The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 125

Yer. 21.-Ha1'<lening. God communicates a.new with Moses, f6rtifying his resolution to appear before Pharaoh, putting words into his mouth, and warning him of the effect his message would produce. He was not to fail to do e.ll his wonders before Pharaoh, though the only effect would be to harden the monarch's heart-to confirm him in hie resolution not to let, the people go. I. THE 'WoRD OF GoD IS TO BE ADDRESSED TO MEN, WHATEVER RECEPTION IT MAY MEET WITH. It is to be set forth, and the evidence which attests it exhibited, "whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear" (Ezek. ii. 5); and this-I. That God's will'may be made known. 2. That men's dispositions may be tested. 3. That if men di8obey they may be left without excuse. 4. That ulterior purposes may be fulfilled, For men's unbelief cannot make the faith of God without effect (Rom. iii. 3). If men disbelieve and are hardened, God will use even their hardening as the point of attach ment for some new link in the chain of his providential developments. • ll. GoD Th'FALLIBLY FOREKNOWS THE EFFECT OF EVERY APPEAL OR MESSA0E BE ADDRESSES TO ms MORAL CREATURES. He knows those to whom bis servants will be "the savour of death unto death," and those to whom they will be" the, savour of life unto life" (2 Car. ii. 16). But the knowledge that his Word will be rejected is not a reason for keeping it back. As respects these foreknown effects, we are not permitted to say either-I. That God wills ( i.e. desires) that his Word should harden; or 2. That in any case it hardens by his arbitrarily withholding tl:::e grace which would have produced an opposite result. Yet Divine sovereignty is not to be denied in the effects produced by the preaching of the Word, or in God's dealings with men in mercy and jµdgment generally. He will be a bold student of Divine things who ventures to assert that by '1W means known to him could God have subdued the obstinacy even of a Pharaoh. Hearts as stubborn have yielded before now. We ca.nnot solve these anomalies. Enough for us to know that God's sov.ereignty, however exercised, is ever righteous, holy, and, could we see all, loving. III. Gon's WORD, WHEN ITS MESSAGE IS RESISTED, HARDENS THE HEART THAT RESISTS IT. The hardening of the heart is here attributed to God, as in oth,er places it is attributed to Pharaoh himself. The latter statement occasions no difficulty. It is the invaria.hle law, and one which is constantly being exemplified, that he who resists grace and truth incurs the penalty of being hardened. That result follows from th4it constitution of the moral nature. But precisely in this fact lies the explanation of the other mode of statement, that the hardening of the heart is from God. For God is concerned in the results which flow from the operation of his own laws, and takes (providentially) the reb-ponsibility of them. We may go even further, and say that. God designs that those who resist his truth shall be hardened by it; just as he designs that those who believe and obey it shall be saved. And the stronger way of putting the matter, harsh as it seems, has its own advantages. Resisters of the truth do well to remember that in their attitude of opposition they have to do, not merely with "laws," reacting to darken the mind and indurate the heart, but with a living God within and behind these laws, lending his solemn sanction to their operations, willing the results which flow from them, and righteously punishing sin by means of them. This explanation., indeed, is not complete. Ot~er phases of the ~ubject com~ into vi~w later. Meanwhile the preacher of the Gospel 1s not to be astorushed that his word, m many cases, produces hardening effects. This is foreseen by God, and is taken up into his plan. Learn also how a career of iniquity is often punished by the transgressor being brought into circumstances which, merciful in their own operation, yet lee.d t~ his greater hardening.-J. 0. Vere. 22, 23.-Israel a type of sonship . . Consider-I. _The condescension of Go~ in the establishing of this relationship. A nation of slaves; m the eyes of ~he Egyptians little better than a nation of lepers; yet Jehovah says of them, "Israel 1s my son, my firstborn." "Behold what manner of love," etc. (1 John iii. 1). 2. The privileges implied in it. On this cf. D~ut. L 31-34; viii: 2-6; xnii. 9-:-15. Reflect how Israel was led, fed, guided, tr8.llled, chastened, delivered from eneIWes, and conducted to a bolllltiful inheritance. These privileges have all their counterparts in the expe- rience of the "children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" ~Gal. iii. ~6). 3. The respon- 1ibilitie8 it imposed on others. Because Israel was Gods son, his first born, Pharaoh OJI, IV, 18-31.] THE BOOK 01'' EXODUS. 107