Exodus 15:2

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"My father's God." Exodus 15:2 .

These words are taken from the song which Moses and the children of Israel sang when they saw Pharaoh and his hosts overthrown in the Red Sea. It was surely an era in their history to see the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. Such epochs in human life should have some moral meaning. They should not be allowed to pass without celebration. There is a time to sing, surely it is the hour of deliverance from the terrible foe. Music is the natural expression of joy. A song is the proper conclusion of a victory. Fasting is the worship of sorrow; singing is the worship of joy. The words specially chosen for meditation show that the victory did not end in itself; it touched the holy past; it consummated the promises and hopes of ages; in this song, therefore, the voices of the sainted dead are heard as well as the voices of the triumphant and joyous living.

What are the ideas with which this expression is charged? 1. "My father's God." Then religion was no new thing to them. They were not surprised when they heard the name of God associated with their victory. Religion should not be an originality to us; it should not be a novel sensation; it should be the common breath of our daily life, and the mention of the name of God in the relation of our experiences ought to excite no mere amazement. 2. "My father's God." Then their father's religion was not concealed from them. They knew that their father had a God. There are some men amongst us of whose religion we know nothing until we are informed of the same by public advertisement. It is possible not to suspect that a man has any regard for God until we see his name announced in connection with some religious event. We cannot read this holy book without being impressed with the fact that the men who made the history of the world were men who lived in continual communion with the spiritual and unseen. Religion is the exception in some of our lives, it was the great and beneficent rule of theirs. Is it possible that your child is unaware that you have a God? Is it possible that your servants may be ignorant of the existence of your religion? 3. "My father's God." Yet it does not follow that the father and the child must have the same God. Religion is not hereditary. You have power deliberately to sever the connection between yourself and the God of your fathers. It is a terrible power! Let that be clearly understood, lest a man should torment himself with the thought that he must inherit his father's God as he inherits his father's gold. You may turn your face towards the heavens, and say with lingering and bitter emphasis, "Thou wast my father's God, but I shut thee out of my heart and home!" 4. "My father's God." Then we are debtors to the religious past. There are some results of goodness we inherit independently of our own will. This age inherits the civilisation of the past. The child is the better for his father's temperance. Mephibosheth received honours for Jonathan's sake. The processes of God are not always consummated in the age with which they begin. Generations may pass away, and then the full blessing may come. We are told that some light which may be reaching the earth to-day, started from its source a thousand years ago. What is true in astronomy is also true in moral processes and events; to-day we are inheriting the results of martyrdoms, sacrifices, testimonies, and pledges which stretch far back into the grey past of human history.

The text should convey a powerful appeal to many hearts. It is a pathetic text. Say "My God," and you have solemnity, grandeur, majesty, and every element that can touch the reverence and wonder of man; but say "My father's God," and you instantly touch the tenderest chord in the human heart: God is brought to your fireside, to your cradle, to the bed of your affliction, and to the core of your whole home-life. The text impels us to ask a few practical questions. 1. Your father was a Christian, are you so much wiser than your father that you can afford to set aside his example? There are some things in which you are bound to improve upon the actions of your father; but are you quite sure that the worship of the God of heaven is one of them? 2. Your father was a holy man, will you undertake to break the line of a holy succession? Ought not the fame of his holiness to awaken your own religious concern? Are you prepared to make yourself the turning-point in the line of a pious ancestry? Beware lest you say in effect, "For generations my fathers have trusted in God and looked to him for the light of their lives, but now I deliberately disown their worship and turn away from the God they loved." This you can say if you be so minded! God does not force himself upon you. You may start a pagan posterity if you please. 3. Your father was deeply religious, will you inherit all he has given you in name, in reputation, in social position, and throw away all the religious elements which made him what he was? Many a battle has been fought, even on the funeral day, for the perishable property which belonged to the dead man; what if there should be some emulation respecting the worship he offered to the God of heaven? You would not willingly forego one handful of his material possessions; are you willing to thrust out his Saviour? 4. Your father could not live without God, can you? Your father encountered death in the name of the Living One. How do you propose to encounter the same dread antagonist? When your father was dying, he said that God was the strength of his heart and would be his portion for ever. He declared that but for the presence of his Saviour he would greatly fear the last cold river which rolled between him and eternity, but that in the presence of Christ that chilling stream had no terror for him. When the battle approached the decisive hour, your father said "Thanks be unto God which giveth to us the victory," how do you propose to wind up the story of your pilgrimage?

A word must be spoken for the encouragement of a class which cannot but have its representatives in any ordinary congregation. Some of you have had no family religion. Your hearts ache as you turn to the past and remember the atheism of your household and the atheism of your training. -Not a single Christian tradition has come through your family. To-day you are asking whether it be possible for you to be saved. I return an instant, emphatic, and impassioned YES to your heart's inquiry. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found! Our relation to God is strictly personal. Every heart must make its own decision in this grave matter. See to it that, though you cannot speak of your father's God, yet your children shall be able to associate your name with the God and Saviour of mankind.