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27,299 commentary entries
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:7-11
God's sympathy with the oppressed. I. GOD IS EVER IN SYMPATHY WITH THE OPPRESSED, AND AGAINST THEIR OPPRESSORS (Exodus 3:7, Exodus 3:9). This is now, thanks to the Bible, made as certain to us as any truth can be. God's…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:7-10
The call of Moses. With face covered, but with ears attent to hear, Moses stands before God to learn his will. And God takes him, as it were, into counsel, not only calling him to a certain work, but revealing to him wh…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:7
I have surely seen. Literally "Seeing I have seen"—an expression implying continuance. On the force of the anthropomorphic terms "seeing, hearing, knowing," as used of God, see the comment on Exodus 2:24-25. Taskmasters…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:7-9
A large promise for a great need. I. THE GREAT NEED. It is a need carefully observed by God and well known to him. This has been recorded already, although hardly so emphatically, in Exodus 2:23-25. It is one thing to h…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:8
I am come down. Another anthropomorphism, and one very common in Scripture (Genesis 11:5, Genesis 11:7; Genesis 18:21; Psalms 18:9; Psalms 144:5, etc.), connected of course with the idea that God has a special dwellingp…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:9
This is a repetition, in substance, of Exodus 3:7, on account of the long parenthesis in Exodus 3:8, and serves to introduce Exodus 3:10. The nexus is: "I have seen the oppression—I am come down to deliver them—come now…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:10-12
Insufficiency. A very different Moses this from the hero who was formerly so ready, even without a call, to undertake the work of Israel's deliverance. Probably failure in that first attempt led him to doubt whether he…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:10-12
The first difficulty: Who am I? Divine promises are not long kept separated from human duty. Scarcely has God presented to Moses this welcome, almost dazzling prospect for Israel, when there breaks upon his ear an annou…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:11-17
Hindrances to service and how God removes them. 1. THE HINDRANCE FOUND IN THE SENSE OF OUR OWN WEAKNESS (Exodus 3:11, Exodus 3:12). 1. Moses knew the pomp and pride of the Egyptian court. He remembered how Israel had re…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:11
And Moses said … Who am I, that I should go, etc. A great change had come over Moses. Forty years earlier he had been forward to offer himself as a "deliverer." He "went out" to his brethren and slew one of their oppres…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:11
Fitness of Moses to be God's instrument in delivering Israel. The fitness of Moses to be Israel's deliverer will appear if we consider, first, What were the qualities which the part of deliverer required; secondly, how…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:11-12
Moses' timidity notwithstanding his fitness. It is not often that those are most confident of their powers who are fittest for God's work. Great capacity is constantly accompanied by a humble estimate of itself. Jeremia…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:12
Certainly I will be with thee. Literally, "Since I will be with thee." Moses had excused himself on the ground of unfitness. God replies—"Thou wilt not be unfit, since I will be with thee—I will supply thy deficiencies—…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:13-15
God's revelation of himself under the name Jehovah, and the meaning of it. At first sight the name by which God shall be called may seem unimportant, as it is unimportant whether a man be called Tully or Cicero. But, or…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:13-15
The proper Name of God. "This is my name for ever," etc.—(Exodus 3:15.) This incident of the burning bush teems with subjects susceptible of homiletic treatment. We name a few of the more important, which we ourselves d…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:13
What is his name? It is not at all clear why Moses should suppose that the Israelites would ask him this question, nor does it even appear that they did ask it. Perhaps, however, he thought that, as the Egyptians used t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:13-17
The second difficulty: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob-what is his name? Moses feels that when he goes among his brethren, one of their first questions will be as to the name of this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jaco…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:14
I AM THAT I AM. No better translation can be given of the Hebrew words. "I will be that I will be (Geddes) is more literal, but less idiomatic, since the Hebrew was the simplest possible form of the verb substantive. "I…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:15
The Lord God. In the original Jehovah elohey—"Jehovah, God of your fathers," etc. The name is clearly an equivalent of the "I AM" in the preceding versa The exact mode of its formation from the old root hava, "to be," i…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:15-16
The Name. The request of Moses to know the name of the Being who had filled him with such unutterable awe (Exodus 3:6), rested on ideas deeply rooted in ancient modes of thought. The "name" with us tends to become an ar…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:16-22
The two messages. I. THE MESSAGE TO THE ELDERS OF ISRAEL (Exodus 3:16-18). Moses was to go first to the elders of the people. First—before he went to Pharaoh; and first—before communicating with any of the people. This…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:16
The Divine injunction to gather the elders. God here added another injunction to those which he had previously given (Exodus 3:10), as to the modus operandi which Moses was to adopt. He was to go to the children of Isra…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:16
Gather the elders. It is generally thought that we are to understand by "the elders" not so much the more aged men, as these who bore a certain official rank and position among their brethren, the heads of the various h…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:18
They shall hearken to thy voice. Moses thought they would despise him—turn a deaf ear to his words—look upon him as unworthy of credit. But it was not so. The hearts of men are in God's hands, and he disposed those of t…