The Persecution of God’s Covenant People

We saw in the last lesson the working of Satan to destroy “the seed of the woman” through whom the promised Redeemer was to come. Now that the Redeemer has been specified as “the seed of Abraham,” Satan seeks to destroy God’s Covenant People.
After a period of 100 years in Egypt, during which the Israelites had grown into a mighty people, Satan seeks to destroy them.

Satan put fear into the hearts of the statesmen of Egypt, an ill-grounded fear that the Israelites, who were so mighty in number, would join themselves to the enemies of the Egyptians in time of war (Exodus 1:8-10). Then followed counsels of systematic oppression and enslavement, determined tyranny and cruelty (Exodus 1:10-14). The increase, however, of Israel was a part of Divine plan for His Covenant People, and all the world could do nothing to arrest it. The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew (Exodus 1:15-22).

The treatment that slaves received from the Egyptians was sometimes very horrible. The mutilations and tortures that were inflicted upon the Israelites, with the command that every son be killed or cast into the river, were of Satanic character. The persecution that Israel receives is so great that they cry to the God of the Covenant for deliverance. He hears their cry and remembers His Covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Covenant-keeping God comes down to deliver His people from their bondage (Exodus 2:23-25 and Exodus 3:5-8).

“And He said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, He said, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” The second chapter of Exodus gives to us the birth of Moses and his life until the time of his call. We notice two facts here. The hiding of the baby Moses at the river’s bank by his mother, and Moses’ later renunciation of Egypt, were not rash acts. Hebrews 11:23-27 shows us that both acts were based upon faith in the Covenant-keeping God. “By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents…. By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter…. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.”

The third and fourth chapters of Exodus give to us the call of Moses, including the story of the burning bush; the revelation of God to him in His plans for delivering the Israelites, Moses’ hesitancy to respond, and the permission for Aaron to accompany him. We notice the power given to Moses’ rod whereby he might perform miracles. We noticed that God manifested Himself to Moses not only as the Covenant-keeping God, but also as the miracle-working God.

Exodus 4:20-26 reveals the important place that the Blood Covenant held. Moses had neglected the circumcision of his firstborn. He had been unfaithful to the Covenant. While on his way from the wilderness of Sinai to Egypt, with a message from God concerning the uncovenanted firstborn of the Egyptians, Moses was met by a startling providence and came face to face with death. “The Lord met him and sought to kill him.” It seems to have been perceived both by Moses and his wife that they are being cut off from a further share in God’s covenant plans for the descendants of Abraham because of their failure to conform to their obligations in the Covenant of Abraham, the circumcision of their son.

In our next lesson, we shall become spectators of the mightiest conflict in history. On one side is arrayed all the power and wealth and splendor of Egypt, its learning, its pride, and its confident dependence upon its gods. On the other hand, is a poor, weak, aged, broken and discredited man. He has but one follower, his brother, Aaron. It is no formidable procession which these two make as they pass through the palace gates and ask an audience of the king; and the light-hearted, witty Egyptians must have enjoyed many a jest at their expense. But there was a heart of astonishment behind all the laughter. What generation had ever witnessed such a thing!

Two slaves demanding liberty not for themselves, but for three million people – demanding it again and again after repeated refusal from Pharaoh, the god-king of the mightiest civilization of that day. We shall see that laughter die down before the persistency of these men, and that astonishment is then changed to fear. The cheek pales and the heart trembles at the sound of their steps. These two Blood Covenant men hold the fate of Egypt in their hands and leave written upon the land words which lived when its greatness had passed away. Before we study the exit of the children of Israel out of Egypt, it will help us to note some facts concerning the Egyptian kings.

A prince, in mounting the throne in Egypt, was, so to speak, transfigured in the eyes of his subjects. In the mind of the Egyptians, Pharaoh was equally man and god. “We may imagine,” writes Lenormant, “what prestige such an exaltation in Egypt gave to the sovereign power.” The Egyptians, in the eyes of the king, were but trembling slaves compelled from religious motives to execute his orders blindly. Worship was addressed to him as to Divinity. His ministers and he occupy two different platforms. He sits apart and alone. When he has spoken, the matter is judged. It is to him alone that God’s demand is addressed, and on him the responsibility of refusal and continual injustice is laid.

We now understand why Pharaoh stands forth as the one man in all Egypt with whom the Deliverer of the Israelites has a controversy. Such words as these take on new significance when they are set forth in the light of these facts. Exodus 8:10, 22, 23, “That thou (Pharaoh) mayest know that there is none like unto Jehovah our God . . . and I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall there be; to the end that thou mayest know that I (emphatic I and not thou-I and not thy gods) am Jehovah in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between My people and thy people.”

God and His people are on one side; Pharaoh and his people are on the other side. It is the contest between the true and living God and a pretender. God has to break the idol to pieces and lay the idol low to deliver His people.