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.”