PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus
Chadwick, G. A. (George Alexander) · 133,337 words · 210 reading sections
_The Hardening Of Pharaoh'S Heart._
The second word is explained in the margin as meaning _to make strong_. Already God had employed it when He said "I will _make strong_ his heart" (iv. 21), and this is the term used of the first fulfilment of the menace, after the sixth plague (ix. 12). God is not said to interfere again after the seventh, which had fe…
668 wordsSECTION 62_The Hardening Of Pharaoh'S Heart._
Let no man assume that prudence will always save him from ruinous excess, if respect for righteousness cannot withhold him from those first compliances which sap the will, destroy the restraint of self-respect, wear away the horror of great wickedness by familiarity with the same guilt in its lesser phases, and, above …
653 wordsSECTION 63_The Hardening Of Pharaoh'S Heart._
No miracle can prove that immoral teaching is sacred. But it can prove that it is supernatural. And this is precisely what Scripture always proclaims. In the New Testament, we are bidden to take heed, because a day will come, when false prophets shall work great signs and wonders, to deceive, if possible, even the elec…
302 wordsSECTION 64_The Plagues._
vii. 14. There are many aspects in which the plagues of Egypt may be contemplated. We may think of them as ranging through all nature, and asserting the mastery of the Lord alike over the river on which depended the prosperity of the realm, over the minute pests which can make life more wretched than larger and more …
772 wordsSECTION 65_The Plagues._
And since the fear of disadvantage in war had prompted the murder of the Hebrew children, it was right that the retributive blow should destroy first their children and then their men of war. When we come to examine the plagues in detail, we discover that it is no arbitrary fancy which divides them into three triplets…
759 wordsSECTION 66_The Plagues._
The purity of water is now felt to be among the foremost necessities of life. It is one which asks nothing from us except to refrain from polluting what comes from heaven so limpid. And yet we are half satisfied to go on habitually inflicting on ourselves a plague more foul and noxious than any occasional turning of ou…
757 wordsSECTION 67_The First Plague._
vii. 14-25. It was perhaps when the Nile was rising, and Pharaoh was coming to the bank, in pomp of state, to make official observation of its progress, on which the welfare of the kingdom depended, and to do homage before its divinity, that the messenger of another Deity confronted him, with a formal declaration of w…
752 wordsSECTION 68_The First Plague._
Two details remain to be observed. The seven days which were fulfilled do not measure the interval between this plague and the next, but the period of its infliction. And this information is not given us concerning any other, until we come to the three days of darkness.[13] It is important here, because the natural dis…
316 wordsSECTION 69_The Second Plague._
[10] It is true that the word means any large reptile, as when "God created great _whales_"; but doubtless our English version is correct. It was certainly a serpent which he had recently fled from, and then taken by the tail (iv. 4). And unless we suppose the magicians to have wrought a genuine miracle, no other creat…
746 wordsSECTION 70_The Second Plague._
It is sometimes explained as an expression of courtesy--"I obey thee as a superior"; which does not occur elsewhere, because it is not Hebrew but Egyptian. But this suavity is quite alien to the spirit of the narrative, in which Moses, however courteous, represents an offended God. It is more natural to take it as an o…
252 wordsSECTION 71_The Third Plague._
viii. 16-19. There is no sufficient reason for discarding the ordinary opinion of this plague. Gnats have been suggested (with beetles instead of flies for the fourth, since gnats and flies would scarcely make two several judgments), but these, which spring from marshy ground, would unfitly be connected with the dust …
390 wordsSECTION 72_The Fourth Plague._
viii. 20-32. When the third plague had died away, when the sense of reaction and exhaustion had replaced agitation and distress, and when perhaps the fear grew strong that at any moment a new calamity might befal the land as abruptly as the last, God orders a solemn and urgent appeal to be made to the oppressor. And t…
871 wordsSECTION 73_The Fifth Plague._
It is necessary to repeat that we have not a shred of evidence that Moses would have violated his compact and failed to return: it would have sufficed as a first step to have asserted the nationality of his people and their right to worship their own God: all the rest would speedily have followed. But the terms which w…
736 wordsSECTION 74_The Fifth Plague._
Much of Pharaoh's own property perished, but he was the last man in the country who would feel personal inconvenience by the loss, and therefore nothing was more natural than that his selfish "heart was heavy, and he did not let the people go." Not even such an effort was needed as in the previous plague, when we read …
310 wordsSECTION 75_The Sixth Plague._
ix. 8-12. At the close of the second triplet, as of the first, stands a plague without a warning, but not without the clearest connection between the blow and Him who deals it. To the Jews Egypt was a furnace in which they were being consumed--whether literally in human sacrifice, or metaphorically in the hard labour…
610 wordsSECTION 76_The Seventh Plague._
ix. 13-35. The hardening of Pharaoh's heart, we have argued, was not the debauching of his spirit, but only the strengthening of his will. "Wait on the Lord and _be of good courage_"; "_Be strong_, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord; and _be strong_, O Joshua, son of Josadak the high priest; and _be strong_, all ye people" …
713 wordsSECTION 77_The Seventh Plague._
There it was that the true scourge smote. Thence came ruin and defeat. His infatuation was more dreadful than hail in the cloud and locusts on the blast, than the darkness at noon and the midnight wail of a bereaved nation. For his infatuation involved all these. The next assertion is not what the Authorised Version m…
700 wordsSECTION 78_The Seventh Plague._
"Nothing appears to me more remarkable than the array of scenic magnificence by which the imagination is appalled, in myriads of instances when the actual danger is comparatively small; so that the utmost possible impression of awe shall be produced upon the minds of all, though direct suffering is inflicted upon few. …
728 wordsSECTION 79_The Eighth Plague._
[16] The passage in Deuteronomy had not this event specially in mind, or it would have used the same term for a furnace. The word for ashes implies what can be blown upon the wind. [17] Except in one passage (Gen. ii. 4 to iii. 23) these titles of Deity are nowhere else combined in the books of Moses. x. 1-20. The L…
704 wordsSECTION 80_The Eighth Plague._
One speaks of the sudden change of colour by the disappearance of verdure where they alight as being like the rolling up of a carpet; and here we read "they shall cover the eye of the earth,"--a phrase peculiar to the Pentateuch (ver. 15; Num. xxii. 5, 11); "and they shall eat the residue of that which has escaped, ...…
726 wordsSECTION 81_The Eighth Plague._
And now, at a second command as explicit as that which bade him utter the warning, Moses, anxiously watched by many, stretched out his hand over the devoted realm. At the gesture, the spectators felt that a fiat had gone forth. But the result was strangely different from that which followed his invocation, both of the …
598 wordsSECTION 82The Ninth Plague.
x. 21-29. We have taken it as settled that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was Menephtah, the Beloved of the God Ptah. If so, his devotion to the gods throws a curious light upon his first scorn of Jehovah, and his long continued resistance; and also upon the threat of vengeance to be executed upon the gods of Egypt, as if …
716 wordsSECTION 83The Ninth Plague.
"The land of darkness and of the shadow of death; A land of thick darkness, as darkness itself; A land of the shadow of death without any order, And where the light is as darkness" (x. 21, 22). With us, a mortal sentence is given in a black cap; in the East, far more expressively, the head of the culprit was covere…
661 wordsSECTION 84The Ninth Plague.
And, indeed, in the spiritual light which is sown for the righteous, and the obscuration of the judgment of the impure, this miracle is ever reproduced. The history of Menephtah is that of a mean and cowardly prince. Dreams forbade him to share the perils of his army; a prophecy induced him to submit to exile, until h…
334 wordsSECTION 85_The Last Plague Announced._
[18] Oddly enough, the same historian already quoted, relating the story of the same day at Leipsic, says of Napoleon's dialogue with M. de Merfeld, that he "used an expression which, if uttered at the Congress of Prague, would have changed his lot and ours. Unfortunately, it was now too late." [19] Such is probably n…
754 wordsSECTION 86_The Passover._
The ninth and tenth verses are a kind of summary: the appeals to Pharaoh are all over, and henceforth we shall find Moses preparing his own followers for their exodus. "And the Lord (had) said unto Moses, Pharaoh will not hearken unto you, that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did …
730 wordsSECTION 87_The Passover._
Now, the sentiment of nationality may so assert itself, like all exaggerated sentiments, as to assail others equally precious. In this century we have seen a revival of the Spartan theories which sacrificed the family to the state. Socialism and the _phalanstère_ have proposed to do by public organisation, with the for…
708 wordsSECTION 88_The Passover._
What, then, might a pious and well-instructed Israelite discern beneath the surface of this institution? To this question there have been many discordant answers, and the variance is by no means confined to unbelieving critics. Thus, a distinguished living expositor says in connection with the Paschal institution, "We…
652 wordsSECTION 89_The Passover._
It is quite plain that no such theory can be reconciled with the story of the first passover. And accordingly this is declared to be non-historical, and to have originated in the time of the later kings. The offering of the firstborn is only "the expression of thankfulness to the Deity for fruitful flocks and herds. If…
758 wordsSECTION 90_The Passover._
And this would set him thinking that even a gracious God, Who had "come down" to save him from his tyrants, discerned in him grave reasons for displeasure, since his acceptance, while others died, was not of course. His own conscience would then quickly tell him what some at least of those reasons were. But he would a…
780 wordsSECTION 91_The Passover._
It is not too much to say that if modern theology were not affected by this ancient problem, if we regarded the creed of the Hebrews simply as we look at the mythologies of other peoples, there would be no more doubt that the early Jews believed in propitiatory sacrifice than that Phoenicians did. We should simply admi…
666 wordsSECTION 92_The Passover._
(Ver. 2.) The commandment to link their emancipation with a festival, and with the calendar, is the earliest example and the sufficient vindication of sacred festivals, which, even yet, some persons consider to be superstitious and judaical. But it is a strange doctrine that the Passover deserved honour better than Eas…
657 wordsSECTION 93_The Passover._
Moreover, we learn from St. Paul that unleavened bread represents simplicity and truth; and our Lord spoke of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod (Mark viii. 15). And this is not only because leaven was supposed to be of the same nature as corruption. We ourselves always mean something unworthy when we speak of _m…
788 wordsSECTION 94_The Passover._
Will any one deny that a similar help is offered to us of the later Church in our many opportunities of avowing a fixed and personal belief? Whoever refuses to comply with an unholy custom because he belongs to Christ, whoever joins heartily in worship at the cost of making himself remarkable, whoever nerves himself to…
679 wordsSECTION 95_The Passover._
On these terms, they cannot be Christ's disciples. It is apparently the mention of a mixed multitude, who came with Israel out of Egypt, which suggests the insertion, in a separate and dislocated paragraph, of the law of the passover concerning strangers (vers. 38, 43-49). An alien was not to eat thereof: it belonged…
259 wordsSECTION 96_The Tenth Plague._
xii. 29-36. And now the blow fell. Infants grew cold in their mothers' arms; ripe statesmen and crafty priests lost breath as they reposed: the wisest, the strongest and the most hopeful of the nation were blotted out at once, for the firstborn of a population is its flower. Pharaoh Menephtah had only reached the thr…
678 wordsSECTION 97_The Exodus._
Now, every concern of our obscure daily lives comes under this law as surely as the actions of a Pharaoh. xii. 37-42. The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. Already, at the outset of their journey, controversy has had much to say about their route. Much ingenuity has been expended upon the theory w…
819 wordsSECTION 98Footnotes:
[20] Though of course the Person Whose Body was thus offered is Divine (Acts xx. 28), and this gives inestimable value to the offering. [21] Here the sceptical theorists are widely divided among themselves. Kuenen has discussed this whole theory, and rejected it as "irreconcilable with what the Old Testament itself as…
261 wordsSECTION 99_The Law Of The Firstborn._
xiii. 1. Much that was said in the twelfth chapter is repeated in the thirteenth. And this repetition is clearly due to a formal rehearsal, made when all "their hosts" had mustered in Succoth after their first march; for Moses says, "Remember this day, in which ye came out" (ver. 3). Already it had been spoken of as a…
666 wordsSECTION 100_The Law Of The Firstborn._
This, accordingly, the Psalmist learned, and in his turn transmitted. He heard with his ears and his fathers told him what God did in their days, in the days of old. And he told the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and His strength, and His wondrous works (Ps. xliv. 1, lxxviii. 4). But it is absurd to treat …
850 wordsSECTION 101_The Bones Of Joseph._
A free life, the desert air, the rejection of the unfit by many visitations, and the growth of a new generation amid thrilling events, in a soul-stirring region, and under the pure influences of the law,--these were necessary before Israel could cross steel with the warlike children of the Philistines; and even then, i…
847 wordsSECTION 102_The Red Sea._
But it has been well observed that, amid the various allusions to it in Hebrew poetry, not one treats it as modern literature has done, with an eye to its marvellous sublimity and picturesque effects: "By day, along the astonished lands The cloudy pillar glided slow: By night, Arabia's crimsoned sands Returned the …
697 wordsSECTION 103_The Red Sea._
At the sight of the army, a panic seized the servile hearts of the fugitives. First they cried out unto the Lord. But how possible it is, without any real faith, to address to Heaven the mere clamours of our alarm, and to mistake natural agitation for earnestness in prayer, we learn by the reproaches with which, after …
699 wordsSECTION 104_The Red Sea._
But when the blind fury of Pharaoh, "hardened" against everything but the sense that his prey was escaping, sent his army along the same track, and this after long delay, at a crisis when every moment was priceless, then a new element of terrible sublimity was added. Through the pillar of cloud and fire Jehovah looked …
325 wordsSECTION 105_On The Shore._
xiv. 30, 31. After the haste and agitation of their marvellous deliverance the children of Israel seem to have halted for awhile at the only spot in the neighbourhood where there is water, known as the Ayoun Musa or springs of Moses to this day. There they doubtless brought into some permanent shape their rudimentary …
327 wordsSECTION 106_The Song Of Moses._
[25] The Sea of Zuph, or reeds, the word being used of the reeds in which Moses was laid by his mother and found by Pharaoh's daughter (ii. 3, 5), rendered "flags" in the Revised Version. [26] But his assurance is, "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." When Wellhausen would summarise the work o…
684 wordsSECTION 107_The Song Of Moses._
Each of these three divisions closes in praise, and as in the "Israel in Egypt," it was probably at these points that the voices of Miriam and the women broke in, repeating the first verse of the ode as a refrain (vers. 1 and 21). It is the earliest recognition of the place of women in public worship. And it leads us t…
746 wordsSECTION 108_The Song Of Moses._
Where praise and exaltation are a spontaneous instinct, there is loyal service and every good work, not rendered by a hireling but a child. Had He not said, "Israel is My son"? From exultant gratitude and trust, what is next to spring? That which is reproachfully called anthropomorphism, something which indeed easily …
685 wordsSECTION 109_The Song Of Moses._
The eleventh verse is remarkable as being the first announcement of the holiness of God. "Who is like unto Thee, glorious in holiness?" And what does holiness mean? The Hebrew word is apparently suggestive of "brightness," and the two ideas are coupled by Isaiah (x. 17): "The Light of Israel shall be for a fire, and hi…
755 wordsSECTION 110_Shur._
So should pardon and Scripture and the means of grace reassure every doubting heart; for "if the Lord were pleased to kill us, He would not have ... showed us all these things" (Judg. xiii. 23). And in theory, and in good hours, we confess that this is so. But after our song of triumph, if we come upon bitter waters we…
783 wordsSECTION 111_Shur._
We read that the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. In this we discern the same union of Divine grace with human energy and use of means, as in all medicine, and indeed all uses of the divinely enlightened intellect of man. It would have been easy to argue that t…
705 wordsSECTION 112_Shur._
But it is a significant fact that at this day, after eighteen hundred years of oppression, hardship, and persecution, of the ghetto and the old-clothes trade, the Hebrew race is proverbially exempt from repulsive and contagious disease. They also "certainly do enjoy immunity from the ravages of cholera, fever and small…
317 wordsSECTION 113_Murmuring For Food._
[28] There is no warrant in the use of Scripture for Stanley's assertion that the word translated "dances" should be rendered "guitars." (Smith's _Dict. of Bible_, Article _Miriam_.) [29] This is to be taken literally; it does not mean the waves, but the quicksands in which they "drave heavily," and which, when steepe…
860 wordsSECTION 114_Murmuring For Food._
At this point we learn that what is called prosperity may indeed be a result of spiritual failure; that God may sometimes abstain from strong measures with a soul because what ought to mould would only crush; and may grant them their hearts' lust, yet send leanness withal into their souls. Perhaps we are allowed to be …
761 wordsSECTION 115_Murmuring For Food._
Were they not then intended to "come near"? and was it as they turned their faces to draw nigh that the Vision revealed itself and stopped them? And what was the untold sight which they beheld? The narrative belongs to a primitive age; it is quite unlike the elaborate symbolisms of Ezekiel and Daniel, or even of Isaiah…
337 wordsSECTION 116_Manna._
xvi. 15-36. The manna which miraculously supplied the wants of Israel was to them an utterly strange food, the use of which they had to learn. Thus it was another means of severing their habitual course of life and association of ideas from their degraded past. And while we may not press too far the assertion that it …
802 wordsSECTION 117_Manna._
It is also to be observed that the manna was not given to teach the people sloth. They were obliged to gather it early, before the sun was hot. They had still to endure weary marches, and the care of their flocks and herds. And, in curious harmony with the manner of all the gifts of nature, the manna sent from heaven …
812 wordsSECTION 118_Spiritual Meat._
When will the world, or even the Church, awaken to the great truth that our politics also need to be steeped in Christian feeling--that humanity requires not a revolution but a pentecost--that a millennium cannot be enacted, but will dawn whenever human bosoms are emptied of selfishness and lust, and filled with brothe…
748 wordsSECTION 119_Spiritual Meat._
There is no mistaking the doctrine of the New Testament as to what this bread may be. By prayer and faith, by ordinances and sacraments rightly used, the manna may be gathered; but Jesus Himself is the Bread of life, His Flesh is meat indeed and His Blood is drink indeed, and He gives His Flesh for the life of the worl…
657 wordsSECTION 120_Meribah._
Lastly, an omer of manna was to be kept throughout all generations, before the Testimony. Grateful remembrance of past mercies, temporal as well as spiritual, was to connect itself with the deepest and most awful mysteries of religion. So let it be with us. The bitter proverb that eaten bread is soon forgotten must nev…
753 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.