Exodus 4

Exodus 4:1-31

ISRAEL’S BONDAGE. MOSES AND THE EXODUSExo_1:1 to Exodus 15:21.DR. J. M. Gray’s five rules for Bible reading: “Read the Book”, “Read the Book Continuously”, “Read the Book Repeatedly”, “Read the Book Independently”, “Read the Book Prayerfully”, are all excellent; but the one upon which I would lay emphasis in this study of Exodus is the second of those rules, or, “Read the Book Continuously”. It is doubtful if there is any Book in the Bible which comes so nearly containing an outline, at least, of all revelation, as does the Book of Exodus.

There is scarcely a doctrine in the New Testament, or a truth in the Old, which may not be traced in fair delineation in these forty chapters.God speaks in this Book out of the burning bush. Sin, with its baneful effects, has a prominent place in its pages; and Salvation, for all them that trust in Him, with judgment for their opposers, is a conspicuous doctrine in this Old Testament document.

God, Sin, Salvation, and Judgment—these are great words! The Book that reveals each of them in fair outline is a great Book indeed, and its study will well repay the man of serious mind.Exodus is a Book of bold outlines also! Its author, like a certain school of modern painters, draws his picture quickly and with but few strokes, and yet the product of his work approaches perfection. How much of time and history is put into these three verses:“And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the Children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them” (Exodus 1:5-7).These three verses contain 215 years of time, and all the events that crowded into that period would, if they were recorded, fill volumes without end.

And, while there are instances of delineation in detail in the Book of Exodus, the greater part of the volume is given to the bolder outlines which sweep much history into single sentences.In looking into these fifteen chapters, I have been engaged with the question of such arrangement as would best meet the demands of memory, and thereby make the lesson of this hour a permanent article in our mental furniture. Possibly, to do that, we must seize upon a few of the greater subjects that characterize these chapters, and so phrase them as to provide mental promontories from which to survey the field of our present study.

Surely, The Bondage of Israel, The Rise of Moses, and the Exodus from Egypt, are such fundamentals.THE BONDAGE OF ISRAEL.The bondage of Israel, like her growth, requires but a few sentences for its expression.“Now, there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the Children of Israel are more and mightier than we; Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pit horn and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the Children of Israel.

And the Egyptians made the Children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour” (Exodus 1:8-22).There are several features in Egypt’s conduct in effecting the bondage of Israel which characterize the conduct of all imperial nations.The bondage began with injustice. Israel was in Egypt by invitation.

When they came, Pharaoh welcomed them, and set apart for their use the fat of the land. The record is,“Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Raamses, as Pharaoh had commanded” (Genesis 47:11).There they flourished until a king arose which knew not Joseph. Then a tax was laid upon them; eventually taskmasters were set over them, and those who came in response to Pharaoh’s invitation, “Come unto me and I will give you the good of the, land of Egypt, and ye shall eat of the fat of the land”, were compelled by his successors to take the place of slaves. It seems as difficult for a nation as it is for an individual to refrain from the abuse of power. A writer says, “Revolution is caused by seeking to substitute expediency for justice,” and that is exactly what the King of Egypt and his confederates attempted in the instance of these Israelites. It would seem that the result of that endeavor ought to be a lesson to the times in which we live, and to the nations entrusted with power.

Injustice toward a supposedly weaker people is one of those offences against God which do not go unpunished, and its very practice always provokes a rebellion which converts a profitable people into powerful enemies.It ought never to be forgotten either that injustice easily leads to oppression. We may suppose the tax at first imposed upon this people was comparatively slight, and honorable Egyptians found for it a satisfactory excuse, hardly expecting that the time would ever come when the Israelites should be regarded “chattel-slaves”.

But “he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much”. It is doubtful if there is any wrong in man’s moral relations which blinds him so quickly and so effectually as the exercise of power against weakness.Joseph Parker, in speaking of the combat between Moses and the Egyptian, says, “Every honorable-minded man is a trustee of social justice and common fair play. We have nothing to do with the petty quarrels that fret society, but we certainly have to do with every controversy—social, imperial, or international—which violates human right and impairs the claims of Divine honor. We must all fight for the right. We feel safer by so much if we know there are amongst us men who will not be silent in the presence of wrong, and will lift up a testimony in the name of righteousness, though there be none to cheer them with one word of encouragement.”It is only a step from enslaving to slaughter. That step was speedily taken, for “Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river” (Exodus 1:22).

Unquestionably there is a two-fold thought in this fact. Primarily this, whom the tyrant cannot control to his profit, he will slay to his pleasure; and then, in its deeper and more spiritual significance, it is Satan’s effort to bring an end to the people of God.

The same serpent that effected the downfall of Adam and Eve whispered into Cain’s ear, “Murder Abel”; and into the ears of the Patriarchs, “Put Joseph out of the way”; and to Herod, “Throttle all the male children of the land”; and to the Pharisee and Roman soldier, “Crucify Jesus of Nazareth”. It remains for us of more modern times to learn that the slaughter of the weak may be accomplished in other ways than by the knife, the Nile, or the Cross. It was no worse to send a sword against a feeble people, than, for the sake of filthy lucre, to plant among them the accursed saloon. Benjamin Harrison, in a notable address before the Ecumenical Missionary Conference held in the City of New York years ago, said, “The men who, like Paul, have gone to heathen lands with the message, ‘We seek not yours but you,’ have been hindered by those who, coming after, have reversed the message. Rum and other corrupting agencies come in with our boasted civilization, and the feeble races wither before the breath of the white man’s vices.”Egypt sought to take away from Israel the physical life which Egypt feared; but God has forewarned us against a greater enemy when He said, “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. * * Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him”. If in this hour of almost universal disturbance the sword cannot be sheathed, let us praise God that our Congress and Senate have removed the saloon—a slaughter-house from the midst of our soldiers, and our amended Constitution has swept it from the land.THE RISE OF MOSES.I do not know whether you have ever been impressed in studying this Book of Exodus with what is so evidently a Divine ordering of events.

It is when the slaughter is on that we expect the Saviour to come. And that God who sits beside the dying sparrow never overlooks the affliction of His people.

When an edict goes forth against them, then it is that He brings their deliverer to the birth; hence we read, “And there went a man of the house of Levi and took to wife a daughter of the house of Levi, and the woman conceived and bare a son” (Exodus 2:1-2),That is Moses; that is God’s man! It is no chance element that brings him to the kingdom at such a time as this. It is no mere happening that he is bred in Pharaoh’s house, and instructed by Jochebed. It is no accident that he is taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. It is all in perfect consequence of the fact that God is looking upon the Children of Israel, and is having respect unto them.Against Pharaoh’s injustice He sets Moses’ keen sense of right. When Moses sees an Egyptian slay an oppressed Israelite, he cannot withhold his hand.

And, when after forty years in the wilderness he comes back to behold afresh the affliction of his people, he “chooses to suffer with them rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” God never does a better thing for a nation than when He raises up in it such a man. We have heard a great deal of Socrates’ wisdom, but it is not in the science of philosophy alone that that ancient shines; for when Athens was governed by thirty tyrants, who one day summoned him to the Senate House, and ordered him to go with others named to seize Leon, a man of rank and fortune, whose life was to be sacrificed that these rulers might enjoy his estate, the great philosopher flatly refused, saying, “I will not willingly assist in an unjust act.” Thereupon Chericles sharply asked, “Dost thou think, Socrates, to talk in this high tone and not to suffer?” “Far from it,” replied the philosopher, “I expect to suffer a thousand ills, but none so great as to do unjustly.” That day Socrates was a statesman of the very sort that would have saved Athens had his ideas of righteousness obtained.Against Pharaoh’s oppression He sets Moses’ Divine appointment.

There were many times when Moses was tempted to falter, but God’s commission constrained his service. When Moses said, “Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh?” God answered, “Surely I will be with thee”. When Moses feared his own people who would not believe in his commission, God answered, “Thus shalt thou say unto the Children of Israel, I AM hath sent you”. When Moses feared that the Israelites would doubt his Divine appointment, God turned the rod in his hand into a worker of wonders. And, when Moses excused himself on the ground of “no eloquence”, God replied, “Go, and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say”. With any man, a conviction of Divine appointment is a power, but for him who would be a saviour of his fellows, it is an absolute essential.Pastor Stalker, speaking to the subject of a Divine call to the service of soul-winning, said, “Enthusiasm for humanity is a noble passion and sheds a beautiful glow over the first efforts of an unselfish life, but it is hardly stern enough for the uses of the world.

There come hours of despair when men seem hardly worth our devotion. * * Worse still is the sickening consciousness that we have but little to give; perhaps we have mistaken our vocation; it is a world out of joint, but were we born to put it right? This is where a sterner motive is needed than love for men.

Our retreating zeal requires to be rallied by the command of God. It is His work; these souls are His; He has committed them to our care, and at the judgment-seat He will demand an account of them. All Prophets and Apostles who have dealt with men for God have been driven on by this impulse which has recovered them in hours of weakness and enabled them to face the opposition of the world. * * This command came to Moses in the wilderness and drove him into public life in spite of strong resistance; and it bore him through the unparalleled trials of his subsequent career.” How many times he would have surrendered the battle and left his fellows to suffer under Pharaoh’s heels, but for the sound of that voice which Joan of Arc heard, saying to him as it said to her, “Go on! Go on!”Against Pharaoh’s slaughter God set up Moses as a Saviour. History has recorded the salvation of his people to many a man, who, either by his counsels in the time of peace or his valor in the time of war, has brought abiding victory. But where in annals, secular or sacred, can you find a philosopher who had such grave difficulties to deal with as Moses met in lifting his people from chattel slaves to a ruling nation?

And where so many enemies to be fought as Moses faced in his journey from the place of the Pyramids to Pisgah’s Heights?Titus Flaminius freed the Grecians from the bondage with which they had long been oppressed. When the herald proclaimed the Articles of Peace, and the Greeks understood perfectly what Flaminius had accomplished for them, they cried out for joy, “A Saviour! a Saviour!” till the Heavens rang with their acclamations.But Moses was worthy of greater honor because his was a more difficult deed.

I don’t know, but I suppose one reason why Moses’ name is coupled with that of the Lamb in the Oratorio of the Heavens, is because he saved Israel out of a bondage which was a mighty symbol of Satan’s power, and led them by a journey, which is the best type of the pilgrim’s wanderings in this world, and brought them at last to the borders of Canaan, which has always been regarded as representative of “the rest that remaineth for the people of God”.THE EXODUS FROM EGYPTinvolves some items of the deepest interest.The ten plagues prepare for it. The river is turned into blood; frogs literally cover the land; the dust is changed to lice; flies swarm until all the houses are filled; the beasts are smitten with murrain; boils and blains, hail, locusts and darkness do their worst, and the death of the first-born furnishes the climax of Egyptian affliction, and compels the haughty Pharaoh to bow in humility and grief before the will of the Most High God (chaps. 7-12).There is one feature of these plagues that ought never to be forgotten. Without exception, they spake in thunder tones against Egyptian idolatry. The Nile River had long been an object of their adoration. In a long poem dedicated to the Nile, these lines are found: “Oh, Nile, hymns are sung to thee on the harp,Offerings are made to thee: oxen are slain to thee;Great festivals are kept for thee;Fowls are sacrificed to thee.”But when the waters of that river were turned to blood, the Egyptians supposed Typhon, the God of Evil, with whom blood had always been associated, had conquered over their bountiful and beautiful Osiris—the name under which the Nile was worshiped.The second plague was no less a stroke at their hope of a resurrection, for a frog had long symbolized to them the subject of life coming out of death. The soil also they had worshiped, and now to see the dust of it turned suddenly into living pests, was to suffer under the very power from which they had hoped to receive greatest success. The flies that came in clouds were not all of one kind, but their countless myriads, according to the Hebrew word used, included winged pests of every sort, even the scarabaeus, or sacred beetle. Heretofore, it had been to them the emblem of the creative principle; but now God makes it the instrument of destruction instead. When the murrain came upon the beasts, the sacred cow and the sacred ox-Apis were humbled. And ~when the ashes from the furnace smote the skin of the Egyptians, they could not forget that they had often sprinkled ashes toward Heaven, believing that thus to throw the ashes of their sacrifices into the wind would be to avert evil from every part of the land whither they were blown.

Geikie says that the seventh plague brought these devout worshipers of false gods to see “that the waters, the earth and the air, the growth of the fields, the cattle, and even their own persons, all under the care of a host of divinities, were yet in succession smitten by a power against which these protectors were impotent. When the clouds of locusts had devoured the land, there remained another stroke to their idolatry more severe still, and that was to see the Sun, the supreme god of Egypt, veil his face and leave his worshipers in total darkness.

It is no wonder that Pharaoh then called to Moses and said, “Go ye, serve the Lord”; but it is an amazing thing that even yet his greed of gain goads him on to claim their flocks and their herds as an indemnity against the exodus of the people. There remained nothing, therefore, for God to do but lift His hand again, and lo, death succeeded darkness, and Pharaoh himself became the subject of suffering, and the greatest idol of the nation was humbled to the dust, for the king was the supreme object of worship.He is a foolish man who sets himself up to oppose the Almighty God. And that is a foolish people who think to afflict God’s faithful ones without feeling the mighty hand of that Father who never forgets His own.One day I was talking with a woman whose husband formerly followed the habit of gambling. By this means he had amassed considerable wealth, and when she was converted and desired to unite with the church, he employed every power to prevent it, and even denied her the privilege of church attendance. One morning he awoke to find that he was a defeated man; his money had fled in the night, and in the humiliation of his losses, he begged his wife’s pardon for ever having opposed her spirit of devotion. Since that time, though living in comparative poverty, she has been privileged to serve God as she pleased; and, as she said to me, finds in that service a daily joy such as she at one time feared she would never feel again.

God’s plagues are always preparing the way for an exodus on the part of God’s oppressed.The Passover interpreted this exodus. That greatest of all Jewish feasts stands as a memorial of Israel’s flight from Egypt as a symbol of God’s salvation for His own, and as an illustration of the saving power of the Blood of the Lamb.The opponents of the exodus perished.

Our study concludes with Israel’s Song of Deliverance, beginning, “The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation”, and concluding in the words of Miriam, “Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea”. See Exodus 15:1-21. Such will ever be the end of those who oppress God’s people and oppose the Divine will.When one studies the symbolism in all of this, and sees how Israel typifies God’s present-day people, and Moses, their deliverer, Jesus our Saviour, and defeated Pharaoh, the enemy of our souls, destined to be overthrown, he feels like joining in the same song of deliverance, changing the words only so far as to ascribe the greater praise to Him who gave His life a deliverance for all men; and with James Montgomery sing: “Hail to the Lord’s Anointed Great David’s greater SonWho, in the time appointed, His reign on earth begun.He comes to break oppression, To set the captive free,To take away transgression, And rule in equity.“He comes, with succor speedy, To those who suffer wrong;To help the poor and needy, And bid the weak be strong;To give them songs for sighing, Their darkness turn to light,Whose souls, condemned and dying. Were precious in His sight.”

Exodus 4:14-16

THE SECOND-RATE MAN— AARONExo_4:14-16THESE words from the Sacred Scriptures give us a little insight into the relation sustained to each other by those noble brothers. It was a relation of affection—“When he seeth thee, he will he glad in his heart”. It was to be a relation of co-operation —“He shall he thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt he to him instead of God”. In other words, their work should be one work; and their object the same; each should strengthen the other. It was no whim; it was wisdom that moved Jesus to send men out two by two; as C. H.

Mackintosh remarks, “Unity is ever better than isolation.”It is a matter of interest to know that in history great men have often been seconded by some faithful brother, and their successes have depended in no small measure upon the assistance thus rendered. Who can tell, for instance, how much Aaron’s help meant to Moses; how much Jonathan’s love meant to David; how much the loyalty of Elisha meant to Elijah; what strength Timothy imparted to Paul; what inspiration Polycarp gave to John; Melancthon to Luther; Charles Wesley to John Wesley; James Spurgeon to Charles Spurgeon; Mr.

Halliday to Mr. Beecher; Mr. McElwain to Dr. Gordon? It is not unusual for a man of the Moses type—courageous in spirit, bold in thought, strong in undertaking—to be deficient in mere matters of detail, and hence to require an assistant and associate who can tie the threads and keep in order all the machinery necessary in the execution of great enterprises.Aaron was Moses’ elder, but Moses was Aaron’s superior. Because Esau is first-born, it does not signify that he will become Israel, Prince with God, for the God who sees the characters of men and understands all their powers, knowing that Jacob could better serve the purpose, will pass over the fact that he is the second-born and select him.

In truth, though there be seven sons, Eliab, Abinadab, Shammah, the whole seven may pass before the Lord and yet the Prophet Samuel be compelled to say, “The Lord hath not chosen these. Are these all the children”?

And when he learns there remains yet a younger and “he keepeth the sheep”, the Prophet adds, “Go fetch him”. On seeing him, hear the Lord say, “Arise anoint him; for this is he”. It is not age, nor appearance, nor political station that determines the Divine appointment. It is something deeper and higher; it is essential worth. That is why God gave Moses, the younger, the first place, and Aaron, the second. Moses was a man of the highest order; and Aaron was a second-rate soul.Four things let us see in the study of this character.HIS LIFE WORK WAS God called him unto it. “Aaron thy brother, he shall be thy spokesman unto thy people”. It was a Divine appointment. That is a great advantage to a man!

To know that God has sent one gives him assurance. Pastor Stalker in his “Imago Christi” sets this down as one of the essentials in a successful ministry. He says, “The soul-winner must be conscious that he is doing God’s work, and that it is God’s message he bears to men.” And he assigns as the reason the ‘fact that when we are piqued with the ingratitude of those for whom we have put forth our best efforts, and are even puzzled by their opposition and enmity, we will need a sterner motive than love of men to make our service sure. “Our retreating zeal requires to be rallied by the command of God. It is His work; these souls are His; He has committed them to our care; and at the judgment-seat He will demand an account of them.” Aaron should have had this consciousness, since Aaron evidently enjoyed this call.His duty had been clearly defined for him. He was to be unto Moses “instead of a mouth”. Perhaps second to a conscious call from God, there is no greater essential to success than to know clearly what God expects of one.

I have often wondered at the secret of Savonarola’s eloquence, and marveled that a man in those dark Middle Ages could so sway the multitudes. But I think that secret is an open one, as Dr.

S. E. Herrick, in his beautifully written volume, “Some Heretics of Yesterday”, uncovers it for us when he repeats for us how Savonarola prayed often and repeatedly, “Oh, Lord, make known to me the way in which I am to guide my soul.” It is the prayer that men, destined to be great, make in one form or another. Paul said, “What wilt Thou have me to do”? And as Paul was given definite direction, so the secret of the Lord was revealed to Savonarola, and in Florence, he became a flaming fire for God. The worldly man can get out of bed at break of day and rush away to his wonted duties without ever questioning God’s throne as to where he shall walk and what he shall attempt, but this question, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” is the vital breath of the Christian’s life; and to have it divinely answered of God, to hear Him say, “Such is your task,” is to have revealed to us another of the secrets of success.Aaron’s duty was associated with an honored office.

He was to be “instead of a mouth” for Moses, and Moses was to be to him “as God”. Let us not misunderstand!

He was not to bow before Moses; he was not to pray to Moses; he was not to sing Moses’ praises. Shortly Moses himself shall bring from the holy mount these words,“I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God”.This simply means that as Moses was in touch with God and was receiving his messages from God, Aaron must take those messages to the people and be at once Moses’ mouth-piece and God’s mouthpiece. Already he is a Levite; by this new appointment he also becomes a priest.

We know what the priest was to do. It was his to speak with God for the people and plead their cause; it was his also to speak with the people for God, revealing to them His last message.

Did it ever occur to you that this office is one of those honored by the Son of God Himself. He is Prophet, Priest, and King. His prophetic work was done when in the world—God’s spokesman; His priestly office He now holds as mediator before the throne; His Kingship is to come with His return to the world to reign from “sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth”. And while the Priest may be less than the King, he may be greater than the Prophet, as prayer is greater than preaching; as successful intercession with God is even more essential than successful inspiration with the people. We have not set as high esteem upon the priest’s office as we ought. We are in such rebellion against the ceremonialism of Rome, and the dead-letterisms of Jewry, that we almost despise the office of priest; and yet, beloved, we are priests ourselves if we have power at the throne of God, and it is our most honored office.

Whitfield set the right estimate upon the man who knew how to pray, who could, like the priest of old, enter into the holy of holies and talk with God, and so he carried about with him an aged man to pray for him and for the people to whom he preached, and believed deeply that the petitions of that man availed at the throne. Yes, Aaron’s was an honored office.But it remains to be said,HE WAS NOT CALLED TO LEAD BUT TO AIDIt was to Moses that God had said, “I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth My people, the Children of Israel, out of Egypt”.

And to Aaron God had only said that he should “be to Moses instead of a mouth”.Some men are not leaders born. Children differ even in the hour of their nativity. A few years since in Chicago, a speaker eloquently expressed what had often been in my mind when he said, “The famous preamble to our Declaration of Independence, while sublime in its conclusion, is most sophistical in its argument, and savors more of Rousseau than of the New Testament. I know not which is the greater falsehood, that all men are born free, or that all men are born equal. The first assertion is negatived by all history; the second, by all observation and experience. Equality of capacity, attainment or reward is and was divinely intended to be forever impossible. “All ye are brethren”, said Jesus; our brothers are not our duplicates.

If they were, the glory and beauty of the family life would at once disappear. When men came to Christ and asked him, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven”?

He did not answer, “No one shall be the greatest; all there are to live on a level of perfect equality,” but He laid down a new standard of greatness. When James and John came to Him and said, “Master we want the high seats in Thy Kingdom”, He did not answer, “There are no high seats there; no man is above his neighbor,” but He said, “Are you willing to endure the preparation for the high seats in the new Kingdom”? Some of the timber that is floated down the Maine rivers is fashioned into masts of vessels, some into chairs and tables, and some into lead, pencils. You cannot make seaworthy masts out of lead pencil timber. Professor Ely, who has often been quoted on the other side of this matter, said in his recent article in the Forum, that the teaching of the essential equality of men bears with special hardship on the weaker members of the social body, for, in the words of an eminent jurist, “Nothing is more unequal than the equal treatment of unequals.” There is not a shred of teaching in the New Testament which can be construed into the doctrine of the natural equality of men.Some years ago, we read a sermon from Bishop Brooks on the parable of the talents in which he brings out the fact that men by nature are fitly represented there; some of them have five talents, some two, and some only one. “It is not always an easy thing for men to make up their minds to mediocrity. We cannot tell in how many natures there comes deep struggle and sad disappointment before the lot of the average man is cordially accepted.

A young man starts untried. He is a problem to himself and everybody else.

Who can say what strange capacity is folded in this yet unopened life? It is a young man’s right, almost his duty, to hope, almost to believe, that he has singular capacity, and is not merely another repetition of the constantly repeated average of men. Before he unfolds the bundle which his Lord has given him, he may well see in his imagination the five bright shining talents through the folds. We would not give much for the young man to whom there came no such visions and dreams of extraordinary life. To see those dreams and visions gradually fade away; little by little to discover that one has no such exceptional ability; to try one and another of the adventurous ways which lead to the high heights and the great prizes, and find the feet unequal to them; to come back at last to the great trodden highway, and plod on among the undistinguished millions, that is often very hard.” And yet, such was Aaron’s fate. There was never an exigency in his life requiring the highest courage, the clearest thinking, and the boldest action but he failed.

Witness Miriam’s rebellion, and let the golden calf also testify to the truthfulness of this assertion. In concurrence with the cowardly majority, he went back from Kadesh-Barnea, and all the rest of the book of his life is after that manner.God is the best judge of man’s ability.

He knows what we are suited to do. It is only when a man departs from the Divine guidance and undertakes what has not been committed to him or neglects that to which he has been called, that failure comes— the little man laying his mind to the large endeavor, or, the appointed priests, attempting the role of warrior and leader. It pays therefore to let God speak, since He understands for what we are suited. “See that thou make all things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount” (Exodus 25:40).God has His plan for every man’s best. The prayer of Saul is the pledge of Paul, the Apostle, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do”? Sidney Smith says, “Be what nature intended you for and you will succeed. Be anything else and you will be ten times worse than nothing.” I would change Sidney’s sentences in but a single word, “Be what God intended you for and you will succeed.

Be anything else and you will be ten times worse than nothing.” Too long men have imagined that God had only to do with determining those professions which we call sacred—putting men in the ministry, sending them to the foreign field, etc. God has His plan for every man, and He appointed Moses to leadership and war as surely as He called Aaron to holy service.

To find out that plan through prayer is to put one’s self in the way. Macmillan’s Magazine once related this incident: A young man whose bluntness was such that every effort to turn him to account in a linen-drapery establishment was found unavailing, received from his employer the customary note that he would not suit, and must go. “But I’m good for something,” remonstrated the poor fellow, loath to be turned out into the street. “You are good for nothing as a salesman,” said the principal, regarding him from his selfish point of view. “I am sure I can be useful,” repeated the young man. “How? Tell me how.” “I don’t know, sir; I don’t know.” “Nor do I.” And the principal laughed as he saw the eagerness the lad displayed. “Only don’t put me away, sir; don’t put me away. Try me at something besides selling. I cannot sell; I know I cannot sell.” “I know that, too; that is what is wrong.” “But I can make myself useful somehow; I know I can.” The blunt boy, who could not be turned into a salesman, and whose manner was so little captivating that he was nearly sent about his business, was accordingly tried at something else. He was placed in the counting house, where his aptitude for figures soon showed itself, and in a few years he became not only chief cashier in the concern, but eminent as an accountant throughout the whole country.

Who can say that such a calling was not in providence planned for him? “Commit thy ways unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass”. It is to the obedient Joshuas of earth He has said, “Then shalt thou make thy ways prosper, and thou shalt have good success”.

At every point where Aaron kept to the Divine command, and seconded the efforts of his younger, though more illustrious brother Moses, he succeeded. His every departure from this plan of life was a painful failure. So plain is the lesson that the “wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein”.AARON’S AGAINST HIS WORTHHe had no courage to oppose a crowd. Through the forty years of Moses’ banishment from Egypt, Aaron dwelt there with God’s people and never dreamed of facing Pharaoh and demanding their emancipation. And in all the murmurings of the people during their wilderness experience, it was Moses who called them to account for their conduct, not Aaron. When Moses was in the holy mount and the people gathered themselves and said unto Aaron, “Up, make us gods which shall go before us”, he weakly surrendered and took their gold earrings and made for them a molten calf, and “Aaron built an altar before it”. When Miriam rebelled against her brother because he had married an Ethiopian woman, followed as she doubtless was by the company, Aaron joined with her in complaint, so that the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and Miriam becomes leprous or “white as snow”; upon which Aaron looked, to say unto Moses, “Alas, my Lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned.” The world has in it too many weak men: men like the man at the temple gate Beautiful, with diseased ankle bones; men who cannot stand on their own feet and exercise an independent opinion. There is an impression that a Christian spirit is to be always in agreement with the crowd. A contributor of a recent article, in the endeavor to sound the highest praises of a good man, said, “He could not make an enemy.” Neither could Aaron; he lacked the courage. He would worship at the shrine of a golden calf rather than lower himself a bit in popularity. But God did not approve the popularity.Moses was a man of conflicts many, and his courage is everywhere commended. He is in line not only with the Scripture, but with the noblest sentence of history which says, “Individualism involves trial; it means the cross. But it also means heroism and daring.” “All the world is against you,” they said to John Knox, and he retorted, “Then I am against all the world.” When Bunyan was asked to pledge himself to preach no more, he said, “I will rather stay in jail until the moss grows out of my eyebrows.” “He’s a slave who dare not be In the right with two or three.”Scarce a poem of modern times that has justified itself as an emphasis of this needful truth as does that of James Russell Lowell on “The Present Crisis”, two verses of which aptly illustrate our thought: “Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ’tis prosperous to be just;Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,Doubting, in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.“Count me o’er earth’s chosen heroes; they were souls that stood alone,While the men they agonized for, hurled the contumelious stone,Stood, serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith Divine,By one man’s plain truth to manhood and to God’s supreme design.”I once read some words that I commend to the thought of the youth of this audience. They relate to the occasion at West Point, June 11th, when the President with his own hand decorated cadet Calvin Pearl Titus with a golden medal for bravery. He was a bugler in the 14th Infantry, and was the first to scale the walls at Pekin, August 14th, 1900. His brave act, witnessed by thousands, sent his name around the world, and yet those who knew him expected just such conduct, for he was a young man who had the courage of his convictions. On the night of his enlistment for the Spanish American war, he was assigned to a tent with a half dozen men, and yet when it came time for retiring, he said to them, “Boys, I don’t know; whether any of you men pray, but I do,” and he went down on his knees full before their faces to talk with his Father as was his wont. And yet in the whole history of West Point Military Academy, never was “plebe” or cadet who has been so honored as to be presented with a medal by a vote of Congress.Aaron lacked the conviction that confesses wrong.

When Miriam was smitten before his eyes with leprosy, he said, “We have sinned”. That was the cry of one under judgment.

When Moses came down from the holy mount to find the people worshiping the golden calf and called upon Aaron to know why he had brought so great sin upon them, he dissembled by saying, “I said unto them, whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off, so they gave it me, then I cast it into the fire and there came out this calf”. He was covering up the fact that he had fashioned it with a graving tool, concealing the sin that he might escape the penalty. Now we know why God could not give to him first place. A mistake often reveals the man. If he is a great soul, he will confess it fully and frankly; but, if a second-rate one, he will attempt to conceal it and start on a plea of self-justification. Dr.

Galusha Anderson tells of having known a young man in the winter of 1876, who in the Moody meetings in Chicago, professed interest in his soul; and that profession called out Anderson’s sympathies and assistance. And yet, for some reason Anderson’s prayers for the young man did not avail.

One day he said to Anderson, “I am a telegrapher and I wish you would go with me to the ticket office of the Western Union, and solicit a place for me as operator.” Anderson went with him gladly. When he introduced him to the superintendent, he said, “Oh, yes, I know George.” And then, turning to Dr. Anderson, he said, “This man for whom you are interested is a most skillful telegrapher. I know of no ear so delicately attuned as his. He never mistakes the click of the instrument. We had unbounded confidence in him, and put him in a position of trust, but he would persist in getting drunk and we were compelled to discharge him.” “But,” said the man, defending himself, “when I was in Cleveland, my companions led me astray.

If it had not been for them, I should not have been drunk, but now—” “O George,” broke in the superintendent, “have you repented? If you have, don’t be deceiving yourself; you will have to get down flatter on your face than that.

No man truly repents who lays his sins to others.” Who shall say that the superintendent was not right? It requires courage to confess a wrong—to confess it to God and before men. But there is forgiveness for the man who exercises it; and there is condemnation for the man who dissembles. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper”.His sufferings were in some degree the measure of his sins. It was a painful sight to behold Miriam stricken with leprosy and to realize that he had encouraged her in the course that accomplished this living death. When the rebellious Israelites were falling at the sword of the Levites, three thousand in a day because they had worshiped the calf, the sword must have pierced Aaron’s soul through because he had practically assisted them in so doing.In our study of Lev 10:1-20, we shall see Nadab and Abihu, the elder sons of this man, smitten by fire from the Lord because they will offer strange fire before the Lord which He had commanded them not. And we will be told that “Aaron held his peace”.

It is a pathetic sight, this of a father sitting in solitude and silence in the hour of his own children’s destruction. And yet, Aaron was learning again that sorrow was the measure of sin.

And in this respect God’s law does not change. Many a time since entering Minneapolis I have found acquaintances and, at times, professed followers of Christ, in evil courses, and sometimes have pled with them with every possible power to see the dreadfulness and the danger of deliberate iniquity. But some of them have had to see the inside of the city jail, and others practically suffered the tortures of the damned before they understood. Beloved, the Apostle wrote truly when he said, “Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin; and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death”.But one thing more.AARON’S OFFICE THE OF CHRISTWe have already spoken of it as being high and holy.He entered into the Father’s presence. It is a great privilege, this of coming into the presence of God. Ancient kings used to have a custom of allowing no one in their presence save those whom they summoned.

You will remember that Esther took her life into her hands when she went unto the presence of Ahasuerus unbidden, saying as she went, “If I perish, I perish. * *. But it was so when the king saw Esther, the queen, standing in the court, she found favor in his sight”.

But the high priest had rightful access to the presence of God. It was a prophecy of that better priesthood which we have in Christ Jesus. Of old, there“were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death; but this Man, because He continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:23-28).The priest pled the cause of the people. Aaron was a man appointed to go unto God as a mediator. How much better our state since this office has passed on to the Son Himself. “We have a great High Priest that has passed into the vail”—Jesus, the Son of God who can be“touched with the feeling of our infirmities; * * He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace. * *. If in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted”.The priest presented the blood in atonement.

You go over to the Book of Leviticus, the ninth chapter and find that Aaron had, first of all, to present the blood for himself, and after that, to sprinkle the blood for the people. But our High Priest is without sin. The blood which Aaron presented was only that of “bulls and goats which could not take away the sins of the people”; it only served to point to the better sacrifice to come, when, through the shed Blood of the Son of God, our souls might be made clean.Do you recall the felicitous story of Luther in which he outwits the Adversary, as was Luther’s wont. It was this: During a serious illness, the evil one seemed to enter his sick room, and looking at him with a triumphant smile, unrolled a vast roll which he carried in his arms. As one end of it fell on the floor, and with the impetus he had given it, unwound, Luther’s eyes were fixed on it and to his consternation he read there the record of his own sins, clearly and distinctly enumerated. He quailed before it; but suddenly there flashed into his mind that there was one thing not Written there, and he said aloud, “One thing you have forgotten. ‘The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin’.” When his enemy, the accuser of his brethren, heard this, he took up his heavy roll again and suddenly disappeared.

It is the way of triumph, beloved, the way of the Blood. When, on that awful night in Egypt, the death angel walked through the land and slew the first born in every house where he saw not the blood stain on the posts and lintels of the doors, he passed over unharmed every house on which that blood appeared; and whatever scientists and philosophers may say to the contrary, the Scriptures remain clear that such is our hope since Christ has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, and perfected forever, them that are sanctified.

To those who have accepted the Blood that cleanses, has come the promise, full and glorious, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”.It is said of Aaron that when the time had come that he walked with Moses to the peak of lofty mount Hor, whose vast cliffs and perpendicular walls of stone, and pinnacled towers still pierce the sky, there to lie down in the presence of his brother and Eleazer, his son, and breathe his last, they took the robes from the dying man that they might be put on his successor, and kissed him on the brow. As they stripped him a silver veil of cloud sank over him like a pall and covered him and Aaron slept the sleep of the saved, and his soul was parted from the body. Aaron had sinned and yet for Aaron, the blood had been shed and he had trusted in it and was redeemed, and “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints”. I noticed the other day in the Young People’s paper, the statement that when Rev. J. F. Lyte found there was no hope of his recovery from consumption, he went into his study, looked death straight in the face, and sat down and wrote the brave and beautiful words: “I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;Where is Death’s sting? Where, Grave thy victory?I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.”