The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 348

Ver. 22.- We wallc by faith, not by sight. The great mistake of most people is, that they trUBt too much to their own eyes. They will not take into consideration anythin"' th11t lies beyond the field of sensible experiences. Now God and his eternity, ~hou"'h IDlll1ifosted in this field, are practically outside it; the spiritual eyesight is more reliable than the physical, because that which it sees is safer to rely upon. Natural sight shows us obstacles, spiritual sight shows us how they may be surmounted. 'fry to walk by the one and you must stand still ; try to walk by the other and nothing can long keep you standing. Notice here:- I. FAITH'S SECRET. The story illustrates this; it shows us :-1. Wnat the Israelites saw. Their position looked bad enough. Behind were the hosts of Pharaoh; before, the sea. They were shut in. Trusting only to their eyes they could hardly do other than despair (xiv. 10-13). Better to have been "let alone" in Egypt, than thus delivered, to be destroyed in the wilderness. A clear head, if the heart be faint, is not much help to any man. 2. What Moses saw. He was in the same position as the people whom he led, yet he could see more than they did. He looked not merely before and behind, he looked also up to God. Faith enabled him to ignore sight, and inspired him to encourage his sight-fascinated followers. Soon the word came which justified his faith, obstacles were nothing, let them wait the word of command and then "go forward." Often difficulties seem to surround us-no way of escape anywhere visible. Even so faith can sight the way, for faith can sight God who sees it. Stand still, wait his word; refuse to allow that for those who trust him any difficulties can be insurmountable. Faith would not be of much good were there no obstacles to test it. Faith is not of much good if it cannot learn to ignore obstacles. II. FAITH'S SUCCESS. The path of faith not merely leads out of danger, it turns dangers into safeguards and transforms them into a protection for those who tread it. When the word came " Go forward," the waters no longer "shut in" the Israelites; instead :-1. They protected them during their passage. The Egyptians could but follow, they could not circumvent. "The waters were a wall unto them" on either side; no wall could have been more impregnable. 2. They secured them against the fury of their pursuers. Israel once across, the waters returned, overwhelming the armies of the enemy. So too faith, facing the flood, found that waters which drowned the world upheld the ark and floated it in safety. So too faith, facing the waters of death, finds that though they overwhelm the unready they float the faithful into a safe harbour. So too with all difficulties, faced in faith, they are our best helpers. " The hand of the diligent" not only" maketh rich," it cleaves a way for him through the sea of difficulty, and leaves his pursuers, sloth, ignorance, all the deadly sins, overwhelmed and swallowed up behind him. III. F AITH's STIU!:NGTH. How comes faith to do all this? It is not faith that dpes it, but the God in whom faith trusts. Nothing is impossible to faith, because nothing is impossible to God. The Egyptians are sure of their prey; the Israelites are sure of destruction ; because, whilst reckoning with what sight sees, they fail to reckon with the unseen God, Moses is sure of safety because he is sure of God, a.nd knows that ha is more than a match for all the seeming tyranny of circumstances. Application. How many people are shut in, faithless and discouraged before some sea of difficulty ! " I cannot do this," " I cannot do that," and yet no progress is possible until I not merely can but do. "0 ye of little faith, wherefore will ye doubt!·' " I cnnnot ;" no, but God can; and what he bids you do that he will strengthen you to do Don't stand facing the difficulties, but face the God who is above them and beyond them. "Stand still and wait" until the word comes, but when the word does come_ •Go fonvlll'd" (cf. 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10).-0.  EXPOSITION. Vere. 23-31. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE expressions, where they mean to give the EoYP'I'I.ANI!. As the rea.rgua.rd of the Israelite general fact or general result. The trne host having entered the traet from which the meaning is, that the pnnmit altogether failed. waten; had retired, proceeded a.long it, and Not an Egyptian made hie way alive across left the western end of the iBthm118 VIICllllt, the strait. All that the Israelites ever saw t.he pillar of the clond eeems to have followed afterwa.rds of the army that they had so much it up and witl>drawn with it. The Egyptians dreaded (ver. 10) was a ghastly mass of immediately advanced. Notwithstanding the corpses thrown up by the tide on the Asiatic preternatural darkness, they had become awa.re, shore (ver. 30). perhaps by means of their ea.re, of the move- ment that wa.s ta.king place, and with early Ver. 23. - All Pha.raoh's horses, hL dawn they were under a.rms and pressing on oh&riots, and his horsemen. Here, as else- the line of the Israelite retreat. They fonnd where, the word translated II horsemen" pro- bably means the men who rode in the chariots. the channel still dry, and ha.stily entering it Observe that the Pharaoh himself is not said with their cha.riot force, they hurried forward to have gone in. Menephtha.h was apt to in pursuit. The first check which they re- avoid placing himself in a position of danger ceived wa.s "'holly stipernatnra.l. " The Lord (Beoords of the Past, vol. iv. pp. 44, 45). Nor looked unto the host of the Egyptians through is any of the infantry said to have entered the bed of the sea. the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled Ver. 24.-In the morning watoh. The the host of the Egyptians" (ver. 24), Details "morning watch" of the Hebrews at this here are wanting ; but less cannot be meant, period of their history lasted from 2 a.m. to than that eome strange phenomena connected sunrise. Sunrise in Egypt, ea.rly in April, with the retiring " pillar " caused a panic and would take place about a quarter to six. 'Ihe Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians, threw the ranks of the army into conf118ion. The description in Ps. lxxvii. 17, 18, is gene- Then followed natural impediments. The rally regarded a.s belonging to this point in Lord " took off," or " clogged " their cha.riot the narrative of the Exodus, and may be con, wheels, and IllJlde them go heavily-i.e., the sidered as the traditional exposition of it chariot wheels, not by miracle, bnt by the " The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound ; thine arrows also went abroad operation of God's natnral laws, sank into the the voice of thy thunder was in the heavens soft sand over which the Israelites had passed the lightning lightened the world ; the earth easily, having no wheeled vehicles, and the trembled and shook." As Josephus says- chariots were consequently dragged forward " Showers of rain came down from the sky, slowlv and with difficulty. The double hin- and dreadful thunders and lightning, with fta.shes of fire ; thunderbolts also were darted dre.nc"e. from the confusion and the stoppage of upon them ; nor was there anything, wont to the c~ots, so discouraged the Egyptia.ns, be sent by God upon men as indications of his that after a time they resolved on bee.ting a wrath, which did not happen upon this occa- retreat (ver. 25). They had set out on their sion" (.Ant. Jud. ii. 16, § 3). And troubled retam, when Moses, at God's instance, the host. Or "disturbed the host," i.e.," threw it into confusion" (11v11e.-cf.pa{,, LXX.). stretched forth lus hand once more over the Ver. 25. - And took oft' their chariot sea, and the waters on both sides began at wheels. The Sept. has "clogged the axles once to return. The Egyptians saw their of their chariots ; " bnt this is from a reading danger, and "fled against" the advancing not at present found in the Hebrew MSS tide, rs.cing against it, a.s it were, and seeking Most modem commentators, however, prefer the reading, which gives a good sense; whereas to reach the shore. But in vain. The waves the existing text is unintelligible. As Kalisch came on rapidly, and (in the language of observes, " if the wheels of the chariots had ver. 28) there was not a man of a.ll those who been broken off, the chariots would not have had entered the dry bed of the sea tha.t was moved at a.ll." That they drove them not overwhelmed and drowned in the waters. heavily. The marginal rendering," and made them go heavily," is preferable. The whe~ls We should be ,nong to press this language no doubt sank into the sand up to the axle&, to th~ extreme letter In graphic narrative and were with difficulty extricated, age.in to the sacred writers uniformly employ universal sink a few yards further on Progress wu ull. XIV. 23 -:a] 'l'HE BOOK OF ~XOIJliS. 34 r-)