Part 3. From the Calling of Abraham to Moses

I proceed now to show how the work of redemption was carried on through the third period of the times of the Old Testament, beginning with the calling of Abraham, and extending to Moses. Here,

1. It pleased God now to separate that person of whom Christ was to come, from the rest of the world, that his church might be upheld in his family and posterity till Christ should come; as he did in calling Abraham out of his own country, and from his kindred, to go into a distant country, that God should show him, and bringing him first out of Ur of the Chaldees to Haran, and then into the land of Canaan.

It was before observed, that the corruption of the world with idolatry was now become general; mankind were almost wholly overrun with idolatry. God therefore saw it necessary, in order to uphold true religion in the world, that there should be a family separated from the rest of the world. It proved to be high time to take this course, lest the church of Christ should wholly be carried away with the apostasy. For the church of God itself, that had been upheld in the line of Abraham's ancestors, was already considerably corrupted. Abraham's own country and kindred had most of them fallen off; and without some extraordinary interposition of Providence, in all likelihood, in a generation or two more, the true religion in this line would have been extinct. Therefore God saw it to be time to call Abraham, the person in whose family he intended to uphold the true religion, out of his own country, and from his kindred, to a far distant country, that his posterity might there remain a people separate from all the rest of the world; that so the true religion might be upheld there, while mankind besides were swallowed up in Heathenism.

The land of the Chaldees, that Abraham was called to go out of, was the country about Babel; Babel, or Babylon, was the chief city of the land of Chaldea. Learned men suppose, by what they gather from some of the most ancient accounts of things, that it was in this land that idolatry first began; that Babel and Chaldea were the original and chief seat of the worship of idols, whence it spread into other nations. Therefore the land of the Chaldeans, or the country of Babylon, is in scripture called the land of graven images: as you may see, Jeremiah 50:35 together with verse 38. "A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.— A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols." God calls Abraham out of this idolatrous country, to a great distance from it. And when he came there, he gave him no inheritance in it, no not so much as to set his foot on; but he remained a stranger and a sojourner, that he and his family might be kept separate from all the world.

This was a new thing: God had never taken such a method before. His church had not in this manner been separated from the rest of the world till now, but were wont to dwell with them, without any bar or fence to keep them separate; the mischievous consequences of which had been found once and again. The effect before the flood of God's people living intermingled with the wicked world, without any remarkable wall of separation, was, that the sons of the church joined in marriage with others, and thereby almost all soon became infected, and the church was almost brought to nothing. The method that God took then to fence the church was, to drown the wicked world, and save the church in the ark. And now the world, before Abraham was called, was become corrupt again. But now God took another method. He did not destroy the wicked world, and save Abraham, and his wife, and Lot, in an ark; but he calls these persons to go and live separate from the rest of the world.

This was a new thing, and a great thing, that God did toward the work of redemption. This thing was done now about the middle of the space of time between the fall of man and the coming of Christ, and there were about two thousand years yet to come before Christ the great Redeemer was to come. But by this calling of Abraham, the ancestor of Christ, a foundation was laid for the upholding the church of Christ in the world, till Christ should come. For the world having become idolatrous, there was a necessity that the seed of the woman should be thus separated from the idolatrous world in order to that.

And then it was needful that there should be a particular nation separated from the rest of the world, to receive the types and prophecies that were needful to be given of Christ, to prepare the way for his coming; that to them might be committed the oracles of God; and that by them the history of God's great works of creation and providence might be upheld; and that so Christ might be born of this nation; and that from hence the light of the gospel might go forth to the rest of the world. These ends could not well be obtained, if God's people, through all these two thousand years, had lived intermixed with the heathen world. So that this calling of Abraham may be looked upon as a kind of a new foundation laid for the visible church of God, in a more distinct and regular state, to be upheld and built up on this foundation from henceforward, till Christ should actually come, and then through him to be propagated to all nations. So that Abraham being the person in whom this foundation is laid, is represented in scripture as though he were the father of all the church, the father of all them that believe; as it were a root whence the visible church thenceforward through Christ, Abraham's root and offspring, rose as a tree, distinct from all other plants; of which tree Christ was the branch of righteousness; and from which tree after Christ came, the natural branches were broken off, and the Gentiles were grafted into the same tree. So that Abraham still remains the father of the church, or root of the tree, through Christ his seed. It is the same tree that flourishes from that small beginning, that was in Abraham's time, and has in these days of the gospel spread its branches over a great part of the earth, and will fill the whole earth in due time, and at the end of the world shall be transplanted from an earthly soil into the paradise of God.

2. There accompanied this a more particular and full revelation and confirmation of the covenant of grace than ever had been before. There had before this been, as it were, two particular and solemn editions or confirmations of this covenant; one at the beginning of the first period, which was that whereby the covenant of grace was revealed to our first parents, soon after the fall; the other at the beginning of the second period, whereby God solemnly renewed the covenant of grace with Noah and his family soon after the flood: and now there is a third at the beginning of the third period, at and after the calling of Abraham. And it now being much nearer the time of the coming of Christ than when the covenant of grace was first revealed, it being, as it was said before, about half way between the fall and the coming of Christ, the revelation of the covenant now was much more full than any that had been before. The covenant was now more particularly revealed. It was now revealed, not only that Christ should be; but it was revealed to Abraham, that he should be his seed; and it was now promised, that all the families of the earth should be blessed in him. God was much in the promises of this to Abraham. The first promise was when he first called him, Genesis 12:2. "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great; and thou shall be a blessing." Again the same promise was renewed after he came into the land of Canaan, Genesis 13:14 etc. The covenant was again renewed after Abraham and returned from the slaughter of the kings, chapter 15:5, 6. Again after his offering up Isaac, chapter 22:16-18.

In this renewal of the covenant of grace with Abraham, several particulars concerning that covenant were revealed more fully than ever had been before; not only that Christ was to be of Abraham's seed, but also, the calling of the Gentiles, and the bringing all nations into the church, that all the families of the earth were to be blessed, was now made known. And then the great condition of the covenant of grace, which is faith, was now more fully made known. Genesis 15:5, 6 "And he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." Which is much taken notice of in the New Testament as that whence Abraham was called the father of them that believe.

As there was now a further revelation of the covenant of grace, so there was a further confirmation of it by seals and pledges, than ever had been before; as, particularly, God did now institute a certain sacrament, to be a steady seal of this covenant in the visible church, till Christ should come, namely circumcision. Circumcision was a seal of this covenant of grace, as appears by the first institution, as we have an account of it in the seventeenth chapter of Genesis. It there appears to be a seal of that covenant by which God promised to make Abraham a father of many nations, as appears by the fifth verse, compared with the ninth and tenth verses. We are expressly taught, that it was a seal of the righteousness of faith, Romans 4:11. Speaking of Abraham, the apostle says, "he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith."

As I observed before, God called Abraham, that his family and posterity might be kept separate from the rest of the world, till Christ should come, which God saw to be necessary on the forementioned accounts. And this sacrament was the principal wall of separation; it chiefly distinguished Abraham's seed from the world, and kept up a distinction and separation more than any other particular observance whatsoever.

Besides this, there were other occasional seals, pledges, and confirmations, that Abraham had of this covenant; as, particularly, God gave Abraham a remarkable pledge of the fulfillment of the promise he had made him, in his victory over Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him. Chedorlaomer seems to have been a great emperor, that reigned over a great part of the world at that day; and though he had his seat at Elam, which was not much if anything short of a thousand miles distant from the land of Canaan, yet he extended his empire so as to reign over many parts of the land of Canaan, as appears by chapter 14 verses 4, 5, 6, and 7. It is supposed by learned men, that he was a king of the Assyrian empire at that day, which had been before begun by Nimrod at Babel. As it was the honor of kings in those days to build new cities to be made the seat of their empire, as appears by Genesis 10:10-12, so it is conjectured, that he had gone forth and built him a city in Elam, and made that his seat; and that those other kings, who came with him, were his deputies in the several cities and countries where they reigned. But yet as mighty an empire as he had, and as great an army as he now came with into the land where Abraham was, yet Abraham, only with his trained servants, that were born in his own house, conquered, subdued, and baffled this mighty emperor, and the kings that came with him, and all their army. This he received of God as a pledge of what he had promised, namely, The victory that Christ his seed should obtain over the nations of the earth, whereby he should possess the gates of his enemies. It is plainly spoken of as such in the forty-first of Isaiah. In that chapter is foretold the future glorious victory the church shall obtain over the nations of the world; as you may see in the first, tenth, and fifteenth verses, etc. But here this victory of Abraham over such a great emperor and his mighty forces, is spoken of as a pledge and earnest of this victory of the church, as you may see in second and third verses. "Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings. He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet."

Another remarkable confirmation Abraham received of the covenant of grace, was when he returned from the slaughter of the kings; when Melchizedek the king of Salem he the priest of the Most High God, that great type of Christ, met him, and blessed him, and brought forth bread and wine. The bread and wine signified the same blessings of the covenant of grace, that the bread and wine does in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. So that as Abraham had a seal of the covenant in circumcision that was equivalent to baptism, so now he had a seal of it equivalent to the Lord's supper. Melchizedek's coming to meet him with such a seal of the covenant of grace, on the occasion of this victory of his over the kings of the north, confirmed, that the victory was a pledge of God's fulfillment of the same covenant; for that is the mercy that Melchizedek with his bread and wine takes notice of; as you may see by what he says in Genesis 14:19-20.

Another confirmation that God gave Abraham of the covenant of grace, was the vision that he had in the deep sleep that fell upon him, of the smoking furnace, and burning lamp, that passed between the parts of the sacrifice, as in the latter part of the fifteenth chapter of Genesis. The sacrifice, as all sacrifices do, signified the sacrifice of Christ. The smoking furnace that passed through the midst of that sacrifice first, signified the sufferings of Christ. But the burning lamp that followed, which shone with a clear bright sight, signifies the glory that followed Christ's sufferings, and was procured by them.

Another remarkable pledge that God gave Abraham of the fulfillment of the covenant of grace, was his giving of the child of whom Christ was to come, in his old age. This is spoken of as such in scripture; Hebrews 11:11-12 and also Romans 4:18 etc.

Again, another remarkable pledge that God gave Abraham of the fulfillment of the covenant of grace, was his delivering Isaac, after he was laid upon the wood of the sacrifice to be slain. This was a confirmation of Abraham's faith in the promise that God had made of Christ, that he should be of Isaac's posterity; and was a representation of the resurrection of Christ; as you may see, Hebrews 11:17-19. And because this was given as a confirmation of the covenant of grace, therefore God renewed that covenant with Abraham on this occasion, as you may see, Genesis 24:15 etc.

Thus you see how much more fully the covenant of grace was revealed and confirmed in Abraham's time than ever it had been before; by means of which Abraham seems to have had a more clear understanding and sight of Christ the great Redeemer, and the future things that were to be accomplished by him, than any of the saints that had gone before. Therefore Christ takes notice of it, that Abraham rejoiced to see his day, and he saw it and was glad, John 8:56. So great an advance did it please God now to make in this building, which he had been carrying on from the beginning of the world.

3. The next thing that I would take notice of here, is God's preserving the patriarchs for so long a time in the midst of the wicked inhabitants of Canaan, and from all other enemies. The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were those of whom Christ was to proceed; and they were now separated from the world, that in them his church might be upheld. Therefore, in preserving them, the great design of redemption was upheld and carried on. He preserved them, and kept the inhabitants of the land where they sojourned from destroying them; which was a remarkable dispensation of providence. For the inhabitants of the land were at that day exceeding wicked, though they grew more wicked afterwards. This appears by Genesis 15:16. "In the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Canaanites is not yet full:" As much as to say, Though it be very great, yet it is not yet full. Their great wickedness also appears by Abraham and Isaac's aversion to their children marrying any of the daughters of the land. Abraham, when he was old, could not be content till he had made his servant swear that he would not take a wife for his son of the daughters of the land. And Isaac and Rebecca were content to send away Jacob to so great a distance as Padan-Aram, to take him a wife thence. And when Esau married some of the daughters of the land, we are told, that they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebecca.

Another argument of their great wickedness, is the instance we have of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which were some of the cities of Canaan though they were probably distinguishingly wicked.

They being thus wicked, were likely to have the most bitter enmity against these holy men: agreeable to what was declared at first, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed." Their holy lives were a continual condemnation of their wickedness. Besides, it could not be otherwise, but that they must be much in reproving their wickedness, as we find Lot was in Sodom; who, we are told, vexed his righteous soul with their unlawful deeds, and was a preacher of righteousness to them.

They were the more exposed to them, being strangers and sojourners in the land, and having no inheritance there as yet. Men are more apt to find fault with strangers, and be irritated by any thing in them that offends them, as they were with Lot in Sodom. He very gently reproved their wickedness; and they say upon it, "This fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a ruler and a judge," and threatened what they would do to him.

But God wonderfully preserved Abraham and Lot, Isaac and Jacob, and their families, amongst them, though they were few in number, and they might quickly have destroyed them; which is taken notice of as a wonderful instance of God's preserving mercy towards his church, Psalm 105:12 etc. "When they were but few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people. He suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm."

This preservation was in some instances especially very remarkable; those instances that we have an account of, wherein the people of the land were greatly irritated and provoked; as they were by Simeon and Levi's treatment of the Shechemites, as you may see in Genesis 34:30 etc. God then strangely preserved Jacob and his family, restraining the provoked people by an unusual terror on their minds, as you may see in Genesis 35:5. "And the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them, and they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob."

God's preserving them, not only from the Canaanites, is also to be taken notice of, but his preserving them from all others that intended mischief to them; as his preserving Jacob and his company, when pursued by Laban, full of rage, and a disposition to overtake him as an enemy: God met him, and rebuked him and said to him, "Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad." How wonderfully did he also preserve him from Esau his brother, when he came forth with an army, with a full design to cut him off! how did God in answer to his prayer, when he wrestled with Christ at Penuel, wonderfully turn Esau's heart, and make him, instead of meeting him as an enemy with slaughter and destruction, to meet him as a friend and brother, doing him no harm.

Thus were this handful, this little root that had the blessing of the Redeemer in it, preserved in the midst of enemies and dangers, which was not unlike to the preserving the ark in the midst of the tempestuous deluge.

4. The next thing I would mention is, the awful destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the neighboring cities. This tended to promote the great design and work that is the subject of my present undertaking, two ways. It did so, as it tended powerfully to restrain the inhabitants of the land from injuring those holy strangers that God had brought to sojourn amongst them. Lot was one of those strangers; he came into the land with Abraham; and Sodom was destroyed for their abusive disregard of Lot, the preacher of righteousness, that God had sent among them. And their destruction came just upon their committing a most injurious and abominable insult on Lot, and the strangers that were come into his house, even those angels, whom they probably took to be some of Lot's former acquaintance come from the country that he came from, to visit him. They in a most outrageous manner beset Lot's house, intending a monstrous abuse and act of violence on those strangers that were come thither, and threatening to serve them worse than them.

But in the midst of this God smote them with blindness; and the next morning the city and the country about it was overthrown in a most terrible storm of fire and brimstone; which dreadful destruction, as it was in the sight of the rest of the inhabitants of the land, therefore greatly tended to restrain them from hurting those holy strangers any more; doubtless struck a dread and terror on their minds, and made them afraid to hurt them, and probably was one principal means to restrain them, and preserve the patriarchs. And when that reason is given why the inhabitants of the land did not pursue after Jacob, when they were so provoked by the destruction of the Shechemites, namely, "that the terror of the Lord was upon them," it is very probable, that this was a terror that was set home upon them. They remembered the amazing destruction of Sodom, and the cities of the slain, that came upon them, upon their abusive treatment of Lot, and so durst not hurt Jacob and his family, though they were so much provoked to it.

Another way that this awful destruction tended to promote this great affair of redemption, was, that hereby God did remarkably exhibit the terrors of this law, to make men sensible of their need of redeeming mercy. The work of redemption never was carried on without this. The law, from the beginning, is made use of as a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ.

But under the Old Testament there was much more need of some extraordinary, visible, and sensible manifestation of God's wrath against sin, than in the days of the gospel; since a future state, and the eternal misery of hell, is more clearly revealed, and since the awful justice of God against the sins of men has been so wonderfully displayed in the sufferings of Christ. Therefore the revelation that God gave of himself in those days, used to be accompanied with much more terror than it is in these days of the gospel. So when God appeared at Mount Sinai to give the law, it was with thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud. But some external, awful manifestations of God's wrath against sin were on some accounts especially necessary before the giving of the law: and therefore, before the flood, the terrors of the law handed down by tradition from Adam served. Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years himself, to tell the church of God's awful threatenings denounced in the covenant made with him, and how dreadful the consequences of the fall, as he was an eye witness and subject; and others, that conversed with Adam, lived till the flood. And the destruction of the world by the flood served to exhibit the terrors of the law, and manifest the wrath of God against sin; and so to make men sensible of the absolute necessity of redeeming mercy. And some that saw the flood were alive in Abraham's time.

But this was now in a great measure forgotten; now therefore God was pleased again, in a most amazing manner to show his wrath against sin, in the destruction of these cities; which was in such a manner as to be the liveliest image of hell of any thing that ever had been; and therefore the apostle Jude says, "They suffer the vengeance of eternal fire," Jude seven. God rained storms of fire and brimstone upon them. The way that they were destroyed probably was by thick flashes of lightning. The streams of brimstone were so thick as to burn up all these cities: so that they perished in the flames of divine wrath. By this might he seen the dreadful wrath of God against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; which tended to show men the necessity of redemption, and so to promote that great work.

Five. God again renewed and confirmed the covenant of grace to Isaac and to Jacob. He did so to Isaac, as you may see, Genesis twenty-six, three and four. "And I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father; and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Afterwards it was renewed and confirmed to Jacob; first in Isaac's blessing of him, wherein he acted and spoke by extraordinary divine direction. In that blessing, the blessings of the covenant of grace were established with Jacob and his seed; as Genesis twenty-seven, twenty-nine. "Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee: Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee." Therefore Esau, in missing of this blessing, missed of being blessed as an heir of the benefits of the covenant of grace.

This covenant was again renewed and confirmed to Jacob at Bethel, in his vision of the ladder that reached to heaven; which ladder was a symbol of the way of salvation by Christ. For the stone that Jacob rested on was a type of Christ, the stone of Israel, which the spiritual Israel or Jacob rests upon; as is evident, because this stone was on this occasion anointed, and was made use of as an altar. But we know that Christ is the anointed of God, and is the only true altar of God. While Jacob was resting on this stone, and saw this ladder, God appears to him as his covenant God, and renews the covenant of grace with him; as in Genesis twenty-eight, fourteen. "And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

Jacob had another remarkable confirmation of this covenant at Penuel, where he wrestled with God, and prevailed; where Christ appeared to him in a human form, in the form of that nature which he was afterwards to receive into a personal union with his divine nature.

God renewed his covenant with him again, after he was come out of Padan-aram, and was come up to Bethel, to the stone that he had rested on, and where he had the vision of the ladder; as you may see in Genesis thirty-five, ten, et cetera.

Thus the covenant of grace was now often renewed, much oftener than it had been before. The light of the gospel now began to shine much brighter, as the time drew nearer that Christ should come.

Six. The next thing I would observe, is God's remarkably preserving the family of which Christ was to proceed from perishing by famine, by the instrumentality of Joseph. When there was a seven-years famine approaching, God was pleased, by a wonderful providence, to send Joseph into Egypt, there to provide for, and feed Jacob and his family, and to keep the holy seed alive, which otherwise would have perished. Joseph was sent into Egypt for that end, as he observes, Genesis fifty, twenty. "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to save much people alive." How often had this holy root, that had the future branch of righteousness, the glorious Redeemer, in it, been in danger of being destroyed! But God wonderfully preserved it.

This salvation of the house of Israel by the hand of Joseph, was upon some accounts very much a resemblance of the salvation of Christ. The children of Israel were saved by Joseph their kinsman and brother, from perishing by famine; as he that saves the souls of the spiritual Israel from spiritual famine is their near kinsman, and one that is not ashamed to call them brethren. Joseph was a brother, that they had hated, and sold, and as it were killed; for they had designed to kill him. So Christ is one that we naturally hate, and, by our wicked lives, have sold for the vain things of the world, and that by our sins we have slain. Joseph was first in a state of humiliation; he was a servant, as Christ appeared in the form of a servant; and then was cast into a dungeon, as Christ descended into the grave; and then when he rose out of the dungeon, he was in a state of great exaltation, at the king's right hand as his deputy, to reign over all his kingdom, to provide food, to preserve life; and being in this state of exaltation, he dispenses food to his brethren, and so gives them life; as Christ was exalted at God's right hand to be a prince and saviour to his brethren, and received gifts for men, even for the rebellious, and them that hated, and had sold him.

Seven. After this there was a prophecy given forth of Christ, on some accounts, more particular than ever any had been before even that which was in Jacob's blessing his son Judah. This was more particular than ever any had been before, as it showed of whose posterity he was to be. When God called Abraham, it was revealed that he was to be of Abraham's posterity. Before, we have no account of any revelation concerning Christ's Pedigree confined to narrower limits than the posterity of Noah: after this it was confined to still narrower limits; for though Abraham had many sons, yet it was revealed, that Christ was to be of Isaac's posterity. And then it was limited more still; for when Isaac had two sons it was revealed that Christ was to be of Israel's posterity. And now though Israel had twelve sons, yet it is revealed that Christ should be of Judah's Posterity: Christ in the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Respect is chiefly had to his great acts, when it is said here, Genesis forty-nine, eight. "Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise; thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee." "Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son thou are gone up; he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion who shall rouse him up?" And then this prediction is more particular concerning the time of Christ's coming than any had been before: as in verse ten. "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." The prophecy here, of the calling of the Gentiles consequent on Christ's coming, seems to be more plain than any had been before in the expression, to him shall the gathering of the people be.

Thus you see how that gospel-light which dawned immediately after the fall of man, gradually increases.

Eight. The work of redemption was carried on in this period, in God's wonderfully preserving the children of Israel in Egypt, when the power of Egypt was engaged utterly to destroy them. They seemed to be wholly in the hands of the Egyptians; they were their servants and were subject to the power of Pharaoh: and Pharaoh set himself to weaken them with hard bondage. And when he saw this did not do, he set himself to extirpate the race of them, by commanding that every male child should be drowned. But under all that Pharaoh could do God wonderfully preserved them; and not only so, but increased then exceedingly; so that instead of being extirpated, they greatly multiplied.

Nine. Here is to be observed, not only the preservation of the nation, but God's wonderfully preserving and upholding his visible church in that nation, when in danger of being overwhelmed in the idolatry of Egypt. The children of Israel being long among the Egyptians, and being servants under them, and so not under advantages to keep God's ordinances among themselves, and maintain any public worship or public instruction, whereby the true religion might be upheld, and there being now no written word of God, they, by degrees, in a great measure lost the true religion, and borrowed the idolatry of Egypt; and the greater part of the people fell away to the worship of their gods. This we learn by Ezekiel twenty, six, seven, and eight, and by chapter twenty-three, eight.

This now was the third time that God's church was almost swallowed up and carried away with the wickedness of the world; once before the flood; the other time, before the calling of Abraham; and now the third time, in Egypt. But yet God did not suffer his church to be quite overwhelmed; he, still saved it, like the ark in the flood, and as he saved Moses in the midst of the waters, in an ark of bulrushes, where he was in the utmost danger of being swallowed up. The true religion was still kept up with some; and God had still a people among them, even in this miserable, corrupt, and dark time. The parents of Moses were true servants of God, as we may learn by Hebrews eleven, twenty-three. "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment."

I have now gone through the third period of the Old Testament time; and have shown how the work of redemption was carried on from the calling of Abraham to Moses; in which we have seen many great things done towards this work, and a great advancement of this building, beyond what had been before.

I now turn to show how the work of redemption was carried on through the third period of Old Testament history, beginning with the calling of Abraham and extending to Moses. Here,

1. It pleased God now to separate the person from whom Christ was to come from the rest of the world, so that His church might be sustained in that family and its descendants until Christ would arrive. He did this by calling Abraham out of his own country and away from his relatives to a distant land that God would show him — first bringing him out of Ur of the Chaldeans to Haran, and then into the land of Canaan.

As noted before, the world's corruption through idolatry had by now become widespread; mankind was almost entirely overtaken by it. God therefore saw it necessary, in order to preserve true religion in the world, that a family be separated from the rest of the world. It had become urgent to take this step, lest the church of Christ be completely swept away in the apostasy. For the church of God itself, which had been sustained through the line of Abraham's ancestors, was already considerably corrupted. Most of Abraham's own country and relatives had fallen away, and without some extraordinary act of providence, true religion in this line would likely have died out within a generation or two. God therefore saw it was time to call Abraham — the man in whose family He intended to preserve true religion — out of his country and from his relatives to a far distant land, so that his descendants could live there as a people separate from all the rest of the world, and true religion could be preserved among them while the rest of mankind was swallowed up in paganism.

The land of the Chaldeans, which Abraham was called to leave, was the region around Babel — Babel, or Babylon, being its chief city. Scholars conclude from some of the oldest historical accounts that this land was where idolatry first began, and that Babel and Chaldea were the original home of idol worship, from which it spread to other nations. This is why the land of the Chaldeans — the country of Babylon — is called in Scripture "the land of carved images," as Jeremiah 50:35 and 38 show: "'A sword against the Chaldeans,' declares the Lord, 'and against the inhabitants of Babylon and against her officials and her wise men! ... A drought on her waters, and they will be dried up! For it is a land of idols, and they are mad over fearsome idols.'" God called Abraham out of this idolatrous country to a great distance from it. When Abraham arrived in the new land, God gave him no inheritance there — not even a foothold — but he lived as a stranger and a foreigner, so that he and his family might remain separate from the whole world.

This was something new — God had never taken this approach before. His church had not previously been separated from the rest of the world in this way, but had lived among them with no barrier to keep them apart. The harmful consequences of this had been seen more than once. Before the flood, the result of God's people living intermingled with the wicked world — with no meaningful wall of separation — was that the sons of the church intermarried with others, and almost all quickly became infected, bringing the church to the brink of extinction. The method God used then to protect the church was to drown the wicked world and save the church in the ark. Now, before Abraham was called, the world had again become corrupt. But this time God took a different approach. He did not destroy the wicked world and save Abraham, his wife, and Lot in an ark — instead He called them to go and live separately from the rest of the world.

This was something new and significant that God did toward the work of redemption. It happened at roughly the midpoint of the period between the fall of man and the coming of Christ — with about two thousand years still remaining before Christ the great Redeemer would arrive. But by calling Abraham, the ancestor of Christ, a foundation was laid for sustaining the church of Christ in the world until Christ would come. For with the world having fallen into idolatry, it was necessary that the seed of the woman be separated from the idolatrous world in order for this to happen.

It was also necessary to have a particular nation set apart from the rest of the world to receive the types and prophecies needed to prepare the way for Christ's coming — a people to whom the oracles of God could be entrusted, who would preserve the record of God's great works of creation and providence, from whom Christ would be born, and from whom the light of the Gospel would go out to the rest of the world. These purposes could not have been achieved if God's people had lived intermingled with the pagan world throughout those two thousand years. The calling of Abraham may therefore be seen as a kind of new foundation laid for the visible church of God — a more distinct and organized form of the church — to be sustained and built on this foundation from that point forward until Christ would actually come, and then through Him to be spread to all nations. As the person in whom this foundation was laid, Abraham is presented in Scripture as the father of the entire church — the father of all who believe. He is, as it were, the root from which the visible church grew as a distinct tree — through Christ, who is both Abraham's descendant and the source of the church. From this tree, after Christ came, the natural branches were broken off and the Gentiles were grafted in. So Abraham remains the father of the church, the root of the tree, through Christ his offspring. It is the same tree — sprung from that small beginning in Abraham's time — that has in these days of the Gospel spread its branches over much of the earth. It will fill the whole earth in due time, and at the end of the world will be transplanted from earthly soil into the paradise of God.

2. Accompanying this calling was a more detailed and full revelation and confirmation of the covenant of grace than had ever been given before. Before this there had been, as it were, two particular and solemn presentations of this covenant — one at the beginning of the first period, when the covenant of grace was revealed to our first parents shortly after the fall, and one at the beginning of the second period, when God solemnly renewed the covenant of grace with Noah and his family after the flood. Now there was a third, at the beginning of the third period, at and following the calling of Abraham. Since it was now much closer to the time of Christ's coming — about halfway between the fall and the coming of Christ — this revelation of the covenant was far fuller than anything before it. The covenant was now revealed in more detail. It was now revealed not only that Christ would come, but that He would be Abraham's own descendant, and it was now promised that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. God spoke these promises to Abraham repeatedly. The first promise came when God first called him, in Genesis 12:2: "And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing." The same promise was renewed after Abraham came into the land of Canaan (Genesis 13:14 and following). The covenant was renewed again after Abraham returned from the defeat of the kings (Genesis 15:5-6). And again after his offering up of Isaac (Genesis 22:16-18).

In this renewal of the covenant of grace with Abraham, several particulars about the covenant were revealed more fully than ever before — not only that Christ would be descended from Abraham, but also the calling of the Gentiles and the bringing of all nations into the church. The promise that all the families of the earth would be blessed was now made known. The great condition of the covenant of grace — which is faith — was also more fully revealed at this time. Genesis 15:5-6 records, "And He took him outside and said, 'Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.' And He said to him, 'So shall your descendants be.' Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness." The New Testament draws much attention to this passage as the basis for calling Abraham the father of all who believe.

Just as there was now a fuller revelation of the covenant of grace, so there was also a further confirmation of it through seals and pledges than had ever been given before. In particular, God now instituted a certain sacrament to be a lasting seal of this covenant in the visible church until Christ would come — namely, circumcision. Circumcision was a seal of this covenant of grace, as is clear from its first institution, described in Genesis 17. It appears there as a seal of the covenant by which God promised to make Abraham a father of many nations, as is evident from verse 5 read alongside verses 9-10. We are explicitly told that it was a seal of the righteousness of faith in Romans 4:11, where the apostle says of Abraham, "and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised."

As I noted earlier, God called Abraham so that his family and descendants might be kept separate from the rest of the world until Christ would come — which God saw to be necessary for the reasons already described. Circumcision was the primary boundary of separation. It distinguished the descendants of Abraham from the world and maintained that separation more effectively than any other single observance.

In addition to circumcision, there were other occasional seals, pledges, and confirmations of this covenant that Abraham received. In particular, God gave Abraham a remarkable pledge of the fulfillment of His promises in Abraham's victory over Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him. Chedorlaomer appears to have been a great emperor who ruled over much of the known world at that time. Though his seat of power was in Elam — perhaps nearly a thousand miles from Canaan — his empire extended over many parts of the land of Canaan, as Genesis 14:4-7 makes clear. Scholars believe he was a king of the Assyrian empire of that era, which had been established earlier by Nimrod at Babel. It was the custom for powerful kings of that era to build new cities as seats of empire, as Genesis 10:10-12 shows. So it is thought that Chedorlaomer had gone out, built a city in Elam, and made it his capital, with the other kings who came with him serving as his deputies over their respective territories. Yet despite the might of his empire and the great army he brought into Abraham's land, Abraham — armed only with the trained servants born in his own household — conquered, routed, and defeated this powerful emperor, the kings with him, and all their forces. This victory was received from God as a pledge of what He had promised: the victory that Christ, Abraham's seed, would win over the nations of the earth, seizing the gates of His enemies. Isaiah 41 plainly presents it in this light. That chapter foretells the future glorious victory the church will win over the nations of the world, as the first, tenth, and fifteenth verses show. And Abraham's victory over so great an emperor and his armies is spoken of as a pledge and foretaste of that victory of the church, as verses 2-3 show: "Who has aroused one from the east whom He calls in righteousness to His feet? He delivers nations before him and subdues kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, as the wind-driven chaff with his bow. He pursues them, passing on in safety, by a path his feet have not traveled before."

Another remarkable confirmation of the covenant of grace came when Abraham returned from the defeat of the kings, and Melchizedek king of Salem — who was also a priest of the Most High God and a great type of Christ — came out to meet him, blessed him, and brought out bread and wine. The bread and wine signified the same blessings of the covenant of grace as the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper. So just as Abraham had a seal of the covenant in circumcision — equivalent to baptism — he now also received a seal equivalent to the Lord's Supper. Melchizedek coming to meet him with this seal of the covenant of grace, on the occasion of his victory over the northern kings, confirmed that the victory was a pledge of God's fulfillment of that same covenant. For it is this mercy that Melchizedek with his bread and wine is celebrating, as his words in Genesis 14:19-20 show.

Another confirmation God gave Abraham of the covenant of grace was the vision he received during the deep sleep that fell upon him — the smoking furnace and flaming torch that passed between the pieces of the sacrifice, as recorded in the latter part of Genesis 15. The sacrifice, like all sacrifices, represented the sacrifice of Christ. The smoking furnace that passed through the midst of that sacrifice first represented the sufferings of Christ. The flaming torch that followed — shining with a clear and bright light — represents the glory that followed Christ's sufferings and was won by them.

Another remarkable pledge God gave Abraham of the fulfillment of the covenant of grace was the gift of a child — the one from whom Christ would descend — in Abraham's old age. Scripture speaks of this as such a pledge in Hebrews 11:11-12 and Romans 4:18 and following.

Yet another remarkable pledge God gave Abraham of the covenant's fulfillment was His delivering Isaac after he had been laid upon the wood of the altar to be slain. This confirmed Abraham's faith in God's promise that Christ would come from Isaac's descendants, and was a picture of the resurrection of Christ, as Hebrews 11:17-19 shows. Because this was given as a confirmation of the covenant of grace, God renewed that covenant with Abraham on this occasion, as Genesis 24:15 and following shows.

So we see how much more fully the covenant of grace was revealed and confirmed in Abraham's time than ever before. Through this, Abraham appears to have had a clearer understanding and sight of Christ the great Redeemer and of the future things to be accomplished through Him than any of the saints who came before. This is why Christ Himself remarks that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and saw it and was glad (John 8:56). God was pleased to make a great advance at this time in the building He had been constructing since the beginning of the world.

3. The next thing to note here is God's preservation of the patriarchs for so long a time among the wicked inhabitants of Canaan, and from all other enemies. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were those from whom Christ was to come, and they had been separated from the world so that the church might be sustained through them. Therefore, in preserving them, the great design of redemption was upheld and carried forward. God kept them safe and prevented the inhabitants of the land where they lived as foreigners from destroying them — a remarkable act of providence. For the inhabitants of the land were extremely wicked even at that time, though they grew more wicked afterward. This is clear from Genesis 15:16: "Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete" — meaning, though their wickedness is already very great, it has not yet reached its full measure. Their great wickedness is also evident in Abraham's and Isaac's strong desire that their children not marry the daughters of the land. Abraham in his old age was not at peace until he had made his servant swear that he would not take a wife for his son from the daughters of the land. Isaac and Rebekah were willing to send Jacob all the way to Paddan-aram to find a wife. And when Esau married daughters of the land, we are told they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah.

Further evidence of their great wickedness is the example of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim — cities of Canaan, though they were probably exceptionally wicked even by the standards of the region.

Being so wicked, the Canaanites were likely to harbor the most intense hatred toward these holy men — in keeping with what had been declared at the beginning: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed." The holy lives of the patriarchs were a constant rebuke of the Canaanites' wickedness. Beyond that, the patriarchs could not help but reprove the wickedness around them, as we see in Lot's case in Sodom. We are told he was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds and that he preached righteousness to them.

The patriarchs were all the more vulnerable to hostility because they were foreigners and outsiders in the land, with no inheritance there. People are more easily irritated with strangers and more ready to find fault with anything that offends them — as the men of Sodom reacted to Lot. He had gently reproved their wickedness, and they said in response, "This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge" — and they threatened him with violence.

Yet God wonderfully preserved Abraham and Lot, Isaac and Jacob, and their families among them — though they were few in number and could easily have been destroyed. This is celebrated as a remarkable example of God's preserving mercy toward His church in Psalm 105:12 and following: "When they were only a few men in number, very few, and strangers in it, and they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people, He permitted no one to oppress them, and He reproved kings for their sakes: 'Do not touch My anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm.'"

This preservation was in some cases especially remarkable — those instances where the people of the land were greatly angered and provoked, as they were by Simeon and Levi's treatment of the Shechemites, described in Genesis 34:30 and following. God then miraculously preserved Jacob and his family, restraining the provoked people through an unusual terror placed on their minds. Genesis 35:5 records, "As they journeyed, there was a great terror from God upon the cities which were around them, and they did not pursue the sons of Jacob."

God's preservation of the patriarchs extended beyond protection from the Canaanites — it also included deliverance from all others who intended them harm. When Jacob and his company were pursued by Laban, who was full of rage and coming against him as an enemy, God met Laban and rebuked him, saying, "Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad." How wonderfully God also preserved Jacob from his brother Esau, who came out with an armed force with a clear intention to destroy him. In answer to Jacob's prayer when he wrestled with Christ at Penuel, God miraculously turned Esau's heart, so that instead of meeting Jacob as an enemy with violence and destruction, Esau met him as a friend and brother and did him no harm.

So this small group — this little root that carried the blessing of the Redeemer — was preserved in the midst of enemies and dangers, not unlike the preserving of the ark in the midst of the stormy flood.

4. The next thing to mention is the terrible destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities. This advanced the great design and work of redemption in two ways. First, it powerfully restrained the inhabitants of the land from harming those holy strangers God had brought to live among them. Lot was one of those strangers — he had come to the land with Abraham. Sodom was destroyed for the city's contemptuous treatment of Lot, the preacher of righteousness whom God had sent among them. Their destruction came directly upon their committing a most outrageous and wicked assault on Lot and the strangers who had entered his house — those angels whom the men of Sodom apparently took to be some of Lot's former acquaintances who had come from his home country to visit him. They surrounded Lot's house in the most brazen manner, intending a monstrous act of violence against those strangers, and threatening to do even worse to Lot himself.

In the midst of this God struck them with blindness, and the following morning the city and the surrounding region were destroyed in a terrible storm of fire and sulfur. This dreadful destruction was witnessed by the rest of the inhabitants of the land and greatly restrained them from ever harming those holy strangers again. It undoubtedly struck a deep fear and terror into their minds, making them afraid to touch the patriarchs. It was probably one of the principal means God used to protect and preserve them. When the reason is given why the inhabitants of the land did not pursue Jacob after being so provoked by the destruction of the Shechemites — "the terror of God was upon them" — it is very likely that this terror was rooted in the memory of Sodom. They remembered the shocking destruction that had come upon those cities because of their abuse of Lot, and so they did not dare harm Jacob and his family, though they were severely provoked to do so.

The second way this terrible destruction advanced the great work of redemption was by dramatically displaying the severity of God's law, making people feel their desperate need for redeeming mercy. The work of redemption has never been carried on without this. From the beginning, the law has served as a teacher to bring people to Christ.

Under the Old Testament, there was a much greater need for some extraordinary and visible display of God's wrath against sin than there is in the days of the Gospel — both because a future state and the eternal misery of hell were not yet as clearly revealed, and because God's terrible justice against sin had not yet been displayed so powerfully in the sufferings of Christ. Therefore, God's self-revelation in those days was typically accompanied by far more external terror than it is in these days of the Gospel. When God appeared at Mount Sinai to give the law, it was with thunder and lightning, a thick cloud, and the sound of a very loud trumpet. Yet some visible and terrifying display of God's wrath against sin was especially necessary even before the giving of the law. Before the flood, the terrors of the law were handed down through the tradition of Adam's testimony. Adam himself lived 930 years and was able to tell the church of God's dreadful warnings given in the covenant with him, and of the terrible consequences of the fall — as someone who witnessed and experienced them firsthand. Others who had known Adam personally lived until the time of the flood. And the destruction of the world by the flood served to display the terrors of the law and make God's wrath against sin visible, impressing on people the absolute necessity of redeeming mercy. Some who had witnessed the flood were still alive in Abraham's time.

But by this period, that memory had largely faded. God was therefore pleased once again — in a most shocking manner — to display His wrath against sin through the destruction of these cities. The manner of their destruction was the most vivid picture of hell that the world had ever seen, which is why the apostle Jude writes, "just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire" (Jude 7). God rained storms of fire and sulfur upon them. The cities were likely destroyed by thick flashes of lightning. The streams of burning sulfur were so intense as to consume all these cities entirely, so that they perished in the flames of divine wrath. In this could be seen the terrifying wrath of God against the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men — showing people their need for redemption and thus advancing the great work.

5. God again renewed and confirmed the covenant of grace, first to Isaac and then to Jacob. He renewed it with Isaac as recorded in Genesis 26:3-4: "I will perform the oath which I swore to your father Abraham, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed." Afterward it was renewed and confirmed to Jacob — first in Isaac's blessing of him, in which Isaac acted and spoke by extraordinary divine direction. In that blessing, the blessings of the covenant of grace were established with Jacob and his seed, as Genesis 27:29 records: "May peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you; be master of your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you." By missing this blessing, Esau also missed being an heir of the benefits of the covenant of grace.

The covenant was renewed and confirmed to Jacob again at Bethel, in his vision of a ladder reaching to heaven — a ladder that was a symbol of the way of salvation through Christ. The stone on which Jacob rested was a type of Christ, the Stone of Israel, upon which the spiritual Israel rests. This is evident from the fact that on this occasion the stone was anointed and used as an altar. We know that Christ is the Anointed of God and the only true altar. While Jacob was resting on this stone and seeing the ladder, God appeared to him as his covenant God and renewed the covenant of grace with him. Genesis 28:14 records, "Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

Jacob received another remarkable confirmation of this covenant at Penuel, where he wrestled with God and prevailed — where Christ appeared to him in human form, in the form of that human nature which He would afterward take into personal union with His divine nature.

God renewed His covenant with Jacob once more after he had returned from Paddan-aram and had gone back to Bethel — to the stone where he had rested and had the vision of the ladder — as recorded in Genesis 35:10 and following.

So the covenant of grace was renewed at this time far more often than it had ever been before. The light of the Gospel was now beginning to shine much brighter, as the time of Christ's coming drew nearer.

6. The next thing to note is how God remarkably preserved the family from which Christ was to come from perishing in a famine, through the instrument of Joseph. When a seven-year famine was approaching, God in a remarkable act of providence sent Joseph ahead to Egypt to provide for and feed Jacob and his family, and to keep the holy seed alive — which otherwise would have perished. Joseph explained this purpose himself in Genesis 50:20: "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive." How many times had this holy root — carrying within it the future branch of righteousness, the glorious Redeemer — been in danger of being destroyed! But God wonderfully preserved it.

This salvation of the house of Israel by Joseph's hand bore a remarkable resemblance to the salvation of Christ. The children of Israel were saved by Joseph, their own brother and kinsman, from perishing in the famine — just as the one who saves the souls of the spiritual Israel from spiritual famine is their near kinsman, one who is not ashamed to call them brothers. Joseph was a brother they had hated, sold, and as good as killed — for they had planned to kill him. So Christ is one whom we naturally hate, whom by our wicked lives we have traded away for the empty things of the world, and whom by our sins we have put to death. Joseph was first in a state of humiliation — a servant, just as Christ appeared in the form of a servant — then he was cast into a dungeon, just as Christ descended into the grave. When he rose out of the dungeon, he was in a state of great exaltation, at the king's right hand as his deputy, reigning over all his kingdom, providing food, and preserving life. In this exalted state he gave food to his brothers and saved their lives — just as Christ was exalted at God's right hand to be Prince and Savior to His brothers, and received gifts for men, even for the rebellious, even for those who had hated and sold Him.

7. After this, a prophecy was given concerning Christ that was more specific than any that had come before — namely, the prophecy in Jacob's blessing of his son Judah. This was more specific than any previous prophecy in that it showed from whose descendants Christ would come. When God called Abraham, it was revealed that Christ would be of Abraham's posterity. Before that, there was no revelation narrowing Christ's lineage beyond Noah's descendants. After that, it was narrowed further — for though Abraham had many sons, it was revealed that Christ would be of Isaac's posterity. Then it was narrowed further still: when Isaac had two sons, it was revealed that Christ would be of Jacob's posterity. And now, though Jacob had twelve sons, it was revealed that Christ would be of Judah's posterity — Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. His great acts are chiefly in view in Genesis 49:8: "Judah, your brothers shall praise you; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father's sons shall bow down to you." "Judah is a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares rouse him up?" This prediction is also more specific about the time of Christ's coming than anything before it, as verse 10 shows: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." The prophecy here of the calling of the Gentiles following Christ's coming also seems more clear than any before it, in the words "to him shall be the obedience of the peoples."

So we see how that Gospel light which first dawned immediately after the fall of man has been gradually growing brighter.

8. The work of redemption was carried on during this period through God's remarkable preservation of the children of Israel in Egypt, when the power of Egypt was bent on destroying them entirely. They appeared to be completely at the mercy of the Egyptians — they were their slaves, subject to Pharaoh's power. Pharaoh worked to weaken them through brutal forced labor. When that did not achieve his goal, he set out to wipe out the entire race by commanding that every male child be drowned. But despite everything Pharaoh could do, God wonderfully preserved them — and not only preserved them, but caused them to multiply greatly. Instead of being wiped out, they grew rapidly in number.

9. Here it is also important to note not only the preservation of the nation, but God's remarkable sustaining of His visible church within that nation, at a time when it was in danger of being overwhelmed by the idolatry of Egypt. The children of Israel had been among the Egyptians for a long time as slaves, with no means to keep God's ordinances among themselves or maintain public worship or public instruction to uphold true religion. With no written word of God available, they gradually lost much of the true religion and adopted the idolatry of Egypt. The greater part of the people fell away to the worship of Egypt's gods. We learn this from Ezekiel 20:6-8 and from Ezekiel 23:8.

This was now the third time God's church had nearly been swallowed up and swept away by the wickedness of the world — once before the flood, a second time before the calling of Abraham, and now a third time in Egypt. Yet God did not allow His church to be completely overwhelmed. He saved it still — like the ark in the flood, and like His preservation of Moses in the midst of the waters, placed in a basket of reeds where he was in the greatest danger of being consumed. True religion was still maintained among some, and God still had a people among them even in that miserable, corrupt, and dark time. The parents of Moses were true servants of God, as Hebrews 11:23 tells us: "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's edict."

I have now completed the third period of Old Testament history and shown how the work of redemption was carried on from the calling of Abraham to Moses. We have seen many great things accomplished toward this work and great advances in this building beyond anything that had come before.