And the silence of midnight was broken by a great cry throughout the miserable land; and the king arose, and his subjects, in dismay and wretchedness, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. As eager as he had been before to retain God's people under his yoke, so was he now to dismiss them. The next morning they marched forth by the king's commandment, a very great multitude, being upwards of six hundred thousand that were grown up, besides children, and others not of their own nation, who followed their host. It was exactly four hundred and thirty years since the arrival of Abraham in Canaan, that his descendants set forth upon their journey towards that promised land; and within a few days, had God chosen to conduct them by the nearest way, they might have entered it; but he knew their hearts, and saw that they had not yet the firmness requisite to subdue the obstacles which the land of the Philistines presented; and, therefore, in order to habituate them still more to an unhesitating trust in him for protection in the worst of dangers, he led them by a road which brought them to the shore of the Red Sea. The manner in which he led them was of itself miraculous: they followed the guidance of a wondrous pillar, which was formed of cloud by day and of fire by night; and when they thus arrived at the sea, which opposed what must have appeared to them an impassable barrier against their onward march, they found to their dismay that the king of Egypt, repenting of his too great easiness in letting them go, had pursued after them, and had cut off their retreat by the way of the wilderness. Their conduct upon this occasion showed plainly how unfit they were at this time to do the work of the Lord, by obtaining possession of Canaan against the will of its inhabitants: they were sore afraid; they cried out unto the Lord, not however, if we may judge by their address to Moses, in any confidence of faith; for to him they said, "Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than to die in this wilderness."* Such is evermore the language of cold and worldly-minded men, who are lovers of the bondage in which sin keeps its servants, more than lovers of their deliverer and their God; who fear those that can harm the perishable body, and take no account of Him who made and can destroy both it and its surviving soul. Happy will they be, if they have among them a faithful monitor, who may keep them from thus turning back unto perdition; who may persuade them, as did Moses the Israelites, "not to fear," but to "stand still" in trusting veneration, "and see the salvation of the Lord." It was now drawing towards evening; and the people, somewhat reassured by the words of Moses, awaited the event in silence: then God began to fight for them; the pillar of the cloud, instead of appearing in their front, interposed itself between their army and that of the Egyptians, giving light to them as the night came on, but increasing the darkness to their enemies; and in its stead, a strong wind opened and marked out before them a path through the mighty waters. Into the midst of the sea they went, miraculously divided to give them passage, so as to form a wall on either side of them. The Egyptians, whose hearts were hardened to their own destruction, followed them into it; but their progress was one of confusion and difficulty; and when the last Israelite had reached the Arabian shore, the rod of Exod. xiv. 11, 12. Moses was stretched forth by God's command; and Pharaoh and all his host, already panic-struck, and desirous to escape by flight, were engulfed at once in the returning waters.* There escaped not so much as one of them; and the bodies of the drowned, which were washed upon the beach, presented to the eyes of the astonished Israelites the only remaining tokens of their once dreaded foes. Then Moses composed and sang before the Lord a song of triumph and of prophecy, in which he celebrated the great deliverance so wonderfully granted to his people, who had been thus, as it were, baptized unto him in the cloud and in the sea, and in which he foretold also the powerful effects of this tremendous judgment on the neighbouring nations of Edom, Moab, Palestine, and Canaan, the erection of the temple and sanctuary on the mountain of God's inheritance, and the perpetuity of his dominion and worship. And Miriam, also, his sister, she who had seen him long ago drawn forth a weeping infant from the waters of the Nile, and now beheld him come out of the divided sea, the guide and ruler under God of a rejoicing nation; she also took up her song of triumph at the head of her countrywomen, with timbrels and with dances: "Sing ye to the Lord," was the burthen of their hymn, "for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea."‡ After thus giving way to their feelings of pious exultation, they proceeded on their journey, through the arid wilderness of Shur, to Marah, where God showed Moses a tree of virtue to sweeten its bitter waters, and gave them a promise of health upon condition of obedience; to Elim, where they encamped by its pleasant palm-trees, and its twelve wells of water; and from thence into the wilderness of Sin, where their impatient spirit again * Psalm cxxxvi. 15. + 1 Cor. x. 2. Exod. xv. 21. broke forth, and they murmured against their leaders for want of sufficient food. If the sinfulness of his people prevented the outpourings of God's mercy, how woful an estate were theirs! But it is not so: even while we were sinners and enemies, God commended his love toward us, in that he sent us his Son from heaven.* An image and type of this inestimable gift, of which we were so utterly unworthy, is afforded us in the mode by which God appeased the clamorous cravings of the Israelites, when they murmured in the wilderness. He sent them bread from heaven, which represented in its strengthening effects upon the body, the spiritual refreshment which Christ bestoweth on the soul. This application of the manna as a type of Jesus is made upon his own authority, "The bread of God," said he, "is He that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. I am the bread of life: he that cometh unto me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." These last words would lead us to expect that we should find Christ represented to us in these transactions in the wilderness by water as well as by bread. And this was actually the case, in the very next station, namely, Rephidim, where the Israelites halted; there they were as much annoyed by the want of water, as they had been before by a deficiency of food; and there God, looking with pity upon their irritable tempers, caused water to come forth out of a rock, when smitten by the rod of Moses. "And they drank of that spiritual rock which followed them," says St. Paul, "and that rock was Christ." In his own person he was represented by the rock; in the gifts and graces which flow from him, by the water issuing from the rock, and accom Rom. v. 8, 10. 1 Cor. x. 4. + John vi. 33, 35. L panying the Israelites in their subsequent wanderings through the wilderness. The manna, also, of which mention has been already made, continued to appear as a small, round, white substance, on the face of the ground, ready for their gathering, during the whole of the forty years which elapsed before their entrance into Canaan. Six days in every week they were allowed to gather it; but on the seventh day, those who went out to gather found none: on the sixth day there was always a sufficient supply afforded to sustain them during the morrow. And the reason of this was, that God had commanded the seventh or sabbath day to be kept holy, and gave them a clear proof how strictly it was his will that they should observe this, by rendering it unnecessary for them to labour even so far as to collect their ordinary food upon that day. While they were encamped at Rephidim, the Amalekites, a tribe descended from Esau, Israel's brother, disregarding or being ignorant of this bond of kindred, came and fought against them. Moses ordered Joshua, the son of Nun, an Ephraimite, a wise and valiant man, to lead some chosen troops against the enemy; while he, attended by Aaron and Hur, went up to the summit of the hill, holding the rod of God in his hand. As long as he was able to lift up this signal of encouragement to the people, they prevailed over Amalek; but when his hands grew weary, and he let it down, their spirits also sank, and they were on the point of being defeated; which Aaron and Hur perceiving, supported his hands till the going down of the sun; and the men of Israel, animated by the visible symbol of God's power, discomfited Amalek with the edge of the sword. From this we may learn how consolatory and strengthening to the soul it is, in whatever undertakings we engage, to feel that we are acting in the presence and with the approval of our God if this be wanting, all is doubt, confusion, |
