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The Youth’s Instructor

211/477

April 8, 1897

God's Representatives

Moses

EGW

Moses and Aaron were God's representatives to a bold, defiant king, and to impenitent priests, hardened in rebellion, who had allied themselves to evil angels. Pharaoh and the great men of Egypt were not ignorant in regard to the wise government of God. A bright light had been shining through the ages, pointing to God, to his righteous government, and to the claims of his law. Joseph and the children of Israel in Egypt had made known the knowledge of God. Even after the people of Israel had been brought into bondage to the Egyptians, not all were regarded as slaves. Many were placed in important positions, and these were witnesses for God. YI April 8, 1897, par. 1

The idolatrous priests were alarmed as they saw that a new religion was gaining ground among the Egyptians, that the influence of the Israelites was making proselytes. The Egyptian priests were cunning. They ruled through craft and hypocrisy. They made gorgeous temples, and surrounded them with consecrated groves. Their temple courts were all that art and money could make them; their architecture was magnificent. But what was there within that enclosure? In the place of the God who made the heavens and the earth, they had chosen beasts as their objects of worship. By the priests and worshipers the living God, whom Joseph had magnified, was not regarded as an object of love and favor, but of intense hatred. They were like those whom the word of God describes, who say, “Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us;” “for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.” YI April 8, 1897, par. 2

Satan worked zealously through the priests to honor immorality and deceit, injustice and crime, because these were in marked contrast to the life, the character, and the influence of Joseph, God's light-bearer. At the very time when heaven's light was shining upon them in distinct rays, Satan was at work through sorcerers and magicians, priests and rulers, to arouse in the Egyptians hatred against God. Their debased imagination was given loose rein; their gods were beasts, and the works that their own hands had made. For this reason the Israelites had to suspend their sacrificial offerings; for the Egyptians would have been filled with horror to see the animals they worshiped killed for sacrifices. YI April 8, 1897, par. 3

The River Nile also was an object of worship among the Egyptians. They forgot God, who, by his gracious providence, had supplied the river with its rich blessings, upon which the prosperity of the whole land of Egypt depended. They used God's gracious gifts to please and glorify themselves. The more prosperity they received from his divine hand, the more they alienated themselves from God, and set themselves in array against him. Men made in the likeness of God worshiped the things that he had created, while they despised their Creator. Satan had been working out his own character, in substituting the creature in the place of God in the religious service and in the aspirations of the mind. YI April 8, 1897, par. 4

Joseph's position of honor, connected as he was with the wisest men of Egypt, exalted the Hebrew nation; and great respect was shown them for his sake. Their men became wealthy, owners of flocks and of herds; their women wore fine linen; their weaving and embroidery in purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen excited envy and jealousy in the hearts of the Egyptians. The Israelites were looked upon as a people who, unless oppressed, would rule Egypt. Their industrious habits suggested to the Egyptians the idea of making them slaves. Thus not only their skill in labor, but also all their possessions, would go to enrich the crown. By this means the priests of Egypt hoped to cast contempt upon the God of Israel, and to cause their own gods to be honored and exalted. YI April 8, 1897, par. 5

The heir to the throne was educated and trained in idolatrous rites and ceremonies. This would make him a confirmed opponent to the God of heaven. Satan saw that he had been losing ground, and now he stirred up his powers from beneath to unite with evil men to war against truth and righteousness. The wise men of the nation labored diligently to educate the king to require not only deference but also absolute obedience to his word, to look upon himself as god, and to regard the bodies and souls of his people as under his jurisdiction. He was taught that his own impulses and desires were to be his guide. All this instruction was given to counteract the influence that Joseph had obtained by his circumspect life. YI April 8, 1897, par. 6

When Moses came before Pharaoh, he would have made a marked impression upon the king had it not been that Pharaoh already had some knowledge of the Hebrew faith. He would not submit his proud heart to evidence that had come distinctly before him of the ways and works of the living God. In his stubborn resistance he exclaimed, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” YI April 8, 1897, par. 7

Light was dawning upon Pharaoh. His blunted, debased senses recognized, but would not acknowledge a God superior to the gods he had been trained to worship. Ungodly men hate the light, neither will they come to the light, but return farther and farther into the darkness of ignorance. YI April 8, 1897, par. 8

Through the cruel edict that the children of Israel should be slain, Satan had hoped to destroy the nation of Israel. But God in his providence had preserved Moses, and in the hour of the king's highest triumph, there appeared before him one who had long been exiled in the land of Midian—one who had refused the throne of Egypt, “choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” At eighty years of age Moses stood before Pharaoh in physical and mental vigor. By his side was Aaron, a noble specimen of humanity. Both came in the name of the Lord, the great I Am. YI April 8, 1897, par. 9

The king, educated and trained to command, not to be commanded, was now to pass through a new experience. A greater power was to be revealed from heaven. When these messengers stood before the king, who had arrogated to himself all power over the bodies and consciences of men, he was compelled to listen to God's authoritative command: “Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my first-born: and I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy first-born.” “Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.” YI April 8, 1897, par. 10

The king was filled with madness at these words. His impulse was to kill the messengers before his face. But a spell seemed to be upon him. He felt himself under the control of a power he could not understand; but in his wrath he said, “Who is the Lord? ... I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” YI April 8, 1897, par. 11

What a scene for an Egyptian court! The ambassadors of heaven—two of the despised Hebrew nation—standing before the king and his royal attendants! But these men whom Pharaoh hated were a power he could defy, but could not annihilate. He hurled every wicked denunciation and charge against the whole of the Israelitish nation, and sent messengers to increase the amount of their labor, to oppress them and break their spirit, as though it were a crime to desire to be free from a bondage that was becoming intolerable. YI April 8, 1897, par. 12

The children of Israel were ready to despair. The tyranny already practised toward them seemed almost beyond endurance, and they charged the Heaven-sent messengers with being the cause of the increased indignities practised upon them by their oppressors. But Moses and Aaron stood under the broad shield of Omnipotence. They were not silenced by the threats of Pharaoh or the reproaches of their own people. They had the word of God to communicate to the king of Egypt. YI April 8, 1897, par. 13

Mrs. E. G. White

(Concluded next week.)