The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 174

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 14-28.-The genealogy of Moses and Aaron. Beside its direct interest as setting in an exact light the descent and relationship of the two principal figures in the succeeding history-Moses, the Lawgiver of Israel, and Aaron, the head of the priesthood -this genealogical register presents us with several points deserving of attention. We are taught by it- I. To RECOGNISE THE DIVINE SOVEREIGNTY IN THE SELECTION OF ITS INSTRUMENTS. 1. The men selected-Moses and Aaron (vers. 26, 27). Selection, as implying the pre- vious or foreseen existence of variously qualified objects from which the selection is made is scarcely the fitting term to express the fact we have in view, viz. the preparing and raising up at this particular time and place, and from this particular stock, of a man of the special mould of Moses, with an eye to the accomplishment by him of a certain work. The appearance of great men at particular junctures of history is assuredly not to be attributed to chance. It is a shallow view of the Divine election which regards it as simply availing itself of happy varieties of character spontaneously presenting -themselves in the course of natural development; as a workman might choose from a. set of ready-made tools those best suited for his purpose. Election, if one may so speak, presides at the making of its object (Isaac, Jacob, David, etc.) as well as uses it when made (see Lange's 'Dogmatics '). The question is not simply how, a man of Moses' gifts and qualifications being given, God should use him in the way he did, but rather, how a man of this spiritual build came at that precise juncture to be there at all-broke out at that point in the genealogical tree and not at another. This is the true problem, and the solution can only be found in the Divine arrangements. 2. The sovereignty of the selection. v,,r e cannot but be struck by the almost studious departure in this list from the lines of descent which would imply natural pre-eminence. (1) Moses is not descended from Reuben and Simeon, the eldest sons of Jacob (vers. 14, 15). The only purpose, apparently, served by the introduction of these two names in the genealogy is to show that Moses did not spring from them. (2) Neither did he  158 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [cH, VJ, 14-28,