HE tabernacle was set
up when Israel had failed to appreciate
grace, and needed to be taught the
holiness of God.
Jehovah had now taken
up Israel on the strength of the
covenant of grace He had made with
Abraham in those memorable words -"
In the same day the Lord made a covenant
with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I
given this land, from the river of Egypt
unto the great river, the river
Euphrates." (Gen. 15:18.)
It was all grace, no
conditions whatever: and now God's time had
come; Egypt's cup of iniquity was full, and
it must be dashed to the ground; her day of
mercy was over, Israel's day of mercy had
come, and we hear the Lord saying, in
blessed words of comfort, "I have also
heard the groaning of the children of
Israel, . . and I have remembered my
covenant." How precious! He heard
their groaning, He remembered His
covenant. Will He undertake for them?
will He carry out and make good the
covenant? Yes, He surely will; and not only
that, but, in principle, He repeats that
covenant to them-all pure grace, and all
based on His "f wills." Let
us notice these J wills-seven in number-of
Jehovah. If He wills, who can
withstand His will?
First, "I will
bring you out from under the burden of the
Egyptians." Is the reader of these
lines unsaved, and groaning for salvation-
longing for deliverance? Oh, listen to these
emancipating words !-" I will bring you
out." Have you formed habits that hold
you fast? Are they a scourge, a burden to
you? Is there a restlessness in your soul?
Like a wounded deer, do you groan for rest,
and there is none? Like a worm under the
foot, are you crushed to the earth again and
again? Are you about to give up in despair,
looking for light where all is dark, longing
for rest and finding nothing but unrest,
sighing for deliverance yet experiencing
nothing but bondage? Do you crave for
something to satisfy, and all the cisterns
are dry? You have prayed and wept for mercy,
but, alas! you have not obtained it; and now
you are about to harbor hard thoughts in
your heart about God. Y6u think,-His ear is
heavy that it. cannot hear; His arm is
shortened that it cannot save. Oh, poor,
weary, storm-tossed soul! look up; listen to
His voice, as He says, "I will bring
you out." This blessing is indeed for
you, but you are trying to obtain it in a
wrong way. What could Israel do to bring
about their deliverance? Just what you can.
Listen to Jehovah's voice ringing out, in
wonderful grace-"I will." Then believe,
and rest in His unchanging grace and
word, and joy and peace will be yours-NOT by
praying, nor crying, nor longing, but by
believing. "Now the God of hope
fill you with all joy AND PEACE in
BELIEVING." (Rom. 15:13)
Second, I will rid you
out of their bondage." Not only
burdened, but in cruel bondage! A young man
once said to me, "There is no use in my
trying to be a Christian, or to lead a
Christian life. I have tried to give up
drinking, and other evil habits; but I
cannot: I am overcome again and again. I
want to, but I cannot." Is not this the
cry of many, trying all the time to do in
their own strength, and in their own way,
not in God's way and strength? Oh, poor
soul! let me take you by the hand and lead
you to Christ. Believe on Him, trust Him,
and you will be able to say, as one said to
me, after he had simply trusted the Lord,
"Why, all these things left me; I did
not have to give them up.
Look at that oak in the
early spring, how it retains its old leaves.
You would have a most burdensome task to
pluck them all off, one by one; but wait.
The sun shines, the rains fall, the sap
begins to flow gradually through all the
fibers; a new life is infused, and in a few
days the old leaves are all gone, dropped to
the ground. Did the tree have to shake them
off? Did it have to hire or beseech some
higher power to shake them off? Oh no! All
it had to do was to receive the provision
God had made for it. Dear reader, will you
receive the pro. vision God, in grace, has
made for you? Listen: "God so loved the
world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting
life." Believe in Him now, and eternal,
divine life is yours. Then, when this is
brought in, the evil habits which belong to
the old, carnal, life will drop off, and you
will be able to say, Thank God ! He has
brought me out of bondage.
Third, "I will
redeem you with a stretched-out arm, and
with great judgments." In the case
of Israel, God's judgment fell upon two
things: first upon the lamb; then, upon
their enemies. Judgment must fall on the
lamb, to end the wrath of God against the
people's sins, so that all who took refuge
beneath the blood of the lamb were saved
from wrath and judgment: it fell on
that which was a type of Christ. Now we have
the reality, Christ Himself: God has
provided a Lamb; wrath has fallen upon
Him; sin has been atoned for; and all who
take refuge beneath that s6~-sheltering,
wrath protecting blood can truly say, I have
not been redeemed with silver and gold, nor
any other perishable thing, "but with
the precious blood of Christ." Standing
on the heaven side of the cross, we can turn
round, as Israel past the sea, and look upon
our conquered foes. Christ has met
everything that was against us, -nothing
passed over lightly; all, all divinely met;
all the righteous claims of God's throne
satisfied. This is what we learn in the resurrection
of Christ; it is God's declaration of
His perfect victory over all our foes and
His foes-the flesh, the world, and the
devil. The world is thus now under judgment
(John 12. 31); Satan, its prince, is also
(John 16.11); the flesh is condemned
(Rom. 8. 3). Thus the one sheltered by the
blood of Christ is a redeemed creature.
Man, before the fall, was an innocent
creature; after the fall, a depraved
creature: when saved, he is a redeemed
creature, and is going to be a glorified
creature: then we shall enjoy the
redemption of Christ in all its infinite
fullness, and sing, "Unto him that
loved us and washed us from our sins in His
own blood, and hath made us kings and
priests unto God and His Father; to Him be
glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen." (Rev. 1:5.)
Fourth, "I will
take you to me for a people." Here
we have them brought to God, to be a people
for God. Their new relationship brought new
responsibilities: being brought to God, they
were now to walk with Him; and "can two
walk together except they be agreed?"
Their wills must be lost in God's will. He
knew the desert and their needs for it, and
He had infinite resources in Himself to
supply every want. They must now learn to
walk the path of obedience, and to remain in
the place of absolute dependence upon Him
for everything. If they continued thus, they
would find rest to their souls. Rest as to
wrath and judgment they had,-the blood on
the lintel gave them that. Rest as to their
enemies they also enjoyed,-they had seen
them swept away by the power of God. But
rest as to circumstances they must now
learn,-was to be enjoyed only by obedience
and dependence upon God. How many of God's
people, through legality, fail to enjoy even
rest of conscience- freedom from all fear of
wrath and judgment. How many more still fail
in the possession of that deliverance which
comes by realizing the perfect judgment of
all our foes as declared in Christ's
resurrection-and ours of course. (Col. iii.
'-4.) But, alas! how few and far between
they are who enjoy rest of soul. They are
chafed and worried about the circumstances
of the wilderness. They do not walk in
dependence. They have a will of their own
and cannot "keep rank ; " there is
in them a "double heart." (I Chron.
12:33.) You that are not so, hear again the
sweet words, "I will take you to me
for a people." Will He let the ship
in which He sails with them sink? Surely
not. Will He supply their need? Yes; they
are His people. "Yea, happy is
that people whose God is the Lord."
Fifth, "I will be
to you a God; and ye shall know that I am
the Lord YOUR GOD which bringeth you
out from under the burden of the
Egyptians." He was to be their God:
they were to know Him, who bad saved
them. The wilderness lessons are not to
prepare us for heaven as so many think. They
are to acquaint us with the God who
has saved us, and with whom we are going to
spend eternity,-an eternity whose bliss will
be according to the measure of the
acquaintance we have made with Him.
Sixth, "And I
will bring you in unto the land." He
had brought them out and He would
bring them in. Despite their
wanderings, short-comings, and failures;
here they could rest- He would bring them
in. "For whom He did foreknow, He did
also predestinate to be conformed to the
image of His Son. . . . Moreover whom He did
predestinate, them He also called: and whom
He called, them He also justified: and whom
He justified, them He also glorified"
(Rom. 8:29,30.) -all golden links
that bind God's people to His heart.
Seventh, "And I
will give it you for an
heritage." The land, with all its
hills and valleys, its cities and plains, a
land flowing with milk and honey: here is
their title deed to it from Jehovah Himself.
Now notice, there are no conditions
mentioned: it is all grace. They were
not called to raise a finger, to strike a
blow. Jehovah was going to do it all. He had
undertaken for them, and this was enough.
All He asked of them was to trust Him. Here
the heart could rest with the fullest
assurance. Happy people! loved and chosen of
God, brought to Himself, clasped in the
loving embrace of His blessed I WILLS.
"By grace
are ye saved, through faith; and that
not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God; not of works, lest any man should
boast." (Eph. 2: 8, 9.)
On the strength of this,
He took them up, delivered them from Egypt,
swept their enemies away, brought them to
Himself, and led their march across the
desert. They murmured in three days at the
waters of Marah, which were bitter: He
sweetened them for them: they murmured for
meat, He gave them quails: they murmured for
water, He caused the water to flow from the
flinty rock. Thus He teaches them what grace
is, and how truly they are under it. But
their legal hearts fail to appreciate it,
and to learn its lessons. He therefore gives
them the law amid the "thunder and
lightnings "issuing out of
"the thick cloud upon the mount."
(Ex.29.) Then God gives to Moses His orders
concerning the Tabernacle and all the
specifications of its service. The people
are now to learn the awful holiness of God.
"Our God is a consuming fire."
They would not learn otherwise Who it
was that walked among them, and had chosen
them for His own, and so now the
enclosure,-the curtains, the veil, shutting
them out and shutting God in, would teach
them the needful lesson. Stubborn and
self-righteous, the terrors of Sinai must
teach them how far sin puts men from God,
and in the host of details in the Tabernacle
service, which all speak of Christ, they are
to learn in patience the way back to Him.
Beloved, "all these
things happened unto them for ensamples; and
they are written for our admonition, upon
whom the ends of the; world are come."
It is by grace we are saved, purely by
grace, as we have seen, and may see all
through Scripture; but the grace that saves
brings us ~n such a relationship with God
that we must now learn what His holiness is,
to enable us to walk with Him, and worthy of
Him. "For the grace of God that
bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared,
teaching us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly,
righteously, and godly, in this present
world; looking for that blessed hope, and
the glorious appearing of the great God and
our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself
for us, that He might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works." (Titus
2:11-14)
III.-WHY DID HE SAY
IT?
FIRST, Because God's
great desire is to surround Himself with
men; to dwell in their midst; to have them
on the most intimate terms with Himself.
What blessed intimacy is
seen between God and man in the garden of
Eden in these words: "And out of the
ground the Lord God formed every beast of
the field, and every fowl of the air, and
brought them unto Adam, to see what he would
call them: and whatsoever Adam called
every living creature, that was the name
thereof"! (Gen. 2:19) How
refreshing to look upon such a fair scene as
this holy intimacy! God making living
creatures, man calling them by name God
setting His seal of approval on what man
did, man rejoicing in the works of God's
hands! What blessed communion, without a
jarring note! God seeking His creature's
good and comfort, man seeking God's
glory and enjoying His presence!
But alas! sin came in,
and marred all this Man was put at a
distance from God; yet God's desire remained
the same; and we see blessed evidence of
this in His dealings with man from Eden to
this day. Outside of Eden, He companies with
Enoch over three hundred years. Again, when
the earth was filled with violence through
man's sin, and the ark was ready, we hear
God saying unto Noah, "Come thou and
all thy house into the ark." (Gen. vii.
I.) He. did not say Go, but
"Come," implying that God was
within, and wanted the man who had found
favor in His sight in with Him. In the
Patriarchal Age also we see how He talked
with men: and now, here in the wilderness,
when His people are living in tents, thus
declaring themselves pilgrims, God says, I
will be a pilgrim with you; make me a
sanctuary, that I may dwell in your midst.
Later, when they were brought into the Land,
and lived in ceiled houses, He said,
"Make Me a house;" whereupon they
erected the Temple, and Jehovah filled it
with the glory of His presence.
But alas! alas! sin
disturbed God's rest each time, and He was
constrained to depart. Then we see Him
coming down, in the person of His Son, to
dwell among men and do them good; but He was
pursued from city to city, from hamlet to
hamlet; He could find no rest; He could say,
"The foxes have holes, and the birds of
the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath
not where to lay His head." (Matt.
8:20.) They crucified Him, and covered Him
with shame between two malefactors; but God
raised Him up and covered Him with glory on
His throne. And now, through the infinite
value God sees in the work of Christ on that
cross-in His blood shed there-He has sent
down His Spirit, and by His Spirit dwells in
the Church, in the midst of His heavenly people,
never to leave them until He takes them to
be with Himself. In the Millennium He will
dwell in the midst of His earthly people;
but never will His great desire be fully
realized and gratified until we reach
the eternal state. God will then dwell in
the midst of His people indeed, when all in
heaven. and all on earth will be gathered
about Him and He will be all and in all. His
rest will then be absolute and eternal, when
He shall have the redeemed of all ages
gathered around Himself, on the most
intimate terms-the last sigh given, the last
tear shed and wiped away by His loving
hand-rest, sweet, eternal rest, for
God and His people.
Oh, dear reader, are you
one of His? Have you been washed
from your .sins by the cleansing blood
of Jesus? If not, I beseech you, come to
Him at once: He says, "Come unto
me, all .ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and. I. will give you rest."
.(Matt. 11:28) This. is. how you
can get rest for your conscience. There
is no. rest for the wicked : they
"are like the troubled sea, when it
cannot rest." (Isa. 57:20)
Oh, how can you rest, with
the sins of your life upon you
!-eternity before you !-heaven, with all
its blessedness, where there is an eternal
rest for the people of God !-hell,
with all its anguish, where there is an eternal
restlessness! for there is NO
REST IN HELL. Oh, listen to the
Saviour of sinners, as He stands, with
arms outstretched to receive you,
crying, "Come unto Me; I will
give you rest!" You say, What
is it to come to Jesus? Well, it implies
a turning from your works to rest
implicitly in His work on the cross-a
turning from yourself to Himself,
and trusting Him absolutely for the
salvation of your soul. Come with all
your sins in this way, come just as you
are, and then you will be able to sing:
"I came to Jesus as
I was-
Weary, and worn, and sad;
I found in Him a
resting-place,
And He has made me
glad."
Second, It was given to teach them
the holiness of the One who had come
down to dwell in their midst: hence all
these walls shutting them out and
shutting God in.
Third, It was given to teach them
their sinfulness, and their unfitness on
account of this to enter God's holy
presence.
Dear reader, have you considered the
holiness of God, and how your sins have
unfitted you to come before Him? Yes,
your sins have placed you at an awful
distance from Him.
When Isaiah, the most
perfect man in Israel, was brought into
God's presence, and saw the holiness of
His person-saw the seraphim, who had
never come into contact with defilement
of any kind, veil their faces with their
wings and cry; "Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts!" then was wrung
from his heart the cry, "Woe is me!
for I am undone; because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips." (Isa.
6:5.) When he saw the holiness of God,
the righteousness of His throne, the
profound reverence of the heavenly
intelligences on the one hand, and on
the other his own sinfulness and the
sinfulness of the people with whom he
lived, he saw also the awful distance
there was between his soul and God, and
he cried out," Woe is me!"' In
the preceding chapter he had pronounced
six woes on six different classes in
Israel but when brought into the
Lord's presence, he pronounced the seventh
woe upon himself 'His
neighbors' sins troubled him no more,
but his own did. These must be attended
to at 'once; and, thank God, they were,
but not by Isaiah. How could he put
then away? Could he sweep them away by
the power of his hand? or wash them away
by his tears? or have them removed by
any of his efforts? Ah no! but, thank
God, if a sight of the 'holiness of the
Lord and the righteousness of His
throne, and a sight of his own unfitness
for the presence 'of one so holy, led
him to pass judgment upon himself and
take his place in the dust, it also
brought him low enough to see another
thing, and that was the altar, and the
provision of the altar. The live coal
had done its work; the sacrifice bad
been consumed; and nothing remained but
the live coal itself: this was applied
to Isaiah's lips, and the sweet and
blessed assurance given, "Thine
iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is
purged." (Isa. 6:7.) The look of'
anguish passes from his face, and three
comes instead the light of holy joy as
he believes what is said to him.
Oh, dear unsaved one!
that altar is Christ; the sacrifice
consumed on it by the live coal is a
type of Christ's work on the cross FOR
YOU; and the live coal is a type of
God's holiness consuming that which is
contrary to His mind. When Christ was
made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21), and bore
in His own body on the tree (I Pet. ii.
24) the sins of all who accept Him, it
was then God did His "strange
work" of judgment upon Him, and He
was led to cry out," My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He
was then "cut off" that we
might be brought home and bound to God's
heart of love forever. It was then the
coal of fire reached His heart, and He
could say, "My heart is like wax;
it is melted in the midst of my
bowels." (Psa. 22:14) The fire,
that should have been your portion and
mine throughout eternity, was His at
this awful moment. Yes; the coal has
done its work, its "strange
work;" the sacrifice has been
consumed -all, all has gone up to God.
He "was delivered for our offenses,
and was raised again for our
justification. Therefore, being
justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
(Rom.4:25; 5:1) The live coal, type of
God's holiness, lies NOW upon
the altar, waiting, anxiously
waiting, for you, sinner, to take the
place Isaiah took, and pass Judgment
upon yourself, as he did; and the very
instant you do, it will purge you from
every sin, and every stain of sin; for
the word of God declares, "If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all
unrighteousness." ( John i. 9.)
"Be it known unto you, therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man
is preached unto you the forgiveness of
sins; and by him all that believe are
justified from all things." (Acts
13:38,39.) Isaiah knew his sins were
gone because the seraphim said so. You
can KNOW that YOURS ARE
GONE because GOD SAYS SQ. Oh, I
am exceedingly anxious that, before you
lay down this paper, you may believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved! Time
is short: "The coming of the Lord
draweth nigh." Oh, sinner, do not
trifle with divine things! flee, flee to
the outstretched arms of your Saviour!
Fourth, It was to
teach Israel that the only way of
approach to God was through a sacrifice,
and that such a one as God should
appoint. Man had no choice in the
matter; be was. called upon to submit
to. God's judgment in it all, and bring
the God-appointed sacrifice.. God, in
His infinite love, has appointed, and
also provided, a sacrifice for us-His
only begotten Son. As such, Jesus
has been offered up, and accepted of
God; and now God is waiting for you
to accept Him -by Him to enter into
God's presence, and be reconciled.
Do not dare think of
approaching God in any other way. Cain
tried that, was rejected, and
eventually left the presence of the
Lord, with God's curse upon him.
"Woe unto them! for they have gone
in the way of Cain." (Jude '3.)
This is what is to characterize
professors in the last days of this
dispensation. We see it everywhere-men
and women trying to get into God's
presence with some goodness or merit of
their own: "Woe unto them! they
have gone in the way of Cain." Abel
came with a sacrifice, and offered
it up by faith; God accepted it, and
Abel was accepted in it. That sacrifice
was a type of Christ. Come, then, to God
with Christ-with Christ only. You will
be accepted in Him; and the measure of His
acceptance with God will be the
measure of yours also-accepted IN
The Accepted One.