I. The saving act, or the power.
In studying this we cannot do better than follow the guidance of Exod. vi. 6, where we learn that He saved them from their burdens, from their bondage, and from inextricable difficulties.
(1.) From their burdens. ‘I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.’
There are many burdens that weigh heavily on man, so that St. Paul said, even when he was sealed by the Holy Ghost: ‘We that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened.’ There are burdens on the strength when a man has to toil beyond his powers: burdens on the heart when we feel a weight of sorrow as we witness the sufferings of those we love: burdens on the thoughts when some heavy care rests upon us, and produces depression of spirits: and, above all, burdens on the conscience when the sense of sin troubles us, when we know we have been wrong, and when the present conviction of our own utter unworthiness weighs heavily on the heart.
These burdens come from many sources. Sometimes they are laid upon us by the providence of God, and sometimes they are of our own creation. For example, the great pain of the burden of sin is that we know it is our own fault, and, therefore, it involves the bitter pain of self-reproach.
But some of these burdens are not always felt, or, if felt, not really cared for. People are ready to complain of them; but they are not really longing to be free. They are very much like Israel in Egypt. Israel groaned and grumbled, but yet when a deliverer came to them from God, they did not care to be delivered. Turn to their words of reproach which they spake to Moses when the Egyptians were pursuing them, Exod. xiv. 12, ‘Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?’ They groaned a great deal, but yet they wished to be let alone. They had no faith in delivering power, so they preferred to bear their burden rather than run any risk in their effort to be free. How many are there to this day just like them, who confess their burden, who lament their burden, who wish to be free of their burden, if they can be so without difficulty, but who yet, when you tell them of the saving power of the Lord Jesus reply in their hearts, ‘Let us alone!’
Now remember that our blessed Lord and Saviour is a Saviour from the burden, whatever the burden be. If He does not take it away He will give you power to bear it. He is the burden-bearer as well as the sin-bearer; and if He does not remove the burden He is sure to sustain you under it, for He has said, ‘Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.’ But He will one day remove the burden. This is what He did for Israel. He promised to ‘bring them out from under their burdens,’ and He did it, and we may trust Him to do the same by us. He will do it in His own time, and His own way. ‘The time appointed may be long but the thing is true, and the day is coming when every burden will be gone for ever, and the most burdened heart amongst us will appear in perfect rest in the presence of the Lord.
(2.) But He promised, also, to save them from their bondage. They were bondsmen in Egypt. They were not freemen, as we are, but slaves. They were not free to choose their own master, or to come and go at their pleasure. They could not leave their homes without the permission of the king, for they were under a legal yoke. If they had no work to do, nor any burdens laid on them, they would still have been bondsmen. Moses was brought up in all the luxury of a palace; but still he was a slave. So, when God undertook to deliver, the first thing He did was to break the bondage of this legal yoke. He set them free that He might bring them out, and save them. So long as they were in bondage they could not move, so He broke the chain and they were free. Can anything be more complete as a type of what He does for us? Those whom God hath not set free are ‘all their lifetime subject to bondage.’ They are bound by what St. Paul describes, Rom. viii. 2, as ‘the law of sin and death.’ So long as the guilt of unforgiven sin rests on the conscience, they cannot be free. It matters not where they are or what they are doing. They may be bowed down by hard work, or living in ease and idleness; but in either case they are bondsmen, and they are condemned under the law, and bound by it. They cannot shake it off, or get clear of it, for it is a condemnation by God Himself, and they cannot break His chain. Indeed, their efforts to get free very frequently produce just the same result as the efforts of Israel did when they strove to get free from Pharaoh. The only result of their effort was that the burden became heavier, and the bondage more severe. How often is this the case with persons struggling to get free from the burden and bondage of sin! They try, and try again, and the only result is, that they get deeper into difficulty. They have at last to make their bricks without the straw, and seem worse off than ever. But then it is that the Redeemer appears, and says, ‘I will rid them out of their bondage.’ He has borne the burden, and having done so He breaks the yoke. He removes the imputation of sin, and when that is gone we are free, free to arise and follow Him; free to go forth to the promised land; free to walk fearlessly with God; free because ‘Christ has made us free;’ because ‘the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death.’
(3.) But once more; He delivered them from what, as far as man was concerned, were insuperable difficulties.
It is not an uncommon thing to meet with persons who really hope that they are delivered from the imputation of sin, and therefore free from the bondage of the law, who still feel the greatest difficulty in their progress in a Christian life. They really hope that a great change has taken place. They are in a very different position to what they once were. But still they cannot get on. It appears as if there was a barrier they could not pass. Their way is blocked by some besetting sin which they cannot overcome, and they are sometimes almost tempted to say that it was better with them before they began their struggle. Such a temptation is very wrong; but there is nothing new in it, for it is just what Israel felt when they found their way blocked by the Red Sea. They then said (chap, xiv. 12), ‘It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’ They had been set free, but progress appeared impossible. Now let any one who thinks his own progress impossible look well at these facts. It was perfectly true that those people were hopelessly hedged in between the sea and Pharaoh’s host. There was nothing that they could do to overcome their difficulty. But Jehovah had promised, ‘I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm,’ and the result was that when Moses stretched forth his rod, the sea itself opened to let them pass. Some excellent persons have endeavoured to explain this by supposing some remarkable combination of wind and tide. But we do not want the help of such explanations. It is better to accept it at once as a miracle that cannot be explained, a miracle wrought out by the strong arm of the Redeemer. And, remember, that it is the same strong arm which can deliver the very weakest amongst us from the greatest difficulties which ever yet beset the path of the Christian. You say, ‘I cannot,’ but He says, ‘I can.’ You say, ‘I have tried; and it is impossible.’ He says, ‘With God nothing is impossible.’ Never, therefore, again must you say, ‘It cannot be.’ If the Lord has set you free from the dreadful yoke of imputed sin; if the Redeemer Himself is leading you to the promised land, remember that your ‘Redeemer is strong, the Lord of Hosts is His name;’ and whatever be your practical, personal, peculiar difficulty, He is just as well able to overcome it as He was to divide the Red Sea: so that, trusting Him you may be delivered as Israel was delivered, and be enabled, with a thankful heart to say, ‘Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people whom thou hast redeemed.’