nothing
short of this could either satisfy or glorify Him. A salvation which
would have left them still in Egypt could not possibly be God's
salvation. Moreover, we must bear in mind that Jehovah's purpose in
the salvation of Israel, as well as in the destruction of Pharaoh,
was, that "His name might be declared throughout all the earth;" and
what declaration could there be of that name or character were His
people to attempt to worship Him in Egypt? Either none whatever or an
utterly false one. Wherefore it was essentially necessary, in order to
the full and faithful declaration of God's character, that His people
should be wholly delivered and completely separated from Egypt; and it
is as essentially necessary now, in order to a clear and unequivocal
testimony for the Son of God, that all who are really His should be
separated from this present world. Such is the will of God; and for
this end Christ gave Himself. "Grace unto you and peace from God the
Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that
He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the
will of God and our Father; to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen."
(Gal. i. 3-5.)
The Galatians were beginning to accredit a carnal and worldly
religion--a religion of ordinances--a religion of "days, and months,
and times, and years;" and the apostle commences his epistle by
telling them that the Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for the purpose
of delivering His people from that very thing. God's people must be
separate, not, by any means, on the ground of their superior personal
sanctity, but because they are His people, and in order that they may
rightly and intelligently answer His gracious end in taking them into
connection with Himself, and attaching His name to them. A people
still amid the defilements and abominations of Egypt could not have
been a witness for the Holy One; nor can any one now, while mixed up
with the defilements of a corrupt worldly religion, possibly be a
bright and steady witness for a crucified and risen Christ.
The answer given by Moses to Pharaoh's first objection was a truly
memorable one. "And Moses said, 'It is not meet so to do; for we shall
sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God; lo,
shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes,
and will they not stone us? We will go three days' journey into the
wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as He shall command
us.'" (Chap. viii. 26, 27.) Here is true separation from Egypt--"three
days' journey." Nothing less than this could satisfy faith. The Israel
of God must be separated from the land of death and darkness, in the
power of resurrection. The waters of the Red Sea must roll between
God's redeemed and Egypt ere they can properly sacrifice to Jehovah.
Had they remained in Egypt, they would have to sacrifice to the Lord
the very objects of Egypt's abominable worship.[5] This would never
do. There could be no tabernacle, no temple, no altar, in Egypt. It
had no site, throughout its entire limits, for aught of that kind. In
point of fact, as we shall see further on, Israel never presented so
much as a single note of praise until the whole congregation stood, in
the full power of an accomplished redemption, on Canaan's side of the
Red Sea. Exactly so is it now. The believer must know where the death
and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ have forever set him, ere
he can be an intelligent worshiper, an acceptable servant, or an
effectual witness.
[5] The word "abomination" has reference to that which the Egyptians
worshiped.
It is not a question of being a child of God, and, as such, a saved
person. Many of the children of God are very far from knowing the full
results, as regards themselves, of the death and resurrection of
Christ. They do not apprehend the precious truth, that the death of
Christ has made an end of their sins forever, and that they are the
happy partakers of His resurrection life, with which sin can have
nothing whatever to do. Christ became a curse for us, not, as some
would teach us, by being born under the curse of a broken law, but by
hanging on a tree. (Compare, attentively, Deut. xxi. 23; Gal. iii.
13.) We were under the curse because we had not kept the law; but
Christ, the perfect Man, having magnified the law and made it
honorable, by the very fact of His obeying it perfectly, became a
curse for us by hanging on the tree. Thus, in His life He magnified
God's law, and in His death He bore our curse. There is therefore now
no guilt, no curse, no wrath, no condemnation for the believer; and,
albeit, he must be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ; but
even there the question of _sin_ is not raised. The cross of Christ
has settled that forever; so that it is written of those that believe,
"_And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more_." (Heb. x.
17.) The Christian's whole course must indeed be manifested before the
judgment-seat of Christ; but the Judge Himself has put away all his
sins, and is his righteousness, so that the judgment-seat cannot but
be friendly to him. He surely will not condemn His own work. The
righteousness that was required, God Himself has provided it. He
surely will not find any flaw therein. The light of the judgment-seat
will be bright enough to disperse every mist and cloud which might
tend to obscure the matchless glories and eternal virtues which belong
to the cross, and to show that the believer is "clean every whit."
(John xiii. 10; xv. 3; Eph. v. 27.)
It is because these foundation-truths are not laid hold of in the
simplicity of faith that many of the children of God complain of their
lack of settled peace--the constant variation in their spiritual
condition--the continual ups and downs in their experience. Every
doubt in the heart of a Christian is a dishonor done to the Word of
God and the sacrifice of Christ. It is because he does not, even now,
bask in the light which shines from the cross of Christ, that he is
ever afflicted with a doubt or a fear. And yet those things which so
many have to deplore--those fluctuations and waverings--are but
trifling consequences, comparatively, inasmuch as they merely affect
their experience. The effect produced upon their worship, their
service, and their testimony, is far more serious, inasmuch as the
Lord's honor is concerned. But, alas! this latter is but little
thought of, generally speaking, simply because personal salvation is
the grand object--the aim and end--with the majority of professing
Christians. We are prone to look upon everything that affects
ourselves as _essential_; whereas, all that merely affects the glory
of Christ in and by us is counted _non-essential_.
However, it is well to see with distinctness, that the same truth
which gives the soul settled peace, puts it also into the position of
intelligent worship, acceptable service, and effectual testimony. In
the fifteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, the apostle sets forth the
death and resurrection of Christ as the grand foundation of
everything.--"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which
I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye
stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I
preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died
for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and
that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures." (Ver.
1-4.) Here is the gospel in one brief and comprehensive statement. A
dead and risen Christ is the ground-work of salvation. "He was
delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification."
(Rom. iv. 25.) To see Jesus, by the eye of faith, nailed to the cross,
and seated on the throne, must give solid peace to the conscience and
perfect liberty to the heart. We can look into the tomb, and see it
empty; we can look up to the throne, and see it occupied, and go on
our way rejoicing. The Lord Jesus settled everything on the cross on
behalf of His people; and the proof of this settlement is that He is
now at the right hand of God. A risen Christ is the eternal proof of
an accomplished redemption; and if redemption is an accomplished fact,
the believer's peace is a settled reality. We did not make peace, and
never could make it; indeed, any effort on our part to make peace
could only tend more fully to manifest us as _peace-breakers_. But
Christ, having made peace by the blood of His cross, has taken His
seat on high, triumphant over every enemy. By Him, God preaches peace.
The word of the gospel conveys this peace; and the soul that believes
the gospel, has peace--settled peace before God, for Christ is his
peace. (See Acts x. 36; Rom. v. 1; Eph. ii. 14; Col. i. 20.) In this
way, God has not only satisfied His own claims, but, in doing so, He
has found out a divinely righteous vent through which His boundless
affections may flow down to the guiltiest of Adam's guilty progeny.
Then, as to the practical result of all this. The cross of Christ has
not only put away the believer's sins, but also dissolved forever his
connection with the world; and, on the ground of this, he is
privileged to regard the world as a crucified _thing_, and to be
regarded by it as a crucified one. Thus it stands with the believer
and the world,--it is crucified to him and he to it. This is the real,
dignified position of every true Christian. The world's judgment about
Christ was expressed in the position in which it deliberately placed
Him. It got its choice as to whether it would have a murderer or
Christ. It allowed the murderer to go free, but nailed Christ to the
cross, between two thieves. Now, if the believer walks in the
footprints of Christ--if he drinks into and manifests His spirit, he
will occupy the very same place in the world's estimation; and, in
this way, he will not merely know that, as to standing before God, he
is crucified with Christ, but be led to realize it in his walk and
experience every day.
But while the cross has thus effectually cut the connection between
the believer and the world, the resurrection has brought him into the
power of new ties and associations. If in the cross we see the world's
judgment about Christ, in resurrection we see God's judgment. The
world crucified Him, but "God hath highly exalted Him." Man gave Him
the very lowest, God the very highest, place; and, inasmuch as the
believer is called into full fellowship with God in His thoughts about
Christ, he is enabled to turn the tables upon the world, and look upon
it as a crucified thing. If, therefore, the believer is on one cross
and the world on another, the moral distance between the two is vast
indeed. And if it is vast in principle, so should it be in practice.
The world and the Christian should have absolutely nothing in common;
nor will they, except so far as he denies his Lord and Master. The
believer proves himself false to Christ to the very same degree that
he has fellowship with the world.
All this is plain enough; but, my beloved Christian reader, where does
it put us as regards this world? Truly, it puts us outside, and that
completely. We are dead to the world and alive with Christ. We are at
once partakers of His rejection by earth and His acceptance in heaven;
and the joy of the latter makes us count as nothing the trial
connected with the former. To be cast out of earth, without knowing
that I have a place and a portion on high, would be intolerable; but
when the glories of heaven fill the soul's vision, a little of earth
goes a great way.
But some may feel led to ask, What is the world? It would be difficult
to find a term more inaccurately defined than "world," or
"worldliness;" for we are generally disposed to make worldliness begin
a point or two above where we are ourselves. The Word of God, however,
has, with perfect precision, defined what "the world" is, when it
marks it as that which is "not of the Father." Hence, the deeper my
fellowship with the Father, the keener will be my sense of what is
worldly. This is the divine way of teaching. The more you delight in
the Father's love, the more you reject the world. But who reveals the
Father? The Son. How? By the power of the Holy Ghost. Wherefore, the
more I am enabled, in the power of an ungrieved Spirit, to drink in
the Son's revelation of the Father, the more accurate does my judgment
become as to what is of the world. It is as the limits of God's
kingdom expand in the heart, that the judgment as to worldliness
becomes refined. You can hardly attempt to define worldliness. It is,
as some one has said, "shaded off gradually from white to jet black."
This is most true. You cannot place a bound and say, Here is where
worldliness begins; but the keen and exquisite sensibilities of the
divine nature recoil from it; and all we need is, to walk in the power
of that nature, in order to keep aloof from every form of worldliness.
"Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh."
Walk with God, and ye shall not walk with the world. Cold distinctions
and rigid rules will avail nothing. The power of the divine life is
what we want. We want to understand the meaning and spiritual
application of the "three days' journey into the wilderness," whereby
we are separated forever, not only from Egypt's brick-kilns and
taskmasters, but also from its temples and altars.
Pharaoh's second objection partook very much of the character and
tendency of the first. "And Pharaoh said, 'I will let you go, that ye
may sacrifice unto the Lord your God in the wilderness; _only ye shall
not go very far away_.'" (Chap. viii. 28.) If he could not keep them
in Egypt, he would at least seek to keep them _near_ it, so that he
might act upon them by its varied influences. In this way, they might
be brought back again, and the testimony more effectually quashed than
if they had never left Egypt at all. There is always much more serious
damage done to the cause of Christ by persons seeming to give up the
world and returning to it again, than if they had remained entirely of
it; for they virtually confess that, having tried heavenly things,
they have discovered that earthly things are better and more
satisfying.
Nor is this all. The moral effect of truth upon the conscience of
unconverted people is sadly interfered with, by the example of
professors going back again into those things which they seemed to
have left. Not that such cases afford the slightest warrant to any one
for the rejection of God's truth, inasmuch as each one is personally
responsible and will have to give account of himself to God. Still,
however, the effect in this, as well as in everything else, is bad.
"For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through
the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again
entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than
the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have
known the way of righteousness than, after they have known it, to turn
from the holy commandment delivered unto them." (2 Peter ii. 20, 21.)
Wherefore, if people do not "go very far away," they had better not go
at all. The enemy knew this well; and hence his second objection. The
maintenance of a border position suits his purpose amazingly. Those
who occupy this ground are neither one thing nor the other; and, in
point of fact, whatever influence they possess, tells entirely in the
wrong direction.
It is deeply important to see that Satan's design, in all these
objections, was to hinder that testimony to the name of the God of
Israel, which could only be rendered by a "three days' journey into
the wilderness." This was, in good truth, going "very far away." It
was much farther than Pharaoh could form any idea of, or than he could
follow them. And oh! how happy it would be if all who profess to set
out from Egypt would really, in the spirit of their minds and in the
tone of their character, go thus far away from it; if they would
intelligently recognize the cross and grave of Christ as forming the
boundary between them and the world! No man, in the mere energy of
nature, can take this ground. The Psalmist could say, "Enter not into
judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no man living be
justified." (Ps. cxliii. 2.) So also is it with regard to true and
effectual separation from the world. "_No man living_" can enter into
it. It is only as "_dead_ with Christ," and "risen again with Him,
through faith of the operation of God," that any one can either be
"justified" before God, or separated from the world. This is what we
may call going "very far away." May all who profess and call
themselves Christians go thus far. Then will their lamp yield a steady
light. Then would their trumpet give a certain sound. Their path would
be elevated; their experience deep and rich; their peace would flow as
a river; their affections would be heavenly and their garments
unspotted. And, far above all, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ would
be magnified in them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, according to the
will of God their Father.
The third objection demands our most special attention. "And Moses and
Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, 'Go,
serve the Lord your God; but who are they that shall go?' And Moses
said, 'We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and
with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for
we must hold a feast unto the Lord.' And he said unto them, 'Let the
Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look
to it; for evil is before you. Not so; go now ye that are men, and
serve the Lord; for that ye did desire.' And they were driven out from
Pharaoh's presence." (Chap. x. 8-11.) Here, again, we have the enemy
aiming a deadly blow at the testimony to the name of the God of
Israel. Parents in the wilderness and their children in Egypt!
Terrible anomaly! This would only have been a half deliverance, at
once useless to Israel and dishonoring to Israel's God. This could not
be. If the children remained in Egypt, the parents could not possibly
be said to have left it, inasmuch as their children were part of
themselves. The most that could be said in such a case was, that in
part they were serving Jehovah, and in part Pharaoh. But Jehovah could
have no part with Pharaoh. He should either have all or nothing. This
is a weighty principle for Christian parents. May we lay it deeply to
heart! It is our happy privilege to count on God for our children, and
to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." (Eph.
vi.) We should not be satisfied with any other portion for "our little
ones" than that which we ourselves enjoy.
Pharaoh's fourth and last objection had reference to the flocks and
herds. "And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, 'Go ye, serve the
Lord; only let your flocks and herds be stayed: let your little ones
also go with you.'" (Chap. x. 24.) With what perseverance did Satan
dispute every inch of Israel's way out of the land of Egypt! He first
sought to keep them _in_ the land, then to keep them _near_ the land,
next to keep part of themselves in the land, and finally, when he
could not succeed in any of these three, he sought to send them forth
without any ability to serve the Lord. If he could not keep the
servants, he would seek to keep their ability to serve, which would
answer much the same end. If he could not induce them to sacrifice in
the land, he would send them out of the land without sacrifices.
In Moses' reply to this last objection, we are furnished with a fine
statement of the Lord's paramount claim upon His people and all
pertaining to them. "And Moses said, 'Thou must give us also
sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord
our God. Our cattle also shall go with us; _there shall not a hoof be
left behind_: for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and
we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither.'"
(Ver. 25, 26.) It is only when the people of God take their stand, in
simple childlike faith, upon that elevated ground on which death and
resurrection set them, that they can have anything like an adequate
sense of His claims upon them. "We know not with what we must serve
the Lord until we come thither." That is, they had no knowledge of
the divine claim, or their responsibility, until they had gone "three
days' journey." These things could not be known amid the dense and
polluted atmosphere of Egypt. Redemption must be known as an
accomplished fact, ere there can be any just or full perception of
responsibility. All this is perfect and beautiful. "If any man will do
His will, he shall know of the doctrine." I must be up out of Egypt,
in the power of death and resurrection, and then, but not un
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