Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 5:20
And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh:
20. stood in the way ] stationed themselves to meet them. 20 21. On coming out from their audience with the Pharaoh, they meet Moses and Aaron; and blame them for being the cause of this aggravation of the people’s sufferings.
Exo 5:20-21
Ye have made our savour to be abhorred.
Lessons
1. Sense of evil from tyrants may make the oppressed fall foul with their best friends.
2. Providence orders His servants sometimes to meet with friends after sad usage by oppressors.
3. Ministers of salvation wait to meet Gods afflicted, when they looked not after them.
4. Instruments of deliverance may desire a good egress of the oppressed from tyrants, and not find it (Exo 5:20).
5. Sense overcharged with oppression may make men reproach God and curse His ministers.
6. Unbelieving souls are ready to set God against His own word, and instruments sent by Him.
7. Hasty unbelievers under cross providences are ready to charge the cause upon Gods ministers.
8. It is the lot of Gods instruments of life, to be charged to be causes of death, by foolish souls.
9. Such unreasonable charges are recorded to the shame of such brutish creatures (Exo 5:21). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Ministers blamed
There was no other to lay the blame upon; and so they charge their trouble upon Moses and Aaron. If you had not come we should have plodded along in our bondage, bearing it as best we could; but you came and raised our hopes, not only to dash them down, but to make our already hard lot more bitter and unbearable. They were angry, apparently not with Pharaoh, but with Gods ministers. I have heard it said, that most sinners who have been aroused out of the sleep and death of sin wake up mad. Indeed, I am quite sure that this is often the case. I remember the case of a man who came to me at one of our meetings in America. He was in the greatest distress of mind, fairly frantic with the conviction of sin, and with the terror of conscience working mightily under the law. At the same time he was bitterly angry with Mr. Moody, who had preceded me in those meetings, and also with me. With a terrible oath he said: I wish to God you and Moody had never come to this city, and begun these–Gospel meetings. Before you came and began to preach I had no trouble. I used to go to church regularly on Sunday morning; but I was not troubled about my sins. What a fool I was ever to come into this rink! I have had no peace day or night since I first heard Moody preach. And you have been making it worse. You talk of peace and joy; but you have turned my soul into a perfect hell. I cannot stay away from the meetings; and to come to them only makes me worse. You promise salvation; and I only find torment. I wish to God you would clear out and leave the city; and then perhaps I could get back my old peace. If this is religion, I am sure I do not want any of it. And thus he raved and tore about like a madman. The devil was giving him a great tearing; and he could not distinguish between what the devil and his sin were doing in him, and the grace that was even then loosing him. Let us not be discouraged or surprised if the first effect of our preaching, or labour with souls, seems to make matters worse. I am a lost soul, cried George Whitefields brother, one day, while sitting at table with Lady Huntingdon, his brother, and some other earnest Christians who were talking of the things of the Kingdom. Thank God for that, cried Lady Huntingdon; for now I am sure the Lord has begun a good work in you. Conviction of sin, and the struggle of the old man to get out of the grip of Gods law, are not pleasant experiences; but they precede conversion. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
They, i.e. the officers who went to pour out their complaints to Pharaoh, Exo 5:15 20, 21. they met Moses . . . TheLord look upon you, and judgeThus the deliverer of Israelfound that this patriotic interference did, in the first instance,only aggravate the evil he wished to remove, and that instead ofreceiving the gratitude, he was loaded with the reproaches of hiscountrymen. But as the greatest darkness is immediately before thedawn, so the people of God are often plunged into the deepestaffliction when on the eve of their deliverance; and so it was inthis case. And they met Moses and Aaron,…. The officers of the children of Israel, who had been with their complaints to Pharaoh:
who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh; they, had placed themselves in a proper situation, that they might meet them when they came out, and know what success they had, and which they were extremely desirous of hearing; by which they might judge in what temper Pharaoh was, and what they might for the future expect from him in consequence of their embassy.
Verses 20-23:
The Hebrew officers left Pharaoh’s court smarting under his refusal to consider their complaint. Moses and Aaron “stood in the way,” literally, “waited to meet them.” The brothers were anxious to hear the results of their audience with-Pharaoh. The officers did not wait for Moses to ask, but launched into a tirade against him and Aaron. “The Lord look upon you, and judge,” or “Jehovah consider your conduct and judge it,” or “pass sentence.”
The officers charged that Moses and Aaron were the cause of their troubles. Their request had placed a weapon in Pharaoh’s hand to execute them for treason, if they did not die under the beatings inflicted upon them. The officers ignored the fact that they had pleaded with Jehovah for release from slavery, and that they rejoiced at the news that He had sent Moses to free them.
The officers’ conduct reflects a human tendency evident today. Even the people of God complain against their spiritual leaders when things do not go according to their plans.
Moses “returned,” literally “turned” to Jehovah, in this time of testing. There is no hint of irreverence in his plea. Moses did not understand the working of Jehovah. Instead of accomplishing the purpose He had promised, Pharaoh was even more adamant in refusing to let Israel go.
Moses’ reaction is typical of that expressed today, when God does not move immediately in response to the prayers of His people. His ways are not always evident to the human mind, even to His own child who seeks to do His will.
20. And they met Moses. Some translate it, (71) “they met together with Moses,” taking the particle את, eth, for “together with;” but it is more in accordance with the context that the officers and some part of the elders or people encountered Moses and Aaron as they returned from Pharaoh. An accidental meeting is indicated, from whence it arose that their minds were still more exasperated against the Lord’s servants. That blind grief is here described which, with a fury akin to madness, aroused the Israelites to unfounded anger against the innocent, who had deserved nothing of the kind. It is not indeed wonderful that they were so brutalized by the weight of their sorrows as to lose all sense of justice, and were even so completely driven out of their minds, as unreasonably to vent their indignation against the ministers of their deliverance; for this not unfrequently happens; but although it may be too common a fault, yet are not they free from the accusation of ingratitude who are carried away thus inconsiderately by the force of their passions; nay, we should learn from this example how carefully we ought to restrain our grief, which, if indulged, parts company both with reason and with kindness. For what could be more unjust than because Pharaoh is tyrannical and cruel to lay the blame on Moses and Aaron? But; this outbreak arose from want of faith; because they measure the favor of God by their immediate success. They had lately thanked God for their promised redemption; now, as if they had been deceived, they accuse Moses and Aaron. Hence we gather how wavering was their faith, which vanishes at once upon so slight a cause. If the calling of Moses had not been ratified by miracles, they might have taken occasion to be angry from their ill success; but now, when they had experimentally known that God was the author of the whole proceeding, it is an act of perversity and falsehood to accuse Moses of rashness; and thus they do injustice not only to a mortal man, but to God their deliverer — an injustice which is doubled by the blasphemous abuse of His name, when they speak of Him as the promoter of a bad cause. For the expression, “the Lord — judge,” is, as it were, to impose upon Him the law by which He must condemn Himself. On this account intemperate grief is still more to be watched against, which, whilst it bursts out immoderately against men, does not even spare God. They did not indeed think that they were reproaching God and rejecting His loving-kindness; for the excess of their passion had transported them out of themselves. Meantime we must mark the source of the evil, namely, that they were impatient, because God did not immediately complete what He had promised, but deferred it for a time; and again, because they sought to be exempted from every evil. Thus they preferred rotting, as it were, in their miseries, to suffering some little inconvenience for the hope of the favor of God. And this cowardice is natural to almost all of us, that we prefer to be without God’s help rather than to suffer under the cross, whilst He leads us to salvation gradually, and sometimes by a circuitous path. Nothing indeed is sweeter than to hear that our afflictions are regarded by God, and that He will come to our relief in tribulation; but if God’s favor awakens the wrath of the ungodly against us, we shall be prepared to abandon all His promises rather than purchase the hopes they afford at so great a price. In the meantime, we see how kindly God contended with the intemperate and corrupt conduct of His people. For certainly by reproaching Moses and Aaron so rudely, the Israelites rejected (as far as in them lay) that message respecting their deliverance which they at first had greedily received; and yet He ceased not to carry on His work even to the end.
(71) In saying “some translate,” C. is again adverting to S. M. , but has rather chosen, with our A. V. , to follow the LXX. and Vulgate. — W.
CRITICAL NOTES.
Exo. 5:23. Neither has thou delivered thy people at all] This, though strong, is scarcely so bold as the original, which here makes an effective use of its preplaced infinitive absolute: andas for deliveringthou has not delivered thy people.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 5:20-23
CHRISTIAN WORKERS; THEIR DIFFICULTIES AND DISCOURAGEMENT
We do not as a rule fully appreciate the difficulties with which Christian workers have to contend. We are apt to imagine that their toil is comparatively easy, that they are aided in it by the ministry of heaven, and that therefore everything yields to their touch. Any man who talks thus shows that he has never been engaged in moral service, or his own experience would have taught him otherwise. Christian work is more difficult and perplexing than any other; it requires and calls into exercise the higher faculties of our being, which in most men are but feebly and partially developed; it brings into complicated social relationships; and often ends in apparent failure. The Christian worker must be permanently a man of faith, or he will despair in his toil, as nearly all that is seen is in opposition to his mission. Also, he is uncertain as to the time of his success; he knows not when he will come to the glad termination of his work. The men who toil in the secular spheres of life for their daily bread, and for the accommodation of society, know almost to an hour when their task will be completed. They have to deal with the inanimate things of nature, with wood and stone, which have no power of resistance, or remonstrance, These lifeless blocks must yield to the piercing of the chisel and the stroke of the hammer. But not so with the material on which Christian workers try their art. Human souls are not inanimate. They have the power of thought, of emotion, of will, and can resist, not only the earnest efforts of man, but also the influences of the Divine Spirit, when He strives to make them new creatures in Christ Jesus. Hence, when God calls Moses, or any other man, from ordinary toil to undertake some special mission for the moral welfare of humanity, He calls him to a task at once the most difficult and honourable. Let us then endeavour to appreciate and sympathize more with the perplexities of Christian service than we have hitherto done, that we may be patient, calmly awaiting the outcome of Divine Providence in its relation to the conduct of men. We observe:
I. That Christian workers have frequently to contend with the obstinacy and ridicule of men in high positions. Moses and Aaron had to contend with the moral obstinacy of Pharaoh, the King of Egypt. And not only had they to conflict with his obstinacy, but also with his ridicule, and with his misrepresentation of their motive and conduct. He said that the design of these holy men, in their demand of freedom, was to indulge the indolence of Israel. And how frequently, in the history of Christian and philanthropic service, have kings and those in authority been the greatest hindrance to its progress. When the godly heroes of the Church have sought the emancipation of men, the pride of some haughty king, or the prejudice of some ignorant nobleman, or the vested interest of some rich autocrat, have thwarted their efforts. It is hard for a desert shepherd to contend with an impious king; the latter will have many allies, the former will rather have the legions of heaven to aid him than those of earth, as his cause is more popular with angels than men. Nor is it easy to endure the ridicule of those in high position, for when a king laughs and mocks at religious service, there are always a lot of servile spirits who will try to imitate his grin and raillery at our toil. We imagine that ridicule is almost the severest trial the Christian worker has to endure Thus we see that it is not the Divine plan to shield men from the ridicule and insult incurred by their effort of moral service, but rather to give grace that they may endure as serving him who is invisible. The ocean of Christian service is rocky and stormy, but we have a good pilot and a safe chart to guide us to our destined port.
II. That Christian workers have frequently to contend with the discouragement of a first defeat, and apparent failure. Moses and Aaron had been to Pharaoh according to the Divine command, and had met with a severe repulse. Their God was rejected. Their requirement of Israels freedom was haughtily refused. Their visit was followed by a servitude of increased rigour. It was to them a great failure They had no doubt, after the revelation God had made to them and the words He had spoken to them, but that they would meet with immediate success. But at once the fires of their enthusiasm were extinguished; their best efforts were without effect upon the king. Their statement of fact was useless. Their arguments were futile. Their entreaties were vain. The proud monarch defies them, and their God. All Christian workers will be able to enter into the bitter experiences of these two men. Their disappointment has often been yours. You heard the call of God; went forth to noble toil on behalf of the moral welfare of humanity, your heart was warm with glad excitement, visions of grand freedom came upon your soul, but they were all dispelled by the first attempt to snap the fetter. You were disappointed.20 You were sad. Your energy was gone, and you found it difficult to summon enough strength to make a second effort. Failure is always a woeful experience. It is to the scholar. It is to the voyager. It is to the soldier. It is especially so to the Christian worker. Never be disheartened by apparent failure; it may be but the shutting of a door, which will open widely upon your next approach.
III. That Christian workers have frequently to contend with the misapprehension of those whom they seek to benefit. Moses and Aaron had not merely to contend with the ridicule and resistance of Pharaoh; with their own sad consciousness of failure; but also with the misrepresentation and ungrateful reproaches of the slaves they sought to free. This is certainly one of the most remarkable features of Christian service. We should have thought that the Israelites would have been so tired and oppressed by their long-continued slavery, that they would have joyfully welcomed any agency likely to release them from it. But so far from this, they reproach Moses and Aaron upon the very first opportunity, accusing them of having augmented their burdens rather than relieved them. These Israelites had not the judgment to discern that this severe oppression was but the prelude to their release. They had not the patience to wait for the Divine Advent which would be the signal of their freedom. They had not the fortitude to endure their suffering calmly, even for a while. They immediately give vent to reproachful language, even to those who have given up all to relieve them in their trying circumstances. And this picture finds its reproduction in connection with much of the Christian service of our own day. How many of the slaves of sin, whose lives are full of misery and woe, resent any Christian effort that is made to recover them to purity and peace, because of the momentary increase of pain that is occasioned by the effort to become morally better. They desire, in response to our call, to leave King Satan, and to enjoy the freedom of King Jesus; hence Satan becomes more fierce in his temptations, he endeavours to make more secure their fetters, to increase their burdens; and in bitterness of soul they are liable to indulge in ungrateful words, and regard their expected deliverer as their foe. An increase of slavery generally precedes freedom, hence the slaves of sin should be prepared for anguish before they can chant the sweet anthem of liberty. These misrepresentations are however hard for the Christian worker to endure; they are not merely ungrateful, they are cruel, they wound his soul. Happy if they lead him to God in prayerful spirit.
IV That Christian workers have frequently to contend with their own misconception of the Divine method of working, and their inability to rightly interpret the meaning of events in relation thereto. Moses and Aaron no doubt thought that when Pharaoh had rejected their message, and when the Israelites had reproached their conduct, that their mission was at an end, and that it was a failure.21 This is evident from the prayer of the next verse or two. They could not interpret the meaning of events; they could not understand the increased burden of Israels slavery. They could not look beneath the surface of their daily history; and only few men can. Hence the difficulties of Christian workers. They have not the power to interpret events. They lack intuitive perception and penetration. They cannot work out historical problems; from the given equation of to-day they cannot find out the unknown quantity of to-morrow. Hence they err. They imagine that increased burdens mean failure, when in reality they are the first indications of success. For if the monarch did not fear that he would soon lose his slaves, he would not require more work from them than usual. So, the Christian worker has to contend with the many disadvantages occasioned by his own misreading of daily history. LESSONS:
1. Not to be discouraged by apparent failures in Christian service.
2. Not to yield to the scorn of the Mighty in our attempt to improve the moral condition of men.
3. To interpret the reproach of the slave in the light of his augmented slavery, and not to be dismayed by it.
4. To prayerfully study daily events, so as to find Gods purposes of freedom developing themselves therein.
THE APPARENT FAILURE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE
I. Our surprise that Christian Service should be a failure. It is a matter of surprise:
1. Because the workers had been Divinely sent, and prepared for their toil. Had Moses and Aaron undertaken the emancipation of Israel at their own wish, or at the instigation of their friends, we could not have been astonished at their failure; but they were sent by God. They had been instructed by vision. They had been enriched by lifes discipline. They had gathered impulse from holy communion with heaven. They were invested with the power to work miracles. They were given the message which they were to deliver unto Pharaoh. We cannot but wonder at this failure.
2. Because the workers had received all the accompaniments necessary to their toil. They did not go a warfare in their own charges. They did not go in poverty. All the resources of heaven went with them. The two brothers found glad companionship in each other, and their all in God. We should have imagined that as the Divine Being had so equipped them for their mission, that he would have given them immediate success. Hence our surprise at their apparent failure.
3. Because the workers had arisen to a moral fortitude needful to the work. Once they were cowardly, and shrank from the mission, but their cowardice had broken unto heroism; their tremor was removed by the promise of God. Their objections to the service were removed. They went to it with brave heart. They were brave, because they had confidence in God. Hence we should have expected them to have succeeded at once, as a brave soul is never far from victory.
II. Our sorrow that Christian Service should be a failure. It is a matter of sorrow:
1. Because the tyrant is unpunished. Men who in any way imprison their fellow creatures deserve the severest penalties that can be inflicted either by earth or heaven. It is a matter of regret when the agency designed for the infliction of retribution is frustrated in its stroke. Let the world rejoice when a despot is removed from his throne.
2. Because the slave is unfreed. We had anticipated the freedom of Israel from the sacred heroism of these two servants of God. We are apparently disappointed. But though the immediate effort is unsuccessful, God will achieve their freedom. The failure of moral service is only temporary.
3. Because the workers are disappointed. Moses and Aaron expected immediate success. Their communion with God had inspired them with this hope. Hence their dejection.
III. Our hope that the failure of Christian Service will not be ultimate.
1. Because the Divine call will be vindicated. Moses and Aaron were the right men to achieve the emancipation of Israel. God will demonstrate this, in the history of the world, by their success. The moral selections of heaven are capable of vindication, and one day will be vindicated to humanity.
1. Because service for the good of men cannot ultimately fail. This thought should inspire Christian workers with fortitude and patience. You are employed in a work that commands the obligation of the race, and the final blessing of God. LESSONS:
1. Do not be alarmed at the temporary failure of Christian work.
2. The apparent failure of Christian work answers some wise purposes.
3. Those who occasion the temporary failure of Christian work are liable to the retribution of heaven.
4. Let Christian workers to hold on to the word and promise of God.22
THE COMPLAINTS OCCASIONED BY CHRISTIAN SERVICE
I. There is the complaint of the King, that the people are idle. The effort of Christian service always awakens complaint, and especially of those toward whom it is directed. Men are sure to imagine themselves injured by it, if they are to lose their slaves through it. People do not like the Gospel to interfere with them in the enjoyment of their sinful pleasures.
II. There is the complaint of the people, that they have been deluded. Moses and Aaron had inspired them with the bright hope of liberty, they were acting and living under the glad influence of this anticipation, when suddenly their slavery is rendered more intolerable by the revengeful oppression of Pharaoh. Sometimes impatient people who have been led to expect gifts from God imagine themselves deluded, because those gifts are delayed in their bestowal A true soul will wait, without a word of reproach, till heaven comes to open its prison door.23
III. There is the complaint of the workers, that they were defeated. Sometimes people, who ought to know better, complain about the ways of God. There are times when Christian service happens to please nobody but God. How many imperfections attach to the efforts of good men. We do not much wonder at the complainings of the King, or even of the Israelites, but we expected better things from Moses and Aaron. Christian men are too often found in the same attitude of soul as men of the world.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Exo. 5:20-21. Sense of evil from tyrants may make the oppressed fall into complaint against their best friends.
Providence orders his servants sometimes to meet with friends after sad usage by oppressors. 1. Unbelieving. Thus we have seen dogs in the chase bark at their best friends.(Trapp).
Now comes a severer trial than any which these servants of the Lord had had to go through. The Lords people may expect to receive hard words from the people of the world; they may expect to be regarded as troublers of Israel; they may expect to have it said of them, as it was said of the Apostles, that they have turned the world upside down. But there is a harder trial to the Lords servants, when from professors themselves they meet with such treatment as Moses and Aaron met with from the officers who were set over the people of Israel. These men meet Moses and Aaron, and they say, It is all your faultPharaoh would not have done us any harm but for you. Now, brethren, we have seen and known something of this. If the Lords servant is faithful, he does trouble the world. He disturbs the monotony of things. A member of a family receives the truth; his former practices are abandoned; the whole course of his life is altered. It may be worldly prospects are affected by such a change as this: it disturbs the every day worldliness of the family of which this individual is a member, and this causes more or less uneasiness to those who are not like-minded. But instead of inquiry being made as to the cause of all thisinstead of asking whether it is wrong, or whether it may not, after all, be right, ill feeling is vented against the instrument, who was the means of bringing the truth home to that heart, and who was really made a blessing to that family. Brethren, the Man of God must make up his mind to this, and not only to this, but one of the most painful things a servant of God meets with is to hear it said, He is doing damage to the Lords cause. If we are told, you have no business to stand against the world and sin, we can bear that, for it is the commission we have received from our Master, but we do find it a painful trial when we are told, if you were a little more judicious in your way of stating the truth of God, you would not offend the people of the world, and your preaching would be much more acceptable than it is. Still this ought not to affect the minister of God as to his statement of the truth; for if he has learned the truth, he knows that the message never was, and never will be, recommended by anything in the instrument. If a man had the silver tongue of an angel, he would never bring a soul to Christ; nor can any disqualification on the part of the instrument hinder the Lords work.24(Lectures by Rev. W. H. Krause, A.M.)
Exo. 5:22-23. The prayer of a disappointed worker:
1. It is indicative of disappointment. Unjust criminations from Gods people make the ministers of God may quail and recede from their duty. In such workings of flesh the spirit may humbly expostulate with God by prayer. The language in this twenty-second verse is very remarkable, and explains other passages of Scripture. Moses said, Lord, wherefore hast Thou evil entreated this people? But it was the taskmasters who evil entreated them, not God. And this explains that passage to which I referred last Lords day morning, about God hardening Pharaohs heart. In the Hebrew idiom, God is often said to do a thing which He is only the occasion of its being done. It is said, for instance, that the Lord hardened Pharaohs heart; that is. He applied those means, that, if not successful in subduing that heart, would necessarily, by their reaction, evenuate in the hardening of that heart. So here, God did not evil entreat the people; but He used these means to effectuate their exodus, which at first added to the weight and pressure of their burdens.(Dr. Cumming.)
The prayer of Moses:
I. A right act. ILLUSTRATIONS
BY THE Exo. 5:20-23.
(20)Christian Life!When a man among the Grecians, writes Dr. Boyd, entered the Olympic Games to run for the prize, he had to lay aside all ideas of case and self-indulgence, and prepare himself for a severe contest. To listen to the voice of indolence and loiter by the way would cover him with deepest disgrace. And the more frequent he contended for the prize, the more experience be acquiredthe more prospect had he of winning the reward. The Christian life is a struggle from first to last with the powers of darkness within and without. When the truth as it is in Jesus arises in its fullorbed grandeur upon his mindwhen the chains of his bondage are snapped asunder by Him who proclaims liberty to the captivewhen the burden of his guilt is removed, and sweet serenity and peace takes its placewhen the soul begins to get a glimpse of its high privileges and lofty vocation, then the Christian is apt to think that this is to continue for ever. The maiden thinks that the joy of her first married experience is to be always steadfast; but she soon finds out from discipline of life that her notion is premature. So the Christians life becomes overcast with dark and threatening cloudsthe in my collects all his forces to assail the fortress of Man-soulthe world scowls with clouds and tempests upon himand the tyrant lets loose his hell-hounds of temptation to bring back the escaped bondsmen. As Cowper says:
He who knew what human hearts would prove, ordained that the Christian life should be a continuous warfarean unceasing strugglean unwearied contention with evil. And thus
Our blasted hopes, our aims and wishes crossed, Taylor.
Exo. 5:20-23.
(21)Patient Work!In the museum at Rotterdam is the first piece painted by the renowned Rembrandt. It is rough, without marks of genius or skill, and uninteresting except to show that he began as low down as the lowest. In the same gallery is the masterpiece of the artist, counted of immense value. Work! Patience! Tears of work! Years of patience! If all have not genius, all have the power to work for the glory of God and spiritual disenthralment of man. This is greater than genius; and especially if it be the work of moral freedomthe work of a Divine call to holiness.
How beautiful is genius when combined Exo. 5:20-23.
(22)Promises!God had said. And Moses might know that He was able to perform what He had spoken. Mens promises may be like pie-crust, made to be broken; not so is it with those of Jehovah. What He promises, the gates of hell cannot hinder its performance. Therefore Christian workers may well stay themselves on this rock of infinite assurance: I am God, and change not. By so doing they will find to their unspeakable comfort that no music is half so sweet, no eloquence so entrancing, no picture a all so attractive, as the promises of God. Like the aurora borealis, they would shine on the frosty and sombre sky of Moses discouragement, tinging it with brilliant colours, and relieving it with beautiful rays; even as with the pious old slave on a Virginia plantation, who, when asked why he was always so sunny-hearted and cheerful under his bondage, responded that it was owing to his custom of laying fiat upon the promises, and then praying straight up to my heavenly Father. Even so with Moses, he reclines on the assurance of deliverance whilst he pleads with God. Turn thy face sunward!
Watch though so long be the twilight delaying, Exo. 5:20-23
(23)Gods Times.Moses had expected an immediate deliverance; but that God had not promised. Freedom He had solemnly declared that Israel should soon enjoy, but the when and the how soon were hidden in the dark. Gurnal fitly expresses the thought that, as the herbs and flowers, which sleep all winter in their roots underground, when the time of spring approaches forthwith start forth from their beds where they had lain so long undisturbed, so the promises of God will in their season effloresce and fruiten. Every promise is dated with a mysterious character, and as the gardener knows when the different seeds will come up, and arranges accordingly, so God knows the budding-time of His promises. Moses must wait. For want of skill in Gods chronology, we are prone to think that God forgets us, when indeed we forget ourselves in being so bold to set God a time of our own, and in being angry that he comes not just as we wish and expect.
Be patient! oh, be patient! though yet our hopes are green. Exo. 5:20-23.
(24)Means!Moses forgot that God does not require great meanssmall meansor any means. He can work by little or nothing; though He is pleased to work by means. A ship struck on a reef of rocks distant from the shore, while the wind was roaring, and the wave was raging
Dreadful was the rack
As earth and sky would mingle. Nor yet slept the winds The dwellers on the land could not reach the ship, and the sailors on the sea could not reach the shore. But the captain had a little dog on boardquick and intelligent. To tie a string to its neckpoint it to the distant dimly-dark beach, with its shadowy group of spectatorsand to fling it into the abyss to breast the foaming billows, was the work of an instant. The tiny terrier knew its errand and loved its master, and so fought its way buoyantly. No man could have triumphed over the angry waters, but the dog did. The cord had its rope, which was pulled ashorethen a hawserthen a cradle; by which means the crew were saved. What can God not do with little means?
Let us be content to work
To do the thing we can, and not presume The more helpless Moses was, the more glory accrued to his God. Just as with the bridge across the Falls of the Niagara. A kite bore a cordthe cord held a ropethe rope drew a cablethe cable hauled the first material necessary for the construction of the bridge. The insignificance of the means employed only redounded to the engineers praise.
Exo. 5:20-23.
(25)Discipline!The dove in the fable, annoyed because the wind had ruffled its feathers, foolishly wished for a firmament free from air, through the empty space of which it vainly dreamed that its unimpeded wing would dart swift as the nimble lightning. Silly bird! without that air it could neither live nor soar. Do not ignobly wish every breath of opposition away. Difficulties, asserts Coley, met and mastered, upbear us to the high reaches of honour. Difficulties, Beecher notes, are Gods errands; and when we are sent upon them we should esteem it a proof of Divine confidence, as a compliment from God. As in the Napoleonic wars, the general was wont to give the post of danger, or the command of a forlorn hope, or the defence of some strategic pass or bridge to a favourite subordinate.
He holds me that I shall not fall, Rediyast.
(20) Who stood in the way.Heb., in their way. The meaning is, that Moses and Aaron were standingi.e., waiting to meet them, and know the result of their interview with the monarch.
20, 21. The bastinadoed shoterim have now lost all faith in Moses and Aaron, for they feel that the yoke that was to have been broken is only tightened . They forget that this is exactly what might have been expected from Jehovah’s prediction . Exo 3:19-20.
The Complaint of the Administrative Scribes of the Children of Israel ( Exo 5:20 to Exo 6:1 ).
a b Moses returns to Yahweh and asks Him why He has treated His people so badly and what purpose He had in sending him (Exo 5:22)
b For, he points out, since he has spoken to Pharaoh in Yahweh’s name His people are being even more ill-treated, nor had Yahweh delivered them as He promised (Exo 5:23).
a Yahweh replies that he will now see what He intends to do to Pharaoh, and He will do it with such a strong hand that (it will be an abhorrence to Pharaoh and) he will let them go, no, will be so affected that he will even drive them out of his land by a strong hand (Exo 6:1).
In ‘a’ The administrative scribes of Israel leave the presence of Pharaoh, in the parallel they will be driven out by him. Their complaint is that they have been made an abhorrence to Pharaoh, and Yahweh’s reply is essentially that they will become such an abhorrence to Pharaoh that he will want to get rid of them. In ‘b’ Moses returns to Yahweh and asks Him why He has treated His people so badly and what purpose He had in sending him, while in the parallel he points out that since he has spoken to Pharaoh in Yahweh’s name His people are being even more ill-treated, nor had Yahweh delivered them as He promised.
Exo 5:20-21
‘And they met Moses and Aaron who stood in the way as they came out from Pharaoh, and they said to them, “Yahweh look on you and judge, for you have made our odour abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to kill us.’
The administrative scribes now charge Moses and Aaron with having made things much worse. They call on Yahweh Himself to pass judgment on them because they have made the name of Israel abhorred in Pharaoh’s mind so that they themselves (the scribes) are under the threat of execution.
“They met Moses and Aaron.” Moses and Aaron had been waiting anxiously to find out what response Pharaoh would give to the pleas of the managers.
“To put a sword in their hand to kill us.” Not literally, but figuratively. They would be killed by the strain of impossible demands and the consequent severe punishments. It may, however, be that the overseers had even had to resort to swords because of their resistance, or that there were threats of summary execution.
Exo 5:22-23
‘And Moses returned to Yahweh and said, “Lord, why have you treated this people so badly? Why is it that you sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name he has treated this people badly, nor have you delivered your people at all.”
Moses was baffled. Why had God sent him if this was to be the result? He had come at Yahweh’s command and yet God was seemingly standing by and doing nothing. Indeed in view of the fact that as a consequence the people were being ill treated even more by Pharaoh, that ill treatment could be laid at His door.
Note for Christians.
What happened to Moses and Israel, will often happen in our lives. When we pray God does not always deliver from trials immediately. He has greater purposes to work than we can ever know. Things may seem to be getting worse day by day, but we can be sure of this, that if we have committed our cause into His hands, our deliverance is sure. But it will be easier for us if instead of fighting Him we trust Him for our future. For then we will both enjoy His presence now and His deliverance when it comes. ‘In quietness and confidence shall be your strength’ (Isa 30:15).
End of note.
Exo 6:1
‘And Yahweh said to Moses, “Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh, for by a strong hand will he let them go, and by a strong hand will he drive them out of his land.” ’
Yahweh’s reply is, ‘you wait and see what I will do’. And He promises that Pharaoh will be made to listen under Yahweh’s strong hand, so much so that he himself will drive the people out with a strong hand.
“By a strong hand.” In Exo 3:19 ‘the mighty hand’ refers to Yahweh. Compare also Exo 13:3 ‘by strength of hand Yahweh brought you out of this place’ (see also Exo 13:9; Exo 13:14; Exo 13:16). This would suggest that the strong hand which would move Pharaoh must be that of Yahweh, for Yahweh was about to exert His power against him. By it He would reveal that He truly was Yahweh, ‘the One Who is there’. So we may paraphrase, ‘by means of a strong hand will Yahweh make him let them go and by a strong hand will Yahweh make him drive them out of his land.’ Others, however, refer it to Pharaoh’s strong hand seeing it as representing the forcefulness with which Pharaoh will make them depart.
The Officers Reproach Moses and Aaron
v. 20. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh, v. 21. And they said unto them, The Lord look upon you and judge, because ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hand to slay us. v. 22. And Moses returned unto the Lord, v. 23. For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast Thou delivered Thy people at all; EXPOSITION
Exo 5:20, Exo 5:21
On quitting the presence of Pharaoh, the officers of the Israelites, burning with the sense of the injustice done them, and deeply apprehensive with respect to their own future, found Moses and Aaron waiting in the precincts of the court to know the result of their application. It need cause no surprise that they poured out their pent-up indignation upon them. Were not Moses and Aaron the sole cause of the existing state of things? Did not the extreme affliction of the people, did not their own sufferings in the past, did not their apprehended sufferings in the future, originate wholly in the seductive words which the two brothers had addressed to them at the assembly of the people? (Exo 4:29-31). Accordingly, they denounced, almost cursed their officious would-be deliverers (Exo 5:21). “The Lord look upon you, and judge” between you and us, whether the blame of this whole matter does not lie upon you, its initiatorsyou have made us to be abhorred in the sight of Pharaoh, and of the Egyptians generally you have brought us into danger of our livesthe Lord judge you!”
Exo 5:20
Who stood in the way. Rather, “who waited to meet them.” It was not accident, but design, that had brought the two brothers to the spot. They were as anxious as the officers to know what course Pharaoh would takewhether he would relax the burthens of the people or nowhether he would have compassion or the contrary.
Exo 5:21
They said unto them. The officers were too full of their wrongs to wait until questioned. They took the word, and, without relating the result of their interview, implied it. The Lord look upon you, and judge, they said, meaning “the Lord (Jehovah) consider your conduct, and judge it” not exactly, “condemn it and punish it” (Keil and Delitzsch)but “pass sentence on it,” “judge whether it has been right or not.” We make this appeal because ye have at any rate done us a great injuryye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh. (Note the mixed metaphor, which shows- perhaps rather that “in the eyes” had lost its original meaning, and come to signify no more than “with” or “in respect of,” than that the literal meaning of making a person’s savour to “stink” did not occur to the writer.) Nay, ye have done moreye have put a sword in the hand of his servants to slay us. That is to say, “ye have armed them with a weapon wherewith we expect that they will take our lives.” Either they will beat us to deathand death is a not infrequent result of a repeated employment of the bastinadoor when they find that punishment unavailing they will execute us as traitors. On the use of the bastinado as a punishment in Egypt, see Chabas, ‘Melanges Egyptologiques,’ 3me serie, vol. 1. pp. 100-6.
HOMILETICS
Exo 5:21
The servants of God liable to reproach from friends no less than enemies,
Moses and Aaron had borne the reproaches and scoffs of Pharaoh (Exo 5:4-8) without flinching. It was natural that an enemy should revile them. Pharaoh might tax them with idleness and insincerity in religion, if he pleased. The stab did not penetrate very deep, nor cause a very grievous smart. But when their brethren turned upon them and uttered reproaches, it was different. Then the wound went to the heart; the pain was bitter, scarce endurable. It made them misdoubt themselves. Had they really not acted for the best? Had they been self-seeking, or vainglorious, or reckless, or even injudicious? Such thoughts will always occur even to the best men, if on their plans seeming to have miscarried their friends reproach them. The best men best know their own frailty, and how easy it is for man to mar God’s work by his own imperfections. It requires a very brave soul to bear up against the reproaches of friends, especially when there seems to be a ground for them. The more careful therefore should friends be not to reproach God’s servants causelessly, or unless they can point out where they have been wrong. Actions are not to be always judged by their results, or, at any rate, not by their immediate results. Moses and Aaron had done quite right; they had obeyed God; they were bound to act as they had acted. It had not pleased God to give success to their efforts as yet. The officers should have had patience, should have prayed to God for relief, but should have forborne from reproaching the innocent.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR
Exo 5:20-23
Murmuring and faith.
The Israelites were naturally sorely disappointed at the issue of the interview with Pharaoh; and with the unreasonableness so often seen in those whose expectations have received a check, they turned on Moses and Aaron, and accused these innocent men of being the authors of their misfortune. Moses and Aaron themselves were almost as dumbfounded as their accusers at the turn events had taken; but one of them, at least, behaved with wisdom. The Israelites accused men: Moses took his complaint to God, and opened up to him all the soreness of his heart. This portion of the narrative suggests the following reflections:
I. GOD‘S PROVIDENCE OFTEN ASSUMES AN ASPECT OF GREAT MYSTERY TO US. It did so to Moses and the Israelites (Exo 5:22, Exo 5:23). They had concluded that now that God had taken up their cause, their trials and sorrows were at an end; but in entertaining so comfortable a hope, they found they were deceived. The first step on the road to the promised deliverance had plunged them into a worse plight than ever. They had almost felt the breath of liberty on their cheeks, when suddenly their hopes are dashed from them, and the situation darkens till in its pitiless rigour it becomes well-nigh unendurable. So God’s providence is often to the godliest a sore and perplexing mystery. It is not merely that things are not going as we wish, or as fast as we expectthis need not surprise us, though oftentimes it doesbut that Jehovah seems acting contrary to his own perfections, to his character, to his revealed purpose, to the promise on which he has encouraged us to trust. The wicked prosper; the righteous are afflicted (Psa 37:1-40.; 73.). Prayers seem unanswered, and the hopes we had begun to cherish, the expectations we had built upon his Word, are bitterly disappointed. The race seems to the swift, and the battle to the strong of this world, while “waters of a full cup are wrung out” to the saints whom God has pledged himself to bless and to protect. This is what distresses us, and the distress is not surprising.
II. THE MYSTERY WHICH MEETS US IN GOD‘S PROVIDENCE ACTS AS A TEST OF CHARACTER. It drove Moses to prayer, but the multitude to murmurings and reproaches. As this storm burst over Israel, the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed (Luk 2:35). Doubters would curse themselves for trusting to one whom, they would declare, they had always suspected of deceiving them; the timid would be heard reiterating, “We told you it would come to this; we saw it from the first!” while the profane would break out into open blasphemies, and the superficial crowdthose who had been most carried away by the enthusiasmwould groan and weep in utter disconsolateness, and pour out rash accusations against Heaven and against Moses and Aaron, who had brought them into all this trouble. Yet with foolish inconsistency they would call on the God they were mistrusting to judge between them and the men who had brought to them his message (Exo 5:21). Comp. Christian and Pliable at the Slough of Despond in ‘Pilgrim’s Progress.’ Mystery in God’s providence, in itself a moral necessity and inevitable, is thus used by him for important ends in the testing and disciplining of character. It brings to light our weaknesses; sifts the chaff from the wheat; educates us to trust; convinces us of ignorance; disenchants us of illusive hopes; leads us to prayer and wrestling with God. Thus it prepares us for further discoveries of the Divine wisdom when the time comes for the veil being removed, and educates us for higher service.
III. THE MYSTERY WHICH ENSHROUDS GOD‘S PROVIDENCE ARISES FROM OUR PARTIAL AND IMPERFECT COMPREHENSION OF HIS PLAN. Had God’s purpose been simply to get Israel out of Egypt in the easiest way possible, and with least cost of suffering to the people, the permission of this new cruelty would indeed have been inexplicable. But it is not in this way, or for such ends, or on these terms, that God Conducts the government of his world. The error of Israel lay in looking on this one little bit of an unfinished work, and in judging of it without reference to the whole design of which it was a part. For God’s purpose was not merely that the people should be delivered, but that they should be delivered in such a way, and with such accompaniments of power and judgment, as should illustriously glorify his own perfections, and print the memory of his goodness on their hearts for ever; while, as regards Pharaoh, his desire was to glorify his power upon him (Exo 9:16), and make him an example to all after ages of the folly of resisting the Almighty. This being the end, it was obviously indispensable that events should not be unduly hastened, but allowed, as far as possible, to take a natural course. Time and scope must be given to Pharaoh to develop his real disposition, and the development must not be prematurely interfered with. The people must be led by a way they knew not, and in paths they had not known; the way chosen could not be the absolutely shortest, but must include many turnings and windings, and even seem at times to be bending backwards; but the end would be “to make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight” (Isa 42:16). And this is truly the explanation of all our difficulties with regard to Divine providence. It is not God who is at fault, but our own haste and shortsightedness, that perceive not all the ends he has in view, nor how wonderfully he is working towards those ends by the very circumstances which perplex and baffle us. We know but “in part” (1Co 13:12). The thoughts of Infinite Wisdom cannot all be made plain to us. The little that is before us we see, but how much lies beyond which is involved in the hiding of his power! (Hab 3:4.) Our walking must be “by faith;” not “by sight” (2Co 5:7).J.O.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Exo 5:19-21
Thoughtless smiters of a brother in adversity.
This whole chapter particularly abounds in illustrations of human ignorance and error. We have seen in what dense darkness was the mind of Pharaoh; and under what utter misapprehensions he multiplied the sorrows of Israel. Now we are introduced to the leaders of Israel, treating Moses with equal injustice, because they are not able to see the difference between the human instrument and the Divine hand that holds it. No more than Pharaoh can they pierce through Moses to the mighty God behind him. It says in Exo 4:31, that when the people saw the signs they believed; here is conduct which shows for how little their faith counted. As soon as they were set to make bricks without straw, their faith utterly vanished. Yet surely the truth of God remained. Present human cruelty, let it press ever so hard, cannot alter past manifestations of Divine power. The God who gave his Son the parable of the Sower was prepared for such a lapse into unbelief on the part of his people. His signs were like the seeds which found no depth of earth; when persecution arose because of the message of Moses, the people were straightway offended. Consider
I. IN WHAT A STATE OF MIND MOSES WOULD BE WHEN THESE OFFICERS ATTACKED HIM. We know from his own language (Exo 4:22, Exo 4:23)what his state of mind was after the attack; but even before it he must have been a prey to deep grief and gloomy apprehensions. We may be sure that when these officers came upon him, they did not find proofs of indifference and carelessness in his face. lie must have been very popular just after he had wrought the signs; as popular as Jesus was after he had fed the five thousand. Aaron, doubtless, had been instructed by him to enlarge on the history of Abraham, IsaActs and Jacob, and bring out into the boldest relief the terms of the Divine promises. Thus the confidence and expectation of the peoplea reception altogether beyond his hopeswould lift him also into a confidence and expectation all the more precious because of his previous despondency. And now, as he sees the condition of his brethren, that despondency is more painful than ever. No imagination of ours can exaggerate the perplexity and sadness into which Moses would be thrown.
II. THUS WE ARE CALLED TO NOTICE THE INDIFFERENCE OF MOSES‘ BRETHREN TO HIS PAINFUL POSITION. He thought a great deal more upon their Sorrows than they did upon his. The grief of selfish people, in the reckless abandonment with which it speaks and acts, furnishes as painful evidence as we can find of the extent to which human nature has fallen from its first estate. It is a greedy, insatiable feeling. It is an awful thing to consider that the very concentration of our thoughts on our own sufferings makes us to increase the sufferings of others. Why, even when others are to blame, we might safely leave them to the observant, unforgetting God, to their own consciences, and to the ultimate harvest which every doer of wrong must reap; and very often they are not to blame at all. If only these smarting Israelites had been able, in a right spirit, to look at the heart of Moses, they would have seen occasion for supporting him with the greatest tenderness, gratitude, and patient endurance. What right had they to complain of Moses? lie had told them a coherent, straightforward story, given them the signs; and they, in return, had believed him for the very works’ sake. If there is any time when we should be slow to speak, it is in our sorrow. We do well then to be silent, until such times as God has purged out of our minds all selfish desires and groundless expectations. When all these are gone, and the truth which he alone can plant is also ripened, then we shall be able to say, “It was good for us to be afflicted;’ at present Israel said that it was badas bad as bad could beand Moses was the convenient person on whom they could lay the blame.
III. THESE OFFICERS HAD NOT INSIGHT ENOUGH TO LOOK BEYOND FIRST CONSEQUENCES. They could not look through the pain of the present to a future which was only attainable through that present. Thus the disciples spoke in deep perplexity and disappointment concerning their missing Master as if he had vanished like a dream,, of the night. “We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. So they spoke, not having appreciated his recent word, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.” We shall do well to consider in every enterprise, that first consequences are very deceptive. When they bring hardship we must not, therefore, turn back; when they bring pleasure, we must not therefore conclude that still greater pleasures lie beyond. Israel had no right to make any assumptions whatever as to the first consequences of Moses’ visit to Pharaoh. The true and only safe position for Israel to take up was this: “Here are these signs; they are signs that Jehovah has sent Moses, and is with him; let us accept them in full and patient reliance.” A man does not dispute the truth of the finger-post which points him into the right road, because soon after he has passed it he comes to a worse bit of travelling than any he has had before. There is a profound and admonitory generalisation in that way of indicating Christian experience which puts the Slough of Despond so early in the pilgrim’s journey: and if first consequences that bring hardship are to be mistrusted, surely we must be even more cautious when the first consequences are full of pleasure. Though we be told to remember our Creator in the days of our youthhis claims, his expectations, and his judgment-daythe danger is that we shall only too easily forget all this, and remember only that we are strong, ambitious, able to enjoy, and with abundant opportunities for enjoyment. We must always mistrust the mere pleasure of our senses; the pleasure of tastes and likings. Liking a thing is never a sufficient reason for doing it; disliking never a sufficient reason for refusing to do it. God appeals to our prudence, to our conscience, to our pity, to our fears, but never to our tastes. And. be it ever remembered, that there is one first consequence which never deceives nor disappoints those who put themselves in the way of it. Do that which is right in the sight of God, and there is an immediate and pure pleasure at the heart, which all the waves and. billows of adversity cannot wash away. For instance, we cannot believe for a moment that Moses regretted his compliance with the commands of Jehovah. They had been clear and imperative, steady and unrelaxing in their pressure on his conscience. The pain from the reproaches of Israel was bad enough; but it would have been a far worse pain, if he had sought to flee from the test of the burning bush, and, Jonah-like, bury himself with his sheep in the very depths of the wilderness.Y.
Gen 34:30 ; Jon 4:4-9 . Reader! recollect how the people had bowed their head in token of their trust in God’s promises to deliver them. And here we behold them, not only relinquishing their confidence, but even murmuring because difficulties had arisen. And do we not, when at anytime any thwarting providences or dark seasons in grace arise, do much the same? Oh! for faith to keep a steady eye on Jesus: and not suffer anything, within or without, to stagger our confidence in his salvation.
Exo 5:20 And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh:
Ver. 20. And they met Moses. ] How ready are we to mistake the grounds of our afflictions, and to cast them upon false causes! The Sareptan told the prophet that he had killed her son. 1Ki 17:18
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Ministers of salvation want to meet Gods afflicted, when they look not after them.
Instruments of deliverance may desire a good egress of the oppressed from tyrants, and not find it.
Sense overcharged with oppression may make men reproach God, and curse his ministers.
Unbelieving souls are ready to set God against His own word, and instruments sent by Him.
Hasty unbelievers under cross providences are ready to charge the cause upon Gods ministers.
Foolish souls charge Gods instruments of life to be causes of death.
These charges:
2. Ungrateful.
3. Untruthful.
4. Unhopeful.
2. Of injustice on the part of God.
3. Of cruelty.
4. Of contradiction.
Gods faithful instruments, though they do retreat of weakness, yet it is unto the Lord.
Gods faithful ones under pressure may charge God foolishly for doing evil to His people.25
Sad events in ministering may make Gods servants question their mission.
In such questioning, souls may humbly deprecate the frustration of their ministry.
And Moses returned unto the Lord. He turned aside, as it were, to speak with a friend, and to disburden him self in Gods bosom. This is the saints privilege.(Trapp).
II. Done in a wrong spirit.
III. At a serious time.
REV. WM. ADAMSON
How slow to learn the dictates of His love,
Are worth the tears and agonies they cost.
With holiness! Oh! bow divinely swell
The tones of earthly harp, whose chords are touchd
By the soft hand of piety, and hung
Upon religions shrine.
Let the first sunbeam arise on thee praying;
Fear not, for greater is God by thy side,
Than armies of Satan against thee allied.
The harvest fields of freedom shall be crownd with sunny sheen.
Within their stony caves, but rushed abroad
From the four hinges of the world.
To fret because its little.
And so to him I leave it all.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)