seven times purified. 3. As a moral preparation. It is now manifest, though it could lnrdly have bean seen then, how needful was this affliction, protracted through succes- sive genere.Uons-(1) 'fo wean the people's hearts from Egypt. (2) To make them willing to leave it. (3) To make the thought of Canaan sweet to them. (4) To break up trust in self and man. (5) To lead them to rzy mightily to God. The same reasons, in whole or part, serve to explain why God lays trials on ourselves ; indicate at least the vnds which affliction is used to subserve. Had everything been prosperous, the hearts of Isre.el would naturally have clung to the fleshpots ; their hopes would have been forgotten; even their God would in time have been abjured.-J. 0. Vers. 7-14.-Jsrael in Egypt. The life of a people, like that of an individual, to a. great extent shaped by circumstances. In Cana.an the Israelites might learn hardi- hood, but no room for much growth; few opportunities for national organisation ; the tendency would be for the families to separate, each seeking pasturage for its own flocks (cf. Abraham and Lot). To become a. nation they had to be placed (1) where ~hey might increase and multiply, and (2) where their slightly connected elements might coalesce and be welded into one. To attain this object God led his people into ·Egypt. [Cf. (1) Hothouse where plants may strike and grow before being planted out, and (2) Deut. iv. 20. Furnace where metal may be smelted into one homogeneous mass and the worst of the dross removed.] We may notice in this view- I. PROSPERITY AND 1TB USES. Cf. ver. 7. In Goshen life simple and the means of subsistence plentiful, ample room and ample provision. Happy years without a history, passed in a. land which even now yields the largest revenue in Egypt, and where the population still increases more rapidly than in any other province. Probably no incident of more importance than some occasional skirmish with border tribes. No wonder that" they increased abundantly and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty." Prosperity has its uses as well as adversity. The long unnoticed years through which the fruit-tree attains maturity are necessary antecedents to the fiery summers which see the fruit ripening. Not much to notice in such years. Still their existence is noteworthy. They make no small portion of the sum of human life, whether viewed in its national or individual aspect. History grows out of them even whilst it is compelled to forget them in its records. The fruit of Life draws from them its substance, though other years may give it its colour and flavour. II. ADVERSl'l'Y AND ITS USES. Vers. 10--14 show how trouble came to Israel, and the nature of the trouble which did come. Originating in Pharaoh's natural jealousy at the increasing influence of an a.lien race, it took the form of enforced labour, such as-- perhaps owing to Joseph's land law (Gen. :xlvii. 23, &c.)-he clearly had the acknow- ledged right to levy at will from a.11 his subjects. Pharaoh however was but the instrument which God used for the education of his people; he knew that adversity was needed to carry on the work which prosperity had begun. Notice--1. .Affiiction did not hinder progress. We gather from ver. 12 that it really advanced it. Prosperity long continued may be a greater hindrance than adversity. It tends to produce a stagnant condition [cf. the opening poems in Tennyson's 'Maud']. The after-history shows us that Israel had, to some extent, morally deteriorated; and moral deterioration in the long run must lead to physical degradation. When the stock needs pruning the pruning process stimulates growth. 2. .Affiiction proved morally helpful. The people had been getting careless and slothful, forgetting God (cf. Josh. xx.iv. 14, Ezek. x.x. 5--8) or paying him a merely nominal service. Now, however, cf. ii. 23---25, God could hear their cry because their cry was genuine; he could have respect unto them because they were learning to have respect unto him. 3. .Aifiiction ern;ured national union. Hitherto the people was just a collection of families, united by a common name and common traditions. Mutual need begets mutual help- fulness, and it is by mutual help that tribes are dovetailed into one another and come to form one nation. [Isolated fragments of ore need smelting in the furnace to produce the consolidated metal.] It is in the heat of the furnace of affliction that rivalries, jealousies, and all kinds of tribal littlenesses can alone be finally dissolved. And affliction still has such uses. Prosperity is good, no doubt, but, in this worlJ, it requin•s to be complemented by adversity. "Why is trouble permitted?" Bece.use meu canuot <'therwise be perfected. It is just as necessary for our moral ripening as 16 THE DOOK OF EXODUS. [OB, I. 15-22,
heat is nroessary for the ripening of the frnit. (1) It need not hinder any man's progreRs; (2) If rightly used it should purge out the dross from us and make ue morally better; (3) It tends to dissolve the b:mier~ which selfishness erects between man and man, anci works towards the formation of that holy brotherhood which embraces in one family all the nations of the oarth.-G.
YerR. 8-14.-Egypt's sin. I. NATIONAi, WRONG-DOING THE BEED OF NATIONAL DISASTER. The story of Egypt's suffering begins with the story of Egypt's injustice. 'fhere was v.isdom in Pharaoh's statesmanship, and a sincere desire to serve his country, and yet he was his country's worst foe. The service rendered by wickedness is in the end rebuke and ruin. JI. THE CARE SOUGHT TO BE REMOVED BY SIN BECOMES GREATER (10-12). 1. The bondage was imposed to prevent their multiplying: "but the more they afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew." 2. The trouble was at first simply a. possibility detected by the statesman's keen eye, and now all Egypt was " grieved because of the children of Israel." The way of wickedness is through e. deepening flood. III. WRONG GROWS INTO GREATER WRONG (13, 14). Egypt had gone too far to retreat. Israel's enmity was now a certainty, and they must be crushed. From being compelled to labour in the erection of strong cities, their lives are made bitter by all manner of hard bondage. Evil grows with an inward necessity. When a nation makes an unjust demand it does not mean murder, yet that is its next step. Satan dare not whisper all his counsel at first but by-and-by he can tell it all and have it all accom plished.-U.