The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 14

signs that were also great benefits and jud<1ments. Fresh from the miraculous passa<1e aJJ<~ wit.ii the destruction of Pharaoh's host ;c.'\rcely faded from their eyes, these sincrers°of praise ,·ery fitly ask, Who is like to Jehovah, glorious in holiness, fearful in p~aiscs doing wonders ? I. GLORIOus IN HOLTh""ESS. Some word is needed to indicate the distinction between deity and all lesser existence, and that word we find in "holiness.'' Hence holiness and m·en some sort of glory in their holiness might be attributed to all the rrods. All places and symbols associated with them would be approached with scrupulo~s venera- tion and only too often with abject terror. But who had such holiness as Jehovah possessed? We may take the question as running-" Whose glory in holiness is like unto thine?" Then, sta!lding in our position as Christians, with the light we thus enjoy, and considering all the conceptions of Deity which our present knowled<"e of the world, in all lands and through past ages, supplies, we can put this questi;n with a richness of meaning which was not possible to Moses or to his brother Israelites. Consider the deities of the Grecian and Roman mythology-for with that we are perhaps best acquainted--or any deities the wide world over, either among barbarous peoples or ciYilised; and then consider the Jehovah of the Hebrew Scriptures, the God who revealed himself more fully and in due time by his Son. Look how the worship of an idolater drags him down. Think of the unutterable prostitution and sensualities connected with certain idolatries. Think of those miserable parents in whom idolatry had so destroyed natural affection that they could cause their sons and daughters to pass through the fire to Moloch. Many a.re rigorous, fanatical and even furious in their religion, who yet show by their lives that th~y care nothing for great duties; their religion, alas! seems to make them worse instead of better. How great, then, is the privilege of him who has indeed come to perceive that Jehovah is glorious in holiness! He is light, and in him is no darkness at all. He is love-such love as is set forth in John iii. 16. His wrath is revealed a,_,<>ainst all unrighteousness of men. The very nation that he chose, sanctified and cherished, he made to be "scattered and peeled," because it would not do righteousness according to his will What a cheering and inspiring thing t-0 turn from t1e inspection of our own hearts with its dismal results, and from our observation of the seething ~elfishness of the world., to think of the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ! For Christ moves before us in the beauty of holiness, a great, attractive, rebuking reality ; and we know that as is the Son, so is the Father; as is the visible and Incarnate One, so is the in,isible aud purely spiritual Jehovah above. It is through the Son we know the Father; and it is everything to feel that he is not a mere imagination. He is dra,1ing us to himself; so that as he is glorious in the holiness of the Uncreated and Pure, S-O we, even though sadly fallen, may become glorious in the holiness of the restored and the perfected. We have yet to sing the new song from those who are glorious in the holiness of matured S-Onship to him who is glorious in the holiness of our Father in heaven. ll. FEARFUL n. PRAISES. Though this expression is beyond exact definition, yet it is obvious that a certain way of understanding it is appropriate to the present occasion • .Jeho,ah is a God to be praised for his terrible doings. It is part of his very holiness that he makes that holiness to be respected by his treatment of those who presump- tuously despise it. If he be not approached with reverence and obeyed with prompti- tude, and from the heart, he can make the irreverent ones to feel the evil consequences. He i~ not one to make claims which he cannot authenticate and enforce. was not as the priest of some foreign deity, with empty pomp, that M s came forth before Pharaoh, trusting by a great show to terrify • m into acquiescence. There is mani- /eskd power; power so widespread and vanous in its manifestations, so overwhelming in its concluding operations, that e\'en the most ignorant can appreciate it. If God is not loved, he must be feared ; if his good and perfect gifts a.re not accepted, then his visi- tations of perfect and holy wrath must take their place. The mercies for which lsra.el Laa now to praise JehoYah were such as could not be sung without recounting an awful story. Nor must we ever shrink from dwelling on such scenes when needed. \Ve must praise God for his severity to the wicked, as much as for anything cl~e. We could not truly praise him for his love, unless we were also able to praise him for his wrath. ell. XV. 1-21.] TIIE BOOK OF EXom;s.