The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 143

HOMILETICS. Vera. 6-9.-Thc picture of a tyrant-crafty, energetic, and unsparing. Scripture contains abundant portraitures, not only of good, but also of bad men, the Holy Spirit seeming to be as desirous of arousing our indignation against vice as our sympathy with virtue. Portraits are given us, as more effectual than precepts or general descriptions appealing as they do to our feelings and imagination rather than to our intellect. Th~ dramatic exhibition of a Pharaoh, an Ahab, a Sennacherib, a Judas Iscariot, is calculated at once to strike the soul and to remain indelibly impressed upon it. Here we have the portrait of a tyrant, characterised especially by three qualities-!. Craft or cleverness; 2. Energy; and 3. Mercilessness. (1.) Pharaoh's craft is shown, first in the skilful way in which he "turns the tables" upon Moses and Aaron, stopping their mouths with the charge that they are "letting the people from their labours," and "endamaging the king." (See Ezra iv. 13.) Secondly, it is shown in the rapidity and ingenuity of his thought-" More work must be laid upon the Israelites-let them be given no straw." Thirdly, it is shown further on in his attempts to secure the return of the Israelites by the detention of their children (eh. x. 10) or of their cattle (ibid. 24). (2.) Pharaoh's energy appears in the immediate steps that he took to carry his plan out by giving orders for the withholding of the straw without any diminution in the tale of bricks, "the same day" (verse 6). Finally, (3) his mercilessness is seen, first, in his refusin" a very moderate request (verses 1, 2); secondly, in his meeting the demand for ; relaxation of labour by an addition to it; thirdly and especially, in his making such an addition as was impossible of performance, and involved a continued series of punish- ments (verses 14--21). Pharaoh did not perhaps know the exact amount of misery which he was inflicting; but he was reckless in respect to it-he did not care what it might cost; the sighs and the groans of a whole nation were as nothing to him; and he adds insult to injury by the reproach (verses 8 and 17)-" Ye are idle, ye are idle." Ver. 7.-Bric!cs with()11,t straw. The requirement of "bricks without straw" is not always made by a tyrannical king. .All employers of labour who expect certain results without allowing sufficient time for them, and then complain that the work is scamped., are guilty of it. So is the father who expects his son to turn out a great scholar, without giving him the necessary books and the necessary instruction to make him one. So is the mistress who scolds her cook for not sending up a first-rate dinner, yet grudges every penny for the kitchen expenses. There are congregations which demand perpetual sermons of a high quality, yet do not either provide their pastors with sufficient money to buy books, or allow them sufficient leisure time for reading them. There are incumbents who act similarly by their curates, mercantile men who, mutatis mutandis, act so by theiT clerks, officials of all kinds who so treat their subordinates. The demand for bricks without straw is, unfortunately, far too co=on a demand. Let this note be set against it, that it is Pharaonic and tyrannical. Ver. 9.-Vain words. There can be no doubt that "vain words" are unworthy of attention, deserve contempt, are foolish, unjustifiable. But what are "vain words"? What is the test whereby we are to know whether words are vain or not? Simply, the issue of them. Pharaoh thought that the promises of deliverance wherewith Moses and Aaron had excited the people were "vain words." Sennacherib described similarly the words of trust and confidence in God uttered by Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii. 20). The Athenians thought the same of St. Pau'i's words concerning the resurrection (Acts xvii. 32). But we know that, in none of these cases, were the words uttered " vain." The event justified or will justify them. When words then a.re uttered by any grave authority, especially if they are uttered in the name of God, W6 ~hould hesitate to call them "vain." We should await the end. Full often, what the scoffer has called "vain words" tum out "words of truth and soberness "-words which tell with terrible force against those who have despised ad rejected them-words which to have heard and despised ia condemnation in the eight of the Al.mighty.  126 THE BOOK OF EXODUS, [ CII, V, 4--1"•