Acts 7:17-29

But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, (18) Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. (19) The same dealt subtlety with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. (20) In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months: (21) And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. (22) And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. (23) And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. (24) And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: (25) For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. (26) And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? (27) But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? (28) Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? (29) Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.

The time of the promise here alluded to, doth not mean the coming of the promised seed; for this was yet far remote: but the promise, which was to take place, at the end of the four hundred years; when the Lord would deliver his people out of the afflictions of Egypt, and judge that nation (Acts 7:6). And how exact the Lord was to his promise, the Holy Ghost hath caused it to be recorded, with peculiar marks of distinction; and enjoined the perpetual remembrance of it in his Church, Exodus 12:41. If the Reader finds some little difficulty to reconcile the two different dates of years spoken of on this occasion; that difficulty will cease, by recollecting that the commencement of reckoning, doth not begin at the oppressions of Egypt over Israel, for those cruelties were not exercised until after the death of Joseph. And indeed, the whole sojourning of Israel in Egypt, could not have been more than two hundred and forty years, See Genesis 50:26; Genesis 50:26. But when, as in this Chapter, and at the promise first given, Genesis 15:16; Genesis 15:16, we are to reckon four hundred years; the account of reckoning begins after the birth of Isaac. And for the thirty years the account is taken from Abraham's first sojourning in Egypt, Genesis 12:10 with Exodus 12:40

The deliverance of Israel from Egypt, beside the history as a matter of fact, and beside the personal mercy of the redemption, to the children of God then; was a sweet type of the Lord's Israel now, and in all ages of the Church; being brought out of the Egypt of sin, by the Person, work, and glory, of the Lord Jesus Christ. In all, and every instance of the Church's bondage, God in Covenant speaks over again the same words, as he graciously said to Abraham: The nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God. They shall come forth, and serve me! What a reviving thought to bondage souls!

If I detain the Reader for a moment in this place, it shall only be to remark, what a beautiful type of the Lord Jesus Moses was, in numberless instances, in relation to his Church and people. The Holy Ghost, by his servant Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews; Hebrews 3:1 and Hebrews 11:1, hath thrown great light upon this Scripture history, concerning Moses and the Church; and especially, in relation to his being in many points, a type as well as a servant of his Almighty Lord and Savior.

One feature, I particularly beg to notice to the Reader, concerning this man, which to me I confess is striking. Stephen saith, in his account of him that he supposed his brethren would have understood, how that God by his hand would deliver them. Now, we find no notice taken of this apprehension in the mind of Moses, in the history which we have of him at large in Exodus. Nay, on the contrary, when in the after days of Moses' life, and when at the bush, the Lord called him to this service, we find a strong reluctancy on the part of Moses, to go upon so arduous an undertaking. It was very gracious, therefore, in God the Holy Ghost, to put it into the heart and mouth of Stephen, to tell the Church this concerning Moses; for it. opens a very interesting train of thoughts in the mind, and which under divine teaching, cannot fail of becoming highly profitable. In the relation we have of Moses' history, Exodus 2:10, the chasm, from Moses being brought from the time of nursing by Pharaoh's daughter, to his being grown, is not filled in with any date; and we are left to form our own conjectures, how long it might have been from his being brought to Pharaoh's daughter, to the time that it came into his heart to visit his brethren. But the Lord the Spirit was pleased to think it important, that the Church should know; and therefore by Stephen we are told, that he was forty years old, when this event took place. Here then evidently we behold, the first impulse breaking out in the mind of Moses under the Lord, of his relationship to Israel, and that Israel in Christ, And I pray the Reader yet further to remark, the very words which God the Holy Ghost useth, for they are striking: it came into his heart, to visit his brethren. How? I would humbly ask, but by the Spirit of the Lord. He was now in the Court of Pharaoh. An adopted son of the King's daughter. But Moses, though all this while, for forty years, insensible as it should seem, to the afflictions of his people; yet could not but know himself by the marks of circumcision in his flesh of the seed of Abraham. These things were smothered, hid away, from the observation, or knowledge even of those in the Court of Pharaoh, who knew his origin; yea, probably Moses would have wished while unawakened by grace, to have forgotten them himself. But, when the Lord put it in his heart, he felt the full tide of Israel's stream, in love to return; and from the same Almighty teaching drew conclusions, that the God of Abraham, which prompted him to deliver his oppressed brethren, must have taught them also! Reader! what a train of the most precious thoughts arise from hence, in proof of grace-union in Christ, and sometimes breaking out in a way perfectly undescribable, in confirmation of it, even before any open work is wrought in the soul by regeneration, as in the instance of Moses, to make us sensible whose we are, and to whom we belong! Reader! Is it not sweet to you? It is to me indeed!