Of the Commandments
Exodus 20:2 Who brought you out of the House of Bondage.
We may consider these words, Who brought you out of the House of Bondage, either 1. Literally, or 2. Spiritually and mystically. 1. In the letter, I brought you out of the House of Bondage; that is, I delivered you out of the misery and servitude you sustained in Egypt when you were in the iron furnace. 2. Spiritually and mystically, I brought you out of the House of Bondage. So it is a type of our deliverance by Christ from sin and hell.
1. Literally, in the letter, I brought you out of the House of Bondage; namely, out of great misery and slavery in the iron furnace. The thing I note hence is, though God bring his people sometimes into trouble, yet he will bring them out again. Israel was in the House of Bondage, but at last I brought you out of bondage. First, [illegible], that God does deliver out of trouble. Secondly, in what manner. Thirdly, when are the seasons. Fourthly, why God delivers. Fifthly, how the deliverances of the godly and wicked out of trouble differ?
First [illegible]. That God does deliver his children out of troubles (Psalm 22:4): Our Fathers trusted in you, they trusted, and you delivered them. 2 Timothy 4:17: And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, namely, from Nero. Psalm 66:11-12: You laid affliction upon our loins, but you brought us out into a wealthy place. Psalm 30:5: Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. God brought Daniel out of the Lion's Den, Sihon out of Babylon. God in his due time gives an issue out of trouble (Psalm 68:20). The tree which in winter seems dead, in the spring revives: Post nubila Phaebus: affliction may leap on us as the viper did on Paul, but at last this viper shall be shaken off. It is called a cup of affliction (Isaiah 51:17). The wicked drink a sea of wrath, the godly drink only a cup of affliction, and God will say shortly, Let this cup pass away. God will give his people a [reconstructed: jail delivery].
Secondly, Question: In what manner does God deliver his people out of trouble?
Answer: He does it like a God, in wisdom. 1. He does it sometimes suddenly, as the Angel was caused to fly swiftly (Daniel 9:21). So God sometimes makes a deliverance fly swiftly upon the wing, and on a sudden he turns the shadow of death into the light of the morning. As God gives us mercies above what we can think (Ephesians 3:20), so sometimes before we can think of them (Psalm 126:1). When the Lord turned the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dreamed; we were in a dream, we never thought of it. Joseph could not have thought of such a sudden alteration, to be the same day freed out of prison, and made the chief ruler in the kingdom. Mercy sometimes does not stick long in the birth, but it is brought forth on a sudden. 2. God sometimes delivers his people strangely. That the whale which swallowed up Jonah, should be a means to bring him safe to land. God sometimes delivers his people in that very way they think he will destroy. In bringing Israel out of Egypt, God stirred up the hearts of the Egyptians to hate them (Psalm 105:22). And that was the means of their deliverance. He brought Paul to shore by a contrary wind, and upon the broken pieces of the ship (Acts 27:44).
Thirdly, Question: When are the times and seasons that God usually delivers his people out of the bondage of affliction?
Answer: 1. When they are in the greatest extremity. When Jonah was in the belly of hell, then (Jonah 2:5): You have brought up my life from corruption. When there is but a hair's breadth between the godly and death, then God ushers in deliverance. When the ship in the Gospel was almost covered with waves, then Christ awoke, and rebuked the wind. When Isaac was upon the altar, and the knife going to be put to his throat, then comes the Angel, Do not lay your hand upon the child. When Peter began to sink, then Christ took him by the hand. Cum duplicantur lateres venit Moses: When the tale of brick was doubled, then comes Moses the temporal savior. When the people of God are in the greatest danger, then appears the morning star of deliverance. When the patient is ready to faint, now the cordial is given.
2. The second season is, when affliction has done its work upon them: when it has effected that God has sent it for. As first, when it has humbled them (Lamentations 3:19): Remembering my affliction, the wormwood and gall, my soul is humbled in me. When God's corrosive has eaten out the proud flesh. Secondly, when it has tamed their impatience. Before they were proud and impatient, like stubborn children, that would struggle with their parents, but when their obstinate hearts are tamed, and they say as (Micah 7:9): I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him; and as Eli, It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him; Let him hedge me with thorns, if he will plant me with grace.
3. When they are more partakers of God's holiness (Hebrews 12:10), they are more full of heavenly-mindedness. When the sharp frost of affliction has brought forth the spring flowers of grace, now the cross is sanctified, and God will bring them out of the House of Bondage. Luctus in laetitiam vertetur, cineres in Corollas. When the metal is refined, then it is taken out of the furnace. When affliction has healed us, now God takes off the smarting plaster.
Fourthly, Question: Why does God bring his people out of the House of Bondage?
Answer: Hereby he makes way for his own glory. God's glory is dearer to him than anything besides; it is a crown jewel. God by raising his people, raises the trophies of his own honor: He glorifies his attributes: His power, goodness, truth, do all ride in triumph.
1. His power. If God did not sometimes bring his people into trouble, how would his power be seen in bringing them out? He brought Israel out of the House of Bondage, with miracle upon miracle, he saved them with an outstretched arm (Psalm 114:5): What ailed you, O you sea, etc. It is spoken of Israel's march out of Egypt, when the sea fled, and the waters were parted each from other. Here was the power of God set forth (Jeremiah 32:27): Is anything too hard for me? God loves to help, when things seem past hope; he creates deliverance (Psalm 124:8). He brought Isaac out of a dead womb, and the Messiah out of a virgin's womb. O how does his power shine forth, when he overcomes seeming impossibilities, and works a cure, when things look desperate!
2. His truth. God has made promises to his people, when they are under great pressures to deliver them, and his truth is engaged in his promise (Psalm 50:15): Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you. (Job 5:19) He shall deliver you in six troubles, and in seven. How is the Scripture bespangled with these promises, as the firmament is with stars; either God will deliver them from death, or by death; [illegible], he will make a way to escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). When promises are verified, God's truth is magnified.
3. His goodness. God is full of compassion to such as are in misery. The Hebrew word Racham, for mercy, signifies bowels. God has soundings of bowels (Isaiah 63:15). And this sympathy stirs up God to deliver (Isaiah 63:9): In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. This makes way for the triumph of God's goodness. First, he is tender-hearted, he will not over-afflict; he cuts asunder the bars of iron, he breaks the yokes of the oppressor. Thus all his attributes ride in triumph, in the saving his people out of trouble.
Fifthly. Question: How do the deliverances of the godly and wicked out of trouble differ?
Answer: 1. The deliverances of the godly are preservations; of the wicked are reservations (2 Peter 2:9): The Lord knows how to deliver the godly, and to reserve the unjust to be punished. A sinner may be delivered from dangerous sickness, and out of prison; but all this is but a reservation to some greater evil.
2. God delivers the wicked (or rather spares them,) in anger. Deliverances to the wicked are not given as pledges of God's love, but symptoms of his displeasure; as quails were given to Israel in anger. But deliverances of the godly are in love (2 Samuel 22:20): He delivered me, because he delighted in me. (Isaiah 38:17) You have in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption; or as in Hebrew, Chashiacta Naphshi, You have loved me from the pit of corruption. A wicked man may say, Lord you have loved me out of the pit of corruption. But a godly man may say, Lord you have loved me out of the pit of corruption. It is one thing to have God's power deliver us, and another thing to have his love deliver us. O says Hezekiah, You have in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption.
Question: How may it be known that a deliverance comes in love?
Answer: 1. When a deliverance makes our heart boil over in love to God (Psalm 116:1): I love the Lord because he has heard my voice. It is one thing to love our mercies, another thing to love the Lord: then a deliverance is in love, when it causes love.
2. Then a deliverance is in love, when we have hearts to improve it for God's glory: the wicked, instead of improving their deliverances for God's glory, improve their corruptions; they grow worse after, as the metal when it is taken out of the fire grows harder: but then our deliverance is in love, when we improve it for God's glory: God raises us out of a low condition, and we lift him up in our praises, and honor him with our substance (Proverbs 3:9). He recovers us from sickness, and we spend ourselves in his service. Mercy is not as the sun to the fire, to dull it and put it out; but as oil to the wheel to make it move faster.
3. Then a deliverance comes in love, when it makes us more exemplary in holiness: our lives are walking Bibles. A thousand praises and doxologies do not honor God, so much as the mortifying one lust (Obadiah 17): On Mount Zion there shall be deliverance and holiness. When these two go together, deliverance and holiness; when being made monuments of mercy, we are patterns of piety: now a deliverance comes in love, and we may say as Hezekiah, You have loved me out of the pit of corruption.
1. If God brings his people out of bondage, then let none despond in trouble; say not, I shall sink under this burden; as David, I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul. God can make this text good, personally and nationally, to bring his people out of the house of bondage: when he sees a fit season he will put forth his arm and save them; and he can do it with ease (2 Chronicles 14:11): It is nothing for you Lord to help. He that turns the tides can turn the times: he that raised Lazarus when he was dead, can raise you when you are sick (Isaiah 63:5): I looked, and there was none to help; therefore my own arm brought salvation. Do not despond; believe in God's power; faith sets God on work to deliver us.
2. Labor (if you are in trouble) to be fitted for deliverance: many would have deliverance, but are not fitted for it.
Question: When are we fitted for deliverance?
Answer: When we are by our afflictions conformed to Christ: namely, when we have learned obedience (Hebrews 5:8): He learned obedience by the things which he suffered: that is, he learned sweet submission to his Father's will (Luke 22:42): Not my will, but your will be done. When we have thus learned obedience by our suffering, we are willing to do what God will have us do, and be what God will have us be. Now we are conformed to Christ, and are fitted for deliverance.
3. If God has brought you at any time out of the house of bondage, out of great and eminent troubles, be much in doxology and praise; deliverance calls for praise (Psalm 30:11-12). You have put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness: to the end that my glory may sing praise to you. My glory, (that is, my tongue which is the instrument of glorifying you.) The saints are temples of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians 3:16). Where should God's praises be sounded but in his temples? Beneficium postulat officium: The deepest springs yield the sweetest water: and hearts deeply sensible of God's deliverances yield the sweetest praises. Moses tells Pharaoh, when he was going out of Egypt, We will go with our sheep and our cattle (Exodus 10:9). Why so? Because he might have sacrifices of thanksgiving ready to offer to God for their deliverance. To have a thankful heart for a deliverance, is a greater blessing than the deliverance itself (Luke 17:15). One of the lepers, when he saw he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God. The leper's thankful heart was a greater blessing than to be healed of his leprosy: have any of you here been brought out of the house of bondage, out of prison, sickness, or any death-threatening danger? Do not forget to be thankful; be not graves, but temples: and that you may be the more thankful, observe every emphasis and circumstance in your deliverance; as to be brought out of trouble when you were in articulo mortis, there was but a hair's breadth between you and death; or to be brought out of affliction, without sin, you did not purchase your deliverance, by the ensnaring of your consciences; or, to be brought out of trouble upon the wings of prayer; or, that those who were the occasions of bringing you into trouble, should be the instruments of bringing you out: these circumstances being well weighed, do heighten a deliverance, and should heighten our thankfulness: the cutting of a stone may be of more value than the stone itself: and the circumstancing of a deliverance may be greater than the deliverance itself.
Quest. But how shall we praise God in a right manner for deliverances?
Resp. 1. Be holy persons: in the sacrifices of thanksgiving, whoever did eat thereof, with their uncleanness upon them, were to be cut off (Leviticus 7:20), to typify how unpleasing their praises and thank-offerings are who live in sin.
2. Praise God with humble hearts, acknowledge how unworthy you were of deliverance: God's mercies are not debts but legacies, and that you should have a legacy given you, be humble (Revelation 11:16). The elders fell upon their faces (an expression of humility) and worshipped and praised God.
3. Praise God for deliverances cordially (Psalm 111:1). I will praise the Lord, Becol Levau, with my whole heart. In religion there is no music but in concert, when heart and tongue join.
4. Praise God for deliverance constantly (Psalm 146:2). While I live will I bless the Lord: some will be thankful while the memory of a deliverance is fresh, and then they leave off. Like the Carthaginians, who used at first to send the tenth of their yearly revenue to Hercules; but by degrees they grew weary, and left off sending. But we must be constant in our Eucharistical sacrifice or thank-offering: the motion of our praise must be like the motion of our pulse, which beats as long as life lasts (Psalm 146:1). I will sing praises to my God while I have any being.
