We are preparing a schedule of the whole year which can be slipped into the Bible, and thus ever furnish a ready reference to the Scripture reading of the day. This is more than we agreed to do; but we felt that many of our Band would send away their papers to friends, or mislay them, perhaps, and therefore we are preparing the whole year's schedule. Where clubs have been sent in we will mail a sufficient number to the sender. Others who desire it will please enclose stamp and one will be sent immediately.
Some of our Band may be Sunday-observers, and may therefore have more time to read on Sunday. Let them read the regular number on the day previous and five on Sunday.
As the going out of Egypt into Canaan is a type of the deliverance of God's people from the dark Egypt of earth, so the plagues visited upon Egypt are a type of the last plagues recorded in Revelation 16. They were literal, and Egypt knew it; and Philistia did not doubt it. 1 Sam. 4:7, 8.
Not till we reach the tenth chapter is it said that God 'hardened' Pharaoh's heart. See the American Standard Revision. Pharaoh's heart was made heavy and stubborn by his own resistance to the Spirit of God. But there came a time when God could no longer impress the haughty king, and His Spirit was withdrawn. Only so does God harden hearts, by withdrawing His Spirit and leaving man to himself.
It is always best to draw personal lessons from the scripture we read. Take the solemn Passover. That Passover represented Christ. 1 Cor. 5:7. If His decision in our cases should come tonight, or death should visit us, are our sins washed away?
Wonderful lessons are these chapters of God's power. The song of Moses will be repeated by those who are delivered from the persecuting powers of earth when Christ comes. Rev. 15:2, 3. But those then delivered will sing another song, that of the Lamb, because they are triumphant over sin.
Note the threefold weekly miracle in connection with the manna continued for forty years. Think how impossible it was for Israel to be mistaken about the day of the Sabbath. God knew, and God made it so plain for forty years that the unbelieving among them could not be mistaken. This was the Sabbath given in the law (Ex. 20:8-11), and this was the Sabbath kept by the disciples of Jesus (Luke 23:56). How blessed it would have been for Israel to feed upon the food furnished of God instead of the flesh-pots of Egypt. How much better it would be for men and women now to eat simple, wholesome food instead of the multitudinous concoctions and mixtures of modern cooking. And how much more blessed to feed our souls upon the word of God spiritually than upon the traditions and substitutes of men.
In the nineteenth chapter (verses 3-8) are the preliminary steps of the 'old covenant.' Notice that God's covenant, His voice, is not the covenant between Him and Israel; they are the conditions of the covenant. How befitting to God's great and eternal law was all the glory and power displayed in its giving. It begins with Ex. 20:2 and ends with verse 17. We need not worry over its division. The great thought with us each and all ought to be not to have that holy law without as a condemner of our sin, but to let God by His Gospel (see pages 6, 7) write it upon our heart, and make each commandment an enabling act in our lives. It is a good law, isn't it? If Israel had not loved sin, they would not have asked that God speak no more.
Chapters 21 to 23 are various general laws and precepts which were necessary in community life. Chapter 24 is the ratifying of the 'old covenant' by blood, 'concerning' the words, the conditions of the covenant. Israel broke the covenant, but the righteous law of conditions remained. Note that in verse 12 the Ten Commandments are called 'a law,' separate from all other laws. God is a 'devouring fire,' but only to consume sin.
Most excellent in their spiritual sweetness and fulness are the Psalms for this week. How fittingly does the thirty-second come in in connection with the Gospel Bible-reading in this issue.