“A PEOPLE IS COME OUT FROM EGYPT”

Numbers 22:2-5 (to “Egypt”); 23:5-10 (to “Israel”), 19-24; 24:3-9,16,17; 1 Peter 2:9,10

We have been speaking of the Lord Jesus, and we love to speak of Him. I do not think there is a true believer on earth whose heart is not stirred when they hear the Lord Jesus being spoken about. There are many true believers on earth; we know hardly any of them personally. There must be many millions and we do not know where they are, and many are in countries that none of us would normally visit. But one thing we do know is that the Lord knows them: “The Lord knows those that are his”, 2 Tim.2:19. They are a distinguished people. Their names are held on a register – that is true of every believer. Do you know that, if you are a believer, your name is on a register? In most countries, when people are born their birth is recorded in a register. That is not the sort of register that God keeps. The Lord said to His disciples, “rejoice that your names are written in the heavens”, Luke 10:20. The heavens hold a different kind of record. Nothing can change heaven’s register. Your name has been written there: if you are a believer on the Lord Jesus, and you have owned Him as your Saviour and Lord and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, your name is written, as if in indelible ink, in that register. It is the register of God’s people.

It is a wonderful thing to realise that there is such a thing as God’s people. Unbelievers take account of Christians as being different. I remember a work colleague of mine commenting on another person in the office who was a believer. She said, ‘Do you know that he is going away to somewhere in Germany, where he has never been before, and is going to stay with people he has never met! How can that be? These Christians are strange!’ Well, believers should be strange in this world; they are “a people ... out from Egypt”. These words of Balak have often struck me: “a people is come out from Egypt”. Have you really come out from Egypt? Have we all come out from Egypt? The hymn says,

‘Art thou weaned from Egypt’s pleasures’

What do you have if you have come out from Egypt? You have God:

‘God in secret thee shall keep,’            

Oh beloved, what more could you want? What can Egypt provide for you if you are being kept by God? The wilderness brings many tests, but:

       ‘E’en thy wants and woes shall bring

Suited grace from high descending’

Hymn 76

The world is to be a wilderness for believers who have “come out from Egypt”. Egypt speaks of the world in all its independence of God: that is Egypt, and as you come away from all that marks the world as spoken of in that figure, you find yourself in a wilderness scene where there is nothing to minister to the flesh, but you have One who meets all your ‘wants and woes’ with ‘suited grace from high descending’. You will ‘taste of mercy’s spring’. All the needs of the soul are provided for, but the provision is not from Egypt. As you pass through this scene, people may say of you, ‘He does not do this, he does not do that, he does not fit in’. Remember that the Lord Jesus did not fit in; He had no part in the world’s system. He came into this scene – how great that is, we were speaking about earlier – He came into this world, but He did not change it; outwardly, the world was left unchanged, except the responsibility that lay upon man was greatly increased; but the world as a system was unchanged as the Lord Jesus went through it. He had no part in it; He could not have had a part in it. Peter speaks about “the stone which the builders cast away as worthless”, 1 Pet.2:7. The Lord could not have had a part in such a system: they cast Him away as worthless. That scripture speaks of the value that men put upon our Saviour: “the stone which the builders cast away as worthless”. What a terrible indictment on the world’s attitude. That is Egypt, but “a people is come out from Egypt”. Beloved, you do not want a place there; you want a place where the Lord Jesus is valued, a place among that people, a people that “is come out from Egypt”.

Balaam was a wicked man. He could have found a place in Egypt. He was avaricious, he wanted wealth, he wanted honours, and God prevented it; God stood in the way. You see the extraordinary lengths to which God went at this time: you wonder at it. He did not use a prophet of Israel to make these wonderful pronouncements about His people. He had earlier used an ass to speak (Num.22:28), and now He uses a wicked man. God is able for anything; He can use what He will to bring His mind to bear. What God is going to impart is not simply that there is a people, but that they are His, and that He appreciates and values them.

We have been speaking about the Lord Jesus, and how God values Him – what God sees in Him. God also sees something very precious in the saints. Balaam was not allowed to curse Israel. He says, as it were, ‘How can I? God has not cursed them’. Then it says, “Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone”. That befits those that have come out of Egypt; the people that have come out of Egypt will dwell alone, they will have no part in the nations of the world. We do not belong to any of the systems of the world. People may ask, ‘What religion are you? What is it called?’ We do not have a name in man’s catalogues, we are just believers, believers on the Lord Jesus. Dear young one, and those who are older too, these words carry power. ‘I am a believer on the Lord Jesus’ is something that no one can gainsay; there is power in that name. ‘I cannot go there, I cannot do this, I am a believer in the Lord Jesus’; there is power in it, and they will leave you alone. It is a blessed thing to be left alone; “Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone”. It is not alone just as individuals, it is a “people”; you have company there because there are others who are prepared to dwell alone, in the same situation, who are apart from man’s systems altogether. God takes account of it, and that is a blessed matter. The saints may take account of it, but God takes account of it too. God takes account of someone who is prepared to be alone for the sake of the name of the Lord Jesus. It is blessed to know that; what an honour it is to be able to stand alone for the sake of the Lord Jesus. It says, “it is a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations”. Someone might say, ‘Is that not a very small outlook to have?’ But it goes on to add, “Who can count the dust of Jacob”. It is like “The Lord knows those that are his”: He knows them all, millions that they are. “Who can count the dust of Jacob”: it is what God has done, what He has secured; and these are His people. It is “a people” that has been secured.

The words “a people” suggest that they carry certain characteristics that are their own. They have come apart from all that marks the world around, they have learnt what it is to stand alone, and they are keeping themselves and maintaining themselves. They are not getting involved in all the things and enticements of the world, but they know one thing, and that is that God has taken account of them. Have you got that assurance in your soul, that the Lord knows you? Perhaps you do not say it to others, but you have that assurance in your soul that the Lord knows; He knows why you do not go in for things in the world. The real reason is because you love Him. He has been rejected here, He has been cast out of this world, and anyone who truly loves Him will follow in His steps. God takes account of that: He will bless you, and all who are prepared to come apart from the world and be rejected there for His sake – any one who accepts the consequences of that. It is a blessing: “Behold, I have received mission to bless; and he hath blessed”. God loves to bless His people.

In Deuteronomy 33, it says “Yea, he loveth the peoples” (v.3). Think of Moses saying that, after all he had been through. He had seen the people, he had heard the arguments, the complaints, the murmurings; he had heard it all, and at one point he said, ‘I just cannot take it any longer’. It was more than a natural man could bear; Moses had seen it all. Yet at the end of his days, he said “Yea, he loveth the peoples”. God takes account of the saints not according to what we are by nature, but according to His work in us. Is that not a blessed thing? We should not murmur, we should not complain, but God takes account of the fact that because, as believers on the Lord Jesus, we have accepted Him as our Saviour and Lord, and we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, there is something that is entirely in accord with the Lord Jesus Himself. It is the work of God; it does not belong to what we are by nature: it is “a new creation”, 2 Cor.5:17. That work is in every believer and God takes account of it; and you can understand that when God takes account of it, this man had to say, “I have received mission to bless”. In this hall I see the saints, and there is a work of God in each one. How precious that must be to heaven: God sees His work in such people, and is being ministered to by them, by the way they live. The Lord sees us every day reading our bibles before we go out in the morning; maybe we only have time for a couple of verses, but we do it; and then thinking about what we have read, and going over it in prayer with the Lord. All this is taken account of, and it is developing the work of God in the soul. God takes account of it, and He says, ‘I am blessing that one’.

Moreover, God is saying here that all the things that we might be accused of have been dealt with: “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob”. How can God say that? A large part of this book is about the breakdown and failures of Israel; think of the children of Israel rejecting the testimony of those who went to search out the land. They said, ‘No, we do not want it; let us go back to Egypt’ (see Num.14:1-5). Think of what that must have meant to the heart of God, and yet it is His people: “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob”. It is like, “Who shall bring an accusation against God’s elect? It is God who justifies: who is he that condemns?”, Rom.8:33,34. How can God justify the sinner? “It is Christ who has died, but rather has been also raised up”. Why was He raised? He “has been raised for our justification”, Rom.4:25. So God can take account of believers, His people, without one trace of our failures and breakdown; He can take account of us without our sins, and He can say that you are justified.

What has happened to our sins? Look in the epistle to the Colossians for the answer. All that was written down against us, He has erased it – “having nailed it to the cross” (chap.2:14). That is where the record of our sins has gone, “nailed … to the cross”. Satan can raise the charge, he can accuse and say, ‘What about this? You did this, and that’. Let us look at my charge sheet. Go to the cross, and there is the sheet, and where are all my sins that were listed on it? He has erased them: “having effaced the handwriting in ordinances which stood out against us, which was contrary to us, he has taken it also out of the way, having nailed it to the cross”. God will justify the sinner; that is a blessed thing, it is even greater than forgiveness. Forgiveness is wonderful: you might do something against me, and I might say ‘I forgive’; but I might not forget. But when a person is justified, all that was against them is gone, gone for ever. God’s people are justified: neither Satan nor any one can bring a charge against them, and they go forward in triumph without a charge: “Jehovah his God is with him”. Are you conscious that God is with you? Have you received the Holy Spirit? If you have, then you know you have the power to go through this scene in the light of this verse, “Jehovah his God is with him”. Have you got the Lord Jesus in your heart? Is He in your affections? “Jehovah his God is with him, and the shout of a king is in his midst”. Who can overthrow that? A “king, against whom none can rise up”, Prov.30:31. That speaks of the presence of the Lord: “the shout of a king is in his midst”. Believers everywhere are royalty. They belong to a great family, and amongst them there is the “shout of a king”, a shout of victory, a shout of triumph.

Think of the victory of the Lord Jesus over death. His victory over death was when He went into death. When the feet of the priests that bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water of Jordan, the Jordan being full over all its banks, at that moment the waters flowing down rose up in a heap (Josh.3:14-16). Jesus’ victory was secured when He went into death. Death had no claim upon Him, it could not raise its voice against Him, He went in in wonderful victory; neither could He be held by its power. The testimony of His victory was in resurrection. How great it is! The saints can go forward now in the light of that, knowing that His triumph was our own, that we can enter into the blessing brought about by His victory. We do not have to meet the whole question of sin as He did, although we have to meet it in ourselves; nor do we have to meet the power of Satan as He did: that power has been broken for the believer. The believer proceeds in the assurance of divine power; God has brought us out from Egypt. We did not leave the world by ourselves: we would not have had the power to do that. No one will give up the world except to gain something they see is greater. It says, “God brought him out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a buffalo”. The One who brought us out, the One who secured us when we were in our sins and in our sinful associations of life, the One who sought us and brought us out of it all is the One who takes us through the whole wilderness journey. Who can stand against that? And “there is no enchantment against Jacob”. Then Balaam looks on to a day when the Lord Jesus will come and claim His right, He will establish His throne: “At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!”. That is an exclamation, it is not a question. If it was a question, who could fully answer it? No, it is an exclamation that will redound throughout eternity: “What hath God wrought!”

But we are here in this scene, and we are not in eternal conditions yet. Balaam gets another view of the children of Israel and he says, “How goodly are thy tents, Jacob, and thy tabernacles, Israel!” How wonderful! As Balaam looked down on the camp, he saw Israel dwelling in tents according to his tribes; he would have observed a scene of wonderful order. There was a company of possibly two million people living in tents together in the wilderness. As Balaam looked at that camp, he would have seen that the people were gathered round a centre: the tabernacle was in the centre. It contained all the symbols of God’s thoughts for man, all God’s thoughts from eternity. It had a sacred, holy place that no man could enter apart from one, and that could only be once a year; and in that holy place was the ark, the centre of everything for God. The ark speaks of the Lord Jesus, the One who was devoted to undertaking the will of God. He loved God’s word; it was in His heart.

Also in the tabernacle, there was the table of shewbread speaking of the saints held in order before God, and the candlestick with the lamps on it. The lamps speak of the saints, and God using the saints to disseminate His light, all sustained and supported by Christ, that beautiful candlestick. There was also the golden altar where incense went up to God, the prayers of the saints. It is blessed to take account of all these things at the centre of the camp, in the tabernacle itself. The tabernacle was within quite a large courtyard, but it was in the centre. The tents of the people were around, not in any haphazard way but like concentric circles. The innermost tents to the east were for Moses and Aaron and their families; then to the south were the Kohathites, those who dealt with the most holy things; to the west the Gershonites, those who handled the curtains, speaking of divine principles; and to the north were the Merarites who had the care of the boards of the tabernacle, speaking of the care of the saints. These tents were surrounding the tabernacle, and around these tents were all the other tribes, Judah to the east, Reuben to the south, Ephraim to the west, Dan to the north: they were all in order surrounding that tabernacle. “How goodly are thy tents”: Balaam would have seen nothing like it before. He could not hear the complaints that went on, he saw their order.

Believers are set in order. We have come here today from our localities; we are set in order. Most of us come from relatively smaller gatherings, where the Lord has placed us. He has placed us where we are, in a circle where He is treasured. If you have a sense that the Lord has placed you in a particular circle, has He done that without providing everything you need for the journey here? The Lord would not do that. If He places me somewhere, He gives me everything that is needed. I might wish I had something else; but the Lord has placed me among a wonderful company of believers and that is the answer to all my needs. Should I want to leave it and go to the world? Never, I trust! The Lord is over all things, including every detail: He places us as He sees fit and, in His wisdom and with infinite skill, He knows what is best for our education. The tents are set together like that, “like gardens by the river side”. Think of the Lord Jesus taking account of His garden: it says, “Let my beloved come into his garden, And eat its precious fruits”, Song of Songs 4:16. We have referred already to what might be before us tomorrow if the Lord leaves us here for another day; we will enjoy His company when He will come in according to His promise, and will find fruit available that He will gather. May He find it from each one of us.

In the final passage in Numbers, we have this lovely reference to the “Star” and the “Sceptre”. What do they represent? The One whom we have been speaking about today, our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, “I am the … bright and morning star”, Rev.22:16. What is the response? We have it in the following verse, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. He will come to take us – how blessed; but what the bride is looking for most of all is when He will come and His rights will be accorded Him here. She is jealous for the rights of Christ: true assembly feelings are offended by His rights being denied here. It is an offence, and must be put right, and it will be. Soon He will be accorded those rights: that is what the assembly looks for, when these rights will be acknowledged universally, when He is established with the “Sceptre”, the symbol of rule. He will be over all, and none shall question His claim. The “Sceptre” will hold sway. But in the hearts of faithful saints, He rules today – not publicly and universally as He will in that coming day, but He rules now as our Lord, well-known and well-loved, and His word to us has all authority. That is what His people should experience.

As believers we go out publicly and we meet others; that is the reason why I read in 1 Peter, “But ye are a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession”. Never forget that you are among a “people for a possession”. We belong to the Lord Jesus, we are not our own, we cannot do as we like. The democratic world is built up on man’s mind and will; but believers are a people for a possession: we belong to the Lord. What is the object? It is “that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light”. That word “wonderful” does not occur very many times in Scripture, but where it does, you can understand why it is used: “wonderful light”. One could say “How is it that thou askest after my name, seeing it is wonderful?”, Judg.13:18. It is the Lord Jesus Himself; “and his name is called Wonderful”, Isa.9:6. I knew an old sister who could hardly communicate at all at the end of her days. A brother went to visit her, and said ‘What do you think of the Lord Jesus?’ And suddenly her face lit up and she turned and said, ‘He is Wonderful!’ That was the work of God in evidence. Everything about the Lord Jesus is wonderful to the believer. The words “What hath God wrought!” are an exclamation of wonder. He has brought us “out of darkness to his wonderful light”. Darkness is the power of Satan, but “wonderful light” is what we come into; it belongs to “the kingdom of the Son of his love”, Col.1:13. It says, “who once were not a people, but now God’s people; who were not enjoying mercy, but now have found mercy”. At the end, we can say of ourselves, “vessels of mercy”, Rom.9:23. All the glory is God’s. If we are here as a justified people, as brought out from Egypt, as finding resource and power to go through this scene, what credit is that to us? It is all from God. We are “vessels of mercy”. May there be an answer to divine Persons, for the Lord’s name’s sake.

 

Address at Sidcup

25 October 2025

Andrew Martin

 

 

Edited and published monthly by Alistair Brown and Paul Martin

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