Lesson 12 THE LAW AND THE TABERNACLE

 Lesson 12

THE LAW AND THE TABERNACLE

Exodus 15:26 to Exodus 36

    JEHOVAH APPEARED many times to Israel in a special manner. Whenever they did wrong, murmured or rebelled, He would manifest Himself to them in the cloud ☁️ .

    It might be signaled to them by plagues or fiery serpents, or it might be a voice that filled them with fear and wonder.

    Exodus 15:27. They had camped by twelve springs of Elim, and the hand of God had been upon them. They had murmured at Marah because of the badness of water, but nothing had been said of the lack of bread. They had evidently been bountifully supplied on leaving Egypt. They must have anticipated a wilderness journey. This supply had now come to an end. The discovery of the condition of the three million was soon known. One neighbour going to borrow from another would be met by the assurance that the other was as poor as himself in the matter. In this way the terribleness of their condition would be borne upon them with stupefying effect. Death then seemed inevitable.

The Giving of the Manna

    To go forward would make that fate certain. To retreat was equally impossible. They would perish before they could retrace their steps and gain the borders of Egypt.

    "And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness; and the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger" (Exodus 16:2-3).

    Now here was a case in which this people could easily have sought help from God.

    Had He not in every manner proven Himself true to the Covenant? The failure of the bread supply was alarming, but He who had miraculously delivered them from Egypt, led them through the Red Sea, led them by the cloud, and made the bitter waters sweet, could easily provide bread.

     What a different story we would have had, and what joy it would have brought to the

    Covenant God, had they come to Him for this need in assurance that He who had entered a Blood Covenant relationship would meet every need. Instead, they flung away from God. They broke out in rebellious murmuring. They had been shamefully  deceived. They had been led away from Egypt, a land of peace and plenty, and they were now entrapped in this terrible wilderness that young and old might die. However, their rebellion could not make Jehovah deny Himself. He heard their murmuring, their unbelief.

   Then, He gave to them the promise that He would supply them with bread and meat that they might know that He was their Covenant God (Exodus 16:4-12).

  Exodus 16:13-36 gives to us the sending of the bread and meat and the instructions for gathering it.

  For forty years, He, their Covenant God, fed them in this miraculous way.

Reason for the Law

   As we study the history of Israel, we hold in mind the fact that they are God's Covenant people.

Exodus 19:1-8. In the third month of their journey they came into the wilderness of

Sinai. The time has come when the Covenant God is going to give to them the law.

We hold in mind the fact that they have not yet received the life of God. They are still

spiritually dead, and a Law must be given to them that will govern every phase of their

lives.

Before the Law is given, Moses is called to the Mount. There God reviews to Moses

His faithfulness to the Covenant. Now Israel must make known whether or not they will

obey Him as their Covenant God.

In these three months they have learned of His faithfulness to His part in the

Covenant (Exodus 19:8). Israel promises to obey.

Exodus 19:9-25 gives to us the manifestation of God to His people. We notice that

this manifestation of Himself was again on the level of their physical senses. They could see the smoke and fire and hear the voice of the trumpet which waxed loud. They were unable to approach the Mount because of spiritual death.

   The Law that was given is the Law of the Covenant. When the Abrahamic Covenant was fulfilled, it also was fulfilled. There are three divisions that come from this law: The

Commandments expressing the Righteous Will of God, Exodus 20:1-27; The Judgments

governing the social life of Israel, Exodus 21:1-24; and the ordinances governing the

religious life, Exodus 24:12-31.

Three elements formed the Law: the Commandments, the Ordinances, and the

Sacrifices. The Commandments were a Ministry of condemnation and of death (II

Corinthians 3:7-9). They revealed the spiritual death that reigned in the heart of man.

The Ordinances gave, in the High Priest, a representative of the people with Jehovah.

The Sacrifices gave a covering for the broken law and spiritually-dead Israel.

Giving of the Law

There was a threefold giving of the Law. It was given first orally, recorded in Exodus

20:1-17. This was given with no provision for the Priesthood and sacrifices, and was

accompanied by the Judgments (Exodus 21:1-23). Relating to the relations of Hebrew

with Hebrew were added directions for keeping three annual feasts (Exodus 23:14 - 19) and instructions for the conquest of Canaan (24:3-8). Next, Moses was called up to

receive the Tables of

Stone (Exodus 24:12-18). Moses on the Mount receives the gracious instructions

concerning the Tabernacle, Priesthood and Sacrifices (Exodus 25:31).

Meantime, the people led by Aaron break the first Commandment (Exodus 32).

Moses breaks the Tables written with the finger of God (Exodus 31:18; 32:16-19).

Third, the second tables were made by Moses and the Law was again written by the

hand of Jehovah (Exodus 34:1, 28, 29).

Scriptures to read: Romans 3:21-27; 6:14-15; Galatians 2:16; 3:10-14, 16-18, 24-26;

4:21-31; and Hebrews 10:11-17.

 The Reason for the Tabernacle

Exodus 25:8. God desired to dwell with His Covenant People. He could not dwell in

their hearts, because they had not yet received Eternal Life; His Presence must be

manifested to their physical senses. Their worship of Him also must be on the same

level. There must be a physical dwelling place in which He will dwell, and where they

shall meet Him through a physical priesthood.

For the building of the Tabernacle He asked of them free-will offerings (Exodus 25:2).

 Their hearts must be willing to have His Presence among them (Exodus 25:9).

The Tabernacle was to be made exactly as God revealed it to Moses. From the time

that man had died spiritually, God had been working toward his redemption. Now this

Tabernacle is to be a type of Christ and the Redemption He wrought for man. Therefore,

every detail must be according to His exact pattern.

First, let us notice something that is very suggestive. We saw as we studied creation

that God gave the account to us in less than two chapters, and yet the instructions for

the making of the Tabernacle take up eleven chapters. We would think that the work of

Creation was far more important than the building of the Tabernacle; but, mighty

though the work of Creation was, it was simply, as it were, the erection of a stage upon

which was to be wrought a far mightier work, the work of our Redemption in Christ.

As in a theater, the actor is more than the stage, so the ore who performed that

mighty work is infinitely more glorious than the stage on which He performed it.

The Tabernacle, As It Stood among Them

The Tabernacle proper was toward the western end of the court. It was fifty-two feet

long, seventeen and one half feet wide, and seventeen and one half feet high.

It was divided into two compartments. The larger of the two was called the Holy

Place. The smaller, the Most Holy Place. In the larger, or the Holy Place, there were the

Golden Altar, the Golden Lampstand, and the Golden Table; in the smaller, or the Holiest, there were the Ark and the Mercy Seat.

 When the Tabernacle had been erected, the only covering visible was the outer

covering of badger skins, with a width of the goats' hair curtain above the door. The first

Lesson 11 COVENANT PEOPLE IN THE WILDERNESS

 Lesson 11

COVENANT PEOPLE IN THE WILDERNESS

    WE HOLD uppermost before us this fact that it is the Covenant-keeping God who is delivering His Covenant people. In the Passover, He had reaffirmed His Covenant. As they face the wilderness and its perils, they know that the Covenant-keeping God is with them. Now the institution of this Passover rite of Jehovah's blood-friendship with Israel is to become a permanent ceremonial among them as a memorial of their miraculous deliverance from Egypt as Covenant people (Exodus 12:14-20, 43; 13:16).

    Exodus 12:3-8. The Passover Lamb typifies Christ on the Cross. The Lamb must be a male without blemish; he must be taken on the tenth day of the first month (Jewish year) and kept until the fourteenth day when he is slain at even (three o'clock).

   Christ was betrayed on the tenth day and was crucified on the fourteenth day, dying at three o'clock. Surely He was the Lamb of God.

    The token of this rite is described in the following: "And it shall be a sign for thee upon thy hand and for a memorial between thy eyes that the law of Jehovah may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath Jehovah brought thee out of Egypt" (Exodus 13:16).

    In primitive times often when two men cut the covenant, a blood-stained record of the covenant was preserved in a small leather case to be worn upon the arm, or about the neck of him who had won a friend forever in this sacred rite of blood-friendship.

    Down through the generations, the Jews have been accustomed to wear upon their foreheads as a crown, and upon their arms as an armlet, a small leather case as a sacred amulet containing a record of the Passover covenant between Jehovah and the seed of Abraham, His friend.

Exit with Great Substance

    Before the conflict with Pharaoh began, God had said to Moses: "I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians and it shall come to pass that when ye go ye shall not go empty, but every woman shall borrow of her neighbor and of her that sojourneth in her house jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment and ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters: and ye shall spoil the Egyptians" (Exodus 3:21-22).

    Many have misunderstood this scripture and Exodus 12:35-36, because a mistake was made in the translation. The Hebrew word translated "borrow" means "ask." The word translated "lend" in Exodus 12:35-36 is a form of the same word and means to "let ask," that is, to entertain a request and graciously to give. It was not a case of theft, borrowing with no thought of return. The Israelites asked these things. The question was whether or not the request should be answered or met with angry refusal.

    The Covenant God intervened. He gave His people favor in the eyes of the Egyptians.

     They were looked upon by their enemies in a new light; and the Egyptians gave unto them. These were the spoils of a more glorious victory than any other conquering nation had ever known. In history the conquered have been spoiled, but never willingly. But here, the Egyptians find a joy in giving to those who had mastered them.

    The Covenant people who had simply stood and waited for salvation from their God of the Covenant, pass out adorned with the gorgeous raiment and the jewels of those who had so long spoiled them.

    More than 200 years before, their Covenant God had predicted this triumph. In Genesis 15:13-14, He had said to Abraham that his seed should be a stranger and afflicted in a land that was not theirs, and that He would judge the nation whom they had served. With it He had given this promise: "Afterward they shall come out with great substance."

    Here God had looked forward to the very spoiling of the Egyptians as the end of the sore travail of His people and a compensation for their bondage and slavery.

The Route Changed

    On the second day's journey the Israelites followed the usual route to Palestine. This must have led them to the "edge of the wilderness." Across those sands and up along the Mediterranean Coast lay the nearest way to Palestine.

     A few marches onward and they would have passed into the territory of the warlike Philistines.

    But here the route was suddenly changed. We are told that God led them not through the way of the Philistines, although that was near, for God said lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt. But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. Why then, we may ask, were they suffered to make a beginning, which looked as if they were to take the more expeditious road to the land promised to their fathers? Why was the change made in the route so that they had on the third to retrace their steps and march southward on the Egyptian side of the sea?

    We may at first be perplexed by the question. It does look as though God's plan had been suddenly altered; but a little reflection will speedily unveil the Divine Wisdom. The whole is explained in those words, "They encamped . . . in the edge of the wilderness" (Exodus 13:20).

    God had a twofold purpose. Israel had to bend to the Divine Will. Naturally, they at the outset desired the shortest route. God suffered them to take it and went with them so far-as He often does with us in our wilfulness.

    They are brought "to the edge of the wilderness" (Exodus 13:20) ; and then comes reflection. There is nothing inviting in the aspect of that dreary expanse. They begin to think of dreary days of plodding, thirsting, and hunger, through the treeless, waterless, habitationless desert.

    Then they think of the embattled wall of fierce, determined foemen through which a way must be forced after the desert has been traversed. There was no murmuring on the morrow when God said: "Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn" (Exodus14:2). This brought relief to them. 

The Covenant God also had another purpose. The king was carefully watching their movements. God was not going to allow His Covenant people to pass with dishonor from the land of Egypt; they were not going to be allowed to run away. When the Covenant God delivers, it is not through human methods. His deliverance is glorious in its fullness and in its beauty of holiness.

     Egypt will herself thrust Israel out and compel them to abandon the country, so the route is changed.

Crossing of the Red Sea

    The Egyptians are left in their selfish greed and cruelty to misread the change to their own destruction. "For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land; the wilderness hath shut them in" (Exodus 14:3).

    To Egypt this move seemed to be a revelation of unexpected weakness. There was no longer any God among them and Egypt could now enjoy to the full the wild revenge for which it panted.

    They said, "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon them: I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them" (Exodus 15:9).

    The thought which had sprung up in Pharaoh's bosom seems to have flamed up like an answering fire in the bosoms of his people. The heart of Pharaoh and of his servants were turned against the people and they said, "Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?"

    It seems that all the troops which could be massed together took part in this pursuit (Exodus 14:6-9).

    The elaborately disciplined standing army of Egypt was one of the marvels of the ancient world. We can imagine the terror which must have laid hold of the hearts of the Israelites the moment they realized that this fearful engine is directed against them (Exodus 14:10). As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD.

It seems that for the moment in mad and hopeless despair, they forget the God of the Covenant. They cry bitterly unto Moses for bringing them into this place of seeming death (Exodus 14:11-12). ¹¹ They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Didn't we say to you in Egypt, 'Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians'?

Then we hear the words of faith from Moses to fear not, because the Covenant God would work on their behalf that day (Exodus 14:13-16). ¹³ Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.

¹⁴ The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

¹⁵ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on.

¹⁶ Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.

    Let us note what the miracle-working God performed. His reply to Moses is: "Speak 🗣️ unto the children of Israel that they go forward." Then he, this Covenant man, was bidden to prepare a strange pathway for them.

    He was to lift that rod which had hitherto brought judgment upon Egypt; it would command the forces of nature to work salvation for the people of the Covenant.

    "And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon dry ground; and the waters were a wall upon their right hand and left" (Exodus 14:21-22).

    The forces of nature obeyed His Word. As we stand in the presence of this tremendous miracle, we catch a glimpse into the far past at the time when the first man walked in the realm of God's ability with dominion over the works of His hands. This dominion became lost at the fall. We see glimpses of it now and then under the Old Covenant at such an instance as this, until the time comes when the second Adam walks one with the Father God, with dominion over the forces of nature.

The Pillar of Cloud ☁️ 

    We have seen in previous lessons that no man could actually be Born Again of the Spirit of God until the Father God had a legal right to impart His nature to spiritually dead man. God did not have a legal right to impart His Life to those Covenant people.

    We have seen that natural man is limited in his knowledge to that which he gains through the five senses of his physical body. God must manifest Himself to Israel; His presence can be known to them only through their physical senses.

    He made His presence known to them by a pillar of cloud ☁️ which appeared on the second day (Exodus 13:21-22).

    They could see the cloud ☁️, hear and feel the warmth of this fiery cloud in the night time.

    This pillar of cloud ☁️ was not only a visible manifestation of His presence, but it was also a means of His caring for them.

    It became a strange protection from the intense desert heat of the day, and at night it became a mammoth lighting and heating plant. It kept them cool during the day and warm during the cold, bitter night.

    When this cloud ☁️ moved, they knew it was time to break camp and journey on. When it stopped, whether it was day or night, they knew that it was time to make camp and wait His further leading.

    This cloud ☁️ was with them, a protection, a comfort, and a guide during the forty years of wandering in the desert.

    At the time that the Egyptians had pursued them, this strange cloud ☁️ had moved from its position before them and stood behind them. It stood between the camp of the Egyptians and the Israelites. To the Covenant people it was light and warmth; but to the Egyptians, it was thick darkness.

The March through the Desert

    Now that eventful period in Israel's history begins, the march through the desert.

    The peninsula of Sinai is, to this day, a kind of no-man's land. Other regions have been coveted and fought for, but no powers of either ancient or modern times have ever sought for possession of Sinai.

    Yet to this isolated, despised district, three million slaves are taken. They have a slave spirit, are untrained and full of criticism and bitterness. In this place the Covenant God is going to reveal Himself and His glory and build from this slave nation a free people with leaders and teachers.

    There, separated from idolatry, this nation which is to preserve the Revelation of the true God will learn to walk dependent upon Him.

    We now start with Israel on this momentous journey, and as we study it, we find that there are lessons for us to learn.

    On the third day of the journey, they arrive at Marah, where the water was bitter.

    They had been used to drinking the sweet water of the Nile, so famed in the East; and now in childish disappointment, they burst forth in childish, unrestrained complaint against Moses (Exodus 15:22-24).

    The Covenant God, ever caring for them, makes the bitter waters sweet.

    Then He manifests Himself to them not only as One who shall lead them, care for them and protect them, but as One who will permit none of the diseases of the Egyptians to come upon them. He makes Himself known to them as the God who healeth them (Exodus 15:26-27).

    In the blood-covenant rights and privileges, all that He was belonged to Israel. His ability belonged to them. His care, His protection, His healing were theirs.

    It is a remarkable fact that during this wilderness period, while they walked in the Covenant, no babies, no children, nor young men and women died. No one died prematurely because of the power of disease. He was the Covenant God that healed them.

NOTE TO STUDENTS

    We wish to acknowledge that we are indebted for much of our material in these lessons to Urquhart's New Biblical Guide and Dr. Trumbull's "Blood Covenant."

    The reading material covered in this lesson is found in Exodus 12:43 to Exodus 15:27.

Questions

Q1. Tell of the Passover rite as it was to exist as a memorial among the Israelites.

Q2. Explain Exodus 12:35-36.

Q3. What lost authority of man was manifested at the crossing of the Red Sea?

Q4. Why did God have to visibly manifest Himself to Israel as in the Pillar of Cloud?

Q5. What needs did the Pillar of Cloud meet?

Q6. Describe the land into which God led His Covenant people when they left Egypt.

Q7. Why were the Covenant people led to this place?

Q8. Tell of the incident that took place at Marsh.

Q9. Explain Exodus 15:26-27.

Q10. What has the knowledge of the Blood Covenant meant to you?

Lesson 10 THE DELIVERANCE FROM EGYPT

 Lesson 10

THE DELIVERANCE FROM EGYPT

    AS WE STUDY the great drama of the deliverance of God's Covenant People from Egypt from the story given to us in the Scripture, we notice many facts that show the authenticity of the Scriptural account.

    The picture of Egyptian life given to us here depicts a true picture of ancient Egyptian life at that time. The authority that Pharaoh held in his hand over authority that Pharaoh held in this period of history.

    The part that is played by the magicians of Egypt in performing miracles is a faithful representation of the power that the ancient priesthood possessed.

    The Egyptian priesthood was in reality a corporation endued with magical powers which were exercised on the behalf of the living and the dead.

    The Scripture account in every name, incident, and custom portrayed, reveals the very Egypt of this period. The truth and sharpness of the reflection show that it was written by someone who knew the facts. Exodus, giving to us this drama of the miracle-working Covenant God on behalf of His people, was written by someone who knew about the facts. It was not written by a Babylonian Jew about 400 B.C., as some skeptics would claim. It bears the mark of the ancient Egypt which God judged.

    Archaeologists have uncovered buildings made of brick in which stubble was used instead of straw as recorded in Exodus 5:12.

The First Miracle

    Moses, in obedience to Jehovah, now approaches Pharaoh on behalf of God's Covenant people (Exodus 7:1-7).

    Exodus 7:8-13 gives to us Moses' first encounter with Pharaoh and his magicians.

    The first sign which was given was the casting down of the rod which was instantly changed into a serpent. "Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the  sorcerers; now the magicians of Egypt, they did also in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod and they became serpents, but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods" (Exodus 7:10-12).

    Some may wonder at the power by which the rods of the Egyptian priests turned into snakes also. The spirits which were identified with gods of the Egyptians to whom they made their appeal, did not leave them without an answer. The revival in our day of spiritualism and all the phenomena which cannot be explained away by trickery, shows the working of Satan in miracles when it will bring to him the worship of man.

    The conflict between the Maker of Heaven and earth and the gods of Egypt began at the outset. In this light, the miracle in Pharaoh's presence had a startling significance.

    As the rod of Aaron swallowed up the rods of the magicians, so would the religion which God was about to establish, swallow up the delusive trusts by which the wise men of the world sought a knowledge and a greatness that still left them and their fellows slaves of Satan.

The Plagues

    Let us now study the story of the plagues which smote Egypt's strength, and broke its stubborn heart. A sign had been given when the rod had been changed into a serpent. The sign was challenged by the magicians with the result that the power of  Jehovah was only more fully manifested. But that was only a sign, and it could be easily forgotten. God must, therefore, have recourse to judgment. The first plague was that by which the waters of Egypt were changed into blood.

    The Divine Command came to Moses. "Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning: lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river's brink to meet him" (Exodus 7:15).

    The reader will observe the command to meet Pharaoh at the brink of the river. We at once see a glorious fitness in the time and place that was chosen. The God of the Nile was an impersonation of NU, one of the chief fathergods of Egypt, and an object of profound veneration in this section of Egypt. Over him, therefore, Jehovah, by this plague, asserted His supremacy. It is probable that Pharaoh went in the morning to offer his devotion to this god.

    To the king, then, while standing before the very altar of his god, the message of Jehovah was delivered. It was a startling one. The god and his worshipers were alike to be judged. "And the Lord spake unto Moses: Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod and stretch out thy hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water that they may become blood, that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone" (Exodus 7:19).

    The male children of the Israelites had been thrown into the waters, and now God would bring the sin of the Egyptians to their remembrance. The river of blood shall tell the story of their deed to the earth and heaven, and the horror of it shall rise and cling to them.

    The second plague was an affliction well-known and dreaded. Its intensity was described in words every one of which must have gone home and filled the breast of every Egyptian who heard the words of God by Aaron with loathing and dread.

    "Behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs, the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bed chamber and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants and upon thy people, and into thy  ovens, and into thy kneading troughs, and the frogs shall come up both on thee andupon thy people, and upon all thy servants" (Exodus 8:24).

    Place behind these words the affliction which we know these animals to be in Egypt, and the plague immediately acquires a significance which is terrible. We lose sight of the insignificance of the instrument in the magnitude of the chastisement.

    The plague of frogs was not only a terrible chastisement on the people, but also another judgment upon their gods. Frogs were always a great nuisance in Egypt, and from the beginning, the driving of them away was entrusted to a goddess called HEKI.

    She many times appears with the head of a frog. So important was the office which she was to fulfill that she was supposed to be one of the supreme goddesses in all Egypt.

    Now the Covenant God of the Israelites, the slaves of the Egyptians, again shows Himself greater than the gods of the mighty Egyptians.

    As Pharaoh's heart becomes more hardened, the plagues continue to come upon them. Exodus 8:16-19 and Exodus 8:20-24, give an account of the plagues of lice and then flies.

    Another judgment was manifested against the gods of the Egyptians, for the flies also were worshiped in Egypt. First of all, a mere sign had been given when the rod had been changed into a serpent. Then personal discomfort revealed God's power and displeasure. But now, along with the peril brought by the flies, their garments, furniture, and trappings were destroyed: "The land was corrupted by reason of the flies."

    In the fifth plague, God still goes further. He lays His hand upon one of their most valued possessions, their cattle.

    The matter was not to end when Pharaoh said, "No," to God's demands, or when he promised obedience and then neglected to fulfill his promise.

    Again, Moses was sent with the message, "Let my people go that they may serve me"; and Pharaoh is warned, "If thou refuse to let them go and wilt hold them still, behold the hand of the Lord is laid upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camel, and upon the sheep: There shall be a grievous murrain." Murrain ~   redwater fever or a similar infectious disease affecting cattle or other animals. A plague, epidemic, or crop blight.

    Exodus 9:1-5. We notice that the separation between the Egyptians and God's Covenant people continues. Nothing was to die of the cattle of the Israelites. Now the possessions of the Egyptians have been touched, the most part of Egypt's wealth. 

    Now in the sixth plague, their bodies are touched. They are smitten with a painful and loathsome disease, which the magicians, their champions in this conflict, confess to be from the hand of God and at once retire from the contest. We notice the mercy of Jehovah in His dealings.

     His mercy sent milder chastisernents at first to turn them away from disobedience and to save them from the final and awful calamity. When lighter chastisements fail to save, love lets heavier strokes fall, to see whether these may turn the disobedient from his way.

     In the seventh plague a distinct advance is made in the severity of the chastisement.

     There is now to be a loss of life as well as of crops.

    Exodus 9:18, "Behold, tomorrow," so ran the Divine Command, "about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof until now."

    Exodus 10:4-6. As the eighth plague is announced, the word "locusts" had a terrible sound in the ears of the Egyptians.

    Exodus 10:7. For the first time we hear a remonstrance in court. The princes and great men who surround the king, and who revere him as a god, are driven to forget the awful distance that stands between them and the throne. They throw aside, in very evident terror, their habitual reverence, and expostulate with the lord of Egypt.

    "And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, how long shall this man be a snare unto us?

     Let the men go that they may serve the Lord, their God; knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?"

    We now come to the ninth plague. This was God's last appeal before the long deferred judgment fell.

    Each man was shut in, so to say, with God during those awful three days and nights.

    All business was suspended. Everything was laid aside. Each dwelt alone - king, counselor, noble, priest, merchant, artisan or peasant.

    Each was held in God's hand and confronted with the question, spoken in the memory of one plague after another, and reiterated in the consciousness of this: "Canst thou dash thyself against the buckler of the Almighty?" These three days of awe-struck isolation permit us to look into the depths of that infinite compassion which would have saved Egypt from the last stroke which was to break all its stubbornness and pride.

     God also showed His supremacy over the sun, which was one of the chief gods of the Egyptians.

The Blood Covenant and Its Tokens in the Passover

    There came a time when the Lord would give fresh evidence of His fidelity to His

    Covenant of blood-friendship with Abraham. Again, a new start was to be made in the history of Redemption. The seed of Abraham was in Egypt, and the Lord would bring thence that seed, for its promised inheritance in Canaan. The Egyptians refused to let Israel go at the call of the Lord.

    Now, as we study the last plague which came upon them, we see the significance of the Blood Covenant.

    In the original covenant of blood friendship between Abraham and the Lord, it was Abraham who gave of his blood in token of the Covenant.

    Up to this time, the Israelites had had to do nothing to avoid the plagues. Now there was to be an act of the shedding of blood, if they were to escape the tenth plague.

    The Lord commanded the choice of a lamb, a male without blemish. This lamb was a type of Christ, so it must be perfect.

    The blood of the lamb, a type of Christ's blood, was to be put on the two side posts and on the lintel of every house of a descendant of Abraham.

    "And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are," said the Lord to this people; "and when I see the blood (the token of my blood covenant with Abraham) I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt" (Exodus 12:7-13). The firstborn was safe when covered by the Blood.

    The flesh of the chosen lamb was to be eaten by the Israelites reverently, as the indication of that intercommunion which the blood friendship rite secures, and in accordance with a common custom of the primitive blood covenant rites everywhere.

    The last plague broke the heart of Egypt. Death, terrible everywhere, made an awful pause in the life of this pleasure-loving people. When anyone died in Egypt it especially caused a great mourning.

     It may be imagined then, what effect this last affliction had upon the entire people.

    There was not a house in which there was not one dead. Those who might have mourned with others, had to bow under their own grief. "And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead" Exodus 12:30).

    But, when we have noted the grief of Pharaoh and of all his people because of their dead, we have not summed up all that was accomplished by this judgment. Exodus 12:12 reads, "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute  judgment." We notice the phrase, "And against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment." Both the words are placed against these: "Both man and beast."

    We have seen that animals were worshiped in Egypt and also that the king was esteemed an incarnation, and worshiped as a god. Now Pharaoh, worshiped as divinity, is smitten and chastised in his own land, and in the presence of his people. His heir who had been already hailed with divine honors lay in the stillness of death. It was impossible to doubt that the blow was from the hand of this Covenant people's God.

    The firstborn of the Israelites were safe. Not one of the plagues had touched God's Covenant people. A great fear pressed upon Egypt. The hand that had struck might strike again. Freedom was therefore given to the oppressed Israelites. They were thrust out. Pharaoh would not even wait for the day's dawning.

    "He called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go serve the Lord Jehovah as ye have said, and be gone, and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, we will be all dead men" (Exodus 12:31-33).

Questions

Q1. Show how Scriptural account gives to us a true picture of ancient Egyptian life.

Q2. What was the first miracle that was performed in Pharaoh's presence?

Q3. What spiritual significance may be given to it?

Q4. In what way did the first plague bring down judgment upon an Egyptian God?

Q5. What was the second plague and its significance!

Q6. As Pharaoh refuses, show how the afflictions become greater.

Q7. How did the ninth plague reveal His mercy before the last plague came?

Q8. In what way did God give evidence of His fidelity to the Covenant?

Q9. Describe the effect of the tenth plague.

Q10. How was it revealed that the plagues were sent by the Covenant God?

Lesson 9 GOD'S COVENANT PEOPLE

 Lesson 9

GOD'S COVENANT PEOPLE

    IN OUR LAST LESSON ( review here) we saw that God entered into Covenant relations with Abraham in order to preserve upon the earth the Revelation of Himself which He had given to human.

    Abraham and his descendants were to be God's Covenant people.

    Genesis 17:7, "And I will establish My Covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their generations for an everlasting Covenant, to be a God unto thee and thy seed after thee."

    Through this Covenant people, God was going to send the Redeemer. Genesis 22:17,18, "That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice."

    The people who were brought into Covenant relationship with God were also to be His testimony upon the earth.

    Palestine was located geographically so that the ancient civilizations had to pass through it in their commercial relations with each other.

    God's Covenant people were to be a witness to them of the Revelation of the true and living God.

Isaac, Jacob and Joseph

    After giving to us the history of Abraham, the book of Genesis gives to us a brief history of his immediate descendants . . . Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

    All Genesis may be grouped around five names: Adam, Chapters 1-5; 

Noah, Chapters 6-11; 

Abraham, Chapters 12-26; 

Jacob, Chapters 27-37; 

and Joseph, Chapters 38-45.

    We will give just a brief summary of the character of these descendants of Abraham in the Blood Covenant.

    Isaac, the most beautiful of the Old Testament characters, a gentle, quiet spirit, has left an impression upon Jewish life that no other of the fathers ever gave. His marriage and love for Rebecca is one of the loveliest of the stories of the founders of that wonderful people.

     Jacob is another character crooked, selfish and .shrewd. It is doubtful that he ever made anyone happy. He met God at Jabbok and God laid His hand upon him. Jacob is a different man from that day. He had power with God and man. His life proves that God can change the most crooked lives and make them straight.

    Joseph is our prince-beautiful. Nowhere in literature is there anything to compare with this young boy, man, statesman, founder and preserver of a nation. The fragrance of this life lingers upon the ages of Israel's history. Many boys have been made good and strong by the influence of his commanding personality.

    At the age of seventeen Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt (Genesis 37:25-28). At thirty years of age he became ruler of Egypt (Genesis 41:37-45). When he was forty years old, Jacob with seventy souls went into Egypt (Genesis 46:1-26).

Reason for Going into Egypt

    The Covenant-keeping Cod remembered His promise to Abraham that He would make of him a great nation.

    To save His Covenant people from destruction during the famine that was sweeping the land of Canaan, the Covenant God brought them into Egypt, there to thrive and multiply. Genesis 45:6, 7, "For these two years hath the famine been in the land; and there are yet five years, in which there shall be neither plowing or harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance."

    God used Joseph to preserve His people. He overruled the work of Satan. He has brought good out of evil throughout the ages.

    Genesis 45:8, "So now it was not you that sent me hither but God: and He hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and ruler of the land of Egypt."

    What a picture it gives to us of the faithfulness and loving care of the God who said when He entered into the Covenant with Abraham, "By myself have I sworn."

    The children of Israel thrived among the ease and abundance and balmy brightness of that land. They were favored settlers. The, best of the, land had been bestowed upon them. They held honorable and well-paid positions under the Egyptian kings (Genesis 47:1-12, 27).

    Above all the favor of God was upon them. He was keeping His covenant with Abraham and the word that He spake saying that his seed should be a multitude as the stars of heaven, and as the sand upon the sea shore. Their increase was marvelous.

    God was making of them a great nation which would be His witness upon the earth.

    The Scripture in repeated statements directs our attention to the marvelous growth of God's Covenant people. Exodus 1:7, "And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them."

    In the 210 years in which the children of Israel were in Egypt, their number increased from seventy to over three million.

    The chronology shows that 210 years were spent in Egypt. This seems on the surface at first to present a difficulty with other passages of Scripture, such as Exodus 12:40, which would seem to give the period of their sojourn in Egypt as 430 years.

    However, the Septuagint translation of this reads: "The sojourning of the children and of their fathers which they sojourned in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt." Galatians 3:16-17 throws light upon it as showing the period began to be reckoned from the date of the promise to Abraham to the deliverance of the children, which makes precisely 430 years. There passed between the entering of Canaan and the birth of Isaac, twenty-five years.

    From the birth of Isaac until the birth of Jacob, there were sixty years. Jacob was 130 years old when he entered Egypt. This whole interval amounts to 220 years, 210 years added to this number makes the 430 years - the 430 years of sojourning from  Abraham to the deliverance from Egypt.

The Persecution of God's Covenant People

    We saw in the last lesson (review lesson 8) 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 first-born. 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 first-born 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 human 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.

Questions

Q1. Explain the place, geographically, that the Israelites held as a witness,

Q2. Give a brief character sketch of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph.

Q3. How did God use Joseph to preserve His people?

Q4. Describe the life of the Israelites in Egypt before their persecution.

Q5. Who caused the statesmen of Egypt to oppress the children of Israel? Why did he do this?

Q6. Upon what were based the hiding of Moses by his parents and his later renunciation of Egypt?

Q7. Why did God come down to deliver the Israelites?

Q8. Why did God seek to kill Moses?

Q9 Who were involved in the mighty conflict that took place in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt?

Q10. Why was it that God had to humble Pharaoh?

Lesson 8 THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

 Lesson 8

THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

    IN OUR STUDY of the preceding lessons, we saw that after man died spiritually, his need of a Mediator, Righteousness and Eternal Life, could be met only by the Incarnation of God's Son.

    In our last lesson ( review here) , we traced the working of the Grace of God from the time He gave to human the promise of the Incarnation, to the time of the flood, in His preserving a righteous line through which the Redeemer could come.

    We saw that Satan, in his effort to make the Incarnation an impossibility, corrupted humanity to the extent that the flood became imperative.

    Noah, who knew God, was spared with his family. He preserved the true faith in Jehovah, and handed it to his sons.

    We remember that there were two means Satan used to thwart the purpose of God in the Incarnation. They were: (1) his seeking to destroy the knowledge of God upon the earth, and (2) his seeking to destroy the righteous line.

The Tower of Babel

    From the time of the flood until the building of the tower of Babel, there was worship of God. Not that all men accepted it, for many wickedly rebelled against it; but the knowledge and revelation of the true God was too fresh in their minds for them to set up other gods.

    We notice that in the ninth chapter of Genesis a command had been given to replenish the earth. In the eleventh chapter of Genesis, we see that the whole earth was of one language and one speech. The unity of the race was untouched. The ark in  which Noah and his family were preserved, had rested in Armenia. As men began to multiply, this barren tableland no longer sufficed. Men must either separate and fill the earth as God had told them to do, or a more fertile territory must be found if they are to keep together. The latter course was resolved upon, so they passed down into the rich, fertile lowlands in the plain of Shinar (Genesis 11:2).

     They resolved upon a permanent settlement there in order to build a city and tower, that they might not be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth (Genesis 11:4).

    Jehovah came down and confounded their language, which caused their being scattered over the earth (Genesis 11:7-9). From there the streams of population poured forth to all parts of the world: northwest to Europe, west to Asia Minor, southwest to Egypt and Africa, south to Arabia, southeast to Persia and India, and east to China. Of course, this was not the work of a day. It took ages and ages for the more distant lands to be settled.

    After men had been scattered, the worship and knowledge of Jehovah passed into the worship of the powers of nature and then into idols. Sense knowledge , through the five senses , took the place of God's Revelation which had been given to spiritually dead man. 

    The oldest sacred books and traditions of each nation bear witness to the account in the scripture (Romans 1: 18-32), that each nation originally possessed a revelation of God. From these ancient writings and traditions, with the aid of monumental  inscriptions, we can get quite a clear picture of the passing from the worship of one God into the worship of many gods and of many idols.

The Call of Abraham

    Three hundred and sixty-seven years after the flood, Abraham appears. Noah was alive for fifty years after the birth of Abraham. The world had lapsed into idolatry.

    Abraham lived among pagans and idolators until he was seventy-five years of age.

    He had been born and had lived in Ur of the Chaldees, one of the most splendid ancient cities, until he received his call from God.

    We can understand why God revealed Himself to Abraham. The Revelation of God was practically lost. If a righteous line were to be preserved through which God could send His Incarnate Son, He must choose one man who knew Him, and make of him a  nation that would preserve the knowledge of Himself upon the earth.

    Abraham's countrymen and his father were idolaters. If in him a nation was to be founded that would preserve God's Revelation to human, and a knowledge of human's Redeemer so that He would be recognized when He came, it was necessary for Abraham to be removed from these influences. There are many legends that tell of Abraham's being persecuted for his refusal to worship idols. So, under a call of God, he set out in search of a land where a  nation could be founded, free from idolatry (Genesis 12).

    Twenty-five years after Abraham had received his call from God, the greatest event in human history until the birth of Christ, took place. It was the Blood Covenant into which Jehovah and Abraham entered.

    Before we can understand the significance of this Covenant which God cut with Abraham, we must know the meaning of the Blood Covenant.

    The Blood Covenant existed before Abraham. Proofs of the existence of this rite of Blood Covenanting have been found among primitive peoples of every quarter of the globe, and its antiquity is carried back to a date long prior to the days of Abraham.

The Blood Covenant

    It is evident that God cut the covenant or entered into a covenant with Adam at the very beginning. A common revelation of the Blood Covenant from God must have been given to primitive man. We saw the scattering of man at the tower of Babel. Noah  evidently must have possessed a knowledge of the significance of the Blood Covenant which he handed to his children, so that as the nations were formed, from the dispersion at the tower of Babel, each one possessed a knowledge of the Blood Covenant.

    We believe this because of the following facts that are revealed in Dr. Trumbull's book which is entitled, "The Blood Covenant."

"From the very beginning in every nation, Blood . . . seems to have been looked upon 

as preeminently the representative of Life; as indeed, in a peculiar sense life itself. The 

transference of blood from one organism to another, has been counted as the 

transference of life with all that that life includes. The intercommingling of blood has 

been understood as equivalent to the intercommingling of natures. Two natures, thus 

intercommingled by the intercommingling of blood, have been considered as forming 

thenceforth one nature, one life, one soul. The union of natures by the mingling of blood 

has been deemed possible between man and man, and Deity and man." 

A covenant of blood, a covenant made by the intercommingling of blood, has been 

recognized as the closest, the holiest, and most indissoluble compact conceivable. 

There are three reasons for men cutting the Covenant with each other. 

If a strong tribe lives by the side of a weaker tribe, and there is danger of the weaker 

tribe being destroyed, the weaker will seek to cut the covenant with the stronger tribe 

that they may be preserved. 

Or if two business men want to go into business, and one is going to leave the 

country and travel as a foreign representative, he will cut the covenant with his partner. 

Or, if two men love each other as devotedly as David and Jonathan, they will cut the 

covenant. 

The moment the blood covenant is solemnized, every thing that a Blood Covenant 

man owns is at the disposal of this blood-brother; yet this brother would never ask for 

anything unless he were absolutely driven by want to do it. 

Another feature is that as soon as this covenant is cut, they are called by others "the 

blood brothers." 

That blood covenant goes down through the generations; it is an indissoluble 

covenant that generations cannot erase. If a man cuts the covenant with his friend, the 

children of the two families are bound to observe it. 

If two men in Africa cut the Covenant -Mr. Stanley tells us and Livingstone bears 

witness - and one man should break the Covenant, his nearest relatives would seek his 

death, for no man can live in Africa who breaks the Covenant; he curses the ground. 

There is nothing that is absolutely sacred with us, but in Africa, the Covenant is 

sacred. Mr. Stanley and Dr. Livingstone both testify to the fact that they never knew the 

covenant to be broken. 

 The method of cutting the covenant is practically the same the world over. In some 

places it has degenerated into a very grotesque rite, but it is the same blood covenant. 

The method which is practiced by the Africans, Arabians, Syrians and Balkans is this: 

Two men who wish to cut the covenant come together with friends and a priest. 

First, they exchange gifts. Then they bring a cup of wine. The priest makes an incision 

in the arm of each man, allowing the blood to drip into the wine. Then they mingle the wine and drink it. Now they are blood brothers. (Read our book, The Blood Covenant. Click here) 

The Abrahamic Covenant        

    The seventeenth chapter of Genesis takes on new meaning for us now. We see that when God appeared to Abraham to make a covenant with him, that Abraham knew what it meant. God was coming into a covenant of strong friendship with him. (The Blood Covenant was called the Covenant of Strong Friendship.) That is why Abraham was called the friend of God (James 2:23; Isaiah 41:8 and 2 Chronicles 20:7).

    Abraham is the only human being who was called the friend of God in the Old Testament.

    The Covenant that God cut with Abraham was to bring the Israelitish nation into being as a Covenant people (Genesis 17:7).

    Then God gave to Abraham the method of cutting the Covenant (Genesis 17:10-14).

    The seal of the Covenant was Circumcision. Every male child was circumcised at the age of eight days, and that circumcision was the entrance into the covenant.

    Genesis 17:26, in the self same day, Abraham was circumcised; and thenceforward he bore in his flesh the evidence that he had entered into the Blood Covenant of friendship with God. To this day, Abraham is designated in the East as the "friend of God."

    After the formal covenant of blood had been cut between God and Abraham, there came a testing of Abraham's fidelity to that Covenant. This testing would also give evidence to the future generations of the fact that the cutting of the covenant on the part of Abraham in the rite of Circumcision had not been an empty ceremony, but that in that he had pledged his very life to Jehovah.

    Genesis 15:6, "He believed in Jehovah, and He reckoned it to him for righteousness."

    The Hebrew word, "Heemeem," here translated, "believed in," carries the idea of an unqualified committal of one's self to another. Abraham so trusted Jehovah that he was ready to commit himself to Jehovah as in the rite of the Blood Covenant.

    Therefore, God counted Abraham's spirit of loving and longing trust as ready for a blood covenant friendship between them.

    Genesis 22:1-19, the testing came when Isaac, a blood covenant child that God had miraculously given to Abraham, was eighteen or twenty years old.

Abraham's Testing

    Genesis 22:1, 2, "And it came to pass that God did prove Abraham and said unto him, Abraham; and he said Here am I. And He said, Take now thy son, thy only son whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I tell you of." And Abraham rose instantly to respond to the call of his Divine Friend.

    Just here, it is well to recognize the Oriental thought in a transaction like this. An Oriental father prizes an only son more than he prizes his own life. For an Oriental father to die without a son is a terrible thought, but with a son to take his place, he is ready to die.

    For Abraham to have surrendered his own toil-worn life, now that a son of promise had been born to him, would have been a minor matter, at the call of God; but for Abraham to surrender that son and to become again a hopeless, childless old man, was  a different matter. Only a faith that would neither reason nor question, only a love that would neither fail nor waver, could meet an issue like that. All the world over, men in the covenant of blood friendship were ready to give that which was dearer than life itself to their Blood-Covenant brothers or their gods. Would Abraham do as much for his Divine Friend as men would do for their human friends? Would Abraham surrender to his God all that the worshipers of other gods were willing to surrender in proof of their devotedness? These were questions to be answered before the world.

    Genesis 22:3-10, Abraham showed himself capable of even such friendship as this in his Blood Covenant with Jehovah. And when he had manifested his spirit of devotedness, he was told to stay his hand (Hebrews 11:17-19).

    Genesis 22:15-17, then it was that the "angel of Jehovah called unto Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, By myself have I sworn (by my life)."

    Here is the foundation of that covenant, Godward. There was nothing that God could swear by except Himself. To the Oriental it meant: "I swear by myself. Now if this fails, I become your slave; you own me. I put myself in bondage to you."

    They are bound together; all that God is belongs to Abraham, and all that Abraham is or ever will have belongs to God in this Covenant Relationship.

    Now you can understand why so many times He said, "I am Jehovah, who keepeth covenants." He is the Covenant-keeping God.

    Back behind Israel was this solemn covenant that God had sealed on His side by putting Himself in utter, absolute bondage to that Covenant.

Questions

Q1. Why did God confuse their languages at the building of the Tower of Babel?

Q2. Why was the call from God (that is recorded in Genesis 12:1-2) given to Abraham?

Q3. Tell of the significance of the Blood Covenant as it existed among primitive peoples.

Q4. What were the three reasons for cutting the covenant?

Q5. Why was Abraham called "the friend of God"?

Q6. What was the seal of the Abrahamic Covenant?

Q7. What does the Hebrew word in Genesis 15:6 translated as "believe" really mean?

Q8. What was the test that was given to prove Abraham's fidelity to the Covenant?

Q9. What did his obedience to God's command reveal?

Q10. What did the phrase, "By myself have I sworn," in the promise God gave. mean?