Moses’ Choice, With His Eye Fixed Upon Heaven, Discovering the Happy Condition of a Self-Denying Heart, by Jeremiah Burroughs, published by the Northampton Press, hardback, 687 pages, £34.99 from the F P Bookroom.
This is a treatise on Hebrews 11:25-26: “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward”. First printed in 1641, this treatise had become very rare. The changes in spelling, grammar and formatting in this edition are introduced in order to make its pages easier to read at this point in time. To escape persecution the author had to flee to Holland for a period of time, but he returned to London and was, until his death, a member of the Westminster Assembly.
We find in the Epistle to the Hebrews the name of Moses enrolled among the elders mentioned in chapter 11 who obtained a good report through faith. Burroughs (1599-1646) thoroughly and at length examines carefully the choice of Moses, and in this treatise we have the fruit of his labours. The man of God’s pre-eminent example of self-denial and cross-bearing is set before us, with suitable instruction and exhortation at every stage. And all who aspire to follow Moses to heaven will find here what will direct and encourage them to persevere, bearing the same reproach and at last obtain the crown.
The Hebrew babe that wept in the ark of bulrushes, when it was found afloat on the Nile, was to become the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. In that exalted state of “adoption”, he became learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, but when he came to years he severed his relationship to Pharaoh’s family. His eyes were opened and he saw vanity written on all the glittering treasures of Egypt as well as the ephemeral pleasures of sin. Looking beyond the present to the eternal he now had “respect unto the recompence of the reward”. Some indication of what is embraced in that reward may be gathered from his mysterious appearance in glory with Elias on the Mount of transfiguration in communion with the glorious Person whose reproach he had borne in time, whose face now “did shine as the sun” and His raiment “was white as the light”.
Burroughs writes that Moses “might have many reasons in himself that might have drawn his heart another way; he might have thought that in keeping the honour and power he had in the court, he might have done a great deal of service for God. In improving his time with Pharaoh and his nobles for the people of God, he might have been of great use to them. He might have thought that it was a thing of great consequence to have a friend at the
court that might do them much good, as was probable he might have done. . . . But Moses seeing God’s mind, that He would rather have him venture himself in joining with His people in affliction, and that this was the way in which God would honour Himself by him, he was content to let go all these reasons and yield up himself to God’s own way. . . It is not what I or others may think how God may be honoured this way or another, but what the will of God is, which way He will be honoured.”
The treatise is divided into 58 short chapters, each one having an appropriate title. Here are four examples chosen at random: “Duties required of us when God calls us to an afflicted condition”, “Persuasions to join with the people of God”, “How we are to bear reproaches”, “How the recompense of reward may be attained”. This arrangement may be unusual, but it might provide the reader with the opportunity of pausing from time to time for self-examination.
Just before laying down his pen, Burroughs gives a final exhortation: “Lamachus, a commander, said to one of his soldiers who was brought before him for a misbehaviour and who pleaded that he would do so no more, ‘No man must offend twice in a war’. So God will not allow men to neglect the day of grace. If it is neglected once, it is neglected for ever. If you lose this reward here, you lose it eternally. And therefore look about you to attain this here, that you may not cry out in anguish of your spirit hereafter, that God, Christ and heaven are eternally gone.”
(Rev) J MacLeod