tho extreme affiiction of the Israelites, and because of their prolorrgt'.tl and Parne 8t cry to God under it. 2. MoRes is told WHAT HE IS TO Do. He is to •• onng forth the children of Israel out of Egypt" (ver. 10); and, as a preliminary step, he is to ""'O to Pharaoh" (ibid.). Thus he is directed to return to Egypt forthwith, and to"' put himself into communication with the new king who had succeeded the one from whom he had fled. So much is made clear to him. He, an exile for forty years, and a mere hireling shepherd of the desert during that space, is to seek an interview with the great monarch of all Egypt, and to plead the cause of his people before him-to endeavour to induce him to "let them go." A difficult enterprise, to say the least; humanly speaking, a hopeless one. How should a king be induced to allow the departure of 600,000 able-bodied labourers, whose condition was that of state slaves, who could be 11et to any work which the king had in hand-to keep cattle, or make bricks, or build cities, or erect walls, or excavate canals? What inducement was to be offered to him to make the sacrifice ? Such thoughts would naturally occur to Moses under the circumstances, and would naturally have risen to his lips but for the ilistinct announce- ment made with regard to the further point. 3. WHAT WOULD BE THE ISSUE OF THE ENTERPRISE, The Divine declaration, " I am come down to deliver them, and to bring them up out of that land into a good land and a large," was so definite and clear a statement, so positive a prqmise of success, as to override all objections on the score of the task being an impossible one. God" had come down to deliver" his people, and would undoubtedly do it, whatever opposition was raised. Thus, to counteract the despondency which the consideration of the existing facts and circumstances was calculated to produce, there was held forth before Moses the positive assurance of success; the certainty that God would make good his word; would, however difficult it seemed, lead his people forth, deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptian, and make them the masters of another land, large and good, flowing with milk and honey, into possession of which they would enter through his might and by his irresistible assistance.
Ver. 11.-Fitness of Moses to be Gorl!s instrument in delivering Israel. The fitness of Moses to be Israel's deliverer will appear if we consider, first, What were the qualities which the part of deliverer required ; secondly, how far they were united in him ; and thirdly, what reasons there are for believing that, at the time, they were not united to the same extent in any other person. 1. NECESSARY QUALITIES OF THE DELIVERER. As having to deal, in the first instance, with a great king and his court, it was necessary that the Deliverer should be familiar with the habits of the court, should be able to assume its manners, speak its language, and not unwittingly infringe its etiquette. Not being set merely to petition, but to require-to prefer demands-it was requisite that he should feel himself, socially, on a par with the monarch, so as not to be timid or abashed before him, but able without difficulty to assert himself, to use freedom of speech, to talk as prince with prince, and not as mere courtier with monarch. Again, as having to meet and baffle Egyptian priests, and further, to be not only the Deliverer, but the 'l'eacher and Educator of his nation, it was to the last degree necessary that he should be "learned in all the wisdom" of the time; that he should have had as good an education as any other man of the day; be able to foil the priests with their own weapons; and, after delivering his people out of bondage, be capable of elevating them, instructing them, advancing them from a rabble of slaves into an orderly, self-sufficient, fairly-enlightened, if not highly-civilised, nation. Once more : a moral fitness was necessary. The Deliverer needed to have high aspirations, a bold spirit, fervent zeal. and yet to have all these under control; to be calm, quiet, self-contained, imperturb- able in danger, persevering, prompt, considerate. Moreover, he needed to be a religious man. Anyone not upheld by high religious principle, anyone not possessed of deep and true faith, would have fallen away in some of the trials through which the nation had to pass; would have despaired, or murmured, or" lusted after evil things" (1 Cor. x. 6), or waxed proud and wanton, or grown weary of seemingly interminable wan- derings, and settled down in Arabia or even returned to Egypt. 2. MosEs' POSSESSION OJ!' THESE QUALITIES, Moses was familiar with the customs of the Egyptian court, having been brought up in the household of a princess, and been himself a courtier until he was nearly forty years of age, Though he had subsequently spent forty years in the 62 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [011. III, 11--15.