Acquaintance With God.
Thus said the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: Behold
I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters in the
river and they shall be turned into blood.--Exodus 7:17.
There are many perplexities which are not explained by philosophers.
Men of scholarly renown have by no means been able to comprehend the
mysteries of God. In His Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence,
He enveloped Moses, the great law-giver, but with His God. The power
that was to uphold Moses was not inborn nor was it acquired, but it
was God. The omnipresence, the hand that was to guide him in all his
earthly wanderings was not his own hand, but the hand of his God. So
that whatever of success came to Moses, God would have Moses as well as
us, to know, that it came from the blessings of God and not through the
wisdom or the efforts of man. Therefore, let us render obedience to our
God, who has promised us, that although the heavens and the earth pass
away, not one jot or tittle of His Word or of His law, shall in any
wise pass, until all be fulfilled. We discover in the text the first
great truth, that God wishes us to know Him.
The providences of God were manifested to Moses through His dealings
with him. This is one of God’s ways of making himself known to us. But
our eyes must be open to the fact that it is God who deals with us in
our conditions and circumstances of life--yes, it is God. We may say
that it is Nature, that it is Law, that it is Force, but herein are we
blind, for God says that “In this thou shalt know.” The doings of God
are frequently through nature, sometimes above nature, as in the case
of turning the water of the river into blood, but we are to be able to
see that it is God’s hand that moves and God’s voice that speaks. If
a man knows not God he will always attribute the doings of God in his
life to some other cause or causes; but if he know God, he thus becomes
better acquainted with God. So in the case of Moses, God’s promise was
sufficient to allow him and the Jewish people to accomplish results
which were replete with honor and glory. These pilgrims on their way to
the Promised Land of Canaan were full of faith and confidence in God,
they believed Him, they knew Him. He had promised them that He would
bring them to this land that “Flowed with milk and honey” and nothing
could turn Him from the fulfilment of this promise; no, not even the
sins of His people. For did they not rebel against Him and sin most
grievously against Him in the wilderness, and yet did He not bring them
into Canaan?
“Behold I will smite the water of the river with the rod that is in
mine hand and it shall be turned into blood.”
The church is the receptacle of truth. God has always committed His
truth to His chosen people, to the believers, the church. The church is
devoted and consecrated in word and action to the glory and the service
of God. Through it He has caused the light to shine in darkness, His
love to fall into our hearts, the light of His knowledge and glory has
appeared in the face of Jesus Christ, His Son, who is the great Head
of the Church. God appeared to Moses through Jehovah, the Head of the
Church, and it was upon the strong arm of Jehovah that Moses leaned and
it is upon the same strong arm that we, the church in this day, also
lean. Moses saw the fire in the Burning Bush and he heard the voice out
of the Bush. He turned and saw that the Bush was burning, but that it
was not consumed. My brethren, do you know that this Burning Bush of
the desert is a type of the church? It is the church passing through
the fiery trials of this world, the church burning on every hand with
temptations, troubles, doubts, distresses, tribulations, sufferings,
and yet she is not consumed. So Moses was taught at the very beginning
of his ministry that God was in the church through the mediation of
Jesus Christ and that things were made to work together for good to
her. Thou, the Church, shall know that I am the Lord. Lofty cedars,
towering oaks, bramble bushes, the national capital, the House of the
Lord, all these may attract the multitudes of sight-seers, but God’s
own people shall know that He is God and that there is no other God.
The text also teaches us that.