Exodus 3:9-229Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. 10Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. 11And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. 13And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? 14And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. 15And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. 16Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt: 17And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. 18And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. 19And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. 20And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and after that he will let you go. 21And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians: and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty: 22But every woman shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. (Exodus 3:9‑22)
I want, beloved friends, this evening, as the Lord may help one, to set before you the exercises, and the instructions along with those exercises, which God brings His servant into in connection with this mission. It was the most wonderful mission that could be conceived, for it was the mission of redemption. God was to be the Accomplisher of the redemption, but He was pleased to make use of Moses as the one who was to carry the tidings of it to the people, and to be His instrument for effectuating it. But whilst that is true, Jehovah always keeps Himself prominent and foremost in connection with it to the people. And that is a striking contrast to what you find in the present moment, for if anything characterizes the present day, it is, as some one has said, an idolatry of instrumentality, making everything of the instrument, and very little of God. Whereas, what you find here is that God has got not so much His instrument, but He has His vessel, and it is God Himself that is prominent. He says, I have seen it, and I have visited you, and I am come down to do it; and, therefore, afterwards, when it had been accomplished, He says, “You have seen what I have done to the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself.” It is all God. But then—and that is a very important thing for us—God works in His grace in the conscience, and affections, and soul of His servant Moses, so as to make him a fitting vessel for the accomplishment of all this wonderful thought and purpose of His heart.
I was calling attention last week to the fourfold revelation in this chapter—first, the revelation of God Himself, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”; secondly, the revelation of His grace, “I have seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt”; thirdly, the revelation of His purpose of deliverance, “I am come down to deliver them”; and fourthly, the revelation of the fact that Moses was to be the deliverer, “Come, now, I will send thee.” And where we begin this evening is, that as soon as ever these intimations fall on Moses’ ears, he says at once, “Who am I?”
Now, beloved friends, God never said a word to Moses about himself. He had heard the revelation of His great name, the revelation of His grace, the revelation of His purpose, and the marvelous revelation that He was about to send him, but not a syllable about Moses himself, directly or indirectly; and the instant this falls upon his ears, he says, “Who am I?”
That was very different from what had taken place before. In the earliest moments of his history, after his birth and marvelous deliverance, when, with all the affection and feeling that his heart had for his own people, the enthusiasm that swelled in his bosom toward his nation, he presents himself to them as their savior, their deliverer; then he asserts himself as the one who will do it by slaying the Egyptian and hiding him in the sand, and trying to reconcile those who were at variance, saying, “Why do ye wrong?” What makes this great difference now? The people, Moses himself, the circumstances, the difficulties were just the same then as now. Why was he so ready to go before, and so slow to go now? God had not said a word about his qualifications for his mission, or his appreciation, or understanding, or experience of it. What is it turns Moses’ eye in, and reads out his incompetency to him at once, and makes him reflect on himself as he does here, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” What was it made the difference? It is a very interesting study, and most practical for our souls. There is one word at the beginning of this chapter that lets a flood of light in on it. It was the position he was in, that made all the difference. I need not ask you where he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand, when he looked upon the burdens of his brethren, and his heart swelled with compassion for them, and he showed himself to them, and allied himself in affection and heart with them. But where was he now? Ah! there is thesecret. There is one word which typifies this position, “Horeb”; he was in the presence of God, he was at the mount of God, he was shut up with God. And that is what makes the difference with us. There is no greater truth than this—that the great interest for us, with regard to our looking at, or dealing with, or apprehension of any subject or our taking in the gravity of anything, depends altogether upon where we are standing as regards it. Two persons will take the most different view that could be conceived of the same thing, simply for this reason, that they are standing at totally different positions with regard to it. The moment Moses gets to Horeb, the mount of God, the greatness of everything comes before him. And it is in proportion as the greatness of God comes before our souls that the sense of the littleness of ourselves is there. It is not that there was any flaw, or imperfection, or poverty in the man; what makes him think of himself is, that he is in the presence of God; and when he thinks of himself, it is to depreciate himself, “Who am I” to do such a thing as this?
That is a very important matter. Here, of course, it was Moses as a servant, and being fitted for his mission; but I have no doubt it is the same in principle now with the way the Lord fits His servants, and sends them out, and the exercises He passes them through. We are not all called to such a mission as Moses was, but we are called to be servants of Christ in some way, and have all some service for Him to do. And you will find we are passed through things of this kind, and what brings us to book as they say, and makes us think little of ourselves, is not our failure, but the perfections of God. When I get into the divine presence, it is really getting into the light. Horeb answers to what we call the light. That is where every Christian is now. If I am not actually in the light, I am not a Christian at all. It is not a question of my comporting myself according to it; but that is where 1 am brought as a Christian, I am set down in this light before God. And when my soul enters into the fact that I really am there, and my soul bears testimony to it, that light makes everything manifest just as it was with Moses. That is the way God works in our souls at the present moment. It is not any deficiency that is in ourselves, it is His own holy presence that challenges everything. It is the light of that presence which detects, and exposes, and brings everything to the front; things that you would never think of or detect at all, come up the moment that light shines upon them.
Now, when Moses judges himself with regard to his incompetency for this wonderful mission—for it was a great thing to go out in the interests of such a wonderful redemption, to bring the people of God out of Egypt—then mark how God meets it. The moment he says, “Who am I?” God meets that with His “I”; “Certainly I will be with thee.” What a wonderful thing that is, and how gracious too! “I,” says God; and that puts out every other “I,” whether in self-judgment or self-complacency, whether in elation or despondency. That is what meets it, “Certainly I will be with thee.” And that is more than ministering strength, or grace, or help. He does not say, “I will support you with the needed assistance,” but He says, “You shall have my presence with you.” It is very like what happened on another occasion, when the people had failed after redemption, and it was a question of their being led through the desert as a failing people. You remember how God pledged to Moses His presence in exactly the same way when the whole failure was rampant and plain there before them. God says, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” “My presence; what a wonderful thing that is! “Certainly I will be with thee.”
You get two things there—“I will send you,” there is the mission; “I will be with you,” there is its endowment. When they send out missionaries now-a-days, they generally provide very considerable human endowment, but God provides the whole thing, “Come, I will send you,” “I will be with you.” And you may rest assured that if God has sent you to do anything, He will be with you. Of course this relates to a servant sent on a special work, but it applies in the moral of it. There is no such thing as God sending a person to do a thing, and not being with the person to do it—it is a falsity. You may find people sent on an errand or mission in this world without the necessary endowment and capabilities to carry it out, but never with God. If He sends me to do anything, or places me in any position, however menial or trifling, there is the pledge and promise of His own presence, “Certainly I will be with thee”; and there is where our competency is.
But there is another thing which brings out God’s grace here. He does not only say, “I will be with you,” but He actually gives him a sign. Now I do think that is great grace, because it was in condescension to the weaknesses of His servant, He says, “Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee”—God gives him a sign whereby his faith might be strengthened in these wonderful communications—“When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt”—there is no contingency, no perhaps, no if, no peradventure; He speaks of it all as an accomplished thing. When you have performed the functions I have sent you to carry out, “you shall serve God in this mount.” I will give you not merely the pledge and promise of My presence, but a sign whereby you may know I have sent you—when you are free from the bondage of Egypt, you shall be My slaves, and shall serve Me on this mount.
Well, any of us would have thought, unless we know our own hearts, that that would have been enough for Moses; but if we know our own hearts, we know right well how slow we are to drop every thought about ourselves, and just simply go on the line with God. So it was with Moses. For now he tries to find another difficulty. It is not now a question of himself, “Who am I?” but now he says, I see a difficulty in the people, “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?” Now I want to call your attention to that. Moses says, I am not only conscious of feebleness in myself, God has graciously met that; but I am conscious of difficulties in the nation, and when I come and announce to them that the God of their fathers hath sent me, they will say, What is His name? There is an immensity in that. Have not our souls entered into the blessedness of the name? Everything is in the name. It was a very natural question for Israel to raise, What is the name of the One who is going to effect this? Because they knew right well what the shackles of Egypt were, and the power of Pharaoh, and the hard bondage of the country, and it could not be a small power that would ease their shoulder from the burden, and their hands from making the pots, which is the way the Psalm speaks of redemption, and set them free from all this slavery and tyranny in Egypt. And therefore Moses asks the question, “What is his name?” A simple question, and a very wonderful and blessed answer, “I am that I am”—a simple unfolding of what God is in His own nature, the great self-existent Jehovah, “I am that I am.” And I need not say that it is very blessed for us now, for Jesus is that very One, the blessedness of whose name I trust we have proved.
And it ought to be a watchword with us, and a familiar word to our souls, that His name is everything. We are gathered to His name {Matt. 18:2020For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)}; our sufficiency, our competency, our power is in His name, our resources are in His name, there is not a single thing that is not bound up and comprehended in that one little word, His name. And mark you, the Lord Himself says so, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I.” Would you not like to be where He is? He does not say, “There I will be”; no, He is stating a great fact, a great abstract reality for faith to lay hold of. The name there, implies everything connected with the person, all that surrounds the person in His own being, everything that comes from Him; you could not have a more comprehensive expression than “my name.”
You remember when the Holy Ghost came down after redemption was finished, as we have it in the Acts (the acts of the apostles so-called, but really the acts of the Holy Ghost), you have there the power of that name. Peter says, “Silver and gold have I none,” none of the world’s resources, neither wealth, nor greatness, nor power, nor ability, nor anything else; but he says, I have got this, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” He knew what was in that name would to God we knew it. Very often, alas! people fall back on what they think some great ability, or wonderful cleverness, but that is not our power at all, though, I am sorry to say, it is very often our weakness. In Christ is where the power is; it is the sufficiency, the competency, the blessedness, the preciousness of that name, so that everything we could conceive of fulness or blessing is centered around and bound up in that one name. You may say I am taking it out of the OT and bringing it into the New; but you see how the moral lines of truth run in that way, though this was in a very different order of things. They will want to know, says Moses, who has sent me; they will ask me, What is His name? what shall I say? And therefore God gives it, “I am that I am; thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you.”
Now let me refer you to the NT, to make it a little more distinct with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know well, that He is that. The Lord Himself alludes to it in John 8, and takes this name when He says to the Jews, “If ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins.” “He” there, is in italics, and really destroys the force and meaning of it. And then these carping Jews say, “Who art thou?” just as Moses says Israel would want to know who God is. Do you take in the blessedness of His reply to that? One does not like to say one word about our beautiful translation, our dear blessed old Bible, but it really does spoil the meaning here, in saying, “Even the same that I said unto you from the beginning.” That does not convey at all the force and strength of the Savior’s words. What He does answer is this, “absolutely what I say”; that is, there was not the smallest divergence, but there was the most full divine accord between His words and Himself. In His words and in His works too, the great “I am” stood before them. And this is the most complete manifestation of “I am.” You could not say, there is a little bit of excess there, and a little bit of defect here; no, there was the most complete accord, the fullest and most perfect divine harmony between what He said and what He was; they were identical. That is very blessed for us, because that is the One whose name, through grace, He has taught us to cherish in our souls as our competency in these last days.
In John 18 it comes out even more strongly. There, when the Lord Jesus Christ is willingly surrendering Himself, and they came out with lanterns and torches, and weapons, to take Him, “Jesus, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said, Whom seek ye?” They said, “Jesus of Nazareth”; and He simply utters this word, “I am” (it is not “he”); and the moment He uttered that word, “they went backward and fell to the ground.” There was a revelation, mark you, in that word, of whom He was as a divine Person; they felt the divine presence unwillingly, perhaps, but still they felt that they were in the presence of One who, although His Godhead glory was veiled in flesh, still was God, that God was there manifest in that lowly Man that was surrendering Himself into their hands, so that the divine presence drives them back and they all fall to the ground; otherwise they could have taken Him at once. But there you get the “I am” again. And so I connect these scriptures in Exodus with the NT, because Jesus is Jehovah.
But there is another thing that is very blessed as setting forth God’s grace. There is not merely the revelation of His own Person as the self-existent One, the great “I am,” the Jehovah, but He adds this: “And God said, moreover,” or besides, apart altogether from telling him the name, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you; this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.”
Now what is the meaning of that? Because God had spoken this before, but now He connects it with the revelation of His own person as the “I am”; this “I am” is the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and this is His name for ever.
I think there are two things in it. First of all, God’s relationship with His own people Israel is an everlasting relationship. I will say a little about it when we look at it from the Christian standpoint. But I feel it is an immense thing to bring out of scripture what is in scripture. I believe there is where our blessing is, whether in reading it, or ministering it. And do not think for a moment that to get blessing from it, it must necessarily concern you. That is a great mistake; that is making yourself too prominent altogether. There is blessing in it whether it concerns you or not. Because “all scripture,” mark, “is given by inspiration of God.” It often seems as if people thought that was a mistake, and that it ought to be “certain parts of scripture,” favorite bits of scripture, but the apostle says, “Every scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect,” or full-grown, “throughly furnished unto every good work.” And though it may not concern me at all, still it concerns Christ and God, and my blessing is there.
Here we are dealing with the manifestation and revelation that God was pleased to give of Himself in these times to Israel, His earthly people; and He says, My relationship with My people is an everlasting relationship, “This is my name for ever, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Now people might say, I can understand God calling Himself the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, but I cannot understand God calling Himself the God of Jacob, of that crooked, perverse, scheming, planning man. Abraham was the father of the faithful, the friend of God, to whom He made known His mind; and Isaac was the heir of promise, type of God’s blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the true seed, Abraham’s seed. But Jacob was a man, as his brother said, rightly called Jacob, “he hath supplanted me these two times; he took away my birthright, and behold now he hath taken away my blessing”; by nature he was what you call a nasty character. Beloved friends, the marvelous grace of God shines out there, that He could connect His blessed name with one like Jacob: Jacob, the fruit of His grace; Jacob, the one whom God dealt with in all the tenderness of His love, and made Himself known to him in solitude, and wretchedness, and loneliness, and never left him till He had fulfilled all His purposes about him. Jacob was the great instance of the sovereign grace of God on the one hand, and the most wonderful instance of the forbearing and kindness of that grace on the other. And therefore, God is not merely God of Abraham and of Isaac, but He is also the God of Jacob.
And in the prophecies of Isaiah, God says, “Fear not, Jacob”—the very name which was indicative of what was unlovely upon the natural side of the character, but brought out all the more upon God’s side the sovereign grace of God.
Some one has said (I do not know whether it is true or not) as an explanation of “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” that it is a representation in figure of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; Abraham, in his dealings with Isaac, being a representation of God giving up His only-begotten Son, and Isaac being a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jacob the great fruit of God’s grace, which, of course, is carried out by the power of the Holy Ghost. Of course there was not that revelation then, God had only revealed Himself in unity then, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” The person of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not brought out at all till you come to Christianity.
But here He is connecting His name with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as the everlasting memorial of the relationship which subsists between God and that people. And that is a comfort for our hearts. Look at Israel, the poor Jewish people scattered and peeled, no one able to tell what has become of the ten tribes, and the whole of the land that God had designed for that people in the possession of the Turk or the Mohammedan, everything all upside down. Yet God is still the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and God will make good to that people everything that was in His own heart and purpose for them, for He has got that people in His own mind for that land and He has got that land for that people. And the peoples of the earth may plot and plan all kinds of things with regard to that narrow little strip of land, which seems to be a great object of ambition to different nations; but God has that land in purpose for that people, and that people for that land, and God will have that land inhabited by that people, and that people in that land. Now that is very blessed. It does not concern us, but it does concern the character of God. And it shows another thing, that when God is pleased to put Himself in relationship with a certain people upon the earth, that relationship, though earthly, is an everlasting relationship of its kind.
And now let us look at Christianity for a moment. When you come to that, you do not find God revealing Himself under the name of the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. I suppose it required a great many men to bring out the revelation of God’s character. Abraham brought out one part of it, Isaac another, and Jacob another. But when we come to Christianity, one person and one name is competent for the full revelation of God, and therefore He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ—and there you get the word Father coming in, which you never got before. These contrasts between what is old and what is new are very blessed. Now it is all standing in one blessed Person, God, in all the fullness of His nature as God, and in all the blessedness of His relationship as Father, revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ.
And I should like to ask you this question, because I think people need it—how is God your Father? Thank God, He is our Father, and we can say, “Abba, Father,” we have got the Spirit of His Son, we have got the adoption of sons, and we can use the language of children; but how is God our Father? Because He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is it. Not by creation—that is the horrid idea that people are trying to spread abroad, and they call it the fatherhood of God in that general way, but it is all false, because it is in reality denying redemption. But the Lord Jesus Christ has brought me to stand in that relationship before His God and Father—that is my status. People may say, “I do not experience it, or enjoy it”; but there is something for you to experience and enjoy.
You remember how the Lord gave the earliest intimations of it in John 20, when He was risen from the dead and the whole work was accomplished. See the contrast with the first garden; in the first garden there was a fallen man and a fallenwoman, and both of them turned out, and the cherubim, the administration of divine justice, and the flaming sword that turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. But in the second garden there is a risen Man, and a redeemed woman, and the unfolding of the most wonderful relationship. He says to her, I am no longer on Jewish terms, and you may not detain Me, “Touch me not, I am not yet ascended to my Father,” but, He says, go to my brethren, and say unto them that I have put them now in My own place, before My Father and God. She gets the communication and the revelation of it. The whole work was done, redemption completely accomplished, the Lord Jesus Christ having gone through everything. We hear much now about a mission, or service. This was the most wonderful mission, or message that was ever communicated for human lips to carry to another, “Go to my brethren”—He never had said “brethren” till now—“and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” There you have the contrast to all this in Exodus, because you never get “Father” here, you get “Jehovah”; but “Father” is the specific and distinct name of God in relationship now with Christians as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The blessedness of the OT is, that it helps us to bring out the NT in contrast, to show the distinctness of the wonderful thing that has come out, now that we have Christianity as a revealed fact, and the great work of redemption finished, so that we can be brought into it. It was revealed before we were brought into it, but redemption now brings us into every single thing that has been revealed.
Now in the close of this third chapter, when God has revealed not only His own self-existent Person to Moses, but His name in connection with this everlasting relationship to His people, He goes into details as He sends Moses. And look what wonderful competency Moses had placed as it were around him to carry this out. Think of all the wonderful things God had heaped upon him. He did not send him empty, or with sparse, scarce means, but fully equipped to carry out the work, “Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt; and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” Now there is a beautiful little touch here; for I believe the reason for God saying that, was not merely the reiteration of His own mind, but because it was the very word His beloved servant Joseph used on his death-bed. He said, “God will surely visit you”; and God takes up that word because He delights to treasure up in His memory as it were words of faith. And so He takes the words that dropped from the lips of Joseph on his dying bed, when his faith looked on to the deliverance that should be accomplished for that people. And you know what a man Joseph had been, what a shelter, and solace, and stay he had been to them; and now he was going to die, and they would feel losing such a one as Joseph. “Behold, I die,” he says, but God lives, and not only lives, but He will surely visit you; and, he says, do not you leave a bone of mine down here in Egypt; I would not have one single part even of my body left in this house of bondage; so convinced am I of this deliverance of God, that before it comes, my bones shall be a testimony to it, for you shall not leave them here. And so in Ex. 1, they brought up the bones of Joseph. And the wonderful power of faith is the same now as then. It reminds me of the father of a family, or the mother of a household; she can close her eyes in death, for her faith is resting in the living God, and she can say, “I am going, but it will be all well with you, you have got God still.” “Behold, I die; but God will visit you.” And so God takes up that word here, distinctly, and reiterates it to Moses—Go to them and say, I have done what the faith of My servant Joseph lived in long before it came out; now it is come out, “I have surely visited you, and seen what is done to you in Egypt, and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto a land flowing with milk and honey.” And then God says to Moses, in order to assure him and certify his heart, “And they shall hearken to thy voice.”
But there is one thing more. God does not keep anything back. He says, “They shall hearken to thy voice”; but He also says, You must know beforehand, distinctly what you will have to incur; you will have a hard time with Pharaoh. But then, says God, “I will stretch out my hand”; and I will accomplish everything. O how blessed all these things are for our souls! It reminds me of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 16. When He was going away, He says to His disciples, I will tell you everything; you will be excommunicated out of decent society, you will not be tolerated, “they shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth God service; and these things will they do unto you because they know not the Father, nor me.” He says, I will not keep it back from you, I will tell you the whole thing now; while I was with you I did not tell you, but now I am going away I will tell you. And God says in Ex. 3, “Pharaoh will not let you go; but I”—there that word comes in again. In John16, the Lord Jesus Christ depicts all the dangers in the way, tells the disciples how they might expect to be received and cast out, and then comes another little word which is the set-off against it all, “But the Comforter”—that is the way it comes in.
Now, very often, when we are thinking of difficulties, and dangers, and trials, we think simply of them, but we do not bring in anything to meet them; God never does that. He says, I will not leave you in doubt as to what you are to encounter, I will spread them all out before you, but “I will stretch out my hand.”
May the Lord, by His grace, fortify our hearts with these grand principles, because they are grand principles, and show, not only how God plans, and purposes, and works Himself for the accomplishment of His purposes, and bears with the slowness of a Moses and of ourselves, but also the wonderful way in which God sustains, and how the grace of His heart goes on until He makes good everything. Well might Balaam say, though it was a compelled prophecy from his lips, “Hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless; and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. God brought them out of Egypt; he hath, as it were, the strength of a unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob”—Jacob again, look; even though he be Jacob, still he is the beloved of God—“neither is there any divination against Israel; according to this time”—after all the wilderness trials and difficulties are over, and Israel proved to be a failing people in them—“according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!”
The Lord, in His grace, give our hearts to take in the wonders of such communications as these, through Jesus Christ our Lord.