Day: October 31, 2021

The New Jerusalem will be the mutual dwelling of God and man. The redeemed of God will be the tabernacle for the dwelling of God (21:3), and the redeeming God will be the temple for the dwelling of the redeemed (v. 22). This is for the expression of the processed and consummated Triune God in His nature and glory (vv. 18b, 21b, 10-11, 23) in the redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified tripartite man for eternity (vv. 12-21a). This is the consummation of the history of God in His union with man.

In the previous chapters we saw God’s history in the book of Genesis. Now we want to go on in the book of Exodus to see God’s working on His elect through Moses. In this chapter we want to see how God delivered Israel out of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.

Exodus shows us that God took a big step in His move by coming down to deliver Israel out of Egypt (3:8) and bring them into the wilderness (v. 18). Egypt typifies the world where people are occupied with making a living and where people can enjoy a life with pleasures. The world is a place of easy living and pleasure and also a place of sin and idolatry. Today the entire world is the real Egypt, full of sin.

The children of Israel coming under Egyptian slavery and tyranny was foretold to Abraham by God in Genesis 15. God came to comfort and encourage Abraham, promising Abraham that He would give him a son (vv. 1-6), and then He made a covenant to confirm this promise (v. 18). God’s speaking to us is in three stages. First, we have His word; His word becomes a promise; and then His promise becomes a covenant. The covenant confirms the promise. God spoke to Abraham in his deep sleep, and a great darkness fell upon Abraham (v. 12), indicating that the history of his seed would not always be bright in that they would be under a dark time of tyranny and affliction under the Egyptians for four hundred years (vv. 13-14). In telling Abraham the future history of his descendants, God was confirming to him that he would surely have a son, an heir.

Eventually, after Joseph died, the book of Exodus says that a new Pharaoh rose up in Egypt who did not know of Joseph (1:8). At that time the children of Israel began to come under the persecution, tyranny, and slavery of the Egyptians. Because of the increasing multiplication of the Israelites, Pharaoh charged the people to kill all the newborn males among the Israelites (vv. 15-16, 22). He also forced the Israelites to make bricks to build up his treasure cities (vv. 11-14). Exodus shows us the children of Israel suffering all kinds of afflictions under Egyptian slavery and tyranny.

Eventually, Moses was raised up by God for their deliverance. He became the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He lived in the palace of Pharaoh, was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was powerful in his words and works (Acts 7:21-22). Then he spent forty years in the wilderness to be tested, to be perfected, by God. When Moses was eighty, God called him and said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians” (Exo. 3:7-8). In order to rescue, to deliver, the Israelites out of the Egyptians’ hand, God needed to come down. God came down first to the wilderness where Moses was in order to call him.

In the previous chapter we saw the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Triune God’s preparation for the carrying out of His eternal economy was initiated in Adam and issued in three persons—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These three persons revealed in the book of Genesis resulted in one people, Israel. God’s history with the people of Israel is covered from Exodus to Malachi.

Through God’s preparation in the Old Testament with Israel, Christ was brought forth in the New Testament. Matthew 1 shows us the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham (v. 1). This genealogy is an abstract of the entire Old Testament. Five women are recorded in Christ’s genealogy. These are Tamar (v. 3), Rahab, Ruth (v. 5), Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah (v. 6), and Mary, of whom Christ was born (v. 16). Tamar committed incest with her father-in-law, Judah (Gen. 38:6-30). Rahab was a prostitute (Josh. 2:1). Ruth belonged to the tribe of Moab (Ruth 1:4), the fruit of Lot’s incestuous union with his daughter (Gen. 19:30-38). Bathsheba committed adultery with David (2 Sam. 11:3, 26-27). Matthew 1:6 says that David begot Solomon “of her who had been the wife of Uriah.” David murdered Uriah and robbed him of his wife, Bathsheba. Only one of the five women in Christ’s genealogy was a chaste virgin—Mary, a descendant of the chosen race. Of her, Christ was directly born (v. 16). Such a record in the genealogy of Christ indicates that Christ is the kingly Savior of typical sinners.

The genealogy of Jesus Christ in Matthew is a brief and accurate abstract of the entire Old Testament. If we want to know the details of the genealogy of Christ, we have to read the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament. I began to study this genealogy in 1925, and this study issued in my writing a book in 1936 entitled Gleanings from the Genealogy of Christ, published by Brother Watchman Nee’s bookroom.

When we look at this genealogy with the view that the entire Old Testament was the Triune God’s preparation for the carrying out of His eternal economy, we can see how consistent the Bible is. The entire Bible was written by over forty writers spanning about fifteen hundred years. Within such a long period of time, they wrote one book with one subject, with one center, and with one goal. Today by the Lord’s mercy, the entire sixty-six books of the Bible have been opened up to us.

The issue of the history in the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament was the bringing forth of Christ, the God-man. Thus, the opening word of the New Testament reveals that Christ was brought forth as the issue of forty-two generations of people in the Old Testament. Christ’s being brought forth was for the producing of the Body of Christ as the organism of the processed and consummated Triune God. This organism will eventually consummate in the New Jerusalem, which is the eternal enlargement of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was the tabernacle of God (John 1:14), and this tabernacle was a model, a prototype, which will eventually consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal tabernacle of God (Rev. 21:3).

The New Jerusalem will be the eternal mingling of the Triune God and the tripartite man. This mingling is indicated by the number twelve. In the New Jerusalem are the twelve foundations, inscribed with the names of the twelve apostles (v. 14); the twelve gates, which are the twelve pearls, inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes (v. 12); and the twelve fruits of the tree of life (22:2). With regard to space, the city proper is twelve thousand stadia, one thousand times twelve, in each of its three dimensions (21:16), and its wall is one hundred forty-four cubits, twelve times twelve, in height (v. 17). Twelve is three multiplied by four. Multiplication indicates mingling. The city is a square with four sides, and on each of the four sides are three gates. Three is the number of the Triune God, and four is the number of the creature, man. The Triune God, signified by the three gates, is mingled with man, signified by the number four. Therefore, the number twelve signifies that God in His eternal administration is mingled with His creature, man.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

GOD’S HISTORY IN TIME
(FROM THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE
TO THE FINAL JUDGMENT
AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE—
GENESIS 1:1—REVELATION 20:15)

(10)

WORKING ON HIS ELECT THROUGH MOSES

(1)

DELIVERING ISRAEL OUT OF EGYPT
AND
BRINGING THEM INTO THE WILDERNESS

Scripture Reading: Exo. 1:8-22; 3:8; 12:1-20; 15:22

OUTLINE

1. Coming down to deliver Israel out of Egypt—Exo. 3:8:
   1. Through Moses:
      1. From the Egyptian slavery and tyranny—1:8-22.
      2. Dealing with Pharaoh and smiting Egypt with ten plagues:
         1. All waters becoming blood—7:17-25.
         2. Waters bringing forth frogs—8:2-15.
         3. Dust becoming lice—vv. 16-19.
         4. Swarms of flies—vv. 20-24.
         5. Pestilence upon all the cattle—9:1-7.
         6. Boils upon man and beast—vv. 8-12.
         7. Hail, mingled with fire, upon the land—vv. 13-25.
         8. Locusts devouring the land—10:12-20.
         9. Thick darkness over all the land—vv. 21-24.
         10. Killing of their firstborn sons—11:4-6; 12:29-30.
   2. Through the passover—vv. 1-20:
      1. Redeeming them from the death-judgment by their striking the blood of the lamb—vv. 7, 13.
      2. Delivering them from the house of bondage (13:3, 14) by their eating the meat of the lamb with the unleavened bread and the bitter herbs—12:8-11.
   3. Through the Angel of Jehovah (Christ) and the pillar of cloud and of fire (the glory of God) over Israel to protect them from the front to the rear of their army—14:19-20.
   4. Through God’s mighty power to divide the Red Sea for Israel to go through and to close the sea over Pharaoh and his army to destroy them—vv. 6-8, 21-31.
2. Bringing them into the wilderness—3:18:
   1. Israel fallen into Egypt—the world of easy living and pleasure—for four hundred years.
   2. Predicted by God to Abraham—Gen. 15:13-14.
   3. Prohibited from serving God and suffering the affliction of the Egyptian tyranny—Exo. 1:15-22; Heb. 11:23.
   4. God bringing them into the wilderness—Exo. 15:22:
      1. Into a place outside the world, free from worldly occupations in anxiety of life, pleasures, persecution of religion, etc.
      2. Through three days’ journey—through the resurrection of Christ.
      3. To serve God with sacrifices—Christ as the offerings.