Before God would judge Egypt and separate His people from it, it must have the testimony of His blessing through Joseph and have opportunity to accept or reject His goodness, for it is despised or neglected blessing that matures sin. As the Lord Jesus says of His testimony for God in the world, “If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father.” That is, they had despised the riches of love and goodness. In Egypt another king arose “which knew not Joseph.” The goodness of God, toward her by Joseph, Egypt had forgotten. Thus her sin was full, and she was ripe for judgment. Without the previous ministry of Joseph, therefore, the fullness of her sin could not have come, as now the world is convinced of sin because they did not believe in Jesus. This makes Egypt a sample of the world.
The Exodus of Separation
The exodus is the separation of the people of God from the world. Israel was to go out of Egypt in order to serve or hold a feast to the Lord (Ex. 5:1; 3:18; 8:1,20; 9:1,13; 10:3,91And 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. (Exodus 5:1)
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. (Exodus 3:18)
1And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. (Exodus 8:1)
20And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; lo, he cometh forth to the water; and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. (Exodus 8:20)
1Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. (Exodus 9:1)
13And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. (Exodus 9:13)
3And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me. (Exodus 10:3)
9And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. (Exodus 10:9)), for they could not serve Him or do sacrifice to Him in the land of their bondage and before that people (ch. 8:25-27). Their religious service was of such a character that Egypt would not tolerate it. It was something that so entirely went across all the thoughts of that people that they would persecute and destroy them if they were the witnesses of it. They must therefore go forth.
What a character does this simple fact give Egypt or the world! God had no sanctuary there. The thoughts and ways of that land were so opposed to Him that He could not set His name among them. His people must go forth before they could open His temple or raise His altar, because the very things which Israel would, as it were, sacrifice or crucify, Egypt would worship (ch. 8:26). Israel must therefore be separated from Egypt before they could hold their feast to the Lord.
And so it was afterward. There was a fence all around the Holy Land, a wall of partition that separated Israel in Canaan from the nations. No stranger could eat the Passover; no uncircumcised one could hold the feast of the Lord. And so it is still. We must worship “in spirit and in truth.” No man can call on God aright but by the Spirit which gives adoption, nor call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Spirit. It is still on the principle of separation that God is to be served or worshipped, as much as when Israel had to go into the wilderness, out of Egypt, to do so, or to distinguish themselves from all the nations by circumcision to do so.
The Separated Place:
the Sanctuary of God
The wall of partition now is different, it is true; the place outside the land is not a mere desert, it is true. But the place of service is as distinct as ever it was. “Ye must be born again.” “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” “To whom coming, as unto a living stone. . . . Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.” Here is the desert, the separated place, the sanctuary of God, within the partition wall. The Holy Spirit raises it now. Union with Christ forms it, and within that place the abominations of the world are sacrificed now, as the abominations of Egypt were sacrificed in the desert of old. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life are to be crucified there, though they are all of the world.
And what was the full feast which Israel held to the Lord when they got out into the desert? Why, it was actually furnished to them by Egypt herself. As soon as they stood on the banks of the Red Sea, they began to hold their feast. They did not wait to reach the mountain (Ex. 3:1212And 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. (Exodus 3:12)). It is quite true, they did afterward serve, or do sacrifice to God, under that mountain (Ex. 19:40; Lev. 19). But Egypt herself gave them a song before they reached the appointed place. Egypt was bold enough to resist them so far as to follow them into the very jaws of the Red Sea. Her enmity was full, but all this ended in giving Israel a song of triumph over Egypt (Ex. 15). Before they reached the place to which they had been called, this joy was theirs. And so with us, beloved. Satan has exercised his will, but Jesus, by death and resurrection, has overthrown him. If Satan had not drawn out his chariots and his horses, all the strength and power of his kingdom, to the hill of Calvary, the song which the resurrection puts into our mouths would not have been ours. But it is ours now, and he can never silence it. It has been raised by himself, and he can never silence it, and we too carry the echo of it in our hearts all through the place, till we reach the mountain of the Lord. In this sense Egypt gave Israel that song; in this sense the god of this world gives our hearts this song, for the eater himself yields meat — the strong man himself, sweetness.
What livingly and practically separates us day by day from the world is communion with Jesus. Faith, or the Spirit, or the new nature, is the first great exodus — our first going into the wilderness, out of Egypt, to hold our feast to the Lord — our act of separation from the world, but the place of separation can be maintained daily only by communion with Jesus, through the same Spirit who first drew us out.
J. G. Bellett, Christian Truth, 6:159