Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2723
“And smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham: but made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.” Psalm 78:51, 52.
THERE is a very sharp line of division here between the Egyptians and the Lord’s own people, and that line of division always has existed and always will, for all attempts to blend the seed of the serpent with the seed of the woman must fail. Between the Church and the world, however debased the Church may become, and however reformed the world may be, there will still be a clear distinction even until the end—and that distinction will be seen in the day of the appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when “before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.”
I want you, first, to spend a few minutes in solemnly and sadly thinking of the punishment of Egypt. And then we will more joyfully meditate upon the salvation of Israel
I. First, let us think of THE PUNISHMENT OF EGYPT.
Egypt, through its kings, had become the determined adversary of God. “Who is Jehovah, that I should obey His voice?” was the challenge flung down by Pharaoh in defiance. And the Lord, who is a Man of War, was not slow to accept it. Then came that great conflict between the stony-hearted king and Jehovah, the God of Israel. To all but the eye of faith, it seemed a very hopeless thing to expect that Israel should ever come forth out of Egypt. They had been so long oppressed and down-trodden that they were really only a vast herd of slaves—they had not the spirit of free men. And when Moses was sent by God to lead them out of the house of bondage, they were rather a hindrance to their deliverer than a help to him. They were a poor race of serfs crushed beneath Pharaoh’s iron heel, yet Jehovah was their God and they were His people. They might be grimy with their labors at the brick kiln. They might sweat in the iron furnace, but God was on their side and He acknowledged them as His people. Notwithstanding their degradation and their sorrow, He heard their cry and He came down to deliver them—and then it became a battle royal between Jehovah of Hosts and proud Pharaoh of Egypt. God determined to strike blow after blow—to deal more gently with the tyrant at the first than He did at the last—and to end the battle by letting all men see that potsherds cannot strive successfully against a
rod of iron, and that puny man, at his strongest, is as nothing before the might of his Maker! God caused all the firstborn of Egypt to die on one night and so delivered His people with a high hand and an outstretched arm.
Let us learn from this, that when God comes to try conclusions between Himself and His enemies, He may allow a certain time to elapse before He overthrows them. He may, for awhile, smite gently, and so give opportunities for repentance. But if they are not accepted, we may depend upon it that God is not playing with sinners. They may fancy that He is, and they may delight to listen to those dulcet voices, those velvet-lined mouths that preach, nowadays, soft things to sinners who stand out in enmity against God—but they will find that they have been deceived when God comes to close quarters with them—and they will curse the man who has deceived them and made them continue to resist the Most High to their eternal ruin! For, when He once lays hold of the sword and buckler, His own words are, “I will ease Me of My adversaries.” And we may rest assured that when He comes forth to execute judgment, He will do it as thoroughly as He did when He “smote all the first-born in Egypt; the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.”
I can imagine Pharaoh dreaming that he had defeated Jehovah. He possibly said to his courtiers, “I have not seen that man, Moses, for the last four days. Certainly, he has plagued this country enough, but he has played his last card now—we shall never hear of him anymore. I have stood out and I have won the day—let us have a great feast unto our gods, for, after all, we have triumphed.” They spread the tables and they brought out the goblets. And the impious king drank on till far into the night. But what was that cry that made him start? What are those thousands of cries all through the palace and all around it? Pharaoh’s eldest son has fallen dead in a moment! He had had him crowned a little while before and associated him with himself in the government of the kingdom—but there he lies, struck dead in his father’s presence and before all the nobles of the land! All in the court who were first-born sons perished there in the king’s sight! And when he went out into the open air, that he might cool his fevered brow, he heard those awful cries from all the houses of the Egyptians, for there was not a house in the land in which there was not one dead. What do you now think, proud king? Can you stand against this unseen Power? God has struck you now even to the heart and broken your proud spirit in pieces!