Exodus 5:1

LET MY PEOPLE GO!

‘Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let My people go.’

Exodus 5:1

The history of the deliverance of God’s people from the bondage of Egypt, their pilgrimage through the wilderness, and their ultimate settlement in the Land of Promise, bear a striking analogy to the history of the human soul.

I. The words ‘Let My people go,’ regarded as spoken concerning human souls, may be said to contain in themselves the whole gospel history of our redemption. Even the small word ‘My’ is emphatic. We are God’s people; not Satan’s people. When God claims us we should remember that He claims His own, and that we are bound to support His claim. (2) The summons to let the people of God go implies a bondage from which they are to be delivered. That which forms the basis of Holy Scripture is the fact that man committed sin. He rebelled against his Maker, and became the slave of one to whom he owed no obedience. (3) If the words ‘Let My people go’ imply the existence of slavery, they still more emphatically imply the way and the promise of redemption. The Gospel of Christ, as preached throughout the whole world, is just this—‘Let My people go.’

II. The whole system of ordinances and sacraments, in which we find ourselves by God’s providence, like the system of ordinances and sacrifices which was given to Israel when they came out of Egypt, is intended to insure and perfect and turn to the best account the liberty which the Lord has given us, for the soul of man may not be content with emancipation once and for all.

III. The consideration of what Jesus Christ has done for us is the chief means of moving our hearts to seek that liberty which God designs us all to possess.

—Bishop Harvey Goodwin.

Illustration

‘The great fact for us is this, that the very first step towards liberty taken by God’s own servants, in His time and way, not only failed apparently, but actually intensified the horrors of the situation. To a believing Israelite only one refuge was possible, viz. the promise of God. He has said it, and would He do it, despite all appearances to the contrary? So did God seek, kindly but sternly, to discipline them to naked faith in His word. Of set purpose, circumstances were made so forbidding that hope could find nothing whatever to rest on. Israel was thus shut up to faith.’