Exodus 3
ABSChapter 3. Christian Pilgrimage As Prefigured in the Book of ExodusThe events that immediately followed the crossing of the Red Sea furnish a beautiful picture of Christian experience, especially in its earlier stages.
Section I: Divine Guidance
Section I—Divine GuidanceExo_13:21-22"By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people" (Exodus 13:21-22). Divine guidance is one of the first experiences of the Christian life. And it is finely expressed in the symbol of the pillar of cloud and fire which led the Hebrews in all their journeyings. Not only did the Divine Presence bring them to and through the sea, but it henceforth became their Guide through all the journey of the wilderness, moving when they moved, and waiting when they rested. So, still: “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14); “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you” (Psalms 32:8) is God’s voice to the pardoned soul. Nor has the Master left us without His own personal confirmation of this precious truth: “When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice” (John 10:4). “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (John 10:14-15). “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (John 14:26). “He will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13).
Section II: Trial
Section II—TrialExo_15:22-24"Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, ‘What are we to drink?’" (Exodus 15:22-24). The next chapter of their new experience is trial. They were led immediately, not into a smiling paradise, but into the dreary wilderness. “For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter” (Exodus 15:22-23). Here we have not only trial, but the failure of all earth’s sources of comfort in trial. Not only is there the desolation of the wilderness, but the very springs which ordinarily refreshed the traveler are to them fountains of bitterness. It is thus with the child of God, even in his early Christian experience. God leads him, not into unmingled joy and circumstances of comfort and ease, but “sometimes through scenes of deepest gloom.” And then, when he turns to his usual sources of comfort and help, even they become a bitter disappointment, and fail to afford their wonted sweetness. Perhaps his business becomes embarrassing, or even his dearest friends misunderstand him and disappoint him and he finds himself really alone in the world, which once had a thousand springs of enjoyment that now are all unable to satisfy. God is again showing him to himself, and making him realize more fully his absolute dependence for everything upon the divine sources of his life. The more entirely we are yielded to God, the less earth can really satisfy us, and the less we see in it.
Section III: Trial Sweetened and Sanctified
Section III—Trial Sweetened and SanctifiedExo_15:25"Then Moses cried out to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. “There the Lord made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them” (Exodus 15:25). The next experience is the sweetening of Marah’s waters by the branch of healing, which Moses found beside the springs of Marah, and cast into the waters until they were sweetened. This is the type, not of the removal of trial, but of the transformation of sorrow into blessing by divine grace and consolation. Moses did not find a new spring, but they drank afterwards of the same waters which at first they found so bitter. So God does not need to alter the circumstances of our life, but to add to them His presence and all-sufficiency, and they become transformed to blessings. Joseph’s prison becomes a place of victory and service; Paul’s dungeon becomes a sanctuary of holy song; and Bunyan’s jail, a palace of vision whence he not only sees, but shows to all future pilgrims the celestial city and the land of Beulah. Moses did not make this tree, or bring it from a great distance, but simply found it growing just beside the bitter spring. The Branch of Healing Beside every spring of sorrow, there already stands the branch of healing, the tree of promise, the Word of Life which will open fountains in the desert, and make songs to break forth in the night. The Lord showed him the tree; so when the Lord opens our eyes, how the promises grow vivid, and become living realities, streams of water, clear as crystal, fountains in the desert and sources of everlasting consolation. Paul sees one of these branches of promise, and lo, his thorn in the flesh becomes, instead of a messenger of Satan, a very angel of blessing. Jacob gets his hand upon the promise, and lo, the place of peril becomes the place of power, and the darkest hour of his life, the very turning point of victory and transformation. And so the myriads about the throne, who have come out of great tribulation, shall forever tell how, Sorrow, touched by God, grows bright With more than rapture’s ray, As darkness shows us worlds of light We never saw by day.
Section IV: Divine Healing in Its Earliest Ordinance and Statute
Section IV—Divine Healing in Its Earliest Ordinance and StatuteExo_15:25-26"There the Lord made a decree and a law for them, and there he tested them. He said, ‘If you listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you" (Exodus 15:25-26). God here undertakes to be the Guardian of His people’s physical health and strength, by His own direct power and continual interposition. The last clause literally should read, “I, the Lord thy God, am healing you,” intimating a continual exercise of His healing love and power. The Covenant It is frivolous and trifling to apply this passage merely to their exemption from the plagues of Egypt. There would have been no meaning in such a promise, for they had no reason to fear that these plagues should come upon them. They had been exempt from them in Egypt, even before they knew God’s covenant fully, and there never had been any intimation that they would be exposed to them. The references were, no doubt, to the diseases which were common to the Egyptians, and which they themselves had seen, and, perhaps, experienced in their Egyptian life. In referring to this subject in Deuteronomy, He again repeats the promise: “The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you” (Exodus 7:15). The most casual reader would naturally apply these words to ordinary sickness, and such diseases as fall in the experiences of life upon the people of the world, and which they themselves had known by personal experience in Egypt. He promises to do this by His own personal and continual power, care and keeping. The faithfulness with which He fulfilled this promise is touchingly shown in the testimony of the Psalmist: “And from among their tribes no one faltered” (Psalms 105:37). He promised this continual deliverance to them by a divine covenant, which He also terms a “decree and a law” (Exodus 15:25). The Conditions And like every covenant, it was connected with certain requirements on their part, especially with their diligent hearkening to His voice, and their prompt obedience to His commands. These are some of the conditions of God’s healing presence with His people. It is only as we abide in Him, hearkening to His voice and quickly responding, that we can avoid the causes of physical suffering, and maintain the unbroken communication of His life in our physical being. These words, “decree and law,” place the promise of divine healing upon a very substantial and enduring basis. And unless we can prove that this ancient ordinance is revoked, it still remains the basis of our trust in His healing life and word. That God should thus early reveal Himself to them as their physical Healer, immediately upon their crossing the Red Sea and entering upon their new life, proves that He expected them to depend upon Him in the fullest sense, as the supply of all their needs, present and future. No doubt the land of Egypt had many human resources for the healing of disease, for we know that they had reached a somewhat high stage in medical as well as other arts and sciences, but none of them were henceforth to be employed by His peculiar people. God alone was to be their Physician and their Life; and all through the Mosaic institutions we find no provisions for natural or medical healing, but the constant recognition of God Himself as the Keeper and Healer of their bodies, and of their physical strength as intimately and inseparably connected with their holiness and obedience. Our Redemption Right Now we know that “these things occurred as examples” (1 Corinthians 10:6) to us, and that they, in all this, were but the types of God’s redeemed people under the new covenant. What right have we to ignore this part of their experience, and yet apply the story of the manna and the rock to our spiritual experience? Surely, the one is intended to be as real and permanent as the other, and the ordinance of healing to have its counterpart in the New Testament as truly as the manna is fulfilled in the Living Bread. Such is indeed the case, for our Lord’s ministry began, just like their experience, in the manifestation of His healing power, and He is still the “same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). He reveals Himself throughout the ages as a Living Presence, who can sustain our entire being from His own life, and who Himself “took up our infirmities… and carried our diseases” (Matthew 8:17) as well as our sins. Why should the gospel be deprived of its mightiest credential before an unbelieving world? Why should the unbelief of the Church put away these ancient promises, and neutralize so large a part of our redemption? Why should not the young disciple receive at the very commencement of his pilgrimage, in implicit faith, the covenant promise: “I am the Lord who heals you” (Exodus 15:26)?
Section V: The Springs and Palms of Elim
Section V—The Springs and Palms of ElimExo_15:27"Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees, and they camped there near the water" (Exodus 15:27). These are types of the times of refreshing and rest that come to the children of God after scenes of trial (Exodus 15:25). “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalms 30:5). There are sweet arbors on the king’s highway, and green oases on the wide desert. There is a land of Beulah, as well as a valley of Baca. And He knows best when to lead us amid its palms and fountains, and when to test our faith and love in the howling wilderness. There are 12 wells, or rather springs, of water for one fountain of Marah. There was a well for every tribe. And so God has for each of us a fountain of comfort and blessing, as well as a cross and a thorn. There is a fresh well for each of the 12 months of the year, and a new palm tree for each of the 70 years of life. The 70 palms signify a yet more abundant and delightful provision for rest and shelter from the heat of trial, and the rich and abundant fruits of divine love and bounty. “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalms 23:2-3).
Section VI: The Manna
Section VI—The MannaExo_16:1-5, Exodus 16:14, Exodus 16:25They must next be fed and taught whence their provision comes in their wilderness journey. Their Murmuring First, therefore, they were made to feel their need, and to understand that the wilderness affords no natural supply for that need. So God has to teach us that earth can no longer fill the soul, and that our spiritual nourishment must wholly come to us from Him. As usual, the result in their case is failure; failure that becomes the occasion for God’s richer grace. Met by Mercy They murmur because they have no bread, and their carnal hearts turn back again to Egypt. But their murmuring is met by God’s mercy, and becomes the occasion for the commencement of the supply of manna which henceforth meets their daily wants through all the desert journey for 40 years. Travelers tell us of a substance that bears this name, and somewhat resembles the miraculous manna of Exodus, which is still found in small quantities in certain portions of the desert, but confined to special locations, and almost always found under the tamarisk tree. It is not necessary to show that no mere natural substance could have supplied in sufficient quantities the wants of three million people; and besides, the regularity of its fall, the systematic interruption of it on the Sabbath and the fact that it was confined to no certain locality, but followed them all through their desert march, are sufficient to show that it was a wholly supernatural provision. The Living Bread It is a type of God’s spiritual provision for His people’s deeper need in their Christian pilgrimage. Our Lord unfolds the mystery of this living bread in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, and teaches us that He is Himself His people’s life. The manna was a very simple form of bread, not ministering to the stronger appetites of the body, but simply satisfying and completely supplying all its needs. So the grace of God comes to us in great simplicity, not ministering to the self-life, but supplying all our real spiritual needs, and containing the substance of everything which our entire being requires for its nourishment and growth. The manna needed to be daily renewed. We cannot live on former experiences, but must abide in continual fellowship in the source of our life. The manna fell on the morning dew. And so the Holy Spirit must bring to us the fresh supplies each moment of Christ’s sustaining life and grace. When the hearts of the people grew carnal, they became weary of the manna; and so the world has no taste for Christ, and the worldly minded Christian takes no delight in His communion and His Word. The manna was in no sense a natural growth, and the worldly minded Christian cannot appreciate it. It came from heaven, and God is likewise ever teaching His children that their spiritual life cannot feed on the things of earth, but must be supplied from Himself. The reason why multitudes of Christians are so famished and feeble is because they are trying to live upon the husks or the fruits of the world. They are longing for the flesh pots of Egypt or the quails of lust and are weary of the simple bread of God. They feed on men’s philosophies, the protoplasms of materialism, the sentimentality of naturalism, the prurience of the playhouse, the sensationalism of the novel, the filthy hash of the newspaper or the husks of the market and stock exchange, instead of the pure, sweet, sustaining Word of God.
Section VII: The Living Water From the Stricken Rock
Section VII—The Living Water From the Stricken RockExo_17:1-7This is the type of God’s provision for our spiritual refreshing through the indwelling and continual influence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit The manna represents Christ as the source of our life; the water, the Holy Spirit. They came to Rephidim, which signifies rest, and there, no doubt, they expected rest and refreshing. But nature has still no supply for the spiritual life. The old sources of our strength will ever fail us, until we learn to draw it alone from God. The wells of Rephidim are dry, and a great cry of bitter disappointment and anger goes up against Moses and against God. But again the resources of grace are sufficient, and murmuring is met once more by mercy. The rock is stricken by the rod of the Lawgiver, and from its riven bosom a living well pours its overflowing tide, until the people and cattle drink to repletion, and the stream flows on, it would appear, through all their desert pathway. For the Psalmist declares that it ran in the desert like a river; and the apostle tells us that “[They] drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4; see also Psalms 78:15). Our Savior has given us the sweetest commentary on this passage in His words to the woman of Samaria; “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10). “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). “‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:37-39). The water of Horeb, therefore, is a type of the Holy Spirit; and the rock of Horeb, of Christ, from whose stricken bosom the Spirit has come forth, since the day of Pentecost, to satisfy the thirst of sinful and suffering men. Horeb and Kadesh It is important to contrast this scene with the later incident at Kadesh, recorded in the book of Numbers, where Moses struck the rock again, but in so doing displeased God, who had commanded him only to speak to it, and the water would come forth. It was struck once, and henceforth open forever. And so, the death of Christ cannot be repeated. Once for all, His sacrifice was sufficient and complete, and all the resources of grace are now at the command of the penitent and believing soul, and the word of simplest trust. The rock is struck; the Spirit is given; heaven is opened; “Whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:17).
Section VIII: The Conflict with Amalek at Rephidim
Section VIII—The Conflict with Amalek at RephidimExo_17:8-16Hitherto Israel has had no battles to fight, and has met with no adversaries since the destruction of the Egyptian host. All their trials have come from the wilderness and from themselves. So, often for a while in our early Christian life, we are exempt from severe conflicts. But now their first battle must come to teach them the secret of victory. “The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim” (Exodus 17:8). This battle is the type of Christian warfare in one of its aspects: “The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:16), implies that the conflict is not ended yet. The Flesh Amalek was the type of the flesh. He was descended from Esau; and Esau represented the carnal nature. The apostle explains this in Galatians 5:17 : “For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.” A Fight of Faith But it is not to be a battle in their own strength. He who leads the battle in the plain below, Joshua, is himself the type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the secret of even his victory is the uplifted hands of Moses on the mount above. These uplifted hands tell not only of prayer, and continual prayer, but of the prayer of victory and faith. The uplifted hands are not merely raised in intercession, but also in triumph holding up the name of Jehovah as the banner and afterward signalizing the victory by the name of Jehovah Nissi, “the Lord is my Banner” (Exodus 17:15). So we say, “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4). The only secret of triumph in the conflict with the flesh is, “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Galatians 5:16). And the only song which we shall ever sing on this battlefield as a song of triumph is, “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). The Hand On the Throne The marginal reading of the 16th verse of Exodus is: “Because a hand was against the throne of the Lord.” This expresses the attitude of faith, grasping the very throne of power and authority, and triumphing in the strength of God. What a comfort in our spiritual conflict it is to know that it is the Lord that will have war with Amalek, and not the poor weak heart of man; and also to remember the decree of extermination which we may claim: “I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” (Exodus 17:14). We may so triumph over the flesh in abiding union with the Lord, that we shall reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin, and treat the life of self as something that is all buried in the oblivion of our Savior’s grave.
Section Ix: Order and Government
Section Ix—Order and GovernmentExo_18:5,Exodus 18:13-26The 18th chapter of Exodus gives us an account of the visit of Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, and the results of his counsel to Moses, which led to the organization of the eldership, and a systematic plan for the oversight and government of the people. This also has its spiritual significance in our Christian life and in the history of the Church; teaching us the necessity not only of a true spiritual experience and a life of interior communion with God, but of a proper and systematic adjustment of our external life, the necessity of order and government in the Church of Christ and proper habits in the regulation of our religious life and work. God has, therefore, given to us the institution of the family, of the Church, and of civil government, and the various spheres and ministries of social and business life and Christian work. They all involve their several responsibilities and obligations to which we cannot be indifferent any more than to the claims of our more spiritual relations to God Himself. A Picture of Grace What a beautiful picture these chapters present of the life of God’s ancient people, following the leadership of His personal presence in helpless dependence, as a flock would follow a shepherd through the wilderness or the little child would follow its mother’s lead as she guided it through the unknown pathway. How fatherly and tender the divine love and care! How gentle and forbearing the attitude of God! And how impatient and imperfect, often, the spirit of His petulant and murmuring children. Every word of impatience on their part, every impetuous fear, every outcry of disappointment and dread is met by some new expression of His infinite patience, forbearance, gentleness and boundless grace. A Startling Change But suddenly all this is changed. In a moment they are called to meet Him in an aspect so different that at first they are overwhelmed with awe, and beg to be permitted to fly from His presence. This leads us to the next chapter.