Exodus 3
THE CALL AND
After forty
years of monotonous pastoral life, affording abundant opportunity for
meditation, and for spiritual communion with God, and when
he had attained to the
great age of eighty years, and the hot blood of youth
had given place to the calm
serenity of advanced life, God at last revealed Himself
to Moses “called him” (v. 4),
and gave him a definite mission. The present chapter is
intimately connected with
the next. Together, they contain an account of that
extraordinary and indeed
miraculous interchange of thought .and speech between
Moses and God Himself,
by which the son of Amram was
induced to undertake the difficult and dangerous
task of freeing his people, delivering them from
their bondage in
conducting them through the wilderness to that “land flowing with milk and
honey,” (v. 8) which had been promised to the seed of
Abraham more than six
centuries previously (Genesis 15:18). Whatever hopes he
had entertained of being
his people’s deliverer in youth and middle life, they had long
been abandoned;
and, humanly speaking, nothing was more improbable than that
the aged
shepherd, grown “slow
of speech and of a slow tongue” (ch. 4:10) — his
manners rusticised — his
practical faculties rusted by disuse — his physical
powers weakened — should come forth from a retirement
of forty years’
duration to be a leader and king of men. Nothing less
than direct supernatural
interposition could — one may well believe — have sufficed to overcome
the
natural vis inertiae of Moses’ present character and position.
Hence, after an
absolute cessation of miracle for more than four hundred
years, miracle is once
more made use of by the Ruler of the Universe to work out His ends.. A
dignus vindice nodus has arisen;
and the ordinary
laws of that Nature which is
but one of his instruments are suspended by the Lord of All, He is El Shaddai –
(see Genesis 17 – Names of God – El Shaddai by Nathan Stone – this web site)
who sees what mode of action the occasion requires, and acts
accordingly.
THE
BURNING BUSH
vs. 1-2 –“Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of
Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of
the desert, and came to the
angel of Jehovah.” Taking the whole narrative altogether, we are
justified in
concluding that the appearance was that of “the Angel of the Covenant” or
“the Second Person of
the Trinity Himself” but this is not stated nor implied
in the present verse) appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of
a bush and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush
was not consumed.” All nations have seen in fire something
emblematic of the
Divine nature. Fire is in itself pure and purifying; in its effects mighty and terrible,
or life-giving, and comforting. Viewed as light — its ordinary though not universal
concomitant — it is bright, glorious, dazzling,
illuminative, soul-cheering. God under
the Old Covenant revealed Himself in fire, not only upon this
occasion, but at Sinai
(Exodus
19:18; 24:17), to Manoah (Judges 13:20), to Solomon (II
Chronicles 7:1-3),
to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:4-28), to Daniel (Daniel 7:9-10); under
the New Covenant, He is
declared to be “a consuming
fire” (Hebrews 12:29), “the Light of the world”
(John 8:12), “the True
Light” (John 1:9), “the Sun
of Righteousness.” Of all
material things nothing is so suitable to represent God
as this wonderful creation of His, so
bright, so pure, so terrible, so comforting. To Moses, God reveals Himself not merely
in fire, but in a “burning
bush.” In this respect the revelation is abnormal — nay, unique,
without a parallel. Surely this was done, not merely to
rouse his curiosity, but
to teach him some lesson or other. Moses would see that “the ways of God were not
as man’s ways;” (Isaiah 55:8) - that, instead
of coming with as much, He came with
as little, display as possible; instead of showing all His
glory and lighting up all Sinai
with unendurable radiance, He condescended to appear
in a small circumscribed
flame, and to rest upon so mean, so poor, so despised
an object as a thorn-bush.
God “chooseth the weak things of the world to confound
the strong” -
(I
Corinthians 1:27); anything is sufficient for His purpose. He creates worlds
with
a word, destroys kingdoms with a breath, cures diseases with clay
and spittle or the
hem of a garment, revolutionizes the earth by a group of
fishermen. Secondly, he
would see the spirituality of God. Even when showing
Himself in the form of fire,
He was not
fire. Material fire would have burnt up the bush, have withered its fair
boughs and blasted its green leaves in a moment of time;
this
fire did not scathe a
single twig, did not injure even the most delicate just-opening
bud. Thirdly, he might
be led on to recognize God’s tenderness. God’s mercy is
“over all his works,”
(Psalm
145:9); He will not hurt one of them unnecessarily, or
without an object. He
“careth for cattle” (Jonah
4:11); clothes the lilies with glory (Matthew
6:28-30);
wilt not let a sparrow fall to the ground needlessly
(ib. 10:29). Lastly, he
might learn
that the presence of God is “consuming” only of what
is evil. Of all
else it is
preservative. God was present with His people in
preserved them in that furnace of affliction. God was present in each devout and
humble heart of his true followers, and His presence kept them from the fiery darts
of the Wicked One. God would be
present through all time with His Church and with
His
individual worshippers,
not as a destroying, but as a sustaining, preserving,
glorifying influence.
His spiritual fire would rest upon them, envelop them, encircle
them, yet would neither injure nor absorb their
life, but support it, maintain it,
strengthen it.
THE IMPULSE FOR MOSES TO DRAW NIGH
v. 3 – “And Moses said, I will now turn
aside, and see this great sight, why the
bush is not burnt.” Moses saw a strange sight; one that he had never
seen before;
one that struck him
with astonishment. His natural impulse was to inquire into its
cause. God has implanted in us all this instinct, and we should do ill if we were to
combat it. Natural phenomena are within reason’s
sphere; and Moses, who had never
yet seen a supernatural sight, could not but suppose, at first
beholding it, that the
burning bush was a natural phenomenon. That he
approached to examine is an
indication that he was a man of spirit and intelligence;
not a coward who might have
feared some snare, not careless and unobservant, as
too many country folk are. He drew
near to see more clearly, and to use his other
senses in discovering what the “great
thing”
was — acting like a sensible man and one who had had a good
education.
GOD’S
PROHIBITION AND THE GROUND OF IT
vs. 4-6 – “And when the LORD saw that he
turned aside to see, God called
unto him out of the midst of the bush, and
said, Moses, Moses. And he said,
Here am I.
And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy
feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
Moreover He said,
I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.” Suddenly
the steps of the Moses are arrested. Wonder upon wonder! Avoice calls to him out of
the bush, and calls him by his own name, “Moses, Moses!” Now must have dawned
on him the conviction that it was indeed a “great
thing” which he was witnessing; that the
ordinary course of nature was broken in upon; that he was about to be the recipient
of one of those wonderful
communications which God from time to time had
vouchsafed to His
forefathers, as to Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and
Hence his
submissive, child-like answer, “Here I
am.” (Compare I Samuel 3:4-14).
Then came the solemn prohibition, “Draw not nigh hither.” The
awful greatness of
the Creator is such that His creatures, until invited to draw
near, are bound to stand
aloof. Moses, not yet aware that God Himself spoke to
him, was approaching the bush
too close, to examine and see what the “great thing” was (v. 3). “Put
off thy shoes” –
Rather,
“thy sandals.” Shoes were not worn commonly, even
by the Egyptians, until a late
period, and would certainly not be known in the
practice of putting them off before entering a temple, a
palace, or even the private
apartments of a house, was, and is, universal in the East
— the rationale of it being
that the shoes or sandals have dust or dirt
attaching to them. The command given to
Moses at
this time was repeated to Joshua (Joshua 5:15).
Man, until sanctified,
until brought into covenant, must not approach near to the dread presence of the
Supreme Being. At Sinai Moses was commanded to “set bounds”
to keep the people
off, that no one might “go
up into the mount, nor touch the border of it” (ch.19:12).
The men of Bethshemesh were smitten with death, to the number of
50,070, for
looking into the ark of the covenant (I Samuel 6:19). Uzzah was slain for putting forth
his hand to touch it, when he thought that there was danger of
its falling (II Samuel 6:7).
God, under
the Old Covenant, impressed on man in a multitude off ways His
unapproachableness. Hence all
the arrangements of the
sanctuary, into which only the high-priest could enter
once in the year; the main temple
building, only to be entered by the priests; the courts
of the Levites, of the Israelites,
and of the Gentiles, each more and more remote from the Divine Presence.
Hence the
purifications of the priests and of the Levites before they
could acceptably offer
sacrifice; hence the carrying of the
side-chambers of the
not be fastened in the walls of the house” (I Kings
6:6). It was so needful to
impress on men, apt to conceive of God as “such an one as themselves” (Psalm
50:21);
His awful
majesty, purity, and holiness, that artificial barriers were everywhere
created to
check man’s rash intrusion into
a Presence for which he was unfit. Thus
reverence
was taught, man was made to know and to feel his own unworthiness, and, little by
little,
came to have some faint conception of the absolute perfectness and incomprehensible
greatness of the
Supreme One. Further,
God being such as this, each place where He
makes Himself manifest, becomes at once holy
ground. Though “heaven is His
throne,
and earth His footstool,” and no “place” seems worthy of Him or can contain
Him,
yet it pleases Him, in condescension to our infirmities and our
finiteness, to choose
some spots rather than others where He will make
himself known and make His
presence felt. And these at once are sacred. So was the mount to which Moses went
up; so was Shiloh; so was Araunah’s threshingfloor; so was
own days are churches and the precincts of churches. God’s presence, manifested in
them, albeit spiritually and not materially,
hallows them. And the reverent heart
feels this, and cannot but show its reverence by
outward signs. In the East shoes were
put off. With us the head should be uncovered, the voice
hushed, the eye cast down.
We should
feel that “God is in the midst of us.” So felt Moses,
when God had
proclaimed Himself (v. 6), and not only bared his feet as commanded, but
shrouded
his face in his robe
“for he was afraid to look upon God.” All his own sinfulness
and imperfection rushed to his
thought, all his unworthiness to behold God and
live. Jacob had
once seen God “face to face,” and
had marvelled that “his life
was
preserved” (Genesis 32:30). Moses shut out the awful Vision. So
Elijah, on the
same site, when he heard the “still small voice”(I Kings 19:13); and so even the
seraphim who wast continually before God’s Throne in heaven (Isaiah 6:2).
Consciousness of imperfection
forces the creature to stand abashed in the
presence of the Creator.
THE
CALL OF MOSES
vs. 7-10 – “And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people
which are in
for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand
of the Egyptians,
and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a
large, (the land included in the covenant
which God made with Abraham [Genesis
15:18-21],
and actually possessed by David and Solomon [I Kings 4:21], was a
“good land and a large,” according even to modern notions,
including, besides
square miles) unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the
Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the
Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the
Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of
Egyptians oppress them. Come
now therefore, and I will send thee unto
Pharaoh, that thou mayest
bring forth my people the children of
to learn His will. And God takes him, as it were, into
counsel, not only calling him
to a
certain work, but revealing to him why he is called,
what exactly he
is to do, and what will
be the issue of his enterprise.
their
sufferings — from the constant toil, from the brutal taskmasters, from
the cruel
Pharaoh, from the apparent hopelessness of their position — had
reached to
such a point that God could allow it to go on no longer. There
is a point
at which He will interfere to vindicate the oppressed and punish
the
wrong-doers, even if the oppressed are too much crushed, too
downtrodden,
too absolutely in despair, to cry to Him. Their case calls to
Him; their “blood cries from the ground.” But in this instance actual despair
had not
been reached. His people had “cried to
him.” And here was a
second
reason why He should interfere. God is never deaf to any prayers
addressed
to Him for succor; He may not always grant them, but He hears
them. And if they
are sustained, and earnest, and justified by the occasion,
He grants them. Such was the case
now, and Moses was called because of
the extreme
affliction of the Israelites, and because of their prolonged and
earnest cry
to God under it.
of
Pharaoh” (ibid.). Thus he is
directed to return to
put himself
into communication with the new king who had succeeded the
one from
whom he had fled. So much is made clear to him. He, an exile for
forty
years, and a mere hireling shepherd of the desert during that space, is
to seek an
interview with the great monarch of all
cause of
his people before him — to endeavor to induce him to “let them
go.” A difficult enterprise, to say the least;
humanly speaking, a hopeless
one. How should a king be induced to allow the departure of 600,000
able
bodied laborers,
whose condition was that of state slaves, who could be
set to any
work which the king had in hand — to keep cattle, or make
bricks, or
build cities, or erect walls, or excavate canals? What inducement
was to be
offered to him to make the sacrifice? Such thoughts would
naturally
occur to Moses under the circumstances, and would naturally
have risen
to his lips but for the distinct announcement made with regard to
the further
point.
declaration, “I am come down to deliver them, and to bring
them up out
of that land into a good land and a large,” was so
definite and clear a
statement,
so positive a promise of success, as to override all objections on
the score
of the task being an impossible one. God “had
come down to
deliver” His people, and would undoubtedly do it, whatever
opposition was
raised.
Thus, to counteract the despondency which the consideration of the
existing
facts and circumstances was calculated to produce, there was held
forth
before Moses the positive assurance of success; the certainty that
God would make good His word; would,
however difficult it seemed, lead
His people forth, deliver them out
of the hand of the Egyptian, and make
them the
masters of another land, large and good, flowing with milk and
honey, into
possession of which they would enter through His might and by
His irresistible
assistance.
MOSES’ FITNESS TO BE GOD’S INSTRUMENT
NOWITHSTANDING HIS TIMIDITY
vs. 11-12 – “And Moses said unto God, Who am
I, that I should go unto
Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children
of
What
weight can I expect to have with my countrymen, who will have forgotten
me — whom, moreover, I could not influence
when I was,in my full vigour
— who then “refused” my guidance and forced me to quit them?
True diffidence
speaks in the words used — there is no ring of
insincerity in them; Moses was now
as distrustful of himself as in former days
he had been confident, and when he had become
fit to be a deliverer, ceased to think himself
fit. And He said, Certainly I
will be with thee; Literally,
“Since I will be with thee.” Moses had excused himself
on the ground of unfitness. God replies—
“Thou wilt not be unfit, since I will be with thee
— I
will supply thy deficiencies — I will impart all the qualities thou needest
and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast
brought forth the people out of
— and this shall be a sign unto thee of my power and faithfulness — this shall
assure
thee that I am not sending thee upon a fruitless
errand — it is determined in my
counsels that not only shalt
thou succeed, and lead the people out, but after that, —
when thou hast so done — thou and they together
“shall serve me on this mountain.”
It was
necessary that the
Deliverer should be familiar with the habits of the court,
should be able to assume its manners, speak its language, and not
unwittingly infringe
its etiquette. To
be not only the Deliverer, but the Teacher and Educator of his nation,
it was to the last degree necessary that he should be “learned in all the wisdom” of
the time; that
he should have had as good an education as any other man of the day; be
able to foil the priests with their own weapons;
and, after delivering his people out of
bondage, be capable of elevating them, instructing
them, advancing them from a rabble
of slaves into an orderly, self-sufficient, fairly-enlightened,
if not highly-civilised,
nation. Once more: a moral fitness was necessary. Moreover, he needed to be a
religious man. Anyone not upheld by high religious principle, anyone not possessed
of deep and true faith, would have fallen away in some of the
trials through which the
nation had to pass; would have desisted, or murmured,
or “lusted after evil things” -
(I Corinthians
10:6), or waxed proud and wanton, or grown weary of seemingly
interminable wanderings, and settled down in Arabia or even returned
to
with the
customs of the Egyptian court, having been brought up in the
household
of a princess, and been himself a courtier until he was nearly
forty years
of age. Though he had subsequently spent forty years in the
desert,
this would not unfit him; since, in the first place, Egyptian manners
and customs
were unchanging; and secondly, life in the desert is at no time
a bad
school of manners. Arabian shepherds are not like European ones. As
much
politeness is often seen in the tent of a Bedouin as in the drawing room
of an
empress. Moses could speak with the
Pharaoh almost as an equal, since
as the
adopted son of a princess he had been accounted a prince, and may even,
before his
flight, have met Menephthah in the royal palace on
terms of social
equality.
On the education and “wisdom” of Moses we have already descanted,
and it will
scarcely be questioned that in these respects he was eminently fitted
for the
part assigned to him by
and ripened
in Midian, made him exceptionally fit. Audacity, high
aspirations,
strong
sympathies, a burning zeal, had shown themselves in the conduct that
led to his
exile. These had been disciplined and brought under control by the
influences
of desert life, which had made him calm, self-contained, patient,
persevering,
considerate, without quenching his zeal or taming his high spirit.
And of his religious principle there
is no question. If he angered God once by
“speaking unadvisedly” (Psalm 106:33; Numbers 20:10-11), this does but
show that
he was human, and therefore not perfect. Apart from this one
occasion
his conduct as leader of the people is, as nearly as possible, blameless.
And his piety is everywhere conspicuous.
far as our historical knowledge goes, there is no one who can
be named as
possessing any one of the necessary qualities in a higher
degree than Moses,
much less as uniting them all. No Hebrew but Moses had had,
so far as we
know, the advantages of education and position enjoyed by
Moses. No
Egyptian would
have been trusted by the Hebrew nation and accepted as
their leader. No one who was neither Egyptian nor Hebrew
would have had
any weight with either people. Thus Moses was the one and
only possible
deliverer, exactly fitted by
he should take: raised up, saved, educated, trained by God
to be His instrument
in delivering His people, and so exactly fitted for the
purpose.
that those are most confident of their powers who
are fittest for God’s work.
Great
capacity is constantly accompanied by a humble estimate of
itself.
Jeremiah’s reply
when God called him was: “Ah! Lord God, I cannot speak,
for I am a child”
(Jeremiah 1:6).
shells upon the
shores of the
am I that I
should go,” has been echoed by thousands. If, however, God’s call
is clear, the
voice of self-depreciation is not to be much listened to. He knows
best whether we are fit to work out his purposes, or no. Whether the
call is to be
an ordinary minister, or a missionary, or a bishop, or a
civil leader, the foremost
in a political movement, or a general at the crisis
of a war, or anything else, too
much
timidity ought not to be shown. There is cowardice in shrinking from
responsibility.
If the call be clearly from without, not courted by ourselves,
not sought,
not angled for, not assignable to any unworthy motive, then it
is to be
viewed as God’s call; and the proper answer is “Speak, Lord, for
thy servant heareth.” Unfit as
we may think ourselves, we may be sure that
He will not leave us to
ourselves — His grace will be sufficient for us — He
will give
us all the strength we need.
GOD’S
REVELATION OF HIMSELF UNDER THE NAME JEHOVAH
vs. 13-15 – “And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children
of
you; and they shall say to me, What is His
name? What shall I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and He said, Thus shalt thou say
unto the children of
unto Moses, Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of
your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob, hath
sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and
this is my memorial unto all
generations.” At first
sight the name by which God shall be called may seem unimportant,
as it is unimportant whether a man be called Tully or
originally, each name that is given to God is significant;
and according as one name
or another is commonly used, one idea or another of the Divine
nature will be
prevalent. Hitherto God had been known mainly to the Semites
as El, Eliun, Elohim,
“Exalted, Lofty,” or Shaddai, “Strong, Powerful.” Another
name known to them,
but rarely used, was JHVH, “Existent.” (The vocalization of the name has been lost,
and is uncertain.) God was now
asked by Moses under what name he should speak of
Him to the Israelites, and was bidden to speak of him
as JHVH.
What, then, was
the full meaning of JHVH, and why
was it preferred to the other names? Probably as
a security against polytheism. When words expressive of such attributes
as exaltation,
strength, knowledge, goodness, beautifulness, even creative
energy, are made into
names of God, there is a temptation at once to extend
them from the one to the many,
from the possessor of the attribute in the highest
degree to others who possess it, or
are supposed to possess it, in a high degree. Thus all such
words come to be used in the
plural, and the way is paved for polytheism. But if
God is called “the Existent,” this
danger disappears; for there are but two kinds or
degrees of existence, viz.,
self-existence, and created, dependent existence. “The Existent” must mean “the
Self-Existent,” who must
necessarily be One. Hence JHVH never had a plural.
The only way
by which an Israelite could become a
polytheist was by deserting
Jehovah
altogether and turning to Elohim. In
vindicating to Himself the name
Jehovah,
“He who exists,” or “He who alone exists,” God declared himself to be:
“THIS IS
MY NAME FOR EVER” - Henceforth
there will be no name change —
this will be my most appropriate name so long
as the world endures — “The
Existent” —
“The Alone
Existent” — “He that is, and was, and is to come”
(Revelation 1:4, 8;
4:8; 11:17;
16:5). “My memorial” - The name whereby I am to be spoken of.
He placed a
gulf, profound — not to be bridged — between Himself and every other being.
He
indicated that all other gods were unrealities — breath, vapor, shadows of
shades; that
He alone
was real, stable, to be trusted; and that in Him His worshippers might have
“quietness and assurance
for ever.” (Isaiah
32:17)
THE
DIVINE INJUNCTION TO GATHER THE ELDERS
v. 16 – “Go, and gather the elders of
LORD God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob,
appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which
is done
to you in
(Genesis
50:24), and may be taken to mean, “I have done as Joseph prophesied
—
I have made his words good
thus far. Expect, therefore, the completion
of what He
promised.’’ God here
added another injunction to those which He had previously
given (v. 10), as
to the modus operandi which Moses was to adopt. He
was to go
to the children of
any appeal to them he was, in the first instance, to “gather the elders of
together.” In this is involved a principle of very general application. When great
designs are on hand, consultation should first be with the few. With the few matters
can be calmly and quietly discussed, without passion or prejudice; questions can be
asked, explanations given. And the few
will have influence with the many. This was
the whole idea of ancient
government, which was by a king, a council, and an
assembly of the people, which last was expected to ratify the council’s
decision.
Direct appeal to the masses is, as much as possible, to
be avoided. The masses are
always, comparatively speaking, ignorant, stolid,
unimpressionable. Great ideas
take root and grow by being first communicated in
their fullness to a “little flock,”
who spread them among their companions and acquaintance, until
at length they
prevail generally. So our Lord called first the Twelve,
and then the Seventy, and
made known His doctrine to them, leaving it to them
to form the Church after His
ascension.
THE
PROMISES TO THE ELDERS AND TO MOSES
vs. 17-18 - And I have said, I will bring you
up out of the affliction of
unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites,
and the Amorites, and the
Perizzites, and the Hivites,
and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey.
And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt
come, thou
and the elders of
The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with
us: and now let us go, we
beseech thee, three days’ journey into the
wilderness, that we may sacrifice
to the LORD our God.” It was
a part of God’s design that sacrifice, interrupted
during the sojourn in
bounds of
milk and honey”
Ordinary
men — men who are, spiritually speaking, backward and undeveloped — require
to be stirred to action by comparatively low motives. Escape
from present suffering and
unpleasantness, enjoyment of happiness in the future — these
are practically the two chief
moving powers of human action. Neither of them is a wrong
motive; and Moses was
instructed to appeal to each by a special promise. So may
the preacher rightly do with
his congregation, the minister with his flock, the father with
his children. As long as men
are what they are, appeals to the lower motives cannot be
dispensed with at first.
Care must, however, be taken that before each one, as he becomes
fit for it, higher
motives are set — such as duty, the love of goodness
for goodness’ sake, and —
last, not least — the highest motive of all, the
love of God, our Creator, Sustainer,
Sanctifier, “in whom we live, and move, and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) –
Moses was
promised at this point, to stimulate him to action, immediate success. He
had doubted whether his people would listen to him, or regard
him as anything but a
dreamer. He is told, “they shall hearken unto thy voice.” The
hearts of men are in
God’s hands, and He disposed those of the elders to receive
the message of His servant,
Moses,
favorably, and believe in it. A great
comfort to every one who feels that he has
a
mission is the acceptance of it by others. Each man,
more or less, misdoubts himself,
questions his own ability, sincerity, singleness of
heart. The seal of an apostleship is
the
success of the apostolic efforts (I Corinthians 9:2). Direct
promise of success at the
mouth of God was, to one so faithful as Moses, as powerful to cheer, encourage, and
sustain, as success itself.
PHARAOH’S OBDURACY AND GOD’S MODE OF
OVERCOMING IT
vs. 19-20 – “And I am sure that the king of
a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite
wonders which I will do in the midst thereof: and
after that he will let you go.
“I
will stretch out my hand”
- To encourage Moses and the
people, to support them
in what was, humanly speaking, a most unequal
contest, this
important promise is
made. It is
a confirmation, and to some extent, an explanation of the pledge, already,
given,
“Certainly I will be with
thee” (v. 12). It shows how God
would be with him — He
would
smite
He
would come to His people’s aid, and openly assert Himself, and afflict
and strike
terror into their enemies, until at last even
Pharaoh’s stubborn
spirit would be broken,
and he would consent to “let them go”. There are
stubborn hearts which no warnings
can impress, no lessons teach, no pleading, even of God’s
Spirit, bend. With such He
“will not always
strive.” (Genesis 6:3) - After they have resisted Him till His patience
is exhausted, He will break them, crush them., overrule their
opposition, and make it futile.
God’s will
surely triumphs in the end. But it may be long first. God is so patient,
so enduring, so long-suffering, that He will permit for
months, or even years, the
contradiction of sinners against Himself. He will
not interfere with the exercise
of their free-will. He will warn, chide, chasten, afflict, contend with the sinner;
try him to the uttermost; seek to lead him to repentance; give him chance after
chance. But he will
not compel him to submit himself; man may resist to the last;
and even “curse God and
die” (Job 2:9) at war with Him. The final
success in such
a struggle cannot, however, rest
with man. God “will not alway be chiding, neither
keepeth He His anger for
ever.” (Psalm
103:9) - At the fitting time He “stretches
forth His hand and smites” the sinner, strikes him down, or sets him
aside, as the
storm-wind sets aside a
feeble barrier of frail rushes, and works His own will in His
own way. Mostly He works by natural causes; but now and
again in the history of the
world He has asserted Himself more openly, and has
broken the power and chastised
the pride of a Pharaoh, a Benhadad,
or a Sennacherib, in a miraculous way. Such
manifestations of his might produce a marked effect, causing,
as they do, “all the
kingdoms of the earth to know that he is the Lord God,
and he only”
(II Kings
19:19).
GOD
BRINGS GOOD OUT OF EVIL
vs. 21-22 – “And I will give this people
favor in the sight of the Egyptians: and
it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye
shall not go empty. But every woman
shall borrow of her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of
silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye
shall put them upon your sons,
and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil
the Egyptians.” Had Pharaoh
yielded
at the first, the Egyptians would have seen the departure of
would have in no way facilitated it. The opposition of the king and court, the long
struggle,
the ill-usage of the Israelites
by the monarch who so often promised to
release them, and so often retracted his word, awoke a sympathy with the
Israelites,
and an interest in
them, which would have been altogether lacking had there been
no opposition, no struggle, no ill-usage. Again, the plagues,
especially the last, thoroughly
alarmed the Egyptians, and made them anxious to be quit
of such
dangerous neighbors. “
of them” (Psalm 105:38). But for Pharaoh’s obduracy the plagues would not have
been sent; and but for the plagues the departing Israelites would not have been
looked upon by the Egyptians with the “favor” which led to their going out
laden
with gifts. Thus Pharaoh’s stubbornness, though it led to their sufferings being
prolonged, led also to their final triumphant exit, as spoilers, not as spoiled, laden
with the good
things of
the best that
the Egyptians had to offer. The Israelite women were told on the eve of
their departure from
neighbors, as a contribution to the necessary
expenses of the long journey on which
they were entering; and God promised that He
would so favorably incline the hearts
of these neighbors towards them, that, in
reply to their request, articles of silver and
of gold, together with raiment, would be
freely and bounteously bestowed on them —
so freely and so bounteously, that they might
clothe and adorn, not only themselves,
but their sons and daughters, with the
presents; and the entire result would be that,
instead of quitting
go forth in the guise of an army of
conquerors, laden with the good things of the
country, having (with their own good-will) “spoiled the Egyptians.” No fraud, no
deceit, was to be practised
— the Egyptians perfectly well
understood that, if the Israelites
once went, they would never voluntarily return — they were asked to give
and they gave — with the result that
a rightful nemesis. Oppressed, wronged, down-trodden, miserably paid for
their hard
labor during centuries, the Israelites were to
obtain at the last something like a
compensation for their ill-usage; the riches of
flight, and to despoil herself in order to enrich
her quondam slaves, of whom she was,
under the circumstances, delighted to be rid. History presents an infinitude
of similar
cases, where the greatest advantages have been the
result of oppression and wrong.
Extreme
tyranny constantly leads to the assertion of freedom; anarchy to the firm
establishment of law; defeat and ill-usage by a conqueror to the moral recovery of a
declining
race or nation. Each man’s experience
will tell him of the good that has
arisen to him individually from sickness, from disappointment, from bereavement,
from what seemed at
the time wholly evil. God brings good out of evil
in a
thousand
marvelous ways; at one time by turning the hearts of oppressors,
at
another by raising the tone
and spirit of the oppressed; now by letting evil run riot
until it produces general disgust, anon by making use
of adverse circumstances to
train a champion and deliverer. Countless are the
evidences that God causes evil to
work towards good; uses it as an instrument, evolves
His own purposes, in part, by
its means, vindicating thus His absolute lordship over all, and
showing that evil
itself, though it fight against Him, cannot thwart Him.
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