The First And Second Exodus

by J. Miller | Category: Voices From The Past - Extracted From Jottings | Nov 1980

Our thoughts often travel back to that hallowed scene on the Mount of Transfiguration, and it has often been emphasized that when Moses and Elijah talked with the Lord there, they "spake of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke 9:31). The original word here for decease is a word from which our word "exodus" is derived. By the association of ideas, this word immediately causes us to think of the exodus of Israel from the land of Egypt, which began with the sacrifice of the pascal lamb. Behind a blood-stained doorway they ate of the roasted lamb, with their shoes on their feet and their staff in their hand. Through a bloodstained doorway lay their exodus, their way to liberty from slavery.

So also is our way to liberty after a true likeness. Christ, our Passover, has been sacrificed. But there is a difference: Moses, Israel's leader, had his staff or rod in his hand as he led them out, and each man had his staff in hand prepared for the journey, but in this dispensation the staff is changed for a cross. "If any man would come after Me, "saith the Lord, "let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me" (Luke 9:23). In Israel's day it was a procession of men with staffs, but today it is a procession of men with crosses; not a cross at the end of a rosary, nor yet one of gold worn as an ornament, but a cross upon which to die daily to self and the world, and live unto God in Christ Jesus.

Peter could speak of "my exodus" (2 Pet. 1:15), an exodus which is closely associated with the Lord's command, Follow Me" (John 21:19). Had He not just said: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. Now this He spake, signifying by what manner of death he should glorify God". The fact is beyond question that there is one way only of pleasing God in this dispensation, and that is by following Christ, and if we follow Him then we must be crucified - crucified to self and crucified to the world and the world to us. Do we wish to glorify God in life and death? Then let us take up our cross daily and know our exodus under the leadership of Him who is faith's princely Leader.

J. Miller | Nov 1980
Voices From The Past - Extracted From Jottings