The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 25

describe them I Recall Reuben's incest; Simeon 11.nd Levi's cruelty; J uda.h's lewdness. the "evil report" which Joseph brought to his father of the sons of the hand.maids'. The :picture in the later c~apters of Genesis is crowded with s~adows, and it is chiefly the sills of these men which are the causes of them. Joseph 1s the one bright excep- tion. The rest appear to have been men of a violent, truculent disposition, capable of ;Jelling their younger brother into Egypt, and afterwards, to screen their fault, of imposing by wilful falsehood on their aged father. Even in Benjamin, traits of character were discernible which gave ground for the tribal prediction : "Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf" (Gen. xli.x. 17). How unlikely that men of so ungodly a stamp, who began so ill, should end by being exalted to be patriarch-heads of a covenant nation! And neither in truth were they, till, by God's grace, a great change had passed upon them. Their crime in selling Joseph was, in a sense, their salvation. It was an act for which they never forgave themselves. Compunction wrought in them a better disposition, and laid the basis for "a train of humiliating and soul-stirring providences, tending to force on them the conviction that they were in the hands of an angry God, and to bring them to repentance of sin and amendment of life." See-{!) The natural unfitness of man for God's service; "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John iii. 6). (2) What the grace of God can make even of very bad men. "By grace ye are saved" (Eph. ii. 5). (3) How those whom God designs for honour in his kingdom, he first prepares for that honour. Whatever disciplines are needful for that purpose-and they may not be few-he will not withhold. 2. With the variety of gifts and dispositions found amongst them. This variety is taken note of in the blessings of Jacob and of Moses, and is reflected in the history. Judah is from the first a leader. He and Joseph were heads of what subsequently became the royal tribes. Reuben's impulsive- ness reminds us of Peter, but he lacked Peter's underlying constancy. Levi's zeal wrought at first for evil, but afterwards for good. The other brethren were less dis- tinguished, but, as shown by the blessings, all were gifted, and gifted diversely. Does this not teach us? (1) That God can use, and (2) that God requires, every variety of gift in his service. Hence, (3) that there is both room and need in his kingdom for all types and varieties of character-for every species of gift. A type of religion is self-con- demned which cannot find room in it for the play and development of every legitimate capability of human nature. This is but to say that the goal of God's kingdom is the perfecting of humanity, not in part, but in the totality ot:. its powers and functions. Grace does not suppress individuality ; it develops and sanctifies it. It does not trample on gifts, but lays hold upon, transforms, and utilises them. 3. With the existence of IZ law of heredity in spiritual as in natural descent. The characteristics of the patriarchs were stamped with remarkable distinctness on the tribes which bore their names. Reuben's instability, Judah's capacity of rule, Levi's zeal, Dan's agility, Benjamin's fierceness, etc. This reappearance of ancestral characteristics in ths descendants is a. fact with which we are familiar, and is only explained in part by inherited organisa- tion. Inheritance of ideas, customs, family traditions, etc., plays quite as important a part in producing the result. A law this, capable of being the vehicle of much good, but also of much evil-as potent to punish as to bless. II. THEIR NUMBER. The number twelve not to be regarded as fortuitous. Twelve (3 x 4), the symbol of the indwelling of God in the human family, of the interpene- tration of the world by the Divinity. Three, the number of the Divine ; four, the number of the world. Hence, twelve tribes, twelve cakes of shewbread, twelve apostles, twelve foundations and twelve gates of the New Jerusalem. The number twelve is kept up in spite of actual departures from it in fact. The " twelve tribes " are spoken of in the days of the apostles (Acts xx.vi.17; Jas. i. 1), though, counting Levi, there were really thirteen tribes, and after the Captivity only two. It was doubtless with reference to the twelve tribes of Israel, and therefore to the number of these patriarchs, that Christ chose the twelve apostles. View the patriarchs, accordingly, as representing the covenant race, not only-1. In its natural heads, but symbolically-2. In its spiritual pl'ivilege as a people of God, and 3. In its world-wide destiny.-J. 0. Ver. 6.-An end-ing. The descent into Egypt was-1. An endlllg. 2. A beginning. rt closed one chapter in God's providence, and opened a new one. It terminated the eojourn in Canaan; brought to a harmonious conclusion the complicated series of even is  15 THE DOOK OF EXODUS. [on. I. 1-6.