The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 328

waR called into requisition. "All the horses o.nd chariots of Pho.mob, and his horsemen and his army" (ver. 9). Pharaoh, at the head of this glorious cavalcade, amidst thi~ sheen of weapons, must have folt himself a greater man, and would wonder anew how he could have been so befooled as to let bis slaves depart. And little, truly, to all human nppeamnce, would Israel, unpro.ctised in the use of arms, be able to accomplish ngainst this disciplined and splendidly-equipped host. Pharaoh doubtless thought he hnd the people this time securely in his grasp. It was no longer the unarmed Pharaoh of the pnlo.ce tho.t Moses had to deal with; but Pharaoh, at the head of tte thousands of Egypt, with chariots, and horses, and men of war; and who was that God tha• would be able to deliver him out of hia hand? Alas for Pharaoh, and his "pomp and circumstance of war!" It was soon to be seen what short work God can make on the earth of the proudest of his assailants, showing strength with his arm, and scattering the proud in the imagination of their hearts (Luke i. 51; cf. Is. xxxi. 3). 3. The situa- tion of the Jsraelites seemed to make them an easy prey. They were" entangled in the land" (ver. 3). This was the mainstay of Pharaoh's hopes. Israel could do nothing to resist him. Penned up like sheep for the slaughter, they could neither fight nor flee. Success was certain. III. lTs SPIRITUAL LESSON. It will readily be felt that in this pursuit of Israel by Pharaoh, we have an image-from the typical character of the history, an intender/, image-of a not uncommon experience of the Christian life. 1. We are liable to be 1,ursued by the evil from which we thought we had esroped. Whoever thinks to find it ,,therwise will live to be disappointed. Conversion-even though one has been led into Uhristian liberty with "an high hand" (ver. 8)-is not the end of spiritual conflicts. We do not escape from the power of evil without many an attempt being made on the part of the enemies of the soul to reassert their dominion over us. We have a Pharaoh in the evil of our own hearts, who, after we have left his service, will not fail to pursut, us. Another such Pharaoh we have in the world-old companions, etc. A third is the evil One himself, who lets no soul slip from his grasp, without many an attempt to recover it. This goes on to some extent throughout the whole life. Pharaoh's pursuit may be viewed as gathering up all theije separate pursuits into a single picture. 2. This experience is usually most acute and perilous shortly after conversion. Naturally, after the first breaking of the soul with sin, there comes, at a little distance, a time of recoil and reaction. Passions formerly indulged, surge back upon the heart with something of the old fury. We thought we hau got rid of them; but they return, pursuing us with a vehemence which reminds us of Pharaoh's chariots and horses, and fills us with dismay. Old habits, we thought we had broken with them for ever; but they are hack again, struggling for the mastery. The world tries all its arts to regain its former hold. Temptations- come in floods. This is the time which tests the reality of conversion, and practically decides whether God is to have us, or Satan. It is the old oxperience of Israel, entangled in the land, and pursued by Pharaoh: if we gain the victory, we shall probably see our enemies no more, _or only in greatly weakened, in semi- ghostlike forms. 3. The destruction of Pharaoh's host is the pledge of similar victories to the Church and to the individual in like crises of the:ir history. It involves the promise that wha.t God did for Israel here, he will do for us also, if we rely upon hi:3 help, every time we are spiritually tempted. Beyond this, it pledges and foreshadows the ultimate and complete defeat of all the enemies of the Church, and of the individual soul-even to that "last enemy that shall be destroyed," which is death (1 Car. xv. 26). The victory, like the pursuit, is gathered up typically into a single picture, though in actual spiritual history it is spread over lifetimes and ages. It must, however, be sorrowfully admitted that in individual cases, type and reality too often fall asunder. Who has not to mourn partial victories gained over him by the pursuing Pharaohs of the soul-victories ofttimes almost amounting to the dragging of us back to bondage? And what extensive victories have frequently been gained by evil over sections of the Church-victories which seem the very antithesis of this glorious Red Sea deliverance-~ Tbd;e, however, are but ebbings in a tide, which on the whole is on the flow, and they ,lo not touch the lesson of this incident. The pledge given in Pharaob's destruction, God will not fail to fulfil to those who seek his aid; and as to the final victory, that is , ocure, beyond all power of man to prevent it.-J. 0. Yi  (124 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [oe. xrv. 8,