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THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.
EDITED BY THE REV.
W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.
_Editor of "The Expositor."_
THE BOOK OF EXODUS.
BY THE VERY REV.
G. A. CHADWICK, D.D.
_Dean of Armagh_
London:
HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCXC.
THE
BOOK OF EXODUS.
BY THE VERY REV.
G. A. CHADWICK, D.D.
_Dean of Armagh,_
AUTHOR OF "CHRIST BEARING WITNESS TO HIMSELF,"
"AS HE THAT SERVETH," "THE GOSPEL OF ST. MARK," ETC.
London:
HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCXC.
Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.
PREFACE.
Much is now denied or doubted, within the Church itself, concerning the
Book of Exodus, which was formerly accepted with confidence by all
Christians.
But one thing can neither be doubted nor denied. Jesus Christ did
certainly treat this book, taking it as He found it, as possessed of
spiritual authority, a sacred scripture. He taught His disciples to
regard it thus, and they did so.
Therefore, however widely His followers may differ about its date and
origin, they must admit the right of a Christian teacher to treat this
book, taking it as he finds it, as a sacred scripture and invested with
spiritual authority. It is the legitimate subject of exposition in the
Church.
Such work this volume strives, however imperfectly, to perform. Its
object is to edify in the first place, and also, but in the second
place, to inform. Nor has the author consciously shrunk from saying what
seemed to him proper to be said because the utterance would be
unwelcome, either to the latest critical theory, or to the last
sensational gospel of an hour.
But since controversy has not been sought, although exposition has not
been suppressed when it carried weapons, by far the greater part of the
volume appeals to all who accept their Bible as, in any true sense, a
gift from God.
No task is more difficult than to exhibit the Old Testament in the light
of the New, discovering the permanent in the evanescent, and the
spiritual in the form and type which it inhabited and illuminated. This
book is at least the result of a firm belief that such a connection
between the two Testaments does exist, and of a patient endeavour to
receive the edification offered by each Scripture, rather than to force
into it, and then extort from it, what the expositor desires to find.
Nor has it been supposed that by allowing the imagination to assume, in
sacred things, that rank as a guide which reason holds in all other
practical affairs, any honour would be done to Him Who is called the
Spirit of knowledge and wisdom, but not of fancy and quaint conceits.
If such an attempt does, in any degree, prove successful and bear fruit,
this fact will be of the nature of a scientific demonstration.
If this ancient Book of Exodus yields solid results to a sober
devotional exposition in the nineteenth Christian century, if it is not
an idle fancy that its teaching harmonises with the principles and
theology of the New Testament, and even demands the New Testament as the
true commentary upon the Old, what follows? How comes it that the oak is
potentially in the acorn, and the living creature in the egg? No germ is
a manufactured article: it is a part of the system of the universe.
ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE PROLOGUE, i. 1-6.
Books linked by conjunction "And:" Scripture history a connected whole,
1.--So is secular history organic: "Philosophy of history." The
Pentateuch being a still closer unity, Exodus rehearses the descent into
Egypt, 2.--Heredity: the family of Jacob, 3.--Death of Joseph. Influence
of Egypt on the shepherd race, 4.--A healthy stock: good breeding.
Goethe's aphorism, 5.--Ourselves and our descendants, 6.
GOD IN HISTORY, i. 7.
In Exodus, national history replaces biography, 6.--Contrasted
narratives of Jacob and Moses. Spiritual progress from Genesis to
Exodus, 7.--St. Paul's view: Law prepares for Gospel, especially by our
failures, 8.--This explains other phenomena: failures in various
circumstances, of innocence in Eden; of an elect family; now of a race,
a nation, 9.--Israel, failing with all advantages, needs a Messiah.
Faith justifies, in Old Testament as in New, 10.--Scripture history
reveals God in this life, in all things, 11.--True spirituality owns God
in the secular: this is a gospel for our days, 12-13.
THE OPPRESSION, i. 7-22.
Early prosperity: its dangers: political supports vain, 13.--Joseph
forgotten. National responsibilities: despotism, 14.--Nations and their
chiefs. Our subject races, 15.--The Church and her King: imputation.
Pharaoh precipitates what he fears, 16.--Egypt and her aliens: modern
parallels, 17.--Tyranny is tyrannous even when cultured, 18.--Our undue
estrangement from the fallen: Jesus a brother. Toil crushes the spirit,
19.--Israel idolatrous. Religious dependence, 20. --Direct interposition
required. Bitter oppression, 21.--Pharaoh drops the mask. Defeated by
the human heart. The midwives, 22.--Their falsehood. Morality is
progressive, 23.--Culture and humanity, 24.--Religion and the child, 25.