The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 79

Isrnel. Hence his submissive, child-like answer, "Here I am." (Compare 1 Sam. iii. 4-, 6.) Then came the solemn prohibition, "Draw not nigh hither." Man, until sanctified, until brought into covenant, must not approach near to the dread presence of the Supreme Being. At Sinai Moses was commanded to "set bounds" to keep the people off, that no one might "go up into the mount, nor touch the border of it" (eh. xix. 12). The men of Bethshemesh were smitten with death, to the number of 60,070, for looking into the ark of the covenant (1 Sam. vi. 19). Uzzah was slain for putting forth his hand to touch it, when he thought that there was danger of its falling (2 Sam. vi. 7). God, under the Old Covenant, impressed on man in a multitude of\ ways his unapproachableness. Hence all the arrangements of the Temple; the veil guarding the sanctuary, into which only the high-priest could enter once in the year; the main temple-building, only to be entered by the priests; the courts of the Levites, of the Israelites, and of the Gentiles, each more and more remote from the Divine Presence. Hence the purifications of the priests and of the Levites before they could e.cceptably offer sacrifice ; hence the carrying of the Ark by means of staves forming no part of it; hence the side-chambers of the Temple, emplaced on "rests" in the walls, " that the beams should not be fastened in the walls of the house" (1 Kings vi. 6). It was so needful to impress on men, a.pt to conceive of God as " such an one as themselves," his awful majesty, purity, and holiness, that artificial barriers were everywhere created to check man's rash intrusion into a Presence for which he was unf.t. 'fhus reverence was taught, man was made to know and to feel his own unworthiness, and, little by little, came to have some faint conception of the absolute perfectness and incompreh.en- sible greatness of the Supreme One. Further, God being such as this, each place where he makes himself manifest, becomes at once holy ground. Though "heaven is his throne, and earth his footstool," and no " place" seems worthy of him or can contain him, yet it pleases him, in condescension to our infirmities and our finiteness, to choose some spots rather tha.n others where he will make himself known and make his presence felt. And these at once are sacred. So was the mount to which Moses went up; so was Shiloh; so was Araunah's threshingfl.oor; so was Jerusalem. And so in our own days are churches and the precincts of churches. God's presence, manifested in them, albeit spiritually and not materially, hallows them. And the reverent heart feels this, and cannot but show its reverence by outward signs. In the East shoes were put off. With us the head should be uncovered, the voice hushed, the eye cast down. We should feel tha.t "God is in the midst of us." So felt Moses, when God had proclaimed himself (ver. 6), and not only bared hie feet as commanded, but shrouded his face in his robe--" for he was afraid to look upon God." All his own sinfulness and imperfection rushed to his thought, all his unworthi- ness to behold God and live. Jacob had once seen God "face to face," and had marvelled that "his life was preserved" (Gen. xx.x.i.i. 30). Moses shut out the awful Vision. So Elijah, on the same site, when he heard the "still small voice" (1 Kings xi.x. 13); and so even the seraphim who wait continually before God's Throne in heaven (Is. vi. 2). Consciousness of imperfection forces the creature to stand abashed in the presence of the Creator. Vers. 7-10.-Tliecall of Moses. With face covered, but with ears attent to hear, Moses stands before God to learn his will And God takes him, as it were, into counsel, not only calling him to a certain work, but revealing to him why he is called, wha.t exactly he is to do, and wha.t will be the issue of hie enterprise. 1. WHY IIE IB OALLED. He is called because the affliction of Israel-their sufferings-from the constant toil, from the brutal taskmasters, from the cruel Pharaoh, from the apparent hopelessness of their position-had reached to such a point that God could allow it to go on no longer. '.!.'here is a point at which he will interfere to vindicate the oppressed and punish the wrong-doers, even if the oppressed are too much crushed, too downtrodden, too absolutely in despair, to cry to him. Their case calls to him; their" blood cries from the ground." But in this instance actual despair had not been reached. His people had "cried to him." And here was a second reason why he should interfere. God is never deaf to any prayers addressed to him for succour; he may not always grant them, but he hears them. And if they are sustained, and earnest, and justified by the occasion, he grants them. Such was the case now, and Moses was called because of Cll, III, 11.) THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 61