The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 53

for the preAervl\Uon of their children were crowned by God with complete success. [Illustrate from the history-Bll happening, all ordained to happen, just as they hoped.] 'l'hey had }_lrepared, by carrying out the plan which faith prompted, a channel through which Gods gracious and ready help might reach them; and God used the channel which they had prepared. The whole narrative shows how faith, when it is living, proves its life by works, and how in response to a living faith God shows that he is o. living God. If Amram had walked by sight and not by faith, Moses might never have been born, Jochebed never have been married; as it was he walked by faith and not by sight, doing his duty and trusting God, and through him came redemption unto Israel-the child "taken out of" the water became the leader who should "take" his people "out of" bondage.-G. Vars. 1-10.-A picture of true faith. I. WHAT TRUE FAITH rs. 1. There was obedience to a Divine impulse: her heart was appealed to, she saw he was a goodly child, and she hid him three months. She read in the child's appearance an intimation of future greatness, and that God did not mean him to die in accordance with the king's commandment. The work of faith begins in obeying the Spirit's prompting in the heart. 2. She was not daunted by difficulties. She might have asked what could this temporary concealment d0 but only prolong her misery. Faith is content if it has light but for one step. 3. l•'aith is fertile in expedients. The safety which is no longer to be had in the home may be found on the waters. 4. When it has done all, it waits, as with girded loins, for the dawning light. Miriam stood afar off. II. How GoD JUSTIFIES OUR TRUST. When we have done all, and, knowing it is nothing, look unto him, then God appears for us. 1. The child's life was saved. 2. He was given back into his mother's arms. 3. The very might which before was raised to slay was now used to guard him. 4. He was freed from the unhappy lot of his countrymen, and set among the princes of the land. Our trust prepares a place where God may manifest himself. He "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think."-U. Vers. 1-10.-The child of the water. "And she called his name Moses ... water."- Exod. ii. 10. Save Jesus, Moses is the greatest name in history. Compare with it Mahomet, or even that of Paul. As the founder of the Jewish religion-under God- his influence is felt to-day, not only by 6,000,000 Jews, but throughout the Christian Church. Here is the beginning of his career. This mighty stream of in.fluence we can trace to its source; not like the Nile, whose origin is, still in debate, a mystery. The text gives the name and its reason. 'l'he derivation is either Hebrew, and then= "Drawing out," so designating the act of the princess; or Egyptian, and then= "Saved from the water." The name a memorial of salvation. Happy, when children bearing distinguished names, shame them not in the after-years. We treat the subject in the order of the story: so its suggestiveness for heart and life will appear. I. THE FAMILY OF THE CHILD. Amram and Jochebed, the father and mother; Miriam, much older, and Aaron, three years older, than Moses. Note: Moses owed- 1. Little to his family. Look at ver. 1. But the pre-eminence of Levi was not yet. The tribe did not make Moses; rather Moses (with Miriam and Aaron) the tribe. "Blue blood?" Yes! and No! There is a sense in which we mo.y be proud of ancestry, a sense in which not. What to me that I descend from a Norman baron? Everything to me that I come from able, gifted, saintly parentage. See Cowper on "My Mother's Picture," lines 108-112. 2. Little to his home. Only a slave hut; the scene of toil, poverty, suffering, fear. Out of it brought one thing-sympathy with suffering. 3. Little to his parents. Biographers usually give us the attributes and history of ancestors, and show how they account for the career of the child. Nothing of that here. Even the names of the parents do not appear. Note omission in ver. 1. "A man,'' etc. "A daughter,'' etc. No doubt here a mental and moral heritage; but little training, because little opportunity. Generally, there is, under this head, a lesson of encouragement for those who ho.ve, or fancy they have, hard beginnings in life. Some of earth's noblest have risen out of disadvantage. II. 'l'HE APPEARANCE OF THE CHILD. For traditions of predictions of his birth sec, Jo~. Antiq. ii. 9. 2-4, Moses was-1. No comm<m child. Scepticism objects tha1; EXODUS. D  84 THE DOOK 01<' EXODUS. [en. n. 11-15.