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In this lesson we will focus on Moses.
In Genesis we do not see a clear picture of redemption. With Abraham we see God’s calling, but there is no account of Abraham’s redemption. The picture we see in all of Isaac’s experience is a picture of the enjoyment of the rich inheritance rather than a picture of God’s redemption. With Jacob, even though he was eventually transformed into an Israel, a prince of God, there is also no record regarding his experience of redemption. In the book of Exodus, however, we can see in Moses a clear and full picture concerning God’s redemption.
In the book of Genesis neither do we see God’s glory manifested among His people in a substantial way. However, in chapter forty of Exodus, when Moses erected the tabernacle, not only did the glory of God come down upon it, but it also filled it. Thus, in Moses we also see the expression of God’s glory.
Moses was a vessel prepared by God for redemption. Pharaoh held the children of Israel in slavery and also sought to kill all the baby boys born to the Hebrew women (Exo. 1:11, 13-14, 16). God, however, heard His people’s cry and came down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians (Exo. 3:7-8). Hence, He prepared Moses to be a savior for the children of Israel.
After Moses’ mother gave birth to Moses, she hid him for three months. When she could no longer hide him, she put him in an ark of papyrus and laid it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile, and Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and nurtured him as her own son. In the royal palace Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and deeds. But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. Seeing one of them being oppressed by an Egyptian, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand (Exo. 2:12). Now he supposed that his brothers would understand that God through his hand would give salvation to them; but they did not understand. Thus, he was rejected by them (Acts 7:25-28). Later, he fled and dwelt in the land of Midian, where he begot two sons.
After forty years, God appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame of fire out of a thorn bush and appointed him a leader and a savior to deliver the children of Israel out of the tyranny of Egypt and lead them out of the land of Egypt, the land of bondage, into the land of Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey. Moses performed wonders and miracles in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years to lead God’s people out. Hence, in Moses we see a complete picture of God’s redemption, including the Passover, the exodus from Egypt, and the crossing of the Red Sea.
In order to deliver His people out of the land of Egypt, the land of bondage, God sent ten plagues through Moses to punish the Egyptians. After nine plagues, however, the Egyptians were still hardened in their hearts and would not let them go. Hence, God sent the last plague, the slaying of all the firstborn, to demonstrate His power and to accomplish His way of salvation.
God commanded the children of Israel, saying, “All the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die” (Exo. 11:5), but for Israel God established a way of salvation. God commanded the children of Israel to take to them a lamb without blemish for every household. They were to kill the lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month and strike its blood on the side posts and the upper doorposts of every house, and then at midnight God would pass through the land and go in to smite the firstborn of those whose doors were not sprinkled with the blood. Therefore, on the fourteenth day of the first month at midnight Jehovah smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. Only the houses of the children of Israel were passed over, because of the blood of the Passover lamb that was sprinkled on the side posts and upper doorposts of their houses. Also, that night all the children of Israel had their loins girded, had shoes on their feet, and had a staff in their hand (Exo. 12:11), and they stayed in their houses to eat the flesh of the lamb. The Passover portrayed in Exodus 12 is a clear, adequate, and even all-inclusive type of the redemption of Christ.
The Passover is a type of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 5:7 Paul says that “our Passover, Christ, has been sacrificed.” Here Paul does not say that Christ is our lamb; he says that Christ is our Passover. Christ is not only the Passover lamb, but also every aspect of the Passover. The lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs are all related to Christ. In principle, therefore, Christ is not only the lamb of the Passover, but the very Passover itself.
The word Passover means that the judgment of God passes over us. In Exodus 12:13 God says, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” According to Exodus 12, God passed over the children of Israel because the blood of the Passover lamb had been sprinkled on the lintel and the doorposts of their houses. The children of Israel had been commanded to eat the flesh of the lamb in their houses. This indicates that the house was to be their covering under which and in which they could eat the flesh of the Passover lamb. The house that covered them was to have blood sprinkled on the lintel and the doorposts. When God saw the blood, He passed over them. Hence, this passing over was due to the sprinkled blood.
In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul shows us that the Passover is related not only to the blood, but to Christ Himself. Are we today under the blood, or are we in Christ? Strictly speaking, to say that we are under the blood is not scriptural. This phrase is not found in the New Testament. But the New Testament says repeatedly that we are in Christ. According to 1 Corinthians 1:30, it is of God that we are in Christ. Because we are in Christ, He Himself becomes our covering. This means that before Christ can be our Passover, He must first be our covering. Our covering today is not the blood; it is Christ. In Exodus 12 the Passover was based on the blood. But today our Passover is based on Christ. This is the reason Paul could say that Christ is our Passover.
The children of Israel were commanded to take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. Therefore, the Passover lamb was not for every individual but for every house. Furthermore, the lamb had to be without blemish, a male of the first year, taken either out from the sheep or from the goats (Exo. 12:3, 5). To be of the first year is to be fresh and not to be used for any other purpose. The lamb could be either of the sheep or of the goats. This indicates that when Christ was on the cross, He was both a sheep and a goat. In Himself Christ was altogether good. However, as our substitute, He was made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).
The Passover lamb had to be examined for four days (Exo. 12:3, 6). On the fourteenth day of the first month, the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel was to kill the lamb in the evening and take of the blood and put it on the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the house. The blood put on the lintel and the doorposts (Exo. 12:6, 7) was a sign for redemption, so that God could pass over when He saw this blood. The children of Israel ate the flesh of the lamb, which was roasted with fire (Exo. 12:8-10), in the house that had been sprinkled with the blood. This is for the life supply. To eat the lamb with its head, legs, and inwards signifies that we need to take Christ as a whole, in His entirety, and take His wisdom, activities, move, and inward parts. The flesh of the lamb was to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. This signifies that when we enjoy Christ as our Passover, we must purge away everything sinful, and we also need to regret and repent regarding the sinful things. Nothing of the lamb was to be left until morning (Exo. 12:10), and not one of its bones was to be broken (Exo. 12:46).
While they were taking the Passover lamb, the Israelites should eat it with their loins girded, shoes on their feet, and staff in their hand; and they should eat it in haste (Exo. 12:17). The result of all these is the producing of God’s army. “And it came to pass the selfsame day, that the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies” (Exo. 12:51). God’s full redemption—the Passover—eventually produces an army to fight for God’s interest.
God’s full salvation includes the Passover, the exodus, and the crossing of the Red Sea. Through the Passover the children of Israel were saved from God’s judgment. When they were in Egypt they were like the Egyptians; they were sinful and even worshipped idols (Ezek. 20:7, 8). Along with the Egyptians, they were under the righteous judgment of God. According to God’s righteous judgment, they were under the sentence of death. Therefore, the children of Israel needed the Passover lamb to be their substitute. Because the blood of the lamb had been applied to the doorpost of their houses, God in His righteous judgment could pass over them.
However, not only were the children of Israel under God’s judgment; they were also under the tyranny of Pharaoh. Although the Passover was adequate to save them from God’s judgment, it was not effective to rescue them from the usurpation of the Egyptians. In order to be saved from the Egyptian tyranny, the children of Israel needed the exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea.
In Exodus 12 we see that Pharaoh and the Egyptians were subdued by God to such an extent that they actually drove the children of Israel out of Egypt (12:29-33; 11:1). According to God’s command, the children of Israel plundered the Egyptians of their gold, silver, and raiment (12:35-36; 3:21-22; 11:2-3). Not only so, they went forth from Egypt with all their children and their flocks and herds (12:37-38, 31-32). They had dwelt in the strange land of Egypt for four hundred and thirty years (12:40-41). The night of their exodus was a night of observation (12:42). Finally, when they made their exodus from Egypt, the children of Israel had become the armies of Jehovah (12:41, 51).
If the children of Israel had only the exodus but not the crossing of the Red Sea, their salvation would not have been secure. It would have been possible for them to return to Egypt. Without the crossing of the Red Sea, there would have been no separating line. Therefore, in order to have a thorough and absolute deliverance from Egypt, they had to make their exodus and also cross over the separating line by passing through the Red Sea (Exo. 14:21-30).
In 1 Corinthians 10:1 and 2 Paul says that “our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” This indicates that the crossing of the Red Sea was a type of baptism. In Egypt the children of Israel were involved with the evil, corrupt, and condemned world and were under God’s judgment. They needed the Passover, a type of Christ, to save them from God’s judgment. They also needed to be saved from Egypt through water. Therefore, with the children of Israel we see both the blood and the water. The blood of the Passover lamb saved them from God’s judgment, and the water saved them from the tyranny of the Egyptians.
Through water the children of Israel were saved from Egypt and its slavery (Exo. 13:3, 14), that is, from the world and its usurpation. This water also brought them into a realm where there was no bondage or slavery. In this realm they built the tabernacle as God’s dwelling place on earth to fulfill God’s purpose. This indicates that through the baptismal water we are saved from the world to a realm where we can accomplish God’s purpose.
Through the enjoyment of the Passover and the baptism in the Red Sea, the children of Israel made their exodus from Egypt and entered into the wilderness. Having enjoyed the supply of the Passover lamb, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs, they were strengthened to go out of Egypt, to cross the Red Sea, and to enter into the wilderness.
Then through the tree which caused the bitter waters to become sweet (Exo. 15:23-25), the twelve springs of water in Elim (Exo. 15:27), the manna from heaven (Exo. 16:14-15, 31, 32), and the living water out of the smitten rock (Exo. 17:6), God brought the children of Israel to Mount Sinai. All these items signify that Christ is our life supply in every aspect. With this supply the Lord led the children of Israel to Mount Sinai.
Now we shall see two items of the life supply in the Lord’s caring for His redeemed people.
In Exodus 16 manna was sent from heaven to be food for God’s people. For forty years in the wilderness, they depended on manna for sustenance.
By giving His people manna to eat, God indicated that His intention was to change the nature of His people. He wanted to change their being, their very constitution. They had already undergone a change of location. Formerly, they were in Egypt. Now, they were with the Lord in the wilderness, a place of separation. However, it is not sufficient merely to have a change of location, for this is too outward and too objective. There must also be an inward, subjective change, a change of life and nature. Therefore, the way for God to produce such a change in His people is by changing their diet. By eating Egyptian food God’s people had been constituted with the element of Egypt. Although they had been brought out of Egypt into the wilderness of separation, they were still constituted with the element of Egypt. God’s intention was to change their element by changing their diet. God wanted to feed them with food from heaven in order to reconstitute them. His desire was to fill them, to satisfy them, to satiate them with food from heaven, and thereby to make them a heavenly people.
In Exodus 17 “all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin...and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink” (vv. 1-2). God commanded Moses, saying, “Thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink” (v. 6). In chapter sixteen we have a clear picture of manna from heaven, and in chapter seventeen, the record of the living water flowing out of the smitten rock. This indicates that after we experience Christ as manna, we also need to experience Him as the living water.
In typology, Moses signifies the law, and the rod represents the power and authority of the law. The rock typifies Christ. The smiting of the rock by the rod signifies that Christ was smitten by the authority of God’s law. In the eyes of God, the Lord Jesus was put to death, not by the Jews, but by the law of God. During the first three hours of His crucifixion, Christ suffered under the hand of man. But during the last three hours, Christ suffered because He was smitten by the power of God’s law.
Furthermore, the water flowing out of the smitten rock typifies the Spirit. John 7:37-39 say, “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirst, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. But this He said concerning the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were about to receive.” This clearly indicates that the flowing water signifies the Spirit.
Therefore, the significance of the smiting of the rock by the rod of Moses and the flowing out of the living water is that Christ is our rock. He is the rock of our salvation, refuge, strength, and rest. Having been smitten by the power of God’s righteous law, He was cleft, and living water came forth for us to drink. The living water is the Spirit as the ultimate issue of the Triune God. This water quenches our thirst and fully satisfies our being. This is the proper understanding of the picture portrayed in Exodus 17:1-6.
In bringing the people to Mount Sinai, the mountain of God, it was not God’s intention to give them commandments to keep. When God first spoke to the people in Exodus 19, there was no thunder, darkness, or sound of a trumpet. There at the mountain the atmosphere was pleasant and quiet. Verse 4 says, “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” The people had walked out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and to the mountain of God. But God said it was He who had carried them to Himself on the wings of an eagle. After likening Himself to a great eagle, the Lord went on to say that the people would be His personal possession and that they would be unto Him a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (vv. 5-6). This is a word of grace not of law.
Because the people knew neither God nor themselves, God changed His attitude toward them and also caused a change in the atmosphere. He told Moses that He would come in a thick cloud. He also charged the people to sanctify themselves, to wash their clothes, and to observe the boundary, not to go up into the mount, nor to touch the border of it (Exo. 19:8-12). Then we see how dreadful and terrifying the atmosphere became; “and it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled” (Exo. 19:16). At this time the children of Israel were afraid to see God; only Moses went up alone (Exo. 20:21). Thus, God’s law was given through Moses (John 1:17).
Therefore, the law came in as an extra thing (Rom. 5:20, Darby); it was added because of transgressions (Gal. 3:19), and was not in the origination of God’s economy. It was added while God’s economy was proceeding because of man’s transgressions, until the seed, Christ, should come to whom God’s promise was made.
Exodus 20 has not been properly and adequately understood by many readers. They thought that this chapter only tells us how the law was given. But the basic concept in this chapter is that God reveals Himself to His people and thus enables them to know what kind of God they were approaching, what kind of God He was with whom they were having fellowship.
Concerning the matter of law, there is an important principle: the kind of law a person makes expresses the kind of person that one is. A law is always a revelation of what kind of person has enacted that law.
The first function of the law is not to expose us; it is to reveal God to us. After God brought His people into His presence to have fellowship with Him, to serve Him, to contact Him, to worship Him, and even to feast with Him, He made Himself known to them.
This revelation, however, is not given directly. Rather, it is given indirectly through the giving of the law. Apparently Exodus 20 is concerned with the giving of the law. Actually this chapter is concerned with the unveiling of God Himself. In decreeing the law, God made Himself known to His people. Through the law, they were able to understand what kind of God He is. The divine legislation is a revelation of God Himself.
According to Exodus 31:18, the two tablets of stones upon which the Ten Commandments were written were called the “two tables of testimony.” This indicates that the law is God’s testimony. As God’s testimony, the law testifies what kind of God our God is. Because the law as God’s testimony was placed in the ark, the ark was called the “ark of the testimony” (Exo. 25:21-22; 26:33-34). Moreover, because the ark was in the tabernacle, the tabernacle was called the “tabernacle of testimony” (Exo. 38:21; Num. 1:50, 53). The law is the testimony, the ark is the ark of the testimony, and the tabernacle is the tabernacle of testimony.
On the fourteenth day of the first month the children of Israel kept the Passover in Egypt. In the third month, they came to Mount Sinai (Exo. 19:1). There they stayed for nine months and received the revelation concerning God and the tabernacle through Moses. For several hundred years they had stayed in the darkness of Egypt, without light and without God’s word. Now, however, under the shining of the light, they lived according to God’s revelation and built the tabernacle according to the pattern revealed by God. On the first day of the second year, the tabernacle was erected and filled with glory (40:17, 34).
Exodus 40:17-34 says, “And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up. And Moses reared up the tabernacle....Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”
After the completion and erection of God’s tabernacle, it was immediately filled with the glory of God. That was the first time in history of a large scale practical expression of God’s glory. God’s glory is God expressed. That day when the glory of God filled the tabernacle, it was indeed a great matter because God had gained a habitation on the earth. There is nothing more glorious than God getting a dwelling place on the earth.
God led His people out of the tyranny of Egypt and into the wilderness. He further brought them up to the mountain and revealed to them His economy. Finally, they built a tabernacle for God and God’s glory filled the tabernacle. However, although they had the tabernacle, they still did not have the solid building typified by the temple in the land of Canaan. Therefore, if the children of Israel intended to reach the ultimate goal of God’s calling, they needed to press on to enter into the good land. The distance from Egypt to Sinai is about one fourth of the distance from Egypt to Canaan. Therefore, God’s chosen people had to press on from Sinai until they entered into the land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey.
From the first day of the first month of the second year, when the tabernacle was set up, to the twentieth day of the second month, when the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai (Num. 10:11-12), within this period of over a month God spoke from within the tabernacle (Lev. 1:1). In Exodus God spoke on Mount Sinai; in Leviticus God spoke in the tabernacle. The latter indicates that God dwelt among His people and was closer to them. God not only redeemed His people, but He also called them to draw near to Himself. The meaning of “Leviticus” in Hebrew is “and He called.” Because God is holy, those who draw near to Him must also be holy. He wanted the children of Israel, His redeemed, to be sanctified through the offerings and the blood of the sacrifices and also by the atonement made by the priests, and then to draw near to Him to worship Him through the tabernacle.
God also wanted His redeemed people to serve Him. Therefore, God spoke to the children of Israel through Moses, instructing them concerning the setting up of the camps, the journeying of the camps (Num. 1, 10), the service in the tabernacle (Num. 3, 4, 8), and the things they were to do in their daily life (Num. 5—7). All things were to be done according to fixed regulations without any confusion.
Now the children of Israel became God’s army and journeyed on. On one hand, the cloud was leading in front of them (Num. 9:15-23); on the other hand, the tabernacle of God was among them. They were a peculiar people, because their food was different from the food of all the other people on the earth. They were priests serving God, and in their service every one had his own position and duty. However, their flesh still remained.
The Passover solved the problem of the sins of the children of Israel, and the crossing of the Red Sea solved the problem of the world. Their flesh, however, had not been dealt with. Therefore, some of them had an evil heart of unbelief in withdrawing from the living God (Heb. 3:12), and they always went astray in heart, not knowing the ways of God. Hence, within the thirty-eight years from the time they left Mount Sinai until the second time they arrived at Kadesh, they offended God and rebelled against God again and again—altogether eight times. On the third day of their journey at the place of Taberah, they began to murmur (Num. 11:1-3); they murmured again for food (Num. 11:4-35); they spoke against the leader appointed by God (Num. 12); they did not believe that God promised to give them the land of Canaan (Num. 13:1—14:38); they did not obey God’s righteous judgment (Num. 14:39-45); they did not obey the authority and the office arranged by God (Num. 16—17); they murmured because of thirst (Num. 20:2-13); and they murmured again due to the difficulty in the journey and the shortage of food (Num. 21:5-9). Therefore, God slew them, being disgusted with them, and He swore in His wrath that they would wander in the wilderness for forty years and not be allowed to enter into His rest until those who were after the flesh all fell in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:18). Eventually only Caleb and Joshua and the new generation entered into Canaan, the good land.
From Moses to Samuel represents the period of time from God’s redemption of Israel, His saving them out of Egypt, to Samuel’s ending of the age of the judges and his bringing in of the age of the kings. In Moses, the Bible shows us a complete picture of all God’s various work on His redeemed people. God redeemed them out of His condemnation through the Passover and saved them out of the bondage of slavery through His power, thus bringing them into the land of freedom. In this land of freedom, God supplied them with manna from heaven for their food and living water flowing from the rock for their drink, thus changing their constitution. Then He brought them to the place where He appeared to them, giving them the light of the law to expose their sin and weakness and having them build His dwelling place so that they could enjoy His presence and so that He could gain a glorious expression. Finally, He led them through all kinds of trials to prepare them to enter the good land promised by God.
