THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST (8)
[p. 145] THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST (8)
Exodus 2:1 - 16; Exodus 32:15 - 19; Numbers 12:1 - 10; Numbers 16:1 - 4
JT Our consideration of the sufferings of Christ at this time refers specially to those who are engaged in the ministry. Moses represents those who minister amongst the saints. He is said to have been faithful in all God’s house, and it is in that connection that he is envied and spoken against by his sister Miriam and his brother Aaron. We should bear this in mind, for the sufferings Moses endured illustrate the sufferings endured by those engaged in serving the saints, as amongst them.
AP Do his sufferings here link with those of his parents, occasioned by the edict of Pharaoh seen in chapter 1?
JT Yes; all parents in Israel suffered with regard to the male children at that time. Stephen says their infants were cast out, showing the vehemence of the attack of Satan on them. Moses, too, was cast out; (Acts 7:21). The Lord Himself suffered from infancy.
AFM Do you refer to the statement, “the boy wept”? Not so much from a point of intelligence as from sensitiveness, feeling his lonely position.
JT I think the weeping is mentioned to show he had part in the suffering. The Lord had part in the sufferings, too, He was laid in a manger.
ANW Would you touch on the suffering that he chose? “Choosing rather to suffer affliction along with the people of God than to have the temporary pleasure of sin”, (Hebrews 11:25). That would be in contradistinction.
JT “When Moses was grown ... he went out to his brethren, and looked on their burdens”, (Exodus 2:11). It was deliberately choosing affliction with [p. 146] the people of God; becoming identified with them. The passage says, further, “he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren”. I think the “reproach” (Hebrews 11), lies in the word “Hebrew”. The people of God were despised, but he was a prince, so that he is choosing now not only to be with his brethren, but to suffer with them in their position.
AFM According to Hebrews 11:24, he “refused to be called son of Pharaoh’s daughter”. Would this movement with regard to his brethren follow upon that?
JT I suppose his refusal to remain in the court of Pharaoh was involved in his going “out to his brethren”; he looked on their burdens and identified himself with them, which meant that he would have to break with the royal house.
CAM It is remarkable that sufferings in very infancy should include the Lord, as you were saying. The mother-heart of Israel wept in connection with Him. There is a connection with the weeping here.
JT “Rachel weeping for her children” (Matthew 2:18), was the outcome of Herod’s attack on Christ as a little Child. The weeping of Moses here when he was “cast out” was before he had any intelligence as to the position, but God put him in the way of suffering; he was sharing in it already, as many children of Christian parents do now. They have the advantage of being “holy” (1 Corinthians 7:14), and necessarily suffer with their parents. They naturally do not like it, but in later years when the Lord is known by them, and they identify themselves with Him as Moses did, they will value the fact that they had the privilege of sharing in the sufferings of the testimony from their infancy.
RWS Moses was “fair to God” — what a suggestive background to his suffering!
JT There was something there which the enemy would [p. 147] persecute.
AR In Hebrews 11 it says the parents hid him three months. Is that like the Lord being hid, (Matthew 2)? He was taken to Egypt by Joseph to be out of Herod’s reach.
JT Yes. Moses’ parents valued him, “because they saw the child beautiful” — the mother’s exercise is prominent here.
AFM Is the position of Moses in the river equal to the position of believers’ children today, in that they have been put into the place of death? Moses’ mother anticipated his being thrown into the river by placing him there in the ark.
JT Yes; the ordering of God is, I think, illustrated here in behalf of young people whose parents are in the testimony. God orders it that they should have part in suffering early, which would be to their credit.
FHL Pharaoh’s daughter recognised a Hebrew child, and I suppose the world should take account of our children as belonging to the people of God.
ANW Are you allying this suffering with the servant, or has it a different phase?
JT It is the suffering of a potential servant. God takes account of what a man is to be, knowing the end from the beginning. Paul speaks of God setting him apart from his mother’s womb.
AP Are you suggesting that “one of the Hebrews’ children” is under reproach?
JT Yes; such are in reproach in the world. You get the word ‘Hebrew’ involving reproach in Egypt, more frequently in this section than in any other.
JS I suppose the change really comes about in the opening of Exodus. Another king arose that knew not Joseph; hence the testimony is under reproach, and it was under those conditions Moses was born.
JT Yes; that is how Stephen links this period with the general history. Under these conditions of [p. 148] reproach Moses was born, and became an outcast. That is the principle; his parents being identified with the testimony occasions this suffering position. The man in John 9 was an outcast, in keeping with the position of Christ at that time.
JS In the end of Genesis the testimony was in favour, but here you have a complete change of government. The testimony of God is in reproach today, which brings about suffering, if we are identified with it.
JT The children of parents in the testimony suffer; it is an advantage they have as having such parents.
CAM God encouraged Jeremiah at the outset — He thought of him before he was born.
JT Just so. “Before thou camest forth out of the womb I hallowed thee, I appointed thee a prophet unto the nations”, (Jeremiah 1:5).
AFM What would you suggest to help our young in such circumstances? Of course, they have to feel these things. What is the compensation for them?
JT Well, there are the joys of the house of God — the music and dancing; these should be apparent. They should be regarded as potentially of it. Of course, they may not value these, but as participating with their parents in the things of God formation goes on, and upon their identification with the testimony, when they come to years, they have an education equal to it. Income has been accruing to them all the time, and they are richer than an ordinary adult convert would be.
CAM This makes household baptism of great importance.
FHL So the potentiality in our young is very great, and suffering rightly goes with it.
JT Moses gained immensely by it. The application now is where children grow up and finally do [p. 149] as Moses did. When he was grown, he went out to his brethren. Young people today look at the brethren; sometimes it is to criticise them severely. They say, They are narrow and there is nothing for young people amongst them, and similar things; they are apt to forfeit their accrued wealth by these remarks, and the feelings behind them. The wealth only becomes confirmed to them as they, like Moses, when come to years, make a decision to identify themselves with the people of God. They have an income already as we said, but it will be all forfeited if they go into the world, for it is of no use there.
ANW Being “cast out” is a wonderful qualification for Christian fellowship. Fellowship is very little understood or enjoyed unless there is something of this in our experience. The man of John 9 qualified in that chapter for the fellowship indicated in John 10.
JT Children, as breathing the godly atmosphere of the Christian household, may in one way or another witness in school, and in measure acquire the experience of being cast out; the attitude of worldly young people toward them would be, You do not belong to us.
Ques Would you connect the thought of “grown” here with intelligence?
JT Yes; “grown” means maturity, and intelligence goes with it.
Rem So that you would look for intelligence in any person that is grown.
JT Yes; he is mature. Moses knew what he was doing as grown. Earlier he did not know, but he wept, showing that he felt things.
WGT In the house of Pharaoh he would have every comfort; whereas, among the brethren it was a question of burdens.
JT Yes; there was nothing for the flesh in such conditions. Moses well knew what the Israelites had to go through at that time, but “he went out to his brethren and looked on their burdens”. Young people generally shrink from the burdens of the saints. Moses looked on them, undoubtedly with a view to sharing them.
AP Would not the nursing time until he had grown and was brought to Pharaoh’s daughter have a great bearing on his later choice?
JT I think so. It was in the ordering of God that he was given to his mother to nurse.
AMacN Does the word to Timothy sustain what you are speaking of with regard to young believers?
JT Yes. He is a choice New Testament example of one who had to do with the testimony from his infancy. Paul could say to him, “that from a child thou hast known the sacred letters”, (2 Timothy 3:15). We should emphasise this point, because there are so many young people amongst us now, and this thought of Moses and of Timothy applies to them from the outset. They have to be taken account of potentially. In after years Moses would look back to his position in the river and say, I am thankful that I suffered from the outset. God honoured him in that way, for it was a great matter. It would enter into his constitution in view of his service; God would also turn to account what he had received from his mother in his early days.
JS So that his decision, having come to years, to cast in his lot with the suffering people of God, would really justify his childhood training.
WGT Would this going out to his brethren mark a crisis in his history?
JT It was a crisis, and he was moving rightly in it. Pharaoh’s daughter “called his name Moses, and said, Because I drew him out of the water”. She is presented as saving Moses and becoming his foster-mother, but her counter influence notwithstanding, did not stifle the instincts divinely developed [p. 151] in him in his youth. Thus the Spirit goes on to say: “when Moses was grown, ... he went out to his brethren and looked on their burdens”. That is a very fine record. He would know well enough from the conversations in the palace the reproach in which the Hebrews were held, but at length he went out to them as his brethren and looked on their burdens.
AP It is not a little remarkable that the feature of assuming burdens should be taken on by Moses as belonging to the levitical family before it is officially given a place.
RWS It is a beautiful touch that Stephen gives to the movement of Moses here, making it a heart matter. He says, it came into his heart to look upon his brethren.
ANW Moses “saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren” — not one of the brethren.
JT That is a beautiful touch. Oftentimes young people say, We belong to the brethren. It may be they do not care much about having to say it, but feel they have to say something. Sometimes they even call them the Plymouth brethren, which makes them a sect and discredits the testimony; but with Moses it was “an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew”; those despised people, to Moses, were his brethren.
GMacP What element would Pharaoh’s daughter represent?
JT She was not to be despised. To a point she was Moses’ saviour, and was of a different mind to Pharaoh, her father. She drew Moses out of the water, and gave him a name which conveyed this act; light was in it. She also acceded to the suggestion of Moses’ sister, so that he was returned to his mother.
JS I suppose we see God’s overruling and providing hand in Pharaoh’s [p. 152] daughter.
JT I think so. There was something of moral value in her. She was not governed by her father’s influence, for Moses became her son. Of a race despised, the objects of murderous persecution, she sympathised with him, and took him as her son. She represents elements that God uses providentially; which are favourable to a point.
FHL Moses’ mother coming in at the outset of Moses’ life, had a very formative effect on him; so today it is a question of affections being formed in the young, so that they may recognise the brethren as their brethren.
JT There is thus a very great deal of practical instruction in this passage. As regards our subject, Moses suffers first as a babe, and now he suffers as a grown-up man from his brethren. It is a sorrowful consideration that those whom he would serve, persecuted him. This marked his whole life, as we shall see later.
Stephen says, “He that was wronging his neighbour thrust him away, saying, Who established thee ruler and judge over us?” (Acts 7:27). God links this with Moses’ commission, saying, “This Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made thee ruler and judge? him did God send to be a ruler and deliverer with the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush”, (Acts 7:35). All this shows that Moses in suffering represents those who serve the saints.
JS As misunderstood here.
JT Exactly; but then it was the man who did wrong that caused the suffering. You may be sure if there is persecution of a servant, there is some previous unrighteousness in those who persecute.
CAM Not in the servant.
JT No, but in those that persecute him; here the man that did the wrong is the persecutor.
CAM Satan has thus something to work on.
[p. 153] Rem The Lord when here was persecuted much from His brethren in connection with service.
JT Yes that is the point we are at here. Moses is on that side; it is a question of those who are formally in the service of God.
WGT David delivered Keilah, but the people there turned round and sought to deliver him up to Saul.
JT Quite so; the men of Judah, in like manner, delivered Samson to the Philistines.
WB-w Moses smote the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. What would that represent?
JT He had a wrong point of view as to the deliverance. God intended to deliver them in another way. The excellency of the power was to be His and not man’s.
WB-w Moses had to learn what the flesh was. He had not learned that at this point.
JT The dead Egyptians were not to be hidden in the sand, but to be exposed on the seashore as testimony of the judgment of God.
JHE Peter would be on that line when he cut off the servant’s ear. He would smite with the sword, but the Lord says, “Return thy sword to its place”, (Matthew 26:52).
JT Quite. But at the same time Moses understood that God would use him; his brethren did not. Many a servant is misunderstood, yet knows himself that he has a mission from the Lord, even though the brethren do not know it, and he suffers accordingly.
Rem Was that the case with the Lord — His mother and Joseph had sought Him sorrowing, and found Him in the temple? He says to them, “Why is it that ye have sought me? did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). He was totally misunderstood even [p. 154] there.
JT But He was already conscious of being here on His Father’s business.
AR If Moses’ brethren had been with God, they would have recognised that he was their deliverer.
JT I think so. They would have said, There is something in this. Why should a prince of the house of Pharaoh come out to us? This is worth inquiring into.
AP Acts 7 would substantiate that; the onus of the refusal was on their part.
JT Yes. Stephen, in his arraignment of Israel, links it up with their resistance of the Holy Spirit.
ANW The whole burden of Stephen’s address placed the responsibility of their resistance to God on the persecutors.
CHH In all this Moses corresponds strikingly with Joseph. He had “genuine feeling” for the people of God, although suffering from them. The word of the Lord tried Joseph in the meantime.
JT This shows what younger brothers who seek to serve might have to endure through being misunderstood, but if they have a commission, it is to be discerned and will not be revoked; thus they may well submit, and patiently wait on God. It is for them, of course, to commend themselves, and to show themselves approved of God.
FNP Moses was allowed to remain forty years in Midian. Was that to complete his education, and to verify that he was Israel’s delivered?
JT Yes. The number forty has a great place in this section of Scripture; the forty years that Israel sojourned in the desert are all reckoned and are valuable; although Israel used much of that time in lawlessness, but God used every minute of it for Israel’s good. This applies also to the forty years Moses spent [p. 155] in Midian.
JS Has Moses to begin his forty years over again in Midian?
JT That is the way the truth stands. He went to Midian and sat by the well. He thus made a good start there, meaning that he depended upon something outside of himself. “The excellency of the power” (2 Corinthians 4:7) now is to be of God.
CAM Do you mean he was to be there those forty years in view of being commissioned to lead the people of God forty years through the desert?
JT Yes; I think God saw that he needed that, but according to Stephen he had knowledge of it already himself, so that the word of the Lord would try him as it tried Joseph. The word of the Lord would be the understanding we have from the Lord as to our path in service.
ARS Moses’ weapons are to be spiritual, not carnal.
JT I think that is what is meant in sitting by the well. The Holy Spirit is to be the power in him.
AFM In Hebrews 11:27 it says of Moses, “By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king”, which was a good finish to that phase of his service.
JT Exodus 2:15 says, he “fled from before Pharaoh”, but the Spirit of God says, he did not fear the wrath of the king, “for he persevered, as seeing him who is invisible”, (Hebrews 11:27). His whole history proves this.
AFM It was clearly at this time, in affection for Christ, that he turned his back on Egypt. It says, “esteeming the reproach of the Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he had respect to the recompense”, (verse 26).
JT Yes. All these cases should be read in the light of the New Testament. That is where we get the spiritual touches as to the mind of God — what underlay the happenings as God saw them.
AFM [p. 156] Where do you think the thought of sovereignty in the selection of the servant came home to Moses? He must have had a sense at some particular time of his call.
JT I think he had it in mind as he went out to his brethren. Stephen, in Acts 7, would indicate that God had communicated to him in some sense that he was to be the deliverer.
FHL We see that he had lost a lot of self-confidence at the end of the second forty years. He says, “Who am I, that I should go?” (Exodus 3:11).
JT I think he lost ground in a way, too. Very often we become unduly timid. It is well to keep a good balance. Whilst God breaks down our wills, He does not intend to weaken our faith and confidence in Himself, and consequent assurance.
RWS What value do you place on the first forty years?
JT It was a mixed experience. The early influence of the parents, I think, gave him a great advantage. Our young people should see today in their parents’ houses what an advantage there is in the way of influence and formation before they have much knowledge of the truth, their constitution being built up and affected by the influence of a godly house.
AR Coming into fellowship, they can be effective from the outset in serving the saints.
JT In Moses there was in this way, what overcame the influence of the court. “Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds” (Acts 7:22); but the early training through grace overcame all that.
AMacN The second forty years were, no doubt, needed to fully prepare Moses for his service as deliverer and to prepare the people for deliverance.
JT Yes. God saw what was necessary; it was no accident, Moses being in Midian or Israel being still in Egypt. God overrules all circumstances, and [p. 157] He turned these fresh exercises into account. It was necessary for Moses to go through these forty years in Midian, and it is remarkable what a spirit he manifested; he looked after the sheep of another, without the slightest suggestion of any thought of wages. Jacob wanted wages, but Moses had no such thought. I believe during all that period, he was developing unselfishness which God would use.
WGT Paul was some time in Arabia. He would be developing similar sensibilities.
AFM Sitting by the well in Midian was a good start for the second forty years upon which Moses was entering.
JT The whole forty years are in keeping with it. He had slain an Egyptian, but there is nothing of that in Midian. There is no evidence that he used violence towards the shepherds. He helped Jethro’s daughters to water the flock, and the Holy Spirit says, he consented to dwell with Jethro, which implied that there was something in him naturally that resisted that thought, but he was subject and accepted the circumstances.
JS The first forty years would not be lost after coming under the Lord’s hand in Midian. God could now effectually use his prior education.
AFM Do you think that the crowning feature of these second forty years is seen in Moses leading the flock and coming to the mountain of God where he saw the burning thorn-bush — and yet it was not consumed?
JT I think it was God coming in at that juncture and honouring the formation that was there.
AR Before he came to that point, he was tending the flock of Jethro. Would that go with what you have been saying, that all that was selfish had been judged by him?
JT Quite; the flock he tended was never his own flock. Jacob acquired a flock under similar circumstances A true minister among God’s people today never thinks of acquiring a flock; the clerical idea of “my flock, my people”, is a false thought. The true servant cares for the flock of God.
ABP Would that link on with what Moses said to Jehovah later — “thy people”?
JT Exactly.
APT Does Moses synchronise with Paul up to the point where the Lord appeared to him? Moses slew the Egyptian, Saul slew the saints, both thinking they did God service.
JT I think there was something in Saul that condemned him, indefinable, possibly, to himself. He says, he persecuted the saints ignorantly in unbelief. The Lord says, “it is hard for thee to kick against goads”, (Acts 26:14). There was something going on inwardly in him which the Lord noticed; and then instead of occupying him with the saints one by one, He occupies him with them all, saying, “why dost thou persecute me?” (Acts 9:4). That is, one idea, which is the germ of the mystery put into his soul at the very outset. His training from that point was very much like that of Moses, including the period in Arabia, until he was formally commissioned.
ANW Tell us again why you place such importance on this word “by the well”.
JT Because the Spirit of God mentions it in that way. The article is before “well”. “Moses ... dwelt in the land of Midian. And he sat by the well”. There must have been several wells in Midian, but spiritually there is only one. It refers to the Spirit. “Sitting” would denote a permanent attitude of mind.
Rem Corresponding with “What shall I do, Lord?” (Acts 22:10).
JT Just so; added to that is the word of [p. 159] Ananias that the Lord had sent him to Saul that he might be filled with the Holy Spirit.
ANW You made a remark that Moses’ activities in Midian were not formally in opposing the shepherds, but in the support of what was of God. What a difference there would be in church history if that had been maintained throughout!
JT Moses’ position suggests the positive side; occupation with the flock was enjoined on the elders of Ephesus — “Shepherd the assembly of God”.
FHL What is said of Gershon by Moses, as naming him is in the light of his return to his brethren.
JT Yes, he was a stranger in Midian.
We have now to go to chapter 32 — a most distressing chapter in the history of God’s people, and therefore coming into the sufferings of the true servant; even what arises amongst the saints through their lawlessness, becomes the occasion of the servant’s suffering. Moses had nothing to do with this idolatry; in fact, they rejected him, saying, “for this Moses, the man that has brought us up out of the land of Egypt, — we do not know what is become of him!” (verse 1). There was, of course, suffering for him in that. He had not been long away, and they saw where he had gone. It is the state of the people in this chapter, and its results in causing suffering to those who serve. It is of great importance to see that this is the order of the day for those who are in the service of God. Paul, in speaking of the mercy shown to Epaphroditus, regarded it as mercy shown to himself, saying, “that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow”, (Philippians 2:27).
AP Would you connect the thought of Moses’ anger here with suffering?
JT Think of the feelings he must have had, in being compelled to break the tables! Think of what they must have been to him! We are told here expressly that they were written on both their [p. 160] sides, that the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables. There was nothing in the whole earth like those two tables of the covenant.
JS They are called “the tables of the testimony”.
JT Think what it must have been to Moses to break them That is one item of the sufferings. This section, chapters 32 and 33, is full of what a servant who is for God has to endure — not because of what he does or has done, but because of the state of the people and what they do.
AFM He had no command to break the tables; yet he does it instinctively.
JT Well, what could he do with them? It brought out clearly that he was not the Messiah. Had he been the Messiah, he would have had the testimony in his heart and would die to establish it. He was just a man of like passions with ourselves, but real and inexpressible sufferings were endured by Moses in spirit, who took God’s side of the position. The state of the people was so bad that he could not bring the tables into the camp.
CHH In the presence of the effect of sin the Lord was “deeply moved in spirit”, (John 11:33). When they brought the deaf man who could not speak right, Jesus groaned; (Mark 7:34). All this shows what servants of the Lord have to suffer.
CAM You feel that also in relation with Paul.
JT He thought of certain ones “with tears”, (Acts 20:31). They were thinking of themselves. The servant has to go through these things, and God takes account of it. Jeremiah’s eyes were consumed with tears. His lamentations are the outcome of the exercises he had to endure as a servant among God’s people; because of their state and conduct.
AFM In this scripture, we find that before Moses came down from the mountain, he made intercession to God, and says, “Why, Jehovah, doth thy wrath burn against thy people?” But when he gets down to the foot of the mountain, his wrath burned, too, and he broke the tables. Would that show the depth of his feeling?
JT I think so. You can picture what terrible agony he must have endured in this crisis. Think of what it must have been to Moses, three thousand people slain in the camp, and hundreds of things like it were endured by Moses in the desert; they are endured also more or less by every true servant today. It is well to take account of those whom God puts forward in His service having to carry these things, for they are obligated to suffer and should be regarded in this light.
AR So that what Moses says to God on the mountain shows what exercises he went through in his own soul.
JT Quite so, and he is willing to be blotted out of God’s book for them, as the end of the chapter shows, which enables us to see what a man he was. In this he rises to be a great type of the true Mediator.
TH Jeremiah says, “Remember thou mine affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them constantly in remembrance, and is humbled in me”, (Lamentations 3:19,20).
JT The Lamentations of Jeremiah are most wholesome for a servant to read. They teach us to feel with God. “Remembering thy tears”, was said by the apostle to Timothy. (2 Timothy 1:4).
RDG Would you take it that Moses’ sufferings would be accentuated by the fact that Aaron was leader in the sin; the one with whom he had been so intimately linked as representing God to Pharaoh?
JT Quite so, the fact must have been most painful to Moses. This section is fairly well known to us.
[p. 162] We can only touch on it as showing what a servant has to go through, as with God; to take account of what is coming up every day as a result of a low spiritual state of the saints. As we feel these things we suffer, and that is what God values.
AFM Moses kept the passover, and that must have occasioned suffering on his part; and then the position he took of being ready to be blotted out of God’s book here must have caused suffering of the deepest kind.
JT How nearly it touches the vicarious position of Christ as ready to be blotted out of God’s book! That would mean separation from God for ever for Moses, because he was but a creature. Paul says, “for I have wished, I myself, to be a curse from the Christ for my brethren”, (Romans 9:3). That would mean eternal separation from Christ. It shows what a man Paul was, and that is what Moses comes to here. He would give up his eternal welfare for the sake of the people of God. What a challenge to us as to whether we can lay down our lives for the brethren; that is what a servant is called upon to do! He is in the forefront, and discerns what Satan is doing and that the saints are giving way to him, and this causes him to feel things before God.
JS Would you say this affection is really necessary in the servant, that he would be prepared to sacrifice himself, if it means the blessing of the people?
JT We cannot serve fully according to God save as we correspond with Christ; the nearer we get to the forsaking, the more we correspond with Him. That is what God had in mind here.
CAM It gives a very elevated thought of the servant to see this, especially as we might think the greatness of the servant lies in the part he takes in active ministry. In making too much of the public [p. 163] side we might under-estimate his greatness in the presence of God.
JT Exactly; I believe this is the greatest position that Moses occupied — his saying to God that he was willing to be blotted out of His book for the sake of the people. Morally the greatest position the Lord took was when on the cross, He took it to glorify God — to do the will of God.