pharaoh's elevation to the throne of egypt.
Exocl. ix. 16. In very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
IT is justly said, in reference to evidence, that it is strong in proportion as it arises out of incidental points, which had no necessary connexion with the tact to be established. The same I may say in rela- tion to the doctrines of our holy religion, especially those doctrines which are most controverted, and most stand in need of evidence for their support. Of this kind is the doctrine of election ; which, being extremely opposed to the pride of human nature, meets with strong opposition from the carnal mind. I am far from saying that that doctrine is not ex- tremely objectionable, if viewed as its adversaries, and not a few of its advocates also, are wont to state it ; but, if viewed in its true light, and as the Scrip- tures themselves state it, I conceive that it cannot reasonably be doubted.
In the passage before us, there was no particular intention to establish that doctrine. Moses had laboured in vain to induce Pharaoh to let the people of Israel go to worship Jehovah in the wilderness. He had, as God's appointed instrument, inflicted many plagues on the land of Egypt, and removed them again by his intercessions ; and yet neither by the judgments nor the mercies had he prevailed on Pharaoh, who still continued to harden his heart against God. He now assumed a bolder tone ; and declared, that not only should the Egyptians be smitten with pestilence, but that Pharaoh himself also " should be cut off from the earth," for his obstinate resistance to God's express commands. And then he delivers to him, from God himself, this awful declara- tion : " In very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth."
71.1 pharaoh's elevation to the throne. 353
This declaration it is my intention, in the present discourse, I. To explain —
God here asserts, that he had raised up Pharaoh for a special purpose, with which his own glory was intimately connected. He had determined to bring forth his people from Egypt, in such a way as should display most remarkably his own power, and should bring glory to his name throughout all the earth. Some, by the expression " raised up," understand restoring him to health from the disorder inflicted on him in common with his people and the magicians. But it does not appear that Pharaoh had been visited with that disorder: and the threatening in the verse before our text, " I will smite thee," rather seems to shew, that he had not yet been smitten in his own person: but, whether we understand the words as relating to his elevation to the throne, or to a re- storation to health, the main object of the declaration will be the same ; namely, that God, knowing what would assuredly be the result of a further trial of his obedience, had determined so to try him, in order that by the issue of the contest God's glory might be displayed throughout all the earth.
The substance of the declaration, then, may be considered as expressing the following truths —
1 . That God allots to every man his station in life —
[Nothing can be more clear, than that the time and place of every man's entrance into life is fixed by God. That we are born in this age and country has in no respect depended on ourselves : we might as well, if God had so ordained, been born of Heathen or Mahometan parents, or never have been per- mitted to see the light, and perished in our mother's womb. We might have been brought into the world from parents either of the highest or lowest rank, and been doomed to occupy a place in society widely different from that which we at present fill. All this was true of Pharaoh, and it is equally true of every child of man. " Our times are in God's hands*," and " he determines the bounds of our habitation V]