further. N ote---1. The true glory of the Church is God in her midst. 2. The outward weakness of the Church enhances the wonder of her preservation. 3. 'l'he Church has most reRson to glory in those periods of her history when she has been most despised unc. persecuted (M!t.tt. v. 11; 2 Cor. xii. 9; 1 Pet. iv. 14).-J. 0. Ver. 6.-The God of the fathers. "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abrah!t.m," etc. ln these words- I. Goo co1q,"'ECTS HIMSELF WITH THE DEAD PATRIARCHS. They imply-I. Continued existe1u;e; for God, who says here, not "I was," but "I am, the God of thy father," is, as Christ reminds us, "not the God of the dead, but of the living" (Matt. x.xii. 32). 'l'he personal relation was not dissolved. The patriarchs still lived to him. 2. The resur- rection of the body. This will not appear a far-fetched inference, ifwe consider the nature of the Bible hope of immortality. The Bible has little or nothing to say of an abstract "immortality of the soul." It nowhere regards the disembodied state as in itself desirable. The immortality it speaks of is the immortality of the "man "--of man in hls whole complex personality of body, soul, and spirit. This implies a resurrection. The life forfeited by sin was a life in the body, and so must be the life restored by Rea.emption. The covenant-promise could not fall below the hopes of the heathen; and e'l'en Egyptian theology held by the notion of a revival of the body, as essential to perfected exist.ence. Hence the practice of embalming, with whlch compare the care of the body by the patriarchs. II. O01'"'}."'ECTS THIS REVELATION WITH PAST REVELATIONS, AS ONE OF A SERIES, It introduces what is to be said as the fulfilment of what had been already promised. 111. 0o1'"'}."'ECTS HIMSELF WITH THE EXISTING GENERATION, The God of the fathers is, in virtue of the promise, the God of the children.-J. 0. Vers. 7-11.-God's sympathy with the oppressed. I. Goo IS EVER IN SYMPATHY WITH THE OPPRESSED, AND AGAINST THEIR OPPRESSORS (vers. 7, 9). This is now, thanks to the Bible, made as certain to us as any truth can be. God's sympathy may be viewed-1. As implied in his moral perfection. 2. As certified to 'US by the pity of our own hearts. He who put pity in these hearts must surely himself be pitiful. Yet, so much is there in the world which bears a different aspect, that---3. It needs ,,.eveJ,ation to assure us of it-to put the fact beyond all doubt. And the revelation has been given. No student of God's character in the Bible can doubt that he com- pa..5ionates. (1) His words declare it. (2) His deeds attest it. (3) The Cross demonstrates it. And, whatever mystery surrounds God's ways at present, he will one day make it plain by exacting a terrible retribution for all wrongs done to the defence- less (Ps. :rii. 5; Jas. v. 4). 1. Comfort for the oppressed. Not one of their sighs escapes the ear of God. 2. W a.rning to the oppressor. IL Goo IS PECULIARLY IN SYMPATHY WITH THE OPPRESSED, WHEN THE OPPRESSED ARE HIS o~ PEOPLE (vers. 7, 10). Israel was God's people-I. .As .Abraham's seed-- children of the covenant-far gone indeed from righteousness, yet beloved for the fathers' sake<(Rom. xi 28). 2. As retaining, in however corrupt a form, the worship of the true God. They were bis people, in a sense in which the worshippers of Osiris, and Thoth, and the other gods of Egypt, were not. 3. .As containing many t'T"Ufl belie11ers. There was a·spiritua.l Israel within the natural-an" holy seed" (Is. vi. 13) -" a remnant .according to the election of grace " (Rom. xi. 5). Therefore, because Israel was God's people, God was deeply interested in them. He knew their sorrows, He was zealous on their behalf, a.s One whose own honour was concerned in what they suffered. And as in all their affliction he was afflicted (Is. Ix.iii. 9), so when the time came, he would avenge them of their adversaries. Believers have the same consolation in enduring trial (2 Thess. 4-10). Ill. Goo's SYMPATHY WITH THE OPPRESSED IS BROWN BY HlB MERCIFULLY INTER- POSING ON THEIR BEHALF. As he interposed for Israel-as he has often interposed for his Church since--as he interposed for the salvation of the world, when, moved by our pitiable state under sin-afflicted and "oppressed of the devil" (Acts x. 38; xxvi. 18; Eph. ii. 2; Col. i. 13)-he sent his Son that "we should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John iii. 16). His sympathy with bis Church is shown, not only in the comforts he imparts, and the grace by which he upholds, but in the on. w. 10-16.] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 60
deliveraoccs ho seods; on which remark-1. God has his own times for them. 2. Till the time comes, his people must be conteot to wait. 3. Wheo it comes, oo power can hinder tho execution of hie purpose. 4. The cleliveraoce will bring with it compensa- tion for all that has been endured-" a good land," etc. 'fhe ultimate compensation, whoo God has brought his people up out of the Egypt of all their afflictions, and planted them in the land of perfected bliss, will be such as to clear his character from all imputations of injustice and unkindness.-J. 0. Vers. 10-12.-Insufficiency. A very different Moses this from the hero who was formerly so ready, even without a call, to undertake the work of Israel's deliverance. Probably failure in that first attempt led him to doubt whether he was the instrnment ordained for so great a task. He may have concluded he was not, and learned his first lesson of acquiescence in the Divine will, by surrendering the hope. Or, he may have thought himself rejected for his fault. In any case, Moses had now much juster views of the magnitude of the work, and of his natural unfitness to undertake it. Who was he-a man of lonely, self-retired spirit-that he should brave the power of the Pharaohs, or think of bringing Israel out of Egypt? Learn-I. Conscious unfitness for our work is one of the best preparations for it. The greatest of God's servants have had this feeling in a remarkable degree. They needed to be" thrust forth" to the harvest (Matt. x. 38, Gr.). 2. Conscious unfitness for worlc grows with the clearness of our apprehensions of the Divine call to it. The nearer we are brought to God, the less we feel fit to serve him (Is. vi. 5). 3. God's call and promise are sufficient reasons for undertaking any work, however deep our consciousness of personal unfitness. "Our sufficiency is of God 1' (2 Cor. iii. 6). The sign in ver. 12 was a pledge to Moses that God would "make all grace to abound toward" him (2 Cor. ix. 8).-J. O.