The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 186

1<eparated in many 'l'l'RY6 &.~ hy the l:rnrl of t.heir rlwellinj!;, their n11t.ional institutions, their wor•hip, their perF10no.l rite of circ11mci~ion; but sep1m1.tion, with R.ll its rigours and all the penaltie~ for neglecting it., ('oulrl never become isolation. Holemnly indeed were the people enjoined to drh·e out the CanRAnites, and trample down all idolatry; but there still remained the fact, that by a certR.in Divine and glorious necessity, etrangers were t-0 come into con•iderahle intercourse with them. That strangers should have been drawn to them '\\•hen they settled in their fertile home was only likely; but this must 1111.,e happened t-0 some extent e,cn before. We may be perfectly certain, considering the a1rnlngie~ of after generations e.nd whe.t we re&d of proselytism in the New 'l'esta- ruent, that from the very first there must have been some with the proselyte disposition ii. them. Few perhaps of this sort were to be found in the mixed multitude coming out of Egypt-but still there were some. The Lord. knoweth them that are his. If there are those of whom John might say, "They went out from us because they were not of us," so there are t,hoRe of 'l'l·hom the Church may ever say, "They come to us because they are of us." For such God lovingly and amply provided from the first, even when the~· came with all the disadvantages and difficulties of strangers to contend against. '!'here is in this very injunction, a foreshadowing of the power and attractiveness to which Israel in due time would riee, though as yet it was but a fugitive people without, discipline and without coherence. Strangers in their need were even now drawn to Israel and would be drawn still more, just as years ago their needy ancestor and his children were drawn to Egypt because of the corn that was there. II. THE STRONG TEMPTATION TO TREAT THESE FOREIGNERS BADLY. There is a very melancholy picture of human inconsistency here presented. Liberated slaves, forgetting the horrors of their own servitude, treat with like cruelty those exposed to the oppor. tunity of that cruelty. Men soon forget their past condition. Israel, we see, forgot the horror of their own Egyptian experiences in two ways. 1. They lusted after the flesh-pots of Egypt. 2. '!'hey failed in sympathy for the foreigners among themselves. When we have possessions a.nd power a.nd thus get the chance of domination, we are only too ready to treat foreigners either as interlopers wishing to spoil us, or tools fitted to increase our possessions. The world, alas l is always abounding in a great number of the feeble a.nd unfortunate, of whom it is only too easy to take adva.ntage. More than one class of these are mentioned in this chapter, and among them we see that the foreigner occupies a conspicuous place. The stranger is the man without friends; he comes into a place where the very things that profit the knowing are traps and snares for the ignorant. Consider the difficulties of a foreigner planted down in the midst of a huge city like London, a place of dangers a.nd difficulties even for an Englishman who is thrown into it for the first time, a.nd bow much more for one whom ignorance of the language makes doubly strange I Blanco White, who it will be remembered was an exile from his native land of Spain. gives as an instance of Shakespeare's surprising knowledge of the huma.n mind a.nd heart "the passage in which he describes the m~ani-' tude of the loss which a man banished from his country has to endure by living among those who do not understand his native language." The words are those put into the mouth of Mowbray Duke of Norfolk, on his banishment by Richard II. "The language I he.ve leam'd these forty yee.rs, My 118.tive English, now I must forego. And now my t.ongue's 1160 is t.o me no more Than an nnstringed viol or a harp, Or like a cllJIILing instrument cased up Or, being open, put int.o his hands That knows no t.ouch t.o tune the harmony : Within my mouth you he.ve engaoled my t.ongue, Doubly port.cullis'd with my teeth and lips; And dull unfeeling b&JTeu ignorance ls made my gaoler to attend on me." If this be so, the stra.nger's feeling~ are some index to the temptatwns of those among whom he is cast. There may not be downright robbery, but there are tricks of trnde, extortionate charcres on pretence of making hay while the sun shines ; in short there are e.U sort~ of buma; foxes ever on the watch to catch the ignorant, the innocent, and th11 en. xxn. 22-24.] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 197