The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus

Books linked by conjunction "And:" Scripture history a connected whole, 1.--So is secular history organic: "Philosophy of history." The Pentateuch being a still closer unity, Ex...

Importance of the individual, 26.--A man _versus_ "the Time-spirit," 27.--The parents of Moses, 28.--Their family: their goodly child, 29.--Emotion helps faith, 30.--The ark in...

Death of Raamses. Misery continues, 43.--The cry of the oppressed, 44.--Discipline of Moses, 45.--How a crisis comes, 46.--God hitherto unmentioned. The Angel of the Lord, 47.--...

Scripture is impartial: Josephus, 70.--Hindrance from his own people. The rod, 71.--The serpent: the leprosy, 72.--"I am not eloquent," 73.--God with us. Aaron the Levite, 74.--...

Moses at court again. Formidable, 89.--Power of convictions but also of tyranny and pride. Menephtah: his story, 90.--Was the Pharaoh drowned? The demand of Jehovah, 91.--The re...

The word Jehovah known before: its consolations now, 99.--The new truth is often implicit in the old, 100.--Discernment more needed than revelation. "Judgments," 101.--My people...

The assertion offends many, 112.--Was he a free agent? When hardened. A.V. incorrect, 113.--He resists five plagues spontaneously. The last five are penal, 114.--Not "hardened"...

Expostulation not mockery, 146-7.--God is wronged by slavery, 147.--Civil liberty is indebted to religion. "Plagues upon thine heart," 148.--A mis-rendering: why he was not crus...

Moses encouraged, 154.--Deliverances should be remembered. A sterner rebuke. Locusts in Egypt, 155.--Their effect. The court interferes. Yet "their hearts hardened" also, 156--I...

Birthday of a nation. The calendar, 171.--"The congregation." The feast is social, 172.--The nation is based upon the family. No Egyptian house escapes, 173.--National interdepe...

A song remembered in heaven. Its structure, 216-17.--The women join. Instruments. Dances, 218. God the Deliverer, not Moses. "My salvation," 219.--Gratitude. Anthropomorphism. "...

_We_ too fear, although Divinely guarded, 232.--They would fain die satiated, 233.--Relief tries them as want does, 234.--The Sabbath. A rebuke, 235.--Moses is zealous. His "mee...

A greater strain. What if Israel had stood it? 249.--They murmured against Moses. The position of Aaron. An exaggerated outcry, 250.--Witnesses to the miracle. The rock in Horeb...

Gentiles in new aspect. Church may learn from secular wisdom, 259.--Little is said of Zipporah: Jethro's pleasure, 260.--A Gentile priest recognised. Religious festivity, 261.--...

Sinai and Pentecost. The place. Ras Sufsâfeh. God speaks in nature, 270.--Moses is stopped; the people must pledge themselves. Dedication services, 271.--An appeal to gratitude,...

What the law did. It could not justify. It reveals obligation, 280.--It convicts, not enables. It is an organic whole. And a challenge, 281.--The Spirit enables: love is fulfilm...

The Hebrew slave. The seventh year. Year of jubilee. His family, 340.--The ear pierced. St. Paul's "marks of the Lord." Assaults, 341.--The Gentile slave, 342. The female slave,...

Abuses have recoiled against religion, 349.--Sorcerers are impostors, but they existed, and do still, 350.--Moses could not leave them to enlightened opinion. Propagated apostac...

An enemy's cattle. A false report, 359.--Influence of multitude: the world and the Church, 360-1.--Favour not the poor, 361-2.--Other precepts. "A kid in his mother's milk," 362.

The code is accepted, written, ratified with blood, 368.--Exclusion and admittance. The elders see God: Moses goes farther. Theophanies of other creeds, 369.--How could they see...

The God of Sinai will inhabit a tent. His other tabernacles, 376-7.--The furniture is typical. Altar of incense postponed, 377.--The ark enshrines His law and its sanctions, 377...

"Temple" an ambiguous word, 390.--"Curtains of the Tabernacle," 391.--Other coverings, 392.--The boards and sockets, 392-3.--The bars. The tent, 393.--Position of veil, 394, and...

Why consecrate at all? 410.--Moses officiates. The offerings, 411.--Ablution, robing, anointing, 412-13.--The sin-offering, 413-14. "Without the camp," 414. The burnt-offering,...

Many books of the Old Testament begin with the conjunction And. This fact, it has been often pointed out, is a silent indication of truth, that each author was not recording cer...

We have said that the Old Testament history teems with political wisdom, lessons of permanent instruction for mankind, on the level of this life, yet godly, as all true lessons...

The interference of Moses on behalf of the daughters of the priest of Midian is a pleasant trait, courteous, and expressive of a refined nature. With this remark, and reflecting...

"In process of time the king of Egypt died," probably the great Raamses, no other of whose dynasty had a reign which extended over the indicated period of time. If so, he had wh...

than the dread of His abode. Nevertheless Moses also was afraid to look upon God, and hid the face which was thereafter to be veiled, for a nobler reason, when it was itself ill...

Holy Scripture is impartial, even towards its heroes. The sin of David is recorded, and the failure of Peter. And so is the reluctance of Moses to accept his commission, even af...

After forty years of obscurity and silence, Moses re-enters the magnificent halls where he had formerly turned his back upon so great a place. The rod of a shepherd is in his ha...

We have seen that the name Jehovah expresses not a philosophic meditation, but the most bracing and reassuring truth--viz., that an immutable and independent Being sustains His...

When Moses received his commission, at the bush, words were spoken which are now repeated with more emphasis, and which have to be considered carefully. For probably no statemen...

"Be strong, yea, be strong" (Dan. x. 19). In these passages the phrase is identical with that which describes the process by which Pharaoh was prevented from cowering under the...

Although Pharaoh had warning of the first plague, no appeal was made to him to avert it by submission. But before the plague of frogs he was distinctly commanded, "Let My people...

Our Lord when on earth came not to destroy men's lives. And yet it was necessary, for our highest instruction, that we should not think of Him as revealing a Divinity wholly dev...

The Lord would not command His servant again to enter the dangerous presence of the sullen prince, without a reason which would sustain his faith: "For I have made heavy his hea...

The eleventh chapter is, strictly speaking, a supplement to the tenth: the first verses speak, as if in parenthesis, of a revelation made before the ninth plague, but held over...

We have now reached the birthday of the great Hebrew nation, and with it the first national institution, the feast of passover, which is also the first sacrifice of directly Div...

Much that was said in the twelfth chapter is repeated in the thirteenth. And this repetition is clearly due to a formal rehearsal, made when all "their hosts" had mustered in Su...

It would seem that the Israelites recoiled before a frontier fortress of Egypt at Khetam (Etham). This is probable, whatever theory of the route of the Exodus one may adopt; and...

During this halt they prepared that great song of triumph which St. John heard sung by them who had been victorious over the beast, standing by the sea of glass, having the harp...

The Israelites were now led farther away from all the associations of their accustomed life. From the waters and the palms of Elim they marched deeper into the savage recesses o...

The people, miraculously fed, are therefore called to exhibit more confidence in God than hitherto, because much is required of him to whom much is given. They have now to plung...

The defeat of Amalek is followed by the visit of Jethro; the opposite pole of the relation between Israel and the nations, the coming of the Gentiles to his brightness. And alre...

In the third month from the Exodus, and on the selfsame day (which addition fixes the date precisely), the people reached the wilderness of Sinai. This answers fairly to the dat...

We have now reached that great event, one of the most momentous in all history, the giving of the Ten Commandments. And it is necessary to consider what was the meaning of this...

It is no vain repetition that this code begins by reasserting the supremacy of the one God. That principle underlies all the law, and must be carried into every part of it. And...

The first words of God from Sinai had declared that He was Jehovah Who brought them out of slavery. And in this remarkable code, the first person whose rights are dealt with is...

The vital and quickening principle in this section is the stress it lays upon man's responsibility for negligence, and the indirect consequences of his deed. All sin is selfish,...

The Fourth section of this law within the law consists of enactments, curiously disconnected, many of them without a penalty, varying greatly in importance, but all of a moral n...

The twenty-third chapter begins with a series of commands bearing upon the course of justice; but among these there is interjected very curiously a command to bring back the str...

This summary of Judaism being now complete, the people have to learn what mighty issues are at stake upon their obedience. And the transition is very striking from the simplest...

The opening words of this chapter ("Come up unto the Lord") imply, without explicitly asserting, that Moses was first sent down to convey to Israel the laws which had just been...

The first direction given to Moses on the mountain is to prepare for the making of a tabernacle wherein God may dwell with man. For this he must invite offerings of various kind...

Some confusion of thought exists, even among educated laymen, with regard to the arrangements of the temple; and this has led to similar confusion (to a less extent) concerning...

Before describing the tabernacle, its furniture was specified. And so, when giving instructions for the court of the tabernacle, the altar has to be described: "Thou shalt make...

The tabernacle being complete, the priesthood has to be provided for. Its dignity is intimated by the command to Moses to bring his brother Aaron and his sons near to himself (c...

In our day there is a disposition to make light of the formal setting apart of men and things for sacred uses. If God, we are asked, has called one to special service, is not th...

The altar of incense was not mentioned when the tent of meeting was being prepared and furnished. But when, in the Divine idea, this is done, when all is ready for the intercour...

Next after this marking off so sharply of the holy from the profane, this consecration of men to special service, this protection of sacred unguents and sacred gums from secular...

While God was thus providing for Israel, what had Israel done with God? They had grown weary of waiting: had despaired of and slighted their heroic leader, ("this Moses, the man...

How nobly he foreshadows, not indeed the Christian doctrine, but the love of Christ Who died for man, Who from the Mount of Transfiguration, as Moses from Sinai, came down (whil...

We have seen that the original promise of a great Angel in whom was the Divine Presence was full of encouragement and privilege (xxiii. 20). No unbiassed reader can suppose that...

It was when God had most graciously assured Moses of His affection, that he ventured, in so brief a cry that it is almost a gasp of longing, to ask, "Show me, I pray Thee, Thy g...

"We do not hesitate to pronounce this the most practically useful work of its kind at present extant. It is not a commentary, but a _Thesaurus_ of sermons on texts arranged cons...

"Preachers anxious to discover the best books out of which they may discover golden thoughts on any particular text, for use in their sermons, will doubtless be glad of the volu...

"Like its two predecessors, the third volume is distinguished by the perfect catholicity of the selections, the admirable condensation of the sermons and expositions that are qu...