The Goings of God (3)

Studies on the book of Exodus.

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3. THE COMPANION GOD (13:17 - 24:18)

We closed our last article by stating that the eating of the Lamb of God commits the people of God to a certain way of life. We are now to study three features of that life:

i. It was life under the blood

They went in through a blood-stained door in their experience of salvation, and they came out through the blood-stained door to their life of pilgrimage. In their subsequent experience God made provision that the blood which was once shed in the land of Egypt should ever be available for them in its efficacy. This explains the repetitive sacrifices which were meant to prolong the efficacy of that which had been done once for all in Egypt.

ii. It was life under the cloud

No sooner had their pilgrimage begun than they discovered that they were not left to their own devices; there was that which marked them out for God -- life under the cloud. That great cloud consecrated the whole of life for the Israelites. They would only move when the cloud moved and they would only stop where the cloud stopped. They lived all the time under that sheltering cloud, proclaiming to all who cared to look that they were the people of God with the whole of their life in principle at His disposal. For the blood-bought there is no other life than life under the Cloud.

iii. It came to be life under the law

Later on God spelled out the meaning of that cloud in detailed precepts, for our God is a careful Shepherd of our souls who looks for consecration to Himself not just in general outline but also in the daily details of life and who therefore spells out an itemised law for His people. We must realise that this total work of [25/26] God was designed to produce an obedient people. God brought these blood-bought people out from the land of Egypt, redeemed by the blood of the lamb, and led them to Mount Sinai, saying: "I am the Lord who delivered you from bondage. I am your Redeemer God. Now then, this is the way in which I want you to live." In the Old Testament just as in the New Testament, the law is not a ladder which the unsaved try to climb, but in vain, in order that they may reach heaven. It is not that at all, but it is a divinely given pattern of life provided for those who have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb.

The passage which we are now going to study divides into two parts. The first, beginning with chapter 13, shows us that the element of Pilgrimage is the first thing that accompanies salvation. The keynote here is: "God led them" (13:18) and this is re-emphasised in verse 21: "The Lord went before them". They enjoyed fellowship with the Creator God. The second section begins in chapter 19, with the key phrase: "They camped before the Mount" (19:1). "I have brought you to myself" (v.4). "Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God" (v.17). The pilgrims had arrived. Thus the second thing that accompanies salvation is fellowship with the Holy God.

By the act of redemption, God created pilgrims, people who were eating His feast with shoes on their feet and staff in their hand, ready for the road. This illustrates the New Testament truth expressed in the words: "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God ..." (Romans 12:1-2). "The mercies of God" -- the blood around the door. "Present your bodies a living sacrifice ..." -- the belted waists, the shod feet, the gripped staves. "Do not be conformed to this world ..." -- No, leave it behind you! Go walking on pilgrimage with your God. Redemption creates pilgrims.

THE PILGRIMAGE OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD

PILGRIMAGE is the first mark of the redeemed, and pilgrimage is their ceaseless duty. As the Lord went before the Israelites we are three times told that His pillar of cloud and fire went with them by day and by night "that they might travel by day and by night" (v.21). The people of God are never free from the duty of pilgrimage; it must be their ceaseless pre-occupation to walk in the fellowship of their God. We now go through these chapters to discover in them some of the ways of this Creator God with whom they now walk.

1. God's Curious Ways

"God led them not by way of the land of the Philistines although that was near, for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war and return to Egypt. But God led the people about ..." (13:17-18). This is the first of God's curious ways -- He led the people about. You can call this God's roundabout. A map will readily show that if anyone wants to come from Egypt to what we used to call Palestine, they start by travelling East and then they turn left in order to go North. But when God led His people out of the land of Egypt, He brought them to a roundabout and made them turn right.

Then we read His further instructions: "Speak unto the children of Israel that they turn back" (14:2). How curious are the ways of God! He has His roundabouts and He has His retreats. Having made them go back He brought them to a specific place so that they could encamp by the sea. And look what happened to them there: "And the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them, encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth before Baalzephon" (14:9).

In other words they were exactly where God had brought them back to and told them to encamp, only to be trapped there by the Egyptians. How curious are the ways of God! He brought His people back on their tracks and put them right in the path of the enemy, so seeming to go back upon His declared promise of deliverance and His act of redeeming love.

Our familiarity with the story reminds us that God delivered them at the Red Sea and no doubt they moved forward with a confident spring in their steps when Moses led them onward from the Red Sea. They had seen all their enemies dead upon that sea shore, and must have felt that now nothing lay between them and their promised land. As we read on, though, we read that "they went three days into the wilderness and found no water", and what is more, when they did find water it was so bitter that they could not drink it. So that included in God's curious ways with His people is this element of disappointment.

In chapters 16 and 17 we read how God brought His people into the place of privation, first hunger and then thirst. Following this [26/27] experience of privation they had to face attack and opposition: "Then came Amalek ..." (17:8). I am not reading anything into the story, but simply pointing out the strangeness of God's ways with His redeemed people. We must note, though, that however curious they may have been, they were God's ways, for there in front of them at every turn and twist in the journey was the cloudy, fiery pillar of His presence. When they took what looked like the wrong turning at the roundabout, it was God who had led them. When they were brought into the place of threat and danger, it was God who led them. When they were in the place of disappointment, they had been brought thereby God.

In the place of privation or in the place of attack, they still knew that God had brought them there. It was He who was leading them. However curious, then, these ways may have seemed, they were God's ways, all of them, and the record is given so that we may have the same assurance. No child of God has the liberty to say that he or she is out of the Father's hand. It is just not true because it is just not possible. His ways may seem curious but they are always right.

2. God's Purposeful Ways

Now we can go over the same ground again, learning together that God's ways may seem curious but they are full of wise purpose. This Scripture meets us at a place of deep need, for the question that plagues us over and over again is the question, Why? "Why has God done this to me? Why has God permitted that to happen to me?" This is a question which very rarely receives an answer, probably because in most cases the answer would not be helpful if we had it. His ways are not our ways. There is, however, a deeper reason why this question must remain unanswered, and this is the Lord's desire that we should walk with Him in the light of faith rather than in the light of logic. He wants us to walk with Him in the obedience that springs from trust rather than in a conformity of life which consists of a mental understanding of why God has acted in any given way. He insists that we must follow His lead with implicit faith that His ways are full of wise purpose. Let us reconsider the story in this light:

i. To shelter us from more than we can bear

The inner secret behind God's roundabout was that they were not then able to face war with the Philistines. There was a wise and kind purpose behind this leading of His people. He always works so as to guarantee our final salvation, and so He refuses to allow us to meet with trials which might threaten or emperil that final salvation. He takes thought for us and shelters us from what would be more than we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13).

ii. To guarantee total victory over the enemy

God brought His people back (14:3) and made them camp in what they were to discover was a hot spot. He specified this place; He pinpointed it on the map for Moses, saying, "There -- and nowhere else!" And to that very point He brought the enemy, so that finally it was they and not Israel who were caught in a trap. He made sure that the enemy suffered a complete, final and irreversible defeat, so making it possible for His people to go on their way in complete confidence that this enemy could never attack them again. God works for a total victory. For this very purpose He keeps His people in the hot seat. They were told not to fear but to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. They did see it. They then "feared the Lord, and they believed in His servant Moses" (14:31). "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel ...", but if they had not gone back to the place of threat and desperation, they would never have entered into the experience of triumphant song. It is always like that. The purposeful ways of God work with us in order to achieve a total victory.

iii. To teach us the obedience of faith

This is the great lesson, that God works with us in order to teach us the obedience of faith. The next three stories in chapters 15, 16 and 17 are linked by the idea of putting to the test. "There he proved them" (15:25); "... that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law or not" (16:4); and "Why strive you with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?" (17:2). In each case the verb speaks of putting to the test. "... because they tempted the Lord (or put the Lord to the test), saying, Is the Lord among us or not?" (17:7). That we should prove God is a sin: that God should prove us is a blessing. The same thought is involved, for this word means, "to put on probation". This is healthy for us, but it is sinful for us to do it to God, for it implies that we intend to withhold our trust from Him until we see what is going to happen; we will wait for further evidence before deciding whether He is worthy of our trust. [27/28]

Such testing God involves doubt -- real doubt, so much so that the people were in effect saying that God could not help them. It also involves challenge, for they really said: "Give us water, and then we will believe You". Putting God to the test is a sin; it both doubts Him and challenges Him. Moreover they were guilty of withholding trust from a God who had already proved His trustworthiness. He had already given them food; could they not rely on Him to provide water also. They said: "No. We would rather wait and see, if you don't mind. We will put God on probation." Such an attitude of mistrust is indeed sinful. It is wrong to put God to the test.

When, however, God proves us and puts us to the test, He brings us into a situation which calls for faith. That is why He does it. He seeks to bring us from baby faith to childhood faith, and then from childhood faith to adult faith. It is a question of maturity. We know that Scripture teaches us that faith is not mere assent to propositions, but rather holding on to truth when truth is challenged, holding on to it until the truth comes through to the place where it has been proved. This is real faith. God brings us into the place of testing so that He may bring us to the place of trusting.

Obedience is the proper outworking of faith. "Behold I will rain bread from heaven, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may prove them whether they will keep my law or no" (16:4). This business of the day to day gathering tested the people in the matter of faith. "God has given us enough for today; we will collect no more, because we believe His word, that He will give us enough for tomorrow also when that time comes." We see that it was an act of faithlessness to try to gather two days' ration in one day (16:20). The ordinance of "day by day" was required to test the Israelites concerning the practical expression of faith by daily obedience based on the promises of God.

iv. To display the grace of God

These Scriptures show how grace and faith and obedience are all knit together, becoming so involved in each other that there is no true reception of grace that does not issue in believing in the God of grace, and there is no true believing in that God that does not issue in obedience to His commandments.

Grace draws out obedience. "There he made them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them. If you will diligently hearken to my voice and do that which is right in his eyes, and will give ear to his commandments, I will put none of the diseases upon you which I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord who heals you" (15:26). Out of the work of grace there comes the work of law. He acts towards them in grace, and then imposes the statute or ordinance upon them. The gracious blessing was intended to draw out their hearts in grateful obedience.

Grace enables obedience. "See, the Lord has given you the sabbath, therefore He has given you on the sixth day the bread of two days" (16:29). There should be no problem for them in keeping the sabbath, for in His grace God gave them enough on the day before to last right through the sabbath also. In this way His grace made it possible for the people to keep the precept of their God.

Grace is God Himself in expression. Grace is not a heavenly injection; it is the very nature of God in loving bounty. Notice how the story of the smiting of the rock develops. Moses cried to the Lord: "What shall I do with this people, they are ready to stone me? And the Lord said to Moses, Pass on before the people and take the elders of Israel and the rod wherewith thou smotest the river; take that in thine hand and go. Behold I will stand before thee there, beside the rock in Horeb, and thou shalt smite the rock" (17:5-6).

God identified Himself with the rock, and then He identified Himself with the smiting. This meant that as Moses smote, he smote where God was, and it is the smitten God -- identified with the smitten Rock -- who is the source of life-giving bounty. The blessing flowed not just from the smiting of the rock but from the smiting of the God of all grace, who stood beside the rock in front of Moses so that He would receive the blow. Herein is the essence of God's grace. The people get what they do not deserve; they get it from a source from which they do not deserve to get it, namely God Himself; and they get it in a way which they do not deserve, by the smiting of that God. This is the wealth of God's grace. He stands in the place of smiting, so that from Him there should flow that which is for the welfare and nourishment of His people. He put Himself in the lowest place, to be at the disposal of His people.

This grace is all-sufficient. In the first half of chapter 17 we find that Moses' hand was uplifted [28/29] to hold the rod which smote the rock. In the second half of the chapter we find the hand again uplifted, this time to lay hold upon God in prayer. So the two halves of the chapter are bound together by the uplifted hand of the man of God. They are also bound together by way of contrast, for the first half tells us of a threat coming from the place, circumstantial, while the second describes a threat from hostile people. The uplifted hand and the outflow of grace was sufficient to cover all. Whether our needs arise from circumstances or from hostility, there is always an uplifted hand and there is always the God of all grace to make full provision. These, then, are some of the purposeful ways of God.

3. God's Providential Ways

We have not yet finished with these stories. A further review of them will disclose to us something of the providential ways of God. It is obvious that He had taken steps to make the necessary provision long before the need ever arose. Take the matter of the tree -- "The Lord showed him a tree and he cast it into the waters" (15:25). Probably few of us are old enough to have grown trees. Even if they had been old enough, neither Moses nor the people with him had ever been in that locality before. No, the tree had been providentially put there before the need arose, before the Israelites arrived there. So the anticipatory providence of God had prepared for their arrival and their need. The same was true of the twelve springs of water and the three score and ten palm trees at Elim (15:27). We might call this a matter of the course of nature, except that we know how marvellously timely was the provision for God's needy people.

"And it came to pass at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp" (16:13). To explain this we find that the date is carefully noted, it was "the fifteenth day of the second month". That is the time when quails are always there, for the place is on the migratory path along which quails fly every year. How marvellously God times His provision! And what shall we say of the rock which Moses was told to smite. This was not the work of some speculative builder but the work of the almighty Creator. He made the mountain and He made that rock. Sometimes we speak of believing in a God of miracles. May I suggest that it may be even better to believe in God the Creator, the One who orders the ordinary, the normal, the regular and the recurring provision for our needs. The whole of nature, the whole universe has been ordained by the Creator-God who has built into that universe the very things which are waiting to supply the needs of His people as those needs arise. He is a God of anticipatory providence. The curious and purposeful ways of God are also providential ways, so that the supply is available as the need arises. God's pilgrims may take encouragement ever to trust Him as they consider these stories.

4. God's Universal Ways

The last point emphasised by this section of the book is found in chapter 18 and declares that God's ways are universal. This chapter is out of place! If you are surprised that I should say this may I ask you to notice that it tells us how Jethro brought Moses' wife and children to him as Moses was encamped at the Mount of God (18:5), yet Moses did not arrive at that mount until 19:2. Furthermore Jethro was told by Moses as he sat to judge the people: "And I make known to them the statutes of God and his laws" (18:16). It is clear, however, that the statutes and laws of God were not given until chapters 20 to 23. It is clear, then, that this story has been put out of place, but this has been done by divine purpose, for it connects directly with chapter 17.

The Bible is gloriously free in its use of material and it always does so with a teaching aim. See the connection between chapters 17 and 18. "Then came Amalek ..." (17:8); "Then Jethro came ..." (18:5). Here are two Gentile comings: the first is a coming of hostility and the second a coming of enquiry concerning God's people and their God. The first is the hostility of the world, and the second is the attracting of the world to God. A further connection between the two chapters consists in the fact that both were concerned with the events of two days. "... go and fight with Amalek tomorrow" (17:9) and, "It came to pass on the morrow ..." (18:13).

The pattern of the two chapters binds them together. There is also the matching thought of the meeting of needs. In chapter 17 the Lord meets the needs of His people and in chapter 18 He meets the need of a Gentile. These are the first halves of the two chapters, but in the latter half of each chapter we see God providing prayer partners for Moses while in the second half of chapter 18 He provides fellow administrators for Moses. This seems to prove that although chapter 18 may be out of place chronologically it is exactly right for the purpose of spiritual instruction. [29/30] Its emphasis is surely that the ways of God are universal ways. He is the Creator God, and even though He selects a people by redemption, He has a wider concern that "the Gentiles may come to his light and kings to the brightness of his rising". The coming of Jethro matches the coming of the Wise Men from the East at the birth of Jesus.

By His people and by what He does for them, God plans to establish a testimony in the world. In this chapter we learn that it is truth, the truth of God, which has the power to win souls. Jethro came because he had heard all that God had done (18:1). He had heard the news of the redemption of God's people. Moses told him more, he continued to share the truth with Jethro, telling him all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh (v.8). Jethro had heard of redemption, now he heard of victory. He heard also of daily deliverances: "all the travail that had come upon the people, and how the Lord had delivered them".

This information led to conviction in the heart of Jethro, who was able to rejoice in God's greatness above all other gods and to participate in sacrifice to Him. It is the truth about the Lord that wins souls, but this means more than the theological concept of redemption; it means the personal reality of how He has redeemed me. It is more than the truth about the idea of victory or the idea of daily deliverances, but it is the evidence in human experience of victory and daily deliverance. This explains why God leads His people along such roundabout paths and allows them to suffer such disappointments and privations. It is because this constitutes a saving testimony to men, it is this that brings the Gentiles into the light. His ways with us have significance in His concern for the world. God's ways are universal.

Copyright © AGUAS VIVAS | CHILE 2005