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This idol-making, idol-loving world
(J. C. Philpot,
"Gracious Dealings" 1862)
'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians.
You know how I brought you to Myself and
carried you on eagle's wings." Exodus 19:4
The idea here, is of snatching His people out of
Egypt as an eagle would snatch her young away
from the hands of the spoiler of her nest, and bear
them away and aloft on her outstretched wings.
Deliverance . . .
from idolatry,
from bondage,
from a state of degradation and abject slavery,
is the leading idea of bringing His people out of Egypt.
So, spiritually, the Lord bears us out of a worse Egypt, by
His Almighty power. Has He given you some deliverance
from the world and the spirit of it, and brought you to
Himself by the power of His grace? Has He carried you
up out of sin . . .
its open commission,
its secret practice,
its inward indulgence,
and broken in some measure the love and the power of it?
Has He carried you not only out of the grosser iniquities of
Egypt, but its more 'refined and acceptable sins', such as . . .
creature idolatry,
religious lip-service,
self-righteousness, and
mocking God by superstition, tradition, and vain ceremony?
Has He carried you, as on eagles' wings, out of all
the idols of Egypt? For Egypt was a land teeming
with idolatry, and therefore an apt emblem of this
idol-making, idol-loving world.
"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of
Egypt, so that you would no longer be slaves to
the Egyptians." Leviticus 26:13
"Praise be to the Lord, for He has saved you from
the Egyptians and from Pharaoh. He has rescued
His people from the power of Egypt!" Exodus 18:10
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