Exod. vi. 9. And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses, for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.
"AS face answers to face in a glass, so does the heart of man to man." We are apt, indeed, to ima- gine that the Jews were a people of more than ordi- nary depravity : but it is found that mankind almost universally act precisely as they did, under similar circumstances. We have here a remarkable instance of despondency. The Hebrews had been long groan- ing under a most cruel oppression : and God had sent his servant, Moses, to deliver them from it. But the effect of his interposition hitherto had been only to
augment their troubles. Of this they had bitterly complained, as indeed had Moses himself also : and now, for their comfort, God sent them by Moses a most consolatory message, assuring them, that, how- ever gloomy their prospects might appear to be, a most perfect deliverance was at hand. But they, we are told, " hearkened not unto Moses, for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage."
Let us consider,
I. Their conduct on this occasion —
The testimony of Moses was in every respect worthy of credit —
[He had wrought before the people the miracles which God had commissioned him to work, in confirmation of his divine mission3: and hitherto, if he had not yet succeeded in his embassy, he had executed his office with fidelity and cou- rage. It might be supposed, indeed, that if Moses himself had fainted under the discouragement which they had expe- rienced, much more might they. But, on the other hand, if God had renewed his commission to Moses, and expressly authorized him to assure them of a speedy and certain deliver- ance, so that his mind was left without any doubt of ultimate success, they might well receive his testimony, and rest upon it with composure.]
Nor could any thing be conceived more suited to
their necessities —
[They were under the most " cruel bondage." But Moses declared, that God had entered into covenant with their fore- fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to deliver them : that he had confirmed this covenant with an oath : that, from compas- sion to them, he was about to fulfil the engagements he had entered into : that he not only would deliver them from then* sore bondage, but would, by the judgments which he would inflict on Pharaoh, make him more anxious to rid himself of them than ever he had been to detain them ; and would con- strain him, in fact, to " drive them out from his landV He further declared, that God would bring them safely into Canaan, wherein their forefathers had sojourned as pilgrims and strangers, and give it them for their inheritance; and would " take them to him as his peculiar people, and be unto them a God," yea, and " their God."
In reporting to them these " great and precious promises," he was careful particularly to make known to them the grounds
a Exod. iv. 30. b ver. 1.