EXPOSITION. Vers. 24-25.-Necessity is the mother of Ver. 24.-All the Egyptians digged. Not invention. Finding the Nile water continue the Hebrews. The water stored in the houses utterly undrinkable, the Egyptians bethought of the Hebrews in reservoirs, cisterns. o.nd the like, wo.s (it would seem) not vitiated; a.nd themselves of e. means of obtaining water to this would suffice for the consumption of which they never hnd recourse in ,ordinllrY seven days. W&ter to drink. Blood would times. This wo.s to dig pits or wells at some not become water by percolation through distance from the river, o.nd so obtain the earth, o.s Co.non Cook appears to think moisture that lo.y in the ground, no doubt (' Speaker's Commentary,' vol. i. p. 278) ; but there might have been sufficient water in the derived from the river origino.lly, but already ground before the plague began, to fill the there before the change of the water into wells dug, for seven days. blood took plo.ce. This, it appears, remained Ver. 25.-And seven days were fulfilled. water, o.nd wo.s drinkable, though probably This note of time 1w been regarded o.s merely not very agreeable, since, owing to the nitrous fixing the interval between the first plague quality of the soil in Egypt, well-water has a.nd the second. But it is more natural to regard it o.s marking the duration of the first always a bitter o.nd bro.ckish taste. It sufficed, plague. The intervo.ls between one plague however, for drink,ing o.nd culinary purposes 11nd another a.re nowhere estimated. during the II seven days " that the plague con- tinued (ver. 25).
HOMILETICS. Ver. 24.-God allows men to seek and obtain alleviations of his judgments. We are not intended to sit down under the judgmeuts of God, and fold our hands, and do nothing. Whether it be war, or pestilence, or famine, or any other Heaven-sent calamity that comes upon us for our sins and those of our nation, we must beware of sinking into arathy under the infliction, cmd allowing it simply to run its course. God EXODUS. N 178 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [OH, VII, 1-26,
doeH not desire that we should show our submission in this way. He gives ils thought, and ingenuity, and inventiveness, that►in every difficulty we may devise remedies, mid 1<0 lessen our own and our neighbours' sufferings. Oriental nations view each calamity that comes upon them ru; Kismet, "fate," and make no exertions to meet it, stom it, minimise it. ChristiRns should act otherwise. They should so far imitate the Egyptians ns to set to 'll"ork Rctivcly, to do what can be done in the way of relief and alleviation. God freely allow8 this. He did not punish the Egyptians for digWng, or frustrate their efforts b.,· prc,·enting the WRter tlrnt wa.s in the ground from filling tho wells, or by rendering it, undrinkable. • And so he :tllows cholera or plague, or even ordinary sickness, which is his judgment on,an individual, to bo met by care, attention, cleanli- ness. remedial measures, and is so far from interfering a,,crainst such exertions, that he blesses them, and for the most part renders them effectual.
HOMILIES BY VAmous AUTHORS. Chaps. vii.-x.-The great conflict. "For I will at this tinle send all my plagues," ek,.: Ex. ix. 14. Keeping the last tremendous visitation apart, for it stands out in lone grandeur in the story, it is well to take the other nine plagues together in any homiletic• use we make of them ; for-1. They have many features in common. 2. .And are closely connected with one another. A landscape should not be cut llJ), when we can see at a sweep the whole panorama. 'l'he subject, then, is Jehova.h's conflict with this great idolatrous world-power. I. THE AGENT. What was Moses? Whe.t was his Divine legation? 1. He was a patriot-deUverer, ranking with Tell, Bruce, etc. etc., as the saviour of his nation-but more! 2. A statesman-the creator (under God) of first-a. polity, and then a nation. He taught free men to govern themselves, under God. But Moses was more 1 3. A prophet of the living God. Moses was intensely religious. He ranks with the greatest spiritual leaders of the world. His peer is Elijah, though Elijah was not quite equal. So great are they both that they appear on 'l'abor with the transfigured Lord. Goel, eternity, the soul, law, salvation, religion are tJ:ie master motives of this great spirit. All that Moses was besides is to be traced to this deep root. 'l'he lesson is obviollll: religion first-then the things that accompany salvation. lL llis DEEDS. L Their hi-stone reality. Two facts certain-{!) Israel in Egypt. (2) Israel in Canaan. The historic problem is: How was the. transition made? (1) Kings are not in the habit of emancipating races (note! apparent exceptions-William ill. and Revolution of 1688. Emancipation of serfs by the Russian Czar. Lincoln and the freedom of the four millions of slaves.) (2) Israel never won its own freedom. Nor (3) was Egypt overthrown by a foreign power, and so in the confusion Israel emerged to liberty. (4) The Deliverer was God, and the mode, that described in the book. 2. Their exact 'Tl,(1,ture. Exposition here of the miracles seriatim, with a.careful note of the specialities of each. This as a foundation for the discussion of the question: Were the plagues natural or supernatural? They were either (L) natural; or (2) supernatural ; or (3) natural in kind, but supernatural in degree, in circumstances and in concomitants. See eh. L 12, 19 ; xiv. 21. Our view is the !ast. But that the visitations were direct from the hand of God is clear fron:.-{l) Their colossal propor- tions. (2) Their concentration upon one epoch. (3) Their relation to the moral controversy. (4) Their gradation. (5) Dependence on the word of Moses. [On the evidential value of the pla.,,,crues, see 'Speaker's Co=entary,' voL i. 241.J 3. Their objective. This word here used in a military sense. What was the llivine object in these visitations? To hurl thunderbolts against the idolatries of Egypt : Ex. :xii. 12. For detail, see Dr. Alexander's Kitto's Cyc!o.,,p. 751, voL i. 4. Their superiority to the acts of the magicians. Full discussion of the questions-What the magicians really did, and how they did it, will bo found in the Congregational Lectures by Rev. Walter Scott, of Airedale College, on" The Existence of Evil Spirits," 145-156. The conclusion, sustained by a.rgument, is that they were adepts in sleight of hand. But, for homiletic purposes, show the grandeur of the scale on which Moses acted, and the imposing character of hie deeds as a moral demonstration to the idolaters of Egypt. 5. Their climaderic character. When God deale with sinners, he begins afar en. vr1. 1--25.] THE DOOK OF EXODUS. 179