HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 1-8.-A god to Pharaoh. Moses was in the trying position of being sent out anew upon a mission in which hitherto he had not had the slightest particle of success. His discouragement was natural. Pharaoh, on a previous occasion, had repulsed him. He had lost the ear even of his own people. The situation, since his former interview with the monarch, had altered for the worse. To proceed further was like rowing against wind and tide, with little prospect of ever reaching shore. Discouragement wrought in the usual way. It led him to magnify difficulties. He brought up again his old objection of his deficiencies of speech. Even with Aaron as an intermediary, he felt how awkward it would be to appear in the presence of Pharaoh, and not be able to deliver his own message. His inability of speech would certainly, he thought, expose him to contempt. Yet observe, God forebore with him. His reluctance was not with- out sin, but God, who knows our frame, does not expect to find in us all at once the perfection of angels, and is compassionate of our weakness. We have here, therefore- I. A DISHEARTENED SERVANT SUITABLY ENCOURAGED. God told Moses-I. That he woitld clothe him with an authority which even Pharaoh would be compelled to respect. "See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh" (ver. 1). It was not with words only that Moses was sent to Pharaoh. Powers would be given him to enforce his words with deeds. 'l'he judgments he would b1ing upon the land would clothe him with a super- natural terror-make him a superhuman and almost a divine person-in the eyes of EXODUS, 111 Hl2 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [on. vn. 3.
rh!U'aoh and his ~ervants. (Cf. eh. xii. 3.) So God gives attestation to his eei·vants 1<till, making it evident by the power of the Holy Ghost upon them, that they come in his ne.me, e.nd speak with his authority. He e.ccompanies their word with Divine power, giving it efficacy to arrest, convict, and convert, and compelling the haughtiest of the earth to acknowledge the source of their message. So Felix trembled before Paul (Acts xxiv. 25). Paul's Gospel came to the Thessalonians, "not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Gbost, and in much assurance" (1 Thess. i. 6), 2. 'l'liat the work of d.eliverance would be no longer delayed. This also was implied in what God said to Moses : the time had come for speech to be exchanged for action. Everything indicated that the "charge " with which Moses was now entrusted was to bo the final one. It should encourage desponding servants to reflect that God has his "set time" for the fulfilment of every promise; and that, when this period arrives, all their mourning will be turned into joy. II. TIIE COURSE OF ISRAEL'S DELIVERAlWE FORETOLD. 1. Foretold because foreseen. It is God's prerogative that he knows the end from tho beginning (Is. xlii. 9). Nothing can take him by surprise. Ho knows all the way his purposes are to travel. The l\·hole future lies mapped out, as in a clear-drawn chart, before him. 2. Foreseen because pre-ordained. God, like Christ in the miracle of the loaves, knew in himself what he would do (John vi. 6). Nothing was le~ to chance in his arrangements. The steps in his pla.n were fixed beforehand. What would be done would be according to God's "determinate counsel and foreknowledge" (Acts ii. 23)-would be "whatsoever (his) hand and (his) counsel determined before to be done" (Acts iv. 28). The deliverance was arranged in such a way as most to glorify the power and greatness of the Deliverer, and demonstrate his superiority to heathen idols. This in no wise implies that violence was in the very least done to human freedom, though it suggests that God can so mterweave the volitions of men, in the situations in which he places them, into his purposes, as to leave not one of them outside his settled plan. The chief difficulty is in the hardening of Pharaoh's heart, here (ver. 3) represented as an ordained link in the chain of God's designs. But if this hardening simply mea.ns that God will place Pharaoh, already a bad man, in circumstances which he knows infallibly will harden bis heart, and if this is done justly, and in punishment of former sins, the hardening taking effect through unalterable laws of the moral nature, which also are of God's ordainment, it is difficult to see what righteous objection can be taken to it. 3. Fore- told for wise ends. Similar predictions of the course of the delivera.nce had been made at earlier stages (cf. eh. iii. 1~22; iv. 21-24; vi. 1-9). They are here repeated- (1) For the instruction of Moses, that he might be prepared for all that was to happen- that he might understand and co-operate with God in the execution of his designs. (2) For the re-invigoration of Moses' faith. (3) That it might be evidenced by the working-out of this fore-announced plan, that the God of Israel was indeed Jehovah, a free, personal Being, working in history for the accomplishment of gracious purposes. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him" (Ps. xxv. 14). God takes Moses into his counsel. and discovers to him something of his plan of operation. So he does in the Scriptures with his Church (Rev. i. 1). II. A GLIMPSE OF Gon's END IN PBOVIDENTIAL GOVEBl'."MENT (vers. 3, 4). The end is twofold-1. The manifestation of the utterly free and unconstrained character of his grace and mercy in the salvation of man ; and 2. What is the necessary counterpart of this, the manifestation of his power and jw;tice in the infliction of judgments upon his enemies. Even evil is thw; made to contribute indirectly to the ultimate and eternal establishment of the righteow;ness of God.-J. 0. Ver. 3.-Heart-hardening. On this subject, see above, and on eh. iv. 21. The pre- sent seems an appropriate place for a somewhat fuller treatment. I. HABDENING .AS PROCEEDING FROM Gon. " I will harden Pharaoh's heart." This, assuredly, is more than simple pemlission. God hardens the heart--1. Through the operation of the laws of our 'lTl,(Jral ronstitution. These laws, of which God is the author, and through which he operates in the soul, ordain hardening as the penalty of evil conduct, of resistance to truth, and of all misimprovement and abuse of privilega. 2. Tltr=gh hu providenctr-aa when God, in the execution of his judgments, places a wicked man in situations which he knows can only have a hardening effect upon him. CTI, VII. 3,) 'l'HE BOOK OF EXODUS. 163