The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 261

of condemnation, and as to the channel through which alone redeeming grace could flow to them, II. TUE WITIIDTIA wAL OF MosEs, "Moses went out from Pharaoh in a great anger" (ver. 8). 1. There are occasions on which it is lawful to be angry. This was one of them. He would have been a man utterly without soul wno would not have been roused to indignation by the towering pride and extraordinary ingratitude and faithless- ness of Pharaoh, not to speak of the insults he was heaping on Jehovah, anrl the violence threatened against Moses himself. 2. The meekest nature is that whfrh, on proper occasions, is capable of the most burning and vehement anger. On the relation of the anger of Moses to his meekness, see Homily on eh. ii. 12. Another example is found in the apostle John-the apostle of love. The highest example of all is the Son of Man, "meek and lowly in heart," yet capable of terrible and scathing wrath -" the wrath of the Lamb" (Matt. xi. 29; Mark iii. 5; Rev. vi. 16, 17). III. A SUMMING UP (vers. 9, 10). The conclusion of the series of plagues having been reached, and negotiations with Pharaoh having been finally broken off, Moses sums up the results. The notable point is, that it was all as the Lord had said. It had been foretold that Pharaoh would not hearken, and neither had he hearkened ; but his hardening had been the occasion of God's multiplying his wonders in the land of Egypt. The climax of the hardening was reached under this last warning. Infuriated by his passion, Pharaoh appears to have paid no heed to it. Yet the fact that he did not, illustrates a point already dwelt upon-the tendency of hardening against God to involve the whole moral nature, extending at last to the destruction even of the natural affections. We have seen how reckless Pharaoh had become of the well-being of his subjects (eh. x. 7). See him now perilling the life of his own son, not to speak of the lives of the first-born throughout the whole land, that he may be spared the humiliation of submitting to Jehovah I Perilling, even, is too weak a word, for expe- rience bad taught him that God's threatenings in no case went unfulfilled. "Sacrificing,. would be the more proper term. Even to this length was Pharaoh ultimately driven by his enmity against God, and his example remains as a. melancholy warning to ourselves.---J. 0. Chap. xi. vers. 4-10; chap. xii. vers. 29-36.-The tenth plague and its decisive result-the destruction of the first-born. In eh. x. 29, Moses says to Pharaoh, " I will see thy face again no more," while in eh. xi. 4---8, he is represented as making to Pharaoh an announcement of the last plague. Perhaps the best way of cleanng this apparent contradiction is to suppose that in the narrative as it originally stood there was really no break between eh. x. 29 and eh. xi. 4, and that the three intervening verses were afterwards introduced in some way which we cannot now explain. So taking the narrative, all is made straightforward and additionally impressive. Moses followed up his intimation that Pharaoh should see his face no more, with a· statement which plainly showed the reason why. No more would he come into Pharaoh's presence uninvited by Pharaoh, simply because there would no more be need to do so. Jehovah was about to deal the last blow without any human instrumentality whatever. J. TRY TO ESTIMATE SOMEWHAT OF THE. COMBINATION OF FOilCES IN THIS LAST PLAGUE, wmcH MADE IT so EFFECTIVE FOR ITS PURPOSE. 1. There was the hour chosen ----1nidnight. It was not like the rest of the plagues, which extended over a more or less period of time; but, being a momentary blow, the most impressive moment could be chosen for striking it. This was midnight, the time of security, repose, and deep silence. Each family was gathered together under its own roof; not separated, as might have been the case during the day, each one at his appointed work. 'There was no bustle of business, as there might have been at noon, to help in drowning and quali- fying the horror of the transacti?n. 2. There was an element of peculiar f<YT'ce in the very class of persons who were smitten. Not only had Jehovah advanced to take away the lives of human beings, but he had directed his destructions, with evident and une1Ting purpose, upon one particular class. The destruction was not as a mere deci- mation, the taking of one out of so many, it mattered not who, so long as one was taken. In every household it was the first-born who lay dead. No regard was shown to personal character or special circumstances. All the first-born were stricken, the virtuous as well as th:i vicious; the amiable, promising youth from whom much. w11,3  Zii1 THE DOOK OF EXODUS. :on, x1. 1-10,