“Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And He increased His people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies. He turned their heart to hate His people, to deal subtilly with His servants. He sent Moses His servant; and Aaron whom He had chosen. They shewed His signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against His word. He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish. Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings. He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts. He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. He smote their vines also and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts. He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number, and did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground. He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength. He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them” (Psalm cv: 23-38).
On the last occasion we endeavoured to consider how in the case of Joseph the promises of God to him were fulfilled in the Lord’s time and in the Lord’s way. Although he was a type of the Messiah, the promises of God were fulfilled to him in his own spiritual experience. Similarly, David, though inspired to write psalms which had a prophetic reference to the Messiah, also had his own spiritual experiences of which he wrote in these psalms. The promises thus fulfilled to Joseph were a source of great comfort to him spiritually and personally, and in their fulfilment he was exalted to the right hand of Pharaoh. As a result of this, his father and brethren came down to the land of Egypt, and dwelt in Goshen. During the days of Joseph, Israel dwelt in Goshen under his favour and care, until a king came of whom we read that he “knew not Joseph.” The word ‘know’ in this connection in the Hebrew language does not involve merely knowing of, but infers a knowledge which involves love. “And they that know Thy name, in Thee their confidence will place” (Psalm ix: 10). Pharaoh in fact did know about Joseph, but he had no love either to him or to his tribes or ways. The rule of this Pharaoh meant that the children of Israel came into an experience of being in bondage, God himself bearing witness to this fact by declaring, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows” (Ex. iii: 7). Instead of being in the land of liberty and plenty as they were in Goshen during the rule of Joseph, they were now in the land of bondage. In order to deliver them, the Lord sent Moses and Aaron His chosen.
In endeavouring to make a spiritual use of this history, we may first remark that our state of bondage is due to the change in the nature of the reigning power in our souls. In looking back, we see that the spirit of Joseph was, “Can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God” (Gen. xxxix: 9). This was a fruit of the principle of holiness, which was in the conduct, views and outlook, both in the prison and at the king’s right hand, of this young man. He taught “his senators wisdom.” This wisdom was the wisdom which “is from above” and “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James iii: 17). While these senators had plenty of the wisdom of this world, they lacked the wisdom which is bound up with the principle of holiness. This is where the wisdom of the nations today fails. As we came forth from the hand of God, our own souls were ruled and reigned over by this principle of holiness. Man was created a living soul; he was a holy being with holy affections, holy conscience, holy understanding, and a holy will. Thus Adam and Eve in a state of innocence enjoyed peace and fellowship with God and were satisfied with the opening of His hand on all occasions.
It was in the soul of man that the great change took place. A power came to reign in the place of holiness; that power was the power of sin. “Sin hath reigned unto death” (Romans v: 21). When this power entered the soul, holiness departed and sin was now left to reign upon the throne of the soul of man, as the Pharaoh who knew not Joseph reigned over the children of Israel. We are all thus in a state of bondage—as the Scriptures declare, “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans viii: 7). When the Divine Saviour was in the world, He testified, “They hated Me without a cause” (John xv: 25). There was no cause of hatred to be found in Him, because He was holy. Sinners hated Him because sin reigned in them. We are thus at enmity with all things belonging to God “for the Lord our God is holy still” (Psalm xcix: 9). The testimony of Scripture is that we are the slaves of sin, but such is the folly bound up in our hearts that while we are in bondage, we think we are at liberty. Thus Christ said to the Jews, “If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John viii: 31, 32). To this the Jews replied that they had never been in bondage to any man and how then could they be made free. The Saviour pointed out that whosoever committed sin was the slave of sin, and that what they needed was the freedom wherewith the Son could make them free.
The coming of Moses and Aaron to the land of Egypt, bringing the word of God to Pharaoh and incidentally to the children of Israel, had the effect of making the children of Israel feel their bondage more keenly than ever they had felt it before. The word and power of God was used to break the hold that Pharaoh had over the children of Israel. Plague followed plague as we read in this psalm here, until eventually “Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them” (v. 38). Similarly, when man is in a state of bondage to sin, he does not realise the bondage in which he is until the word and power of God are exercised in his experiences. Before then he is careless and indifferent, but now as the Lord opens his eyes to see the awfulness of sin, and gives him a desire to escape from it, he then begins to feel the bondage and power of sin in his own heart. His cry is, “Iniquities I must confess, prevail against me do” (Psalm lxxv: 3). Like others he is ready to conclude that there is no hope, as he feels how much more powerful than he sin is. He now truly feels sin to be a bondage indeed.
The deliverance of Israel out of the land of bondage was a gradual one. As each plague descended on Pharaoh he promised to let the people go, and then reversed his decision. It is very often the case in the spiritual experience of souls that their deliverance is a gradual one from the point of view of their own experience. As they struggle with the sins which afflict them under the awakening grace of the Holy Spirit and as on occasions they feel the power of some of these sins being broken, they are ready to conclude that the time of their deliverance is nigh. Still they find that sin will not let them go. They are thus made to learn more and more the bondage under which they are and also made to realise in connection with the deliverance that there is nothing too hard for the Lord. As Israel during the times of the plagues would be greatly concerned with the effect of the plague and the prospect of deliverance through the exercise of the power of God in His word, so the sinner looks to his own struggles and strivings against sin as the hope whereby he may be delivered out of the bondage under which he feels himself to be. But when the time of Israel’s deliverance came, it was to embrace more than the power of God. It was also to embrace the blood of the Paschal lamb. This was something that Israel had not thought of until the Lord revealed it unto Moses, and Moses instructed them in it. Similarly, the soul under conviction of sin, as he struggles with the lust of his own heart and the sins of his own life, has little or no thought of the one way of deliverance which is through the blood of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The gospel to sinners is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts xvi: 31). “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John i: 7). But as the soul struggles in the fearful pit and in the miry clay and endeavours to overcome the corruptions of his own heart he has very little thought and will have no thought of the blood of the Lamb until the Lord reveals it to him. Perhaps I have been describing your own case here tonight—you are struggling with your sins—you must confess that they are too strong for you and that they prevail over you, and that despite your many hopes that the time of your deliverance was nigh, that you have not yet tasted of the liberty wherewith Christ doth make free. To you the language of Christ is, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah xlv: 22). Here is a new thing being brought before you in the word of God—a slain Lamb. The Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ wounded for transgression and sin, bruised for iniquity, in Whom there is salvation to the very uttermost for the very chief of sinners. Here is the place where victory over sin is to be obtained, and the power and dominion of sin broken. We may struggle with sin until the day of death, but we will never taste of our spiritual freedom and liberty until we look by faith to Christ alone. The Israelites when under the shelter of the blood fed upon the paschal lamb with bitter herbs, with their loins girded, and their staffs in their hands—this was the night in which they were to pass out from the land of bondage. Similarly, when the time of spiritual liberty comes, the soul is under the shelter of the blood, it is feeding upon Christ by faith, feeding upon His person as the Son of God in our nature, feeding upon His finished work as the Lamb of God slain for the sins of many, feeding upon His love manifested in that work as love to sinners with no merit in themselves, feeding upon the grace that declares that “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John vi: 37). The bitter herbs of the remembrance of the bondage of sin making Christ and His salvation sweet to the taste of that soul—this is the only way for a soul to pass out from the land of bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God. When the soul is feeding upon Christ, it is sin that is in bondage for it is written, “He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah vii: 19). “I will love them freely” (Hosea xiv: 4). This indicates that it is by faith and in the exercise of faith that the soul is to be sanctified. We are commanded to mortify the deeds of the body and to crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts. This can only be done by those who are Christ’s, who are growing in grace, and to whom sin becomes exceedingly sinful. They can only carry out this duty as they look by faith to the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. They are not able to do this in their own strength. We read in the parable concerning the unclean spirit that went out of a man and when he returned he found the soul of that man swept and garnished. Then that spirit went and took seven other spirits more wicked than himself to dwell in that man and his last state was worse than the first. The house of his soul had been swept and garnished by common conviction, by earnest strivings after reformation, by warring against inward sins in his own strength, but Christ had never been inside. It is therefore absolutely necessary that Christ be received by faith and this the Holy Spirit enables the soul to do at the time of deliverance. The soul thus delivered has the language of David with regard to his sin.
“ Do not I hate all those, O Lord,
that hatred bear to Thee?
With those that up against Thee rise
can I but grieved be? ” (Psalm cxxxix: 21).
He goes on to say—
“ With perfect hatred them I hate,
my foes I them do hold.” (Psalm cxxxix: 22).
When he desires to be delivered from his sins, his prayer is—
“ Search me, O God, and know my heart,
try me, my thoughts unfold:
And see if any wicked way
there be at all in me;
And in Thine everlasting way
to me a Leader be. (Psalm cxxxix: 23, 24).
They thus look to the Lord to deliver them in the process of their sanctification as surely as they looked to the Lord to deliver them in the day of their justification, for He is made unto them of God not only righteousness, but also sanctification. If therefore we are in bondage, it is not by looking within that deliverance can be found, but by looking to the One Who said, “ If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed ” (John viii: 36). Samuel Rutherford once said, “ For every look within give a thousand looks to Christ.” Thus are this delivered people as they come out of the land of bondage and go up through the wilderness. They lean upon the arm of their Beloved and to every sin within and every power without, their hope and their challenge is, “ If God be for us, who can be against us? ” (Romans viii: 31).