EXODUS 5 AND 6
“Thou shalt say to Pharaoh, Thus saith Jehovah: Israel is my son, my firstborn. And I say to thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me. And if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill thy son, thy firstborn”.
[p. 29] The bondage of Israel in Egypt was holding them back from their proper service to God. To the people He spoke also of the good and spacious land into which He would bring them; He could speak to them of all that was in His heart for them; but in speaking to Pharaoh He claimed them for His service in the wilderness.
All that is in Egypt — whether it be the flesh-pots, or the idolatry, or the servile labour — detains the people from this holy service. The prince of this world will do his utmost to hold us back from this. The question in controversy was whether the world-system was to have the service of God’s people, or that service was to be for Him? This is very important in its practical bearing on ourselves. It is a serious question for us all to consider, Are we really free for the service of God? Or are we in bondage in some way to the elements of the world?
The world-system would claim everything for itself; everything must be spent in its service, and to enrich it. Satan’s object is to connect the labour of the people of God with his world, and thus to detain them from serving God in relation to an entirely different and spiritual order of things, of which the tabernacle was the type. How many are toiling to improve the world, to reform man, to elevate the masses! But the more earnest people are on this line, the more heart-breaking is the fruitless toil. The children of Israel making bricks in Egypt is a figure of all the labour that goes to build up and enrich the world-system. It is fruitless labour from a spiritual point of view, for it is enriching and building up a system which is under the judgment of God. There is no spiritual liberty or joy in it; it is bondage.
[p. 30] The first movements towards deliverance intensified the bondage of the people. They were set to make bricks without straw. There is a great deal of labour of that kind. Self-improvement and world-improvement involve labour which has no suitable material to work with. It can only end in disappointment.
But God is set to deliver His people from all this kind of thing that they may serve Him in perfect freedom, and as those who are enriched by Him with spiritual wealth. The knowledge of God in grace is the spring of everything. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had known God as the Almighty. He had promised and covenanted, and they knew Him as the God of resurrection power who could give effect to all that He promised.
The Name Jehovah was used all through the book of Genesis, but what was involved in it was not known. Its significance did not come out until God intervened in grace to deliver His people from bondage so that He might have them for Himself. The Name Jehovah involved what God was as a Redeemer and Saviour God, His compassions for His people in their afflictions, and His pleasure in having them for Himself. As Almighty His power and ability to give effect to what He had promised were known. But as Jehovah He would make known what was in His heart — His interest and good pleasure in His people, and His active intervention on their behalf, so that He might be personally known by them, if we may so say. He would have them to realize His deep interest in them. His purpose was that in result there should be a bond between Himself and His people, founded on a known and enjoyed deliverance from bondage, and on the knowledge of Him as their Deliverer, Redeemer, and [p. 31] the One who claimed them in the way of perfect grace for Himself. He looked to cherish them as His people, and to be cherished and honoured and served by them as their God. All this is bound up in the Name Jehovah. It is God known in the solicitude and active intervention of a grace that effected all in the way of deliverance, and was the source of all in the way of blessing.
We now know God as the Father — that Name of full and perfect grace which could only be revealed in connection with the presence of the Son as Man on earth. Now the fulness of grace and truth has come out; there is no more to be told; it has been well said, Who could speak after the Son?
God had established His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them the land of Canaan (6: 4). Then His compassions came in with regard to the condition and groaning of the children of Israel in Egypt (verses 5, 6). “And I will take you to me for a people, and will be your God” (verse 7). The people were in a place which was not God’s place for them, and they were in bondage serving a system which was under judgment, but He claimed them for Himself, and would secure His claim, so far as they were concerned, in the way of grace. He would bring them to the abode of His holiness in the wilderness, that they might serve Him in freedom “on this mountain”, and that He might take up His dwelling in their midst; and He would also plant them in the mountain of His inheritance in the land. Redemption has both things in view.
In chapter 6: 13, Jehovah gave commandment to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. Moses and Aaron were put in authority by divine [p. 32] commandment. Jehovah asserted His own faithfulness and authority. It is as much as to say, If the people do not hearken, and Pharaoh will not hearken, I will be faithful, I will not deny Myself. All would hang now on Jehovah’s faithfulness, and on Moses and Aaron as commanded by Him — figures of Christ as Lord and as Priest.
Hence the genealogy given in the latter part of the chapter goes no farther than to bring in Levi, so as to introduce Moses and Aaron. All was secured in them; that is in Christ as Mediator and Priest. The glory of the Lord is that He is the Mediator; He brings all that God is in grace and blessing to men; and as Priest He takes a place on our side so as to secure response to it all in the affections and service of His people. Christ can give such an application of it all in a priestly way that response to God is secured. There is also the important thought that priestly judgment maintains holy conditions among the people. Phinehas executed judgment on the offenders in Numbers 25, and had the covenant of an everlasting priesthood on account of his jealousy in accord with Jehovah. Personally Aaron did not always maintain holy conditions, but his personal failure does not affect what he was as a type of Christ.