"Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he
will show to you to-day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day,
ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for
you, and ye shall hold your peace."--EXODUS xiv. 13, 14.
Why did God bring the Jews out of Egypt? God Himself told them why. To
fulfil the promise which He made to Abraham, their forefather, that of
his children He would make a great nation.
Now the Jews in Egypt were not a nation at all. A nation is free,
governed by its own laws, one body of people, held together by one fellow
feeling, one language, one blood, one religion; as we English are. We
are a nation. The Jews were none in Egypt, no more than Negro slaves in
America were a nation. They served a people of a different blood, as the
Jews did in Egypt. They had no laws of their own; they had no fellow-
feeling with each other, which enabled them to make common cause
together, and help each other, and free each other.
Selfishness and cowardice make some men slaves. Above all, ungodliness
makes men slaves. For when men do not fear and obey God, they are sure
to obey their own lusts and passions, and become slaves to them. They
become ready to sell themselves soul and body for money, or pleasure, or
food. And their fleshly lusts, their animal appetites, keep them down,
selfish, divided, greedy, and needy, at the mercy of those who are
stronger and cunninger than themselves, just as the Jews were kept down
by the strong and cunning Egyptians.
They had slavish hearts in them, and as long as they had, God could not
make them into a nation. The Jews _had_ slaves' hearts in them. They
were glad enough to get free out of Egypt, to escape from their heavy
labour in brick and mortar, from being oppressed, beaten, killed at the
will and fancy of the Egyptians, from having their male children thrown
into the river as soon as they were born, to keep them from becoming too
numerous. They were glad enough, poor wretches, to escape from all their
misery and oppression of which we read in the first three chapters of
Exodus. But if they could do that, that was all they cared for. They
did not want to be made wise, righteous, strong, free-hearted--they did
not care about being made into a nation. We read that when by the Red
Sea shore (Exodus xiv.), they saw themselves in great danger, the army of
Pharaoh, King of Egypt, following close upon them to attack them, they
lost heart at once, and were sore afraid, and cried unto Moses, "Is not
this the word which we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that
we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the
Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."
Cowards and slaves! The thing they feared above all, you see, was death.
If they could but keep the miserable life in their miserable bodies, they
cared for nothing beyond. They were willing to see their children taken
from them and murdered, willing to be beaten, worked like dumb beasts for
other men's profit, willing to be idolaters, heathens, worshipping the
false gods of Egypt, dumb beasts and stocks and stones, willing to be
despised, wretched, helpless slaves--if they could but keep the dear life
in them. God knows there are plenty like them now-a-days--plenty who do
not care how mean, helpless, wicked, contemptible they are, if they can
but get their living by their meanness.
"_But a man must live_," says some one. How often one hears that made
the excuse for all sorts of meanness, dishonesty, grasping tyranny. "_A
man must live_!" Who told you that? It is better to die like a man than
to live like a slave, and a wretch, and a sinner. Who told you that, I
ask again? Not God's Bible, surely. Not the example of great and good
men. If Moses had thought that, do you think he would have gone back
from Midian, when he was in safety and comfort, with a wife and home, and
children at his knee, and leave all he had on earth to face Pharaoh and
the Egyptians, to face danger, perhaps a cruel death in shame and
torture, and all to deliver his countrymen out of Egypt? Moses would
sooner die like a man helping his countrymen, than live on the fat of the
land while they were slaves. And forty years before he had shown the
same spirit too, when though he was rich and prosperous, and high in the
world, the adopted son of King Pharaoh's daughter (Exodus ii. 11), he
disdained to be a slave and to see his countrymen slaves round him. We
read how he killed an Egyptian, who was ill-treating one of his brothers,
the Jews--and how he then fled out of Egypt into Midian, houseless and
friendless, esteeming as St. Paul says, "the reproach of Christ"--that is
the affliction and ill-will which came on him for doing right, "better
than all the treasures of Egypt" (Heb xi. 24-27).
_A man must live_? The valiant Tyrolese of old did not say that (more
than seventy years ago), when they fought to the last drop of their blood
to defend their country against the French invaders. They were not
afraid to die for liberty; and therefore they won honour from all
honourable men, praise from all whose praise is worth having for ever.
_A man must live_? The old Greeks and Romans, heathens though they were,
were above so mean a speech as that. They used to say, it was the
noblest thing that can befall a man to die--not to live in clover, eating
and drinking at his ease--to die among the foremost, fighting for wife
and child and home.
_A man must live_? The martyrs of old did not say that, when they
endured the prison and the scourge, the sword and the fire, and chose
rather to die in torments unspeakable than deny the Lord Jesus who bought
them with His blood, rather than do what they knew to be _wrong_.
(Hebrews xi.) They were not afraid of torture and death; but of doing
wrong they were unspeakably afraid. They were _free_, those holy men of
old, truly free--free from their own love of ease and cowardice and
selfishness, and all that drags a man down and makes a slave of him. They
knew that "life is more than meat, and the body more than raiment." What
matter if a man gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Their souls
were free whatever happened to their bodies--the tormentor could not
touch _them_, because they believed in God, because they did not fear
those who could kill the body, and after that had no more that they could
do.
And do you not see that a coward can never be free, never be godly, never
be like Christ? For by a coward I mean not merely a man who is afraid of
pain and trouble. Every one is that more or less. Jesus Himself was
afraid when He cried in agony, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this
cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." (Luke xxii.
42.) But a coward is a man who is so much afraid that to escape pain and
danger, he will do what he _ought not_--do what he is ashamed of doing--do
what lowers him; and therefore our Lord Jesus had perfect courage when He
tasted death for all men, and endured the very agony from which He
shrank, and while He said, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass," said also, "Nevertheless not my will, but Thine, be done."
The Jews were cowards when they cried, "Let us alone that we may serve
the Egyptians." While a man is in that pitiful mood he cannot rise, he
cannot serve God--for he must remain the slave of his own body, of which
he is so mightily careful, the slave of his own fears, the slave of his
own love of bodily comfort. Such a man does not _dare_ serve God. He
dare not obey God, when obeying God is dangerous and unpleasant. He dare
not claim his heavenly birthright, his share in God's Spirit, his share
in Christ's kingdom, because that would bring discomfort on him, because
he will have to give up the sins he loves, because he will have to endure
the insults and ill-will of wicked men. Thus cowards can never be free,
for it is only where the Spirit of God is that there is liberty.
But the Jews were not yet fit to be made soldiers of. God would not
teach them at once not to be afraid of men. He did not command them to
turn again and fight these Egyptians, neither did He lead them into the
land of Canaan the strait and short road, through the country of the
Philistines, lest they should be discouraged when they saw war.
Now what was God's plan for raising the Jews out of this cowardly,
slavish state? First, and above all, to make them trust in _Him_. While
they were fearing the Egyptians, they could never fear Him. While they
were fearing the Egyptians, they were ready to do every base thing, to
keep their masters in good humour with them. God determined to teach
them to fear Him more than they feared the Egyptians. God taught them
that He was stronger than the Egyptians, for all their civilisation and
learning and armies, chariots and horsemen, swords and spears. He would
not let the Jews fight the Egyptians. He told them by the mouth of
Moses, "Stand you still, and the Lord shall fight for you," and he
commanded Moses to stretch out his rod over the sea. (Exodus xiv.) The
Egyptians were stronger than the Jews--they would have cut them to pieces
if they had come to a battle. For free civilised men like the Egyptians
are always stronger than slaves, like the Jews; they respect themselves
more, they hold together better, they have order and discipline, and
obedience to their generals, which slaves have not. God intended to
teach the Jews that also in His good time. But not yet. They were not
fit yet to be made soldiers. They were not even _men_ yet, but miserable
slaves. A man is only a true man when he trusts in God, and none but
God--when he fears God and nothing _but_ God. And that was the lesson
which God had to teach them. That was the lesson which He taught them by
bringing them up out of Egypt by signs and wonders, that _God was the
Lord_, _God_ was their deliverer, _God_ was their King--that let _them_
be as weak as they might, _He_ was strong--that if they could not fight
the Egyptians God could overwhelm them--that if they could not cross the
sea, God could open the sea to let them pass through. If they dreaded
the waste howling wilderness of sand, with its pillars of cloud and fire,
its stifling winds which burn the life out of man and beast, God could
make the sand storms and the fire pillars and the deadly east wind of the
desert work for their deliverance. And so He taught them to fear
Himself, to trust in Him, to look up to Him as their deliverer whose
strength was shown most gloriously when they were weakest and most
despairing.
This was the great lesson which God meant to teach the children of
Israel, that the root and ground of all other lessons, is that this earth
belongs to the Lord alone. That had been what God had been teaching them
already, by the plagues of Egypt. The Egyptians worshipped their great
river Nile, and thought it was a god, and the Lord turned the Nile water
into blood, and showed that He could do what He liked with it. The
Egyptians worshipped dumb beasts and insects, and fancied in their folly
that they were gods. The Lord sent plagues of frogs and flies and
locusts, and took them away again when He liked, to show them that the
beasts and creeping things were His also.
The Egyptians worshipped false gods who as they fancied managed the
seasons and the weather. God sent them thunder and hail when it pleased
Him, and showed the Jews that _He_, not these false gods of Egypt, ruled
the heavens. The Egyptians and many other heathen nations of the earth
used to offer their children to false gods. I do not mean by killing
them in sacrifice, but by naming them after some idol, and then expecting
that the idol would ever afterwards prosper and strengthen them. Thus
the kings were called after the sun. Pharaoh means the Sun-king; for
they fancied that the sun was a god, and protected their kings one after
the other. And God slew all the first-born of Egypt, even the first-born
of King Pharaoh on his throne. The Sun-god could not help him. The
idols of Egypt could not take care of their worshippers--only the
children of the Jews escaped. (Exodus xii.) What a lesson for the Jews!
And they needed it; for during the four hundred years that they had been
in Egypt they had almost forgotten the one true God, the God of their
forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; at least they thought Him no
better than the false gods of Egypt. After all these wondrous proofs of
God's almighty power, and His jealousy for His own name, they fell away
to idols again and again. They worshipped a golden calf in Horeb (Exodus
xxxii.); they turned aside to worship the idols of the nations whom they
passed through on their way to Canaan. Idolatry had been rooted in their
hearts, and it took many years of severe training and teaching on God's
part to drive it out of them--to make them feel that the one God, who
made heaven and earth, had delivered them--that they belonged to Him,
that they had a share in Him--to make them join with one heart and voice
in the glorious song of Moses:
"I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse
and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and
song and he is become my salvation: he is my God and I will prepare him
an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man
of war: the Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he
cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.
The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy
right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord,
hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine
excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou
sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the
blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood
upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the
sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the
spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my
hand shall deliver them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered
them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O
Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in
praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth
swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou
hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy
habitation. The people shall hear, and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold
on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed;
the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the
inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone;
till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which thou
hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain
of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee
to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. For the horse of Pharaoh went in
with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord
brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel
went on dry land in the midst of the sea." (Exodus xv. 1-19.)
This was God's first lesson to the Jews; the first step towards making
them a free nation. For believe me, my friends, the only thought which
can make men feel free and strong, the only thought which can keep them
from being afraid of each other, afraid of the seasons, and the elements,
and the chances and changes of this mortal life, the only thought which
can teach them that they are brothers, bound together to help and love
each other, in short the only thought which can make men citizens--is the
thought that the one God is their Father, and that they are all His
children--that they have one God, one religion, one baptism, one Lord and
Saviour, who has delivered them, and will deliver them again and again
from all their sins and miseries; one God and Father of all, who is in
all, and for all, and over all, to whom they all owe equal duty, in whom
they all have an equal share.
That lesson God began to teach the Jews by the Red Sea. That lesson God
has taught our English forefathers again and again; and that lesson He
will teach us, their children, as often as we forget it, by signs and
wonders, by chastisements and by mercies, till we all learn to trust in
Him and Him only, and know that there is none other name under heaven by
which we can be saved from evil in this life or in the life to come, but
the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Angel of the Covenant, who
led the Jews up out of the land of Egypt.