Hidden In The Ark
"By
faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because
they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's
commandment." (Hebrews 11:23)
There are three arks mentioned in
the Word of God. Each was a place of refuge, shelter, and safety. Each of these
three arks was typical of the Lord Jesus Christ, and God’s salvation in and by
him.
Noah’s
Ark
The ark that Noah built secured
those who were in it from the vengeance and violent wrath of an angry God. That
is Christ our Substitute. All the terror of God’s wrath fell on Noah and his
family in the ark; but no wrath touched them. The ark absorbed all. So, too,
all the fury of God’s wrath fell on his elect in Christ; but no wrath can ever
touch us. Christ absorbed it all. Noah and his family were saved when all the
world was drowned in the wrath of God. In Christ all God’s elect shall be
eternally saved when all the world is drowned forever.
The
Ark of the Covenant
The ark of the covenant sheltered the
two tables of God’s holy law, and, being covered with blood, was the place of
atonement, mercy, and acceptance with God for sinners. Where the ark went God
went. That ark is Christ our Mercy-Seat. In him we have perfect righteousness
and complete atonement. He kept the law for us in his life of obedience to God
as our Substitute, and satisfied its justice by his death in our place at
Calvary. If we are in the Ark, Christ Jesus, God is reconciled to us and we are
reconciled to him. The holy Lord God bids needy sinners to come to him at the
Mercy-Seat, Christ Jesus, and promises to meet all who come to him upon the
Mercy-Seat, by faith in Christ, with mercy!
Moses’ Ark
Moses’
parents hid him for three months in an ark (a basket) made of bulrushes. That ark
protected one of God’s chosen ones, Moses, from the murderous designs of a
wicked ruler, Pharaoh. That ark, too, was a picture of Christ, into whom chosen
sinners were placed by our loving, heavenly Father from eternity. As that ark
of bulrushes was the means by which Moses was saved from drowning in the
Eygptians’ river, God’s elect are saved from drowning in that infernal lake of
his wrath, which burns forever with fire and brimstone.
From the beginning there has been but one
place of refuge for sinners, only one way of salvation. That refuge, that way,
that salvation is Christ! If we would be saved, we must be robed in Christ’s
righteousness and washed in his blood. We must be in Christ by faith. Only
Christ can bear our souls above the flood of God’s wrath. Only Christ can save
us.
Hidden In The Ark
"By
faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because
they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's
commandment." (Hebrews 11:23)
A
considerable length of time elapsed between the death of Joseph and the birth
of Moses. That interval is bridged by what is recorded in Exodus 1. There we
see a marked change in the lot of the Hebrews. In the days of Joseph the
Egyptians had been very kind to the descendants of Abraham, giving them the
land of Goshen to dwell in.
Another
Pharaoh
But there
arose another Pharaoh in Egypt who did not know Joseph. The policy of this new
monarch was one of tyranny (Ex. 1:9-10). But his policy of tyranny and
persecution could not alter the purpose of God. — “There are many devices in a man’s heart, nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord shall stand” (Pro. 19:21). We read in Exodus 1:12 that “the more they afflicted them, the more they
multiplied and grew.” Indeed, “The
Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: He maketh the devices of
the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the
thoughts of this heart to all generations” (Ps. 33:10-11).
Moses’
Birth
Moses’
birth came in the very height and fury of persecution. After Pharaoh failed in
his design to destroy the male children of Israel by the midwives who served
them, he ordered the execution of all the male Hebrew babies. No doubt, his
barbaric soldiers were delighted to carry out the ordered butchery. Their
object was the utter annihilation of God’s people from the face of the earth.
It was but one more attempt by the fiend of hell to destroy the woman’s Seed
and topple the throne of God. But it was as vain as it was barbaric.
When the rage of the Egyptian was most
fierce, in the wise disposal of divine providence, Moses was born and
miraculously preserved. Indeed, the Lord God overturned Pharaoh’s wicked
designs and made him to be the very one by whom the deliverer of his people
would be preserved and brought to power! Never were the words of Psalm 76:10
more powerfully illustrated in the Old Testament. —"Surely the wrath of
man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."
John
Owen wrote, “How blind are poor sinful mortals, in all their
contrivances against the church of God! When they think all things secure, that
they shall not fail of their end; that their counsels are laid so deep as not
to be blown up; their power so uncontrollable, and the way wherein they are
engaged so effectual, as that God himself can hardly deliver it out of their
hands; — He that sits on high laughs them to scorn, and with an almighty
facility lays in provision for the deliverance of his church, and their utter
ruin.”