(Some thoughts from the Pentateuch)
Poul Madsen
2. EXODUS. God the Redeemer
THE theme of Exodus is, "They shall know that I am the LORD". Although the Lord often revealed Himself in various ways, it seems that it was difficult to get to know Him. For example, we might expect that after Moses had met the Lord at the burning fire in the Bush, or as the Children of Israel had experienced deliverance from the house of bondage, they would surely [51/52] know Him. But it was not so. The fact is that knowing the Lord is not a matter of course, as we might imagine, but to learn to know Him is a task for life. If we could know Him easily or in a short time, it might be open to question as to whether He really would be the LORD.
Moses
When Moses asked God's name, he was told to say to the Israelites: "I AM hath sent me to you" (3:14). God is who He is and will remain so; He will always be what He is. His thoughts are as high above ours as are the heavens. No-one can learn to know God in his own way, by his own thoughts or imagination, nor can he get to know Him by mystic meditation or merely subjective experiences. On the other hand, it is possible to learn to know Him. While He is exalted and awe-inspiring, this does not exclude hope for any, since the Scriptures contain an invitation to sinners to draw near to Him and learn to know Him.
Although Moses had the revelation at the Bush, he still failed to be governed by it, protesting again and again that he could not do as he had been told. I imagine that perhaps what made the greatest impression upon him was when God offered to make all His goodness pass before him (33:19). So it was that "the Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous (rich) in mercy and truth" (34:6). Without plenteous mercy and truth from God's side, not one of us could learn to know Him. Humanly speaking, all of us must have disappointed Him often. Moses disappointed Him. Certainly the Israelites did. But He is so rich in the kind of riches which we need that little by little we may learn truly to know Him.
Pharaoh
Pharaoh also had to learn to know Him, though in a very different way. There are various ways of getting to know God; Pharaoh's was a tragic way. One of the first things which he said when Moses asked him to let God's people go was, "Who is the Lord? I know nothing about the Lord". Well, he had to come to know Him, but it did him no good. At last, and much against his will, he encountered the further revelation which God had given of Himself: "Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished" (34:7). Those solemn words were part of the gracious revelation given to Moses, for they constitute an aspect of the knowledge of God.
In the end, the Almighty God, the Glorious and Holy One, said: "I will harden Pharaoh's heart and he shall follow after them; and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh and upon all his host; and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord" (14:4). That is what our God is like; He was then and He still is today. We cannot understand His hardening, but still more incomprehensible to us, His people, is the assurance of His choosing: "Ye have not chosen me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit ..." (John 15:16).
The Israelites
The people of Israel more than all others should have learned to know the Lord. He revealed Himself to them in such an abundance of salvation that several verses are needed to express it: "I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments; and I will take you to me for a people and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning which I lifted up my hand to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am Jehovah" (6:6-8).
Salvation begins and ends with the declaration: "I am the LORD". It is of Him and to Him; it is His work from beginning to end. We are to see that at times this provoked true worship in the hearts of His favoured people, but equally we are to see that they behaved as a people who had no idea of who the Lord was. In His redeeming grace, He had declared: "I am Jehovah" but hardly had they arrived in the wilderness before they behaved as those who did not know Him. He said, "I am Jehovah" when He provided them with the manna, but not long after this it became obvious that they did not truly know Him. He declared "I am Jehovah" when He gave them the law, the Tabernacle and the services, but they had their times when they seemed ignorant of His true nature.[52/53]
There were periods in between when it seems that their response to the divine revelation was what it should be. Even before their actual deliverance we are told that after Aaron had spoken to them: "The people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped" (4:31). We must not despise or overlook this, but we must realise that such a wonderful verse must be balanced with other verses about the same people which show that the seed had fallen, as it were, into shallow ground so that the fruit was not lasting. The Lord Jesus told of stony ground into which the seed fell and sprang up quickly but when tribulation and difficulties came, then it bore no lasting fruit. This reminds us to be wary of wrongly pressuring people when the Holy Spirit may be at work. Sometimes we may do this and a healthy result ensues, but let us be careful not to publish abroad too much or exaggerate what has happened, for the true result can only be known after the test of time.
At the time of the Passover we read of another wonderful time which makes us rejoice. The people were told that when their children asked them what it meant, they were to answer that it was the sacrifice of the Passover when the Lord passed over the houses of the children of Israel and then we are told: "The people bowed the head and worshipped ... and went and did so; as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they" (12:27-28).
We worship the Lord in the bright moments, but the Lord wants our worship to be of the kind that survives all trials. When we read the words of the worship in Egypt and then how that at the Red Sea, "Israel saw the great work which the Lord did on the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord; and they believed in the Lord, and in his servant Moses" (14:31), we sense a joyous atmosphere which they thought they would never forget or go back on. Chapter 15 goes on to record their triumphant song and the enthusiasm of Miriam and the women, as if they had now come to a full knowledge of the Lord. Had man written that chapter, I feel sure that it would have closed on that high note, but the Holy Spirit so overruled in the arrangement that in that very same chapter the record tells us of the people's murmuring (15:24).
Only three days of journeying and they betrayed by their complaints that they had already forgotten the Lord's great faithfulness. It is one thing to believe in Him and praise Him when we are in a happy atmosphere, but it is quite another so to know and trust Him and continue with Him when things seem to go wrong. At this point we are only dealing with Exodus, but when we pass to Leviticus and Numbers we shall find that in spite of all God's wonderful dealings with them, the Israelites gave priority over the Lord to their own experiences and feelings and circumstances.
If I am asked if I am a believer, I readily and rightly claim to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, but if I am challenged as to whether I do only the will of God, I fear to make the claim. Yet a believer is not just one who accepts a mass of truth en bloc, but one whose life is governed by the practical implications of his faith. Israel's tragedy, recorded as a warning to us all, is that they failed to give personal expression to what the Lord had revealed to them of Himself. So far as I can discover, they provide ten records of their complaints against the Lord, even wishing themselves back in Egypt. Altogether they revealed a lamentable lack of knowledge of the Lord, in spite of the many wonders He had done for them.
Even though God does many miracles for a person, unless something happens with that person himself, the blessings do not of themselves lead to a knowledge of Him. Concerning those Israelites of old Moses, as he was about to die, said: "But the Lord hath not given you an heart to know, and eyes to see, and ears to hear" (Deuteronomy 29:4). He had given them many benefits but to that very day they did not really know Him. Happily Moses was able to go on to promise: "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul ..." (30:6). This points us on to the New Covenant which in fact lay hidden already in the Old, eyes to see, ears to hear, a heart that is circumcised. This strange expression points on to the work of the Spirit who cuts off man's own strength and righteousness and brings him to personal dependence on the Lord alone.
One of the purposes of this book of Exodus seems to be to give us a glimpse of God's longsuffering patience. When He refers to His people, [53/54] He does so with His Father heart that does not grow cold or impatient, even though His people are so slow to learn. The word 'congregation' which appears so often not only in Exodus but also in the following books of the Pentateuch is the one which most Danish Christians use for the Church. How important God's people were and are to Him. Is the expression warranted? God speaks of His people as His first-born son, His own possession and inheritance, His kingdom of priests. The fact is that even when God's people do not believe Him as they ought, He believes in Himself; He knows that He can bring about what He wills. What He wills, He does.
He is LORD, and therefore He speaks of His people with titles which do not correspond to facts as we see them, but He has no difficulty in believing in Himself; He invites us to share that faith, and it is the word of faith which is the undercurrent throughout the Pentateuch. When we really hear this, it changes the Pentateuch from being a boring record of endless laws and ordinances, to a revelation of Himself, the Lord who is our Lord and God and who in redeeming love has circumcised our hearts so that we can know Him. It is not possible fully to understand Exodus without the background of the New Testament. It is in this way that we are meant to read these old books, for they are a shadow of that which was to come but "the matter itself came with Christ" (Colossians 2:17 Danish). God has much more to teach us of Himself and to bless us with in the future. Precisely because He has given us the privilege of knowing Him, we have the earnest in our hearts of the full knowledge which is to be ours.
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