“And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” The redemption and deliverance of Israel out of Egypt is God’s own type, or picture, of the redemption and deliverance of a soul. We propose, then, to trace in the history of their deliverance how completely salvation is of the Lord.
Let us commence with their condition in Egypt. They were slaves of Pharaoh, in bitter bondage. They felt it, and “sighed by reason of the bondage.” (Exod. 2:23, 24.) There was deep, real misery, “and God heard their groaning.” This is God’s starting-point. In a few words we have man’s real condition brought before us. Was it not so with the poor miserable prodigal when he came to himself? Did you ever come to yourself? Have you ever discovered and felt that you are, or were, in the bitter bondage of Satan, the present Pharaoh of this world? Did God ever hear you cry and groan by reason of the bondage?
This is man’s condition, though he does not know it, and will not believe it. He talks of progress and freedom, and is all the while held in the grip of Satan. It may be Satan holds him in pleasant golden chains, or cruel iron ones, or sad and heavy leaden ones. Such is man, conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity; the slave of lust, passion, or fashion, and utterly unable to deliver himself.
“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Eph. 2:2, 3.) Thus are all men in the power and bondage of Satan, just as Israel were under the cruel bondage of Pharaoh.
Now it is generally thought that, if man will give up sin, and deliver himself from the bondage of Satan, then he may hope that God will save him. This is a great mistake. God did not send Moses to tell them, that if they would deliver themselves from Egypt’s bondage He would save them. This was just what they could not do. This was just what God said He would do. “And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows: and I am come down to deliver them.....Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” (Exod. 3:1-10.) Mark well that God thus commended His love to them, that whilst they were slaves to Pharaoh, without power to deliver themselves, God sent Moses to bring them forth out of Egypt. It is just so God hath commended His love to us, in sending His only-begotten Son. “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”
Truly God is love. He loved Israel when they were poor miserable slaves; He heard their groans, He knew their sorrows; He came down to deliver. Did God hear that deep groan of yours? Did you say, “What a fool I am—what a slave of sin and the devil! I am no better; I have sinned again. What will be the end of it? Oh, the power of these evil habits!—the cruel yoke of sin! I cannot give it up, I cannot deliver myself; worse and worse.” “I am come down to deliver,” says the Lord. What a surprise this is to many, to see God intervening in richest grace to save the guilty and the lost. He did not come down to condemn, but to save. God is not thus known. The other gospel, which is not another, sets man trying all his life long to deliver himself. We hope our readers see the difference between God sending Moses to tell Israel to do their best to deliver themselves, and telling them that He was come down to deliver them. Then we trust you will also see the difference between that no-gospel, which is ever telling you to do your best to deliver yourselves from the slavery of sin and Satan, and the true gospel of God, which reveals His righteousness in sending His own Son, through whose precious blood we have eternal redemption.
If you do not know your wretched condition as a miserable slave of Satan, the cruel god of this world, how can you know the amazing kindness of God in sending His Son to deliver? How true it is that “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” What a pitiable sight is a poor blind slave of Satan, dreaming that he is free, and needs no deliverer.
But this paper will be put in the hands of some who know they are helpless slaves, who cannot deliver themselves. And to such it is good news that God has sent His Son to deliver. Now the first effect of the message coming home to the heart and conscience, is to give a loathing of sin and its slavery, and a desire to escape from it, and to worship God. It was just so with Israel. “And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.” Thus it is with a quickened soul. There is faith that God has looked upon our misery, and now there is an earnest desire to escape from the slavery of sin and Satan, and go forth a worshipper of God.
The next step of a quickened soul is to delight in the law of God after the inward man, but not being yet delivered. The way of deliverance is presented by keeping the law. Then commences a dreadful struggle, and often a long one.
We have a most striking illustration of this in chapter 7.
Brick-making without Straw, or, law-keeping without strength (Exod. 5),was to Israel what Rom. 7 is to a quickened soul under law. Look at the poor Hebrews, now that the commandment comes to make the full tale of bricks without straw. Straw, or no straw, bricks must be made. They wander all over Egypt, seeking stubble instead of straw. The taskmasters beat them. Rest there is none. “Go, therefore, now and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.” Was their case any better? Nay, it was worse and worse. The effect was to put a sword in the hands of Pharaoh to slay them. Even Moses said to the Lord, “Wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since 1 came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.” Have you ever been at Pharaoh’s brick-kiln? Ah, you may be there now. Do you say, This is exactly my condition—far more miserable than I was before the commandment came with awful power to my conscience? Sin has revived. Strength or no strength, I feel I ought to keep all the commands of a holy God.
I do not want to do this evil, yet I do it. I want to love God, and fail. Yet still a slave; no rest, no peace, no strength. Like the poor Hebrews, I have run all over Egypt, seeking a little stubble, a little strength to keep the law. I have been to book after book, to preacher after preacher; often I find, instead of a little strength, a taskmaster ready to beat me. “I am carnal, sold under sin.” I am told to work, work, and not to listen to vain words of grace. All this puts a sword into the hand of Satan to slay me. Dear reader, is it so? Are you doing the things you most hate? And then, does Satan rush at you, and say, What, you hypocrite, do you pretend to be a Christian? Look at your works—nay, look at your sins. You are idle! you are idle! And now, if you are really in earnest, you will feel as if eternity depends on your fulfilling the tale of works. Yet you have no straw, no strength, and the works will not hang together.
There is still lust, and lust is sin; and the state of the soul is now terrible. “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Brick-making without straw, or law-keeping without strength, brings no deliverance. “I am carnal, sold under sin.” How terrible this is! and the lesson must be learned. “For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Yes, law-keeping, instead of bringing deliverance, ends in the discovery of the truth—that there is not one bit of good in me, that is, in my flesh. Poor Moses sank in despair, when he said, “Neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.”
And now another striking fact is brought out. When a soul is under the bondage and slavery of sin, and further, under the bondage of law, the very promises of God fail to give relief. See how graciously the Lord reveals Himself as the God of promise. In chapter vi. He says, “I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. 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,” &c. (Read Exod. 6:1-8.) These are precious promises; it is God who thus speaks, “I will take you to me for a people.” But is it not most remarkable that for the present these promises fail to give the least relief? “And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses, for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.” How often this is the case, after utter failure to find peace and rest by works of law, the soul seeks to find deliverance by, as they say, acting faith in the promises! You read the promises. Yes, you say, it is God that speaks; but I get no relief for anguish of spirit and cruel bondage. Of course, the children of this world know nothing of this deep soul exercise; no, they sail smoothly on to everlasting woe, deceiving and being deceived. Is it not strange, though, for a sincere soul to find no deliverance by the promises? There is a distinct sense that there is some great question still unsettled. You try to keep the law, and have no strength: you try to believe the promises, but say, How can they apply to me while still a slave to Satan, led after wealth or pleasure, fashion or sin? Then thoughts of death and judgment give great anguish of spirit. We hear a reader say, “Yes, that is just my experience, but I thought no one passed through what I have.”
Now we come to another class, another step. Having failed to get deliverance by works of law, and by trying to lay hold of the promises, providences are looked to for deliverance. There is great danger at this point. We have met with cases where persons practicing known sin tried to persuade themselves it was all right, because of the earthly temporal providences of God which they enjoyed. Now read Exod. 7 to 11. Did God ever interfere in providence for any people in so remarkable a way as for Israel in the land of Goshen? The most dreadful plagues fell upon their enemies, and they were spared. But did these providences give deliverance to them? Not in the least—not a yard did they escape. At the very end of chapter 11 we read of Pharaoh, “he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.” Something was yet needed; some great question had yet to be settled. The Lord direct both us and our readers to His word, that we may see in our next paper what that something is—what is that question that must be settled—before there can be deliverance and rest to an anxious soul.