t.o shut out interference from any other qua.rter. Help in God, sure and sufficient help, but help only in God, was one of the great lessons which all these painful years were meant to teach Israel. Pharaoh had unmistakable power of the human, despotic, might- me.kes-right-sort over Israel. As the inquisitor by an easy nod signifies to give the thumbscrew another turn, so Pharaoh had only to send out his royal wish, and all the taskmasters had Israel at once in fresh agony. And just so we have to be tauo-ht by a bitter experience the.t as Christ is a S:i.viour from sin, with all its fatal fruits, so he is the only Saviour. The first attempt at a real protest and resistance against sin brings out all its power. Though the sinner's miseries do not begin when Christ the accredited cieliverer makes his first approach to deliver, there is nevertheless a distinct accession to them. Christ cannot challenge the power of sin in any of us without rousino- up into intense a.cti,-ity the evil already working in our breasts. Pharaoh was not really a more po\verful ruler after the visit of Moses than he was before; but the disposition and power then became manifest. The hearts of the generation in the midst of whioh Christ lived and died were not of exceptional malignity or obduracy. The generation immediately before and the generation immediately after, would have treated him in exactly the same way. But it was necessary for him to draw out sin into a full revelation of its hideous potency, in order that it might be made perfectly clear that none but himself could deal with it. True, Pharaoh was glorying in what was only a fabric of delusions and a refuge of lies·; but, frail though it was, no breath of me.n had strength enough to blow it down. None but G0d could make the effectual and dissipating storm to descend upon it.-Y. Ver. 15--chap. vi. ver. 1.-The troubled find consolation in God only. The three crie,s. I. lsRA.EL's EXPOSTULATION WITH PHARAOH (15--19). They complain to him of the wrongs they suffer ; but he who does not hear God will not listen to man. 1. It was reasonable to expect that their remonstrance might lead to redress. Pharaoh's decree might have been issued under momentary irritation. 2. They came with humility and modesty. They brought no railing accusation. 'l'hey used no threats. They did not even make a silent show of their strength. And yet the only outcome of their appeal is deeper grief, more utter hopelessness (19). They who have no hope but in man will find little to 611Stain them. II. THEm UPBRAIDING OF MosEs AND AARON (20, 21). 1. They spoke truth. The demand for liberty of worship had been seized by Pharaoh as a pretext for more oppressive measures. 2. They did not speak the whole truth. God and his purpose were kept out of sight. They were counted as nothing. How often is this done in our despondency and murmuring ! 3. Their reproaches, though met by silence and grief equal to their own, brought no help to them. There is as little help in upbraiding friends for failure as in spreading their injustice before foes. III. MosEs' CRY TO GoD. 1. He" returned to the Lord." He did not seek to unburden his soul even to Aaron. The first step to help is to seek God's presence. 2. The holy boldness of his prayer. The grieved spirit is poured out. There is nothing kept back. God does not complain of our boldness, but of our restraining prayer before him. 3. God's answer (vi. 1). (1) This very failure shows God's truth (iv. 21). (2) God shall fight for them: "Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh." (3) Pharaoh's wrath and power will serve only to make their deliverance perfect. He will "drive them out of his land." Israel found no consolation ; Moses does.-U.
EXPOSITION. Vers. 20, 21.-0n quitting the presence of upon them. Were not Moees and Aaron the Pharaoh, the officers of the Israelites, burning sole cause of the existing state of things ? with the sense of the injustice done them, and Did not the extreme affliction of the people, deeply apprehensive with respect to their own did not their own sufferings in the pest, did future, found Moses and Ae.ron waiting in the not their apprehended sufferings in the fu- precincts of the court to know the result of ture, originate wholly in the seductive words their application. It need cause no surprise that which the two brothers had addressed to them &hey poured out their pent-up indignation at the &BSemblyof the people? (eh. iv. 29-81). on. v. 20-28.J THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 136
Acrordingly, they denounced, almost cursed consider your conduct, and judge it "-not their officious would-be deliverers (cb. v. 21 ). exactly, ." condemn it and punish it" (Keil " The Lord look upon you, and judge" be- and Dehtzsch)--bnt "pll.'ls sentence on it," tween you and us, whether the blame of this· "judge whether it has been right or not." We make this appeal bece.nse ye have at any whole matter does not lie upon you, its initia- re.te done w e. great injury-ye he.ve me.de tors-you have made us to be abhorred in the our savour to be abhorred in the eyes o• sight of Pharaoh, and of the Egyptians gene- Phe.raoh. (Note the mixed metaphor, which rally-you have brought us into danger of our shows perhaps rather that " in the eyes" had lost its original meaning, and come to signify lives-the Lord judge you I" no more than "with" or "in respect of," than Ver. 20.-Who stood in the way. Rather, that the literal meaning of " making a person's 11 who waited to meet them." It was not savour to stink" did not occur to the writer.) accident, but design, that had brought the Nay, ye have done more-ye have put a two brothers to the spot. They were as sword in the hand of his servants to slay us. anxious as the officers to k.now what course That is to say, "ye have armed them with a Pharaoh would take-whether he would relax weapon wherewith we expect that they wil! the burthens of the people or no--whether he take our lives." Either they will beat us to would have compassion or the contrary. death-and death is II not infrequent result of Ver. 21.-They said unto them. The offi- e. repeated employment of the bastiDRdo--or cers were too full of their wrongs to wait when they find that punishment unavailing until questioned. They took the word, and, they will execute us as traitors. On the use of without relating the result of their interview, the bastinado as a punishment in Egypt, see implied it. The Lord look upon you, and Chabas, ' Melan~es Egyptologiqnes,' 3m• s~rie, judge, they said, meaning" the Lord (J ehova.h) vol. i. pp 100-6