MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 5:15-19
REQUIRING THE IMPOSSIBLE
I. That there are some people in society who strive to make those under them do the impossible. Pharaoh tried to make the Israelites do the impossible, when he commanded them to make bricks without providing them with straw. This demand of tyranny is heard to-day in our large factories and amongst our agricultural population.
1. All require men to do the impossible who wish them to work beyond their capabilities. Every man has a degree of capability for work peculiar to himself, and can only execute that kind of work in a given time, according to his own ability. To require more at his hands is to require the impossible. To require men to work beyond their physical strength is to require the impossible. Some employers have no regard for the physical manhood of those engaged in their service. They give the same amount of work alike to the strong and the weak, and expect it accomplished. The thin, pale countenances of many who are daily seen wending their way to our busy hives of industry are indices to sad tales of heart and home. They are overworked. They are sinking into the grave. How often is the buoyant life and energy of youth quenched, and almost extinguished, by toil in an overcrowded and illventilated office. All who require young men to prosecute their daily business under such conditions are, in effect, seeking the impossible. To require men to work beyond their intellectual ability is to require the impossible. There are hundreds of men in our country who occupy positions beyond the power of their mental ability to sustain happily, and with comfort to themselves. This is the case with many who indulge in large financial speculations; with many in the daily haunts of life who occupy a higher position than they are qualified for; and with many popular ministers. Those in authority over them, and an exacting public, are ever urging them to make bricks without straw. Hence their work becomes a burden and a sorrow. To require men to work beyond their moral energy is to require the impossible. There are some men of little souls and small sympathies who have great churches, and who have in their congregation men of large hearts. These large-hearted hearers get but little help in their sorrows and conflicts from their minister and his sermons; they ought not to expect otherwise, for even a minister cannot make brick without straw. How can a preacher give to his congregation the sympathies of an overflowing heart of love, when his soul is hardly large enough to contain even himself, when he is of cold temperament, logical in thought rather than deep in emotion. Never require your minister to do the impossible; to visit all the parish in a day, to know that people are ill when he has never been told, to attend half a dozen committees at the same hour, to lead a prayer-meeting when he is preaching elsewhere, or expect sympathy from him when he has none to give. If you have chosen him as your pastor, do not expect him to make bricks without straw.
2. All require men to do the impossible who wish them to work beyond their opportunity. Every man must have time, and a proper time, to do his work. He must not be expected to do two things at once. He must not be expected to work when nature requires that he should be in bed asleep. But men must not only have the opportunity of time in which to accomplish their work, but also the opportunity of place and means. Every workman should have a place adapted to his employment, and should be readily supplied with means whereby to carry it on. He should have a shed to make his bricks in, as well as straw to make them with.
3. Contemplate the method employed to get men to do the impossible. These methods are various. Some will condescend to flattery and cant to get men to do that for which they are totally unadapted. Others will use force and persecution.
(1.) They set taskmasters over us. To watch our conduct. To inspect our work. To insure our diligence. To augment our burden. To darken our sorrow. How many managers in our large factories, inspired by the tyrant spirit of their masters, act the part of these Egyptian officers. How many deacons in small churches are more like them than they are like Christ, who gave rest to the heavy ladened.
(2.) They abuse us. They say we are idle, and that even after we have made the best attempt within our power, to fall in with their unjust demands.
(3.) They mock our religious sentiment. “Therefore, ye say, let us go and do sacrifice unto the Lord.” They impeach our religious motives. They insinuate that we are hypocrites. These, then, are the ways and methods in which we are treated, when tyrants endeavour to compel us to do the impossible.
(4.) Some people will attempt to accomplish the impossible. It would seem that these Israelites did. They were scattered abroad, and went seeking stubble wherewith to make bricks. Never attempt to do what you cannot, either in response to the order of the tyrant or the smile of the flatterer. It will involve you in utter failure and distress at last, when you will get no sympathy from those who urged you to it. The world is full of men who are trying to do the impossible. They are trying to make wealth too fast, they are giving out energy they will never be able to repair.
II. That the people who strive to make those under them do the impossible are throwing society into an attitude of pain and complaint. “Then the officers of the Children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants?”
1. The requirement of the impossible tends to throw society into an attitude of pain. When men are required to do the impossible, their physical and moral energies are exhausted by what they know must be fruitless labour. Hence they become weary. They despair. Most of the social pain of our country is occasioned by tyrannic and covetous spirits, who are in haste to get rich out of the cheap and stern labour of those who are unfortunately in their service. National happiness is to a very large extent the outcome of a free and sympathetic employment of the working classes.
2. The requirement of the impossible tends to throw society into an attitude of complaint. When society is in pain, it is almost sure to render vocal its anguish in the language of complaint. Men feel, when they are required to do the impossible, that they are unjustly treated. And nothing will sooner give rise to complaint than a sense of injury and wrong. When society is complaining, it cannot be happy or prosperous. A tyrant king can destroy the very life of a nation. “Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants.”
1. Is it from the sheer motive of tyranny?
(2.) Is it as an additional assertion of authority since the demand of Moses and Aaron?
(3.) Is it with a cruel delight in our woe?
(4.) It certainly cannot be justified.
III. That the people who strive to make those under them do the impossible, and who throw society into an attitude of pain, are but little affected by the woe they occasion, and generally resent any mention of it to them. “Go therefore now, and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks.”
1. Not withstanding the outcry of the oppressed the tyrant demands renewed work. “Go therefore now, and work.”
2. Notwithstanding the outcry of the oppressed, the tyrant adheres to his cruel measures. “There shall no straw be given you.”
3. Notwithstanding the outcry of the oppressed, the tyrant mocks their woe, and treats them with contempt. LESSONS:
1. Never require the impossible.
2. Never attempt the impossible.
3. Adapt methods to ends.
4. Cultivate kindly dispositions toward your employers.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
REASONS REQUIRED FOR MORAL CONDUCT
Exodus 5:15. “Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants.”
I. There are times when men are required to give reasons for their method of moral conduct. They have been oppressive in their conduct. They have to give a reason for their oppression. They have been dishonest, they have to give a reason for their deception. They have occasioned pain to others, and any man who gives pain to his fellow creature ought to be rigorously questioned about it. Public opinion often calls a man to its tribunal. Sometimes men are the questioners. Sometimes God is the Questioner. Kings are not exempt from these interrogations. The world will one day have to give a reason for its conduct at the solemn bar of God.
II. It is highly important that every man should be able to allege heavenly principles and motives as the basis of his conduct. Men must not rest their methods of conduct upon the dictate of their own pleasure, convenience, or arbitrary will, but upon the spiritual law of God. Revenge, envy, and selfishness are vile reasons for conduct, and will meet with severe retribution. Love to God and man is the only true and loyal principle and motive of human action, and only will sustain the scrutiny of infinite rectitude.
III. That a man who can allege heavenly principles as the basis of his conduct will be safe at any tribunal to which he may be called.
1. He will be safe at the tribunal of his own conscience.
2. He will be safe at the tribunal of God’s Book.
3. He will be safe at the tribunal of public opinion.
4. He will be safe at the final tribunal of the universe.
Oppressed souls cannot but complain of cruel and unjust smitings.
Addresses for relief are fittest from the afflicted to the highest power oppressing.
Access, cries, and sad speeches are forced from the oppressed to oppressors.
The execution by instruments is justly charged upon their Lord’s.
The Oppressor:—
1. He has often to give audience to his slaves.
2. He has to hear the cry of his slaves.
3. He has to listen to the complaint of his slaves.
4. He has to give a reason for his conduct to his slaves.
Exodus 5:16. THE EXPOSTULATIONS OF THE SLAVE
I. They expostulate that the means necessary to the accomplishment of their daily work were withheld. “There is no straw given to thy servants.”
II. They expostulate that they were brutally treated. “Thy servants are beaten.”
III. They expostulate that they were not morally culpable in their neglect of work. “The fault is in thine own people”
True servants may justly expostulate about hard dealings from their rulers.
To give no straw and to command bricks is a most unreasonable exaction.
To punish innocent servants when others sin, is a most unjust oppression.
Such wicked dealings sometimes make God’s servants to complain to earthly powers.
The tyrant:—
1. Unreasonable in his demands.
2. Cruel in his resentment.
3. Mistaken in his judgment of guilt.
Exodus 5:17-19. Cruel oppressors of God’s people are deaf to complaints.
Crimination, though false, instead of acceptation, is returned to the appeals of the oppressed by cruel powers.
Double labours are branded for idleness by unreasonable oppressors.
Persecutors do not only charge men but God, for making His people idle.
Inhuman persecutors drive the appealing oppressed out of their sight to work.
Cruel oppressors double their denial of help unto sad plaintiffs.
Complaints of exaction upon God’s servants are usually answered by adding more.
Cruel exactions of persecutors may make deep impressions upon God’s servants.
Good overseers are more afflicted when they see themselves forced to oppress the innocent.