The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 60

Vers. 11-15.-Unpurified zeal. We must certainly attribute the killing of the Egyptian, not to Divine inspiration, but to the natural impetuosity of Moses' character. At this stage Moses had zeal, but it was without knowledge. His heart burned with indignation at the wrongs of his brethren. He longed to be their deliverer. Something told him that " God by his hand would deliver them" (Acts vii. 25). But how to proceed he knew not. His plans had taken no definite shape. There was no revelation, and perhaps one was not expected. So, acting under impulse, he struck the blow which killed the Egyptian, but did no service to the cause he had at heart. That he did not act with moral clearness is manifest from the perturbation with which he did the deed, and from his subsequent attempt to hide the t.races of it. It completed his discomfiture when, next day, he learned that the deed was known, and that his brethren, instead. of welcoming his interposition, were disposed to resent it. He had involved him.self in murder. He had sown the seeds of later troubles. Yet he had gained no end by it. How true it is that violence seldom leads to happy issues ! " The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God" (Jas. i. 20). An exhibition of violence on our :nm part is a bad preparation for interfering in the quarrels of others. He that does the wrong will rarely fail to remind us of it. Learn lessons from the narrative- !. As TO THE CHAlLACTEB OF MosEs. Moses, like every man of true, powerful, and loving nature, was capable of vehement and burning anger. He was a man of great natural impetuosity. This casts light upon the sin of Meribah (Num. x.x. 10). An outbreak of the old, long-conquered failing (cf. eh. iv.13). The holier side of the same disposition is seen in the anger with which he broke in pieces the Tables of the Law (Ex. =xii. 19). It casts light also on his meekness, and teaches us to distinguish meekness from mere natural placableness and amiability. Meekness--the meekness for which Moses is famed (Num. xii. 3)--was not a gift of nature, but the result of passions, naturally strong, conquered and controlled--of long and studied self- repression. II. As TO m.7URIYIED ZEAL. 1. Unpurified zeal leads to hasty action. It is unuovemed.. It acts from impulse. It is not schooled to bearing and waiting. It catnot bide God's time, nor keep to God's ways. 2. Unpurified zeal unfits for God's servie,e. It relies too much on self. It take~ events into its own hand. Hence Moses is sent to Midian to spend forty years in learning humility and patience-in acquiring power of self-control He has to learn that the work is not his, but God's, and that only God can accomplish it. 3. Unpurified zeal, by its hasty actior,, rP,ta,rds, rather thatifurthers, the accomplishm£nt of God's purposes. By driving Mouot1 into Midian, it probably put back the hour of Israel's deliverance.-J. 0. Vers. 11-12.-Moses, the ardent but mistaken patriot. We are not told much of Moses in the first forty years of his life, just as we are not told much of Jesus before he began his public ministry; but as it is with Jesus, so it is with Moses-wh:i.t we are told is full of light concerning their character, disposition, and thoughts of the future. Just one action may be enough to show the stuff a man is made of. Moses, grown to manhood, by this single action of killing the Egyptian makes clearly on. 11. 11, 12.] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 41