Angel of the Lord, the Son of God Himself, appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, the fire being a symbol of the purifying affliction and of the chastening justice of God. And he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. The obvious miracle of a desert thorn-bush which was burning, while at the same time the flames left it intact, drew and held his attention. V. 3. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned. It was an appearance or vision decidedly worth investigating. V. 4. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. So the Angel of the Lord of v. 2 is here identified with Jehovah, with God Himself, who addresses Moses with words of solemn warning. V. 5. And He said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. The places where the Lord deigns to appear to sinful men are ever afterward set apart in their eyes and may not be desecrated by irreverent behavior, for man owes to God the highest degree of veneration. Throughout the Orient, the custom of removing the shoes before entering into a place dedicated to divine service, whether true or false, is still observed. V. 6. Moreover, He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. This was the formal declaration of majesty and power. Where deliverance, salvation, is required, there the Angel of the Lord, Jehovah, the mighty God Himself, must come to the rescue of weak and sinful men. But where God is present and visits His children in mercy, there the safety of all those that put their trust in Him is assured. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. Sinful man cannot endure the sight of the holy God, and the eye is naturally overcome by the splendor which reflects the glory of the Lord.

THE COMMAND TO GO TO EGYPT. - V. 7. And the Lord said, I have surely seen, "seeing I have seen," a very emphatic expression, the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, the burdens which they were forced to bear, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, in the presence of the cruel drivers; for I know their sorrows, the pains and the suffering which they were enduring; v. 8. and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Cp. Gen. 10, 19; 15, 18. The land of Canaan, which was now

inhabited by the Canaanitish tribes enumerated here, was to the children of Israel the Land of Promise, a good land on account of its great fertility, and a large or wide land in contrast to the present condition of oppression in the land of Egypt, a land overflowing with milk and honey, supremely rich in flowery and nourishing pastures. V. 9. Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto Me; and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. V. 10. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. This was the object of the Lord's explanation, to make Moses the leader of the people in effecting their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. Without the command and call of God no man should venture to undertake work in His kingdom. Even Christ glorified not Himself to be made a High Priest, Heb. 5, 5. 6. Moses received an immediate call from God; His method at the present time is that of the mediate call, through the congregations or their representatives.

THE EMPHATIC COMMISSION. — V. 11. And Moses said unto God, Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? Moses certainly had learned humility in the school of Midian, not unmixed with dejection; all his youthful rashness was forgotten. "He who once would, when as yet he ought not, now will no longer when he ought.” V. 12. And He said, Certainly I will be with thee, the presence, the power, and the wisdom of God was to accompany Moses; and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. This was literally fulfilled, for it was on almost the identical spot then occupied by Moses that the children of Israel were encamped when they entered into the formal relation of worshipers of Jehovah. But Moses had another objection. V. 13. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say unto me, What is His name? what shall I say unto them? The name God Almighty was too general to distinguish the true God from the idols of Egypt, and therefore the inquiry for the name has the purpose of obtaining some expression on the part of God which would indicate His essence and the actual manifestation of the divine essence toward His people, by which they might understand and apprehend Him. V. 14. And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. It is a majestic declaration in which God reveals His essence

to Moses as the unchangeable, eternally faithful covenant God. From past to future, from everlasting to everlasting, He is the same merciful Lord over all, without change or shadow of turning. V. 15. And God said, moreover, unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you; this is My name forever and ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations. Forward into the endless future, and backward into the past without beginning: there is only that one true God as He should be accepted by all men. V. 16. Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, visiting I have visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt; v. 17. and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction, the burden, of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. The apparently cumbersome repetition of the name of God and the long enumeration of the Canaanitish tribes all serve for emphasis to bring out the certainty of the fulfilment. V. 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, for the present revelation of God to Moses concerned, and had significance for, all the people; and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord, our God. This request was not a deception, but agreed with the plan of God, for because the Lord knew the hard heart of

Pharaoh, Moses and the elders were, at the beginning, not to ask more than a leave of ab. sence, for Pharaoh's denial of this petition would then reveal the hardness of his heart. God intended to make Pharaoh an example for all time.

THE PROMISE OF DELIVERANCE. — V. 19. And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. The omniscient God knew that Pharaoh would not permanently submit to Him, not even after the ten plagues, but would deliberately harden himself against his better knowledge and thus invite destruction upon himself. V. 20. And I will stretch out My hand and smite Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in the midst thereof. The Lord announces that He will glorify Himself by means of great miracles which He would perform in the midst of Egypt, thus letting all men know that He was supreme. And after that he will let you go. V. 21. And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and it shall come to pass that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty; v. 22. but every woman shall borrow, that is, ask, request, of her neighbor, 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. By God's dispensation, the Egyptian women would show their Israelite neighbors all kindness in readily bringing forth all the jewelry and the vessels of precious metals which they desired, this spoiling of the Egyptians being intended by God to compensate the Israelites for the many years of serfdom and slavery. It may often seem that there is neither right nor justice in the world, but the righteousness of God will always bring deliverance to His children, very often with a greater blessing than they expected.

The Mission of Moses to the Children of Israel.

GOD GIVES MOSES MIRACULOUS POWERS. V. 1. And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. The fear and anxiety of Moses here discovered another objection, that based upon the fact that the people were no longer accustomed to prophetic voices and would therefore not acknowledge his call. V. 2. And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. Moses held his shepherd's staff in his hand. V. 3. And He said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent;

and Moses filed from before it. The serpent was no delusion, but a fact, and looked dangerous enough to fill the heart of Moses with fear. V. 4. And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand; v. 5. that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. The simple shepherd's staff, according to the will of God, became the instrument by which Pharoah and his land were punished, for the mirucle showed that God would deliver His people from the hostile power which was holding it captive. Moses received the commission, the

power, to overcome the might, the wickedness of Satan, and this fact could not be hidden from the eyes of the children of Israel: they were bound to acknowledge his call. V. 6. And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thy hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow, infected with the white leprosy, Lev. 13, 3. V.7. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. Thereby the Lord signified that He intended to cleanse His people, the children of Israel, of the spiritual leprosy of sin by the sacrifices and purifications which typified the cleansing through the redemption of Christ. V. 8. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, to its unmistakable evidence, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. V. 9. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river (Nile), and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. The Nile was given the veneration of a god in Egypt on account of the fact that the fertility of the entire country depended upon its annual overflow. If Moses, therefore, had the power to turn this water of blessing into blood, he commanded a power which exceeded that of Pharaoh: death and destruction upon the tyrants was in his hand. The same almighty power of God is able to deliver us from every evil work and to give us the possession of the saints in light.

THE FEARS OF MOSES REPROVED. - V. 10. And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant; but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue. The great fear of Moses now made him protest his oratorical inability, which made it impossible for him to do justice to the message of the Lord and therefore threatened failure to the whole plan. He lacked both the natural gift of facile speech and the practise before an audience, and this ability had not been imparted to him in the course of this conversation. V. 11. And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? The excuse of Moses might have weight with men, but not with the Lord, who has absolute power over all the senses, being able to give the full use of them or to withdraw this in whole or in part. V. 12. Now, therefore, go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach

thee what thou shalt say. It was an easy matter for the Lord to impart divine eloquence to Moses, both as to facility of speech and as to choice of the most fitting words. All reasonable objections of Moses were now removed. V. 13. And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray Thee, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send. The misgivings of Moses were still so great that he wanted the mission to be taken care of by any one else than himself. The weakness of his flesh was so overpowering that his words sound like a flat refusal. V. 14. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said, Is not Aaron, the Levite, thy brother? The Lord implied that Aaron surely was more worthy of being called a descendant of Levi than Moses with his hesitation. I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee, for the Lord had arranged for this; and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. Aaron could indeed make fine speeches, and he would be delighted to be connected with this mission as the spokesman. V. 15. And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth; and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and will teach you what ye shall do. V. 16. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people; and he shall be, even he shall be, to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God, to make known to him both the form and the contents of his speeches to the people. As Moses, the prophet, speaks only what God commands him to say, thus Aaron was to defer to Moses in stating only what Moses told him. "He that has the Word of God and is a believer has the Spirit and the power of God, also divine wisdom, truth, heart, mind, and disposition, and everything that pertains to God." (Luther.) V. 17. And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs. The shepherd's staff was to be a symbol of the divine signs which were to be performed by the hand of Moses. The Lord has patience with our weakness and does not expect too much of us, but strengthens us to remain steadfast in His service and obedience.

MOSES DISMISSED BY JETHRO.-V. 18. And Moses went and returned to Jethro, his father-in-law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. The faithfulness, the sense of duty in Moses would not have permitted him to leave the flocks in the wilderness and to go to Egypt without leave-taking, even for a short while. He told Jethro as much of the truth as the latter needed to know at that time, for he would hardly have found a complete understanding of his object and of the divine revelation in the home of his relatives by marriage. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.

V. 19. And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, for Moses apparently delayed his journey even now, Go, return into Egypt; for all the men are dead which sought thy life. This disclosure was intended to reassure Moses, to take away the last shred of his hesitation, although his mind had been made up even before. V. 20. And Moses took his wife and his sons, Gershom and Eliezer, chap. 18, 4, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt, he started out on his trip to the country of his birth, and Moses took the rod of God in his hand, for so he regarded the staff with which he was to perform miracles. V. 21. And the Lord said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thine hand. The first commission was here repeated and explained, in order to impress every detail upon Moses' mind. After his return to Egypt he was to perform all the wonders, all the terrible signs, which the Lord had placed in his hand to do. There would be need of great firmness and courage in dealing with Pharaoh. But I will harden his heart that he shall not let the people go. In His omniscience the Lord here anticipates. He knew that Pharaoh would harden his heart wilfully and maliciously, would refuse to heed the successive appeals that would be made, and therefore God announces the final judgment upon the Egyptian king, the condemnation which would make it imposible for him to be converted in the end. V. 22. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, even My first-born; v. 23. and I say unto thee, Let My son go that he may serve Me; and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy first-born. This threat looks forward to the last of the Egyptian plagues. The fact that Israel is called God's first-born son suggests, even here, that the Lord would later choose others, that He would gain spiritual children out of the heathen nations. V. 24. And it came to pass by the way in the inn that the Lord met him, and sought to kill him. In the place where Moses and his family encamped for the night while on the journey, the Lord threatened to take his life by a sudden disease, because he had neglected to circumcise his second son, Eliezer. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant between God and His people, and could not be omitted without grave consequences. V. 25. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, a stone knife, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, laid it down so that it touched the feet of Moses, and said, Surely

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a bloody husband art thou to me. tire incident seems to have been a source of great displeasure to Zipporah, and her words indicate that she considered her husband regained by the blood of her child. V. 26. So He let him go. Then she said, A bloody husband, or bridegroom, thou art, because of the circumcision. She vented her displeasure after the recovery of Moses was assured. It seems that this incident caused Moses to reconsider his intention of taking his family along to Egypt. At any rate, it was not until his return to the peninsula of Sinai that his fatherin-law brought his family to him, chap. 18, 2. As circumcision was a sacrament in the Old Testament, so Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, and the Lord's zeal for the use of the means of grace is as great as ever.

MOSES AND AARON BEFORE THE PEOPLE. V. 27. And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. This showed that the favor of the Lord had once more turned to Moses. His wife was not in full accord with him and his belief at that time, but Aaron's coming would be a great comfort to him. And he went, and met him in the mount of God, on Mount Horeb, and kissed him, this cordial greeting being all the more natural since the brothers had not seen each other for about forty years. V. 28. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord, who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him. Aaron thus became familiar with the situation just as the Lord had presented it to Moses. V. 29. And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel, as the Lord had commanded, chap. 3, 16; v. 30. and Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. V. 31. And the people believed, they were convinced by the words of Aaron, as they were substantiated by the miraculous signs given to Moses. And when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, that He had investigated their condition in the land of their bondage, and that He had looked upon their affliction, their distressing burdens, then they bowed their heads and worshiped. The promise of the patriarchs was still alive in their hearts, they took new hope for the future, and they thanked God for the prospect of a speedy deliverance. This new hope at the same time welded the people together into one organization by making them conscious once more of their position. Thus the believers will ever accept all the promises of God in His Word with a thankful heart and place their confidence in Him without wavering.

The Increase of the Oppression. THE TASKMASTERS INSTRUCTED TO BURDEN THE PEOPLE. - V. 1. And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let My people go that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness. Moses and Aaron here acted not only as representatives of the children of Israel, who had acknowledged their commission from God, but as the ambassadors of the Lord Himself. Their question distinctly stated by whose authority they were acting, namely, by that of Jehovah, the God of Israel. V. 2. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. Although Pharaoh's answer was given with the understanding that the gods governed the countries, and that therefore the Israelites belonged under the jurisdiction of the Egyptian gods and had no business to have a God of their own, Pharaoh here showed an impious, selfish, blasphemous mind, and proved himself a religious tyrant. V. 3. And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us, He had disclosed, revealed Himself to them in glory, He, the ancient God of the free Hebrews. Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord, our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. The plea was that Jehovah would look upon their neglect to bring Him sacrifices as a deliberate act of disobedience, and would therefore come upon them, as their enemy, with severe punishments. Thus both ideas are brought out, that Jehovah was a jealous, and that He was a powerful God. V. 4. And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works, attempt to secure for them a vacation from their labors, release them from their duties? Get you unto your burdens, your servile labor. He addressed them as though they themselves were slaves, and at the same time intimated that their request was a vain pretext. V. 5. And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens, you want to secure for them a vacation, a period of rest, and their great numbers caused such a period to result in losses to the crown. The words reveal a boundless contempt for the common people. V. 6. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters, the overseers who drove them to their work and while they were at work, and their officers, saying, v. 7. Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore, chopped straw being used for binding the clay in the bricks before they were dried in the sun; let them go and gather straw for

themselves. In the past this straw had been furnished by the Egyptian overseers, and the Hebrew officers had kept a record of the work done by their countrymen. V. 8. And the tale of the bricks which they did make heretofore ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish aught thereof, the Israelites were to make and to deliver to the Egyptian overseers the same number of bricks as had always been required of them; for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Thus Pharaoh ascribed their request to be allowed to worship their God to a lack of sufficient occupation, to the fact that time was hanging heavy on their hands. V. 9. Let there more work be laid upon the men that they may labor therein, literally: Let the service rest heavily upon the men and keep them busy therewith; and let them not regard vain words, let them not listen to the lying representations of that man Moses. Similar charges are preferred against the Christians to this day, namely, that they are restless, dissatisfied people, having only worship and prayer in mind and neglecting their duties as citizens - false accusations all of them.

THE PEOPLE COMPLAIN TO PHARAOH.-V. 10. And the taskmasters of the people went out and their officers, the Egyptian overseers and their Hebrew subordinates, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. The royal decree was to be carried out to the letter; not a single straw was to be furnished. The Jewish scribes, or officers, had by this time become willing tools in the hands of the despots. V. 11. Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it; yet not aught of your work shall be diminished. There is an emphasis on the pronoun: Ye yourselves go, not others, as heretofore. V. 12. So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. They did not even have access to straw-stacks, but were obliged to go out into the harvested fields and collect the stubble. V. 13. And the taskmasters hasted them, urged them forward vehemently, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, the amount of labor which had been allotted them day by day, for each day, as when there was straw, when the necessary material for binding the clay was furnished. V. 14. And the officers of the children of Israel which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, as their own subordinates, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and to-day, as heretofore? When the number of bricks allotted to any company of the Israelites was not forthcoming, because it was a physical impossibility both to provide the straw and to make the