saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt : 17. And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, aud the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. 18. And they shall hearken to thy voice: and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. let 19. And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not you go, no, not by a mighty hand. 20. And I will stretch out my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst thereof : and after that he will let you go. 21. And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty : : 22. But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. We find the Almighty, in these verses, not only conveying to Moses the full extent and particulars of his mission, but even more than this, predicting its result; so that no disappointment might afterwards accrue to him, while its success was doubtful, or postponed. It is extremely important to pay great attention to the mode of expression adopted by the Almighty in this particular passage, while referring to the disobedience of Pharaoh, for we cannot but consider it as a key to all the difficulties of the future history. Nothing is, usually, more perplexing to the humble and earnest inquirer into the divine word, than the declarations which he there meets with, that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart. Now the passage we have just read, is the very first, in which any reference whatever is made to the conduct of this disobedient and cruel monarch; and let us here carefully observe the manner in which the Almighty speaks of him. God does not say, I will send you to Pharaoh, and I will harden his heart, so that he shall not let you go. Nothing of the kind is either expressed, or implied. The Almighty, speaking with that foreknowledge, which is an essential attribute of Deity, says merely, “ I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go." So far is this from implying that the Almighty would be himself the cause of Pharaoh's refusal, that it is language, in which one human being might speak with the most perfect propriety, and naturally would speak of another, over whom he 66 possessed no control whatever, but of whose intentions he had been previously perfectly informed. That God, therefore, should afterwards harden Pharaoh's heart, as we are assured he did, was in reality the effect, not the cause, of his first disobedience. It is true that the infallible word of God has declared, "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth ;” nor would we say one word which could, by any probability, be supposed to derogate from the entire and absolute sovereignty of God; but we consider such an example as this before us, as an explanation of the assertion of the apostle, and that by revealing to us in this case, that God was sure that Pharaoh would harden his own heart, it clearly sets him before us as the type of that whole class whom God will not pardon. Pharaoh had resolved upon a course of rebellion: and God knew this; and therefore, by withdrawing from him the restraining and softening influences of his grace, by permitting him to follow out his own stubborn and wayward will, and more than this, by hardening and strengthening that rebellious will to the highest pitch of obstinacy, the Almighty erected a lasting monument to the guilt and impotency of man, and the awful and the tremendous power of God: a monument that should stand as a beacon throughout all ages of the world, and deter the presumptuous sinner from the first rebellious feelings, and the earliest hostile or disobedient acts against that God, who was thus proved to be, to his enemies, " a consuming fire.” The verse, at the close of the passage, wherein God commands the Israelites to "borrow" of the Egyptians "jewels of silver and jewels of gold," and which sometimes perplexes the unlearned reader, is easily explained by the fact, that the word translated "borrow," means also " to ask," or" demand;" and Josephus expressly says, that the Israelites, upon their departure, "asked" for jewels of gold and silver from those whom they had served, and that the Egyptians, glad to conciliate their favour, and to expedite their departure, freely gave them. The chief personal lesson to be derived from the whole passage is this; to guard sedulously, to strive constantly, to pray earnestly, that we may never fall into such a state of mind, that God should be enabled to say of any individual among us, "I am sure that he will not" obey my will, honour my word, love my name, keep my commandments. For this is the first step to an utter alienation from God, and to the Almighty's leaving the sinner, at least, unassisted by his grace, unaided by his power, unsoftened by his Holy Spirit. When this is done, the hardness of the heart will be complete, and that progress of sin be realised, which has been so quaintly and yet so strikingly portrayed by one of the most eloquent of our prelates. "Vice is first pleasing, then easy, then delightful, then frequent, then habitual, then confirmed: then the man is impenitent, then he is obstinate, then he resolves never to repent, and then he is damned." * EXPOSITION X. EXODUS iv. 1-17. 1. And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. will 2. And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. 3. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. 4. And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine * Bishop Jer. Taylor. |