The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 253

11aid, "We know not with what we must serve the Lord, until we come thither.• He had been sent to Pharl\Oh to demand all, and he could take nothing less. Interesting questions arise here, but there is no information by which we can answer them. Pharaoh called to Moses (ver. 24)-but how came they together in this dense darkness 1 or was it that Moses waited there in the darkness these three days? 'l'hcn when Pharaoh spoke, did the darkness Rt once begin to pass away? \Ve must almost assume that it did, the purpos_e of. its _co~ing having been served. the moment Pharaoh is got another step onward m his y1eldmg. But on all these pomts we have no direct infor- mation. clehovah now hastens the rc.aders of the narrative to the final catastrophe. \\'here we, in our curiosity, desire JJarticulars, he omits, in order that he may be particular and exact in matters of abiding import.'l.nce. He is presently to speak of the Passo'l"cr with great minuteness. Details of future and continuous duty are of more moment than mere picturesque embellishments of a passing judgment on Egypt. Thus we arc left to infer that the darkness bad vanished when for the last time Pharaoh refused to let Israel go. And it must be admitted that there was evervthina in the in.flexible answer of Moses to make Pharaoh, being such a man as he was~ equally inflexible. "Th~re shall not a hoof b~ left behind." Israel moves altogether, if it moves at all. ThlS was a v_ery exasperatmg way for a despot to be spoken to, especially one who felt that he had yielded so much. Indeed, it must have been very astonishing to him to reflect how far he had gone in a path where once it would have seemed ridiculous to suppose that he could take a single step. But now once again be says- in the same reasonless, passionate way that has marked him all along-" Not a step further." ~ After nine plagues he is still the same man at heart. The slightest provoca- tion, and his ,pride is all a.flame, more sensitive than gunpowder to the spark. Nay, most marvellous of all, from the depth of nine successive humiliations he begins to threaten Moses with death. Surely this was the very quintessence of passion and blind rage. The only parallel we can find for it is in the furious, final rush of some great, i;a.vage brute, maddened by the shots of the hunter, and making recklessly towards him. What gains he by this advance? He simply comes within easy reach, and another shot from the same weapon, held with perfect coolness and control, lays him dead in the dust. The saddest part of the reflection on Pha.raoh's career is, that it gives the essence of so many human lives beside. The hand with which God would clear our corruption away-were we on.iy willing for it to be cleared-Btirs it up into a more self-destroying energy and efficacy, if we in our perversity and ignorance determine that the corruption should remain..-Y. Ver. 21.-A darkness which might be felt suggests the existence of a darkness which is not felt. Consider : - I. THE UNFELT DARD.'"ESS. . [ fllustration. Stream in summer on sunny day reflects sun, sky, &c. Contrast with condition in winter, hard, dull, icebound; it has har~ned and no longer rejl,ects. If it could be conscious, still flowing on, it might not feel much di1ference, scarcely aware of the strange casing shutting it out from warmth ar.d beauty.] Pharaoh and his people, like the stream, once had light (cf. John i. 9; Rom. i. 19, 20). Then" hardened their hearts." So self-conditioned them that beneath God's influence they could not but harden (L 1). The hard heart, like the hard ice-coating, shuts out the light and ensures darkness (Rom. i. 21), none the less such darkness not felt (cf. Epb. iv. 17, 18). A terrible judgment, moral darkness, usually resulting from a man's own fault ; little by little i_t gr?w~ and deepens _until it shuts out ~ot me~ely liuht, but even the memory of va.wshea light (cf. John u:. 39-41). The 1m.med1ate p~ecursor of ruin, that "quenching of the Spirit," which paves the way for "blasphemy." II. THE DABJD.'EIIS THAT WAS FELT. Pharaoh would not recognise Jehovah. He shut out the light from him and gloried in his moral darkness. Again and again did Jehovah flash home the truth of his existence to hearts which seemed al.most judgment proof. Ea.eh new judgment was but followed by deeper darkness, the era.ck through which light seemed to pierce being deliberately blocked up when the fright was over. Self-chosen moral darkness is met by God-sent physical darkness; the darkness of the tempest, the darkness of the locust clouds, lastly, the concentrated darkness of this ninth plague. Through all, the object is to pierce and, if it may be, dispel the moral en. xr. 1-3.] TUE BOOK OF EXODUS.