The following commentary covers Chapters 5 through 13.
The
power of evil; Satan's resistance permitted
At the news of the
goodness of God, the people adore Him; but the struggle
against the power of evil is another matter. Satan will
not let the people go, and God permits this resistance,
for the exercise of faith, and for the discipline of His
people, and for the brilliant display of His power where
Satan had reigned. We have to learn, and perhaps
painfully, that we are in the flesh and under Satan's
power; and that we have no power to effect our own
deliverance, even with the help of God. It is the
redemption of God in Christ's death and resurrection,
realised in the power of the Spirit given when He had
accomplished that redemption and had sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, that delivers;
for forgiveness, and escape from judgment, is not
deliverance. One refers to sins and God's righteously
passing over them, the other to sin and its power.
Oppression
heavier; the hand of God shown
Before the deliverance,
when the hopes of the people are now awakened, the
oppression becomes heavier than ever, and the people
would have preferred being left quiet in their slavery.
But the rights and counsels of God are in question. The
people must be thoroughly detached from these Gentiles,
who, to this end, are now become their torment under
God's hand. Moses works signs. The magicians imitate them
by the power of Satan, in order to harden Pharaoh's
heart. But when the question is of creating life, they
are forced to recognise the hand of God.
God as judge and
deliverer
At last God executes His
judgment, taking the firstborn as representatives of all
the people. We have thus two parts in the deliverance of
the people; in one, God appears as Judge, but satisfied
through the blood that is before Him; in the other, He
manifests Himself as Deliverer. Up to this last, the
people are still in Egypt. In the first, the expiatory
blood of redemption bars the way to Him as Judge, and it
secures the people infallibly; but God does not enter
within—its value is to secure them from judgment [1].
God's two
judgments — of the firstborn and at the Red Sea
— God's justice and truth satisfied
The people, their loins
girded, having eaten in haste, with the bitter herbs of
repentance, begin their journey; but they do so in Egypt:
yet now God can be, and He is, with them. Here it is well
to distinguish these two judgments, that of the
firstborn, and that of the Red Sea. As matters of
chastisement, the one was the firstfruits of the other,
and ought to have deterred Pharaoh from his rash pursuit.
But the blood, which kept the people from God's judgment,
meant something far deeper and far more serious than even
the Red Sea, though judgment was executed there too [2]. What happened at the Red Sea was,
it is true, the manifestation of the illustrious power of
God, who destroyed with the breath of His mouth the enemy
who stood in rebellion against Him—final and
destructive judgment in its character, no doubt, and
which effected the deliverance of His people by His
power. But the blood signified the moral judgment of God,
and the full and entire satisfaction of all that was in
His being. God, such as He was, in His justice, His
holiness, and His truth, could not touch those who were
sheltered by that blood [3]. Was there sin? His love towards His people
had found the means of satisfying the requirements of His
justice; and at the sight of that blood, which answered
everything that was perfect in His being, He passed over
it consistently with His justice and even His truth.
Nevertheless God, even in passing over, is seen as Judge;
hence, so long as the soul is on this ground, its peace
is uncertain though the ground of it be sure—its way
in Egypt, being all the while truly
converted—because God has still the character of
Judge to it, and the power of the enemy is still there.
[1] Note here the expression, "When I see the blood, I
will pass over." It is not said, when you see it,
but when I see it. The soul of an awakened person often
rests, not on its own righteousness, but on the way in
which it sees the blood. Now, precious as it is to have
the heart deeply impressed with it, this is not the
ground of peace. Peace is founded on God's seeing it. He
cannot fail to estimate it at its full and perfect value
as putting away sin. It is He that abhors and has been
offended by sin; He sees the value of the blood as
putting it away. It may be said,. But must I not have
faith in its value? This is faith in its value,
seeing that God looks at it as putting away sin; your
value for it looks at it as a question of the measure of
your feelings. Faith looks at God's thoughts.
[2] As a figure this may be looked at
as final judgment according to the estimate of sin in the
death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus; for the people
were brought to God, and the evil enemies come under
death and judgment which, as accomplished in Christ, save
us. But as the secret of God's dealings experimentally
known in our souls, it has another sense; it begins the
desert journey, though that has its full character only
from Sinai. The path in the wilderness forming no part of
the counsels, but only of the ways of God; it may as to
redemption be dropped but then Jordan and the Red Sea
coalesce. The Red Sea is Christ's death and resurrection
for us; Jordan our death and resurrection with Him, but
here we have got into what is experimental.
[3] There is further a difference
between the passover and the great day of atonement. Here
the blood met the eye of God passing through the land in
judgment. On the great day of atonement it purified His
habitation from our defilements, and, we can say, opened
up the way to God's throne and presence; gave us boldness
to enter into the holiest by a new and living way. In the
passover was added, as it had the character of first
deliverance and forgiveness, the bitter herbs of judgment
of sin in ourselves, and feeding on the slain Lamb, with
loins girded and shoes on our feet, to leave the place of
sin and judgment from which as the consequence of sin we
had been fully sheltered.
Exodus 12 Bible Commentary
John Darby’s Synopsis
The power of evil; Satan's resistance permitted
At the news of the goodness of God, the people adore Him; but the struggle against the power of evil is another matter. Satan will not let the people go, and God permits this resistance, for the exercise of faith, and for the discipline of His people, and for the brilliant display of His power where Satan had reigned. We have to learn, and perhaps painfully, that we are in the flesh and under Satan's power; and that we have no power to effect our own deliverance, even with the help of God. It is the redemption of God in Christ's death and resurrection, realised in the power of the Spirit given when He had accomplished that redemption and had sat down on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, that delivers; for forgiveness, and escape from judgment, is not deliverance. One refers to sins and God's righteously passing over them, the other to sin and its power.
Oppression heavier; the hand of God shown
Before the deliverance, when the hopes of the people are now awakened, the oppression becomes heavier than ever, and the people would have preferred being left quiet in their slavery. But the rights and counsels of God are in question. The people must be thoroughly detached from these Gentiles, who, to this end, are now become their torment under God's hand. Moses works signs. The magicians imitate them by the power of Satan, in order to harden Pharaoh's heart. But when the question is of creating life, they are forced to recognise the hand of God.
God as judge and deliverer
At last God executes His judgment, taking the firstborn as representatives of all the people. We have thus two parts in the deliverance of the people; in one, God appears as Judge, but satisfied through the blood that is before Him; in the other, He manifests Himself as Deliverer. Up to this last, the people are still in Egypt. In the first, the expiatory blood of redemption bars the way to Him as Judge, and it secures the people infallibly; but God does not enter within—its value is to secure them from judgment [1].
God's two judgments — of the firstborn and at the Red Sea — God's justice and truth satisfied
The people, their loins girded, having eaten in haste, with the bitter herbs of repentance, begin their journey; but they do so in Egypt: yet now God can be, and He is, with them. Here it is well to distinguish these two judgments, that of the firstborn, and that of the Red Sea. As matters of chastisement, the one was the firstfruits of the other, and ought to have deterred Pharaoh from his rash pursuit. But the blood, which kept the people from God's judgment, meant something far deeper and far more serious than even the Red Sea, though judgment was executed there too [2]. What happened at the Red Sea was, it is true, the manifestation of the illustrious power of God, who destroyed with the breath of His mouth the enemy who stood in rebellion against Him—final and destructive judgment in its character, no doubt, and which effected the deliverance of His people by His power. But the blood signified the moral judgment of God, and the full and entire satisfaction of all that was in His being. God, such as He was, in His justice, His holiness, and His truth, could not touch those who were sheltered by that blood [3]. Was there sin? His love towards His people had found the means of satisfying the requirements of His justice; and at the sight of that blood, which answered everything that was perfect in His being, He passed over it consistently with His justice and even His truth. Nevertheless God, even in passing over, is seen as Judge; hence, so long as the soul is on this ground, its peace is uncertain though the ground of it be sure—its way in Egypt, being all the while truly converted—because God has still the character of Judge to it, and the power of the enemy is still there.
[1] Note here the expression, "When I see the blood, I will pass over." It is not said, when you see it, but when I see it. The soul of an awakened person often rests, not on its own righteousness, but on the way in which it sees the blood. Now, precious as it is to have the heart deeply impressed with it, this is not the ground of peace. Peace is founded on God's seeing it. He cannot fail to estimate it at its full and perfect value as putting away sin. It is He that abhors and has been offended by sin; He sees the value of the blood as putting it away. It may be said,. But must I not have faith in its value? This is faith in its value, seeing that God looks at it as putting away sin; your value for it looks at it as a question of the measure of your feelings. Faith looks at God's thoughts.
[2] As a figure this may be looked at as final judgment according to the estimate of sin in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus; for the people were brought to God, and the evil enemies come under death and judgment which, as accomplished in Christ, save us. But as the secret of God's dealings experimentally known in our souls, it has another sense; it begins the desert journey, though that has its full character only from Sinai. The path in the wilderness forming no part of the counsels, but only of the ways of God; it may as to redemption be dropped but then Jordan and the Red Sea coalesce. The Red Sea is Christ's death and resurrection for us; Jordan our death and resurrection with Him, but here we have got into what is experimental.
[3] There is further a difference between the passover and the great day of atonement. Here the blood met the eye of God passing through the land in judgment. On the great day of atonement it purified His habitation from our defilements, and, we can say, opened up the way to God's throne and presence; gave us boldness to enter into the holiest by a new and living way. In the passover was added, as it had the character of first deliverance and forgiveness, the bitter herbs of judgment of sin in ourselves, and feeding on the slain Lamb, with loins girded and shoes on our feet, to leave the place of sin and judgment from which as the consequence of sin we had been fully sheltered.