6 Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid g Gen. 28. 13. ver. 15. ch. 4. 5. Matt. 22, 32. Mark 12. 26. Luke 20. 37. Acts 7. 32. 6. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father. That is, of each one of thy fathers, even Abraham, and Isaac, &c. The term here is usually understood of Moses' immediate father, Amram, but it is with more probability to be considered as a collective singular, equivalent to 'fathers.' Accordingly it is rendered in Stephen's version of this event, Acts 7, 32, I am the God of thy fathers! A like sense, we presume, is to be given to the expression, Ex. 15. 2, 'He is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I ́will exalt him ;' i. e. the God of my ancestors in general. We suppose the true import of the passage before us would be better expressed by the rendering; I am the God of thy fathers, (even) the God of Abraham, &c.' This is obviously confirmed by v. 15 of this chapter. While the Most High repressed presumption in Moses, and enjoined reverence, he encouraged him by reassuring him of that relation into which he had entered with the nation of Israel in the persons of their fathers. This declaration was made in order to assure Moses that even in the present oppressed state of his nation in Egypt, he had not forgotten them, or his relation to them as a God in covenant. This would be an unspeakable consolation to Moses, to find himself addressed by that God of whose appearances and promises to his fathers he had often heard, and to know that his heart was as kindly affected to him as it ever had been to his venerated ancestors. How comforting beyond measure to the Christian, in his more favored moments, to be assured that the God of all the good who have ever lived is his God, and equally pledged by his his face; for h he was afraid to look upon God. 7 And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my peoh So 1 Kings 19. 13. Isai. 6. 1, 5. Neh. 9. 9. Ps. 106. 44. Acts 7. 34. covenant faithfulness, to show to him the same loving kindness that he showed to them!- -T Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Or rather perhaps, parenthetically, according to the Heb. accents, And Moses hid his face (because he was afraid) from looking upon God.' A more literal rendering of the last words (33 el haelohim) is to or towards God, or towards the Elohim, as the article is prefixed, which is not the common usage. It would seem that the term 'Elohim' here is intended to signify simply that which was visible, the outward symbol representing the essential Godhead,' which no man hath seen nor can see.' The Chal. has correctly, 'He feared to look towards the Glory of God;' i. e. towards the overpowering brightness of the Shekinah, in which God manifested his presence. The effect described is what might have been anticipated. A consciously sinful creature may well fear and tremble when God comes to visit him, even though on a purpose of mercy. It is ignorance of God, not intimate communion with him, that begets an unhallowed familiarity. The angels, who know him best and adore him most profoundly, are most sensible of the infinite distance between him and them, and are therefore represented as 'covering their faces with their wings' when standing in his awful presence. 7. I have surely seen the affliction, &c. Heb.raoh raithi, seeing I have seen, i. e. have intently considered. Arab. 'Have regarded.' Thus Ps. 106. 44, Nevertheless he regarded their affliction when he heard their cry.' Heb. He saw (7) their affliction.' ¶ By reason of their task-masters. ple which are in Egypt, and i have heard their cry k by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows: ich. 2. 23, 24. ch. 1. 11. 1 Gen. 18. 21. ch. 2. 25. Heb. 1 nogesauv, his task-masters; the whole people spoken of as one man, according to common usage. The original for task-masters, though of equivalent import, is not the same word with that so rendered, ch. 1. 11, but properly signifies exacters, translated in Job, 39. 7, driver, and in Zech. 9. 8, oppressor. The Gr. has coyodikrai, workmasters, and the Chal. Those who cause them to serve. I know their sorrows. Heb. makobauv, his sorrows, collect. sing. as before. For the import of' know,' see Note on Ex. 1. 8. Hos. 13. 5, presents a parallel phraseology, 'I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought;' i. e. I compassionately knew thee; I knew thee so as to succor thee. 8. Iam come down to deliver them. Heb. lehatzilo, to deliver him, collect. sing. In strict propriety of speech neither ascent nor descent can be predicated of the Omnipresent Being, but in adaptation to our modes of conceiving of the divine acts, God is said to' come down' when he puts forth in the sight of men such striking exhibitions of his power, either for grace or judgment, as shall constitute an indubitable token of his special presence. It may be remarked, moreover, that whenever the Most High is said, in the sacred volume, to 'descend,' some signal event of his providence is uniformly represented as following. Thus, when he is said to have resolved to 'go down' and see the sins of Sodom, the fearful overthrow of their city quickly ensued; when he 'came down' to thwart the building of Babel, the confusion of tongues followed, as it were, upon his footsteps; and when, in the narrative before us, he announces his purpose of descending in behalf of 8 And m I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land, unto a good land, m Gen 11. 5, 7. & 18. 21. & 50. 24. n ch. 6. 6, 8. & 12. 51, o Deut. 1. 25. & 8. 7, 8, 9. his people, their miraculous deliverance, with deserved vengeance upon Egypt, is the memorable result.-T Unto a good land and a large. Not indeed a land very large in itself, but large in comparison with their territory in Goshen, and of sufficient extent to contain with ease all the population of that race which was destined to inherit it. ¶ Unto a land flowing with milk and honey. An abundance of milk and honey indicates a country rich in pasturage and flowers, of which the one is evinced by the teeming udders of the flocks and herds, and the other by large quantities of wild or cultivated honey. That this description held literally good of the land of promise, there is the most unquestionable evidence, not only from the declarations of Scripture, Deut. 8. 8. 32. 13. Judg. 14. 8. 1 Sam. 14. 25, 26. Ps. 81. 17, but even from what we know in modern times of the soil, climate, and productions of Palestine. But if this should be thought too rigid an interpretation of the words, 'milk' may be understood to denote all kinds of necessary food, and 'honey,' whatever is peculiarly agreeable to the palate, so that this expression, so often applied to the land of Canaan, may be simply intended to characterise a very fruitful and pleasant country, abounding in all the products necessary to the subsistence of life, and rich in the dainties which minister to the gratification of the taste. See the emphatic commendation of the soil, productions, &c. of the promised land, Deut. 8. 7—9. The same proverbial expression of plenty is familiar to the classic writers. Thus Euripides, Bac. v. 142, The field flows with milk, with wine, and with the nectar of bees.' The enemies of reve 6 and a large, unto a land pflowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perrizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. P ver. 17. ch. 13. 5. & 33. 3. Numb. 13. 27. Deut. 26. 9, 15. Jer. 11. 5. & 32. 22. Ezek. 20 6. 4 Gen. 15. 18. 9 Now therefore, behold, r the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. S 10 t Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharach, that rch. 2. 23. s ch. 1. 11, 13, 14 22. t Ps. 105. 26. Micah. 6. 4. convey any adequate idea of its surprising produce: it is truly the Eden of the East, rejoicing in the abundance of its wealth. The effect of this upon the people was strikingly portrayed in every countenance. Under a wise and beneficent government, the produce of the Holy Land would exceed all calculation. Its perennial harvests; the salubrity of its air; its limpid springs; its rivers, lakes, and matchless plains; its hills and valleys; all these, added to the serenity of the climate, prove this land to be indeed a field which the Lord hath blessed: God hath given it of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine!'- -Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, &c. All singular in the original, Canaanite, Hittite, &c., and so in innumerable other instances. lation have drawn arguments from the present neglected state of some parts of Palestine, to invalidate the statements of the sacred historians, who represent it as one of the most delightful spots upon the face of the earth. In this, however, they have not only utterly failed, but by drawing the attention of modern travellers on the subject, have unwittingly contributed towards the illustration and confirmation of the sacred records. The land has, indeed, suffered under the blighting dominion of the Saracens, Turks, and Egyptians; agriculture has been neglected; and an air of desolation has crept over its once luxuriant hills and dales, but the traces of its original fertility and beauty are far from being wholly obliterated. We may infer, from the following passages from the pens of eminent travellers, what Palestine was in a state of prosperity. We left the road,' says D'Arvieux, 'to avoid the Arabs, whom it is always disagreeable to meet with, and reached by a side path the summit of a mountain, where we found a beautiful plain. It must be confessed, that if we could live secure in this country, it would be the most agreeable residence in the world, partly on account of the pleasing diversity of mountains and valleys, partly on account of the salubrious air which we breathe there, and which is at all times filled with balsamic odors from the wild flowers of these valleys, and from the aromatic herbs on the hills.' Dr. E. D. Clarke, speaking of the appearance of the country 10. Come now therefore, &c. Heb. between Sychem and Jerusalem, says, ve-attah lekah, and now go. 'A sight of this territory alone, can The secret impulse under which Moses 9. Now therefore behold the cry, &c. The Most High repeats this declaration from v. 7, in order to give stronger assurance to Moses that he will be with him and not suffer him to go upon a fruitless embassy. His truth, his justice, his mercy were all concerned in the liberation of his people. Such cruelties as they had suffered at the hands of the Egyptians would have awaked his vindictive providence in behalf of any people, and armed it against their oppressors. How much more when the sufferers were his own chosen people, whom he had taken under his special covenant care, whom he had sworn to protect, to befriend, to bless. thou mayest bring forth my peo-u Who am I, that I should go unto ple, the children of Israel, out of Pharaoh, and that I should bring Egypt. forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? 11 ¶ And Moses said unto God, 6 u See ch. 6 12. 1 Sam. 18. 18. Isai. 6.5.8. Jer. 1. 6. had formerly acted, in his incipient essays towards the deliverance of his people, ch. 2. 11, now becomes an open call and a full commission; and he whom the Israelites, Acts, 7. 35, refused saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.' The divine Speaker here passes from promises and assurances to commands. Moses is now required to address himself to the work which God had destined him to perform. He dealt kindly with his servant in thus strength-grown in humility and a diffidence of ening and animating him with these precious hopes of success. Nothing could have been laid to his charge had he waved all such preliminary encouragements, and sternly bid him go forward without any intimations as to the result of his mission. But our merciful God deals more graciously with human infirmity. He excites a more prompt and cheerful obedience by assuring his serv ants of a happy issue to all the work in which they engage for him. He thus leaves our perverse and selfish and refractory hearts utterly without excuse, if we decline his service. years before, in the ardor of comparative youth, he had made such an attempt, and failed. He shrinks back therefore from it now. But we are not to suppose that it was altogether from the recollection of the past that he declined the present service. He was in many respects a different man now from what he was then. He had long been leading a retired, quiet, and contemplative life, and had gained a deeper knowledge of God and of himself. He had greater experience of the dispositions and motives of men, and had 11. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, &c. Calling to mind the lively interest which Moses had formerly evinced in behalf of his people, and the ready zeal with which he had entered upon the redress of their wrongs, we should no doubt at first suppose that his inmost heart would have responded to the divine call, and that he would have discovered an almost eager promptitude to enter upon so congenial a service. But no; he is appalled by the appointment. He cannot believe himself equal to it, or worthy of it. Forty his own powers. He could better estimate the magnitude and difficulty of the work. He could better understand the weight of opposition which would arise from a powerful king and a mighty nation; and he might also well expect to have again to encounter fear or unwillingness in his own people. Now also he would feel that he could have no protection or favor from Pharaoh's daughter, and obscure as he was in Midian, he looked upon himself as altogether insufficient and incompetent for so great an undertaking. That his backwardness was excusable no one will affirm, yet it is probably no more than justice to Moses to say, that his reply did not flow from a positively disobedient spirit, like that which prompted Jonah to flee from the presence of the Lord, but from a profoundly humble sense of his own unworthiness and incompetence for such an arduous trust. From a similar consciousness, Isaiah shrunk from the duty to which he was called of being the Lord's messenger, saying, 'I am a man of unclean lips; and Jeremiah was led to exclaim, Ah, Lord God! behold I cannot speak; 12 And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a x Gen. 31. 3. Deut. 31. 23. Josh. 1.5. Rom. 8. 31. token unto thee, that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. confidence out of himself, when in the deep sense of our own impotence we count it enough that he is with us and for us. This shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee. Heb. for I am a child.' Paul also was actuated by the same feeling when he anxiously enquired, 'Who is sufficient for these things? A due degree of distrust in ourselves is no doubt always proper, but we should not forget, that as there zeh leka haoth, this shall be to is a sinful pride which urges men to seek stations and employments to which they have no just pretensions, so there is a sinful humility which shrinks from the call of God, and which under the guise of self denial, or the affectation of under-valuing and debasing our own persons and qualities, indirectly charges God with foolishness in choosing instruments unsuited to his work. Let us ever aim then to observe a happy medium between self-complacency and self-disparagement. As it is God's prerogative to send by whom he will send, so he will never fail to qualify his emissaries for the errand on which he dispatches them. His commission is sufficient to empower the weakest man for the most arduous service. 12. And he said, Certainly I will be with thee. Chal. 'My Word shall be for thy help.' It no doubt for the most part holds true, that those who are in reality the best fitted for the peculiar work of God are usually prone to esteem themselves the least so; yet the promised presence of Jehovah is sufficient to silence every plea which would prevent the humble-minded from going forward in any prescribed deliverance, reformation, or change in the church or the world. No other than this simple consideration is afforded in order to remove the misgivings of Moses. It was of no consequence who he was, or what he could do, as long as Omnipotence led the way before him. We render the highest honor to God when relying on his proffered aid, we seek no ground of VOL. I 5 thee a sign. These words are understood by most of the Rabbinical commentators to refer to the supernatural appearance which Moses was now called to witness in the burning bush. According to this mode of interpretation there is a two-fold assurance conveyed to him in the two several clauses of this verse; first, that God would be with him, and protect him in his embassy to Pharaoh. Of this fact he might regard the spectacle before him as a sign or token; for as he saw the burning bush subservient to the divine pleasure without being consumed, so he might be confident of being enabled to execute the commission assigned to him without personal harm. Secondly, that when this was accomplished, when he had delivered his message to Pharaoh, and brought out the people from Egypt, then both he and all the host of Israel should serve God, by oblations of sacrifice and praise, upon that very mountain where he now stood. The mass of modern interpreters, however, understand the token here spoken of, to refer, not to the vision of the divine glory in the burning bush, but to the actual future result of the mission now devolved upon Moses: the sign promised was no other than the event itself, which was predicted; q. d. Go now and try, and you shall find, by the event, that I have sent you.' Of these interpretations the former is more agreeable to the He. brew accents, which indicate a marked distinction between the former and the latter clauses of the verse; and it seems |