Notes on the book of ExodusMackintosh, Charles Henry
Religion
Notes on the book of Exodus
Mackintosh, Charles Henry
Bible. Exodus -- Commentaries
If an Israelite neglected to gather, in the freshness of the morning
hour, his daily portion of the divinely appointed food, he would
speedily have become lacking in strength for his journey. Thus is it
with us. We must make Christ the paramount object of our soul's
pursuit, else our spiritual life will inevitably decline. We cannot
even feed upon feelings and experiences connected with Christ, for
they, inasmuch as they are fluctuating, cannot form our spiritual
nourishment. It was Christ yesterday, and it must be Christ to-day,
and Christ forever. Moreover, it will not do to feed partly on Christ
and partly on other things. As in the matter of _life_ it is Christ
_alone_, so in the matter of _living_ it must be Christ _alone_. As we
cannot mingle any thing with that which _imparts_ life, so neither can
we mingle any thing with that which _sustains_ it.
It is quite true that, in spirit, and by faith, we can even now feed
upon a risen and glorified Christ, ascended up to heaven in virtue of
accomplished redemption, as prefigured by "the old corn of the land."
(See Joshua v.) And not only so, but we know that when God's redeemed
shall have entered upon those fields of glory, rest, and immortality
which lie beyond the Jordan, they shall, in actual fact, be done with
wilderness food; but they will not be done with Christ, nor with the
remembrance of that which constitutes the specific nourishment of
their desert life.
Israel were never to forget, amid the milk and honey of the land of
Canaan, that which had sustained them during their forty years'
sojourn in the wilderness. "This is the thing which the Lord
commandeth: 'Fill an omer of it to be kept for your generations; that
they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness,
when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.'... As the Lord
commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony, to be
kept." (Ver. 32-34.) Most precious memorial of the faithfulness of
God! He did not suffer them to die of hunger, as their foolish hearts
had unbelievingly anticipated. He rained bread from heaven for them,
fed them with angels' food, watched over them with all the tenderness
of a nurse, bore with them, carried them on eagles' wings, and, had
they only continued on the proper ground of grace, He would have put
them in eternal possession of all the promises made to their fathers.
The pot of manna, therefore, containing, as it did, a man's daily
portion, and laid up before the Lord, furnishes a volume of truth.
There was no worm therein, nor aught of taint. It was the record of
Jehovah's faithfulness in providing for those whom He had redeemed out
of the hand of the enemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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