Unto whom? Who was Moses sent to? To the Children of Israel in Egypt.
And what sort of people were they? Were they wise and learned? On the
contrary they were stupid, ignorant, and brutish. Were they pious and
godly? On the contrary they were worshipping the foolish idols of the
Egyptians--so fond of idolatry that they must needs make a golden calf
and worship it. Were they respectable and cleanly livers? Were they
teachable and obedient? On the contrary, they were profligate, stiff-
necked, murmurers, disobedient, unwilling to trust God's goodness, though
He had shown them all those glorious signs and wonders for their sakes,
and brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm.
Were they high-spirited and brave? On the contrary, they were
mean-spirited and cowards, murmuring against Moses and against God, if
anything went wrong, for setting them free; ready to go back and be
slaves to the Egyptians rather than face danger and fight; looking back
and longing after the flesh-pots of Egypt, where they eat bread to the
full, and willing to be slaves again and have all their men children
drowned in the river, and themselves put to hard labour in the brick
kilns, if they could only fill their stomachs. And even at best when
Moses had brought them to the very edge of that rich land of Canaan,
which God had promised them, they were afraid to go into it, and win it
for themselves; and God had to send them back again, to wander forty
years in the wilderness, till all that cowardly, base, first generation,
who came up out of Egypt was dead, and a new generation had grown up,
made brave and hardy by their long training in the deserts, and taught to
trust and obey God from their youth; and so able and willing to conquer
the good land which God had promised them.
Altogether the Children of Israel, to whom God sent Moses, were plainly
an ignorant, brutish, cowardly set of people, fallen lower far than the
negroes of South America, fit to be slaves and nothing better.
Then why did God take such trouble for them? Why did God care for them,
and help them, and work wonders for them? Why? Exactly because they
_were_ so bad. He that hath ears to hear let him hear, and understand by
this example of all examples what manner of God our God is. Just because
they were so bad, His goodness yearned over them all the more, and longed
to make them good. Just because they were so unclean and brutish His
holiness longed all the more to cleanse them. Because they were so
stupid and ignorant, His wisdom longed to make them wise. Because they
were so miserable, His pity yearned over them, as a father over a child
fallen into danger. Because they were sick, they had all the more need
of a physician. Because they were lost, there was all the more reason
for seeking and saving them. Because they were utterly weak, God desired
all the more to put His strength into them, that His strength might be
made perfect in weakness.
True, God's goodness seemed of little use to too many of them. Their
history during the next forty years was a very sad one. With many of
them God was not well pleased, the Bible tells us, and their carcases
fell in the Wilderness. A sad forty years they were for Moses also, as
he says in that sad and glorious Psalm of his (Ps. xc. 7, 8): "We consume
away in thy displeasure, and are afraid of thy wrathful indignation. Thou
hast set our misdeeds before us, our secret sins in the light of thy
countenance, for when Thou art angry our days are gone: we bring our
years to an end as a tale that is told."
But that was all their own fault. God never left them for all those
forty years. He fed them with manna in the wilderness, and the angel of
His presence preserved them.
And now, my friends, remember what I have said of God in this text, "I AM
hath sent me unto you," and see how it preaches to you an almighty,
unchangeable Father, whose mercy is over all His works, full of love and
care for all, longing and labouring for ever by His Son Jesus Christ to
raise us from the death of sin (which is the only death we need to be
afraid of) to the life of righteousness--the only life worth living here,
the only life which we can live beyond the grave! A just God, a merciful
God, a patient God, a generous God, a gracious God; a God whose glory is
to save--a God who is utterly worthy of our love and respect--a God whom
we can trust--a God whom it is worth while to obey--a God who deserves
our thanks from our cradle to our grave--a God to whom we ought honestly,
and from the bottom of our hearts to say, now and for ever:
"We worship Thee, we bless Thee, we praise Thee, we magnify Thee, we give
thanks to Thee for Thy great glory, oh! Lord God, Heavenly King, God the
Father Almighty."