The instruction given by Moses and Aaron through their respective rods, and the different characters and uses of these rods for the glory of God in the hands of these two illustrious men, is full of interest for us. It is true we are taught by this one living and true God to know Him in other ways, which the wondrous revelation of “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” opens out to us under the unction of the Holy Ghost, come down into our midst as the glorifier of the Father and the Son. Still the earlier circles of His manifestation as the Almighty God—the Jehovah—are necessary, in order to make Him known to us, as He was of old in the various works and ways by which He declared Himself to Enoch before the flood; or to Noah and the patriarchs, or the nation of Israel, in the world that now is.
Moses and the rod of God’s power date their origin, and stand in such close connection with the “burning bush,” that it will be necessary to look at them there, as a starting point. The difference between them is nevertheless of equal importance, for the flame of fire and the voice of God out of the midst of the bush were the link of assurance given forth to the heart of Moses, to establish his confidence in the God of Abraham and the fathers, come down to do greater things in Egypt than He had done in the land of Canaan. The rod of Moses was, on the other hand, to instruct him that this same God would not only be a God to Moses, but as distinctly chew Himself in almighty power against Pharaoh, and all that refused to let Israel go. The rights, of God to lead His people out were in question. He had heard their cry out of the house of bondage, when under the cruel hand of the oppressor, and was come down to deliver them; and this Moses was (in the mind of God) their appointed leader and commander. The shoes from off his feet were as much in keeping with the mountain of God and Horeb, in acknowledgment of the holy, holy Lord God, in token that he was placed upon another standing before Him, as were the lessons which infinite wisdom and divine power next gave forth by the rod, and from which Moses fled! This rod, which was to be the rod of God’s power in the hand of Moses, was first to be proved as nothing less than this, to the eye and heart of the man who was to do wonders by its means, both in Egypt against the enemies of God and in the wilderness amongst His people. “Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice, for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared to thee. And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? and he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground,” and it became a serpent. It was adequate for the maintenance of God’s authority as the “I am,” or for the destruction of the full power of the opposing foe. The faithfulness of God in holiness at the burning bush, where Moses was called by his own name, and whence he received his commission, was his resource and strength. But the adverse power of God (and, if needful, in complete destruction) had yet to be learned by Moses, and when he saw it displayed in the forms of this serpent he fled from it. “And the Lord said unto Moses, put forth thine hand and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: that they may believe that the God of their fathers hath appeared unto thee.” The twofold nature of sovereign power was thus presented by the rod of deliverance in the hand of Moses on behalf of the people, or else by the rod of destroying power (which afterward, in fact, swallowed up all the serpents of Pharaoh’s magicians), and which was able to go outside the whole order of nature, if occasion required it, to put down every opposing foe. But another and equally important lesson remained respecting the hand that held this rod, and to which it was to be committed. “And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand unto thy bosom,” and it became leprous as snow. “And He said, Put now thine hand into thy bosom again,” and behold it was turned again as his other flesh.
Solemn and deep but precious lessons are here taught this first servant of the Lord, as we all know who have learned in the same school. The sinew of Jacob’s thigh which shrank up, the leprous hand of Moses, or the thorn in Paul’s flesh, the messenger of Satan lest he should be puffed up, are only the varying lessons of that one and the same great Teacher with His scholars ere they become the polished vessels fit for the Master’s use. The mountain of God, even Horeb, the angel of the Lord in a flame of fire, the bush that burned and was not consumed, and the voice of God that called this one man out from the midst of his fellows, showed unmistakably to Moses who He was that thus passed all these secret counsels before this favored servant of God, and then proclaimed Himself as the “I am that I am.” Though the voice had spoken out of the fire upon this mountain, as another voice spoke afterward upon the mount of transfiguration with Jesus, when Moses and Elias appeared upon it in glory, yet on this occasion Moses hid his face, and was afraid to look upon God. But all this distance and reserve was to be done away between the “I am” and His beloved people, whether as manifested at first by Adam, hidden under the trees of the garden, or Peter, who said to Jesus in the boat, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” The Almighty God appeared thus at Horeb on His way to the mercy-seat in the Tabernacle, where He would gather all the tribes of Israel around Himself in the intimacies of His grace, and encamp in their midst and not consume them. If the “God of the whole earth” thus rises up out of His place to connect His Israel with the purposes of His glory, He must make a way for Himself and for them by putting down the resisting power of the enemy, and by doing marvels. “And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken to my voice, that thou shalt take of the waters of the river and pour it upon the dry land, and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.” The antagonism of Pharaoh afterward compelled this service of the rod. “And Moses lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood,” so that all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink.
Nevertheless, Moses, though clothed with this two-fold power of the rod (God for His people, and against all those who were against them), hesitated to go forth and prove the sufficiency of the “I am,” so that Aaron the Levite was provided to supply what was lacking in the faith of Moses. The attentive reader of Scripture must have observed with interest these double types, and what God intends we should learn by their combination, as embodying some of the perfectness and fullness which dwells only in the Christ of God, to whom they all point. David and Solomon in their day, as well as Elijah and Elisha among the prophets, are instances of these. The “I am that I am” now brings forth Aaron into the wilderness to Moses, and he went and met him in the mount of God and kissed him, and Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord, who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him. These two men of God (or this double type of Him that was to come by words and works in the fullness of time) are now before us, and they went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel, and Aaron spake all the words of the Lord, “and did the signs in the sight of the people, and the people believed, 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.” The “I am” of Israel thus got a response from the hearts of His beloved people, reached by the sense of His sovereign goodness, and this is very precious, whether in those days or in these! The God of Abraham, the “I am” of Israel, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose delights are with the children of men, forms these relationships according to the varying revelations which He makes of Himself, and He becomes His people’s boast. Furthermore, if needful, “the Lord said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet.” Finally, the rod of Moses and Aaron did its work of deliverance in Egypt, by judgment and destruction upon Pharaoh and his captains, upon his chariots and upon his horses, for they sank as lead in the depths of the Red Sea. “It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt: this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations.” Thus the Lord saved Israel out of the hand of the Egyptians that day, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore, and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses. Thus God and His people are brought together, and all the opposing power of the great enemy is broken in pieces and gone.
The “I am that I am” goes forth now before them in a far different way, to find out a place for them, and to lead them by His strength into His holy habitation. They enter upon this walk with God, by the triumphant acknowledgment of their full redemption at the Red Sea by the rod of His power. “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” All who have had to do with themselves, and with the living God, know full well the difference between deliverance by the rod of His power in Egypt, and guidance under the rod in the wilderness. In the former it put a song into their mouths, but in the latter it brought out their complainings and their murmurings. Do any ask the cause of this, seeing it is the same God, the same rod, the same people, and the same Moses? The reason will be readily found when we see that we are no longer witnesses of the stubbornness and enmity of Pharaoh, but are called to prove ourselves, and learn what is in our own hearts. In truth, how impossible it is for fallen nature to walk with God, and be happy with Him where He leads and dwells. The various chapters in the wilderness journey open this trial out to us, and give in detail the contrariety between the people and their God, so that eventually the desert, bright with all that could mark the presence of God (the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night) became a “provocation.” The rod of God’s power in Exodus required the rod of Jehovah’s grace in Numbers, in order to carry the people through! And what is this double type of these two rods to us but a further embodiment of Moses and Aaron; or, in other words, that the rod of God’s power in the hand of Moses must connect itself with Aaron’s rod that was laid up, and on the morrow produced buds and bloomed blossoms, and brought forth almonds? How blessed for us to recognize in these two men, this Moses and Aaron, and their respective rods, in their varying character of power and grace, the foreshadowings of our “great High Priest passed through the heavens,” Jesus the Son of God.
Power, which took its character from the bush and the flame of fire, and maintained this unalterably, could only destroy this people (so contrary to itself) in the wilderness. As it had overthrown the Egyptians and left them dead upon the sea shore, so these were all cut off except Caleb and Joshua. The flesh cannot get a title to cross over Jordan. Marah and the palm trees, Meribah and Massah, Sinai and the golden calf, on the part of the people, only serve to show their need of that rod of priestly intercession which should “take away the iniquity of the sanctuary,” and set aside the murmurings of the people. The power of God (if alone) could never bring Israel into Canaan, because of what the people were in their rebellious complainings. But beyond this common expression “of sin in the flesh,” when tested by the circumstances of the journey, lay the peculiar and especial outbreaks of envy among the elders themselves, as narrated in the Book of Numbers. Yea, even Moses broke down under the care of this six hundred thousand footmen when they loathed the manna, and he said, I am not able to bear all this people alone, and if Thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee out of hand, and let me not see my wretchedness. Miriam and Aaron envied Moses, and spake against him, saying, “Hath the Lord, indeed, spoken only by Moses? hath he not also spoken by us? and the Lord heard it,” and the cloud departed from off the Tabernacle, and behold Miriam became leprous, white as snow. The power of God in the midst of the camp, which sent forth His wind to fetch up the quails from the sea when they lusted for flesh, had also smitten the people with a great plague, so that while the flesh was yet between their teeth they perished. Miriam was shut out from the camp seven days, and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. The voice of God, in Exodus, when He talked with Moses at Sinai, had terrified the people, so that they said to Moses, Speak thou with us and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die; and now the power of God, in Numbers, provoked by their murmurings and rebellion, led the children of Israel to misjudge Jehovah, and say to Moses, “Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish. Whosoever Cometh anything near unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die: shall we be consumed with dying?” The evil report of the spies, who were sent to search the land of Canaan, and who made the heart of the people to melt, had also to be avenged as slanderers of the Lord, and they died by the plague. The congregation, too, who believed this report, were condemned to perish in the wilderness, except Caleb and Joshua. “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.” Miriam and Aaron had envied Moses in his place between God and the camp, and now Korah, Dathan, and Abiram envy Aaron in his place as the priest! “And Moses said unto Korah, Hear I pray you, ye sons of Levi, the God of Israel hath brought thee near to him, and all the sons of Levi with thee; and seek ye the priesthood also?” And it came to pass as he had made an end of speaking, that the ground slave asunder that was under them, and opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained to Korah, went down alive into the pit. “All Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them, for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up also. And there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense.” Sad as it is to witness this intrusion of the flesh into the presence of God in these new forms of rebellion against Moses the man of God, and Aaron the high priest, and the Jehovah of Israel turned against His own people; yet this is not all, for the end of the flesh seems to have come up before God again in this sacred enclosure. On the morrow all the people murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, “Ye have killed the people of the Lord.” And the cloud covered the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord appealed. Upon this, Moses and Aaron were told to get up from among the congregation, that God may consume them as in a moment. Nothing but the fire from the altar and the incense and the censer can make an atonement, for wrath was gone out from the Lord, and the plague was begun. Aaron ran into the midst of the congregation, and he stood between the living and the dead, and the plague was stayed.
(To be continued.)
God’s King—No. 6—On High—Psalm 110.
(4) In connection with conquest to be affected by His people, something further is related, carrying us back in thought to the days of Abraham, the conqueror of the northern power of that day, which, with confederate kings, invaded the land of Canaan, and carried Lot captive. Returning from the smiting of the kings (for the term in Hebrew, as well as in Greek, does not of necessity mean slaughter), Melchisedek, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, net him with bread and wine (i. e., with what sustains and gives joy), and blessed him. (Gen. 14:18-2018And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. 19And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 20And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all. (Genesis 14:18‑20).) In this Psalm, in which we have Israel conquering under Christ, we meet for the first time again with a notice of such a priesthood, conferred, we read, on the Lord Jesus, by the oath of God, and which will be exercised in the day of His power after the example of Melchisedek in the days of Abraham, who blessed Abraham, and blessed also the Most High God, thus taking a middle place between them, as surely He who is both God and man can take between Jehovah and Israel, Abraham’s offspring. After Abraham’s victory, Melchisedek thus met him. His people shall be willing in the day of His power will the Lord, priest on His throne, be seen in the exercise of the Melchisedek character of priesthood. The Aaronic character of priesthood has to do with the sanctuary, the Melchisedek character with the kingdom. The Psalm, however, speaks not of the Melchisedek character, but of the Melchisedek order of priesthood; nor does it speak of it as a future event, but as an established thing. “Thou art a priest forever, after the order of Melchisedek.” So, whilst the history of Gen. 14 throws light on the abrupt mention of the Melchisedek priesthood in this Psalm, the epistle to the Hebrews explains to us the force of the word order as used here in connection with it. The Lord’s enemies subdued, His people victorious, He, priest on His throne, will bless them, the counsel of peace being between Jehovah and Himself. (Zech. 6:1313Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both. (Zechariah 6:13).) Now, God’s people need the exercise of a priesthood Aaronic in character, but Melchisedek in order; then, resting under His protection, all wilderness troubles over, all conflicts ended, like Abraham returning with the spoil, Israel will be able to enjoy the Melchisedek character of His priesthood, with which He will then manifest that He has been clothed by divine appointment. But will this condition of things endure? The word order suggests its continuance, for, as Melchisedek had no successor, neither will the Lord. “He abideth a priest continually” is the divine comment on Melchisedek. “He hath an unchangeable priesthood” is the divine statement about the Lord. Priest after that order implies no successor—a pledge of abiding blessing for Israel —a word of comfort, too, for God’s people now, who, whilst needing a priesthood to be exercised on their behalf Aaronic in character, need also one that cannot fail-in other words, one after the order of Melchisedek. Whether, therefore, as in the sanctuary or on the throne, the little word order in connection with Melchisedek suggests a priesthood that does not terminate by the appointment of a successor, thus ensuring to those concerned in it all the blessing and comfort of a settled order, and of an in transmissible office.
His conquests having been declared, and His ruling among His enemies foretold, we read now of judgments to be meted out to the rebels in arms against God’s authority. Of the wrath of Him who sits at God’s right hand Psa. 2 has made mention; of the manifestation of that wrath this Psalm gives examples (5). And, since it forms part of the fifth book of the volume, and the setting up of the kingdom and power has been celebrated in the fourth (93-100.), we can understand why the past tense is used when these judgments are spoken of. The Psalmist recounts what God did for His Son after His rejection by the world, and what Christ has done, to whom the kingdom has been given. “The Lord at thy right hand has crushed kings in the day of His wrath. He shall judge among the nations. He has filled (places) with dead bodies. He has crushed the head over a great country,” referring perhaps to Rev. 19:19-2119And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 20And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. (Revelation 19:19‑21). With mighty power, according to the standpoint of this Psalm, He has been seen to be endowed; for this divine composition views God’s counsels as in process of fulfillment. We, too, read it as partly fulfilled, and partly to be fulfilled. Its place, however, in the volume, as well as its language, contemplates a further development before the world of God’s plan, than can be affected whilst the church is still down here. The conqueror, according to the terms used, has gone forth in power, and His people are willing in the day, which, they here own, has at last dawned upon earth, that of His power. All has not yet been done which must be done to clear the earth of unruly rebels. But He has taken that work in hand, and is affecting it surely, So, as engaged in it, we learn of His continued dependence on God, who has given such proof of His invincible might. “He shall drink of the brook in the way, therefore shall he lift up the head.”
What a contrast the close of the Psalm presents to the beginning, only to be understood and the two ends to be harmonized, as we bow to the mystery of His person, perfect God and perfect man, Immanuel, by whom all God’s purposes about the universe will yet be made good!
(Concluded from page 150.)