Exodus: Unity of Law and Grace

The Day of God’s Vengeance

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Day of God’s Vengeance

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 011

Dictation Name: RR171F11

Location/Venue:

Year: Early 70’s

Let us worship God. Serve the Lord with gladness, come before His presence with singing. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name, for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and His truth endureth to all generations. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we give thanks unto thee that, as we face a trouble-filled world, we have blessed assurance that thou art on the throne, that thou will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven, that thy kingdom shall come and that all things shall serve thee, and magnify thy holy name. Make us joyful in thy government, make us faithful to thy word, and make us more than conquerors through Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.

Our scripture this morning is from Exodus 4:1-9. Our subject: The Day of God’s Vengeance. Exodus 4:1-9. “And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee. And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, the hand was leprous as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.”

The pyramids of Egypt, on a number of ways, witnessed to the ways of the ancient Egyptians, by their solidity and permanence, and also their triangular form. They are a witness to the fact that the Egyptians believed that their culture represented the true state of being, that it was aligned with the essential structure of being. The Egyptians believed the universe to be static, a realm without change. Therefore, in challenging Egypt’s faith, God struck at the world of nature. Suddenly nature, which was so dependable became, to the Egyptian mind, perverse and undependable.

In Egypt, the seasons always have marched, one after another with certainty; none of the variations that we are so used to. But now, under the curse of God, they were to alter their course, and this fact struck at the foundations of Egyptian life and thought, of Egyptian religions. Egypt’s certainties because uncertainties, and all its certainties became a series of judgments.

The first question in Moses’ mind now was with respect to Israel. “They will not believe me,” he said. He does not say, “The Egyptians will not believe me.” His concern is with the cynicism of his own people. Repeatedly in history, those who are in name, God’s people, are most resistant to His word and His messengers. Now, this was Moses’ third objection. His first, in Exodus 3:11, which we have dealt with previously was, “Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” Moses now saw himself, not as a prince, but as an insignificant man. Second, Moses asked, “Whom shall I say has sent me to you?” He asks for God’s name. Now third, Moses says, “They will not believe me.” The word translated as “token.” In God’s answer to the first objection is, “Certainly I will be with thee and will be a token unto them, and to thee that I have sent thee.” The word “token” is a Hebrew word, a flag, a token, a beacon, an omen, a prodigy, or evidence. It will be obvious, in other words, that God is Moses.

The second answer is God’s declaration that He is who He is, God the creator and sovereign. And the third answer is that God will give, as we just read in our text, three supernatural signs to Moses to confirm his calling. As against the powers of history, Moses will have power from the Lord of history. The first sign will be to turn his shepherd staff into a snake, and then back again into a staff. The second is to turn his hand leprous and then reverse the process, and the third sign is to turn into blood a dipping of Nile water, which is a sign also of the coming plague, the first of the ten. And there is a hint of the tenth as well, as we shall later see.

Two of these three signs Moses saw with his eyes, then and there. There was no question in his mind as to what God could do. Intellectually and empirically, Moses had no way of questioning God’s word and power, but all the same, he made excuses. He knew that he lacked faith to act on what he knew. The evidence was clear, but Moses showed no faith. Evidentialism is, as it always has been, a failure. We have a large school of people who believe all you have to do is to prove the existence of God and people will believe. Well, Paul tells us in Romans 7:17 following that all things in heaven and earth, every atom of our being witnesses to the truths, visible and invisible of God, but men suppress it, they hold it, the King James says, literally they hold it back, they keep it back, in unrighteousness or in injustice, being sinners they don’t want to believe in God. It is the atheist who really believes in miracles. He believes that all creation came out of nothing. At every point, he violates his scientific knowledge, something out of nothing, spontaneous generation, and so on. Every step of his creed is a violation of his scientific beliefs. He is the one who believes in miracles.

Evidentialism did not work with Moses. What Moses had been ready to do in his own power, he now feared to do in God’s power. Later on, Israel would repeatedly show the same lack of faith as Moses sought to lead them. Like Pharaoh, Israel said, in effect, “Even after the Red Sea deliverance during the wilderness years, who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” The signs given by God are very, very telling ones. F.W. Grant, about a century ago, wrote powerfully of the first sign, and I quote, “The rod comes first. The rod is a sign of power. The rod of thy power, Psalm 110:2.” Here, as we know, in the shepherd’s hand, who as we have seen is a very type of royalty according to God. Even the iron rod with which Christ will smite his enemies, is still represented as in a shepherd’s hand. In all passages, it really reads, “He shall shepherd them with an iron rod, as in Revelation 2:27. Severely as it may smite, love guides it. Oh, indeed to those whom everlasting love has thus to smite. The rod in Moses’ hand then, is then a type of power, divine and characterized by tenderness and care, as a shepherd’s rod. But Moses is told to cast it on the ground, and out of his hand the rod changes its character. It becomes a serpent. Plainly enough, the type can be read here. Who that looks round upon the earth with a thought in his mind of power being in the hands of eternal love, but must own to strange bewilderment that finding everywhere what seems completely to negate this supposition. Scripture itself puts the question in its full strength, “Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee which frameth mischief by a law.”

There is no doubt that there is a special reference to Egypt here, which Moses and the Israelites would readily understand. The asp played a conspicuous part in Egyptian mythology. It was the emblem of the Goddess Rano, the snake of Neff, the hieroglyphic of goddess, and the sign of royalty.” We can add that the Egyptian crown, if you have ever seen any of the Egyptian reliefs, shows an asp on the crown, with head erect.

Now the second sign deals with leprosy and its cleansing. Leprosy is a biblical type of sin. Both the defilement and the cleansing are shown to be from the heart. God, by His grace, can make us a new creation, hard-hearted Israel can be made to hear, God is telling Moses, by God’s grace. The third sign is a prediction of judgment and therefore, Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.

Now each of these signs had a very clear meaning to Moses and to Israel. First, as I pointed out, the serpent was a prominent part of the Egyptian crown, and it set for the Pharaoh’s power to kill. As George Bush, the commentator of a century and a half ago, prominent American noted, and I quote, “Thus Eliazar, a Jewish commentator said, “As a serpent biteth and killeth the sons of Adam, so Pharaoh and his people did bite and kill the Israelites but he was turned and made like a dry stick.’” God was placing in Moses’ hand the power to strip Pharaoh of all power. The second sign, leprosy, had a like meaning. Leprosy separated men from society, it made them pariahs. When Moses was through with Pharaoh, he was made as appealing as a leper to his own people. The third sign is very, very important for our time. It refers to the Hebrew male infants who were cast into the Nile. We don’t know how long this continued, when it was that God told Israel they were no longer, or told Egypt they were no longer to do this through their royal advisers, namely that their workforce was going to be wiped out, and Pharaoh ceased. But we do know that, for some time, the children were, the male children destroyed wholesale by being cast into the Nile.

Now, God was going to make the Nile, the lifeblood of Egypt, turn into blood and become totally useless. It would make the sacred Nile loathsome. Years had passed, about eighty years, but God had not forgotten the infanticide ordered by Pharaoh, nor had He forgotten their decision, so callously, to kill the innocent ones. And we can say that God has not forgotten the abortions of the twentieth century, His judgments never faith. We can get through history as we can beginning with this episode, to the various times when infanticide has been practiced by various countries, from the Far East across Europe, and we can trace the judgment of God. It indicates a society that has lost a love of life, and has a will to death, and God brings death upon them. Moreover, the plagues of Egypt began at this point, turning the waters of the Nile into blood. The death of the infants was not forgotten by God after seventy to eighty years. How long it continued, when it was discontinued, and how many babies died, we do not know. What we do know is that this judgment had priority with God, and the first and last plagues upon Egypt struck at Egypt in terms of this. The waters of the Nile that had been the source of death for innocent babes were totally made useless, and the last plague, the death of the firstborn, throughout Egypt.

Failure to recognize this strict justice by God is a sin which now plagues the church. God is seen as inoperative in history. But this is a blindness on the part of the church. Whatever men may or may not believe makes no difference to God. The day of the vengeance of our God never fails, and when the church fails to preach this fact, it means judgment on the church as well. The church today is too busy preaching other things, from the social gospel to the rapture, and the judgment of God in history again and again is never mentioned, nor the fact that God Himself says, “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” Failure to believe that is a sin, and very serious offense in the sight of God. Let us pray.

Oh Lord, our God, thy word is truth, and even as Egypt was judged, so our world today from pole to pole shall be judged for its many sins, beginning with its sins against the unborn. Make us faithful to thee, so that in the Day of Judgment we may stand and witness to an evil generation, and may become the builders of the futures in thee. Thou hast called us to this task. By thy word and by thy spirit, empower us that we may do thy will. In the name of Christ. Amen. Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] Well, of course judgment in that event meant salvation for the Jews.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] And judgment in this occasion would probably mean salvation for the believers.

[Rushdoony] Exactly, exactly. The fact that scripture makes abundantly clear is that there is no salvation without judgment. The two coincide, and the supreme coincident is the cross of Christ. So, again and again in history, we see a time of judgment and we see it as a time of deliverance, of salvation, and this is how we must view the days that are immediately ahead of us. Any other questions and comments? Yes?

[Audience] Well, the Nile, the water from the Nile turned to blood as it touched the ground, not while it was flowing. [22.19.2]

[Rushdoony] That was in this incident, but the waters of the Nile totally, as they flowed, turned to blood, and as we shall see subsequently, they tried to dig wells, anything, to try to find good water and could not, it was blood everywhere. All kinds of naturalistic explanations of that have been attempted, such as red clay suddenly washed down from the head waters from the Nile, and so on, but that happens all the time and is no problem. This was a change in the constitution of the water that helped destroy Egypt. Yes?

[Audience] Well, now they are beginning to discover the fact that the Aswan {?} Dam which was intended to control the inundation of the Nile, etc., are now poisoning the land of Egypt with salt, I believe.

[Rushdoony] Yes. There were a great many predictions before the Aswan Dam was built as to the damage it would do, and the fact that it could destroy Egypt, but no attention was paid to this because the attitude was, and I recall vividly, there would be problems but there would be no lack of solutions by science when the time arrived.

[Audience] Well, this is really a judgment on following a false god.

[Rushdoony] Yes, yes. It is a judgment, and this is one of a number of things that were predicted for the construction of the Aswan Dam. We poured a great deal of money into it. We poured a great deal of money into moving some of the monuments that were likely to be flooded, so that we were also a part of the false faith that went into the building of the Aswan Dam. Any other questions or comments?

[Audience] Current events that are in the Holy Land now, is that covered in the scriptures? The occurrences of today?

[Rushdoony] No, they are not, and except insofar as scripture tells us, there is always a judgment upon sin. There are those who feel that Israel per se, Israel as Israel is always in prophesy. However, what scripture makes clear is only in Christ are prophesies fulfilled. Thus, Israel was the chosen people of God, but God told them through the prophets, “I could have chosen the Ethiopians instead of you. It was nothing in you, of yourself. It was my grace that made you the chosen people.” And the same is true of Christians, “By grace are ye saved through faith and that, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.” And for this reason, the church can be set aside. We often forget that the center of the church, in the early centuries to about the sixth century or so, was areas like Syria, and Lebanon, and Palestine, and North Africa. So many of the great churchmen like St. Augustine were North Africans, and Cyril of Alexandria. It was the center of all learning and culture, and by contrast, they regarded the Europeans as backward. But they sophisticated their faith and became wayward, and they were set aside and destroyed, even as Israel was. And the same can happen to the churches of Europe and the United States, and the peoples of Europe and the United States. When God said he could take the Ethiopians out of Africa and make them His chosen people, he was telling Israel that He would do His will and prophesy was only to be fulfilled in those whom He chose. So, Israel has no place in prophesy unless Israel is in Christ. It is for this reason that the church renders itself ineffective because it shifts things to blood rather than grace, and it is by grace we are saved, and Paul says, “Ye are Abraham’s seed in Christ,” that we are the sons of Abraham in terms of which prophesy spoke. So, as long as we are in Christ, we are Abraham’s seed and heirs of the promise, and if any are believers as a number are in Israel today, they are heirs of the promise, not the unbelieving there or in the United States, or anyplace in the world.

Any other questions or comments? We need to remember, let me add this before we conclude, that abortion is a serious offense in the sight of God, and he has not changed from the days of Moses till now. He is the same, and therefore, His judgment will be very real and it will be grievous but it will be our deliverance. Only those lands that God abandons ever escape the kind of judgment that God promises as his prelude to deliverance. Let us conclude with prayer.

Our Lord and our God, we thank thee for the certainty of thy word and of thy judgment and of thy salvation. We thank thee, our Father that even now, thou art at work, and thy purpose shall be fulfilled, that all our ways are before thee. Every hair of our head is known to thee and numbered, and nothing shall happen apart from thy sovereign will. Teach us, therefore, to rejoice in thy government, and to be grateful for thy mercies. And now, go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of Tape.