The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 94

etands the chief of those that walk by faith, the facile princepB of them-he who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. His faith.'was such a full, exalted element of his character, that it needs much effort on our part to grasp the fact that, while here below, Jesus, as much as all the rest of us, needed to walk by faith, and was constantly compelled to struggle with unbelief. The great Jehovah is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; also the God of Paul and overy true apostle. Suppose Moses could have had the spirits of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob appear to him in Horeb, and assure him that the God of the burning bush was the God who had dealt with them in the days of their flesh; would not this have been reckoned a most confirming and exhilarating testimony? And we, practically, have a testimony of this sort. We read of Jesus regarding God as his Father, habitually and in the most appropriating way. We have his actual experience for our comfort, our inspiration, and our guide. If an Israelite was asked what God he believed, tried to serve, and had his highest expectations from, his best answer was, " The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." So we, if asked a similar question, can give no better answer than "The God of Christ and the God of Paul: the God who has ever been the same through all vicissitudes of his Church; ever loving, faithful, and sustaining."-Y. Vera. 7-9.-.A large promise/or a great need. I. THE GREAT l!IEED. It is a need carefully observed by God and well known to him. This has been reoorded already, although hardly so emphatically, in eh. ii. 23-25. It is one thing to have intelligence of God's interest communicated by some third person; quite a:cother to hear the words of pity warm and tender from God himself. Moses and many of the Israelites may have thought that they knew the need only too well, bitter as their experiences had been; but, with all their experiences, they knew not that need as God knew it, looking down from heaven, seeing all things with his searching eye, and having a correct and complete knowledge of them. It is with great force that God represents himself seeing as well as hearing. Hearing indicated that he noted the representation of their troubles and needs which the people themselves made; seeing indicated the investigation he made for himself. God was not dependent upon the complaints of the people for his knowledge of their troubles. The cries of men are not always worthy of pity, any more than the cry of a spoilt child. Such cries can only be left unheeded, with the hope that they may end in wisdom and submission. But the cry of Israel was the cry of the oppressed, the cry of God's people; and, as God saw their state, there was ample evidence of the oppression and the cruelty. When he came down to meet Moses at Horeb, he needed not to listen to a long account of Israel's troubles; he came not in order that he might inquire, but because of what he already fully knew. II. THE LARGE PROMISE. God may be long unmanifested, but, when he appears, it is with indubitable proofs of his presence; he may be long silent, but when he speaks, it is with statements and promises worthy of himself. He does not merely utter an expression of sympathy with suffering Israel; that expression is only the starting word of a large undertaking for the future. He repeats, emphatically, the essence of all he had ever said to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob concerning their posterity. He has distinctly in view, not only the removal of a burden, but a future of liberty, independ- ence, and blessedness. Thus it became manifest that the deliverance had not come earlier in time because the matter of deliverance was not the only thing in question. It had to be considered how liberty should be used when acquired. Israel needed a leader, and .the leaders whom God approves are not made in a day. Israel had to wait while Moses went through his eighty years of varied discipline. Then, moreover, the people were going into a good land and a large, a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of rich pastures and great fertility, a land inhabited by six strong and ,,.arlike nations ; and therefore they must not go as a handful of people. Thus, while the people were going through these great afflictions, groaning as if in despair, God was doing two things of the greatest moment. He was training Moses and increasing Israel in numbers; What e. lesson to us in the midst of our afflictions, with all their consequent murmuring and unbelief! If God seemed to have little to do with Israel during these years of oppression, it was that he might have all the more to do with them, manifestly, in the years to come. Little did either Moses or Israel dream how  THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [OB. m. 10-12.