The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 95

•'losely God would keep to them in the future. Ily the word of God to him here, the thoughts of Moses were brought as at one bound from the darkness of midniaht to the blaze of noonday. God does not confine himself to telling Moses that he will deliver Israel. Deliverance for its own sake was as nothing; it we.s for the sake of what lay beyond it. He does not say that he will deliver, and wait till the time of deliverance comes, to speak of the glories and blessings of Canaan, All these things had been spoken of generations before. God was but taking, as it were, out of some muniment- room, his old plan, first shown to Abraham; unfolding it, and showing also to Moses that it.still remained in all its integrity.-Y. Vers. I0-12.-Thefirst difficulty: " WM am n" Divine promises are not long kept separated from human duty. Scarcely has God presented to Moses this welcome, almost dazzling prospect for Israel, when there breaks upon his ear an announcement of his own connection with it, and that in the most trying and responsible position. That he was to have some sort of connection with the liberation of Israel was just what he might expect. God assuredly had not chosen to visit him so far from Egypt, and in that solitary place, simply to give him the good news and leave him there. And no\~ a duty indeed is laid upon him, the duty of duties; he who has not been near Israel for forty years is to be the chief agent in their deliverance. I. CoNSIDER THE RECEPTION WHICH MosES GIVES TO Goo's ANNOUNCEMENT. Observe -I. The point on which Moses expresses ,w doubt. He sa.ys no word of doubt as to the possibility of Israel being delivered from Egypt. The achievement is from the human point of view a great one, and how it is to be managed he has not yet the slightest clue, but he does not doubt that it will be manageJ. He might have asked, " How can a thing so great as this be done, and the thraldom of generations utterly cast off?" but be had profited already by the lesson of the burnmg bush, and no such question crossed his lips. For whether is easier, to preserve a bush amid the fierce flames, or to deliver a nation from bondage ? The power that can do the one can do the other. 2. T/,e point on whi,ch lie is full of doubt. " Who 11.Jll I ? " etc. His mind is turned at once to his own qualifications. And what wonder? It was a great leap from being a shepherd in the wilderness to being an ambassador to a king, and a leader of men. 'l'he fact that Moses questioned his personal ability and personal worthiness is, though it may not at first appear so, a great indication of his very fitness for the post. He did not jump at the chance of distinction. He had a remembrance of his bad odour in Egypt. He had lived, too, at court, and knew how hard it is to get at kings. We can hardly call this doubt of Moses blameworthy, for he was spoken to as a sinful man, and God did not expect from him at this first opening of the interview a response such as could only come fittingly from an angel. ready at once to fly on any errand of the Almighty. A Gabriel would not have said, "who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?" for angels cannot be spoken of as either humble or proud. But Moses was deeply conscious of his own faults. Indeed, if he had not been, God would not have chosen him. Men of a different sort, self-complacent and self-confident, were the last God would have looked to in such circumstances. 'l'he men he wants are such as feel keenly all natural defect&-sensitive, may be, to criticism and harsh words of every kind; men, too, who for their own inclination, love the quiet and shady nooks of existence, and do not care to leave them, save under the pressure of some manifest public cl.aim or some persistent voice of God to the tender conscience within. Such men are generally called, upon their first emergence into public, presumptuous, meddle- some, and fanatical; and they have to lay their account with these hard names. 'fhey are apt to meet with a great deal of gratuitous counsel. given on the grounds of what is called common sense. Moses well knew the difficulties that would come in his way. The one thing he had yet to learn was that God knew him far better than he did himself. II. Cm,1!IDEB TRE ENCOURAGEMENTS wmcH GoD GIVES To MosEs. There is no word of rebuke in any way, but immediate and abundant en~uragement, 1. The emphatic auwra,,ne,e of God's presence and companimuhip. 'l'he "I" of Moses is met by the "I" of God. Moses was to go to Pharaoh strong in the consoiousness that the God who sent him was also with him. There would not be about him anything that ambassadors uaually had-rich personal adommentl, pomp of attendance, great profusion of presents, Cll. III. 13-17.] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 77