The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 153

God he.d taken up their cause, their tlials and soITowe were at an end; but in enter• taining so comfortable a hope, they found they were deceived. The first step on the road to the promised deliverance had plunged them into a worse plight than ever, 'l'hey had almost felt the breath of liberty on their cheeks, when suddenly their hopes are dashed from them, and the situation darkens till in its pitiless rigour it becomes well-nigh unendurable. So God's providence is often to the godliest a sore and perplexing mystery. It is not merely that things are not going as we wish, or as fast as we expect-this need not surprise us, though oftentimes it does-but that Jehovah seems acting contrary to his own perfections, to his character, to his revealed purpose, to the promise on which he has encouraged us to trust. The wicked prosper; the righteous are afflicted (Ps. xxxvii. ; lxxiii.). Prayers seem unanswered, and the hopes we had begun to cherish, the expectations we had built upon his Word, are bitterly disappointed. The race seems to the swift, and the battle t.o the strong of this world, while ... waters of a full cup are wrung out" to the saints whom God has pledged himself to bless and to protect. This is what distresses us, a.nd the distress is not surprising. II. THE MYSTERY WHICH MEETS us IN Gon's PROVIDENCE ACTS AS A TEST OF CHAnACTER. It drove Moses to prayer, but the multitude to murmurings and reproaches. As this storm burst over Israel, the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed (Luke ii. 35). Doubters would curse themselves for trusting to one whom, they would declare, they had always suspected of deceiving them; the timid would be heard reiterating, "We told you it would come to this; we saw it from the first I" while the profane would break out into open blasphemies, and the superficial crowd-those who had been most carried away by the enthusiasm-would groa.n and weep in utter disconsolate- ness, and pour out rash accusations against Heaven and against Moses and Aaron, who had brought them into all this trouble. Yet with foolish inconsistency they would call on the God they were mistrusting to judge between them and the men who had brought to them his message (ver. 21). Comp. Christian and Pliable at the Slough of Despond in 'Pilgrim's Progress.' Mystery in God's providence, in itself a moral necessity and inevitable, is thus used by him for imJIQrtant ends in the testing and disciplining of character. It brings to light our weaknesses ; sifts the chaff from the wheat; educates w, to trust ; convinces us of ignorance ; disenchants us of illusive hopes ; leads us to prayer and wrestling with God. Thus it prepares us for further discoveries of the Divine wisdom when the time comes for the veil being removed, and educates us for higher service. III. THE MYSTERY wmcn ENSHROUDS Gon's PROVIDENCE ARISES FROM OUR PARTIAL Al!."'D IMPERFECT COMPREHENSION OF BIB PLAN. Had God's purpose been simply to get Israel out of Egypt in the easiest way possible, and with least cost of suffering to the people, the permission of this new cruelty would indeed have been inexplicable. But it is not in this way, or for such ends, or on these terms, that God conducts the govern- ment of his world. The error of Israel lay in looking on this one little bit of an unfinished work, and in judging of it without reference to the whole design of which it was a part. For God's purpose was not merely that the people should be delivered, but that they should be delivered in such a way, and with such accompaniments of power and ju~ament, as should illustriously glorify his own perfections, and print the memory of his goodness on their hearts for ever; while, as regards Pharaoh, his design was to glorify hls power upon him (eh. ix. 16), and make him an example to all after ages of the folly of resisting the Almighty. This being the end, it was obviously indispensabl<: that events should not be unduly hastened, but allowed, as far as possible, to take n natural course. Time and scope must be given to Pharaoh to develop his real disposi- tion., and the development must not be prematurely interfered with. The people must be led by a way they knew not, and in paths they had not known; the way chosen .::ould not be the absolutely shortest, but must include many turnings and windings, ancl even seem at times to be bendmg backwards; but the end would be "to make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight" (Is. xlii. 16). And this is truly the explanation of all our difficulties with regard to Divine providence. lt is not God who iE at fault, but our own haste and shortsightedness, that perceive not all th~ ends he has in view, nor how wonderfully he is working towards those ends by the very c1rcumstances which perplex and baffle us. We know but " in part" (1 Cor. xiii. 12). The thoughts of Infinite Wisdom cannot all be made plain to us. The little that is before us we see, CH, V, 19-21.] THE BOOK OF EXODUS.