times true concerning those whom he has chosen unto himself, that their entrance into his kingdom is through much tribulation, was remarkably illustrated in the case of this his first and typical inheritance. A new king, we are told, arose up over Egypt, who knew not Joseph: if, which is doubtful, he was a descendant of the former Pharaoh, he ungratefully neglected the memory of the man to whom he owed so large a portion of his own prosperity and power, and saw only in his countrymen a rapidly increasing multitude of strangers, whose flourishing state excited his jealousy, while their want of ability to resist, tempted him to exercise upon them the most barbarous oppression. His order to the midwives, to kill every son born of the Hebrew women, having been disobeyed, owing to their conscientious firmness, he next charged his own people with the cruel office of casting every male child into the river; while those who were already grown up he condemned to serve with rigour, principally in works of building, of which two of his treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses,* are mentioned as the results. About the time that this cruel edict was first put in force, a child was born in the tribe of Levi, whose parents' names were Amram and Jochebed: he was beautiful to look upon, and, as a fair and beloved treasure, his mother kept him concealed three months, till finding that she could do so no longer, she resolved to commit him to the protection of Providence, placing him in a little ark of bulrushes, constructed so as to keep out the water of the river, in which she laid him among the flags, which grew in abundance along its brink. And God, who saw in the babe the future deliverer and ruler of his people, watched over him for good: the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the river, saw the • Exod. i. 11. ark, and caused it to be opened: the tears of the infant (for it wept) moved her compassion; and comprehending the cause of its exposure, she determined to adopt it as her own. Miriam, the child's sister, who stood near to watch what would become of it, made a proposal, which was favourably received, to procure for it a nurse among the Hebrew women; and thus did its own mother obtain the privilege of nursing it in security, till it was sufficiently grown up to be taken into the palace of the princess, and treated as her son. Moses (for such was the name given him, in allusion to his having been drawn out of the water) remained forty years in the house of his protectress, and profited of the advantages which it afforded him, so as to become "learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and mighty in words and deeds."* Nor was it only the wisdom of this world in which he had become instructed; God, it appears, had communicated to him a portion of the heavenly knowledge enjoyed by his patriarchal ancestors: he had received into his soul a firm conviction, that "the reproach of Christ," the endurance of calamity as an heir of the promise, was greater riches than the treasures of Egypt:" and therefore being come to years, he cast in his lot with his persecuted brethren, " refusing to be styled any longer the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, having respect unto the recompense of that reward,"+ which is not temporal, but eternal. And this was not all; his faith was not only that of a consistent member of the society whose fellowship in sufferings. he so nobly sought; it taught him also to look upon himself as a man divinely appointed to release them from their unworthy bondage: for St. Stephen tells 66 66 us, that "when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian; for he supposed his brethren would have understood, how that God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not. 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? But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? wilt thou kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled Moses at that saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons." He feared not so much the wrath of the king,"† as the fickle and degraded temper of his countrymen; he feared that he had entered upon an undertaking for which they were not then ripe; and consequently, through faith in that invisible Being, whom nevertheless he looked upon as his guide, he betook himself with readiness to a foreign land, there to wait till the time came when he should be more evidently called upon to proceed to the work. In Madian he allied himself with Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel, or Jethro, priest of the country, who bare him his two sons; the name of the first, Gershom, relating to his exile in a strange land; while that of the younger, Eliezer, expressed his confidence in the help of God, who had delivered him from the sword of Pharaoh. During the forty years that he abode in Madian, the succession of a new king in place of that Pharaoh who had sought his life, § though it might increase his own personal security, abated *Acts vii. 23-29. Heb. xi. 27. nothing from the affliction of his countrymen : they sighed by reason of their bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God, by reason of the bondage." It was at this time, according to the opinion of some learned men, that Heman the Ezrahite, or son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, a man whose wisdom approached that of Solomon, composed the eightyeighth Psalm-which is justly characterised in our Bibles as a prayer containing a grievous complaint, though, as it seems to me, dictated rather by private than by national calamity. But in whatever words the sorrowful supplications of the bondmen in Egypt were offered up to God, certain it is that out of his great mercy he heard and answered them. While Moses was feeding the flock of his father-inlaw Jethro, upon the mount called Horeb, his attention was suddenly arrested by the singular appearance of a bush burning with fire, and yet in no degree consumed he drew near to examine the cause of this more closely, and, as he approached, was warned by a voice speaking to him out of the midst of the bush, that he was in the presence of his fathers' God. Awe-struck, he hid his face, and listened to the commission given him to go forth as the messenger of God to Pharaoh, and to deliver out of Egypt his afflicted people, whose cry their Lord had heard. The natural meekness and humility of his character, kept him back for a while from accepting this great honour he pleaded first his own unworthiness; and when assured that God would be with him, he suggested, that when he came to the children of Israel, he should not know by what name to call him. This scruple also was removed by the declaration of God's great name, "I am that I am :"* and when he still hesitated, the power of performing three distinct Exod. iii. 14. miracles was granted to him, in order to convince the people that he was really sent from God. Two of these miracles were exhibited before his eyes. Yet still unsatisfied, he urged his want of eloquence as an impediment to the discharge of his mission: this, God assured him, would be remedied by the substitution of his brother Aaron, whenever fluency of discourse was needed: nor was it till he found that the Lord was displeased with him for this excessive reluctance to do his work, that he consented to undertake it. It is a good thing to be humble, so long as our humility does not interfere with the performance of our duty: the faculties which we possess, such as they are, God gave us for his service; and when he requires of us their exertion, it little becomes us to hang back, or to make their deficiencies an excuse for not devoting them to him, whose strength is made perfect in our weakness.* Moses now proceeded on his journey towards Egypt, taking with him, by permission of Jethro, his wife and children; though before he reached that country, he was induced to send them back to the protection of his father-in-law. Before he did this, he had nearly died by a visitation of God, in consequence of having neglected to circumcise his child; so essential was it that he who came in the name of the God of Abraham, should not neglect the positive ordinance which that patriarch had received from him; and so readily, had he continued disobedient, might God have removed him from life, and have chosen another by whom he would send. For no man, because he acts in the name of God and by commission from him, is thereby authorized to violate one of the least of his commandments: they who are led by the Spirit of God, must do the works of God. Though separated from his wife and * 2 Cor. xii. 9. |
