THE WISDOM OF MAN SET AT NAUGHT.
By G.
THE Scripture says: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.” I Cor. 3:19. This was well illustrated when the king of Egypt undertook to “deal wisely” with the children of Israel. Fearing their growing power, he said to his counselors, “Let us deal wisely with them; ‘lest they multiply,’” etc. Then to restrict their multiplication he thought to weaken them with hard service, and set over them cruel and exacting taskmasters. “But the more they afflicted them, the ‘more they multiplied.’” The combined wisdom and power of this mightiest of earthly empires could neither devise nor accomplish any scheme that would thwart the plans of the Almighty. Egypt had been given ample opportunity to know the wisdom and power of Israel’s God, and to know that to “deal wisely with them” would have been to recognize their God, and to seek to know His will concerning them. A little of God’s wisdom would have been a great saving to Egypt, both in men and resources. Even to know Joseph, the servant of God (that is, to follow his counsel and policy), had been of incalculable value to the whole country. Under the guidance of the wisdom given to him, the true interest of both the king and the people of Egypt lay in the direction of fostering Israel. Had they continued to recognize the wisdom and power of Israel’s God, and sought to know Him for themselves, as He was all the time endeavoring to have them do, they could have enjoyed all the blessing that Israel enjoyed. There could have been no separate interest. But the king and his courtiers had a wisdom of their own; of course it was antagonistic to the purposes of God, and must come to naught. While there is encouragement in this for the true people of God, there is also a lesson. It is a significant question, how much of this reversion of sentiment on the part of the Egyptians was due to Israel’s own apostasy. Had not they in great measure departed from the integrity and faith of Joseph, which had so long held the confidence and favor of the Egyptians? Had not they become so lax in their lives that the worldly ambition of the Egyptians had taken hold of them? Had not they been yielding to the ways of the Egyptians, rather than holding to the example of Joseph in manifesting lives of unselfish devotion to the law of their God? The sequel shows that the wisdom and ways of the Egyptians had been influencing the children of Israel, rather than Israel’s wielding the drawing influence through the power of the Gospel. The king’s purpose to prevent the increase of Israel was frustrated, but the Lord allowed him to severely discipline them. Yet we may be sure that this was permitted only to the extent necessary to prepare them for departure when the Lord’s time should come to call them out. The judgment of the king was very much at fault when he thought to cruelly treat the Israelites to prevent their leaving. As long as they enjoyed favor and prosperity in Egypt, they were not likely to want to leave, and God does not deliver any one from a perilous position against his will. This is not an isolated case where the persecution of God’s people has led to their being brought nearer to Him, and to a realization of His mercy and care. Matthew Henry says: “Times of affliction have often been the church’s growing times. Christianity spread most when it was persecuted; the ‘blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church.’” The Lord ruleth in the kingdom of men. It is not necessary for human governments to pass laws making Christ their ruler; He is always their ruler in spite of any laws they may pass, or any other action they may take. The king of Egypt thought to do Israel harm, but God overruled it for their good. It was He who was chastening them all the time. “Their ‘lives were made bitter’ for the time being; but while the king of Egypt was exercising his cruel animosity, the love of God was using the only means that could avail for their salvation.” “My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure [as seemed good, margin]; but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Heb. 12:5-11. There were many practical advantages gained, in the providence of God, by the sojourn in Egypt. Their sustenance during the famine was not the only object in the mind of the Lord. Had it been so, they could have gone back as soon as the famine was over, twelve years before the death of Jacob. But they were no safer in Canaan than in Egypt. There were powerful tribes there, who were worse than the Egyptians, and the Israelites had already become contaminated by their association. In Egypt the oppression kept them to a great extent from social commingling with the Egyptians; it prevented, or restricted, intermarriages, excepting with those who came in as proselytes to Israel’s faith. It cemented them together in a common bond of union, and tended to create an interest in, and sympathy for, one another. It was designed to make of them a united people, and prepare them for unity of service in the cause of God, when His time came for their deliverance and removal to the land which He had promised them. When they should go back to Canaan, they were to be strong enough to endure hardship as good soldiers of the cross. All this required hard discipline, such as they never would have given themselves. Therefore the only means the Lord had of giving it to them was by means of the government’s taskmasters, who had been set to weaken rather than to strengthen them. The sojourn in Egypt, especially the season of enforced servitude, was a kind of industrial school, wherein they learned to do mechanical work, to become artisans. In their own chosen calling as herdsmen, they never would have learned to be the skilled workmen that many of them were. They learned many things in the line of mechanical art, especially in building, and in ornamental work, which they could not have learned in Canaan. All these advantages they were enabled to turn to account through the Lord’s bringing to naught the designs of their oppressors. G.