Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 14:31
And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.
31. The effects of the great deliverance thus wrought for Israel: an increased fear of God, and belief in God, and also in Moses’ Divine commission.
work ] Heb. hand, fig. for act or work; cf. Deu 34:12, Psa 78:42.
believed in ] ‘The idiom rendered “he believed in” ( ) is a very striking one: the belief intended is, not merely a crediting of a testimony concerning a person or a thing (this would be ), but a laying firm hold morally on a person or a thing, without the help of any intermediate agency’ (Cheyne, s.v. Faith in EB.). Cf. Gen 15:6. The root idea of is to shew firmness or steadiness towards ( ) or on ( ) a person or a word: cf. Job 39:24 RVm., and the cognate subst. in ch. Exo 17:12 ( Lex. ‘Moses’ hands were firmness ’).
his servant ] A title applied to Moses elsewhere in the Pent. only Num 12:7-8, Deu 34:5 (both JE). It is very common in the book of Joshua (mostly in parts which are the work of the Deuteronomic editor): Jos 1:1-2; Jos 1:7; Jos 1:13; Jos 1:15, Jos 8:31;Jos 8:33, Jos 9:24, Jos 11:12;Jos 11:15, Jos 12:6, Jos 13:8, Jos 14:7, Jos 18:7, Jos 22:2; Jos 22:4-5.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 31. The people feared the Lord] They were convinced by the interference of Jehovah that his power was unlimited, and that he could do whatsoever he pleased, both in the way of judgment and in the way of mercy.
And believed the Lord, and his servant Moses.] They now clearly discerned that God had fulfilled all his promises; and that not one thing had failed of all the good which he had spoken concerning Israel. And they believed his servant Moses – they had now the fullest proof that he was Divinely appointed to work all these miracles, and to bring them out of Egypt into the promised land.
Thus God got himself honour upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and credit in the sight of Israel. After this overthrow of their king and his host, the Egyptians interrupted them no more in the journeyings, convinced of the omnipotence of their Protector: and how strange, that after such displays of the justice and mercy of Jehovah, the Israelites should ever have been deficient in faith, or have given place to murmuring!
1. THE events recorded in this chapter are truly astonishing; and they strongly mark what God can do, and what he will do, both against his enemies and in behalf of his followers. In vain are all the forces of Egypt united to destroy the Israelites: at the breath of God’s mouth they perish; and his feeble, discouraged, unarmed followers take the prey! With such a history before their eyes, is it not strange that sinners should run on frowardly in the path of transgression; and that those who are redeemed from the world, should ever doubt of the all-sufficiency and goodness of their God! Had we not already known the sequel of the Israelitish history, we should have been led to conclude that this people would have gone on their way rejoicing, trusting in God with their whole heart, and never leaning to their own understanding; but alas! we find that as soon as any new difficulty occurred, they murmured against God and their leaders, despised the pleasant land, and gave no credence to his word.
2. Their case is not a solitary one: most of those who are called Christians are not more remarkable for faith and patience. Every reverse will necessarily pain and discompose the people who are seeking their portion in this life. And it is a sure mark of a worldly mind, when we trust the God of Providence and grace no farther than we see the operations of his hand in our immediate supply; and murmur and repine when the hand of his bounty seems closed, and the influences of his Spirit restrained, though our unthankful and unholy carriage has been the cause of this change. Those alone who humble themselves under the mighty hand of God, shall be lifted up in due season. Reader, thou canst never be deceived in trusting thy all, the concerns of thy body and soul, to Him who divided the sea, saved the Hebrews, and destroyed the Egyptians.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And Israel saw the great work,…. Or “hand” l; the hand of the Lord, the mighty power of God, and took notice of it, and seriously considered the greatness of it:
which the Lord did upon the Egyptians; which mighty hand he laid upon them, and which great power he exercised on them, and which great work, the effect thereof, he wrought in destroying them in such a manner, by causing the waters, which divided for them and their safety, to return upon the Egyptians to their utter destruction:
and the people feared the Lord; had an awe of his power and greatness upon their minds, and a sense of his goodness to them upon their hearts, which influenced their fear of him, and caused them to fear him with a filial and godly fear:
and believed the Lord and his servant Moses; they believed the Lord to be the only Jehovah, the supreme Being, the one only living and true God, faithful to his word, able to do all things, and wise to do them in the fittest season, for his own glory and his people’s good; and they believed his promises, and the fulfilment of them; and that as he had now saved them out of the hands of the Egyptians, he would bring them to the land of Canaan, which he had promised their fathers to give unto them; and they believed Moses was sent of God to be their deliverer out of Egypt, and to be their leader to the promised land; see Ps 106:12 and who were now by the apostle said to be baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 1Co 10:1 and of their passage through the Red sea under the direction of Moses being an emblem of baptism, [See comments on 1Co 10:1].
l Sept. Manum, Pagninus, Montanus, &c.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
31. And Israel saw. After he has said that the Israelites saw the dead bodies spread upon the seashore, he now adds that in this spectacle God’s hand, (160) i.e., His power, appeared, because there was no difficulty in distinguishing between God’s wrath and His fatherly love, in preserving so miraculously an unwarlike multitude, and in destroying in the depths of the sea an army formidable on every account. Moses, therefore, does not unreasonably conclude here that the Divine power was conspicuous in the deliverance of the people. He afterwards adds, that, not without their profit, did the Israelites see God’s hand; because they feared Him, and believed Him, and His servant Moses. “Fear” is here used for that reverence which kept the people in the way of duty, for they were not only affected by dread, but also attracted to devote themselves to God, whose goodness they had so sweetly and delightfully experienced. But although this pious feeling was not durable, at any rate with the greater number of them, it is still probable that it rooted itself in some few of them, because some seed ever remained, nor was the recollection of this blessing entirely destroyed. By the word “believed,” I think that the principal part of fear is marked, and I understand it to be added expositively, as if it were said, “that they reverenced God, and testified this by faithfully embracing His doctrine and obediently submitting themselves to Moses.” I understand it that they were all generally thus affected, because the recognition of God’s hand bowed them to obedience, that they should be more tractable and docile, and more inclined to follow God. But this ardor soon passed away from the greater number of them, as (hypocrites (161)) are wont to be only influenced by what is visible and present; although I hold to what I have just said, that, in some small number, the fear of God, which they had once conceived from a sense of His grace, still abode in rigor. Meanwhile, let us learn from this passage that God is never truly and duly worshipped without faith, because incredulity betrays gross contempt of Him; and although hypocrites boast of their heaping all kinds of honor upon God, still they inflict the greatest insult upon Him, by refusing to believe His revelations. But Moses, who had been chosen God’s minister for governing the people, is not unreasonably here united with Him, for although God’s majesty manifested itself by conspicuous signs, still Moses was the mediator, out of whose mouth God willed that His words should be heard, so that the holy man could not be despised without God’s own authority being rejected. A profitable doctrine is gathered from hence, that whenever God propounds His word to us by men, those who faithfully deliver His commands must be as much attended to as if He himself openly descended from heaven. This recommendation of the ministry ought to be more than sufficient to refute their folly, who set at naught the outward preaching of the word. Let us, then, hold fast this principle, that only those obey God who receive the prophets sent from Him, because it is not lawful to put asunder what He has joined together. Christ has more clearly expressed this in the words, —
“
He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me.” (Mat 10:40.)
But it is more than absurd, that the Pope, with his filthy clergy, should take this to himself, as if he was to be heard when he puts forward God’s name; for (to pass over many other reasons which I could mention) it will be, first of all, necessary that he should prove himself to be God’s servant, from whence I wish he was not so far removed. For here the obedience of the people is praised on no other grounds but because they “believed the Lord,” and, together with Him, “His servant Moses.”
(160) So in margin, A.V.
(161) This word, added in the Fr., seems necessary to complete the sense.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(31) Israel saw that great work.The destruction of the Pharaohs chariot force and cavalry in the Red Sea secured the retreat of Israel, and saved them from any further molestation at the hands of the Egyptians. The spirit of the nation was effectually broken for the time; and it was not till after several reigns, and an interval of anarchy, that there was a revival. The king himself probably despaired of effecting anything against a foe that was supernaturally protected; and the army, having lost the flower of the chariot force, on which it mainly depended for success, desired no further contest. The Israelites, as will be seen further on, in their rapid march to Sinai avoided the Egyptian settlements, and having once reached the Sinaitic region, they were beyond the dominion of Egypt, and for forty years quite out of the path of Egyptian conquest. The episode in the life of the nation begun by the descent of Jacob into Egypt now terminated, and a fresh beginning was made. In the open air of the desert, cut off from all other races, admitted to close communion with Jehovah, the people entered upon that new and higher existence which culminated in the teaching of the prophets, in the noble struggles of Ezra and Nehemiah, and in the memorable stand on behalf of religious truth and national independence which was made by the Maccabees.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
DISCOURSE: 83
ISRAELS DELIVERANCE AT THE RED SEA
Exo 14:31. And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses.
THE state of man on earth is diversified with trials and deliverances, more or less, to the latest hour of his life. Even when we have the clearest evidence that we are in the Lords way, we shall yet meet with many things which will involve us in trouble and perplexity. The disciples were ordered by their Lord to cross the sea of Tiberias: but in passing it, they were overtaken with a storm, which threatened them with destruction. It was not possible for the Israelites to doubt, but that they were precisely in the place where God would have them; yet were they menaced with instant death by the proud vindictive monarch, from whose tyranny they had just escaped. But this grievous affliction was only introductory to a signal deliverance. God now interposed on their behalf, and wrought for them a great work.
That we may make a profitable use of this part of scripture history, let us consider,
I.
The work referred to
This is justly called great: for it was no less than the destruction of all the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. But that we may view it distinctly in all its parts, we observe, that it was,
1.
A discriminating work
[The pillar which had hitherto gone before the Israelites, to lead them in the way, removed, and stood behind them, as soon as their enemies had come within sight of their camp. But to the Egyptians it presented only a dark side, increasing thereby the natural darkness of the night, and preventing them from continuing their march; while to the Israelites it was a light of fire, enabling them to do whatever their situation and safety required.
Again, the sea which was divided by the east wind, opened a secure retreat for all the hosts of Israel: but as soon as the Egyptians attempted to follow them, it resumed its wonted state, and overwhelmed them utterly; thus affording a passage to Israel, but only a grave to Egypt.
Now this manifest distinction which God made between the Israelites and the Egyptians, might well exalt the work in the eyes of those who were so greatly benefited by it.]
2.
A judicial work
[Pharaoh and his courtiers had hardened their hearts against him, so that all the successive plagues could not bring them to submit to his will. Now therefore God gave them an opportunity to harden their hearts yet more against him. Instead of leading the Israelites at once into the wilderness, he led them aside to a situation, from whence apparently there was no escape. Rocks and morasses were on either side, and the Red Sea before them. This seemed a favourable opportunity for Pharaoh to overtake them, and to wreak his vengeance upon them: and Pharaoh, instigated by his resentment, determined not to lose the opportunity: he instantly collected all the chariots and horsemen in his army, and pursued them: and he rushed into the very snare, which God had predicted he would fall into.
Again, Pharaoh had destroyed the male children of the Israelites in the river Nile: and now God visited this iniquity on him, and on all his army, in the Red Sea. Who does not see in these things a judicial infatuation, and a judicial sentence; both of which, when contemplated by the Israelites, must raise this work yet higher in their estimation?]
3.
A glorious work
[God had said, that he would get himself glory on Pharaoh and on all his subjects; and that the Egyptians should at last be constrained to acknowledge Him as the one supreme God of all the earth. And truly this work did bring glory to God [Note: Isa 63:12-14.] ; for it displayed and magnified everyone of his perfections: his wisdom in so accomplishing his own will, while no restraint whatever was imposed on the will of Pharaoh; his power, in dividing the sea, and making the waters to stand as a wall, while the Israelites passed through dry-shod; his justice, in suffering the Egyptians to proceed so far, as that, when enclosed in his net, they might all be destroyed; his truth and faithfulness, in accomplishing to the posterity of Abraham the deliverance which he had promised four hundred years before.
This work did indeed manifest to Egypt and to Israel, that Jehovah is the Most High over all the earth, a God, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders.]
Let us now proceed to notice,
II.
The effect it produced
Stupid and insensible as that nation had shewn themselves in the midst of all the mercies vouchsafed to them in Egypt, they could not but be affected with this. Accordingly we find that, on seeing the hand of God thus stretched out for them, they began to feel,
1.
A regard for his authority
[Fear is of two kinds, filial and servile; and it is probable that in some of the people the former predominated, and in others the latter. On an occasion somewhat similar, where God, in testimony of his displeasure against his people for desiring a king, sent a tremendous storm of thunder and lightning, we are told that the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel [Note: 1Sa 12:18.]. This was certainly a servile fear: and it should seem that the greatest part of the Israelites at the Red Sea were affected with no higher principle; because they even within a few days forgat this work [Note: Psa 106:12-13.], and all the others that God had wrought for them. Indeed temporal deliverances, however great, will produce only transient impressions, if not accompanied with the grace of God. But a view of that redemption which we have in Christ Jesuswhat will not that effect I That will implant a fear in the heart, a fear that shall be mighty and uniform in its operation [Note: 2Co 5:14-15.], a fear that shall expel all other fear, and bring the whole soul into a willing captivity to the obedience of Christ ]
2.
Confidence in his protection
[As fear, so faith also, is of different kinds. We read of many who, when they saw the miracles of Jesus, believed in him; and yet he would not commit himself to them, because he knew that their hearts were yet unrenewed [Note: Joh 2:11; Joh 2:23-24.]. And Simon Magus is said to have believed [Note: Act 8:13.], whilst yet he remained in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity. Such in too great a measure, we fear, was the faith which the Israelites now reposed in God, and in his servant Moses. They were struck with an irresistible conviction, that God was all-sufficient for them, and that Moses was infallibly directed by him to manage every thing for their good. In the very next trial, however, they lost the remembrance of their present convictions, and began to doubt and murmur as before. Not so the persons whose faith is truly spiritual; who, being united to Christ, are partakers of his redemption: they know in whom they have believed; and, whatever difficulties occur, they hold fast their confidence, saying with the Apostle, He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? ]
Improvement
1.
Let us take care that our religious affections be sincere and permanent
[Many good feelings may be excited in the heart by some particular occurrence, or some moving discourse. But our goodness is apt to be like the morning dew, or the early cloud that passeth away. Such affections however will afford us no support in a trying hour; much less will they benefit us at the bar of judgment. Let us see to it therefore that we obtain, not merely some transient feelings of good, but a new nature: that so our fear of God be such as to make us obedient to his will, and our faith such as shall enable us to commit ourselves entirely to his disposal.]
2.
Let us, for the purpose of generating those affections in our hearts, contemplate deeply the great work of Redemption
[We never improve aright a typical deliverance, unless we turn our thoughts to the deliverance which it prefigured. What was intended by that before us, we can be at no loss to determine, since God himself has declared it to us [Note: Isa 51:10-11.]. The redemption of the world by Christs obedience unto death, and our consequent deliverance from death and hell, should never be far from our thoughts. It is so stupendous a work, that it has filled all heaven with wonder; and the riches of divine grace contained in it are absolutely unsearchable. To know this, to feel this, to be interested in this, will produce a change in our hearts, which shall last for ever [Note: The conversion of the soul is spoken of in terms directly referring to this event. Isa 11:15-16.]. And when we shall see our enemies dead upon the sea-shore, and ourselves placed beyond the reach of harm, it will furnish us with an inexhaustible subject of gratitude and thanksgiving.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
There is a delightful passage in the Psa 74:14 the spiritual sense of which is, (I venture to believe) that the meat of the soul, in trying dispensations to Israel in the wilderness, was looking back to the event of this distinguishing mercy. And so it is now. Past experience of God’s faithfulness becomes food for faith in what is to come. Reader! if you and I had but grace to call to mind how the Lord hath appeared for us in former trials, this would bring relief and confidence to the soul, under present or future difficulties. Blessed Spirit! be thou the Lord’s remembrancer. Joh 14:26 ; Mic 6:5 .
REFLECTIONS
Who would have thought, that after the many humbling lessons, Pharaoh had been taught, that folly should again so far have blinded his eyes, as to have come out against the Lord’s people. My soul! Think seriously, in the view of this awful instance, to what a desperate state of wickedness the heart of man is capable of attaining when given up to a reprobate mind.
Who would have thought, that after the Lord had so wonderfully interposed in bringing Israel out of Egypt, and while guiding them by a pillar of cloud, and protecting them by a pillar of fire; that any further trouble should have arisen to harass and afflict them. My soul! remember the straits of Israel, in all the lesser trials of your faith: and do not forget, that as but for those difficulties which the people of God sustained, they never would have known the preciousness of divine interposition, in this miracle of mercy to themselves, and destruction to their enemies: so neither would you know the numberless instances of the Lord’s opening ways of deliverance to you, and a thousand proofs of grace helping you on in the path, if there was not an hedge of thorns thrown up against you, and that frequently, thereby divine strength is made perfect in human weakness.
Reader! before we leave this precious chapter, look at it once again. Have you seen Israel in that critical moment, when, according to all human appearance, destruction was inevitable; an enemy behind, mountains on each side, and destruction before, and did God then manifest the lighting down of his glorious arm in the very moment of danger? And is it not so with the sinner, in his perilous state, unawakened by grace, and exposed to everlasting ruin. The enemy hastening on; sin encompassing all around; and every step he takes only leading nearer to the borders of eternity. Lord! open to the Reader (if haply his eyes have never yet seen his danger) a sense of this state! put a cry like Israel’s in his heart to the Lord; and when, under divine teaching, he hath learnt, that every door of escape in himself is shut, and that there is no way to escape by human power; then do thou, as to Israel, open that new and living way in Christ’s blood; give him to see, that there is salvation in no other; and let the language of one of old, be the language of his heart; I will go forth in the strength of the Lord God, and will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only. My mouth shall show forth thy righteousness and thy salvation, for I know not the number thereof.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Redeeming Points
Exo 14:31
In the book of Exodus we have an account of the character of the people delivered by the power of Jehovah and guided and directed by the statesmanship of Moses. Sometimes in reading the history we think there never were such rebellious and stiff-necked people in all human history. Moses is often angry with them; the Lord himself often burns with indignation against them; sometimes, as cool and impartial readers, we feel the spirit of anger rising within us as we contemplate the selfishness, the waywardness, and the impracticableness of the children of Israel. We feel that they were altogether undeserving the grace, the compassion, the patient love which marked the Divine administration of their affairs. The spirit of impatience rises within us and we say, “Why does not God bury this stiff-necked and hard-hearted race in the wilderness and trouble himself no longer about people who receive his mercies without gratitude, and who seeing his hand mistake it for a shadow or for some common figure? Why does the great heart weary itself with a race not worth saving?” Sometimes the Lord does come nigh to the act of utter destruction: and it seems as if justice were about to be consummated and every instinct within us to be satisfied by the vindication of a power always defied and a beneficence never understood.
Give yourselves a little time to discover if you can the redeeming points even in so ungracious and so unlovable a history. It will indeed be a religious exercise, full of the spirit of edification and comfort, to seek some little sparkles of gold in this infinite mass of worthlessness. It will be quite worth a Sabbath day’s journey to find two little grains of wheat in all this wilderness of chaff. Surely this is the very spirit of compassion and love, this is the very poetry and music of God’s administration, that he is always looking for the redeeming points in every human character. Allowing that the mass of the history is against the people: still there cannot be any escape from that conclusion. If it were a question of putting vice into one scale and virtue into the other, and a mere rough exercise in avoirdupois-weighing, the Israelites could not stand for one moment. To find out the secret of patience, to begin to see how it is that God spares any man, surely is a religious quest in the pursuit of which we may expect to find, and almost to see face to face, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Moses, having come from the Divine presence:
“called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” ( Exo 19:7-8 ).
That was an outburst of religious emotion; that exclamation showed that the heart was not all dead through and through. That one sentence might be remembered amidst many a hurricane of opposition and many a tumult of ungrateful and irrational rebellion. We understand this emotion perfectly. There have been times in our most callous lives when we have caught ourselves singing some great psalm of adoration, some sweet hymn holding in it the spirit of testimony and pledge and holy oath. It would seem as if God set down one such moment as a great period in our lives as if under the pressure of his infinite mercy he magnified the one declaration which took but a moment to utter into a testimony filling up the space of half a lifetime. It is long before God can forget some prayers. Does it not seem as if the Lord rather rested upon certain sweet words of love we spoke to him even long ago, than as if he had taken a reproach out of our mouth at the moment and fastened his judgment upon the severe and ungrateful word? Is it not within the Almighty love to beat out some little piece of gold into a covering for a long life? It is not his delight to remember sins or to speak about the iniquities which have grieved his heart, or to dig graves in the wilderness for the rebellious who have misunderstood his purpose and his government. “His mercy endureth for ever,” and if we have ever spoken one true prayer to heaven, it rings, and resounds, and vibrates, and throbs again like music he will never willingly silence It would seem as if one little prayer might quench the memory of ten thousand blasphemies. “And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” Here you find a religious responsiveness which ought to mark the history of the Church and the history of the individual as well.
“The people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses” ( Exo 14:31 ).
Every good thing is set down. The Lord is not unrighteous to forget your work of faith. We wonder sometimes in our ignorance whether any little sign of good that has been in the heart is not written most legibly in heaven; and all things unlovely, undivine, so written that none but God can decipher the evil record. It would be like our Father to write our moral virtues in great lustrous characters and all the story of our sin and shame so that no angel could read a word of it. This is the way of love. How much we talk about the little deed of kindness when we want to save some character from fatal judgment, from social separation, and from all the penalties of evil behaviour! There is no monotony in the recital; love invents new phrases, new distributions of emphasis, wondrous variations of music, and so keeps on telling the little tale of the flower that was given, of the smile that was indicative of pleasure, of the hand that was put out in fellowship and pledge of amity. Again and again the story so short is made into quite a long narrative by the imagination of love, by the marvellous language which is committed to the custody of the heart. It is God’s way. If we give him a cup of cold water, he will tell all the angels about it; if we lend him one poorest thing he seems to need, he will write it so that the record can be read from one end of the earth to the other; if we give him some testimony of love, say one little box of spikenard, he will have the story of the oblation told wheresoever his gospel is preached. Yes, he will tell about the gift when he will hide the sin; he will have all his preachers relate the story of the penitence in such glowing terms that the sin shall fall into invisible perspective. God is looking for good; God is looking for excellences, not for faults. Could we but show him one little point of excellence, it should go far to redeem from needful and righteous judgment and penalty a lifetime of evil-doing.
“The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work” ( Exo 36:5 )
There is a redeeming point. The spirit of willingness is in the people. They have a good season now; they are in their best moods at this time; they are most generous; they come forward in their very best force and look quite godly in their daily devotion and service to the tabernacle. Surely in the worst character there are some little faint lines of good! Why do we not imitate God and make the most of these? We are so prone to the other kind of criticism: it seems to be in our very heart of hearts to find fault; to point out defections; to write down a whole record and catalogue of infirmities and mishaps, and to hold up the writing as a proof of our own respectability. God never does so; he is righteous on the one side and on the other; he never connives at sin; he never compromises with evil; he never fails to discriminate between good and bad, light and darkness, the right hand and the left; but when he does come upon some little streak of excellence, some faint mark of a better life he seems to multiply it by his own holiness, and to be filled with a new joy because of pearls of virtue which he has found in a rebellious race. Character is not a simple line beginning at one point and ending at another, drawn by the pencil of a child and measurable by the eye of every observer. Character is a mystery; we must not attempt to judge character. “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” The Pharisees dragged up those whom they found doing wrong, but their doing so was never sanctioned by the Master; in all their attempts at judgment they were judged; whenever they displayed their virtue he burnt up the rag and left them to carry the cinders away. This should lead us to much seriousness in estimating character, and should keep us from uncharitableness; but at the same time it should encourage our own souls in the pursuit and quest of things heavenly. We do not know the meaning of all we feel and do. Let me suppose that some man is not regarded by others as religious and spiritual; let it be my business as a Christian shepherd to find out some point in that character upon which I can found an argument and base an appeal. I may find it sometimes in one great hot tear; the man would not have allowed me to see that tear on any account if he could have helped it, but I did see it, and having seen it I have hope of his soul. He is not damned yet. I may notice it in a half-intention to write to the wronged ones at home. The young man has taken up his pen and begun to address the old parents whose hearts he has withered. When I observe him in the act of dipping his pen, I say, “He was dead and is alive again”; and though he should lay down the pen without writing the letter of penitence, I have hope in him: he may yet write it and make the confession and seek the absolution of hearts that are dying to forgive him. Do not tell me of the spendthrift’s course, do not heap up the accusation any hireling can be bribed to make out the black catalogue; be it ours to see the first heavenward motion, to hear the first Godward sigh, and to make the most of these signs of return and submission. Good and bad do live together in every character. I never met a human creature that was all bad: I have been surprised rather to see in the most unexpected places beautiful little flowers never planted by the hand of man. All flowers are not found in gardens, hedged and walled in, and cultured at so much a day; many a flower we see was never planted by the human gardener. In every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Heaven. At the risk of incurring the unkind judgment of some in that I may be ministering to your vanity how they mistake the case who reason so! I will venture to say that in every one, however unrecognised by the constables of the Church or by the priests of the altar, there are signs that they are not forsaken of God.
Now comes the thought for which I have no language adequate in copiousness or fit in delicateness. It would seem as if the little good outweighed the evil. God does not decide by majorities. There is not a more vulgar standard of right and wrong than so-called majorities; it is an evil form of judgment wholly useful for temporary purposes, but of no use whatever in moral judgment. The majority in a man’s own heart is overwhelming. If each action were a vote, and if hands were held up for evil, a forest of ten thousand might instantly spring up; and then if we called for the vote expressive of religious desire, there might be one trembling hand half extended. Who counts? God. What says he? How rules he from his throne? It will be like him to say, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” If he could find out in our life that we once dropped on one knee, and began a prayer, there is no telling what may be done by his love in multiplying the act into an eternal obeisance and regarding the unfinished prayer as an eternal supplication. This is how the judgment will go. God has not forsaken us. To open his book with any desire to find in it reading for the soul is a proof that we are not abandoned of our Father; to go into the sanctuary even with some trouble of mind or reluctance of will to be there is a sign that we are not yet cast out into the darkness infinite.
Yet even here the stern lesson stands straight up and demands to be heard namely: If any man can be satisfied with the little that he has, he has not the little on which he bases his satisfaction. It is not our business to magnify the little; we do well to fix our mind for long stretches of time upon the evil, and the wrong, and the foul, and the base. It is not for us to seek self-satisfaction; our place is in the dust; our cry should be “Unclean! unprofitable!” a cry for mercy. It is God’s place to find anything in us on which he can base hope for our future, or found a claim for the still further surrender of our hostile but still human hearts.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Exo 14:31 And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.
Ver. 31. See Trapp on “ Exo 14:30 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
His servant Moses. First occurance. See the five, Exo 14:3. Jos 9:24; Jos 11:16. 1Ki 8:56. Psa 105:26, and compare notes on Num 12:7. Deu 35:5. 1Ki 8:53. Neh 10:29.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
feared
(See Scofield “Psa 19:9”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
work: Heb. hand
feared: 1Sa 12:18, Psa 119:120
believed: Exo 4:31, Exo 19:9, 2Ch 20:20, Psa 106:12, Psa 106:13, Luk 8:13, Joh 2:11, Joh 2:23-25, Joh 8:30-32, Joh 11:45, Act 8:13
Reciprocal: Gen 15:14 – that Exo 3:19 – General Exo 19:4 – seen Deu 7:18 – remember Jos 4:14 – they feared him Jos 4:24 – ye might Jos 24:7 – your eyes 1Sa 12:8 – brought 1Sa 12:16 – stand 1Ki 3:28 – feared 1Ch 29:20 – worshipped Psa 9:16 – known Psa 22:4 – General Psa 46:8 – desolations Psa 78:42 – the day Psa 81:7 – calledst Pro 24:21 – fear Jer 2:2 – the kindness Mic 6:4 – I brought Act 7:7 – the nation Act 7:36 – after Act 13:17 – and with 1Co 10:2 – General Heb 3:5 – as
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 14:31. The people feared the Lord This great work, which the Lord had done upon the Egyptians, was a means of begetting in them, for the present at least, awful thoughts of God, and devout affections toward him. And they believed the Lord and his servant Moses Now they were ashamed of their distrusts and murmurings; and in the mind they were in, they would never again despair of help from heaven, no, not in the greatest straits! They would never again quarrel with Moses, nor talk of returning to Egypt. How well were it for us if we were always in as good a frame as we are in sometimes!
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
14:31 And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his {n} servant Moses.
(n) That is, the doctrine which he taught them in the Name of the Lord.