Israel and Egypt: Divine providence.
The connection of the people of God with the land of Egypt is profoundly interesting, and suggests valuable lessons for all time. We are reminded by the text of—
I. THE UNDULATORY CHARACTER OF OUR HUMAN LIFE. This in the eventful experiences of Joseph (Acts 7:9, Acts 7:10). First rejoicing in his father's peculiar favor, then sold into Egyptian slavery, then rising to a position of trust in the house of his master, then cast into prison, then raised to the premiership; up on the height of comfort, down into the depth of misfortune, up again on the crest of honor, then down again into the trough of shame, etc. So with Israel the man and Israel the people (Acts 7:11-19). The patriarch at first in a position of relief and advantage, then in one of distress and disadvantage; the nation falling into the dark gulf of bitter bondage until raised up "with a strong hand and stretched out arm into liberty. Thus is it with men and with nations. With none does the course of things prove to be a straight line, either of ascent or of descent. It is always undulatory. Light and shadow, sweetness and bitterness, hope and fear, joy and sorrow, alternate from the cradle to the grave.
II. THE OVERRULING PROVIDENCE OF GOD. How clearly Joseph felt that his distresses had been overruled by the Divine hand, we know (Genesis 50:20). We can also see how the descent into Egypt and even the long slavery in that land of bondage were a discipline which wrought ultimate good, of the most solid and enduring kind, to Israel. By the sufferings which they endured together in those broiling brickfields, under those cruel taskmasters, and to which in happier times their sons looked back with such intense emotion; by the marvelous deliverances which they experienced together in the land of the enemy and in the "great and terrible wilderness," and of which their descendants sang with such reverence and such rapture;—by these common sufferings and common mercies they were welded together as a nation, they became rich in those national memories which are a people's strength, they became a country for which, through many a succeeding century, patriots would cheerfully risk all their hopes and proudly lay down their lives. We learn these lessons.
1. Be prepared for coming changes in circumstance. No man has a right to feel secure in anything but in a wise and holy character, in that which makes him ready for any event that may happen. At any hour human prosperity may pass into adversity, joy into sorrow, honor into shame; or at any hour straitness may be exchanged for abundance, lowliness for elevation, gloom for gladness. We all urgently need the fixed principles, the rest in God, the attachment to things eternal and Divine, the heritage in the heavenly future, which will keep us calm in the most agitating vicissitudes of earthly fortune.
2. Trust God when things are at their worst. In the first days of Egyptian slavery, and still more in Potiphar's prison, things must have looked dark indeed to Joseph. "But God was with him" (Acts 7:9, Acts 7:10). It was a terrible time, too, for the children of Israel when the king "which knew not Joseph" dealt subtly with and, evil entreated them, slaying their young children at their birth (Acts 7:18, Acts 7:19); but God saw their affliction (Acts 7:34, Acts 7:35; Exodus 3:7), and was preparing to send the deliverer in due time. And to the upright in any scene of disappointment and distress there will arise "light in the darkness" (Psalms 112:4). Trust and wait; the longest and severest storm will pass, and the sun shine again on the waters of life.
3. Realize that God has large and long purposes in view. Jacob died far off from the promised land, but his bones were to rest there in due course, and there his children were to have a goodly heritage. It matters little what happens to us as individuals; enough if we are taking a humble share in working out his great and beneficent designs.—C.