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Introduction
to Exodus
This summary of the book of Exodus provides information about the title,
author(s), date of writing, chronology, theme, theology, outline, a brief
overview, and the chapters of the Book of Exodus.
"Exodus" is a Latin word derived from Greek Exodos, the name given to
the book by those who translated it into Greek. The word means
"exit," "departure" (see Lk
9:31; Heb 11:22). The name was retained by the Latin
Vulgate, by the Jewish author Philo (a contemporary of Christ) and by the
Syriac version. In Hebrew the book is named after its first two words, we'elleh shemoth
("These are the names of"). The same phrase occurs in Ge 46:8, where it likewise introduces a list of the names of
those Israelites "who went to Egypt with Jacob" (1:1).
Thus Exodus was not intended to exist separately, but was thought of as a
continuation of a narrative that began in Genesis and was completed in
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The first five books of the Bible are
together known as the Pentateuch (see Introduction to Genesis: Author and Date
of Writing).
Several statements in Exodus indicate that Moses wrote certain
sections of the book (see 17:14; 24:4;
34:27). In addition, Jos
8:31 refers to the command of Ex 20:25 as having been "written in the Book of the Law
of Moses." The NT also claims Mosaic authorship for various passages in
Exodus (see, e.g., Mk 7:10; 12:26
and NIV text notes; see also Lk 2:22-23). Taken together, these references
strongly suggest that Moses was largely responsible for writing the book of
Exodus -- a traditional view not convincingly challenged by the commonly held
notion that the Pentateuch as a whole contains four underlying sources (see
Introduction to Genesis: Author and Date of Writing).
According to 1Ki
6:1 (see note there), the exodus took place 480 years before
"the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel." Since that year was
c. 966 b.c., it has been traditionally held that the exodus occurred c. 1446.
The "three hundred years" of Jdg 11:26 fits comfortably within this time span (see
Introduction to Judges: Background). In addition, although Egyptian chronology
relating to the 18th dynasty remains somewhat uncertain, some recent research
tends to support the traditional view that two of this dynasty's pharaohs,
Thutmose III and his son Amunhotep II, were the pharaohs of the oppression and
the exodus respectively (see notes on 2:15,23; 3:10).
On the other hand, the appearance of the name Rameses in 1:11
has led many to the conclusion that the 19th-dynasty pharaoh Seti I and his son
Rameses II were the pharaohs of the oppression and the exodus respectively.
Furthermore, archaeological evidence of the destruction of numerous Canaanite
cities in the 13th century b.c. has been interpreted as proof that Joshua's
troops invaded the promised land in that century. These and similar lines of
argument lead to a date for the exodus of c. 1290 (see Introduction to Joshua:
Historical Setting).
The identity of the cities' attackers, however, cannot be
positively ascertained. The raids may have been initiated by later Israelite
armies, or by Philistines or other outsiders. In addition, the archaeological
evidence itself has become increasingly ambiguous, and recent evaluations have
tended to redate some of it to the 18th dynasty. Also, the name Rameses in 1:11
could very well be the result of an editorial updating by someone who lived
centuries after Moses -- a procedure that probably accounts for the appearance
of the same word in Ge 47:11 (see note there).
In short, there are no compelling reasons to modify in any
substantial way the traditional 1446 b.c. date for the exodus of the Israelites
from Egyptian bondage.
At least three routes of escape from Pithom and Rameses (1:11)
have been proposed: (1) a northern route through the land of the Philistines
(but see 13:17); (2) a middle route leading eastward
across Sinai to Beersheba; and (3) a southern route along the west coast of
Sinai to the southeastern extremities of the peninsula. The southern route
seems most likely, since several of the sites in Israel's desert itinerary have
been tentatively identified along it. See map No. 2 at the end of the Study
Bible. The exact place where Israel crossed the "Red Sea" is
uncertain, however (see notes on 13:18; 14:2).
Exodus lays a foundational theology in which God reveals his name,
his attributes, his redemption, his law and how he is to be worshiped. It also
reports the appointment and work of Moses as the mediator of the Sinaitic
covenant, describes the beginnings of the priesthood in Israel, defines the role
of the prophet and relates how the ancient covenant relationship between God
and his people (see note on Ge 17:2) came under a new administration (the covenant given
at Mount Sinai).
Profound insights into the nature of God are found in chs. 3;
6;
33-34. The focus of these texts is on the fact
and importance of his presence with his people (as signified by his name Yahweh
-- see notes on 3:14-15 -- and by his glory among them). But
emphasis is also placed on his attributes of justice, truthfulness, mercy,
faithfulness and holiness. Thus to know God's "name" is to know him
and to know his character (see 3:13-15; 6:3).
God is also the Lord of history. Neither the affliction of Israel
nor the plagues in Egypt were outside his control. The pharaoh, the Egyptians
and all Israel saw the power of God. There was no one like him, "majestic
in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders" (15:11; see note there).
It is reassuring to know that God remembers and is concerned about
his people (see 2:24). What he had promised centuries earlier to
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob he now begins to bring to fruition as Israel is freed
from Egyptian bondage and sets out for the land of promise. The covenant at
Sinai is but another step in God's fulfillment of his promise to the patriarchs
(3:15-17; 6:2-8; 19:3-8).
The Biblical message of salvation is likewise powerfully set forth
in this book. The verb "redeem" is used, e.g., in 6:6;
15:13. But the heart of redemption theology is
best seen in the Passover narrative of ch. 12,
the sealing of the covenant in ch. 24,
and the account of God's gracious renewal of that covenant after Israel's
blatant unfaithfulness to it in their worship of the golden calf (see 34:1-14 and notes). The apostle Paul viewed the
death of the Passover lamb as fulfilled in Christ (1Co 5:7). Indeed, John the Baptist called Jesus
the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn
1:29).
The foundation of Biblical ethics and morality is laid out first
in the gracious character of God as revealed in the exodus itself and then in
the Ten Commandments (20:1-17) and the ordinances of the Book of the
Covenant (20:22 -- 23:33), which taught Israel how to apply in a practical way
the principles of the commandments.
The book concludes with an elaborate discussion of the theology of
worship. Though costly in time, effort and monetary value, the tabernacle, in
meaning and function, points to the "chief end of man," namely,
"to glorify God and to enjoy him forever" (Westminster Shorter
Catechism). By means of the tabernacle, the omnipotent, unchanging and
transcendent God of the universe came to "dwell" or
"tabernacle" with his people, thereby revealing his gracious nearness
as well. God is not only mighty in Israel's behalf; he is also present in the
nation's midst.
However, these theological elements do not merely sit side by side
in the Exodus narrative. They receive their fullest and richest significance
from the fact that they are embedded in the account of God's raising up his
servant Moses (1) to liberate his people from Egyptian bondage, (2) to
inaugurate his earthly kingdom among them by bringing them into a special
national covenant with him, and (3) to erect within Israel God's royal tent.
And this account of redemption from bondage leading to consecration in covenant
and the pitching of God's royal tent in the earth, all through the ministry of
a chosen mediator, discloses God's purpose in history -- the purpose he would
fulfill through Israel, and ultimately through Jesus Christ the supreme
Mediator.
A.
Israel Blessed and Oppressed (ch.
1)
II. God's
Deliverance of Israel (chs. 3-18)
.
The Deliverer Called (ch.
3)
C.
The Deliverers Identified (6:13-27)
E.
The Passover (12:1-28)
I.
Journey to Sinai (15:22;18:27)
III. Covenant at
Sinai (chs. 19-24)
IV.
God's Royal Tent in Israel (chs. 25-40)
──《New International Version》
Introduction to Exodus
The Book of Exodus relates the forming of the
children of Israel into a church and a nation. We have hitherto seen true
religion shown in domestic life, now, we begin to trace its effects upon the
concerns of kingdoms and nations. Exodus signifies "the departure;"
the chief event therein recorded is the departure of Israel from Egypt and
Egyptian bondage; it plainly points out the fulfilling of several promises and
prophecies to Abraham respecting his seed, and shadows forth the state of the
church, in the wilderness of this world, until her arrival at the heavenly
Canaan, an eternal rest.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Exodus》
00 Overview
EXODUS
INTRODUCTION
Exodus: a
Sequel to Genesis
This, the second part of the Pentateuch, is a sequel to Genesis;
it is joined on to Genesis by the conjunction and, and bears a
remarkable resemblance to it. In Genesis, the earth rises out of darkness into
light; in Exodus, Israel emerges out of the darkness of Egyptian bondage into
light and liberty. The beginning of Genesis speaks of intestine struggles which
preceded the creation of the earth in its present state; such, also, was the
condition of Israel, “without form and void,” before the Exodus. At the
Creation the earth was brought forth out of the water, on the face of which the
Spirit moved. And surely it was not without a meaning that the great leader of
Israel, its mediator and lawgiver, the type of Christ Himself, Moses, was drawn
out of the water, and thence received his name. Surely it was not without a
meaning that Israel, whose children had been merged in water (as the prior
earth was), rose to new life out of the waters of the Red Sea, over which the
Spirit brooded in the cloud, and “they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud
and in the sea.” In Genesis the earth is born, by the Spirit, out of the water;
in Exodus, Israel is born anew by the Spirit out of the water; and both these
are figures of the new birth in Christ by water and the Spirit. Here is an
inner analogy between Genesis and Exodus, and this treatment of the two great
subjects bespeaks an unity of authorship. It bespeaks the presence also of the
Divine Mind, guiding the hand of the writer. (Bishop Christopher
Wordsworth.)
Exodus is not the full counterpart of Genesis
That venerable document is matched in grandeur of scope not even
by the rest of the Pentateuch, but only by the remainder of the volume of
revelation. It opens with a creation, of which man forms the prominent object;
the Old Testament closes with the anticipation of a new creation (Isaiah 65:17), in which also man will
hold the conspicuous place; and the New Testament records the atoning obedience
of Christ, and the quickening work of the Holy Ghost, as the guarantee and
earnest of that new creation, the consummation of which it again announces to
the Church (2 Peter 3:13). Genesis also touches
upon the history of the whole race of man, and even after the call of Abraham
traces the peaceful intercourse subsisting between the chosen family and the
rest of mankind. Exodus
marks the full-grown antagonism between the chosen nation and the heathen
world, records the violent separation between the two, and then confines itself
mainly to the history of the party that remained in communion with God. Its
distinguishing event, the Exodus, is accordingly the prototype of that great
event in the experience of the individual, in which he comes out from the
bondage of the flesh into the freedom of the Spirit, as well as of those great occasions
in the history of the Church in which it reasserts its spiritual life and
liberty, and passes with all the determination of new-born principle from the
wilful service of sin into the conscientious obedience of holiness. This coming
out is a process continually going on during the history of the Church until
all have come out, and the doomed world is given over to everlasting
destruction. It is the manner of Scripture to signalize the primary event in
any given series as a lesson and example to all future generations. In Genesis
are recorded all kinds of origins or births, and, among others, the birth of
Isaac, the seed of promise. In Exodus is recounted the deliberate action of the
new-born, in coming out of the land of bondage. The wilderness between this
land and the land of promise, the troubles, temptations, and failings of such a
state of life, the giving of the Law to a new-born and emancipated people, the
setting up of the ordinances of a holy religion, are all typical events,
prefiguring others of a like nature, but of still grander and grander import.
They do not stand alone on memory’s tablet, but embody a principle of constant
value, which comes out in a series of analogous events in the course of human
affairs. They are standing monuments in the great field of the past, written in
legible characters on the page of history for the instruction of coming days.
The scope of the Book of Exodus, however, is not to be limited to the mere
fortunes of the chosen people. Even if it stood alone, its communications could
not be confined to so narrow an area. It details a certain stage of that
momentous process, by which the covenant of God with man is to be upheld, and
its benefits secured for a growing proportion of our fallen race, until at
length the main body at least of all kindreds and tongues returns to God. (Professor
J. G. Murphy.)
Description of the Book
Recollection, “remembrance,” of the great original works of God in
creation and redemption is the appropriate appointed means of originating and
sustaining, in the heart and life of men, that righteousness, and peace, and
joy in the Holy Ghost which constitute His true kingdom in individuals and in
communities. The Pentateuch, as the instrument of God in that recollection of
the Beginnings, is thus evermore in a fontal relation to the true new life of
mankind in the Creator and Redeemer. And the vast importance of Exodus begins
to appear when it is seen to be, thus, the central vitally essential part of a
whole, whose importance is so vast as a feeder of that life which is unseen and
eternal. For Exodus is not only a continuation of the narrative in Genesis on
to the last three Books of Moses. Our translators, when they make the V, at the
opening of this book, to be, not “and,” as in Leviticus 1:1, but “now” mean that here
there is something more than simply continuation of the narrative. And, in
fact, there is here a decisively new reach of the stream. It is not merely, as
when the Nile rushes down its cataract from Ethiopia, a sudden transition into
a new manner of movement, amid new surroundings. It is as if a new and mighty
river had sprung out of a smitten rock, or poured down from heaven in effusion
Pentecostal. For instance, on the face of the movement there is that very great
new thing, the first appearance among mankind of a visible kingdom of God; a
kingdom destined to unfold into that Christendom which is the only real
civilization of the peoples in human history. And at the heart of the movement,
as the very life and soul of it all, there is the new supernatural revelation
of God now, for the first time since the Flood, going forth to mankind as a
public instruction which is gospel preaching (Hebrews 4:2). It is accompanied by the
first appearance of credential evidence of miracles and prophecy. And in
especial, that revelation takes the practical form of an actual supernatural
redemption and consecration; in the accomplishment of which there are brought
into view, for the instruction of mankind in all nations through all ages,
those principles of the kingdom of God, regarding His character, and moral
government, and gracious purposes towards mankind, which are the principia of
the only true religion that is ever to live upon the earth. These are main,
plain, unquestionable characteristics of the Book. The first part of it, the
redemption from Egypt, has a place like that of the Gospels in the New Testament
Scripture; and the second part of it, regarding the consecration in Sinai, has
a place like that of the Acts of the Apostles, along with the Epistles to the
Hebrews, to the Galatians, and to the Romans. What greater thing could be said
in illustration of the importance of it? In some obvious respects, it is the
most fundamentally important book ever given to mankind. And the study of it is
essential to a real and scholarly acquaintance with the history of man. (J.
Macgregor, D. D.)
Divisions of the
Book
The Book consists of two distinct portions. The former (chap.
1-19.)
gives a detailed account of the circumstances under which the deliverance of
the Israelites was accomplished. The second (chap. 20-40.) describes the giving
of the Law, and the institutions which completed the organization of the people
as “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” These two portions are unlike in
style and structure, as might be expected from the difference of their
subject-matter; but their mutual bearings and interdependence are evident, and
leave no doubt as to the substantial unity of the Book. The historical portion
owes all its significance and interest to the promulgation of God’s will in the
law. The institutions of the Law could not, humanly speaking, have been
established or permanently maintained but for the deliverance which the
historical portion records. (Canon F. C. Cook.)
The first part of Exodus is predominantly historical; the second
essentially legislative or dogmatical; but yet the former contains three
important laws; and the latter, the history of a flagrant breach,
on the part of Israel, of the promises made concerning the faithful observance
of the Law, the erection of the holy Tabernacle, and the consecration of Aaron
and his descendants. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
Mosaic Authorship.--
1. One argument is drawn from the representation of the personal character and
qualifications of Moses. In its most important features it is such as could
never have been produced by a writer collecting the traditional reminiscences
or legends of a later age: not such even as might have been drawn by a younger
contemporary. To posterity, to Israelites of his own time, Moses was simply the
greatest of men; but it is evident that the writer of this Book was unconscious
of the personal greatness of the chief actor. He was indeed thoroughly aware of
the greatness of his mission, and consequently of the greatness of the
position, which was recognized at last by the Egyptians (see chap. 11:3); but
as to his personal qualifications, the points which strike him most forcibly
are the deficiencies of natural gifts and powers, and the defects of character,
which he is scrupulously careful to record, together with the rebukes and
penalties which they brought upon him, and the obstacles which they opposed to
his work. Such a representation is perfectly intelligible, as proceeding from
Moses himself; but what in him was humility would have been obtuseness in an
annalist, such as never is found in the accounts of other great men, nor in the
notices of Moses in later Books.
2. This Book could not have been written by any man who had not
passed many years in Egypt, and who had not also a thorough knowledge, such as
could only be acquired by personal observation, of the Sinaitic Peninsula. But
it is improbable that any Israelite between the time of Moses and Jeremiah
could have possessed either of these qualifications; it is not credible, or
even possible, that any should have combined both.
3. A weighty argument is drawn from the accounts of the miracles, by
which Moses was expressly bidden to attest his mission, and by which he was
enabled to accomplish the deliverance of his people. They are such as no later
writer living in Palestine could have invented for Egypt. From beginning to end
no miracle is recorded which does not strike the mind by its peculiar
suitableness to the place, time, and circumstances under which it was wrought.
The plagues are each and all Egyptian; and the modes by which the people’s
wants are supplied in the Sinaitic Peninsula recall to our minds the natural
condition of such a journey in such a country.
4. The portion of the Book which follows the account of the departure
from Egypt has characteristics marked with equal distinctness, and bearing with
no less force upon the question of authorship. It is not merely that the length
of each division of the journey, the numerous halting places, are distinctly
marked; for, although such notices could not possibly have been invented, or
procured at any later period by a dweller in Palestine, the fact might be
accounted for by the supposition that some ancient records of the journey had
been preserved by written or oral tradition; but the chapters which belong
either to the early sojourn of Moses, or to the wanderings of the Israelites,
are pervaded by a peculiar tone, a local colouring, an atmosphere, so to speak,
of the desert, which has made itself felt by all those who have explored the
country. And this fact is the more striking when we bear in mind that, although
the great general features of the Peninsula, the grouping of its arid heights
and the direction of its innumerable
wadys are permanent, still changes of vast and scarcely calculable importance
in matters which personally affect the traveller and modify his impressions,
have taken place since the time of Moses. At present one great difficulty felt
by all travellers is the insufficiency of the resources of the Peninsula to
support such a host as that which is described in the narrative; a difficulty
not wholly removed by the acceptance of the accounts of Providential
interventions, which appear to have been not permanent, but limited to special
occasions. But facts can be adduced which confirm, and indeed go far beyond,
the conjectures of travellers, who have pointed out that the supply of water,
and the general fertility of the district, must have been very different before
the process of denudation, which has been going on for ages, and is now in
active progress, had commenced. We have now proofs from inscriptions coeval with the
pyramids, both in Egypt and in the Peninsula, that under the Pharaohs of the
third to the eighteenth dynasty, ages before Moses, and up to his time, the
whole district was occupied by a population whose resources and numbers must
have been considerable, since they were able to resist the forces of the
Egyptians, who sent large armies in repeated but unsuccessful attempts to
subjugate the Peninsula. Their principal object, however, was effected, since
they established permanent settlements at Sarbet el Khadim, and at Mughara, to
work the copper-mines. These settlements were under the command of officers of
high rank, and are proved by monuments and inscriptions to have been of an
extent which implies the existence of considerable resources in the immediate
neighbourhood. Taking summarily the points in this part of the argument we find
the following coincidences between the narrative and accounts of travellers.
Absence of water where no sources now exist, abundance of water where fountains
are still found, and indications of a far more copious supply in former ages;
tracts, occupying the same time in the journey, in which food could not be
found; and in
some districts a natural production similar to manna, most abundant in rainy
seasons (such as several notices show the season of the Exodus to have been),
but not sufficient for nourishment, nor fit for large consumption, without such
modifications in character and quantity as are attributed in the narrative to a
Divine intervention. We have the presence of Nomad hordes, and an attack made
by them precisely in the district, and under the circumstances when their
presence and attack might be expected. We have a route which the ]ate
exploration of the Peninsula shows to have been probably determined by
conditions agreeing with incidental notices in the history; and when we come to
the chapters in which the central event in the history of Israel--the delivery
of God’s Law--is recorded, we find localities and scenery which travellers
concur in declaring to be such as fully correspond to the exigencies of the
narrative, and which, in some accounts (remarkable at once for scientific
accuracy and graphic power), are described in terms which show they correspond,
so far as mere outward accessories can correspond, to the grandeur of the
manifestation. In addition to the positive arguments thus adduced, a negative
argument at least equally conclusive demands attention. No history or
composition in existence, which is known to have been written long after the events
which it describes, is without internal indications of its later origin;
contemporary documents may be interwoven with it, and great pains taken in ages
of literary refinement and artifice to disguise its character; but even when
anachronisms and errors of detail are avoided, which is seldom, if ever,
effectually done, the genuine touch of antiquity is invariably and inevitably
absent. Whether we look at the general tone of this narrative, the style
equally remarkable for artlessness and power, or at the innumerable points of
contact with external facts capable of exact deter-ruination, we are impressed
by the weight of this internal evidence, supported, as it has been shown to be,
by the unbroken and unvarying tradition of the nation to whom the narrative was
addressed, and by whom it was held too sacred not to be preserved from wilful
mutilation or interpolation.
5. Another argument is drawn from the account of the Tabernacle. The
following facts are demonstrated:
Character of the Exodus Movement.--
1. In its inward spiritual nature the movement was one of faith in
God. Though “exodus” be a common word for exit or departure, it has come to
have an appropriate special meaning in reference to such a movement as that in
question was. And we may profitably here for a little consider what is meant by
such an exodus? (See in Seeley’s “Expansion of England.”)
A true exodus is not a mere migration of a people, such as we read of in the
history of primaeval Celts and Germans, occasioning so much uneasiness and trouble
to “civilized” Romans and others. Such a movement might be merely blind
instinct, like that of bees in swarming; or it might be merely the result of
some--so to speak--mechanical pressure, from within or from without. Again,
those colonizing movements of individuals, through which new nationalities are
coming to be formed in the British empire, differ from a true exodus in their
motive impulse and spirit, as going to market on business differs from going to
church for worship of God. But one of the Pilgrim Fathers of America said that
they had gone thither across the ocean “to serve God.” And there he expressed
the true spirit of an exodus. It is a migration for the purpose of serving God.
Such was the purpose of Israel’s departure from Egypt. Even the three days’
leave of absence, which was all they asked at first (Exodus 5:3), was for an act of high
service to “the God of the Hebrews.” The Egyptians no doubt (chap. 1:10)
understood whither this was purposely tending. And (Exodus 4:18; Exodus 4:29-31; cf. Exodus 3:12) the Israelites themselves,
from their first thought about the movement, had thought of it as one for final
abandonment of Egypt, “to serve God” in the promised land. Their movement not
only was religious, it was religion: religion was not a means, but the end; as
in temple-building, religion, which is the end of the work (finis operis),
ought also to be (finis operantis) the end in view of the
worker. Now such was the character of Israel’s movement Canaanward. When we
look close into the history, we perceive that the Hebrews were in large measure
not in the true spirit of the movement (Hebrews 3:12). Among them there was much
of ungodly selfish worldliness (Hebrews 3:9); so that in the end they as
a people perished in the wilderness through unbelief (Hebrews 3:16-18). Yet a nation entered
Canaan. And they were not all unbelievers who died in the wilderness;--Miriam,
for instance, and Aaron, and Moses. Even at the worst (cf. 1 Kings 19:18; 1 Kings 20:41)
, there may have been in Israel as large a proportion of Calebs and Joshuas (Isaiah 1:9) as would have sufficed to
prevent the destruction of Sodom. What we seek to see in this movement is its
characteristic impulse, the spirit of its true life. And that, no doubt, is
faith in the living God, as revealed supernaturally, in positive covenant
promises of redemption. Such had been the distinctive nature of Abraham’s life
on earth (Genesis 15:6). And it continued to be the
characteristic of his covenant seed (Romans 4:3; Romans 4:11). The people cried to God.
They followed Moses, because they believed that he was Jehovah’s messenger.
They went through the Red Sea, looking for salvation in Abraham’s God Almighty.
“By faith” they passed the Bed Sea; and “by faith” the walls of Jericho fell
down (Hebrews 11:29-30). Such was the
distinctive nature of the movement from first to last. Not only the history
shows this; this is what the history shows.
2. It was a movement into brotherhood of man. On the face of it, it
was into nationality of social condition. At the original settlement in Goshen
(Exodus 1:1-5), the sons of Israel were
passing from the simply domestic condition under patriarchy, into the
distinctly tribal. As their numbers grew into national dimensions, the
continued influence of patriarchy, as an ideal, still kept the separate tribes
in a unity of outward connection, as of Swiss cantons under the Hapsburgs. But
the unity, which at last found its full expression in the nation full and
independent, had its true root, or living foundation, in a constitution that is
not of nature--the new constitution of redeeming grace, which (Exodus 19:6) makes the nation to be
Theocracy, holy to the Lord, and of which the citizens are to be a brotherhood,
united in the common bond of a filial relationship to God (Exodus 4:22-23). This idea is involved in
the nature of a spiritual patriarchate, such as Abraham’s was. The noble custom
of adoption (Exodus 12:48-49) made statutory in Egypt
at the foundation of Israel’s national existence, provided for expanded
application of the idea, for blessing unto all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3). But what we clearly see in
Exodus is the realization of the idea in the foundation of the Israelitish
kingdom of God. It was a nation, arranging into compact order (chap. 13:18,
14:8), that formed at the Red Sea, to pass on to the trysting-place (Exodus 3:12) of Covenant with God. And it
was a nation (Exodus 19:6), specifically a Theocracy,
or kingdom of God, that in that covenant was vested with title to Canaan. (J.
Macgregor, D. D.)
Moses and His Mission.--
1. Survey him, first, mentally. His was an organizing mind; recall
how he took a nation, or rather horde of ignorant bondmen, and moulded them in
his own lifetime into a compact and vigorous nationality; or how he took the
elements of theology and morality and jurisprudence and sociology, and
organized them into that majestic series of institutes which we style after his
own name, the Mosaic Code. Again, his was an expressive mind: recall how,
notwithstanding his modest disclaimer of the gift of eloquence, he was
Jehovah’s greatest prophet, mighty in his words as well as in his works,
chanting in nobler strains than Homer ever sang his triumphal ode, his
patriarchal hymn, his dying songs. Again, his was a prophetic mind: endowed
with extraordinary range of vision, his mental eye pierced immensely beyond the
limits of contemporary ken, surveying as from the observatory of his own Pisgah
height of prophecy the far-off Promised Land, wherein he discerned the vast
outlines of a profound theology, an exquisite morality, a beneficent
jurisprudence, a perfected society. Again, his was a practical mind: while
prophetically descrying in the far off distances of time stupendous orbs and
nebulae of truths hidden from all eyes but his own, he at the same time
remained in this tiny world of ours, distinguishing the minutest duties and
subtilest distinctions, beholding in the microscopic world of daily life a
universe as vast as that which broadened before his telescopic sweep,
legislating alike broadly for all human time and minutely for all human space,
with one hand, if I may venture to say it, weighing the mountains in scales,
and with the other hand counting the small dust of the balance. Once more, his
was a constructive mind: instead of wasting his mental forces in ill-timed
attempts to overthrow existing bad institutions, he ennobled his great gifts by
a supreme effort to build up a new human society, constructing out of the very
ruins of the past the everlasting temple of the future. In brief, if ever there
was a man who could be strictly called a genius, that man was Moses.
2. And now survey him morally. He was, indeed, a saintly character, a
prodigy of goodness. Not that he was faultless. His naturally impetuous
temperament brought him more than once into serious trouble, as in the affair
of the Egyptian homicide, and the smiting of the rock of Meribah. But it is to
the infinite credit of Moses that he sought to overcome this constitutional
infirmity of temper, and succeeded in getting his powers into placid balance in
his very patience winning and possessing his soul. Sympathetic, as when he
entered into the woes of his enslaved countrymen in Egypt; self-denying, as
when he refused to be longer called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; conscientious,
as when he chose rather to be evil entreated with the people of God, than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; discriminating, as when he accounted
the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; far-sighted,
as when he looked beyond unto the recompense of reward; enduring, as when he
saw Him who is invisible; brave, as when he confronted Menephtha’s
court, and Israel’s tumultuous demands; stately, as when he wielded the sword
of outraged authority; patient, as when he endured in gratitude, insolence, and
rebellion; magnanimous, as when he offered to die in place of his apostate
people; lowly, as when his face shone with Jehovah’s glory, and he knew it not;
trustful, as when he climbed lonely Abarim to die: Moses was indeed religion’s
great saint. Brave as Achilles, without Achilles’ petulance; heroic as
Hercules, without Hercules’ savagery; judicial as Minos, without Minos’ gloom;
constructive as Vulcan, without Vulcan’s grotesqueness; wise as Mercury,
without Mercury’s strategy: eloquent as Apollo, without Apollo’s deceit;
patient as Prometheus, without Prometheus’ stoicism; devout as Numa, without
Numa’s superstition; imperial as Jupiter, without Jupiter’s weakness:--Moses
was indeed history’s ideal character. Verily, there hath not risen in all
humanity a prophet like unto Moses, whom Jehovah knew face to face.
3. Having thus glanced at the outlines of Moses’ unique career and
the outlines of Moses’ unique personality, let us now glance at the outlines of
Moses’ unique mission. That mission was manifold. First: It was a part of
Moses’ mission to outline a theology, or doctrine of religion. Thus, while the
surrounding nations were worshipping a plurality of gods, Moses proclaimed that
there is but one God, a God who is self-existent, eternal, unchangeable,
spiritual, true, just, holy, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, in a word,
infinitely perfect. Again, it was part of Moses’ mission to outline a morality
or doctrine of character. While the morality of the surrounding nations was
debased by gross misconceptions and positive vices, Moses proclaimed a morality
that was exquisite in its distinctions, just in its dealings, brotherly in its
spirit. Again, it was a part of Moses’ mission to outline a jurisprudence or
doctrine of state. While the surrounding nations were governed by irresponsible
monarchs, whose caprices made and unmade laws, Moses proclaimed a commonwealth,
over which ruled no human king, whose citizens were peers, whose officers were
elective. Again, it was a part of Moses’ mission to outline a sociology or
doctrine of man. While the surrounding nations regarded each other with
distrust and hate, repelling all immigration which did not follow in the
retinue of conquest, Moses proclaimed the brotherhood of mankind inviting, it
is true, all men to become Jews, but in order that all men might become
cosmopolites. Again, it was a part of Moses’ mission to outline a ritual or
doctrine of worship. While the surrounding nations were worshipping their own
images and ceremonies and sacrifices and priests as being the end of religion,
Moses proclaimed a liturgy as being the means of religion, bidding his people
discern in the ritual of the Tabernacle a type of the worship in the temple not
made with hands. Once more, and in summary, it was the mission of Moses to
outline a Theocracy, or doctrine of God-rule. While every other nation regarded
itself as its own law and end, Moses proclaimed that the Hebrew people was
divinely raised up to be a means to an end, namely this, to serve as the symbol
and prophecy of the universal and everlasting Church, or Jehovah’s kingdom on
earth. Thus the mission of Moses was the mightiest mission ever assigned to
statesmen, reformer, philanthropist, or theologian. And nobly did Moses fulfil
his mighty mission. How nobly he fulfilled it is proved by the fact that,
although more than three thousand years have passed since Moses lived, his code
is still the basis of modern theology, modern morality, modern jurisprudence,
modern sociology, modern worship: in a single word, modern civilization. The
world has outgrown the Analects of Confucius, the Vedas of Brahm, the Soutras
of Boodh, the Zendavesta of Zoroaster, the Koran of Mohammed, even the
Positivism of Comte. But the world has not outgrown the institutes of Moses.
The lawgiver of Sinai is to this day history’s commanding figure, all that is
worthy of the name of civilization sitting reverently at his feet. And how, let
me ask in passing, do you account for all this? For, considering his circumstances,
the character and work of Moses was a positive moral anachronism. Remember for
example, that he framed his civil code some two thousand years before Justinian
collected his Pandects, a thousand years before the Twelve Tables were
suspended in the Roman Forum, eight hundred years before Solon legislated for
Athens; remember also that Moses himself lived in a time of profound moral
apostasy, fifteen hundred years before the Divine Man taught us how to live.
Can you account for this striking anachronism in any better way than by
accepting the Scriptural statement that Jehovah was wont to speak unto His
prophet Moses face to face, not in dark speeches, but as a man speaketh unto
his friend?
4. Having thus glanced at the outlines of Moses’ unique career and character
and mission, let us now glance at some of the lessons suggested by Moses’
unique personality. And, first, a lesson of Divine adjustment. The story of
Moses illustrates in a striking way the truth that God ever adjusts men to
crises. For example” When the wickedness of men had become so great that
Jehovah determined to sweep him from the earth, he raised up Noah to become the
second father of the race; again, when the second humanity had relapsed into
heathenism, and a great character was needed to restore the kingdom of God on
earth, Jehovah raised up Abraham to become the father of the faithful; again,
when Moses had completed his legislative mission, and a soldier was needed to
conquer the Promised Land, Jehovah raised up the martial Joshua to succeed the
peaceful Moses. Secondly: A lesson of Divine providence. Recall how the infant
Moses was saved; he was not saved by a miracle or anything extraordinary in
itself; he was saved by a sympathetic woman’s natural instinct. Thirdly: A
lesson of Divine warning. If any one of all the hosts of Israel had the right
to enter the Promised Land, it was, we would have thought, their emancipator
and lawgiver and prophet. Nevertheless, saintly though he was, he was not
allowed to enter it. And we know the reason: it was because the Children of
Israel had angered him at the waters of Meribah, by rebelling against him, and
provoking him, so that he spake unadvisedly with his lips. Beware, then, oh
friends, of what you call little sins; for they may cost you the promised Canaan. (G. D.
Boardman, D. D.)
The Magicians of Egypt
The magicians of Egypt did in like manner with their enchantments.
In like manner, but in unlike, too. Of course, men can imitate God and God’s
doings in a great many ways, because man himself has an imitated relationship
to God, and is endowed with powers like to those which God has and uses.
Indeed, the direct path to all our possible growth, progress, and ennoblement
lies in that line and effort of imitating God. We may do what He doeth and as He
doeth in many things. Possibly human beings may accomplish works and effect
results which other human beings inspecting and pronouncing on shall be
perplexed to decide whether to refer them to God or to men. But there is this
one rule of right and wisdom always to be rigidly obeyed. Whenever man attempts
to imitate God in method or means, in acts or devices, he must do the work with
a view to the same purposes as those for which God works. We may imitate God in
what He does merely for our enjoyment, our pleasure, to amuse us, or to add to
our means of happiness. We may make musical instruments to imitate the music of
the air, the sea, the bird, the happy, gleeful child, or the harmonious strains
of heaven’s own choir. We may make flowers of wax or paint them on the canvas.
We may chisel the marble into human forms. We may draw on the canvas the
lineaments of the human features, landscapes of field, meadow, valley, or
mountain, or scenes of sky and ocean. We may make the sun do our painting for
us. We may use all our skill and inventiveness, which are, in fact, but God’s
own workings, to copy, adorn, or imitate His doings. Yet none of these things
is it right or safe for us to do, in order to beguile or deceive our
fellow-men, to cheat their senses in order to pervert their understandings, to
play on their credulity and make them superstitious, to tell them pious fables
in the service of religion, or ever to mislead them by false imitations in
means or effects of the ways in which Divine power can alone honestly work, The
moment the purpose of deception or of artful effect is introduced into any
imitative work of men folly and mischief follow with their train. But,
notwithstanding all the enlightenment and all the prevailing credulity of our
times and communities, imitations and counterfeits for the sake of deception
abound and multiply with infinite ingenuity and variety in all the affairs of
human life. It is difficult, indeed, to say of any honest work or product of
God or of men that there is no sham imitation, no adulterated specimen, no
false semblance of it, palmed upon the world. Some wise and humane persons who
are aware of the extent of this deception in medical practice, and of the
number and sacrifices of its victims, have suggested the expediency of procuring
the enactment by the legislature of a very severe law against such triflers
with the miseries and the credulity of their fellow-creatures. But it is very
doubtful whether legislation on the subject would be either wise or effective.
And over how many of the shops and warehouses and manufactories of our busy
world might be inscribed as a motto designating the character of the tricks and
frauds practised in them the old, frank Bible sentence! “And the magicians of
Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.” All God’s
products are honest ones. All His materials are what they purport to be. He
does indeed please our senses with a few illusory phenomena, such as the ocean
mirage, the rainbow, the double moon, and the failing star, which is no star.
But He never makes wool out of cotton, nor coffee out of beans, nor sugar out
of sand. The magicians do those things. Yet it would be a nobler comfort if we
could get back to the original honest basis and show of things as they come
from the hand of God. Oh that things were and that people were what they
pretend to be! Veneering, varnish, lacquer, imitation, play just as
demoralizing arts upon us as we do with them. No one can substitute sham for
reality in anything outside of him without doing the same by something inside
of him. So sometimes we feel an immense craving to get back to nature in
everything, to get out of the hands of the magicians with all their tricks and
shams, and to be able to say devoutly of all that addresses our senses or our
hearts, “This is from the finger of God.” But, whenever we draw a moral from
the Sacred Book, we are bound to lead it up to its highest application. The
especial work of God is that which serves the agency and produces the fruits of
true religion. Yet the magicians come in here to try the art of imitations both
as to means and effects. We want now the real thing, the work of God, the truth
as it is in Jesus, the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.
We must look sharply at all our devices and methods, all our appliances and
plannings. We must commit religious work to religious men and women, and to
religious means: we must use no arts in it, and accept no substitutes for it. There have been eras
and intervals recurring in the history of Christendom, of marked revivals,
quickenings and deepenings and strong reactings of the power of religion. And
there have been imitated semblances of these things, promises or hopes of them,
not realized tokens mistaken for them, cries of “Lo, here!” “Lo, there!” It is
“the finger of God” which in all things marks truth and reality, whatever the
magicians may do with their enchantments. (G. E. Ellis, D. D.).
──《The Biblical Illustrator》