The Pulpit Commentaries
Exodus 2:23-25
EXPOSITION.
DEATH OF THE PHARAOH FROM WHOM MOSES FLED — CONTINUANCE OF THE OPPRESSION OF ISRAEL-ISRAEL'S PRAYERS — GOD'S ACCEPTANCE OF THEM. —
After a space of forty years from the time of Moses' flight from Egypt, according to the estimate of St. Stephen (Acts 7:30), which is not, however, to be strictly pressed, the king whose anger he had provoked — Rameses II., as we believe — died. He had reigned sixty-seven years — about forty-seven alone, and about twenty in conjunction with his father. At his death, the oppressed Israelites ventured to hope for some amelioration of their condition. On his accession, a king in the East often reverses the policy of his predecessor, or at any rate, to make himself popular, grants a remission of burthens for a certain period. But at this time the new monarch, Menephthah I., the son of Rameses II., disappointed the hopes of the Israelites, maintained his father's policy, continued the established system of oppression, granted them no relief of any kind. They "sighed," therefore, in consequence of their disappointment, and "cried" unto God in their trouble, and made supplication to him more earnestly, more heartily, than ever before. We need not suppose that they had previously fallen away from their faith, and "now at last returned to God after many years of idolatrous aberration" (Aben Ezra, Kalisch). But there was among them an access of religious fervour; they "turned to God" from a state of deadness, rather from one of alienation, and raised a "cry" of the kind to which he is never deaf. God therefore "heard their groaning," deigned to listen to their prayers, and commenced the course of miraculous action which issued in the Exodus.
(This section is more closely connected with what follows than with what went before, and would better begin ch. 3. than terminate ch. 2.)
In process of time. Literally, "in those many days." The reign of Rameses II. was exceptionally long, as previously explained. He had already reigned twenty-seven years when Moses fled from him (Exodus 2:15). He had now reigned sixty-seven, and Moses was eighty! It had seemed a weary while to wait. The children of Israel sighed. If the time had seemed a weary while to Moses, how much more to his nation! He had escaped and was in Midian — they toiled on in Egypt. He kept sheep — they had their lives made "bitter" for them "with hard bondage, in molter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field" (Exodus 1:14). He could bring up his sons in safety; their sons were still thrown into the river. No wonder that "an exceeding bitter cry" went up to God from the oppressed people, so soon as they found that they had nothing to hope from the new king.
God heard their groaning. God is said to "hear" the prayers which he accepts and grants; to "be deaf" to those which he does not grant, but rejects. He now "heard" (i.e. accepted) the supplications of oppressed Israel; and on account of the covenant which he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — a covenant always remembered by him — he looked upon his people, made them the objects of his special regard, and entered on a course, which was abnormal, irregular, miraculous, in order to carry out his purposes of mercy towards them It is observed that anthropomorphic expressions are here accumulated; but this is always the case when the love and tenderness of God towards man are spoken of, since they form the only possible phraseology in which ideas of love and tenderness can be expressed so as to be intelligible to bureau beings. And God regarded them. Literally, "and God knew." God kept the whole in his thoughts — bore in mind the sufferings, the wrongs, the hopes, the fears, the groans, the despair, the appeal to him, the fervent supplications and prayers — knew all, remembered all-counted every word and sigh — gathered the tears into his bottle — noted all things in his book — and for the present endured, kept silence — but was preparing for his foes a terrible vengeance — for his people a marvellous deliverance
HOMILETICS.
Death comes at last, even to the proudest monarch.Rameses II. left behind him the reputation of being the greatest of the Egyptian kings. He was confounded with the mythical Sesostris, and regarded as the conqueror of all Western Asia, of Ethiopia, and of a large tract in Europe. His buildings and other great works did, in fact, probably excel those of any other Pharaoh. His reign was the longest, if we except one, of any upon record. He was victorious, by land or sea, over all who resisted his arms. Yet a time came when he too "went the way of all flesh." "It is appointed unto all men once to die, and after that the judgment." After eighty years of life and sixty-seven of regal power, the Great Rameses was gathered to his fathers. Of what avail then was all his glory, all his wealth, all his magnificence, all his architectural display, all his long series of victories? Could he plead them before the judgment-seat of an all-righteous God? He could not even, according to his own belief, have pleaded them before the tribunal of his own Osiris. A modern writer says that every stone in the edifices which he raised was cemented with the blood of a human victim. Thousands of wretches toiled incessantly to add to his glory, and cover Egypt Ñ with building, obelisks, and colossi, which still show forth his greatness. But what is the result of all, what advantage has he gained by it? On earth, he is. certainly not forgotten; but History gibbets him as a tyrant and oppressor Ñ one of the scourges of the human race. In the intermediate region where he dwells, what can be his thoughts of the past? what his expectations of the future? Must he not mourn continually over.his misspent life, and unavailingly regret his cruelties? The meanest of his victims is now happier than he, and would refuse to change lots with him.
Exodus 2:24-2. —God is never deaf to earnest prayer for deliverance.It was eighty years since the cruel edict went forth, "Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river" (Exodus 1:22) — ninety, or perhaps a hundred, since the severe oppression began (ib. 11-14). Israel had sighed and groaned during the whole of this long period, and no doubt addressed many a prayer to God, which seemed unheard. But no earnest faithful prayer during the whole of the long space was unheard. God treasured them all up in his memory. He was "not slack, as men count slackness" He had to wean his people from their attachment to Egypt — he had to discipline them, to form their character — to prepare them to endure the hardships of the desert, and to face the fierce tribes of Canaan. When this was done — when they were fit-he gave effect to their prayers — "heard their groaning" — and just as they were on the point of despairing, delivered them. The lesson to us here is, that we never despair, never grow weary and listless, never cease our prayers, strive to make them more and more fervent. We can never know how near we are to the time when God will show forth his power — grant and accomplish our prayers.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Exodus 2:23-2. —The hour of help.1. It was long delayed.(1) Till tyranny had done its worst. (2) Till the last hope of help from man had disappeared.Improvement may have been looked for at death of king.2. It came at last.(1) When the bondage had served its ends. (2) When the people, in despair of man, were crying to God.3. When it did come —(1) The man was found ready who was to bring it. (2) God was found faithful to his promise. — J.O.
Exodus 2:1. —Moses and Christ.Compare in circumstances of early life.1. Obscurity of birth. 2. Peril in infancy. 3. Protection in Egypt. 4. Rejected by brethren 5. Humble toil. The carpenter's shop — keeping sheep. 6. Long pencil of silent preparation.See F. W. Robertson's striking sermon on "The Early Development of Jesus" ('Sermons,' vol. 2.). The period was not so long in Christ s case as in the case of Moses, but had a like significance — preparation for future work. — J.O.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Exodus 2:23-2. —A groaning Israel and an observant God.
I. THERE WAS SIGHING AND CRYING YET NO REAL PRAYER.
There was no supplication for help, no expression of confidence in a helper; seeing there was no real sense of trust in One who could keep, and therefore no possibility of real expectation from him. These Israelites did not wait as they that watch for the morning, sure that it will come at last (Psalms 130:6), but rather as those who say in the morning, "Would God it were even!" and at even, "Would God it were morning!" (Deuteronomy 28:67). Their right attitude, if only they had been able to occupy it, was that which Jesus is said to have occupied (Hebrews 5:7). They should have offered up prayers and supplications along with their strong crying and tears to him that was able to save them. But the God who had been so near to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, seemed now removed to a distance. No one appeared with whom the Israelites in their despair could wrestle until they gained the blessing of deliverance. And thus it has been in every generation, and still continues. The misery of the world cannot be silent, and in it all the saddest feature is, that the miserable have no knowledge of God, or, if they have, it is a knowledge without practical use. They are without hope in the world, because they are without God in the world. They go on groaning like a sick infant that neither knows the cause of its trouble nor where to look for help. And in the midst of all this ignorance, Jesus would lead men to true prayer — to intelligent and calm dependence upon God for things according to his will.
II. NOTICE THE REASON GIVEN FOR THE SIGHING AND CRYING.
They sighed by reason of the bondage. Bodily restraint, privation, and pain — in these lay the reasons for their groaning. Their pain was that of the senses, not that of the spirit. Little wonder then that they were not susceptible to the presence of God. Contrast their painful experiences with those recorded in the following Psalms, 32., 38., 39, 51., 119:136. Jesus made it evident by his dealings with many of those who came to him that the bulk of men, like the Israelites of old, are sighing because of some temporal bondage. They think that pain would vanish, if only they could get all sensible comforts. The poor man thinks what a comfort wealth and plenty must be, yet a rich man came to Jesus, still unsatisfied in spite of his wealth, and was obliged to go away again, sad, because of what Jesus had said, deeply disturbed and disappointed; and all because he had great possessions. There was no chance of doing much good to Israel, as long as they were sighing simply because of the bondage. The pain of life which comes through the senses would sink into a matter, of superficial insignificance, if only we felt as we ought to do the corruption and danger which come through sin. We should soon come to the true remedy for all our pains, if only we learnt to cry for the dean heart and the right spirit.
III. THOUGH THE SIGHING AND CRYING DID NOT AMOUNT TO A REAL PRAYER, YET GOD ATTENDED TO IT.
God made allowance for the ignorance of the people. He knew what was wanted, even though they knew not. The father on earth, being evil, has to make the best guess he can at the interests of his children; our Father in heaven knows exactly what we want. God does not expect from the ignorant what can only be presented by those who know him; and he was about to deal with Israel so that they might know him. And first of all they must be made to feel that Egypt was in reality a very different place from what it appeared to Jacob and his sons, coming out of famine-stricken Canaan. The time had long past when there was any temptation to say, "Surely Egypt is better than Canaan; we shall be able to take our ease, eat, drink, and be merry." There had not only been corn in Egypt, but tyrants and taskmasters. We have all to find out what Egypt really is; and until we make the full discovery, we cannot appreciate the nearness of God and profit by it. God can do much for us when we come to the groaning-point, when the dear illusions of life not only begin to vacate their places, but are succeeded by painful, stern, and abiding realities. When we begin to cry, even though our cry be only because of temporal losses and pains, there is then a chance that we may attend to the increasing revelations of the presence of God, and learn to wait upon him in obedience and prayer. — Y.
HOMILIES BY G.A. GOODHART
As in streams the water is attracted to and swirls round various centres, so here the interest of the narrative circles about three facts. We have —
I. THE KING'S DEATH.
Who the king was may be uncertain. [Some say Aahmes I. . — see Canon Cook, in 'Speaker's Commentary;' others, Rameses II. — see R. S. Poole, In Contemporary Review,' March, 1879.] What he had done is sufficiently evident. Confronted with an alien people, of whose history he knew little and with whom he had no sympathy, he had treated them with suspicion and cruelty. Walking by sight he had inaugurated a policy which was sufficiently clever but decidedly unwise; he had hatched the very enmity he dreaded, by making those whom he feared miserable. Nevertheless, he, personally, does not seem to have been the loser in this life. He left a legacy of trouble for his successor, but probably to the last he was feared and honoured. Such lives were to the Egyptians, and must still be, suggestive of immortality. If evil can thus ,prosper in the person of a king, life must indeed be a moral chaos if it end with death and there be no hereafter. "The king of Egypt died:" what about the King of Heaven and Earth?
II. THE PEOPLE'S CRY.
The inheritance of an evil policy accepted and endorsed by the new king. Results upon an oppressed people: —1. Misery finds a voice. "They sighed" — a half-stifled cry, which however gathers strength; "they cried." Forty years of silent endurance seeks at length relief in utterance. The king's death brings the dawn of hope; the first feeling after liberty is the cry of anguish which cannot be suppressed. Such a cry, an inarticulate prayer which needed no interpreter to translate it — an honest and heartfelt prayer of which God could take cognizance.2. The voice of misery finds a listener. The cry was a cry with wings to it — it "came up unto God." Too many so-called prayers have no wings, or at most clipped wings. They grovel on the earth like barn-yard fowls, and if they chance to pick up solace, it is, like themselves, of the earth earthy. Winged prayers, even when winged by sorrow, go up, and for a time seem lost, but they reach heaven and find harbour there.
III. GOD'S RESPONSE.
1. Attention secured and the covenant remembered. God had not been deaf before, nor had he been forgetful of his promise. For practical memory, however, there must be a practical claim upon that which is remembered. So long as the people are indifferent, their indifference suspends the fulfilment of the covenant. All the while God, by permitting the tyranny, had been stirring up their memory that they might stir up his. When they are aroused, he shows at once that he is mindful.2. The children of the covenant beheld, and respect paid to their necessities. So far, God had looked upon a people of slaves, trying hard to make themselves content with servitude. Now that misery has aroused them to remember who and what they are, he sees once more the children of Israel — offspring of the wrestling Prince. People have to come to themselves before God can effectually look upon them. Content with servitude, he sees them slaves. Mindful of the covenant, he sees them as children. God is ready to help them directly they are ready to claim and to receive help from God.Application: — Evil in this world often seems to triumph, because men submit to it, and try to make the best of it, instead of resisting it. The general will not fight the foe single-handed; in the interest of those who should be his soldiers, he must have them ready to fight under him. When we realise our true position, then God is ready at once to recognise it. Indifference, forgetfulness, delay, all really due to man, God the deliverer only seems to be that which man the sufferer is. — G.