p. 34Ladies and Gentlemen,—
I called your attention last month to the record of the repeated murmurings and mutinies of the children of Israel on their way from Egypt to Canaan. I asked you to consider whether the simple fact of their being recorded was not an evidence of their having occurred, since it would be impossible to imagine any other reason for such a record. You were inclined, I think to accord some weight to the argument. But some of you did not seem to think there was much in it, even if true. You seemed to think that the most it proved was that the Hebrews were a discontented cantankerous race. I ask you now to see much more in it than that: to see in it, in fact, a proof of God having revealed Himself to Israel, and therefore of the whole Bible being true. This may surprise you as an extreme and illogical contention. Let us see. p. 35 All I want conceding at this moment is, that Israel murmured and mutinied. Don’t go away from that, and we shall see what large conclusions come out of it. We have simply to ask why they murmured in each case, to see where the conclusions come from. Why did they murmur just after they left Egypt, and before they crossed over the Red Sea into the wilderness? Why did they say, “Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt? . . . . It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians.” Here is the answer: “They were sore afraid.” Why? “They lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them,” “and Pharaoh’s army overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon.” Here was cause for fear and a natural provocative of murmur: a helpless mass of men, women, and children jammed in between the sea in front and an approaching army behind. The murmuring proves the existence of the peril. And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, Israel’s arrival afterwards on the borders of Canaan proves they escaped it. The question you have to consider is, How did they escape? Did they escape by fighting and repulsing the Egyptians? How could a mob of working people, burdened with wives and families, fight a trained army? And if by some extraordinary turn of circumstances, such an incredible thing happened as the defeat of an army of trained soldiers by a frightened mob, would not the occurrence have been recorded? Israel’s battles afterwards are duly recorded as Israel’s battles. If Israel had a battle now, would it not have been recorded? The fighting of such a battle would have been to their credit: it would have been to the credit of Moses; and if this history is a mere human history, p. 36 as the suggestion assumes, is it conceivable that a circumstance yielding so much human satisfaction, would have been left out?
You see, Ladies and Gentlemen, the naturalist theory is full of difficulty. We have only to discard the naturalist theory to get rid of all the difficulty. Let us accept the narrative, and we instantly have straight sailing in smooth water. Why not? You accept the narrative in the matter of the murmuring. Why should you object to it in the matter of the escape from the danger that caused the murmuring? “The Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, and chariots, and horsemen. . . . and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea” (Ex. xiv. 21, 27).
If the children of Israel escaped in this way, then God was working with them, and the Divinity of the whole scheme of Hebrew history and Hebrew teaching is established; for it cannot be imagined that God would leave His work unfinished.
If they did not escape in this way, then, Ladies and Gentlemen, where are we? If it was a natural escape, then, of course, the Egyptians had the same chance; and why did not they escape also? Why were they drowned? If you suggest they were not drowned, then how did Israel get away? Every road of travel practicable to an irregular multitude, would be still more practicable to a disciplined host. p. 37 Are you disposed to adopt the complacent “learned” suggestion that it was an accidental affair—that by a coincidence of natural movements, the sea retired by geological subsidence just at the moment Israel wanted to get away, and having got over on the dried sea-bottom, it happened to come back by remote “seismic” elevation of the sea basin, just as the Egyptians were following them across? This would be rather wonderful, wouldn’t it? Rather different from how things happen now-a-days. A rather more fishy-looking and really more childish story than the genuine Mosaic original, isn’t it?
But, Ladies and Gentlemen, don’t imagine you would be out of your difficulties by adopting this highly “learned” view. You would still have to explain how a prodigious assembly of Jew serfs came to be in such a dilemma; how they came to be in such an out-of-the-way place; how they managed to get away from Egypt at all, and what earthly object Moses could have in leading them out of a land of plenty into a region of danger and starvation.
If you say, “We admit the exodus was by Divine authority,” are you not bound to admit that the journey afterwards would be Divine, too? Would God begin a work and leave it unfinished? Would He break Egypt’s power for the deliverance of His people, and not open the sea to let them escape from Egypt’s army? Do you think the opening of the sea would be too difficult for Him? Now, come, what reason can you urge for refusing belief?
You cannot refuse belief without involving yourselves in endless difficulties in other directions. You will have to give the lie to Moses, who was a proved man of integrity, and who records these things; or if you contradict the evidence and say Moses did not p. 38 write it, you will have to give the lie to Christ, who endorsed the writings of Moses as such. And you will have to give the lie to David in all the Psalms, and the Prophets, who occasionally in their writings allege these things. The matter is built into the history of Israel for a thousand years; and that history is declared a work Divine by Jesus and the Apostles. You will have to attribute error, imposture, and untruthfulness to a book, and to men, and to a work which is pre-eminent above all books and works on earth for holiness, and righteousness, and truth. And all because of what, Ladies and Gentlemen? Simply because our generation has had no experience of sea-openings or other direct and wonderful works of God. Is this a sound reason? Consider! Consider!!
If it were a mere tale, standing by itself, scepticism might be excusable; but it is far, far from that. It stands related to a serious history. It lies at the foundation of a grave and wise system of law. It belongs to actual operations in the earth that have influenced the condition of mankind in the most important regions of the earth to the present day, and of which the constant feature has been open Divine interposition from the flood of Noah down to the resurrection of Christ. It is not skillfully or reasonably treated if it is discussed as an isolated incident alone. It must be taken in its wide and solid connections.
But even when taken alone, it cannot be got rid of. You have the Bible. You cannot get rid of that. You have got the murmuring recorded there: you cannot get rid of that: and out of the murmuring comes the evidence of Israel’s danger, and out of this, Israel’s deliverance. Ladies and Gentlemen, this p. 39 most unattractive feature (as you may think it), of Israel’s murmuring, is one of the strongest evidences that the Bible is true, as I hope to shew you further in the other cases mentioned last month.