Afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said to Pharaoh, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’ ”
Pharaoh said, “Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I don’t know Yahweh, and moreover I will not let Israel go.”
They said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Yahweh, our God, lest he fall on us with pestilence, or with the sword.”
The king of Egypt said to them, “Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people from their work? Get back to your burdens!” Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens.” The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, “You shall no longer give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. You shall require from them the number of the bricks which they made before. You shall not diminish anything of it, for they are idle. Therefore they cry, saying, ‘Let’s go and sacrifice to our God.’ Let heavier work be laid on the men, that they may labor in it. Don’t let them pay any attention to lying words.”
The taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying, “This is what Pharaoh says: ‘I will not give you straw. Go yourselves, get straw where you can find it, for nothing of your work shall be diminished.’ ” So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. The taskmasters were urgent saying, “Fulfill your work quota daily, as when there was straw!” The officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and were asked, “Why haven’t you fulfilled your quota both yesterday and today, in making brick as before?”
Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried to Pharaoh, saying, “Why do you deal this way with your servants? No straw is given to your servants, and they tell us, ‘Make brick!’ and behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people.”
But Pharaoh said, “You are idle! You are idle! Therefore you say, ‘Let’s go and sacrifice to Yahweh.’ Go therefore now, and work; for no straw shall be given to you; yet you shall deliver the same number of bricks!”
The officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble when it was said, “You shall not diminish anything from your daily quota of bricks!”
They met Moses and Aaron, who stood along the way, as they came out from Pharaoh. They said to them, “May Yahweh look at you and judge, because you have made us a stench to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us!”
Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, “Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Why is it that you have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people. You have not rescued your people at all!”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13, 16, 17, 19, 21 Faith overcometh fear, and maketh men bold in their…
Faith overcometh fear, and maketh men bold in their vocation.
And offer sacrifice.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–23 Exo 5:1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in,…
Exo 5:1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.
Ver. 1. That they may hold a feast.] "That they may serve me." {Exo 4:23} "Let us keep the feast," {εορταζωμεν, 1Co 5:8} which is the same with "Let us serve God acceptably." {Heb 12:28} It is a feast, and better, for a good soul to converse with God. {Psa 63:5 Isa 25:6}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 Moses and Aaron went in, and with them some…
Moses and Aaron went in, and with them some of the elders of Israel, as may seem from Exo 3:18, though here only the two chiefs be mentioned. Or, because Moses did not seem to be satisfied with the assistance of the elders before offered him, Exo 3:18, God was pleased to give him a more acceptable assistant in their stead, even Aaron his brother, Exo 4:14. Told Pharaoh: either both successively told him; or Aaron did it immediately, and with his tongue, Moses by his interpreter, and by his command. Or, offer a sacrifice, as they express it, Exo 5:3 and Exo 10:9. For both went together, and a good part of many sacrifices was spent in feasting before the Lord and unto the honour of the Lord. See Deu 12:6,7,11,12.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 10, 15 Moses and Aaron, having delivered their message to the…
Moses and Aaron, having delivered their message to the elders of Israel, with whom they found good acceptance, are now to deal with Pharaoh, to whom they come in peril of their lives - Moses particularly, who perhaps was out-lawed for killing the Egyptian forty years before, so that if any of the old courtiers should happen to remember that against him now it might cost him his head. Their message itself was displeasing, and touch Pharaoh both in his honour and in his profit, two tender points; yet these faithful ambassadors boldly deliver it, whether he will hear or whether he will forbear.
I. Their demand is piously bold: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, Exo 5:1. Moses, in treating with the elders of Israel, is directed to call God the God of their fathers; but, in treating with Pharaoh, they call him the God of Israel, and it is the first time we find him called so in scripture: he is called the God of Israel, the person (Gen 33:20); but here it is Israel, the people. They are just beginning to be formed into a people when God is called their God. Moses, it is likely, was directed to call him so, at least it might be inferred from Exo 9:22, Israel is my son. In this great name they deliver their message: Let my people go. 1. They were God's people, and therefore Pharaoh ought not to detain them in bondage. Note, God will own his own people, though ever so poor and despicable, and will find a time to plead their cause. "The Israelites are slaves in Egypt, but they are my people," says God, "and I will not suffer them to be always trampled upon." See Isa 52:4, Isa 52:5. 2. He expected services and sacrifices from them, and therefore they must have leave to go where they could freely exercise their religion, without giving offence to, or receiving offence from, the Egyptians. Note, God delivers his people out of the hand of their enemies, that they may serve him, and serve him cheerfully, that they may hold a feast to him, which they may do, while they have his favour and presence, even in a wilderness, a dry and barren land.
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II. Pharaoh's answer is impiously bold: Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice? Exo 5:2. Being summoned to surrender, he thus hangs out the flag of defiance, hectors Moses and the God that sends him, and peremptorily refuses to let Israel go; he will not treat about it, nor so much as bear the mention of it. Observe, 1. How scornfully he speaks of the God of Israel: "Who is Jehovah? I neither know him nor care for him, neither value him nor fear him:" it is a hard name that he never heard of before, but he resolves it shall be no bug-bear to him. Israel was now a despised oppressed people, looked on as the tail of the nation, and, by the character they bore, Pharaoh makes his estimate of their God, and concludes that he made no better a figure among the gods than his people did among the nations. Note, Hardened persecutors are more malicious against God himself than they are against his people. See Isa 37:23. Again, Ignorance and contempt of God are at the bottom of all the wickedness that is in the world. Men know not the Lord, or have very low and mean thoughts of him, and therefore they obey not his voice, nor will let any thing go for him. 2. How proudly he speaks of himself: "That I should obey his voice; I, the king of Egypt, a great people, obey the God of Israel, a poor enslaved people? Shall I, that rule the Israel of God, obey the God of Israel? No, it is below me; I scorn to answer his summons." Note, Those are the children of pride that are the children of disobedience, Job 41:34; Eph 5:6. Proud men think themselves too good to stoop even to God himself, and would not be under control, Jer 43:2. Here is the core of the controversy: God must rule, but man will not be ruled. "I will have my will done," says God: "But I will do my own will," says the sinner. 3. How resolutely he denies the demand: Neither will I let Israel go. Note, Of all sinners none are so obstinate, nor so hardly persuaded to leave their sin, as persecutors are.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–23 And afterwards Moses and Aaron went in, and told…
And afterwards Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh,.... Whose name, some say, was Cenchres, others Amenophis, according to Manetho and Chaeremon (h); See Gill on Exo 3:10 went into Pharaoh's palace, and being introduced by the proper officer at court for that purpose, addressed him in the following manner:
thus saith the Lord God of Israel: as ambassadors of him, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords; and so Artapanus (i), the Heathen, says that the Egyptian king, hearing that Moses was come, sent for him to know wherefore he was come, who told him, that the Lord of the world commanded him to let the Jews go, as it follows here:
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let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness; in the wilderness of Sinai or Arabia, at Horeb there, where they might keep it more freely and safely, without being disturbed by the Egyptians, and without giving any offence to them; and the demand is just; they were the people of God, and therefore he claims them, and service from them was due to him; and Pharaoh had no right to detain them, and what is required was but their reasonable service they owed to their God. This feast was to be held, not for themselves, but to God, which chiefly consisted in offering sacrifice, as is after explained; the entire dismission of them is not at once demanded, only to go a little while into the wilderness, and keep a feast there to the Lord; though it was not intended they should return, but it was put in this form to try Pharaoh, and that he might be the more inexcusable in refusing to grant what was so reasonable.
(h) Apud Joseph. contr. Apion. l. 1. c. 26. 32. (i) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 434.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 21, 22 Moses and Aaron here deal with Pharaoh to get…
Moses and Aaron here deal with Pharaoh to get leave of him to go to worship in the wilderness.
I. They demand leave in the name of God, ver. 1. and he answers their demand with a defiance of God, ver. 2.
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II. They beg leave in the name of Israel, ver. 3. and he answers their request with further orders to oppress Israel, ver. 4-9. These cruel orders were,
1. Executed by the task-masters, ver. 10-14.
2. Complained of to Pharaoh, but in vain, ver. 15-19.
3. Complained of by the people to Moses, ver. 20, 21. and by him to God, ver. 22, 23.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go - Moses, in treating with the elders of Israel, is directed to call God the God of their fathers; but, in treating with Pharaoh, they call him the God of Israel, and it is the first time we find him called so in scripture. He is called the God of Israel, the person, Gen. xxxiii, 20, but here it is Israel the people. They are just beginning to be formed into a people when God is called their God. Let my people go - They were God's people, and therefore Pharaoh ought not to detain them in bondage. And he expected services and sacrifices from them, and therefore they must have leave to go where they could freely exercise their religion, without giving offense to, or receiving offense from, the Egyptians.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23 Moses and Aaron open their commission to Pharaoh, 1.
CHAPTER V
Moses and Aaron open their commission to Pharaoh, 1.
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He insultingly asks who Jehovah is, in whose name they require him
to dismiss the people, 2.
They explain, 3.
He charges them with making the people disaffected, 4, 5;
and commands the task-masters to increase their work, and lessen
their means of performing it, 6-9.
The task-masters do as commanded, and refuse to give the people
straw to assist them in making brick, and yet require the fulfilment
of their daily tasks as formerly, when furnished with all the
necessary means, 10-13.
The Israelites failing to produce the ordinary quantity of brick,
their own officers, set over them by the task-masters, are cruelly
insulted and beaten, 14.
The officers complain to Pharaoh, 15, 16;
but find no redress, 17, 18.
The officers, finding their case desperate, bitterly reproach Moses
and Aaron for bringing them into their present circumstances, 19-21.
Moses retires, and lays the matter before the Lord, and pleads
with him, 22, 23.
NOTES ON CHAP. V
Verse 1. And afterward Moses and Aaron went] This chapter is properly a continuation of the preceding, as the succeeding is a continuation of this; and to preserve the connection of the facts they should be read together.
How simply, and yet with what authority, does Moses deliver his message to the Egyptian king! Thus saith JEHOVAH, GOD of ISRAEL, Let my people go. It is well in this, as in almost every other case where יהוה Jehovah occurs, to preserve the original word: our using the word LORD is not sufficiently expressive, and often leaves the sense indistinct.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 16, 21, 22 Exo 5:1. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel…
Exo 5:1. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel — Moses, in treating with the elders of Israel, is directed to call God the God of their fathers; but in treating with Pharaoh, he and Aaron call him the God of Israel, and it is the first time we find him called so in Scripture. He is called the God of Israel, the person, (Gen 33:20,) but here it is Israel, the people. They are just beginning to be formed into a people when God is called their God. Let my people go — They were God’s people, and therefore Pharaoh ought not to detain them in bondage. And he expected services and sacrifices from them, and therefore they must have leave to go where they could freely exercise their religion, without giving offence to, or receiving offence from the Egyptians.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 12, 17, 23 Pharaoh - This king, probably Tothmosis II, the great…
Pharaoh - This king, probably Tothmosis II, the great grandson of Aahmes Exo 1:8, the original persecutor of the Israelites, must have been resident at this time in a city, probably Tanis Exo 2:5, of Lower Egypt, situated on the Nile.
The Lord God - Yahweh God of Israel demanded the services of His people. The demand, according to the general views of the pagans, was just and natural; the Israelites could not offer the necessary sacrifices in the presence of Egyptians.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 21, 22 Went in alone. Aaron was substituted instead of the…
Went in alone. Aaron was substituted instead of the ancients, chap. iii. 16. --- Pharao Amasis, Cenchres, or Amenophis. (Usher.) --- Sacrifice, which is the principal part of a religious festival. (Menochius)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 D.—Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. The seemingly mischievouas effect…
D.—Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh. The seemingly mischievouas effect of their divine message, and the discouragment of the people and the messengers themselves. God reverses this effect nu solemnly promising deliverance, revealing his name Jehovah, summoning the heads of the tribes to unite with Moses and Aaron, raising Moses’ faith above Pharaoh’s defiance, and declaring the glorious object and issue of Pharaoh’s obduracy
Exo_5:1 to Exo_7:7
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1And afterward Moses and Aaron went in [came] and told [said unto] Pharaoh, Thus saith Jehovah, God [the God] of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. 2And Pharaoh said, Who is Jehovah, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not Jehovah, neither will I [and moreoverI will not] let Israel go. 3And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with [met] us: let us go, we pray thee, three days1 journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto Jehovah our God, lest he fall upon us with the pestilence, or with the sword. 4And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let 5[release] the people from their works? get you unto your burdens [tasks]. And Pharaoh said. Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens [tasks]. 6And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers [overseers], saying, 7Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore; let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8And the tale of the bricks which they did make [have been making] heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish aught thereof: for they be [are] idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. 9Let there more work be laid upon the men [let the work be heavy for2 the men], that they may labor therein [be busied with it];3 and let them not regard vain [lying] words. 10 And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers [overseers], and they spake unto the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. 11Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it; yet [for] not aught 12of your work shall be diminished. So [And] the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of [for] straw. 13And the taskmasters hasted [urged] them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw. 14And the officers [overseers] of the children of Israel, which [whom] Pharaoh had set over them, were beaten, and demanded [were asked], Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday 15and to-day as heretofore? Then [And] the officers [overseers] of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? 16There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say unto us, Make brick;4 and, behold, thy servants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people 17[thy people are in fault]. But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle [Id’e are ye, idle]; therefore ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice [and sacrifice] to Jehovah. 18Go therefore now [And now go], and work; for [and] there shall no straw be given you; yet shall ye [and ye shall] deliver the tale of bricks. 19And the officers [overseers] of the children of Israel did see that they were in [saw themselves in] evil case [trouble], after it was said, Ye shall not minish [diminish] aught from your bricks of [bricks,] your daily task. 20And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way [who were standing to meet them], as they came forth from Pharaoh: 21And they said unto them, Jehovah look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. 22And Moses returned unto Jehovah, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated [thou done evil to] this people? why is it that thou hast [why hast thou] sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all.
Chap. Exo_6:1 Then [And] Jehovah said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with [through]5 a strong hand shall he let them go, and with 2[through] a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah. 3And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of [as]6 God Almighty, but by7 my name Jehovah was I not known to them. 4And I have also [I also] established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage 5[sojourn], wherein they were strangers [sojourners]. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. 6Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid [deliver] you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. 7And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, which 8[who] bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which [the land which] I did swear to give it [to give] to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage [a possession]: I am Jehovah. 9And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish [vexation] of spirit and 10for cruel bondage. And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 11Go in, speak unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land. 12And Moses spake before Jehovah, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then [and how] shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised 13lips [uncircumcised of lips]? And Jehovah spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel and unto Pharaoh king 14of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. These be [are] the heads of their fathers’ houses (their ancestral houses): The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel; Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi; these be [are] the families of Reuben. 15And the sons of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Thad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a [the] Canaanitish woman; these are16the families of Simeon. And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations [genealogies]; Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari: and the years of the life of Levi were an [a] hundred thirty and seven years. 17The sons of Gershon: Libni, and Shimi, according to their families. 18And the sons of Kohath: Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel; and the years of the life of Kohath were an [a] hundred thirty and three years. 19And the sons of Merari: Mahali, and Mushi: These are the families of Levi according to their generations [genealogies].20And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife; and she bare him Aaron and Moses: and the years of the life of Amram were an [a] hundred and thirty and seven years. 21And the sons of Izhar: Korah, and Nephez, and Zichri. 22And the sons of Uzziel: Mishael, and Elzaphan, and Zithri [Sithri]. 23And Aaron took him Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Naashon, to wife; and she bare him Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 24And the sons of Korah: Assir, and Elkanah, and Abiasaph: these are the families of the Korhites. 25And Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took him one of the daughters of Putiel to wife; and she bare him Phinehas: these are the heads of the fathers of the Levites 26according to their families. These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom Jehovah said, Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their 27armies [hosts]. These are they which [who] spake unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt: these are that Moses and Aaron. 28And it came to pass on the day when Jehovah spake unto Moses in the land of 29Egypt, That Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, I am Jehovah: speak thou unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say unto thee. 30And Moses said before Jehovah, Behold I am of uncircumcised lips [uncircumcised of lips], and how shall [will] Pharaoh hearken unto me?
Chap. Exo_7:1 And Jehovah said unto Moses, See, I have made thee a god [God] to Pharaoh; and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. 2Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh that he send the children of Israel out of his land. 3And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and 4 multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall [will] not hearken unto you, that I may [and I will] lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people [my hosts, my people], the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. 5And the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I stretch forth mine [my] hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them. 6And Moses and Aaron did as 7[did so; as] Jehovah commanded them, so did they. And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old, when they spake unto Pharaoh.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
[Exo_5:3. This expression is the same as the one in Exo_3:18 (on which Bee the note), except that here we have נִקְרָא, instead of נִקְרָה. But the interchange of these forms is so frequent that it is most natural to understand the two words as equivalent in sense.—Tr.]
[Exo_5:9. Literally “upon,” the work being represented as a burden imposed upon the Israelites.—Tr.]
[Exo_5:9. Literally, “do in it,” i.e. have enough to do in the work given.—Tr.]
[Exo_5:16. If we retain the order of the words as they stand in the original, we get a much more forcible translation of the first part of this verse: “Straw, none is given to thy servants; and ‘Brick,’ they say to us, ‘make ye.’ ” This brings out forcibly the antithesis between “straw” and “brick.”—Tr.]
[Chap. 6. Exo_6:1. I.e. by virtue, or in consequence, of Jehovah’s strong hand, not Pharaoh’s, as one might imagine.—Tr.]
[Exo_6:3. Literally, “I appeared … in God Almighty”—a case of ב essential, meaning “in the capacity of.” Vid Ewald, Ausf. Gr. § 299, b; Ges. Heb. Gr. § 154, 3 a (y).—Tr.]
[Exo_6:3. The original has no preposition. Literally: “My name Jehovah, I was not known.”—Tr.]
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Exo_5:1. Afterward Moses and Aaron went.—Their message is quite in accordance with the philosophical notions of the ancients, and especially with the Israelitish faith. Having accepted the message from Horeb, Israel became Jehovah’s people, Jehovah Israel’s God; and as Israel’s God, He through His ambassadors meets Pharaoh, and demands that the people be released, in order to render Him service in a religious festival. The message accords with the situation. Jehovah, the God of Israel, may seem to Pharaoh chiefly the national deity of Israel; but there is an intimation in the words that He is also the Lord of Pharaoh, of Egypt, and of its worship. Under the petition for a furlough lurks the command to set free; under the recognition of the power of Pharaoh over the people, the declaration that Israel is Jehovah’s free people; under the duty of celebrating a feast of Jehovah in the wilderness, the thought of separating from Egypt and of celebrating the Exodus. The words seemed like a petition which had an echo like a thunder-tone. Perhaps the instinct of the tyrant detected something of this thunder-tone. But even if not, the modest petition was enough to enrage him.
Exo_5:2.Who is Jehovah?—As the heathen had the notion that the gods governed territorially, the Jews seemed to fall under the dominion of the Egyptian gods. They had no land, had moreover in Pharaoh’s eyes no right to be called a nation; therefore, even if they had a deity, it must have been, in his opinion, an anonymous one. This seemed to him to be proved by the new name, Jehovah (which therefore could not have been of Egyptian origin). But even disregard of a known foreign deity was impiety; still more, disregard of the unknown God who, as such, was the very object towards which all his higher aspirations and conscientious compunctions pointed.8 Thus his obduracy began with an act of impiety, which was at the same time inhumanity, inasmuch as he denied to the people freedom of worship. He was the prototype of all religious tyrants.
Exo_5:3. He is glorified by us.—[This is Lange’s translation of נִקְרָא עָלֵינוּ].9 The correction : “He hath met us” (קָרָה), weakens the force of a significant word. They appeal to the fact that Jehovah from of old has been their fathers’ God; and also in their calling themselves Hebrews is disclosed the recollection of ancient dignities and the love of freedom growing out of it.—Three days’ journey.—Keil says: “In Egypt offerings may be made to the gods of Egypt, but not to the God of the Hebrews.” But see Exo_8:26. In the “three days’ journey” also is expressed the hope of freedom.—With the pestilence.—A reference to the power of Jehovah, as able to inflict pestilence and war, and to His jealousy, as able so severely to punish the neglect of the worship due Him. Not without truth, but also not without subtileness, did they say, “lest He fall upon us;” in the background was the thought: “lest He fall upon thee.” Clericus remarks that, according to the belief of the heathen, the gods punish the neglect of their worship.
Exo_5:4. Wherefore, Moses and Aaron.—He thus declares their allegation about a message from Jehovah to be fictitious. He conceives himself to have to do only with two serfs.—Release the people.—And so introduce anarchy and barbarism. The same objection has been made against propositions to introduce freedom of evangelical religion.—Get you to your burdens.—To all the other traits of the tyrant this trait of ignorance must also be added. As he thinks that Moses and Aaron belong among the serfs, so he also thinks that servile labor is the proper employment of the people.
Exo_5:5.The people of the land (peasants). The simple notion of countrymen can, according to the parallel passages, Jer_52:25 and Eze_7:27, denote neither bondmen nor Egyptian countrymen as a caste, although both ideas are alluded to in the expression, a people of peasants, who as such must be kept at work, especially as there are becoming too many of them. The perfect sense, “Ye have made them rest,” is to be ascribed to the fancy of the tyrant.
Exo_5:6.The same day.—Restlessness of the persecuting spirit. The נֹגְשִׂים בָּעָם, or the “drivers over them,” are the Egyptian overseers who were appointed over them; the שֹׁטְרִים, or the scribes belonging to them, were taken from the Jewish people, officers subordinate to the others, in themselves leaders of the people.
Exo_5:7. “The bricks in the old monuments of Egypt, also in many pyramids, are not burnt, but only dried in the sun, as Herodotus (II. 136) mentions of a pyramid” (Keil). The bricks were made firm by means of the chopped straw, generally gathered from the stubble of the harvested fields, which was mixed with the clay. This too is confirmed by ancient monuments. Hengstenberg, Egypt, etc., p. 80 sq.—Heretofore.—Heb.: “yesterday and the day before yesterday.” The usual Hebrew method of designating past time.
Exo_5:9. Regard lying words.—דִּבְרֵי שֶׁקֶר.—Thus he calls the words of Moses concerning Jehovah’s revelation.
Exo_5:10. Even the Jewish scribes yield without opposition. They have become slavish tools of the foreign heathen despotism.
Exo_5:16. Thy people is in fault (orsinneth).—According to Knobel, the phrase “thy people” refers to Israel; according to Keil, to the Egyptians. The latter view is preferable; it is an indirect complaint concerning the conduct of the king himself, against whom they do not dare to make direct reproaches. “חָטָאת is a rare feminine form for חָטְאָה (see on Gen_33:11) and עַם is construed as feminine, as in Jdg_18:7; Jer_8:5” (Keil).10
Exo_5:21. Ye have made our savor to be abhorred (Heb. to stink) in the eyes.—The strong figurativeness of the expression is seen in the incongruity between odor and eyes. The meaning is: ye have brought us into ill-repute.
Exo_5:22. Augustine’s interpretation: Hæc non contumacyiæ verba sunt, vel indignationis sed inquisitionis et orationis, is not a sufficient explanation of the mood in which Moses speaks. It is the mark of the genuineness of the personal relation between the believers and Jehovah, that they may give expression even to their vexation in view of Jehovah’s unsearchable dealings. Expressions of this sort run through the book of Job, the Psalms, and the Prophets, and over into the New Testament, and prove that the ideal religion is not that in which souls stand related to God as selfless creatures to an absolute destiny.
Exo_6:1-3. Knobel finds here a new account of the call of Moses, and that, by the Elohist. A correct understanding of the connection destroys this hypothesis. Moses is in need of new encouragement. Therefore Jehovah, first, repeats His promise, by vigorous measures to compel Pharaoh to release Israel, in a stronger form (comp. Exo_3:19; Exo_4:21); and then follows the declaration that this result is pledged in the name Jehovah, that the name Jehovah, in its significance as the source of promise, surpasses even the name God Almighty. If the fathers, in the experience of His miraculous help, have become acquainted with Him as God Almighty, they are now to get a true knowledge of Him as the God of helpful covenant faithfulness. This is the reason why he recurs to the name Jehohovah. Comp. Keil, p. 467.11
Exo_6:4. Vid. the promises, Gen_17:7-8; Gen_26:3; Gen_35:11-12.
Exo_6:6.I am Jehovah. With this name He begins and ends (Exo_6:8) His promise. With the name Jehovah, then, He pledges Himself to the threefold promise: (1) To deliver the people from bondage; (2) to adopt them as His people; (3) to lead them to Canaan, their future possession.—With a stretched-out arm. A stronger expression than יָד חֲזָקָה. Comp. Deu_4:34; Deu_5:15; Deu_7:19.
Exo_6:9.For vexation of spirit. Gesenius: Impatience. Keil: Shortness of breath, i.e., anguish, distress.
Exo_6:10-11. While Moses’ courage quite gives way, Jehovah intensifies the language descriptive of his mission.
Exo_6:12. On the other hand, Moses intensifies the expression with which he made (Exo_4:10) his want of eloquence an excuse for declining the commission.—Of uncircumcised lips. Since circumcision was symbolic of renewal or regeneration, this expression involved a new phase of thought. If he was of uncircumcised or unclean lips (Isa_6:5), then even Aaron’s eloquence could not help him, because in that case Moses could not transmit in its purity the pure word of God. In his strict conscientiousness he sincerely assumes that there must be a moral hinderance in his manner of speaking itself.
Exo_6:13. This time Jehovah answers with an express command to Moses and Aaron together, and to the children of Israel and Pharaoh together. This comprehensive command alone can beat down Moses’ last feeling of hesitation.
Exo_6:14-27. But as a sign that the mission of Moses is now determined, that Moses and Aaron, therefore, are constituted these prominent men of God, their genealogy is now inserted, the form of which shows that it is to be regarded as an extract from a genealogy of the twelve tribes, since the genealogy begins with Reuben, but does not go beyond Levi.
Exo_6:14. בֵּית־אָבוֹת. “Father-houses, not father-house” [Keil]. The compound form has become a simple word. See Keil, p. 469. The father-houses are the ramifications of the tribes. The tribes branch off first into families, or clans, or heads of the father-houses; these again branch off into the father-houses themselves. The Amram of Exo_6:20 is to be distinguished from the Amram of Exo_6:18. See the proof of this in Tiele, Chronologie des A. T.; Keil, p. 469.12 The text, to be sure, does not clearly indicate the distinction. “The enumeration of only four generations—Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses—points unmistakably to Gen_15:16” (Keil).
Exo_6:20.His father’s sister—That was before the giving of the law in Lev_18:12. The LXX. and Vulg. understand the word דּוֹדָה of the daughter of the father’s brother. According to Exo_7:7, Aaron was three years older than Moses; that Miriam was older than either is seen from the history.
Exo_6:23. Aaron’s wife was from the tribe of Judah. Vid. Num_2:3.
Exo_6:25.רָאשֵׁי אָבוֹת. Abbreviation of בֵית אָבוֹת רָאשֵׁי [“heads of the father-houses”].
Exo_6:26.These are that Aaron and Moses.—Thus the reason is given for inserting this piece of genealogy in this place.
Exo_6:28. Resumption of the narrative interrupted at Exo_6:12. What is there said is here and afterward repeated more fully. In the land of Egypt.—This addition is not a sign of another account, but only gives emphasis to the fact that Jehovah represented Himself in the very midst of Egypt as the Lord of the country, and gave Moses, for the furtherance of his aim, a sort of divine dominion, namely, a theocratic dominion over Pharaoh.
Exo_7:1. What Moses at first was to be for Aaron as the inspiring Spirit of God, that he is now to be for Aaron as representative of God in His almighty miraculous sway. So far Aaron’s position also is raised. It must not be overlooked that, with this word of divine revelation, Moses’ growing feeling of lofty confidence and assurance of victory corresponds; it was developed in Egypt itself, and from out of his feeling of inability. “For Aaron Moses is God as the revealer, for Pharaoh as the executor, of the divine will” (Keil).
Exo_7:2.That he send.—Keil’s translation, “and so he will let go,” does not accord with the following verse.
Exo_7:4.My hosts.—Israel becomes a host of Jehovah. Vid. Exo_13:18, and the book of Numbers. This is the first definite germ of the later name, God, or Jehovah, of hosts; although the name in that form chiefly refers to heavenly hosts; these under another name have been mentioned in Gen_32:2.
Footnotes:
[1][Exo_5:3. This expression is the same as the one in Exo_3:18 (on which Bee the note), except that here we have נִקְרָא, instead of נִקְרָה. But the interchange of these forms is so frequent that it is most natural to understand the two words as equivalent in sense.—Tr.]
[2][Exo_5:9. Literally “upon,” the work being represented as a burden imposed upon the Israelites.—Tr.]
[3][Exo_5:9. Literally, “do in it,” i.e. have enough to do in the work given.—Tr.]
[4][Exo_5:16. If we retain the order of the words as they stand in the original, we get a much more forcible translation of the first part of this verse: “Straw, none is given to thy servants; and ‘Brick,’ they say to us, ‘make ye.’ ” This brings out forcibly the antithesis between “straw” and “brick.”—Tr.]
[5][Chap. 6. Exo_6:1. I.e. by virtue, or in consequence, of Jehovah’s strong hand, not Pharaoh’s, as one might imagine.—Tr.]
[6][Exo_6:3. Literally, “I appeared … in God Almighty”—a case of ב essential, meaning “in the capacity of.” Vid Ewald, Ausf. Gr. § 299, b; Ges. Heb. Gr. § 154, 3 a (y).—Tr.]
[7][Exo_6:3. The original has no preposition. Literally: “My name Jehovah, I was not known.”—Tr.]
[8][This is putting a rather fine point on Pharaoh’s wickedness. A bad man cannot, as such, be required to have aspirations towards any hitherto unknown god of whom he may chance to hear, and to have such aspirations just because he has never before heard of him. It is enough to say that, as a polytheist, ho ought to have respected the religion of the Hebrews.—Tr.]
[9][See under “Textual and Grammatical.” It is true that נִקְרָה would be the usual form for the meaning “has met;” but on the other hand it is certain that קָרָא sometimes is = קָרָה, and the analogy of Exo_3:18 points almost unmistakably to such a use. Moreover, even if this were not the case, it is hard to see how the Hebrew can be rendered: “He is glorified by us.” For נִקְרָא does not mean “is glorified,” and עָלֵינוּ does not mean “by us.” If the verb is to be taken in its ordinary sense, the whole expression would read: “He is called upon us,” i.e. we bear his name, though even this would be only imperfectly expressed.—Tr.]
[10][The opinion of Knobel, here rejected, is held also by Glaire, Arnheim, Fürst and others. The meaning, according to this, is: “Thy people (i.e. the Israelites) are treated as if guilty.” The LXX. understood חטאת as a verb in the second person, and rendered ἀδικήσεις τὸν λαόν σου, “thou doest wrong to thy people.” Still other explanations have been resorted to; but the one given by Lange is the most natural, and is quite satisfactory.—Tr.]
[11][Notice should be taken of the fact that from Exo_6:3 it has been inferred by many that the name Jehovah had actually (or, at least, in the opinion of the writer of this passage) never been known or used before this time; consequently that wherever the name occurs in Genesis or Exodus 1-5, it is a proof that the passage containing it was written after the time here indicated. This is an important element in the theories concerning the authorship of the Pentateuch. Certainly if we press the literal meaning of the last clause of Exo_6:3, it would seem to follow that the name Jehovah (Yahveh) was now for the first time made known. But, to say nothing of the fact that the name Jehovah is not only familiarly used by the author of the book of Genesis, but is also put into the mouths of the earliest patriarchs (all which might be regarded as a proleptic use of the word, or a careless anachronism), it is perhaps sufficient to reply, that such an inference from the passage before us betrays a very superficial view of the significance of the word “name,” as used in the Bible, and especially in the Hebrew Scriptures. The name of a person was conceived as representing his character, his personality. When Jacob’s name was changed, it was said: “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel;” and the reason given for the change is that he has now entered into a new relation with God. Yet, notwithstanding the new appellation, the name Jacob continued to be used, and even more frequently than Israel. In the case before us, then, the statement respecting the names amounts simply to this, that God had not been understood in the character represented by the name Jehovah. The use of the phrase “my name” instead of “the name,” itself points to the previous use of the name.—Tr.]
[12][The proof, as given by Tiele, is this: “According to Num_3:27 sq., the Kohathites were divided (at the time of Moses) into the four branches: Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites; these together constituted 8,600 men and boys (women and girls not being reckoned). Of these the Amramites would include about one fourth, or 2,150. Moses himself, according to Exo_18:3-4, had only two sons. If, therefore, Amram, the son of Kohath, the ancestor of the Amramites, were identical with Amram the father of Moses, then Moses must have had 2,147 brothers and brothers’ sons (the brothers’ daughters, the sisters and sisters’ children not being reckoned). But this being quite an impossible supposition, it must be conceded that it is demonstrated that Amram the son of Kohath is not Moses’ father, but that between the former and his descendant of the same name an indefinitely long list of generations has fallen out.”—Tr.].
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 20 And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord--rather "Jehovah." Lord…
And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord--rather "Jehovah." Lord was a common name applied to objects of worship; but Jehovah was a name he had never heard of. Pharaoh estimated the character and power of this God by the abject and miserable condition of the worshippers and concluded that He held as low a rank among the gods as His people did in the nation. To demonstrate the supremacy of the true God over all the gods of Egypt, was the design of the plagues.
I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go--As his honor and interest were both involved he determined to crush this attempt, and in a tone of insolence, or perhaps profanity, rejected the request for the release of the Hebrew slaves.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 11, 12, 15, 20, 22 THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES WITH PHARAOH, AND THE RESULT,…
THE INTERCESSION OF MOSES WITH PHARAOH, AND THE RESULT, Exo_5:1-23.
1. The era of preparation ends, and the first act of the struggle begins. Moses and Aaron open their mission to Pharaoh. Thus saith Jehovah, God of Israel, so the phrase should be rendered, since “Jehovah” is the proper name, and not the compound word “Lord God,” as the Authorized Version would indicate. Moses and Aaron do not at first demand national independence. It is a far more moderate request to be permitted to sacrifice according to the command of Jehovah. As all nations had their forms of worship, and as religious claims were everywhere acknowledged to be paramount, this was no unreasonable petition, especially in Egypt, where religious festivals and processions were a most familiar pageant. At the same time it contained the core principle of Israel’s mission — recognition of Jehovah. See on Exo_3:18-19. It is a strange and irreverent misconception that has led some interpreters to consider this a deceptive request.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 1. Jehovah, the God of Israel] elsewhere in the…
1. Jehovah, the God of Israel] elsewhere in the Pent. only Exo_32:27 (E), also with Thus saith; cf. on Exo_4:22.
make a pilgrimage] The Heb. ḥag means not simply a religious ‘feast’ like our Easter or Christmas, for instance, but a feast accompanied by a pilgrimage to a sanctuary: such as, for instance, were the three ‘ḥaggim,’ at which every male Israelite was to appear before Jehovah (Exo_23:14-17). The corresponding word in Arabic, ḥaj, denotes the pilgrimage to Mecca, which every faithful Mohammedan endeavours to make at least once in his life.
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1–5. Moses and Aaron ask permission of the Pharaoh for the Israelites to keep a three days’ feast in the wilderness. The request is refused.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22 (1) Went in.—Heb., went—i.e., left their usual residence, and…
V.
FIRST APPLICATION OF MOSES TO PHARAOH, AND INCREASE OF THE OPPRESSION.
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(1) Went in.—Heb., went—i.e., left their usual residence, and approached the Court, which, according to the Psalms (Psa_78:12; Psa_78:43), was held at Zoan (i.e., Tanis). This was the ordinary residence of Rameses II. and his son Menephthah.
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.—Heb., Thus has said Jehovah, God of Israel. The Pharaohs claimed to hold direct communications with the Egyptian deities, and could not deny the possibility of the Hebrew leaders holding communications with their God. Menepthah himself—the probable “Pharaoh of the Exodus”—gave out that he had received a warning from Phthah in the fifth year of his reign (Brugsch, History of Egypt, vol. ii., p. 119; 1st ed.).
That they may hold a feast unto me.—God’s entire purpose is not at once revealed to Pharaoh. He is tried with a moderate demand, which he might well have granted. By refusing it he showed himself harsh, unkind, and inconsiderate, so tempting God to lay upon him a greater burthen.
In the wilderness—i.e., beyond the frontier, or, at any rate, beyond inhabited Egypt—that the Egyptians might not be driven to fury by seeing animals sacrificed which they regarded as sacred. (See Exo_8:26, and the comment ad loc.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain On v1 Exodus 5 - 6
Exodus 5 - 6
The effect of the first appeal to Pharaoh seemed ought but encouraging. The thought of losing Israel made him clutch them with greater eagerness and watch them with greater vigilance. Whenever Satan’s power becomes narrowed to a point, his rage increases. Thus it is here. The furnace is about to be quenched by the hand of redeeming love; but, ere it is, it blazes forth with greater fierceness and intensity. The devil does not like to let go any one whom he has had in his terrible grasp. He is "a strong man armed," and while he "keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace." But, blessed be God, there is "a stronger than he," who has taken from him "his armour wherein he trusted," and divided the spoils among the favoured objects of His everlasting love.
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"And afterward, Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." (Ex. 5: 3) Such was Jehovah’s message to Pharaoh. He claimed full deliverance for the people, on the ground of their being His; and, in order that they might hold a feast to Him in the wilderness. Nothing can ever satisfy God in reference to His elect, but their entire emancipation from the yoke of bondage. "Loose him, and let him go" is, really, the grand motto in God’s gracious dealings with those who, though held in bondage by Satan, are, nevertheless, the objects of His eternal love.
When we contemplate Israel amid the brick-kilns of Egypt, we behold a graphic figure of the condition of every child of Adam by nature. There they were, crushed beneath the enemy’s galling yoke, and having no power to deliver themselves. The mere mention of the word liberty only caused the oppressor to bind his captives with a stronger fetter, and to lade them with a still more grievous burden. It was absolutely necessary that deliverance should come from without. But from whence has it to come? Where were the resources to pay their ransom? or where was the power to break their chains? And, even were there both the one and the other, where was the will? Who would take the trouble of delivering them? Alas! there was no hope, either within or around. They had only to look up, their refuge was in God. He had both the power and the will. He could accomplish a redemption both by price and by power. In Jehovah, and in Him alone, was there salvation for ruined and oppressed Israel.
Thus is it in every case. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4: 12) The sinner is in the hands of one who rules him with despotic power. He is "sold under sin" "led captive by Satan at his will" - fast bound in the fetters of lust, passion, and temper, "without strength" - "without hope" - "without God." Such is the sinner’s condition. How, then, can he help himself? What can he do? He is the slave of another, and everything he does is done in the capacity of a slave. His thoughts, his words, his acts, are the thoughts, words, and acts of a slave. Yea, though he should weep and sigh for emancipation, his very tears and sighs are the melancholy proofs of his slavery. He may struggle for freedom; but his very struggle, though it evinces a desire for liberty, is the positive declaration of his bondage.
Nor is it merely a question of the sinner’s condition; his very nature is radically corrupt - wholly under the power of Satan. Hence, he not only needs to be introduced into a new condition, but also to be endowed with a new nature. The nature and the condition go together. If it were possible for the sinner to better his condition, what would it avail so long as his nature was irrecoverably bad? A nobleman might take a beggar off the streets and adopt him; he might endow him with a noble’s wealth and set him in a noble’s position; but he could not impart to him nobility of nature; and thus the nature of a beggarman would never be at home in the condition of a nobleman. There must be a nature to suit the condition; and there must be a condition to suit the capacity, the desires, the affections, and the tendencies of the nature.
Now, in the gospel of the grace of God, we are taught that the believer is introduced into an entirely new condition; that he is no longer viewed as in his former state of guilt and condemnation, but as in a state of perfect and everlasting justification; that the condition in which God now sees him is not only one of full pardon; but it is such that infinite holiness cannot find so much as a single stain. He has been taken out of his former condition of guilt, and placed absolutely and eternally in a new condition of unspotted righteousness. It is not, by any means, that his old condition is improved. This was utterly impossible. "That which is crooked cannot be made straight." "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" Nothing can be more opposed to the fundamental truth of the gospel than the theory of a gradual improvement in the sinner’s condition. He is born in a certain condition, and until he is "born again" he cannot be in any other. We may try to improve. He may resolve to be better for the future turn over a new leaf" - to live a different sort of life; but, all the while, he has not moved a single hair’s breadth out of his real condition as a sinner. He may become "religious" as it is called, he may try to pray, he may diligently attend to ordinances, and exhibit an appearance of moral reform; but none of these things can, in the smallest degree, affect his positive condition before God.
The case is precisely similar as to the question of nature. How can a man alter his nature? He may make it undergo a process, he may try to subdue it, to place it under discipline; but it is nature still. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." There must be a new nature as well as a new condition. And how is this to be had? By believing God’s testimony concerning His Son. "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his Name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1: 12, 13) Here we learn that those who believe on the name of the only-begotten Son of God, have the right or privilege of being sons of God. They are made partakers of a new nature. They have gotten eternal life. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." (John 3: 36) "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. " (John 5: 24) "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17.3) "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." "He that hath the Son hath life." (1 John 5: 11, 12)
Such is the plain doctrine of the Word in reference to the momentous questions of condition and nature. But on what is all this founded How is the believer introduced into a condition of divine righteousness and made partaker of the divine nature? It all rests on the great truth that "JESUS DIED AND ROSE AGAIN." That Blessed One left the bosom of eternal love - the throne of glory - the mansions of unfading light came down into this world of guilt and woe - took upon Him the likeness of sinful flesh; and, having perfectly exhibited and perfectly glorified God, in all the movements of His blessed life here below, He died upon the cross, under the full weight of His people’s transgressions. By so doing, He divinely met all that was, or could be, against us. He magnified the law and made it honourable; and, having done so, He became a curse by hanging on the tree. Every claim was met, every enemy silenced, every obstacle removed. "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Infinite justice was satisfied, and infinite love can flow, in all its soothing and refreshing virtues, into the broken heart of the sinner; while, at the same time, the cleansing and atoning stream that flowed from the pierced side of a crucified Christ, perfectly meets all the cravings of a guilty and convicted conscience. The Lord Jesus, on the cross, stood in our place. He was our representative. He died, "the just for the unjust." "He was made sin for us." (2 Cor. 5: 21; 2 Peter 3: 18) He died the sinner’s death, was buried, and rose again, having accomplished all. Hence, there is absolutely nothing against the believer. He is linked with Christ and stands in the same condition of righteousness. "As he is so are we in this world." (1 John 4: 17)
This gives settled peace to the conscience. If I am no longer in a condition of guilt, but in a condition of justification; if God only sees me in Christ and as Christ, then, clearly, my portion is perfect peace. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5: 1) The blood of the Lamb has cancelled all the believer’s guilt, blotted out his heavy debt, and given him a perfectly blank page, in the presence of that holiness which "cannot look upon sin."
But the believer has not merely found peace with God; he is made a child of God, so that he can taste the sweetness of communion with the Father and the Son, through the power of the Holy Ghost. The cross is to be viewed in two ways: first, as satisfying God’s claims; secondly, as expressing God’s affections. If I look at my sins in connection with the claims of God as a Judge, I find, in the cross, a perfect settlement of those claims. God, as a Judge, has been divinely satisfied - yea, glorified, in the cross. But there is more than this. God had affections as well as claims; and, in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, all those affections are sweetly and touchingly told out into the sinner’s ear; while, at the same time, he is made the partaker of a new nature which is capable of enjoying those affections and of having fellowship with the heart from which they flow. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." (1 Peter 3: 18) Thus we are not only brought into a condition, but unto a Person, even God Himself, and we are endowed with a nature which can delight in Him. We also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." (Rom. 5: 11)
What force and beauty, therefore, can we see in those emancipating words, "Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness." "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." (Luke 4: 18) The glad tidings of the gospel announce full deliverance from every yoke of bondage. Peace and liberty are the boons which that gospel bestows on all who believe it, as God has declared it.
And mark, it is "that they may hold a feast to me." If they were to get done with Pharaoh, it was that they might begin with God. This was a great change. Instead of toiling under Pharaoh’s taskmasters, they were to feast in company with Jehovah; and, although they were to pass from Egypt into the wilderness, still the divine presence was to accompany them; and if the wilderness was rough and dreary, it was the way to the land of Canaan. The divine purpose was, that they should hold a feast unto the Lord, in the wilderness; and, in order to do this, they should be "let go" out of Egypt.
However, Pharaoh was in no wise disposed to yield obedience to the divine mandate. "Who is the Lord," said he, "that I should obey his voice to let Israel go. I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." (Ex. 5: 2) Pharaoh most truly expressed, in these words, his real condition. His condition was one of ignorance and consequent disobedience. Both go together. If God be not known, He cannot be obeyed; for obedience is ever founded upon knowledge. When the soul is blessed with the knowledge of God, it finds this knowledge to be life, (John 17: 3) and life is power; and when I get power I can act, It is obvious that one cannot act without life; and therefore it is most unintelligent to set people upon doing certain things, in order to get that by which alone they can do anything.
But Pharaoh was as ignorant of himself as he was of the Lord. He did not know that he was a poor, vile worm of the earth, and that he had been raised up for the express purpose of making known the glory of the very One whom he said he knew not. (Ex. 9: 16; Rom. 9: 17) "And they said, The God of the Hebrews has met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword, And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their work? Get you unto your burdens . . . . . let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words." (Ver. 3-9)
What a development of the secret springs of the human heart we have here! What complete incompetency to enter into the things of God! All the divine titles and the divine revelations were, in Pharaoh’s estimation, "vain words." What did he know or care about "three days journey into the wilderness," or "a feast to Jehovah?" How could he understand the need of such a journey, or the nature or object of such a feast? Impossible. He could understand burden-bearing and brick-making; these things had an air of reality about them, in his judgement; but as to ought of God, His service, or His worship, he could only regard it in the light of an idle chimera, devised by those who only wanted an excuse to make their escape from the stern realities of actual life.
Thus has it, too often, been with the wise and great of this world. They have ever been the most forward to write folly and vanity upon the divine testimonies. Hearken, for example, to the estimate which the "most noble Feasts" formed of the grand question at issue between Paul and the Jews: "they had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." (Acts 25: 19) Alas! how little he knew what he was saying! How little he knew what was involved in the question, as to whether "Jesus" was "dead" or "alive!" He thought not of the solemn bearing of that momentous question upon himself and his friends, Agrippa and Bernice; but that did not alter the matter; he and they know somewhat more about it now, though in their passing moment of earthly glory they regarded it as a superstitious question, wholly beneath the notice of men of common sense, and only fit to occupy the disordered brain of visionary enthusiasts. Yes; the stupendous question which fixes the destiny of every child of Adam - on which is founded the present and everlasting condition of the Church and the world which stands connected with all the divine counsels - this question was, in the judgement of Feasts, a vain superstition.
Thus was it in Pharaoh’s case. He knew nothing of "the Lord God of the Hebrews" - the great "I AM," and hence he regarded all that Moses and Aaron had said to him, in reference to doing sacrifice to God, as "vain words." The things of God must ever seem vain, profitless, and unmeaning, to the unsanctified mind of man. His name may be made use of as part of the flippant phraseology of a cold and formal religiousness; but He Himself is not known. His precious name, which, to a believer’s heart, has wrapped up in it all that he can possibly need or desire, has no significancy, no power, no virtue for an unbeliever. All, therefore, connected with God, His words, His counsels, His thoughts, His ways, everything, in short, that treats of, or refers to, Him, is regarded as "vain words."
However, the time is rapidly approaching when it will not be thus. The judgement-seat of Christ, the terrors of the world to come, the surges of the lake of fire, will not be "Vain words." Assuredly not; and it should be the great aim of all who, through grace, believe them now to be realities, to press them upon the consciences of those who, like Pharaoh, regard the making of bricks as the only thing worth thinking about - the only thing that can be called reel and solid.
Alas! that even Christians should so frequently be found living in the region of sight, the region of earth, the region of nature, as to lose the deep, abiding, influential sense of the reality of divine and heavenly things. We want to live more in the region of faith, the region of heaven, the region of the "new creation." Then we should see things as God sees them, think about them as He thinks; and our whole course and character would be more elevated, more disinterested, more thoroughly separated from earth and earthly things.
But Moses’ sorest trial did not arise from Pharaoh’s judgement about his mission The true and Wholehearted servant of Christ must ever expect to be looked on, by the men of this world, as a mere visionary enthusiast. The point of view from which they contemplate him is such as to lead us to look for this judgement and none other. The more faithful he is to his heavenly Master, the more he walks in His footsteps, the more conformed he is to His image, the more likely he is to be considered, by the sons of earth, as one "beside himself." This, therefore, should neither disappoint nor discourage him. But then it is a far more painful thing when his service and testimony are misunderstood, unheeded, or rejected by those who are themselves the specific objects thereof. When such is the case, he needs to be much with God, much in the secret of His mind, much in the power of communion, to have his spirit sustained in the abiding reality of his path and service. Under such trying circumstances, if one be not fully persuaded of the divine commission, and conscious of the divine presence, he will be almost sure to break down.
Had not Moses been thus upheld, his heart must have utterly failed him when the augmented pressure of Pharaoh’s power elicited from the officers of the children of Israel such desponding and depressing words as these: - "The Lord look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us." This was gloomy enough; and Moses felt it so, for "he returned unto the Lord, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came unto Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast thou delivered thy people at all." The aspect of things had become most discouraging, at the very moment when deliverance seemed at hand; just as, in nature, the darkest hour of the night is often that which immediately precedes the dawn of the morning. Thus will it assuredly be, in Israel’s history, in the latter day. The moment of most profound darkness and depressing gloom will precede the bursting of "the Sun of Righteousness" from behind the cloud, with healing in His fingers, to heal eternally, "the hurt of the daughter of His people."
We may well question how far genuine faith, or a mortified will, dictated the "wherefore?" and the "why?" of Moses, in the above quotation. Still, the Lord does not rebuke a remonstrance drawn forth by the intense pressure of the moment. He most graciously replies, " Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land." (Ex. 6: 1) This reply breathes peculiar grace. Instead of reproving the petulance which could presume to call in question the unsearchable ways of the great I AM, that ever gracious One seeks to relieve the harassed spirit of His servant, by unfolding to him what He was about to do. This was worthy of the blessed God - the unupbraiding Giver of every good and every perfect gift. "He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." (Ps. 103: 24)
Nor is it merely in His actings that He would cause the heart to find its solace, but in Himself - in His very name and character. This is full, divine, and everlasting blessedness. When the heart can find its sweet relief in God Himself - when it can retreat into the strong tower which His name affords - when it can find, in His character, a perfect answer to all its need, then truly, it is raised far above the region of the creature-it can turn away from earth’s fair promises - it can place the proper value on man’s lofty pretensions. The heart which is endowed with an experimental knowledge of God can not only look forth upon earth, and say "all is vanity," but it can also look straight up to Him, and say, "all my springs are in thee."
"And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty; but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them. And I have also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant." "JEHOVAH" is the title which He takes as the Deliverer of His people, on the ground of His covenant of pure and sovereign grace He reveals Himself as the great self-existing Source of redeeming love, establishing His counsels, fulfilling His promises, delivering His elect people from every enemy and every evil. It was Israel’s privilege ever to abide under the safe covert of that significant title - a title which displays God acting for His own glory, and taking up His oppressed people in order to show forth in them that glory.
"Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgements. And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to yon a God; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land concerning the which I did swear to give it unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the Lord. " (Ver. 6-8.) All this speaks the purest, freest, richest grace. Jehovah presents Himself to the hearts of His people as the One who was to act in them, for them, and with them, for the display of His own glory. Ruined and helpless as they were, He had come down to show forth His glory, to exhibit His grace, and to furnish a sample of His power, in their full deliverance. His glory and their salvation were inseparably connected. They were afterwards reminded of all this, as we read in the book of Deuteronomy. "The Lord did not set His love upon yon nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people; but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." (Ex. 7: 7, 8)
Nothing is more calculated to assure and establish the doubting, trembling heart than the knowledge that God has taken us up, just as we are, and in the full intelligence of what we are; and, moreover, that He can never make any fresh discovery to cause an alteration in the character and measure of His love. "Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end." (John 13) Whom He loves and as He loves, He loves unto the end. This is an unspeakable comfort. God knew all about us - He knew the very worst of us, when He manifested His love to us in the gift of His Son. He knew what we needed, and He provided it. He knew what was due, and He paid it. He knew what was to be wrought, and He wrought it. His own requirements had to be met, and He met them. It is all His own work. Hence, we find Him saying to Israel, as in the above passage, "I will bring you out" - "I will bring you in" - "I will take you to me" - "I will give you the land" - "I am Jehovah." It was all what He could do, as founded upon what He was. Until this great truth is fully laid hold of, until it enters into the soul, in the power of the Holy Ghost, there cannot be settled peace. The heart can never be happy or the conscience at rest until one knows and believes that all divine requirements have been divinely answered.
The remainder of our section is taken up with a record of "the heads of their fathers’ houses," and is very interesting, as showing us Jehovah coming in and numbering those that belonged to Himself, though they were still in the possession of the enemy. Israel was God’s people, and He here counts up those on whom He had a sovereign claim. Amazing grace! To find an object in those who were in the midst of all the degradation of Egyptian bondage! This was worthy of God. The One who had made the worlds, who was surrounded by hosts of unfallen angels, ever ready to "do his pleasure," should come down for the purpose of taking up a number of bondslaves with whom He condescended to connect His name. He came down and stood amid the brick-kilns of Egypt, and there beheld a people groaning beneath the lash of the task-masters, and He uttered those memorable accents, "Let my people go;" and, having so said, He proceeded to count them up, as much as to say, "These are mine; let me see how many I have, that not one may be left behind." "He taketh up the beggar from the dunghill, to set him amongst the princes of his people, and to make him inherit the throne of glory." (1 Sam. 2)
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–23 Vers. 1-5. Having secured the adhesion of the Israelitish…
FIRST APPEAL OF MOSES TO PHARAOH, AND INCREASE OF THE OPPRESSION.
Vers. 1-5. Having secured the adhesion of the Israelitish people, Moses and Aaron sought an interview with the Egyptian monarch who was now in possession of the throne. According to the bulk of modern authorities, and according to our own views of Egyptian history, this was Menephthah,the son and successor of Rameses II Menephthah was a weak prince, whom events had favoured, and who had been thus led to have an exalted opinion of himself. A great invasion of Egypt had occurred at the beginning of his reign, which had been met and completely repulsed, not by his own skill or valour, but by the skill and valour of his generals. Menephthah himself had pointedly avoided incurring any danger. He claimed to be in direct communication with the Egyptian gods, who revealed themselves to him in visions, and pleaded a distinct command of Phthah as preventing him from putting himself at the head of his army. Still, he counted as his own all the successes gained by his generals, and was as vainglorious and arrogant as if he had himself performed prodigies of valour Such was the temper of the king before whom we believe that Moses and Aaron appeared. There would be no difficulty in any Egyptian subject, who had a prayer to make or a petition to present, obtaining an audience of the monarch, for it was an accepted principle of the administration that the kings were to hear all complaints, and admit to their presence all classes of the community.
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And afterward. The interposition of some not inconsiderable space of time seems to be implied. Menephthah resided partly at Memphis, partly at Zoan (Tanis). Moses and Aaron may have had to wait until he returned from his southern to his northern capital. Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh. Aaron was, no doubt, the sole spokesman, but as he spoke for both, the plural is used. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.
Literally, "Thus saith Jehovah, God of Israel." Pharaoh would understand Jehovah to be a proper name, parallel to his own Phthah, Ra, Ammon, etc. Let my people go. The rationale of the demand is given in ch. 8:26. The Israelites could not offer their proper sacrificial animals in the presence of the Egyptians without the risk of provoking a burst of religious animosity, since among the animals would necessarily be some which all, or many, of the Egyptians regarded as sacred, and under no circumstances to be killed. The fanaticism of the Egyptians on such occasions led to wars, tumults, and massacres. (See Plutarch, "De Isid. et Osir.," To avoid this danger the "feast" must be held beyond the bounds of Egypt in the adjacent "wilderness.
Vers. 1-5. God"s will often opposed by the great of the earth, and his servants rebuffed.
Encouraged by their success with the elders and with the people, (Exo_4:29-31) Moses and Aaron would stop boldly into the presence of Pharaoh. It was, no doubt, known that they represented the feelings of an entire nation, a nation moreover of whom the Egyptians had begun to be afraid. (Exo_1:9, Exo_1:10) The courtiers would treat them, at any rate, with outward politeness and respect. They knew also that God was on their side, and would ultimately, if not at the first, give them success. Under these circumstances they made their request boldly and with much plainness (vers. 1 and 3). But they were met with the most complete antagonism. Pharaoh was in his own eves not only the greatest king upon the face of the earth, but an actual god. If we are right in supposing him to be Menephthah, he was the son of a king who had set up his own image to be worshipped side by side with those of Ammon, Phthah, and Horus, three of the greatest Egyptian deities. He viewed the demand made of him as preposterous, and had probably not the slightest belief in the power of Jehovah to do him harm. Who was Jehovah? and what had he to fear from him? A god if he was a god who had not been able to prevent his people from becoming a nation of slaves. He therefore treated the petition of Moses with absolute contempt. And so it has ever been, and will ever be, with the great of the earth. They are so exalted above their fellows, that they think "no harm can happen unto them." They do not set themselves to inquire what is really God"s will, but determinately carry out their own will in their own way. Even when they do not openly blaspheme, like this Pharaoh, and Sennacherib, (2Ki_18:29-35) and Herod Antipas, (Luk_23:11) they ignore God, reject the just demands of his ministers, refuse to be guided by their advice. Thus his servants are ever being rebuffed. They ask that slavery should everywhere cease, and are told that in some places it is a necessity. They plead against the licensing of vice, and are bidden not to interfere with sanitary arrangements. They ask for laws to restrain intoxication, and are denounced as seeking to lessen the national revenue. They cry for the abolition of vivisection, and are held up to ridicule as sickly sentimentalists. All this is to be expected, and should not discourage them. Let them, like Moses and Aaron, continually repeat their demands; urge them, in season and out of season. They may be sure that they will triumph at last. "The Lord is on their side;" they need not fear what flesh can do against them.
HOMILIES BY H. T. ROBJOHNS Vers. 1-21. Failure.
know not Jehovah," etc.: Exo_5:2. We now come face to face with the king. As the king here becomes very prominent, we will keep him conspicuous in the outlining of this address.
I AUDIENCE WITH THE KING. This is a convenient moment for introducing Pharaoh as the terrestrial representative of the Sun, as the vicegerent of Deity upon earth. Does it seem wonderful that men should receive a man in this capacity? But millions of professed Christians in this nineteenth century so receive the Pope. We will take the suggestions of the story in the time-order of the narrative. We have
1. A lesson in courage. The two went to their audience with the king at the peril of their lives. Some might have remembered Moses. Their demand touched the honour and revenues of the king. Courage in facing responsibility is the lesson; leave consequences to our poor selves to God.
2. A suggestion as to the method of evangelic grace. Jehovah here calls himself for the first time in relation to the nation, as distinguished from the man Jacob, "the God of Israel." A crowd was just becoming a State and a Church, when Jehovah calls himself their God. First he is their God: then all possibilities are before them. Their history begins well. So now: first adopted children, and then the obedience of children.
2. A warning against want of catholicity. The tone of Pharaoh is that of the vicegerent of Deity, as against a tutelary god he deigned not to acknowledge. But he was wrong even on the principles of enlightened pagandom, which was forward to acknowledge the gods of all nations. Compare the policy of imperial Rome.
3. Teaching as to gradation in God"s demands. Here may be discussed the nature and propriety of the first demand for three days" absence. Looking at things after the events, it may appear to some that here was a demand which concealed the real intention, viz. to return no more. But this would be to impeach the veracity of God! The demand really was for "a whole day"s prayer-meeting," with a day to go, a day to return. In the desert, as in consideration of Egyptian feeling; but probably within the frontier, for there were Egyptian garrisons in Forts of the desert of Sinai. A moderate demand! One that Pharaoh might well have complied with. Compliance might have led to further negotiation; and this Pharaoh might have stood out in history as co-operating in the deliverance and formation of the Church of God. Instead of that he set himself against the small demand, and was unready for the greater (Exo_6:11) when it came. And so we see him through the mist of ages, "moving ghost-like to his doom." It is a picture of the method of God. He asks first for the simple, reasonable, easy etc. etc.
II ORDERS FROM THE KING. "The very same day!" Such is the restlessness of the tyrant-spirit. The orders were addressed to the "drivers," Egyptians, and to the "clerks" of the works, Hebrews. Note the large employment of "clerks," as evidenced by the monuments. The appointment of these "clerks" would contribute much to the organisation of Israel, and so prepare for the Exodus. As to the orders explain them. Bricks a government monopoly; witness the royal mark on many to this day. Same number of bricks as before, but people to gather in the corn-fields the straw (in harvest only the ear cut off) previously allowed by the government, chop it, and mix it with the clay. Terrible cruelty of these orders-in-council in such a climate.
III OBEDIENCE TO THE KING. For the sake of vividly and pictorially bringing up the condition of the people, note the time of straw-collecting: time of harvest end of April; then a hot pestilential sand-wind often blows over the land of Egypt for fifty days; the effects on health, tone, skin, eyes (in the land of ophthalmia), of so working in blazing sun, in clouds of dust, in hopeless slavery. They return to the horrid brickfields; fail; fierce punishments, as to this day in the same land.
IV EXPOSTULATION WITH THE KING, The "clerks" of the works constitute a deputation to the king, perhaps by virtue of a "right of petition." The king accuses them of being "idle." To understand this, think of the gigantic public works, the terrific labour, the perishing of thousands, the likelihood that such a taunt would spring to tyrannical lips. The king refuses, perhaps threatens the lives of the "clerks." See ver. 21 put a sword," etc. Here again, that which seemed most against the people made for them. The treatment of the "clerks" brought them into sympathy with their enslaved brethren. Israel closed its ranks. The fellowship of suffering prepared for the companionship of pilgrimage. There was, too, a present blessing. Spiritual feelings were quickened, heaven came nearer, the pitying love of God became more precious. One can imagine such scenes as those in which the slaves of the Southern States, through horrid swamps and over mighty rivers, in the dead of night "stole away to Jesus.
In that hour, when night is calmest, Sing they from some Sacred Psalmist, In a voice so sweet and clear That I cannot choose but hear.
And the voice of their devotion Fills my soul with strange emotion; For its tones by turns are glad, Sweetly solemn, wildly sad. Adaped from LONGFELLOW.
V CONSEQUENCES TO THE AMBASSADORS OF THE KING OF KINGS. Moses and Aaron, somewhere near the palace, were waiting to know the result of the audience of the "clerks" with the king. The "clerks," irritated and angry, turned on the God-given leaders: ver. 21. Note in the Hebrews the expression "to stink in the eyes," and the fact that pungent odours do affect the eyes! A dreadful trouble to Moses and Aaron!
In conclusion, observe
1. The cruelty that is ever incident to sin. "Man"s inhumanity to man" a universal fact. "The dark places of the earth are full," etc.; so places alight with modern civilisation. The incidents of any gin-palace! There is, too, a cruelty of word and manner. Soul-wounds deeper than sword-gashes. No cure save under the sanctifying power of the Cross of self-abnegating love.
2. The pain that attends all emancipations. The first efforts of Moses and Aaron led to nothing but disaster. See 6:9. So with the agony of emancipation in America. So always and everywhere. So with reforms within the Church. So with crises of soul-history.
3. The discouragement that may fall to leaders.
4. The encouragement we all have. Note here
(1) The appointment of the "clerks;
(2) The personal danger into which they came;
(3) The uniting all Israel into a fellowship of grief that they might dare the desert. All this came out of the oppression; but tended to salvation. Our darkest experiences rosy be our best friends.
5. Through what sorrow all come to the final emancipation. R.
HOMILIES BY G. A. GOODHART
Chap. V The people of Jehovah detained and oppressed by the representative of the prince of this world; no doubt as to the strength of the latter is it possible for his spoils to be wrested from him? The strong man armed has thus far kept his palace, (Luk_11:21) and his goods (cf. Rev_18:13) have been in peace, so far as outward disturbance is concerned. Now comes one who claims to be the stronger. What may be expected to. happen?
I THE CHALLENGE DELIVERED.
1. The tyrant. Picture the king. Wholly self-satisfied, worshipped as a god, absolute ruler over the lives of thousands. Surrounded by obsequious servants none to contradict him, none to disobey. Enthroned in palace. Enter
2. The envoys. Two men one grown old in slavery, one for forty years ashepherd, looking now at all this pomp as a man who dimly recalls some dream. Does he think of what might have been, perhaps he himself seated upon the throne? (cf. Heb_11:24) Greater honour to be the unknown envoy of Jehovah than to be the Pharaoh who receives his message.
3. The message. Strange words for such a king to hear
(1) a command, not a request. The sender of the message speaks as to a servant.
(2) The slaves of Pharaoh claimed as the people of Jehovah; his right denied to the possession of his goods.
4. The reply. The demand met by a contemptuous refusal Who is Jehovah?i know not Jehovah!" If the message is authoritative, yet the envoys are sufficiently humble they even plead with him that, for the sake of the people, he will grant them permission and opportunity to sacrifice (ver. 3). All to no purpose; the strong man is secure in his possessions and means to keep them in his grasp.
II HOSTILITIES COMMENCED. Pharaoh, was not quite so indifferent as he seemed. If there is to be war, he will gain such advantage as may be gained by making the first hostile movement. His slaves at any rate shall be taught that rebellion is not likely to be successful. Effect of his policy:
1. On people. So long as he had been undisturbed his goods were in peace; now that he is disturbed the miserable peace of his chattels is disturbed too. Man in prison, treated with greater rigour on the rumour of an attempted rescue. Early spring, just after the corn has been cut; chopped straw needed to mix with the clay in brickmaking; let these discontented rebels gather their own. Israelites obliged to scatter themselves over the country; all complaints stifled with blows. Result, vers. 20, 21, great discouragement and distrust of Moses and Aaron. This comes of interfering." Six months" worse tyranny than ever.
2. On himself. Six months to realise the success of his policy; feels more secure than ever; heart is harder; pride greater (cf. Rom_2:4, Rom_2:5)
3. On Moses. Vers. 22, 23. Disheartened, but only for a little; repulsed by Pharaoh, suspected by the people, he is driven back on God; like the giant who gained strength each time he clasped the ground, so becoming more invincible with each new overthrow, finds God his refuge and his strength also. God is pledged to secure final victory. The slaves must be freed; not because they can win freedom, but because God has promised to free them. Apply, from our Lord"s parable, Luk_11:21, Luk_11:22, Satan the strong man who has many slaves. His power seems at first to increase when moved by the rumour of redemption we attempt to follow the dictates of our Deliverer (cf. Rom_7:9-11) Content with slavery, there is quietude; trying after freedom we find trouble and affliction. Illustr. A habit, not hard to endure, but hard to break. The chain of sin is easy to wear; they only know how fast it holds who try to struggle free of it. Cf. again Romans 7. with St. Paul. as with Israel; the bondage seemed worse than ever when the hope of freedom was the most alluring. In either ease the ground of hope, not in the sufferer, but away outside him. God prompts to the struggle against the oppressor, but he does not let victory depend on us; that rests with him. The promise to deliver is contained in the call to freedom. It is not, "I will help you when you are strong," nothing said about our strength at all; confidence rests on the fact that God. is Jehovah, the changeless One. (cf. Exo_6:2; Mal_3:6) Let Israel obey Moses, and God must redeem them from Pharaoh. Let us obey Christ, and God must redeem us from the power of Satan. G.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR Vers. 1-4. A first interview.
Accompanied by Aaron, Moses passes again through the hails of the Pharaohs from which he has been so long a stranger. Kings, courtiers, and people are different; but all else gates and pillars, courts, corridors, and reception-rooms how unchanged since first he knew them! The feelings of the quondam prince must have been strangely mingled, as, after forty years of exile, he trod the familiar pavements, and looked upon the old splendours. But the narrative, absorbed in its mightier theme, has no word to spare for the emotions of a Moses. The long contest between Pharaoh and Jehovah is on the eve of its commencement, and the interest centres in its opening scene. It is this which occupies the verses before us.
I THE REQUEST (vers. 1, 3). Behold Pharaoh on his throne of state, while the brothers stand before him delivering Jehovah"s message. The request preferred to him was
1. Eminently righteous and reasonable. No monarch has a right to deprive a people of the opportunity of worshipping God according to their consciences. If he does, the people have a right to protest against it. Pharaoh could not be expected to understand the modern views of rights of conscience, but even by the light of his own time people were entitled to be permitted to worship their own gods, and to honour them by appropriate festivals. But not only had Pharaoh deprived the Hebrews of their liberty, and ground them to the earth by cruel oppression both offences against righteousness, but he had taken from them, we may be certain, the opportunity of observing in a proper manner the festivals of their God. Moses and Aaron would have been within their rights, even without Divine command, had they demanded that the whole nation be set at liberty. Much more when they only asked that they be allowed for a brief space to retire into the wilderness, there, unmolested by the Egyptians, to sacrifice to the Lord.
2. Supported by Divine command. "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel." Pharaoh, it is true, could plead that he did not know Jehovah; but when he saw these men"s sincerity, and how they dreaded incurring their God"s anger (ver. 3), it was his duty to have inquired further. The evil was that he did not care to know. He treated the whole matter with impious and disdainful contempt.
3. Unaccompanied by signs. Moses and Aaron had no occasion to exhibit signs. Pharaoh was not in a mood to pay the slightest attention to them. He did not even dispute that this was a bona fide message from Jehovah, but took the ground of simple refusal to obey it. Yet there may have been a reason for working no miracles at the opening of the conflict. God proceeds with men step by step. The first appeal is to be made, not to the king"s fears, but to his sense of fairness, his humanity, and feeling of religion. He must be convicted on this lower ground before sterner measures are used to coerce him to submission. It might be true that purely moral considerations would have little effect upon him; but if so, this had to be made manifest. God deals with men first of all in the open court of conscience, and it is there in the region of ordinary morals that hardening usually begins.
II PHARAOH"S REPLY (ver. 2). It was, as already stated, a haughty and angry refusal, showing total disregard of the rights and wishes of the Hebrews, and setting Jehovah at defiance. The king"s disposition, as brought to light in it, is seen to be
1. Proud. He probably regarded the request of the brothers as an instance of astounding audacity. Who were they, two slave-born men, that they should presume to ask from him, the lord of mighty Egypt, that the people be allowed to rest from their labours? His pride may have blinded him to the righteousness of their demand; but it could not lessen his responsibility. We are judged, not according to the impression which righteous and merciful appeals make upon us that may be his but by the inherent righteousness of the appeals, and by the effects which they ought to have produced.
2. Headstrong. Before venturing so defiantly to scout Jehovah and his message, it would surely have been well for Pharaoh to have inquired a little further into the character and powers of this Being of whom the Hebrews stood so much in awe. He had not the excuse which many moderns would plead, that he did not believe in gods or in the supernatural in any shape. Pharaoh had no right, from his own point of view, to scout the possibility of "the God of the Hebrews" having met with them; and neither, so far as appears from the narrative, did he, though he chose to regard the story as a fiction. Many reject the Gospel, never having given its claims their serious attention; but this will not excuse them. They cannot plead that, had they believed it to be true, they would have acted otherwise. Their sin is that in their headstrongness they will not trouble themselves to inquire whether it is true.
3. Profane. After all, what Pharaoh"s reply amounted to was this, that, let Jehovah be who or what he might, he (Pharaoh) set him at naught would not obey him. The message might or might not come from a God, he did not care. Thus he "set his mouth against the heavens", (Psa_73:9) and "exalted himself above all that is called God". (2Th_2:4) not an uncommon phase of pride. But the presumptuously wicked will do well to remember that, if Pharaoh thus exalted himself, it was to his own destruction. His very pride was a challenge to Jehovah to destroy him. J.O.
HOMILIES BY J. URQUHART Vers. 1-5. God"s demand and Pharaoh"s answer.
I THE DEMAND.
1. Its modesty. They merely ask liberty to depart on a three days" journeyinto the wilderness.
2. It was asked in good faith; it was not a cover for escape. God wouldgive deliverance; but that was left in God"s hand; and meanwhile they asked only for liberty to worship him.
3. Its reasonableness: they could not sacrifice the sacred animals of theEgyptians before their faces.
4. Its necessity. Pharaoh might not know Jehovah, but they knew him, andmust serve him, "lest he fall upon us with the pestilence or the sword." The demand of the Church still is liberty to serve God in his own appointed way. It must be had. Luther"s "God help me; I can do no other! We ought to obey God rather than men". (Act_5:29)
II THE REFUSAL.
1. Its presumption. He did not know Jehovah, and therefore the messagewas a lie! Unbelief makes the bounds of its knowledge the bounds of truth and possibility. The pretensions of modern agnosticism.
2. It was a refusal of justice; it was a resolve to continue oppression.Unbelief is the brother and helper of wrong-doing.
3. It was made with reproach and insult. They were encouraging idlenessand sedition: "Get ye to your burdens" "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.
4. The rage of the wicked is often the best commendation of God"sservants. It is a testimony to their faithfulness. U.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 15, 20, 22 Let My people go.
Exo_5:1
Let My people go.
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The deliverance of Gods people
The history of the deliverance of Gods people from the bondage of Egypt, their pilgrimage through the wilderness, and their ultimate settlement in the Land of Promise, bears striking analogy to the history of the human soul.
I. The words Let My people go, regarded as spoken concerning human souls, may be said to contain in themselves the whole gospel history of our redemption. Even the small word My is emphatic.
1. We are Gods people; not Satans people. When God claims us we should remember that He claims His own, and that we are bound to support His claim.
2. The summons to let the people of God go implies a bondage from which they are to be delivered. That which forms the basis of Holy Scripture is the fact that man committed sin. He rebelled against his Maker, and became the slave of one to whom he owed no obedience.
3. If the words Let My people go imply the existence of slavery, they still more emphatically imply the way and the promise of redemption. The Gospel of Christ, as preached throughout the whole world, is just this--Let My people go.
II. The whole system of ordinances and sacraments, in which we find ourselves by Gods providence, like the system of ordinances and sacrifices which was given to Israel when they came out of Egypt, are intended to insure and perfect and turn to the best account the liberty which the Lord has given us, for the soul of man may not be content with emancipation once and for all.
III. The consideration of what Jesus Christ has done for us is the chief means of moving our hearts to seek that liberty which God designs us all to possess. (Bp. Harvey Goodwin.)
Freedom to serve God
I. Perfect freedom is not the thing demanded of Pharaoh, nor is this the prize of their high calling held out before the eyes of the Israelites. To serve God is the perfect freedom held out: to change masters, to be rid of him who had no claim to their allegiance, and to be permitted without hindrance to serve Him who was indeed their Lord and their God. This was the boon offered to the children of Israel, and demanded on their account by Moses as the ambassador of God.
II. This feature in the deliverance of the Israelites is worthy of special notice, when we regard it as typical of the deliverance from sin and the bondage of the devil, which our heavenly Father is willing to effect for each of us. Let My people go,--not that they may be free from a master, but that they may serve; let them go, because they have been redeemed by Christ, and are not their own, but His. The deliverance from sin which God works for His people is, in fact, a change from one service to another: a change from service to sin, which is perfect bondage, to service to God, which is perfect freedom.
III. The blessedness of the service of God is not estimated as it ought to be; men in these days are too like the children of Israel, who seemed to think that they had conferred a favour on Moses by following his guidance, and that the least reverse would be a sufficient excuse to justify them in going back again to Egypt. There is nothing in their conduct more strange or more blamable than in the conduct of men calling themselves Christians, who do not perceive that in the earnest discharge of Gods service is their highest happiness as well as their principal duty and most blessed privilege. (Bp. Harvey Goodwin.)
Lessons
1. Gods ambassadors must proceed orderly in delivering their message--first to Israel, secondly to Pharaoh.
2. Order of persons as well as time is observable by Gods servants.
3. The poorest persons under Gods authority may press into the presence of the proudest kings.
4. Gods ambassadors must speak and declare His will to the greatest potentates.
5. Gods messengers must go in His authority and vouch His name,
6. The true way of making out God unto man is concretely not abstractly. Every nation acknowledgeth God, but not Israels God.
7. The true God hath a peculiar people whom He owneth in the world.
8. The will of God is to have His people set free from all that hinders them from Him.
9. The end of all redemption is that Gods people should serve Him.
10. The true service of God is a festival living to Him.
11. Such feasting with God is better in the wilderness than in Egypt.
12. All such feasting, sacrificing, and worship must terminate in Jehovah. (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Moses before Pharaoh
1. The sense of his high commission enabled him to discharge the duty it laid upon him with dignity and boldness. The sinking of heart that had seized him upon its first announcement had passed away; and in its place had come the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2. Aaron was with him; but the relation he sustained to the work is marked, as it is throughout the narrative, by the order of the names, Moses and Aaron--never Aaron and Moses--a companion, aa associate, but only as a helper, a support, a spokesman, though Aaron was the eider. There are chords in our nature that vibrate mysteriously to anothers touch, a magnetism that works by laws imperfectly understood, by which the presence and sympathy of a companion, silent though it be, and without visible action, braces and enlivens the heart; and that, though the disparity be so great that the inferior who cares for us can only think as we think, and feel as we feel, without any contribution of useful counsel or active succour. At my first answer, says St. Paul, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. Let us not say that we cannot help our friend because we are inferior and of small resources. It is too often but the cover of cowardice or coldness of heart. He that knows the magic there is in a look, a touch, or a word, to alleviate and quicken a pained or fainting soul, feels the falsehood. Nor let us, in our height of pride and self-sufficiency, despise the fellowship of kindred minds because they are below us, and, it may be, without manifest strength to aid. A little childs sympathy is not to be despised. Moses commission was sole, but Aarons presence facilitated its execution. There is a wonderful power in company.
3. What Moses first asked of Pharaoh for his people, then, was a religious privilege--liberty to go out into the wild country beyond the bounds of Goshen, and worship God; sacrifice to that great Being in whom their fathers had trusted, but whose image, we may well believe, had grown dim among them during their long period of depression and enslavement. Moses was a religious reformer. The revival of truth, faith, and loyalty to Jehovah, lay at the bottom of all the other great things he was to do for them. The feast in the wilderness was preliminary to all that was to follow, to stand as the frontispiece of that series of wonderful events in which their deliverance was to be accomplished, the prologue of the great drama of their entrance upon national life.
4. To Pharaoh, in this call, there was a test of faith, and of that obedience in which all real faith finds its true expression. God came forth from His obscurity and spoke to him. Would he hear that voice, recognize it as the voice of Him who is King of kings? In humanity there is a chord that ever vibrates to Gods touch, and an ear that hears His voice. It was the call of Gods mercy to Pharaoh, Jehovahs coming near to him to do him good. Alas! he knew not the time of his visitation. But if the heart of Pharaoh towards God was tested by this call, so was his heart towards man. It was an appeal to his humanity.
5. See the wisdom of acting in great matters with judgment, moderation, and patience. Many a good design has been ruined by abruptness, haste, and grasping greed. Moses did not succeed in his embassy, but he adopted fit and judicious methods to obtain success; and if they failed to secure their object, it was simply because they encountered an opposition that no power or skill could overcome. The eagerness that will have all at once, loses all. The impatience that will reach the goal at a single bound, never reaches it. To have asked the immediate emancipation of the Israelites would have been manifestly useless.
6. Finally, beware of striving against God. It can end in nothing but destruction. Its gains are losses, its successes its most ruinous failures. (R. A. Hallam, D. D.)
Reasons for sending Moses and Aaron
Why did God send Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh, when He could have destroyed Him with a stroke, and have wrought the freedom of Israel?
1. That Gods power might appear in showing His wonders.
2. That the Israelites might see the great care God had over them.
3. To exercise their patience, not being delivered at once.
4. To leave Pharaoh without excuse. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
A proclamation of God
1. His name.
2. His authority.
3. His regard for His people.
4. His desire for the freedom of man. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
The freedom of men
1. Earnestly desired.
2. Effectively undertaken.
3. Divinely approved.
4. Successfully achieved. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
A Divine challenge
The slavery of Israel in Egypt was hopeless slavery; they could not get free unless God interfered and worked miracles on their behalf. And the slavery of the sinner to his sin is equally hopeless; he could never be free, unless a mind that is infinitely greater than he can ever command shall come to his assistance and help. What a blessed circumstance it is, then, for those poor chosen children of God, who are still in bondage, that the Lord has power to say, and then power to carry out what He has said--Thus saith the Lord, let My people go, that they may serve Me.
I. The fulness of the sentence. Thus saith the Lord, let My people go, that they may serve Me. I dont doubt but what there are some of Gods people who have not any idea they are His people. The demand was not made to Pharaoh, Make their tasks less heavy; make the whip less cruel; put kinder taskmasters over them. No, but, Let them go free. Christ did not come into the world merely to make our sin more tolerable, but to deliver us right away from it. He did not come to make our lusts less mighty; but to put all these things far away from His people, and work out a full and complete deliverance. Again, you will mark, it says, Let My people go. It says nothing about their coming back again. Once gone, they are gone for ever.
II. The rightness of it. The voice of justice, and pity, and mercy, cries to death, and hell, and sin, Let My people go free--Satan, keep thine own if thou wilt, but let My people go free, for they are Mine. This people have I created for Myself; they shall show forth My praise. Let My people go free, for I have bought them with My precious blood. Thou hast not bought them, nor hast thou made them: thou hast no right to them; let My people go free. All this is our comfort about poor sinners, and we hope that some of them, though they dont know it, are Gods people.
III. The repetition of this sentence. Observe now, as Pharaoh would not give up the people, the sentence had to be repeated again, and again, until at last God would bear it no longer, but brought down on him one tremendous blow. He smote the firstborn of Egypt, the chief of all their strength, and then He led forth His people like sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron. In like manner this sentence of God has to be repeated many times in your experience and mine, Thus, saith the Lord, let My people go free, and if you are not quite free yet, dont despair; God will repeat that sentence till at last you shall be brought forth with silver and gold, and there shall not be a feeble thought in all your soul; you shall go forth with gladness and with joy; you shall enter into Canaan at last, up yonder where His throne is glittering now in glorious light, that angel eyes cannot bear. It is no wonder then, if it is to be repeated in our experience, that the Church of Christ must keep on repeating it in the world as Gods message. Go, missionary, to India, and say to Juggernaut, and Kalee, and Brahma, and Vishnu, Thus saith the Lord, let My people go free. Go, ye servants of the Lord, to China, speak to the followers of Confucius, and say, Thus saith the Lord, let My people go free. Go ye to the gates of the harlot city, even Rome, and say, Thus saith the Lord, let My people go, that they may serve Me. Think not though you die that your message will die with you. Tis for Moses to say, Thus saith the Lord, and if he be driven from Pharaohs sight, the Thus saith the Lord still stands, though His servant fall. Yes, brothers and sisters, the whole Church must keep on throughout every age, crying, Thus saith the Lord, let My people go.
IV. The omnipotence of the command. Sin is a Pharaoh, but God is Jehovah. Your sins are hard; you cannot overcome them of yourself, but God can. There is hope yet; let that hope arouse you to action. Say to your soul tonight, I am not in hell, though I might have been. I am still on praying ground and pleading terms, and now, God helping me, I will begin to think. And when you begin to think you will begin to be blessed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Gods people
I. Who are these whom god calls my people?
1. They are a distinct and separate race. The people of God are not those who agree with each other as to certain theories--in these things they may be sundered far as the poles. It is not that they come together on certain particular occasions and observe the same ceremonies. No ceremonies however ancient, however solemn, however significant, however faithfully observed can make us His people. The distinction is one of birth. It is a difference of nature. Born of God, begotten of God, they arc the children of God. Within them is the very Spirit of God whereby they cry Abba Father.
2. They are Created of God by a distinct and wholly supernatural act. The children of a new life--of the resurrection. And out of that relationship to God come a thousand new relationships. There is a new authority which is ever supreme--there is a new nature, with new hopes, and new desires; and new needs; and new aspirations; and new delights; a nature which can find its only satisfaction in Him in whom it found its source; there is a new relationship to all things. Born of God, they look further; they soar higher; they find more.
II. But if these are His people, why does he suffer them to be here? Forsaken, wronged--has God forgotten to be gracious? Who shall deliver them out of the hand of Pharaoh?
1. That they may know that I am the Lord--this is the key to it all. They are led into the wilderness where there is neither bread nor water, that they may learn to look up to God for their help: so they are hemmed in by all possible evils in Egypt, that they may see the greatness and might of their God in their deliverance. The mightier the nation that oppressed them, the greater the glory of their deliverance. The more hopeless their condition, and the more hopeless the people, so much more room was there for God to show forth His mighty arm. The greatness of life--its breadth and depth, its expanse like heaven above us, its solidity like the earth beneath us--is exactly according to our knowledge of our God. And the deep peace and rest--the blessedness and satisfaction--these too come only from knowing Him. We are most indebted--not to those things for which it is easiest to give thanks, but to those from which we have shrunk, and which set us wondering, fearing, perhaps even doubting. The reaper is a happy man, and poets sing and artists paint the scene of harvest home. But the keen frosts that break the clods, and the patient ploughman plodding wearily behind the share with which he cleaves the soil in chill winter winds and under cheerless skies--these are apt to be forgotten and unthanked. And yet what should the reaper bring if the ploughman went not forth? My people. God sends them to school that they may learn to know Him.
2. Learn further that wherever His people are led, they can never get where God cannot help them. Be sure of that. Whatever clouds gather they cannot hide His child in the darkness. No circumstances can ever shut us out from His help.
3. The Lord knoweth them that are His. He leadeth them in a way that they know not, but He knoweth the way. Fear not: we too may sing--He leadeth us in a right way to bring us to a city of habitation.
4. Notice yet another characteristic of His people. See Israel come forth from Egypt. Every man, every woman, every child bows his head beneath a doorpost on which is sprinkled the blood--each one passes between the side posts whereon is the crimson stain. They arc the redeemed of the Lord--My people--ransomed by a great price. The people of God find their deliverance in the power of the Cross. (M. G. Pearse.)
Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh
We never heard of an insurrection against a tyrannical government, deliberately planned, for which there was not aggregated some sort of preparation in armies and munitions of war. So we inquire in this instance, What was the number of Israels troops now on their belligerent way to beseige the capital of Egypt? Only one organized battalion, consisting of these two old men! What were the arms they carried? These were altogether seven weapons in detail. Any one can count them at his pleasure: one shepherds crook, called a rod, one tremendous name in the Hebrew language, four promises, and a miracle. These were expected to revolutionize Egypt.
I. Inadequacy of conspicuous resources is no argument against success, when God in Person has sent His servants forth to do His errand.
II. The Almighty God has never let go His hold upon any individual of the human race, for all the spiteful rebellion some men have shown.
III. It is of the utmost importance that intelligent people should have a safe creed. Undoubtedly Pharaoh is very much in earnest. He does not know Jehovah; he knows the deities he has been educated to worship. But if we only wait a little longer, and read the story of the exodus clear through to the crossing of the Red Sea, we shall find out whether it made any difference to Pharaoh what he believed in that moment when he defied Jehovah!
IV. See how clearly the all-wise God works up to simple issues with every wilful transgressor before He casts him utterly out. There is only one question which confronts any man, no matter how many are the forms in which it may be put: Will you, or will you not, obey God?
V. Those who seek to help their fellow-men in this world must expect misjudgment.
VI. So we reach our final lesson: the natural and first result of stirring up sin is to aggravate its violence. Satan hates to lose his slaves. The heart is desperately wicked, and seems to grow more malignant than before. It is always darkest just before day. This does not happen so; it is the Divine rule. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Divine condescension to Pharaoh
At the outset, we observe the more than dutiful manner in which Israel was directed to act towards Pharaoh. Absolutely speaking, Pharaoh had no right to detain the people in Egypt. Their fathers had avowedly come not to settle, but temporarily to sojourn, and on that understanding they had been received. And now they were not only wrongfully oppressed, but unrighteously detained. It was infinite condescension to Pharaohs weakness, on the part of God, not to insist from the first upon the immediate and entire dismissal of Israel. Less could not have been asked than was demanded of Pharaoh, nor could obedience have been made more easy. Assuredly such a man was ripe for the judgment of hardening; just as, on the other hand, if he had at the first yielded obedience to the Divine will, he would surely have been prepared to receive a further revelation of His will, and grace to submit to it. And so God in His mercy always deals with man. He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. The demands of God are intended to try what is in us. It was so in the case of Adams obedience, of Abrahams sacrifice, and now of Pharaoh; only that in the latter case, as in the promise to spare Sodom if even ten righteous men were found among its wicked inhabitants, the Divine forbearance went to the utmost verge of condescension. (A. Edersheim, D. D.)
Divine authority for the message
On one occasion when Whitefield was preaching, an old man fell asleep, and some of the audience became listless. Suddenly changing his manner, Whitefield broke forth in an altered tone, declaring that He had not come to speak in his own name, otherwise they might lean on their elbows and go to sleep. No; I have come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, and I must and will be heard. The sleeper started wide awake; the hearers were stripped of their apathy at once; and every word of the sermon was attended to. It was thus that Moses addressed Pharaoh; and it is thus all witness for God should address the listeners--with authority.
Hold a feast unto Me.
The first attempt at a religious service
I. That this first attempt at a religious service was made responsive to the call, and in harmony with the will of God.
1. Thus there was a great necessity that the work now attempted by Moses and Aaron should be accomplished.
2. Moses and Aaron were the right men to undertake this work. In the first place, Moses had been directly called by God to do it; also Aaron had been providentially conducted to this sphere of work. In this we see the different methods by which God enjoins work upon good men. Then, again, Moses and Aaron had been Divinely prepared for their work. Men are prepared in different ways. Solitude prepares one man; publicity will prepare another the preparation must be in harmony with the temperament of the man, and the work that he has to perform. The Church requires to think less of results, and more of the methods by which they are to be attained.
3. Moses and Aaron undertook this work in the proper spirit.
II. That our first attest at religious service is often met by open profanity and ignorance.
1. Moses and Aaron were met by a manifestation of ignorance.
2. They were met by deep profanity.
3. They were met by unwarrantable pride.
III. That our first attempt at service is often misunderstood, and its motive maligned.
1. Pharaoh was not sensitive to the claims of duty.
2. Pharaoh was not a disinterested interpreter of the claims urged upon him.
IV. That sometimes our first attempt at religious service appears to be more productive of harm than good, and to have the very opposite effect to that designed. Lessons:
1. Begin at once some enterprise for the moral freedom of humanity,
2. If in the first attempt at service you meet with difficulty and rejection, do not be dismayed.
3. That you must be finally successful in your efforts.
(1) For they are appointed by God.
(2) You are upheld by heaven.
(3) You have the sympathy of all good men. (J. S. Excel, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER V.
PHARAOH REFUSES.
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Exo_5:1-23.
After forty years of obscurity and silence, Moses re-enters the magnificent halls where he had formerly turned his back upon so great a place. The rod of a shepherd is in his hand, and a lowly Hebrew by his side. Men who recognise him shake their heads, and pity or despise the fanatic who had thrown away the most dazzling prospects for a dream. But he has long since made his choice, and whatever misgivings now beset him have regard to his success with Pharaoh or with his brethren, not to the wisdom of his decision.
Nor had he reason to repent of it. The pomp of an obsequious court was a poor thing in the eyes of an ambassador of God, who entered the palace to speak such lofty words as never passed the lips of any son of Pharaoh's daughter. He was presently to become a god unto Pharaoh, with Aaron for his prophet.
In itself, his presence there was formidable. The Hebrews had been feared when he was an infant. Now their cause was espoused by a man of culture, who had allied himself with their natural leaders, and was returned, with the deep and steady fire of a zeal which forty years of silence could not quench, to assert the rights of Israel as an independent people.
There is a terrible power in strong convictions, especially when supported by the sanctions of religion. Luther on one side, Loyola on the other, were mightier than kings when armed with this tremendous weapon. Yet there are forces upon which patriotism and fanaticism together break in vain. Tyranny and pride of race have also strong impelling ardours, and carry men far. Pharaoh is in earnest as well as Moses, and can act with perilous energy. And this great narrative begins the story of a nation's emancipation with a human demand, boldly made, but defeated by the pride and vigour of a startled tyrant and the tameness of a downtrodden people. The limitations of human energy are clearly exhibited before the direct interference of God begins. All that a brave man can do, when nerved by lifelong aspiration and by a sudden conviction that the hour of destiny has struck, all therefore upon which rationalism can draw, to explain the uprising of Israel, is exhibited in this preliminary attempt, this first demand of Moses.
Menephtah was no doubt the new Pharaoh whom the brothers accosted so boldly. What we glean of him elsewhere is highly suggestive of some grave event left unrecorded, exhibiting to us a man of uncontrollable temper yet of broken courage, a ruthless, godless, daunted man. There is a legend that he once hurled his spear at the Nile when its floods rose too high, and was punished with ten years of blindness. In the Libyan war, after fixing a time when he should join his vanguard, with the main army, a celestial vision forbade him to keep his word in person, and the victory was gained by his lieutenants. In another war, he boasts of having slaughtered the people and set fire to them, and netted the entire country as men net birds. Forty years then elapse without war and without any great buildings; there are seditions and internal troubles, and the dynasty closes with his son.[9] All this is exactly what we should expect, if a series of tremendous blows had depopulated a country, abolished an army, and removed two millions of the working classes in one mass.
But it will be understood that this identification, concerning which there is now a very general consent of competent authorities, implies that the Pharaoh was not himself engulfed with his army. Nothing is on the other side except a poetic assertion in Psa_136:15, which is not that God destroyed, but that He "shook off" Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, because His mercy endureth for ever.
To this king, then, whose audacious family had usurped the symbols of deity for its head-dress, and whose father boasted that in battle "he became like the god Mentu" and "was as Baal," the brothers came as yet without miracle, with no credentials except from slaves, and said, "Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Let My people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness." The issue was distinctly raised: did Israel belong to Jehovah or to the king? And Pharaoh answered, with equal decision, "Who is Jehovah, that I should hearken unto His voice? I know not Jehovah, and what is more, I will not let Israel go."
Now, the ignorance of the king concerning Jehovah was almost or quite blameless: the fault was in his practical refusal to inquire. Jehovah was no concern of his: without waiting for information, he at once decided that his grasp on his captives should not relax. And his second fault, which led to this, was the same grinding oppression of the helpless which for eighty years already had brought upon his nation the guilt of blood. Crowned and national cupidity, the resolution to wring from their slaves the last effort consistent with existence, such greed as took offence at even the momentary pause of hope while Moses pleaded, because "the people of the land are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens,"--these shut their hearts against reason and religion, and therefore God presently hardened those same hearts against natural misgiving and dread and awe-stricken submission to His judgments.
For it was against religion also that he was unyielding. In his ample Pantheon there was room at least for the possibility of the entrance of the Hebrew God, and in refusing to the subject people, without investigation, leisure for any worship, the king outraged not only humanity, but Heaven.
The brothers proceed to declare that they have themselves met with the deity, and there must have been many in the court who could attest at least the sincerity of Moses; they ask for liberty to spend a day in journeying outward and another in returning, with a day between for their worship, and warn the king of the much greater loss to himself which may be involved in vengeance upon refusal, either by war or pestilence. But the contemptuous answer utterly ignores religion: "Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, loose the people from their work? Get ye unto your burdens."
And his counter-measures are taken without loss of time: "that same day" the order goes out to exact the regular quantity of brick, but supply no straw for binding it together. It is a pitiless mandate, and illustrates the fact, very natural though often forgotten, that men as a rule cannot lose sight of the religious value of their fellow-men, and continue to respect or pity them as before. We do not deny that men who professed religion have perpetrated nameless cruelties, nor that unbelievers have been humane, sometimes with a pathetic energy, a tenacious grasp on the virtue still possible to those who have no Heaven to serve. But it is plain that the average man will despise his brother, and his brother's rights, just in proportion as the Divine sanctions of those rights fade away, and nothing remains to be respected but the culture, power and affluence which the victim lacks. "I know not Israel's God" is a sure prelude to the refusal to let Israel go, and even to the cruelty which beats the slave who fails to render impossible obedience.
"They be idle, therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God." And still there are men who hold the same opinion, that time spent in devotion is wasted, as regards the duties of real life. In truth, religion means freshness, elasticity and hope: a man will be not slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, if he serves the Lord. But perhaps immortal hope, and the knowledge that there is One Who shall break all prison bars and let the oppressed go free, are not the best narcotics to drug down the soul of a man into the monotonous tameness of a slave.
In the tenth verse we read that the Egyptian taskmasters and the officers combined to urge the people to their aggravated labours. And by the fourteenth verse we find that the latter officials were Hebrew officers whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them.
So that we have here one of the surest and worst effects of slavery--namely, the demoralisation of the oppressed, the readiness of average men, who can obtain for themselves a little relief, to do so at their brethren's cost. These officials were scribes, "writers": their business was to register the amount of labour due, and actually rendered. These were doubtless the more comfortable class, of whom we read afterwards that they possessed property, for their cattle escaped the murrain and their trees the hail. And they had the means of acquiring quite sufficient skill to justify whatever is recorded of the works done in the construction of the tabernacle. The time is long past when scepticism found support for its incredulity in these details.
One advantage of the last sharp agony of persecution was that it finally detached this official class from the Egyptian interest, and welded Israel into a homogeneous people, with officers already provided. For, when the supply of bricks came short, these officials were beaten, and, as if no cause of the failure were palpable, they were asked, with a malicious chuckle, "Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task both yesterday and today, as heretofore?" And when they explain to Pharaoh, in words already expressive of their alienation, that the fault is with "thine own people," they are repulsed with insult, and made to feel themselves in evil case. For indeed they needed to be chastised for their forgetfulness of God. How soon would their hearts have turned back, how much more bitter yet would have been their complaints in the desert, if it were not for this last experience! But if judgment began with them, what should presently be the fate of their oppressors?
Their broken spirit shows itself by murmuring, not against Pharaoh, but against Moses and Aaron, who at least had striven to help them. Here, as in the whole story, there is not a trace of either the lofty spirit which could have evolved the Mosaic law, or the hero-worship of a later age.
It is written that Moses, hearing their reproaches, "returned unto the Lord," although no visible shrine, no consecrated place of worship, can be thought of.
What is involved is the consecration which the heart bestows upon any place of privacy and prayer, where, in shutting out the world, the soul is aware of the special nearness of its King. In one sense we never leave Him, never return to Him. In another sense, by direct address of the attention and the will, we enter into His presence; we find Him in the midst of us, Who is everywhere. And all ceremonial consecrations do their office by helping us to realise and act upon the presence of Him in Whom, even when He is forgotten, we live and move and have our being. Therefore in the deepest sense each man consecrates or desecrates for himself his own place of prayer. There is a city where the Divine presence saturates every consciousness with rapture. And the seer beheld no temple therein, for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple of it.
Startling to our notions of reverence are the words in which Moses addresses God. "Lord, why hast Thou evil entreated this people? Why is it that Thou hast sent me? for since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he hath evil entreated this people; neither hast Thou delivered Thy people at all." It is almost as if his faith had utterly given way, like that of the Psalmist when he saw the wicked in great prosperity, while waters of a full cup were wrung out by the people of God (Psa_73:3, Psa_73:10). And there is always a dangerous moment when the first glow of enthusiasm burns down, and we realise how long the process, how bitter the disappointments, by which even a scanty measure of success must be obtained. Yet God had expressly warned Moses that Pharaoh would not release them until Egypt had been smitten with all His plagues. But the warning passed unapprehended, as we let many a truth pass intellectually accepted it is true, but only as a theorem, a vague and abstract formula. As we know that we must die, that worldly pleasures are brief and unreal, and that sin draws evil in its train, yet wonder when these phrases become solid and practical in our experience, so, in the first flush and wonder of the promised emancipation, Moses had forgotten the predicted interval of trial.
His words would have been profane and irreverent indeed but for one redeeming quality. They were addressed to God Himself. Whenever the people murmured, Moses turned for help to Him Who reckons the most unconventional and daring appeal to Him far better than the most ceremonious phrases in which men cover their unbelief: "Lord, wherefore hast Thou evil entreated this people?" is in reality a much more pious utterance than "I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord." Wherefore Moses receives large encouragement, although no formal answer is vouchsafed to his daring question.
Even so, in our dangers, our torturing illnesses, and many a crisis which breaks through all the crust of forms and conventionalities, God may perhaps recognise a true appeal to Him, in words which only scandalise the orthodoxy of the formal and precise. In the bold rejoinder of the Syro-Phoenician woman He recognised great faith. His disciples would simply have sent her away as clamorous.
Moses had again failed, even though Divinely commissioned, in the work of emancipating Israel, and thereupon he had cried to the Lord Himself to undertake the work. This abortive attempt, however, was far from useless: it taught humility and patience to the leader, and it pressed the nation together, as in a vice, by the weight of a common burden, now become intolerable. At the same moment, the iniquity of the tyrant was filled up.
But the Lord did not explain this, in answer to the remonstrance of Moses. Many things happen, for which no distinct verbal explanation is possible, many things of which the deep spiritual fitness cannot be expressed in words. Experience is the true commentator upon Providence, if only because the slow building of character is more to God than either the hasting forward of deliverance or the clearing away of intellectual mists. And it is only as we take His yoke upon us that we truly learn of Him. Yet much is implied, if not spoken out, in the words, "Now (because the time is ripe) shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh (I, because others have failed); for by a strong hand shall he let them go, and by a strong hand shall he drive them out of the land." It is under the weight of the "strong hand" of God Himself that the tyrant must either bend or break.
Similar to this is the explanation of many delays in answering our prayer, of the strange raising up of tyrants and demagogues, and of much else that perplexes Christians in history and in their own experience. These events develop human character, for good or evil. And they give scope for the revealing of the fulness of the power which rescues. We have no means of measuring the supernatural force which overcomes but by the amount of the resistance offered. And if all good things came to us easily and at once, we should not become aware of the horrible pit, our rescue from which demands gratitude. The Israelites would not have sung a hymn of such fervent gratitude when the sea was crossed, if they had not known the weight of slavery and the anguish of suspense. And in heaven the redeemed who have come out of great tribulation sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb.
Fresh air, a balmy wind, a bright blue sky--which of us feels a thrill of conscious exultation for these cheap delights? The released prisoner, the restored invalid, feels it:
"The common earth, the air, the skies, To him are opening paradise."
Even so should Israel be taught to value deliverance. And now the process could begin.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Robinson, "The Pharaohs of the Bondage."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 10, 15, 20 Exo_5:1. Hold a feast] That is, of course, a…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exo_5:1. Hold a feast] That is, of course, a religious festival,—a “holyday,” as the same word is rendered Psa_42:4; “with processions and dancing,” of we keep close to the primary meaning of the Hebrew word châ ghagh “to move in a circle.” However open to abuse, we cannot afford to let slip the propriety of joy in worship. The infinitely blessed Jehovah would be served with gladness. His own holy joy seeks to overflow into the hearts of his saints; and this it does if ever, in those direct acts of homage which he himself has instituted.
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Exo_5:2. Neither will I let Israel go] Or, rather: “And certainly I will not let ISRAEL go,”—the language of tyrannical determination and bold defiance. As much as to say: “[know not Jehovah; but even if I did, THAT would make no difference.”
Exo_5:3. Hath met with us] And this may be an adequate rendering. But the construction (with the preposition, ‘al, “upon”), and the context, rather strongly favour the more forcible meaning attributed by Fürst and Davies to qâ râ (see under qâ-râ No. II), ‘to strike upon, or hit against a thing.” This hint might lead us to interpret the words thus: “The God of the Hebrews has encountered us;” i.e., “has laid an arrest upon us”—“His call is imperative.” It is a wrong done to God, which he must needs resent, when the leisurely joy of worship is denied him. What an affliction to any people to be too hard worked to render God this service. The Pharaohs who impose such an affliction cannot complain if the wronged Jehovah call them very sternly to account. 3 Let us go] The cohortative mood: almost=“We must needs go” (comp. Ewald Gr. § 228); but here blended with the particle of entreaty nâ, “pray:” “We must needs go—pray let us!” The joyful, leisurely worship which God demands is needful for us as well as due to Him.
Exo_5:5. Now are many] The connection between this fact, and the easing of the people’s burdens is not at first sight apparent; but, on reflection, becomes clear. From Exo_1:11 we learn that the building-tasks exacted of the Hebrews were demanded under the idea of tribute; for the words there rendered “task masters” (cf. below, on Exo_5:6) namely sâ-rey miççim mean, “princes of tribute” Now it is evident that a given sum-total of tributary building would gradually become a lighter burden as the Hebrews multiplied. Hence the meaning of Pharaoh in this place seems to be: “The work has not been increased in proportion to the increase of the people: permitting this, you have allowed them to find case by the mere fact of multiplying.” It may not have been convenient or desirable to begin building more cities: so Pharaoh would have the labour of finishing those in hand most vexatiously augmented. By the way, we thus get a glimpse of the process by which the sons of Israel were enslaved. Their yoke was imposed under the specious name of “tribute:” this tribute was imperiously exacted: then the payment was made gallingly bard to render. The enslavement was complete.
Exo_5:6. Taskmasters] A good rendering of the Hebrew uô-ghesim, which literally means “exactors,” and is. in Job_39:7, used of the “drivers” of asses. The Sept. rendering of this word is exceedingly expressive: ergodiôktai (ἐργοδιώκται), “work-pursuers,” “work-persecutors.” These “taskmasters” seem to be the same as the “princes of tribute” mentioned Exo_1:11 (comp. previous note), and manifestly were Egyptians acting under Pharaoh and looking but too well (Exo_5:14) after his interests. Officers] These were evidently Hebrews (Exo_5:14-20) who were set over their brethren, and were held responsible for the performance of the required work. Theirs was indeed an unenviable position: they had to wring Pharaoh’s demands out of their own kinsmen, or be beaten themselves.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Exo_5:1-9
THE FIRST ATTEMPT AT RELIGIOUS SERVICE
What a long time it takes to get men fairly into any work that is required of them. This is true in the secular sphere of daily life. Men put off till tomorrow what ought to be done to-day. Especially is this the case in reference to the duties that pertain to our moral life; there is much delay before men are willing or ready to undertake them.1 It is now some time since the first indication had been given to Moses that it was the Divine will that he should achieve the freedom of Israel. Yet he has been objecting to the service, reasoning with God, wishing to be liberated from it, and in fact, only now, when he finds escape impossible, is he about to commence it. Men little suspect the time they waste, the energies they weaken, and the unnecessary difficulties they occasion, by such unbelief and delay. Every day we neglect the mission it becomes harder to accomplish. We honour God by speeding immediately upon His errands. They are important, and may be endangered by delay.2 Israel is suffering the hardships of a cruel bondage all the time we are reasoning and objecting to free them, and therefore a tardy obedience is cruel and unwarrantable. The woe and sorrow of the world demands that Christian workers should be immediately brave and active. It is all very well to linger for few moments by the bush, burning but unconsumed, to get a vision of heaven, and to hold communion with God, that the soul may be refreshed and strengthened for the arduous work before it, but the act of worship must soon and naturally break into the act of service, or we shall be guilty of unnecessary delay. In obedient work men hold communion with God quite as truly as when standing near the burning bush. We have here illustrated the first attempt made at religious service.
Exo_5:1. That this first attempt at religious service was made responsive to the call, and in harmony with the will, of God. “And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.”
1. Thus there was a great necessity that the work now attempted by Moses and Aaron should be accomplished. It would be almost impossible to realize the condition of Israel at this time. They had been the slaves of a tyrant king, many of them from their birth. They were ignorant. They were heavily worked. They knew not the glad meaning of freedom, nor did their slavery accomplish any worthy political end; it had been achieved by deception, and was marked by severe oppression. Here then was a grand sphere for a brave and heroic man. It is a sphere greatly needing his attention, worthy of his deepest sympathy, and it will require his most potent effort. Hence we see that Moses and Aaron were not seeking to remove a fancied evil, with which a few people were afflicted, but a wide-spread and long-continued woe, which rendered sad the life of a vast nation. Some men seek to remove imaginary evils and fail, and with their failure society at large has little sympathy. They are objects of merriment rather than of serious thought. We shall expect then of these two men entering upon a work so eminently needed, that they will in all probability succeed. It is a source of great strength to a Christian worker to have the consciousness that he is attempting a work that really needs doing. There are hundreds of good men animated by this conviction to-day, and we all know that in the great world round us, there are many enterprises requiring their effort. Humanity is in a condition of servitude, of moral servitude far more dreadful and despicable than that of ancient Israel.3 It is in need of moral emancipation. Are there not many of us willing to make our first effort in such a cause? That wicked alley is without a tract distributor, will you not offer to take it? That class in the Sunday-school is without a teacher, will you not endeavour to instruct it? That pulpit is without a minister, will you not make an effort to deliver the Gospel from it? That heathen town wants a missionary, will you not leave your home to take it the freedom of the cross? The work is a necessity, will you not make an attempt at it? You can go to the tyrant Sin, and demand the freedom of his slaves. This is a work that the world needs doing, and at once. It is rendered imperative by the passion of men, by the pain of society, by the obligations of the cross, and by the distinct call to Christian service.
2. Moses and Aaron were the right men to undertake this work. In the first place, Moses had been directly called by God to do it; also Aaron had been providentially conducted to this sphere of work. In this we see the different methods by which God enjoins work upon good men. He sometimes speaks directly to the soul in such a manner as cannot be mistaken; at other times, He quietly opens up our way to duty, and unexpectedly we find ourselves in the presence of work demanding our immediate attention. I believe in a special call to, and preparation for, Christian Work. Unless a man has heard the voice of God, unless he has beheld the vision of the burning bush, unless his soul has held communion with heaven, unless he has learned to speak the deep name of Jehovah, he has no right to go on the errand of Israel’s emancipation. He cannot teach to others the meaning of a name he does not understand himself. He cannot reflect the light of a vision he has never seen. A call from God is an absolute necessity of Christian service. We are getting too lax in this matter. We fear that the Church is sending men on errands of freedom whom God has not commissioned. We cannot expect them to succeed. Then, think of the moral preparation that Moses and Aaron had received for this work in relation to Israel. We know right well the discipline through which Moses had passed up to this hour. It is written. The prior life of Aaron is unwritten. God does not always disclose the process by which his servants are prepared for their toil. They are prepared in different ways. Solitude prepares one man; publicity will prepare another; the preparation must be in harmony with the temperament of the man, and the work that he has to perform. The Church requires to think less of results, and more of the methods by which they are to be attained. Sometimes we see a great worker. He conquers every difficulty. He is always successful. We at once regard him as ideal. We laud his talent. We say that Christian toil is easy to him. We only view the result. Had we seen him years ago, we should have seen him curious at the bush, objecting to the service, asking that another may be sent in his place; then he was a feeble, trembling worker, but the Divine preparation and heavenly grace has, through long years, made him what he is. The call to Christian work is of God, and likewise all the qualifications for it.4 The reason why there is so much failure in the toil of good men is because they do not entirely submit themselves to the holy discipline which would qualify them for it. Christian workers seek to be prepared of God for your toil. Thus Moses and Aaron were well qualified for this work. And we have workers in the Church to-day almost equal to them; divinely cultured in soul they are making their first attempt at service. This very day they are standing before Pharaoh. They are seeking the freedom of the morally enslaved. May God prosper them in their mission.
3. Moses and Aaron undertook this work in the proper manner and spirit. There is a right way and a wrong in the performance of any kind of work; but especially when it is of a moral character; then the greatest results are dependent upon the utmost trivialities. It sometimes occurs that God gives a man a pattern of work, and shows him how to execute it. This was the case with Moses and Aaron. They were told to gather the elders of Israel together, and then to proceed to Pharaoh with the request of freedom. The Divine mind is capable of infinite suggestions to moral service, which are always helpful and welcome to the earnest worker, and which should be carefully wrought out. The direction of heaven is needful in the work of spiritual emancipation. There are so many methods to be considered, so many interests to be regarded, so many emergencies to be expected, so much impulse required, and so many difficulties to be encountered, that only God can render us any aid in such a work. But often the gentle methods of service are the most effective, and we want to obtain the sublime and happy art of Christian work, to win men into acquiescence with the Divine will by a word of love, almost unconsciously to themselves. We should strive to present the message of God to them in such a voice and manner as shall the most entice their attention and obedience. Many a good enterprise has been ruined by the lack of a little loving and considerate art, which would have rendered, it successful. But there are times when Christian art is of little use, as in the case now under review; Pharaoh will not yield his profitable slaves to the courteous request of two strangers. Hence Moses and Aaron are bold and determined in their request for the freedom of Israel they plainly make known the word of God in reference thereto.5 So, when we have to attack time-honoured custom, unholy vested interests, and to deal with men who are deaf to all the righteous claims of God, the only method of service is to say, “Thus said the God of Israel, let my people go.” Thus we should imagine that the work attempted being greatly needed, of divine appointment and preparation, it will be almost certain of success. But how disappointing is the sequel.
II. That our first attempt at religious service is often met by open profanity and ignorance. “And Pharaoh said, who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.”
1. Moses and Aaron were met by a manifestation of ignorance. Pharaoh seems to know nothing about the God of Israel; or, if he was aware of His existence, to hold Him in very inferior esteem. Perhaps he thought that Jehovah was unable to aid the people in their bondage, or He would have done so long before. And so it often happens, when Christian workers commence their toil, that they are met by wilful and lamentable ignorance,—ignorance of the very first principles of religion, by a rejection of moral restraint, of the claims of God and humanity. Such a dark condition of mind is very difficult to contend with, and is a great hindrance to philanthropic toil. Only a Monarch ignorant of God would permit slavery within his realm. Where there is the most religion there will be the truest freedom. But the sequel of the history will show that Pharaoh could not much longer remain ignorant of Jehovah, and that he had reason to tremble before His power.
2. That Moses and Aaron were met by deep profanity. It would seem that Pharaoh had very loose notions about gods; he thought no doubt that one was as good as another. His own country abounded with them. And he had not much regard for those whom he had been brought up from childhood to fear rather than to respect. Besides, he had got to regard himself of as much importance as they were. In short, he was a god unto himself, and wished to be unto his people. He was not therefore prepared to show any consideration for the claim of a Deity of whom he was comparatively ignorant. Yet he must have known something of Jehovah, he would gather indications of his power and supremacy from the enslaved Israelites and their national records. It is great profanity for a man to slight the faintest indication of the Supreme Ruler of the universe, even though he be comparatively ignorant of his true existence. After hearing the request of Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh ought to have thoughtfully and seriously enquired into the matter, and a moment’s serious reflection would have shown him that he was putting himself in antagonism to the God of the despised Israelites. But, instead of this, he becomes insolent, opposes his authority to that of the most High, and refuses the request of the emancipators of Israel.6 So there are people in these days who have very loose conceptions about the deity, they are comparatively ignorant of Him, they treat His claims with contempt, they regard His servants with scorn, they imagine that they are free from His dominion, and with this profanity Christian workers are frequently called to contend.
3. That Moses and Aaron were met by unwarrantable pride. Pharaoh speaks in the second verse as though he were the supreme monarch of the world, as though there were none to rival his grandeur, or to defeat his power. And thus his pride led him to an unwarrantable defiance of Jehovah. It exposed him to imminent peril, for in a moment the Divine Being could have crushed him as a moth in his hand; so lamentable is the pride of man. And yet this ancient king of Egypt is but a type of many to-day, whose pride, the outcome of ignorance, brings them into open hostility to the will of God, and renders them antagonistic to His servants. Frequently are Christian workers met by manifestations of pride which they find very difficult to conquer. Thus the fact that we are sent by God to our first effort of Christian service, that we are prepared for it by the heavenly discipline of years, and that it is a work greatly required at our hands, does not remove from before us all the difficulties of the case. We have as thoroughly to contend with the ignorance, profanity, and pride of men as though we had never received our commission at the hand of God. It is not the economy of heaven to remove all obstacles out of the way of Christian service, else there would be but little for man to do in the way of sacred toil.
III. That our first attempt at service is often misunderstood, and its motive maligned. “And the King of Egypt said unto them, wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? Get you unto your burdens.”
1. Pharaoh was not sensitive to the claims of duty. He was a king, and had learned through a long series of years, by continued practice, to despise the claims of others, nor would he make an exception in the case of Jehovah. He was hardened in heart. He was darkened in mind. He was surrounded by all that could flatter his vanity, or aid him in the event of conflict: hence he was not much troubled by the moral questions of life. He would be far more perplexed by the invasion of a foreign king than by any command from God. And so Christian workers have to appeal to men who are almost destitute of religious feeling and sensibility, to convey to them the stern messages of God. We cannot wonder then that they are so often misunderstood and rejected. Pride always renders men insensible to the claims of duty.
2. Pharaoh was not a disinterested interpreter of the claims urged upon him. Moses and Aaron demanded that the tyrant monarch should announce freedom to all his slaves. But these slaves were of great service and profit to him and his nation: hence Pharaoh could not put a disinterested interpretation upon the demand thus made upon him. And so it is now, Christian workers have frequently to undertake work, and to enunciate requirements which are opposed to the secular interests of men. Can they wonder if these requirements should be rejected, and their motives misrepresented? It is difficult to get a man to do the will of God when it is in apparent antagonism to the interests of his trade or profession. Thus Christian workers can generally explain the opposition to which they are subject; they know that it arises from the enmity of the carnal mind, and from the dictation of self interest, rather than from any rejection of them personally. This misrepresentation may give rise to persecution and slander, but from this God will ultimately deliver those who toil for Him. Their aspersed character will be cleared. Their safety He will ensure, or the service of earth shall break into that of heaven.
IV. That sometimes our first attempt at religious service appears to be more productive of harm than good, and to have the very opposite effect to that designed. “And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves,” &c. Thus it would appear that Moses and Aaron instead of accomplishing the freedom of Israel, rather increased the pain of their slavery. But we know not by what methods God will accomplish His will, and even this intolerant conduct of the king may be part of the discipline which shall occasion his defeat. How many Christian workers have been in like circumstances to these, apparently having done those whom they sought to benefit more harm than good. And this has been a cause of great regret and discouragement to them. We would urge such not to be discouraged by appa. rent failures, for after all, these may contain the germs of future success. LESSONS:—
1. Begin at once some enterprise for the moral freedom of humanity.7
2. If in the first attempt at service you meet with difficulty and rejection, do not be dismayed.
3. That you must be finally successful in your efforts:—
(1.) For they are appointed by God.
(2.) You are upheld by heaven.
(3.) You have the sympathy of all good men.
Exo_5:1. That Christian Workers should go boldly to their duty. “And afterwards Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh.” These two men had been set about their God-given work; they do not hesitate; there is no manifestation of timidity; they stand before the King of Egypt as equal to him, and as equal to their duty in every respect. So Christian workers should go to their work in a bold spirit, as supported by the Supreme Power.8 They have no need to tremble in the presence of any difficulty. The Lord is their Helper.
II. That Christian Workers should present the direct claims of god to men. “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go.” We must never go to moral service in our own name, nor must we use our own authority. All our messages and demands must be presented under the authority of God, and only His words are we warranted in uttering. Never leave out the “Thus saith the Lord” in your effort of service.9
III. That Christian Workers should aim, in harmony with the will of God, to bring the enslaved to a grand moral festival of freedom. “That they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness.”10 All service should have reference to moral festivities; (to times of gladness and hope the world is called.) But the festival which is the accompaniment of the freedom wrought by God is characterised by devotion.
Why did God send Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh, when He could have destroyed him with a stroke, and have wrought the freedom of Israel:—
1. That God’s power might appear in shewing his wonders.
2. That the Israelites might see the great care God had over them.
3. To exercise their patience, not being delivered at once.
4. To leave Pharaoh without excuse. God’s ambassadors must proceed orderly in delivering their message—first to Israel, secondly to Pharaoh.
Order of persons as well as time is observable by God’s servants.
The poorest persons under God’s authority may come into the presence of the proudest king.
God’s ambassadors must declare His will to the greatest potentates.
God’s messengers must go in His authority, and vouch His name.
A proclamation of God:—
1. His name.
2. His authority.
3. His regard for His people.
4. His desire for the freedom of man.
The freedom of men:—Earnestly desired.
2. Effectively undertaken.
3. Divinely approved.
4. Successfully achieved.
The end of all redemption is that God’s people should serve him.
The true service of God is a festival of joy.
It is better to serve God in the wilderness than Pharaoh in Egypt.
Exo_5:2. “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?”
I. Who is the Lord?
1. Thy Creator.
2. Thy Benefactor.
3. Thy Redeemer.
4. Thy Governor.
II. How may we bear His voice?
(11)
1. In the works of nature.
2. In the dispensations of Providence.
3. In our spiritual perceptions.
4. In the Bible.
[Pulpit Analyst.]
PHARAOH’S IMPIOUS INTERROGATION
The text is the language of the Pagan and impious Pharaoh. A person whose history and character are fully presented to us in the Divine Word.
I. God has spoken to mankind.
1. He has graciously spoken by His works. “The heavens declare, &c., Rom_1:20. Here the existence, majesty, power, and wisdom are all declared.
2. He has spoken continually by His good providence. The admirable provision made for all creatures, &c Hear Paul’s address to the inhabitants of Lystra: Act_14:15; Act_14:17.
3. He hath spoken awfully by His judgments. How terrible His voice to the antediluvians—Pharaoh. By war—by pestilence by famine—by earthquakes.
4. He hath spoken distinctly in His word.
By the ancient prophets—by His own Son. Hear the Apostle: Heb_1:1. The Saviour also instituted the Christian Ministry, to convey the words of God to all the world.
II. Why and how you should hear.
1. Why you should hear His voice. Because of His right in and over you. He is your God, Creator, Lawgiver. Because of his condescension to you. It is infinite condescension on the part of Deity to stoop and speak to you. How angels hearken. Because of the design of His speaking, which is your present and eternal welfare.
2. How we should hear His voice. With awe, sacred attention, with holy anxiety to understand and obey it.
III. The impiety and folly of refusing to hear the voice of God. But who are guilty of it? The sceptic, sensualist, worlding, sinner. Pride of heart leads to it.
1. It is flagrant contempt of God.
2. It is open rebellion against the authority.
3. It must be eventually ruinous to the sinner.
[Sketches of Sermons, by Dr. Burns.]
Proud imperious spirits are hasty to reply roughly to God’s messengers.
Idolators are apt to despise God in the true revelation of Him.
Hardened souls vent their contempt upon God Himself more than on His Church.
Contempt of Jehovah will not suffer men to hear His voice.
Disobedience to God ushers in oppression to His people.
Scorners of God:—
1. They hear not His voice.
2. They perceive not His Revelation
3. They recognize not His claims.
4. They insult His servants.
5. They enslave His people.
6. They are obstinate in their denial.
THE REASONINGS OF AN ENSLAVED SOUL WITH ITS TYRANT OPPRESSOR
Exo_5:3. There are times when men deeply feel the pain and degradation of their slavery; they are awakened, by the messengers of God, to a desire for freedom, when they utter their sentiments in the language of this verse:—
I. They urge the Divine uprising on their behalf. “The God of the Hebrews hath met with us.” God had awakened within Israel the desire and hope of freedom, had urged them to achieve it, and had promised to aid them in so doing. Pharaoh little knew the events that had happened prior to this visit; he was ignorant of the revelation which had been given to Moses and Aaron; but so it is, imperious sinners walk to their doom, ignorant of the agencies that would achieve their ruin. There is another history than that which is seen by the world at large; it is behind in the shade, only known to the favoured servants of God. The meeting of God with his people is an argument for freedom, and should be recognised as such by the proudest monarchs of earth.
II. They urge their own desire for freedom. “Let us go, we pray thee.” Probably many will not consider this could have been a very great argument with Pharaoh for the freedom of Israel; but it ought to have been. A desire for freedom, on the part of those who are destitute of it, should be a strong plea for its bestowal with all who have it in their power to snap the fetters of the slave. Heaven always respects our wish for freedom.12 True kinghood always will.
III. They urge their desire for solitude. “Three days’ journey into the desert.” They had been so long in the crowded cities of the Egyptians, so painful and sad had their condition become, that they longed for the solitude of the desert to refresh their souls, that they might drink in new life and hope.
IV. They urge their desire for devotion. “And sacrifice unto the Lord our God.” Their better manhood had returned to these Israelites. Their old feelings of worship are awakened. They have struggled through their pain and slavery, to God. They wish to worship him. This is a strong argument for liberty.
V. They urge their fear of pestilence. “Lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” Slavery in any nation is more productive of calamity and retribution than almost any other sin. That country will, in all probability, be the most exempt from pestilence and war which is the most free. There is a healing influence in liberty; hence this is an argument for it.
Just mark the contrast between the Egyptian king, and the Hebrew or Christian messengers. Being threatened, they threatened not; reviled, they reviled not again. They took meekly his remarks; they entreated, but threatened not; for they said immediately, “The Lord God of the Hebrews,” etc.; speaking calmly, as if not one insulting expression had been used. Now here is a precedent for us. If Pharaoh forgot his place, Moses and Aaron were not to forget theirs. [Dr. Cumming.]
God’s ambassadors must not forsake His message upon man’s denial.
Further arguments must urge the message of God, when its mere proposal is not enough.
The God of the Hebrews must be owned by them, though despised by Pharaoh.
Although God commands powers, yet it is fit that his people should entreat them.
To sacrifice to God and to feast with Him are synonymous.
Pestilence and sword are God’s judgments, exacting the neglect of His service.
These plagues are incident on all that neglect God, but much more on them that forbid others to serve Him.
The fear of these judgments should awe souls from slighting His message to them.
Exo_5:4. Good men are often wrongly judged:—
1. In respect to their motives.
2. Actions.
3. Writings.
Persecuting powers return rough answers to humble petitions.
Oppressing kings make nothing of despising, checking, and menacing God’s messengers.
Wicked powers censure the motions for God’s service to be detractions from their work.
Oppressing rulers are angry with men who move souls to serve God.
Cruel masters drive God’s people from serving Him to bear their burdens.
RELIGION NO EXCUSE FOR THE NEGLECT OR DAILY WORK
There is much daily work carried on that is both against the law of God and man; this, religion will suspend, and, instead, will give a man work to do, the performance of which will be in harmony with conscience, and beneficial to the commonwealth.14 True religion is no friend to indolence. Religion is no excuse for the neglect of daily work:—
I. Because it commands men to provide things honest in the sight of all men. It gives a man an employment to fulfil, in one station or another, in lowly social grade, or otherwise. It makes men willing to earn their daily bread, to answer the purposes of labour, and to enhance the general welfare of the nation. If men are idle in their daily avocation, it is from the lack of religion, not from the possession of it. True piety consists as much in pursuing our daily toil as in attendance upon the services of the sanctuary. We should render both as a service to God. We must be diligent in business.
II. Because it provides men with forceful motives to work. True religion brings forceful motives to bear upon the souls of those Who are animated by it. It animates men to do their work from love to an unseen God, from faith in an unseen Saviour, and from fear of a coming judgment and eternity. Hence the motives of religion are calculated to make men earnest workers. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth,” &c.
III. Because it enlarges man’s sphere of work. Besides working in the world for daily bread, it opens up to him an enlarged and holy sphere of toil in the church, for the moral welfare of men. Nor will the duties of the one interfere with those of the other; both will admit of careful attention. St Paul wrought at tent making, and also had the care of the churches upon him.
Exo_5:5. From the multiplied numbers of the church, tyrants expect multiplied labours.
It is the envy of persecutors to see God’s servants have rest from burdens.
It is incident to wicked powers to suggest, that God’s ministers move His people to idleness and sedition.
Exo_5:6-7. God’s commands, and the interests of his people, are bitterly opposed by wicked powers.
Persecuting powers delay not to vent their malice against God and his people.
Wicked rulers have their agencies by whom they afflict the people of God.
Cruel powers stay the hands of ministers from doing justice to such as they will oppress.
It is savage cruelty to deny means, and expect work and advantage.
Former justice is forgotten where future oppression is intended.
Wicked powers will lose no gain, though they allow poor souls nothing to get it with.
They used straw in making brick.—
1. To temper the clay, that it might be firmer.
2. There was a great use for brick in Egypt, not only because they wanted stone, but because the buildings made of brick were durable.
In the pyramid of Fayoun there are found bricks which have been hardened in the sun, containing short particles of chopped straw mixed with the clay, their just idea being that straw would give cohesion to the mass, the brick not being submitted to the action of fire, but only to the heat of the sun. Whilst these bricks would not be suitable for our buildings, you can see their appropriateness in Egypt, where there is no rain. In a dry and sunny clime the bricks would last or thousands of years, whereas in our climate they would be of no use.
Exo_5:8-9. The world and Satan opposed to the Christian’s Spiritual Progress. “If thou come to serve the Lord,” saith the wisdom of the Son of Sirach, “prepare thy soul for temptation. This caution too often neglected. Young converts imagine that the victory over Satan will be won at once, by the first blow. The children of Israel had sighed by reason of their bondage. The Lord heard their groaning. Sent Moses and Aaron to the Elders, The people believed. Did the chains of their bondage then fall off at once? Far otherwise. They were now in the way from slavery, towards the liberty for which they panted: but toil, privation, and affliction lay before them in long succession, ere they could sit down every man under his own vine, and every man under his own fig tree, within the consecrated borders of Canaan. Have you listened to the gracious pleading of the Spirit of God, in sincere anxiety for a complete and eternal deliverance? You will meet with hindrances, one of the first will arise from those who make a mock at sin, who deride the privileges and duties of pure and undefiled religion
(15) Such a rock of offence is represented by Pharaoh in this chapter, where we find emblematically pourtrayed:—
I. The prejudice of the careless and worldly against sincere and vital Godliness.
1. It is regarded as the dream and vision of a heated and enthusiastic imagination. When the wonders of redemption first break in upon the mind, when the inquirer first beholds the Son of God dying for him, he is ready to exclaim, “Whom have I in heaven but thee!” Are these feelings visionary; or have they been enkindled within his heart by the Spirit of God?
2. It is regarded as inconsistent with a proper attention to the duties of active life. I grant it possible that the eye of a Christian’s soul, first open to behold the glories of the Gospel, may be dazzled with their transcendent brightness, and become indifferent to objects of an importance merely temporal; as the natural eye, which has gazed for a moment upon the sun, sees nothing but dimness in the things of earth: but such an exclusive view of eternal things is of rare occurrence.
II. Another temptation which Satan employs to oppose an entire devotion of the heart to God, is by exaggerating the importance of worldly pursuits. “Let there be more work laid upon the men.” What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, if he shall love his own soul! A double caution may be deduced:—
1. To those who would hinder the spiritual freedom of others whom they may control or influence; as Pharaoh would have impeded the political deliverance of Israel. You must settle from Scripture and prayer whether the resolutions and desires you oppose arise from the inspiration of God, or the imagination of men. Woe to him that striveth with his Maker.
2. You who are thus hindered, remember that Scripture addresses you with a cautionary voice. Be not slothful in business.
[Buddicom’s Christian Exodus.]
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Exo_5:1-9.
(1)—Ready!—A gentleman’s dog having gallantly rescued a drowning child, the spectators were eager to know the name of his master, in order to publish it. The owner at once exclaimed, “Never mind my name; but that of the dog is ‘Ready!’ ” Ready! aye, ready! Such was the response of the brave officer to his anxious commander’s enquiry whether he was prepared for the fight. We ought to be ready for every good work.
“If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly.”
—Shakespeare.
Exo_5:1-9.
(2)—Delay!—Every day we neglect the mission it becomes harder to accomplish both as regards ourselves and it. We are less and less disposed towards it. It is more and more inveterate. As with travellers on the Alpine heights overtaken by the pitiless snowstorm at different stages of the mountain ascent, numbness is creeping over one, and the longer the other delays to help his friend by rubbing his limbs, the more profound becomes the torpor of both. Instant action will save both. Activity will give them both a glow.
“There is a firefly in the southern clime,
Which shineth only when upon the wing.”
Motion is developing beat. Magoon says that it is good policy to strike while the iron is hot; but it is still better to adopt Cromwell’s procedure, and to make the iron hot in striking. As one has said, Be active and expect Christ to be with you; be idle and the thorns and briars will grow so quickly that He will be shut out. Delaying to obey the call, the ice forms upon our feelings—gradually freezes to greater thickness, until total indifference results. Delaying to obey the call, the slave’s condition becomes more wretched, the drowning man sinks the deeper, the enfevered patient is entangled more pitiably in the meshes of delirium. The motto of each servant of God must be that of the indomitable mind of Edmund Burke in his address to his constituents at Bristol: For God’s sake, let us pass on. There is no time to be lost.
“Wake ere the earth-born charm unnerve thee quite,
And be thy thoughts to work divine address’d:
Do something—do it soon—with all thy might—
An angel’s wing would droop if long at rest.”
—Wilcox.
Exo_5:1-9.
(3)—Humanity!—The whole world lieth in bondage; and no man in his senses will venture to assert that man is today just as man originally way. Even Moncure Conway, who dethrones Jehovah and enthrones his own deification (or definition) of Reason, is perforce ready to acknowledge that man is a dismantled fane—a broken shrine, with some gleam of departed glory about him sufficient to give an idea of what he once was, and with (he says) some germs of the original perfection which may be cultivated and developed. It is not now a question how this came about, or why it was allowed to happen. We have the fact that the whole world is in servitude to the wicked one—that from time to time Jehovah has raised up deliverers, either prospective or retrospective of the one great Deliverer, Christ, who was to appear.
“He came the prisoners to release
In Satan’s bondage held,”
and now calls upon every man to be the deliverer of his fellow-man. Had Moses refused to obey the call in the spirit of Cain, he would have met with Cain’s doom, viz., loss of the Divine approbation.
Exo_5:1-9.
(4)—Qualifications!—Bishop Wilson wrote that the great secret of the ministry consisted in three things:
1. Christ:
2. Immortal souls: and
3. Self-humiliation. But self-humiliation springs from discipline—that three-fold discipline of which Luther stoke when he declared that the three requisites or qualifications to do God’s works were prayer, meditation, and temptation. All these Moses had abundance of for years—are, more than forty long years. God instructs and qualifies as well as calls; for (says Bishop Reynolds) if no prince will send a mechanic from his loom in an honourable embassage to some other foreign prince, is it likely that Jehovah will send forth unqualified instruments about so great a work as the perfecting of the saints?—
“For well he knows, not learning’s purest tides
Can quench the immortal thirst that in the soul abides.”
—Little.
Exo_5:1-9.
(5)—Decision!—Even a foolish man may utter a wise sentiment, as Colton did, when he said that men ought to deliberate with caution, but act with decision. Hood calls attention to the decided man. He may be a most evil man, a grasping, avaricious, unprincipled man; still look how the difficulties of life know the strong man, and give up the contest with him. He walks by the light of his own judgment; he has made up his mind, and having done so, henceforth action—action is before him. He cannot bear to sit amidst unrealized expectations. To him speculation is only valuable that it may be resolved into living and doing. There is no difference, no delay. To this Jehovah had to bring Moses, so that, his spirit was in arms, all in earnest. As Pompey, when hazarding his life on a tempestuous sea in order to be at Rome on an important occasion, said that it was necessary for him to go, not for him to live. Thus Cæsar, when he crossed the English Channel, burnt his shipson the Anglican shores, that there might be no return. And so Cortes decided to break up the ships which had brought his soldiers to Mexico from Spain. This daring act had the effect of bracing his men, says Trench, to a pitch of resolution all but supernatural.
Exo_5:1-9.
(6)—Pharaoh versus God!—This imperious monarch had never been accustomed to be thwarted. Men who have always thrust obstacles aside come to think their power invincible, and to make them a battering ram against fate and circumstances. When Jehovah came down to oppose Pharaoh in his despotic behaviour towards Israel, he tried to wrestle with Him, and paid dearly for his folly. A bantam may crow in the face of a fighting-cock once too often; and woe to the frail boat that rashly contends with the powerful tail of the whale. As one says, God never wrestles with a man without throwing him: so that we might apply Pollok’s description of the atheist to Pharaoh—
“The unbeliever
Despising reason, revelation, God,
And, kicking ’gainst the pricks of conscience, rush’d
Deliriously upon the bossy shield
Of the Omnipotent.”
Exo_5:1-9.
(7)—Moral Freedom!—Behind the physical and national freedom of Israel was their moral and spiritual disenthralment. The hidden is offtimes most important. It was so here Moral freedom is everything. All sinners are represented as being in bondage, bound with the chain of their sins, servants of him whom they obey, led captive by the devil at his will. He is the great Pharaoh—that old dragon, the serpent. He gilds the yoke, and you are not conscious that you wear it; but there are times when you feel its fretting notwithstanding. That giant passion masters you. But a Deliverer has come to the shores of our world—proclaiming liberty to the captive and freedom to those who are fast bound in the misery and iron of sin-thraldom. From the strongest and most frowning fortress, in which tyranny can bind its captives, this Saviour can deliver. He will deliver: for if the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed.—And
“A day—an hour of virtuous liberty
Is worth a whole eternity of bondage.”
It is Dr. Caird who asserts that no language—no emblems can be found to convey any adequate idea of the sesseoness of such a deliverance. Not the poor timid struggling bird springs forth from the snare with a note of more thrilling joyfulness—not the despairing heartsick captive casts the first look of freedom on the bright heaven, or treads with bounding steps the greensward of home with a more exulting throb of happiness. And never was that ancient song of deliverance sung with a deeper meaning than when the soul, morally freed from the galling tyranny and oppressive yoke of Satan, exclaims: Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler—
“’Tis liberty alone that gives the flowers
Of fleeting life their lustre and perfume,
And we are weeds without it.”
—Cowper.
Exo_5:1-9.
(8)—Fearless!—Moses had a duty to discharge, and no dangers must deter him. When God sends men on a work for Him, He virtually undertakes the responsibility of “breakers ahead.” His ministers and deliverers must not look askance and hesitate in the fulfilment of their labours because they see “a bombshell” coming. It is related of Charles the Twelfth of Sweden that—whilst besieged in Stralsund he was one day dictating a letter to his secretary, when a bomb from the enemy’s outworks fell through the roof of the house where they were. The report of the shell alarmed the secretary so much, that the pen fell from his hand; whereupon the king enquired what was the matter. The trembling secretary could only ejaculate: “The bombshell.” The monarch’s stern response was: “What has the bomb to do with the letter? Go on with your writing.” So what had Moses to do with Pharaoh’s wrath? It was for him to go on with the work of deliverance which God had authorized, and as he had been pleased to appoint. Then
“Work, though the enemies’ laughter
Over the valleys may sweep,
For God’s patient workers hereafter
Shall laugh when their enemies weep.”
Exo_5:1-9.
(9)—Divine Authority!—Canon Ryle mentions an incident in the life of Whitefield, which illustrates the authority. When preaching on one occasion, an old man fell asleep and some of the audience became listless. Suddenly changing his manner, Whitefield broke forth in an altered tone—declaring that be had not come to speak in his own name, otherwise they might lean on their elbows and go to sleep. “No; I have come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, and I must, and will be heard.” The sleeper started wide awake—the hearers were stripped of their apathy at once—and every word of the sermon was attended to. It was thus that Moses addressed Pharaoh. It was thus all witnesses for God should address the listeners, with authority:
“By Him inspired, they speak with urgent tongue
Authoritative, whilst the illumined breast
Heaves with unwonted strength.”
—Jenner.
Exo_5:1-9.
(10)—Freedom’s Sweets!—The Christian deliverer is all the more active and energetic in his work, because he was once himself a slave. A traveller stood one day beside the cages of some birds which, exposed for sale, ruffled their sunny plumage on the wires, and struggled to be free. Sadly he gazed on these captives till tears stood in his eyes; and turning round to their owner, he asked the price of one. As soon as the money was handed over, he opened the door and set the prisoner free. This he did with captive after captive, till every bird was away, soaring to the sky, arising on the wings of liberty. The crowd stated and stood amazed; but his remark soon cleared up their difficulty: “I was myself once a captive, and know the sweets of liberty.”—Liberty! What heart is there that does not feel its pulse quicken at the sound? All instincts teat in unison here. Even the dullest, we are told, kindle into rapture, and the most craven for freedom’s sake would strike the unwilling blow—
“Ah! There lives not a victim of pride and power
But hopes in the future to win release;
But dreams of some bright and golden hour,
When the reign of oppression and wrong shall cease.
Not a toiler who plods neath a burden of care,
But dreams of relief and liberty there.”
—Dewart.
Exo_5:1-9.
(11)—Voice of God!—There are many ways in which God causes us to hear His voice! and the first of all His voices is that of His works. Eliza Cook has In glowing terms written—
“God has a voice that ever is heard
In the peal of the thunder, the chirp of the bird;
It comes in the torrent all rapid and strong,
In the streamlet’s soft gush as it ripples along;
Let the hurricane whistle, or warblers rejoice,
What so they tell thee but ‘God hath a voice.’ ”
How many have heard Him calling in His Providence, amid the sunshine of prosperity and the shadows of sorrow—amid the chimings of the marriage bells and the solemn toll of the funeral knell. But His sweetest voice is that of His Evangel. Pharaoh had heard the Divine voices of nature and Providence, but, like Samuel, he did not understand them. Now he hears the “Evangelic” voice, and, like the deaf adder, stops his ears. Yet no voice sounds sweeter. As Dr. Hamilton says, on the gospel tree there grow melodious blossoms—sweeter bells than those which mingled with the pomegranates on Aaron’s vest. The idea is borrowed from Oriental poetry, which tells of a wondrous tree on which grew golden apples and silver bells. Every time the breeze went by and tossed the fragrant branches, a shower of those yellow globes fell, and the living bells chimed and tinkled forth their airy ravishment. When Moses spoke to Pharaoh the bells rang unheeded in the monarch’s ears; so the golden fruit of joy and peace fell among the brick-kilns of Egypt for Israel’s nurture.
Exo_5:1-9.
(12)—Liberty a Divine Right!—Dr. Webster tells a story which admirably illustrates this axiom. In times past, a slave, starting in the darkness and stillness of the midnight hour, and taking the north-star for his guide, toiled on his weary way, resting by day and travelling by night until he reached Vermont. He was pursued by his alleged owner, and seized with the intention of returning him to slavery. The case was brought before Judge Harrington; and the slave-owner, in proof of his claim, called the attention of the judge to a bill of sale. It was returned with an intimation that it was not satisfactory evidence of the sale and purchase; whereupon the indignant slave-owner asked what would be sufficient proof. The judge at once replied that a bill of sale from GOD ALMIGHTY would alone satisfy him. Such God will never give; for freedom is His life—
“Oh, freedom! terribly thou springest forth,
As springs the flame above a burning pile;
And showest to the nations, who return
Thy shoutings, while the pale oppressor flies.”
Exo_5:1-9.
(13)—Wisdom!—Nearly every opinion and advice may be stated in a gentle or in an offensive way. An Oriental prince asked two interpreters to explain his dream. One said that he would lose all his relatives, and then himself die. The monarch ordered this prophet of evil to be beheaded. The other assured him that he would survive all his relations. The prince loaded this one with favours, though both interpretations were the same. Moses was gentle in his demand to Pharaoh: Let us go three days’ journey and sacrifice to our God—
“Speak gently! it is better far
To rule by love than fear,
Speak gently! let not harsh words mar
The good we might do here.”
—Bates.
Exo_5:1-9.
(14)—Law of Work!—Work is necessity, says Exell. Work gives a feeling of strength, cries Müller. Work is triumph, as Richard Burke exclaimed shortly after an extraordinary display of powers in Parliament by his brother Edmund: “When we were at play, he was always at work. But work is also a law. There is such a thing as the Law of Work; and from the particle of dust at our feet to man—the last stroke of God’s great and sublime handiwork—all bear the impress of the law of labour. The earth is one vast laboratory, where de. composition and re-formation are constantly going on. As has been aptly added, the blast of nature’s furnace never ceases, and its fires never burn low. The lichen of the rock and the oak of the forest each works out the problem of its own existence. The earth, the air, the water, teem with busy life. Onward unceasingly—age after age—the world pursues its course; a perpetual lesson, with all it contains, of industry to man. Even the rolling spheres join the universal chorus of labour. Therefore
“Work though the world would defeat you;
Heed not its slander and scorn;
Nor weary till angels shall greet you
With smiles through the gates of the morn.”
—Punshon
Exo_5:1-9.
(15) Christian Hindrances! The tyrant’s malice cannot suffer the saints to be in peace: hence the Saviour’s farewell monition that they must expect tribulation. The Biblical Treasury narrates the case of a soldier in the East Indies—a stout, lion-hearted man—once a noted prizefighter, and a terror to those who knew him. When freed from the bonds of his own passions and guilt the change in his character became most marked and decided. The lion was changed into a lamb, but the lamb had to submit to persecution. One of his comrades, stirred up by Satan, ridiculed him, and taking a basin of hot soup threw it into his bosom. Instead of springing like a tiger upon the insulting comrade he wiped his scalded breast and calmly said, “This is what I must expect as a Christian.” Every means will be employed—every effort and device made—every subtle snare enlisted to injure the soul and retard its spiritual enjoyment of Christian freedom—yet not without the Divine permission—as with Israel and Job. God allows the tyrant’s agents and emissaries to surround us with perils, beset us with troubles, and confront our footsteps with red-hot ploughshares as necessary discipline:—
“If from Thy ordeal’s heated bars
Our feet are Seamed with crimson scars, Thy will be done.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The history of the deliverance of God’s people from…
Exo 5:1
The history of the deliverance of God’s people from the bondage of Egypt, their pilgrimage through the wilderness, and then ultimate settlement in the Land of Promise, bears a striking analogy to the history of the human soul.
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I. The words "Let My people go," regarded as spoken concerning human souls, may be said to contain in themselves the whole gospel history of our redemption. Even the small word "My" is emphatic. We are God’s people; not Satan’s people. When God claims us we should remember that He claims His own, and that we are bound to support His claim. (2) The summons to let the people of God go implies a bondage from which they are to be delivered. That which forms the basis of Holy Scripture is the fact that man committed sin. He rebelled against his Maker, and became the slave of one to whom he owed no obedience. (3) If the words "Let My people go" imply the existence of slavery, they still more emphatically imply the way and the promise of redemption. The Gospel of Christ, as preached throughout the whole world, is just this—"Let My people go."
II. The whole system of ordinances and sacraments, in which we find ourselves by God’s providence, like the system of ordinances and sacrifices which was given to Israel when they came out of Egypt, are intended to insure and perfect and turn to the best account the liberty which the Lord has given us, for the soul of man may not be content with emancipation once and for all.
III. The consideration of what Jesus Christ has done for us is the chief means of moving our hearts to seek that liberty which God designs us all to possess.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Penny Pulpit, No. 643.
References: Exo 5:2.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 65; Parker, vol. ii., p. 309.
Exo 5:22-23
When Moses saw the vision at Horeb, he had passed many more years in the world than Jacob at the time of his vision at Bethel; he knew much of which Jacob was ignorant, and had experienced a kind of sorrow which had never reached him. He had passed through the sore trial of feeling himself the member of an utterly degraded race, which he had dreamed of helping and could not help; in the very sufferings of which he was not allowed to share. He had an early inward intimation that he might unite and deliver this people. The intimation had come to nothing. He might call himself an Egyptian, a Midianite, an Ethiopian, as well as a Hebrew.
I. This education in an Egyptian court, in the family of a Midianitish priest, in an Ethiopian desert, was just the one which was to prepare him for understanding the vocation of a Hebrew in the world; just the one which was to make him fit for a deliverer and lawgiver of his people.
It required that he should be far from kinsmen and from country—from every external association with the covenant of his fathers—that he might hear and understand the words, "I AM THAT I AM;" that he might receive the assurance, "I AM hath sent thee."
II. Moses was called to be the deliverer and founder of a nation. Either that nation stood upon this Divine Name, or it and all that has grown out of it are mockeries and lies from first to last. "The Lord God of the Hebrews, the God of our nation, the God of our family, has established and upholds the order of human existence and all nature,"—this is the truth which Moses learnt at the bush; the only one which could bring the Jews or any people out of slavery into manly freedom and true obedience.
F. D. Maurice, Patriarchs and Lawgivers of the Old Testament, p. 154.
References: Exo 5:22, Exo 5:23.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 141; Congregationalist, vol. vii., p. 208. 5-11. (14)—J. Monro Gibson, The Mosaic Era, p. 31. Exo 6:1.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1440. Exo 6:2, Exo 6:3.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 93; Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 211. Exo 6:3.—A. M. Fairbairn, The City of God, p. 123; Parker, vol. ii., p. 310. Exo 6:6-8.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 145.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Increase of the Oppression
Increase of the Oppression
1. Pharaoh] probably P. Merenptah. See on Exo_1:8. His court may have been at Zoan or Tanis during the events that ensued: cp. Psa_78:12, Psa_78:43; The Lord God of Israel] Heb. 'Jehovah the God of Israel': see on Exo_3:13, Exo_3:18. Similarly in the next v. Pharaoh says, 'Who is Jehovah?.. I know not Jehovah.' Jehovah not being known and worshipped in Egypt, Pharaoh does not acknowledge His right to command him.
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3. See on Exo_3:18.
4. Let the people] i.e. hinder them, as in Isa_43:13; Rom_1:13; 2Th_2:7.
6. The taskmasters are the Egyptian officials, and the officers (lit. 'scribes') are the Hebrew clerks under them whose duty it was to keep an account of the bricks made: see Exo_15:14.
7. Straw to make brick] The bricks were made of Nile mud to which chopped straw was added to give it consistency. They were sometimes stamped with the name of the reigning king. Some have been found bearing the name of Rameses II, the father of Merenptah, and wooden stamps and moulds have also been discovered.
8. The tale] i.e. the number, as in 1Sa_18:27; 1Ch_9:28. To 'tell' in Old English means to count, and is used in this sense in Gen_15:5; 2Ch_2:2; Psa_22:17; Psa_48:12; Psa_147:4 etc. The counter of votes in Parliament is still called the 'teller.'
12. Stubble instead of straw] RV 'stubble for straw.' The word rendered 'straw' means straw cut into short pieces and mixed with chaff. This required little labour, if any, to make it fit for use in brickmaking. What is called 'stubble' is not what we know by that name, but includes all kinds of field rubbish, small twigs, stems, roots of withered plants, etc., which were used for fuel. To make this fit for brickmaking it had not only to be gathered, but chopped up and sorted, thus entailing double labour on the part of the Israelites.
21. Our savour to be abhorred] i.e. as we say 'to be in bad odour': cp. Gen_34:30.
22. The faith of Moses was severely tried, seeing that what he had done by God's commandment had the effect of making matters still more grievous for the Israelites meanwhile. But the opening words of the next chapter show that their 'present affliction will work a far more exceeding weight of glory.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Let my people
Let my people
Cf. Exo 4:22; Exo 4:23. Possibly Moses and Aaron shrank from delivering the message concerning the firstborn.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 10, 20 The Taskmasters Instructed to Burden the People
The Taskmasters Instructed to Burden the People
v. 1. And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let My people go that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness. Moses and Aaron here acted not only as representatives of the children of Israel, who had acknowledged their commission from God, but as the ambassadors of the Lord Himself. Their question distinctly stated by whose authority they were acting, namely, by that of Jehovah, the God of Israel.
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v. 2. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. Although Pharaoh’s answer was given with the understanding that the gods governed the countries, and that therefore the Israelites belonged under the jurisdiction of the Egyptian gods and had no business to have a God of their own, Pharaoh here showed an impious, selfish, blasphemous mind, and proved himself a religious tyrant.
v. 3. And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us, He had disclosed, revealed Himself to them in glory, He, the ancient God of the free Hebrews. Let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord, our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. The plea was that Jehovah would look upon their neglect to bring Him sacrifices as a deliberate act of disobedience, and would therefore come upon them, as their enemy, with severe punishments. Thus both ideas are brought out, that Jehovah was a jealous, and that He was a powerful God.
v. 4. And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works, attempt to secure for them a vacation from their labors, release them from their duties? Get you unto your burdens, your servile labor. He addressed them as though they themselves were slaves, and at the same time intimated that their request was a vain pretext.
v. 5. And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens, you want to secure for them a vacation, a period of rest, and their great numbers caused such a period to result in losses to the crown. The words reveal a boundless contempt for the common people.
v. 6. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters, the overseers who drove them to their work and while they were at work, and their officers, saying,
v. 7. Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore, chopped straw being used for binding the clay in the bricks before they were dried in the sun; let them go and gather straw for themselves. In the past this straw had been furnished by the Egyptian overseers, and the Hebrew officers had kept a record of the work done by their countrymen.
v. 8. And the tale of the bricks which they did make heretofore ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish aught thereof, the Israelites were to make and to deliver to the Egyptian overseers the same number of bricks as had always been required of them; for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Thus Pharaoh ascribed their request to be allowed to worship their God to a lack of sufficient occupation, to the fact that time was hanging heavy on their hands.
v. 9. Let there more work be laid upon the men that they may labor therein, literally: Let the service rest heavily upon the men and keep them busy therewith; and let them not regard vain words, let them not listen to the lying representations of that man Moses. Similar charges are preferred against the Christians to this day, namely, that they are restless, dissatisfied people, having only worship and prayer in mind and neglecting their duties as citizens—false accusations all of them.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 10, 12, 15, 19, 22 After these things happened
After these things happened
It is unclear how long Moses and Aaron waited until they went to see Pharoah.
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festival for me
This is a celebration to worship Yahweh.
Who is Yahweh?
Pharaoh uses this question to show that he does not recognize Yahweh as a legitimate god. AT: "I do not know Yahweh" (See: Rhetorical Question)
Why should I ... let Israel go?
Pharaoh uses this question to state that he has no interest in obeying Yahweh or in letting the Israelites go to worship him. AT: "He is nothing to me and I will not let Israel go!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
listen to his voice
The words "his voice" represent the words God spoke. AT: "listen to what he says" (See: Metonymy)
translationWords
Moses
Aaron
Pharaoh
Yahweh
God
Israel
people of God
festival
desert
voice
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 22 5:1-14 Pharaoh not only rejected Moses’ request to release…
5:1-14 Pharaoh not only rejected Moses’ request to release the Hebrew slaves, he also retaliated by making their work harder. The arrival of the rescuer had actually made the situation worse.
5:1 so they may hold a festival: See study note on 3:18.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.