~.he h)ll to 1:>8 offer~ on the 11it_ar by Abraham his father. A much nearer type is i\T,,,es, setting his face (cf. Luke 1x. 61) to ascend the mount, and hearirw in his hecirt this sublime purpose of devoting himself for the sins of the nntion. ;, Gre;,ter Inv,, hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (,John xv. 1:;). 2. The alternative d~sired. If the people must perish-this meaning also s~elln to be conveyed in the words-Moses vrnuld wish to perish with them. ;,,'ot only h:is the proposal to make of him "a. great nation" (Ex. xxxii. 10) no allurement t,,r his mind, but, if the people a.re to be destroyed, he would prefer to die with them. He desires no life outside of theirs. Patriotic devotion could no further go. Noble Moses I Yet only the type of the nobler than himself, who, devoting himself in the same spirit, has actua.lly achieved the redemption of the world. See in this incident (1) The connection of a feeling of the need of atonement with just views of sin's demerit. (2) The certainty, when just views of sin are entertained, of this feeling of the need of atonement arising. In declining the proposal of Moses, God does not say that atonement is not needed. He does not say that his servant has exaggerated the enor- mity of the sin, or the difficulties which stand in the way of its forgiveness. He does not say that it is not by means of atonement that these difficulties connected with the forgiveness of sins are ultimately to be removed. On the contrary, the spirit of Moses in this transaction is evidently in the very highest degree pleasing to Jehovah, and so far as atonement is made for the people's sins, it is by Jehovah accepting the spirit of his SBCrifice, even when rejecting the proposal in its letter. (3) The =turalness of this method of salvation. The proposal sprang naturally from the love of Moses. It expressed everything that was grandest in his character. It shadowed forth a way in which, conceivably, a very true satisfaction might be offered to Divine justice, while yet mercy was extended to the sinner. The fulfilment of the prophecy is the Cross. III. THE REPLY Gll'EN. 1. The atcmement is declined in its letter. God declares that so far as there is to be any blotting from the book of life, it will be confined to those who have sinned. It may be noted, in respect to this declinature of the proposal of Moses that, as above remarked, it does not proceed on the idea that atonement is not needed, but (1) Moses could not, even by his immolation, have made the atonement required. (2) God, in his secret counsel, had the true sacrifice provided. (3) .Atone- ment is ina.d.m.issible on the basis proposed, viz. that the innocent should be " blotted out from the book of life." Had no means of salvation presented itself but this, the world must have perished. Even to redeem sinners, God could not have consented to the" blotting from his book" of the sinless. The difficulty is solved in the atonement of the Son, who dies, yet rises again, having made an end of sin. No other could have offered this atonement but himself. 2. While declining the atcmement in its letter, God accepts the spirit of it. In this sense Moses, by the energy of his self-devotion, does make atonement for the sins of Israel. He procures for them a reversal of the sentence. Further intercession is required to make the reconciliation complete. 3. God makes known his purpose of visiting the people for their sin (ver. 34). The meaning is- (1) That the sin of the people, though for the present condoned. would be kept in mind in reckoning with them for future transgressions. (2) That such a day of reckoning would come. God, in the certainty of his foreknowledge, sees its approach.-J. 0.
EXPOSITION. had been introduced into the conditions under CHAPTER xxxm. which the future journeys were to be made, Vers. 1-6.-THE THREAT OF Goo's WITH- somewha.t obscurely indicated in the words DRAWAL, AND THE HUMILIATION OF THE -" Behold, mine angel shall go before thee " PEOPLE. The intercession of Moses, and his (ibid.}-which was now to be more distinctly offer to sacrifice himself for his people had ob- set forth. " God's angel " may mean his tained from God some great concessions, viz. Presence in the Person of his Son-us it -1. That the people's lives should be spared appears to mean in eh. JL'liii. 20-23-or it (eh. xxxii.14); 2. And that they should be led may mean simply one of the created angelic into Palestine (ibid. ver. 3·1) But a c.Jw host. wr'·" •eem• •~ "~ its sense in eh. xx.xii 'l'HE BOOK OF EXODUS. [cR. xxxm. 1-ll.