2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

The "body of Moses" comprises those who were "baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea." The body of Christ also consists of those who are baptized into his name."—(1 Cor. 10:2; Acts 19:5.)

The Christadelphian, Mar 1873

...when Israel was brought to the birth, and stood trembling on the shore of the Red Sea, they were about to be introduced into Moses. They had been begotten of God as His national first-born; but were they to be born of water into the everlasting possession of Canaan; or into a possession in which they were only "strangers and sojourners" in the land?

That would depend upon the question of their national baptism into Moses, or into Christ: if into Moses, they could only inherit according to his law; but if into Christ, then they would obtain an everlasting national possession of the land, of which no other nation, or confederacy of nations, could deprive them.

But they could not be nationally baptized into Christ, for Christ had not come; and until He came, and as the mediatorial testator of the Will, suffered death, neither individual nor nation could have everlasting inheritance in the land; for the Will, or covenant, was of no force while the testator was undeceased.

But there is an end of all question in the case. The apostle in reference to the passage of the Red Sea, writes, "I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized INTO Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor.10:1, 2).

This was the national baptism. An entire obscuration of a whole nation from the view of all beholders on either shore. It was buried, not in the sea only, but in the cloud and in the sea -- a cloud, which was black with darkness to the Egyptians, but light to Israel between the icy walls of the sea.

But, though buried, the nation rose again to a new life upon the opposite shore, leaving all their tyrant taskmasters, and all their bondage behind them, washed away by the returning waters of the deep. First, then, believing in Moses and in the Lord, they were baptized into Moses, and so "saved that day out of the hands of the Egyptians" who were washed up "dead upon the seashore" (Exod. 14:26-31).

In celebration of this great deliverance, they sang the song of Moses. What a thrilling incident was this! Six hundred thousand men, besides women, children, and a mixed multitude, encamped upon the shore, and singing the song of the Lord's victory over their enemies!

After magnifying the gloriousness of His power, and the great salvation with which He had delivered them, they rejoiced in the future that awaited their nation, when it should realize the possession of the land of Canaan under the sceptre of Shiloh "for ever and ever." "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance; in the place, 0 Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the sanctuary, 0 Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever (Exod. 15:17, I8).

Let the reader peruse the song of Moses, and bear in mind that it is not only a magnification of the past, but also prophetic of as great, or a greater deliverance, of the nation under Shiloh.

Under Moses they were saved by the angel of God (Exod. 14:19); but when the time of the second exodus from Egypt arrives, they will be saved by the Lamb of God, whose prowess will be applauded by God's harpists of the crystal sea, who will sing the new song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

"Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, 0 Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy; for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest (Rev. 15:1-5).

Elpis Israel 2.4.

REPRESENTATIVE THINGS

àor "ensamples," do not find their full and complete significancy in the spiritualities pertaining to the believers of "the truth as it is in Jesus." They have a meaning which will appear only at the engrafting of Israel again into their own olive tree. The passage of the Red Sea and baptism of the Twelve Tribes into Moses is an historical event which has an individual and a national signification.

Thus as the national baptism into Moses released Israel after the flesh from their bondage to the Egyptian adversary, so an individual baptism into Christ releases the believers of the same gospel, or Israel after the spirit, from their moral bondage to the adversary, or sin incarnate in the flesh.

But the national baptism into Moses also represents the future national baptism of the Twelve Tribes into Jesus as the Christ, and prophet like unto Moses whom the Lord their God was to raise up unto them from among their tribes.

They have sung the song of Moses, but they have yet to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb on the shores of the Egyptian Sea in celebration of their Second Exodus from the house of bondage.

The man whose name is the Branch, even Jesus and not Moses, will be the king in Jeshurun who will divide its waters, and lead them in triumph to the eastern shore.

Then will the nations rejoice with Israel; for the Lord will have avenged the blood of his servants, and have rendered vengeance to his adversaries, and have been merciful to his land, and to his people. —Deuteronomy 32: 43.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Feb 1851

6 Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

REPRESENTATIVE THINGS

By the Editor.

The acquisition of knowledge by mere verbal signs is tedious and generally difficult. All kinds of teachers, from the teachers of babes to the dignified professors of the highest branches of philosophy and science, are so convinced of this, that where the case admits of it they endeavour to exemplify by representations addressed to the senses of their disciples.

Thus the teacher of a child is not content with telling his pupil that h o u s e stands for house, but he demonstrates it by presenting him with the representation or picture of a house. This impresses the idea on the child's mind indelibly, so that whenever he sees the word house this representative word is immediately succeeded in his mind by the idea or image of the thing itself.

The professor of mathematics points to his representative diagrams; the chemist to his experiments; and so forth, all of them for the common purpose of making more intelligible the precepts they inculcate.

Knowledge of all kinds gains access to the human mind by all the senses—by seeing, by hearing, by tasting, smelling, and feeling. If only one sense be engaged in the acquisition of it, it is not likely to be so quickly and comprehensively acquired as when two or more senses are employed.

The prophets of Israel were sometimes made to see, hear, taste, smell, and feel in relation to one and the same subject before they were permitted to make known, or deliver their message to the rulers and people of the nation. This gave them a full assurance of knowledge which could not be made more certain, seeing that there remained no other avenue to their minds, no sixth sense to receive additional impressions.

It is manifest from the divine oracles that God teaches men as they teach one another, not by precept only, but by example, type, or representation also. This is apparent from the many visions seen by the prophets, who in describing what they saw delineate and paint it, as it were, on the minds of those that read their descriptions; so that in this way the visions are transferred from their minds to them.

Vision, however, is not the only representative mode of instruction exhibited in the sacred scriptures. The events of Israel's history, the leading men who figured in their several generations, the temple furniture, national festivals, and other institutions of their law are all representative things, that is, things illustrative or shadowing forth a something God has declared shall be. The proof of this is contained in the following passages: thus it is written in 1 Corinthians 10: 6,

"These things were our examples (typoi, types) to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted."

The things here referred to were the overthrowings of the Israelites in the wilderness because of the displeasure of God at the faithlessness and obduracy of their hearts, although he brought them safely through the tempestuous sea, fed them with "angels' food," and slaked their raging thirst with water from the flinty rock.

The food, the drink, and the rock are styled "spiritual meat," "spiritual drink," and the "spiritual rock," the spirituality of which they did not perceive. The word spiritual in this place is pneumatikon in the original text, and evidently means figuratively, typically, or representatively; for, says the apostle, "that Rock was," or represented, "the Christ" from whom rivers of living water were to flow.

The Rock in Horeb was indeed a beautiful and expressive emblem of the Lord Christ; for when Moses smote it Yahweh's representative stood upon the top of it, thereby connecting the Lord and the Rock as the sign and the thing signified. From the seventh to the tenth verses of this chapter the apostle cites various instances of the perverseness of Israel in the wilderness notwithstanding the goodness of God to them, and finishes his citations by declaring that—

"All these things happened unto them for ensamples," (or types); "and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world," (or ages of the Law, aionoon), "are come."

The deduction from which is that the gospel was preached to the generation of Israel that came out of Egypt, as well as to the generation contemporary with the apostle; but that it did not profit them because, although baptised unto Moses, they did not continue in the faith but turned back in their hearts to Egypt; so also the belief of the same gospel would be unprofitable to those who are baptised unto Christ, if they continue not in the faith, but commit sin even as they.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Jan 1853

These incidents had a secondary import which is found in the antitypes of the forty-second generation. Thousands of Israelites and Gentiles believed the gospel of the kingdom, and were baptized into Christ.

As a whole they constituted "a holy nation" -- a nation within the nation -- which fed upon the true bread of heaven, and drank of the water of life by faith in the things of Christ.

But they were and are still strangers and sojourners in the world, which to them is like the wilderness of Arabia to Israel of the fourth generation. But there have been multitudes in Christ, as there were in Moses, who did run well but were afterwards hindered. They turned back in their hearts to Egypt, loving the present world, and not having faith enough to get the mastery over it.

Now, the apostle likens such to those of the fourth generation who were murderers, and faithless, and whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, from which they will never arise to enter the land of Israel under Shiloh.

...Their faith was addressed through sensible objects; ours through written testimony. But for the most part professors look not beyond "the things which are seen and temporal." Whether in Moses, or professedly in Christ, they are mere creatures of sensation, who walk by sight and not by faith.

Let us, reader, not be of this number; but let us rejoice in hope of the promise made to the fathers, though at present it seemeth not to the eye of sense to grow. "If a man eat of this bread (the spiritual) he shall live in the Age (EIS TON AIONA);" and, drinking of the blood of Christ, which is the spiritual drink represented by Horeb's stream, the Rock of Israel will raise him up at the last day to life in the age to come (EIS ZOEN AIONION.)

But if, after their example, we love the present world, though we may have believed and obeyed the truth in the beginning, we shall come under the sentence of exclusion from "the rest which remains for the people of God."

Elpis Israel 2.4.

8 Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

"And Yahweh said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before Yahweh against the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may be turned away from Israel"

1,000 Men Slain - Numbers 25:4

We have an account of those who were decapitated for their connection with the sacrifices of Moab. We should not have known how many were thus disposed of, as distinct from the rest who died of the plague, had it not been that this chapter speaks of 24 000 having died of the plague (verse 9], and Paul of 23,000 (1 Cor. 10:8]; clearly showing that the one speaks inclusively of the number whose heads were hung up against the sun, and the other exclusively; thus leaving us 1,000 out of the larger number as representing those who were slain with the sword.

The Christadelphian, Apr 1889

11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom (himself and the baptised, in Corinth) the ends of the world [aions] are come.

"Now once at a finishing of the aions (επι συντελεια τὡν αιὡνὡν), hath Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." The crucifixion was a finishing of types, having their own aions, at the finishing of the Abrahamo-Mosaic aion, "God hath, in these last days, " saith he, "spoken unto us by a Son, on account of whom He constituted The Aions."—(Heb. 1:1–2.)

A BIBLE DICTIONARY - Bro THOMAS

The Christadelphian, Aug 1872

20 But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.

...participation... in a feast in an idol-temple was tantamount to idolatry, so real was the fellowship with idols (even though themselves nonentities) which he saw symbolized in the eating of meat which had just been offered upon the altar as an act of worship to them.

Law and Grace Ch 2.

31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

God and His glory, Christ and his pleasure, the brethren and their needs, the stranger and his alienated, hopeless condition, were thoughts ever present with Paul. And (as is increasingly manifest as we read again and again his wonderful writings) he controlled and planned his ways accordingly. "How can I serve the truth?" was Paul's question, morning, noon, and night.

Is this mind practicable with us? Hastily we might say "No," and urge in support of our answer that we have to mingle with the world, and have to get our living, and therefore to keep always before us the things of the truth is impossible.

To reason thus is to practise self-deception. Let us not in this way deceive or befool ourselves. Paul mingled with the world, and earned his living, but he, as we should, and as he bids us do (1 Cor. 10:31; Rom. 13:13), never lost sight of the truth. With this in mind he plied his tent-making occupation (Acts 18:3; 1 Thess. 1:9, 10; Acts 20:34, 35), and all the affairs of his private and public life.

Let us not forget that it is not God's will that we should quit the world, but that we should, as Paul did, battle with it, and so develop a character which will qualify for the kingdom (Jno. 17:15; 1 Cor. 5:10).

Now the ideal set us by the conduct of Paul is very high, but let us not shut our eyes to it because we sometimes fail, and that, perhaps, more often than other brethren and sisters. So long as it is not all failure with us, the very attempt to reach the ideal will save us from pollution in our pilgrimage, whether it be London, Birmingham, Paris, or elsewhere.

Bro AT Jannaway

The Christadelphian, March 1911

32 Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the ecclesia of God:

Attending Clerical Funerals

Is it right for believers to attend funerals where clergymen of the apostacy preside? Paul says we are not to give offence, neither to the Jews nor Gentiles, nor to the ecclesia of God. Now, if we do not attend the funerals (of relations, say), the Gentiles are offended. If we do attend them, some brethren are offended, who think we ought not to go. What are we to do?—L. W.

Answer.—It is not possible to live absolutely without giving offence. Paul does not contemplate such a thing in the exhortation referred to. His words are elsewhere qualified thus: "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men."—(Romans 12:18.) We are to "follow the things that make for peace" (Rom. 14:19); but having done this with the utmost wisdom and perseverance at our command, if we fail, let us accept the failure without dismay or embarrassment; only let the failure find us on the right side.

If we must offend one of two parties, let it be the one least to be considered. Our care in all matters is apostolically directed to be "especially" towards "the household of faith." (Gal. 6:10.) They are to be considered first. If we must offend either a friend in the flesh or a friend of Christ, let our choice to please fall on the latter; especially if his scruples as to our course are referable to zeal for the Master, because if we disregard them, he may be encouraged (to his hurt) in other courses which he may imagine fall under the same category of liberty, but which may be sinful against Christ.

Paul applies the principle thus in writing to the Corinthians on the subject of eating, in connection with the institutions of Pagan idolatry. Some brethren thought it a sin to touch these things or use them in any way; others contended that, as an idol was nothing, the meat was unchanged by being presented before it, and as proper to be eaten as if fresh from the field; and in their temples as anywhere else; that man's superstition did not mar God's work.

Paul admits the force of this, but says the brethren with weak consciences must be considered. "Take heed," he says, "lest your liberty by any means become a stumbling block to them that are weak. If any man see thee who hast knowledge, sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not the conscience of him that is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols. And through thy knowledge, shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died." (1 Cor. 8:9–11.)

On the same principle, a man might see his way, as between himself and God, to be present at the interment of a relation without feeling compromised by the clerical mummery of the occasion. And other things there are, which he might equally feel at liberty to do. But there are weak brethren to be considered (for the most part zealous men, but men of a narrow range of mental vision).

If your liberty is likely to be misunderstood by them, or made by them a cause of wrong action on their part in some other matter, it is, according to the apostolic rule, and the rule of common benevolence, better to desist.

The Christadelphian, Jan 1873

When our conduct becomes a cause of peril to our brother's salvation, it is time to put a limit on our liberty.

"Give none offence." "Bear the infirmities of the weak." "Let no man seek his own."

These precepts express our duty. But let us clearly and rightly understand our duty. No one is asked to cut and trim his ways to suit every brother's whim and fancy. To attempt this task would mean failure.

To uphold crotchets, or endorse unnecessary prejudices, is no obligation of the truth. What the Scriptures ask a believer to do is this—to avoid a course which will lead to the defilement of his brother's conscience, or his perdition. This is practicable and reasonable.

The principle called for may be illustrated in many ways. Paul cites the observance of days, the eating or non-eating of foods offered to idols. But nineteenth century affairs may be brought in. The partaking of pork, blood, alcohol, the attending of oratorios, etc., concerning the legality of all these matters, brethren have shown scruples. If we are in the company of such, and bring pressure to bear to induce them to indulge in those things, then we infringe, for "he that doubteth is damned if he eat."

This view is confirmed by the apostolic command that there is to be no judging in this matter—neither on the one side nor the other. What we have to remember is that all things which are lawful are not expedient. We are required to think of this, and for the brethren's sake to make sacrifices, endure self-denials, to do nothing which will endanger the salvation of those for whom Christ died.

Bro AT Jannaway

The Christadelphian, Jul 1901