CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exodus 6:14. The heads of their fathers’ houses] It is obvious that Exodus 6:13-30 form a distinct section: indeed Exodus 6:30 resumes the very words of Exodus 6:13. The interjected portion might seem to interrupt the flow of the narrative; but on closer examination the conclusion that it could ill be spared is easily arrived at, since the genealogy given relates directly to the leading actors who are coming on the scene. The houses of Reuben and Simeon are given for the sake of introducing Levi; and Levi and his house are brought forward mainly for sake of exhibiting the tribal and family connections of Moses and Aaron. Note, accordingly, the climax attained in Exodus 6:26-27; and the return, then, to the point departed from at Exodus 6:13.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 6:14-30
THE GENEALOGY OF THE CHURCH
I. That it was, humanly speaking, of very unpretentious origin. The human origin of the Church was very humble. It was not born of kings. It was not the conquest of a renowned warrior. It was not the discovery of a bold adventurer. Its primitive social position was poor. Its numbers were few. Its ancestors were men of moral greatness. They were eminent for faith. Instance Abraham. These men are now the rulers of the world The few in the days of the old patriarch have multiplied as the stars of heaven.
II. That it was, morally speaking, of a very miscellaneous character. We have names in this list of very varied moral worth. Some noted for their piety, others remarkable for their profanity. At this time the Church was almost co-extensive with the Jewish nation. Nominally there was no line of separation. The religion was one of ceremony, and in this all the people could join. There were a few great and good souls who obtained a deeper insight into moral truth, and whose lives were rendered beautiful and powerful by an anticipation of some all-sufficient sacrifice in the future ages. But these were the exception. The spirit of the common multitude was confined within the conventional system of their grand worship. The Church has now a mixed genealogy. All down through the ages the tares and wheat have been growing together, and they will do so until the harvest, which is the end of the world. The miscellaneous character of the Church is accounted for:—
1. By the diversified temperaments of men.
2. By the diversified thinkings of men.
3. By the diversified character of men.
4. By the diversified alliances of men.
III. That it was, socially speaking, of very great influence.
1. It had a great political influence. The Jewish nation was for a long time a theocracy. God was its king. Heaven was its parliament. The priests were of supreme influence in the nation. The community was eminently religious in idea and sentiment. Hence from the names here recorded there comes out a great stream of social, moral, and political influence upon humanity to-day.
A PANORAMIC GLANCE AT HISTORY
I. We see the mass of lives that are crowded into a brief era. We have here a great mass of names, each representing a distinct life of peculiar type and condition; they are all heaped together in ten or fifteen verses. They all lived within a comparatively brief period. The world is crowded with life. The ages are crowded with men. They soon empty their contents into eternity.
II. We see how the minute details of individual life are lost in the aggregate of history. There is very little recorded of the many lives that are here mentioned. In a few ages after death, the lives of men diminish into a mere name. The heroes’ battles are forgotten. The remembrance of our great calamities is no more. The life of the greatest King is summed up into a sentence on the page of the world’s history.
III. We see the great effort of life to culminate in, and give prominence to, the birth of its heroes and emancipators. The whole of these lives were preparatory to the lives of Moses and Aaron. All before them were introductory. There is a gradual process in life. Life is ever trying to find emphatic expression in the conduct of the good. History makes this apparent.
IV. We see here that individual lives derive their greatness from the call of God to service, rather than from social considerations.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exodus 6:14. Sacred genealogy is made by God’s spirit to make clear the line of His Church.
Natural primogeniture may be allowed to such to whom the spiritual may be denied.
The multitude of the churches seed did arise from small beginnings.
Exodus 6:15. Order in genealogy is useful to give right understanding of the line of the Church.
Heads of families in the Church have been too prone to mingle themselves in strange marriages.
Exodus 6:16. The line of Levi is remarkable by God’s spirit. A poor stock may yield noble instruments for the salvation of the Church.
The fathers who lived long saw not all the promises fulfilled.
Exodus 6:17-19. Gradually God increaseth His Church. Third generations under God may add much more seed unto His Church.
Exodus 6:20. Incestuous marriages are not good, though by God sometimes passed over.
God can bring out His instruments and work from the sins of men.
Exodus 6:20-25. From generation to generation God continueth the succession of His Church.
God hath various ends in recording the good and bad in the genealogy of His Church.
Exodus 6:26-27. God would have His Church know the instruments, whom He calleth, though of low descent.
God’s commission maketh poorest instruments eminent for greatest deliverance of His people.
It is God’s work to make shepherds lead armies.
God entitles His poorest instruments to honour, even to face kings at His pleasure.
God honours His weak instruments to deliver His Church out of the hands of kings.
In God’s record, and at His pleasure, the poorest names are made eminent.
Exodus 6:28-30. In the day of instruments drawing back, God repeats His charge to quicken them.
Place as well as time for duty God orders in His charge.
The name of Jehovah carrieth enough in it to support His ministers.
Weakness of faith puts God’s servants sometimes upon their shifts to brave His work.
Bodily infirmities may discourage the minds of God’s servants from their work.
It is weakness to urge infirmities against God’s charge, who can heal them.
THE MINISTER TO DECLARE THE WHOLE COUNSEL OF GOD
“Speak thou unto Pharaoh, king of Egypt, all that I say unto thee.” Ministers must declare the whole counsel of God:—
I. Notwithstanding the unwillingness of the people to hear it. Pharaoh would be displeased with the message that Moses delivered. It would excite his royal anger. Yet it must not be withheld. Prudence must be respected. Courage must be sought.
II. Notwithstanding the social position of those who hear it. Moses was to deliver his message to the king of Egypt. Wealth, fear of man, wish for fame, must not deter us from proclaiming the entire counsel of God.
Excuses:—
1. I am slow of tongue.
2. I am low in purse.
3. I am feeble in energy.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Growth! Exodus 6:14. Earth and sea and sky furnish illustrations of the growth of Christianity.
1. Earth! Go forth by day, and count if you can the blades of grass on the Surface of the field, their bristling spears flashing back the gleam of heaven’s sunshine like swords of steel; converts to God are green in the city as grass upon the earth.
2. Sea! How do the waters cover the sea? Do they not flow into its most profound caverns and secret recesses? And so the earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
3. Sky! Go forth by night, and gaze upon the jewelled heavens, whose diamond pointless are thickly set on the purple-hued ring that wreathes Jehovah’s finger! Attempt to enumerate those constellations rising tier above tier—vast beyond the utmost stretch of imagination! Even these are made witnesses to us of the growth and numbers of the Church of Christ, who are to become as innumerable and glorious as the stars in the everlasting firmament.
“Yes! countless as the stars of heaven,
Or as the early dew,
And entering the eternal halls,
In robes of victory,
That mighty multitude shall keep,
The joyous Jubilee.
Church! Exodus 6:14. Very humble was the origin of the Church, whether we look at “the father of the faithful”—or at the “founder of the faith.” Abraham was a cipher till God put the figure one before him: Jesus was the child of a village maiden, till the Spirit of the Lord anointed Him; while the fishermen of Galilee were ignorant and unlettered. But how great has been the influence of the Church, which humanly speaking was of very unpretentious origin! Humble as is the sand-reed which grows on the sandy shores of Europe, how great is its influence! Its roots penetrate to a considerable depth, and spread in all directions, writes Hartwig, forming a network which binds together the loosest sands; while its strong, tall leaves protect the surface from draught, and afford shelter to small plants, which soon grow between the reeds, and gradually form a new green surface on the bed of sand. But for this sand-reed, the sea wind would long since have wafted the drift far into the interior of the country—converting many a fruitful acre of England and France into a waste. Lowly as is the origin of the Christian Church, vast have been its influences in preserving society, humanity, and morals from desert draught and wilderness waste. Its roots have penetrated deep, and spread far and wide into the civilization of every country; and in the great blast of Satanic wind which soon will endeavour to engulf the human race beneath the drift-sand of infidelity and godlessness, the Church will evidence how wondrously extensive her influence is.
“Nations shall seek her pillar’d shade,
Her leaves shall for their healing be;
The circling flood that feeds her life,
The blood that crimson’d Calvary.”
Genealogies! Exodus 6:14. Dr. Hamilton likens these to rugged cliffs, which claim more than a sterile grandeur. Bleak and barren though they seem, there is a well-spring at their foot. It is from these dreary crags that the fountain of Christ’s manhood takes its rise. And as you follow the stream from Ur of the Chaldees to the manger of Bethlehem, you find how faithful the promises—and how watchful the Providence which through all the eventful centuries kept afloat and guided on the ark of the advent.
“For that wondrous Ark
Lived in the safeguard of Jehovah’s eye;
His power secured it, and his wisdom guides.”
—Grant.
Generations! Exodus 6:20. This successive flow and swell of the Church in her generations has been likened by Miss Cobbe to the Nile. Doubtless if we could stand—as so many brave hearts have striven to do—beside the fountain of the Nile, it would be hard to think that little trickling stream was actually the same as the great river of Egypt; and that it should grow and swell deeper and stronger, receiving the floods of heaven and the tributes of earth, till at last it rolls in resistless seas of water, bearing fertility and blessing over the land. Were a being from some far stellar world—unfamiliar with Nature’s growth—to find his way to earth, how hard would it be for that visitant to realise that from the acorn which you held in your hand there had sprung that giant oak with its gnarled trunk of a thousand circles, ten thousand boughs and million-tongued leaves, amid which the birds carolled their notes, and beneath whose extensive shade man and beast found shelter and repose. So with the Church. But before ONE EYE, both river, tree, and church were self-evident Jehovah sees them all mapped out from their source and entrance in weakness to their summit and end in power. The successive generations of the Church are all part of one mighty plan, which has its climax of loftiness and acme of perfection in that majestic benediction rising on the bosom of the universe of eternity, and reflecting on its ever-swelling surface the infinite glory of Jehovah, who says, I am the LORD.
“Let us then rejoice and sing;
’Tis the marriage of the Lamb;
And the Bride is ready; raise—
Raise the everlasting Psalm.”