I not known unto them. The explanation of of their bondage ; they ,hould be brought out ; thi!; pRSS&ge is by no means easy. God him- they ,houle be redeemed and deliYered by his self, according to Gen. xv. 7. reYealed himself mighty ann 1tnd mirnculoUB intervention. He, t.o Abraham as Jehovah before declaring bis J ehove.b, had said it." Faith would lny hold name to be El-Shaddai (God Almighty); and on this assurance and cling to it, even though again reYea.led himself t-0 JRC.ob e.s JehoYeh- God still delayed his coming, and did not pre- Elohim (tl,. >,.,o,:,·iii. 13). Abraham named cipitate matters. A stretohed-out arm. Arms t.he place where be had been about to sacrifice are stretched out by men to help and save. An Isaac, "Jeho,'8.b-jireh" (t'b. xxii. 14). That outstretched e.rm in the Egyptian writing meant Moses regarded the name as known even "action." The phrase, elsewhere so common, earlier, e.ppean; from Gen. iY. l. It was pro- is here used for the first time. (Compare, Mbh· as old as language. Thee.pparentmean- however, eh. iii. 20.) It was significant of ing of the present passage cannot therefore be active, energetic help. Great judgments. its true meaning. No '\'\Tit.er would so contra- These had been previously hinted at (eh. iii. dict himself. Perhaps the true sense is, " I 20 e.nd eh. iv. 22) but had not been previously was known to them e.s a Being of might and called "jadgments." Compare Gen. xv. 14: power, not as me~ absolute (and so e~ma.1 " Also that nation whom they serve will I and immutable) existence." Tins meanmg of judge." The plagues of Egypt were not merely tbe word, though its etymological e.nd original "wonders," bat punishments inflicted on e. meaning, may he.ve been unknown to tbe proud and crnel nation by a Judge. patriarchs, who were not e~'lllologists. It was Vers. 7, 8.-The promises are continued, first distinctlv declared to Moses e.t Sinai heaped one upon another. l. God will take ( eh. iii. 14, 15). them for his own people. 2. He will be, in Ver. 4.-I he.ve established my oovene.nt a special sense, their God. 3. They shall with them. Compare Gen. xv. 18-21 ; xvii. clearly know that it is he who brings them 7, 8 : xu'i. 3; XXYiii. 13. The land of CB.JIB.B.JI, forth ont of Egypt. 4. They shall be brought in a narrow acceptation, reached " from Sidon into the promised land. 5. The land shall be unto Gaza" (Gen. x. 19); in a wider sense it me.de over to them, and become their own in- i::icluded the whole tract between " the river heritance. The Israelites were formally taken of Egypt (Wady-el-.Arish) ond the great river, to be God's people at Sinai ( eh. xix. 5, 6) ; the riYcr Euphrates" ( ib. xv. 18). It was this where, at the same time, he became (specially larger tract which W8S promised by God to l:ut not exclusively) their God (eh. xx. I; Abrabs.m. The land of their pilgrimage, xx.ix. 45, 46 ). They ha.d evidence that it was wherein they were strangers. Literally, "the he who brought them forth in the pillar of land of their sojourns wherein they sojourned." fire and of a cloud (cb. xiii. 21; xiv. 19, 20, (So Kalisch.) It was by permission of the etc.). They were brought into the promised lords of the soil-the Ca.na.e.nites, Perizzites, l.e.nd by Josbna (Josh. iv. 1), and given the Hittites, and others, that Abraham and his full possession of it by him and bis successors descendants dwelt in Cane.an to the time of -the various judges and kings, until at last, Je.cob's destent into Egypt. (See Gen. xii. 6; nnder David and SoloJb.on, they held the en- xiii. 7 ; xxiii. 7 ; xxvii 46, etc.) tire tract that bad been _promised to Abraham Ver. 5.-I have also heard the groe.mng. (see l Kings iv. 21; 2 Cbron. ix. 26). Compare eh. ii. 24 and iii 9. The repetition Ver. 8.-The Ie.nd whioh I did swear to is in consequence of Moses' expostulation ( eh. give it to Abraham, etc. See Gen. xxii. v. 22. 23), and is to assure the Israelites that 16-18; xxvi. 3, etc. The only formal oe.th God has not forgotten them, but will snstain is recorded in Gen. xxii. 16; but an oath is them under their afflictions, and will shortly perhaps implied in every covenant between deliver them. God and man. God's faithfulness is pledged Ver. 6.--Sa.y nnto the children of IBra.eL to the performance of the terms of the cove- God felt for the disappointment which the nant on his pe.rt. I will give it you for e.n people had suffered in finding no alleviation of heritage: I e.m the Lord, Rather, "I will their toils, but the reverse, after their hopes had give it you for an heritage, I the Lord" , or" I been raised high by the words of Moses ( eh. iv. J ehove.h," or " I the Eternal One "). " You Sl). He therefore sent them an insp,iriting have the pledge of my Eternity and Immuta- 11.Dd gre.cions message "They allOUld be rid bilitv that it shall be yonrs"
HOMILETICS. Ver. 1.-God's condescension to a we,ak faith. Ae the Lord Jesus condescended to Thomas, and bade him " reach hither his finger and behold his hands, and r~ach hither his hand and thrust it into his side," so that he might be no longer " faithless, but believing" (John xx. 27), so Jehovah now declared to Moses that, if he could not walk OU, VI, 1-0.] 'rHE BOOK OF EXODUS 141