Exodus 1
THE
OPPRESSION OF
The Book of
Exodus, being written in continuation of the history recorded in Genesis,
is
carefully connected with it by a recapitulation which involves three points:
ü The names
of Jacob’s children;
ü The number
of Jacob’s descendants who went down into
ü The death
of Joseph.
- Vs 1-4 are a recapitulation of
Genesis 35:22-26;
- v. 5, of Genesis 46:27; and
- v. 6, of Genesis 50:26.
In no case,
however, is the recapitulation exact, or (so to speak) mechanical. The
“households” of v. 1 had not been mentioned previously;
Joseph had not in Genesis
been
separated off from his brethren, as he is in v. 5; nor had the deaths of
“his brethren” been recorded, much less of “all that generation.” Thus there is
here no “vain
repetition.”
New facts come out in the course of the recapitulation; and
the
narrative advances while aiming especially at maintaining its continuity.
1 “Now these are the names of the children of
every man and his household came with
Jacob.” Now these are the names.
Literally,
“And these
are the names.” Compare Genesis 46:8, where the phrase
used
is the same. We
have here the first example of that almost universal
practice
of the
writers of the
Historical Scriptures to connect book with book in the closest
possible
way by the simple copulative “and.” (Compare Joshua 1:1,
Judges
1:1, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.) This
practice,
so unlike that of secular writers, can only be explained by the
instinctive
feeling of all, that they were contributors to a single book,
each
later
writer a continuator of the narrative placed on record by his
predecessor.
In the Pentateuch, if we admit a single author, the initial vau
will
be less remarkable, since it will merely serve to join together the
different
sections of a single treatise. Which came into
two
words of the original, “with Jacob,”
belong properly to this clause.
The
whole verse is best translated, “Now these are the names of the
children of
with his household.” So the
Septuagint, Pagnini, Kalisch,
Geddes, Boothroyd,
etc. Every man and his
household. This
is important in connection with
the vexed
question of the possible increase of the original band of so-called
“Israelites”
within the space of 430 years to such a number as is said to
have
quitted
Abraham
comprised 318 adult males (Genesis 14:14). The
“households” of
Jacob, his eleven sons, and his numerous grown-up
grandsons,
have been with reason estimated at “several thousands.”
(Kurtz,
‘History
of the Old Covenant,’ vol. 2 p. 149, E. T.)
Removal to
This
early instance of emigration shows:
- How THE CALL to leave the land of one’s fathers
may sometimes be:
Ø Unexpected. Jacob little
expected to end his days in
Ø Trying.
ancestors, etc.
Ø Mysterious. An apparent reversal of the
lines on which
hitherto been moving. Yet:
Ø Distinct. Jacob had no doubt that God’s
call had come to him. It came
first in providence, and was
ratified by direct Divine permission
(Genesis 46:2-5). Many have
the indirect call, who can scarcely doubt
that it is also a direct one.
o
Causes of emigration:
§
Want and distress at home, with reasonable prospect of
comfort
and plenty abroad;
§
opening of a better field for talents and energies;
§
state of health, necessitating change of climate;
§
persecution, as in case of Huguenots, Pilgrim Fathers, etc.
- What CONSOLATIONS the emigrant may
carry with him.
Ø
God accompanies him (Genesis 46:4).
Ø
He can serve God yonder as well as here.
Ø
He is furthering wise and beneficent purposes. Little doubt
of that,
if he is leaving at
God’s bidding.
for the tribes:
o
A home.
o
Provision.
o
Room to grow.
o
Education in arts and letters.
o
Valuable discipline
all preparatory to
settlement in
spiritual mission to
the world.
Ø
The terminus is not
of the better
keep in view a “better country, that is, an heavenly” (Hebrews 11:16).
- The ADVANTAGES of emigration.
Ø
It is not always
advantageous.
o
Not always advantageous
to the country left. A country that by
misgovernment, bad laws,
excessive taxation, or persecution, drives its
best subjects from its soil,
may be compared to a man who humors an
insane bent by occasionally
opening a vein.
o
Not always
advantageous to the country settled in. Emigrants may
carry with them
— too often do — low and
immoral habits, and prove
a
curse,
rather than a blessing, to the populations in
whose midst they settle.
o
Not always
to the emigrant himself. His step may prove to have been
hasty. He may have taken it on
impulse, or on insufficient information, or
in a spirit of adventure. He
finds when too late that a sanguine disposition
has deceived him. This is to
go forth without a clear call. But:
Ø
Emigration, wisely and
judiciously conducted, is of great benefit to
society.
o
It thins an overstocked country, and so relieves pressure on
the means
of subsistence.
o
It occupies territory needing population to develop its
resources.
o
It affords room and scope for the vigorous expansion of a
young race.
o
It benefits native populations. The Egyptians would profit
by the
residence of the Hebrews in
their midst.
o
It may be made subservient to the diffusion of the knowledge
of the
true religion.
How
seldom is this thought of, yet what a responsibility rests
on those who leave Christian
shores, carrying with them, to
lands sunk in
the night of heathenism, the blessed truths of Christianity! The
conclusion
of the matter is: Let emigration be an act of faith. Do not, in so important a
step in life, lean to your own understanding. Ask guidance and clear
direction
from on High. But if the way is open and the call plain, then, like
Jacob, go forth, and go
boldly, and in faith. Trust God
to be with you. He
goes
before you to seek you out a place to dwell in, and will surely bless
you
in all you put your hand to (Deuteronomy 1:33; 15:10).
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3
Issachar, Zebulun, and
Benjamin,
4 Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.”
The sons of the legitimate wives
Leah
and Rachel are placed first, in the order of their seniority (Genesis 29:32-35;
30:18-20;
35:18); then these of the secondary wives, or concubines, also in the
order
of their birth (Genesis 30:6-13). The order is different from that
observed
in Genesis 46, and seems intended to do honor to legitimate, as
opposed
to secondary, wedlock. The omission of Joseph follows
necessarily
from the exact form of the opening phrase, “These are
the
names of the children of
5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy
souls:” This
is manifestly intended as a repetition of Genesis 46:27,
and
throws the reader back upon the details there adduced, which
make
up the exact number of “seventy souls,” by the inclusion of Jacob
himself,
of Joseph, and of Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. The
inaccuracy
by which Jacob is counted among his own descendants, is
thoroughly
Oriental and Hebraistic, however opposed to Western
habits of
thought.
To stumble at it shows a narrow and carping spirit. (Compare
note
on Genesis 46:15.) “for Joseph was in
i.e., has
not been mentioned with the other sons of Jacob, since he did not
“come
into
the
clause to the commencement of the verse, which is made by the Septuagint,
is
unnecessary.
6 And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.”
And Joseph died. Or, “So Joseph died” — a
reference to Genesis 50:26 —
and all his brethren. All the
other actual sons of Jacob — some probably before
him; some,
as Levi (ch. 6:16), after him. Joseph’s “hundred and ten years” did not
constitute
an extreme longevity. And all that generation. All the wives of Jacob’s sons,
their sister
Dinah, and the full-grown members of their households who accompanied
them into
The
Patriarchal Names (vs. 1-5)
·
THE NAMES
IN THEMSELVES. Nothing seems to the ordinary reader of
Holy Scripture so dry and
uninteresting as a bare catalogue of names.
But
“ALL
Scripture,” rightly viewed, “is
profitable” (II Timothy 3:16). Each
Hebrew name has a meaning, and was
given with a purpose. Jacob, the
supplanter
(Genesis
27:36); Reuben, the son of God’s gracious regard
(Genesis 29:32); Simeon, the proof
that God hears prayers and answers them
(ib.
v. 33); Levi, the bond of association between
wife and husband; Judah, he
for whom God is praised;
Issachar, the son given as a reward;
Zebulon,
he
who will make the husband and wife dwell
together;
Benjamin “son of my
strength,” otherwise Benoni, “son of my sorrow” (Genesis 35:18); Dan, the
sign that there is a God who judges
us;
Naphtali, “one wrestled for”; Gad,
“good fortune cometh”; Asher, “the
happy one”! How the private life of
Jacob, how the rivalries and heats
and contentions of that polygamist
household, come before us, as we
read the names! What a desire is shown
to have children! What a pride in
the possession of many children!
Already “the Desire of all nations” (Haggai 2:7) was looked for, and each
Hebrew mother hoped that in the line
of descent from her might be born that
Mighty One, who would “bruise the serpent’s head” (Genesis
3:15),
and in whom “all the nations of the earth would be blessed” (Genesis
12:3; 18:18). Thus this list of
names, if we will consider the meaning of
them and the occasion of their being
given, may teach us many a lesson,
and prove “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
nstruction in righteousness.” (II Timothy 3:16)
- THE ORDER OF THE NAMES. The order in
which the names are
given assigns a just advantage to
legitimate and true marriage over even
the most strictly legal union which
falls short of true marriage. Let men
beware lest they forfeit God’s
blessing upon their domestic life, by
contracting marriage in any but the
most solemn way that is open to them.
There is a sanctity in the relation
of husband and wife, that should lead us
to surround the initial contract with
every sacred association and every
holy form that the piety of bygone
ages has provided for us. Primogeniture
is in a certain sense, a law of
nature. The elder brother, superior in strength,
in knowledge, and experience,
rightfully claims respect, submission,
reverence from those younger than
himself. In a properly regulated family
this principle will be laid down and
maintained. Age, unless by misconduct
it forfeits its privilege, will be
assigned the superior position; younger
children will be required to submit
themselves to elder ones; elder children
will be upheld and encouraged to
exercise a certain amount of authority over
their juniors. There will be a
training within the domestic circle in the habits
both of direction and submission,
which will prepare the way for the after
discipline of life in the world.
- THE NUMBER OF THE NAMES. The main purpose of the
writer was
undoubtedly to
show from what small beginnings God produces
the greatest, most remarkable, nay,
the most astounding results. From the
stock of one man and his twelve
sons, with their households, God raised
up, within the space of 430 years, a
nation. Similarly, when “in
the fulness
of
time” the New Dispensation succeeded the Old, from “the Twelve”
and
from “the Seventy” (Luke 10:1), the
original “little flock” (Luke 12:32) was
derived that “general assembly and church of the firstborn” (Hebrews
12:23) which is a “great multitude that no man can number” (Revelation
7:9). How wonderful is such increase! How clearly
the consequence of
Divine favor and blessing!
Joseph
in
Exodus here
points back to Genesis. How had he come there? Joseph’s descent into
The cruel
wrong done to Joseph had saved from starvation his father and his father’s
house, had
preserved the entire people of the Egyptians from extreme suffering,
and had
brought Joseph himself to the highest honour. “God’s ways are not as
our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8)
He is potent to bring
good out of
evil, and to turn the worst calamity into the choicest blessing.
The Twelve
Foundations (vs. 1-6)
The
heads of the covenant race had hitherto been single individuals.
Abraham
— Isaac — Jacob. The one now expands into the twelve. Glance
briefly
at this list of the patriarchs.
- THE MEN. Here we are struck —
Ø With the original unfitness of most of these men
for the position of
dignity
they were afterwards called to occupy. How shall we describe
them!
o
Recall Reuben’s incest;
o
Simeon and Levi’s cruelty;
o
o
the “evil report” which Joseph brought to his father of the
sons of the handmaids.
The picture in the
later chapters of Genesis is crowded with shadows,
and it is chiefly the
sins of these men which are the causes of them.
Joseph is the one
bright exception. The rest appear to have been men
of a violent, truculent disposition, capable of selling
their younger
brother into
by willful falsehood on their aged father. Even in Benjamin,
traits of
character were discernible which gave ground for the tribal
prediction:
“Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf” (Genesis 49:27). How unlikely that
men of so ungodly a stamp, who began so ill, should end by
being
exalted to be patriarch heads of a covenant nation!
And neither in truth
were they, till, by God’s grace, a great change had passed upon them.
Their crime in selling Joseph was, in a sense, their
salvation. It was an
act for which they never forgave themselves. Compunction
wrought in
them a better disposition, and laid
the
basis for “a train of humiliating
and soul-stirring providences, tending
to
force on them the conviction
that they were in the hands of an angry
God,
and to bring them to
repentance of sin and amendment of life.” See:
o
The natural unfitness of man for God’s service; “that which is born
of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6).
o
What the grace
of God can make even of very bad men. “By grace ye
are saved” (Ephesians 2:5).
o
How those whom God designs for honor in His kingdom, He
first
prepares
for that honor. Whatever disciplines are needful for that
purpose
— and they may not be few — He will not withhold.
Ø
With
the variety of gifts and dispositions found amongst them. This
variety is taken note of in the blessings of Jacob and of
Moses, and is
reflected in the history.
were heads of what subsequently became the royal tribes.
Reuben’s
impulsiveness reminds us of Peter, but he lacked Peter’s
underlying
constancy. Levi’s zeal wrought at first for evil, but
afterwards for good.
The other brethren were less distinguished, but, as shown by
the
blessings, all were gifted, and gifted diversely. Does this
not teach us?
o
That God can use, and
o
that God requires, every variety of gift in His service. Hence,
o
that there is both room and need in His kingdom for all types
and varieties of
character — for every species of gift.
A type of religion is
self-condemned which cannot find room in it for
the play and
development of every legitimate capability of human nature.
This is but to say that
the goal of God’s kingdom is THE PERFECTING
OF HUMANITY, not in part, BUT IN THE
TOTALITY of its powers
and functions. Grace does not
suppress individuality; it develops and
sanctifies it. It does not trample on gifts, but lays hold
upon, transforms,
and utilizes them.
Ø With the existence of a law of heredity in
spiritual as in natural descent.
The characteristics of the patriarchs were stamped with
remarkable
distinctness on the tribes which bore their names. Reuben’s
instability,
etc. This reappearance of ancestral characteristics in the
descendants is a
fact with which we are familiar, and is only explained in
part by inherited,
organization. Inheritance of ideas, customs, family
traditions, etc., plays
quite as important a part in producing the result. A law
this, capable of
being the vehicle of much good, but also of much evil. — as
potent to
punish as to bless.
- THEIR NUMBER. The number twelve not to be regarded as
fortuitous. Twelve (3 × 4), the symbol of the indwelling of
God in the
human family, of the interpenetration
of the world by the Divinity. Three,
the number of the Divine; four, the number of the world.
Hence, twelve
tribes, twelve cakes of shewbread,
twelve apostles, twelve foundations and
twelve gates of the New Jerusalem. The number twelve is kept
up in spite
of actual departures from it in fact. The “twelve tribes”
are spoken of in the
days of the apostles (Acts 26:7; James 1:1), though,
counting
Levi; there were really thirteen tribes, and after the
Captivity only two. It
was doubtless with reference to the twelve tribes of
the number of these patriarchs, that Christ chose the twelve
apostles. View
the patriarchs, accordingly, as representing the covenant
race, not only:
Ø
In its natural heads, but symbolically —
Ø
In its spiritual privilege as a people of God, and
Ø
In its world-wide destiny.
An Ending (v. 6)
The
descent into
1. An ending.
2. A beginning.
It
closed one chapter in God’s providence, and opened a new one. It
terminated
the sojourn in
complicated
series of events which separated Joseph from his father, raised
him
to power in
character,
and prepared the way for the ultimate settlement of, the whole
family
in
There
is now to be a pause, a breathing space, while the people are
gradually
multiplying, and exchanging the habits of nomadic life for those
of
agriculturists and dwellers in cities. The death of Joseph, and of his
brethren,
and of all that generation, is the proper close of this earlier
period.
Their part is played out, and the stage is cleared for new
beginnings.
Ø They died —
so must we
all. The common fate, yet infinitely pathetic
when reflected on.
Ø They died —
the end
of earthly greatness. Joseph had all he could wish
for of earthly power and
splendor, and he enjoyed it through a long
lifetime. Yet he must part with it. Well for him that he had something
better
in prospect.
Ø They died — the end of earthly
disciplines. The lives of the brethren
had been singularly eventful.
By painful disciplines God had molded them
for good. Life to every one is a divinely ordained discipline. The end is to
bring
us to repentance, and build
us up in faith and holiness. With some,
the discipline
succeeds; with others it
fails. In either case death ends it.
“After this
the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). The fact of discipline an
argument for immortality. God does not spend a lifetime in perfecting
a
character,
that just when the finishing touches have been put upon it, He
may
dash it into non-existence. Death ends discipline, but we
carry with us
the result and the
responsibility. The psalmist said “The Lord will perfect
that which
concerneth me.”
(Psalm 138:8)
Ø They died —
Joseph and his brethren — happily in faith. There was a
future they did not live to
see; but their faith grasped God’s promise, and
“Joseph, when he died, gave
commandment concerning his bones”
(Hebrews 11:22). And behind
the earthly
better — an inheritance which
they and we may share together.
Joseph in Death with all His Generation (v. 6)
There are
some sayings so trite that we can scarcely bring ourselves to repeat them,
so vital
that we do not dare to omit them. One of these is that immemorial one:
“We must all die.” (II Samuel
14:14) Joseph, great as he had been,
useful as his life
had been to
others, unspeakably precious as it had proved to his near kinsmen, when
his time came, went the way
of all flesh — died like any common man, and “was put
in a coffin” (Genesis
50:26) and buried. So it must always be with us all. This is
always to
be borne in mind; and no excessive reliance is to be placed on individuals.
The Church
is safe; for its Lord is always “with it,” and so
will be “even to the end
of the world.” (Matthew 28:20) It is
important therefore for the Church to detach
itself from
individuals, and to hold to two anchors — Christ and the Faith of Christ —
which can
never cease to exist, and can never fail it. For, when our Joseph dies, there
die with
him, or soon after him, “all his brethren, and all
that generation.”
The great
lights of an age are apt to go out at once, or if a few linger on, they burn
with a dim
luster. And the generation that hung upon their words despairs,
and knows
not which way to turn itself, until the thought comes — “Lord, to
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” (John
6:68) Then,
in resting
upon Christ, it is well with us. Well, too, for each generation to remember,
it will not
long stay behind — it will follow its teachers.
Joseph dies — his brethren
die; wait a
few years, and God will have taken
to himself “all that generation.”
All
the wives of Jacob’s sons, their sister Dinah, and the full-grown members of
their
households who accompanied them into
IN
TO
THE PHARAOH’S CHAGRIN (vs. 7-14)
Here
the real narrative of Exodus begins. The history of the
Israelites
from and after the death of Joseph is entered on. The first point
touched
is their
rapid multiplication. The
next their falling under the
dominion
of a new king. The third, his mode of action under the
circumstances. It is remarkable that the narrative
contains no notes of
time.
How long the increase continued before the new king arose, how
long
it went on before he noticed it, how long the attempt was made to
cheek
it by mere severity of labor, we are not told. Some considerable
duration
of time is implied, both for the multiplication (v. 7) and for the
oppression
(vs. 11-14); but the narrator is so absorbed in the matters
which
he has to communicate that the question what time these matters
occupied
does not seem even to occur to him. And so it is with the sacred
narrative
frequently — perhaps we should say, generally. The
chronological
element is regarded as of slight importance; “A
thousand
years in the Lord’s sight are but as yesterday” (Psalm
90:4) — “one day
is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (II
Peter 3:8)
Where
a profane writer would have
been to the last degree definite and particular,
a
sacred writer is constantly
vague and indeterminate. We have in the Bible
nothing
like an exact continuous chronology. Certain
general Chronological ideas
may be obtained from the Bible; but in order to
construct anything like a complete
chronological
scheme, frequent reference has to be made to profane writers
and
monuments, and such a scheme must be mainly dependent on these
references.
Archbishop Ussher’s dates, inserted into the
margin of so many
of our
Bibles, are the private speculations of an individual on the subject of
mundane
chronology, and must not be regarded as in any way
authoritative. Their
primary basis is profane history; and, though taking
into
consideration all the Scriptural numbers, they do not consistently
follow
any single rule with respect to them. Sometimes the authority of the
Septuagint,
sometimes that of the Hebrew text, is preferred; and the result
arrived
at is in a high degree uncertain and arbitrary.
7 “And the children of
and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty;
(a duplicated adverb, bim’od
m’od,
“much,
much.” [Clearly, an astonishing increase is intended] - from
“seventy souls” to
“six
hundred thousand that were men” – ch. 12:37 - ) and the land was filled with
them.”
The multiplication of the Israelites in
souls” to “six
hundred thousand that were men” (ch. 12:37) — a
number
which may fairly be said to imply a total of at least two millions —
has
been declared to be “impossible,” and to stamp the whole narrative of
Exodus
with the character of unreality and romance. Manifestly, the
soundness
of this criticism depends entirely on two things — first, the
length
of time- during which the stay in
sense
in which the original number of the children of
to
have been “seventy
souls.” Now, as to the first point, there are two
theories
— one, basing itself on the Septuagint version of ch.
12:40, would make
the
duration of the Egyptian sojourn 215 years only; the other, following the clear
and
repeated statement of the Hebrew text (ibid. vs. 40-41), literally rendered in our
version,
would extend the time to 430 years, or exactly double it. Much may be said
on both
sides of this question, and the best critics are divided with respect to it.
The
longer
period is supported’ by Kalisch, Kurtz, Knobel, Winer, Ewald, Delitzsch,
and
Canon Cook among modems; by Koppe, Frank, Beer, Rosenmuller,
Hofmann, Tiele, Reinke, Jahn, Vater,
and J. D. Michaelis among earlier
critics;
the short period is approved by Calvin, Grotius, Buddeus, Morinus,
Voss, Houbigant, Baumgarten; and among
our own countrymen, by
Ussher, Marsham, Geddes, and Kennicott. The point
cannot be properly
argued
in an “exposition” like the present; but it may be remarked that both
reason
and authority are in favor of the simple acceptance of the words of
the
Hebrew text, which assign 430 years as the interval between Jacob’s
descent
into
With
respect to the number of those who accompanied Jacob into
and
were assigned the
is
important to bear in mind, first of all, that the “seventy
souls”
enumerated
in Genesis 46:8-27 comprised only two females, and that
“Jacob’s
sons’ wives” are expressly mentioned as not included among them
(ib. v. 26). If we add the wives of 67 males,
we shall have, for the actual
family
of Jacob, 137 persons. Further, it is to be borne in mind that each
Israelite
family which went down into
“household”
(here, v. 1), consisting of at least some scores of dependants.
If
each son of Jacob had even 50 such retainers, and if Jacob himself had
a
household like that of Abraham (Genesis 14:14), the entire number which
“went down into
According
to Malthus, population tends to double itself, if
there be no
artificial
check restraining it, every twenty-five years. At this rate, 2000
persons
would expand into 2,048,000 in 250 years, 1000 would reach the
same
amount in 275 years, and 500 in 300 years; so that, even supposing
the “seventy souls” with
their “households” to
have numbered no more
than
500 persons when they went down into
unless
artificially checked, have exceeded two millions at the expiration of
three
centuries — that is to say, 130 years before the Exodus! No doubt,
the
artificial checks which keep down the natural tendency of population to
increase
began to tell upon them considerably before that time. The “land
of
peopled,
and the rate of increase gradually subsided. Still, as the Delta was
a
space of from 7000 to 8000 square miles, and the
probably
about half of it, a population of two millions is very much what
we
should expect, being at the rate of from 500 to 600 persons to the
square
mile.
It is
an interesting question whether the Egyptian remains do,
or do not,
contain
any mention of the Hebrew sojourn; and if they do, whether any
light
is thereby thrown on these numbers. Now it is admitted on all hands
that,
about the time of the Hebrew sojourn, there was in
race,
often employed in forced labors, called Aperu or Aperiu, and it
seems
impossible to deny that this word is a very fair Egyptian equivalent
for
the Biblical עצרים,
“Hebrews.” We are forced, therefore, either to
suppose
that there were in
races
with names almost identical, or to admit the identification of the
Aperu with the descendants of Jacob. The exact
numbers of the Aperu are
nowhere
mentioned; but it is a calculation of Dr. Brugsch
that under
Rameses II., a little before the Exodus, the
foreign races in
whom
the Aperu were beyond all doubt the chief, “amounted
certainly to a
third,
and probably still more,” of the whole population (‘History of
to
8,000,000, One-third of this number would be from 2,300,000 to
2,600,000.
The
writer of Exodus does not, however, as yet, make anything like a
definite
calculation. He is merely bent on having it understood that there
had
been a great multiplication, and that the “family” had
grown into a
“nation.”
To emphasize his statement, he uses four nearly synonymous
verbs
(“were fruitful, and
increased abundantly, and multiplied, and
waxed-mighty”), adding to the last a duplicated adverb, bim’od m’od,
“much,
much.” Clearly, an astonishing increase is intended.
Tarry Thou the Lord’s Leisure
(vs. 1-7)
Introduction
to the Book of Exodus. How much summed up in so few
words.
When men live history,
every month seems important; when God
records history a few sentences suffice for generations. Man’s standpoint
in
the midst of the tumult is so different from God’s: He “sitteth above the
waterflood”
and seeth “the end from the beginning” (Psalm 29:10;
Isaiah
46:10). From God’s standpoint we have here as of main consequence:
- A LIST OF NAMES - vs. 1-5. Names of certain emigrants.
More in
them than seems at first sight. If I say, “William, Arthur
etc., came to
warrior; Arthur, a great inventor; we feel at once that with
them elements
are introduced which may prove important. In these early
times names are
connected with the characters of the men who bear them. All
these names
are significant. Illustrate from their meaning as given in Genesis 29., etc.,
and expanded in Jacob’s blessing, Genesis 49. We are
supposed, too, to
know something of the men from the previous history. The
whole, taken
together, shows us, as it were, a nation in embryo — a
nation of which the
characteristics were wholly different from those of the
Egyptians. “Seventy
souls,” but:
Ø
Seed souls; bound to develop through their offspring the
characteristics they
exhibited.
Ø
United, not isolated; a nation
in embryo, not a collocation of units.
- WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BEARERS OF THE NAMES. (v. 6)
All died - Joseph and all
that generation. The common lot, but, from God’s
standpoint, the ordained method of development (John 12:24).
What
wailing, as each patriarch, in his own time, passed away!
Yet with each
death the harvest of the future was being ever more securely
sown. Death,
as it were, rounds off the life; pedestals it; sets it where it can
become
exemplary. So set it becomes
fruitful; the old husk drops away, and the
true life-grain is enfranchised, Gad, Asher, and the rest,
very ordinary men,
or, if not ordinary, not very high-class men; and yet, once
dead, they are
rightly reverenced as the fathers of their tribes. Which is
better, the day of
death or the day of birth? The day which makes
life possible for us, or the
day which, by
sanctifying our memory, makes that life an ennobling
influence for
others?
- HOW THE DESCENDANTS PROSPERED. (v. 7)
So — through
the vicissitudes of life; the varieties of character; the
monotony of death —
God works on, slowly but certainly, to His destined end. New
generations,
each more numerous, succeed the old. Power and prosperity, for
a time, go
hand-in-hand with increased numbers — the people “waxed
exceeding
mighty.” [The shepherd life,
even in
warfare.
tribes learned their first lessons in discipline and war.
conquered and cleared, but God could take his own time about
it. When at
length the hour should come, it would find His preparations
perfected.
Application: — Would that man —
God’s child — would be content to
copy his Father’s methods — slow; thorough; a definite end
in view; quiet,
persistent preparation. No haste, no hurry, no delay (Isaiah
28:16).
8 “Now
there arose up a new king over
There arose up a new
king. It is asked, Does this mean merely
another
king, or a completely different king, one of a new
dynasty or a new
family,
not bound by precedent, but free to adopt and likely to adopt quite
new
principles of government? The latter seems the more probable
supposition;
but it is probable only, not certain. Assuming it to be what is
really
meant, we have to ask, What changes of dynasty fall within the
probable
period of the Israelite sojourn in
most
likely that allusion is here made? Some writers (as Kalisch)
have
supposed
the Hyksos dynasty to be meant, and the “new king” to be Set,
or Salatis, the first of the Hyksos
rulers. But the date of Salatis appears to
us too
early. If Joseph was, as we suppose, the minister of Apophis,
the
last Hyksos king, two changes of dynasty only can come into consideration
— that
which took place about B.C. 1700 (or, according to some, B.C.
1600),
when the Hyksos were expelled; and that which
followed about
three
centuries later, when the eighteenth dynasty was superseded by the
nineteenth.
To us it seems that the former of these occasions, though in
many
respects suitable, is:
(a) too near the going down into
which evidently took place before this king
arose (see v. 7), and
(b) unsuitable from the circumstance that the first king of this
dynasty was
not a builder of new cities (see v. 11),
but only a repairer of temples.
We
therefore conclude that the “new king” was either Rameses
I, the founder
of the
nineteenth dynasty, or Seti I, his son, who within
little more than a
year
succeeded him. It is evident that this view receives much confirmation
from
the name of one of the cities built for the king by the Hebrews, which
was Raamses, or Rameses, a name now
appearing for the first time in the
Egyptian
dynastic lists. Who knew not Joseph. Who not only had no personal
know]edge
of Joseph, but was wholly ignorant of his history. At the distance
of
from two to three centuries the benefits conferred by Joseph upon
especially
as they were conferred under a foreign and hated dynasty, were forgotten.
- JOSEPH
FORGOTTEN. (v.8) - “The
evil that men do lives after them — the
good is oft
interred with their bones.” Had Joseph been a tyrant, a conqueror,
an egotist who crushed
down the Egyptians by servile toil for the purpose of
raising a huge
monument to his own glory, he would no doubt have remained
fresh in the
memory of the nation, and his name and acts would have been
familiar even to
a “new king,” who was yet an
Egyptian and an educated man.
But as he had
only been a benefactor of the nation, and especially of the kings
(Genesis 47:20-26), he was utterly
forgotten — as some think, within
sixty-five years of his death, but
according to our calculations, not till
about 275 years after it. This is
about the space that separates us from
Queen Elizabeth, who is certainly
not forgotten, as neither are her
ministers. So Christian nations
would seem to have better memories than
heathen ones. In time, however,
every man is forgotten; and Christians
should therefore not make their
object the praise of men, or posthumous
fame, but the praise and approval
of God, which will continue for ever.
“God
is not unrighteous to forget” (Hebrews 6:10)
9 “And he said unto his people,
Behold, the people of the children of
more and mightier than we:” Literally, “great and strong in comparison
with us.”
Actual
numerical superiority is not, perhaps, meant; yet the expression is no doubt
an
exaggerated one, beyond the truth — the sort of exaggeration in which
unprincipled
persons
indulge when they would justify themselves for taking an extreme and unusual
course.
10 “Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and
it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our
enemies, and fight against us, and so get
them up out of the land.”
Come on. “Come then” is
better. Let
us deal wisely. “The children of this world
are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” (Luke
16:8) Severe
grinding
labor has often been used as a means of keeping down the aspirations
of a
people, if not of actually diminishing their numbers, and has been found
to
answer. Aristotle (Pol. 5:9) ascribes to this motive the
building of the Pyramids
and
the great works of Polycrates of Samos,
Pisistratus of Athens, and the
Cypselidae of
had
the same object (Liv. 1:56; Niebuhr,
‘Roman History,’ vol. 1. p. 479). Lest,
when there falleth out any war, they join also to our enemies. ‘At
the
accession
of the nineteenth dynasty, though there was peace, war
threatened.
While the Egyptians, under the later monarchs of the eighteenth
dynasty,
had been quarrelling among themselves, a great nation upon their
borders
“had been growing up to an importance and power which began to
endanger
the Egyptian supremacy in
immediately
after their accession to engage in a war, which was rather
defensive
the, offensive, with the Khita, or Hittites, who were
the great
power
of
may
well have feared a renewed invasion like that of the Hyksos,
which
would
no doubt have been greatly helped by a rising of the Israelites. And
so get them up out of
the land.
Literally, “And go up out of the land.”
The
Pharaoh already fears that the Israelites will quit
peaceful
and industrious habits, and in some cases of considerable wealth
(Joseph.
‘
and
the revenue of the monarch.
refugees,
and loath to lose them. We find in a treaty made by Rameses
II.,
the
son of Seti, with the Hittites, a proviso that any
Egyptian subjects who
quit
the country, and transfer themselves to the dominion of the Hittite
king,
shall be sent back to
11 “Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with
their
burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.”
They did set over them
taskmasters.
Literally, “lords of
tribute,”
or “lords of service.” The term used, sarey
massim, is the
Egyptian
official title for over-lookers of forced labor. It occurs in this
sense
on the monument representing brick-making, which has been
supposed
by some to be a picture of the Hebrews at work. (See Cook, in
the
‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ vol. 1. pt. 1. p. 253, and compare Brugsch,
‘History
of
Among
the tasks set the laborers in the representation above alluded to
are
the carrying of huge lumps of clay and of water-jars on one shoulder,
and
also the conveyance of bricks from place to place by means of a yoke.
They built for Pharaoh
treasure-cities, Pithom and Raamses. By
“treasure-cities”
we are to understand “store-cities,” or “cities of store,” as
the
same word is translated in I Kings 9:19 and II Chronicles 8:4.
Such
cities contained depots of provisions and magazines of arms. They
were
generally to be found on all assailable frontiers in ancient as in
modern
times. (Compare II Chronicles 11:5, 12) Of the
cities
here mentioned, which the Israelites are said to have “built,” or
helped
to build, Pithom is in all probability the Patumes of Herodotus
(2:158),
which was not far from
uncertain,
but if identical with the Thou, or Thoum, of the ‘
Itinerary of
An-tonine,’ it must have lain north of the
most
maps place it. The word means “abode of the sun,” or rather “of the
setting
sun,” called by the Egyptians Tam, or Atum. Names
formed on the
model
were very common under the nineteenth dynasty, Rameses
II.
having
built a Pa-Ra, a Pa-Ammon, and a Pa-Phthah in
‘History
of
the
cities of this period (ib.
p. 99), but appears in the records of the
twentieth
dynasty as a place where the Setting-Sun god had a treasury
(‘Records
of the Past,’ vol. 6. p. 54). The name Rameses is
probably put
for
Pa-Rameses (as Thoum for
Pa-Tum), a city frequently mentioned in the
inscriptions
of the nineteenth dynasty, and particularly favored by
Rameses II., whose city it was especially called
(‘Records of the Past,’ vol.
it. p.
77; vol. 6. p. 13), and by whom it was greatly enlarged, if not wholly
built.
We incline to believe that the building was commenced by Seti,
who
named
the place, as he did his great temple, the Rameseum,
after his father.
The
city was, according to Brugsch, a sort of suburb of
and
his son Menephthah was the ordinary residence of the
court. Hence the
miracles
of Moses are said to have been wrought “in the
field of Zoan,” i.e.
the
country about
A Multiplying
People and a King’s Fears (vs. 7-11)
The
increase of
useful
people, and he dreaded their departure (v. 10). But their staying
was
almost equally an occasion of uneasiness. Their position in Lower
Revolutions
were not infrequent, and many things were less likely than a
future
Hebrew dynasty. Hence the policy of breaking their power, and
checking
their increase, by reducing them to servitude.
- VIEW
While:
1. Natural — that is, not
miraculous, but due to the superabundant blessing
of God on ordinary
means — it was yet,
2. Extraordinary, and
3. Invincible — defying the efforts of
the tyrant to check it. It may be
legitimately
viewed as a type of the spiritual increase of the Church. This
also:
Ø Excites astonishment.
So great a fruitfulness had never before been
known. It was a marvel to all
who witnessed it. Like surprise is awakened
by the facts of the history of
the Church. Consider
o
The smallness of the Church’s beginnings.
o
The rapidity of her growth.
o
What opposition she has encountered.
o
What efforts have been made to crush her.
o
How she survives, and has from time to time renewed her
youth.
o
How she has even thriven in the fires of persecution.
o
How, notwithstanding formidable resistance, and great
internal
lukewarmness and corruption, her progress
is being steadily
maintained.
Ø Awakens jealousy and fear.
The world does not relish the progress of
the Gospel. It resents it as full of danger to itself. The filling of the land
with sincere believers would
mean the downfall of its power. Its spirit
shown in opposition
to revivals of religion, in decrying missions, in anger
at bold and fearless preaching of Christ, followed by saving results, etc.
Ø
Can only be accounted for by ascribing it to God as its author,
Naturalistic explanations have
been offered. Gibbon has enumerated
“secondary causes.” So “secondary
causes,” might be pointed to in
explaining the increase of
There was implied a Divine power, imparting to ordinary means an
extraordinary
efficacy. As little can the success of Christianity be explained
on grounds of mere naturalism.
o
The Bible attributes it to Divine efficiency.
o
Those who experience its power unhesitatingly trace it to
this
source.
o
The Church is successful only as she relies
on Divine assistance.
o
Naturalistic theories, one and all, break down in their
attempts at
explanation.
Each new one that appears
founds itself on the failure of its predecessors.
It, in turn, is exploded by a
rival. The supernatural hypothesis
is the only
one
which accounts for all the facts.
- VIEW PHARAOH’S POLICY AS A TYPE OF WORLDLY POLICY
GENERALLY. Leave it to describe
itself, and it is:
o
Far-seeing.
o
Politic,
o
Unsentimental. Napoleon was unsentimental: “What are a
hundred thousand lives,
more or less, to me!”
o
A necessity of the time.
Describe it as it ought to be described, and it appears in a
less favorable
light.
o
Ever awake to selfish interests.
o
Acute to perceive (or imagine) danger.
o
Unrestrained by considerations of
gratitude. The new king
“knew
not Joseph.” Nations, like individuals, are often
forgetful of their
greatest benefactors.
o
Regardless of the rights of
others.
o
Cruel — stops at nothing. It will, with Pharaoh,
reduce a nation
to slavery; or, with
Napoleon, deluge continents with blood. Yet:
o
Is essentially short-sighted.
All worldly policy is so. The King of Egypt could not have
taken a more
effectual means of bringing about the evils that he dreaded.
He made it certain,
if it was uncertain before, that in the event of war, the
Hebrews would take
part with his enemies. He set in motion a train of causes,
which, as it actually
happened, led to the departure of the whole people from
outwitted itself, proved suicidal, proclaimed itself to be
folly.
- LEARN:
Ø
The folly of trusting in man. “Beware of men” (Matthew 10:17).
Ø
How futile man’s wisdom and cunning are when
matched against
GOD’S POWER!
Ø
The short-sightedness of selfish and cruel action.
12 “But the more they afflicted
them, the more they multiplied and grew.
And they were grieved because of the
children of
very
insufficiently renders the Hebrew verb, which “expresses a mixture of loathing
and alarm” (‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ vol. 1. pt. 1, p. 251). Kalisch
translates
forcibly,
if inelegantly — “They had a horror
of the children of
God
the Protector of His people (vs. 7 and 12)
- THE MULTIPLICATION OF
comes to man by His blessing. As He
gave the original command, “Be
fruitful,
and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28), so He in
every case gives the new lives by
which the earth is replenished. “Children,
and
the fruit of the womb, are an heritage and gift that cometh of the
Lord”
(Psalm 127:3). He gives or withholds offspring as He pleases;
enlarges
families, tribes, nations, or causes them to decline, decay, and die
out. Increase is a sign of His favor:
ü To the
individual — “Happy is the man
that hath his quiver full of
them” (Psalm 127:5);
ü To the
nation — “I will multiply them and
they shall not be few; I
will also glorify them and they shall not be
small” (Jeremiah 30:19)
ü To churches — “Walking in the fear of the Lord, and the
comfort
of the Holy Ghost, they were multiplied” (Acts
9:31). A nation or
church that
increases has, so far at any rate, a sign of God’s approval
of it, of His favor, of His having in His eternal counsels work for it to
do for Him in the present and the future. One which
dwindles has, on
the contrary, a
note of God’s disapproval — at the
very least, a
warning that all
is not with it as it should be.
Nations, when they can
no longer do God
service, die out; churches, when
they become effete
and useless, have
their candlesticks removed
(Revelation 2:5).
- EFFECT
OF PERSECUTION ON
of persecution
was the very opposite of what was intended. “The more they
afflicted them, the more they
multiplied”. So is it ever
with God’s people.
Persecutions always “fall out for the furtherance of the
Gospel”
(Philippians 1:12). “They which were scattered abroad upon the
persecution
that arose about Stephen, travelled as far as Phoenice, and
brought Paul to
many converts in the very citadel of
Satan, the headquarters of the enemy.
So marked was the prevalence of the
law, that among the early Christians it
became a proverb, that “the blood
of the martyrs was the seed of the
Church.” After each
of the ten great Imperial persecutions, the Church was
found within a brief space to be
more numerous than ever. And so it will be
to the end. “The gates of Hell” cannot prevail against the Church. (Matthew
16:18) Out of the last and greatest of all the
persecutions, when Antichrist
shall be revealed, the Church will
issue triumphant, a “great
multitude,
which
no man can number” (Revelation 7:9).
The Wisdom of the Wise Brought to Naught (vs.
10-12)
God is wont
to “destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring
to nothing the
understanding of the prudent” (I
Corinthians 1:19). He “makes the
devices of the people of none effect” (Psalm
33:10). Humanly
speaking,
the Pharaoh had done “wisely,” had counselled well:
many a
people has
been crushed utterly under the yoke of an oppressor, ground
down by
hard labor — even after a time well-nigh exterminated. It was a
clever and
crafty plan to avoid the risk and discredit of a massacre of
unoffending
subjects, and at the same time to gain advantage by their heavy
labors
while effectually thinning their ranks through the severity of the
toils
imposed on them. Unless God had interfered, and by his secret help
supported
and sustained his people; enabled them to retain their health and
strength
under the adverse circumstances; induced them, bitter and
hopeless
as their lot seemed, still to contract marriages, and blessed those
marriages,
not only with offspring, but with superabundant offspring (see
vs 12, 20) — the result anticipated would without
doubt have followed: the
multiplication
of the people would have been checked — their numbers
would soon
have begun to diminish. But God had determined that so it
should not
be. He had promised Abraham an extraordinary increase in
the number
of his descendants, (Genesis 15:5; 22:17) and was not going
to permit a
cruel and crafty king to interfere with the carrying out of His
designs, or
the performance of His gracious promises. So the more that
Pharaoh and
his subjects afflicted them, “the more
they multiplied
and grew” — “the little one became a thousand, and the small
one a strong nation” — the Lord “hastened it in
His time” (Isaiah
60:22). Christians
therefore need never fear the devices of their enemies,
however
politic they may seem. God has the power, and if He sees fit will
exert it,
to turn the wisdom of the world into foolishness, to upset all
human
calculations, confound all prudent counsels, and make each act
done in
opposition to His will help to work it out. In
labor and
unceasing toil which made their lives bitter (v. 14), was at
once needed
to wean their minds from the recollection of the “fleshpots”
(Exodus
16:3) and other delights of
quit it;
and also it was required to brace them for the severe life of the
wilderness
— the hard fare, the scant water, the scorching heat by day, the
chill dews
at night; to harden their frames, relaxed by a time of sensual
indulgence,
and nerve their minds to endurance.
13 “And the Egyptians made the children of
The
word translated rigor is a very rare one. It is derived from a
root which
means “to break in pieces, to crush.” The “rigor” would be
shown
especially in the free use of the stick by the taskmaster, and in the
prolongation
of the hours of work.
14 “And
they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in
brick, and in all manner of service in the
field: all their service, wherein they
made them serve, was with rigor.” (While stone was the material chiefly
employed
by the
Egyptians for their grand edifices, temples, palaces, treasuries, and the like,
brick
was also made use of to a large extent for inferior buildings, for
tombs,
dwelling-houses, walls of towns, forts, enclosures of temples, etc.
There
are examples of its employment in pyramids (Herod. 2:136; Vyse,
‘Pyramids
of Gizeh,’ vol. 3. pp. 57-71); but only at a time
long anterior to
the
nineteenth and even to the eighteenth dynasty. If the Pharaoh of the
present
passage was
main
for that great wall which he commenced, but did not live to complete,
between
Pelusium and
(Birch,
‘Egypt from the Earliest Times,’ p. 125). All manner of labor in
the field. The Israelitish colony was originally employed to a large
extent
in
tending the royal flocks and herds (Genesis 47:6). At a later date
many
of them were engaged in agricultural operations (Deuteronomy 11:10).
These,
in
and ploughing, whence the remark of Herodotus (2:14); but in
other
respects
exceedingly heavy. There is no country where care and labor are
so
constantly needed during the whole of the year. The inundation
necessitates
extreme watchfulness, to save cattle, to prevent the houses and
the farmyards
from being inundated, and the embankments from being
washed
away. The cultivation is continuous throughout the whole of the
year;
and success depends upon a system of irrigation that requires
constant
labor and unremitting attention. If the “labor in the field”
included,
as Josephus supposed (1.s.c.), the cutting of canals, their lives
would
indeed have been “made bitter.” There
is no such exhausting toil as
that
of working under the hot Egyptian sun, with the feet in water, in an
open cutting,
where there can be no shade, and scarcely a breath of air,
from
sunrise to sunset, as forced laborers are generally required in do.
Me-hemet Ali lost 20,000 laborers out of 150,000 in the
construction of
the
Alexandrian Canal towards the middle of the present century.
The
life of a people, like that of an individual, to a great extent is shaped by
circumstances.
In
for
much growth; few opportunities for national organization; the tendency
would
be for the families to separate, each seeking pasturage for its own
flocks
(compare Abraham and
had
to be placed:
o
where they might increase and multiply, and
o
where their slightly connected elements might coalesce
o
and be welded into one.
To
attain this object God led His people into
o
Hothouse where plants may strike and grow before being
planted out, and
o
Deuteronomy 4:20. Furnace where metal may be smelted
into one homogeneous
mass and the worst of the dross
removed.]
We
may notice in this view:
- PROSPERITY AND ITS USES. Compare v. 7. In
and the means of
subsistence plentiful, ample room and ample provision.
Happy years without a
history, passed in a land which even now yields the
largest revenue in
than in any other province. Probably no incident of more
importance than
some occasional skirmish with border tribes. No wonder that “they
increased abundantly and
multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty.”
Prosperity has its uses as well as adversity. The long
unnoticed years
through which the fruit-tree attains maturity are necessary
antecedents to
the fiery summers which see the fruit ripening. Not much to
notice in such
years. Still their existence is noteworthy. They make no small portion of
the sum of human life, whether viewed in its national or
individual aspect.
History grows out of them even whilst it is compelled to
forget them in its
records. The fruit of Life draws from them its substance, though other
years may give it its color and flavor.
- ADVERSITY AND ITS USES. Vs. 10-14 show
how trouble came
to
Pharaoh’s natural jealousy at the increasing influence of an
alien race, it
took the form of enforced labor, such as — perhaps owing to
Joseph’s
land law (Genesis 47:23, etc.) — he clearly had the
acknowledged right
to levy at will from all his subjects. Pharaoh however was
but the
instrument which God used for the education of His people;
He knew that
adversity was needed to carry on the work which prosperity
had begun.
(I have on my desk a saying which a friend gave to me over
twenty years
ago shown below:
also, I once read that:
Adversity will either make you bitter or better!
CY –
2017)
Notice:
Ø Affliction did not hinder
progress. We gather from v. 12 that it really
advanced it. Prosperity long
continued may be a greater hindrance than
adversity. It tends to produce
a stagnant condition [compare the opening poems
in Tennyson’s ‘Maud’]. The
after-history shows us that
extent, morally
deteriorated; and moral
deterioration in the long run must
lead to physical degradation. (It
is from this angle that I argue that laws
which promote or legitimize
immorality is unconstitutional under
the United States Constitution
because they do no promote the general
welfare of its citizens. CY – 2017)
When the stock needs pruning the
pruning process stimulates
growth.
Ø Affliction proved
morally helpful. The people had been getting careless
and slothful, forgetting God
(compare Joshua 24:14, Ezekiel 20:5-8) or
paying Him a merely nominal
service. Now, however, see ch. 2:23-25, God
could hear their cry because
their cry was genuine; He could have respect
unto them because they were
learning to have respect unto Him.
Ø Affliction ensured national
union. Hitherto the people was just a
collection of families, united
by a common name and common traditions.
Mutual need begets mutual
helpfulness, and it is by mutual
help that tribes
are
dovetailed into one another and come to form one nation.
[Isolated
fragments of ore need smelting
in the furnace to produce the consolidated
metal.] It is in the heat of the furnace of affliction that rivalries, jealousies,
and
all kinds of tribal littlenesses can alone be finally
dissolved. And
affliction still has such
uses. Prosperity is good, no doubt, but, in this
world, it requires to be
complemented by adversity. “Why is trouble
permitted?” Because
men cannot otherwise be perfected. It is just as
necessary for our
moral ripening as heat is necessary for the ripening of the
fruit.
o
It need not hinder any man’s progress;
o
If rightly used it should purge out the dross, from us and
make us
morally
better;
o
It tends to dissolve
the barriers which selfishness
erects between man
and
man, and works towards the
formation of that holy brotherhood
which
embraces in one family all the nations of the earth.
- NATIONAL WRONG-DOING THE SEED OF NATIONAL
DISASTER.
The
story of
sincere desire to serve his country, and yet he was his
country’s worst foe.
The service rendered by wickedness is in the end rebuke and
ruin.
- THE CARE SOUGHT TO BE REMOVED BY SIN BECOMES
GREATER (vs. 10-12).
Ø
The bondage was imposed to prevent their multiplying: “but
the
more
they afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew.”
Ø
The trouble was at first simply a possibility detected by
the statesman’s
keen eye, and now all
- WRONG GROWS INTO GREATER WRONG (vs. 13-14).
gone too far to retreat.
be crushed. From being compelled to labor in the erection of
strong cities,
their lives are made bitter by all manner of hard bondage.
Evil grows with
an inward necessity. When a nation makes an unjust demand it
does not
mean murder, yet that is its next step. Satan dare
not whisper all his
counsel at first but BY-AND-BY he
can tell it all and have it all accomplished.
The Bondage (vs.
11-14)
- HOW EFFECTED? Doubtless, partly by craft, and partly by force. To
one in Pharaoh’s position, where there was the will to
enslave, there would
soon be found the way.
Ø The Israelites were politically
weak. “The patriarchal family had grown
into a horde; it must have
lost its domestic character, yet it had no polity -
a people in this state was
ripe for slavery” (Maurice).
Ø And Pharaoh had no scruples. Those
engaged in tillage and keeping of
cattle could easily be ruined
by heaping on them tributes and exactions.
listed. Of the rest, large
numbers were probably already employed — as
forced laborers — on Pharaoh’s
works of construction. Over these (v. 11),
it was proposed to set “taskmasters” — “chiefs of tribute” — to
afflict
them with their burdens.
Ø Complaint was useless. The
Hebrews soon found, as expressed
afterwards (ch. 5:19), that they were “in evil
case” — that a
general conspiracy, from the
king downwards, had been entered into to
rob, injure, and oppress them.
Their subjugation in these circumstances
was easily accomplished.
Learn:
o
A nation may outgrow itself. It will do so if intelligence
and morals,
with
suitable institutions, do not keep pace with numbers.
o
Great prosperity is not always an advantage.
§
It excites jealousy;
§
tempts greed,
avarice and
materialism;
§
usually weakens by enervating.
- WHY PERMITTED? This question may be answered by viewing the
bondage
Ø Is a punishment for sins. The Hebrews had doubtless greatly corrupted
themselves in
around
them. This was in them a sin that
could not pass unpunished. God
cannot suspend His moral Laws even
for His own people. If they do wrong,
they must, no less than
others, suffer for it. Nay, they will be punished with
even greater severity than
others are for similar offences. It is this which
explains the bitter servitude
of
condition
which is at once a fit retribution for its own sin, and an apt image
of
the condition of the sinner generally. For SIN IS SLAVERY!
It is inward
bondage. It is degradation. It
is rigorous service, and bitterness, and
misery. God’s law, the soul’s
own lusts, an exacting world, become in
different ways taskmasters. It is unprofitable service.
It sends a man to the
husks, to the swine-troughs.
(Luke 15) It is slavery from which NOTHING
BUT
THE POWER OF GOD ALMIGHTY can redeem us. We
bless God
for our greater Moses (Hebrews
3), and the grander Exodus.
Ø As a trial of faith.
It would be so in a very especial degree to the godly
portion of
silence while His people were
broiling and perishing under their terrible
tasks? Did it not seem as
though the promise had failed and God had
forgotten to be gracious?
(Psalm 77:8-9.) Truly we need not wonder at
anything in God’s dealings
with His Church when we reflect on how long
and how fearfully
must have come out of the
furnace seven times purified,
Ø As a moral
preparation. It is now manifest, though it could hardly
have
been seen then, how needful was
this affliction, protracted through
successive generations:
o
To wean the people’s hearts from
o
To make them willing to leave it.
o
To make
the thought of
o
To break up trust in self and man.
o
To lead
them to cry mightily to God.
The same reasons, in whole or
part, serve to explain why God lays trials on
ourselves; indicate at least
the ends which affliction is used to subserve.
Had everything
been prosperous:
o
the hearts
of
o
their
hopes would have been forgotten;
o
even their
God would in time have been renounced.
THE INFANTICIDAL POLICY OF
PHARAOH
AND
THE CONDUCT OF THE
MIDWIVES (vs. 15-22)
Some
time — say five or six years — having elapsed and the Pharaoh’s first plan
having
manifestly failed, it was necessary for him either to give up his purpose,
or to
devise something else. Persevering and tenacious, he preferred the latter
course.
He bethought himself that a stop might be put to the multiplication of the
Israelites
by means of infanticide on a large scale. Infanticide was no doubt a crime
in
almost
any action, since the king was recognized as a god; and the wrongs of a
foreign
and subject race would not sensibly move the Egyptian people, or
be
likely to provoke remonstrance. On looking about for suitable
instruments
to carry out his design, it struck the monarch that something,
at any
rate, might be done by means of the midwives who attended the
Hebrew
women in their confinements. It has been supposed that the two
mentioned,
Shiphrah and Puah, might be
the only midwives employed by
the
Israelites (Canon Cook and others), and no doubt in the East a small
number
suffice for a large population: but what impression could the
monarch
expect to make on a population of from one to two millions of
souls
by engaging the services of two persons only, who could not possibly
attend
more than about one in fifty of the births? The midwives mentioned
must
therefore be regarded as “superintendents,” chiefs of the guild or
faculty,
who were expected to give their orders to the rest. (So Kalisch,
Knobel, Aben Ezra,
etc.) It was no doubt well known that midwives were
not
always called in; but the king supposed that they were employed
sufficiently
often for the execution of his orders to produce an important
result.
And the narrative implies that he had not miscalculated. It was the
disobedience
of the midwives (v. 17) that frustrated the king’s intention,
not
any inherent weakness in his plan. The midwives, while professing the
intention
of carrying out the orders given them, in reality killed none of the
infants;
and, when taxed by the Pharaoh with disobedience, made an untrue
excuse
(v. 19). Thus the king’s second plan failed as completely as his
first
— “the people” still “multiplied
and waxed very mighty” (v. 20).
Foiled
a second time, the wicked king threw off all reserve and all attempt
at
concealment. If the midwives will not stain their hands with murder at
his
secret command, he will make the order a general and public one. “All
his
people” shall be commanded to put their hand to the business, and to
assist
in the massacre of the innocents — it shall he the duty of every loyal
subject
to cast into the waters of the
birth
he has cognizance. The object is a national one-to secure the public safety
(see
v. 10): the whole nation may well be called upon to aid in carrying it out
15 “And the king of
name of the one was Shiphrah,
and the name of the other Puah: (It is
questioned
whether the midwives were really Hebrew women, and not rather
Egyptian
women, whose special business it was to attend the Hebrew women in
their
labors. Kalisch
translates, “the women who served as midwives to the
Hebrews,”
and assumes that they were Egyptians. (So also Canon Cook.) But the
names
are apparently Semitic, Shiphrah being “elegant,
beautiful,” and Puah, “one
who
cries out.” And the most natural rendering of the Hebrew text is that of
Authorized
Version.)
16 “And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women,
and
see them upon the stools; if it be a son,
then ye shall kill him: but if it be a
daughter, then she shall live. The stools. The explanation furnished by a remark
of Mr. Lane (‘Modem Egyptians,’ vol. 3. p.
142) is more satisfactory than any
other.
In modern
time
of delivery, the midwife conveys to the house the kursee
elwiladeh, a
chair
of a peculiar form, upon which the patient is to be seated during the
birth.”
A chair of the form intended is represented on the Egyptian monuments.
17 “But the midwives feared God,” (much more
than can be said of modern
abortion
doctors and proponents of the abortion industry today – see Abortion
Rationale 2009 – this web
site – CY – 2010) The
midwives had a sense
of religion,
feared
God sufficiently to decline imbruing their hands in the innocent blood of a
number
of defenseless infants, and, rather than do so wicked a thing, risked
being
punished
by the monarch. They were not, as appears by v. 19, highly religious
—
not of
the stuff whereof martyrs are made; they did not scruple at a falsehood,
believing
it necessary to save their lives; and it would seem that they succeeded in
deceiving
the king. “and did not as the king of
saved the men children alive.” 18
“And the king of
midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye
done this thing, and have
saved the men children alive?”
The Duty of Opposing Authority when its
Commands are Against God’s Law
(v.
17)
(There is no right way
to do the wrong thing!) - Few lessons
are taught in Holy
Scripture
more plainly than this, that the wrongful
commands of legitimate authority
are to be
disobeyed. “Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to
all his servants
that they should kill David” (I Samuel 19:1). But Jonathan positively
refused,
and rebuked
his father: “Wherefore wilt
thou sin against innocent blood?”
(ibid.
v.
5). Uzziah
would have usurped the priest’s office; but Azariah
the priest
“withstood him” (II Chronicles 26:16-21), and God signified His
approval by
smiting the
king with leprosy. Ahasuerus commanded that a “reverence” trenching
upon God’s
honor should be done to Haman (Esther 3:2). Mordecai
“transgressed the king’s
commandment,” and it is
recorded of him to
his credit.
The “Three Children” disobeyed Nebuchadnezzar when he
would have
had them “worship the golden image which he had set
up”
(Daniel
3:18) on the plain of Dura. Daniel disobeyed Darius the Mede when
required to
discontinue his daily prayers. The Apostles disobeyed the
Sanhedrim,
when forbidden “to preach at all or teach in
the name of
Jesus” (Acts 4:18). God’s law is paramount; and no human authority may
require
anything to be done which it forbids, or
anything to be left undone
which it
commands. The argument is unanswerable:
“Whether it be right in
the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye” (ibid.
v. 19). So
the midwives, because they “feared God,” disobeyed the king. No
doubt the
lesson is to be applied with
caution. We are not to be always flying in
the face of authority, and claiming it as a merit.
More especially, in States
calling themselves Christian and retaining
even partially a Christian character,
opposition
to the law is a serious matter, and, if resorted to, should only be
resorted to
under a clear and distinct conviction that the Divine law and the
human are
in absolute opposition. (Romans 13:1-4) - The men who
rightfully
resist authority are “the salt of the earth.” They save
the
world from
a rapid and complete corruption. The remembrance of their
acts
continues, and is a warning to authorities, preventing hundreds of
iniquitous
laws and orders, which would otherwise have been enjoined and
enacted.
Their example is an undying one, and encourages others on fitting
occasion to
do the like. All honor then to the noble band, who, when the
crisis
came, have “obeyed God rather than man,” and taken
their chance
of the
consequences! Not that the final consequences to themselves can
be
doubtful. “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, blessed are ye!”
(I Peter
3:14). In this life, the consequence may be success, severe
punishment,
or occasionally) neglect and oblivion. But
in the world to
come there wilt be a reward for rightful
resistance undoubtedly. “God
made the midwives houses.” For all
whom a tyrannical authority makes to
suffer
because they fear and obey him, he will reserve in his own house
“mansions” where they
will enjoy bliss eternal. (John 14:1-3)
19 “And the midwives said unto Pharaoh,
Because the Hebrew women are
not as the Egyptian women; for they are
lively, and are delivered ere the
midwives come in unto them.” They are vigorous. Literally, “they are lively.”
In the
East at the present day a large
proportion of the women deliver themselves;
and the services of professional accoucheurs (male mid-wives) are very rarely
called
in. The excuse of the midwives had
thus a basis of fact to rest upon, and
was
only untrue because it was not the
whole truth.
20 “Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied,
and waxed very mighty. Literally, “And God did well,” etc.
(see v. 21). Because
they
feared Him sufficiently to disobey the king, and take their chance of a
punishment,
which might have been very severe-even perhaps death — God
overlooked
their weak and unfaithful divergence from truth, and gave them
a
reward.
21 “And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He made
them houses. He
blessed them by giving them children of their own, who
grew
up, and gave them the comfort, support, and happiness
which
children were intended to give. There was a manifest fitness in rewarding those
who had refused to bring misery and desolation
into families by granting them
domestic happiness themselves).
The Conduct of
the Midwives (vs. 15-21)
- NOTICE WHAT WAS PRAISEWORTHY IN THEIR CONDUCT.
“They did not as the king
of
children alive,” and this conduct was made possible
because behind it there
was a praiseworthy feeling. “The midwives feared God.” They saw
how
real was the power of Pharaoh in enslaving and
oppressing the Israelites,
but they were
not thereby misled into supposing the power of Pharaoh to
be greater
than THE POWER OF GOD! They had ample opportunity,
even more than the rest of
extraordinary ,increase in the numbers of the people. Their
very
professional experience was of a kind to impress them deeply
with the fact
that
processes of nature. They could not see God as they saw
Pharaoh, but his
superior power
was made evident by the things He did. Then, on the other
hand, with all the manifestations of Pharaoh’s power, it was
impossible for
him to conceal that he was afraid himself. Moreover, as the
oppression and
affliction of
people, and the-more confirmed would the midwives be in
their fear of
Him. Hence it would have been a very poor sort of prudence to
comply
with Pharaoh’s order, to avoid his displeasure,
perhaps to gain his rewards,
and then find themselves face to
face with an angry God, FROM WHOM
THERE WAS NO
ESCAPE! What a rebuke, out of
these depths of bondage
and suffering, and out of a very imperfect moral state,
these two women give
to us! They feared God, and that fear kept them safe, and
made them
prosperous. The fear of man ever bringeth
a snare (Proverbs 29:25); but a real,
practical and
all-dominating sense of THE PRESENCE AND THE POWER
OF GOD takes snares
and stumbling-blocks out of our path.
- NOTICE WHAT WAS CENSURABLE IN THEIR CONDUCT. It
must not be supposed that because they feared God, and God
dealt well
with them, everything therefore which they did was quite as
it should be.
With all their deep sense of God’s presence, these women
were living but
in the twilight of the revelation, as far as they personally
were concerned.
They knew enough to fear God, i.e. they knew the reality and greatness of
His power, but they did not know enough to love Him. With them,
conscience was in such a half-enlightened, half-awakened
state, that while
they felt it wrong to obey Pharaoh’s command, and would
probably not
have obeyed it if the sword had been hanging over their
heads, yet they
have no scruple as to deceiving Pharaoh. Undoubtedly, women
who had
been fully instructed in all the will of God, and who were
fully alive to all
the round of duty, would have faced the king boldly, and
said, “We cannot
do this thing, come what may.” But they were living,
as we have already
noticed, in a very imperfect moral state. They
honestly felt that deceiving
Pharaoh was a
quite permissible way of showing their obedience to God.
Hence, while upon certain considerations we may excuse their
deception,
we must not slur it over as a matter of no moment; and
though it is said
that God was pleased with them as it was, this does not
prevent us from
feeling that he would have been even better pleased if they
had said straight
out to Pharaoh, (like Joseph - “How can we do this great
wickedness and
sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9)
- CONSIDER THE CONDUCT OF THESE TWO WOMEN AS
ILLUSTRATIVE
OF A CERTAIN STAGE IN THE PROGRESS OF
SINNERS
TOWARDS GOD. There are many who have got so far as to
fear God, and this is no small attainment. It may be that
there is something
slavish, terrifying, paralyzing even in the fear; but, even
so, it is better to
have the fear than be as those who are completely destitute
of it. For, with
a feeling of real fear to lay hold of, God can do great
things. He can
gradually bring us nearer and nearer, so that we shall love as well as fear
Him. He can show us His
loving spirit, and His power to fill our lives with
blessing and surround them with security. He can show us
that there is
really no more reason to live in restless dread of Him than
there is for a
little bird to fly hastily away at the approach of some
kind-hearted human
being. But where there is no fear of
God, WHAT CAN BE DONE?
When the chief thing you dread is the laughter of fools; or
the censure of
unsympathizing friends and neighbors
or threatening superiors; or the fear
of temporal loss and pain in general.; what can then be
done? Be thankful if
you have got so far as to fear God. Fearing him, dreading
him, trembling
before him, feeling His power more than any other of His
attributes — this
is a long way short of loving Him, but nevertheless it is a stage toward that
glorious
state of the heart; and it is incomparably better than to have no
feeling for God at all, and to let an
arrogant world fill HIS PLACE! It is
a great point gained, when once we clearly perceive, and act
upon the
perception, that to be safe and right with man is a mere trifle
to the great
necessity of being
safe and right with God. One Pharaoh goes and another
comes, but the God of Israel, the God who is bringing all
these men-children
to the birth, abides for ever. Before we begin to pity Shiphrah and Puah for
their defective notions with regard to truth, we had
better make sure that they
do not rise in the judgment against us, on account of our GROSS
INDIFFERENCE TO THE MAJESTY AND AUTHORITY
OF GOD!
God’s Acceptance of the Midwives Imperfect Obedience (vs. 18-21)
The
midwives had not the courage of their convictions. They did not speak
out boldly,
like Daniel, and the “Three Children,” and the Apostles. They
did not
say, “Be it known unto thee, O king, that we fear
God, and will
not do this thing.” They cast about for an excuse, which should
absolve
them of the crime of disobedience, and so
perhaps save them from
punishment, and they found one which was no doubt
partially true. God
condoned
it. He accepted their good deeds and their reverent fear of Him.
No man but One has rendered an obedience that was perfect,
our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, God’s Only Begotten
Son - All we, the rest,
offend in
many things; and “if we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (I John
1:8) - Well for us that God,
for His
Son’s sake, and through His atonement on the cross, forgives
our
offences, and despite our many misdeeds reward our acts of
faithfulness!
(Matthew 6:4; 10:42; 16:27; Luke 6:35; I Corinthians 3:14)
22 “And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye
shall cast
into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive”.
Every son that is born. The
words are universal, and might
seem
to apply to the Egyptian, no less than the Hebrew, male children. But
they
are really limited by the context, which shows that there had never
been
any question as to taking the life of any Egyptian. With respect to the
objection
sometimes raised, that no Egyptian monarch would possibly have
commanded
such wholesale cold-blooded destruction of poor innocent
harmless
children, it is to be observed, first, that Egyptian monarchs had
very
little regard indeed for the lives of any persons who were not of their
own
nation. They constantly massacred prisoners taken in war — they put
to
death or enslaved persons cast upon their coasts (Diod.
Sic. 1:67) —
they cemented
with the blood of their captives, as Lenormant
says
(‘Manuel
d’Hist. Anc.,’ vol. 1. p.
423), each stone of their edifices. The
sacredness of human life was not a
principle with them. Secondly, that
tender
and compassionate regard for children which seems to us
Englishmen
of the present day a universal instinct is in truth the fruit of
Christianity, and was almost unknown in the ancient
world. Children who
were “not
wanted” were constantly exposed to be devoured by wild beasts,
or otherwise
made away with (Dollinger, ‘ Jew and Gentile,’
vol. it. p.
246);
and such exposition was defended by philosophers
(Plat. ‘Pep.’ 5. p.
460
c). In
would
probably not have cost an Egyptian Pharaoh a single pang to
condemn
to death a number of children, any more than a number of
puppies.
And the rule “Salus publica
suprema lex” (the health and welfare
of the people should be the
supreme law) which, if not formulated, still
practically
prevailed, would have been held to justify
anything. The river.
Though,
in the Delta, where the scene is laid throughout the early part of Exodus,
there
were many branches of the
(ch. 2:3, 5; 7:20-21; 8:3,etc.), because one branch only,
the Tanitic, was
readily
accessible. Tanks (Zoan) was situated on it.
The Prosperity
of
This
prosperity was not a mere appearance, nor a passing spurt of fortune.
It
was a deep, abiding, and significant reality. Nor was it something
exaggerated
in order to make an excuse for the cruelties of a suspicious
tyrant.
There was indeed only too much to make Pharaoh uneasy; but
altogether
apart from his alarms there is a plain and emphatic statement of
the
prosperity of
summoning
us m the most imperative way to a special notice of this
remarkable
prosperity. Let us therefore take a general view of
prosperity
as it is set before us in all the extent of this first chapter. Note:
- THE INDICATIONS OF THIS PROSPERITY. The prosperity is
not
only plainly stated, but the chapter abounds in indications
of Jehovah’s
favor towards
Ø
The wonderful way in which God had
brought a whole family into
usually get scattered; but
here are the children of
children all kept together.
The very means which they had employed in
order to get rid of one of
their number who was an offence to them, had
ended in their being brought
together more closely than ever. Joseph went
before, and all unconsciously
made a solid foundation for the building of
their prosperity. Through all
domestic jealousies, in the perils of famine,
and in their journeys between
Canaan and
preserved these
twelve men so that
not one of them was lacking in his
contribution
to the future excellency of
Ø The name by which they were
described — the children of
had said to Jacob (Genesis
32:28), “Thy name shall be called no more
Jacob, but
Israel,” and yet down to the end of his life he is sometimes
called Jacob and sometimes
natural character and also his
new position and privileges gained in the
memorable wrestling at Peniel. These twelve men, the fathers of the tribes,
were children
of
many things to show the meanness
and corruption of fallen human nature,
and his sons had been not one
whit better than himself (consider the
revengeful action of Simeon
and Levi in Genesis 34:25; the conduct of
Reuben in 35:22; and
especially the conduct of the brethren towards
Joseph and the father who so
doted upon him). But these sons of Jacob,
with all their personal
demerits, were also the children of him who by his
sublime, persistent,
courageous, and successful struggle had gained the
name of
full of significance,
recalling a glorious experience in the past and
promising a still more
glorious experience in the future. It was a name not
to be forfeited even in the
greatest apostasies, and perhaps its chief
splendor lay in this, that it
pointed forward to a still more glorious
fatherhood enjoyed by those
who through the gracious work of Him who
taught Nicodemus concerning
regeneration, are permitted to say, “Now are
we the
children and heirs of God.” (Romans
8:17)
Ø The apprehensive attitude of
Pharaoh. He is a witness to the greatness
of
more valuable because he gives
His evidence unconsciously. The more we
consider his unaffected alarm
and his continuous and energetic efforts to
crush
prosperity was, how it was nourished by the secret and unassailable
strength
of God. It should be a matter of great rejoicing to God’s people
when the world, in its hatred,
suspicion, and instinctive sense of danger,
takes to the instruments of
persecution, for then there is unmistakable
indication of prosperity
within.
- WHEREIN THE PROSPERITY CONSISTED. It did not consist
in
the accumulation of external possessions. The Israelites might
have
remained comparatively few or have increased in a way such
as to excite
no attention. Their increase might have been in external
wealth, and this
would have been reckoned, by many, true prosperity. But it
would not
have been prosperity after a godly sort. It was the purpose
of God to show
in
from the quality of the life which He puts within. Hence the
prosperity of
circumstances. It was shown by the
manifestation of a miraculous fullness
of life. The husbandman does not reckon it anything wonderful that
there
should be among the trees of his vineyard a certain increase
of fruitfulness,
corresponding to the carefulness of his cultivation. But if
all at once certain
trees begin to put forth a fullness of fruit altogether
beyond expectation, the
husbandman would not claim that such a result came from him.
There is
the greatest possible difference between the prosperity
lying in mere
external possessions and that which comes from the energy of
a Divine life
working in us. It needs no special help from God to make a
man a
millionaire. There are but few who can be such; but place
them in
favourable circumstances, and the
immense results of their industry and
attention are quite intelligible. But to
produce such a result as appears in
the peculiar prosperity of
energy. We have not only
unmistakable indications of the prosperity of
peculiar character is an indication of the presence of God.
He was doing
what none but Himself could do. Learn then that our spiritual prosperity
must be
something produced by God manifesting His power in Our hearts.
There is no chance of attributing it to our unaided
industry, attention, and
prudence. It is a growth more than anything else, and must
show itself in
the abundant and beautiful fruits of a Divine life within
us.
- A PAINFUL ACCOMPANIMENT OF THE PROSPERITY. Such
prosperity as is indicated in v. 7 could not but produce
apprehension and
opposition on the part of Pharaoh — inevitably assuming, as
it did, the
appearance of a menace to his kingdom. But it was better for
on increasing with the increase of God, even in the midst of
persecutions,
than to be without the persecutions on condition of being
without the
increase. Spiritual prosperity not only may be, but must be,
accompanied
with afflictions of the natural life. That is a very
doubtful spirituality which
manages to keep clear of all temporal troubles. They that
will live godly
must suffer persecution. Let us pray for spiritual
prosperity, and hail its
coming, and secure its stay, whatever pains be suffered and
whatever lesser
comforts be lost. The more the life of God is in us, the
more we must
expect the powers of evil to be stirred against us. “....all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution.” (II Timothy 3:12)
The Policy of Pharaoh (vs. 8-22)
- THE PRINCIPLE OF THE POLICY. This is indicated
in vs. 9-10. It
was a policy of selfish fear, proceeding upon an unconcealed regard for the
supremacy of
possible, swept completely out of the way. Pharaoh was
dealing, not with
the necessities of the present, but with the possibilities
of the future. He
made no pretence that
fashion. There was no attempt to cloak the cruelties of the
tyrant under the
aspect of needful severity against evil-doers. The fear of
Pharaoh is seen in
the very language he employs. It was not true as yet that
the Israelites were
more and mightier than the Egyptians: but Pharaoh feels that
such a state
of things is not improbable, and may not be remote.
Something has already
happened very different from what might have been expected.
Who was to
suppose that a handful of people from
bulk of
alarming rapidity? Seeing that such unexpected things have
already
happened, what may not be feared in the future? Who knows
what allies
attitude and utterance of Pharaoh we learn:
Ø
Not to make our safety and our
strength to consist in an unscrupulous
weakening of others. The
true strength, ever becoming more and more
sufficient, is to be gained
within ourselves. Pharaoh
would have done more
for
his own safety and the safety of his people by
putting away idolatry,
injustice,
and oppression, than by
all his frantic attempts to destroy
It is a sad business, if we
must hold our chief possessions at the expense of
others. If my gain is the loss
or suffering of some one else, then by this very
fact the gain is condemned,
and however large and grateful it may be at
present, it will end in the
worst of all loss. Surely the luxuries of the few
would become utterly nauseous
and abhorrent, if it were only considered
how often they depend on the
privation and degradation of the many.
Pharaoh’s kingdom
deserved to perish, and so deserve all kingdoms and all
exalted stations of
individuals, if their
continuance can only be secured by
turning
all possible enemies into spiritless and emasculated slaves.
Ø
Not
to set our affections on such things as lie at the mercy of others.
Pharaoh had to be incessantly
watching the foundations of his vast and
imposing kingdom. Other
nations only saw the superstructure’ from a
distance, and might be excused
for concluding that the magnificence rested
upon a solid base. But we may
well believe that Pharaoh himself lived a life
of incessant anxiety. The
apprehensions which he here expresses must have
been a fair sample of those
continually passing through his mind. The
world
can give great possessions and many
opportunities for carnal
pleasure; but security, undisturbed enjoyment of the
possession,
IT
CANNOT GIVE!
- THE WORKING OUT OF THE POLICY. The thing aimed
at was to
keep the numbers of
this end Pharaoh began by trying to crush the spirits of the
people. He
judged — and perhaps not unwisely, according to the wisdom
of this world
— that a race oppressed as he proposed to oppress
not increase to any dangerous extent. If only the rate of
increase in
did not gain on the rate of increase in
Pharaoh firmly believed that if only
a state of bondage and oppression ever becoming more
rigorous. Notice
that he had peculiar advantages, from his point of view, in
making this
course of treatment successful. The Israelites had hitherto
lived a free,
wandering, pastoral life (Genesis 47:3-6), and now they were
cooped up
under merciless taskmasters and set to hard manual toil. If
any human
policy had success in it, success seemed to be in this
policy of Pharaoh.
Nevertheless it utterly failed, from Pharaoh’s point of
view, for, whatever
depressing effect it had on the spirits of the Israelites,
there was no
diminution in their numbers. The extraordinary and alarming
increase still
went on. The more the taskmasters did to hinder
particular matter of the numerical increase, it seemed to
prosper. It was all
very perplexing and unaccountable, but at last Pharaoh
recognizes the
failure, even while he cannot explain it, and proceeds to a
more direct
method of action, which surely cannot fail in a perfectly
efficacious result.
He commands the men-children of
here he fails even in a more conspicuous and humiliating way
than before.
He was a despot, accustomed to have others go when he said “Go,” and
come when he said “Come” Accordingly, when he commanded
men to
become the agents of his harsh designs, he found obedient
servants in
plenty, and probably many who bettered his instructions. But
now he turns
to women — weak, despised women, who were reckoned to obey in the
most obsequious manner — and he finds that they will not
obey at all. It
was an easy thing to do, if it had only been in their hearts
to do it; for what
is easier (and I
will say cowardly – CY -
2017) than to take away the breath
of a new-born
infant?
They do not openly refuse; they even pretend
compliance; but for all that they secretly disobey and
effectively thwart
Pharaoh’s purpose. When we find others readily join with us
in our evil
purposes, then God interferes to disappoint both us and
them; but we cannot
always reckon even on the support of others. Notice lastly,
that in carrying
out this policy of defence against
of the one course which might have given him perfect safety.
He
might have
expelled
desirable, it was one of the very things he wished to guard
against.
a continual source of alarm and annoyance, a people beyond
management,
an insoluble problem; but it never occurred to him that
with them away. It would have had a very bad look to send
them out of the
land; it would have been a confession of inability and
perplexity which those
proud lips, so used to the privileged utterances of
despotism, could not bring
themselves to frame.
- THE TOTAL RESULT OF THE POLICY. Though it failed
in
attaining the particular end which it had in view, it did
not fail altogether;
nay, it rather succeeded, and that with a most complete
success, seeing that
in doing so it effectually served the purpose of God. Pharaoh failed
as
dealing with the children of
but in profound ignorance of all that this description
involved. He did not
know that
in their old age, contrary to all expectation and entirely
of promise. But
Pharaoh succeeded in a way he did not anticipate, in so far as he was
dealing with the posterity of Jacob, the heirs of human
infirmity. They did
become, in the course of time, slaves in spirit as well as
in body, personally
so undeserving of freedom that when
they had received it, they wished
almost
immediately to go back to the creature comforts of
to its vomit,
or a sow to her wallowing in the mire. (II Peter 2:22) Hence
we
see that God served Himself, alike by Pharaoh’s failure and
Pharaoh’s success.
Pharaoh’s failure showed how really and powerfully God was
present with
His people. It was
another instance of the treasure being in an
earthen vessel
that the excellency
of the power might be of God and not of men.
(II Corinthians 4:7) And
Pharaoh by his very success in making the iron to
enter into the soul of
stay of
BONDAGE OF
SIN! As
For a considerable time
in
and comfort from the relation of the children of
Joseph. But Joseph dies, and then little by little it becomes plain that
will be
anything but a land of happiness. What the Israelites might have
become if Pharaoh had not persecuted them, it is vain to speculate, as vain
as to speculate
what might happen to the sinner if he could go on
SINNING WITHOUT SUFFERING! We have to thank
Pharaoh for
helping to set before us in such a clear way the bitter bondage
of sin,
and the greatness of that deliverance by which God will liberate
us from it.
God moves in a mysterious way. He fills
even in bondage and oppression their numbers are miraculously
increased,
but He denies to them the strength whereby they might have
overthrown
their oppressors. We can now see the why and wherefore of
all this mysterious
dealing. By the work of His Son God
fills us with a life which, through all the
discomforts of the present state, goes on undestroyed and still
increasing into
a state where
these discomforts will be unknown. But at the same time God
makes it clear that we cannot escape
all the sufferings that belong to sin.
So far as we have sown to the flesh, we must also out of the flesh reap
corruption. (Galatians 6:8) Our joy is that, even in this world, amid all
tribulation and all reaping the temporal results of sin, there
is also the
opportunity for another and better sowing, and the consequent
opportunity
for another and better reaping.
Steps
in Sin (vs. 15-22)
Bad men,
like Balak (Numbers chapters 22 and 23), they would
outwit
God; or
rather, not realizing His existence, they would force fortune by a
combination
of inventiveness, perseverance, and audacity.
When one means
fails, they
do not lay aside their design, but seek another means, never
cognizant
of the fact that God is working against them. And their second plan
is almost
always more wicked than their first.
Pharaoh follows up the cruel
thought of
grinding oppression by the still more cruel resolve to effect his
purpose
through murder. And not liking to incur the odium of open murder,
he devises
a secret system, a crypteia, which
shall rid him of a certain number
of his
enemies, and yet keep him clear, even of suspicion. The midwives,
had they
come into his plan, would of course have said that the children
they
murdered were stillborn, or died from natural causes. But this crafty
scheme
likewise fails; and then what follows? His subtle brain invents a third
plan, and
it is the cruelest and wickedest of all. Grown shameless, he openly
avows
himself a murderer, takes his whole people into his confidence, (LIKE
THE LAWYERS AND JUDGES OF TODAY – CY – 2010) compels
them,
so far as
he can, to be a nation of murderers, and extends his homicidal project to
all the
males. “Every son that is born ye shall
cast into the river.” The
according
to his own religion, was a god, and no Egyptian corpse ever
defiled it;
but everything must give way that the king may work his wicked
will, and
the restraints of the national creed are as little regarded as those
of natural
morality. Facilis descensus Averni (the
descent into hell is easy)
the steps by which men go down the road to hell
are easy; each is in
advance of the other, a little further on in
guilt; there is no startling
transition; and so, by little and little, advance is
made, and the neophyte
becomes a graduate in the school of crime.
A King’s Edicts
(vs. 15-22)
- THE COMMAND TO THE MIDWIVES TO DESTROY THE
MALES (v. 16). This was a
further stage in the persecution of the
Hebrews. Happily the command was not obeyed. There is a
limit even to
the power of kings. Stronger than kings is”
Ø
The power of religion. “The
midwives feared God” (v. 17).
Ø
The force of patriotism. They were “Hebrew midwives” (v. 15), and
would not, even at the king’s bidding, be murderers of their
race.
Ø
The instincts of humanity. These came in to thwart both this and the
next expedient for destroying the children.
Ø
The cunning of evasion. It is hopeless to
attempt to force laws upon a
people determined not to obey them. The midwives had only to
stay away,
and let the Hebrew women help themselves, to reduce the,
king’s decree
to a dead letter. And this was probably what they did (v.
19). The result
shows how much better it is, even at some risk, to obey God
than to obey
man. The midwives:
o
Lost nothing.
o
Retained a good conscience.
o
Were signally honored and rewarded: God made them houses
(v. 21). Kindness shown to God’s people never fails of its
reward.
- THE COMMAND TO THE PEOPLE TO CAST THE MALES INTO
THE RIVER (v. 22). He must
indeed have been a foolish king, if he
thought to secure obedience to so inhuman a decree. Parents
would not
obey it. The work was of a kind which would soon grow
hateful even to
those who might at first be willing to do it for reward. The
hearts of the
most abandoned ere long
sicken at murder. (abortion doctors?)Public
sympathy does not appear to have gone with the edict, and
the number of
males at the Exodus makes it certain that it was not long in
operation. Its
chief fruit was one little contemplated by the tyrant — the
salvation and
courtly upbringing of Moses.
- LEARN:
Ø
How one cruelty leads to another, and increasingly hardens
the heart. It
is told of Robespierre that when
judge at
before he took his place in the popular mind of
one of the bloodiest monsters of myth or history, he
resigned his post
in a fit of remorse after condemning a criminal to be
executed. “He is a
criminal, no doubt,” he kept groaning to his sister, “a
criminal no doubt;
but to put a man to death!” (Morley).
Ø
The impotence of human devices.
Ø
The certainty of the Church surviving under the worst that
man can do
against it,. The more Pharaoh persecuted, the more the
people
multiplied and grew (vs. 12, 20).
The Way of Sin
(vs. 15-22)
- THE GROWING SHAMELESSNESS OF CRIME.
Ø
Murder was intended from the first — the hope was that the
people
should be diminished — but the intention was veiled.
Ø
(vs. 15-16.) The crime was now looked in the face, but it was so
arranged that
it might be done secretly. (Jesus
said, “For every
one that doeth evil hateth the
light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved.” - John
3:20)
Ø
When this failed, then public proclamation was made that the
murder
should be deliberately and openly done (v. 22). No man steps
at first
into shameless commission of sin. Every
sin is a
deadening of the
moral sense and a
deepening of shame.
- THOSE WHO REFUSE TO AID IN PHARAOH’S
CRIME FIND
BLESSING.
Ø
The refusal of the midwives was service to God.
o
It prevented secret murder.
o
It rebuked Pharaoh’s sin.
Ø
Their refusal was justified because it sprang from obedience
to a higher
authority: “they feared God.” Disobedience to human law must have a
higher sanction than a factious spirit.
Ø
God gave them inheritance among His people. In that dread of
sin and
heroism for the right they were fit allies for God’s people.
Those who
separate themselves from evil God will lead into THE LIGHT!
- THOSE WHO AID BRING JUDGMENT UPON THEMSELVES.
The king appeals to his people and they make his crime their own. But
unjust laws will not protect us from GOD’S JUST
JUDGMENT!
The wrong
decreed by authority becomes by obedience A
NATION’S
CRIME!
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