IT is encouraging to find that there are many who have I not grown weary of the study commenced nine months ago. “In all labor there is profit,” and no labor brings richer and more abiding fruit to the toiler than the patient, prayerful study of the Word of God.
Some, perhaps, have been led into other lines of study through the subjects suggested here, and so have ceased to contribute. Some, we know, have long been diligent students of the Word, and for their help whenever it is available, we are always thankful. But if any have discontinued entirely the practice of systematic and regular searching of the Word, we pray earnestly that the Lord Himself will give them grace and purpose of heart to begin again and continue patiently this most important part of a Christian’s exercise. It matters nothing whether the study suggested monthly here be followed, or whether any other line be taken up, so long as Christ is the Object in it all, and the desire be present for the full equipment of the man of God today.
We have to thank several for their kind and encouraging letters, and thank God for blessing the study of His Word to any.
Before starting on the subject for the month, it must be said that after some perplexity as to the most profitable use to make of the necessarily limited space so kindly given us by the Editor, we have decided to go through some portion of the Word consecutively; and, while leaving all free to follow up any line of study that may be suggested by the monthly portion, we shall seek, with the Lord’s help, to give the main line traced out.
Exodus 15—Taking this wonderful song together with the twelfth of Exodus, we find two great principles plainly brought together for the first time—the righteousness of God, and the salvation of God—and along with these we find the two sides of redemption brought out—redemption by blood, and redemption by power.
In the sprinkling of the blood in Egypt, as we have already noticed, God’s righteousness is brought out, sin is judged, and the blood witnesses that God has dealt with sin righteously.
Thus all hindrance is removed, and God is able to reveal Himself in power on behalf of those whose need He has met by the blood.
His own character, having been made good by the sprinkled blood, now requires that He should act in power on behalf of those who have come under its shelter. Thus righteousness and salvation are brought together in the character of God, and the keynote of the song is struck in the second verse, “My strength and song is Jah, He is become my salvation.” God Himself, known to the soul by a new name of triumphant power, is rejoiced in. God is known as He has revealed Himself on the ground of the shed blood. This is far more than a sense of safety. God Himself fills the whole song, and the outcome of the salvation, so wonderfully learned, is unfolded in this, the first song recorded in the Word of God. Only the redeemed can sing, God Himself is the source of their joy, and His goodness and glory the theme of the song. The broad lines opened out in this song will be found running through Scripture in a remarkable way, especially in the Psalms. Three great subjects stand out clearly for the first time here.
I. A Redeemed People (vs. 13).— God has now a people, He has a redemption-right over them, and His counsels in Christ concerning them, and His ways in grace and government with them, form the great subject of Scripture.
The tracing out of the failure of man under responsibility in building this house for God, and the accomplishment of God’s purpose of grace in Christ—the Son who builds the house and the way God’s people are brought to rest in this blessed accomplishment of everything in Christ and by Christ (Psa. 90) is one of the most deeply interesting and instructive lines of truth in the Word of God.
3. The Kingdom (vs. 18).— The redeemed people are not only the objects of God’s grace, so that the goodness of His heart seeks its satisfaction in dwelling with them, they are also the objects of His government and sole authority. The remarkable refrain, “Jehovah shall reign forever and ever,” repeated in Psalms 146:1010The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord. (Psalm 146:10), and Micah 4:77And I will make her that halted a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth, even for ever. (Micah 4:7), introduces the kingdom. This kingdom, its failure in the hands of man, and its final establishment in blessing in Christ, forms a second line running through both the Old and New Testaments.
While the subject of the Church as the body of Christ is only unfolded in the New Testament, the house and the kingdom run on from the Old to the New, and must be carefully traced out from their first unfolding in this song of salvation, right on through the story of God’s ways with Israel, if their meaning in the New Testament is to be understood. But Christ is the only key, in the Old and New Testaments, to a right understanding of these wonderful thoughts of God. Redemption, the dwelling-place of God, the kingdom, are accomplished in and by Him alone. He only can declare rightly the righteousness and salvation of Jehovah, and He is the One, who, in a path of lowly grace, learns by suffering what obedience is, and is able to declare the loving-kindness and faithfulness of Jehovah—faithfulness during the night of failure and ruin, lovingkindness in the morning of joy and established blessing (Psa. 92:22To show forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, (Psalm 92:2)).
It may also be noticed that the keynote of the song in verse 2 is heard again twice:
1. Psalms 118:1414The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation. (Psalm 118:14).— In the day that Jehovah has made, the day of Christ’s power, where His people are made willing, He strikes the keynote.
As to the subject of the “New Song,” mentioned in last month’s issue, we find it mentioned seven times in the Old Testament, and in each passage the principles of redemption underlie the meaning of the “New Song” mentioned.
The six passages in the Psalms clearly go in pairs:
2. Psalms 96:11O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. (Psalm 96:1) and Psalms 98:11<<A Psalm.>> O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. (Psalm 98:1).— cf. 1 Chron. 16:23-3323Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; show forth from day to day his salvation. 24Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations. 25For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods. 26For all the gods of the people are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. 27Glory and honor are in his presence; strength and gladness are in his place. 28Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. 29Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 30Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. 31Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The Lord reigneth. 32Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. 33Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge the earth. (1 Chronicles 16:23‑33). The ark is brought into Jehovah’s Dwelling-place. Heb. 1:66And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him. (Hebrews 1:6) shows that the subject of these psalms is the bringing of the first-begotten into the world, and the progress to His dwelling-place in Zion (Psa. 99). In 98 Jehovah has made known openly His salvation and His righteousness, not as in Psalms 40, but in power.
So in the six passages the three great principles of Exodus 15 seem to give the keynote, while Christ is seen in humiliation and glory as the accomplisher of all that concerns these thoughts of God.
These rough hints may serve as suggestions for further study. May the Lord guide our hearts in subjection to get Christ as the precious portion in all study.
Subject for October: Lessons of Sinai, Exodus 19-34— As already mentioned, students are free to follow out any line of study suggested by the reading of this portion, but the great thing is to seek to learn what is unfolded of God Himself at Sinai.
B. S. ED.
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THAT same Spirit which reveals the Lord, who bore my sins, as having purged them, at the right hand of God, and who therefore gives me perfect assurance of their being put away, and the infiniteness of my acceptance in Him—that same Spirit, I say, judges the sin by virtue of its character, as seen in the light of that very glory; and when this is not done, the Father, into whose hands the Son has committed those whom the Father has given Him to keep, as a Holy Father chastises, and corrects, and purges—as a husbandman the branches.
— J. N. D.