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13). It was the era of Egypt’s greatest glory. Neverthe less the Scriptures pass over it in silence because there was nothing of God in it. Worldly power and WESSON earthly glory find no place in the Word EXPOSITION of God. Egypt was intended to be a F. W. Farr school. It became a prison. The children of Israel entered it as princes. They lived in it as slaves. At first they prospered greatly, (Ex. 1 :7 ). Shall we say in spite of this or because of this they forgot God and fell an easy prey to their foes? Communion with God in the desert solitudes made Israel a prince, (Gen. 32:28). Conformity to the world amid the idolatries of Egypt made Israel a slave. Many a man is a prince before he prospers and a slave afterwards. In Exodus 1:14 there is the bitter bondage described. In Ex. 2:23 there is the bitter cry. Salvation begins in a sigh. God heard, God looked, God had respect unto them, (Ex. 2:24-25). God might have found many ways out of Egypt. His resources are boundless. He chose that way which should be a perpetual object-lesson of the only way out of the bondage of sin. In the providence of God there was a two-fold prepara tion for the great deliverance. There was a deliverer pre pared for the people and the people were prepared for de liverance. Moses was one of the greatest men that ever lived. In Ex. 2 we have his birth and education, in Ex. 3 his call and commission, in Ex. 4 his credentials and quali fications. His education covers eighty years,— forty years in Egypt, and forty years in Midian. After being trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, he took a post-graduate course in the back-side of the desert, in God’s university. Egypt was the trial of his faith. Midian was the trial of his patience. There is no hint of eulogy or heroism in the narrative. On the contrary it brings out the weakness of Moses rather than his strength, (Ex. 2:11-14). The reason is that Moses is the author of the story and he was meek and modest above all other men. In Ex. 2:14 it is said that Moses feared. In Heb. 11:27 it is said that he did not fear the wrath of the king. There is no contradiction here. In the former case Moses is perhaps referring to a moment of weakness when his heart failed him. In the latter case the writer of the Hebrews is speaking of his general character of which indomitable courage was the- outstanding feature. When Moses was called and commissioned, the sinfulness of man is emphasized and contrasted with the holiness of God, (Ex. 3:5-6). This is the first occurrence of the word “holy” in Scripture. It is not found in Genesis. Then the love of God in relation to human suffering and sorrow is blessedly brought out, Ch. 3:7-8. Moses sees the devouring fire but he hears the blessed Gospel of the grace of God. G6d gives him the name, Jehovah, to proclaim and a message to deliver richer and sweeter than any that had ever fallen upon human ears. -Lest the people should not give heed, God gives him a series of signs to validate his message. When he pleads his personal unfitness by reason of infirmity, the Lord meets the difficulty with infinite wis dom, albeit to Moses’ future loss, for he must now share with Aaron, his brother, the fulness of blessing intended for himself, alone.
the east, which is hence called “the front.”—Terry. Dur ing all these years he had been holding communion with
God, and was being prepared for his life work. But think of a man with power and ability such as Moses had, being held down for forty years with a few sheep!—-Arnold. V. 2. Not a created angel for he
COMMENTS FROM THE COMMENTARIES V. V. Morgan
is called Jehovah (vs. 4-6). This was none other than Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of mankind.—Horn. Com. Fire is the best symbol of God. Its light is the source of beauty, comfort, health, and strength. It. is powerful, pure and purifying, everywhere present.—Peloubet. The bush burn ing, yet not consumed, has always been regarded as an em blem: of Israel in Egypt. Moses, in his farewell blessing to the tribes, could find no richer benediction of the sons of Joseph than to wish for them “the good-will of Him that dwelt in the bush.” The Church of Scotland, theuefore, has not made an inappropriate or unwarranted use of this emblem, when, looking at her own history, how she was cradled in persecution, she has put upon her banner a representation of the burning bush, with the legend, “Yet it was not consumed.”—W. M. Taylor. V. 5. Orientals remove their shoes on entering a place of worship or approaching an important personage. We are not to treat all places alike. When a man loses his sense of religious awe, he has exhausted the supreme fountain of spiritual joy.— Joseph Parker. V. 7. “Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceedingly small; though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.”— Lpngfeliow. V. 8. _Am come down. When God did something very extraordinary He was said to “come down” to do it, as in Isa. 64:1. So Christ came down from 'heaven to save fallen men.—Arnold. V, 10. I w ill send thee. About forty years before this Moses had undertaken to deliver his people in his own way. Now he had learned the other lessons God would teach him and his time had come. There is a vast differ ence between God sending a man and a man running un sent. Arnold. These words must have fallen upon Moses’ ears like a thunderclap. Compare Washington, rushing from the hall of Congress when he heard himself men tioned for the leadership of the American Army. Unto Pharaoh. Thee, a poor shepherd, aged and alone, unto Pharaoh, the mightiest monarch on earth! God often calls His children to such gigantic tasks. As Luther, who himself responded to such a summons wrote: “If Moses had insisted on knowing the end, and how he was to escape the hosts qf Pharaoh, Israel would probably have been in Egypt to this day.” If we are in the course of duty, God’s ca ll to great things may come at any time,- while we are about our commonest tasks, as it came to Peter while fish ing, to Luther in a monk’s cell, to General Booth and Rob ert Raikes and Dr. Barnardo among the poorest of. the poor.-^Peloubet. V. 1 2 .1 will be with thee. It is as if God had said, “You forget that I am pledged to do this through you.”—Arnold. Never refuse God’s call for fear of inability. “God’s com mands are enablements.”—Peloubet. In Moses’ life there were three distinct periods— forty years in Egypt (Acts 7 :23 ), forty in Midian (Acts 7:29, 30), and forty leading the children of Israel (Deut. 34:7). Someone has said that during the first period “he was learning to be somebody.” As the DEVOTIONAL adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter he COMMENT had the finest education and training John A. Hubbard possible in those days. “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egypt ians, and was mighty in words and in deeds” (Acts 7:22). During the second period “he was learning to be nobody.” A fugitive in Midian, doing the work of a shepherd—r“every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians” (Gen. 46:34 ). How humiliating! “Learning to be nobody”— a very unpleasant and a very difficult lesson to learn! Dur ing the third period “God was showing what He could do with a man who had learned these two lessons.” It may be that some reader of these lines is- in, or has
Exodus 3:1-12. V. 1. Backside. That is, the western side, for in- the Hebrew orientation the spectator is always supposed to face
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