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THE GOLDEN AGE FOR JULY 3, 1913
GOD IN THE UNSEEN FORCES OF LIFE
GOD IN THE UNSEEN FORCES OF LIFE; OR MOSES, HIS CHILHOOD AND PREPARATION.
Reported for The Golden Age by M. P. H. —Copyright Applied For.
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CHRIST CHURCH. LONDON.
Scripture: Exodus I and 11.
Special Text: Hebrews 11:23-26: “By faith,
Moses, when he was born, was hid three
months by his parents, because they saw he
was a proper child; and they were not afraid
of the king’s commandment.
By faith. Moses, when he was come to years
refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s
daughter;
Choosing rather to suffer affliction with
the people of God, than enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season ;
Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he
had respect unto the recompense of the re
ward.”
THE Book of Exodus is divided into three
general sections, Bondage; Deliverance;
iWWI Organization.
In the section of Bondage, we have
first, the growth of I rael and, second, their op
pression by Pharoah.
In the section of Deliverance, we have first
the preparation, and, second, the actual move
ment.
In the section of Organization, we have first,
the law, and, second, worship.
In our present study we shall attempt to com
pass the following:
1. The growth of Israel in Egypt.
2. Their oppres ion by Pharoah.
3. The first stages of the preparation for de
liverance. viz.: The birth of Moses, to his call.
All of our present study is covered by chap
ters one and two of the Book of Exodus, and
I want us first to look at the growth cf Israel
in Egypt, in chapter one, verses one to seven.
The land of Goschen was one of Egypt’s most
fertile sections, and contained abcut a hundred
square miles. Here, the Israelites befoie, and
after the death of Pharoah, had great prosper
ity, and grew in numbers very rapidly. They
had come from a somewhat crude civilization,
to the most civilized, highly educated country
in the world, where arts and crafts were car
ried cut with greatest skill. This gave them an
opportunity for growth, and enlargement of
mind, and even of culture, and of means for
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proc 1 aiming the truth of God —a fine training
school for what Gcd had in store for them in
the not distant future.
Israel was founded upon a good ancestry;
they had Abraham as their forefather. They
were inspired, too, by a lofty ideal —God’s cove-’
nant of promise. Moreover, this was strength
ened by contact with the greatest nation in the
world at that time.
It is good for any people to have such a
training.
Let us now look at their oppression by Phar
oah, in chapter one, verses eight to twenty-two.
This oppression resulted in five essential things.
If you want to unite a people together, you give
that people one common form of suffering, and
require them all to pass through it, and as they
do so they will find themselves the closer knit
together. So in order that God should bind
this people into one inseparable company, that
had to pass through one common suffering—
the school of prosperity is not enough training
for a people to lead in the salvation of a race.
There must be the school of adversity also.
Hence we find Israel in the school of adversity.
Pharoah had gotten jealous of the progress and
prosperity of the Israelites, and determined to
put an end to it. First, he put severe task mas
ters to rule ever them. Then he deprived them
of their freedom and liberty. Finally he de
creed that every new-born son was to be cast
into the river.
This oppression resulted in five things: First,
it kept the Hebrews separate from the Egyp
tians preventing them from inter-marriage, and
debasing contact with idolatry. Second, it un
ited them into one nation, binding them to
gether in the strongest tie known to the world
—the tie of a common sorrow. Third, it tend
ed to wean them from idols—the gods of their
enemies, and led them to the One God who
had helped them thus far. Fourth, serving
under the Egyptians, and fcr them, they were
given an opportunity to learn their arts and
sciences; to study their national works, and be
come acquainted with their industrial life.
Professor Price has said: “It was an indus
trial training school, in the foremest civiliza
tion of that day.” First, it broke every tie
between them and Egypt, so that they were pre
pared to leave when God’s appointed time came
Every whit of this was nec ssa y in the light
of what was to take place after a while, and
shows us Gid’s moving behind the scenes.
This brings us to the consideration of the
first stages of the preparation for their deliv
erance, viz.: The birth of Moses. God had had
his eye upon this people all the while. He had
made his c venant with Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob to give them the land of Canaan, and
to make them a great people and able ing to
the world. He had had hi $ eye upon their
movements in Egypt. He had his eye upon
their cruel oppression and determined to de
liver them; so he begins this movement for
their final deliverance, and the carrying out
of his covenant promise, and the fiist instru
ment in their deliverance is a man. It is al
ways so in every movement of God. If you
look back over the history cf the race you
will ob erve that at every important turn of
history, you find a man at the head of the
procession, and that man in touch with God.
Hence, we have the birth of Moses. The ex-,
act date of his birth is not known, but it is
said to be somewhere between 1578-1700 B. C.
The place of his birth was in Goschen. His
father and mother were obscure people, but
religious for we are told in Hebrews 11:23
that they acted “through faith.”
Observe here, how large a proportion of the
great men of history have been children of
ebseure parentage. It would be very interest
ing, if we had time, to see to what a great
extent this is true. Men foremost in war, in
literature, in matters of state, on the platform,
in the pulpit, in the financial side of life. Oh,
what a great majority of them if we could
simply look through the list, we should find
have been men, who, like Moses, have sprung
from the most obscure parentage. God seems
to have gone contrary to the world, and se
lected cur greatest leaders from the ranks of
the obscure.
At the time of Moses’ birth, the decree of
Pharoah for the destruction of every male
child that was being born to the Israelites,
was in effect. And Moses’ parents, in order
to save him, hid him three months. Then,
when they could hide him no longer, they
placed him in the bull-rushes where he was
discovered by Pharoah’s daughter. All are fa
miliar with this pathetic and heroic story, and
how it ended.
There is a beautiful legend that represents
Pharoah’s daughter as a leper, who, by advice
was bathing in the Nile for a cure. But only
when her heart felt fcr the babe, and her hand
touched him her leprosy fled. George T. Cos
ter has taken this legend, and woven it into
verse, and I give it to you here:
“Day after day she bathed, but grew no better,
Her sorrow daily grew;
The future tightening round her like a fetter,
Her sky no spot of blue.
Compassion filled her. With fond words and
speeches,
She sought its tears to stay;
And then her hand, sad lepros hand, outreaches
Its tears to wipe away.
She touched the babe, and, instantaneous won
der—
Her lepresy had fled.
In thine own heart, 0 thou with sorrow smitten,
Prove this old legend true.
Forget thyself; console the sadness near thee,
Thine own shall then depart,
And songs of joy like heavenly birds, shall
cheer thee,
And dwell within thine heart.”
This brings us to his training for his life
work, which divides itself into two periods of
fsrty years each. First, his training under
Pharoah. and, second, his training under ban
ishment in Midian. Let us consider these sep
arately.
First, his training under Pharoah: This
again divides itself into two parts. First, his
home We do net know how long Moses re
mained with his parents under Pharoah’s
watch-care, but it was somewhere between
(Continued on page 14.)