The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 189

,,ith ~:hich God cnn s!llite a_naUon, and_bring it t? the point of ruin. The smiting of the Nile meant. the immediate paralysis of all mdustry, commerce, and agriculture throughout the land of Egypt, while, had the plague lasted a few days longer the result would have been the death of the whole population. We call this "niliacle" but miracle is only the coming forth into visibility of the hand which is at all' times working in the phenomena. of nature, a.nd in the affairs of history. By famine by pestilence, by blight of crops, by cla~ of wa.r, turning the river of e. nation's life Into very litera.l blood (so France in 1870), by the simplest natural agencies, if so it pleased him~uld Jehovah speedily reduce our national pride, and smite at the fountain-heads the sources of our national prosperity. A very sensible proof was given of this-of the readiness with which the trade of a whole country could be paralysed, and great cities reduced in no long period to absolute starvation, by a slight change in natural conditions-in the great snowstorm of January 1881. (See the Spectator of 29th January, 1881.) Had the storm lasted but a week or two longer, the effects would have been as serious to cities like London, and to the country as a. whole, as this smitinO' of the Nile in Egypt. (4) God's judgments are anticipative. Judgments in this lif: forewarn of judgments beyond. III. THE PUERILE IMITATION OF THE llA.GICUNS (ver. 22). 1. The magicians could not remove the p~o-ue; they could only with the few drops of water at their command produce a feeble imitation of it. How futile is this as a disproof of God's agency! So it is a pitiable way of disposing of God's judgments to show that some- thing like them can be produced by undivine means. The savant, e.g., may produce in his laboratory an imitation of rain or thunder, and may think that he has thereby disproved God's agency in any infliction he may send upon a land through these instrumentalities ; but this is small comfort to the country that is being smitten by 'them. 2. The attempts of the magicians to refute the pretensions of Moses only resulted in making the supernatural character of the plague more manifest. In the same way, the efforts of sceptics to disprove, e.g., the Divine origin o:fthe religion of the Bible, or of the book itself, only end in ma.king its Divinity more apparent. " The more conclusively you demon.,,trate to the human reason that that which exists ought not to exist, so much the more do you enhance the miracle of its existence. That must be the-most astounding of all facts that still exists notwithstanding the gravest objections to its existence." r IV. THE RAlID~'ING OF l'lli.B.AoH (vers. 22, 23). The hardening of Pharaoh hero enters on a new phase. It wa.s-1. Hardening against conviction. Pharaoh must have felt in this case that he was in presence of a true work of God. The. puny efforts of his magicians could not possibly impose upon him. But he would not yield. He would not obey conviction. 2. Hardening under punishment. Pharaoh was in the position of one who, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck (Prov. xxix. 1). He had risked, even after this last warning, the chances of the threatening turning out to be untrue. :Kow, to his utter discomfiture, the stroke descends, and his empire is on the point of ruin. Yet he hardene.d himself in resistance. 3. Hardening which was deliberate. "Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also " (ver. 23). He had reache.d a point at which he could only stiffen himself in his determination to resist God, by refusing to think, by deliberately turning away n:om the light and resolving not to face the question of his duty. The monarch knows his duty, and knows that he know, it, yet he will not obey. 4. Hardening obstinately persevered in. He held out through all the seven days of the duration of the plague. Hardening of this kind speedily robs the soul of ,its few remaining sparks of suscepti- bility to truth.--J. 0. Vers. 14---25.-The first pl,ague: the water turned to blood. I. THE PLACE WHERE MosEs WAS TO MEET PHA.B.AoH. Moses was not always to be put to it to find his entrance into the pa.lace. God can arrange things so that Pharaoh shall come to meet him. The instructions given to Moses at once call to our minds how Phara.oh's daughter, e.ghty years before, had come down to the river to find and protect a helpless babe, and how that saIDe babe-having passed through many chequered years, and many strange experiences at the hands both of God and men-has to meet with another Pharaoh. We are not told why Pharaoh went down to the water; it may have been to worship. Im, Vil, 14--26.] '!'HE BOOK OF EXODUS. 175