October, 1935
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
370
"SPEAK... Tha t They (jo
”
B y THOMAS G. MARSH Tanganyika Territory, East Africa
drawing missionaries is to see, not the salvation of the Lord, but the enemy destroying the people and work of God. In these days, the Lord is saying to His servants, as He said to Moses: “ Speak unto the children o f Israel, that they go forward.” Yes, the Red Sea is before us, and the mountains o f difficulty and money shortage are before us, but the command comes from One who has thus led us into this very place o f difficulties. For the children o f Israel to have remained where they were would have been to be come slaves of the Egyptians again, brickmakers for Phar aoh’s treasure cities, burden bearers with their backs bent and bleeding from the whips o f the taskmasters; to go for ward meant God’s land, God’s provision, God’s liberty, and .God’s victory. The word o f the Lord to Moses was: “ Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” But how? Not only was Moses to speak to the children o f Israel, but he was also to do something fo r the children o f Israel. The doing of Moses would determine whether his speaking to them would be o f any value to them in escaping out of the hands of their enemies. The Lord said: “ But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it : and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” What a responsibility, what a task to place upon a mere man! Yet is not our failure to day to lead God’s hosts forward the result o f not recogniz ing this command as applicable to us, God’s servants now, as it was to Moses ? And do we not fail because we speak the word to go forward and think that that is sufficient, let ting the responsibility rest with the people to move or not to move ? The Lord said: “ Divide i t : and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” As soon as the sea was divided, the children of Israel moved forward and escaped out of the hand and land of the enemy. Moses was given a command to do a humanly impossible task, but God showed him the way and prepared him for the work. He said first: “ But lift thou up thy rod” ; then, “ Stretch out thine hand over the sea” ; and lastly, “ Divide it.” In these three phrases, we see how Moses was prepared to do the impossible, and we learn also the way in which he was to do it. A C hanged R od In the fourth chapter o f Exodus, we find the account of the call o f Moses and of God’s preparing him for the work with which he was to be entrusted. When God called him, Moses said: “ Behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice.” But his objection was met with the ques tion, “ What is that in thine hand ?” Moses answered: “ A rod.” It was a shepherd’s rod, one that he had probably cut and carved out for himself with which to shepherd the flock of his father-in-law. It was a supporting rod, one upon which he had leaned many times as he made his way home after a day on the hot sands o f Midian, weary and tired but supported by his rod. It was a correcting rod, one that he had used to hook around the leg or neck of the erring sheep as it tried to get a tempting morsel over the edge o f the mountain side. It was a protecting rod, for
Mr. Marsh “And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the chil dren o f Israel, that they go forward” ( E x . 1 4 :1 5 ). M oses , the child drawn out of the water by Pharaoh’s daughter, was reared and educated in all the wisdom and knowledge of Egypt. It was he who, when he sought to deliver his people from Egypt’s bondage in his own way, was forced to flee for his life. He was forty years a herds man in the back side o f the desert, feeding his father-in- law’s sheep. When Moses was called o f God to return to bring Israel out o f bondage, he was empowered to do mighty miracles in the land o f Egypt, the culmination of which, in the Lord’s slaying o f Egypt’s first-born, caused the expulsion of the children o f Israel. Moses, the leader o f God’s host into the wilderness, was there spoken to again by Him and told to “ turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon: before it shall ye encamp by the sea.” Obedient to God, he led the people into a trap, with mountains to the south and southwest and the Red Sea to the east. It was this Moses who was confronted by the children of Israel as their mur derer when they beheld the hosts of Egypt but a short dis tance behind, riding furiously to overtake them, bent on returning them to bondage or slaying them all without mercy. What could be done ? A R ebuked L eader The children o f Israel “ cried out unto the Lord,” but, turning to Moses, accused him with the words, “ Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?” Their leader sought to comfort and encourage them by saying: “ Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation o f the Lord, which he will show to you today: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever.” Then he cried unto the Lord for them, but the Lord’s answer was: “ Wherefore criest thou unto me ? speak unto the children o f Israel, that they go forward.” Moses said unto the children of Israel: “ Stand still, and see the salvation o f the Lord” ; but the Lord said: “ Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” There are times in the Lord’s work when to stand still is not to see the salvation o f the Lord, but to feel the sword o f the enemy. The times in which we are living seem to be such. Standing still, retrenching, closing churches, with- - [A t a conference o f Africa Inland Mission workers in Tanganyika Territory, one o f their number, Thomas G. Marsh, brought the stimulating message that is here shared with K ing ’ s B usiness readers. One o f the listeners as Mr. Marsh spoke was Evelyn W. Woodsworth, who was graduated from the Bible Institute o f Los Angeles in 1931, and who worked in the editorial office o f the K ing ’ s B usiness for more than two years before going to the field, where she is now carrying a heavy program o f teaching and evangelism. Miss Woodsworth asked Mr. Marsh to allow the manuscript to be presented fo r publication, and herself did all the mechanical work in its preparation fo r the printer .—E ditor .]
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