CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exodus 9:31. Bolled] “In flower.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 9:29-35
WISE MINISTERIAL TREATMENT OF AN OBSTINATE SINNER
Moses was a true minister. He was a real and worthy servant of God. He had to deal with an obstinate sinner in Pharaoh. We see in these verses the manner in which he treated him when he pretended to be sorry for his rebellion against God.
I. That the true minister is willing to render help to the vilest persecutor in the hour of imagined repentance. Moses did not remain away from Pharaoh in the hour of his penitence. He did not treat him with contempt, as unworthy of further effort. He went to him at once. Ministers are never justified in leaving even the vilest men to themselves in their time of perplexity. They should visit them and render them all the aid in their power. The true minister of the cross will be generous and forbearing. He will have too much sympathy with the souls of men ever to leave them, even though he has little faith in their professed repentance or their final salvation. The hypocrite must never be forsaken by the servant of God.
II. That the true minister will pray for the most obstinate sinner in the hour of distress. “As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord.”
1. The prayer will be offered in private. “Out of the city.” Did Moses go out of the city to pray because it was idolatrous, and because he would not mix the worship of God with the profane superstitions of the Egyptians? Moses went out from the presence of Pharaoh; he would give the king time to fully consider his promise, and to test the motive of his repentance. Also Moses wanted to be alone with God. Solitude is favourable to prayer. The minister should seek solitude. It is well for him to go outside of the city to meditate and to pray about obstinate men.
2. It will be offered with earnestness. “I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord.” The ministers of God should employ their hands and hearts in prayer to heaven for the souls of wicked men.
III. That the true minister may assure the most obstinate sinner of the mercy of God toward him.“And the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be anymore hail.” Thus Moses makes known to Pharoah the abundant mercy of God. And this should be the method of a true minister in his treatment of wicked men. He should assure them of the compassion of the Infinite Father for the truly penitent. A contrite heart shall not hear the thunder of retributive judgment.
IV. That the true minister must assert the unbending Sovereignty of God to the most obstinate sinner. “That thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord’s.” The divine sovereignty must be asserted to the most obstinate man, even though he may be the proud Monarch of Egypt. True repentance will be led to acknowledge the royal supremacy of God in the material as well as in the moral universe. Ministers must seek to give repentant souls rightful views of the Character and Rulership of the Eternal.
V. That the true Minister will deal faithfully with the most obstinate sinner who may manifest tokens of repentance. “But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God.” This language was most faithful on the part of Moses. It was plain. It was fearless. He knew Pharaoh too well to imagine that his repentance was genuine. He knew his reformation would not be permanent. In this way will the wise and true minister deal with the obstinate sinner who manifests repentance and seeks the removal of woe. LESSONS:
1. That ministers are often perplexed as to the best method of conduct toward obstinate sinners.
2. They must pray for them.
3. They must be faithful to them.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exodus 9:29-30. Under God’s revelation His ministers may assure the wicked of His mercy.
Such discoveries are made to wicked men that they may acknowledge the sovereignty and ownership of God over all.
Though God’s servants know how the wicked will afterwards behave, yet they may pray for them. Wicked men may tremble under vengeance, but never fear the Lord when it is removed.
“The earth is the Lord’s:”—
1. Then admire its beauty.
2. Then participate in its bounty.
3. Then tread it reverently.
4. Then use it generously.
“I know that ye will not fear the Lord God:”—
1. Because your mind is dark.
2. Because your heart is hard.
3. Because your conscience is seared.
4. Because your will is rebellious.
5. Because your sin is a pleasure.
Exodus 9:31-32. God in His prerogative determines what creatures to destroy for the punishment of man. When creatures grow nearest for man’s comfort, he takes them away for man’s sin.
The smitings of God.—
1. The outcome of Divine anger.
2. The punishment of man’s sin.
3. The richest growths stricken.
4. The immature things left unhurt.
PHARAOH’S CONDUCT AFTER THE STORM
Exodus 9:34. Mercy makes some men worse. Let the rod cease to strike and they will rebel the more basely. Some need judgments continually to keep them from sin. Pharaoh’s vices were only kept down by his terrors, as soon as they ceased his vices sprang up again most vigorously. The storm over and God is forgotten.
I. Pharaoh’s conduct is often resembled by men of our day. There was a great deal of common human nature in Pharaoh. Those who visit men much in their afflictions know how transitory are the impressions made upon them at such seasons. Vows made then are seldom kept. To estimate men by their sayings on a bed of suffering, or amid the crash of bankruptcy, or under the bitterness of bereavement, is altogether misleading. Men’s views of themselves and life change as the dark clouds roll away, and the sun breaks forth to gild their path again. This has become proverbial. How often have the ironical words of Rabelais been quoted concerning men!
“The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be:
The devil was well, the devil a monk was he!”
An old Puritan relates that, “It is storied of a merchant, that in a great storm at sea, vowed to Jupiter, if he would save him, and his vessel, he would give him a hecatomb. The storm ceaseth and he bethinks that a hecatomb was unreasonable; he resolves on seven oxen. Another tempest comes and now he vows again the seven at least. Delivered then also, he thought that seven were too many, and one ox would serve the turn. Yet another peril comes, and now he vows solemnly to fall no lower, if he might be rescued an ox Jupiter shall have. Again freed, the ox appears too much, and he would fain draw his devotion to a lower rate; a sheep was sufficient. But at last being set ashore, he thought a sheep too much, and purposeth to carry to the altar only a few dates. But by the way he eats up the dates, and lays on the altar only the shells.”—Adams, vol. i., p. 112. This is how many act towards God. Terrors are soon forgotten. Virtues begotten in the hour of trouble are short-lived. Men would live well if they always lived as they purposed in their hours of sorrow.
II. Pharaoh’s conduct reveals that his heart had been unchanged. Afflictions do change some sinners into saints. They effect a permanent reformation. Some have found an affliction a divine epoch in their lives. They have come out of the storm new men. But it often produces no radical change. It does not change the heart. Unless men’s dispositions towards God are rectified in the hour of affliction no lasting good is effected. Men cannot change their own hearts, but they can give them up into the hands of God to be changed. Love only ensures future allegiance. Love only awakens permanent resistance to sin. Pharaoh’s heart was unrenewed though the words of penitence had been upon his lips. Sin had been checked, but it was still loved. The weeds had been trampled down for a moment, but not uprooted; the disease was controlled, but not cured; the fire was covered over, but it yet smouldered. Men reveal what effects have been produced in them during the storm by their actions in the subsequent calm.
III. Pharaoh’s conduct manifested the basest ingratitude. Sin is always lamentable, but more so in the face of Divine mercy. As God had heard the prayers of Moses on Pharaoh’s behalf, and had withdrawn the fierceness of His anger; the king ought to have humbled himself by obedience. Common feelings of gratitude would have prompted to this. But Pharaoh was so hardened that he could find in God’s goodness a fresh incentive to sin. The goodness of God manifested to obdurate sinners often leads them to further transgression and not to repentance. Such insensibility to mercy is sure to bring another judgment.
IV. Pharaoh’s conduct was most presumptuous. He had again and again suffered for his rebellion. He ought to have feared the consequences of another attempt to resist the will of Jehovah, Sin thus deludes. It infatuates him so that he runs madly upon the “thick bosses of God’s buckler.” Sin after both judgment and mercy is madness. How many that know the judgment of God against their sins, yet sin on, because they will not see the eternal blackness which is gathering around them.
V. Pharaoh’s conduct shows the amount of depravity that may lurk in a human heart. Pharaoh had a stubborn nature. All have not the same gigantic lusts to evercome. Every man has some depravity. God estimates a man’s nature in dealing with him. Every man may overcome the evil within him if he will seek for Divine help. God’s grace is sufficient for the most obdurate. Wonderful is the power of some men to resist God. Neither judgment nor mercy will affect them. They “sin more and more.” There is a terrible momentum in evil. Some seem driven by their own evil hearts to hell. Our only safety is in humbling ourselves before the Lord and seeking for his grace to overcome our own stubbornness and sins.—W. Lilley.
The performance of ministerial duty:—
1. Immediate.
2. According to promise.
3. Divinely sanctioned.
4. Greatly abused.
The cessation of penitential sorrow:—
1. When calamity was removed.
2. When mercy was bestowed.
3. When gratitude was expected.
God spares wicked men in answer to the prayers of the good.
Mercy may prove the occasion of hardening to wicked souls.
Heart-hardening:—
1. After mercy given.
2. After promise made.
3. After prediction uttered.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Ministerial Pity! Exodus 9:29. Very recently off our south-eastern shores, a German ship collided with an English vessel known as the Strathclyde. This collision was apparently done of set purpose and deliberation. But the captain of the Franconia roused a storm of indignation against him in Europe, when it was discovered from the evidence that he had relentlessly sailed away, and left the sinking vessel and drowning wretches to their fate. No such reckless want of feeling do Moses and Aaron display. Of set purpose had they driven the prow of Judgment sheer into the hull of Egypt’s national life—cleaving it amidships; but no sooner did they hear the cry for help, then at once they hurried to the rescue. It is the duty of the ambassadors of Christ to collide against the conscience of the sinner; but, like their Divine Master, they are eager to bind up and to heal. They crush the decayed timbers of the sinner’s ship of self-deception and indifference; but it is only that they may receive the sinner’s soul on board that noble vessel—the ark of Salvation—whose beams never decay, and whose prow breasts the wildest waves.
“High billows are upon the deep,
And all the sky is dark,
But faithfulness and mercy keep
The covenanted Ark.”
Contrast! Exodus 9:30. How remarkable the difference between Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, both oppressors of Israel! What produced this contrast in the effects of the Divine chastenings on these two monarchs? A surgeon has two patients suffering frem the same disease, and requiring to undergo the same operation. He performs both cases with the same surgical instruments, and with an equally firm hand and admirable skill. Yet one dies, while the other lives and recovers. How is this? Their bodies were in a different condition. That of the one was highly favourable; that of the other was full of gross humours from self-indulgence. The heart of the conqueror of nations was wicked, but still the Divine judgments wrought a successful cure; while the condition of Pharoah’s heart was so corrupt and perverse that Jehovah’s visitations failed to bring him to a saving repentance. He repented not, though—
“Deep in his soul conviction’s ploughshare rings,
And to the surface his corruption brings.”
—Holmes.
Divine Care! Exodus 9:33 The Lord preserveth the souls of His servants. And so, as has been said, this man of God went forth into the field, walking without fear through the storm of hail and tempest of fire. Moses knew that he was safe—safe, though all around might be destroyed. Standing then under the canopy of heaven, bareheaded, in the attitude of prayer, he wrestled until the hail ceased. None that trust in Him shall be laid waste. The just man fears not in the midst of dangers.
“Let God’s dread arm with thunder rend the spheres,
Amid the crash of worlds undaunted he appears.
—Horace.
Contrast! Exodus 9:34. If the sea has its sorrows, the llanos have their sufferings. Nothing can be more remarkable than the contrast between the immeasurable plains of Venezuela and New Grenada and the watery plains of the sea. Like the ocean, their limits melt in the hazy distance with those of the horizon; but here the resemblance ceases, for no refreshing breeze wafts coolness over the desert, and comforts the drooping spirits of the wanderer. It is true that the llanos have their storms, when the dust of the savanah, set in motion by conflicting winds, ascends in mighty, columns and glides over the desert plain; as the sea has its tempests, when the waterspout, raised by contending air currents, rises to the clouds and sweeps over the floods. But no cooling zephyr fans the burning temples, or allays the irritation of the blistered skin of the traveller on the land—and indeed, the glaring sand suspended in the air only increases the sultriness of the atmosphere. Such is the difference between the repentance of the good and the remorse of the bad. Pharaoh’s contrition was as the tropical llanos—there was no water. The storms swept over his heart, but it remained dry.
“What time, beneath God’s chastening rod afraid,
He drank coercive of affliction’s cup.”
—Man.