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The Spiritual Exodus

Then opened He their mind, that they might understand
the Scriptures. Luke xxiv. 45.

BY
Theodore F. Wright, Ph. D.

BOSTON :
MASSACHUSETTS NEW-CHURCH UNION
16 Arlington Street
1905

Copyright igos
By Theodore F. Wright

Wm. B. Libbv, Printkr
l6 ARLINGTON ST. BOSTON

CONTENTS.

Trinities ......

PAGE I

The Trinity of Bible Lands .

3

Egypt . . ....

4

Assyria ......

7

Israel 

10

Illustrations of this Order

13

Isaiah xix., 23—25 ....

17

Egyptian Oppression, i., 1-14

20

Murderous Plots, i., 15-22

28

Birth of Moses, ii., i, 2

36

Moses Saved, ii., 3-10 ....

38

The Man Moses, ii., ii-i^sl .

46

Flight to Midian, ii., 14b

51

The Shepherd, ii., 15-25

54

Called of God, iii. ....

62

Signs of the Call, iv., 1-9 . . . .

71

Moses' Lack of Words, iv., 10-12

75

Aaron's Part, iv., 13-17 . . . .

79

From Midian to Egypt, iv. 18-31

82

Demand and Refusal, v., 1-3

90

CONTENTS.

Burdens Increased, v., 4-19 .
Despair of Israel, v., 20-23
God's Promise Renewed, vi., 1-13
His Chosen Men, vi., 14-30
Divine Persistence, vii., 1-7
Warning Rejected, vii., 8-13
Nature of the Plagues, vii., 14
Water made Blood, vii., 15-25
The Frogs, viii., i— 15
The Lice, viii., 16-19
The Flies, viii., 20-32
The ^lurrain, ix., 1-7
The Boils, ix., 8-12
The Hail, ix., 13-35
The Locusts, x., 1—20
The Darkness, x., 21—29
The Firstborn Slain, xi.
The Passover, xii., 1—28
Pharaoh Submits, xii., 29-33
On the March, xii., 34—51
Sacred Firstborn, xiii., 1-16
Succoth to Etham, xiii., 17-22
Turning Back, xiv,, 1-4
Pursuit by Egypt, xiv., 5-9

CONTEXTS.

Taught to Trust, xiv., 10-18
Egypt Engulfed, xiv., 19-31
Song of Triumph, xv., i— 21
At Marah, xv., 22-26
Rest at Elim, xv., 27
Fed with !Manna, xvi.
Massah and Meribah, xvii., 1-7
War in Rephidim, xvii., 8-16
Visit of Midianites, xviii.
Before the Mount, xix. .
The Decalogue, xx., 1-17
Law of the Altar, xx., 18-26
Law of Servants, xxi., i-ii .
Law of Retaliation, xxi., 12-36
Other Laws, xxii. .
Justice for All, xxiii., 1-13
Annual Feasts, xxiii., 14—19 .
Promises Renewed, xxiii., 20-33
The Written Covenant, xxiv., 1-8
In the Mount, xxiv., 9-18
Offerings of Israel, xxv., 1-9
Ark and Mercy-Seat, xxv., 10-22
Table for Bread, xxv., 23-30
The Lamp, xxv., 31-40 •

CONTENTS.

Curtains of the Tent, xxvi., 1-14
Boards and Bars, xxvi., 15-30
Veils and Hangings, xxvi., 31-37
Altar for Sacrifices, xxvii., 1-8
Outer Court, xxvii., 9-19
Perpetual Light, xxvii., 20, 21
Priestly Garments, xxviii.
Consecration of Priests, xxix., 1-35
Daily Sacrifices, xxix., 36-46 .
Altar for Incense, xxx., i-io
Law of the Census, xxx., 11-16
The Laver, xxx., 17-21 .
Oil and Incense, xxx., 22-38
Inspired Workmen, xxxi., i-ii
The Sabbath, xxxi., 12-17
Tablets of the Law, xxxi., 18
Apostasy, xxxii., 1-14
Its Punishment, xxxii., 15-35
Moses' Tent Removed, xxxiii., i-ii
Seeing God, xxxiii., 12-23
Epiphany and Covenant, xxxiv., 1—28
The Shining Face, xxxiv., 29-35
The Work of Construction, xxxv-xxxLx.
Tabernacle Erected, xl.

INTRODUCTION.

TRINITIES.

A LEARNED writer has said : " A certain
trinity undeniably runs through all created
life, especially in man — body, soul, spirit ; thought,
feeling, will ; the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis
of self-consciousness."' Kant and Hegel have
carried the trinal processes of thought to their
limits, but no one is so thoughtless as not to have
observed that, at every turn, he begins with a pur
pose or desire, finds a means or forms a plan of
ultimating or gratifying it, and so reaches his end
in an effect in which the first and second stages
of the process are embodied and terminated. Thus
three becomes the number of completeness to
him, and his acts are always third and final steps
of life.
'Dr. Philip SchafE, in History of Christian Church, III., page
678.

THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

Man being so made, the Divine Life from which
he comes must have its threefoldness, as Lowell
says that: "Power, Love, and Wisdom, one in
essence but trine in manifestation, answer the
needs of our triple nature, and satisfy the senses,
the heart, and the mind."'
We have in Christianity the Divine Names of
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and in the Old
Testament we find Jehovah, God, and Lord —
three yet one ; and no controversy could be more
absurd than that between those contending that
God is three and those contending that He is one,
because He is both three and one, that is, three
in one, archetypically as man is three yet one in
soul, body, and operative life. Thus in God, man,
and beast, there is threefoldness ; and so again in
inanimate things we have the substance, the form,
and the use. Thus we may expect to find trinities
everywhere. "Every perfect thing must be a
trine," says Swedenborg.

'Among my Books, 2nd Series, page 118.

THE TRINITY OF BIBLE LANDS.

THE TRINITY OF BIBLE LANDS.
There are many lands mentioned in the Bible
— Canaan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Arabia, Syria, Baby
lonia, Chaldea, Assyria, the islands, and all the
countries through which Paul passed, but for pur
poses of prophecy they are reduced to only three,
Egypt, Assyria, and Palestine or the Land of
Israel, and these three are placed in a remarkable
combination. Note the words in Isa. xix. 23-25 :
" In that day shall there be a highway out of
Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come
into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and
the Egyptians shall serve (R. V. worship) with
the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the
third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in
the midst of the earth. For that the Lord of
Hosts hath blessed them, saying. Blessed be
Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my
hands, and Israel my inheritance."
In this striking collocation Egypt is clearly
placed at the base and Israel at the top, with

THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

Assyria intermediate ; or, taken from above down
wards, they are placed in the order Israel, Assyria,
Egypt. That this is no arbitrary arrangement of
spiritual significance,' but rests upon the very
nature of the lands themselves, may readily be
seen from a brief examination of them, which will
show not only that this is the proper order, but
that each land has relation to human experience
and spiritually forms a step of a truly progressive
life. EGYPT.
Egypt is a level country, mostly placed in a very
narrow line along a single river. This valley of
wonderful productiveness has a climate so mild
and even, that almost no protection is needed
against the weather, and a very moderate amount
of labor falls to the people. With so genial a
cUmate, with a soil yielding almost spontaneously
its winter grains and summer vegetables, with no
dangerous animals roving about, and no enemies
to be. feared, it is not strange that the Egyptian
was and is a round-faced, cheerful being, much

EGYPT. 5
given to sleep, and thinking of heaven as a beau
tiful meadow lying across the river. The Egyptian
life is childlike, peaceful, sensuous. The spirit iri
the hall of judgment gained his happy immortality
by making forty-two affirmations, of which one
was, " I have made no man weep," and it was cer
tainly a country in which grief and fear found
little place.
Thus one may see why its spiritual significance
should be given as that of the early life of man,
when the mind is happily gaining knowledge
through the senses. It is the natural life formed
of the knowledge of natural truths ; ' it is the
stage of bodily enjoyment and development ; its
light is that of this world. ^ It comes first in
human progress, and so Israel must sojourn there
before it can be in Canaan, and the Lord Jesus
must therefore in His infancy be an Egyptian for
a time. When the health is perfect and the body full of
vigor, men may put the athletic life above all else,
'Arcana, 1462. ''Apocalypse^Explained, 654.*

THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

and then the Egyptian type of the Divine, the
young bull, is really their god, and they worship
great muscular power. Again, as they seek to go
onward in development, they feel, as Israel did,
the temptation to return to Egyptian pleasures of
sense — they long for the "flesh-pots." Once
more, they may yield so fully to the engrossing
enjoyments of the merely natural man that Israel,
the higher part, becomes a bondman to the
Egyptian, and is oppressed with such bondage
that only a Divine redemption can lead him forth,
and his Saviour must bring him out of that land,
" out of the land of Egypt and the house of bond
age," and so be his God and give him the precepts
of life, as both forms of the Decalogue say at
their beginning.' Of course the woes denounced
against Egypt by the prophets are said of it in its
oppressiveness and seductiveness ; in other words,
it is the perverted natural man given to disobedi
ence of law and hostility to the higher nature ; it
is Egypt erring in every work as a drunken man
staggereth.''

'Exodus xx. 2; Deuteronomy v. 6. = Isaiah xix. 14.

ASSYRIA.

ASSYRIA.
The name Assyria stands for the double valley
of the Euphrates and Tigris — a land whose shift
ing monarchies gave it at different periods the
names of Chaldea, Assyria, and Babylonia, and
still later it was dominated by the Medes and
the Persians ; but the Bible means by Assyria the
whole region with its two streams, the one rapid
like the Jordan, the other slow like the Nile.
Moreover the Tigris had a border that was moun
tainous, but to the west of the Euphrates lay a
desert, as in Egypt. With the mountains on the
east and the desert on the west, Assyria had a
more varied climate than Egypt, a greater variety
of products, and rains which must be guarded
against by better houses and clothing. It did not
use bricks of mud, but made them of clay more
skilfully. It had a greater variety of animals,
domestic and wild, and the Assyrians were
hunters. They did not revere the Egyptian beetle
crawling contentedly upon the ground in the sun-

THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

shine, but the eagle was their chosen emblem.
They did not worship the bull alone, but they gave
him a man's head, a lion's feet, and eagles' wings.
The Assyrian was more ambitious and was prone
to aggressiveness. The Pharaoh refused to ac
knowledge to Moses the God of Israel and went
his own way, but at Belshazzar's feast men saw
the God of Israel insulted and the cups of the
temple defiled. When Ezekiel was permitted to
see the Assyrian idolatries, men stood in the inner
court of the Lord's house with their backs towards
the temple, and they worshipped the sun between
the porch and the altar consecrated to Jehovah.'
This is the dark side. Apart from the perver
sions into which they afterwards fell, the people
of the double valley were active, intelligent, and
progressive. Standing higher intellectually, they
were to the Egyptians what youth is to childhood.
Not avoiding danger, the Assyrian hunted the
lion ; not content with luxury, the Babylonian was
a conqueror of nations. They represent the ra-

¦ Ezekiel viii. i6.

ASSYRIA.

tional in man,' the intermediate plane between
the natural (Egypt) and the spiritual (Israel). The
rational develops in youth with the asking of
many questions and the raising of many doubts.
This again, like the first love of knowledge, is
important to one's development, but it may be
come a conceit of negation which arrests the
mental growth and makes the infidel. Led on,
however, to the right end it forms the connecting
link between what is lower and what is higher
than itself ; it receives and transmits its blessing ;
and it flourishes with the growth of noble intelli
gence, which is more than mere knowledge because
it sees the reason for law. Such a young man or
woman the Lord does not call a servant, but a
friend, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord
doeth.^ The Egyptian motive is obedience, the
Assyrian motive is intelligence, and so is seen in
the Code of Hammurabi much clear, just reason
ing, and it is known that the necessity of speaking
the truth was a cardinal tenet of Darius and
Artaxerxes. 3
'Arcana, 1462, 2588; Apocalypse Explained, 846. -Juh.n'
XV. 15. ^Journal, American Oriental Socitty, XXI., page 177.

THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

But intelligence is not man's highest motive.
It is wisdom, and thus the next thought is of
ISRAEL.
In that remarkable passage which compares
Israel and Egypt it is said that the former is a
land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of
the rain of heaven, and that the eyes of the Lord
are always upon it.'
In its physical features Palestine has wonderful
variety — the high mountain and the deep valley,
the lake of pure water and the Dead Sea, the
battle plain and the lofty promontory of the
prophet's abode, the seashore and the desert bor
der. Assyria has one side like Egypt, the other
like Palestine, and so is intermediate, but Palestine
in its features transcends both countries. Its cli
mate is complex, for its surface ranges from ten
thousand feet above the sea to thirteen hundred
feet below it. It has mineral wealth. As the
Bible says, it is " a land of wheat and barley and
' Deuteronomy xi. ii, 12.

ISRAEL.

vines and figtrees and pomegranates, a land of
oil-olive and honey ; thou shalt not lack anything
in it."' There are not less than ninety kinds of
birds, fish abound in the Sea of Galilee, there are
all kinds of domestic animals, and as for wild life
the Hebrew has five names for the lion, four for
deer, nine for serpents, and nine for locusts. One
hundred and twenty plants are mentioned in the
Old Testament,'' and Dr. G. E. Post's book on the
"Flora" shows by wood cuts four hundred and
forty specimens.
In all this abundance and fertility of the land
flowing with milk and honey, we see the type of
the truly spiritual life. Wisdom is boundless.
The spiritual has unlimited development. Israel
is the spiritual,' and if any feel that the praising
of the promised land was excessive, they should
remember the description of the Spring in the
Song of Solomon,'' and should think at the same
time of the richest and most beautiful lives known
to men, for they will show what it is to be "an

'Deuteronomy viii. 8,9. '^ Conder's Handbook, page 222.
3 Arcana, 1 1S6, 1462, 2588. •'SoNOii. 11-13.

THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile,"' "a life
without fault before the throne of God."-" This
life is not typified by the bull or the lion, but by
the lamb ; not by the beetle or the eagle, but by
the dove. There is no promise made to Israel
that is not attainable if, living in unselfish love of
the Lord and of the fellowman, one learns not
only to know the laws of life, and then to under
stand them, but also to keep and do them with all
the heart, mind, soul, and strength.
It is here that discipline must be undergone,
and that the soul knows chastening, and it is here
that men may fail when proved and all their wis
dom may fall into the profanation of self-love, till
they are carried captive to Assyria and are told to
fall down before the idols of self-worship. Well
is it then if He who carried captivity captive and
swallowed up death in victory, is sought for His
aid, sp that the oppressed may go free in the
liberty of the sons of God.

' John i. 47. == Revbilation xiv. 5.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THIS ORDER. 13

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THIS ORDER.
It is evident that such being the order of the
life, Israel is "the third in the midst of the earth."
The progress of archaeology, apparently a matter
of chance, illustrates this law. The first of the
three countries to be thoroughly explored has been
Egypt, and that work is nearly done, with the
result that the history of Egypt is minutely
known, and all its significant phenomena are well
understood. After Egypt many expected that
Palestine would engage general attention, but no,
Assyria must come next, and universities and
archaeological societies are turning all their ener
gies upon that remote region, recovering docu
ments, ascertaining history, and making men
intimately acquainted with the life of the double
valley. It will be only when energy and patience
have done their work in Assyria as well as in
Egypt that Palestine, with its two hundred mounds
of old cities, -will be fully explored.
The visitor to that magnificent epitome of uni-

14 THE BOOK OF EXODUS.
versal modern life, the Exposition at Saint Louis,
approached the grounds from the city and made
his way slowly along the avenues, having before
him these three stages of life. First of all came
places of eating and of amusement, and in the
latter class were found scenes and companies
from the Alps, Ireland, Constantinople, Cairo, the
Arctic, American Indians, the Phillipines, besides
shows of wild animals, of battles, and of flood and
fire. All this was sensuous and pertained to the
Egyptian stage of life, to the life of the eye and
the ear.
Passing on, the visitor came upon the field of
great white buildings devoted to Agriculture,
Manufactures, Mining, Electricity, Education, the.
Liberal Arts and the Fine Arts. Here were
grand evidences of mental achievement, of human
invention and skill. The self-indulgent nations
like Turkey had no place here, but all saw the
advance in intellectual ways of Japan, of Germany,
and the United States, closely followed by Great
Britain, France, Italy, Belgium and others. Here
was seen the Assyrian stage of life, where modern

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THIS ORDER. 15
Nebuchadnezzars may walk in palaces and talk of
the might of their power and the honor of their
majesty.' Here is of course the danger of pride
and the denial of the Divine through dependence
only upon intellectual might, and then Nebuchad
nezzars go insane and brutish, until they learn to
fear Him who is able to abase those who walk in
the pride of splendid achievement.^
Of course it is the central aim of this and every
Exposition to include everything that ministers to
bodily welfare — the Egyptian life — but more es
pecially to show intellectual advance — the Assy
rian life. Only to a slight degree, as is true of the
world at large, is there recognition or exhibition
of the spiritual or Israelite life. To be sure, the
Sabbath was observed to some degree by closing
the gates, but the higher interests were only min
istered to at Saint Louis by two small and pri
vately erected buildings, appropriately standing
on the higher ground and so overlooking the rest.
One of these buildings was put up by the Dis-
' Daniel iv. 29, 30. ^ Ibid., verse 37.

1 6 THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

ciples of Christ or Campbellite body as a resting-
place, and no instructive work was done in it ;
but it is interesting to note that this body fias no
creed but the Bible and seeks to restore the
usages of primitive Christianity. President Gar
field was a member of it and did much to make it
favorably known.
Not far from this, standing among trees, was a
building representing a Swedish house — the house
of Emanuel Swedenborg — during the years when
from scientific and philosophical studies he had
been led to Scriptural and spiritual ones. With
its walls of restful green and its roof of red tiling,
this house covered a spacious room where editions
of the authors works might be seen in Latin,
English, French, German, Dutch, Danish, Swed
ish, Russian, Italian, Spanish, and Arabic, and
even Hindoo, and where the visitor's questions
were answered and some literature was given him.
It is not strange that this house sometimes re
ceived six hundred calls in a day and was a centre
of wide influence, which no one can measure.
Here was a manifestation of the distinctly spiri-

ISAIAH, XIX. 23-25. 17
tual, for certainly the Swedenborg House stood
for that and for nothing else, and those who were
present to extend hospitality thought and spoke
from no other than the spiritual point of view
regarding things eternal.
Thus, in a measure, the Exposition represented
the three stages of life — the natural, the rational,
and the spiritual — the three points of view from
which life may be regarded. If many look at life
for the body's sake, if some look at it for the
mind's sake, there are not wholly wanting those
who look at it for the soul's sake and its relation
to the Lord and the Word and Eternity.
ISAIAH XIX. 23-25.
A well-developed life, as the Scripture indi
cates, will have these three planes in order and
strength. " In that day shall there be a highway
out of Egvpt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall
come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria,
and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians."
This means that science will advance and be
utilized by the reason, and that both will serve

THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

God. If one reads as many do in the last clause,
"the Egyptians shall serve Assyria," the mean
ing of science serving reason will be still more
evident. The prophecy continues, with perfect
prescience, " In that day shall Israel be the third
with Egypt and with Assyria," that is, in due
time the spiritual nature will be developed. And
it will be "a blessing in the midst of the land,"
because the spiritual must have the central place
in the life, and then only it opens the lower
planes to inflowing grace and power from on
high. Upon this condition the Lord of hosts is repre
sented as looking with joy and saying, "Blessed
be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my
hands, and Israel mine inheritance." Egypt is,
then, the lower nature, docile and helpful, science
serving the Lord for human good. Assyria will
then be the work of His hands, because reason
and intellectual power will not give way to pride
of self, but will clearly see the work of the Lord
in all that it achieves, and will grow humble as it
grows great. Israel will then be the "inheri-

ISAIAH, XIX. 23-25. 19
tance," the most precious gift of God to man.
There is something nobler than athletics of the
body or of the mind — it is religious communion
with the Lord, liviner with Him and from Him
and for Him, in tl rder which makes every
thing His while everything is one's own to hold
and enjoy forever, still all the time His inheri
tance, bestowed in pure love according to His
wisdom upon the children of God as His stewards.

THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

EGYPTIAN OPPRESSION.
' I ^HE beginning of the Book of Exodus marks
a great change in the affairs of the Israel
ites, and wholly for the worse. A new king had
arisen in Egypt who knew ttot Joseph. This may
CHAPTER I. mean merely that a harsher and
Verses 1-8. , . , ,
more strenuous king had come to
the throne — perhaps Rameses II., whose imper
ious face may still be seen in the museum at
Cairo, and whose reign was remarkable for its
length and ambitious acts ; or, it may mean, as
some suppose, Amosis I., who founded a new
dynasty by expelling the foreign or Hyksos kings
from northern Egypt, and then began to consider
how he might protect himself from invasion or
revolt on his border.
However that was, there was a new king ;
Joseph's great services, as entailing any obliga-

EGYPTIAN OPPRESSION.

tion on Egypt to befriend Israel, were forgotten ;
and Israel was oppressed. This is said to be due
to the rapid growth of Israel. Jacob had come
down with his sons, their wives and children —
some seventy souls. There were probably others,
not of his kindred but servants, as Abraham had
at one time some three hundred and eighteen
fighting men. But the people who formed Jacob's
company were no menace whatever to the great
kingdom of Egypt. Pharaoh had told them to
dwell "in the best of the land," and he had
accepted the blessing of Jacob, whom he regarded
as the venerable father of a noble son ; ' and no
people were happier anywhere than Israel in
Egypt then.
Egypt was thus bearing out its significance as
the natural plane of good life — the childlike
stage of obedience, the sense life subordinate to
the spiritual. That spiritual was represented by
Israel as yet in its incipiency. But the promise
had been made to Abraham, and had been con-

' Genesis xlvii. 6, lo.

EXODUS, I.

tinned to Isaac and Jacob ; and, in the midst of
all the idolatry covering Assyria and Egypt and
Palestine itself, Israel stood for higher things ;
therefore, it should enter into its inheritance and
do the will of the Lord.
Joseph, the last of the patriarchs, clearly typi
fies the Lord Jesus Christ. Rejected by his
brethren because some knowledge of his life-work
had been given him, falsely accused and im
prisoned, yet made at last the saviour of Egypt
and of his own race, and this with no thought by
him of revenge but only of compassion, Joseph
finished his course in triumph, and, having fed
the multitudes and brought great blessings to his
repentant brethren, he renewed the promise and
passed on, even as the Lord said to the eleven,
"Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon
you." If one looks deeply into the spiritual meaning
of Genesis, he will see that in Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, and Joseph, are revealed the stages of the
Lord's redemptive life ; for Abraham represents
the obedient and trustful childhood which was

EGYPTIAN OPPRESSION. 23
called to go forth to its great mission ; Isaac with
his digging of wells and his thoughtfulness stands
for the youthful period of quiet meditation and
acquisition of truth ; and Jacob in his hard life of
struggle and tribulation represents the young
Jesus, no longer showing His wisdom in the tem
ple, but serving as the carpenter of Nazareth, yet
acquiring those qualities of saving power which
were typified by the sons of Jacob ; and then, as
has been said, in Joseph is seen the Redeemer in
His public ministry, despised, tempted, hated, yet
firm in righteousness, and successful at last ia
saving man's life " by a great deliverance."'
With the beginning of Exodus the inspired
story changes its bearing. It does not look on
the Redeemer, but on those who are to be re
deemed. The note is not of triumph, but of de
spair. Israel in Egypt now does not speak of the
promises, but cries out, " How long, O Lord, how
long .' " They -multiply ; the blessing is upon them
from God, but Egypt hates and persecutes them.
' Genesis xiv. 7.

2 4 EXODUS, I.

It was as when the early Christians felt in their
hearts the presence of their risen Lord, even as
Israel treasured the embalmed body of Joseph,
but found their increasing numbers a cause of
scourging and stoning and martyrdom.
Egypt had taken up a new attitude towards
Israel. So is it with all in the progress of life.
In childhood all are Egyptians, happy, careless,
well fed, and the spiritual part of them is not at
strife with the flesh. But with the development
of that higher nature comes the "war in the mem
bers."' They did not think before that they were
not always to remain in Egypt by the flesh-pots,
in pleasure of body and ease of mind, but now the
call of duty is heard. Like a young man who,
given to intellectual labors only and harmless
amusements, must drop his games at his country's
call and gird on the galling harness of a soldier in
the field, or be a hard-working clerk, or perhaps a
handicrafts man, so every true life must sojourn in
Egypt, but it must not remain there, or it will be
the life of a sensualist and a brute.

' Romans vii. 23 ; James iv. i.

EGYPTIAN. OPPRESSION.

Thus Egypt resists the loss of its mastery.
Israel was fruitful, and increased abundantly, and
multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the
land was filled with tliem, is the record. This is
well, this is as it should be, and soon Israel will
say a grateful farewell, and go out to its land of
promise, as Abram had gone out of Egypt in his
da}', "very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold,"'
signifying the gain of a good childhood for the
happiness and usefulness of youth and manhood.
But, no, Egypt refuses. It will hold Israel, it
will dominate it, it will oppress it into servitude.
The flesh resists the spirit. " I delight in the law
of God,' wrote Paul, "afterthe inward man, but
I see another law in my members warring against
the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members. O
wretched man that I am ! " ^
His condition is signified by Israel
Verses g-ll. in Egypt. The king set taskmasters
over them to afflict them with burdens, and they
' Genesis xiii. 2. - Romans vii. 22-24.

2 6 EXODUS, I.

built for PliaraoJi store cities, Pithom and Raamses.
The Israelites had been living in their little hotises
of earth, by the canals of sweet Nile water, and
their many cattle and sheep were their care, but
now they were enrolled in companies, great tasks
of sun-dried bricks made and laid were imposed
on them, and im'perious men with whips in their
hands urged on the work beneath a scorching sun.
They must build store cities for Pharaoh, where
he can lay up food for his army garrisoning his
frontier to keep invaders out and Israel in. This
means that aspirations must yield to lusts, that
men shall give up the promise of eternal life and
labor for the me.at which perisheth, that men shall
say to their restless souls, " Here are much goods
laid up for many years," laying up treasure for
self and not being " rich towards God,"' nor
heaven. If they yield, their life will be building
barns and treasure cities, when they, like the Dis
ciples, should forsake all and follow the Lord.

' Luke xii. 19, 21.

EGYPTIAN OPPRESSION. 27
Yet the Egyptian plan did not
Verse 12. prosper ; tJie more they afflicted them,
the more they multiplied and grezi'. For the Lord
is mindful of His own : " Fear not, little flock, it
is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom."' Then what did Egypt do .' It was more cruel.
It made Israel to serve zvith rigour.
Verses 13, 14. It made life bitter with hard bondage,
ill -mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of ser
vice in the field. It was not satisfied that store
cities be built, other tasks were added. So does
the struggle deepen as temptations by the flesh
assail again and again even to despair. One goes
down like Jonah to the bottoms of the mountains,
the earth with her bars is about him forever, and
out of the belly of hell he cries to God,^ and he
is heard and strengthened, and so there will be
further trial even to that passover which is the
sign of final deliverance from Egypt.

' Luke xii. 32. ^ Jonah ii. 2. 6.

2 8 EXODUS. I.

MURDEROUS PLOTS.
Defeated in the attempt to subdue
Verses 15-17. Israel by burdens imposed, Egypt
resorts to the murder of the male children, leaving
the others to live. This is a most vital matter.
In the providence of the Lord inward promptings,
good and true, are given to men. They grow by
inflowing power from the heavens. The mind
knows its births of feelings and thoughts, the
children of the brain. Generation and regenera
tion correspond. These children will lead men to
cast off the bondage of Egyyt, and therefore the
natural man in all hates them and is set upon
destroying them.
When they see one whose purity incites in them
a wish to be pure, or when a word comes to them
out of Scripture which reminds them of the
promises, or when an unbidden penitent thought
is found in their minds as they wake in the morn
ing, in these and other ways the spiritual children
come to the birth, and they mean real gain if

MURDEROUS PLOTS.

they preserve and nourish them. But they slay
them if they obey the voice of their lower natures.
They indeed cannot strangle the life of the daugh
ters, the good feelings which will come to mind in
spite of all, but they may destroy the sons by re
fusing to think out what is right to be done. For
example, all know how the impulse to confess a
wrong which they have done may arise in spite of
a selfish unwillingness to restore what thev have
unjustly taken, and that impulse no one can pre
vent, but the thoughts as to how one shall carry
out this impulse, what one shall say, and what one
shall do, may be strangled at once, and thus the
development of the spiritual nature may be ar
rested at birth. But again Egyptian hatred did not
Verses 18-21. succeed, and it was said that the
mothers of Israel were so quick of delivery that
no time was given for a murderous act. Even so,
under the Divine mercy, men may have spiritual
health enough to save the children of the mind,
so that they survive, and thrive, and inherit the
promised land of the regenerate life.

30 EXODUS, I.

Herod ordered that the infants of Bethlehem
be slain,' in the hope that the ]\Iessiah would
perish in His mother's arms. So does the old,
the depraved nature seek to destroy the new
before it can assert itself and establish the king
dom of God. But Herod failed, for the vigorous
mother was on her way to Egypt, a good Egypt
now, ready to receive the man-child and ready
again to let Him go His way in due time to the
"land of hills and valleys, drinking water of the
rain of heaven,"^ the larger life of the spirit. So
did the great dragon of the Apocalypse stand
before the woman clothed with the sun to devour
her child as soon as it was born. But this was not
to be, lest Israel, the true church of God, should
die ; and the child was caught up to God that it
might be saved to rule all nations, " and the dragon
persecuted the woman who brought forth the man-
child, and was wroth with the woman, and went to
make war with the remnant of her seed. Here is
the patience and faith of the saints. "^
' M.4TTHEW ii. i6. '^ Deuteronomy xi. ii. ^ Revel.'VTIon
xii. 4. 13' '7-

MURDEROUS PLOTS. 31
Thus, while Egypt aimed at suppression, Israel
still multiplied. No unjust persecution can suc
ceed. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of
the church." Though sorely tried, Israel con
tinued to grow, for its condition t3pified being
persecuted for righteousness' sake, and blessed
are such people, " for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven."' It is said that the people -tnultiplied and
zvaxed very viighty, and that God dealt well with
the midwives, who represent here the gentle
affections for the care and defence of the good
and true impulses from destruction in their
beginnings. One more attempt the enraged
Verse 22 Pharaoah would make. He could
not prevent the birth of the sons, but he could
and did order them to be cast into the river. The
meaning of this is that, by floods of false reason
ing, the natural man in all seeks to prevail. The
inflowing impulses come and cannot be prevented,
but they can be reasoned into death, they can be

' Matthew v. 10.

32 EXODUS. I.

cast into the river. \\'ater has opposite meanings
in Scripture, because a stream like the Nile or
Jordan may be, at one time, a life-giving current
from heavenly mountains, and, at another, a de
structive, turbid torrent.
So, the perverted mind of antiquity is repre
sented in the Scriptures by the flood of Noah ;
and the Red Sea and the river Jordan were hin-
derances to Israel on its march ; but they were
prevailed over, even as it is written, " When the
enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the
Lord shall lift up a standard against him."'
The dragon, when he saw that he could not
devour the man-child at birth, " cast out of his
mouth water as a flood ; "^ but again he was foiled.
So Pharaoh charged all his people, saying. Every
son that is born ye shall cast into the river, or, as
Stephen said in his grand address before he died :
"Another king arose who knew not Joseph, and
he evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out
their young children to the end that they might
not live." ^
'IS-4IAHlix T" ^TJfvft ATTON xii. I ;. 3\QT5 y;; jQ

MURDEROUS PLOTS. 33
Is not this a common experience .'' The impulse
to do right asserts itself ; it is safely born ; but yet
it may not long survive. Reasoning for the sake
of reputation measured by false standards, reason
ing to avoid self-sacrifice, reasoning in favor of
special privileges being necessary to one as an
exceptional person — all these and many others
may drown that impulse to do right, making it as
if it had never been, so that the natural will con
quer the spiritual, the flesh will rule the spirit
after all.
One may think of such a struggle in Peter's
mind, when, on the sad night at Gethsemane, he
sa\y his Master seized and led away. That im
pulse was to follow Him and give Him all possible
aid. The impulse had been born when Peter gave
the promises, " Though all men shall be offended
because of Thee, yet will I never be offended;"'
or the stronger word, "I will lay down my life
for thy sake."= And he had used the sword
against the captors. But soon in the high-priest's

' Matthew xxvi. 33. ^ John xiii. 37.

34

EXODUS. I.

palace, in the cold of the night, with the officers
of the temple about him, he began to fear, and his
purpose relaxed ; and when the time came for
speaking the truth, he uttered three emphatic
falsehoods.' The Egyptians had conquered for
the time, and the sorrows of death compassed
him, the floods of ungodly men made him afraid.^
To take an instance of the opposite character:
The Lord had come to His baptism obeying the
impulse from within. Xo doubt, in the quiet of
Nazareth, there had been temptation to refrain
from public manifestation and to avoid the strug
gle with universal corruption. But He came and
was baptized. The voice from heaven approved
the act. The son, the "beloved Son," was going
on to victory. But then followed the days in the
wilderness, the oft-repeated efforts of evil to
overthrow Him. Like a storm it assailed Him ;
as in a great tempest, "the rain descended, and
the floods came, and the winds blew and beat
upon that house ; but it fell not, for it was

' Luke xxii. 55-60. " Psalm xviii. 4.

MURDEROUS PLOTS. 35
founded upon a rock." ' With answers by the
Word of God He withstood and conquered the
tempters then as always ; not slain by evil's flood;
but saying to it, " Thus far and no farther, here
shall thy proud waves be stayed."^
The first chapter of Exodus ends here with the
full danger threatened by Egypt to Israel. If this
last edict be carried out, all the promises to Israel
must fail, and its history will end like that of a
lost soul. Yet it is not Israel but Egypt that
shall drown, for the Lord found out a way to sur
mount the threatened danger. So, in every life,
its great temptations need not defeat it, and no
powers of the flesh need ever destroy the spirit,
for the Lord has said : " \\'hen thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee ; and
through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee ;
for I am thy Saviour. "s

' Matthew vii. 25. ' Job xxxviii 11. ' Isaiah xliii. 2, 3.

36 EXODUS, It.

BIRTH OF MOSES.
CHAPTER ^he flesh at war with the spirit
"¦ fears its mastery, and seeks to sub
due it to servitude, and then in greater fear en
deavors to destroy right thoughts as soon as they
arise, and, at last, still unsuccessful in its evil
design, it endeavors to overwhelm them with
false reasonings as a flood. But the all-merciful
Lord has still a means of escape, and this way is
here set forth. A man and woman of the tribe of
Verses i, z. Levi had a son given to them, a
goodly child, and he was in danger. Already they
had had a son named Aaron and a daughter named
Miriam before this edict went forth. These chil
dren were safe, but this third child, what could
save its life 1
She hid hiin three months, signifying that for a
time the new intelligence in spiritual things is
not recognized and is therefore unopposed. At
first the seed of regeneration lies so to speak in

BIRTH OF MOSES. 37
the soil of men's hearts and germinates in secret,
" curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the
earth."' A man who has been going wrong, and
who turns and enters upon the new way, is not at
first in inward strife, and he rejoices in a new and
unspeakable peace, as the mother held her infant
in her arms, while no Egyptian knew of him. So
Nicodemus could go to the Saviour by night, and
no danger would be upon him until he spoke out
in the council.- So Samuel's mother kept her son
a while before she placed him in the corrupt
household of Eli.^ For three months it was that
her little one was hid by Jochebed, meaning the
full period of the first growth of the spirit, and
then she could conceal him no longer from those
who sought for his life. But under God she had
formed a plan to save him, if it were possible.

' Psalm cxxxix. 1 5. = John vii. 50. ' i Samuel i. 22.

38 EXODUS, II.

MOSES SAVED.
The mother took some of the tall
Verses 3, 4. papyrus reeds, then common, now no
longer found in the lower Nile, and wove them
into a little boat like a cradle. Boats were so
made in those days. She then took moistened
earth, such as was used in making houses, and
filled the openings of the basket-work. This
done, she gave the outside a coating of pitch or
bitumen so that the smoothed surface would be
water-tight. Thus she took for him an ark of
bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch,
and put the child thei'ein, and she laid it in the
flags by the river s briitk.
No doubt this was done near her home on the
most eastern branch of the Nile, which was then
flowing into the Mediterranean near the city
known as Zoan or Tanis or San. This city be
came important because the Egyptian court was
residing there in order to defend the boundary
from enemies on the East. Therefore the store

MOSES SAVED. 39

cities were builded near the border, and there the
Egyptians and Israelites were dwelling near each
other at this time.
The mother, aided by the daughter, so placed
the little boat with the child in it that it would
certainly be seen by the princess or her maidens
when, as they had often done before, they came
down to bathe in the sacred river for its power to
give blessings. Probably there were days when
this was done as a religious rite, and the mother
knew the time. The plan worked well. The prin-
Verses 5, 6. cess came, and when she saw the ark
a-mong the flags, she setit her -maid to fetch it. And
when she had opened it, she saw tlie cliild , and
behold, the babe wept. And she had compassioji on
him, a7id said. This is one of the Hebrews' cliildren.
This beautiful story brings before the mind the
cloudless sky, the green lands, the gracious river,
and the royal damsel, but the central object in
the scene is the babe in his tiny boat lifting up
hi.s cry for his mother's arms. And in him, hum-
;i!i.\ speaking, lay the whole hope of Israel.

40 EXODUS, II.

It has been seen that the male children were
to be drowned at the command of the Pharaoh,
and that this means the destruction of all right
thoughts of duty by false reasonings, in order to
give the flesh the mastery over the spirit. The
saving of this child means that in every one is
born a dictate of Divine truth which no hostile
influence can annihilate in its early weakness.
That dictate, this child, is the Conscience, which
is given to every one according to his understand
ing. It is the still, small voice of God's good
guidance. It is a priceless gift. George Wash
ington said of it, " Labor to keep alive in your
breast that little spark of celestial fire called
Conscience ; " and the Lord has said, " When the
Spirit of Truth has come, he will guide you unto
all truth,' for he dwelleth with you and shall be
in you."""
The little boy was a Levite. That tribe, after
wards chosen for the priesthood, came from
Jacob's third son, born after Reuben and Simeon.
' John xvi. 13. -John xiv. 17.

MOSES SAVED. 41

In Reuben's name is the word for sight, the
understanding of truth. In Simeon's name is
hearing, the obedience to truth. And in Levi's
name the meaning is conjunction — " My husband
will be joined unto me,"' said Leah, at his birth,
— -the effect of understanding and obedience.
The priests were taken from Levi because their
office was to join the people to God. This child
is a Levite most appropriately, because he rep
resents the law of God as later spoken forth to
him and by him, and in the individual soul he
stands for the law written on the heart, the con
science ordering the life, the indwelling Spirit of
Truth, the Comforter. The boy was placed in
the ark, and this word for a closed receptacle re
minds one of the ark of Noah upon the waters,
typifying the church saved from destructive falsi
ties by a remnant with which a new religious era
might begin. One is reminded also of the ark
or chest in the tabernacle and temple,- containing
the tablets of the law, for they formed the heart

' Genesis xxLx. 34.

EXODUS, If.

of the Jewish religion, and a righteous life has in
its holy of holies, its inmost place of God, its
mercy-seat, the Divine law, respected, cherished,
and obeyed.
A modest and almost vile ark it was which held
this child — Nile reeds and mud and black pitch
— but is it not so with all, that human nature
makes an inglorious abode for the Lord .' When
the Saviour was born, there was no room for Him
in the inn,' and He lay in the manger of a beast !
" He came unto His own and His own received
Him not."^ As the prophet said, " He had no
form nor comeliness, and there was no beauty that
we should desire Him. "3 There was heard in the
low rushes an infant's wail. So has Tennyson
spoken of his faith :
An infant crying in the night,
An infant crying for the light.
And with no language but a cry.4
But by the mercy of God, for the help of all

¦ Luke ii. 7. ^ John i. 11. ^ jsaiah Iiii. 2. '¦In Memoriam,
LIll.

MOSES SAVED. 43

Others, the child was saved, floating upon the very
waters which were to have drowned him. The
princess had compassion. It was thf- gift of
the sacred Nile to her, and she could not refuse
it. A soft light shone in her eyes. She spoke
in pity and love. She saved the child. She
stands for that softer side of the natural mind
without finding which one cannot help another.
Hardness of heart there is, and hatred of religion,
but has one not sought and found a way to help
others when one has spoken of old times and dis
tant homes and little playmates by gentle brooks 1
A rough soldier, profane, lawless, brutal, took out
of his breast one night a little Testament, and
said : " My mother gave me that, I can never part
with it, and now and then I cry over it like a
baby." Egypt had doomed the child, Egypt shall save
it. The harsh king is balked of his will by his
own daughter. Herod would slay the young
Messiah, but Egypt received Him, and He was
safe. When the heart becomes the foster mother

44 EXODUS, II.

of "the holy thing that is born"' in it, "not of
the will of the flesh but of God,"^ the new nature
has a home, and can thrive, and do the work of
salvation, even as this story shows in every stage
of its progress. No wonder the Lord took a little
child in His arms to show men how to receive the
kingdom of God.^ Watching all that happened was
Verses 7-g. the child's sister, and she played her
part well by offering to find a Hebrew woman to
nurse the child. The princess agreed, and the
child's own mother was soon brought. Take this
cJiild, and nurse it for mc, and T zuill give thee
thy zuages, said the princess ; and so it came to
pass that the mother had not only saved her child,
but was to be rewarded for her delighted care of
it. This is right, since Egypt, the lower nature,
must do more than tolerate the higher, the spiri
tual ; she must provide a home for it ; she must
lay her treasures at its feet, so that Israel shall

' Luke i. 35. ^JoHxi. 13. 'Markix. 36.

MOSES SAVED. 45

go up at last with Egyptian "jewels of gold and
silver,"' wherewith to make itself for the Divine
service an ark and altar.
The child grew in the care of its
Verse lo. mother and sister, who represent
those dutiful affections for truth by which the
conscience is fed and nurtured until it has come
to some strength. Then with gratitude Pharaoh's
daughter received him, and he became her son, by
which is meant the lower nature making the
higher its "heir of all things according to the
promise."'' The name Moses was now given as a reminder
that he came from the river. Because I drew him
out of the water. If she gave him an Egyptian
name of a different or the same sound rather than
the Hebrew Mosheh, the meaning was to com
memorate that event. Out of mortal danger he
had been preserved. It is good for every man to
remember the perils out of which the Lord has

' Exodus iii. 22. ^ Hebrews i. z ; Galatians i. 29.

46 EXODUS, If.

delivered him, like Jonah whom the waters had
compassed about, saying : " When my soul fainted
within me, I remembered the Lord ; I will sacrifice
to Thee with the voice of thanksgiving."'

THE MAN MOSES.
Moses, no doubt, as Stephen said, "was learned
in all the wisdom of the Egptians,"^ and no doubt
he had gained skill in writing, and was inteUigent
in history and in such science as Egypt then had.
The Divine law is scientific as well as spiritual,
and no theology can be true which does not rest
on the facts of nature, so that its truth is proved
by indisputable visible evidence. The conscience
needs to strengthen itself in the facts of physical
life, and then it can control the whole nature, for
nothing can call its dictate in question.
So passed forty years, the first
Verses ii, 12. third of Moses life, representing a
full period of preparation to begin in Egypt the
' Jonah ii. 7, 9. "Acts vii. 22.

THE MAN MOSES. 47
work of judgment, that is, to regulate the outer
life by spiritual principles. In those days when
Moses was grown up, he zvent out to his brethren,
a7id looked on their burdens ; and he saw a7i Egyp
tian s-miting a Hebrezv , atid he looked this way
aiid that way, and when he saw that there was no
man, he s-tnote the Egyptian, and hid him in the
sand. As he walked one day on the border of
the desert, he heard the cry of a Hebrew beneath
the lash of an Egyptian taskmaster, and his blood
boiled in his anger. He looked about and saw
no one; with the strength of his passion he
struck down the master and let the servant go
free. This shows the first work of the Divine law in
man, namely, to reverse the mastery, to break
every yoke and to let the oppressed go free. In
Moses' act lies the same meaning as in the Lord's
repeated deliverance of people from the domina
tion of evil spirits and His restoration of the
liberty which had been lost. Moses looked to see
that he was safe and did his deed of retribution

EXODUS, II.

alone, even as the Lord trod the winepress alone
and of the people there was none with Him.'
This smiting of the taskmaster is thus the sign
of the end of the domination of the flesh, and
there regeneration actually begins, when the law
of the members yields to the law of the spirit,
when "the light shines in the prison," and those
who have been put there to be silenced go forth
and speak in the temple the words of life.^ That
is the first step, the breaking of the shackles of
the old slavery to lusts and greeds, the putting
down of the flesh to its own place, as Moses made
a grave for his victim in his own sand, which is
to bury the old man in one's own falsities without
that hope of resurrection which would have been
represented by embalming and an honorable
burial. This is the first step, then there is
Verses 13, 14. a second and a much more difficult
one. It is easy to discriminate in one's self be-

' Isaiah lxiii. 3. ''Acts v. 20.

THE MAN MOSES. 49
tween Egyptian and Israelite, it is much harder
to judge between one Israelite and another. Yet
this is absolutely necessary, or the life can never
be brought into order. Men must not only learn
to put away the domination of the flesh, they
must also learn to distinguish between motives,
emanating from the higher life, yet needing to be
so subordinated that all conflict will be avoided
and the nature may find peace. In heaven the
angelic judgment is not between good and evil,
for that kind of temptation has ceased, but it is
between the good of to-day and the higher good
possible to to-morrow. After Israel should have
left Egypt it must still advance step by step, as
Paul said of himself: "forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forth to those
things which are before, I press toward the mark
for the prize."'
So Moses had a second task. When he went
out the second day, behold, two -men of the Hebrezvs
' Philippians iii. 14.

EXODUS, II.

Stove together ; and he said to him that did the
zurong. Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow f IMoses
had gone forth again like a knight errant to right
wrongs and to succor the innocent. But now he
had come to his limit. He could adjudge between
Egyptian and Israelite. He could not yet adjudge
between two of his own race. Why not .' Be
cause they would not accept him as their judge.
The answer was : Who made tliee a prince and a
judge over us ? Thinkest thou to kill me as thou
killedst the Egyptian ?
The man so speaking may have been the very
one whom Moses had delivered, even as the
creditor, who had been forgiven all his great debt
to the king, went out and found a fellow-servant
who owed him a little debt, and laid hands on
him and took him by the throat, and cast him
into prison until he should pay the debt in full'
So Ananias and Sapphira may have learned to
avoid things sacrificed to idols, but they did not

'Matthew xviii. 28-30.

FLfGHT TO .IIIDIAN.

go on to put away that covetousness which holds
back full payment, not from other men, but from
the Lord.' So Solomon gave Hiram his wages
for work on the temple, but did not see it to be
wrong to give him a part of the inheritance of
Israel.^ At this point the young conscience is
baffled in its work of judgment.
FLIGHT TO MIDIAX.
And Moses was afraid, and said. Surely this
thinz is known. So it was. Pharaoh heard of it,
and he sought to slay Moses, and Moses ^/Zij^/ away
to the desert. Pharaoh sent some to take ]Moses,
and they were searching for him. No princess
could save him now, and flight was his only
resource. His life was again in danger, this time
by his own act. Pharaoh's daughter had prevailed
over her father, now he prevails over her. All is
likely to be as if it had never been. The con
science cannot continue its conquest at once. It

' Acts v. 1,2. ^1 Kings ix. 11.

52 EXODUS, II.

may go too fast. It may be too violent. It does
not give time to gain strength for greater tasks,
but hurries on with zeal. It expects too much.
It must pause, or it will rush headlong to utter
defeat. It will rouse so fearful a storm in the
nature as to destroy it. It is yet too frail a craft
for the raging sea. If we would build an en
during temple we must not daub with untempered
mortar. Regeneration is a long, slow growth.
In his boastful temper Peter opened the way to
Satan's power. " Pride goeth before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall."'
What then for Moses .-' A long service as a
shepherd in Midian. For the Lord there was the
long labor of seclusion, so that He came forth at
length, not called the son of David of Bethlehem,
but the carpenter of Nazareth. For every one,
if he would avoid, after brief triumph over sin, an
utter defeat, there must be patient care of inno
cence, the sheep, in humble ways of service, until
' Proverbs xvi. i8.

FLIGHT TO MIDIAN. 53
yet another forty years has passed, a second and
deeper preparation ; and then in his meekness
and lowliness of heart, after communion with the
Lord, he can go before Pharaoh, conquering and
to conquer.
When Moses shall come back at last he will
not only be accepted as a judge between one
Israelite and another, but when even Aliriam and
Aaron call him in question, he will be found,
" very meek above all men on the face of the
earth."' And so it is that out of seeming defeat
may come a final blessing of power, as Elijah fled
to the wilderness and on to the mount of God,
whence he came with strength renewed ; and as
Jacob came back to Bethel which had been Luz
at the first.'' So the Lord did not go into the
wilderness to be lost to His work, but to come
again to the multitude and be seen as the " Lamb
of God." It was " expedient " that He went
away .3
' Numbers xii. 3. ^Genesis xxviii. 19. ^John xvL 7.

54 EXODUS, II.

THE SHEPHERD.
Moses from being a prince of
Egypt had become a wanderer in
the desert, and then a shepherd of whom it might
be said as Joseph had said to his brethren, "Every
shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians,"'
a barbarian. Yet so it was, for Moses fled from
the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of
Midian. Going out in his pride and strength one
day, he had without inquiry slain an Egyptian
taskmaster ; the next day he had interposed him
self between two" Israelites, and had found rebuff
and exposure ; and so this judge had become a
fugitive from justice. Such sudden reverses are
the result of presumptuous advances. " When
pride cometh, then cometh shame,"" saith the
proverb, and another declares that, " before de
struction the heart of man is haughty, but before
' Genesis xlvi. 34. ^ Proverbs xi. ;:.

THE SHEPHERD. 55
honor is humility."' Yet Moses had done no
conscious wrong ; he only needed much discipline
before he would be ready for his life's work. One
is reminded of Paul who, after his call to be an
apostle from having violent hatred of the new
faith, did not at once enter on the work, but said
of himself, " I went not up to Jerusalem to them
who were apostles before me, but I went into
Arabia, and then after three years I went up to
Jerusalem to see Peter.""
Even with the Lord, after all His preparation
in Nazareth to bind up the broken-hearted and
preach deliverance to the captives, His baptism
and first visit to the multitudes about John were
followed by an immediate withdrawal to the wilder
ness, where He endured temptation forty days,
which time is comparable spiritually to Moses'
forty years of probation in the wilderness of Paran
before he took up his work.
He dwelt in the lajid of Midian, and he sat down
'Proverbs xviii. 12. "Galatians i. 17, 18.

56 EXODUS, II.

by a well. The Midianites were a nomadic people
feeding their flocks over a large district through
which the Israelites were afterwards to pass.
They were kindred, being descended also from
Abraham through his secondary wife Ke'turah ;
and there is reason to believe that Moses found
among them records of the past which now make
tl;ie first chapters of the Bible, and which are
much jiore likely tji^have been preserved in
M idian_than in Egypt .
When Moses rested his weary limbs by the
desert well, he knew not that he was among those
who would care for him, but it was so provided of
God that he had found a home. So Abraham's
servant halted by a well before Rebecca was
found,' and Jacob came to the well at the end of
his long journey, and presently saw Rachel," and
now Moses at this well in Midian found his wife
Zipporah. When the soul is withdrawn from its
chosen work for needed discipline preparing it for
nobler deeds, it rests by the well of the Divine
' Genesis xxiv. 11. "Genesis xxix. 2.

THE SHEPHERD. 57
Word, that source of living water of which the
Lord spake to the woman at the well of Samaria.'
Seeking this well, one is sure to find all that is
needed for the best service and spiritual produc
tiveness. Moses had not long rested by the
Verses i6, 17. well when the daughters of the priest
of Midian came to water their flock, but others
would have thrust them aside to wait until the
last. The women came and drew water, and filled
the troughs to water their fathers flock ; and the
shepherds came and di'ove the-m away ; but Moses
stood up a?id helped the-tn, and watered their flock.
This scene of strife and relief is plain. The
priest's flock was in the care of his daughters.
His line, like Melchizedek's, was apparently draw
ing to its close ; the older religion was failing, and
a new one must take its place. The daughters
were wont to go first to the well, perhaps accus
tomed to have respect shown to their father's
office, but the men with other flocks felt no longer
'John iv. 10.

5 8 EXODUS, If.

such respect, and their shrewd way was to let the
women do the hard work of drawing up the water
and filling the troughs, and then they would drive
them away and water their own sheep, and the
women must submit.
Moses could not endure this. He still hated in
justice. He boldly gave his aid, and so the women
went back earlier and happier. In this is an im
portant truth. In the retirement of a vacation,
or an illness, or an interval of tasks, it is not right
to be idle, but to cultivate the affections for inno
cent things, the fields and flowers, the old asso
ciations, the beauties of art, thus defending the
flock of the priest against those who would wrong
them. The world undervalues these things be
cause it respects only strength and riches, but the
wise xescue them from neglect and minister to
them. Reuel was surprised to see his
Verses i8, ig. flock come home so early, and he
said to his daughters. How is it that ye are co7ne
so soon to-day ? And they said, An Egyptian de
livered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and

THE SHEPHERD.

also lie drew zvater for us and watered the flock.
Dressed as an Egyptian Moses was, but he was
more than that ; he had not told them who he
was, for he was humbling himself to the work
which fell to him, as the Lord did not proclaim
Himself at Nazareth until He came from the
wilderness. Call him that he may eat bread.
Verses 20, 2X. said the aged priest. So did the
home open to ]\Ioses, and the future leader of a
nation found a place with the simple good folk of
the desert. And Moses was coittent to dwell zvith
the 7nan ; and he gave Moses Zipporah his daugh
ter. The good remnant of a passing religion joins
the beginning of the coming one. So ]\Ielchizedek
brought forth bread and wine to Abraham, and is
heard of no more. So for our Lord there were a
Simeon and an Anna to bless Him and then de
part in peace, having seen the salvation long
prayed for in an evil time. Zipporah was named
from the sparrow, the cheerful little bird known
in many lands, and she represents that cheerful
love of service which shows itself in the animation

6o EXODUS, II.

and chipping or twittering note of a little song
bird. And she bare him a son, and he
Verse 22, called liis name Gershom, for he said,
I have been a sojourner in a strange land. In the
fruitfulness of a retired life preparing for a larger
public work, there is a record to be made in grati
tude, a desert child to bring up to strength, in
remembrance of mercies shown in days of sojourn
ere as yet the full inheritance has been gained.
So passed the second forty years
Verse 33. of Moses' life, and all this time the
suffering Israelites groaned under their burdens,
and their cry came up unto God by reason of the
bondage. The patience of the Lord can be ex
plained only by His love, even of the sinner.
Egypt will be borne with as long as is possible,
until it brings upon itself a heavy judgment. At
the same time Israel must slowly learn to dislike
Egypt, or it will return to it after deliverance. It
must cry out again and again, until despair has
ripened its desire to depart. So is it with all men
that no hasty decision against evil is sufficient, but

THE SHEPHERD. 6i

the Struggle must continue until all the love of
evil is uprooted. In their small measure men
must be able to say with the Lord, " The prince
of this world cometh and hath nothing in me,"'
for when the spirit is willing, the flesh may still be
weak." God heard their groaning, and God
Verses 24, 25. remembered His covenant with Abra
ham, with Isaac and with Jacob ; and God looked
upon the children of Israel, and God took knowl
edge of them. The Lord never forgets and never
needs to be reminded, but the mind must bring it
self by prayer to receive His gifts made wisely,
and so He " bears long " with His children until
the promises of the primeval covenant come true,
and He "avenges His own elect who cry day and
night unto Him,"^ as they pray, saying, " How
long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge .¦'"'*

'John xiv. 30. "Matthew xxvi. 41. ^Luke xviii. 11.
"Revelation vi. 10.

62 EXODUS, II f.

CHAPTER III.

CALLED OF GOD.
Leading the flock to the back or
erses 1-3 -western side of the wilderness, ]\Ioses
came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb. There
the long retirement was ended. A shepherd of
the Midianites one hour, the next he was the
chosen man of God. A fiery shrub arrested his
steps : he looked, and behold, the bush burned with
fire, and the bush was not consumed. He said, /
zoill now tur7i aside, atid see this great sight, why
the bush is not burtied. So easy is the transition
of sight from the eye of the flesh to the eye
of the spirit that Abraham and Jacob and the
prophets beheld scenes of heaven, and described
them for the instruction of mankind, not realizing-
the fact that so far they had gone from this world
to the next by putting aside for the time the fleshly
envelope of their spirits. The fire in the bush was
a sign of Divine Love revealing itself to Moses as
all the glorious scenery of heaven reveals it. And
this was granted him because the Lord by His

CALLED OF GOD. 63
angel would reveal His will to Closes. Whenever
angels were seen by men, " the glory of the Lord
shone round about them."'
The angel's voice was heard calling him by
name, and the answer was. Here
Verses 4, 5. a?n I. Humanity is not to be moved
like machinery ; it is to act in freedom for the
Lord. Aloses must turn aside to see, the soul
must turn to God. Draw not nigh hither ; put off
thy shoes from thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground. Alen cannot serve the
Lord irreverently. They must revere their task
as a gift of God. They must stand before it
humbly, and put off their shoes to signify the put
ting away of all defiling thought : " be ye clean
that bear the vessels of the Lord."" Men must
make holy ground of their ways of life ; temples,
and not dens of thieves. Moses standing there
with bowed head and bared feet as before an altar,
represents the soul reverently receiving its task,
saying, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do .' ' ^
"Speak, Lord, Thy servant beareth."-'
' Luke ii. 9. " Isaiah Iii. 11. ^Acts ix. 6. ^ i Samuel iii. 10.

64 EXODUS, III.

Then the angelic voice said from
Verses 6-8. heaven that the God who had led the
fathers would lead the sons, and while Moses hid
his face in awe, he heard gracious words of prom
ise that Israel would go out to a good land and a
large, flowing with milk and honey. This is the
spiritual life, better and larger than the natural
life, and teeming with innocence and peace. The
land was said to be then held by the Canaanites
and other tribes because men must win it against
the rivalry of the old nature in them.
Come now, therefore, and I will
Verses g-ii. setid thee unto Pharaoh, that thou
may est bring forth my people out of Egypt. And
Moses said. Who am I that I should go unto
Pharaoh? The soul may well stand appalled at
the largeness of its task. It feels all inadequate.
There is obviously a good side to this doubt of
one's self As David said to Saul, " Who am I
that I should be son-in-law to the king.'"' as
Isaiah, overwhelmed with awe, exclaimed, "Woe
is me, for I am a man of unclean lips ; " " as the
' I Samuel xviii. i8. "Isaiah vi. 5.

CALLED OF GOD. 65
shrinking Jeremiah said, " Ah, Lord God, behold,
I cannot speak, for I am a child ;" ' as even Peter
cried out, " Depart from me, for I am a sinful
man, O Lord" ;" and as Jonah fled from the pres
ence of the Lord,3 so did Moses shrink. How
often does the young man draw back from the
call of country or church to their service ! How
often does the true-hearted maiden dread the
large duty of wife and mother ! And the Lord
answers always, "Fear not, I will be with thee.'"'
The Lord's answer to ]\Ioses was
Verse 12. that all would be well, and that they
should come to Horeb and receive a sign ; and so
it came out that they came to Horeb a horde of
fugitives, and left it a nation and the church of
God. But Moses persisted that he did
Verse 13. not even know the name of this God
who spoke with him, and so could not tell it to his
brethren. This is true in all senses. The call of

'Jeremiah L 6. "Luke v. 8. ^JoNAHi. 3. •• Isaiah xlviii.
I, 2.

66 EXODUS, II f.

duty does not fully make God known to one.
That must come afterwards as they work together
for good. " Who is He, Lord, that I might be
lieve on Him .-" " said the man who had been blind
till now, and then to his seeing eyes the Lord
could say, "It is He that talketh with thee."
And at once came the word, "Lord, I believe."'
Israel had lost the sense of the
Verses 14, 15. presence of its God, hence degrada
tion and slavery ; it was now to know Him as the
fathers had known Him, hence deliverance and
nobility. And Israel was to know God as the
T am. Thus shalt thou say, I am hath sent m.e
unto you. This phrase, I a-m that I am, may seem
abstract and metaphysical, but it expresses the
practical thought which every one needs who does
his duty in life ; and that thought is that this is
God's world, not Satan's, and that He is in His
world, the source of its life and the ordering
spirit in human affairs. T am — that is the essen
tial life, the Divine Love ; / am that I am — that
' John ix. 36-38.

CALLED OF GOD. 67
is love as revealed in its going forth. Here is the
aspect of Father and Son, the inmost Divine and
the Divine brought forth to view. " I and the
Father are one," said the Lord Jesus to the Jews;
" The Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the
works." '
Obeying God's call, men rise by the temporal to
the eternal ; as good and faithful servants they
inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation
of the world." The Divine reveals to them its
eternal unchangeableness, and they know that
they serve the / a-m forever. As Mrs. Browning
puts it : — I smiled to think God's greatness
Flowed around our incompleteness.
Round our restlessness — His rest.^

Verses 16-18.

Moses must go, must gatJier the
elders of Israel together, and teU
them his great message, and then they must all
conte unto the King of Egypt, and ask for leave to

'John X. 30; xiv. 10. " iL\TTHEW xxv. 21. ^The Duchc=
May.

68 EXODUS, III.

go three days' journey into the zvilderness, to make
an offering unto the God of the Hebrews. It is
to be observed that they would not ask at first
entire liberty, but only for a respite of labor for a
brief three days' religious festival. So gradually
is the spirit to be loosened from the domination of
the flesh. The flesh is, so to speak, deceived. It
is not asked to surrender its will all at once ; it is
only asked to yield a little, only so far as to obey
the voice of God and confess Him. This is the
first step, others will follow ; but this is enough for
the time, to give the Spirit its one day in seven,
its chance to go and bow down before its God.
No request to Egypt could be more
Verse ig. reasonable, but God warned Moses
that it would be refused by a mighty hand, that
Israel would be powerfully prevented from enjoy
ing one breath of liberty. So it is ; the flesh is
unmerciful, a taskmaster of fearful obstinacy.
"Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the
wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and
cruel man."' "Preserve me, O Lord, from the
' Psalm Ixxi. 4.

CALLED OF GOD. 69
violent man, who hath purposed to overthrow my
goings."' And because of this wicked deter-
Verse 20. mination to rule or ruin, the Lord
said that He would stretch out His hand and smite
Egypt. The obstinacy of wickedness brings on
punishments until it is subdued. After that he
will let you go. The sufferings of wickedness are
in consequence of its inability to prevail over
good ; it gnashes its teeth because there is light
and peace in the Lord's house of the wedding."
In the deadly struggle between flesh and spirit,
all the power of the Infinite Redeemer seems to
be needed, so fast is man bound to his sinfulness,
but at last, even when he is in despair, captivity is
led captive, and so death is swallowed up in victory.
The Lord said that He would give
Verses 21, 22. the people favour in the sight of the
Egpytians, that is, the flesh will at last submit to
the will of God; and then it would be that the
people would not go empty, but should ask — not
' Psalm cxl. 4. " Matthew xxii. 13.

7° EXODUS, III.

borrow, but ask — gold and silver and raiment of
Egypt to adorn the sons and daughters of Israel.
Thus would they despoil the Egyptians. The true
life takes something of value from every experi
ence. A sickness teaches patience. A disappoint
ment teaches humility. The necessarily long con
flict with the lower nature gives sympathy for
others and skill to aid them. The sons and daush-
ters of Israel, that is, the qualities of the regener
ate mind, are enriched by the wages of patient
endurance. At last the flesh acknowledges its
debt to the spirit and places itself at its service.
Well is it for one in the stress of the earthly life if
he can receive of the Lord his talent, and make
it gain by faithful though arduous labors ten tal
ents more. Then shall .he go out of his tribulation
forever and enter into the joy of his Lord, dwelling
with Him in His holy mountain.

SIGNS OF THE CALL. 71

SIGNS OF THE CALL.
Moses had been prepared for his great office,
CHAPTER hoth by his training in Egypt and his
'^' discipline in the wilderness, and he
had been called to his task. He would be able to
lead his people along a familiar pathway to the
mount of God. By wonderful ways the child con
demned to be drowned had been preser\'ed and
made ready for this task. The Lord had a great
work for this man to do, and he alone of all men
on earth was qualified to do it. So does God raise
up one soul for one work.
Called from the flaming bush Moses was at first
overwhelmed with the magnitude of his office.
" Who am I .'' " he had asked, and who was the
God who called him he must also know, and his
questions had been answered.
Yet still he hesitates : Behold, they
Verse i. will not believe me, nor hearken to my
voice ; for they will say, the Lord Jiath not appeared
to thee. This seeming disobedience shows how

EXODUS, IV.

slowly the sense of duty grows upon the mind.
The whole natural man holds back, like Saul hiding
among the stuff,' like Jonah fleeing to the west
from his errand to Nineveh," like Peter with his,
" Be it far from thee, Lord, this death shall not be
unto thee."3 So is it with all ; the old nature in a
man resists the call of God, and, doubting every
thing, even the power of God to do His own work,
would disobey Him in self-love.
• But the Lord is very patient with all, with the
bruised reed and the smoking flax. He said,
What is that in thine hand ? A rod.
Verses 2, 3. Cast it on the ground. He cast it on
the ground, and it beca-me a serpetit, and Moses fled
fro7n before it. This rod, with which so many
wonders were afterwards wrought, was the shep
herd's staff with which the sheep were guided and
defended. It is the type of power in sovereign's
sceptre or warrior's lance. And what is it to cast
it on the ground .' It is to debase it, to turn the
gift, bestowed by God for His noble purposes, to
' I Samuel x. 22. "Jonah i. 3. ^ Matthew xvi. 22.

SIGNS OF THE CALL. 73
selfish ends. And the rod, so cast down, became
a serpent from which Moses shrank because the
snake typifies the low power which reared itself
against God in Eden,' and which in the Patmos
vision is called " the dragon, that old serpent
which is the Devil and Satan."" It stands for
sensualism. So was evidence given of what results when
the power of man from God is not put forth in
His service, but is turned to the service of self.
But the Lord said that he should
Verse 4. seize upon the serpent, and he did,
and again his rod was in his hand, and thus he and
Israel were assured of power, if rightly used.
Another sign of even greater force : Put now
thine hand into thy bosom. And he
Verse 6. put his hand into his bosom ; a7id
when he took it out, behold, his ha7id was leprous
as S710W. To put the hand into the bosom in this
state of unbelief is to look away from the Lord to
self, to put one's power to selfish and not to Divine

'Genesis iii. 1-5. " Revel.ation xx. 2.

74 EXODUS, IV.

purposes. And this defiles and corrupts the hand
because the end is sordid and the object mean.
Miriam in rebellion against Moses,' Gehazi hiding
for himself the gifts of Naaman and covering his
theft by lying to Elisha," Uzziah rejecting the
priests and seeking to burn incense in their stead,'
all became leprous to signify the moral rottenness
of the life for self. But with the Lord there is
forgiveness that He may be feared, and He said
to Moses, Put thine hand into thy
Verse 7. bosom again ; and so he was healed,
for the self-life serving God is good.
Here were two signs, and there was yet a third,
not then wrought out but described to be done in
Egypt if Israel were still unbelieving. He should
take water of the river and pour it
Verses 8, g. Upon the dry land, and it would be
blood upon the dry land. This third sign completes
the trine, showing the last stage of unbelief. First
the power to do good, being degraded to the sen
sual life, becomes harmful ; then the strength is
'Nu.MBERS xii. 10. "=2 Kings v. 27. ^2 Chronicles xxvi. 19.

A/OSES' LACK OF WORDS. 75
all made corrupt ; then the very truth of the mind,
being cast down to earth, is changed to vile falsity,
as the pools left stagnant by the annual fall of the
Nile bred red organisms which made the water
poisonous. MOSES' LACK. OF \yORDS.
Witlj these signs Moses might go his way well
warned and well armed ; but no, he has pleaded
the unbelief of the others, he now urges his own
incapacity : O Lord, T a7ii not elo-
Verse IO. que7it, 7ieither heretofore 7ior since
Thou hast spoken imto Thy servant, for I a7/i slow
of speech and of a slow tongue. As he searched
high and low for reasons why he should be ex
cused, he came upon an important fact. Literally
he said that he was not a 7nan of words. It ap
pears that his long absence from Egypt and Israel,
and usage of the ]\Iidianite dialect, added to nat
ural difficulty of expression, had made him slow
or heavy in trying to put his message into a form
suited to those whom he must address in Egypt.

76 EXODUS, IV.

It appears also that he had taken time to think
what he could say, but had found few words in his
mind, and was thus discouraged, and was saying
that he did not find words at first, nor had he
found them since he was spoken to, meaning after
he had thought awhile.
To this fear the Lord answered that His was
the power of speech ; and He added. Now therefore
go, and I will be with thy inoupk, and
Verses ii, 12. teach thee what thou shalt say. So
was it with the Lord's disciples who had no learn
ing by which they could speak either at Jerusalem
or abroad, for they could mutter only the rude
speech of Galilee, but they were told : " Take no
thought how or what ye shall speak, for it shall be
given you in that same hour what ye shall speak;
for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your
Father that speaketh in you;"' and again the Lord
said : " Settle it therefore in your hearts not to
meditate before what ye shall answer, for I will
give you a mouth and wisdom which all your ad-
' Matthew x. 19, 20.

MOSES' LACK OF WORDS. 77
versaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist."'
And this promise was especially fulfilled at Pente
cost when the spirit gave them utterance, and the
multitude was amazed and said : "Behold, are not
all these which speak Galileans ; and how hear we
every man in our own tongue in which we were
born .?""
But the need of Moses was supplied in another
way, and this for a remarkable reason, namely,
that the Divine Word needs interpretation, or it
remains sealed. The Lord's truth was to be
given by Moses, not directly but through another.
It must be retold in the language of Aaron, or it
would not be understood and become effective.
The slowness of Moses' speech describes the
great and eternal fact that doctrine must be
drawn from the Word and apphed to human
needs, or the revelation will fail to help. For ex
ample, the Book of Revelation was cast out of the
Bible by Luther as meaningless, yet it holds the
whole history of Christianity when adequatel}' ex-
' Luke xxi. 14, 15. - Acts ii. 7, 8.

7° EXODUS, IV.

plained, and becomes transparently instructive.
So it is with all prophecy, that it needs a Divinely
illumined interpreter. And so it is with the
Pentateuch, which has the hue of the dead past
until it is opened, and its spiritual meaning is
shown to relate to the Lord as the Redeemer and
to true life to-day and forever. And this inter
pretation is represented by Moses' brother Aaron,
so that there was a dual leadership — the Lord led
His people, "like a flock by the hand of Moses
and Aaron."' Even so are men led now day unto
day, if they walk in the light. They were not so
led when the Bible was kept away from them and
papal dogma was substituted, for then in effect
Aaron was in rebellion against Moses and had
displaced him. Nor are they so led when, through
going to the other extreme, men read their Bibles
without doctrine, and find the meaning obscure
if not contradictory, and so give up the reading
and say: "It matters not what we believe ; " for
it does matter. The agnostic of this day has
' PbALM Ixxvii. 20.

A A RONS PART. 79

IMoses, but not Aaron, when all the time the Lord
has opened His Word in a rational way.
aarox's PART.
]\Ioses' next words, O Lord, send, I pray Thee,
by the Jiatid of hi77i whotn Thou wilt se7id, are not
easily put into English, for the utter-
Verse 13. ance was excited, as if !Moses, an
gered by the Divine insistence that he should do
his great duty, or seeing now no waj- of escape,
abruptly declared that the Lord must send some
one else than himself. The Lord knew all along
what He was doing, that Closes could do this work
with Aaron's aid, and so we read that He was
a7igry with Moses 2lX. this point, but
Verse 14. that is only said because to man's
waywardness the Lord's control seems severe, but
His deeds to the most sinful embody only love.
The Lord said. Is there 7iot Aa7-on the Levite thy
brother? T know tJiat he can speak well. A)id
also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee, and zvlien
he seeth thee, he will be glad ?'« his heart. As the

8o EXODUS, IV.

Lord had called Moses at the bush, so Aaron had
been moved to go over the border and meet the
long lost brother of whose coming he was made
aware. And thus while Moses was wholly ignor
ant of this help and therefore despondent, the help
was coming, as under the Divine Providence Jonah
was preserved to do his errand after all, and Israel
was graven on the palm of the Divine hand ' in its
darkest hour :
Behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God %\-ithin the shadow, keeping watch above His
own."
And the voice went on to say. Thou shalt speak
unto hi7n, and put the words in his month ; and I
will be with thy 77iouth and with his
Verses 15, 16. mouth, and will teach you what ye
shall do. And he sliall be thy spokesman inito tJie
people ; and it shall coine to pass that he shall be to
thee for mouth, and thou shalt be to him for God.
In all this is no anger, only the mercy of Him
who is " long suffering, and abundant in good-
' Isaiah xlix, 16. " Lowell, Present Crisis.

AARON'S PART.

ness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands."'
Through Aaron ]\Ioses will speak, the law of God
will avail through interpretation ; and all the in
spiration arid power of such interpretation are in
the Word itself, as it is written here, he shall be
to thee for -mouth and thou to Mtu for God.
And one other command was given to Moses,
Thou shalt take in thy hand this rod, wherewith
thou shalt do signs. With the staff
Verse 17. of the shepherd he shall stand before
Pharaoh and show the evidences of his high office,
the former life merging into the later, as David
from shepherd became king when, " from follow
ing the ewes great with young, God brought him
to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inherit
ance ; " " and as Amos said of himself, " I was no
prophet, neither was I a prophet's son ; but I was
an herdman, and the Lord took me as I followed
the flock, and said. Go, prophec)-."'
Out of the quiet shepherding of the innocent
qualities of the heart one is made ready to be a
' Exodus xxxiv. 6, 7. " Psalm Ixxviii. 71. ' Amos vii. 14, 15.

82 EXODUS, IV.

pastor to others, leading them on from the sense
life through many tribulations to the spirit life,
where the Lamb in the midst of the great white
throne shall feed them. He who was the Good
Shepherd and for the sheep laid down His life that
He might take it again, so that His children, His
flock, might go in and out, and find pasture. The
rod had become the "rod of God," as it was after
wards called, and the man who bears it in faith is
to be called, as was Moses, " a man of God."'
FROM MIDIAN TO EGYPT.
In preparing for the Divine mission Moses took
his flock home, and said to his father-in-law, Let
Tne go, T pray thee, and return unto
Verse i8. -my brethren who are in Egypt, atid
see whether they be yet alive. He had served long
and well as a shepherd and so was fitted for the
higher task. It is seen that he did not tell to the
Midianites what had happened to him, nor did he

'Verse 20, Chapter xvii. 9; Deuteronomy xxxiii. i; Joshua
xiv. 6.

FROM MID f AN TO EGYPT. 83
declare his full mission to Egypt ; and this was
because the matter was between him and God, and
he was not able fully to tell what he would do
until the day came when Israel would be following
him toward the mount. To talk fully now with
the kindly people of the desert would have been
premature, as our Lord could not explain His full
purpose before going out of Nazareth, and must
say to Peter, even at the end of much teaching,
"What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt
know hereafter ; whither I go thou canst not fol
low me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards."'
Closes would see, he said, if his brethren were
yet alive. He thought of their woe and longed
to help them. As the spiritual part quickens into
life it seeks to join itself to all men to help and
to save ; as Joseph had said, " Doth my father yet
live.?"" Jethro answered Moses' request with his Go in
peace, the benediction of the passing state, the
reverent dismissal of the guest to his higher
' John xiii. 7, 36. " Genesis xiv. 3.

EXODUS, IV.

sphere of work. Jethro was no Pharaoh, but
obeyed the Divine teaching. A new message
soon came to Moses to strengthen
Verse ig. him, for God told him that they were
now dead who sought his life, so that he could
indeed go in peace to the old land. New tempta
tions assail when new duties come on, but old
temptations recede.
Moses essays to go with wife and children,
taking the rod of God in his hand, the symbol of
his Divine commission and power.
Verse 20. and he is told to show before Pharaoh
the signs already described, but he is forwarned
that Pharaoh will resist, l will harde7i his heart,
said the Lord, atid he will 7iot let the
Verse 21. people go, that is, what the Lord will
do will provoke the king to wrathful obstinacy,
and he will resist to the uttermost. So do men
say that God afflicts them when their own wilful
ness brings misery upon them, and so do they
attribute to God's purpose all the evil results of
their own wrong doing, and curse Him.

FROM MIDIAN TO EGYPT.

Moses was told to speak to Pharaoh in this
way : Thus saith the Lord, Israel is -my soti, tny
first-born , and T hiave said unto thee.
Verses 22, 23 . Let -my soti go t/iat he may serve ttie ;
and thou Jiast refused to let Jii-m go ; behold, I will
slay thy so7i, thy first-bo7-n. Israel is called the
first-born son because, as compared with other
nations, Israel had been chosen to be the people
to whom God revealed Himself by giving the law
to Moses. Not that it was a larger or nobler race,
but that it would exactly perform the representa
tive rites, and would preserve the Scriptures care
fully, was it chosen to this high office, and so it
stood above other nations in its capacity of serv
ice to man, if it would do its work faithfully. It
was for Egypt to obey God, not to defy Him,
and that defiance, which was forseen, would cost
Egypt its first-born because by disobedience the
natural destroys true life. " The wages of sin is
death."' The Lord's disciple must follow Him to
' ROM.ANS vi. 23.

86 EXODUS, IV.

life, ever more abundantly, while the dead buries
its dead."
As the journey began with wife and sons Moses
was suddenly stopped : his own first-born was ill.
His wife, knowing what was wrong
Verses 24-26. in them, circumcised the stricken son
and said in reproach, A husband of blood art thou
to me, meaning that he had delayed too long the
rite for all Israelites, the rite of purification cor
responding to baptism. Already the lack of faith
on Moses' part has been seen, and again it will
appear, even until he proves unworthy to enter
the promised land. This shows great need of
discipline, so that he would go on his errand very
humbly. He had long held back and now was
going on impulsively and needed at once this un
mistakably sharp reminder to do only God's will.
With the sense of reproof upon him Moses
leaves his family in Midian and goes on alone, nor
can he have their comforting company until the
' Matthew viii. 22.

FROM MIDIAN TO EGYPT. 87
hard work in Egypt has been done, when they
will all come to meet and bless him. He must
give up something at present as the Lord said
that, unless a man would leave all to follow Him,
that man could not be His disciple, and again that
what a man left behind for that cause he should
have again a hundredfold.' So Moses was met
and chastened, as Balaam was met on his way,
and as all Israel was circumcised at Gilgal after
it had tarried forty years in the same wilderness."
As Moses went alone on his way Aaron came
out, led by the Lord, and tnet him in the ttiount
of God, and kissed him, and Moses
Verses 27, 28. told Aaroti all the words of the Lord
who Jiad sent him and all the sigtis which He had
comm.anded him. So does the Scripture open it
self to a rational faith ; they kiss each other in
one spirit, and take up their common work. There
is a dogmatism which closes the Word, and buries
it, and seals the stone, and there is a sweet and
'Matthew xix. 29. "Joshua v. 2-6.

88 EXODUS, IV.

reasonable doctrine of light and life which goes
forth to receive revelation and be at one with it.
So from the mount of God, the highest in man,
do revelation and interpretation go hand in hand
to all Israel. The people believed the
Verses 2g-3i. words and the sigtis, that the Lord
had visited tlietn and had seen their afflictioti, atid
they bowed their heads atid worshipped, an attitude
of the soul when the light of truth has shone
upon it making the night light about it, as it was
to the shepherds of Bethlehem, and it can say,
"In Thy light I see light.' I shall not die, but
live. It is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous
in our eyes.""
As Moses came out of the desert back to his
home, ready now to be Israel's deliverer, so our
Lord returned from the wilderness of forty days'
trial " into Galilee in the power of the spirit, and
His fame went through all the region round about,
and He taught in their synagogues, being glorified
' Ps.vLM xxxvi. 9. ^ Psalm cxviii. 17, 23.

FRO.M MIDIAN TO EGYPT. 89
of all ; " and His teaching was to read, " The
Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath
anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor,
to set at liberty thera that are bruised,'' and then
to say, " To-day is this Scripture fulfilled in your
ears."' Thus !Moses and Aaron were joined in
Him, and so in the Sermon on the Mount He first
save the words of the Law and then added the
interpretation, and many times He did this, es
pecially at His resurrection when He began at
" Moses and all the prophets and expounded unto
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
Himself"" In His Second Coming as well, this
is His work as the Spirit of Truth, to open the
Scriptures, not in the flesh, but spiritually, so that
His own power may be again exerted in the
Moses and Aaron, the revelation of old and its
farther opening for final Christianity.

'Luke iv. 14-21. "Luke xxiv. 27.

go EXODUS, V.

DEMAND AND REFUSAL.
There are two great forces in the world, the
one of God, the other of man. The former is
CHAPTER self-existing and infinite, the latter
^' is derivative and finite. The one is
creative and active, the other is comparatively
receptive and passive ; yet it is by no means
merely passive, it is a reactive force. All that is
created must be relatively passive to that which
creates it, but as life ascends in the scale from
the lowest forms up to man, the positive reactive
power increases, until in man there is the ability
to use or to abuse the power given to him by
God. A good human being is one who acknowl
edges his relation to the Lord of all life and seeks
in obedience and cooperation to fulfil the plan of
the Almighty. An evil man resists being led by
the Lord and seeks absolute independence in wil
fulness. He exercises his human prerogative to
his own serious injury. So far as in him lies, he
creates disorder in the universe and is a barrier

DEMAND AND REFUSAL. 91
to the Divine work. Yet all the time the Lord is
seeking nothing else than the eternal welfare of
all ; and if men hate God and His will, the saying
is fulfilled, " For my love they are my adver
saries."' As regards Israel, it was the Divine plan to
give that nation a country for itself and to make
it a means of restoring order to a region in which
catI, increasing to almost incredible degrees of
inhumanity, had come to prevail. The slaughter
of children in sacrifice to false gods and constant
wars of extermination were depopulating it. As
had been foreseen and promised to the patriarchs,
it was to be given to Israel. But now, as so often
in human history, men, blind to their own good
and seeking only for arrogant freedom, opposed
themselves to the Divine plan, and resisted it to
ihe uttermost; with what result may be seen in
the Book of the Exodus, as it is seen in all such
lives now. "God is not mocked,"" wisely said
"Psalm clx. 4. = Galatians vi. 7.

92 EXODUS, V.

the apostle ; and we read in a Psalm of Asaph,
" Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee, the
remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain."'
The evil man is here Pharaoh ; he is the lower
nature seeking to rule or else ruin the higher,
which desires to do the Divine will. Moses and
Aaron represent the Lord as His messengers of
the Divine Law and its interpretation. Israel
has heard the promise of God and accepts it with
hope. Moses and Aaron then say to Pharaoh :
Thus saith the Lord, God of Israel,
Verse i. Let my people go, that they may hold
a feast to me iti the wilderness. Israel cannot
worship God in the land, for that is not allowed ;
it will go over the border and celebrate its al
legiance to God. How little a thing for the king
to grant ! But he sees here the thin edge of a
wedge which will deliver Israel from him. Who ¦
is the Lord that I should obey His
Verse 2. voice to let Israel go ? I know not
the Lord, tteither will I let Israel go.
' Psalm Ixxvi. 10.

BURDENS INCREASED. 93
Moses and Aaron persist : The God of the
Hebre-ws hath met with us : let us go, we p7-ay thee,
three days' journey into the wildc7'ness.
Verse 3. and sacrifice unto the Lord our God,
lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the
sword. They had the common thought of God
as easily provoked to anger, and He must let
Himself be so thought of in that day, but there
lies here a serious truth, namely, that if men do
not go out and worship, leaving the service of the
flesh at times for the nurture of the spirit, they
will suffer harm. It is as when our Lord said to
the Pharisees, " Ye will not come unto me that
ye might have life."'
BURDENS IN'CREASED.
But Pharaoh answered. Wherefore do ye, Moses
and Aaron, loose the people frotn their zvorks? Get
you unto your burdens. Heavy bur-
Verse 4. dens indeed when the flesh controls,
and the spirit has no sabbath ! So the Pharisees
' John v. 40.

94 EXODUS, V.

bound heavy burdens and grievous to be borne,
and laid them on men's shoulders.' So they laid
on the Saviour the burden of the cross," and He
that was so innocent bore our griefs and carried
our sorrows ^
And Pharaoh went on to say. Behold the people
of the land are tiow tnany, and ye ttiake them rest
from their burdens , and he gave
Verses 5-7. orders to the taskmasters. Ye shall no
more give the people straw to make brick, as hereto
fore ; let them go and gather straw for thettiselves.
This meant a great increase of toil. The straw
had been brought from the threshing-floors, so
that it was readily mixed with the Nile mud to
give more coherence to the bricks, which were
about two feet square and a few inches thick. Of
this better sort of bricks Pithom was built, and
they still exist. The new order was that the
people must go about and gather stubble out of
the fields to use as straw. Moreover Pharaoh
' Matthew xxiii. 4. " John xix. 17. ^ Isaiah Iiii. 4.

BURDENS INCREASED. 95
expressly said. The tale of bricks, which they did
make heretofore, ye shall lay upon
Verses 8, g. them ; ye shall tiot di7tii7iish aught
thereof: for they be idle ; therefore they ciy, sayi7ig.
Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let heavier
work be laid upo7i the -me7i, that they -may labour
thereiti ; and let them 7iot regard lying words.
That is it. The words of God are a lie. Life
is not to be spiritual. There is no spirit. Life
is only of the body. God is only a force. There
fore let me seize upon all things while they last
and make them serve my lusts for gold and
power ; men, women, and children, what are they
but mine to enjoy .'' and "after me, the deluge,"
said Louis XV. So reasons in blind rage the
natural man incensed at the voice of conscience.
He will crucify the Saviour, and will stand by and
rail on Him, mocking His prayerful hope. No
straw for Israel means not the least help by the
flesh to the spirit — no mercy, no pity. There is
a worldliness which does not forget the poor and
has some feeling for the innocent who will suffer

96 EXODUS, V.

rather than do wrong. But in this Egpytian
hardness there is only hate and derision, as we
read, " Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am
full of heaviness ; and I looked for some to take
pity, but there was none ; and for comforters, but
I found none."'
And so the tasktnasters sent forth the cruel
word, and so the people were scattered abroad to
gather stubble instead of straw, and so
Verses 10-14. the taskmasters hasted them, and so
the officers or foremen of Israel were beate7i and
dematided. Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your
task both yesterday and to-day in -making brick, as
heretofore? Just this was Pharaoh's purpose. He
would so oppress them that they could not think
of God. With Joseph sold into Egypt to be put
into prison there, his brethren might well say :
"We shall see what will become of his dreams.""
With the two witnesses lying dead in the street
of the city spiritually called Sodom and Egypt,
'Psalm ixix. 20. "Genesis xxxvii. 20.

BURDENS INCREASED. 97
the people rejoiced and made merry and sent gifts
one to another.'
An appeal was made in all truth. The officers
who had been beaten ca-me and cried unto Pharaoh,
Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy
Verses 15, 16. servants ? There is no straw given
unto thy servants, and they say to us. Make brick,
but the fault is in thine own people. Did this
move him .' Was Nero moved to see a Christian
maiden thrown to a lion .'' Nay, it was good sport.
He would have his holiday. So Pharaoh in every
man knows no compassion ; and he said : Ye are
idle, ye are idle ; therefore ye say. Let
Verses 17, 18. US go and sacrifice to the Lord. Go
ye therefore and work ; for there shall no straw be-
given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.

' Revelation xi. 8, 10.

98 EXODUS, V.

DESPAIR OF ISRAEL.
What wonder is it that, when the officers came
out from that audience, and tnet Moses and Aaron
who stood in the way as they catne
Verses 20, 21. forth, they said. The Lord look upon
you atid judge , because ye have made our savour
to be abhorred in tlie eyes of Pharaoh and in the
eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand
to slay us. This is despair. It is the Lord cry
ing out : " Now is my soul troubled, and what
shall I say.' Father, save me from this hour."'
And it is only despair which leads one not to look
to himself but upward, even as the Lord added :
" But for this cause came I unto this hour.
Father, glorify Thy name."' So did the nature
in Him born of woman gain the victory. But
Israel had only the beginning of faith. It was as
a man who tries to do right, but finds his life
straightened by increasing temptation. He is
'John xii. 27, 28.

DESPAIR OF ISRAEL. 99
tempted to turn upon his conscience as these
officers did upon Moses and Aaron. It is Job's
¦wife saying, " Curse God and die." ' It is Job
himself repeating to reject it, "the counsel of the
wicked." "
Then Moses took up the complaint ; Lord, why
/last Thou evil e7itreated this people ? why is it that
TJiou hast sent me ? For sitice I catne
Verses 22, 23. to Pharaoh to speak iti Thy tiatne, he
fiath evil entreated this people. Neither hast Thou
delivered Thy people at all. This early and easy
discouragement of Closes is truly human. No
one entering on a new life foresees the difficulties
of it. He is soon weary and justifies himself in
view of the failure of God to assist him. Israel
is of little faith, and is often saying : " Aly way is
hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed
away from my God."^

' Job ii. 9. '^ Ibid. xxL 16. ^ Isaiah xl. 27.

EXODUS, VL

GOD S PROMISE RENEWED.
Of course the Lord, knowing what is in man,
expected all this in Pharaoh and in Moses, and
CHAPTER VI ^^ knew what He would do : Now
Verse I. ^^^^^ shalt See what I will do to
Pharaoh, for by a strong hand shall he let them go,
and by a strotig hand shall he drive them out of his
land. What is so absurd as to say, " God cannot
save," and thus to limit the Holy One of Israel,
mighty to save .''
God spoke to Moses, / am the Lord ; and that
is precisely what men forget, both the evil and
the good. Moses always spoke to
Verse 2. God as if He were to be rebuked
for indifference or won over by persuasion. The
only answer to all such unwisdom is, / am the
Lord, or, as it is said in one place : " Be still and
know that I am God." ' And here it is told that

'Psalm xlvi. 10.

GOD'S PROMISE RENEWED.

God said also to Moses that He had appeared to
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob as
Verse 3. God Almighty, but not as Jehovah.
This name is now revealed because God will make
known more fully His love and forbearance and
pity, as well as His great power. He then re
news the patriarchal covenant, re
verses 4-6. peats the promise of the land of
Canaan, and once more declares that He knows
the bondage of Israel and will put an end to it.
I will take you to me for a people, and
Verse 7. / will be to you a God, There is no
other purpose of the Divine. It is to bless all if
they will permit, to pour out of Itself upon them
to the degree that they are willing and so able to
receive. Yielding to God means eternal growth
in good.
But there is something which man must know :
Ye shall know that I am your God, who bringeth
you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
It is not enough to know God as one who lives.
He must be known as the personal Saviour. He

EXODUS, VI.

is not content to reign only, in His love He is
the Good Shepherd ; and so He said also : / will
bring you into the land coticernitig
Verse 8. which I lifted up my Jiand to give it
to Abrahatti, to Isaac, and to Jacob , and I will
give it you for an heritage ; I atn the Lord. Thus
He becomes the Lord of any man by no claim of
power, but by fulfilling to each faithful soul its
destiny, and then He is its Lord by bestowing
freely on it the blessings promised, the kingdom
prepared from the foundation of the world. To
whom did the Lord promise thrones .¦* To those
who had continued with Him in His temptations,'
for " these are they who follow the Lamb whither
soever He goeth."'
This answer Moses brought back to the people,
but they hearketied tiot unto Moses for, anguish of
spirit atid for cruel botidage. So do
Verse 9. present trials hide the grand issue
of them ; as Elijah prayed the Lord to take away
' Luke xxii. 28, 30. " Revelation xiv. 4.

HIS CHOSEN MEN. 103
his life,' as Jeremiah said : " God hath deceived
me, I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.;
wherefore came I forth to see labour and sorrow,
that my days should be consumed with shame .'""
But the Lord does not yield.
Verse 11. Moses must go again and speak to
Pharaoh that he let the children of Israel go out
of his land. And Moses pleaded.
Verse 13. but God's charge was not recalled.

HIS CHOSEN MEN.
The story at this point seems to suffer an un
necessary interruption. Genealogies are given,
and they seem out of place and of no spiritual
value. But look again. Only three of Jacob's
sons are mentioned, and they are the three eldest,
Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. As all
Verses 14-25. the tribes represent all classes of
religious people, these three sons stand for those

'Kings xix. 4. "Jeremiah xx. 7, 18.

I04 EXODUS, VI.

first developed — Reuben, " the son of sight,"
for those who know ; Simeon, " hearing," for those
who obey knowledge ; and Levi, " conjunction,"
for those who by knowing and doing are joined to
the Lord. And this enumeration of families,
especially of Levi, shows that development of
the soul which produces, under God, Moses and
Aaron, the Word of God in its interpretation and
application, by which the will of the Lord is
brought to pass in man. Having given the enu
meration, the Scripture adds. These
Verses 26-30. are that Moses and Aaron to whom
the Lord said. Bring out the children of Israel
from the land of Egypt according to their hosts.
These are they who spake to Pharaoh, king of
Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from
Egypt : these are that Moses and Aaron, To those
who see in the occasional repetitions of statement
the evidence of more than one original document,
nothiiig need be said, for it is of no spiritual con
sequence whether there was one document or
many. The history may be a mosaic, but it is

HIS CHOSEN MEN. 105
historically true of the past, and spiritually true
of all time, and thus the Word of God is "forever
settledjn^eaven. " '
It is easy to see that, by the first failure with
Pharaoh, Moses and Aaron have been discredited
before him and their countrymen, but not so
before God, and the history goes back a little to
show that they are the appointed ones who shall
yet prevail. It is an eternal call. Let my people
go. Out of the slavery of the flesh to the spirit,
every man is called. One refusal of the flesh to
yield is as nothing. The increased burden of the
suffering spirit is needed to make it abhor the
land of its bondage. Israel and every man must
know the deadly conflict. Despair must teach
the soul to say, as Hadad said to another Pharaoh,
"Let me depart that I may go to mine own
country ; " and when Pharaoh urged him to stay
he said, " Howbeit in any wise let me depart.""

' Psalm cxix. 89. ^ i Kings xi. 21, 22.

lo6 EXODUS, VII.

CHAPTER VII.

DIVINE PERSISTENCE.
It is only by repeated efforts that the Divine in
a man, the Moses and Aaron, can gather strength
to do the work of rescue and salva
tion. Therefore, this first defeat and
disaster called only for a renewed attempt to over
come Pharaoh, and tlie Lord said to
Verses i, -^. Moses, See, I have -made thee a god
to Pharaoh, atid Aaron thy brother shall be thy
prophet. Thou shalt speak all tliat I comtnand
thee, atid Aaron thy brother shall speak iitito
Pharaoh, that he let the children of Israel go out
of his land. As Pharaoh's obstinacy increases,
the power of Moses and Aaron shall rise in even
more rapid degree. They shall "go from strength
to strength," ' and this, feeble and of little faith
though they are, by the patience of the Lord ; as
the Psalmist said, " Thy gentleness hath made me
great." " ' Psalm bcxxiv. 7 . "Psalm xviii. 35.

DIVINE PERSISTENCE. 107
\Mien the Lord declares, / will harden Pha
raoh's Jieart, we have the customary speech re
garding man's sin, that it is the act
Verses. of God, but this is only the appear
ance. Divine foresight saw the increasing dis
obedience of the king and the judgments which
he would bring upon himself — my signs and
wonders ?'« the land of Egypt, so that, after a
fearful struggle of hardened man against the all-
merciful God, Israel would come
Verses 4, 5. forth. Then Egypt would know
God, as the evil spirit cried out to the Saviour,
" I know Thee who Thou art ; " ' then Israel
would know the Lord who had graven them on
the palms of His hands."
This growth through discipline of Moses and
Aaron is meant by the saying that Moses was
now eighty and Aaron eighty-three
Verse 7. years old, for all through the Scrip
ture the number forty signifies discipline —
Israel's forty years in the wilderness, the Lord's
' Mark L 24. "Is.\iah xix. 16.

loS EXODUS, VII.

forty days of temptation, the forty stripes of
punishment for reformation ; ' and eighty doubles
the number and intensifies its force. It is inter
esting to note that Aaron, although the elder,
was subordinated to Moses, who is the god to
Pharaoh while Aaron is the prophet ; but this
occurs very often, as with Cain and Abel, Ish
mael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Leah and
Rachel, Manasseh and Ephraim, James and John.
The saying that "the elder shall serve the
younger " " means that, in the regenerating life,
a later state is more truly spiritual than a former
one — the first man Adam is a living soul, the
last Adam a quickening spirit.^
The Lord thus perfects His work slowly. So
the Lord Jesus knew what it was to be derided
and discredited as a Nazarene and friend of pub
licans and sinners, but He would not cease :
" I must work the works of Him that sent me
while it is day." ¦• " My Father worketh hitherto.

' Deuteronomy xxv. 3. " Genesis xxv. 23. ^ i Corin
thians XV. 45. ¦•John ix. 4.

WARNING REJECTED. 109
and I work." ' The disciples were amazed : " The
Jews of late sought to stone Thee, and goest
Thou thither again .'" and His answer was, "Are
there not twelve hours in the day ? " " Again and
again He goes to the Pharaoh in a man saying.
Let my people go, and leads them by living foun
tains of waters out of great tribulation to serve
God day and night in His temple. ^
WARNING REJECTED.
"E'vU punishes itself," is a dictum* which on
reflection every one will see to be true. Putting
the hand in fire one may say that the fire pun
ished him, but the fire only went on with its
proper work ; running against a tree one may say
that the tree punished him, but it only stood in
its place ; committing a crime one may say that
the law punished him, but the law only defined
the order of the community ; breaking any rule
of righteous living one may say that God pun-

. 'John v. 17. "John xi. 8, 9. ^Revelation vii. 14-17.
¦•"Arcana," 696.

EXODUS, Vfl.

ishes him, but the truth is that with unchanging
fidelity Divine order maintains itself. In this
world and in the other, for both are in the realm
of Divine truth, sin punishes itself, and every in
fraction of universal order holds its own penalty.
" We wear the yoke of our own wrong-doing,"
says Daniel Deronda. So, be it said once for all,
as to Pharaoh, when it is written that God Jiard-
ened his heart ; for God hardens no man's heart
and punishes no one. This is the appearance, as
with the fire or the tree or the law ; yet every
man punishes himself.
In speaking of the plagues or punishments
which fell on Egypt, it is important always to
view them in their order and to note that so may
any man injure himself, who sets himself again
and again to resist the Divine will, which seeks
only the good of the whole man, both spiritual
and natural. To let Israel go would have been
an act of wisdom ; to hate and increasingly to
oppress Israel is in all ages a self-destructive
course, since the sinner draws upon himself pen
alty after penalty until he yields at last in com-

WARNING REJECTED.

plete subjection to the Divine order, which would
have blessed if permitted.
At first only a sign was given, doing no injury
to Pharaoh. Aaron cast down his rod before Pha
raoh and before his set^oants, and it
Verses 8-12. became a serpent. This is the shep
herd's staff which had done the same for Moses
himself ' as a sign of what results when power is
abused, namely, that it becomes dangerous and
destructive. But Moses had been convinced ; not
so the king: He called for the wise meti and the
sorcerers, and they also, the ttiagicians of Egypt,
did so with their enchantttietits : for they cast
down every matt his rod, and they becatne serpetits ;
but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
The magic of Egypt misled the king to believe
that he had by his servants all the power of a
god. There is magicalpower, and it seems to
many marvellous, so that they make a religion of
spiritistic phenomena, the magic of to-day. Ever
since men knew the correspondence of things
' Chapter iv. 1-5.

EXODUS, VIL

spiritual and natural, have they been tempted to
make use of their knowledge for occult purposes
of priestcraft and gain. But the wise are not mis
led by mere magic, for they will keep their faith
in God, calling no man father on earth,' and re
buking such perversions, as Peter rebuked the
sorcerer Simon."
Aaron's rod as a serpent swallowed up the
others, showing that evil has little power com
pared with the power of good ; as evil spirits
cried out, " Let us alone ; art thou come to de
stroy us .¦" " when the Redeemer healed their
victim of Capernaum. 3
NATURE OF THE PLAGUES.
But the king was not moved. His heart was
hardened; he refused to let the people
Verse 14. go-
As the land of Egypt and its history have been
closely studied, the nature of the afflictions which
' Matthew xxiii. 8. "Acts viii. 20. ^ Luke iv. 34.

NATURE OF THE PLAGUES. 113
now are told is well understood. They followed (
with intervals the course of the year, each one
having its place when ordinary conditions made
room for it, as in the case of the first, which be
longed to the time of the high Nile, about June.
Not only was the order natural as well as sig
nificant, but every one of these plagues was in
the eyes of the Egyptians a defeat of some one
of their deities who was supposed to have the pro
tection of the river, the harvest, the cattle or the
first born, as the case might be. One other fact
is to be noted : the plagues came in pairs, though
successively — foul water and frogs, lice and
flies, murrain on cattle and boils on men, hail
and locusts, darkness and death — and this means
that both parts of the mind are injured in turn,
first the understanding and then the will, as
falsity and evil result from sin. Thus the pairing
of expressions, like "joy and gladness, justice and
judgment," seen also in the Divine names, enters
into this account as well.

114 EXODUS, VII.

\yATER MADE BLOOD.
Moses and Aaron were now told to meet the
king in the tnorning : lo, he goeth out unto the
water. At the time of high Nile
Verses 15-18. when all the land was receiving its
annual blessing of fertility, the river was espe
cially worshipped as the emanation of Osiris.
Then when the king was by the river he was to
be given again the request to let Israel go ; and if
he still refused, it was to be said. The waters sliall
be turtied to blood, and the fish shall die, a7id the
river shall stink, and the Egyptians shall loathe to
drink water from the river. This would be as the
water began to recede. In pools infusoria would
be formed, and as they died and putrified, the
water would become most foul and repulsive.
This is truth turned to falsity like the serpent's
word in Eden that, knowing good and evil, they
would be as God and woiild not surely die, but
would have their eyes opened.'
' Genesis iii. 4, 5.

WATER MADE BLOOD. 115
So it was done, and over all the water came the
hue of crimson, and they could not drink without
loathing. But again the king called
Verses lg-22. upon his tnagiciatis, and they did so
with their enchantments , and, seeing this done
at his bidding, the king's heart renewed its
pride and he did tiot hearken, as the Lord had
said. There is, as will presently appear, a limit
beyond which sorcery could not go, but it could
go so far ; at least it appeared so to the king ;
and the Lucifer in a man does not submit to cor
rection while his power is full, but he says, " I
will be like the :\Iost High." ' How
Verse 23. .
vividly this is expressed in the
words, Pharaoh turned atid went into his house !
It is the resort to self, the magnifying of self-
life ; as it is written of the Pharisees, who met
together and declared that they would not believe
on Jesus, "for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet,"
and then "went every man to his own house,"
while the rejected One went to a place of oppo
site significance, "the mount of OHves.""

'Isaiah xiv. 14. "John vii, 52, 53; viii. i.

Ii6 EXODUS, VIII.

For seven days the people endured this plague,
representing a full period of affliction, and they
dug wells in the sand, seeking to
Verses 24, 25. escape the evil, but not by the true
and manly way of repentance.

FROGS.
Closely joined with this came the next plague,
the frogs, bred from the stagnant pools. There
CHAPTER viii. ^^^ ^^ always ample warning : The
river shall swarm with frogs, which
shall go up utid cotne into thine house, and itito thy
bedchatnber, atid upon thy bed, and into the house
of thy servants and upon thy people, and into thitie
ovens, a7id into thy kneading troughs. So it was
done : the frogs came up and covered the land of
Egypt. Here the goddess Heka, always represented
with a frog's head, was put to shame. The frogs
leaping and croaking followed after some weeks
the putrid water to signify that second stage
of false thinking when men send their insidious

FROGS. 1 1 7
reasonings everywhere, defiling the home and
degrading character, as the Pharisees did when
they said, " He hath a devil and is mad ; He cast-
eth out devils by Beelzebub," ' thereby invading
the houses of the poor, the synagogue and the
temple courts with reasonings false and foul, like
the three frogs seen in Patmos."
Again the magicia7is succeeded in doing some
thing like, but the king was moved by fear, and
he said to ]\Ioses and Aaron, Intreat
Verses 7, 8. the Lord to take away tlie frogs frotn
-me atid from -my people, and I will let the people
go, that tliey may sacrifice unto the Lord.
This yielding was received by Moses with
eagerness : Have thou this glory over tne, means
that Moses,- really victorious, is
Verses 9-14. ready to serve him ; and he asks
for further instruction from the king, as to when
it shall be done. To-ttiorrow, answered the king ;
and Moses said. Be it according to thy word, that
thou mayest know that there is tione like u7ito the
'John x. 20; Luke xi. 15. "Revelation xvL 13.

Ii8 EXODUS, VIII.

Lord our God, and he went on to promise that ali
the frogs would die except in the river. Then
Moses and Aaron went out and besought the
Lord, and the Lord did according to the word of
Moses. How easily are men forgiven by Him who is
" merciful and gracious ! " ' How quickly does
the course of things become prosperous when
men repent ! No sooner has the prodigal re
turning come in sight of home, than his father
runs to greet him ; no sooner does he begin to
confess his great faults, than his father calls for
the robe and the ring and the feast of great joy ! "
Even so not one of Pharaoh's evil deeds will be
reckoned against him, if he really repents.
But alas, for him and all such, when he saw
that there was respite, he hardetied his heart a7id
hearkened not, as the Lord had said.
Verse 15. The Lord had said so because He
knew Pharaoh and every man. In the stress of
pain and penalty due to no one but themselves,
' Exodus xxxiv. 6. " Luke xv. 20, 23.

LICE. 119
men promise everything, but true repentance
must be wrought out in liberty, not in duress, as
a thousand instances show plainly. The frogs
gone, Pharaoh's mind was changed.

THE LICE.
The third plague was of lice, of the land rather
than of the water. This marks a deeper injury to
the life. It was perhaps in October
Verses 16, 17. that the dried earth or dust became
lice in man and in beast, as the graphic expres
sion is ; the very sand was so mingled with the
insects that the two seemed one throughout all
the land. Sensual evils are meant — the low, vile
ways of filthy loves, the next step downward in a
sinful career.
W'hat now of the tnagicians ? They tried to
bring forth lice, but they could not, and they said
irnto Pharaoh, It is the fi7iger of God.
Verses 18, ig. This was an Egyptian way of speak
ing. None knew better than they that their limit

EXODUS, VIII.

was reached. From this time they were on
Moses' side. So Simon Magus asked to be bap
tized," and Balaam, called to curse, blessed Israel
with the blessings of God." In passing from
water to land the signs had gone beyond the
power of magic to imitate. In things intellectual
such abuses may exist, but when the scene
changes from thought to life, from the shifting
waters to the solid earth, no magic avails.
THE FLIES.
Once more, in spite of the yielding of the
magicians, the king rejects God, and the next
woe follows, the swarms of flies
Verses 20, 21. •
stinging, poisoning. Every one who
has been in Egypt knows their power. It was
now Isis, queen of the air, who was conquered ;
and everywhere the swarms flew, upon the king
and his people, until the houses were full of them
and also the ground. The meaning is of yet more
malignant evils preying upon the mind like flies.
'Acts viii. 13. "Numbers xxiv. lo.

THE FLIES.

One marked difference now is shown. In
Goshen, the northeastern district occupied by
the Israelites, there were no flies.
Verse 33. Thus it was a sign of double power,
and such were the signs following. The Lord
said, / will put a division between my people and
thy people : and the Lord did so. It is clearly so
in all lands ; as people advance upon their roads
upwards or downwards, the distinction, at first
not manifest, becomes very plain ; their paths, at
first apparently parallel, diverge widely and more
and more, until the seasualism of one is wholly
unknown to another. To Rome the Lord was
dumb, so that Pilate marvelled,' and the reason
is plain enough.
Urgently now the king called for Moses and
Aaron, and he said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God
in the land. But this letting go to
Verses 25-27. Still hold on is impossible. Moses
said. It is not meet so to do ; for we shall sacrifice

' Mark xv. 5.

EXODUS, VIII.

the abomitiation of the Egyptiatis before their eyes ,
atid will they not static us ? True worship can
not be rendered in subjection to the flesh, which
will repress it as hateful. No, Israel must go
three days' journey into the zvildertiess . There,
where the mind has really entered on its way to
the mount of God, it can freely " sacrifice the
sacrifices of thanksgiving," ' but not before then.
To this the stricken king said, / will let you
go that ye may sacrifice in the zvilderness ; only ye
shall not go very far away. Again
Verses 2B-32. he is temporizing, but again the
Divine mercy will revoke the plague, only let not
Pharaoh deal deceitfully any tnore iti not lettitig
the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. And this
warning was given because every time that a
man mocks God, he does himself a deadly injury.
The plague was stayed, but the king was false
this time also.

¦ Psalm cvii. 22.

THE BOILS. 123

THE MURRAIN.
Then came warning of the very grievous mur
rain or cattle-sickness, sometimes in a degree
CHAPTER IX. "^^^ taown in Egypt about Decem-
versesi-7. i^gj._ j^ came upon cattle, horses,
asses, camels, sheep and goats ; and they died,
but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not
one. The king sent to see if this was so, and
then was stubborn, as before.

THE BOILS.
Then came as companion to the cattle plague
that of boils upon tnan and beast. Ashes of
the furnace Moses spritikled toward
Verses 8-12. heaven, signifying that hearts like
the king's are consumed with base passion ; and
that, when they are spread before heaven, their
vileness comes to judgment, as in the Book of
Revelation when the angel's bowl was poured

124 EXODUS, IX.

upon the beast, "pains and sores" resulted.'
The magicians were smitten like the rest, power
less now one and all, burning with the carbun
cles of passions corrupted with vile loves. Even
now the king resisted still.
THE HAIL.
So came on a long warning, God showing that
He doth not willingly afflict," and the king was
urged to protect his cattle from the
Verses 13-26, coming hail. And some among his
servants feared the word of the Lord and made
people and cattle flee into the houses, but others
regarded not. This shows the repentance not
only of magicians but of others, the remnant
delivered from the final judgment at the eleventh
hour, "ere the lamp went out." ^ Then came
thutider and hail, and the flre ratt down upon the
earth, such as it had not been iti all the land of

'REVELATIONXvi.il. " LAMENTATIONS iii. 33. ^ I SaMUEL
iii. 3.

THE HAIL. 125

Egypt since it becatne a tiation ; and it smote all
that zi'as in the field, ttian and beast, every herb
and every tree ; otily in the land of Goshen where
the children of Israel were, was there no hail.
Here is shown, not the injury merely, but the
destruction of mind by persistent sinfulness.
This is its first stage.
Pharaoh's word now was, / have sitined this
time ; intreat the Lord, and I zuill let you go, atid
ye shall stay no longer. And Moses
Verses 27-35. . , , , , , ,
said yes at once, but he added,
I know that ye zuill not yet fear the Lord God.
Through the fields he went where the flax and
barley were smitteti, but not the wheat atid spelt
for they were tiot grow7i. This would be in Feb
ruary. Alas that it must be written that, when
the hail ceased, Pharaoh sinned yet more a7id
liardened his heat^.

i::6 EXODUS, X.

THE LOCUSTS.
Thus the eighth plague must follow, the
locusts, again with a full but ineffective warning,
CHAPTER x although some Egyptians urged
Verses I-II. p^araoh to yield, and he did recall
the brothers and demanded. Who are they that
shall go ? but to their reply that all must go, he
answered that only the ttieti might go, and the
two were driven out froni Pharaoh's presence.
When Moses and Aaron, when the influence of
the Lord over and in man, is altogether driven
out, is it not the sin against the Holy Ghost } '
An east witid blew upon the land all day and
all night, and it brought the locusts. Very griev
ous zuere they. There 7'ettiaiticd not
Verses 12-15. any greeti thitig. Here is the further
destructiveness of sin that all aspirations for good
cease. Pharaoh called for Moses atid Aaroti in haste,
' Matthew xii. 31.

TIIE DARKNESS.

and he said, I have sinned against the Lord your
God atid against you. Forgive my
Verses i5-2o. siti otily this otice, atid ititreat the
Lord your God that He tnay take away frotti tne
this death otily. As before, there was no vindic
tiveness, and the west zuind took up the locusts
atid drove tlietn into the Red Sea. But the lesson
was in vain, and the king was obdurate still.
THE DARKNESS.
The ninth plague was darktiess, that terror of
Egypt when the air is filled with sand, a dark
tiess which ttiay be felt. For three
Verses 21-23. days they sazu tiot one atiothcr,
neither rose any frotti his place, but all the children
of Israel had light. So the great sun-god Ra
was put to shame. So was typified that dark
ness of the mind when it closes itself to truth,
and " hateth the light, neither cometh to the
light,"' but one "stumbles at noon day as in
the night and is in desolate places as dead.""
'John iii. 20. " Isaiah ILx. 10.

1^8 EXODUS, X.

The king yielded : Go ye, serve the lord, only
let your flocks and your herds be stayed ; but the
answer of course was that they must
Verses 24-26. have animals for sacrifice and burnt
offering. Without the consecration of all the
powers to the service of the Lord there can be
no spiritual life. Lip-service will not suffice.
A heart without an altar of love is sounding:
brass and tinkling cymbal." " Faith without
works is dead."" The tree must bear its fruit
or die. 3
When the king turned again in his wrath to
defy God, he said to Aloses, Get thee from me,
take heed to thyself, see tny face tio
Verses 27, 28. more, for iti the day thou seest tny
face thou shalt die. Confirmed evil slays its
Saviour with mockery, buries Him, and seals
the stone. " His blood be on us and on our
children," it cries."* And the Lord in tears over
Jerusalem could only say, "Your house is left
unto you desolate." s

' I Corinthians xiii. I. " James ii. 20. ^Matthew xxi. 19.
•Matthew xxvii. 25. ^Matthew xxiii. 38.

THE DARKNESS. 1^9
Thou hast spoken well, said Moses, / will see
thy face agaiti no 7nore ; and thus the king by
his own overt act, at the end of a
Verse 29. long course of folly and sin, con
demned himself to the outer darkness of a life
hating the light, a life stopping its ears to the
appeal of God and the angels, who speak in
love, "This is the way, walk ye in it,"" but are
answered with scorn. No more ; so it was said
of Babylon, no more of the harper, no more 01
the craftsman, no more of the millstone, no
more of the candle, no more of the bridegroom
and bride, for in it was found the blood of
prophets whom it had slain upon the earth."
For love, so oft cast out, comes back
Xo more again, no more ;
It spake what e'en to memory now.
Returns no more, no more.'

'Isaiah XXX. 21. "Re\-elatiok xviii. 22-24. 'After A. H.
Clough.

130 EXODUS, XI.

THE FIRSTBORN SLAIN.
The terrible year of affliction for Egypt drew
to its close. Egypt had caused Israel to suffer
CHAPTER '^ '-^^^ time, but Egypt had suffered
^'' more, and this not from any deeds
of Israel, but from its own perverseness. Step
by step misery had come upon the king and his
people as they with equal step moved against
God and His purpose to give Israel justice.
Downward fell Egypt as it strengthened itself
in resistance until, like the herd of Gadara,' it
leaped to death.
The Lord had said utito Moses, Yet one more
plague will I bring upoti Pharaoh and upon Egypt,
afterwards he will let you go hence ;
Verse i. when he shall let you go, he shall
surely thrust you out hence altogether. Not only
the hardness of heart had been foreseen, but the
final yielding with urgency that Israel go out.
' Matthew viiL 32.

THE FIRSTBORN SLAIN. 131
Here is consolation for the troubled soul,
oppressed by its own evils like so many masters,
that at last by the mercy of the Lord and its
patient fidelity to Him, the prison doors shall
open and the oppressed go free out of the fur
nace of iron on the road to holy ground.
But first the command to spoil the Egyptians
is repeated,' for the time has come to ask for
gold atid silver. Again an encourag-
Verse 2. ing word, that every affliction en
dured in faith makes room for some blessing of
love and light, the oil of joy for mourning.
When it is added that at this time
Verse 3. Moses -was very great in the land,
the meaning is of the final reign of righteous
ness overcoming the world where sin causes so
much tribulation." Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again.
The eternal years of God are hers ;
But error wounded writhes with pain.
And dies among his worshippers.'
'Chapter iiL 21, 22. "John xvi. 33. ^\y. C. Bryant.

1 3^2 EXODUS, XL

The text goes back now to the final words of
Moses to the king before he went out from his
presence. Atid Moses said. Thus
Verses 4, 5. saith the Lord, About tnidnight will
I go out into the ttiidst of Egypt, and all the firs t-
borti shall die, frotn the firstborn of Pharaoh that
sitteth npott his throne eveti unto the firstborn of
the maidservant that is behind the -mill; aud
all the firstborti of cattle. In the firstborn is
the hope of the future, and therefore this death
will mark the end of continuance in power.
There is a Diyine limit, and it has been reached.
Egypt would have slain all the babes of Israel,
but it was prevented, and now its power ends
after being so long misused. " I have seen the
wicked in great power and spreading himself
like a green bay tree, yet he passed away and
lo, he was not ; yea, I sought him, but he could
not be found." " So speaks the Psalm, and our
Lord expressed the same fact by weeping over
the self-doomed Jerusalem."
' Psalm xxxvii. 35, 36. "Luke xix. 41.

THE FIRSTBORN SLAIN. 133
This plague of pestilence would go from the
king to his humblest servant turning the stone
hand-mill, and even to the cattle, to signify that
there is no degree of evil great or small which
does not come under the same law of limitation.
Otherwise there would be no salvation of souls
anywhere. And Moses went on to
Verses 6, 7. say that a great cry, such as there
hath been none like it nor shall be like it any more,
would be heard ; but that against any of the
children of Israel not a dog would bark. This is
the eternal contrast of the peace of God and
the weeping and gnashing of teeth of confirmed
evil arrayed against religion. And
Verse 8. Moses ended with predicting that
then all Egypt would bow down to him, saying.
Get thee out and all the people that follow thee,
and then, said he, / will go out , and he left
Pharaoh in anger. Moses' impatience, which
appears often, finally debarring him from enter
ing the Promised Land, still has its meaning as
to the Lord, for His infinite love of souls may

134 EXODUS, XII.

seem a zeal of wrath to those who do not love
Him, when it is in reality without the least
vindictiveness. During all these months nothing is said of
Israel but that the plagues did not fall upon
them. Many times no doubt deliverance seemed
to be near, but as often were they disappointed.
Their duty was of patience and trust until these
calamities were overpassed,' but now they must
act with haste and zeal.
THE PASSOVER.
This ttionth shall be utito you the begintiitig of
months; it shall be the first tnotith of the year to
CHAPTER XII. yo'-'-- -^'^ ^^'-^ tenth day of this ttionth
Verses i-6. ^j^^y shall take to them eveiy man
a latnb, a latnb for a household. Your lattib sliall
be without blemish, a ttialc of the first year ; ye
shall take from the sheep or frotn the goats ; and
ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the
' Psalm Ivii. i.

THE PASSOVER. 135

fnonth ; and the whole assembly sliall kill it
between the evenings.
That month of Abib, to which they had now
come, the month ot Spjing_flowers, must here
after begin the sacred year, for the national
birthday was in reality one with the exodus.
So the true, the spiritual life begins in a Spring
of hope and light, and men must be kept mind
ful of it or they will not remain true to their
Saviour. Like disciples called by the Lord, like
Paul amazed on his road, like the woman whom
Satan had bound these many years, so Israel
on this day began to liye anew indeed. And
how was the new life to open .' Every family
if large enough, or otherwise two jointly, must
select a perfect lamb on the tenth day and keep
it apart imtil the fourteenth, on which da)- the
moon would be full. The lamb, so often used
in sacrifice, typifies innocence, a living purpose
to do only good. So the Lord was the Lamb of
God, and on the tenth day of the month He
entered Jerusalem as a king willing to be offered
in sacrifice.

136 EXODUS, xn.

If they had no lamb they might take a goat,
which represents a less perfect innocence. And
if they were too few, they must join two families,
representing degrees of strength, all the weaker
being helped by union. The tenth day stands
for the quickening of all that has been stored
within a man from childhood of good states of
life. If there were ten righteous persons in
Sodom it could be saved,' and every Israelite
must bring the tenths tc God " as representa
tive of the consecrated life. To keep the lamb
apart until the fourteenth day is to exalt inno
cence until a twofold and perfect Sabbath is
reached. Then the offering must be made be
tween the evenings. This apparently trivial
detail illustrates the value of every word which
no loose translation must be suffered to obscure.
The Hebrews like the Greeks had two^yening^s,
the first when the shadows lengthened, the
second at sunset, when the next day began.
' Genesis xviii. 32. " Leviticus xxvii. 32.

THE PASSOVER. 137

The first evening would stand for the declining
day, the second for the coming day, and between
lies that state when fear gives way to hope. It
was at that hour that the Lamb was slain on
Calvary.' It was at that hour that the pass-
over, symbol of salvation, was killed every year
in Israel.
We further read. They sliall take of the blood
atid put it on the two side posts and oti the lititel,
upon tlie houses where tliey shall eat
Verse 7. it. Thus they would make all the
place holy even to the door, as in a life where all
its going out and coming in will be marked with
its innocence, its truthfulness in service.
The lamb must be roasted and must be eaten
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs: it must
not be eaten raw nor sodden with
Verses 8-11. water (boiled), but roast with fire,
head, legs and inward parts. And it must be
eaten itt tliat tiiglit, with tiothing to remain utitil
' Mark xv. 34-42.

138 EXODUS, XII.

tnortiitig, but the bones would be burned in the
morning. The roasting stands for the quality of
love essential to a holy life. The lamb must not
be eaten raw, a type of the natural, unpurified
life ; nor cooked in water, as if doctrine prevailed
rather than life. The unleavened bread signifies
as is presently shown the ardor of movement,
but especially the exclusion of selfish, human
taint, and the impulse received and acted upon
as it came from God. The bitter herbs must
be eaten to typify that all such supreme acts of
faith give some pain of true discipline to the
soul. The manner of eating was with loins girded,
shoes on feet atid staff in hand. Ye shall eat it
in haste, it is the Lord's passover.
Verse 11. The meaning is plain. The whole
man must respond. There must be no delay
and no uncertainty. Israel is to march, and
the whole being must be alert. The haste is
the measure of the earnestness. They wait
until the Lord passes by, and then they go

THE PASSOVER. 139

swiftly as, eager to be disciples, men left their
nets or their dead kindred and went after the
Lord ; ' and as men watching for Him would be
able when He knocked to open immediately."
While they did this, the Lord would go through
the land and stnite the firstborn, both man and
beast, atid against their gods He
Verses 12, 13. would execute judgments ; but when
He saw the token upon the houses He would
pass over. Here, as usual, punishment is spoken
of as the act of God, but it is really the act of
man who goes against the order of the universe.
And this is the division between those who
prosper by that order and those who suffer from
it, that this one token of life, the feast of the
lamb, is found with the loyal, but not with the
rebellious. The law of the annual feast is then given,
but in every subsequent year it would be a feast
of seven days, during all which time
Verses 14-20. unleavened bread must alone be
'Mark i. 18; Matthew viii. 22. "Luke xii. 36.

14° EXODUS, XII.

used ; and every one who refused to keep it so
must be cut off ; and the feast must begin and
end with days of holy convocation. As the years
pass and the full import of the Divine call reveals
itself, for seven days, the measure of the fullest
sanctity, the soul will keep the feast, seeing that
to abandon this is spiritual suicide. And it is
not to be kept without the closest sympathy of
soul with soul, the holy convocation. So the
supper of the Lord, the Christian passover, calls
for communion of spirit, for oneness in Him.
The sojourner as well as the man born an Israel
ite must keep it, showing that the whole nature
obeys the Lord if true order of life prevails from
above. All was to be done as commanded, and with
a bunch of hyssop, the symbol of discipline, the
purged heart,' the doors were to be
Verses 21-27. marked ; and all were to remain
indoors through this time, signifying no wander-

' Psalm 11. 7.

PHARAOH SUBMITS. 141
ing of the mind to other purposes. Moreover
in future years when children would ask why
this was done, the father must tell the whole
story for the Lord's sake and their own.
Hearing all this the people, who saw the
majesty of God now revealed, bowed the head
atid worshipped. And the childreti
Verse 28. of Israel went and did, as the Lord
commanded. It is a state of perfect faith, un
utterably good while it lasts, and it is a fore
taste of heaven. It says, " Not my will but
thine be done." '
PHARAOH SUBMITS.
In that night Israel feasted, but Egypt fainted
for fear, for there was not a house zuhere there
was not OTie dead ; and the king.
Verses 29-33. .
forgetting his threat 01 death it
Moses saw him again, sent for him and Aaron,
and sa.id. Rise np, get you forth from among

' Luke xxii. 42.

142 EXODUS, XII.

tny people ; atid go, serve the Lord, as ye have
said. Take your flocks and your herds, as ye have
said, atid be gone ; and bless me also. Com
pletely broken, the will of the king has yielded
at last to let Israel go, just as they had at the
first requested ; and he even said bless me also
confessing the power of the God of Moses.
Does not everyone at times see how foolish is
sin, and at such times does not one say that
all true blessing is not in wickedness but in
righteousness .-' Moses is vindicated here as
was the Lord when the centurion, looking on
his crucified victim, "glorified God, saying. Cer
tainly this was a righteous man, this was the
Son of God." ' And Paul's jailer, convinced of
his own weakness before the prophets of God,
" took them the same hour of the night, and
washed their stripes, and was straightway
baptized." "

'Luke xxiii. 47; Mark xv. 39. ^AcTS xvi. 33.

ON THE MARCH. 143

ON THE MARCH.
At once the movement began — The people
took their dough before it zuas leavened, their
kneading trouglis being boutid up in
Verses 34-36. their clothes upon their shoulders.
A good purpose gains nothing by delay. " Sa
lute no man by the way," said Elisha to his
servant, sent to the house of the bereaved
Shunammite to bear the staff and place it on
the child.' The right hand is weakened if men
let the left hand know its purpose." When the
Lord sent forth the seventy He said, "Salute
no man by the way."3 It is the wise man who
does not leaven the best impulses of his heart
with selfish considerations, but goes straight to
his works of righteousness.
Now was it that the Egyptians willingly
gave gold, silver and rainietit, types of the
treasures of experience, and presently needed
'2 Kings iv. 29. "Matthew vi. 3. 'Luke a. 4.

144 EXODUS, XIL

to adorn the Tabernacle, symbol of religious
life. The first hour of the liberty of Israel was
one of movement. It is selfishness which is
idle ; service is activity for other's
Verses 37, 38. sakes ; true life is progress ; and
the childreti of Israel jourtieycd frotn Raattises to
Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that
zuere men, beside children. And a mixed multi
tude went up also zuith thetti , atid flocks and
herds, even very ttiuch cattle. The people had
been originally placed in the district of Goshen
in the northwestern part of the land. This is
once spoken of as "the land of Raamses,"'
probably because the district was afterwards so
known from its chief cit}- built by the Rafneses,
the oppressor of Israel, whose work on that and
the neighboring city of Pithom was probably
still going on. Israel had nothing to leave but
the land and the little houses made of the soil
' Genesis xlvii. 11.

ON THE MARCH. 145
and soon to crumble back to it. Perhaps they
went from all directions to the city and thence
to a camping place called therefore Succoth,
like the other places of that name in Palestine
or near it.' They had but about thirty miles
to go to pass over the border, and the)- woidd
move straight for the sunrise.
The number six hundred thousand may be
derived from the census taken about a year
later by tribes." It is a round number sugges
tive of the full and rapid development of the
people and spiritually descriptive of the power
gained by endurance. The children w'ould repre
sent those later qualities which would mature
in time. The mixed multitude became soon a
source of weakness, and it is easy to see that,
made up as it was of other subject races who
had not been instructed in knowledge of one
God, it represented the unconverted elements in
humanity, that so often hinder the growth of
true religion. ' Genesis xxxiii. 17 ; Ps.alm ix. 6. "Numbers i.

146 EXODUS, XII.

It is said that the sojourn of Israel in Egypt
was four hundred and thirty years, a statement
which early caused difficulty and
Verses 40-42. continues to do so. Unless gener
ations not given in the text intervened between
Levi and Moses the number is much too large,
but it is not too large when connected with six
hundred thousand men, and the two statements
stand together. If the sojourning of Abraham
in Egypt be included and thus the whole rela
tion oi ^Israel to Egypt, the period is about
right. The number four hundred and thirty has
marked significance, for four hundred is from
forty, the number of years in the wilderness
and of days in the Lord's temptation, and so
it stands for discipline and tribulation; while- the
number thirty, the years of Joseph and David
and the Lord when life was fully entered upon,
means maturity of inward state ; thus this com
bination represents growth by discipline, life
enriched by arduous but necessary experience.
The law as to who might eat of the passover

ON THE MARCH. 1 47
is plain if it be noted that it was for all who
were prepared for it by circunici-

Verses 43-50.

sion: until the life be in process
of improvement the Christian passover is mean
ingless and profitless. That they must not go
about to eat in several houses evidently means
the need of simple steadfast purpose. A"ot to
break a bone of it is to carry out the idea of
refraining from interfering in the work of the
Lord, as was true also of building the temple
when no sound of axe or hammer was heard.'
The Lord thus brought out the children of
Israel by their hosts the selfsame day. In that
season when all the power of the enemy was
brought to naught, when the Lord had made
His presence felt as never before in Israel, and
when all hearts, filled with awe, sought only to
obey Him, in that day, that most momentous
day, Israel moved like an army from Raamses
to Succoth along the land of its sojourn towards
' Kings vi. 7.

148 EXODUS, XII.
the ;\Iount of God. It was an event of immeas
urable importance to the nation which still
keeps the passover, but it is of even greater
importance to those who can read the spiritlial
sense, who see how wonderfully every willing-
hearted one is led out of the tyranny of the
flesh into the liberty of the sons of God ; for,
if the Lord doth make them free, they shall
be free indeed.' What march of Alexander, of
Napoleon, compares with that of people going
forth by their hosts from slavery to sin unto a
good land and a large!" "Thou calledst in
trouble and I delivered thee."'
In this vivid conjunction of life with death,
of Israel moving to the Mount of God from
among the Egyptian corpses, there is set forth
the eternal law that the old must die when the
new is born. "He that loseth his life shall
find it." -• The Lord laid down His own life to
take it again in glory. "I die daily," saith the
apostle. 5
' John viii. 36. " Exodus iii. 8. ' Psalm Ixxxi. 7. 'Mat
thew X. 39. ^ I Corinthians xv. 31.

SACRED FIRSTBORN. 149

Men may rise on stepping stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.'
And while the dead bury their dead, the
living forget the things which are behind and
stretch forward to the things which are before,
pressing toward the goal unto the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
SACRED FIRSTBORN.
One of the first commands which Israel re
ceived on leaving Egypt was. Sanctify unto tne
CHAPTER XIII. '^^^ ^^^ firstborti, a. law which was
Verses 1, 2. f^^^^ ^^ ^jj intended to save their
lives ; for it appears from excavations to have
been the custom to sacrifice the firstborn for
the sake of the younger children. At Gezer
and Taanach this practice has left its traces in
bones of infants buried under corner stones.
Ahaz, a king of Jerusalem, sacrificed his son.'
The king of Moab made a burnt offering of
'Tennyson. "Phillipians iii. 13, 14. '2 Kings xvi. 3.

15° EXODUS, XIII.

his son." In Leviticus one finds the practice
prohibited in severe terms, showing the preva
lence of it." Instead of the child being made
a victim, it was the Lord's and so was saved
alive as His.
The law of the passover is repeated to em
phasize it as a perpetual ordinance. Further
teaching is then given as to sanc-
Verses 3-10. tifying the firstborn both of man
and beast. The child was to be redeemed,
that is, it was to be bought back from the
Lord by an offering. This is seen when Mary
brought the infant Jesus to the temple and
gave him to the priest, who accepted him for
the Lord, and then gave him back, and took
instead the offering of the poor, two doves.*
Here appears the spiritual meaning, that the
beginning of growth in every soul, its firstborn
of God, shall be hallowed, not defiled by low
and selfish aims, but made to do the will of the
Lord.

'2 Kings iii. 27. "Leviticus xx. 2-5. 'Luke ii. 22-24; Eder-
sheini's Messiah, Book II., Chap. ¦vii.

SACRED FIRSTBORN.

There was an especial provision that the young
ass should be redeemed by means of a lamb or
a kid ; and if not redeemed, then
Verses 11-16. its neck should be broken. The
ass was not to be sacrificed because it was re
garded as unfit or unclean. Either it might
be redeemed by substituting a clean animal,
or with an owner unwilling to furnish a lamb
or kid it was to be slain, implying that by it
is signified a quality so low that it cannot be
accepted as sacred. And this law for the first
born is also a memorial of the deliverance from
Egypt when those sons were slain that these
might prosper, typifying the rejection of the
perverted natural life to save the spiritual. " It
is profitable for thee that one of thy members
should perish, and not that thy whole body
should be cast into hell." ' This law was
spoken of as a token upon the hatid and as
frontlets between the eyes, meaning that thought
and deed must conform to its spirit.
' M.ATTHEW V. 29, 30.

EXODUS, XIII.

SUCCOTH TO ETHAM.
Coming now to the actual movement again,
we read that God led them not by the way .of
the land of the Philistities although
Verses 17, 18. that zuas near ; for God said. Lest
peradventure the people repent wlieti they see
war, atid they return to Egypt , but God led the
people about, by the way of the wilderness of
the Red Sea. Had the Israelites followed the
usual seaside route they would have had little
more than a hundred miles of desert travel
before they would reach the limits of their
Promised Land ; but they would have gone
straight against a nation much stronger than
themselves, afterwards their formidable enemies
until subdued by David, and now and for three
centuries unconquerable. The history of the
Philistines is not fully known, but they were,
as their name implies, colonists, probably from
the Island of Crete, and they seem to have

SUCCOTH TO ETHAM. 153
held the use of iron as a monopoly, so that
Israel in Saul's time was dependent on them
for weapons and tools."
Dwelling in five walled cities, the Philistines
were too strong for Israel, wholly unaccustomed
to battle, and therefore Israel could not safely
be led that way. The " Philistine " has become
a byword for a coarse person who does not
appreciate art or learning ; and this is not far
from the signification of that nation, if a relig
ious point of view be taken ; for the Philistines,
in constant hostility to Israel, in their defiance
by Goliath, and in their repeated assaults upon
David, represent infidelity despising religious
humility and indulging in the pride of superior
knowledge. " I will cut off the pride of the
Philistines," saith the Lord by the prophet."
Against such power Israel could not stand, and
therefore their way must be longer and less
direct. It is thus that the Divine Mercy meets
' I "Samuel xiii. 19-22. " Zechariah ix. 6.

1 54 EXODUS, XIIL

the weakness of men, giving up the way too
hard for them and going around with them
until an easier way is found, not breaking the
bruised reed nor quenching the smoking flax.'
"Why cannot I follow Thee now.'" demanded
Peter, and he was for going straight on ; but
he could not do it, that very night he would
yield to fear ; he could not follow his Lord
then, but might do so "afterwards.""
Instead then of going northeastward Israel
held a more eastward course, the way of the
Red Sea, or more correctly, the Sea of Reeds,
the shallow water lying along the line of the
modern Suez Canal. And they went up armed
means probably that they held some simple
weapons such as shepherds carry, thus prepared
in a degree for strife and moving with some
form, although not yet given the order of camp
and march later prescribed.
It is a most interesting and important fact
' Isaiah xUi. 3. " John xiii. 36-38.

SUCCOTH TO ETHA.M. 155
that Moses took the boties of Joseph zuith Imn,
for he had straitly sworn the chil-
Verse 19. dren of Israel, saying, God will
surely visit you ; and ye shall carty up -my boties
away hence zuith you. Sojourning so long in
Egypt and honored so highly, Joseph never
swerved from the promise to his fathers, but
was sure that Israel would have at last the
land of Canaan. There and there only should
his bones be buried. The oath is told as it
was exacted by him in his last words, and his
body had been embalmed and put into a coffin
of wood.' No doubt it had remained with his
descendants, and now it went with Israel as a
pledge of future good. As Joseph is a type
of the Lord in his love of his brethren, his
forgiveness of their crime and his saving them
alive, so his bones, borne by Moses, would repre
sent the Lord going on the way with every re
generating soul, pledging ultimate victory.
'Genesis \. 25, 26.

IS6 EXODUS, XIII.

And they took their journey frotn Succoth and
eticatnped in Ethatti, in the edge of the wilder
ness. This was the Egyptian fron-
Verse 20. tier. Etham is well known from the
Egyptian records. It was the gateway of the
desert. Israel had probably moved so far along
canals of sweet water from the Nile, over the
usual road eastward, and now they are about
to leave Egypt, as they believe. But their
movement is guided by a column
Verses 21, 22. of light, cloudlike by day and lumi
nous by night. The pillar of cloud by day and
the pillar of fire by night, departed tiot frotn
before the people. Evidently they had a glimpse
of the light of the other world, as Moses had
at Sinai, as Ezekiel and other prophets had,
and as the disciples had at the Mount of Trans
figuration ; and so the Divine presence was made
known to them continually.
So is it in every one's progress. The Lord
is his light and the light of the world,' the
'John viii. 12.

TURNING BACK. 157

everlasting light,' so that he does not walk in
darkness but has the light of life. By day^ in
states of peace and power, this light may be
less fully perceived ; but let trouble and temp
tation come, let the darkness thicken in the
shadow of the valley of death, and the light
gleams forth " to give light to them that sit in
darkness and the shadow of death, to guide
their feet into the way of peace." " And it
goes before, because heaven is above and not
below, before and not behind.
TURNING BACK.
So far Israel had gone eastward, but they
had been directed to go first to Sinai and bow
themselves before the Lord there.' On this
eastward course Israel would pass far to the
north of Sinai, and therefore a southeasterly
course must be taken and adhered to for a long
time. This would seem to require only a turn

'Isaiah Ix. 19. "Luke i. 79. 'Chapter iii. 12.

[58 EXODUS, XIV.

from Etham southward, but no, Israel must
turn back altogether : Speak unto the childreti
chapter xiv of Israel that they turn back, and
Verses i, vc. etwamp before Pihahiroth, betweeti
Migdol and the sea, before Baalzephon , over
against it shall ye encamp by the sea.
It may be that Israel found at Etham the
usual garrison to defend the frontier from re
peated invasions, and it may be that the expres
sion arttied^ implies that in approaching Etham
the people made some effort to force their way,
but could not do so. However that may be,
they were commanded to turn southwestward
within the Egyptian boundary and go along by
the sea to a well-defined spot where the sea
would lie across their path. This spot lay be
tween the water and three other places, but
none of these is as yet so clearly located as to
be without doubt, and therefore one must be
content to leave the precise place undetermined.
Nor is it possible to say as to the water, just

' Chapter xiii. 18.

TURNING BACK. 159

how far up the land the Red Sea or Gulf of
Suez extended in those days, but it probably
did extend farther than now, a shallow sea with
many reeds, hence called Supli.
This position was apparently fatal to Israel,
for Pharaoh will say. They are etitatigled in the
latid, the wilderness liatli shut thetti
Verse 3. iti. In Other words Israel is to be
so placed as to be helpless and to look death in
the face. The utility of Israel going into despair
and then being saved, is seen from its repeated
decisions to forsake the Lord for the gods of
Egypt. It must then be repeatedly taught to
look only to the Lord ; as the Psalm says,
" Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now
have I kept Thy word." ' Moreover, Egypt,
although so severely disciplined, is not yet satis
fied that God can deliver, and it will make a
final effort, as the forces of evil, often subdued,
made against the Lord when in Gethsemane

'Psalm cxix. 67.

l6o EXODUS, XIV.

came the hour of the power of darkness." This
is the meaning of the words, The
Verse 4. Egyptians shall know that I am the

Lord.

PURSUIT BV EGYPT.
Israel, yielding apparently to necessity as well
as command, left Etham, and found rest in the
place assigned, but the king was swiftly informed.
Then naturally, the heart of Plia-
Verse 5. raoli and his servants was chatind o
towards the people, and they said. What is this
zve have done, that we have let Israel go frotn
serving us ? As the old nature in a man, sub
dued by penalties of suffering, is quick to reassert
itself as soon as the sufferings cease and to feel
that it yielded too easily, so Pharaoh proclaims
that a mistake has been made and that selfish
interests may yet be vindicated against God and
His people Israel. ' Luke xxii. 53.

PURSUIT BY EGYPT. l6i
He -made ready his chariot, atid took his people
with him ; and lie took six hundred chosen char
iots, atid all the chariots of Egypt,
Verses 6-9. and captains over all of them. Atid
the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of
Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel,
for the children of Israel went out with a high
hand. It is easy to see the energy of this move
ment. The king called out his own six hundred
chariots and also all other chariots of near
stations. Each had its experienced captain or
fully armed soldier, and each its driver to manage
two spirited horses. Of such chariots Israel had
not one, nor had it any means of defence against
such a charging force.
Hitherto the king had employed cruelty in
his treatment of Israel to bring about their
subjugation, but now he will annihilate them.
Chariots and horses represent the crushing
power of the old mind in man in its final and
desperate effort to have its way, even if the
deliverance of the enslaved has been by the high
hand of God. "Away with Him, crucify Him,

1 62 EXODUS, XIV.

His blood be on us and on our children"' —
such is the mad reasoning of the Pharaonic
spirit. When it is said that the Lord hard
etied Pharaoh's heart, the meaning is as before
of evil as well as good attributed to God, though
men are responsible for turning His life in them
to sin. TAUGHT TO TRUST.
The Egyptians soon came upon the camp of
Israel. The children of Israel lifted up their eyes
and, behold, the Egyptiatis marched
Verse lo. after them, and they were sore
afraid, and they cried out utito the Lord. This
is the end of human resource, and it is just the
time when Israel should have exercised that
trust which it had been taught in Egypt.
" What time I am afraid, I will trust in Thee." "
But Israel had learned no trust and never did
learn. A few learned to trust God's providence,
'John xix. 15; Matthew xxvii. 25. "Psalm hi. 3.

TAUGHT TO TRUST. 163
Moses, Joshua, David and especiaUy Daniel ;
but the people, looked at from their subsequent
history, had always "their heart not right
with Him, neither were they steadfast in His
covenant." '
At once they turned upon Moses as if he
were their chief enemy : Because there zuere tto
graves itt Egypt, hast thou taketi us
Verses 11, 12. away to die in the wilderness ?
Wlierefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to bring
us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that
zue spake unto thee in Egypt, saying. Let us alone
tliat we -muy serve the Egyptians ? For it were
better for us to serve tlie Egyptians tlian that we
should die in the wilderness.
This is weak humanity seeing no way forward
because it is faithless, and begging to be allowed
to fall back into all baseness. The answer to
this attitude is like that of the Lord to the
shrieking disciples, " It is I, be not afraid." "

' Psalm Ixxviii. 37- " Matthew xiv. 27.

164 EXODUS, XIV.

And Moses said. Fear ye not, stand
Verses 13, 14. still, atid see the salvation of the
Lord, which He will work for you to-day ; for the
Egyptiatis whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see
them again no more forever. The Lord shall
fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.
Because men need such times when they can
only " hope and quietly wait for the salvation of
the Lord," ' they have them ; and even the Lord
in the times of temptation "stilled and quieted
His soul like a child weaned of his mother;""
but deliverance is ever at hand for them that
wait on the Lord.
Speak unto the children of Israel that they go
forzuard. Lift thou up thy rod, atid stretch out ¦
thine hatid over the sea, and divide
Verse 15. //, atid the children of Israel shall
go into the tnidst of the sea oti dry ground. The
sea was like Noah's flood, it was like the Jordan
rolling between Israel and its land ; the sea in
such cases is the type of infernal falsities engulf-
' Lamentations iii. 26. " Psalm cxxxi. 2.

EGYPT ENGULFED. 165
ing men, like the flood cast out of the mouth of
the serpent to destroy the woman and her child.'
The Sea of Reeds was ' the ally of Egypt, but
God could do with it what Egypt could not. He
could bear it back, saying, "When tnou passest
through the waters I will be with thee ; and
through the rivers, they shall not overflow
thee." " As our Lord went straight through the
midst of the foes of men, to preach deliverance
to the captives,' so God would lead Israel
through the sea, but their enemies
Verses 17, 18. would perish therein.
EGYPT ENGULFED.
First the pillar of cloud removed from before
them and stood behind them, and the one host
came tiot near the other all the flight.
Verses 19, 20. The accompanying angel, the guid
ing influences of heaven, acted as a check upon
the movements of the Egyptians. As there are
'Revelation xii. 15. "Isaiah xliii. 2. 'i Peter iii. 19.

1 66 EXODUS, XIV.

States of life when the soul advances under the
lead of the Holy Spirit, so there are other times
when it pauses before difficulties, wearied and
discouraged, and then the help which is needed
and given is protection, a power which neither
slumbers nor sleeps, and which watches over
Israel, preserving it "from all evil from this time
forth and even forever more." "
In that night was the wonder wrought. A
strotig east wind blew, and made the sea dry
land, and the waters zuere divided.
Verse 21. The power of the wind, which easily
pressed back the water, reminds one of the
mighty rushing wind of Pentecost," of the wind
of the story of Noah which caused the waters
of the flood to recede,' and of the angels hold
ing back the winds until those were sealed who
were not to undergo the judgment, which would
be wrought by letting the power of heaven in
upon the abodes of those who were to be j udged. ¦•

' Psalm cxxi. 4, 7, 8. "Acts ii. 2. 'Genesis xviii. i. ¦* Rev-
el-ation vii. I.

EGYPT ENGULFED. 167
The waters, so divided towards the lake north
ward and the main sea southward, were a wall,
because no one could approach
Verse 22. Israel from the sides. And Israel
marched over the space between, which may
have been a slight ridge from which the waters
would fall either way.
So all was plain for Israel, moving swiftly in
the morning light with fresh hope. And Egypt
as quickly pursued with its chariots.
Verses 23-25. still sure of victory. But they were
soon in difficulty. It is said that in the ttiorning
watch the Lord looked forth on them through the
pillar of flre and of cloud, and disco-mfited tlietn.
He took off the chariot wheels, and tnade them
to drive heavily, so that the Egyptians said. Let
us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord
fighteth for them agaitist the Egyptians. This
is easily understood. As both fire and cloud are
named it was evidently in the twilight of dawn
that the chariots dashed into the breach, but
galloping horses sank deeply in the sand, and
wheels, adapted only to level roads, were strained

1 68 EXODUS, XIV.

and loosened, and a panic came upon the men.
It is in the morning watch of a new hope that
faith strengthens; "weeping may endure for a
night, but joy cometh in the morning ; " ' and
then the powers of evil are correspondingly
weakened : " in the night all the beasts creep
forth, the young lions roar after their prey ; the
sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, and
lay them down in their dens."" Again Egypt
is subdued, the old nature confesses the power
under God of the new nature, of Israel.
But it does not end there. Already Egypt
has lost cattle, crops and firstborn ; it must lose
its chariots and horses as well as their men.
There is a life which gains, from one talent to
ten, and there is one which loses even that one
talent because it will not use it well. The waters
catne upoti the Egyptians, upon their
Verses 26-31. chariots and upon their horsetnen-
The sea returned in its strength when the -morn
ing appeared. And the waters covered them ,
' Psalm xxx. 5. " Psalm civ. 20-22.

EGYPT ENGULFED. 169
there remained not so tnuch as one. And Israel
saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. And
the people feared the Lord, and they believed in
the Lord and in His servant Moses.
There is a time in every contest with sin
when it ceases to fight. Egypt was now fully
conquered, and by means of its own persistent
assaults. The hour of the power of darkness
was really that of the defeat of the prince of
this world, for he came and found nothing in
the Lord to control.' So Egypt could not touch
Israel. The destruction of Egypt here, like that
of Sodom and Gomorrah, and like that of the
tribes afterwards defeated by Israel, shows the
ending of an older era which had sunk into idol
atry, giving place to the new religion given at
Sinai.

' John xiv. 30.

17° EXODUS, XV.

SONG OF TRIUMPH.
In sense of increasing weakness Egypt at
tempted to flee, the men apparently mounting
CHAPTER XV. '¦^^ horses, but the sea overpowered
Verses 1-19. jjgrses and riders. Then as Egypt
fell Israel rose, and full of faith for the time it
sang its song of triumph, expressing the vital
truth that the Lord alone had conquered and
would reign forever atid ever. Probably Moses
sang the lines first and the male chorus repeated
the words, while Miriam and the
Verses 20, 21. women, taking their timbrels and
dancing as they sang, repeated again the words.
Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed
gloriously ; the horse atid his rider hath He
thrown into the sea.
Would that Israel might remain in this mood ;
would that all on earth might thus sing the songs
of heaven ; but, since such stability of faith lies
as yet beyond the most of men, so let the seasons
of brief peace in triumph be fully celebrated with

AT MARAH. 171

the psalm in the church or on the daily path
way, until out of great tribulation men learn at
last to "follow the Lamb whithersoever He
goeth," and to " stand in white robes with palms
in their hands ; and. God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes." ' AT MARAH.
After Israel had been delivered from the
Egyptians and had sung its song of triumph,
many weary miles were to be trav-
Verse 22. ersed. Regeneration is not gained
at baptism, nor by any single experience. It is
a long and a toilsome process since humanity
became what it is. The Promised Land was far
from the Red Sea. Therefore, Moses led Israel
onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into
the wilderness of Shur. This wilderness was a
tract of sand and gravel, a place of tribulation,
a place of discipline where faith would be proved
' Revelation vii. 9, 17.

172 EXODUS, XV.

in many ways. There is no progress in life
unless, through temptations endured, the life
can learn to choose the good and refuse the
evil. Our Lord seemed to deserve no such
trials ; but, without the temptations or attacks
of evil which went with Him all the way and
culminated on the cross. He would not have won
a single victory, nor advanced a step in the
process of His glorification. " Now is my soul
troubled, and what shall I say .¦" Father, save
me from this hour .' but for this cause came I
unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.
Then came the voice saying, I have both glorified
it and will glorify it again."" "Sufficient to the
day is the evil thereof," " because a merciful
Providence permits only that degree of trial
daily which may make for victory.
Therefore, to teach this lesson of faith, Israel
was led into the wilderness of Shur where Hagar
had had her first trial,' and they went three days
in the wilderness and found no water. A time
'John xii. 27, 28. "Matthew vi. 34. 'Genesis xvi. 7.

AT MARAH. 173

of great suffering had come, for they no more
walked by the canals of sweet Nile water. They
had probably taken water from the Wells of
Moses, as they are still called, near the sea, but
that supply was exhausted, and they were athirst.
To one who has felt this parching misery the
spiritual meaning is not hard to explain. The
"living water" which the Lord described to
the Samaritan ' is the truth of His teaching,
given to comfort and strengthen the spirit in
life's journey. Having this, one never thirsts
because always the uplifting influence of the
Gospel is felt, but to one in the early stages of
regenerate life there are seasons of weakness,
when passion parches the nature and it longs
like David for a draught of the water of child
hood's well."
This route of Israel has been carefully searched
out,' and it is probable that a brackish well of
white limestone water by which stand two

'John iv. 10. "2 Samuel xxiii. 15. '"Desert of the Exo
dus," by Palmer.

174 EXODUS, XV.

stunted palms is the very place to which they
came eagerly ; but alas, they could
Verse 23. not drink of the zvaters, for they were
bitter; therefore the name of it was called Marah.
A life of good is not pleasant to the natural
man. He tastes the waters of self-sacrifice and
patient service, and they are bitter. Discourage
ment ensues. What shall we drink?
Verse 24. cried the people in despair. There
was but one remedy, to seek the Lord. This
was done, and the Lord showed
Verse 25. Moses a tree, and he cast it into the
waters, and the zuaters zuere tnade sweet. The
remedy was at hand, as is often the case, but
despair hides it.
Something of wood, put into the water, coun
teracted its brackish taste, and made it palatable.
The honest purpose of fruitbearing, that is, of
a useful life, takes away the bitterness of any
duty injuring pride and self love, and makes
the yoke easy and the burden light.' The sorrow
' Matthew xi. 30.

AT MARAH. 175

is turned into joy when the good deed is done
with its pain.' Israel was happy again.
And here the lesson was taught as a statute
atid an ordinance, that if they would have faith
and obey the Lord, He would put
Verses 25, 26. on them none of the diseases put
upon the Egyptians. T am the Lord that healeth
thee. The diseases are the plagues, which Israel
had seen but had not endured, nor will they
ever suffer from them if they do right. But
murmuring and doubting and denying will bring
on those very plagues. Let Israel beware then.
And the warning is for all, not to repeat sins cf
disbelief, but from one such experience to take
the needed lesson that the Lord reign eth and
will provide. " Lead us not into temptation,"
is the prayer, because men are to shun it, not
seeking the ways of it, but seeking to be strong
and constant in faith. One Alarah should be
enough, never to be forgotten, but there are
still to come the ^leribahs at the waters of
strife." 'J0HNXVL21. "Exodus xvii. 7 ; Numbers xx. 13; Psalm
cvi. 32.

176 EXODUS, XV.

REST AT ELIM.
Again the chastened people move forward
and presently come to a beautiful valley in which
were and are many wells and a great
Verse 27. grove of palms — in the symbolic
language of Scripture twelve springs of water
and seventy pal-m trees. Not wells of standing
water but springs were in Elim, giving abun
dant drink, and under the broad, cool shadow
Israel might enjoy a true Sabbath rest signi
fied by seventy, as twelve stands for all those
sources of refreshing in the Divine Word.
The name Elim would seem to mean the noble
growth of the palms as contrasted with the
scanty herbage of the desert. Such a place in
life is a garden of the Lord. As one has
written, —
To-day 'tis Elim with its palms and wells.
And happy shade for desert weariness ;
Twas Marah yesterday, all rock and sand,
Unshaded solitude and bitterness.

FED WITH MANNA. 177

CHAPTER x-vi.

FED WITH MANNA.
No doubt Israel took its ease at Elim while
the pasturage lasted. But Sabbaths are prepa
rations for new labors and are
worthily spent only to that end.
Israel must move on to another beautiful place,
but by a very difficult road. They must now
make their way down to the seaside and pass
among rocks on a narrow stretch between the
sea on the right and the mountains on the left,
known as the Wilderness of Sin, perhaps so
called from places of miry clay.
They are said to have arrived at this stage
on the fifteenth day of the second month after their
departing out of the land of Egypt.
Verse i. Exactly one month has been passed
upon the road. The passover was eaten on the
fourteenth day of the first month, and that night
the movement began. Fourteen suggests a

178 EXODUS, XVI.

double sabbath, a completed state ; but fifteen,
like eight, suggests a new beginning. Thus
the chronicle of the journeys in Numbers says
that Israel departed from Egypt on the fifteenth
day of the first month,' and Jeroboam on that
day of the month began his idolatry at Bethel,"
and the mission of John the Baptist began in
the fifteenth year of Tiberius.' And the new
departure here was the great change of condi
tion by which Israel was fed by the manna daily.
This is really a step in heavenly progress, to
come to be conscious that all life is from the
Lord, the living Bread, and to look forever to
Him for good, and never in vain. But faith
less Israel was as usual in despair rather than
in confidence when the help came as provided
by the Lord.
They murmured against Moses atid Aaroti, they
said. Would that we had died by the hand of the
Lord in the land of Egypt, when
Verses 2, 3. we sat by the flesh pots, when we
' Numbers xxxiii. 3. ^ i Kings xii. 32. ' Luke iii. i.

FED WITH MANNA. 1 79
did eat bread to the full ; for ye have brought
us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole
assembly with hutiger. Of so little faith were
they that it never occurred to them to ask
the Lord for needed aid, but they ignored Him
and chided His appointed leaders as cruel men.
Answering these murmurs as always with in
finite patience the Lord said. Behold, I will rain
bread from heaveti for you. The
Verses 4, 5. law of the manna then followed :
the people must go out and gather it every day,
but on the sixth day they must gather twice as
much as on other days.
What are we that you murmur against us ?
said the two accused ; your murmurings are not
against us, but against the Lord.
Verses 6-10. Come 7iear before the Lord, for He
hath heard your murmurings ; atid Israel looked,
and saw the glory of the Lord.
They were then told that between the evenitigs
(at the very same hour as that of the passover

EXODUS, XVI.

feast) they would eat flesh, and in the
Verse 12. morning they would be filled with
bread. So it was, for quails came up and covered
the camp, and iti the morning, when the dew was
gone up, behold upoti the face of the wilderness a
small round thing, as the hoar frost on the ground.
The birds came but once, the manna daily.
Even now the traveller on such shores may
find birds, wearied with long flight over the
water, hovering near the earth and easily taken.
There is some difference of opinion as to the
birds or whether they were birds rather than
flying fish, but Httle doubt need be felt that
they were the short winged birds migrating from
Africa in the Spring and arriving when sorely
needed. Yet their flesh does not represent the
permanent heavenly food, but rather that lower
sort nearer to the passions which means danger
of excess, as was more fully shown in a sub
sequent case when the plague followed the
feasting.' " Numbers xi. 33.

FED WITH MANNA.

It is the manna which was permanent until
Israel entered upon its inheritance and ate the
grain of Canaan. There is a small white exuda
tion from the desert shrubs which was valued
by the people of old and gathered. The Egyp
tians called it man or manna, and
Verse 15. when the Israelites said Wliat is it ?
they used in their language the same sound.
Of course no such supply as was required and
as was furnished at all seasons for nearly forty
years was obtainable from shrubs. Israel had
still their herds and flocks and might sometimes
get fruits, but for bread dependence must be
placed upon manna. It is said that it was
there on the ground in the morning when the
dew or mist rose before the sun. What could
it have been but an outward form of that love
which is " angels' food " ! ' As the Lord took
five small loaves, and blessed, and distributed
to thousands," so here the people were fed by
'Psalm ixxviii. 25. "Matthew xiv. 21.

EXODUS, XVI.

Him and not by the usual sowing and reaping.
The miraculous in earth is the common way in
heaven, and in the spiritual life while still in
the flesh men should learn to pray for that daily
bread of life by which their better part may be
satisfied. The law of the manna is most instructive.
A proportionate amount was to be gathered, and
therefore they took up some more
Verses 16-18 and some less according to their
families, and by observing the rule of the otner
(about two quarts) for each one, none was wasted.
Even so according to the need is the Divine
supply, and no man shall hold buried talents,'
nor say to his soul, " Thou hast much goods laid
up, take thine ease."" Therefore
Verses 19, 20. Moses said. Leave nothitig of it until
the morning, but they disobeyed, and it bred
worms atid stank, as good turns to evil in a
life of waywardness. Morning by morning they

' Luke xix. 26. " Luke xii. 19.

FED WITH MANNA. 183
gatltered it — " new mercies every morning " ' —
through th'e week. Each day the
Verse 21. unused part -melted and disappeared
when the sun was liot, to signify that the rise of
self-love consumes or dissipates the unappropri
ated innocence, the state of the sweet, calm
morning. Two portions on the sixth day is the sign of
growth, of increasing good enabling the soul
to enter upon its sabbath of rest
Verses 22-24. and peace. And so IMoses said,
Tcntiorrow is a solettiti rest, a holy sabbath utito
tlie Lord ; bake that which ye will bake atid seethe
(or boil) that which ye will seethe ; and all that
re-maineth over lay up for you to be kept utitil the
morning. Thus does life rise and fall, go forth
in its effort and return to its rest, and the Lord
hallows that rest for the sake of the days that
must follow. Moses warned them solemnly that
they would find none on the ground on the sab-
'LAMENTATIONb iii. 22, 23.

184 EXODUS, XVI.

bath, but there were faithless ones
Verses 25-30. who went out on that day 2iX\dfoutid
none, and they learned of their fault.
White and sweet as honey was this food, signi
fying the purity and delightsomeness of heaven ;
and Moses, perhaps after the taber-
Verses 31-34. nacle was built, ordered that the
measure of a day be kept and laid up before the
Lord, as a testimony to the generations. So
every good experience makes its record by stor
ing up something to remain forever and be a
bond between the Saviour and the saved. There
are relics of bones and hair, which in the dark
ages were treasured and placed in churches and
thought to have Divine efficacy, but this is idol
atry ; the true relic is a sweet remaining evi
dence of past blessing, laid up in the consecrated
heart ; so is the simple Christian feast kept " in
remembrance " of a day when the Lord washed
His disciples' feet and gave them bread. His
body, and wine. His blood, that they might live
in Him and He in them forevermore.

FED WITH MANNA. 1 85
What Israel did outwardly, laying up the pot
of manna, people are now to do inwardly, keep
ing the remembrance of the living Bread which
came down from heaven to give life unto the
world, not as the fathers ate manna in the wilder
ness and are dead, but as a man eateth and liv
eth forever,' fed by the Lord, who is way, truth
and life."
¥ ox forty years it is said that Israel was so fed
because that is the number significant of proba
tion, with Moses in Midian, already
Verse 35. explained, with Elijah in the desert,
and with the Lord in His temptation. And
they were so fed until they catne to a latid inliab-
ited, to the borders of the land of Canaan, for
that land stands for the end of life's discipline,
the border of heaven, and it is written in Joshua
that Israel did not have manna any more, but
"did eat of the fruit of the land";' and this
describes that glorious life elsewhere set forth
'John vi. 51, 58. " John xiv. 6. 'Joshua v. 12.

l86 EXODUS, XVL

in the vision of the " tree of life bearing twelve
manner of fruits, yielding its 'fruit every month," '
a life which, as compared to this life's journey
in the wilderness, is as day to night and as para
dise to desert.
It is remarkable that at this chapter's end,
after all this important history, there is a little
verse which the critic looks upon as a mere
gloss, a late addition. But it also has its spiri
tual significance, although it only says that an
otner is the tenth part of an epliali.
Verse 36. The ephah was a well-known meas
ure, the omer is never mentioned in Scripture
except in this chapter. Why then was it brought
into use, with this necessary explanation that it
was equivalent to the tenth of an ephah 1
Because the tenth part is so significant. Peo
ple gave tithes or tenths of all to the priests."
Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek.' Jacob
promised tithes to God if he came in peace from
' Revelation xxii. ii. " Leviticus xxvii. 30. ' Genesis
xiv. 20.

FED WITH MANNA. 187
Fadan-Aram." With many of the sacrifices a
tenth deal or tenth part of fine meal was to be
joined." If only ten righteous w-ere found in
Sodom, it would be saved.' The meaning comes
to view in the saying of Isaiah that after the
cities were destroyed for their iniquity, there
would be "a tenth, and it would return, like a
terebinth or an oak whose stock remains when
they cast their leaves." ^
This remnant, which is holy and therefore
safe, is the omer, the tenth part of the ephah ;
for what men give to the Lord is saved to them,
and what they spend for self is lost. \^'hat is
received from the Lord and used in His service
is measured with the omer, the tenth, and it
abides forever in the soul which is as a temple
of the Lord. „ " Bring ye all the tithes, and
prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts,
if I will not open you the windows of heaven and
pour you out a blessing." ' When the omer was
' Genesis xxviii. 22. " Numbers xv. 4. ' Genesis xviii.
32. * Isaiah vi. 13. ' Malachi iii. 10.

EXODUS, XVI.

used to measure the daily food, and when it was
used again to lay up a remembrance of the
Divine mercy, then the tenth part of an ephah
served as the heavenly type of that life, which
is not self-centered, but is a stewardship ; and
he who keeps the Communion with his Lord
receives manna and lays it up, "a treasure in
the heavens that faileth not, where no thief
approacheth, neither moth corrupteth."'
Such a measure, exemplified in such a life,
leaves nothing over, for it uses all its powers
as it should ; and it has no lack because it is
" rich toward God," " rich in faith, rich in love,
rich in fruitage of all serviceableness. No dis
ease of Egypt, the brutish life, comes upon it.
Its one gains ten talents, not one buried, but
ten at work ; it is faithful over its few things
until it comes into authority over many.' It is
such a life which labors not for " the meat which

' Luke xii. 33. " Luke xii. 17. ' Matthew xxv. 21.

CHAPTER XVII.
Verse i.

MASSAH AND MERIBAH. 189
perisheth, but for that which endureth unto ever
lasting life." ' MASSAH AND MERIBAH.
Israel had passed along the eastern shore of
the Red Sea until the place was reached where
the route turns from the sea and
ascends by a pleasant valley to
the higher ground where Moses had been called
of God. This valley was called Rephiditn, mean
ing a place of refreshment. But the season had
now advanced into summer, there was little water
to be found except in deep wells, atid there zuas
no zuater for the people to drink.
When this is read the thought that it has
occurred before arises, and it is not strange that
it should seem to some that here is only a differ
ent account of the event at Marah ; but it is not
so. At Marah the people found water, but it was
unfit to drink ; here there is none. There the
' John vi. 27.

190 EXODUS, XVII.

water must be healed, here it must be produced.
In both cases the people murmured.
Verses 2, 3. to be sure, but there the likeness
ceases. Here as before they strove with Moses :
they said. Give us water, and they demanded to
know why he had brought them so far only to
destroy them, their children and their cattle zuith
thirst. This faithless attitude is certainly re
peated again and again. It is the attitude of
the unregenerate mind. It lacks faith because
it lacks love. In prosperity it forgets to be
thankful ; in adversity it forgets past help and
thinks God a liar. If there were not such a
heart in man we should not have the seeming
repetitions in this history.
Evidently this time the rage of the people
through suffering went farther than before.
What sliall I do ? cried Moses unto
Verse 4. the Lord, they be alttiost ready to
stotie ttie. The situation was indeed desperate ;
but spiritually it is so in every life. Water fails
when passion parches the nature and no refresh-

MASSAH AND MERIBAH. 191
ing relief from heaven is found. Then men
hate the conscience that has led them to make
the effort now defeated. In the extremity of
temptation the Lord said, " I thirst " ; ' how
much more must men say so, yet not patiently
as He said it, but angrily as if to " curse God
and die." "
The answer given to Moses' despairing cry
was most prompt. Pass on before the people,
and take zuith tliee of the elders of
Verses 5, 6. Israel ; and thy rod, wherewith thou
smotest the river, take in thy hand, atid go.
Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the
rock in Horeb ; and thou slialt smite the rock,
and there shall come water out of it, that the
people may drink. Atid Moses did so in the sight
of the ciders of Israel.
The answer to be given to the murmurers was
spectacular. Moses, taking old men with him,
moved forward toward a cliff, carrying the sacred
'John xix. 28. "JobU. 9.

192 EXODUS, XVIL

Staff, once in use by him as a shepherd, then
exalted as the more than kingly sceptre which
had waved over the Nile and brought forth the
plagues ; and with this rod he struck the face of
the rock, and waters gushed out abundantly.
There was no time to dig wells down to the bed
rock along which water was making its way.
The water stored by winter rains in the moun
tain must be had at once, and one blow would
bring it forth.
So majestic was this act, and so impressive
the scene, that it is no wonder that it became
the theme of psalms — " He smote the rock that
the waters gushed out, and the streams over
flowed ; " ' " He opened the rock, and the waters
gushed out ; they ran in dry places like a
river ; " " " He turned the rock into a standing
water, the flint into a fountain of waters ; " ' and
Paul is found saying, '" They drank of that spiri
tual rock that followed them ; and that Rock was
' Psalms Ixxviii. 20 ; "cv. 41 ; 'cxiv. 8.

WAR IN REPHIDIM. 193
Christ." ' And this is the spiritual meaning ; no
rock followed them literally, but spiritually the
Lord is the Rock, and He gives the living water,
and so refreshes His disciples that they never
thirst. In His Word is the water of life, and
men smite it with ]\Ioses' rod when they seek
beneath or behind the history and statute and
parable for the spirit that quickeneth." Such
a one drinks of the brook in the way and there
fore lifts up the head.'
This place of despair was called Massah,
" proving," and Meribah, " striving," because
when Israel was thinking to test
Verse 7. God — Is the Lord among us or tiot ?
— in reality He was testing them who were of
little faith. WAR IN REPHIDIM.
A long rest must have been taken there.
The valley had become a paradise. Troubles
' I Corinthians X. 4. "John vi. 63. 'Psalm ex. 7.

194 EXODUS, XVII.

were forgotten ; shame over unbelief quickly
passed ; and content reigned everywhere. But
they were occupying land claimed by others, by
the descendants of Esau,' and as soon as the
desert tribe could be gathered they attacked
Israel. This was a new experience. Death by
hunger or thirst they had feared, but this danger
was so much more terrible that fear seemed to
have paralyzed them. They did not chide
Moses, they were still in powerlessness.
Amalek was a great tribe of the desert, and
Rephidim was their border. They came shout
ing on after the Arab manner, sling-
Verse 8. ing stones, shooting arrows, and
seeking to get within the space where spears
could be used. It would seem that Israel, sur
prised, made no attempt to flee, and that Amalek
withdrew a little for the morrow's decisive com
bat. Their preparations were already made, but
what could Israel do .¦•

' Genesis

XXXVI. 12.

WAR IN REPHIDI.V. 195
Moses turns to Joshua, who now appears for
the first time and is called by anticipation by his
later name, when Oshea, "help,"
Verse 9. was joined with the Divine name
Jehovah, and so formed Jehoshua and then
Joshua. He it was who would be Moses' suc
cessor, the leader of Israel in the conquest of
Palestine. His name, identical in Hebrew with
Jesus in Greek, reveals his representative char
acter. Moses represents the Divine truth in
statute, Joshua is that truth in act. The Lord
Jesus was the Word made flesh, the conqueror
of evil, the founder of the kingdom of heaven.
With no earthly weapons did He fight, but with
"the sword of the spirit, which is the Word
of God." '
Joshua, in the prime of life, must lead in the
battle — choose us out meti, and go out, fight with
Amalek; but Moses, already aged.
Verse 9. will take another part. T will statid
on the top of tlie hill with the rod of God in ttiy
' Ephesians vi. 17.

196 EXODUS, XVII.

hand. While some fight others shall pray.
While the powers of active life struggle in temp
tation, the more interior nature, secure on its
hill, will look up for blessing. Below are the
din of battle and .the pain of wounds, above is
the power of God wielded by the rod of God.
While Martha wearies herself with honest striv
ing, Mary sits at peace ; ' and both these planes
of life should be developed for good in all.
So it was done. On the morrow, type of a
new stage of experience, Joshua led forth his
men before the camp, and Moses
Verse 10. and Aaron and Hur zvent up to the
top of the hill. In the work in Egypt Moses
and Aaron took the lead, representing as was
shown the Divine Law or Word and its true
interpretation. Why is a third man, Hur, added
to them here .' Little is known of him except
that he was of Judah, not Levi, and was the
grandfather of Bezaleel who was given skill to

'Luke x. 39.

WAR IN REPHIDIM. 197
do the embroidered work of the Tabernacle.'
Thus Hur was an old man, and it is said later
that he was left with Aaron in charge of the
people when Moses went up into the mount."
There is much tradition about Hur, and he is
known to have afterwards occupied Bethlehem ; '
but he appears in this connection only as a
companion of Aaron, an elder as Aaron was a
priest, thus representing the application of truth
as well as its teaching.
The battle was joined, one side pushing the
other back and in turn yielding ground. For
it is said that, when Moses held up his hand,
Israel prevailed ; and when he let
Verse 11. dowti his hand, Amalek prevailed.
This is prayer, bringing down into the life the
grace of God and giving victory over evil ; or
on the other hand, being intermitted, and then
evil prevails. It is the alternation of life in
constancy and in negligence.
' Chapter xxxi. 2. "Chapter xxiv. 14. ' i Chronicles iv. 4.

198 EXODUS, XVII.

If there shall be complete victory, the whole
day must be given to it, and therefore when
Moses' hands zuere heavy, they took
Verses 12, 13. a Stone, and put it under him, and
he sat thereon; atid Aaron and Hur stayed up
his hands, the one oti the one side, and the other
on the other side ; and his hands were steady
until the going down of the sun, and Joshua dis
comfited Atnalek and his people with the edge
of the sword. How significant the scene, this
double life of the internal "and external man
represented by the one group on the hill-top
and the other in the battle below. Raphael
has painted the glory of the Transfiguration on
the mountain and at its foot the father, with
his suffering son among the helpless disciples.
So the Lord was often in mountains for prayer,
and came down again to heal the diseased and
obsessed. A signal victory it was, and one never to be
forgotten. The Lord said to Moses, Write this
for a tnetnorial in a book atid re-
Verse 14. • hearse it in the ears of Joshua, that

WAR IN REPHIDIM. 199
I zuill uttterly blot out the remembratue of Amalek
from under heaveti. There were numerous tribes
remaining from the older civilization, and some
of these, like the Hittites of Hebron who sold
Abraham the tomb, or like those Midianites
who received Moses among them, were friendly
to Israel ; but others were utterly opposed. In
other words by some of the tribes, the promises
made to Abraham and his seed were received
with respect as true, but others rejected them
and set themselves to defeat them. In the
latter class Amalek was prominent, represent
ing false and perverted thinking full of hatred
of Divine law. With this spirit in one's self no
compromise can be made ; it must be uprooted,
and therefore Israel must give no quarter to
Amalek then or at any time, or it would be itself
destroyed. In a later passage Amalek is spoken
of as smiting "the hindmost, all the feeble be
hind" Israel,' implying that, although defeated,
' Deuteronomy xxv. 18.

EXODUS, XVIII.

Amalek hung about the march killing any who
could not keep up. So does evil seek the weaker
places and like a beast of prey seizes on those
less strong in righteousness.
In token of this great deliverance Moses built
of loose stones «« altar in Rephidim and called
it. The Lord is tny banner, and this
Verses 15, 16. he did because they were now
soldiers of the Lord against Atnalek from genera
tion to generation — forever. To build an altar
is to consecrate a state of life, to give the glory
of a victory to the Lord, and to register a vow
that His cause shall be the cause of His faithful
servants. VISIT OF MIDIANITES.
In strict accordance with the rule of spiritual
life, reward followed trial ; the crown after the
CHAPTER cross. Israel received another visit,
^^"'- but how different its spirit ! Ama
lek had come to destroy, Midian came to do
good. In His temptation the Lord had first the

VISIT OF MIDIANITES.

enemy and then the friend before Him — " the
dev-il leaveth Him, and angels came and minis
tered unto Him." ' So here Amalek retires in
defeat, and Midian comes in peace to bless.
After the manner of the country Jethro sent
word to Moses that he and Moses' wife and
sons drew near to greet him, and
Verses i-6. Moses wetit out to meet his fatlier-in-
law, a-nd did obeisance, and kissed hi-m , atid they
asked each otiier of their welfare, and they catne
into the tent. Here is the relation
Verse 7. of warm friendship. ]\lidian repre
sented the best preserved traces of the older
religion. Its people were still serving God.
Its heart was warm for Israel whom God had
saved. Like John the Baptist, the Jew, saying
of the Christ, " He must increase, I must
decrease," " Midian heard the story
Verses 8-11. of the deliverance, and blessed God
for it, and declared that Jehovah was greater than

' Matthew iv. ii . " John iii. 30.

EXODUS, XVIII.

all gods. Not only this, but as priest of his
people Jethro offered a sacrifice, and invited
Aaron and the elders to the feast.
Verse 12. The simple yet solemn meal of the
desert sheik stands for that union of hearts, the
communion of saints, so essential to the Lord's
kindgdom on earth, and therefore provided for
in the Holy Supper. The wife of Moses now
rejoins him to represent the affection for truth
which the approach to the mountain of God
requires. In strife against temptation men use
the intellect lest they be deceived, but the subse
quent peace brings forth distinctly the element
of love.
But this visit of Midian had a use to perform,
and this use was seen oti the morrow which Moses
spent, as always when not on the
Verses 13-23. march, in hearing and deciding the
problems of the people in all kinds of difficulty.
They stood by hitn fro-m the morning unto the
evening. In the advancing life a thousand per
plexing questions arise, and it is hard to get at

VISIT OF MIDIANITES. 203
the right and wrong of them. What is the
remedy ? That comes by the Divine Providence
in its own time. In the loving atmosphere now
about Moses the word of wisdom was heard.
He must divide the people and arrange them by
tlwusands, hundreds, fifties and tens, and set over
these able men, fearing God, men of truth hating
unjust gain, and let them judge the people at all
seasons. This is order, the beautiful ordering of
heavenly life, where is such subordination of less
to greater that the Divine law rules throughout,
governing the lower by the higher. Exactly
as it is in the body where every part owns
allegiance to the rest and obeys the controlling
will — " the whole body fitly joined together and
compacted by that which every joint supplieth,
according to the effectual working in the meas
ure of every part, maketh increase of the body
unto the edifying of itself in love." '
Jethro's good advice, immediately acted upon,
'Ephesians iv. 16.

204 EXODUS, XVIII.
was most beneficent, and Israel, which had
been a mere mass of people, became a nation
with effective government. The great causes
were to come to Moses himself, and only those.
His power would be enhanced, because he could
attend fully to the most important matters. The
mind, distracted with many anxieties, gets on
very slowly, if at all ; but when order is estab
lished it turns' to essential things most effec
tively. To the question, why did this system
come through Midian and not direct from God,
the answer is that He gave no unneeded word,
and that Midian was an old race full of expe
rience which could instruct a younger one like
Israel, as if a son.
Moses did as he was advised, and all went
well. Atid Moses let his father-in-law depart;
and he went into his own land.
Verses 24-26. This seems surprising, for Moses
certainly needed the wise counsel of Jethro, but
does it not mark the very wisdom of Jethro that
he desired to go away rather than to remain

VISIT OF MIDIANITES.

in the attitude of a guide .' John the Baptist
did not cease his work to go with the Lord.
The angels do not impose their care upon men.
They come when most needed and give impor
tant aid, and then the)- go their way again, as
the angels at Bethlehem gave their glorious
hymn of praise to the shepherds, and then
"went away from them into heaven."'
Amalek, it is written, lingered to harass Israel ;
not so Midian, because ^lidian really loved Israel.
Therefore the two parted in love, and each went
his way, ^lidian back to the shnple, righteous
life beneath the stars, and Israel without further
delay to the mount of God, there to receive its
high commission. So, with contact with both
friend and foe, the advancing life gradually leaves
its Egypt far behind, and reaches its first great
goal, the sense of the near presence of God, the
shining of His light in the mind. So is it true
that men pass,
" To where beyond these voices there is peace.''

•Luke ii 15.

2o6 EXODUS, XIX.

BEFORE THE MOUNT.
In leaving Israel Egypt had not gone straight
to Canaan, for it was too weak to expel the tribes
already there ; it was led first to
CHAPTER XIX. the mountain of God, not only to
become inured to the desert life, but also and
more especially to receive its commission as a
nation and as a nation destined to a peculiar
office. Accordingly on the day of his appoint
ment to be the national leader Moses had been
told to bring the people to Sinai so that they
might worship there.' Thither therefore they
came after such experiences as typify a life of
spiritual progress.
Iti the third month after the children of Israel
were gone forth out of the latid of Egypt, the
same day came they into the wilder-
Verse i. ness of Sinai. In three months to
a day they had covered the distance of about
'Chapter iii. I2.

BEFORE THE MOUNT. 207
three hundred miles, and for many months they
were to rest here. The group of mountains has
at its centre four small valleys converging, and
these would give space for the camp.
Verse 2. On the south side of this space Ras
Sufsafeh, "cliff of the willow," rises abruptly.
Here they camped before the mount.
The number three marks completeness, as has
long been seen. The trine in God,' Father, Son
and Spirit, are represented in the soul, body and
action in man. Nothing in life is complete
unless it has begun in the wUl, and advanced
by the intellect into a plan of action, and so
ultimated itself in effect. The Lord's predic
tion that He would rise on the third day " was
in keeping with the symbolism of this number
throughout Scripture. His three appearances"
to the disciples after His resurrection fixed the
first day of the week as " the Lord's day " ' and
perfected the proof of His victory. Most appro-
' Matthew xvi. 21. "John xxL 14. ' Revel.\tion i. 10.

2o8 EXODUS, XfX.

priately therefore, under the full moon of the
third month after leaving Egypt, Israel pitched
its tents among the mountains, now denuded,
then probably verdure clad. There they hfted
up their eyes to the hills whence came their
strength," no doubt conceiving of God as making
His home in this impressive stronghold.
Then Moses went up utito God, and God called
unto hitti out of the tnountain. The final going
up of Moses into the mountain to
Verse 3. remain forty days and to bring
down the ten precepts written on stone tablets,
came later. At first he must learn how to
prepare the people for the revelation to come.
He probably went toward the spot where the
bush had gleamed on his sight when a shepherd,
and there by the voice of an angel God told him
what to say to Israel :
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians,
and how I bare you on eagle' s wings and brought
'Psalm cxxi, i.

BEFORE THE MOUNT. 209
you unto myself. By this powerful image was
Israel impressed with the thought of
its own helplessness to escape from
Egypt and to go all this way save as God carried
it. " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth
over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings,
taketh them, beareth them on her wings, the
Lord alone did lead him," sang Moses near the
end of his life ; ' and because the Lord had done
all this He now unfolded His purpose in it all.
If faithful, Israel is to be a peculiar treasure
abovf all peoples, a kitigdotn of priests, a holy
nation. Not that Israel was better
Verses 5, 6. than other nations, much less that
God rejected other nations through partiality
to it ; it was later distinctly told that it was
chosen not for its " righteousness or upright
ness of heart, for it was a stiffnecked people." "
Israel was ignorant of God, slow to believe in
Him, prone to idolatry, and base in every
' Deuteronomy xxxii. 11. " Deuteronomy ix. 5, 6.

EXODUS, XIX.

thought ; yet it had a peculiar capacity to stand
as the representative of the true church that was
to be, to perform with exactness symbolic rites,
and to preserve with extraordinary diligence the
written Word. This had been foreseen. It had
been made known four hundred years before to
Abraham. It was now to be consummated at
Horeb. Moses came down and told the elders what he
had heard. In awe they promised obedience to
every word. And this Moses again
Verses 7-12. bore back to the mount. Then
came the definite command that they be ready
against the third day, for then the Lord would
meet with them.
On that third day with clean garments and
bodies they must stand before the mount. They
must not go up into it, nor touch the
Verses 13-15. face of it lest they die. The sound
of the trumpets exceeding loud will summon the
people. For every event the heart must be pre
pared, and this is especially true of the religious
life, for the mind tends to neglect its spiritual

BEFORE THE MOUNT.

interests and to sink itself in worldliness. In
Israel only an outward purity was enjoined ; but
this, which was all that could be expected of it,
was significant of inward purification and of that
three days during which the Lord put off all the
nature open to temptation and wounds, and was
glorified in His Divine incorruption.
Then came the day of days : when it was tnorti
itig there were thutiders and lightnings, atid a
thick cloud upon the mount, and the
Verses 16-18. voice of a trumpet exceeding loud ;
and all the people tliat were in the camp trembled.
And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp
to meet God ; and they stood at the tiether side of
the ttiount. And ttiount Sitiai zuas altogether on
a sttioke, because the Lord descended upon it in
fire ; and the smoke thereof ascended as the sttioke
of a furtiace, atid the zuliole tnoutit quaked greatly.
What a contrast is here with a day when the
Lord " seeing the multitudes, went up into the
mountain, and sat down, and opened His mouth,
and taught, saying. Blessed are the poor in
spirit ! " Yet the Divine love was the same and

EXODUS, XIX.

only changed its form in adaptation to the
two eras.
To Israel God must speak in this portentous
manner, or His words would have no effect.
Even when He spake so, the effect was not
lasting. Of our Lord the Jews demanded signs
because they were still " a wicked and adulterous
generation," ' and therefore in mercy signs were
given at Horeb. The precepts which they were
to receive would not be so impressive to them as
the manner in which they were given. Egypt
virtually had these precepts and included them in
tbe funeral ritual of the judgment of a departed
soul. But they were now to be given to Israel
as its fundamental law, and given most distinctly.
The quaking of the mount, the thunder, the
lightning, the peal of trumpets, were so many
signs of the supreme dignity of the laws and
show how truth uttered in heaven may rever
berate on earth, as was said when a voice spoke
to the Lord in Jerusalem, "the people that stood

' Matthew xvi. 4.

BEFORE THE MOUNT. 213
by and heard it said that it thundered." ' The
influences of heaven come to those who love them
as gently as any summer breeze, but to those who
are not of the heavenly mind there are "light
nings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earth
quake, and very great hail." "
There upon the mount in the midst of the
portents God anszuered Closes by a voice, and
called Moses tip into the ttiount, and
Verses ig, 20. Moses went up. The tra\-eller now
sees on one side of the steep cliff a narrow defile
by which one may pass into the higher reaches of
the mountain, and that was probably the path
taken by Moses.
He was told to go down again and warn the
people to stand in their places, and not to break
through to gaze, and the priests also
Verses 21, 32. must sanctify tlumsclvcs lest they
die. In an age and countr\- of marked irrever
ence such caution seems unreal, but often after
wards Israel learned the risk of disrespect for
'John xii. 29 " Revelation xi. 19.

2 14 EXODUS, XIX.
sacred things, as when the fire of the altar con
sumed the rebellious men who offered incense in
the spirit of strife,' or when a man put his hand
upon the ark and fell dead."
Moses declared for the people that the caution
was needless, but he learned in time how little
they could be trusted. The Lord
Verses 23-25. then said that Moses and Aaron
alone might come up, but not the priests nor the
people ; implying that they two as before were to
be the means of teaching the people and their
priests. So do the Scripture and its true inter
pretation stand between God and men, and
thereby He comes near to them with blessing and
not with judgment.

'Numbers xvi. 35. "2 Samuel vi. 7.

THE DECALOGUE. 215

THE DECALOGUE.
So far as appears here, the commandments were
not first read to the people from tablets, but were
CHAPTER XX. °^^''y g^^^'^ ^y Moses OH that great
Verses 1-3. third day, and to them were joined
other statutes. The ten form the head of them
all. They divide themselves as is well known
into two parts, one showing man's duty to God,
the other man's duty to man. As it was Jehovah
God who had brought them out of Egypt they
must have no other gods, and it is to be noted that
the Lord does not come before men as One who
has done nothing and yet demands their worship,
but as the One who has done and is doing every
thing to deliver them from sin, and so deserves
their cooperation in gratitude.
To make a graven image is to take some quality
of the nature and cultivate that, like beauty or
strength, to the neglect of real piety.
Verses 4-6. , . , . .^i .. tt
God \s jealous in this sense that He
is true to Himself, and consequently to do right

2i6 EXODUS, XX.

prospers and to do wrong is harmful ; but the
effect of wrong doing descends but little way
compared with that of righteousness in which is
the eternal power of God.
Blasphemy is guilty of dethroning
Verse 7. God and so is destructive to man.
The sabbath was already well known, but its
observance is enforced anew for all, m.eaning that
in the spiritual life all parts must
Verses 8-11. be given opportunity to develop.
Even the Lord rests from His labors with men,
leading them through six days of discipline to the
seventh, that is, to the peace of heaven.
By honoring the father and mother is meant
to serve the Lord and the church in their united-
ness, for so men may live an enlarg-
Verse 12. ing life.
To comtnit murder is to destroy spiritual life ;
adultery is mingling good and evil in life ; steal
itig is depriving others of values
Verses 13-17. in innocence and faith and peace.
Bearingyb/j^ witness is making wrong appear to
be right. Coveting lies within the mind and is

LAW OF THE ALTAR. 217
not an outward act. Evidently men covet when
they seek to do evil but dare not, and so are
really in the evil Thus the Decalogue was
completed. LA^y OF THE ALTAR.
When these words were heard the people
trembled, and drew back, and begged of !Moses
to speak for them with God, since
Verses 18-21. they would die if they heard Him.
]\Ioses reassured them, saying that God had come
to prove thetti that they sin not. Then Moses
again ascended and heard many precepts applic
able to worship and life.
One of these concerned the altar to be of
earth, not of hewn stone, for this would spoil the
altar ; nor were they to build up
Verses 22-26. Steps to it. The meaning is that
the soft, gentle heart truly worships the Lord ;
but not an artificially formed system of truth,
with no purpose of fruitfulness. To go up by
steps is vain show, and this would disclose the
shame of pretence.

2i8 EXODUS, XXI.

LA\y OF SERVANTS.
There is a command as to a purchased servant,
showing that the custom prevailed of giving one's
CHAPTER xxi body as a surety for debt. Six
Verses i-6. years of scrvicc would bring liberty,
which means that a quality at first requiring
restraint grows to free exercise. The servant
refusing liberty has his ear bored to signify the
subordination of a quality not ready for liberty.
So with a daughter sold by a man. Her rights
were fully guarded, and any injustice set her free.
Here is a lesson of preserving every
Verses 7-n. subordinate affection from injury.

LAW OF RETALIATION.
Several sins follow, all to be punished with
death, purposely wounding a tnan, smititig father
or tnother, stealing and selling a
Verses 12-17. tnan, cursing father or mother; be
cause all these sins represent evils fatal to spiri
tual life.

OTHER LAWS. 219

Other commands relate to the effect of quar
rels, of scourgitig a servant, of injuring an unborn
child, and of disfiguring a servant.
Verses 18-27. Here is the penalty of life for life,
eye for eye, and so on, and that is the law of that
plane of life on which Israel stood, the law of
retaliation. Again the dangerous ox, the pit not protected
from an animal falling in, and the itijuring oi one
animal by another are provided
Verses 28-36. . r 1 t , •
against, for the law or the Lord is
a protection against harm to anything of spiritual
value. OTHER LAWS.
So stealing is fully punished, perhaps by death,
at least by restoring more than was taken, to
CHAPTER xxii. signify the duty of all to repair the
Verses 1-19. harm they do. So of injuring a
field and its restitution. So of harm done by
fire. So of anything entrusted to another and
lost. The remedy must be adequate ; and so in
case of an animal in another's keeping. And

EXODUS, XX IL

again sins against innocence were punished.
Nor must a sorceress be allowed to live, because
there comes in the danger of evil spirits con
trolling people of this world to their injury in
slavish subjection. To sacrifice to another god would
Verse 20. be death, for spiritually it destroys
man.
To the stranger, to the widow and orphati, and
to the poor man the law was very kind. No
one might oppress them, and the
Verses 21-27. debtor's garment in pledge must go
back to him before night. This shows that
unmercifulness is not known in true life.
No unfaithfulness was permitted, to God or a
ruler, and there must be no delay in making the
offerings. The claim of God on the
Verses 28-30. firstborn is a most important provi
sion on account of the prevalence of child sac
rifice, of the firstborn for the rest ; and when
the firstborn is given to the Lord, that means
a holy beginning of the life's whole development.
The priest gave back the child, but it was still

JUSTICE FOR ALL.

the Lord's, and was redeemed with a lamb or
two doves as the child Jesus was redeemed.' The
same rule held of the increase of cattle.
Be Iwly men unto Me, said the Lord, eat noth
ing tom by beasts in tlie field, for that is carrion,
and carrion represents the dead and
Verse 31. worthless affections spoiled by pas
sions. JUSTICE FOR ALL.
There must be no false speaking, for misrep
resentation stands for a false life ; nor any per-
CHAPTERxxin. version of justice even for a. poor
Verses 1-3. man's sake, since that mingles kind
ness with dishonor. The animals of others must be
Verses 4, 5. cared for, showing that neighborli-
ness is essential.
There must be no oppression of the weak
and no bribery, for injustice signi-
Verses 6-9. fies cruelty, which is infernal.
' Luke ii. 22-24.

EXODUS, XXIIL

The fields must have their Sabbath, that is,
a seventh year of rest, typifying
Verses 10-13. a hallowed, peaceful life.

ANNUAL FEASTS.
Three great annual feasts must be kept ; uti-
leavened bread, or Passover, in the spring ; first
fruits, afterwards called Pentecost,
Verses 14-ig. in early summer; and ingathering,
also known as Tabernacles ; thus representing
a life acknowledging the Lord at every stage.
Leavetied bread must not be offered with the
flesh, for that signifies a mixture of evil motive.
Keep not the burnt offering until the next day,
for that means holding for self what is God's.
The very first fruits must be brought, thus
placing religion always first. And they must not
boil a kid in its ttiother's tnilk, for this repre
sents mixing old states with more innocent new
ones.

PROMISES RENEWED. 223

PROMISES RENEWED.
At the close of these precepts are sweet prom
ises. The Lord's atigelviovXA lead them, and they
must honor him. The Lord would
Verses 20-33. be an enemy to their enemies. He
would drive out their foes. They must serve
Him, and not the idols, and if they obeyed,
there would be no sickness. His terror and his
hornet would go before them, and little by little
their enemies would give place. A great land
would be theirs, from the Red Sea eastward to
the Mediterranean westward, and from the desert
southward up to the Euphrates. Only they must
driz)e out idolaters, and not dwell among them,
and so be corrupted.
How beautiful a life prospect ! Angels lead
ing, obstacles withdrawing, no weakness, no
despair, no disaster, a gradually enlarging field
of service, if only no compromise with sin be
made. The terror and the hornet represent the
effect upon evil and falsity of the Lord's power

224 EXODUS, XXIII.
in the soul. Nothing can stand before it. As
the Lord said to the seventy, "Behold, I give
you power to tread on serpents and scorpions,
and over all the power of the enemy ; and noth
ing shall by any means hurt you." ' So shall
men go "from strength to strength,"" from the
strength of obedience to law and humiliation
before God to the strength of abiding in the
Lord and the everlasting joy which is His.
The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews felt
this when he said to the early Christians, "Ye
are not come to the mount that burned with
fire, nor to blackness and darkness and tempest,
and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of
words, so that Moses said, I exceedingly fear ;
but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusa
lem, to innumerable hosts of angels and to Jesus
the mediator of the new covenant. See that ye
refuse not Him."'

' Luke x. 19. " Psalm Ixxxiv. 7. ' Hebrews xii. 18-25.

THE WRITTEN COVENANT. 225

THE WRITTEN COVENANT.
Upon the arrival of Israel at the mount of God '
three days were given to preparation for that
great event of meeting with God.
CHAPTER XXIV. Then came the clouds and hght-
nings and words as of a trumpet, and God spoke
through Moses to the people the laws of the
Jewish religion. Having so done, concluding
with promises of blessing if the laws were obeyed,
the Lord let them disperse to their tents ; but
ere long came a new revelation, for laws were
not enough, and institutions of worship by a
priesthood were next to be given. Such institu
tions seem of little present importance until it
is seen that the ceremonies of Israel, like its
experiences and its laws, bear a lasting signifi
cance and contain inspired lessons. A form
indeed was the Jewish church, a set of repre
sentative rites merely, yet a form so perfect as
to be for all time, when "spiritually discerned," '
' Corinthians ii. 14.

226 EXODUS, XXIV.
the symbol of essential religion. The New Testa
ment is the unsealing of the Old Testament.
Moses was again called into the mount, this
time with a company of chosen men — thou and
Aaroti, 'Nadab and Abihu, and sev-
Verses i, -.*. enty of the elders of Israel , but
Moses alone should cotne near unto the Lord, nor
should the people go up at all.
Already the development of the church is
visible. Not only Aaron, but his sons Nadab
and Abihu are named, showing the emergence
of the priesthood. These two sons were after
wards slain in rebellion and profanation,' but
for a season they were faithful. The elders
presage the grand council of the nation, that
council which condemned the Lord. Through
these men, Moses, Aaron, his sons, the elders —
the Lord made His will known, showing how in
Divinely ordered revelation the Word of God
comes down.
Being about to leave them for a time, and
¦ Leviticus x. i, 2.

THE WRITTEN COVENANT. 227
for the first time since he had become their
leader, Moses told them all the
Verses 3, 4. words of the Lord and the judgtnents,
and they answered. All the words which the Lord
hath spoken will we do. Not only this, but Moses
wrote all the words of the Lord. It is common
to doubt this statement, and some call in ques
tion the existence of Moses, but it is plain that,
if one begins here to doubt, there is no end
until one is landed in the absurd conclusion of
a self-evolved Judaism which had neither Author
nor revelator, which would be like a Mohamme
danism without any Mohammed or a Christi
anity without any Christ. As to the doubt about
Moses' ability to write, documents written four
centuries before his time are now known by the
hundred. Having so written, Moses rose up early in the
mortiitig, and built an altar utider the mount, atid
twelve pillars according to the twelve
Verse 4. tribes. This was their second altar,
again a step forward in the development of the
rites of Israel. Of course sacrificial worship is

2 28 EXODUS, XXIV.

all that Israel can practise. It does not know
that "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to
hearken than the fat of rams " ; ' and it supposes
its God to be "pleased with thousands of rams,"
yes, even with slain "firstborn."" Pillars like
these have been uncovered at Gezer and else
where. A great sacrifice then took place of burnt
offerings and peace offeritigs, every animal cor
responding to some affection to be
Verse 5. consecrated to the service of the
Lord. Thus the lamb corresponds to innocence,
the OX to patient service, the dove to harmless
thought. The two offerings were of oxeti, slain
by strong young -meti, as the functions of the
Levites had not yet been appointed, and the
burning represents a warm and willing purpose
to serve the Lord, which purpose He responds
to with His peace.
In furtherance of his preparation for leaving
them, Moses put the blood into two receptacles,
' I Samuel xv. 22. " Micah vi. 7.

IN THE MOUNT. 229
from one of which he spritikled the altar and
from the other the people, and read
Verses 5-8. to them his written covetiatit, that is,
the words of the four preceding chapters, and
said to them. Behold the blood of the covenant
zuhich the Lord hath tnade with you coticernitig
all these zuords. To this again the people prom
ised to be obedient. And this was the old cove
nant or testament as Christianity is the new,
and both express the infinite love of God going
to meet the great needs of men.
IN THE MOUNT.
After all this ceremonial, which might have
endured in the minds of the people but did not
endure, Moses turned from them
Verses g. 10 and led his chosen company into
the mount. And there, it is said, they sazu
the God of Israel, under His feet as it zuere a
paved zi'ork of sapphire stone, and as it zuere
tlie vciy heaven for clearness. There is no de
scription of a face or figure except as feet are

?3° EXODUS, XXIV.

named. There was apparently something of an
angelic form revealed so that Israel to the
number of these persons might know that God
was the father of the sons of men, but dazzling
light veiled Him while its brilliant clearness
impressed them. It was as if they looked into
the sky of blue, the color of the sapphire, and
saw One there as Ezekiel saw " the likeness
of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire
stone, and upon the throne the likeness of the
appearance of a man. This was the appearance
of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." '
There is a seeming contradiction between this
statement and that of the Gospel that " No man
hath seen God at any time " ; " and again between
the later saying that Moses saw God "face to
face " ' and the declaration of the Lord that men
had not heard the voice of the Father, " nor seen
His shape" ; '* but men spoke of their seeing the
Lord before His incarnation when they saw an
' Ezekiel i. 26, 28. " John i. 18. ^ Chapter xxxiii. 11.
¦• John v. 37.

IN THE MOUNT. 231
angel who w<iS filled with His spirit for the time.
This may be seen, for example, in the account
of Gideon, to whom "an angel of the Lord
came," and of this angel it is said, "the Lord
looked on Gideon." '
It is told that the Lord laid not His liand upon
tlietn ; they beheld God, and did eat atid dtink, not
only indicating that they were not harmed, but
also probably that they went down and joined
in the sacrificial feast with the people. Israel
now believed in God, and meant to obey Him,
and therefore did not fear to stand before Him
and to rejoice before Him. It was when dis
obedience made them feel that God hated them,
that it was declared that no one could see God
and live."
Now Moses will go up for his longer stay,
necessary to learn of the tabernacle and the
priestly rites, and this time he will
Verses 12-14. take oViXy Joshua his minister. Not
even Aaron can go, for he and Hur, his com-
' Judges tL ii, 14. "Chapter xxxiii. 20.

232 EXODUS, XXIV.
panion at the battle of Rephidim, must take
charge of the people. To the elders who were
their judges Moses said. Tarty ye here: behold,
Aaron and Hur are zuith you. Joshua (Greek
Jesus) will be associated after this with Moses
and at last will succeed him. They represent
the Divine and the Divine Human aspects of
truth, the Word as it is -'n itself and "the Word
made flesh," the one telling the way of life, the
other leading in it. Into the cloud and the glory
they went, and were in it for six
Verses 15-18. days, a further preparation for a
sublime sabbath or seventh day ; and on that day
Moses entered into the midst of tlie cloud, and
there he remained fotty days and fotty tiights,
¦representing completed states of instruction here,
as the same number implied fulness of discipline
for Israel in the wilderness, and of peace for it
when we read more than once of a " rest of forty
years." '

' Judges iii. ii ; v. 31 ; viii. 28.

OFFERINGS OF ISRAEL. 233

OFFERINGS OF ISRAEL.
In the beginning of the communication to
Moses now following he was told to gather from
CHAPTER XXV ^^^ people offerings, frotti eveiy mati
Verses 1-7. wlwse licaft makctli hitn zuillino- ;
and these offerings were to consist of gold, silver
and copper, of spun )'arns of w-ool ready for weav
ing and dyed in colors blue and red, of zuhite
linen, of dyed skins of sheep and goats, of acacia
wood, of oil and fragrant lierbs, and of precious
stones to be set and graven.
All these were of Israel's wealth and were
given to be the material out of which to con
struct their sattcttiary precisely re
verses 8. 9. cording to the pattern about to be
shown out of heaven. This is the order of life.
God constructs the church out of walling hearts.
If men bring not the qualities represented by
these offerings, nothing can be done. While
Divine love gives men everything that is good,
they must act in their liberty to consecrate what

2 34 EXODUS, XXV.

they receive, or there is no temple. '' Ye have
robbed me in tithes and offerings," ' said the
Lord by the prophet to unfaithful Israel, and
so they had robbed themselves of all that made
for the better life now and hereafter.
Many have studied this description of taber
nacle and furniture, but few have approached the
study from the oriental side, and none have kept
strictly to the account, adding some timbered
roof or other occidental element wholly out of
place. The description goes straightforward
without uncertainty or repetition. The con
struction before the mind's eye, and the inter
pretation, must do the same for this significant
structure. ARK AND MERCY-SEAT.
The ark or chest comes first as the heart of
the whole. It will be made of acacia wood from
the prevailing tree, and according
Verses 10-15. to cubit measure. The cubit, hke
the foot or hand-breadth, is a primitive measure
' Malachi iii. 8.

ARK AND MERCY-SEAT. 235
— from the elbow to the end of the hand — and
is about a foot and a half English. Overlaying
the ark with gold probably means a very thin
plating. A ring was to be placed near each
comer in such a way that a pole or staff could
be run through on either side to bear it between
four men. These staves were to be always in
place and never used otherwise. This chest
was made to contain the two stone tablets of
the Decalogue, and so it obtained its sanctity.
The law on stone is the fixed and inflexible
order of the universe. The inclosing wood is
the heart holding the law precious. The gold
used throughout represents love to the Lord,
the highest motive known to man. To bear
this ark in marching to Canaan is to go onward
in life led by pure religion to repeated victories
over sin.
The lid of the ark w-as to be called the mercy-
seat or throne of God. On this lid at either
i?«^/ would stand a chencb or angelic
Verses 17-22. form having extended wings meet
ing in the centre as the cherubim faced. This

236 EXODUS, XXV.
lid was to be placed upon the ark and the testi
mony or tablets within, and then from the space
between the wings the Lord would meet with
Israel and cottimune with them. And this for
the reason that the heart so fixed in purest love
is the very abode of the Lord. " This is my rest
forever ; here will I dwell, for I have desired
it."' "I dwell in the high and holy place, with
him also who is of a humble and contrite heart." "
The ark of Noah was as it were a ship, and the
ark of Moses in the reeds was a basket, but the
meaning is similar that, where true religion holds
a man, there is safety and eternal life.
TABLE FOR BREAD.
The next thing to be made was a table of like
wood with gold and rings, but it would have
a crown or raised edge, and there
Verses 23-30. were to be made dishes, spoons,
flagons and bowls for appropriate uses ; but the
' Psalm cxxxii. 14. " Isaiah Ivii. 15.

THE LAMP. 237

chief use of the table was to afford a place for
the shezubread, twelve small circular loaves re
newed each week. This bread represented spiri
tual service which plants the truth of life,
nurtures it, reaps it, and carries it through to
the good on which the soul is fed. Hence the
Lord in His pure love of souls is called the " liv
ing Bread " ; ' and He gave the bread and said,
" Take, eat, this is my body, given for you." "
THE LAMP.
Then came the catidlestick of gold, shaped like
a tree of one stem and six bratiches, three on
either side, having little cuplike
Verses 31-40. lamps at the end of each, like
altnotid-blossoms ; and here is the symbol of the
mind luminous with revered truth before the
Lord. A mind unsteady in its care for truth is
a foolish virgin whose lamp goes out before the
bridegroom comes, but a mind with undimmed
'John vi. 51. "Matthew xxvi. 26; Luke xxii. 19.

238 EXODUS, XXVL
love of truth has its lamp burning and goes in to
the wedding of heaven.' It is a "burning and
a shining light," and all the true hearted rejoice
in it." CURTAINS OF THE TENT.
These three articles of furniture are first
spoken of, as the three essentials, the soul of
CHAPTER xxvi ^^ ^^^^ • ^^'- "°^ comcs the de-
Versesi-6. scrfptiou of the tent itself, or the
dwelling as it was afterwards correctly called
because in it God would dwell with Israel.
Ten curtains must be made of the dyed material,
each curtain a long straight strip six feet wide,
and each furnished along its sides with loops
and clasps so that one could be closely joined
with another. Ten of these curtains joined
would make a cloth of about sixty feet by forty-
two. This would be, so to speak, the canvas,
the canopy of the tent.
'Matthew xxv. 10. "John v. 35.

BOARDS AND BARS. 239
Another set of curtains would be of goats'
liair, nearly black, like the Bedouin tents in use
to-day ; but this would not form
Verses 7-14. another tent, but a covering and
protection over the colored canopy. These cur
tains would be eleveti instead of ten, and a yard
longer to make the protection more perfect.
They would be joined like the first, and the extra
width would hang over the back as a kind of store
room. Over this again would go skins.
BOARDS AND BARS.
But what would hold up these cloths and
skins .' What would take the place of the wall
of stones or reeds running on three
Verses 15-30. sides of a tent now .' Boards would
take this place, boards of wood, with tenons
below to so fit into silver sockets that each
socket with two holes would support a part of
two boards and thus join them. There would be
no boards on the east end, but on the other sides
the boards would stand up and be fastened at

2 4° EXODUS, XXVI.
the two corners with rings, making a firm wall.
Along the boards outside three staves would run,
the object being to fix the boards more firmly.
Here again gold would be used, and would repre
sent the supreme preciousness of the religious
interests of the soul.
VEILS AND HANGINGS.
This room so formed would be forty-five feet
by fifteen, and would be divided into two rooms,
the western square, the eastern two
Verses 31-37. squares. The division would be
made by a veil of embroidered work hanging
•o'^ovi four pillars sVaviAva.^ also in sockets of silver
and having hooks of gold for the veil. And thou
shalt hang up the veil utider the clasps, and shalt
britig in thither zuithin the veil the ark of the
testimony ; and the veil shall divide betweeti the
holy place and the tnost holy. In that inmost
room there must be nothing but the ark. The
command proceeded that in the outer room the
candlestick should be placed on the south side

ALTAR FOR SACRIFICES. 241
and the table of bread on the north. Then, to
complete this outer room, a hanging would be
set up at the entrance supported on five pillars in
sockets of copper. ALTAR FOR SACRIFICES.
In front of the tent would stand the altar of
burnt offering, also of wood, but overlaid outside
CHAPTER XXVII. ^ith coppcf, aud having at its
Verses 1-8. comcrs liorns or projecting points.
Within, a grating of tietwork would allow the
ashes to fall. Ritigs and staves were also
arranged for bearing it. It was quite hollow and
was a frame for the earth within, thus obeying
the law of the "altar of earth thou shalt make." '
To understand this altar, of copper lined with
wood, to have had no earth within and no con
nection with the altar of earth, is an obvious
error, for in that case it would be ruiiied by its
first use. 'Chapter xx. 24.

242 EXODUS, XXVII.

OUTER COURT.
Round about the tent and this altar was a
court formed by litien hung from pillars set in
sockets of copper, and so placed as to
Verses 9-19. form an inclosure one hundred and
fifty feet long and seventy-five wide from north
to south. This court hanging was white, except
that eastward the entrance portion was colored
like the inner curtains. It is to be observed that
copper belonged to this court, but gold to the
inner rooms, and copper represents a lower and
more external love than gold, but still good, like
the love of doing one's daily work well.
PERPETUAL LIGHT.
The lamp must be always alight with the
purest olive oil, and this statute was forever, as
expressing a soul's unquenchable
Verses 20, 21. purpose to wait on the Lord with
"loins girded and lights burning," so that He

PERPETUAL LIGHT. 243
might never come and find one in neglectful
darkness.' Here then is a triple division of court, holy
and most holy place ; and each has its function —
the inmost to contain the ark and mercy-seat, the
holy to contain the table and lamp (and also the
small incense altar of gold described in Chapter
XXX.), and the court to contain the altar of
sacrifices. These divisions represent the three
planes of true soul-life — the celestial with its
love of the Lord, the spiritual with its thoughtful
neighborliness, and the natural with its obedience
to duty. Wisdom, intelligence, knowledge, ex
press these distinctions. Gold, silver and copper
correspond to them. The head, the body and the
limbs also represent them. And so do the olive,
rine and fig of the Bible ; the Canaan, Assyria
and Egypt of the Old Testament ; and the Judea,
Samaria and Galilee of the New Testament.
Israel's tent of worship is humanity consecrated,
' Luke xii. 35, 36.

2 44 EXODUS, XXVI f I.
it is an eternal symbol seen in heaven where
the ancient peoples are.
When this symbolism is fulfilled in man the
saying comes true that " the tabernacle of God is
with men, and He will dwell with them, and they
shall be His people, and God shall be with them
and be their God." ' The apostles saw to a
degree this meaning and spoke of men as
"temples of the living God";" and this no
doubt came to them from the teaching of the
Lord when He " spake of the temple of His
body,"' "the greater and more perfect taber
nacle not made with hands," "• in which "dwelt
the fulness of the Godhead bodily." 5
PRIESTLY GARMENTS.
The tabernacle of Israel was a tent made in
every way significant of worship, of a life turned
CHAPTER '•° "^^ Lord and devoted to His
XXVIII. service. Thus it stood in the

'Revelation xxi. 3. »2 Corinthians vi. 16. 'John
ii. 21. ¦'Hebrews ix. 11. 'Colossi.ans ii. 9.

PRIESTLY GARMENTS. 245
centre of the camp, regarded as peculiarly the
abode; of God. The rites of worship to be
performed were likewise significant and were
prescribed to the minutest detail. So of the
priests, and especially of the high priest, everv-
thing was precisely told as to garments and
adornments. Again every true life is repre
sented, for it is "a holy priesthood offering up
spiritual sacrifices." '
Aaroti and his sons were to be the priests.
Aaron has appeared all along as the brother and
constant assistant of Moses. He
Verse i. spoke for him to Pharaoh. He
governed the people while Moses was in the
mount. His permanent duty, when the national
representative church should be established,
would not be so much that of lieutenant as the
distinct function of high priest, while I\Ioses
would continue as judge and ruler. Moses, as
has been shown, stands for the written Word

246 EXODUS, XX VIIL
of God and for the law of God leading man by
the conscience ; and his brother Aaron, warmer
in temperament and more near to the people,
stands for that truth applied to life, the practical
interpretation of truth, truth serving and so
worshipping God. Kingship is the intellectual
side of righteousness, the priesthood is its affec-
tional side. Aaron and his sons and descendants
therefore become the priests of Israel and repre
sent love serving the Lord.
They must have holy gartnetits for glory and
for beauty, so that the priests can minister iti the
priests' office. The garments typify
Verses 2-4. the qualities of a religious life, its
enveloping truths or principles of service to God
and so to man. These garments were of the
same materials as the inner curtains
Verse 5. of the tent, for spiritual truth is
one, like the inner garment of the Lord, " woven
without seam from the top throughout." '
' John ,\ix. 23.

PRIESTLY GARMENTS. 247
The first garment described is the ephod, or
waistcoat as it may be called, made of the
colored cloth with shouldetpieees
Verses 6-12. above and a girdle below. On each
shoulderpiece a precious stone was to be set and
engraved with six natiies of tribes. Aaron shall
bear their tuitnes before the Lord upon his two
shoulders for a tnetnorial.
Moreover on the front of this ephod w-as a
breastplate, a piece of the cloth set with twelve
stones, four ron's' of three stones in
Verses 13-29. each row, and securely attached to
the ephod by ritigs and cliains of gold. Also
in each stone was the name of a tribe of Israel ;
and so again Aaroti sliall bear the natties of the
children of Israel iti the breastplate of judgtnent
upon his heart zuheti he goeth iti utito the holy
place for a ttiemorial before tlie Lord continually.
What means the precious stone .' It is not
opaque, a truth of natural law seen only as law,
like an axiom in mathematics ; it is rather a law
seen through, luminous in the mind with the

248 EXODUS, XXVIII.
light of intelligence seeing its Divine motive.
It is not law for the servant, it is law for the
friend ' of the Lord. " In Thy light we see
light." " This difference is shown in the Ser
mon on the Mount, not destroying the law but
fulfilling it, when " ye have heard that it was
said to them of old time" becomes "but I say
unto you." ' These stones cannot all be identi
fied beyond question, but the four rows no doubt
conformed to the general scheme of color, pass
ing from red to white through blue, and so
representing all aspects of righteousness and
in their unity all truths of life worn upon the
heart as dear to the soul, and having twelve
names of tribes to signify the completeness of
one's sanctification. For truths inscribed upon
the heart of man are stones worn on the breast
plate in perpetual memorial, meaning in ever
lasting remembrance.

' John XV. 14, 15. "Psalm xxxvi. 9. ' Mai'THEW v. 22,28,
34. 19-

PRIESTLY GARMENTS. 249
The stones are called Urim and Thutntnitn,
"lights and perfections," and these by their
effulgence or the reverse were the
Verse 30. means of telling whether the Lord
was favorable to a proposed act or unfavorable.'
When the truths of life gleam in the mind w-ith
the warm light of loving perception, man can
act from God, but otherwise he acts from self,
and faUs.
The robe or general garment is next men
tioned in the order of life's consecration. It
was of blue, entire, so that, in put-
Verses 31-35- ting it on, the head was put through
an opening with embroidered edge ; and it had
a fringe at bottom bearing altemately a golden
bell and a pomegranate, so that the sound of
Aaron's steps would be heard iuhen lie goeth iti
atid when ke cometh out tliat he die not. The
very garment must sing praise. Down from
head to foot it must go to represent a life
' Numbers xxvii. 21 ; i S.\muel xxviiL 6.

250 EXODUS, XX VI f I.
wholly given to the Lord, even the border of
commercial and social relations being attuned
to harmony with the Divine purposes, so that
no death or spiritual decay can befall. The
orange-red fruit of the pomegranate, full of
seeds, represents a fruitful natural life adding
to the common good from day to-day.
This for the skirt, but the head had its own
ornament. Thou shalt make a plate of pure
i, and grave upon it, Holitiess

Verses 36-38. to the Lord. Atid thou shalt put it
on a lace of blue, and it shall be upoti the tur
ban, upon the forefront. And it shall be upon
Aaron's forehead. The meaning is manifest.
The forehead stands for the mind, and the
mind controls the life. " His name shall be in
their foreheads," ' means that love of the Lord
is the ruling motive. So here, with this fillet
upon his forehead Aaron represents sanctified
manhood, that is, true priesthood. And it is
' Revelation xxii. 4.

PRIESTLY GARMENTS. 251

added that thus Aaron shall bear the iniquity
of holy things, which is to take away unclean-
ness and unworthiness of self, and in their
stead to wear the pure gold of heaven-descended
consecration. Mention is then made of a coat of fine lineti.
This is the under garment, which was white.
Aaron's sons had this, but not the
Verses 39-43. colored robe. All had also white
coverings for the thighs. This linen is the sym
bol of purity. " Be ye clean that bear the
vessels of the Lord." ' Garments in heaven
were seen to be white because they that wore
them had washed them in the blood of the
Lamb," through looking unto Him and purify
ing themselves in His truth, " for the fine linen
is the righteousness of saints." '

' Isaiah Iii. n. "Revelation vii. 14. 'Ibid., xix. 8.

252 EXODUS, XXIX.

CONSECRATION OF PRIESTS.
The priests must be solemnly inducted into
office with anointing and sacrifices. Moses,
CHAPTER XXIX "whcu he should have returned
Verses 1-14. ^^ ^j^g peoplc, and when the tent
of tneeting had been constructed, must bring to
the altar a bullock, tzvo rams, atid unleavened
bread in which was olive oil. Then Aaron and
his sotis, being washed, must be clothed in their
robes of office and be anoitited with oil. Thus
would they be the priests by a perpetual statute.
The bullock being then killed, its blood must
touch the horns of the altar and be poured out
at the base, while the fat would be burned upon
the altar. But instead of the flesh being eaten,
it must be burtied outside of the cattip, to typify
the natural affections, the fleshly appetites, which
are to be put away before one is wholly in the
service of the Lord. So far as one's life is by
nature evil and selfish it can serve the Lord
only with self-denial. The love of service is the

CONSECRATION OF PRIESTS. 253
oil of anointing for all good work. So little by
little does a soul induct itself into its high des
tiny of perpetual priesthood, and rests not day
nor night, saying, " Holy, Holy, Holy is the
Lord God Almighty." '
As the ceremony was to proceed, one of the
rams would then be killed and wholly consumed
on the altar. This betokens progress in good
of life. The bullock is burned out-
Verses 15-18. . .
side as unworthy, a sin-offet^mg ; the
ratn is burned upon the altar, a sweet savour, an
offering made by fire unto the Lord. Men offer
by fire when they serve the Lord with ardent
love. This ram stands for the innocence of sin
less service, accepted of the Lord because it seeks
to do His will.
Now the third and final step. The other ratn
would be killed, Aaron and his sons laying their
hands upon its head as before, to
Verses 19-25. ^.^p^gg^j^^. jj^ ^ ^^^ that it is his
own act by which he consecrates his all to God's

' Revelation iv. 8.

254 EXODUS, XXIX.
service. Some of the blood must touch ear and
thmtib and toe to signify every part of the being
united in love ; and then the /a/ portions would
be put, with the right shoulder and some of the
bread,, upon the hands of Aaron atid his sons,
who would zuave them before the Lord, after
which they would be burned upon the altar.
This waving or moving to and fro of the offering
signifies active life, the earnest and not listless
purpose. David ran to meet Goliath,' he danced
and leaped before the ark in Jerusalem."
Then came the feast, sign of abundant heav
enly reward of service, faithful over a few things
and therefore entering into the joy
Verses 26-35. of its Lord.' Moses first would
have the breast, Aaron and his sons the rest.
Every sacrifice in Israel was to end in a feast,
for so does good life weep with its seed sowing,
and come again rejoicing, bringing its sheaves.*
And thus Aaron and his sons, having done all

' I Samuel xvii. 48. "2 Samuel vi. 16. ^Matthew xxv. 23.
•* Psalm cxxvi. 6.

DAILY SACRIFICES. 255
that was theirs to do, would eat, but a stranger
sliould not eat tliereof because that means unpre-
paredness and profanation. Nothing must be
kept untU the next day, but the fragments must
be burned, to represent devotion of life to the
Lord rather than keeping aught back for self
By all this the altar itself would be made Iwly,
and wliatever touched it would be holy, for a
church has no holiness save from fervent prayer
and praise therein. DAILY SACRIFICES.
At this point was given the law of daily sac
rifice, a lattib motJiing atid evening, vdlh flne flour
and beaten oil and a little wine;
Verses 36-46. , n 1
for not the pnests only, but all the
people must have rites significant of innocent
purpose. And so doing in mornings of hope
and evenings of anxiety, men are borne up
day unto day from wickedness. The Lord said,
/ will dwell among them, and zuill be their God.
And they sliall ktww tluzt I atn tlie Lord their

= 56 EXODUS, XXX.

God, who brought them forth out of the land of
Egypt that I may dwell among tlietn : I atn the
Lord their God. And so He becomes the Re
deemer from bondage to the flesh more and
more fully with every lamb slain, with every
fresh effort to do right. So to the Lord Jesus
at last Thomas, seeing that He had been saved
from disbelief, cried out, " My Lord and my
God ! " ' ALTAR FOR INCENSE.
It is remarkable that at this place, after all
is apparently said about tabernacle and priests,
CHAPTER xxx. there is given a description of a
Verses i-io. y^^^^Q of fumiturc for the tent not
before mentioned, namely, the altar of incense.
The critic naturally declares this passage out of
place, and would transfer it to Chapter xxv.,
but calmer thought sees that the description is
reserved until the use is also appropriately de
fined, that it therefore properly heads a distinct
section of Exodus. ' John xx. 28.

ALTAR FOR INCENSE. 257
The incense altar was made of acacia wood,
one cubit square and two high. It had its crown
ing ledge and its liortis and its rings and its
staves, all overlaid with gold. Its place would
be in the holy immediately before the most
holy. A little incense of sweet spices must be
burned upon it every ttiorning and evening by
means of a coal from the altar outside. Nothing
must be offered on it but the prescribed incense,
and upon it Aaron would atone for Israel. This
beautiful little altar, sending up its aromatic
smoke in the tent, completes the thought of
all these representative rites. It means the
sweetness and gladness and pervasiveness of
religion. The odours from the golden vials
were the "prayers of saints."' An angel with
a "golden censer offered much incense with
the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar,
and the smoke of the incense with the prayers
of the saints ascended up before God."" So

'Revelation v. 8. " Ibid., viii. 3, 4.

258 EXODUS, XXX.
does a good life crown its work ; it confesses its
sins, it burns its light of faith continually, it
spreads its best bread before the Lord, but to
complete all it sets up its incense altar, and
its prayers of faith and gratitude "go forth as
incense." ' And so it atoties or makes itself
one with God forever ; as Zacharias burned the
incense, and an angel at the right side of the
altar said, " Fear not, Zacharias ; thou shalt
have joy and gladness ; thy supplication is
heard."" LAW OF THE CENSUS.
Another unexpected passage is the law of the
census that every man should give to the sanc
tuary half a shekel of silver. They
Verses 11-16. had no coins and reckoned metals
by weight. The connection with the altar is
in the spiritual meaning, for nothing so detracts
from worship and violates its laws as self-appre-
' Psalm cxli. 2. "Luke i. 13, 14.

THE LAVER. 259

ciation, and this is remedied by counting one's
powers, one's twenty years of preparedness for
war against sin, and saying, "they are the
Lord's." The silver given to the Lord is the
acknowledgment that all is His that is good in
man. This is also atonetnent, like the incense
burned ; thus the two are joined here.
THE LA\-ER.
The laver of copper is not described as to its
form, but its' use is told to be the washing of
the priests' hands and feet. It stood
Verses 17-21. between the tent atid the large altar,
and tradition says, on the south side. The
need of frequent washings after slaying animals
is plain, and obviously all true worship and
service call for cleanness of motive and life.
"Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and
cleanse me from my sin : then shalt thou be
pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, then
shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar." '

' Psalm li. 2, 19.

2 6o EXODUS, XXX.

OIL AND INCENSE.
The composition of the anoititing oil and the
incetise is then given, and it appears that great
care was to be used, and no one
Verses 22-33. should ever so compound oil or
incense for any other purpose, or he must die.
For the oil, essences of ttiyrrh and sweet inner
barks were used with olive oil, making a fragrant
ointment with which the priests and every part
of the sacred tent and furniture were to be
anointed. These growing plants stand for the
growth of good principles of life, and the olive
oil which united thera stands for love of the
Lord, healing spiritual hurts and inducing the
soul to service. Everything related to the re
ligious life must have this quality, or it is false
and hypocritical.
So of the incense. Aromatic herbs should be
taken, and beaten to a fine powder, and mingled
with salt. This ingredient repre-
Verses 34-38. sents the preserving power of the
love of truth — spiritual thirst — and the spices

INSPIRED WORKMEN. 261
represent prayers fragrant to the Lord because
they seek only for what He can give. It is con
secrated incense, not to be otherwise used, for
one cannot serve God and mammon.'
INSPIRED WORKMEN.
Moses was not left to wonder how so many
arts as would be needed for making all these
CHAPTER xxxi thiugs could be found among his
Verses I-II. unskilled people. The Lord said
that He had filled Bezaleel of Judah with the
spirit of God iti all entitling zuork itt gold, silver
and copper, in cutting gettis and earvitig zuood, arfd
in weaving and embroidery, in making the
priests' garments and compounding the oil and
incense. With Bezaleel would be joined Aholiab
of Dan. It is clear that the view which ^Nloses
had had would not enable him to construct
every thing from memory, though he could un
doubtedly declare in the end if his rision was
' Luke xvl 13.

262 EXODUS, XXXI.
correctly reproduced. The Israelite work people
could of course do nothing without guidance,
and thus the need of inspiration was absolute.
Two men were named as destined to receive this
gift, one of Judah, the other of Dan. The for
mer, Bezaleel, seems to have done the work in
metal and gems, .the other in cloth and wood
under the control of Bezaleel. Judah was the
great tribe which led the march," which received
the largest inheritance, and to which belonged
the line of kings. Dan on the other hand was
at the rear in march, received but did not hold
a much smaller inheritance, and was finally not
counted among the tribes," while Judah was
always first. Thus between the extremes all
the zuisehearted were included. Moreover the
duality of good and truth, of charity and faith,
comes in here, for Judah — " praise the Lord " —
represents those who love the Lord, and Dan —
" judge " — represents those who look to the
' Numbers ii. 3, 9. " Revelation vii. 5-8.

THE SABBATH. 263
Lord with faith in His justice. Therefore he
of Judah takes the lead and he of Dan follows,
and he of Judah does the more interior work but
he of Dan the more exterior.
THE SABBATH.
The final word to Moses ere he left the mount
was as to the sabbath to be kept as a sign be
tween God and the children of Israel
Verses 12-17. forever. And it is a sign that men
know God and mean to serve Him, but neglect
of the sabbath is a sign of life for self and the
world only. It is a promise also of the life to
come when the six days of tribulation and forma
tive probation are over, and the rest from such
labors is given. This is the meaning of the words
that on the ^evetith day God rested and zuas
refreshed, for man no longer strives against His
providence.

264 EXODUS, XXXI.

TABLETS OF THE LAW.
So Moses turned to descend, having in his
hand two tables of testimony, tables of stone,
zuritten zuith the fitiger of God. It
Verse 18. is of no profit to inquire how the
few Hebrew words were written here, or how
the warning was written on Belshazzar's wall."
The simple precepts without explanatory sen
tences were probably written, and those as to
God belonged to one tablet and those as to raan
to the other. They would be the very heart
of Israel's tabernacle and rites ; but no, Israel
would never have these stones, and this would
be due to nothing but its own sins, for already
as long afterward Israel had rejected its Saviour.

' Daniel v. 5.

APOSTASY. 265

APOSTASY.
When Peter boasted that he would not deny
his Master although others might, and when ere
CHAPTER ¦'oi^S h^ declared his denial with sol-
xxxii. gj^jj oaths, he showed the national
weakness of bold avowal and cowardly recanta
tion ; and as His Lord was not deceived in Peter,
but predicted his apostacy, so the quality of
Israel itself was foreseen, and all the revelation
made to it was adapted to a perverse race, -which
nevertheless might embody in outward rites a
pure religion, if it would obey and abide by the
statutes given at Sinai. Therefore, after being
fully prepared, Moses was descending to the
people, bearing as the token of the covenant two
tablets of stone with the ten laws.
But Israel had almost at once turned from
Moses and Aaron when Pharaoh increased the
burdens ; ' it had rebuked them
Verse I. t-. 1 o
when pursued at the Red Sea;"

'Chapter V. 21. " Chapter xiv. 11.

2 66 EXODUS, XXXII.
it had charged them with the purpose to kill
all by starvation ; ' it had again impeached them
in thirst ; " and what were its promises before the
mount,' but so many assertions of the natural
man that he will do only right, when he is as
" unstable as water," ¦• and his " words are ini
quity and deceit .' " s While Moses delayed to
come down, the awe of the people wore away ;
and they gathered themselves together unto Aaron,
and said. Up, make us gods which shall go before
us ; for as for this Moses, the tnan that brought
us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not
what is become of him. Fear led to disbelief,
and disbelief to rejection of their God. Judas
Iscariot was so moved toward his Master. To
make gods for oneself is to forsake high duty
and be governed by low, selfish aims. When
these go before men, they stumble and fall,*
being blind led of the blind.^

'Chapter xvi. 3. "Chapter xvii. 3. ^ Chapter xix. 8; xxiv.
3, 7. ¦'Genesis xlix. 4. ^ Psalm xxxvi. 3. "Daniel xi. ig.
''Matthew xv. 14.

APOSTASY. 267

Aaron did not resist. He was not yet high
priest. When doctrine is cut off from Scripture,
as it is with the dogmas of immacu-
Verses 2-4. late conception or papal infallibility,
it obeys man, not God. Aaron told them to
break off their earrings and bring them to him,
and they did so. As the eye is the organ of
understanding and the hand of power, so the
ear corresponds to obedience. The gold in their
ears had stood for the good love of obedience,
but breaking off this gold with this purpose at
once indicated disobedience, and the divinity of
it was a molten calf.
Because Egypt as the type of natural and
sensual life worshipped Apis, the bull, and be
cause the consecration of the priests would
require a bullock sacrificed before the altar but
burned outside of the camp,' to represent fleshly
appetites put away, therefore this molten calf or
young bull is a perfect type of the base, Egyp
tian life for which the regenerating soul still
' Chapter xxix. 14

2 68 EXODUS, XXXII.

longs, even in the very forefront of the mount
of God. And Aaron said. These be thy gods, O
Israel, zuhich brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt. So does bestial man fashion a thing
with the graving tool of his own folly and set
up the self-deception as his god, to which he
owes his life. It is the false witness " before
Caiaphas traducing the Saviour, and accepted
in order that He might be crucified who was
their Good Shepherd.
Aaron built an altar and said, To-ttiorrow
shall be a feast to the Lord. Yes, a feast of
flesh and wine and lust. Early in
Verses 5, 6. the morning they brought offerings,
and then they sat down to eat atid drink, and
rose up to play. As research brings to light
more fully the unspeakable orgies of idolatry,
men may see how infernal corruptions may be
practised in the name of religion when they
make their own gods and proclaim feasts of
bestiality. ' Matthew xxvi. 60.

APOSTASY. 269

In the mount ]\Ioses was told what was going:
on below, and the very words which Aaron had
spoken ; nor was Moses incredulous.
Verses 7-14. for he knew his own heart and that
of his people. The Divine purpose was to eon-
su77ie them, and to make of Moses a great nation.
In their utter unworthiness they would be re
jected forever, and the Word of God would go
into other keeping. But Closes pleaded for
them that the Lord should abate His anger
lest Egypt triumph after all, and lest the prom
ises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Israel be
broken. Then it is said that the Lord repented
of the evil zuhich He said He zuould do. In this
and like interviews Moses appears to be more
wise and patient than God, and to bring Him
round from wrath to forbearance. All this is
the mere appearance. Men beUeve that they
move God by prayer, but in reality they move
themselves, and the ever merciful purpose of
God finds it way to fulfilment through their
submission to Him. So here Moses believed
that he had saved his people from utter destruc-

270 EXODUS, XXXII.
tion, he alone to be left alive ; but in reality he
had humbled himself to bear with them, and
so in the Divine mercy they can be preserved ;
but true religion would never be theirs.
PUNISHMENT.
Moses turned, as one goes from prayer to
work, "from Jerusalem to Jericho,"" and went
down by the ravine at one side.
Verses 15, 16. bearing the tablets, already rejected
by Israel. They were the work of God, that is,
they were the truths of Divine order itself, by
which God drew near to dwell among them.
Joshua, as they descended but were not yet
in view of the camp, declared that he heard a
noise of zuar, and his warrior soul
Verses 17-20. was stirred ; but sadly Moses, al
ready told by God, answered that it was not
war, but revelry. Indeed it was not war, the
strife of man against sin, but the ribald song
of the sinner self-deceived and boasting of his
' Luke x. 30.

PUNISHMENT. 271

Strength. Then came the view. :\Ioses sazu
the calf and the daticitig, representing a life
given up to self-indulgence. His own anger
burst forth, he buried the tablets to destruction,
he cast the idol into the fire, he beat it into
dust, and strewed it on the water, so that Israel
must drink it. How terrible is punishment, the
irresistible outcome of order trampled upon !
High privileges forfeited, low pleasures inter
rupted, idols cast down and made to enter into
the life till it loathes its former delights, this is
the inevitable result of sin without repentance.
Men drink their idols until, like the lusting of
Taberah, it comes out at their nostrils and is
loathsome unto them;' and "the brook that
descended out of the mount " " is no more clear
as crystal, but foul with the ashes of the fur
nace of passion.
In his fierce anger Moses turned upon the
brother who had betrayed him, but Aaron laid all
the blame upon the people, and he
Verses 21-24. told what they said and did, and of
' Numbers xL 20. " Deuteronomy lx. 21.

272 EXODUS, XXXII.
his own part he said, T cast it into the fire, and
there came out this calf. In this weak answer is a
law of life that, if gold of good love be cast into
the fire of self indulgence, a vile idol is the
result. T'tiQ people, drunken and dishonored, represent
the nature surrendered to sin. Moses stood in
the gate of the cattip, between them
Verses 25-29. and their enemies, and shouted for
those who were on the Lord's side. His own
tribe of Levi gathered, and he sent them to slay
the reprobates, of w-hom three thousatid fell.
This represents the inevitable loss by such
destructive sin, and it shows the Levite, or what
in a man repents and obeys the Lord, acting as
a judge to condemn the unrepentant part. "If
thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it
from thee ; it is better for thee to enter into life
with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be
cast into hell fire." ' It was Levi on one side,
the tribe of "conjunction" and the future priest-

' Matthew .wiii.

PUATSHMENT. 273

hood, and those who were still rebellious on
the other — God and mammon, the seed of the
w-oman and the seed of the serpent. ]\Ioses'
command to the Levites, Consecrate yourselves
to-day to the Lord, every tnan against his son
atid his brother, that He tnay bestow upoti you
a blessing, precisely describes the law that,
by resisting the foes of one's own household,
heavenly strength is gained. "To him that
overcometh will I give power." '
On the next day Aloses went before the
Lord, and besought His forgiveness, that He
would still guard them. If He
Verses 30-35. would not do this, Moses asked
to be slain, for spiritually speaking Moses is
slain, the " Word is made of none effect," " if
there be no church going forward under Divine
guidance. To this prayer the answer was that
the people would be led, but the Lord said,
Wheti I visit, I will visit their sitt upoti thetti,
because this sinful, unfaithful life must know
'Revelation ii. 26. "Mark vi. 13.

2 74 EXODUS, XXXIII.
very many punishments brought on itself. The
Lord Jesus wept over Jerusalem because it
must fall by its own iniquity. '
MOSES' TENT REMOVED.
After this apostasy the Lord said that the
promised country was still theirs, and that He
CHAPTER xxxiii. would drlvc out its occupants.
Verses 1-3. |-m(- j^g would not go up in the
midst of them, for they were a stiff-necked
people and would surely endanger themselves
by their sins. This is to be observed, that
they had now changed the Divine relation to
them, so that for their sakes the Lord must
stand as it were aloof. So was it when Phari
sees with Sadducees came to demand a sign of
the Lord, "and He left them and departed.""
The people were grieved, a sad day followed
one of reckless joy, and no -man did put on
him his ornatnents, for there is no
Verses 4-6. real joy in such a life, whether
exulting in evil or grieving over its self-in-
'HosEA xiv. I. ^Matthew xvi. 4.

MOSES' TENT REMOVED. 275
flicted losses ; and this is better than false
enjoyment, and therefore they did not resume
their ornaments, and soon found a good use
for them. In self-denial is safety for the weak.
Still further carrying the symbolism of the
unworthy people, in partial rejection, Moses
took his tent, and pitched it zuitli-
Verses 7-1 1. out the camp, afar off, and so
expressed the separation bet%veen God and the
people ; and thither they must go who sought
the Lord. The church was not among them.
They had removed themselves from it, although
it seemed to remove from them.
Moses, thus removed, came to a new dignity.
When he went out to his tent all stood and
observed him, representing a mental attitude of
attention to law. And they saw that the pillar
of cloud stood over Moses' tent, showing that
so the Lord was to be made known to them,
not immediately, but through law. All the
people rose up atid worshipped, every man at
his tent door, showing regard for God when
manifested in outward signs in accommodation

276 EXODUS, XXXIII.
to fallen humanity. Thus Moses, but not the
people, was before God, and he turned again
into the camp, showing continued help for
them from God through him ; but Joshua
departed tiot out of the tent, representing the
remoter presence of the Lord as the Divine
love, while the Divine truth, Moses, went and
came on errands of judgment. If Joshua did
not abide, the tree would die at the heart.
SEEING GOD.
Shaken by this evidence of weakness if they
may have no outward form to worship, Moses
prays that he may see God : Shezv
Verses 12-23. ttie, I pray Thee, Thy glory. He
has been in the mount, and he has come
again, only to find the people falling away to
an idol, and he feels that for himself and them
he must see God. The presence in the cloud
is sure, but it is not like seeing eye to eye,
it is not enough. If he could see God, he
would be satisfied that the people had been
indeed chosen. This is man's craving for a

SEEING GOD. 277

knowledge of God, of destiny, of immortality,
which will remove all doubt as he believes. It
is Philip saying, " Show us the Father, and it
sufficeth us." ' But affection is cognitive, as
one has said ; to draw near to God is to know
Him; and one cannot say, " Lo here! or Lo
there ! " " ]\Ioses must go up again, and place
himself in a cleft of the rock and be covered
with the Divine hand while the Lord passed
by; and then the hand would be taken away,
and He would see the back, but not the face.
Here is the fact of every life's experience.
If it will go into the mount, will rise to the
best motive, and enter the cleft of the rock,
the stronghold of the truth, and let the Di
vine hand of protection be placed on it, then
as the days go it shall see the Lord's love in
every passing experience. Not as life comes
can its mercy be seen, but looked at after
wards it will be plain that the Lord was in
it all. And blessed is he who knows this
'John xiv. 8. "Luke xvii. 21.

278 EXODUS, XXXIV.
truth, so that he can trust the Lord laying
upon him a hand of discipline, well knowing
that in due time the mercy of it all will be
seen, like the bow in the cloud after the

rain.

'We hush our children's laughter
When sunset hues grow pale ;
Then, in the silence after.
They hear the nightingale. '

EPIPHANY AND COVENANT.
With two tablets of his own making, repre
senting the changed relation now of a more
CHAPTER XXXIV. cxtemal quality, Moses went
vsrses 1-7. ^p j^^j.^ ^.j^g mouut early in the
tnortiing, the time significant of pure purpose ;
and there the Lord passed by before hitn, and
a voice proclaimed Him full of compassion and
gracious, slow to atiger, and plenteous in tnercy
and truth, keeping tnercy for thousands, forgiv
ing iniquity and transgression and sin, not clear-
itig the guilty, visiting the iniquity of fathers

' F. R. Havergal.

EPIPHANY AND COVENANT. 279
Upon children to the third and fourth generatioti.
In this is the self-revelation of God. As to
those who love His order. He is helpful and
wonderfully kind. As to those who oppose His
order. He declares that real harm results, and
to a degree descends ; for, while sin cannot be
inherited, the imperfection due to evil must be,
and can only be eradicated by regeneration.
It is exactly the same Divine quality which
was manifested in and by the Lord Jesus,
merciful to sinners, yet not failing to give
warning against sin. He was the friend of
publicans repentant, but saw only woes for
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. '
Overwhelmed with this epiphany, Moses tnade
haste, and bo-wed his head, atid worshipped, pray
ing that the Lord would go with
Verses 8, 9. them — take us for Thine inherit-
atue. This prayer no doubt sprang from the
hope that the Lord would be especially favor
able to them and equally hostile to all others.
'Matthew xxiii. 13-15, 23, 25, 27, 29.

EXODUS, XXXIV.

The thought of a God partial to a race or a
sect still prevails ; but it is to be observed that
no answer was made to this prayer except to
repeat the covenant, for the only limits of the
Divine care are set by men, and all who do
the Lord's will are blessed. In summary the
covenant required no dallying with
Verses 10-26. idolators, destroying all idols, re
fraining from foreign marriages, keeping the
three feasts, redeeming the firstborn, and other
laws already given.
Moses, during his second stay of forty days
in the mount, himself wrote the ten words on
the tablets ; and this suggests how
Verses 27, 28. closely adapted to Israel and so to
fallen humanity is the whole Old Testament,
so that some despise it, but it is inwardly Di
vine. If the casket must be earthly, the jewels
within are heavenly. In their spiritual meaning
both the Testaments put off the garments of
this world and are seen in raiment white and
dazzling.' ' Luke ix. 29.

THE SHINING FACE.

THE SHINING FACE.
When Moses returned to Israel there w^as
this time upon his face no black cloud of wrath
and disappointment, but the skin
Verses 29-35 of his face shone. The people saw
it and were afraid to cotne nigh, but he called
to them and told them all that the Lord had
spoketi. Then he covered his face with a veil,
but he took this off when He spoke before the
Lord. Here is the law of revelation. It must
be veiled to common eyes, veiled in history
and parable and psalm, or else it cannot reach
them ; but, seen with the eyes of the spirit, it
shines in glory. \\'hen the Lord dwelt in the
flesh there was no beauty that men should
desire Him,' but in His risen glory His face
did shine as the sun;" and the promise is now
fulfilled, "they shall see His face."'

' Isaiah Iiii. 2. " Revel.ation i. 16. ^Ibid., xxii. 4.

EXODUS, XXXIX.

THE WORK OF CONSTRUCTION.
CHAPTER xxxv. ^he remainder of Exodus
Verses i-ig shows thc performance of com-
Verses 20-29. mauds, the call for offerings,
the ready contribution of every-
Verses 30-35. thing needed, the work of Beza-
CHAPTER xxxvi. Iccl and Aholiab, the restraint
erses 1-7. ^^ ^^ pcople from bringing
more than was required, ihe
Verses 8-19. making of curtains and cover-
Verses 20-38. iugs, the fashioning of the
boards and pillars ; and then
CHAPTER xxxvn. the furniture was made, the
Verses 1-29. ^^j^^ table, lamp, and incense
altar, the ointment and incense,
CHAPTER xxxvm. the altar for burnt offerings.
Verses 1-23. (-|^g j^ycr and the hangings of
Verses 24-31. the court ; the gold, silver and
CHAPTER xxxix coppcr wcre weighed and util-
verses 1-31. j^g,^ ¦ ^nd then came the priestly
garments. Thus zvas finished all the work, and

TABERNACLE ERECTED. 283
they brought it all io Moses, and he sazu it all.
Verses 32-43. and blessed them.
TABERNACLE ERECTED.
They put it all up on the first day of the
first -month. They had been a year out of
CHAPTER XL. ^gypt and half a year in this
Verses 1-33. ^Q,^^^ jhc first day of first month
is a new beginning, a new era in the life of a
man. The past is closed, the door is opened
to a better life. So with Israel, its organized
ecclesiastical life begins here. Everything was
minutely told, and everything was exactly done.
So Moses finished the zuork, as the Lord said,
" It is finished," ' since His body was taber
nacle and temple.
Then the glory filled the Tabernacle, and there
it rested, leading on or causing to rest through
out all their journeys , and what other guidance
is there than "the light that Hghteth every
man that cometh into the world .' " "

' John xix. 30. - John i. 9.

EXODUS, XL.

The Book of Exodus is thus seen to be the
story of escape from bondage to the flesh, of
human weakness causing sad hours, but of the
Divine mercy in all and through all ; until at
last the soul, made a Bethel of worship, a habi
tation of the Mighty One of Jacob," is prepared
to take up its victorious progress, to leave its
mountain of rest, and go forth into the plain
of discipline, and on to the Promised Land,
chastened as it goes ; but at last planting its
tabernacle in Shiloh, the place and state of
eternal peace in the Lord.

' Psalm cxxxii. 5.

INDEX.

Aaron, representation, 77;
promised to Moses, 79 ;
meets with Moses, 87 ;
. genealogy, 103 ; at Rephi
dim, 196; high prieet,
245 ; robes, 249 ; makes
idol, 267.
Altar, of earth, 217; at
Sinai, 227 ; of sacrifice,
241; of incense, 256; of
idol, 268.
Amalek, 194, 199.
Ark, of Moses, 38, 42, 236 ;
of covenant, 234.
Assyria, 7.
Bezaleel and Aholiab,
261.
Bible Lands, 3.
Boards, 239.
Boils, 123.
Breastplate, 247.
Bricks, 94.
Bush, burning, 62.
Census, 258.
Circumcision, 86, 147.
Conscience, 40.

Court, 242.
Curtains, 238.
Darkness, 127.
Decalogue, 215, 280.
Dragon, Rev. xii., 32.
Egypt, 4, 21 ; oppression of,
25; plots of, 28; princess
of, 39; jewels of, 69, 131,
143; demand by Moses,
92 ; refusal, 93 ; plagues,
1 10; signs. III; magi
cians, I II, 1 19, 124; water
to blood, 114; frogs, 116;
lice, 1 1 9 ; flies, 1 20 ; mur
rain, 123; boils, 123; hail,
124; locusts, 126; dark
ness, 127; sons slain, 130;
submission, 141 ; pursuit,
160; engulfed, 167.
Elim, 176.
Ephod, 247.
Etham, 156, 158.
Exodus, Book of, 20, 23.
Fifteen, 178.

(285)

286

INDEX.

Firstborn, of Egypt, 130;
of Moses, 86; of Israel,
149.
Flies, 120.
Forty, 46, 53, 107, 185,
232.
Frogs, 116.
Gershom, 60.
Good and Evil, 90.
Goshen, 38, 144.
Hail, 124.
Heart hardened, 84, 110.
Herod, 30, 43.
Horeb, see Sinai.
Hornet, 225.
Hur, 196.
Hyssop, 140.
Idolatry, 215.
Incense, 257, 260.
Isaiah, xix., i 7.
Israel, 10; increase, 25, 27,
31; children, 29; despair,
98, 1 62 ; sees signs, 88 ;
land of promise, 1 1 ; pass-
over, 134; march, 143;
numbers, 145; sojourn,
length of, 146; firstborn.

149; turning, 157; pur
sued, 160; song, 170;
Marah, 171 ; murmuring,
102, 163, 178; thirst, 173,
189; manna, 181; battle,
197; at Sinai, 207; apos
tasy, 265; blessed, 283;
feasts, 222.
Jethro, 202.
Joseph as type, 22; his
bones, 155.
Joshua, 195, 232.
Lamp, 237, 242.
Laver, 259.
Leprosy, 73.
Levites, 41, 104; slaughter
by, 272.
Lice, i 19.
Locusts, 126.
Lord, the, tempted, 23, 34,
55, 172; names, 2, 65; at
Nazareth, 23, 34; the
I am, 66; the rock, 192;
second coming, 89; re
penting, meaning of, 269.
Magicians, hi, 119.
Manna, 181.

INDEX.

287

Marah, 171.
Massah and Meribah,
193-
Mercy-Seat, 235.
Midianites, 52, 56, 200.
MrD^\^vES, 31.
Miriam, 44.
Moses, birth, 36 ; saved,
38 ; Levite, 40 ; name, 45 ;
smites, 47 ; judges, 50 ;
flight, 51; at well, 57;
shepherd, 54; wife, 59;
son, 60; at bush, 62;
reluctant, 64 ; signs given,
71 ; speech, 75 ; rod, 72,
81, III, 191; complaint,
99; genealogy, 103-; at
Rephidim, 193 ; at Sinai,
208; writing, 227: angry,
271 ; tent moved, 275; in
cleft, 277; face, 281.
Murrain, 123.
Oil, anointing, 260.
Omer, 186.
Palestine, io, i i.
Passover, 134, 137.
Patriarchs, representa
tion, 22 ; remembered, 61 .

Peter, 33.
Pharaoh, see Egypt.
Philistines, 152.
Pillar of Cloud, i 56.
Pithom and Raamses, 26.
Plagues, ho.
Priesthood, garments, 244,
249; consecration, 232.
Princess, Egyptian, 39, 43.
Quails, 180.
Red Sea, 154, 158, 165,
166.
Rephidim, 189, 193.
Sabbath, 183, 216, 263.
Sacrifices, 228, 252 ; altar
of, 241 ; daily, 255.
Shewbread, 237.
Sinai, 62, 207.
Store-Cities, 26.
Succoth, 145.
Swedenborg, iii., 16.
Tabernacle, offerings for,
233; curtains, 238;
boards, 239; veils, 240;
court, 242 ; constructed,
282.

288

INDEX.

Table, for bread, 236; of
law, 264.
Taskmasters, 47, 94.
Ten and Tithe, 186.
Three, 2, 37, 93.
Trinity, writers on, i, 2;
in man, 2 ; in God, 2 ;
illustrations, 1 3 ; in taber
nacle, 243.

Unleavened Bread, 139.
Urim and Thummim, 247,
249.
¦Veils and Hangings, 240.
'Water to Blood, 74, 1 14.
'Wells, 56.
¦Writing, 227.
Zipporah, 59, 86.

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