HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vers. 12-18.-The thira intercessi(J'TI,. Moses on this occasion pleads with God to restore his presence to the people. Very noteworthy a.re the steps in his entreaty. I. He veils his request under the form of a desire to know the divine intentions (ver. 12). Will God go up with them or not? God has not yet told him-will he tell him now? What, underneath this form of expression, the heart of Moses rea.lly presses for, is, of course, the assurance that God will go with them. 2. He urges the friendship God has shown him as a reason for granting his request-" Thou hast said, I know thee by name," etc. (ver. 12). 3. He entreats God to consider that Israel is his own people (ver. 13). He has chosen them; he has redeemed them; he has declared his love for them; can he bring himself now to cast them off? 4. When God at length-reading in his servant's heart the thought which he has not as yet dared openly to express- says, "My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest" (ver. 14); Moses eagerly seizes on the promise thus given him, and pleads with God to make it good. " lf thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence" (ver. 15). This, in Moses' view, is the greatest distinction of Israel, that it has God in its midst, and if this dis- tinction is withdrawn, he cares not what else remains (ver. 16). The earnestness of his entreaty secures for him a confirmation of the promise, this time given without re~ervo, For in the utterance of ver. 14, perhaps, a. certain tone of distance is still to be detected. 'l'his disappears in ver. 17. View the passage as illustrating- EXODUS-11, 2 A. ::.-,4 THE BOOK OF EXODUR. [ea. xnm. 18--'.?3.
I, 1'Im PRJVILEOEB OF FRIENDSHIP WITH Goll (vers. 12, 13). 1. Friendship with God m?'PS bnldn, .. qf approach to him.. It CR•ts 0IJt fen,r (1 ,John iv. 18). 2. Friendship with God admitB to intim~ with his ~ecrets (ver. 13). "The secret of the Lord ie "·ith them that fe11.r him" (PI!. xx:v. 14). Cf. God's words concerning Abmham-" Sbll.11 I hide from Abrnham th11.t thing which I do, f'elling thll.t AbrBbam shall surely become " greet Bnd mighty ne.tion," etc. (Gen. xviii. 17); and Christ's words to his discirles- " I call you not 1!8rvRnts; for the 1!8rvant knoweth not what bis Lord doeth: but have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I hue made knc>wn unto you" (John xv. 16). 3. The best use we can make of friendship with God ia to ittf.ereede for otMrs. So Abraham for Sodom (Gen. xviii. 23-33). So Moses here. So Daniel (De,n. ix.). So Christ for his disciples (John xvii.). Il. THE nLEIIIIINO oF Gon's PBEBENOE (vers. 14, 15). 1. God's pre1!8noo is the highest hleBlling. Nought else can be compared with it (Ps. lxxiii. 2S, 26). 2. It is the bless- ing which enriches all other bl888inga. It is that which makes earthly blessings truly worth having. They are not the ea.me to us without it as with it. 3. God's presence, going with m, invariably eonduct& to rest. Ill. TBE POWER OF PERSEVERING PB.a.YER (vers. 16, 17).--J. 0.
EXPOSITION. V015, 18-23.-Tm: BIIQtlllllT TO BICE GOD's Monnt Sinai (eh. ::rix. 18). It had been seen GLORY, AND THE REPLY TO IT, Having obt&ined with more distinctness when be was called up the full re.rteration of the people t.o God's and " went into the midst of the cloud " ( eh. iuiv. 18). But be felt, nevertheless, that be favour. Moses felt emboldened to uk a boon bad not as yet really beheld it. He longed for himself. He bad already been admitted for that ineffable blessing of the full " beatific to closer communion with God than any one vision," which is promised to us after death, of the race of m&D. since Adam in Paradise. if we die in the faith and fear of Christ (1 Cor. But what bad been gnmt.ed him, iDst.esd of xiii. 12). "Increase of appetite doth grow by what it feeds on "-and the veiled splendolllS satisfying, only made him desiro11S of some- 'that be had been allowed to see only ma.de him thing further, something claser, something hunger the more for the W1veiled radiance than which nothing more close could be that he bad not seen 88 yet. imagined. So be asks to see the unveiled Ver. 19.-1 will make all my goodness pass glory of God (ver. 18 1• Re asks, that is, t.o see before thee. It is not quite clear what this means, or bow it was fulfilled-whether the exactly that which lll&D in the flesh ca.nnot see, reference is to the revelation of God's goodness or at any rate cannot see and live. Bnt, of in eh. xxxiv. 7, or to the entire experience COU1'60, be does not know this. God, in reply, that Moses wonld have of God in bis later life. tells him he shall see all that can be seen of It is against the former view, that, if we take him-more than anything which he has seen it, we can 11.SSign to the ensuing clause no dis- tinct and separate sense. I will proclaim the Lefore. He shall see "all hls goodness "-he D&JD.e of the Lord before thee. See eh. xxxiv. shall have another revelation of the n&me of 5, 6. And I will be graoious to whom I will God (ver. 18); and, further, he shall be so be graaiona----i.e., I &D1 not bound to do all pla.eed as to see as much as •mortal IWIII can this for thee. It is of my free grace that I do behold of " hls glory "--God will pass by him, it. I intend, however, to be gracioDS, and llhow mercy to thee, because thou best found and when ~ has passed, Moses shall be allowed favour in my eyes. to look after him, and 1111e what is here called Ver. 20.-Jfo man oan see me a.nd live. •· his back." This was probably some e.fter- The inability proclaimed in these words is not tlow or reflection from the Divine glory, which an absolute inability to see God, but an in- language must have been as inadequate to de- ability to see and survive the sight. ,T11eob, when he wrestled with the angel, marvelled scribe as it was to embody the " D.DBpeakable that he conld see God, even in that interme- words " beard by St. Panl in the "third diate way, and live (Gen. xxxii. 30). It may Leaven," and declared by him" impOSllible for well be that actually to see God, while we are u Ill8.ll to ntter" (2 Cor. xii. 4). in the fiesb, would kill us Ver. 21.-Behold, there ii a plaoe by me. Ver. 18.--41hnr me thy glory. The glory No snfiicient indication is given by these of God bad been seen by Moses to a certain words, or by any other words in Scripture, of e.lW'nt, when God "descended in fire" upon the exact locality of the manifestation to <II. 111111111. }8-23.] TUE BOOK OF EXODUS. .,.- r tJ.J,J