When God is about bringing them out of bondage, He renews His covenant and again requires blood; but this time the blood of a perfect lamb, and the blood must be sprinkled upon the door-posts and lintels of every door, setting the inmates apart to God, or showing that God's people dwelt there; and the destroying angel passed over the land but destroyed them not, because God knew and kept them. He brought them safely out of bondage into a wilderness, and conducted them _through_ the wilderness safely to the promised rest. He did not at once let then enter into that rest; but kept them in the wilderness to try them, and prove them. They were His people, sanctified to Him by the blood of the perfect lamb, and He could keep them just as well in the wilderness as in the land of Canaan. He could spread their table in the sight of their foes. When they wanted meat, He gave them quails in abundance; when they wanted bread, He sent them manna from heaven--angels food; when they wanted water the rock contained a full supply, but must be smitten to produce it; and it sent forth a stream that followed them through all their journey, typifying the spirit of grace that accompanies the child of God through all his journey. Although they wandered forty years in the wilderness, their garments did not grow old, nor their sandals wear out. So we see that God provided for them through all their wandering and brought them to that promised rest, and according to his promise they became a great nation. Once more, God renews the covenant He made with Abraham, or in other words fulfilled it. Here it requires again the shedding of blood, and this time it must be the precious blood of the Lord Jesus, the only begotten son of God which cleanses from all sin. If the typical blood of Abraham's heifer and Moses' lamb, could prevail with God, to the temporal salvation of man, how much more shall the precious blood of Christ prevail to the purifying and washing away of all our sins. As God gave the promise of the "seed" to Abraham, and set it apart in Israel, he has perfected it in Christ. As He kept them (His people) in the temporal wilderness through which they had to pass to get to their promised rest, so will He keep us in Christ through this wilderness of sin through which we must all pass. It is not His will to take us at once from the world; but to keep us in the world; to help build up His kingdom in the world; for it must take perfect workmen to do perfect work.