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Exodus Chapter
Two
Exodus 2
Chapter Contents
Moses is born
and exposed on the river. (1-4) He is
found
and brought up by Pharaoh's daughter. (5-10) Moses slays an Egyptian
and flees to Midian. (11-15) Moses marries the daughter of Jethro. (16-22) God
hears the Israelites. (23-25)
Commentary on Exodus 2:1-4
(Read Exodus 2:1-4)
Observe the order of Providence: just at the time when
Pharaoh's cruelty rose to its height by ordering the Hebrew children to be
drowned
the deliverer was born. When men are contriving the ruin of the
church
God is preparing for its salvation. The parents of Moses saw he was a
goodly child. A lively faith can take encouragement from the least hint of the
Divine favour. It is said
Hebrews 11:23
that the parents of Moses hid him
by faith; they had the promise that Israel should be preserved
which they
relied upon. Faith in God's promise quickens to the use of lawful means for
obtaining mercy. Duty is ours
events are God's. Faith in God will set us above
the fear of man. At three months' end
when they could not hide the infant any
longer
they put him in an ark of bulrushes by the river's brink
and set his
sister to watch. And if the weak affection of a mother were thus careful
what
shall we think of Him
whose love
whose compassion is
as himself
boundless.
Moses never had a stronger protection about him
no
not when all the
Israelites were round his tent in the wilderness
than now
when he lay alone
a helpless babe upon the waves. No water
no Egyptian can hurt him. When we seem
most neglected and forlorn
God is most present with us.
Commentary on Exodus 2:5-10
(Read Exodus 2:5-10)
Come
see the place where that great man
Moses
lay
when he was a little child; it was in a bulrush basket by the river's side. Had
he been left there long
he must have perished. But Providence brings Pharaoh's
daughter to the place where this poor forlorn infant lay
and inclines her
heart to pity it
which she dares do
when none else durst. God's care of us in
our infancy ought to be often mentioned by us to his praise. Pharaoh cruelly
sought to destroy Israel
but his own daughter had pity on a Hebrew child
and
not only so
but
without knowing it
preserved Israel's deliverer
and
provided Moses with a good nurse
even his own mother. That he should have a
Hebrew nurse
the sister of Moses brought the mother into the place of a nurse.
Moses was treated as the son of Pharoah's daughter. Many who
by their birth
are obscure and poor
by surprising events of Providence
are raised high in
the world
to make men know that God rules.
Commentary on Exodus 2:11-15
(Read Exodus 2:11-15)
Moses boldly owned the cause of God's people. It is plain
from Hebrews 11. that this was done in faith
with
the full purpose of leaving the honours
wealth
and pleasures of his rank
among the Egyptians. By the grace of God he was a partaker of faith in Christ
which overcomes the world. He was willing
not only to risk all
but to suffer
for his sake; being assured that Israel were the people of God. By special
warrant from Heaven
which makes no rule for other cases
Moses slew an
Egyptian
and rescued an oppressed Israelites. Also
he tried to end a dispute
between two Hebrews. The reproof Moses gave
may still be of use. May we not
apply it to disputants
who
by their fierce debates
divide and weaken the Christian
church? They forget that they are brethren. He that did wrong quarreled with
Moses. It is a sign of guilt to be angry at reproof. Men know not what they do
nor what enemies they are to themselves
when they resist and despise faithful
reproofs and reprovers. Moses might have said
if this be the spirit of the
Hebrews
I will go to court again
and be the son of Pharaoh's daughter. But we
must take heed of being set against the ways and people of God
by the follies
and peevishness of some persons that profess religion. Moses was obliged to
flee into the land of Midian. God ordered this for wise and holy ends.
Commentary on Exodus 2:16-22
(Read Exodus 2:16-22)
Moses found shelter in Midian. He was ready to help
Reuel's daughters to water their flocks
although bred in learning and at
court. Moses loved to be doing justice
and to act in defence of such as he saw
injured
which every man ought to do
as far as it is in his power. He loved to
be doing good; wherever the providence of God casts us
we should desire and
try to be useful; and when we cannot do the good we would
we must be ready to
do the good we can. Moses commended himself to the prince of Midian; who
married one of his daughters to Moses
by whom he had a son
called Gershom
"a stranger there
" that he might keep in remembrance the land in
which he had been a stranger.
Commentary on Exodus 2:23-25
(Read Exodus 2:23-25)
The Israelites' bondage in Egypt continued
though the
murdering of their infants did not continue. Sometimes the Lord suffers the rod
of the wicked to lie very long and very heavy on the lot of the righteous. At
last they began to think of God under their troubles. It is a sign that the
Lord is coming towards us with deliverance
when he inclines and enables us to
cry to him for it. God heard their groaning; he made it to appear that he took
notice of their complaints. He remembered his covenant
of which he is ever
mindful. He considered this
and not any merit of theirs. He looked upon the
children of Israel. Moses looked upon them
and pitied them; but now God looked
upon them
and helped them. He had respect unto them. His eyes are now fixed
upon Israel
to show himself in their behalf. God is ever thus
a very present
help in trouble. Take courage then
ye who
conscious of guilt and thraldom
are looking to Him for deliverance. God in Christ Jesus is also looking upon you.
A call of love is joined with a promise of the Redeemer. Come unto me
all ye
that labour and are heavy laden
and I will give you rest
Matthew 11:28.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Exodus》
Exodus 2
Verse 1
[1] And
there went a man of the house of Levi
and took to wife a daughter of Levi.
And there went a man — Amram
from the place of his abode to another place.
A daughter —
That is
grand-daughter of Levi.
Verse 2
[2] And the woman conceived
and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was
a goodly child
she hid him three months.
Bare a son — It
seems just at the time of his birth that cruel law was made for the murder of
all the male-children of the Hebrews
and many no doubt perished by the
execution of it. Moses's parents had Miriam and Aaron
both elder than he
born
to them before that edict came out. Probably his mother had little joy of her
being with child of him
now this edict was in force. Yet this child proves the
glory of his father's house. Observe the beauty of providence: just when
Pharaoh's cruelty rose to this height
the deliverer was born.
She hid him three months — In some private apartment of their own house
though probably with the
hazard of their lives had he been discovered. It is said
Hebrews 11:23. That Moses's parents hid him by
faith: some think they had a special revelation that the deliverer should
spring from their loins; however
they believed the general promise of Israel's
preservation
and in that faith hid their child.
Verse 3
[3] And
when she could not longer hide him
she took for him an ark of bulrushes
and
daubed it with slime and with pitch
and put the child therein; and she laid it
in the flags by the river's brink.
And when she could no longer hide him
she
put him in an ark of bulrushes — By the river side.
God put it into their hearts to do this
to bring about his own purposes: that
Moses might by this means be brought into the hands of Pharaoh's daughter
and
that by his deliverance
a specimen might be given of the deliverance of God's
church.
Verse 5
[5] And
the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens
walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the flags
she
sent her maid to fetch it.
And the daughter of Pharaoh came — Providence brings no less a person than Pharaoh's daughter just at that
juncture
guides her to the place where this poor infant lay
inclines her
heart to pity it
which she dares do
when none else durst. Never did poor
child cry so seasonably
as this did; the babe wept
which moved her
compassion
as no doubt his beauty did.
Verse 10
[10] And the child grew
and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter
and he
became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said
Because I drew him
out of the water.
And he became her son — The tradition of the Jews is
that Pharaoh's daughter had no child of her
own
and that she was the only child of her father
so that when he was adopted
for her son
he stood fair for the crown: however
it is certain he stood fair
for the best preferments of the court in due time
and in the mean time had the
advantage of the best education
with the help of which
he became master of
all the lawful learning of the Egyptians Acts 7:22. Those whom God designs for great
services he finds out ways for to qualify them. Moses
by having his education
in a court
is the fitter to be a prince
and king in Jeshurun; by having his
education in a learned court
(for such the Egyptian then was) is the fitter to
be an historian; and by having his education in the court of Egypt
is the
fitter to be employed as an ambassador to that court in God's name. The Jews
tell us
that his father at his circumcision called him Joachim
but Pharaoh's
daughter called him Moses
Drawn out of the water
so it signifies in the
Egyptian language
The calling of the Jewish lawgiver by an Egyptian name is a
happy omen to the Gentile world
and gives hopes of that day when it should be
said
Blessed be Egypt my people
Isaiah 19:25. And his tuition at court was an
earnest of the performance of that promise
Isaiah 49:23. Kings shall be thy nursing
fathers
and queens thy nursing mothers.
Verse 11
[11] And it
came to pass in those days
when Moses was grown
that he went out unto his
brethren
and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an
Hebrew
one of his brethren.
When Moses was grown he went out unto his
brethren
and looked on their burdens — He
looked on their burdens as one that not only pitied them
but was resolved to
venture with them
and for them.
Verse 12
[12] And
he looked this way and that way
and when he saw that there was no man
he slew
the Egyptian
and hid him in the sand.
He slew the Egyptian — Probably it was one of the Egyptian task-masters
whom he found abusing
his Hebrew slave. By special warrant from heaven (which makes not a precedent
in ordinary cases) Moses slew the Egyptian
and rescued his oppressed brother. The
Jew's tradition is
that he did not slay him with any weapon
but as Peter slew
Ananias and Sapphira
with the word of his mouth.
Verse 14
[14] And
he said
Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me
as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared
and said
Surely this thing is
known.
He said
Who made thee a prince? — He challengeth his authority; Who made thee a prince? - A man needs no
great authority for giving a friendly reproof; it is an act of kindness; yet
this man needs will interpret it an act of dominion
and represents his
reprover as imperious and assuming. Thus
when people are sick of good
discourse
or a seasonable admonition
they will call it preaching
as if a man
could not speak a word for God
and against sin
but he took too much upon him.
Yet Moses was indeed a prince
and a judge
and knew it
and thought the
Hebrews would have understood it; but they stood in their own light
and thrust
him away. Acts 7:25
27.
Intendest thou to kill me? — See what base constructions malice puts upon the best words and actions.
Moses
for reproving him
is presently charged with a design to kill him.
Verse 15
[15] Now
when Pharaoh heard this thing
he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the
face of Pharaoh
and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.
Moses fled from Pharaoh — God ordered this for wise ends. Things were not yet ripe for Israel's
deliverance. The measure of Egypt's iniquity was not yet full; the Hebrews were
not sufficiently humbled
nor were they yet increased to such a multitude as
God designed: Moses is to be farther fitted for the service
and therefore is
directed to withdraw for the present
till the time to favour Israel
even the
set time
come. God guided Moses to Midian
because the Midianites were of the
seed of Abraham
and retained the worship of the true God; so that he might
have not only a safe
but a comfortable settlement among them; and through this
country he was afterwards to lead Israel
which
that he might do the better
he now had opportunity of acquainting himself with it. Hither he came
and sat
down by a well; tired and thoughtful
waiting to see which way Providence would
direct him. It was a great change with him
since he was but the other day at
ease in Pharaoh's court.
Verse 17
[17] And
the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them
and
watered their flock.
Stood up and helped them — This be did
because wherever he was
as occasion offered itself
he
loved to be doing justice
and appearing in the defence of such as he saw
injured. He loved to be doing good: wherever the Providence of God call us
we
should desire and endeavour to be useful; and when we cannot do the good we
would
we must be ready to do the good we can.
Verse 18
[18] And
when they came to Reuel their father
he said
How is it that ye are come so
soon to day?
Reul or Raguel (see Numbers 10:29
) seems to have been their
grandfather and father of Hobab or Jethro
their immediate father.
Verse 22
[22] And
she bare him a son
and he called his name Gershom: for he said
I have been a
stranger in a strange land.
Gershom —
That is
A stranger there. Now this settlement of Moses in Midian was designed
by Providence. To shelter him for the present; God will find hiding places for
his people in the day of their distress. It was also designed to prepare him
for the services he was farther designed to. His manner of life in Midian
where he kept the flock of his father-in-law would be of use to him
to inure
him to hardship and poverty; and to inure him to contemplation and devotion.
Egypt accomplished him for a scholar
a gentleman
a statesman
a soldier
all
which accomplishments would be afterwards of use to him; but yet lacketh he one
thing
in which the court of Egypt could not befriend him. He that was to do
all by divine revelation must know
what it was to live a life of communion
with God
and in this he would be greatly furthered by the retirement of a
shepherd's life in Midian. By the former he was prepared to rule in Jeshurun
but by the latter he was prepared to converse with God in mount Horeb. Those
that know what it is to be alone with God
are acquainted with better delights
than ever Moses tasted in the court of Pharaoh.
Verse 23
[23] And
it came to pass in process of time
that the king of Egypt died: and the
children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage
and they cried
and their
cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage.
The king of Egypt died — And after him
one or two more of his sons or successors.
And the children of Israel sighed by reason
of bondage — Probably the murdering of their infants
did not continue
that part of their affliction only attended the birth of
Moses
to signalize that. And now they were content with their increase
finding that Egypt was enriched by their labour; so they might have them for
their slaves
they cared not how many they were. On this therefore they were
intent
to keep them all at work
and make the best hand they could of their
labour. When one Pharaoh died
another rose up in his place
that was as cruel
to Israel as his predecessors.
And they cried —
Now at last they began to think of God under their troubles
and to return to
him from the idols they had served
Ezekiel 20:8. Hitherto they had fretted at the
instruments of their trouble
but God was not in all their thoughts. But before
God unbound them
he put it into their hearts to cry unto him. It is a sign God
is coming towards us with deliverance
when he inclines us to cry to him for
it.
Verse 24
[24] And
God heard their groaning
and God remembered his covenant with Abraham
with
Isaac
and with Jacob.
And God heard their groaning — That is
he made it to appear that he took notice of their complaints.
The groans of the oppressed cry loud in the ears of the righteous God
to whom
vengeance belongs; especially the groans of God's children
the burdens they
groan under
and the blessings they groan after.
And God remembered his covenant — Which he seemed to have forgotten
but really is ever mindful of. This
God had an eye to
and not to any merit of theirs in what he did for them.
And God looked upon the children of Israel — Moses looked upon them and pitied them
but now God looked upon them and
helped them.
And God had respect unto them — A favourable respect to them as his own. The frequent repetition of the
name of God intimates
that now we are to expect something great. His eyes
which run to and fro through the earth
are now fixed on Israel
to shew
himself strong
to shew himself a God in their behalf.
──
John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Exodus》
02 Chapter 2
Verses 1-4
An ark of bulrushes.
The Birth of Moses
I. As occurring of
noble parentage.
1. They were of moderate social position.
2. They were of strong parental affection.
3. They were of good religious character.
Happy the child that is linked to the providence of God by a
mother’s faith! Faith in God is the preserving influence of a threatened
life--physically
morally
eternally.
II. As happening in
perilous times.
1. When his nation was in a condition of servitude. That this
servitude was severe
exacting
grievous
disastrous
murderous
is evident
from the last chapter.
2. When a cruel edict was in force against the young.
III. As involving
momentous issues.
1. Issues relating to the lives of individuals. The birth of Moses
made Miriam a watcher
gave her an introduction to a king’s daughter
and has
given immortality to her name. It brought Aaron into historical prominence.
2. Issues involving the freedom of an enslaved people.
3. Issues relating to the destiny of a proud nation.
IV. As exhibiting
the inventiveness of maternal love.
1. In that she devised a scheme for the safety of her child. The
mother was more clever than the tyrant king and his accomplices. Tyranny is too
calculating to be clever. Maternal love is quick and spontaneous in thought.
V. As eluding the
edict of a cruel king. The mother of Moses was justified in eluding this edict
because it was unjust
murderous; it did violence to family affection
to the
laws of citizenship
and to the joyful anticipation of men. (J. S. Exell
M.
A.)
The infancy of Moses
1. His concealment.
2. His rescue.
3. His restoration. (Caleb Morris.)
Lessons
1. Providence is preparing good
while wickedness is working evil to
the Church.
2. Lines
tribes
and persons are appointed by God
by whom He will
work good to His people.
3. In the desolations of the Church’s seed
God will have His to
marry and continue it.
4. Tribes cursed for their desert
may be made instrumental of good
by grace.
5. Choice and taking in marriage should be under Providence
free
and rational (Exodus 2:1).
6. The greatest instruments of the Church’s good God ordereth to
being in the common way of man.
7. God ordereth
in His wisdom
instruments of salvation to be born
in times of distinction.
8. No policies or cruelties of man can hinder God from sending
saviours to His Church (Exodus 2:2). (G. Hughes
B. D.)
The ark of bulrushes
I. The goodly
child--Moses.
1. Its birth.
2. Its appearance--“Goodly.” Beautiful
not only to a mother’s eyes
but really so. Its beauty appealed to the mother
as its tears to the princess.
3. The excitement caused by its birth. Babes usually welcomed. Here
were fear and sorrow and perplexity. This Divine gift becomes a trial
through
the wickedness of man. Sin turns blessings into Curses
and joy into sorrow.
II. The anxious
mother--Jochebed.
1. Her first feelings. Touched by the rare loveliness of her child.
Bravely resolves to evade the decree. She had another son--Aaron--now three
years of age (Exodus 7:7); but could not spare one.
2. Her careful concealment. For three months she contrived to
preserve her secret from the Egyptians. Anxiously thinking what she might
presently do.
3. Her ingenious device. Concealment no longer possible. She will
trust God rather than Pharaoh.
III. The obedient
daughter--Miriam.
1. Her obedience. The blessing of obedient children. Trusted by the
mother. The elder should care for
and watch over
the younger.
2. Her surprise. The princess and her retinue appear. She attentively
watches. The ark discovered
brought out
and opened. Her anxiety. She
approaches.
3. Her thoughtfulness. She is quick-witted. Sees compassion in the
princess’s face. Shall she fetch a nurse? Of the Hebrew women?
4. Her great joy. Her brother saved. Her return home. Perhaps the
mother was praying for the child. Jochebed’s surprise and gratitude and joy. A
great result grew out of her obedience (1 Peter 1:14; Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20).
IV. The
compassionate princess. Kindness in the house of Pharaoh! “Out of the strong
sweetness.” Children not always to be judged by their parents. Eli’s sons were
not godly (1 Samuel 2:12). Pharaoh’s daughter not
cruel
as her father. Moved by an infant’s tears
she at once comprehends the
history of the child
Resolves to adopt it. Providential use of compassion
maternal solicitude
filial obedience
infantile beauty and helplessness. “All
things work together for good.” Learn--
1. To prize a mother’s love
and return it.
2. To imitate Miriam’s obedience and sisterly affection.
3. Not to judge of children by their parents.
4. To admire the wisdom of Providence.
5. “Unto us a child is born
unto us a son is given”--Jesus. (J.
C. Gray.)
The cradle on the waters
I. The power of
young life to endure hardship. Codling of children is foolish
unhealthy.
II. The use that
one member of a family may be to another. Services which seem trifling may
prove far-reaching in effect. Miriam thus helped to bring about the freedom of
her nation.
III. The pathetic
influence of a babe’s tears. Touching tokens of sorrow
weakness
helplessness.
Potent
inviting help. Many are moved by the sight of personal grief who look
unmoved upon a national calamity.
IV. The sensitive
conscience of a tyrant’s daughter. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
The babe in the bulrushes
I. Let us consider
the perils which surrounded this purposeful life
which was rescued in such a
remarkable manner.
1. For one thing
it was the life of an infant child. Infancy alone
is more than enough to extinguish such a diminutive glimmer of existence; just
leave him where he is a little longer
and you will never hear of that child’s
going up into Mount Sinai. There is only the side of a slight basket between
him and swift drowning; one rush of the waves through a crevice
and the march
through the wilderness will never be made.
2. Observe also this was the life of a proscribed child.
3. And then observe that this was the life of an outcast child. He
had no friends. His mother had already hidden him until concealment was
dangerous.
II. Let us try to
find some suggestions as to modern life and duty. There Moses lay
before he
was called Moses
or had any right to be--an infant
proscribed
outcast child!
You pity him; so do I pity him
with all my heart. Still
I will tell you
frankly what I pity more by far
and I trust to better purpose. There are
hundreds of sons and daughters of misery drifting out upon a stream of vice
which the Nile river
with all its murkiness and its monsters
cannot parallel
for an exposure of peril--a river of depraved humanity
hurrying on before it
everything stainless and promising into the darkness of destiny behind the
cloud. It was a woman who ultimately brought up this babe from the bulrush ark.
Women know how to save children better than men do. The spirit in which all
this work must be done is that of faith. There is a sense of possibility in
every child’s constitution
and this is what gives a loftier value to it than
that which is possessed by any other creature of the living God. A child owns
in it what a diamond has not: a child can grow
and a diamond cannot. They say
it takes a million of years
more or less
to make a big diamond; but the biggest
of diamonds has a past only
and the smallest of children has a limitless
future. Faith and works are what seemed once to disturb the balance of a man
whose business it was to write an epistle in the New Testament. See what a
vivid illustration this has in the story here before us. Jochebed had absolute
faith; so had Amram; and so had Miriam for all we know. But it would have done
no good to fall down and go to crying
nor to sit down and quote the promises
nor to be trampled down and give up the baby. Jochebed told Amram to get her
some of the toughest rushes he could find
and he went and did it; then she
awaked Moses
and wrapped him in the most comfortable way she could for an
outing; then she took some pitch and bitumen
and told Miriam a patient story
as to how she was to watch her brother. The word “ark” is found only in this
instance
and in that not altogether unlike it in the case of Noah; only in
these two places has the inspired Word of God employed it. There was the same
principle at stake in both experiences--Noah believed God
and then made his
“ark”; Amram and Jochebed believed God
and then made their “ark.” And I can
readily imagine that these pious parents got their first notion of the plan to
save the baby out of the story of Noah; and so they used
whenever they spoke
of it
to employ the same name. At any rate
it has a lesson for every one of
us. Trust God
always trust God; then do all within your power to help on the
purpose you prayerfully hope He is about to undertake for you. Make the best
ark you can; place it in the river at the safest spot you can find; leave it
there; then trust God. The main point is
venturesomeness is the highest
element of belief in our Father in heaven. (C. S. Robinson
D. D.)
The mother of Moses
I. The mother’s
love of the child. Divine. Providential.
II. The mother’s
ingenuity. Danger risked. Ample reward.
III. The mother’s
heroism. A sacrifice of love. (J. O. Davies.)
The mother remained at home
showing-
1. The dignity of her faith--she could wait away from the scene of
trial.
2. Her supreme hope in God--the issue was to be Divine.
3. Her happy confidence in her little daughter--children do their
work better when they feel that they are trusted with it entirely. (J. S.
Exell
M. A.)
The beautiful ministry of a youthful life
1. Loving.
2. Cautious.
3. Obedient.
4. Reflective.
5. Courteous.
6. Successful. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
The faith of Moses’ parents
We shall study the history of Moses without the key if we overlook
the point made by the writer to the Hebrews (Hebrews 11:23). “By faith
” dec. Faith in
God made them fearless of Egypt’s cruel king. It may sometimes happen that
profound interest in a babe of apparently rare promise shall run in a very low
and selfish channel
suggesting how much he may do to comfort their own hearts
or to build up the glory of their house or of their name; but when
by a
heavenly faith
it takes hold of useful work for God
when it prompts to a special
consecration of all the possibilities of his future to the kingdom of Christ
it is morally sublime. Such seems to have been the faith of the parents of the child Moses. How
their faith prompted ingenious methods of concealments; how it wrought in
harmony with God’s wise providence
not only to preserve the life of this
consecrated child
but to give him a place in the heart of Pharaoh’s daughter
and thus open to his growing mind all the wealth of Egypt’s culture and wisdom
we learn somewhat from this story. (H. Cowles
D. D.)
Moses and Christ
Moses and Christ stand together in the same supernatural scheme;
they are in the line of the same Divine purpose; they work together
though in
different ways
towards the same end. Although they occupy far distant ages
and live under completely different conditions
they largely undergo the same
experiences
conform to the same laws
confront the same difficulties
and
manifest the same spirit. In many cases the events of their lives actually and
literally correspond
and in many more it only needs that the veil of outward
manifestation be lifted to see that in spirit they are one. And this not by
accident
but by design. The plan of God is a complete whole. That Moses
the
founder of the preparatory dispensation
should be pre-eminently like Him who
was to fulfil it
is most natural; that he should
in his measure
set Him
forth
is what we might expect (see Deuteronomy 18:15; John 5:46). To point out that likeness
and
at the same time
mark the contrasts
is the work upon which we enter. We
shall study Moses in the light of Christ. Like two rivers
at one time we shall
see the two lives to flow together in the same channel--the same quiet flowing
the same torturous course
the same cataracts in each; but anon they divide
and pursue each a separate bed
only to meet again far away beyond.
1. We take the two lives at their beginnings. The time of each is
most significant. The age in each case was charged with expectancy
Both were
periods of bondage
and bondage crying out for a deliverer. Both were born to
be emancipators. But the one birth is not like the other. The source of the one
river is at our feet; the source of the other is like Egypt’s own mysterious
Nile--far
far away in a land of mystery
and where mortals have never trodden.
2. The two deliverers are alike again in this--that they owe nothing
of their greatness to their parents. Amram and Joseph
Jochebed and Mary
stand
upon the ordinary level of mankind. God is not bound down to evolution. He can
raise up a Moses from the slave huts of Egypt; He can send forth His Christ
from the peasantry of Galilee.
3. They start together from obscurity and poverty and adversity.
4. Both children are born to great issues
and both must meet
therefore
that opposition with which goodness is ever assailed. It would seem
that the birth of any soul having great moral capabilities arouses the
opposition of the powers of darkness. Fable and legend have recognized this
and have made their heroes pass through extraordinary dangers whilst only
children. Romulus and Remus
cast away to die
were nursed by a wolf
and thus
lived to build the foundations of Rome and the Roman Empire. Cyrus
the founder
of the MedePersian monarchy
was said to have been thrown out into the
wilderness
and to have been adopted by a shepherd’s wife
whose own babe was
dead. Our own King Arthur
too
passed a similar peril. Doubtless these are no
more than legends
confused echoes possibly from the story of Moses itself; but
they serve to show us how mankind has ever recognized that lives destined to be
great are met by hardship and opposition. Moses and Christ are one in this.
5. The likeness of the two births is not
however
completed until we
notice the special providences of God
by which they are delivered from their
enemies. What are the edicts of Pharaoh or the swords of Herod against the
purposes of the Most High? Who are kings and princes
that they should withstand the Lord?
What are all the combinations of evil
and all the plots of the devil
against
His will
who ruleth over all? (H. Wonnacott.)
The bulrush
The bulrush is the papyrus
or paper reed
of the ancients.
It grows in marshy places
and was once most abundant on the banks of the Nile;
but now that the river has been opened to commerce
it has disappeared
save in
a few unfrequented spots. It is described as having “an angular stem from three
to six feet high
though occasionally it grows to the height of fourteen feet;
it has no leaves; the flowers are in very small spikelets
which grow in
thread-like
flowering branchlets
which form a bushy crown to each stem.” It
was used for many purposes by the Egyptians--as
for example
for shoes
baskets
vessels of different sorts
and boats; but it was especially valuable
as famishing the material corresponding to our paper
on which written
communication could be made. To obtain this last fibre
the course exterior
rind was taken off
and then with a needle the thin concentric layers of the
inner cuticle
sometimes to the number of twenty to a single plant
were
removed. These were afterward joined together with a mixture of flour
paste
and glue; and a similar layer of strips being laid crosswise in order to
strengthen the fabric
the whole sheet was subjected to pressure
dried in the
sun
beaten with a mallet
and polished with ivory. When completed and written
over
the sheets were united into one
and rolled on a slender wooden cylinder.
Thus was formed a book
and the description of the process gives the etymology
and primal significance of our ownword “volume.” (W. M. Taylor
D. D.)
Children in need of preserving mercy
The spot is traditionally said to be the Isle of Bodak
near old
Cairo. In contrasting the perils which surrounded the infancy of Moses with the
security and comfort with which we can rear our own offspring
we have abundant
grounds of gratitude. Yet it should not be forgotten that whatever care we may
exercise for our little ones
or whatever guardianship we may afford them
they
as really require the preserving mercy of heaven when reposing in their cradles
or sporting in our parlours as did Moses when enclosed in his ark of bulrushes
and exposed to the waves or the ravenous tenants of the Nile. (A. Nevin
D.
D.)
Training of children
What if God should place in your hand a diamond
and tell you to
inscribe on it a sentence which should be read at the last day
and be shown then
as an index of your own thoughts and feelings? What care
what caution
would
you exercise in the selection. Now
this is what God has done. He has placed
before you the immortal minds of your children
more imperishable than the
diamond
on which you are about to inscribe every day and every hour by your
instructions
by your spirit
or by your example
something which will remain
and be exhibited for or against you at the judgment day. (Dr. Payson.)
Parental instruction best
Even as a plant will sooner take nourishment and thrive better in
the soil where it first grew and sprung up than in any other ground
because it
liketh its own soil best; so
likewise
children will sooner take instruction
and good nurture from their parents
whom they best like
and from whom they
have their being
than from any other. (Cawdray.)
Divine ordering of events
The mother had done her part. The rushes
the slime
and the pitch
were her prudent preparations; and the great God has been at the same time
preparing His materials
and arranging His instruments. He causes
everything to concur
not by miraculous influence
but by the simple and
natural operation of second causes
to bring about the issue designed in His
counsels from everlasting. (G. Bush
D. D.)
God’s providence in our family life
The phrase “special providence
” is liable to be misunderstood.
The teaching of this book is not that God overrules some things more than
others
but that He is in all alike
and is as really in the falling of a
sparrow as the revolution of an empire. God was as truly in the removal of the
little ones that were taken away as He was in the saving of Amram’s son; and
there were lessons of love and warning from the one
no less than of love and
encouragement from the other. Nay more
God is in the daily events of our
households precisely as He was in those of the family of the tribe of Levi long
ago. The births and the bereavements; the prosperity and the adversity; the
joys and the sorrows of our homes
are all under His supervision. He is guiding
us when we know it not; and His plan of our lives
if we will only yield
ourselves to His guidance
will one day round itself into completeness and
beauty. (W. M. Taylor
D. D.)
The events of life under a Divine providence
When Druyse
the gunsmith
invented the needle-gun
which decided
the battle of Sadowa
was it a mere accident? When a farmer’s boy showed
Blucher a short cut by which he could bring his army up soon enough to decide
Waterloo for England
was it a mere accident? When the Protestants were
besieged at Bezors
and a drunken drummer came in at midnight and rang the
alarm bell
not knowing what he was doing
but; waking up the host in time to
fight their enemies that moment arriving
was it an accident? When
in the
Irish rebellion
a starving mother
flying with her starving child
sank down
and fainted on a rock in the night
and her hand fell on a warm bottle of milk
did that just happen so? God is either in the affairs of men or our religion is
worth nothing at all
and you had better take it away from us
and instead of
this Bible
which teaches the doctrine
give us a secular book
and leg us
as
the famous Mr. Fox
the Member of Parliament
in his last hour
cry out: “Read
me the eighth book of Virgil.” Oh my friends; let us rouse up to an
appreciation of the fact that all the affairs of our life are under a King’s
command
and under a Father’s watch. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The minute providence of God
You must have been struck
as you read these opening verses of the
biography of the greatest of Old Testament worthies
with their simplicity and
truth-likeness. There is no mention of prodigies such as those which were said
to attend the birth of Cyrus
and such as mythology delighted to tell
concerning Romulus and Remus. It is a plain unvarnished story. There is no word
of any miracle. The incidents are such as
allowing for the difference between
ancient and modern life
might have happened among ourselves. And yet see how
they fit into each other
altogether irrespective of
and indeed independent
of
human calculation. Had it been the case of a single fortunate occurrence
we might have talked of chance; but the coalition of so many acts of so many
agents indicates design. When you come to a great railway junction
at which
trains arrive from north and south and west
in time to be united to another
that is just starting for the east
and you see the connection made
nobody
talks of a happy coincidence. There was a presiding mind guiding the time of
the arrival of the train in each case
so that the junction was reached by all
at the required moment. Now
at the birth and preservation of Moses
one feels
himself standing at the meeting-place of many separate trains of events
all of
which coalesce to save the life of the child
and to put him in the way of
securing the very best education which the world could then furnish. (W. M.
Taylor
D. D.)
His sister:
Miriam
I. How she trusted
in God. In Hebrews 11:1-40. we read that by faith
Moses was hid of his parents. It was chiefly the doing of his mother and
Miriam. Amram probably had little hand in it
as he had to work night and day
making bricks without straw under the lash of ruffian slave-drivers. Now Miriam
could not have so shared her mother’s confidence
if she had not also shared
her mother’s faith. And her faith was great
for it outlived great trims. As
she was a very quick-witted girl she must have had many a deep thought. The
hands of Providence were strangely crossed. But her faith did not fail. Oh
girl
great is thy faith
for thou trustest in Jehovah
though He seemeth to be
slaying thee and thine.
How she condemns many girls who are content to live without God!
II. How she loved
her family. She had real daughterly and sisterly feeling; she was true to her
family
helping her mother all she could
entering into her plan and making it
a success
risking her own life to save her brother’s. It is not the cleverness
nor the success
but the spirit of her act which you should think upon. What a
help and a comfort she must have been to her sorely-tried mother! Faith in God
made her thoughtful and feeling-hearted
and great sorrows drew out her
sweetest
strongest sympathy with her poor parents. She loved her folk more
than she feared Pharaoh. In that level land Pharaoh’s pyramids and palaces were
the only mountains; how very small she must have felt when she stood near them!
And how awful and mighty Pharaoh must have seemed to her! Yet she was not afraid of the king’s
commandment. Hers was the true love which makes the weak strong
the timid
brave
and the simple wise; which betters what is best in boy and girl
and
works wonders for others’ good. It made Miriam the saviour of Moses. It gave
her great presence of mind
that is
the rare power of doing at once in a
moment of danger the very thing that needs to be done. As a pointsman by a
single timely jerk puts a whole train on the right line
so she by a single
hint turned the sympathy of the princess into the right channel
and moulded it
into action before it cooled down. No girl ever did greater service to her
family and her kind. And she did it not by aiming at some great thing
but by
forgetting self and doing her work at home in the right spirit. Cultivate the
heavenly beauty of Miriam’s conduct. What is true and good is beautiful with an
everlasting beauty: disease cannot mar
death cannot destroy it. In girls
nothing is uglier than the lack of love at home. It is bad enough in a boy
but
it makes a girl simply hideous. For girls have been formed by God to soften and
sweeten life
and we are shocked when they poison the fountains at home.
III. How Miriam
remained steadfast. We left Miriam with Pharaoh’s daughter; and we meet her
again
about eighty years afterwards
on the shore of the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20). Miriam was more than one
hundred and twenty years old when she died
yet with only one exception
so far
as we know
she stood firm in God’s service.
IV. How she fell at
Hazeroth. Oh Miriam
how art thou fallen from heaven
thou beautiful star of
the morning! The time came when Miriam must give place to Zipporah
Moses’
wife
“an Ethiopian woman” (Numbers 12:1-16.). Miriam would naturally
feel that her share in the saving of Moses gave her special claims upon him.
Her envy was stirred
and she spake against Moses. Two things made her sin
worse. She pretended that zeal for religion was her motive
and so gained Aaron
over to her side (verse 2). And then Moses was the meekest of men; and her
anger should have melted at his meekness. You may wonder that I have praised
for steadfastness one who had such a sad fall. But a character is fixed not by
an act or two
but by the habits of years. I remember standing for the first
time on the bridge of a far-famed river. Just under me there was a backward
eddy
and a stiff breeze was also rippling the surface backwards. I was quite
deceived: I fancied that the stream flowed in the direction of the eddy and the
ripples. When I walked along the bank I smiled at my mistake. I should do
Miriam a great wrong did I judge her by that act; for it was the one backward
eddy
the one backward rippling in the on-rushing current of a good life. Now
what exactly was Miriam’s sin? Was it not selfishness bursting out into envy
and jealousy? Her selfishness took a very common form; for it filled her with
ill-will against a new-comer into the family by marriage--that Ethiopian woman!
How natural! yet how ugly! If one could see the soul of an envious girl
as the
blessed angels see it
it would shock us as much as Miriam’s leprosy shocked
all beholders. Let the love of God in Christ fill and flood your soul; and then
it will absorb and change your self-love
as the ocean absorbed and changed the
brook; and all your selfish grumblings will disappear in the peace of God that
passeth all understanding. (J. Wells.)
The watching sister
Society needs watchers as well as workers. Had we been passing the
spot at which the sister of Moses took up her position of observation
we might
have condemned her as an idler standing there and doing nothing! We should be
careful of our condemnation
seeing how little we know of the reality of any
case. In doing nothing
the girl was in reality doing everything. If she had
done more
she would have done less. There is a silent ministry as well as a
ministry of thunder. Mark the cunning of love! The watcher stood afar off. Had
she stood quite close at hand
she would have defeated the very object of her
watching. She was to do her work without the slightest appearance of doing it.
Truly there is a great art in love
and in all good ministry. There are wise
master-builders
and also builders who are very foolish. Sometimes we must look
without staring; we must speak without making a noise; we must be artful
without dissimulation
and hide under the calmest exterior the most urgent and
tumultuous emotion. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Miriam’s tact
“Stood afar off”! Mark that. There is tact in everything. Had she
gone too near
she might have been suspected. Eagerness would have defeated
itself. Our watching must not be obtrusive
officious
demonstrative
and
formal. We are not policemen
but friends. We are not spies
but brothers and
sisters. We must watch as though we were not watching. We must serve as though
we were not serving. There is a way of giving a gift which makes it heavy and
burdensome to the receiver; there is a way of doing it which makes the simplest
offering a treasure. Sometimes we increase each other’s sorrow in the very act
of attempting to diminish it. (J. Parker
D. D.)
A devoted sister
Caroline Herschel was the devoted helper of her brother
Sir Wm.
Herschel. Her only joy was to share in his labours and help to his successes.
She lived for years in the radiance of genius; sharing its toils and
privileges. After her brother’s death she was honoured by various scientific
societies in many ways. But these she regarded as tributes to her brother
rather than the reward of her own efforts. (H. O. Mackey.)
Sisters and brothers
“Go home
” some one might have said to Miriam. “Why
risk yourself out there alone on the banks of the Nile
breathing the miasma
and in danger of being attacked of wild beast or ruffian; go home!” No; Miriam
the sister
most lovingly watched and bravely defended Moses
the brother. Is
he worthy her care and courage? Oh
yes; the sixty centuries of the world’s
history have never had so much involved in the arrival of any ship at any port
as in the landing of that papyrus boat caulked with bitumen. Its one passenger
was to be a none-such in history. Lawyer
statesman
politician
legislator
organiser
conqueror
deliverer. Oh
was not Miriam
the sister of Moses
doing
a good thing
an important thing
a glorious thing
when she watched the boat
woven of river plants and made watertight with asphaltum
carrying its one
passenger? Did she not put all the ages of time and of a coming eternity under
obligation
when she defended her helpless brother from the perils aquatic
reptilian
and ravenous? What a garland for faithful sisterhood! For how many a
lawgiver
hero
deliverer
and saint are the world and the Church indebted to a
watchful
loving
faithful
godly sister? God knows how many of our Greek
lexicons and how much of our schooling was paid for by money that would
otherwise have gone for the replenishing of a sister’s wardrobe. While the
brother sailed off for a resounding sphere
the sister watched him from the
banks of self-denial. Miriam was the oldest of the family
Moses and Aaron
her
brothers
are younger. Oh
the power of the elder sister to help decide the
brother’s character for usefulness and for heaven! She can keep off from her brother
more evils than Miriam could have driven back water-fowl or crocodile from the
ark of bulrushes. The older sister decides the direction in which the
cradle-boat shall sail. By gentleness
by good sense
by Christian principle
she can turn it towards the palace
not of a wicked Pharaoh
but of a holy God;
and a brighter princess than Thermutis shall lift him out of peril
even
religion
whose ways are ways of pleasantness
and all her paths are peace. Let
sisters not begrudge the time and care bestowed on a brother. It is hard to
believe that any boy that you know so well as your brother can ever turn out
anything very useful. Well
he may not be a Moses. There is only one of that
kind needed for six thousand years. But I tell you what your brother will be--either
a blessing or a curse
to society
and a candidate for happiness or wretchedness. Whatever you do for
your brother will come back to you again. If you set him an ill-natured
censorious
unaccomodating example
it will recoil upon you from his own
irritated and despoiled nature. If you
by patience with all his infirmities
and by nobility of character
dwell with him in the few years of your
companionship
you will have your counsels reflected back upon you some day by
his splendour of behaviour in some crisis where he would have failed but for
you. (Dr. Talmage.)
Weak links useful
And you
again
the
weak and little ones
will you still fancy you may well be quite
passed by
when Miriam’s case proclaims to you how needful even the weak link
is to join the other links into one chain
and how God can avail Himself even
of a child deemed insignificant in the promotion of our human bliss and joy?
(J. J. Van Oosterzee
D. D.)
This is one of the Hebrews’ children.
The princess and the orphan
I. The claims of
the orphan
1. The first claim on her compassion was the claim of infancy. “She
saw the child.” That sentence contains an argument. It was an appeal to the
woman’s heart. Rank
caste
nationality
all melted before the great fact of
womanhood. This feeling was spontaneous. She did not feel compassion because it
was her duty
but because it was her nature. God has provided for humanity by a
plan more infallible than system
by implanting feeling in our nature.
2. Consider the degradation of the child’s origin. “Hebrews’
children.” The exclusiveness of the Egyptian social system was as strong as
that of the Hindoo--slave--enemy--to be slain. Princess brought up with these
ideas. She was animated by His Spirit who came to raise the abject
to break
the bond of the oppressor.
3. The last reason we find for this claim was its unprotected state.
It wept; those tears told of a conscious want--the felt want of a mother’s
arms.
II. The orphan’s
education.
1. It was a suggestion from another. This woman brought up in
luxury--had warm feelings--not knowing how to do good--was told by another.
Results of this training:
1. Intellectually. He learned to ask “Why” “the bush is not
consumed.”
2. In the moral part of his character we notice his hatred of
injustice. (F. W. Robertson
M. A.)
The child
1. The moment of its degradation.
2. The moment of its sadness.
3. The moment of its hope.
4. The moment of its unknown future.
5. The moment of a mother’s recompense. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
God rules
1. Providence sometimes raises the poor out of the dust to set them
among princes (Psalms 113:7-8)
to make men know that
the heavens do rule.
2. Those whom God designs for great services He finds ways to qualify
and prepare beforehand. The fact of the princess disobeying her father’s
command in adopting the child
so far from being a difficulty
as some have
made it
is the very impress of truth itself. If there is a thing too strong
for man’s laws
it is a woman’s heart. Witness Antigone burying her brother. (A.
Nevin
D. D.)
Womanly compassion of Pharaoh’s daughter
The sweet picture of womanly compassion in Pharaoh’s daughter is
full of suggestions. Her name is handed down by one tradition as “Merris
” and
“Meri” has been found as the appellation of a princess of the period. A
rabbinical authority calls her “Bithiah
” that is
“Daughter of Jehovah”; by
which was
no doubt
intended to imply that she became in some sense a
proselyte. This may have been only an inference from her protection of Moses.
There is a singular and very obscure passage in 1 Chronicles 4:17-18
relating the
genealogy of a certain Meted
who seems to have had two wives
one “the
Jewess
” the other “Bithiah
the daughter of Pharaoh.” We know no more about
him or her
but Keil thinks that Mered probably “lived before the Exodus”; but
it can scarcely be that the “daughter of Pharaoh
” his wife
is our princess
and that she actually became a “daughter of Jehovah
” and
like her adopted
child
refused royal dignity and preferred reproach. In any case
the legend of
her name is a tender and beautiful way of putting the belief that in her “there
was some good thing towards the God of Israel.” But
passing from that
how the
true woman’s heart changes languid curiosity into tenderness
and how
compassion conquers pride of race and station
as well as regard for her
father’s edict
as soon as the infant’s cry
which touches every good woman’s
feelings
falls on her ear “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” All
the centuries are as nothing; the strange garb
the stranger mental and
spiritual dress
fade
and we have here a mere woman
affected as every true
sister of hers to-day would be by the helpless wailing. God has put that
instinct there. Alas that it ever should be choked by frivolity or pride
and
frozen by indifference and self-indulgence! Gentle souls spring up in
unfavourable soil. Rameses was a strange father for such a daughter. How came
this dove in the vulture’s cage? Her sweet pity beside his cold craft and
cruelty is like the lamb couching by the lion. Note
too
that gentlest pity
makes the gentlest brave. She sees the child is a Hebrew. Her quick wit
understands why it has been exposed
and she takes its part
and the part of
the poor weeping parents
whom she can fancy
against the savage law. No doubt
as the Egyptologists tell us
the princesses of the royal house had separate
households and abundant liberty of action. Still
it was bold to override the
strict commands of such a monarch. But it was not self-willed sense of power
but the beautiful daring of a compassionate woman to which God committed the
execution of His purposes. And that is a force which has much like work trusted
to it in modern society too. Our great cities swarm with children exposed to a
worse fate than the baby among the flags. Legislation and official charity have
far too rough hands and too clumsy ways to lift the little life out of the
coffer
and to dry the tears. We must look to Christian women to take a leaf
out of “Bithiah’s” book. First
they should use their eyes to see the facts
and not be so busy about their own luxury and comfort that they pass the poor
pitch-covered box unnoticed. Then they should let the pitiful call touch their
heart
and not steel themselves in indifference or ease. Then they should
conquer prejudices of race
pride of station
fear of lowering themselves
loathing
or contempt. And then they should yield to the impulses of their
compassion
and never mind what difficulties or opponents may stand in the way
of their saving the children. If Christian women knew their obligations and
their power
and lived up to them as bravely as this Egyptian princess
there
would be fewer little ones flung out to be eaten by crocodiles
and many a poor
child
who is now abandoned from infancy to the devil
would be rescued to grow
up a servant of God. She
there by the Nile waters
in her gracious pity and
prompt wisdom is the type of what Christian womanhood
and
indeed
the whole
Christian community
should be in relation to child life. (A. Maclaren
D.
D.)
God’s providential care of children
I remember reading a story of a baby--a wee child--that travelled
by railroad. Away whirled the coach very fast; but it soon knocked against
something
and all were thrown out--men
women
mothers
and babes
some were
pitched here
some there; heads were broken
hands cut off. In the midst of the
confusion
a voice was heard crying--“Where is my baby? Oh I my dear baby! I
cannot find him anywhere. Did nobody see my sweet baby? What shall I do?” One
man lost his leg
another his hand
another his eye; but the mother did not
mind them
but was going about
wringing her hands
and crying
“Where is my
baby?” After much search for it
and for a great while in vain
at length a man
went over to a place where there was a bandbox
he took up the bandbox
and
what do you think he found under it? The baby
fast asleep! Now
if God takes
care of babies
surely He would take care of all little children.
Womanly compassion
Of what infinite value to society is that tenderness
compassion
and benevolence which the Almighty has mercifully impressed on the female
heart. It is a woman’s exclusive gift; it is the foundation of all her virtues;
the mainspring of her usefulness. Let her then daily consider the awful
responsibility of such a gift; let her consider it as amongst her most valuable
possessions; and solely employ it for the benefit of her fellow-creatures; and
more especially for the nursing
training
and educating the young of her own
species: let her give her heart
her tenderness
her compassion
to the infant
orphan and the deserted child; let her
in humble imitation of her great
Master
become a teacher of the ignorant
and an instructor of babes; and let
her
like Him
fold in her arms the lovely emblems of those beings that form the
kingdom of heaven. Let her
with active zeal
bring little children to Christ
that He may bless them; and though
under her fostering care no great
legislator
prince
or prophet may arise
a superior reward will await her
labours: that which is promised to those who save a soul from death. It will be
her peculiar and happy lot to rear good Christians and useful members of
society; and above all
blessed spirits for eternal happiness in the communion of saints made
perfect. (Mrs. King.)
Providentially preserved
Sir Thomas Gresham
who built the Royal Exchange in London
was the son of a poor woman
who
while he was an infant
abandoned him in a
field. By the providence of God
however
the chirping of a grasshopper
attracted a boy to the spot where the child lay; and his life was by this means
preserved
(W. Baxendale.)
Royal compassion-
Some years ago
her Majesty the Queen came to open a new
wing of the London Hospital. For some days previously nothing else was talked
about in the papers and on the streets but Her Majesty’s intended visit. There
was a little orphan child lying in one of the wards of the hospital
and she
too
had heard that the Queen was coming. She said to the nurse
“Do you think
the Queen will come and see met . . . I am afraid not
darling
” said her
nurse
“she will have so many people to see and so much to do.” “But
I should
so much like to see her
” pleaded the little patient
“I should be so much
better if I saw her”; and day after day the poor child was expressing her
anxiety to see her Majesty. When the Queen came
the governor told her Majesty
and the Queen
with her large kindly heart and motherly instincts
said
“I
should like to see that dear child. Would you just take me to the ward?” and
Queen Victoria was conducted to the bedside of the orphan girl. The little
thing thought it was one of the women come in the crowd to see the opening of
the hospital
and said
“Do you think the Queen will come and see me? I should
like to see the Queen.” “I am the Queen
” said her visitor. “I heard you were
anxious to see me. I hope you will be so much better now;” and she stroked down
her fevered
wasted
pale brow
gave some money to the nurse to get some nice
things for the child
and went her way. The child said
“I am ever so much better
now that I have seen the Queen.”
God’s purpose accomplished by unexpected agencies
The wheels in a clock or a watch move contrary one to another
some one way
some another
yet all serve the intent of the workman
to show
the time
or to make the clock to strike. So in the world
the providence of
God may seem to run cross to His promises. One man takes this way
another runs
that way; good men go one way
wicked men another; yet all in conclusion
accomplish the will and centre in the purpose of God
the great Creator of all
things.
The Gentiles useful in the deliverance of Israel
In the fact that the deliverer of Israel from the power of Egypt
was himself first delivered by the daughter of the king of Egypt
we find the
same interweaving of the history of Israel with that of the Gentiles already
observed in the history of Joseph; and we may now regard it as a law
that the
preference shown to Israel when it was selected as the chosen seed on whom the
blessings were first bestowed
was to be counterbalanced by the fact that the
salvation of Israel could not be fully effected without the intervention of the
Gentiles. (M. Baumgarten
D. D.)
The value of first thoughts
All done in a moment
as it were! Such are the rapid
changes in lives which are intended to express some great meaning and purpose
of God. They are cast down
but not destroyed; persecuted
but not forsaken!
From the action of Pharaoh’s daughter we learn that first thoughts are
where
generous impulses are concerned
the only thoughts worth trusting. Sometimes we
reason that second thoughts are best; in a certain class of cases this
reasoning may be substantially correct
but
where the heart is moved to do
some noble and heroic thing
the first thought should be accepted as an
inspiration from God
and carried out without self-consultation or social fear.
Those who are accustomed to seek contribution or service for the cause of God
of course know well what it is to encounter the imprudent prudence which says
“I must think about it.” Where the work is good
don’t think about it; do it
and then think. When a person goes to a place of business
and turns an article
over and over
and looks at it with hesitation
and finally says
“I will call
again
” the master of the establishment says in his heart
“Never!” If
Pharaoh’s daughter had considered the subject
the probability is that Moses
would have been left on the Nile or under it; but she accepted her motherly
love as a Divine guide
and saved the life of the child. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The unconscious element in life
Pharaoh’s daughter little knew what she was doing. And do any of
us know what we are doing? Is there not something behind the very plainest
transaction which
after all
may be the shadow of the Divine hand? You throw a
penny to a poor child in the street; that penny may buy an orange to moisten
the lips of his poor mother
dying in an unknown garret. (J. Parker
D. D.)
God’s way of working
Israel’s deliverer is brought up on Pharaoh’s bread. This is God’s
method of executing His purposes. He restrains the wrath of man
and causes the
remainder to praise Him. He sets a watch upon His enemies. He puts His hook in
the jaws of leviathan. He suddenly violates the security of the wicked
and
shows kings that they reckon badly who reckon without Him. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Verse 9
Take this child away
and nurse it for me.
Care for children
I. To none is
God’s commendation vouchsafed more fully than to those who love children for
Christ’s sake. The presence of childhood represents and brings back our own.
Children confide in those around them with a sweet and simple faith. They obey
from affection
not fear. And so our Father in heaven would have His children trust
Him
casting all our care upon Him
for He careth for us.
II. Children teach
us reverence as well as faith. They listen with a solemn awe when we talk to
them of God. They tread softly
and speak with bated breath in His holy place.
III. Children teach us
to be kind
pitiful
and tender-hearted. They cannot bear to witness pain. They
do all they can to soothe. Have we these sorrowful sympathies?
IV. If the love of
Christ is in our hearts
it should constrain us to do our very best
thoughtfully
prayerfully
generously
to preserve in the children and to
restore in ourselves that which made them so precious in His sight
And makes
them so like Him now--like Him in their innocence
their sweet humility
their
love. (Dean Hole.)
The providence of God in relation to the young
I. As rescuing
them from the peril of unhappy circumstances.
1. Moses was rescued from murder--in the Egyptian palace he was safe.
2. Moses was rescued from slavery--in the Egyptian palace he was
free.
II. As ensuring an
education necessary to fit them for their future engagements.
1. As the son of Pharaoh’s daughter
Moses had the opportunity of a
good scholastic education.
2. As the son of Pharaoh’s daughter he would be prepared to undertake
the freedom of his nation.
III. As employing the
most unlikely agency. The tyrant’s daughter was the means of rescuing Moses
from peril
and of educating him for his future calling. Unlikely means--
1. Because her father had issued an edict for the death of all
Israelitish children.
2. Because it appeared unlikely that a royal daughter should wish to
adopt the son of an Israelite.
IV. As employing
the most efficient instrumentality.
1. The mother of the boy--who could better teach him the wrongs of
his country than she--that hundreds had suffered the fate he had managed to
escape--the slavery of his people the tyranny of the king. She instructed him
during the earliest days of his youth--her instruction would therefore be
enduring--hence he would go to the Egyptian court with a knowledge of his country’s
woe--and of his father’s God.
2. The daughter of the king.
V. As requiring
the utmost human effort possible.
1. His mother did the best for Moses that she could.
2. His mother was judicious in her conduct towards Moses.
VI. As perfectly
consistent with the free agency of individuals. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
The training of children
I. The first
qualification for the training of children is the love of children. The hard
heart in which the merriment of childhood kindles no sunshine and wakens no
music
is no more fit for the resting and growing place of an infant
than the
sands of the desert are fit for the planting of a vineyard or the sowing of a
wheatfield.
II. The second
grand essential to the right training of children
is to receive them as sacred
trusts from God to be nursed for him. Whence do we think the child comes to us?
What do we desire it to be
in its relation to ourselves
and to the world
and
to God? A mere doll
to be dressed for the gratification of our vanity? A mere
pet animal
to be fed and fondled for our amusement? A mere competitor in the
race of life
to struggle for a little while after its pleasures
honours
and
riches
and then pass away for ever? Or do we regard it as a being of unbounded
susceptibilities
and destined to eternity
which God has committed to us to
train for His glory and the enjoyment of Himself for ever? When this simple but
sublime thought
that a human soul has been committed to us to be trained for
God
has once possessed us
it will ally itself with our love for children
working itself out without effort
and almost without thought into our daily
conduct.
III. A third
essential to the right training of children is the requirement of un-answering
obedience. The best answer to a child’s
“Why must I do this
or abstain from
that?” is “Because your father or mother requires it.” If further explanations
are to be given
they should come after as a reward for obedience
and not
before
as its condition. The habit of unanswering obedience is easily
established
and when once fixed is permanent. And it should be further
remembered that this requirement of unanswering obedience is saturated and
sweetened through and through by the love of children. It is exalted and lifted
above the impulses of selfish petulance and passion
by a sense of the Divine
trust committed to us.
IV. Parents ought
diligently to cultivate and win the absolute confidence and affection of their
children. So
as years roll on
authority will broaden out into loving
companionship
and obedience become a delightful conformity to the wishes of
those who are dearer than themselves. Tempered and guided by the principles already announced
this plan will succeed. I do not say there will be no exceptional eases. There
is a mystery in the heredity of evil and in the working of iniquity which seems
at times to defy all general rules. Let parents understand this: that their
children may attain the highest ends of life without wealth
without social
distinction
and even without the higher forms of secular education; but they
cannot inherit the richest blessings of the family relation
without being
thoroughly in love with their father and mother
as the representatives and
appointed agents of God
who says
“Take this child and nurse it for Me
and I
will give thee thy wages.” (H. J. Van Dyke
D. D.)
The education of Moses
There from a mother’s lips he learned the story of the great
forefather Abraham
his call
and god’s covenant with him and his seed; the
meaning of the mark of circumcision in his flesh
and the duties to which it
bound him; the Divine unity and holiness; the worship and service that is the
Creator’s due; was made tenderly alive to the wrongs and sufferings of his
people; was taught patriotism and piety
and prepared to become in due time the
vindicator of Israel’s freedom and faith. (R. A. Hallam
D. D.)
The education of Moses
1. See how much in the making up of the leader of His chosen people
God makes of secular instruction--what ample provision God made for it in his
equipment for his arduous and difficult task. The Scriptures give no
countenance to ignorance. The world has knowledge to impart which the Church
may gladly accept. The Church is in many ways beholden to the world. Egypt was
largely a benefactor to Moses and to the Israelitish people. Nothing that Egypt
had imparted would be without its use in such a task. God did not despise it as
a means
but subsidized it
and brought all its resources and influences to
bear in making
for Himself the man who was to lift His Church from a tribe into a nation
from
slavery to independence. Though He could have communicated all these
qualifications to Moses by a direct gift
He did not
but chose to bestow them
upon him by means. To despise secular knowledge
and think that we are better
Christians for being destitute of worldly lore
is fanatacism
and not piety.
Civilization is the ally of religion and not its foe. Intelligence strengthens
godliness
and does not lower or injure it
2. Finally
see the value of early and specially of maternal influence
in its bearing on the religious character and life. What a power both of
impulsion and of resistance it had in the case of Moses! By this means Jochebed
against fearful odds was successful
more than a match for them. An obscure
woman
with no more than ordinary attainments
of a proscribed race
acting in
a capacity little better than menial
she was too much for all Egypt’s sages
and scholars
and priests
and nobles and rulers. There were two things that
gave her great advantage in the contest. She got the start of them. She worked
by the law of love. Before any Egyptian influence could reach the child
she
had possession of his ear and of his heart. What an encouragement is here to
all mothers
to all parents! How much greater things they may be labouring for
than they contemplate or foresee. (R. A. Hallam
D. D.)
Infancy of Moses
I. The duty
enjoined.
1. The object--“This child.”
2. The duty--“Nurse it.” This includes--
II. The reward
promised--“And I will pay thee thy wages.” You may be rewarded--
1. By seeing your efforts crowned with success.
2. You shall at any rate possess the consciousness of the Divine
favour.
3. You shall leave your children with composure when you come to die.
4. You shall stand before them with confidence in the judgment day.
God’s method of raising up souls for His service
I. God gives and
sends them as they are needed.
II. That they may
be fully trained and prepared for their work
they are “made like unto their
brethren.”
III. The very family
and people that sought to destroy israel are made instrumental in nourishing
and rearing the deliverer of israel and the avenger of his brethren’s wrongs.
Injustice and cruelty are made to avenge themselves in the end.
IV. In the raising
up of the man Moses we have a most instructive exemplification of the doctrine
and working of the Divine providence.
V. In Pharaoh’s
daughter
and the part she takes
we have the proof that human nature
the
human heart
is one; and that all classes of mankind
all nations
are destined
to become one in God’s great saving plan. (Pulpit Analyst.)
The power of a mother’s love
1. To control its impulse.
2. To school its utterance.
3. To make self-denial for the good of her child.
4. To enter into the method of Providence concerning the future of
her boy. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
A beautiful pattern of self-control
1. Not arising from indifference.
2. Not arising from hard-heartedness.
3. But arising from the calm indwelling of faith. (J. S. Exell
M.
A.)
This mother a model nurse
1. Because she taught her son to have sympathy with the slave.
2. Because she taught him to despise injustice (Exodus 2:12).
3. Because she taught him the folly of anger (Exodus 2:13).
4. Because she taught him to defend the weak (Exodus 2:17). (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
A mother the best nurse
1. Because she has truest sympathy with the circumstances of the
child’s life.
2. Because she is more truly concerned for the right development of
its moral character.
3. Because then she will have gladdening memories of its infancy and
childhood. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
Bringing up in the faith
“How can an outward action
or ceremony
like the baptism of
water
alter the inward state and affect the real course of life?” It can do it
just as the Egyptian princess
by one gesture of her arm and one command from
her lips
does in fact raise a new-born infant from the slave’s cabin to the
fellowship of monarchs. It is no miraculous or talismanic transformation. There
is no violent revolution of the secret forces or moral circulations of the
soul. But the child is set into new relations
and out of those new relations
flow
as naturally as the stream through a new channel cut in the hills
new
habitudes
new dispositions
a new life
a new heart
a new destiny. Observe
that there is nothing here which insures the child’s safety: nothing that precludes
the possibility of his falling back again
if he chooses
into bondage; nothing
that compels him to stay in his Lord’s house or in any way overrules his
liberty--the awful liberty to apostatize into guilt and perdition. Now we pass
on to another question. What will it be to nourish your child for Christ?
1. In the first place
it will be to keep in your own heart a
constant feeling of the charge laid upon you in the child’s spiritual nature.
The power of this feeling will be manifested not only in express words and
direct actions
but in countless and daily signs of your faith which the child
is sure to understand. The unconscious part of education
especially of the
education of the soul
is always
probably
the more important part
yet the
least considered. In other words
what we are tells more on a child
in the long run
than what we say. Every
father or mother is not only either for Christ or against Him in the house--but
they are perpetually
inevitably
helping to set out and enlist their offspring
for Him or against Him.
2. Again
those parents nourish the child for Christ
who
after they
have presented him in holy baptism
take care not to contradict the vow they
have there made by a systematic indoctrination of him into ideas and fashions
which Christ abhors. They do not come here to give him up by a ceremony to his
Maker
and then begin steadily to baptize him themselves into the bitter and
polluted spirit of this world.
3. Turn to a more positive and attractive aspect of your obligation.
You are to nourish your child into a familiar knowledge of his personal
membership in Christ and his sonship in Christ’s kingdom.
Two other things must accompany this work; the one as a help
the
other as a hope
but both of them powers
indispensable to your success.
1. The child is to be nourished with the habitual practice of
intercessory prayer. Whatever you may fail of in your knowledge
or your
earthly providing
or your power of religious influence otherwise
have hope in
your intercessions.
2. And therefore
finally
take this child away and nourish him for
Christ with the expectation of a blessing. That expectation is to be not only a
comfort to you on the way
but one of the spiritual forces with which you are
to prevail. This Lord
who has lent you the little one
not only loves the
importunities of His people; He delights in their largest confidences. (Bp.
F. D. Huntington.)
The children of the poor
the charge of the Church
I. First
let us
look at the class of children who are specially committed to our care and
concern. It seems a truth sufficiently obvious from analogy
that the strong
ought to take care of the weak
and the rich ought peculiarly to regard the
poor.
1. God especially regards the poor.
2. The souls of the poor are as valuable as the rich.
3. God has selected from among the poor many of the most eminent
characters both in the Church and in the world.
II. Now let us
glance at another point of the doctrine
and that is--the training we are to
give them. “Take this child
and nurse it for Me.” We are to nurse them and
train them for God. Here I would lay great emphasis. Education is an engine of
great moral power. It enlarges the mind; it ennobles the individual; it
furnishes him with a fund of enjoyment; it capacitates him for usefulness; it
directs his energies to proper objects. But let it be well and thoroughly
understood that if education be not founded on religious and on scriptural
principles
you put a weapon into the hand of an individual to do more evil--to
do it secretly and effectually. You render him a more expert agent to fight
against God and to oppose the reign of holiness.
III. But there is
another point which ought to be touched upon: and that is--the reward we may
expect. “I will give thee thy wages.” Not “apples of gold”; not “pictures of
silver”; not honours that shall adorn our brows
achieved by the victories of
the noble and the wiles of the great. Not literal “wages.” But still there is a
reward; good
and blessed and large. And what is this reward? Wages far higher
than money can bring. Is there no reward in doing good? No reward
that “when
the ear hears you
then it blesses you; and when the eye sees you
it bears
witness to you”? No reward
to see those dear children growing up to fill
important stations in life by your instrumentality? No reward
to reflect that
you have been turning many in your generation to serve God
and to serve their
generation? No reward
to think that you are acting out true patriotism
and
training children who shall serve their country and bless the age in which they
live? But especially
is there no reward
when the Master
whose glance is life
and “whose favour is better than life
” shall at the last day say
“Inasmuch as
ye have done it
” etc. (J. Sherman.)
The training of children for God
God speaks to every parent
teacher
pastor
with every
child He puts into their care.
I. So He speaks to
the parent with a definite and individual charge. He says not: “Take some
child
” but
This one take and train. There is no question here as to which out
of the many is to be the object of your care. How that definiteness enhances
the solemnity of the charge! It is the very charge you would have chosen
too.
The tie of nature is a stronger one than you can make with bands of gold or
fetters of brass
and when that tie receives the strengthening sanction of
God’s approval
it is the most enduring thing in all the world. God has
organized
and He sanctions
the family and its sweet bonds.
II. For in these
words of Pharaoh’s daughter
taken as the King’s own word to us
we find the
secret of the training of the child. “Nurse it for Me.” Not for yourself are
you to train this child entrusted to your care. It was not given for your
amusement or your service. Nor may you train them for themselves
as though the
world was made for them and all their business was to please themselves with
it. The only right and worthy object of our labours for the children
and it
should be an aim clearly before us
is to bring them up for God. We surely
cannot do it unless it be our definite purpose. Train it not for
but in
Christian faith and love and obedience
and teach it always to live to please
the Lord that bought us. The New Testament teaching is like the Old: based on
the same principles
uttered in similar form--“And ye fathers
provoke not your
children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord.”
III. And so we shall
receive the reward. “I will give thee thy wages.” It was the daughter of the
king who promised thus to Moses’ mother. It is the King Himself who gives His
word to us. He pays us for taking care not of our children
but of His. Here is
the worst mistake of all
if we do not recognize them as God’s children and we
as only nurses in His employ. The promise is as definite as the charge. “I will
pay thee.” It is the
faithful parent or the faithful teacher who wilt be rewarded. (G. M.
Boynton.)
Children to be educated for God
I. What is implied
in educating children for God.
1. A realizing
heartfelt conviction that they are His property
His
children
rather than ours; and that He commits them for a time to our care
merely for the purpose of education
as we place children under the care of
human instructors for the same purpose.
2. A cordial and solemn dedication or surrender of them to Him
to be
His for ever.
3. We must do all that we do for them from right motives.
4. If we would educate our children for God
we must educate them for
His service.
II. The reward
which He gives to those who perform this duty aright. This reward consists--
1. In the pleasure which attends every attempt to educate children
for God.
2. Another part of the reward which God bestows on those who educate
their children for Him
is the happiness which they enjoy when they see their
labours crowned with success. (E. Payson
D. D.)
On the Christian education of children
What are the wages of fidelity in the important work of the
Christian education of children?
1. In the first place
then
a part of the reward of fidelity in
religiously educating your children consists in the pleasure of the work. It is
an innocent
an interesting
and an honourable occupation.
2. There enters into the reward of religiously educating children
the pleasure which arises from doing good to society.
3. There is high honour in cooperating with God
and great happiness
in conforming to the intentions of His providence.
4. The good of his children is what every parent purposes to himself
as the object
perhaps
of his fondest desire
as the motive to all his
parental conduct. And herein is a large part of the wages of fidelity in
religiously educating them
that thereby their great good in this life will be
most effectually promoted. It is a perilous and unhappy world into which you
introduce them. And yet the misfortune is
that in education respect is more
generally had to its pleasures than its sorrows
to its honours than its
snares. The great question concerning your offspring is
where in it shall
wisdom be found
and where is the place of satisfaction? Look around you. See
in what path they shall be most likely to find peace. Examine the claims of
wealth
of honour
of rank
of power
of pleasure. Turn to religion. Institute
a comparison between her claims and theirs. Inquire which of them has most
efficacy to quell the passions
which are the parents of evil; to soothe the
sorrows
which are the offspring of our condition; to open sources of happiness
at which the weary spirit may always be refreshed; and to take the barbs from
the arrows of death? Such a comparison will assuredly produce a result in
favour of a Christian education.
5. The faithful parent has a recompense for his care in the religious
education of his children
in the greater security of his own happiness. It is
through the child that the heart of a parent is most vulnerable. The hour comes
when your children shall stand around you
and you will perceive that you are
leaving them without you in this evil world. What can mitigate this anguish of
death? What but to be able to say of them
when you cast on them your final
look
“I am going unto my Father
and their Father; and to my God
and their God.” They will
honour me in their lives when I shall be gone. The Almighty is their Friend and
He will protect them.
6. But not in this life is the reward of the faithful in any case
complete. By far the largest part of the “wages
” which God
in His mercy
has
promised to any of their good works
is reserved to be given them in the great
day of the final consummation. (Bp. Dehon.)
Permanence of early impressions
A farmer decided to remove an old beech-tree which grew on
his farm. The wood-cutter noticed on the bark of the tree some curious marks
looking like the letters J. L.
roughly cut
and below them some ornamental
design. After the tree had been cut down and was being separated into lengths
he was startled to find on the hard dry wood at the core of the tree
directly
opposite the place on the bark where he had noticed the marks
the clearly cut
letters J. L.
on a dark background
and below them an anchor. On inquiries
being made
it was found that the letters were the initials of a sailor named
John Leland
who
in aa idle hour
had cut them on the beech-tree when it was
young. There were thirty-seven rings between the letters and the bark of the
tree
and the woodsman said that each ring represented one year’s growth of the
tree. He inferred that the letters must have been cut in the year 1853
and his
belief was confirmed when he learned that it was in that year that the sailor
had spent some time in that neighbourhood. Thus the inscription had not only
remained in the place where it was cut at the first
but as each year added to
the growth of the tree
the letters still appeared on the surface
scarcely
legible there
it is true
but perfectly clear at the core. It is so with human
character. Many an old man
in spite of the rough usage of the world and the
scar of time and trouble
bears upon his walk and conversation the marks of the
handwriting which in his youth God put in his heart.
Care of children
A florist
who was so absorbed with his “cuttings” that he
did not hear until twice spoken to
apologized
saying
“I beg your pardon
but
you see one must put his whole mind on these young things
if he would have
them do well; and I cannot bear that one should die on my hands
for I should
almost feel as if I had murdered it.”
Verse 10
She called his name Moses
Moses trained in Egypt-a lesson in providence
The great lesson of this incident
as of so much before
is the
presence of God’s wonderful providence
working out its designs by all the play
of human motives.
In accordance with a law
often seen in His dealings
it was needful that the
deliverer should come from the heart of the system from which he was to set his
brethren free. The same principle which sent Saul of Tarsus to be trained at
the feet of Gamaliel
and made Luther a monk in the Augustinian convent at
Erfurt
planted Moses in Pharaoh’s palace and taught him the wisdom of Egypt
against which he was to contend. It was a strange irony of Providence which put
him so close to the throne which he was to shake. For his future work he needed
to be lifted above his people
and to be familiar with the Egyptian court as
well as with Egyptian learning. If he was to hate and to war against idolatry
and to rescue an unwilling people from it
he must know the rottenness of the
system
and must have lived close enough to it to know what went on behind the
scenes
and how foully it smelled when near. He would gain influence over his
countrymen by his connection with Pharaoh
whilst his very separation from them
would at once prevent his spirit from being broken by oppression
and would
give him a keener sympathy with his people than if he had himself been crushed
by oppression. His culture
heathen as it was
supplied the material on which
the Divine Spirit worked. God fashioned the vessel
and
then filled it.
Education is not the antagonist of inspiration. For the most part
the men whom
God has used for His highest service have been trained in all the wisdom of
their age. When it has been piled up into an altar
“then the fire of the Lord”
falls. Our story teaches us that God’s chosen instruments are immortal till
their work is done. No matter how forlorn may seem their outlook
how small the
probabilities in their favour
how opposite the gaol may seem the road He leads
them
He watches them. Around that frail ark
half lost among the reeds
is
cast the impregnable shield of His purpose. All things serve that will. The
current in the full river
the lie of the flags that stop it from being borne
down
the hour of the princess’s bath
the direction of her idle glance
the
cry of the child at the right moment
the impulse welling up in her heart
the
swift resolve
the innocent diplomacy of the sister
the shelter of the happy
mother’s breast
the safety of the palace--all these and a hundred more trivial
and unrelated things are spun into the strong cable wherewith God draws slowly
but surely His secret purpose into act. So ever His children are secure as long
as He has work for them; and His mighty plan strides on to its accomplishment
over all the barriers that men can raise. (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
Birth and training of Moses
I. The wonderful
clearness of bible portraits. Some of the pictures of the men whom the world
has united in calling masters are well-nigh indistinguishable. They are like an
old manuscript which you must study out word by word.
II. The superior
dignity and glory of the human life. Where now is the city Cain builded? What
about the civil movements of that far-off day? its political revolutions? Who
cares any thing about them? Learn from this
that it is human life fashioned by
the Divine Artificer
and in His own image
which is the noblest thing
altogether in this world.
III. The birth and
training of moses.
1. The time of the birth. Pharaoh’s Joseph had gone. His bones only
were now in Egypt--a poor part of any man. “Every son that is born of the
Hebrews ye shall cast into the river.” And so Moses was doomed before he was
born. “From his mother’s womb to the waters of the Nile
” ran the decree. And
Moses did go to the Nile
but in God’s way--not in Pharaoh’s--as we shall see.
2. The goodliness
the beauty of the child. An infant child. Is there
anything more beautiful? Look at its little hands. Can any sculptor match them?
Behold the light of its eyes. Does any flower of earth open up with such a
glory? Look upon the rose
the lily
the violet
as they first open their eyes
upon this world. Ah I there is no such light in any of them. A man is far
gone--a woman farther--when the child which comes to them--the immortal clasp
of their two hearts--is not beautiful in their sight. Earth has no honour so
great as the parentage of an immortal; heaven no higher dignity. But in Moses’
case beauty was to reach unto an end nobler than itself. It was to fill the
mother’s heart with a subtler strategy
with a bolder daring. It was to
fascinate the eyes of a princess. It was to work the deliverance of a mighty
nation. So beauty
when not abused
ever beyond itself reaches unto a nobler
end. And this beauty of the sunset
of the landscape and the flower
fruits in
the human life. It emphasizes purity
it lifts up towards God. Ah
mothers t be
not so anxious to keep your child from the looking-glass as to teach her that
she holds a noble gift from God in that face
in that form
of hers.
3. The exposed and endangered condition of the babe. For a while the
mother hid him; hid him from the eyes of Pharaoh and his minions. But the
powers that be have many eyes. “And when she could no longer hide him
she took
for him an ark of bulrushes
and daubed it with slime and with pitch
and put
the child therein
and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink.” Did ever
mother launch such a craft before? Ay
often. Every day they do it. Every day
every hour
some mother is committing her child to the currents of this world
than which the waters of the Nile were not more cruel. Think of harlotry
the
painted devil. Think of intemperance
the destroying fiend. Think of dishonour
the consuming fire. Are not these worse than all the crocodiles that ever
opened jaw in river of earth? And yet must they do it! Upon the angry surface
of this world’s danger must mothers launch their hopes; their only consolation
being--God is strong
and a Father to defend. I can imagine the mother of Moses
weaving her little ark of bulrushes. Love makes her hands to be full of skill
as ever shipbuilder’s were. So mothers now. The ark which they make is the
covenant with their God; its lining
tile world-resisting element of a mother’s
prayers; and then with eyes that cannot see for tears
and with heart-strings
breaking
they push forth their little craft--their heart’s hope--their world.
And now may God defend the boy
for the mother may not--cannot longer.
IV. The training of
Moses. Note the elements of this.
1. He had his mother. Sure I am
if Pharaoh’s daughter could have
glanced into that home just then
she would have thought that she had happened
upon a most excellent nurse. “Very affectionate
surely
” she would have said
“and I hope she has judgment.” Yes
princess; never fear. Your nurse has
excellent judgment
too. Her strange love will make her very wise. This was the
first element of Moses’ training. A human life
like any other life
needs
training. And for this work there is no one like the mother. Interest makes her
wise. Love makes her unwearying. Were the Israelites accustomed to point to
that “hated throne”? If so
all this story would filter through a mother’s
heart into the mind of the growing child. She would tell it him as he lay upon
her lap. She would sing it to him as she rocked him to sleep. Talk it to him as
he played about the house. The sympathetic instinct between mother and child
would be a syphon
through which
with every hour of the day
would flow the
story of Israel’s bitter wrong. And did the promise of the God of Abraham
of Isaac
and Jacob
linger in the darkened minds of their enslaved descendants
keeping hope alive
there
and the expectation of deliverance? If so
with this hope the mother
would feed the mind and fill the heart of her growing boy. With the word
freedom
she would daily stir his ambition.
2. His home in the palace of Pharaoh. “And the child grew
and she
brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter
and he became her son.” He was to break
the chains of slavery
not to be bound by them. Therefore he must be lifted up
to the greatness of his work. Two most necessary elements of preparation he
gained by going into the home of the Pharaoh. The first was knowledge. Moses
we read
was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. And this he got as the
adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Good impulses
a noble spirit
is not
enough. Knowledge is power
and necessary power
save when God works by
miracles. Therefore Moses was homed in the palace. He goes to study the throne
which he is yet to shake. Out of Pharaoh’s armoury he will gird himself for the
coming contest with Pharaoh. His residence at court would serve to impress him
with the immense power with which the Hebrews contended
and the heel of which
was upon their necks. And yet he must know this
or he will not be prepared for
his work.
3. The desert. “He that believeth shall not make haste.” So he that
worketh for God shall not make haste. These forty years had taught him
something. His first failure had taught him something. So had his desert life
in which he had been alone with God. Moses at eighty years of age
in his own
estimation
was not nearly so much of a man as at forty. So of all growing men
always. There are many now in the world
not yet out of their teens
who are a
deal wiser and mightier
and fitter to cope with error and wrong
than they
will be twenty years hence; that is
provided they keep on growing these twenty
years. But God has a school ready for such (that is
if they are worth the
schooling)
and one which they will not be long in entering. It is the school
of mistakes--of failure; the school in which many a man spells out this lesson
“What a big fool I was!” This was the training which God now gives to Moses. He
allows him
in the impulse of youth
to strike a blow
and then gives him forty
years in the desert t.o meditate upon its folly.
In conclusion
note some of the great lessons which our subject
teaches.
1. We learn how low
oftentimes
God permits the true cause to sink.
The world has often seen the lust stronghold of human rights defended by the
might of one solitary arm. So it was here. Yes
Israel’s hope floated in the
little ark of bulrushes among the flags upon the river’s brink. And yet
Israel’s cause was safe enough. With faith in God
we need never fear. Suppose
there is left but one human life for defence. God and such a one are always a
majority.
2. We learn the measureless importance of one single human life. God
often throws into the balance of the moral world a single life
to keep it
even. Think of this
ye teachers
and count no life committed to your care
common or unclean.
3. The grand work of man-building. This is what God
the Great
Architect.
is for ever engaged in. It is that which some--yes
all of us
are
called to do. Time itself
with all its centuries
is only one of many hands
engaged in this sublime work. Everything else in this world
all sorrow
all
joy
all wars
all peace
all slavery
all liberty
all learning
all art
is
only so much scaffolding. The slavery of the Hebrews; the cruel despotism of
Pharaoh; the mother’s love and the mother’s fear; the princess
the Nile; ay
even the bulrushes which grew by its brink--all these were used of God in
building up His servant
the man Moses. Up
up
upward unto God
rises the
immortal man. His are the glory and power of an endless life.
4. We learn how easy it is for God to fashion a human life to suit
His purpose. “To the Nile with it
” shouts Pharaoh from his throne. “To the
Nile
” responds the power of Egypt. “Yes
” says God
“to the Nile; but from it
too; from it
unto a home
unto the palace
unto the headship of a mighty nation
unto Sinai
unto Pisgah.” In the very palace of the Pharaohs
God nurses a life
for the overthrow of the Pharaohs. With such delightful facility does God model
and mould human life. (S. S. Mitchell
D. D.)
Moses
I. The child of
poverty. You and I will draw near and look upon this strange nest and nestling.
He was a foundling
that is
a child left by its parents and found by some
passer-by. His name means water-saved. I knew a foundling who was called Horace
Nelson
because he was found
one winter morning
on Glasgow Green near
Nelson’s monument. He was named from the monument
which was not harder than
his mother’s heart; and so Moses was named from the water out of which he was
drawn. Each seemed to be nobody’s child; and so the one was named as the child
of the water
and the other as the child of the monument. That slave’s child in
the ark seems the poorest of the poor. Left as a prey to flood and famine
to
crocodiles and vultures
was ever poor child in sadder plight? Yet his fame now
fills the world as the man of men next to the Messias
the Conqueror of
Pharaoh
the Leader of Israel
and the Giver of the Law to all mankind. At
Moses’ cradle learn never to scorn a poor child because he is poor. Often the
child of poverty has
like Moses
stood before kings
and proved himself
kinglier than they. Let not the poor be discouraged; let not the rich be proud.
But it is very sinful as well as very senseless to despise the poor. God never
does so. Before leaving it
take another look at Moses’ cradle. Ah
the baby’s
beauty makes us glad! ‘Tis the human face divine. He is “a goodly child”;
“exceeding fair”; he has an heavenly beauty. I have come to know hundreds of our
poorest children
and have often been struck with their beauty
which shone
through all their hardships. What fine powers of body and mind and heart many
of them have! What cleverness! what wit! what kindly feeling I In their
beautiful eyes you may notice the beamings of a promising soul. Indeed
I have
sometimes wondered whether God’s bounty had not endowed them so richly with
these better gifts in order to make up for the want of what money can buy.
Imitate Pharaoh’s daughter whom you bless and admire. Turn not proudly or
coldly away from the forsaken child.
II. The child of
providence. God’s providence is God’s forethought
or foresight; His kind care
over us in all things. I wish you would think about the wonders of providence.
Take an instance from your school books. This nineteenth century has been
shaped by the battle of Waterloo. And God did it all with a few drops of rain.
The rain on the night before the battle made the clayey soil slippery
so that
the French could not get their guns forward till the sun had dried the ground.
But for the rain
Napoleon would probably have won. God’s providence brings
about the greatest things by means of the smallest. The dangers around the
child Moses were very great. The Nile might drown him; the sun by day or the
moon by night might smite him; the crocodiles were around
and the vultures
above him; there seemed no hope for the darling boy. The dangers around the
most favoured children are perhaps as great
though not so easily seen. Believe
firmly
then
that God is on
earth as well as in heaven
and
that His hand is in small things no less than in great. And think
how much you owe to His fatherly providence. Your mother may have done all a
mother could
your Miriam may have watched over you
but it was God’s
providence that placed you in the ark of safety which has carried you on to
this good hour. And you should thank Him also for unseen and unknown
deliverances. The whole web of your life is woven with mercies.
III. The child of
grace. Grace saved him from his greatest dangers. Through the palace a dark
river ran
drowning men’s souls in perdition. Vices more deadly than the
crocodiles were rife around him. He found plagues in Pharaoh’s court more
frightful than any he afterwards sent into it. I imagine that no youth ever had
greater temptations than Moses (Hebrews 11:24). His character was formed
by that choice: his blessed life was a harvest from that one seed. The choice
you make between Christ and the world
makes you. Notice that Moses’ choice was
most reasonable
though to the Egyptians it seemed sheer madness. Moses’ was
also a joyous choice. Think not that he was the most wretched youth in Egypt
when he forsook Egypt’s gods. Ah
no. His choice would pain him in many ways;
but then he had the deep satisfaction of having done what was right. He had
better joys than the Egyptians dreamt of. And he must have made in his boyhood
this choice which he publicly confessed as soon as he came of age. Like him
choose Christ in youth
and declare your choice. You gather fresh flowers for
your friends; and will you offer Christ only an old withered flower
that has
lost all its beauty and perfume? (J. Wells.)
Child growth
Physically-mentally-morally.
1. Important to families--leaving home.
2. Interesting to strangers--princess.
3. Important to nations--Egypt. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
Child nomenclature
1. Perpetuating the memory of a cruel edict.
2. Perpetuating the memory of a loving mother.
3. Perpetuating the memory of a kindly providence.
4. Perpetuating the memory of a compassionate stranger.
Home life exchanged for palace life.
Adoption by royalty
Suppose that you were to see the child of a beggar in the streets
or the child of a criminal in prison
and it so happened that the emperor of
Russia or the queen of England were to see this little unfortunate creature and
exclaim
“I will adopt it as my own
” and were to have it taken to a palace
clad in rich dresses
fed at the royal table
brought up under the royal care
and even prepared for a throne. “Oh
” you would think
“what a change of life!
what happiness for this child!” And if it were an angel
or an archangel
or a
seraph that adopted it
in order to make it
if it were possible
an angel that
should never die; that would be a thousand times more glorious still. Think
now
what it is to become a child of God; and this is
nevertheless
what all
of us may become by faith in Jesus Christ. What wonderful glory! what
marvellous happiness! Thus St. John exclaims
“Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us
that we should be called the sons of God.” And it
is by faith that we become the children of God. “For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Prof. Gaussen.)
Moses’ education in Egypt
The adopted son of the daughter of an Egyptian king must have
been trained in all the wisdom of Egypt. This is also in harmony with the
tradition reported by Manethe
which makes Moses a priest of Heliopolis
and
therefore presupposes a priestly education. It was precisely this education in
the wisdom of the Egyptians
which was the ultimate design of God in all the
leadings of His providence
not only with reference to the boy
but
we might
say
to the whole of Israel. For it was in order to appropriate the wisdom and
culture of Egypt
and to take possession of them as a human basis for Divine
instruction and direction
that Jacob’s family left the land of their father’s
pilgrimage
and their descendants’ hope and promise. But the guidance and fate
of the whole of Israel were at this time concentrated in Moses. As Joseph’s
elevation to the post of grand vizier of Egypt placed him in a position to
provide for his father’s house in the time of famine
so was Moses fitted by
the Egyptian training received at Pharaoh’s court to become the leader and
law-giver of his people. (M. Baumgarten
D. D.)
Moses’ choice
There can be no doubt that the foster-son of the king’s daughter
the highly-gifted and well-educated youth
had the most brilliant course open
before him in the Egyptian state. Had he desired it
he would most likely have
been able to rise like Joseph to the highest honours. But affairs were very
different now
Moses could not enter on such a course as
this without
sacrificing his nation
his convictions
his hopes
his faith
and his
vocation. But that he neither would
nor durst
nor could. (J. H. Kurtz
D.
D.)
An incident expressed in a name
Admiral Bythesea
V.C.
C.B.
who has just retired after
having for many years been the Consulting Naval Officer to the Government of
India
was picked up as an infant far out at sea
lashed to a bale of goods. A
lady--presumably his mother--was with him
but she was dead
and there was no
evidence of any kind by which the name of the waif could be traced. The
officers of the man-of-war which picked up the poor little infant did all they
could to find out his relations
and
finding all their attempts futile
they
determined to adopt the child
to whom they gave the name of “By the
Sea.” He was sent to a naval school
and when old enough joined the navy.
By a happy coincidence the first ship in which he served was the one which had
saved his life as an infant. He took to his profession
and during the Crimean
war distinguished himself at the Island of Wardo
where he earned the Victoria
Cross and the decoration of C.B. Later on his services in India gave him the
Companionship of the order of the Indian Empire
and he now retiree from the
service with the rank of admiral--a consummation little dreamed of by the
kind-hearted officers who rescued and educated him.
Verse 11-12
He slew the Egyptian.
The oppressor slain; or a wrong way of reproving injury
I. There are many
instances of cruel oppression in the world.
1. There is oppression in the commercial life of men. The rich smite
the poor--the fortunate the unfortunate--the defrauder the honest tradesman.
2. There is oppression in the social life of men. The haughty frown
upon the humble.
3. There is oppression in the political life of men. There is the
oppression of an unjust
king--of a politic statesman--of an unruly crowd--of an unrighteous edict.
4. There is oppression in the Church life of men. The man of little
religion wishes to dictate to and perplex those who are more devout than himself.
II. It is the duty
of a good and patriotic man to oppose these manifestations of oppression.
1. Because he should have sympathy with the burdens of the oppressed.
2. Because he should recognize the brotherhood of men.
3. Because he should recognize the claim of nationality.
III. That a good man
must be careful as to the spirit and manner in which he resents oppression
or
he may be as cruel as those whom he reproves.
1. His conscience told him that he was doing wrong.
2. The spirit and manner in which the oppressor should be reproved.
Retributive justice
Look at retributive justice in man in three aspects.
I. As excited. “He
spied an Egyptian
” etc. It was always there
working no doubt silently
and in
many ways
but now it broke into flame. The moral outrage he witnessed roused
him
etc.
II. As restrained.
“He looked this way
” etc. The sight of a child will so frighten the nocturnal
desperado that it will paralyze his arms and drive him panic-struck from the
scene. Man keeps man in check. A wise and beneficent arrangement. It is a
power
however
that has its limits. It should never prevent us from doing
right.
III. As free. “When
he saw there was no man
he slew
” etc. Were the retributive instincts of human
nature left entirely unrestrained the earth would become a pandemonium. (Homilist.)
Lessons
1. Maturity of years and parts God appoints unto the instruments of
deliverance.
2. Providence orders objects to be seen to move instruments unto
their work.
3. Sight of pressures and injuries upon the Church must move helpers
to compassion.
4. Single injuries done to any member of the Church may occasion just
revenge. (G. Hughes
B. D.)
Strife
intervention
and flight of Moses
I. Strife.
1. Between the Egyptian and Hebrew. The Egyptian was smiting the
Hebrew. Whipping him to his work
or punishing him for doing less than his
allotted task. Cruel
tyrannical. The strong and protected
persecuted the weak
and defenceless.
Pride of power. Official meanness. Domineering spirit and conduct.
2. Between Hebrew and Hebrew. This is a worse feature of strife.
Fellow bondsmen increasing each other’s sufferings. Children of one
family.striving.
II. Intervention.
1. The person. Moses. Adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Learned.
Mighty in deeds and words. Honour
title
wealth before him.
2. His patriotic feelings. Did not abandon his nationality. “Not
ashamed to call them brethren.”
3. Slays the Egyptian. Unjustifiable conduct. “Vengeance is mine
I
will repay
saith the Lord.” Yet it was an heroic act
under the peculiar circumstances.
The first blow for freedom.
4. Concealment. Hides the body.
5. Second intervention. Not to kill
but to expostulate.
6. Repudiation of Moses by his brethren. Jesus was despised and
rejected
“came to His own
and His own received Him not.”
III. Flight of
Moses.
1. The reason. Pharaoh sought to slay him. Moses
dwelling in the
palace
would soon hear of this design. His friends--perhaps the princess if
living--would inform him.
2. The course of his flight. Over ground to be presently traversed by
the Israelites. A long and solitary journey. His thoughts by the way.
3. Incidents of the end. The well’s mouth. How many incidents have
occurred at the mouth of wells! The sheperdesses and the boors. Moses’ courage
and politeness. The Christian should be a true gentleman. The reward of
chivalry and politeness. Kind words and deeds easy. Defence of the weak a mark
of true nobleness. Moses a real nobleman. Christ mighty to save the weak; and willing.
learn--
1. The meanness of taking a base advantage.
2. The strong should be helpers of the weak.
3. Jesus
a prophet like unto Moses
raised up to be our peacemaker
and deliverer. (J. C. Gray.)
Moses’ sympathy with his brethren
Strong was the temptation that beset Moses. He had a fair
opportunity (as we say) to make his fortune
and to have been serviceable to
Israel too
with his interest at court
and yet he obtained a glorious victory
by faith. He esteemed it greater honour and advantage to be a son of Abraham
than an adopted child of the royal family. He had a tender concern for his poor
brethren in bondage
with whom (though he might easily have avoided it) he
chose to suffer affliction; he looked on their burdens as one that not only
pitied them
but was resolved to venture with them
and
if necessary
to
venture for them. We must not be satisfied with wishing well to
doing service
for
or speaking kindly on behalf of the people of God. We ought to be fully
identified with them
no matter how despised or reproached they may be. It is
in a measure
an agreeable thing to a benevolent and generous spirit to
patronize Christianity
but it is a wholly different thing to be identified
with Christians
or to suffer with Christ. A patron is one thing
a martyr is
quite another. This distinction is apparent throughout the entire book of God.
Obadiah took care of God’s witnesses
but Elijah was a witness for God. Darius
was so attached to Daniel that he lost a night’s rest on his account
but
Daniel spent that selfsame night in the lion’s den
as a witness for the truth
of God. Nicodemus ventured to speak a word for Christ
but a more matured
discipleship would have led him to identify himself with Christ. (A. Nevin
D. D.)
Brotherly sympathy
Prior to the return of Mr. Henson
the original of “Uncle Tom
” to
America in 1851
he was invited to a dinner party in the lordly mansion of one
of our city merchants; and when seated at a table covered with the most
tempting viands
and surrounded with every comfort and luxury which affluence
could provide
he was so overpowered with the remembrance of his former misery
and degradation that he rose from the table
feeling that he could not partake
of a single morsel of the sumptuous banquet. His generous host went after him
and asked whether he was taken unwell
or whether he would like some other kind
of dishes. “Oh no
” was the touching and pathetic response of this good old
man
“I am well enough; but
oh I how could I sit down to such a luxurious
feast as this when I think of my poor brother at this moment a wretched
miserable
outcast slave
with perhaps scarcely a crust of bread or a glass of water to
appease the cravings of nature?” (John Lobb.)
Blood thicker than water
Commodore Tatnall was in command of the United States squadron in
the East Indies
and
as a neutral
witnessed the desperate fight near Pekin
between the English and Chinese fleets. Seeing his old friend
Sir James Hope
hard pressed and in need of help
he manned his barge
and went through a
tremendous fire to the flag-ship. Offering his services
surprise was expressed
at his action. His reply was
“Blood is thicker than water.” (H. O. Mackey.)
Sympathy with burden bearers
Napoleon
at St. Helena
was once walking with a lady
when a man
came up with a load on his back. The lady kept her side of the path
and was
ready to assert her precedence of sex; but Napoleon gently waved her on one
side
saying
“Respect the burden
madam.” You constantly see men and women
behave to each other in a way which shows that they do not “respect the
burden
” whatever the burden is. Sometimes the burden is an actual visible
load; sometimes it is cold and raggedness; sometimes it is hunger; sometimes it
is grief
or illness. And how far
pray
are we to push the kind of chivalry
which “respects the burden”? As far as the love of God will go with us.
A great distance; it is a long way to the foot of the rainbow. (Good Words.)
Some people will never look on the burdens of their brethren
1. They pretend not to see them.
2. They have no sympathy with them.
3. They fear lest their purse
or energy should be taxed.
4. They miss the luxury of relieving them. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
The inquiring look of conscience
1. It was anxious.
2. It was suspicious.
3. It was troubled.
4. It was perplexed.
5. It was mistaken. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
The inquiring look of conscience
1. Gives a moment for reflection.
2. Indicates the moral evil of the deed.
3. Suspects an unhappy issue from the deed. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
Hidden sin
“He slew the Egyptian
and hid him in the sand.”
I. Hidden by
fallacy. “The Egyptian.” He was cruel--unjust; had I not a right to kill him?
Moses might reason thus to convince himself. A man must bury sin out of the
sight of his own conscience
before he can be happy--by false argument or true.
II. Hidden by
folly. “In the sand.”
1. Would leave traces of his deed.
2. The dead body would be easily discovered.
So all our efforts to bury sin are equally futile. God sees it. He
can lead men to its grave. Sin leaves traces. It is better not to be under the
necessity of making the soul into a grave
or any spot of life into a tomb. If
we do
there will sure to come a resurrection. A man who is going to commit
sin
requires to have all his wits about him. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
The upward look best
This action teaches a deep practical lesson to all the servants of
God. There are two things by which it is superinduced: namely
the fear of
man’s wrath
and the hope of man’s favour. The servant of the living God should
neither regard the one nor the ether. What avails the wrath or favour of a poor
mortal
to one who holds the Divine commission
and enjoys the Divine presence?
It is
in the judgment of such an one
less than the small dust of the balance.
Divine intelligence will ever lead us to look upward and onward. Whenever we
look around to shun a mortal’s frown or catch his smile
we may rest assured
there is something wrong; we are off the proper ground of Divine service. (C.
H. Mackintosh.)
The chivalry of Moses
This is one of the first recorded acts of the meekest of men! Do
not let us be hard upon him! The impulse was right. There must be men in
society who can strike
and who need to strike but once. Let it be understood
that this
after all
was but the lowest form of heroism--it was a boy’s
resentment--it was a youth’s untempered chivalry. One can imagine a boy reading
this story
and feeling himself called upon to strike everybody who is doing
something which displeases him. There is a raw heroism; an animal courage; a
rude
barbaric idea of righteousness. We applaud Moses
but it is his impulse
rather than his method which is approved. Every man should burn with
indignation when he sees oppression. In this instance it must be clearly
understood that the case was one of oppressive strength as against downtrodden
weakness. This was not a fight between one man and another; the Egyptian and
the Hebrew were not fairly pitted in battle: the Egyptian was smiting the
Hebrew--the Hebrew in all probability bending over his labour
doing the best
in his power
and yet suffering the lash of the tyrant. It was under such
circumstances as these that Moses struck in the cause of human justice. In this
fiery protest against wrong
in this blow of ungoverned temper against a hoary
and pitiless despotism
see somewhat of the tender sympathy that was in Jochebed
embodied in a form natural to the impetuosity of youth. Little did Moses know
what he did when he smote the nameless Egyptian. In smiting that one man
in
reality he struck Pharaoh himself
and every succeeding tyrant! (J.
Parker
D. D.)
Moses’ rash haste
We may not shut our eyes to the fact that but for his lack of
selfrestraint Moses might have become an earlier benefactor to the people whom
he desired to liberate. He was running before he had been sent; and he
discovered by the result that neither was he as yet competent to be the leader
of the people
nor were the people ready to rise at his call. There is a long
distance often between the formation of a purpose and the right opportunity for
its execution; and we should not always regard promptitude as wise. The
providential indicators of duty are the call within us
and the willingness of
those whom we would benefit
to receive our blessing; and if either of these is
absent
we should pause. Above all
we should not allow the passion of a moment
to throw us off our guard and lead us into sin
for we may be sure that in the end
it will only retard our enterprise and remove us from the sphere of our
activities. The ripening of a purpose is not always the mark of the presence of
an opportunity. “Raw-haste” is always “half-sister to delay”; and wrong-doing
can never help forward
directly at least (however God may afterward overrule
it)
a good cause. (W. M. Taylor
D. D.)
The prince and the serfs
Many years ago
there was a little boy named Alexander. He was the
son of Nicholas
Emperor of Russia
in whose empire there were many millions of
poor people
called serfs. These were kept in a state much resembling slavery
and were sold with the lands on which they lived. Many of them were poor and
wretched; some few were prosperous and wealthy; but all were under the control
of the lords on whose territories they dwelt. One day
Nicholas noticed that
little Alexander looked very sad and thoughtful
and asked him of what he was
thinking. “Of the poor serfs
” replied the little boy; “and
when I become
emperor
I will emancipate them.” This reply startled the emperor and his
courtiers; for they were very much opposed to all such plans for improvement of
the condition of the poor. They asked little Alexander how he came to think of
doing this
and what led him to feel so interested for the serfs. He replied
“From reading the Scriptures
and
hearing them enforced
which teach that all men are brothers.”
The emperor said very little to his boy on the subject
and it was hoped that
the influences and opinions which prevailed in the royal court would gradually
correct the boyish notions of the young prince; but this expectation was vain.
The early impressions of the little boy grew deeper and stronger; and when at last
the great Nicholas died
and Alexander was placed upon his father’s throne
he
called the wise statesmen of the land to his councils
and a plan of
emancipation was formed; and the imperial decree went forth
which abolished serfdom throughout
all the Russian empire. It is in this way that God works wonders by the power
of His Word. The great fact
that God has “made of one blood all nations of men
for to dwell on all the face of the earth
” lodged like an incorruptible seed
in the heart of the young prince
and growing with his growth
and
strengthening with his strength
at last budded and blossomed
and brought
forth the fruit or blessing for millions of the human race.
Verse 13-14
Two men of the Hebrews strove together.
Moses’ championship of the right
In the first instance we might have thought that in taking part
with the Hebrew against the Egyptian
Moses was but yielding to a clannish
feeling. It was race against race
not right against wrong. In the second
instance
however
that conclusion is shown to be incorrect. We now come to a
strife between two Hebrews
both of whom were suffering under the same galling
bondage. How did the youthful Moses deport himself under such circumstances?
Did he take part with the strong against the weak? Did he even take part with
the weak against the strong? Distinctly the case was not one determined by the
mere disparity of the combatants. To the mind of Moses the question was
altogether a moral one. When he spoke
he addressed the man who did the wrong;
that man might have been either the weaker or the stronger. The one question
with Moses turned upon injustice and dishonourableness. Do we not here once
more see traces of his mother’s training? yet we thought that the home life of
Moses was a life unrecorded! Read the mother in the boy; discover the home
training in the public life. Men’s behaviour is but the outcome of the nurture
they have received at home. Moses did not say
You are both Hebrews
and
therefore you may fight out your own quarrel: nor did he say
The controversies
of other men are nothing to me; they who began the quarrel must end it. Moses
saw that the conditions of life had a moral basis; in every quarrel as between
right and wrong he had a share
because every honourable-minded man is a
trustee of social justice and common fair play. We have nothing to do with the
petty quarrels which fret society
but we certainly have to do with every
controversy
social
imperial
or international
which violates human right
and impairs the claims of Divine honour. We must all fight for the right: we
feel safer by so much as we know that there are amongst us men who will not be
silent in the presence of wrong
and will lift up a testimony in the name of
righteousness
though there be none to cheer them with one word of
encouragement. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The Hebrew quarrel
1. Multiplied their enemies.
2. Weakened Israel.
3. Banished Moses.
Divisions defeat the Church. Moses
as--
1. A judge dooming his enemies.
2. A peacemaker among his countrymen. (Dr. Fowler.)
Lessons
1. Daily and successive is the care of God’s saving instruments to
His oppressed Church.
2. God’s faithful instruments leave courtly pleasures to visit God’s
afflicted frequently.
3. In visiting for good the oppressed Church
sad contentions may
appear among the members.
4. It is an observable evil by overseers
to see Church members
striving together.
5. Duels in the Church and among its members are sad things to
record.
6. Men called of God must interpose and curb the injurious and
offending parties.
7. Smiting of neighbours and brethren is a sin sharply reprovable in
the Church (verse 13).
8. Injurious and offending parties are apt to recoil against rulers upon
reproof.
9. Wickedness makes men question any authority of God
that would
suppress them.
10. Sin will not endure to be suppressed by power; but will rage
against it.
11. It is the artifice of malefactors to recriminate powers for escaping themselves.
12. Zealous avengers of God’s oppressed may be terrified sometimes
with the criminations of the wicked. (G. Hughes
B. D.)
A good man’s interference with a quarrel
I. It is the duty
of good men to try to subdue any quarrels they may be called to witness.
1. Because they recognize the common grief of men. The suffering of
humanity an argument for friendliness.
2. Because they recognize the claim arising from the brotherhood of
men.
3. Because they ought to be superior to the passion of strife.
II. In this endeavour
good men should make moral considerations the basis of their appeal to the
quarrelsome.
1. Not favouritism.
2. Not greater physical strength. Christianity must aid weakness when
associated with rectitude.
3. Not hope of
reward. A satisfied conscience is brighter and more enduring than gold.
III. Good men
in
trying to subdue the quarrels of others
often get little thanks
and may
involve themselves in trouble. “Who made thee
” etc.
1. They imagined that Moses assumed unrightful authority.
2. They reminded Moses of
and taunted him with
past sin. It
requires a blameless life to rebuke evil.
3. The heroic interference of Moses lacked moral continuity. His own
sin made him a coward.
4. Moses incurred the hatred of Pharaoh. Through endeavouring to stay
this quarrel
he lost position and comfort; but it was the means of putting him
on the track of Divinely-imposed duty
which would win him world-wide renown. (J.
S. Exell
M. A.)
Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow
?:--Apply this question--
1. To the domestic circle.
2. To society at large.
3. To the Church. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
Some find reason for their conduct
1. In revenge.
2. In impulse.
3. Necessity. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
Discouragement
The best friends of the Church often meet with the most discouragement.
1. Their authority is rejected.
2. They are not understood.
3. Their safety is endangered.
4. The welfare of the Church is imperilled. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
The good man must not be turned aside from duty by circumstances
1. Moses was not offended by this treatment.
2. He did not give up in despair.
3. He worked out the training of his boyhood.
4. He worked out the providence of God.
5. He worked out the dictates of his conscience. (J. S. Exell
M.
A.)
Discord and strife
In the ringing of bells
whilst every one keeps his due time and
order
what a sweet and harmonious sound they make! All the neighbouring
villages are cheered with the sound of them; but when once they jar and check
each other
either jangling together or striking preposterously
how harsh and
unpleasing is that noise. So that as we testify our public rejoicings by an
orderly and well-timed peal
when we would signify the town is on fire
we ring
the bells back.ward in a confused manner. It is just thus in the Church. When
every one knows his station
authority
and keeps his due rank
there is
melodious concert of comfort and contentment; but when either states or persons
will be clashing with each other
the discord is grievous and prejudicial. (J.
Hall.)
Results of physical degradation
The Israelites had sunk into brute insensibility under oppression.
It is a remarkable fact we cannot too earnestly reflect on
always and
everywhere true
that extreme physical degradation dulls the intellect
and
destroys moral sensibility. Some persons complain
that the very poorest
classes of the community
who live in underground cellars and upper garrets
are unthankful. But it is because we are undutiful. Physical degradation has a most
pernicious effect upon the moral
spiritual
and intellectual feelings of
mankind. It brutalizes and barbarizes. I believe that our missions
with all
their value--our city missionaries and our Scripture readers
doing a most
noble work--are here vastly obstructed in their work. I believe a great
physical and social amelioration in poor men’s homes must be made
before a
substantial moral and spiritual one begins in their hearts. We must raise the
masses above the level of the brutes
before we can raise them to the level of
Christians. You must make them men
before you can make them
by the grace of
God
Christians. (J. Gumming
D. D.)
Verse 15
He sat down by a well
The meditations of a perplexed soul
I.
They
occurred at an important crisis in the life of Moses. “But Moses fled from the
face of Pharaoh.”
1. Moses had vacated a good home.
2. Moses had incurred the anger of Pharaoh.
II. They afford an
opportunity for determining on a new course of life
III. They are soon
interrupted by a call to new activities (Exodus 2:17).
IV. They were
indulged in a very favourable place. The well in olden time
a fine scene for
rest and contemplation. Christ
when He was tired
sat on a well. His rest was
broken by the advent of a woman
whom He ultimately led to Himself in
contrition of heart. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
Moses’ flight
1. Criminations of God’s servants are soon carried to the ears of
persecutors.
2. Persecutor’s ears are open to receive all reports against God’s
people.
3. Fame of any evil against God’s servants stirs up violent men to
pursue them.
4. The death of God’s instruments for His Church’s good is the aim of
bloody enemies.
5. God provides Midian to save what Egypt would destroy.
6. God is pleased to change court enjoyments for a poor well
to
refresh His weary saints (Exodus 2:15). (G. Hughes
B. D.)
Verses 16-22
Moses was content to dwell with the man.
The reward of a kindly action
I. The hospitality
of a kind family (Exodus 2:20).
1. This hospitality was much needed by Moses.
2. This hospitality was prompted by parental inquiry. A good and
considerate father often turns his home into a sanctuary for the servants of
God. By welcoming an heroic stranger to it
he may bring himself into harmony
with great histories
and sublime providences.
II. Employment for
every-day life. When a young man is thus welcomed by a kind family he must
expect to share their work
as also their food. The study of Moses in Egypt had
not raised him above hard
work.
III. A wife (Exodus 2:21). A man who will defend a
woman is worthy of a wife. The greatest and most important events of our lives
depend upon little deeds of kindness.
IV. Another advance
in the intention of Divine providence. Moses has finished his education of the
palace. He now commences that of the desert. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
Moses in Midian
1. We see here
first
activity presented to us as an indispensable
and effective element in education. This is the great lesson taught by Moses in
Midian. Head knowledge Moses had obtained in Egypt; hand work he was to
practise in Midian. He was already learned in all Egypt’s wisdom; he was now to
be a participant in all Midian’s labour. The latter was needful to give the
former robustness
practical force
and substantial usefulness. In Egypt he was
a student
in Midian a worker; and in the combination of the two he became a man of
wonderful heroism
and high executive power. Egypt could not do this for him.
It could instruct him
it could polish him; it did. Remaining in Egypt he might
have been a man of elegant leisure;or with his literary resources
have lived
among books
and become
perhaps
puffed up with knowledge
or bewildered with
speculation. Idle learning is apt to come to that. In Midian his business was
to do
to turn his knowledge into skill
make it practical. We need knowledge;
we cannot have too much of it
if it be genuine. But we must ground action upon it. We are to be
workers
doers in some line of useful activity
if we would fulfil the end of
our being. Neither the ignorant worker nor the indolent scholar is the man for
this world
but the intelligent and instructed doer
whose brains prompt his
hands
and whose hands second his brains.
2. Again
Moses in Midian is to us a pattern of a wise conformity. He
did not stand aloof from the people among whom he lived in a proud
superciliousness or an offensive singularity; nor did he waste his time in an
idle regretting of the past
and an uncomfortable repining at the unpleasant
change of his condition. He made the best of the state into which God’s
providence had called him
and so was neither odious nor unhappy in it. Our
Lord was much of a conformist in His time
and the Pharisees called Him a
“friend of publicans and sinners.” He was their friend
but not in the
Pharisees’ sense. And what He practised He recommended. He said to His
disciples
“When ye enter into a house
salute it
” “and in the same house
abide
eating such things as they set before you.” So
too
the great apostle
St. Paul
tells us that he “was made all things unto all men
” and says
“To
the Jews I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews; to them that are without
law as without law
that I
might gain them that are without law.” This is worldly wisdom
and it is
religious wisdom too. We are not to rebel against our circumstances
not to
dwell upon lost good.
3. Finally
we see in Moses in Midian the example of a wise patience.
Forty years elapsed during which his great undertaking was in abeyance
and
gave no signs of an approaching resumption. He knew that “to everything there
is a season
and a time to every purpose under heaven
” and that “it is not for
us to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in His own
power.” He had nothing to do but to wait
and he did wait
and uncomplainingly.
How different is this from the course of many reformers
patriots
philanthropists
of whom
like some of old
it may well be said
“I have not sent
them
yet they ran: I have not spoken unto them
yet they prophesied”; whose
haste outruns the dilatory motion of the chariot of God
and whose eagerness
chides God’s delay by devices of their own
’ and headstrong enterprises and
efforts
on which God has never promised His blessing
nor have they asked it.
Good things we have purposed
good things we have hoped for
do not come as
rapidly as our impetuous wishes are fain to anticipate. “Tarry thou the Lord’s
leisure; be strong
and He shall comfort thine heart; and put thou thy trust in
the Lord.” (R. A. Hallam
D. D.)
Discipline needed after faith
“But
” you will say
“when once the right choice has been made
and the decisive step is taken
there was surely no necessity at least for
painful disappointment.” Say not so; for surely it was just in this way that
the character of Moses was refined. It is quite possible that
at the first
a
man may be a true believer
and remain
alas! weak
vain
proud
arrogant. Such
was the case with Moses when you see him summoned to avenge the wrongs of
Israel. He has firm faith in God and in His promises; his feelings and
affections are no longer bound to Egypt; and there can be little doubt
or
none
concerning his sincerity: but he is sadly wanting in humility. Moses is
conscious of a special destiny for something great
but thinks he is the man
that can the least be spared in any case. His is a merely carnal zeal to save
his fellow-Israelites
as is quite evident from tim great failure that befell
his first attempt; for his heart
a prey to his own folly
is the sport and
plaything
now of pride and arrogance
and now of fear and cowardice. He will
he can
he shall do just as he thinks right; but God is not yet willing. God
shall certainly perform His will through Moses
but not; through a Moses such
as this. The darling of the whole Egyptian world still stands too high; he must descend
a step or two before he can be used to serve Him who hates lofty looks
be they
of friends or foes. Moses has made great progress in Egyptian wisdom; but he is
as yet quite unaware that
in the wisdom of the Holy Ghost
while he is
nothing
God is everything. Although his heart is right
his will is not
sufficiently subdued; he still counts far too much both on his own strength and
the gratitude of men; his old man yet must needs be slain
as he slew the
Egyptian. Therefore the Lord Himself assails him now
and seems in this quite
as unmerciful as he had been to the oppressor of his brethren. In the first
Israelite to whom he showed himself as a deliverer
he must be made to see
as
in a glass
the nation’s meanness and ingratitude
that he may learn to do all
for the sake of God
but nothing for the sake of man; and that he never may
presume to say
“My hand hath led out Israel.” Moses’ first action lets us see
what he shall afterwards be able for
when God’s grace shall have wholly filled
and purified his manly soul; just as the husbandman perceives
in the strong
crop of weeds
the promise of good harvest
when the ground shall have been
cleared of tares
and sown with wheat. But harrowing and ploughing
that break
down the hardest clods
--such are the operations specially attended to by Him
who is the heavenly Husbandman
when
in His wisdom
He proposes to lay out a
field that is particularly fine; and disappointment to our dearest and
legitimate
perhaps
indeed
our most praiseworthy plans
forms the deep furrow
drawn across us
that the heavenly seed may afterwards be sown. Christians I do
not forget that God is constantly employing such a means for cleansing these
our hearts from that impurity which brings Him so much pain
and us so much
disgrace. Have you formed fine ideals of the good that you will do for the
promotion of your neighbour’s happiness? It shall not be
says God; you still
rely too much on your own strength
expecting far too little from the Lord
who
must do all. Have you been sketching out a golden future for yourself? God
blows on your designs some time or other
right before your eyes
that
with a
broken but a humble heart
you may exclaim
“I know
O Lord
that the way of
man is not in himself!” Have you been really so foolish as
unthinking
to rely
on human love and gratitude? God
in some rude and startling way
opens your
eyes
that
fleeing in your terror from the falling idol
you may fall down at
the feet of the
true God--nay
sink into your heavenly Father’s arms! (J. J. Van Oosterzee
D. D.)
A large family
1. Of sacred station.
2. Of womanly influence.
3. Of industrious activity. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
Domestic toil
1. The employment of true womanhood.
2. The test of true womanhood.
3. The glory of true womanhood. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
Two classes of men are typified by the conduct of these shepherds
and Moses
The former--
1. Oppose the honest.
2. Persecute the industrious.
3. Hinder the diligent.
The latter--
1. Co-operate with the weak.
2. Sympathize with the persecuted.
3. Defend the imperilled.
4. Win the victory.
5. Receive hospitality. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
Why is it that ye have left the man?
This question may be asked in reference to the world’s
philanthropists
preachers
who are striving to defend the weak.
1. Is it because you do not understand him?
2. Is it because you do not believe in him?
3. Is it because you are selfish?
4. Is it because you have not been taught better?
5. Fetch him to your home as soon as possible (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
A contented resident
1. A wondrous sight--accustomed to a palace.
2. A happy sight--pastoral toil.
3. A scarce sight--men are restless.
He was content--
1. With his daily companionships.
2. With his daily occupation.
3. With the scene of his residence.
4. With his matrimonial alliance. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
A pilgrim life the best for preachers
1. Good for their health.
2. Good for their moral training.
3. Good for their moral usefulness.
4. Good for the enlargement of their social friendships. (J. S.
Exell
M. A.)
A friend of the oppressed commended
A young lad came from school late
and with a flushed countenance.
His mother inquired into the cause. A number of thoughtless and wicked boys
were teasing a child of a helpless widow
in order to provoke those bursts of
imbecile passion for which she was remarkable. Contrary to expectation
the
widow remained unmoved
merely hastening her footsteps and those of her little daughter.
This led the boys to increase their efforts
till they inflicted positive
injury on the child. John
the lad alluded to above
remonstrated
and finally
fought one of the boys in defence of the widow’s child. He went home with the
widow
and received her thanks. He then set out for home
but was doubtful how
his conduct would be viewed by his mother. She had taught him to avoid all
broils. He stated the case to her
and received her warm commendation for his
sympathy with the oppressed
and his bravery in their defence. That
commendation made him for life the generous and fearless friend and defender of
the oppressed. (Wesleyan S. S. Magazine.)
An extended visit
The Countess of Huntingdon once told Mr. Topldy
the author of
“Rock of Ages
” that when she visited Dr. Watts on one occaision he thus
accosted her: “Madam
your ladyship is come to see me on a very memorable day.”
“Why so remarkable”? she asked. “This day thirty years
” he replied
“I came
hither to the house of my good friend Sir Thomas Abney
intending to spend but
one single week under his friendly roof; and I have extended my visit to the
length of exactly thirty years.” “Sir
” added Lady Abney
“what you have termed
a long thirty years’ visit
I consider as the shortest my family ever received.”
Alone with God
Nothing can possibly make up for the lack of secret communion with
God
or the training and discipline of His school. “All the wisdom of the
Egyptians” would not have qualified Moses for his future path. He might have
taken out his degree in the school of man
and yet have to learn his alphabet
in the school of God. Mere human wisdom and learning
how valuable soever in
themselves
can never constitute any one a servant of God
nor equip him for
any department of Divine service. Such things may qualify unrenewed nature to
figure before the world; but the man whom God will use most must be endowed
with widely-different qualifications--such qualifications as can alone be found
in the deep and hallowed retirement of the Lord’s presence. All God’s servants
have been made to know and experience the truth of these statements. Moses at
Horeb
Elijah at Cherith
Ezekiel at Chebar
Paul in Arabia
and John at
Patmos
are all striking examples of the immense practical importance of being
alone with God. And when we look at the Divine Servant
we find that the time
He spent in private was nearly ten times as long as that which He spent in
public. He
though perfect in understanding and in will
spent nearly thirty
years in the obscurity of a carpenter’s house at Nazareth
ere He made His
appearance in public. And
even when he had entered upon His public career
how
oft did He retreat from the gaze of men
to enjoy the sweet and sacred
retirement of the Divine presence! Now we may feel disposed to ask
how could
the urgent demand for workmen ever be met
if all need such protracted
training
in secret
ere they come forth to their work? This is the Master’s
care--not ours. He can provide the workmen
and He can train them also. That is
not man’s work. God alone can provide and prepare a true minister. Nor is it a
question with Him as to the length of time needful for the education of such an
one. We know how He could educate him in a moment
if it were His will to do
so. One thing is
evident
namely
that God has had all His servants very much alone with
Himself
both before and after their entrance upon their public work; nor will
any one ever get on without this. The absence of secret training and discipline
will
necessarily
leave us barren
superficial
and theoretic. (C. H.
Mackintosh.)
Solitary discipline
There was much in the solitude of his shepherd life that would
stimulate him to devout meditation. Here amidst “the sleep that is among the lovely hills
” he
communed with himself
with nature
and with God; facing for himself those
“obstinate questionings” which continually arise when one seeks to fathom the
mysteries of being. A very different university was this from that at which he
studied among the worshippers of the sun at Heliopolis; yet more helpful to him
even than the education which he had received in Egypt
would be his musings
upon the mountain sides
as he rose from the thunder-riven peaks to Him who
before the mountains were brought forth is
from everlasting to everlasting
God.
Like the Scottish boy
who in the intervals of his shepherd life mapped out for
himself with beads the distances of the stars
and designated himself “God
Almighty’s scholar
” Moses was now under the special tuition of the Lord. His
books were the silent stars and giant hills; the shrubs that grew at his feet
and the flocks that went on beside him
browsing on the grass; and often and
often would he pore lovingly over the pages of man’s first Bible--Nature. But
most frequently
perhaps
he would look within and try to read himself; and
after awhile there was to come to him the vision which would open to him as a
scroll “the marvel of the everlasting will.” (William M. Taylor
D. D.)
A new training school
The flight of Moses from Egypt introduced him into a new training
school. At Pharaoh’s court he had learned much that was required to fit him for
his vocation
as the deliverer and leader of Israel
as the mediator of the
ancient covenant and founder of the theocracy
and also as a prophet and
lawgiver. But his education there had been of a very partial character. He had
learned to rule
but not to serve
and the latter was as necessary
if not more
so than the former. He possessed the fiery zeal of youth
but not the
circumspection
the patience
or the firmness of age. A consciousness of his
vocation had been aroused within him when in Egypt; but it was mixed with
selfishness
pride
and ambition
with headstrong zeal
but yet with a
pusillanimity which was soon daunted. He did not understand the art of being
still and enduring
of waiting and listening for the direction of God
an art so
indispensable for all who labour in the kingdom of God. In the school of
Egyptian wisdom his mind had been enriched with all the treasures of man’s
wisdom
but his heart was still the rebellious unbelieving heart of the natural
man
and therefore but little adapted for the reception of Divine wisdom
and
by no means fitted for performing the works of God. And even the habit of
sifting and selecting
of pondering and testing
acquired by a man of learning
and experience
must certainly have been far from securing anything like the
mature wisdom and steadfastness demanded by his vocation. All this he had yet
to acquire. Persecution and affliction
want and exile
nature and solitude
were now to be his tutors
and complete his education
before he entered upon
the duties of his Divine vocation. (J. H. Kurtz
D. D.)
Moses’ domestic life in Midian
The house of the Midianitish priest was
doubtless
a
severe but salutary school of humiliation and affliction
of want and
self-denial
to the spoiled foster-son of the king’s daughter. We can
understand this
if we merely picture to ourselves the contrast between the
luxury of the court and the toil connected with a shepherd’s life in the
desert. But we have good ground for supposing that his present situation was
trying and humiliating in other respects also. His marriage does not seem to
have been a happy one
and his position in the house of his father-in-law was
apparently somewhat subordinate and servile. (J. H. Kurtz
D. D.)
Zipporah-character of Zipporah
Zipporah is represented as a querulous
self-willed
and passionate woman
who sets her own will in opposition to that of her
husband
who will not trouble herself about his religious convictions
and
even when his life is evidently in danger
does not conceal the reluctance with
which she agrees to submit
in order to save him. We might be astonished to
find that a man of so much force of character as Moses possessed
could ever suffer
this female government. But the circumstances in which he was placed
sufficiently explain them. He had arrived there poor and helpless
as a man who
was flying from pursuit. A fortunate combination of circumstances led to his
receiving the Emir’s daughter as his wife. It is true he could not pay the
usual dowry. But the remarkable antecedents of his life
his superior mental
endowments
his manly beauty
and other things
may have been regarded at first
by his chosen bride and her relations as an adequate compensation for its
omission. But if the character of Zipporah were such as we may conclude it to
have been from Exodus 4:24 sqq.
we can very well
imagine that she soon began to despise all these
and made her husband feel
that he was only eating the bread of charity in her father’s house. Nor does he
seem to have been admitted to any very intimate terms with his father-in-law;
at least we might be led to this conclusion by the reserve with which he
communicated to Jethro his intended departure
and the little confidence which
he displayed (Exodus 4:18). Thus he was
and continued
to be
a foreigner among the Midianites; kept in the background and
misunderstood
even by those who were related to him by the closest ties. And
if this was his condition
the sorrows arising from his exile
and his homeless
and forlorn condition
must have been doubly
yea trebly severe. Under circumstances such as
these
his attachment to his people
and his longing to rejoin them
instead of
cooling
would grow stronger and stronger. There is something very expressive
in this respect in the names which he gave to the sons who were born to him during his
exile (Exodus 4:22; Exodus 18:3-4). They enable us to look
deeply into the state of his mind at that time
for (as so frequently happened)
he incorporated in them the strongest feelings and desires of his heart. (J.
H. Kurtz
D. D.)
Sighed by reason of the bondage.
The bondage of the Israelites
The Israelites were to be a witnessing nation--a nation in which
the worship of the true
God was to be maintained
while other nations were sunk in idolatry; and the
revelation which God gave of Himself preserved
while all the worm was sunk in
grossest darkness; and the humane principles of the Divine law
not only
taught
but practised
in a world where injustice and violence and cruelty were
rampant. And it requires no very acute or penetrating discernment to perceive
how their experience under the Egyptian bondage was likely to conduce to the
fulfilment of their mission.
I. It was an
illustration to them of the treatment which the church might expect from the
world
fitted to promote in them the isolation which it was necessary they
should maintain. Egypt was the world in its best state. They saw in her an
illustration of what the intellect and muscle of man may accomplish when his
heart is alienated from God. She was a learned and powerful nation
great in
war and advanced in art. The Israelites were thus brought in contact with the
world in its best and most attractive form
and thereby taught
by bitter
experience
what treatment they might expect from the world
and what relation
to it it behoved them to sustain.
II. In another way
their bondage experience would tend to the same result
by promoting that
mutual sympathy which is the necessary bond of national life. Great troubles
and great deliverances shared in common have the effect of fusing into one body
those who before were only an aggregate of individuals without any uniting tie.
III. But there was
yet another end to be served by their bondage--the teaching and practice of the
humane principles of the divine law
in the face of the oppression and violence
and cruelty which were then prevalent throughout the world. (W. Landels
D.
D.)
The king dying
the people suffering
God reigning
I. The king dying.
1. He was despotic in his rule. Unmoved by human suffering.
2. He was vindictive in his temper.
3. He was altogether out of sympathy with the providential
arrangements of God. And now he dies. The despot meets with the conqueror. He
must appear before the God whose authority he has tried to dethrone. The
folly--woe--eternal ruin of sin.
II. The people
suffering.
1. Their suffering was tyrannic. Freedom lost. Spirit broken.
2. Their suffering was intense. “Sighed.”
3. Their suffering was long continued.
4. Their suffering appealed to the Infinite.
Suffering should link our souls to God. It should be an
inspiration to prayer.
III. God reigning.
1. God reigns
though kings die. Wisdom of trusting only in the
Infinite.
2. God reigns
though men suffer. Realize the Divine Rulership.
3. God reigns in harmony with His covenant made with the good.
The Divine will is not capricious
but benevolent in design
and
continuous in operation. Let every nation and family have a covenant with God.
Lessons:
1. Do not despond in times of affliction.
2. Afflictions are designed to bring us into harmony with the requirements
of God’s covenant for our good.
3. It is the purpose of God to work the freedom and welfare of men. (J.
S. Exell
M. A.)
Lessons
1. Oppressors may die
and yet persecution not die with them.
2. Cries to heaven are often extorted from God’s persecuted children.
3. If men want freedom
they cannot do better than direct their
attention to God. (J. S. Exell
M. A.)
Death indiscriminating
Death is so dim-sighted and so blundering-footed that he staggers
across Axminster tapestry as though it were a bare floor
and sees no
difference between the fluttering rags of a tatterdemalion and a conqueror’s
gonfalon. Side by side we must all come down. No first class
second class
or
third class in death or the grave. Death goes into the house at Gad’s Hill
and
he says
“I want that novelist.” Death goes into Windsor Castle
and he says
“I want Victoria’s consort.” Death goes into Ford’s Theatre
at Washington
and
says
“I want that President.” Death goes on the Zulu battle-field
and says
“I want that French Prince Imperial.” Death goes into the marble palace at
Madrid
and says
“Give me Queen Mercedes.” Death goes into the almshouse
and
says
“Give me that pauper.” Death comes to the Tay Bridge
and says
“Discharge into my cold bosom all those passengers.” Alike! Alike! By
embalmment
by sculptured sarcophagus
by pyramidal grandeur
by epitaphal
commemoration
by mere intoxicated “wake” or grander cathedral dirge
we may
seem to give a caste to the dead
but it is soon over. I took out my
memorandum.book and lead-pencil in Westminster Abbey a few weeks ago
and I
copied a verse that it would interest you to hear:--
“‘Think
how many royal bones
Sleep
within these heaps of stones;
Here
they lie--had realms and lands--
Who
now want strength to stir their hands.”
(T. De Witt Talmage.)
God heard.
The bitter cry of Israel heard
I. Salvation
begins with a sigh. Until a sinner is weary of sin
it is of no use to bring
the tidings of redemption to him.
II. God hears the
groanings of poor sinners. Psalms 18:6; Psalms 34:6; Psalms 77:1; Joel 2:32; John 6:37.
III. He sees our
afflictions and knows our sorrows.
IV. He remembers
his covenant. (G. F. Pentecost
D. D.)
God remembered
remembers
At last they remembered God and His promises. They thought
of their ingratitude towards Him and towards Moses
and they began to sigh
after God. This was what God was waiting for in order to show them mercy. He
was waiting for their humiliation
their return to Him
their aversion to
Egypt
their fervent prayers. It is to this frame of mind that God wishes to
bring His children when He corrects them
and leaves them for a time in the
hands of the wicked. You will find immediately afterwards
in the following
verses
four expressions
which describe the goodness of God towards this
unhappy people. “God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with
Abraham
with Isaac
and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel
and God had respect unto them.” Remark that the name of God is repeated four
times in these verses
as if to express with greater force the free grace and
sovereignty of His merciful dealings with the Israelites. It was not because of
their merits that He had pity upon them
any more than it is because of ours
that He sends His gospel to us who have broken His law
neglected Him
and
insulted Him by our ingratitude. But to us He calls
and says
“Come unto Me
that ye may have eternal life.” (Prof. Gaussen.)
God hears the cry of His suffering children
My little boy has three calls. He opens the study door and calls
“Papa.” I pay no attention to him because I know it is merely to attract
notice. Again he comes throwing the study door open
and running in
he calls
“Papa
look here
I have something to show you.” I know by his call that
he is really in earnest
and I turn to share in his joy. He has still another
call; when he is in the garden he may meet with an accident; in a quick and
distressed voice he calls
“Papa.” I know by the call that my child is in
trouble
and I am out of the house in an instant
and by my boy’s side
doing
what I can to help him. In like manner God deals with us. We sometimes call to
Him
scarcely meaning anything by our call
and never looking for or expecting
a reply. Then
again
we wish to call the Lord’s attention to some unexpected
joy or pleasure which we have received. He listens to us because He delights to
share in all that concerns us. But
dear friends
how quickly the Lord will
come to the call of one in distress! He knows all the different calls of His
children
and specially those in trouble
for has He not promised
“Call upon
Me in the day of trouble
and I will deliver thee.” (D. L. Moody.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》