111. THE WAY IN WRICH Goo SIGNIFIES HIMSELF TO BE THE CONTROLl,ER OF VICTORY. Moses knows right well that after all preparations, the victory must come from Jehovah. He sets the discriminating Joshua to lead a chosen and competent army aaainst A.malek a.s if everything depended upon them, and yet at the same time he remen'.;bers that God must be glorified in the very best of human preparations. God will have us to honour him by our very best, and yet our very best must be considered as no more than the humble channel of his power. We must not suppose, because it pleases God in his wisdom, to put the excellency of his treasure into earthen vessels, that we are at liberty to offer him anything which first comes to hand. And then Moses, having done his best in the choice of meaus, takes his conspicuous position on the hill, to cheer his fighting friends with the sight of the lifted rod. Through the lifting of that rod the energies of victory were to flow into the bodies of Israel's warriors. To A.malek the sight of Moses told nothing. They knew nothing of the significance of the rod, and may rather have wondered why he should stand so long in this position of constraint. But Israel, we cannot doubt, quickly discerned the significance of their leader's attitude and the close connection between the lifted hand and the progress towards victory. The lesson for us is the oft taught one, that while God would have us to laboYr strenuously and bear the heat and burden of the day in all the inevitable conflicts of life, we must do it with the remembrance that victory really comes from him. We are only strong, as Paul felt he was, by the strength which Christ puts into us.-Y. Vers. 8-16.-Victory throughfaith.-I. IN THE WAllFARE OF FAITH, PR.I.YER AND EFFORT MUST BE JOINED TOGETHER. 1. Arrangements are carefully made for both. (1) Men are picked out for a battle, and Joshua desc~nds with them into the valley. (2) Moses, with Aaron and Hur, climbs to the hill-top with the rod of God in his hand. 2. Joshua discomfited Amalek with the edge of the sword; but the battle was for or against Israel, as Moses' hands were lifted up in strong supplication or hung down in weariness. (1) To pray without using means is to mock God. (2) To use means without prayer is to depise God. II. Ams TO PREVAILING PRAYER. 1. The remembrance of past deliverances and services. Moses takes the rod of God in his hand. 2. The union of many hearts : he sat on the hill-top in sight of Israel. 3. Friendly help in weakness. .Aaron and Hur hold up the wearied hands. Ill. IN THE VICTORY OF TBE RIGHTEOUS, A YET FURTHER TRIUMPH L~ PROMISED. The promise is recorded in the book that that against which they war shall be swept from under heaven. IV. THE GRATITUDE OF THE REDEEMED IN THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH. The monument of victory is an altar and its name Jehovah-Nissi.-U.
SECTION XII.-CHAPTER XVIII. JETHRO's VISIT TO MOSES.
EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XVIII. Moses. (The Hebrew word used, as already Ver. 1-12.-JETHRO's VISIT TO MOSES. It observed, bes both meanings.) Jethro gave has been noticed, in the comment on eh. iv., protection to his sister and her children until the.t shortly after the circumcision of Eliezer, he heard of the p~e of the Red Sea, wheo Moses' second ~on, he sent back his wife, he set forth to meet and congratulate his Zipporah, to her own kinsfolk, the Midianites, kinsman, and to coovey back to him his wife together with her two sons, Eliezer and and his sons. The meeting took place '· at Gershom. Reuel, Zipporah's father, 'l'&S then the mount of God" (verse 5), or in th~ nea.r dead (eh. iii. 1), and had been succeeded in viciuity of Sinai, probably in some part of the his priesthood and headship of the tribe by plain Er-RahtLh, which extends for live miles, Jethro, probably his son, and therefore the or more, to the north-west of the Siuaitic brother-in-law, and not the father-in-law, of mountain-group EXODUS-II, Q 82 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [en. XVIII, 1-12.