Schoolmaster to Christ
EXODUS CHAPTERS 5 & 6
Schoolmaster to Christ
EXODUS CHAPTERS 5 & 6
Scripture Reading: Exodus 5 & 6 (KJV)
The effect of the first appeal to Pharaoh seemed anything 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, his rage increases. Thus it is here. The furnace is about to be quenched by the hand of redeeming love; but, before God does so, it blazes forth with greater fierceness and intensity. The devil does not like to let go of any one in his terrible grasp. He is "a strong man armed," but, blessed be God, there is "a stronger than he."
"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" (Ex. 5:3). Such was Jehovah's message to Pharaoh. He claimed full deliverance for the people, on the ground they were His; and, in order that they might hold a feast to Him in the wilderness. In reference to His people, nothing satisfies God more than their entire emancipation from the yoke of bondage. "Loose him, and let him go" is actually the grand motto in God's gracious dealings with the objects of His eternal love held in bondage by Satan.
When we contemplate Israel amid the brick-kilns of Egypt, we behold a graphic figure of the condition of every child of Adam. There they were, crushed beneath the enemy's galling yoke, and having no power to deliver themselves. The mere thought of the word liberty only caused the oppressor to bind his captives with a stronger fetter, and to lay on them a more grievous burden. Obviously, deliverance would have to come from without. But from where? Where were the resources to pay their ransom? Where was the power to break their chains? Who would take the trouble of delivering them? There seemed no hope; but they only needed to look up, their refuge was in God. He had both the power and the will. He could accomplish redemption both by price and power. In Jehovah and in Him alone, there was salvation for ruined and oppressed Israel.
So 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 4:12). The sinner is in the hands of one who rules him with despotic power; "sold under sin" "led captive by Satan at his will,” bound in the fetters of lust, passion, and temper, "without strength,” "without hope," "without God." Such is the sinner's condition. What can the sinner do? Being the slave of another, everything is done in the capacity of a slave. The sinner’s thoughts, words, and acts, are the thoughts, words, and acts of a slave. The sinner may struggle for freedom; but the very struggle, though it evinces a desire for liberty, is the positive declaration of bondage.
It is not merely a question of the sinner's condition; the very nature of a sinner is radically corrupt – wholly under the power of Satan. Hence, the sinner not only needs a new condition, but also to be endowed with a new nature. The nature and condition go together. If it were possible for the sinner to have a better condition, what would it avail with a nature that was irrecoverably bad? A nobleman might adopt a beggar off the streets; he might endow him with a noble's wealth and set him in a noble's position; but nobility of nature cannot be imparted; and thus the nature of a beggar-man could not 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, desires, affections, and tendencies of the nature.
The Gospel of Christ teaches us that being born again introduces an entirely new condition; that we are no longer viewed in our former state of guilt and condemnation, but in a state of perfect and everlasting justification; that the condition in which God now sees us is not only one of full pardon; but infinite holiness that cannot find as much as a single stain. We are taken out of our former condition of guilt, and placed in a new condition of unspotted righteousness. Not that our old condition is improved; such is not possible. "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. We are born in a certain condition, and until we are "born again" we cannot be in any other. We may try to improve, resolving to be better and turn over a new leaf – to live a different sort of life; but, all the while, we have not moved out of our real condition as a sinner. We may become "religious" as it is called, we may try to pray, we may diligently attend to ordinances, and exhibit an appearance of moral reform; but none of these things can, in the smallest degree, affect our positive condition before God.
The case is precisely similar regarding the question of nature. How can we alter our nature? We may make it undergo a process; may try to subdue it, to place it under discipline; but it is still nature. "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 accomplished? By truly believing, accepting, and trusting 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" (Jn. 1:12, 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. Jesus Himself said, "Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned" (Mk. 16: 15-16; NKJV).1 Such are made partakers of a new nature. They have gotten eternal life. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life" (Jn. 3:36). "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 " (Jn. 5:24). "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (Jn. 17:3). "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 Jn. 5:11, 12).2
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 true believer introduced into a condition of divine righteousness and made partaker of 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; 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 on the cross, under the full weight of His people's transgressions. By doing so, He divinely met all that was, or could be, against us. He magnified the law and made it honorable; and, having done so, became a curse by hanging on the tree and spilling His blood. 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 sinner’s broken heart; 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. On the cross, the Lord Jesus stood in our place. He was our representative. He died, "the just for the unjust." "He was made sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21; 2 Pet. 3:18). He died the sinner's death, was buried, and rose again, having accomplished all. Hence, there is absolutely nothing against the true believer. We are linked with Christ and stand in the same condition of righteousness. "As he is so are we in this world" (1 Jn. 4:17).
This gives peace to the conscience. If we are no longer in a condition of guilt, but in a condition of justification; if God only sees us in Christ and as Christ, then our portion is perfect peace. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1). The blood of the Lamb cancels guilt, blots out heavy debt, giving us a perfectly blank page in the presence of that holiness which "cannot look upon sin."
We find not only peace with God; but we are made children of God, so that we can taste the sweetness of communion with the Father and the Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit. The cross should be viewed in two ways: first, as satisfying God's claims; second, as expressing God's affections. If we look at our sins in connection with the claims of God as a Judge, we find in the cross a perfect settlement of those claims. In other words, as a Judge God has been divinely satisfied – glorified, in the cross. But there is more. God had affections as well as claims; and all those affections are sweetly and touchingly seen in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ; while, at the same time, the sinner is made partaker of a new nature; 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 Pet. 3:18). Thus we are not only brought into a condition, but unto a Person – God Himself. We are endowed with a nature that can delight in Him. We also joy in God, "through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement" (Rom. 5:11).
There is force and beauty 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’ (Lk. 4:18).
The glad tidings of the Gospel announce full deliverance from every yoke of bondage, bestowing peace and liberty on all who believe it, as God has declared it.
And note, it is "that they may hold a feast to me." If they were going to be rid of Pharaoh, they must first 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 Divine presence was to accompany them. If the wilderness was rough and dreary, it was the way to the land of Canaan. The Divine purpose: 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 not disposed to yield obedience to God’s mandate. "Who is the Lord," he said, "that I should obey his voice to let Israel go. I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go" (Ex. 5:2). In these words, Pharaoh expressed his real condition. His condition was one of ignorance and disobedience. Both go together. If God is not known, He cannot be obeyed – obedience is founded on knowledge. When the soul is blessed with the knowledge of God, it finds this knowledge to be life (Jn. 17:3), and life is power – and with power we can act.
But Pharaoh was as ignorant of himself as he was of the Lord. He did not know that he was a sinner, and that he had been raised up for the purpose of making known the glory of the very One whom he said he knew not (Ex. 9:16; Rom. 9:17).
"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 labour therein; and let them not regard vain words" (vv. 3-9).
We have here a development of the secret springs of the human heart – complete in-competency. In Pharaoh's estimation, Divine titles and revelations were "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? He could understand burden-bearing and brick-making; in his judgment these things had an air of reality about them; but as to the service or worship of God, he could only regard it in the light of an idle chimera, devised by those who only wanted an excuse to escape from the stern realities of Egyptian life.
So it is and has always been with the wisdom of this world – writing folly and vanity on Divine testimonies. For example, consider the estimate that the "most noble Feasts" 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 25:19). How little he knew what he was saying. How little he knew what was involved in the question regarding whether "Jesus" was "dead" or "alive." He did not think of the solemn bearing of such a momentous question on himself and friends, Agrippa and Bernice.
So it was in Pharaoh's case. He knew nothing of "the Lord God of the Hebrews" – the great "I AM," and hence he regarded what Moses and Aaron said to him regarding doing sacrifice to God, as "vain words." To the unsanctified mind of man, the things of God seem vain, profitless, and unmeaning. His name may be used as part of the flippant phraseology of a cold and formal religiousness; but He Himself is not known. His precious name has no significance, power, or virtue for an unbeliever. Therefore, God’s words, His counsels, His thoughts, His ways, in short, everything that refers to Him is regarded as "vain words."
However, the time is rapidly approaching when this will no longer be the case. The judgment-seat of Christ, the terrors of the world to come, the surges of the lake of fire, will not be "vain words." It should be the aim of all who truly believe to press them on 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.
Even Christians are often found living in the region of sight, the region of earth, the region of nature, losing the deep, abiding, influential sense of the reality of divine and heavenly things. We need to live more in the region of faith, the region of heaven, the region of the "new creation." We should seek to see things as God sees them; think about them as He thinks. Only then will our whole course and character be more elevated, more disinterested, more thoroughly separated from earth and earthly things.
But the sorest trial of Moses did not arise from Pharaoh's judgment about his mission. The true and wholehearted servant of Christ must expect to be looked on by people of this world as a mere visionary enthusiast. The point of view from which the world contemplates us, leads one to look for this judgement and none other. The more faithful we are to our heavenly Master, the more we walk in His footsteps, the more conformed we are to His image; the more likely we are to be considered by the sons of earth as one "beside himself." Therefore, this should neither disappoint nor discourage us. But then it is a far more painful thing when our service and testimony are misunderstood, unheeded, or rejected by those who are themselves the specific objects thereof. When such is the case, we need to be much with God, much in the secret of His mind, much in the power of communion, to have our spirit sustained in the abiding reality of His path and service. Under such trying circumstances, if we are not fully persuaded of the Divine commission, and conscious of Divine presence, we will surely break down.
Had not Moses been fully persuaded of the Divine commission and conscious of Divine presence, his heart would surely have utterly failed him when the pressure of Pharaoh's power elicited from the children of Israel such desponding and depressing words as these: "The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our Savior 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; and Moses felt it, because ‘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.’
At the very moment when deliverance seemed at hand, things become discouraging, just as the darkest hour of the night is often that which immediately precedes the dawn of morning.
We may question how far genuine faith or a mortified will dictated the "wherefore" and "why" of Moses, in the above Scripture. Still, the Lord does not rebuke a remonstrance arising from 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" (Ex. 6:1) – a reply that breathes peculiar grace. Instead of reproving the petulance that could presume to call in question the unsearchable ways of the great I AM, God seeks instead to relieve the harassed spirit of His servant, by unfolding to him what He is 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. 103:24).
This is full, divine, and everlasting blessedness, because it is not merely in His actions that He causes the heart to find solace, but in Himself – in His very name and character. When the heart finds relief in God Himself; when it retreats into the strong tower His name affords; when it finds in God’s character a perfect answer to all its need, then truly is it raised above the creature, turning away from earth's fair promises. Then and only then, can it place the proper value on man's lofty pretensions. The heart that is endowed with a knowledge of God can look not only on earth and say "all is vanity," but it can also look straight up to God 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 God 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 people from every enemy and evil. It was Israel's privilege to abide under the safe covert of that significant title – a title that displays God acting for His own glory, and taking up His oppressed people in order to show 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 judgements. And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to yon 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 you for an heritage: I am the Lord" (vv. 6-8).
All this speaks of the purest, freest, richest grace. Jehovah presents Himself to the hearts of His people as the One who acts in them, for them, and with them, displaying His own glory. Ruined and helpless as they were, He came down to show His glory, to exhibit His grace, and in their full deliverance to furnish a sample of His power. His glory and their salvation were inseparably connected. They were later reminded of all this, as we shall see in the Book of Deuteronomy.
"The Lord did not set His love upon yon 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 unto 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" (Ex. 7:7, 8).
Nothing is more calculated to assure and establish a doubting, trembling heart than the knowledge that God has taken us, just as we are, in the full intelligence of what we are; and, moreover, that He will never make any fresh discovery to cause alteration in the character and measure of His love. "Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end" (Jn. 13). Whom God loves, He loves to the end. This is an unspeakable comfort. When God manifested His love to us in the gift of His Son, He knew all about us – He knew the very worst of us. He knew what we 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 God’s 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 about what God could do, founded on what He was. Until this great truth is fully understood and accepted, until it enters into the soul, there cannot be spiritually settled peace. The heart can never be happy; the conscience can never be at rest until one knows and believes that all Divine requirements have been divinely answered.
The remainder of this part is taken up with a record of "the heads of their fathers' houses," and is interesting because it shows Jehovah coming in and numbering those belonging to Him, though they were still in possession of the enemy. Israel was God's people, and here He counts up those on whom He had a sovereign claim. Amazing grace – finding an object in those who were in the midst of the degradation of Egyptian bondage. This was worthy of God. The One who made the worlds, surrounded by hosts of unfallen angels always ready to "do his pleasure," should come down for the purpose of taking up a number of bondslaves with whom He connected His name. He came down and stood amid the brick-kilns of Egypt, and there behelded a people groaning beneath the lash of the task-masters, and He uttered those memorable accents, "Let my people go." Then, having so said, He proceeded to count them up, as if 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. 2).
Footnotes:
1For more information on salvation see ‘God’s Salvation’ in Contents section of StudyJesus.com.
2 By understanding Paul’s long sentence in Romans 3:21-26, we understand the Gospel, all of Romans and the Bible. The 1885 English Revised Version changed “the faith of Christ” to "faith in Christ" in Romans 3:22; Galatians 2:16, 2:20, 3:22; Ephesians 3:12; and Philippians 3:9. In his book, "Commentaries on the Old and New Testament," James Burton Coffman concludes that the KJV is a correct translation of all these verses, a fact confirmed by the total agreement of the Emphatic Diaglott in each case. James Macknight, Adam Clarke, as well as other older commentators, also agree with the KJV translation of these verses – "the faith of Christ," like the "faith of Abraham" in Romans 4:16. We asked a full-time minister serving a large church, about whether he believed that to be saved one had to believe in the "faith of Jesus Christ" to which he wrote: "God provides righteousness to those who believe. If through the faith of Jesus – everybody would be saved. "We asked the same question to a university Bible professor, who expressed a view of modern translations held by many today. He wrote: "Both ideas . . . are biblical . . ." However, we also presented the question to an elder of the church, who wrote: "The believer's faith causes him to respond to that perfect justification which is and was brought by Christ in His obedience to God's will of offering His son as the perfect atonement for all mankind (sins). "We concur with the elder and older commentators, as well as Coffman, whose commentary on this verse is a scathing rebuke of many modern-day professors and preachers. Coffman points out that we should stay with the KJV in this verse, because changing it represents the same tampering with the Word of God which resulted in the monstrosity of changing "the righteousness of God" to "a righteousness" (Rom. 3:21 & Rom. 1:17). He writes: "the true Scriptural justification by faith has absolutely no reference to the faith of stinking sinners, but to the faith of the Son of God. The only end served by this change was to bolster the faith only theory of justification." He further writes: "the true grounds of justification cannot ever be in a million years the faith of fallible, sinful people, would appear to be axiomatic. How could it be? The very notion that God could impute justification to an evil man, merely upon the basis of anything that such a foul soul might either believe or do, is a delusion. Justification in any true sense requires that the justified be accounted as righteous and undeserving of any penalty whatever; and no man's faith is sufficient grounds for such an imputation. On the other hand, the faith of Jesus Christ is a legitimate ground of justification, because Christ's faith was perfect." In the absolute sense, only Christ is faithful – "Faithful is he that calleth you" (1 Thess. 5:24). Only He is called "the faithful and true witness" (Rev. 3:14). The faith of Christ was also obedient; a perfect and complete obedience, lacking nothing. Therefore, we conclude that the sinless, holy, obedient faith of the Son of God is the only ground of justification of a human being – Christ only is righteously justified in God's sight. How then are we saved? We are saved "in Christ," having been incorporated into Him – justified as a part of Him. Our study prompts agreement with Coffman's conclusion that faith is not the ground of our justification; it is not the righteousness which makes us righteous before God. The "faith of the Son of God" is the only basis for our justification, and that faith is definitely included in the “righteousness of God” mentioned in this verse. Even the righteousness of God through faith of Jesus Christ shows the principal constituent of God's righteousness. In conclusion, God's righteousness is the righteousness of Jesus Christ – His absolute, intrinsic, unalloyed righteousness – implicit in His perfect faith (mentioned here) and His perfect obedience (implied). The contrary notion that God's righteousness is some imputation accomplished by the sinner's faith is unfounded. Any righteousness that could commend itself to the Father and become the ground of anything truly worthwhile would, by definition, have to be a true and genuine righteousness. That righteousness was provided by the sinless life of the Christ, summarized in this verse as "through faith of Jesus Christ," the idea being much clearer in the KJV, "The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ." We concur with Coffman on this subject, including his final conclusion, ". . . the word believe in this verse refers to sinners' faith (believer's faith) which is no part of God's righteousness at all, but, like baptism, is but a mere condition of salvation – being neither more nor less important than baptism."
