Exodus 3
RileyExodus 3:1-22
ISRAEL’S BONDAGE. MOSES AND THE EXODUSExo_1:1 to Exodus 15:21.DR. J. M. Gray’s five rules for Bible reading: “Read the Book”, “Read the Book Continuously”, “Read the Book Repeatedly”, “Read the Book Independently”, “Read the Book Prayerfully”, are all excellent; but the one upon which I would lay emphasis in this study of Exodus is the second of those rules, or, “Read the Book Continuously”. It is doubtful if there is any Book in the Bible which comes so nearly containing an outline, at least, of all revelation, as does the Book of Exodus.
There is scarcely a doctrine in the New Testament, or a truth in the Old, which may not be traced in fair delineation in these forty chapters.God speaks in this Book out of the burning bush. Sin, with its baneful effects, has a prominent place in its pages; and Salvation, for all them that trust in Him, with judgment for their opposers, is a conspicuous doctrine in this Old Testament document.
God, Sin, Salvation, and Judgment—these are great words! The Book that reveals each of them in fair outline is a great Book indeed, and its study will well repay the man of serious mind.Exodus is a Book of bold outlines also! Its author, like a certain school of modern painters, draws his picture quickly and with but few strokes, and yet the product of his work approaches perfection. How much of time and history is put into these three verses:“And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the Children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:5-7).These three verses contain 215 years of time, and all the events that crowded into that period would, if they were recorded, fill volumes without end.
And, while there are instances of delineation in detail in the Book of Exodus, the greater part of the volume is given to the bolder outlines which sweep much history into single sentences.In looking into these fifteen chapters, I have been engaged with the question of such arrangement as would best meet the demands of memory, and thereby make the lesson of this hour a permanent article in our mental furniture. Possibly, to do that, we must seize upon a few of the greater subjects that characterize these chapters, and so phrase them as to provide mental promontories from which to survey the field of our present study.
Surely, The Bondage of Israel, The Rise of Moses, and the Exodus from Egypt, are such fundamentals.THE BONDAGE OF ISRAEL.The bondage of Israel, like her growth, requires but a few sentences for its expression.“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. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pit horn and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the Children of Israel.
And the Egyptians made the Children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour” (Exodus 1:8-22).There are several features in Egypt’s conduct in effecting the bondage of Israel which characterize the conduct of all imperial nations.The bondage began with injustice. Israel was in Egypt by invitation.
When they came, Pharaoh welcomed them, and set apart for their use the fat of the land. The record is,“Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Raamses, as Pharaoh had commanded” (Genesis 47:11).There they flourished until a king arose which knew not Joseph. Then a tax was laid upon them; eventually taskmasters were set over them, and those who came in response to Pharaoh’s invitation, “Come unto me and I will give you the good of the, land of Egypt, and ye shall eat of the fat of the land”, were compelled by his successors to take the place of slaves. It seems as difficult for a nation as it is for an individual to refrain from the abuse of power. A writer says, “Revolution is caused by seeking to substitute expediency for justice,” and that is exactly what the King of Egypt and his confederates attempted in the instance of these Israelites. It would seem that the result of that endeavor ought to be a lesson to the times in which we live, and to the nations entrusted with power.
Injustice toward a supposedly weaker people is one of those offences against God which do not go unpunished, and its very practice always provokes a rebellion which converts a profitable people into powerful enemies.It ought never to be forgotten either that injustice easily leads to oppression. We may suppose the tax at first imposed upon this people was comparatively slight, and honorable Egyptians found for it a satisfactory excuse, hardly expecting that the time would ever come when the Israelites should be regarded “chattel-slaves”.
But “he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much”. It is doubtful if there is any wrong in man’s moral relations which blinds him so quickly and so effectually as the exercise of power against weakness.Joseph Parker, in speaking of the combat between Moses and the Egyptian, says, “Every honorable-minded man is a trustee of social justice and common fair play. We have nothing to do with the petty quarrels that fret society, but we certainly have to do with every controversy—social, imperial, or international—which violates human right and impairs the claims of Divine honor. We must all fight for the right. We feel safer by so much if we know there are amongst us men who will not be silent in the presence of wrong, and will lift up a testimony in the name of righteousness, though there be none to cheer them with one word of encouragement.”It is only a step from enslaving to slaughter. That step was speedily taken, for “Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river” (Exodus 1:22).
Unquestionably there is a two-fold thought in this fact. Primarily this, whom the tyrant cannot control to his profit, he will slay to his pleasure; and then, in its deeper and more spiritual significance, it is Satan’s effort to bring an end to the people of God.
The same serpent that effected the downfall of Adam and Eve whispered into Cain’s ear, “Murder Abel”; and into the ears of the Patriarchs, “Put Joseph out of the way”; and to Herod, “Throttle all the male children of the land”; and to the Pharisee and Roman soldier, “Crucify Jesus of Nazareth”. It remains for us of more modern times to learn that the slaughter of the weak may be accomplished in other ways than by the knife, the Nile, or the Cross. It was no worse to send a sword against a feeble people, than, for the sake of filthy lucre, to plant among them the accursed saloon. Benjamin Harrison, in a notable address before the Ecumenical Missionary Conference held in the City of New York years ago, said, “The men who, like Paul, have gone to heathen lands with the message, ‘We seek not yours but you,’ have been hindered by those who, coming after, have reversed the message. Rum and other corrupting agencies come in with our boasted civilization, and the feeble races wither before the breath of the white man’s vices.”Egypt sought to take away from Israel the physical life which Egypt feared; but God has forewarned us against a greater enemy when He said, “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. * * Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him”. If in this hour of almost universal disturbance the sword cannot be sheathed, let us praise God that our Congress and Senate have removed the saloon—a slaughter-house from the midst of our soldiers, and our amended Constitution has swept it from the land.THE RISE OF MOSES.I do not know whether you have ever been impressed in studying this Book of Exodus with what is so evidently a Divine ordering of events.
It is when the slaughter is on that we expect the Saviour to come. And that God who sits beside the dying sparrow never overlooks the affliction of His people.
When an edict goes forth against them, then it is that He brings their deliverer to the birth; hence we read, “And there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of the house of Levi, and the woman conceived and bare a son” (Exodus 2:1-2),That is Moses; that is God’s man! It is no chance element that brings him to the kingdom at such a time as this. It is no mere happening that he is bred in Pharaoh’s house, and instructed by Jochebed. It is no accident that he is taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. It is all in perfect consequence of the fact that God is looking upon the Children of Israel, and is having respect unto them.Against Pharaoh’s injustice He sets Moses’ keen sense of right. When Moses sees an Egyptian slay an oppressed Israelite, he cannot withhold his hand.
And, when after forty years in the wilderness he comes back to behold afresh the affliction of his people, he “chooses to suffer with them rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” God never does a better thing for a nation than when He raises up in it such a man. We have heard a great deal of Socrates’ wisdom, but it is not in the science of philosophy alone that that ancient shines; for when Athens was governed by thirty tyrants, who one day summoned him to the Senate House, and ordered him to go with others named to seize Leon, a man of rank and fortune, whose life was to be sacrificed that these rulers might enjoy his estate, the great philosopher flatly refused, saying, “I will not willingly assist in an unjust act.” Thereupon Chericles sharply asked, “Dost thou think, Socrates, to talk in this high tone and not to suffer?” “Far from it,” replied the philosopher, “I expect to suffer a thousand ills, but none so great as to do unjustly.” That day Socrates was a statesman of the very sort that would have saved Athens had his ideas of righteousness obtained.Against Pharaoh’s oppression He sets Moses’ Divine appointment.
There were many times when Moses was tempted to falter, but God’s commission constrained his service. When Moses said, “Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh?” God answered, “Surely I will be with thee”. When Moses feared his own people who would not believe in his commission, God answered, “Thus shalt thou say unto the Children of Israel, I AM hath sent you”. When Moses feared that the Israelites would doubt his Divine appointment, God turned the rod in his hand into a worker of wonders. And, when Moses excused himself on the ground of “no eloquence”, God replied, “Go, and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say”. With any man, a conviction of Divine appointment is a power, but for him who would be a saviour of his fellows, it is an absolute essential.Pastor Stalker, speaking to the subject of a Divine call to the service of soul-winning, said, “Enthusiasm for humanity is a noble passion and sheds a beautiful glow over the first efforts of an unselfish life, but it is hardly stern enough for the uses of the world.
There come hours of despair when men seem hardly worth our devotion. * * Worse still is the sickening consciousness that we have but little to give; perhaps we have mistaken our vocation; it is a world out of joint, but were we born to put it right? This is where a sterner motive is needed than love for men.
Our retreating zeal requires to be rallied by the command of God. It is His work; these souls are His; He has committed them to our care, and at the judgment-seat He will demand an account of them. All Prophets and Apostles who have dealt with men for God have been driven on by this impulse which has recovered them in hours of weakness and enabled them to face the opposition of the world. * * This command came to Moses in the wilderness and drove him into public life in spite of strong resistance; and it bore him through the unparalleled trials of his subsequent career.” How many times he would have surrendered the battle and left his fellows to suffer under Pharaoh’s heels, but for the sound of that voice which Joan of Arc heard, saying to him as it said to her, “Go on! Go on!”Against Pharaoh’s slaughter God set up Moses as a Saviour. History has recorded the salvation of his people to many a man, who, either by his counsels in the time of peace or his valor in the time of war, has brought abiding victory. But where in annals, secular or sacred, can you find a philosopher who had such grave difficulties to deal with as Moses met in lifting his people from chattel slaves to a ruling nation?
And where so many enemies to be fought as Moses faced in his journey from the place of the Pyramids to Pisgah’s Heights?Titus Flaminius freed the Grecians from the bondage with which they had long been oppressed. When the herald proclaimed the Articles of Peace, and the Greeks understood perfectly what Flaminius had accomplished for them, they cried out for joy, “A Saviour! a Saviour!” till the Heavens rang with their acclamations.But Moses was worthy of greater honor because his was a more difficult deed.
I don’t know, but I suppose one reason why Moses’ name is coupled with that of the Lamb in the Oratorio of the Heavens, is because he saved Israel out of a bondage which was a mighty symbol of Satan’s power, and led them by a journey, which is the best type of the pilgrim’s wanderings in this world, and brought them at last to the borders of Canaan, which has always been regarded as representative of “the rest that remaineth for the people of God”.THE EXODUS FROM EGYPTinvolves some items of the deepest interest.The ten plagues prepare for it. The river is turned into blood; frogs literally cover the land; the dust is changed to lice; flies swarm until all the houses are filled; the beasts are smitten with murrain; boils and blains, hail, locusts and darkness do their worst, and the death of the first-born furnishes the climax of Egyptian affliction, and compels the haughty Pharaoh to bow in humility and grief before the will of the Most High God (chaps. 7-12).There is one feature of these plagues that ought never to be forgotten. Without exception, they spake in thunder tones against Egyptian idolatry. The Nile River had long been an object of their adoration. In a long poem dedicated to the Nile, these lines are found: “Oh, Nile, hymns are sung to thee on the harp,Offerings are made to thee: oxen are slain to thee;Great festivals are kept for thee;Fowls are sacrificed to thee.”But when the waters of that river were turned to blood, the Egyptians supposed Typhon, the God of Evil, with whom blood had always been associated, had conquered over their bountiful and beautiful Osiris—the name under which the Nile was worshiped.The second plague was no less a stroke at their hope of a resurrection, for a frog had long symbolized to them the subject of life coming out of death. The soil also they had worshiped, and now to see the dust of it turned suddenly into living pests, was to suffer under the very power from which they had hoped to receive greatest success. The flies that came in clouds were not all of one kind, but their countless myriads, according to the Hebrew word used, included winged pests of every sort, even the scarabaeus, or sacred beetle. Heretofore, it had been to them the emblem of the creative principle; but now God makes it the instrument of destruction instead. When the murrain came upon the beasts, the sacred cow and the sacred ox-Apis were humbled. And ~when the ashes from the furnace smote the skin of the Egyptians, they could not forget that they had often sprinkled ashes toward Heaven, believing that thus to throw the ashes of their sacrifices into the wind would be to avert evil from every part of the land whither they were blown.
Geikie says that the seventh plague brought these devout worshipers of false gods to see “that the waters, the earth and the air, the growth of the fields, the cattle, and even their own persons, all under the care of a host of divinities, were yet in succession smitten by a power against which these protectors were impotent. When the clouds of locusts had devoured the land, there remained another stroke to their idolatry more severe still, and that was to see the Sun, the supreme god of Egypt, veil his face and leave his worshipers in total darkness.
It is no wonder that Pharaoh then called to Moses and said, “Go ye, serve the Lord”; but it is an amazing thing that even yet his greed of gain goads him on to claim their flocks and their herds as an indemnity against the exodus of the people. There remained nothing, therefore, for God to do but lift His hand again, and lo, death succeeded darkness, and Pharaoh himself became the subject of suffering, and the greatest idol of the nation was humbled to the dust, for the king was the supreme object of worship.He is a foolish man who sets himself up to oppose the Almighty God. And that is a foolish people who think to afflict God’s faithful ones without feeling the mighty hand of that Father who never forgets His own.One day I was talking with a woman whose husband formerly followed the habit of gambling. By this means he had amassed considerable wealth, and when she was converted and desired to unite with the church, he employed every power to prevent it, and even denied her the privilege of church attendance. One morning he awoke to find that he was a defeated man; his money had fled in the night, and in the humiliation of his losses, he begged his wife’s pardon for ever having opposed her spirit of devotion. Since that time, though living in comparative poverty, she has been privileged to serve God as she pleased; and, as she said to me, finds in that service a daily joy such as she at one time feared she would never feel again.
God’s plagues are always preparing the way for an exodus on the part of God’s oppressed.The Passover interpreted this exodus. That greatest of all Jewish feasts stands as a memorial of Israel’s flight from Egypt as a symbol of God’s salvation for His own, and as an illustration of the saving power of the Blood of the Lamb.The opponents of the exodus perished.
Our study concludes with Israel’s Song of Deliverance, beginning, “The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation”, and concluding in the words of Miriam, “Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea”. See Exodus 15:1-21. Such will ever be the end of those who oppress God’s people and oppose the Divine will.When one studies the symbolism in all of this, and sees how Israel typifies God’s present-day people, and Moses, their deliverer, Jesus our Saviour, and defeated Pharaoh, the enemy of our souls, destined to be overthrown, he feels like joining in the same song of deliverance, changing the words only so far as to ascribe the greater praise to Him who gave His life a deliverance for all men; and with James Montgomery sing: “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed Great David’s greater SonWho, in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun.He comes to break oppression, To set the captive free,To take away transgression, And rule in equity.“He comes, with succor speedy, To those who suffer wrong;To help the poor and needy, And bid the weak be strong;To give them songs for sighing, Their darkness turn to light,Whose souls, condemned and dying. Were precious in His sight.”