Almost every reader of Israel's history has seen, as surely it was intended that there should be seen, the pattern and picture of the soul's journey cut of the misery and bondage of sin into the glorious liberty wherewith Christ doth make his people free. It is a long and arduous journey, but blessed are they which take it. These verses imply or state its chief stages.

I. THE PREPARATION FOR THIS JOURNEY. This is not stated, but implied. We know the weariness and distress, the hard bondage and the cruel oppression, which led Israel to cry out unto the Lord. And the like of it the soul knows in its more than Egyptian bondage and oppression through sin. And ere the actual deliverance comes there has been the cry unto the Lord.

II. ITS DIFFERENT STEPS.

1. Believing in God. This was shown by their obedience to the command as to the Passover. Unbelief might have caviled and objected, but the spirit of faith was given, and all Israel kept the Passover. And ere deliverance comes to the soul, there is and must be faith in Christ our Passover; the definite trust in him as our Savior.

2. The breaking of the oppressor's power. (Ver. 10.) That which in the consciousness of the redeemed soul corresponds to what this verse tells of is the suspension of the power of sin. Whether permanently or not, for a time that power seems paralyzed, as was the power of Pharaoh when the firstborn were smitten. We are under its cruel compulsion no longer.

3. The actual deliverance. (Vers. 12, 13.) They went out of Egypt; so does the soul abandon its old ways, and start for the promised possession.

4. Complete consecration. It seemed as if Israel were to be dragged back again into slavery there at Pihahiroth - as if the old misery were to come over again. How often the soul has found the like of that! But the command came to Israel to "go forward." It seemed impossible, but they obeyed, and lo! the Red Sea parted asunder (vers. 13, 14). St. Paul speaks of this as their being "baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." It was the type of the soul's complete consecration. It will obey God, cost what it will; though it be like plunging into the sea, yet it will obey. That is what we must do. Then comes:

5. Further and complete deliverance. (Ver. 15.) When the soul thus resolves to obey God at all costs, even if it be like going straight to death, then, behold! the way will be opened, and what seemed like death will prove to be life, and our enemies trouble us no more. The soul's self-surrender to God is the destruction of its foes.

6. The wilderness trial and training. (Ver. 16.) The Law was given, and then came the tests of obedience. Israel was tried by providential circumstances, by evil example, by fierce attacks of mighty kings. The redeemed life must be a tried life; but, if we be really of God's Israel, it will be an overcoming life.

III. ITS BLESSED END. (Vers. 21, 22.) And so the soul shall come into its heavenly places in Christ (see the Epistle to the Ephesians). It shall gain its inheritance and keep it, in the rest which remaineth for the people of God, of which Canaan was the earthly type. - S.C.

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I. God ACTS. He is the great worker, — never resting, never failing, never wearying, — the worker of all workers, the motor in all motions.

II. God acts EVERYWHERE. In the heavens He rolls the massive orbs of space; on the earth He maketh the grass to grow and clotheth the earth with verdure.

III. God acts FROM and FOR HIMSELF.

1. From Himself. Our activity is often excited and controlled by something external to ourselves. His never. Nothing is extra. No ruling principles or persons, not all the hierarchies of intelligences, nor the rushing forces and forms of universal matter can excite Him. His action is that of absolute spontaneity. He is responsible to no one.

2. For Himself. There is no other reason for His activity but what pleases Him. The chief measure of any moral intelligence is the gratification of His predominant disposition. In God this is love. Hence His pleasure in creating the universe and sustaining it is the diffusion of His own happiness. His pleasure is the pleasure of His creatures; His happiness and theirs are identical.

(David Thomas, D. D.)