Israel's Cry and God's Answer
(No. 2631)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 16, 1899.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
23, 1882.
"And it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died:
and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they
cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God
heard their groaning, and God remembered His Covenant with Abraham,
with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel,
and God had respect unto them…Now therefore, behold, the cry of the
children of Israel has come to Me: and I have also seen the oppression
with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will
send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring forth My people, the children
of Israel, out of Egypt." Exodus2:23-25; 3:9,10.
GOD had chosen the children of Israel, and He had determined to make of
them a great nation and a peculiar people to whom He could communicate
the Law and the Testimony, that they might keep the heavenly lamp
burning until Christ should come. Jacob and his family had gone down
into Egypt and, for a long time, they and their descendants were very
happy there. The land of Goshen was very fruitful and the Israelites
were greatly favored by the Egyptian king. The mass of them, therefore,
had little thought of ever leaving that country–they resolved that
they would settle there permanently. In fact, though God would not have
it so, they became Egyptians as much as they could. They were a part of
the Egyptian nation and they began to forget their separate origin. In
all probability, if they had been left to themselves, they would have
been melted and absorbed into the Egyptian race and lost their identity
as God's special people. They were content to be in Egypt and they were
quite willing to be "Egyptianized." To a large degree, they began to
adopt the superstitions, idolatries and iniquities of Egypt. And these
things clung to them, in later years, to such a terrible extent that we
can easily imagine that their heart must have turned aside very much
towards the sins of Egypt. Yet, all the while, God was resolved to
bring them out of that evil connection. They must be a separated
people–they could not be Egyptians, nor yet live permanently like
Egyptians, for Jehovah had chosen them for Himself, and He meant to
make an abiding difference between Israel and Egypt.
Now see the parallel. God still has a people whom He has chosen to be
His own in a very peculiar sense, but they are, at present, mixed up
with the world. They are in the world and they are, at least in
appearance, ofthe world. They are as fond of sin and as much slaves to
sin as others are. They even love the world and the things of it–and
many of them are quite happy where they are. They have no wish whatever
to became a part of the separated people, set apart unto the Lord. They
would rather remain in the world. But God will bring His redeemed out
from the rest of mankind. He that bought them with blood will deliver
them by power. Christ did not offer His Atonement in vain, but, "He
shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." God will
yet call every one of His sons and daughters out of Egypt, even as He
called His Firstborn, and He will bring His chosen out of the midst of
the people among whom they are sojourning until the time appointed for
their emancipation.
The first thing to be done with the Israelites was to cause them to be
anxious to come out of Egypt, for it is not God's way to make men His
servants, except so far as they willingly yield themselves to Him. He
never violates the human will, though He constantly and effectually
influences it. Jehovah wants not slaves to grace His throne and,
therefore, God would not have the people dragged out of Egypt, or
driven out in fetters, against their own glad consent. He must bring
them out in such a way that they would be willing to come out, so that
they would march forth with joy and delight, being thoroughly weary and
sick of all Egypt and, therefore, rejoicing to get away from it. How
was this to be done? It was accomplished by a new king coming up who
knew not Joseph and his eminent services. This Pharaoh began to be
jealous of the people, fearing that, some day, when Egypt was at war,
Israel might turn and side with the Egyptians' enemies. He looked upon
the people, therefore, as being a great danger, and determined, if he
could, to thin their ranks. Hence, he issued the barbarous edict to
slay all the male children and, to effectually break their spirit, he
put them to hard labor in making bricks and erecting vast structures,
so that the treasure cities of Egypt and, perhaps, some of her huge
pyramids were built by the unpaid labors of Israelite slaves. The whip
fell often and heavily upon their backs, for they were put under brutal
taskmasters who beat them most shamefully. They had no rest. They had
to toil on and on and on, and scarcely had bread enough to eat to keep
body and soul together. At last, the yoke of bondage became altogether
intolerable and then, as we have it in the first part of our text, "The
children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and
their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard
their groaning, and God remembered His Covenant with Abraham, with
Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and
God had respect unto them."
I want to use this subject in showing to any here who are in
soul-trouble and do not understand why they have such sorrows and
distress, that God is seeking to make them sick of the world, sick of
sin and, therefore, He is putting them into a condition of spiritual
bondage so that they may be willing to come out of Egypt! Yes, that
they may, by-and-by, with the utmost joy and gladness, leave the land
of their captivity!
I. The first thing I have to speak about is THE CRY OF MISERY. "The
children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and
their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard
their groaning."
Notice, first, that they began to sigh, and to cry because their time
of prosperity had passed. The land of Goshen might still be very
fruitful, but their taskmasters devoured their substance. The country
might be fair to look upon, but they had no time to enjoy the prospect.
They were worked well-nigh to death and they could no longer get any
rest in Egypt. All their prosperity and happiness had departed. Am I
addressing any who were once very well content and satisfied to live as
ordinary worldlings do? And has everything changed with you? Is there
now no joy in what was once such a pleasure to you? Does it seem very
dull and dreary if you go where you used to find so much merriment?
Those haunts which were once the scene of your greatest delight–are
they now avoided by you because you cannot endure them? Do you now feel
that you would gladly give up all those things which once you doted on?
I am thankful to hear that it is so, for when God is about to give a
man a drink of the cup of salvation, He often first puts his taste
right by washing out his mouth with a draught of bitters to take away
the flavor of the accursed sweets of sin! I always regard it as a good
and hopeful sign when a man becomes tired of the world, altogether
weary of its sins, and says, "I find no pleasure in them." This happens
to some while they are still young and their passions are strong–while
their substance is undiminished, while their health is vigorous–while
their friends are numerous. In the very middle of the day, their sun of
enjoyment seems to go down. There is the honey, but it is no longer
sweet. There is the wine cup, but it has no further fascination for
them. Their joy has departed just when one would have thought that it
would have been most abiding with them. Do I speak to any in this
condition? If so, I think that I bring a message from the Lord to them!
But, next, the Israelites had not only lost their former prosperity,
but they began to feel that they were in bondage. An Israelite in Egypt
was at first a gentleman–in fact, a nobleman–for was he not related
to the great prime minister, Joseph, who was second only to Pharaoh
himself? Every Jew walked through Goshen as an aristocrat, for he was
intimately connected with almost the highest in the realm! But now all
that was changed with them and they felt that they were slaves–they
were in bitter bondage–they must act and move at the will of others.
There were hard laws and regulations made for them and cruel
taskmasters to put those laws in action. They must rise, not when they
chose, but when they were told to, and they might get to their beds
only when they were allowed to do so at the slave driver's will. And
they felt that they could not bear it any longer.
This was God's way of bringing them out of bondage, by first making
them feel that they were in slavery. Have I any here who realize that
they are also in slavery? Am I addressing a man who feels that he is in
bondage to evil habits which he cannot break, although he wishes that
he could and counts himself degraded by the fact that to will is
present with him, but how to perform that which he would, he finds not
because he is a slave? His passions rule him. His companions control
him. He dares not do what his conscience tells him is right, for there
is a fear of somebody or other that makes him into a coward, and so
into a slave. I am always glad when the fetters begin to gall. They who
are content to be in bondage will never be freed! But when they feel
that they cannot and that they will not any longer endure their
captivity, then has the hour of freedom struck! It is an untold
blessing when the Grace of God makes a man feel that what was once a
pleasure has now become a servitude–and what he formerly found to be
liberty has now become utter slavery to him.
The Israelites went further than that. They now felt that their burdens
were too heavy to be borne. They had worked and toiled very hard and
they had lived through the work, but now they were made to serve with
rigor and their bondage was too heavy to be endured. They could not
bear it. And it is the same spiritually! As long as a man can carry his
sins, he will continue to carry them. And as long as a man can be
content with the pleasures of this world, rest assured that he will
delight in them. It is a blessed thing when sin becomes an awful load,
so that it crushes a man until he seems to sink utterly hopeless
beneath it! It is well with him, for now he will welcome the Deliverer.
He will be glad of pardon from Him who, alone, can forgive sins. He
will rejoice to accept the word of absolution from the lips of the
Great High Priest and, therefore, although it is often a sore sorrow,
it is also a very great mercy to be made to feel the intolerable load
and burden of sin. If I am speaking to any who are in such a
condition–and I hope that I am–I congratulate them on what is yet to
come to them!
Oh, well do I remember when I was such a slave–when, as I rose in the
morning, I resolved to live better than I had previously done, yet,
long before noon, I had made a worse mess of the day than ever! Then I
thought that, perhaps, by increasing my prayers, or reading more of the
Scriptures, I might get ease from my burden. But I found the more I
prayed and the more I read, the heavier my burden became! If I tried to
forget my sorrow and so to shake off my gloom, I found that it would
not forget me–and I had to cry unto the Lord, with David, "Day and
night Your hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the
drought of summer." I remember all that painful time so vividly that I
can speak to some of you like an experienced friend who is well
acquainted with the dark and stony road on which you are walking. I
know all about your painful pathway of grief and I long to help you to
get over it quickly, and to come to a better and happier place! But
this trial is God's way of fetching you out of Egypt. He is making the
house of bondage too hot for you. He does not mean to let you stay
there, so He is permitting all this to come upon you that you may cry
unto Him to deliver you! He will bring you forth and you shall march
out with joy and gladness, thankful and happy to do what now seems like
a hardship and like self-denial to you.
These Israelites also felt one more thing, namely, their powerlessness
to escape out of Pharaoh's hand, and they thought that there was nobody
to help them. When the young man of 40, who had been educated in
Pharaoh's court, came forward and was reckoned to be the son of
Pharaoh's daughter. When he came forward like a true hero, he threw in
his lot with the despised people and smote one of their adversaries. He
thought, perhaps, that it would be the signal for a general revolt and
that the banner of Israel would wave defiantly in the face of Pharaoh
and that the people would boldly march to liberty. But they were too
enslaved–they had been too long ground down and oppressed to act like
that– they had lost all spirit and they did not hope to ever be free!
They were a nation of hopeless slaves.
Am I speaking to any here who have lost all heart and hope–who have
come to this place of worship with a sort of feeble wish for salvation,
but with no expectation of receiving it? Are you so shut up in the
prison of sin that you cannot come forth? Are your chains clanking in
your ears? Do you feel yourself to be in the low dark dungeon out of
which you will never come alive? It is to you I have to say that I
bless God that you are where you are! Despair is a blessed preparation
for faith in Jesus! The end of the creature is the beginning of the
Creator. Your extremity is God's opportunity. Now that you are helpless
and hopeless, God will come to your rescue!
You notice that in my text there is a gradation, and such a gradation
as some of us have felt in spiritual things. "The children of Israel
sighed by reason of the bondage." "Ah, miserable wretch! Woe is me!
Alas! Alas!" That is how they sighed when they were at their labor.
That is how they sighed when they went home at night, or lay down among
the pots by the kiln. And that is how they sighed when they woke up in
the morning. When a boy was born, they sighed as they looked at him,
for they knew that he must be killed. "The children of Israel sighed by
reason of the bondage." And, then, as their misery grew, a sigh was not
enough. "And they cried." Ah, I cannot imitate the expressive language
of their grief. There were often many tears and there was the voice of
grief which made itself audible in piercing cries. "O God, how long
shall this bondage last?" They sat them down and begged for death–and
sought it as if they were seeking for hidden treasure, for the life of
a slave in Egypt was intolerable to them. And, often, the sigh and the
cry were merged into a groan, for we read, "God heard their groaning."
Is that how it has been going on with you, my Brother? You used to sigh
a good deal. Sometimes people noticed that you were very absent-minded
and that you seemed to have some sorrow upon your spirit which you
could not express. Now you have gone further than that, for you have
begun to cry and in prayer to God, you pour out your very soul!
Perhaps–and that is the worst plight of all–you feel that you cannot
pray. You do not seem to be able to offer what you regard as a real
prayer. You can only weep–yes, and perhaps you cannot even weep–and
so you sigh and groan because you cannot pray. You are troubled because
you cannot be troubled enough. And that is the worst kind of trouble
that there is in the world! There are none so brokenhearted as those
that are brokenhearted because they are not brokenhearted! I have
reminded you that the Israelites groaned and that "God heard their
groaning." Ah, from the very bottom of their heart came up their
groaning! It was no mere heaving of a sigh. It was no mere utterance of
a cry. But all day long it was groaning, groaning, groaning–each
breath seemed to be yet another sorrowful groan!
I hope that many of you will find the Savior before you know much about
this terrible groaning, but it was not so with me. I became so full of
groans that I understood what Job meant when he said, "My soul chooses
strangling and death rather than my life." It would be better never to
live than to live forever under conviction of sin, for the arrows of
God drink up the very fountains of our life, pour fire into the blood
and make us feel as if a thousand deaths were preferable to living
under an awful sense of God's wrath! Perhaps I am speaking to some who,
even when they fall asleep, are startled by dreams concerning the Day
of Judgment, the sound of the archangel's trumpet and the setting up of
the Great White Throne. And when they wake and go out to their
business, they make strange blunders–and all day long they are like
men walking as in a dream.
Still, dear Friends, if that is your experience, I am heartily glad of
it, for it is to me a sign of better days coming! Looking down upon
Egypt, the angels must have been glad when they heard the sighs and
cries and groans of Israel. "Why," you ask, "how is that?" Because the
angels would say to themselves, "God's greatest difficulty is overcome!
He wanted to incline these people to come out of Egypt and now they
long to come out–so they will be willing to accept the leader whom God
will send to them and, with music and dancing, they will come forth
when Moses brings them out of the iron furnace and the house of
bondage." Those of us who were, only a little while ago, in the house
of bondage, rejoice that we have been set free from it! And we are
praying that you who are still in it and are beginning to feel what a
horrible place it is, may not stay there long. May tomorrow's sun not
see you there, but may you escape at once from that terrible captivity!
That, then, is the first head–a cry of misery.
II. The second is a very blessed one, THE GOD OF PITY. Let me read part
of the text again. "They cried, and their cry came up unto God by
reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered
His Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked
upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them."
Here, then, is the poor sinner's hope–not at all in himself, but
wholly in God! Note the gradations here with regard to God's pity for
these people. First, "their cry came up unto God." When it rose up
sharp, shrill and intense, it burst through the gates of Heaven and
"came up unto God." Not that He does not really hear everything, but,
speaking after the manner of men, when it was a mere sigh, it did not
reach Him. But when it got to be a cry and deepened into a groan, then
it came up before Him and He seemed to stop and say, "What is that? It
is the cry of the seed of Abraham in Egypt." Oh, poor Soul, when your
cry comes up from the depths of your very soul, then God will stop and
say, "What is that? It is the cry of a man in misery. It is the voice
of a soul that is in bondage under sin." "Their cry came up unto God."
Notice, next, for it is a step further–"and God heard their groaning."
Do you know what that means? There are some people who seem to hear
things, but the sounds pass through their ears and there the matter
ends. But if you go to visit a sick woman and you sit down, and she
tells you all about her ailments and about her poverty, she is cheered
because you listen to her kindly and because you are willing to hear
her even if you cannot help her–but it does help her even to tell her
sad story. Well now, God heard Israel's crying and groaning. He heard
them not merely as men hear a sound and take no notice of it, but He
seemed to stand still and listen to the sighs, and groans, and cries of
His people. Sinner, tell God your misery even now and He will hear your
story! He is willing to listen, even, to that sad and wretched tale of
yours about your multiplied transgressions, your hardness of heart,
your rejections of Christ. Tell Him all, for He will hear it. Tell him
what it is you need–what large mercy–what great forgiveness! Just lay
your whole case before Him. Do not hesitate for a single moment! He
will hear it, He will be attentive to the voice of your cry. Oh, what
comfort there is for you in this Truth of God if you can but grasp it!
Dear Christians, pray that some poor sinners may grasp it even now!
Pray that they may lay hold upon the sweet thought that God is hearing
the sighs and cries of the penitent souls in our midst!
God's pity went further than that, for we read, next, that having heard
their groaning, " God remembered His Covenant.'" I wish I knew how to
preach upon that 24th verse–"God remembered His Covenant." He looked
on the children of Israel and He did not remember their sins–their
practically becoming Egyptians, their loving Egypt and Egypt's
idols–but He remembered His friend, Abraham. He remembered Isaac. He
remembered Jacob whom He loved, and He remembered how He had promised
to bless them and to make them a blessing. And not because of any merit
in the Israelites, themselves, but for the sake of those whom He had
loved and honored, and for the sake of the Covenant which He had made
with them, He said, "I will break the power of Pharaoh, and I will
bless My people; I will bring them out of bondage, and set them at
liberty." Sinner, if God were to look on you to all eternity, He could
not see anything in you but what He is bound to punish! But when He
looks on His dear Son whom He loves, and remembers how He lived and
loved, and bled and died, and made atonement for the guilty. And when
He remembers His Covenant with His Well-Beloved, He says, "I will bless
these people whom I gave unto Him by an Everlasting Covenant. I
promised that He would see of the travail of His soul and so He shall.
I will break the power of sin and I will set these captives free to the
praise of the glory of My Grace. And they shall be accepted in the
Beloved." It is a great blessing that although God cannot see any
reason for mercy in us, He can see the best of all reasons for mercy in
the Covenant of His Grace and in His dear Son with whom He made it!
"God remembered His Covenant." Do not forget it, dear Friends, but
think much upon the Covenant ordered in all things and sure, and upon
all the blessings that are to come to you through that Covenant.
God did still more for His people. "And God looked upon the children of
Israel" He had given them His ear. He had given them His memory. Now He
gives them His eyes. He stood still and He looked upon them in pity and
in love. And it is further said, "And God had respect unto them." The
margin renders it, "God knew them," which is the true meaning of the
original. He looked upon a man and He said, "That is one of My
children." He looked upon another and He said, "Yes, Egyptian though he
is in dress, he is one of my Israelites." He looked upon others and He
said, "I know them. I know their sorrows, I know their sins, I know
their weaknesses. And I will surely deliver them." Oh, that these lips
could utter language in which I might fitly tell you how God looks upon
you, my dear brokenhearted fellow sinner–how He looks upon you, my
poor troubled Friend who cannot break loose from sin, but feels like a
bull in a net and cannot get free from it! I tell you that He is
looking upon you in love and pity and that He knows your condition and
is ready to help you! I will close my discourse by telling you what He
has done to help you and, oh, may He give you Grace to lay hold of it,
that you may find liberty this very hour!
III. The last point is THE INSTRUMENT OF DELIVERANCE.
God's power was quite sufficient to bring the people of Israel out of
bondage, but He chose to deliver them by means of human
instrumentality. God works for men by men, so He raised up Moses, and
it was through Moses that the children of Israel were delivered. Now,
for you, dear Captive, God has raised up a Prophet like unto Moses. One
who is infinitely greater than Moses has come to deliver you!
First, remember that Jesus, the Savior of men, is a Man like ourselves.
This ought to encourage you to come to Him. Full of grief and broken
down under a sense of sin, you dare not approach an absolute God–it
would not be right that you should attempt to come to Him without a
Mediator. But you may come to the one Mediator between God and men, the
Man Christ Jesus, for He can fully sympathize with you! He is able to
have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way,
for He, Himself, in the days of His flesh, was compassed with
infirmity. Well did Dr. Watts sing–
"Till God in human flesh I see, My thoughts no comfort find. The holy,
just, and sacred Three Are terrors to my mind! But if Immanuel's face
appears,
My hope, my joy begins!
His name forbids my slavish fear,
His Grace removes my sins!"
Jesus Christ is a Man–therefore come boldly to Him, even as Israel
might come to Moses! And Jesus is clothed with Divine authority and
power, as Moses was. But more than that, He is what Moses was not, and
could not be–Jesus is actually Divine! Jesus is God!'Oh, come, poor
trembling Sinner, and trust your case in His hands, because nothing
ever fails that He undertakes! He can break the power of the Pharaoh of
your sins and set you free! Yes, even now He can bring you forth out of
Egypt with the silver and gold of His abounding Grace. Only trust Him
and follow Him, and be obedient to His commands, and all will be well
with you.
This Moses, being a man, yet clothed with Divine authority, gave
himself entirely up to the people. He was such a lover of Israel that
he lived entirely for the people and once, you will remember, he even
said, as he pleaded for them, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin,
and have made them gods of gold! Yet now, if You will forgive their
sin–and if not, blot me, I pray You, out of Your book which You have
written." Our Lord Jesus Christ, whom it is our joy to preach, was
really made a curse for us. He actually stood in the sinner's place and
bore the penalty of the sinner's guilt. Therefore, oh, trust Him!
Perhaps I may be the means of leading some poor sinner to end his
delaying and now to commit his spirit into the hand of the faithful
Creator and Redeemer who died for him. And, dear Friend, if you will
but trust Jesus with yourself, you shall be saved at once! I hope you
are willing to come out of Egypt. If you are, you may do so. Christ has
broken all the power of sin and He is willing, now, to set you free if
you will but trust Him and give yourself up, once and for all, entirely
to His power!
Lastly, Moses did bring the people out, every one of them. He left not
a little babe in Egypt. No, not so much as a sheep or a goat remained
there. He said, "There shall not a hoof be left behind." All that
belonged to Israel went marching out when Moses led the way. And God's
elect and Christ's redeemed shall all come out of the Egypt of sin.
Pharaoh's power–the devil's power–cannot hold the very least of them
in captivity! No, not even a bone of one of God's children shall be
left in the grasp of death and the devil! They shall die and their
bones shall be put into the sepulcher, but not the least atom of one of
God's own chosen ones shall be left in the power of death! They shall
come again from the hand of the enemy.
Yet remember, O you Sinners, that I do not urge you to trust Christ as
though He cringed at your feet and could not have honor and glory if
you did not welcome Him as your Savior! If you will not come to Him. If
you will turn your backs on Him, I shall only say of you, "You believe
not because you are not of His sheep, as He said unto you." It is not
for Christ's sake, but for your own sake that I plead with you! Oh,
that you would come to Him and trust Him! Weary of self, and weary of
sin, and hopeless of self-salvation, come and lay yourselves at Jesus'
feet, even at the feet of Him whom God has "exalted with His right hand
to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and
forgiveness of sins" He has laid help upon One who is mighty! He has
exalted One chosen out of the people! Therefore, come and trust Him
even now, and you shall be saved! May God grant repentance and faith to
this whole congregation for Jesus' sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ACTS 7:14-43.
Verses 14-17. Then sent Joseph, and called his father, Jacob, to him,
and all his kindred, seventy-five souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt,
and died, he, and our fathers, and were carried over into Sychem, and
laid in the sepulcher that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the
sons of Emmor the father of Sychem. But when the time of the promise
drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and
multiplied in Egypt Note those words, "the time of the promise," and
remember that every promise has its due time of fulfillment and that
there is a time of promise to all the Lord's chosen people, when He
will surely bring them out of bondage into the glorious liberty of the
children of God.
18-20. Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt
subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they
cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. In which
time Moses was born, and was exceedingly fair, and nourished up in his
father's house three months. In the darkest night of Israel's bondage
in
Egypt, her star of hope arose–"Moses was born and was exceedingly
fair," or, as the margin has it, "was fair to God"–with a beauty
something more than human.
21, 22, And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and
nourished him for her own son. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom
of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. He was well
qualified for the work to which God had called him, but how much more
fully qualified is that great Prophet, like unto Moses, whom God has
raised up, in these latter days, for the salvation of men, even Jesus
Christ, His Son! He knows more than all the learning and wisdom of the
Egyptians! He knows more than the cleverness of the devil, so He can
deliver us from all his crafty wiles.
23-25. 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
Alas, it is just the same with Israel now! The Lord Jesus came to His
own and, according to one of His parables, the Father said of Him,
"They will reverence My Son." But they did nothing of the kind! They
said, "This is the Heir. Come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance
shall be ours." And, alas, how many, nowadays, are imitating their evil
example! They say, "We will not have this Man to reign over us!" They
refuse to yield themselves to the Sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ.
26-30. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and
would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, you are brethren; why
do you wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust
him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Will you
kill me, as you did the Egyptian yesterday! Then fled Moses at this
saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian where he begat two
sons. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the
wilderness of Mount Sinai, an Angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a
bush. So that he was 80 years of age when he began his great lifework!
Perhaps, as a rule, the larger part of our time is occupied in getting
ready to work. Yet, if we are able to perform a work as good as that
which Moses did, it will well repay us for a long season of
preparation.
31-34. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near
to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God
of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and dared not look. Then said the Lord
to him, Take off your shoes from your feet: for the place where you
stand is holy ground. I have seen, I have seen the affliction of My
people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come
down to deliver them. All this must have been very pleasant to the ears
of Moses. It was solemn, yet it was exceedingly sweet. But notice what
comes next.
34. And now, come, I will send you into Egypt Oh, dear! What a
falling-of there seems to be in these words! God first says, "I have
heard their groaning and am come down to deliver them." And then He
adds, "I will send you into Egypt." Yes, truly, from the grandeur of
the Divine working down to the insignificance of our instrumentality is
a tremendous stoop! Yet the God who says, "I will save sinners by My
Grace; none but Myself can save them," also says to me, "Go and preach
the Gospel to them." The same Lord who says, "I will change the heart
of stone into a heart of flesh and work a miracle of mercy in renewing
those who are dead in trespasses and sins," also says to you, "Speak to
the persons sitting with you in the pew and seek to point them to the
Savior." It is an amazing stoop, but it is the condescension of
Almighty Grace and it brings great honor to the poor, trembling,
unworthy person to whom the message is addressed! Moses thought himself
very unfit for the task of delivering Israel and he would, if he had
dared to do so, have refrained from that task. But God said to him,
"Now come, I will send you into Egypt." Ah, Brothers, how different a
man did Moses then become! When he went out by himself, without any
commission, he was impatient to get to his work and he slew an
Egyptian–and so had to flee the country. But when he was sent in God's
name, when the Lord said to him, "Now come, I will send you," then the
work was accomplished! O my Brothers and Sisters, in your service for
the Savior, always seek for power from on high! Ask to be sent of God
and pray your Master to go with you–then will you succeed in the task
which He entrusts to you.
35. This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a
judge? The same did Godsend to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand
of the Angel which appeared to him in the bush. Is not that a shadow of
that grander Truth of God, "The Stone which the builders rejected, the
same is become the Head of the corner"?
36, 37. He brought them out after that he had showed wonders and signs
in the land ofEgypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty
years. This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, A
Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren,
like unto me; Him shall you hear Now you see that Moses was thus a type
of Christ. God grant that we may not reject Christ, as the Israelites
rejected Moses, but may we be willing that He should be to us our Judge
and our Deliverer!
38, 39. This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with
the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who
received the living oracles to give unto us: to whom our fathers would
not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back
again into Egypt Though Moses had brought them out of Egypt, they were
not obedient to him and they wanted to go back to the land of bondage.
And, ah, Brothers and Sisters, this is the great crime of the present
day–the crime of mankind in general–that, after all Jesus has done,
there is still within so many, the evil heart of unbeliefn departing
from the living God!
40, 41. Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for
this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we not what is
become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered
sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
This again is another of the ways by which men attempt to make an idol
god out of something which they can see and to rejoice in what they,
themselves, do, instead of trusting in what the Lord Jesus has done.
42, 43. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of
heaven; as it is written in the book of the Prophets, O you house of
Israel, have you offered to Me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space
of forty years in the wilderness? Yes, you took up the tabernacle of
Moloch, and the star of your God, Remphan, figures which you made to
worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. There was still
idolatry in their hearts and Moses was rejected by them. God grant that
we may not be idolaters and so reject the Prophet like unto Moses, whom
the Lord has sent unto us! Amen!