“Marvelous things did He in Me sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.” —Ps. 75:3-12.
LET us look into some of the wonders of the Lord in the land of Egypt. God Himself speaks of His ways in delivering His people Israel from their bondage in Egypt as marvelous, therefore we shall find strange things. We will open our Bibles at the fourth chapter of Ex. 5:1919And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task. (Exodus 5:19).
The Lord bids Moses return to the land of Egypt, from which country he had been exiled for some forty years, telling him that the Pharaoh and all the men who had sought his life were dead. The great oppressor, the majestic builder, Sesostris-Ramases, or Ramases the Great, was no more.
Let us repeat what we observed in our papers upon God’s Ancient People last year, that until more of the writings or monuments of Egypt are brought to light, there will still remain some question as to the actual name of the Pharaoh who defied Jehovah, who brought down upon Egypt the terrible plagues of the Lord, and who finally perished in the sea. We cannot, in the limited space at our disposal, give the voices of the monuments upon this interesting subject.
Be the name of the Pharaoh what it may, it is our purpose rather to consider the character of the man. The monuments may reveal his name beyond doubt; the word of God portrays the man! one whose violent spirit and whose haughty will had at length to submit and finally to be crushed. The scriptures do not reveal to us what this Pharaoh was before the last year of his life, when Jehovah said of him that He would harden his heart. It was a terrible doom for a living man that his heart should be hardened by God against God. We know that “whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,” (Gal. 6:77Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)) which divine principle, we venture to think, may suffice to answer not a few of the many questions that have been raised upon this subject. But beyond this, God in His sovereignty had raised up Pharaoh for a special end.
Another great principle to be remembered in the strange story of the plagues of Egypt is, that the controversy was not simply between Moses and Pharaoh, but that it was rather between Jehovah and the gods of Egypt. And this we shall very distinctly see when we come to speak of the plagues.
With this preface, then, let us picture to ourselves Moses, after his long banishment, leaving the shepherd life he had followed, returning from the Sinaitic Mountains, and at Jehovah’s bidding retracing his steps to the land from which he had fled, in order to be the mighty deliverer of God’s ancient people.
Moses carries the rod of God in his hand, and power to work the wonders God would show, and a message from the Lord to Pharaoh— “Thus saith the Lord: Israel is my son, even my firstborn; and I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve Me; and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.”
In the wilderness Aaron meets Moses; they both reach Egypt, and gather together the elders of their people. Israel, some three or four millions in number, dwelt principally in “the land of flowers,” in Goshen. Though enslaved, yet still they had princes and elders over them, and no doubt owned possessions too, for they were a race which for a long time had dwelt in Egypt, now held in bondage by the nation of the Egyptians. The elders of the people beheld the wonders of the Lord done by Moses, and they believed what Moses and Aaron said. “And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that He had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.”
How like ourselves is this! How sweet the welcome news that there is “rest for the weary!” How glad the tidings that God has a home for His own from sin and sorrow free! Ah, how many when they hear this sweet music, “bow their heads and worship!” Has it been so with you, dear young friend? Have you learned to feel the misery of sin’s bondage, and the power of Satan? Have you learned that this world— your Egypt—is not your home? That you are but a stranger here, and that far, far away is the land of rest? And have you rejoiced when some messenger of God has told you that the good and gracious God is not unmindful of you? That He has compassion upon you, and has joys beyond this world for all who put their trust in Him. God grant that by His Spirit such may be the case in your hearts!
From the weary and burdened people we are taken to the palace of the king. Moses and Aaron go in and tell Pharaoh that the Lord God of Israel says, “Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.” Pharaoh’s palace was splendid with images and paintings of Egypt’s many gods—dumb gods, which never spoke—idols, work of men’s hands. Yet no less were they the power of Satan over the minds of the idolatrous king and his subjects.
From the glory of his place, surrounded by priests and princes, that Pharaoh haughtily replied, “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, neither will I let Israel go.”
He knew the gods of the Egyptians and of the surrounding nations by their idols. Jehovah, whose image he had never seen, the Eternal One, who is a Sprit, was the God he knew not.
Moses and Aaron explain to him that Jehovah is the God of the Hebrews, and that they are numerous as the Egyptians themselves; and now that the hope of liberty burned within them, it was policy thoroughly to crush their spirits. Hence the command of the king, “Ye shall no more give the people straw to make bricks, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of bricks which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: fore they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.”
How remarkable like Satan this is! For when any one really longs for heaven, and blesses God for the hope of rest, Satan is sure to make him feel miserable; to make each hope after freedom under His power, whereupon Pharaoh cries that Moses and Aaron hinder Israel from their work, commands more severe burdens to be placed upon them.
The people were “many” no doubt almost as a burden, and to put trials and difficulties in his way. Each of us who have really longer to be sure of heaven has found Satan, like Pharaoh, doing his utmost to crush all hope out of us. “But if God be for us, who can be against us?”
We will now again turn to the monuments of Egypt, and see how clearly they explain the portion of Scripture before us.
The bricks of Egypt were made sometimes of clay, chiefly of Nile mud frequently mixed with straw, dried in the sun. And as Egypt is a country with an almost rainless climate, these bricks are still to be seen, and some of those made by the children of Israel remain to this day. The corn was not always reaped close to the earth, as is the custom in. our country; but, in most instances, the ears merely were cut off, and the long stubble was left standing in the fields. The ears of corn were taken to the threshing floors, and the chopped-up straw left after the grain was beaten out was used to mix up with the mud to make the bricks. This straw was served out to the people. But by the edict of Pharaoh “the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt, to gather stubble instead of straw;” they had to go over the fields in the burning sun to pull the long stubble out of the fields, and this they had to chop up in order to mix with the earth, and to make their necessary “tale” or quantity of bricks. This extra labor rendered it impossible for them to fulfill the usual requirements demanded of them. The taskmasters hasted them in vain; the officers of the children of Israel were unable to fulfill their tasks. They were accordingly cruelly beaten.
The people saw that they were in evil case. Their longings after complete deliverance from Egypt were quenched, in their desires to be freed from the severity of each day’s misery. Their hopes failed them. H. F. W.