Exodus

When Jesus asked “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye” (Luke 6:41 R. S. V.), He pointed out accurately one of the big problems of mankind in general.

How often have we wondered at the lack of faith and trust in God shown by the Israelite’s, even after the demonstration of power given them in Egypt and at the crossing of the Red Sea? Most of us feel we would have done better in the same circumstances. I wonder if we would.

When Joseph invited his father and brothers and their families to come down to Egypt because of the famine in Canaan, they were well received by Pharaoh who told Joseph, “the land of Egypt is before thee; in the best of the land make thy father and brethren to dwell; in the land of Goshen let them dwell.” (Gene­sis 47:6).

Time passed. Jacob and his sons died and a new Pharaoh ascended the throne of Egypt—a Pharaoh who “knew not Joseph”. This ruler noted that the Israelite’s had greatly increased in number and he felt they posed a threat to the Egyptians, so the Israelite’s were demoted to become second class citizens instead of honored guests. The Pharaoh tried to limit their number by ordering the midwives to kill all baby boys. When the midwives failed to comply, he had to seek out other means.

The Egyptians made the Israelite’s slaves, who made bricks and built cities for the Egyptians.

In theory, the Israelite s retained their belief in one God, but they were in constant contact with the Egyptians, who had many gods, and when God was ready to deliver them from Egypt, He found it necessary to do two things. First: to convince the Israelite’s that He was the one Supreme God (Deuteronomy 4:34-5) “Hath God assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptation, by signs and by wonders and by war, and by a mighty Hand and by a stretched out Arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes . . . that thou mightert know that the Lord, He is God, there is none else beside Him”. Second: to discredit the gods of the Egyptians, as explained in Numbers 33:4 ” . . . upon their gods also, the Lord executed judgement”.

Each plague in some way brought about a belittling of one of their gods. They worshiped the Nile River—it was turned to blood; they worshipped the Sun—they had a plague of darkness; they worshiped the cow—it was destroyed by disease, and to make it twice as noticeable, only the cattle belonging to the Egyptians was affected. (Exodus 9:4) “And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt; and there shall nothing die of all that is the Children’s of Israel.” As the plagues continued, God made a difference between the Egyptians and the Israelite’s. When darkness covered Egypt, “all the Children of Israel had light in their dwellings” (Exodus 10:23). And so with each of the first nine plagues some Egyptian deity was reduced to helplessness. The final insult was the death of the first-born of Egypt. The Egyptians regarded their Pharaoh as divine, as also was his son, but when the angel of death went through the land, the son of Pharaoh was not spared. It is not surprising that the Egyptians drove the Israelite’s out of the land. Exodus 12:33 says “And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste, for they said ‘We be all dead, men’ “.

The Israelite’s left and it did not take the Egyptians long to change their minds and go after them to bring them back. We are all familiar with the circumstances surrounding the deliverance of the Israelite’s and the destruction of the Egyptians at the Red Sea. “And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians; and the people feared the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:31).

So far—so good, but when they had traveled for three days in the “wilderness of Shur” and found no water (Exodus 15:22), they were very dissatisfied and complained to Moses. At Marah they found “bitter water” which was not fit to drink until Moses prayed to the Lord and was told how to make the water sweet.

After a few incidents of this kind, it is hardly surprising that they began to wish they had never left Egypt, where they had plenty to eat and to drink.

Just as we refer to times past as “the good old days”, so they forgot their trials and troubles in Egypt and only remem­bered the good things.

It is quite possible, too, that they had doubts about the power of God, for at that time each country had its own gods, who only ruled over a particular land, and they may have questioned whether the God who had been so powerful while they were in Egypt could take care of them in this strange land.

When they left Egypt, they were “all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea” and they should have left behind all thoughts of Egypt and gone forward in faith to the promised land. We, too, at baptism, should leave our worldly ambitions and “idols”—money, ease, etc. —behind, and walk in faith and trust towards our “promised land”.

The Israelite’s looked back longingly to Egypt because of the “leeks, onions, garlic, melons,” etc. Do we look back longingly for any reason? Jesus said ” . . . No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God,” (Luke 9:62).

Everyone who hopes to have a place in the Kingdom of God, will have his trials and temptations. We can easily see where the Israelite’s fell short. Can we also see our own faults and failings? Most of us are so used to the way we do things that it is hard to see that we are wrong about some things. Let us try to see our actions as God sees them and correct our attitudes, when necessary, while we have time to do so.