The Apostle Paul tells us that those things which happened to Israel happened to them for types, but were recorded for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come. (1 Cor. 10:11)

Examination, therefore, of the experiences of fleshly Israel must prove profitable to those who take them as an admonition to walk worthily of the calling wherewith they have been called, not be guilty of lusting for evil (1 Cor. 10:6) as was Israel, nor to warrant unworthiness to enter into God’s rest because of unbelief, i.e. disobedience.

It is our purpose to study these recorded experiences of Israel, so that in the light of these, we may measure our own faithfulness unto the God of our deliverance.

We shall start with the Israel that found itself in bondage to Egypt. They would never have been here but for the sins of their fathers! You will recall how that Joseph and his brethren had lived in the land of Canaan with Jacob their father. (Gen. 36:1,2) It was the land of promise! But Joseph’s brethren were jealous of him, and to get rid of him, sold him into the slavery which in the providences of God brought them also into Egypt. But so long as Joseph lived they did fare well, even in Egypt. But they had lost their hold upon Canaan, and their children became slaves, even as Joseph had been in the land of Egypt.

So, too, do we find that we who are the true Israel of God, were born in Egypt and enslaved, not because of our own personal sins, but because our fathers had sold us into it. Does not the psalmist of old say, “I was conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity.” (Psa. 51:5) Was this not because “the fathers have eaten the sour grapes,” that the children’s teeth are set on edge? (Jer. 31:29)

It matters not what the specific sin of Father Adam was, it was disobedience, and resulted in his loss of Eden “rest” and his enslavement to the Pharaoh of this World, for whom he had to labor, as it were, in the sweat of his brow. All of his children having been born in Egypt were born slaves subject to cruel and hard taskmasters – Sin and Death! This is the import of Paul’s words in Romans 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

The Pharaoh who knew not Joseph recognized that the Israelites dwelling in his domain might become too much for him, so he devised schemes whereby they might be curbed, and their increase restrained. The Adversary well knew that if he didn’t do something to curb and restrain the spread of true Christianity, he

would soon find himself in difficult straits, his kingdom and his power would soon be his no longer.

In the case of Fleshly Israel in Egypt he not only set over them the cruel taskmasters but he had them erect for himself two great Treasure Cities – Pithom and Raamses. (Exod. 1:11) The great antitypical Pharaoh busied them into building his two great treasure cities, Catholicism and Protestantism. The erection of these edifices has certainly kept Christendom very, very busy.

The account tells us how that the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor, and how they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in the field, all their service was with rigor. (Exod. 1:13,14) But the Israelites seemed to thrive under these hardships and rigors. So, too, antitypical Israel i.e. the true Israel of God, though enslaved and forced ofttimes to do things which are calculated to diminish their virility and ardor, seems to thrive under this treatment. Satan could not afford to let such a condition continue for long, he would use other means besides the building of treasure cities, to sap up their powers.

With fleshly Israel, Pharaoh sought to accomplish this through a restraint placed upon the midwives of Israel, but they feared God rather than man, with the result that Israel still increased. (Exod. 1:15-19) So, too, every method devised by the adversary to thwart the increase of the true Israel of God, which in due time is to swallow up the Egypt of this world to make of it the kingdom of God and his righteousness, has resulted in failure. But these Israelites are not desirous of dwelling in Egypt, they are looking forward to occupying the land of promise, Canaan, and would be free from the bondage of Egypt. But all endeavors to free themselves also meet with failure, so that it would appear that Satan does have some success. Ah yes, but it is merely a temporary victory for him. For the deliverance of God’s people is not accomplished by themselves, but by God who raised up a true Israelite, right in the midst of Egypt itself, this one to become the saviour, the deliverer of his people.

You will recall what great efforts Pharaoh had put forth when he required that all male children should be destroyed, and only females be saved. (Exod. 1:22) This would have caused the race soon to die out, without Israel ever being delivered from bondage. God however intervened raising up Moses in the very house of Pharaoh himself.

The Antitypical deliverer of the people of God, Jesus (the saviour of his people) was likewise born in the very house of the antitypical Pharaoh, Satan, after the latter had through Herod made heroic efforts to destroy this deliverer’s very life through the destruction of all male children. But God’s overruling providence saved the life of the great antitypical deliverer, Jesus, even as the same providences delivered the life of the typical one, Moses.

Now, it should be noted, that not everything in the “recordings” is typical, any more than a shadow can be a true or perfect representation of that whose image it represents. The shadow may be large, it may be small, it may fall to the east, it may fall toward the west, yet it is ever the shadow of the same reality. But there are not necessarily any sharp lines, by which features and details may be recognized or even discerned. So we must be careful and not endeavor to see more in the shadow, than the shadow can or was intended to show. In our studies therefore, we shall have to note that sometimes the shadows are sharper than at others, and that sometimes the light producing the shadow comes from a different angle. While the image is always the same and does not change, yet the shadow, is capable of much variation. Just so Moses ofttimes is the shadow of the great deliverer, Christ, at other times he is the shadow of God himself, and still at other times, a shadow of the Second Death class. It becomes evident then that we cannot take the “recordings” of Israel’s experiences always as one continuous shadow of the antitypical Israel of God. Yea were this true, most of us would find ourselves shut out from Canaan completely. Accordingly let us note that shadows are not the very image, and shall need to be recognized as mere shadows. Even as Moses in different parts of Israel’s experiences represented different and perhaps isolated personages so we must look for different and ofttimes isolated lessons from the types.