HOMILETICS. Vers. 7 1md 12.-God the Protector of his poople. I. THE MULTIPLIOATION OF IsnAEL. All increase is of God, and comes to man by his blessing. As he gave the original command, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (Gen. i. 28), so he in every case gives the new li"Ves by which the earth is replenished. "Children and the fruit of the womb, are an heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord" (Ps. c;xviii. 3). He gives or withholds offspring as he pleases; enlarges families, tribes, nations, or causes them to decline, decay, and die out. Increase is a. sign of his favour-1. 'l'o the individual-" Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them" (Ps. cxxviii. 6); 2. To the nation-" l will multiply them and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them and they shall not be small" (Jer. xxx. 19); and 3. To churches-" Walking in the fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, they were multiplied" (Ac~s ix. 31). A n~tion or_ church that ~ncr~es ~as, ~o far at any rate, a. sign of Gods approval of 1t, of his favour, of his havmg m his eternal counsels work for it to do for him in the present and the future. One which dwindles has, on the contrary, a note of God's disapproval-at the very least, a warning that all is not with it as it should be. Nations, when they can no longer do God service, die out; churches, when they become effete and useless, have their candlesticks removed (Re"V. ii. 5). II. EFFECT OF PERSECUTION ON IT. Note, that the effect of persecution was the very opposite of what was intended. The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied. So is it ever with God's people. Persecutions always "fall out for the furtherance of the Gospel" (Phil. i. 12). "They which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, travelled as far as Phren.ice, and Cyprus, and Antioch preaching the word" (Acts xi. 19). Persecution brought Paul to Rome, and enabled him to proclaim the Gospel and make many converts in the very citadel of Sa.tan, the headquarters of the enemy. So marked was the prevalence of the law, that among the early Christians it became a proverb, that "the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church." After ea.eh of the ten great Imperial persecutions, the Church was found within a. brief space to be more numerous than ever. And so it will be to the end. "The gates of Hell" can.not prevail against the Church. Out of the last and greatest of all the persecutions, when Antichrist shall be revealed, the Church will issue triumphant, a " great multitude, which no man can number" (Rev. vii. 9). Ver. 8.-Josephforgotten. "The evil that men do lives after them-the good is oft interred with their bones." Had Joseph been a tyrant, a conqueror, an egotist who crushed down the Egyptians by servile toil for the purpose of raising a. huge monument to his own glory, he would no doubt have remained fresh in the memory of the nation, and his name and acts would have been familiar even to a. "new king," who was yet an Egyptian and an educated man. But as he had only been a. benefactor of tho nation, and especially of the kings (Gen. xlvii. 20--26), he was utterly forgotten-as some think, within sixty-five years of his death, but according to our calculations, not till about 275 years after it. This is about the space that separates us from Queen Elizabeth, who is certainly not forgotten, as neither are her ministers. So Christian nations would seem to have better~memories than heathen ones. In time, however, every man is forgotten; and Christians should therefore not make their object the praise of men, or posthumous fame, but the praise and approval of God, which will continue for ever. "God is not unrighteous to forget" (Heb. vi. 10)
Vers. 10--12.-The wisdom of the wise brought to nouglit. God is wont to " destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent" (1 Cor. i. 19). He "makes the devices of the people of none effect" (Ps. miii. 10). Humanly speaking, the Pharaoh had done "wisely," had counselled well: many a. people has been crushed utterly under the yoke of an oppressor, ground down by hard labour-even after a time well-nigh exterminated. It was a clever and crafty plan to avoid the risk and discredit of a. massacre of unoffending 1ubjects, and at the same time to gain advantage by their heavy labours while effectually OU, I, 7-14,] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 13
thinning their ranks through the severity of the toils imposed on them. Unless God had int_crfere~, and by his secret help supported and sustained his people; enabled them to rotam their health and strength under the adverse circumstances • induced them bitter and hopeless as their lot seemed, still to contract marriages, a~d blessed thos; marriages, not only with offspring, but with superabundant offspring (see verses 12 and 20)-tho result anticipated would without doubt have followed: the multiplication of the people would have been checked-their numbers would soon have begun to diminish, But God had determined that so it should not be. He had promised Abraham an extraordinary increase in the number of his descendants, and was not goincr0 to permit a crue_l and ~rafty kin~ to interfere with the carrying out of_ his designs, the performance of his grac10us prormses. So the more that Pharaoh and his obsequious subjects afflicted them, "the more they multiplied and grew"-" the little one became a thousand, and the small one a strong nation "-the Lord "hastened it in his time " (Is. Ix. 22). Christians therefore need never fear the devices of their enemies, however politic they may seem. God has tho power, and if he sees fit will exert it, to turn the wisdom of the world into foolishness, to upset all human calculations, confound all prudent counsels, and make each act done in opposition to bis will help to work it out. In Israel's case, the hard labour and unceasing toil which made their lives bitter (ver. 14), was at once needed to wean their minds from the recollection of' the " fleshpots " and other delights of Egypt, and so make them content to quit it ; and also it was required to brace them for the severe life of the wilderness-the hard fare, the scant water, the scorching beat by day, the chill dews at night; to harden their frames, relaxed by a time of sensual indulgence (eh. xvi. 3), and nerve their minds to endurance.