The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 62

the blow, Israel was in servitude altogether; not only in body, but in all tho nobler faculties of life as well. Hence, if lsr<Ul was to be saved, it must be by tlie condescending act of a superior and stronger hand. And thus Moses slaying the Egyptian shadows forth a prime requirement in the greater matter of the world's redemption. Unless the Son of God had st-0opcd from his brighter, holier sphere, to break the bonds of sin and death, what could we poor slaves have done? II. CONSIDER THE CO:l\"DUCT OF MOSES HERE AS INDICATING THE PRESENCE IN HIM OF GREAT DEFECTS WHICH REQUIRED MUCH DISCIPLINE AND ENLIGHTENMENT TO REMOVE 'l'HEM. Moses, in respect of his ardent and sustained sympathy with Israel, was a man after God's own heart; but ho had everything yet to learn as to how that sympathy was to be made truly serviceable. His patriotism, strong and opem,tive as it had proved, was produced by entirely wrong considerat:ons. His profound and fervent interest in Israel was a right feeling, and an indispensable one for his work; but it needed to be produced by quite tlifferent agencies, and directed to quite different ends. How had the feeling been produced? Simply by observing the cruelties inflicted on his brethren. He slew the Egyptian simply because he smote his brother, not because that brother belonged to the chosen people of God. The thing wanted was that he should come to understand clearly the connection of Israel with God, their origin aL.d their destiny. He was to sympathise with Israel, not only as his brethren, but first and chiefly as the people of God. Patriotism is a blessing or a curse just according to the form it takes. If it begins to say, "Our country, right or wrong," then it is one of the greatest curses a nation can be afflicted with. Arrogance, conceit, and exorbitant self-assertion are as hideous in a nation as in an individual, and in the end correspond- ingly disastrous. Our gre,a,test sympathy witli men is wanted in that wliich affects them most deeply and abidingly. Sympathy has no full right to the name till it is the i:ympathy of forgiven sinners who are being sanctified and perfected, with those who are not only sinners, but still in the bondage of sin, and perhaps hardly conscious of the degradation of the bondage, and the firmness with which its fetters are fixed. Moses did not 1.--iiow how much his brethren were losing, because he did not know how much he himself was still la.eking, even though in such comfortable freedom at Pharaoh's court. In his eyes, the main thing to be done for Israel was to get them freedom, independence, self-control in this world's affairs. And therefore it was necessary for God to effect a complete and abiding change in Mos/% way of thinking. He needed to be made better acquainted with God, and with God's past revelations, and ex- pressed purposes for Israel. Slaying the Egyptian did not advance the real interests of Israel a whit, except as God wove the action in with his own far-reaching plans. Considered purely as a human action, it was an aimless one, fruitful of evil rather than good. It was natural enough and excusable enough; but the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God ; they that take the sword shall perish with the sword ; and thus Moses in his carnal impetuosity made clear how dependent he was to be upon God for a really wise, comprehensive, practical plan of action. In the providence of God he was to come back to Israel, not to deal with some obscure subordinate, but with a Pharaoh himself; not to take the sword into his own hands, but to stand still himself, and make the people stand still also, that he and they together might see the salvation of God.-Y. Vers. 13--15.-Moses tlie hater of all oppression. I. WE RAVE HERE FURTHER DIPOBT.ilo'T REVELA.TIONB WITH RESPECT TO THE CRARA.CTEB OF MosEB AND ms FITNEBB TO BE DELIVERER OF lsBAEL. 1. It is evident that his conscience did not accuse him, as touching the slaying of the Egyptian. Wrong as the action was, he made it clear that he had done it from a right motive. .Although he had taken the life of a fellow- man, he had taken it not as a murderer, with malice in his heart against the individual, but as a patriot. Hence the conscience that makes cowards of us all-the consciousness, that is, of having done a wrong thing-was absent from his breast. It is a very great matter indeed not to go against conscience. Let conscience have life and authority, and God will take his own time and means to cure the blinded understanding. 2. Moses felt conti'TllfSed interest in the state of ]sr<Ul. He went out the second day. He did not say, upon reflection, that these visits to his brethren were too perilous to be continued. lfo did not say, "I cannot trust my own indignant feelings, and therefore I must-kee11 away from the,;e oppresseu countrymen of mine." His heart was wholly and steadily on. n. 13-lli.] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 43