EXODUS 33 COMMETARYEDITED BY GLE PEASE

1 Then the Lord said to Moses, Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of Egypt, and go up to the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying, I will give it to your descendants.

CLARKE, "Unto the land - That is, towards it, or to the borders of it. See Exo_32:34 (note).

GILL, "And the Lord said unto Moses, depart, and go up hence,.... Not from the place where Moses was, which was the top of the mount, but where the camp of Israel was, at the bottom of the mount; where they had lain encamped some time, but were now ordered to proceed on their journey:

thou, and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt; though his wrath was in some measure mitigated, and he had so far forgave their sin, that he would not cut them off from being a people; yet still he does not call them his people, or own that he brought them out of Egypt, as he does in the preface to the commands they had now broke, as if they were not under his care and conduct; but speaks of them in a different manner, as a people that Moses had brought out from thence, and whom he orders to go on with:

unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, unto thy seed will I give it: meaning the land of Canaan, which as he had promised with an oath to their fathers to give it to them, he would faithfully observe it, though they were unworthy of such a favour.

HERY1-3, "Here is, I. The message which God sent by Moses to the children of Israel, signifying the continuance of the displeasure against them, and the bad terms they yet stood upon with God. This he must let them know for their further mortification. 1. He applies to them a mortifying name, by giving them their just character - a stiff-necked people, Exo_33:3, Exo_33:5. Go, says God to Moses, go and

tell them that they are so. He that knows them better than they know themselves says so of them. God would have brought them under the yoke of his law, and into the bond of his covenant, but their necks were too stiff to bow to them. God would have cured them of their corrupt and crooked dispositions, and have set them straight; but they were wilful and obstinate, and hated to be reformed, and would not have God to reign over them. Note, God judges of men by the temper of their minds. We know what man does; God knows what he is: we know what proceeds from man; God knows what is in man, and nothing is more displeasing to him than stiff-neckedness, as nothing in children is more offensive to their parents and teachers than stubbornness. 2. He tells them what they deserved, that he should come into the midst of them in a moment, and consume them, Exo_33:5. Had he dealt with them according to their sins, he had taken them away with a swift destruction. Note, Those whom God pardons must be made to know what their sin deserved, and how miserable they would have been if they had been unpardoned, that God's mercy may be the more magnified. 3. He bids them depart and go up hence to the land of Canaan, Exo_33:1. This mount Sinai, where they now were, was the place appointed for the setting up of God's tabernacle and solemn worship among them; this was not yet done, so that in bidding them depart hence God intimates that it should not be done - Let them go forward as they are; and so it was very expressive of God's displeasure. 4. He turns them over to Moses, as the people whom he had brought up out of the land of Egypt, and leaves it to him to lead them to Canaan. 5. Though he promises to make good his covenant with Abraham, in giving them Canaan, yet he denies them the extraordinary tokens of his presence, such as they had hitherto been blessed with, and leaves them under the common conduct of Moses their prince, and the common convoy of a guardian angel: I will send an angel before thee, for thy protector, otherwise the evil angels would soon destroy thee; but I will not go up in the midst of thee, lest I consume thee (Exo_33:2, Exo_33:3); not as if an angel would be more patient and compassionate than God, but their affronts given to an angel would

not be so provoking as those given to the shechinah, or divine Majesty itself. Note, The greater the privileges we enjoy the greater is our danger if we do not improve them and live up to them. 6. He speaks as one that was at a loss what course to take with them. Justice said, Cut them off, and consume them. Mercy said, How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? Hos_11:8. Well, says God, put off thy ornaments, that I may know what to do with thee; that is, Put thyself into the posture of a penitent, that the dispute may be determined in thy favour, and mercy may rejoice against judgment, Exo_33:5. Note, Calls to repentance are plain indications of mercy designed. If the Lord were pleased to kill us, justice knows what to do with a stiff-necked people: but God has no pleasure in the death of those that die; let them return and repent, and then mercy, which otherwise is at a loss, knows what to do.

JAMISO, "Exo_33:1-23. The Lord refuses to go with the people.

the Lord said rather had said unto Moses. The conference detailed in this chapter must be considered as having occurred prior to the pathetic intercession of Moses, recorded at the close of the preceding chapter; and the historian, having mentioned the fact of his earnest and painful anxiety, under the overwhelming pressure of which he poured forth that intercessory prayer for his apostate countrymen, now enters on a detailed account of the circumstances.

K&D 1-3, "Moses' negotiations with the people, for the purpose of bringing them to

sorrow and repentance, commenced with the announcement of what Jehovah had said. The words of Jehovah in Exo_33:1-3, which are only a still further expansion of the assurance contained in Exo_32:34, commence in a similar manner to the covenant promise in Exo_23:20, Exo_23:23; but there is this great difference, that whereas the name, i.e., the presence of Jehovah Himself, was to have gone before the Israelites in the angel promised to the people as a leader in Exo_23:20, now, though Jehovah would still send an angel before Moses and Israel, He Himself would not go up to Canaan (a land flowing, etc., see at Exo_3:8) in the midst of Israel, lest He should destroy the people by

the way, because they were stiff-necked ( for , see Ges. 27, 3, Anm. 2).

CALVI, "1.Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people I have used the pluperfect tense; (360) for the reason is here given, whereby Moses was stirred up to such vehemence in prayer, viz., because, although God had not altogether abandoned the care of the people, still He had renounced His covenant, and had proclaimed to them that, after He had once performed His engagement of giving them possession of the land, He would have no more to do with them. Wherefore, what is here related, preceded, in order of time, the prayer of Moses; for, being astonished at the sad and almost fatal message, he burst forth into that confused and wild request, that he might be blotted out of the book of life.

Let us now endeavor to elicit the true meaning of the passage. It is plain, that when God bids Moses depart with the people, He utterly renounces the charge which He Himself had hitherto sustained. He only promises that He will cause them to attain the promised inheritance, and not that He will preside over them, will there preserve them in safety, and even cherish them, as a father does his children; in fact, that he will merely fulfill the promise He had made to their fathers. And thus He anticipates their complaints; for they might reply, that consequently His promise would be rendered vain and ineffectual; but by way of anticipation, He says, that although He should renounce them, still He should maintain this truth, because He will cast out the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, so that their abode would be vacant for them. In sum, He repudiates them, that they may no longer count themselves to be His peculiar people, or expect more from Him, than as if they were strangers, He mentions His oath, lest they should accuse Him of faithlessness; as if He had said that He should be discharged from His engagement when they had obtained the land. And thus, whilst depriving them of the hope of salvation, and the grace of adoption, He still asserts the stability and stedfastness of His covenant. I, therefore, understand the word angel in a different sense from that which it has just before, and in many other passages of this book; for, when mention was before made of the angel, the familiar presence of God was denoted by it, nay, it was used interchangeably with the name of God itself. But here God is said to be so about to send the angel, as to separate Himself from the people. I will not go up (He says) in the midst of thee; and the reason is subjoined, viz., because it could not be that He could endure any longer their perverse spirits. Again He uses a similitude taken from refractory oxen, which cannot be broken to bear the yoke. The sum is, that because they are so intractable, God cannot perform the office of their guide without straightway destroying them.

ELLICOTT, "(1) The Lord said unto Moses.In continuation and explanation of the words recorded in Exodus 32:33-34, but probably at another time, after Moses had once more descended from the Ras Sufsafeh to the plain at its base.

The land which I sware unto Abraham . . . The misconduct of Israel in their worship of the calf would not annul the promises of God to the patriarchs. These He was bound to make good. The Lord sware, and will not repent (Psalms 110:4).

ELLICOTT, "Verses 1-6XXXIII.

THE HUMILIATIO OF THE PEOPLE AT THE THREAT OF GODS WITHDRAWAL.

(1-6) If God consented at all to renew His covenant with the people, after they had so flagrantly broken it, the terms on which He would renew it were, in strict justice, purely optional. In the Book of the Covenant He had promised to go up with them by an Angel, in whom was His ame (Exodus 23:20-23): i.e., by His Son, the Second Person in the Holy Trinity. He now, to mark His displeasure, withdrew this promise, and substituted for the Divine presence that of a mere angel. I will send an angel before thee (Exodus 33:2); I will not go up in the midst of thee (Exodus 33:3). Dimly the people felt the importance of the change, the vast difference between the angelic and the Divine, and mourned their loss (Exodus 33:4). mourned with some touch of real godly sorrow, and, as was the custom of the Orientals in mourning (Terent. Heaut. ii. 3, 47; Herodian. iv. 2, &c.), put off their ornaments.

COKE, "Verses 1-3Exodus 33:1-3. And the Lord said unto Moses, &c. One would imagine, that this was a repetition of what is said in the 34th verse of the last chapter; to which is added (Exodus 33:4.) a detail of the consequences which the declaration of God (Exodus 33:1-3.) had upon the people. In this view it should be rendered, now the Lord had said unto Moses, Depart, go, &c. The Almighty disclaims the people, and speaks of them only as brought up out of Egypt by Moses; see ch. Exodus 32:7. And though, in consequence of the intercession of Moses, he determines to fulfil his promise, and to give them the land which he sware unto Abraham; yet he refuses to go up with them himself, lest their refractoriness and continued disobedience should occasion their immediate and total destruction: he promises, however, to send an angel before them; a messenger or minister of an inferior order; from which it is evident, that the angel mentioned in the preceding chapters, as going before and conducting the Israelites, was, as we have had occasion often to observe, JEHOVAH himself, the MESSIAH, or Angel of the covenant. Compare these verses with ch. Exodus 23:20-21.

COFFMA, "Verse 1God had already granted Moses' prayer for the nation of Israel to be spared, but the final issue of whether or not the broken covenant would be renewed was at this

point unresolved, and also, if to be renewed, under what conditions. God's threatened withdrawal of his sacred presence from the apostate nation is announced (Exodus 33:1-6), and it became clear at once that Israel would be required to demonstrate genuine repentance for their shameful rebellion in which the covenant had indeed been forfeited. Israel's line of communication with God had been broken. Plans for construction of the Tabernacle were temporarily canceled, and the consecration of the priesthood and initiation of the Tabernacle system of worship were dropped until the matter of the broken covenant could be resolved and the covenant renewed. This emergency situation left Moses as the only hope of Israel, for, if it had not been for Moses, there can be little doubt that God would have destroyed Israel or left them to wander forever in the wilderness of Sinai, but Moses was equal to the Gargantuan task that confronted him. First, he improvised a temporary tabernacle to provide a provisional means of communication with God. This he did by moving his own tent to an eminence overlooking the whole camp of Israel, where God communicated with him, and then he took up a substitute residence for himself within the camp. We may be sure that Moses acted upon direct instructions from God in making these arrangements (Exodus 33:7-11). Moses' continued, and fervent intercession for Israel resulted in the complete restoration and healing of the broken covenant. Seeking still further assurance of the continued blessing and presence of God, Moses requested the favor of seeing God face to face in all of his glory (Exodus 33:18-23), a favor which Moses received in principle with the necessary limitations.

A few words about the critical assault upon this chapter will demonstrate the weakness and futility of such attacks. Martin oth considered the first paragraph to have been taken "mostly from `D,'"[1] allegedly a "sixth century B.C." source; and the second paragraph was supposed by him to belong to some "unknown" pre-`D' or pre-`P' source "taken up" by `J.' (in the tenth century)! Honeycutt, however, attributed the second paragraph to `E,' (long after `J'), and the third paragraph to `J' (allegedly in the tenth century B.C.).[2] Any number of leading critics would scramble these alleged "sources" differently, but it is perfectly obvious that none of these "experts" knows anything about any of these alleged "sources," which have never been seen by any man, which, in fact, have no existence whatever, their substance in each case being exactly that of a fevered imagination or A FATASTIC DREAM. Only those persons who are predisposed to disbelieve the Bible and are of a gullible disposition are capable of being deceived in such a manner.

The King James Version failed to distinguish between the temporary Tent, which was evidently Moses' private dwelling until pressed into special service as a "tent of meeting," and that set off a whole library of speculation regarding "two contradictory traditions" melded into the Exodus narrative by "redactors," but as Philip C. Johnson observed:

"Critics have gratuitously introduced here a confusion which is not at all in the narrative. This Tent of Meeting (Exodus 33:7-11) is obviously not the Tabernacle which had been described to Moses but was not yet built ... What is stated here is

that Moses set up a Tent outside the camp, a temporary sanctuary, where he might meet with Jehovah. This enforced and illustrated God's judgment that He would not dwell in the midst of Israel. The lesson was firmly driven home and awakened a longing in the hearts of the people that made a full restoration possible."[3]GOD'S THREAT OF WITHDRAWAL OF HIS PRESECE

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, Depart, go up hence, thou and the people that thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land of which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, Unto thy seed will I give it; and I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: unto a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people; lest I consume thee in the way. And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned: and no man did put on his ornaments. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiffnecked people; if I go up into the midst of thee, I shall consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from mount Horeb onward."

Clements, and others, seeking a way to link this chapter with their imaginary "source `D,' take note of certain phrases indicating, they say, a time subsequent to the days of Moses, but the real connection here is with the action of Jacob at Bethel who required his family to bury all of their personal "gods" under the oak tree; and that was not later than Moses, but centuries earlier! That there was indeed a connection between these incidents is seen in the finding of Clements who wrote: "We should remember that ornaments often took the form of amulets, designed to ward off evil spirits, and so could possess a decidedly pagan character."[4] See Genesis 35:4.

Yet another objection is that God in Exodus 33:5 commanded Israel to do something they had already done in Exodus 33:4. This is easily understood by the discernment that Exodus 33:5 may be parenthetical to show why Israel had put off their ornaments. Also, it is even more likely that God in Exodus 33:5-6 commanded the people not to "strip" but to "remain stripped" of their ornaments. The true rendition of the text here, according to Orlinsky, is "remained stripped," instead of "stripped."[5] Thus, we read in what the people actually did the nature of the commandment they obeyed. Keil discerned this and so rendered Exodus 33:5 as, "Throw thine ornament away from thee, and I shall know by that what to do to thee."[6] Thus, where the people had merely taken off their ornaments in Exodus 33:4, God commanded them to get rid of them altogether in Exodus 33:5-6.

The sorrow of Israel was profound when the full import of their shameful apostasy began to be fully realized by them. Indeed, God had spared the nation upon the intercession of Moses, but here he proposed that he would not accompany them to Canaan. "God's purpose was made plain. The people had shown themselves unfit for his near presence, and he would withdraw himself."[7] Instead of being with them personally and actually talking with the elders of the people, as in their

ratification of the covenant, God proposed that henceforth an angel would accompany the people, something of far less desirability. o wonder the people were full of grief and mourning. Their response in stripping themselves of their ornaments and returning to them no more was a mark of genuine repentance (Exodus 33:6), and this was part of the basis upon which God consented, upon the insistent intercession of Moses, to renew in full the broken covenant.

However, Exodus 33:5 showed that God's final decision on whether or not to renew the Covenant was still held in abeyance. "That I may know what to do unto thee" shows that the matter was not yet decided. There was thus, at the end of this paragraph a whole new situation with Israel. Construction of the Tabernacle so elaborately planned and shown to Moses was cancelled for the time then being. o priests would be consecrated until the matter was resolved. Furthermore, God would not be "in the midst of the people" at all, but would appear only to Moses, and even that was not to be while Moses was in the midst of the people, but it would happen "outside the camp," in a place especially prepared as a provisional means of communication during the period when the covenant was abrogated. Despite there being no mention of it, it is axiomatic that God instructed Moses specifically as to these temporary and provisional arrangements.

COSTABLE, "Verses 1-6God would not now dwell in the midst of the Israelites as He intended to do in the tabernacle because they had repudiated His covenant with them ( Exodus 33:3).

The announcement of the change in God"s relation to Israel and the consequent loss of blessing led the people to mourn and sacrifice out of sorrow ( Exodus 33:4-6). They willingly gave up the use of the ornaments that they had used in the rebellion and that were, therefore, an offense to God.

EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE COMMETARY, "PREVAILIG ITERCESSIO.

Exodus 33:1-23

At this stage the first concession is announced: Moses shall lead the people to their rest, and God will send an angel with him.

We have seen that the original promise of a great Angel in whom was the Divine Presence was full of encouragement and privilege (Exodus 23:20). o unbiassed reader can suppose that it is the sending of this same Angel of the Presence which now expresses the absence of God, or that He Who then would not pardon their transgression "because My ame is in Him" is now sent because God, if He were in the midst of them for a moment, would consume them. or, when Moses passionately pleads against this degradation, and is heard in this thing also, can the answer "My Presence shall go with thee" be merely the repetition of those evil tidings. Yet it was the Angel of His Presence Who saved them. All this has been already treated, and what we are now to learn is that the faithful and sublime urgency of Moses did really save Israel from degradation and a lower covenant.

It was during the progress of this mediation that Moses distracted by a double anxiety--afraid to absent himself from his wayward followers, equally afraid to be so long withdrawn from the presence of God as the descending of Sinai and returning thither would involve--made a noble adventure of faith. Inspired by the conception of the tabernacle, he took a tent, "his tent," and pitched it outside the camp, to express the estrangement of the people, and this he called the Tent of the Meeting (with God), but in the Hebrew it is never called the Tabernacle. And God did condescend to meet him there. The mystic cloud guarded the door against presumptuous intrusion, and all the people, who previously wist not what had become of him, had now to confess the majesty of his communion, and they worshipped every man at his tent door.

It would seem that the anxious vigilance of Moses caused him to pass to and fro between the tent and the camp, "but his minister, Joshua the son of un, departed not out of the tent."

The dread crisis in the history of the nation was now almost over. God had said, "My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest,"--a phrase which the lowly Jesus thought it no presumption to appropriate, saying, "I will give you rest," as He also appropriated the office of the Shepherd, the benevolence of the Physician, the tenderness of the Bridegroom, and the glory of the King and the Judge, all of which belonged to God.

But Moses is not content merely to be secure, for it is natural that he who best loves man should also best love God. Therefore he pleads against the least withdrawal of the Presence: he cannot rest until repeatedly assured that God will indeed go with him; he speaks as if there were no "grace" but that. There are many people now who think it a better proof of being religious to feel either anxious or comforted about their own salvation, their election, and their going to heaven. And these would do wisely to consider how it comes to pass that the Bible first taught men to love and to follow God, and afterwards revealed to them the mysteries of the inner life and of eternity.

2 I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.

BARES, "See Exo_3:8.

For I will not go up in the midst of thee - The covenant on which the original promise Exo_23:20-23 was based had been broken by the people. Yahweh now therefore declared that though His Angel should go before Moses, He would withhold His own favoring presence. The nation should be put on a level with other nations, to lose its character as the people in special covenant with Yahweh (see the note at Exo_33:16). Thus were the people forcibly warned that His presence could prove a blessing to them only on condition of their keeping their part of the covenant Exo_33:3. If they failed in this, His presence would be to them a consuming fire (Deu_4:24; compare Exo_32:10).

CLARKE, "I will send an angel - In Exo_23:20, God promises to send an angel to conduct them into the good land, in whom the name of God should be; that is, in whom God should dwell. See Clarkes note on Exo_23:20 (note). Here he promises that an angel shall be their conductor; but as there is nothing particularly specified of him, it has been thought that an ordinary angel is intended, and not that Angel of the Covenant promised before. And this sentiment seems to be confirmed by the following verse.

GILL, "And I will send an angel before thee,.... Not the angel before promised, Exo_23:20 the Angel of his presence, the eternal Word and Son of God, but a created angel; and so Aben Ezra observes, he does not say the Angel that was known, that his name was in him; though even this was to be looked upon as a favour, and showed that he had not utterly cast them off:

and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; who were now the inhabitants of the land, and these he promises drive out, to make way for their possession of it; and that "by his hand", as the Targum of Jonathan interprets it, by the hand of the angel. Only six nations are mentioned, though there were seven; the Girgashite is omitted, but added in the Septuagint version.

ELLICOTT, "(2) I will send an angel before thee.An angel is ambiguous. It might designate the Angel of the Covenant, the Angel of Gods presence, as in Exodus 23:20; or it might mean a mere ordinary angel, on a par with those who presided over the destinies of other nations besides the Hebrews (Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:20). That here the expression is used in this latter sense is made manifest by the declaration of the next verse: I will not go up in the midst of thee.

PARKER, "The Expulsion of the Heathen

Exodus 33:2

The awful statements made respecting the heathen, or non-Jewish peoples, have occasioned much surprise and not a little resentment. In the twenty-third chapter are words of an exciting kind upon this subject. In the twenty-eighth verse we read:

"And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee." If we take such words in a narrow and literal sense, we cannot fail to be shocked. It is right that we should resent them. They represent the very spirit of oppression and murder. We cannot worship a God who thus separates himself from our conscience. But if we take the words in the right sense, we shall find that they represent what is daily and necessarily taking place in human history. They set forth the very philosophy of progressive civilisation, and would continue to be operative even if the Bible were closed for ever. This is not a Biblical matter. It neither comes nor goes with the Bible merely as a book. It is a law. Account for it as we may, make of it what we can, there it Isaiah , inevitable, irresistible, incessant. Many of the men who have turned aside from the Bible because of such expressions, are spending their time in showing that such occurrences are part of the very necessity of history. This is the glory of the Bible. When narrowly read it drives men away from it as if a fire had scorched them. When they pursue their studies upon other ground and make their way into history, progress, human development, and all the mystery of civilisation, they come back to say that all had been foretold in sharp outline in the very book which they had once despised because they once misunderstood it. Some benevolent persons might suggest that the expulsion of the heathen peoples was a hypothetical one, that the verses so cruel in their first aspect might be read as it were subjunctively, after this fashion: "If the heathen peoples,the Canaanites, the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,should oppose me, and set up their will against mine, I will undertake for thee, and thou shalt have a clear course." That is not exposition which goes to the root and philosophy of things. It may cover up the mystery for a time or it may double the mystery by an aggravation which was meant to be pious; but we must find other lines and stand upon other ground, and enable ourselves by sufficient study to grasp the whole situation,not as it is indicated in one chapter or one verse, but as it is outlined and developed on the whole field of Biblical revelation. To understand such terms we must make ourselves acquainted with the Biblical theory and method of human development. We must of all things be careful not to snatch at isolated verses and isolated expressions. The Bible must be studied and applied in its entirety.

What, then, is the Biblical theory? We find that a point of departure was established in the selection of Abram as the typical head of a new humanity. Whilst Adam represents the outer humanity, the initial and visible Prayer of Manasseh , the historical unit of the race, Abram represents the inner and spiritual humanity, the fuller thought of God in the creation of Prayer of Manasseh ,the humanity that is to be, the eternal likeness of God. Understand, we art now endeavouring to discover the Biblical conception without saying whether it is true or untrue. First of all, let us grasp the philosophy as it is stated in the Bible. To place the matter somewhat figuratively, then, it may be put thus: As Adam was made out of the dust of the ground, so Abram was made out of the dust of Adam, and as Adam had control over all the lower animals, so Abram had control over all the lower civilisations. Account for this dominion as you please; there it is. The scientific difficulty is quite as great as the theological one. That one race does put down another is the broadest fact in history. It would be imagined from some loose and incoherent talk that the Bible

created the difficulties out of which we have made moral mysteries. Were the Bible closed, the difficulties would remain just where they are. The Bible comes with a conception which points toward a large and noble construction and issue. Therein the Bible is to be heard. The Bible does not create human life; it recognises, interprets, inspires, and directs it.

Light now begins to dawn upon the mystery. It now begins to be clear that this act was no mere act of butchery or destruction, but the gradual and solemn development of a purpose, whatever the origin of that purpose may have been. It is a fact in ethnology that some races do succumb to others. We cannot escape the fact that some races are dominant and some are servile, and that the great law of the survival of the fittest is written upon the very face of all life from the meanest to the highest. The Biblical reader is only careful that the expression, "the survival of the fittest," shall not be impoverished of its highest and richest meaning; he will seize the expression and make the highest use of it. Meanwhile, account for it as you may, with an open Bible or a shut Bible, the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, are going down, or have gone down, and another type of humanity is bearing aloft the banner of advancement and conquest. Suppose we close the Bible, we do not then revive the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite; suppose we say the Bible is not from heaven, we do not reinstate the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite. Whatever our theory may be, it is certain that those races are going or have gone; that they played their part and have given way to another and higher humanity. Some illustration of a collateral kind we may find in strictly personal development. Let a new life come into a mana life associated with a new conception of duty, sacrifice, honour, or a life associated with some other new and broad and noble idea; and what is the consequence? Out goes his heathenism. The Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which filled up the most of his life, are driven out by the light, and the beauty, and the purity of this new Abram,this new conception of light. What an outgoing there is from the soul! What superstitions and prejudices are scourged out under the mighty and redeeming influence of a new idea of life! What new habits are established! What broader and keener discipline is applied! How the whole nature, which was once a wilderness, blossoms as the rose! and the whole life, which was once a barren desert, glows with passionate blossoming! Some idea of a collateral kind arises from that conception. It throws light upon what is meant by the erection of a new humanity that shall put down, control, absorb, destroy, or glorify all things less than itself. In all these interpretations we want time. A thousand years with the Lord are as one day. We read the verses in sweltering haste, and imagine that blow followed blow with cruel rapidity, and that weak and helpless peoples were oppressed and crushed out of existence without notice, or without chance of escape. That is our injustice towards the facts of history. Between the chapters a thousand years may lie, between the lines a millennium may elapse. The one thought governing all other thoughts Isaiah , that there is an unswerving purpose running through all the process of the ages; and that under the development and march of that purpose all that is not of its own nature must go down. Whatever is of its own nature will be taken up, absorbed, and glorified; but there is a stone, and one of two things happens in relation to that stone,either fall

upon it and be broken, or it will fall upon you and grind you to powder. That is the Bible of history, the Bible of prosaic, daily facts,not a book of superstition, but pages written in the red blood of the current time.

Still pursuing the inquiry as to the Biblical theory of the unity of life and the progress of a purpose, we find that there is One spoken of in the Old Testament whose history is part of this marvel. We will not give that One a name: he shall be to us for the present a coming One, a shadow, a hint, a mysterious personality. Yet in the Bible that One is recognised above all others. Of him we read, "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter"s vessel." That is the text in another form of words, without one tone of the solemn music omitted. A greater than Abram must now be coming. "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever" ( Daniel 2:44).

Mark the harmony! It is possible for harmony or consistency to mass itself into the bulk and force of a noble argument. Throughout the Old Testament there is One coming whose way is marked by conquest. "I will overturn, overturn, overturn, until he come whose right it is." That is the text paraphrased in sublimer eloquence. So then the Bible is one upon this point. Adam has gone down, the new Abraham, the new humanity, is before us. There is no man so little spoken of in the Bible as Adam. He seems to have gone all but utterly out of the purview of the Biblical writers. But Abraham is a name written all over the holy book. God uses it. When does God speak of Adam? There is a new humanity on the earth. Here is a direct continuance of the promise made to Abraham and the Israelites. It is thus something to find that we are not dealing with a local incident or a narrow purpose, but that we are on the high road of history, or in the direct sequence of a sublime development.

Is the harmony continued in the ew Testament? Is there still One coming in that later book? We have left much behind,tabernacle, and temple, and altar, and priesthood, and ephod, and flowing blood of ram, and lamb, and fowl of the air,have we left behind the purpose of a new humanity? "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet."

This is the same principle. The Bible has never swerved; there is a common line. We are not now saying whether the line is right or wrong, we are making no special pleading on behalf of the Bible, but are endeavouring to be just to it, and from the first until the last the new humanity is to advance and all that is of its own quality is to be taken up: all that is not of its own quality is to be destroyed. The Bible argument is a massive and beneficent development We must read the part in the light of the whole; we must interpret the Pentateuch by the Apocalypse. He who makes the end gracious will, could we follow him, also make the process gracious. We leave all that we cannot explain regarding the servile or antagonistic races to

him who for a purpose created them. But there is the ethnological fact: that one type of humanity rises and cannot be put down, and another flutters in its weakness and expires in its helplessness. All this is part of a massive and large education. It is the history of every time. There is an aspect of it which affects us with sadness, but we are not to interpret things narrowly or momentarily, but broadly and in eternal lights. There are men amongst us who must go down; there are men who cannot be put down. Were all Bibles, Churches, from this moment disregarded, the sublime and terrible fact remains of dominance and servility, the right kind and the wrong kind, and it is one of two things,either the wrong must repent and be saved, or it must be ground to powder. For right cannot stand still. The light will slay the darkness with its million spears of glory, and a kingdom shall be established that shall explain the mystery of the conflict and the mystery of delay. We must await the incoming of that kingdom, saying, "Thy kingdom come." We need not be destroyed. I am not now speaking of the destruction of the soul in hell-fire,all that is another mystery which must be discussed and determined upon other ground. We have to face the one fact in this connection: that the new humanity is to advance, and that every soul that sets itself against it must go down. Why set ourselves against it? "Kiss the Song of Solomon , lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." The whole conception amounts to this: that One called the Son of Prayer of Manasseh , the Son of God, shall have the heathen for an inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession. His garment is dyed with blood, but it is with the blood of a victor. Truly the process Isaiah , in many respects, distressing and inexplicable, but we have nothing to do with processes. The meaning of the sharp ploughing will be seen in the harvest of grain. The deep and dark foundations so long dug for and so long in being laid will be explained by the lofty edifice and the pinnacles that pierce the sun. "We know in part, and we prophesy in part But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." God"s great purpose in all this advancement and overturning is to make man in his image and likeness. From that purpose he has never swerved. We await the issue. All the parables and analogies of nature which come within our cognisance establish the purpose, and already, here and there, by help of analogue, we begin to see how possible it is that though weeping may endure for a night, yet joy comes in the morning. As for the mystery, I leave it with him whose grace I magnify. We cannot resist the supreme purpose except to our own destruction. Everything points to a grand future. Were this all, we might laugh with rational merriment at him who calls himself Creator. But we must not arrest the process or interfere with the punctuation of history, or the method of the universe: we must calmly recognise the fact that from the beginning to the end there is one purpose never halting, never swerving, mighty to destroy, mighty to save,meant to save, intended for good, and that will never be satisfied itself until the wilderness is blotted out by the garden and the desert is forgotten in the golden harvest. In this doctrine we stand, feeling it to be strong in philosophy, actual in history, and beneficent in design.

Death By Hornets

In a letter by an Indian gentleman living near Jubbulpore, written to the Times

some years since, we read:"A most melancholy accident occurred here on the10th inst. Two European gentlemen belonging to the Indian Railway Company, viz, Messrs. Armstrong and Boddington, were surveying a place called Bunder Coode, for the purpose of throwing a bridge across the erbudda, the channel of which, being in this place from ten to fifty yards wide, is fathomless, having white marble rocks rising perpendicularly on either side from100 to150 feet high, and beetling fearfully in some parts. Suspended in the recesses of these marble rocks are numerous large hornets" nests, the inmates of which are ready to descend upon any unlucky wight who may venture to disturb their repose. ow as the boats of these European surveyors were passing up the river, a cloud of these insects overwhelmed them; the boatmen, as well as the two gentlemen, jumped overboard; but alas! Mr. Boddington, who swam and had succeeded in clinging to a marble block, was again attacked, and being unable any longer to resist the assaults of the countless hordes of his infuriated winged foes, threw himself into the depths of the water never to rise again. On the fourth day his corpse was discovered floating on the water, and was interred with every mark of respect. The other gentleman, Mr. Armstrong, and his boatmen, although very severely stung, are out of danger."

BI 1-3, "Without the camp.

The Tabernacle without the camp

I. First, then, they that seek the Lord must go without the camp.

1. It is scarcely necessary for me to say that no man can be a true seeker of God who has anything to do with the camp of the profane. We must take care that our garments are entirely clean from those lusts of the flesh, and those blasphemies of the ungodly.

2. Again, we must as much come out from the camp of the careless as from the camp of the profane. The largest company in the world is not that of the profane, but of the thoughtlessnot those who oppose, but who neglect the great salvation.

3. But we must go further than this: if a man would have fellowship with God he must go even out of the camp of the merely steady, sedate, and thoughtful; for there be multitudes whose thoughts are not Gods thoughts, and whose ways are not His ways, who are in every respect conformed outwardly to the laws of God, and who rigidly observe the customs of upright societywho think, and therefore abhor the trifles of the worldbut who, notwithstanding, have never learned to set their affections on things above. It is not enough to leave the Amalekites; thou must leave even the hosts of Moab, brother though Moab may seem to be to the Israel of God.

4. He that would know anything of God aright must even come out of the camp of the merely religious. Oh, it is one thing to attend to religion, but another thing to be in Christ Jesus; it is one thing to have the name upon the church book, but quite another thing to have it written in the Lambs book of life.

II. This going out of the camp will involve much inconvenience.

1. You will find that your diffidence and your modesty will sometimes shrink from the performance of dutys stern commands. If Christ be worth anything, He is worth avowing before the world, before men, before angels, and before devils.

2. Peradventure when you go without the camp you will lose some of your best

friends. You will find that many a tie has to be cut when your soul is bound with cords to the horns of the altar. Can you do it? As Christ left His Father for you, can you leave all for Him?

3. You will find, too, when you go without the camp, you will have some even professedly godly people against you. Ah! they will say, when you are filled with the Spirit, and are anxious to serve God as Caleb did, with all your heartAh! young man, that is fanaticism, and it will grow cool by and by.

4. Another inconvenience to which you will be exposed is that you will be charged falsely. So was your Master, remember. Endure, as He did.

5. Again, you must expect to be watched. If you profess to go without the camp, others will look for something extra in youmind that they are not disappointed. I have heard some say, I do not like to join the Church because then there would be so much expected of me. Just so, and that is the very reason why you should, because their expectation will be a sort of sacred clog to you when you are tempted, and may help to give impetus to your character and carefulness to your walk, when you know that you are looked upon by the eyes of men.

III. Now I come to use certain arguments, by which I desire earnestly to persuade each Christian here to go without the camp; to be exact in his obedience; and to be precise in his following the Lamb withersoever He goeth.

1. I use first a selfish argument, it is to do it for your own comforts sake. If a Christian can be saved while he conforms to this world, at any rate he will be saved so as by fire. Would you like to go to heaven in the dark, and enter there as a shipwrecked mariner climbs the rocks of his native country?

2. But I have a better reason than that, and it is, for your own growth in grace do it. If you would have much faith, you cannot have much faith while you are mixed with sinners. If you would have much love, your love cannot grow while you mingle with the ungodly.

3. I beseech you, Christian men and women, come right out and be your Masters soldiers wholly for the Churchs sake. It is the few men in the Church, and those who have been distinct from her, who have saved the Church in all times.

4. And for the worlds sake, let me beg you to do thus. The Church itself can never be the salt of the world, unless there be some particular men who are the salt of the Church.

5. And now lastly, for your Masters sake. What have you and I to do in the camp when He was driven from it? What have we to do with hosannas when He was followed with hootings, Crucify Him, crucify Him ? What have I to do in the tent while my Captain lies in the open battle-field? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-

necked people and I might destroy you on the way.

CLARKE, "I will not go up in the midst of thee - Consequently, the angel here promised to be their guide was not that angel in whom Jehovahs name was: and so the people understood it; hence the mourning which is afterwards mentioned.

GILL, "Unto a land flowing with milk and honey,.... Abounding with all the necessaries and good things of life, a description of the land of Canaan frequently made, see Exo_3:8,

for I will not go up in the midst of thee; would not grant them his presence in so near, visible, and respectable a manner as he had before done, though he would not utterly forsake them: the tabernacle was before in the midst of the camp, that is, that which was erected until the large one, ordered to be made, was finished, but now it was removed without the camp, Exo_33:7.

for thou art a stiffnecked people; See Gill on Exo_32:9,

lest I consume them in the way; in the way to the land of Canaan, and so never get there; the meaning is, that the Lord being in the midst of them, their sin would be the more aggravated to be committed in his presence, before his face; and the glory of his majesty would require that immediate notice be taken of it, and just punishment inflicted; so that by this step God both consulted his own honour and their safety.

JAMISO, "I will not go up ... lest I consume thee Here the Lord is represented as determined to do what He afterwards did not. (See on Exo_32:7).

ELLICOTT, "(3) A land flowing with milk and honey.See ote on Exodus 3:8.

Lest I consume thee.Comp. Exodus 32:10; Leviticus 10:2; Ps. 88:21, 31, &c. God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). His near presence, if it does not cleanse and purify, scorches and withers. The conduct of Israel in the wilderness was such as continually to provoke Him to destroy them; and but for His amazing compassion and forbearance, the result here glanced at would assuredly have followed.

BESO, "Exodus 33:3. I will not go up in the midst of thee By my own special and gracious presence, as hitherto I have done, but I will depart from thee. In pursuance hereof, God removes his tabernacle without the camp. I will only make good my promise to thy fathers, and send an angel to accomplish it, but I will show no particular and further kindness to thee. Lest I consume thee in the way Lest

thy sins should be aggravated by my presence and favour, and thereby I should be provoked utterly to destroy thee. So God shows that their perverseness makes this severity necessary for them, and that he, even in his judgment, remembers mercy to them.

WHEDO, "Exodus 33:23. I will take away my hand Speaking after the manner of men: As soon as the dazzling splendours of my majesty, termed, my face, which it is impossible for man to behold and live, are passed by, I will, by degrees, withdraw the cloud that limited and concealed those splendours, and thou shalt see my back parts, or those rays of my glory which are not too bright and piercing for mortal eyes to sustain. To explain this further, the face in man is the seat of majesty, and men are known by their faces; in them we take a full view of men: that sight of God Moses might not have, but such a sight as we have of a man who is gone past us, so that we only see his back. ow Moses was allowed to see this only; but when he was a witness to Christs transfiguration, he saw his face shine as the sun.

4 When the people heard these distressing words, they began to mourn and no one put on any ornaments.

GILL, "And when the people heard these evil tidings,.... That God would withdraw his gracious presence, and go not up with them himself, only send an angel with them; and especially this may respect what is threatened, Exo_33:5 and had been said at this time:

they mourned; were inwardly and heartily grieved for their sin, whereby they had provoked the Lord to depart from them, and gave some outward and open tokens of it:

and no man did put on his ornaments; they used to wear at other times, their rings and jewels, which the princes and the chief among the people especially were wont to wear; and in common the people did not put on their best clothes, or what they usually wore, but clothed themselves in mournful habits, in sackcloth and ashes, or in some such like manner.

HERY 4-6, "The people's melancholy reception of this message; it was evil tidings to them to hear that they should not have God's special presence with them, and therefore, 1. They mourned (Exo_33:4), mourned for their sin which had provoked God

to withdraw from them, and mourned for this as the sorest punishment of their sin. When 3000 of them were at one time laid dead upon the spot by the Levites' sword, we do not find that they mourned for this (hoping that it would help to expiate the guilt); but when God denied them his favourable presence then they mourned and were in bitterness. Note, Of all the bitter fruits and consequences of sin, that which true penitents most lament, and dread most, is God's departure from them. God had promised that, notwithstanding their sin, he would give them the land flowing with milk and honey. but they could have small joy of that if they had not God's presence with them. Canaan itself would be no pleasant land without that; therefore, if they want that, they mourn. 2. In token of great shame and humiliation, those that were undressed did not put on their ornaments (Exo_33:4), and those that were dressed stripped themselves of their ornaments, by the mount; or, as some read it, at a distance from the mount (Exo_33:6), standing afar off like the publican, Luk_18:13. God bade them lay aside their ornaments (Exo_33:5), and they did so, both to show, in general, their deep mourning, and, in particular, to take a holy revenge upon themselves for giving their ear-rings to make the golden calf of. Those that would part with their ornaments for the maintenance of their sin could do no less than lay aside their ornaments in token of their sorrow and shame for it. When the Lord God calls to weeping and mourning we must comply with the call, and not only fast from pleasant bread (Dan_10:3), but lay aside our ornaments; even those that are decent enough at other times are unseasonably worn on days of humiliation or in times of public calamity, Isa_3:18.

JAMISO, "when the people heard these evil tidings from Moses on his descent from the mount.

K&D, "The people were so overwhelmed with sorrow by this evil word, that they all put off their ornaments, and showed by this outward sign the trouble of their heart,

CALVI, "4.And when the people heard these evil tidings Hence it more clearly appears that, as I have said, it was like a thunderbolt to them when God withdrew Himself from the people; for this divorce is more fatal than innumerable deaths. It might indeed at first sight seem delightful to be the masters of a rich and fertile land; but dull as the people generally were, God smote them suddenly, so that all its delights became insipid, and its fruitfulness like famine itself, when they perceived that they would be but fatted unto the day of slaughter. A useful piece of instruction is to be gained from hence, viz., that if we neglect Gods favor and are captivated by the sweetness of His blessings, we are ensnared like fishes on a hook. God promised the Israelites what might attract them for a little season: He denied them what they should have alone desired, that He would be their God. The evil tidings affected them with sorrow, for they felt that men cannot be happy unless God be propitious; nay, that nothing can be more wretched than to be alienated from Him. It is good for me to draw near to God, (Psalms 73:28,) says David; and elsewhere, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, (Psalms 33:12, and Psalms 144:15;) again, the Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, my lot is fallen in pleasant places. (Psalms 16:5.) This, therefore, is the climax of all miseries to have God against us, whilst we

are fed by His bounty; and consequently the Israelites began to shew some wisdom, when, awaking from their lethargy, they counted all other things as naught, unless God should pursue them with His paternal favor. We infer from the grossness of their stupidity, that it was brought to pass by a special gift of God, that they were affected with such sorrow as to conduct them to a solemn mourning. First, Moses says that they did not put on their ornaments, and then that they were commanded by God to put them off; but this will be perfectly consistent if we take the latter as explanatory, as if he had said that they did not wear their ornaments because God had forbidden it, by enjoining them to mourn.

God here assumes the character of an angry judge, preparing to inflict vengeance in His wrath, in the words, I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee; in order that their alarm may humble them the more, and stir them up to earnest prayer. It was avisible sign of mourning to He in squalidhess and uncleanness, that thus their penitence might be openly testified; for there was no efficacy in the rite and ceremony to propitiate God, except in so far as the inward affection of the mind manifested itself by a true and genuine confession. For we must bear in mind what God requires by Joel, (Joel 2:13,) that we should rend our heart, and not our garments; nevertheless, whilst He cares not for the outward appearance, nay, whilst He abominates hypocrisy, still, if the sinner has truly repented, it cannot be but that, humbly acknowledging his guilt, he will add the outward profession of it. For if Paul, who was guiltless of any offense, deemed that the Corinthians were to be mourned for by him when they had not repented of their uncleanness, and fornication, and lasciviousness, because God humbled him in their sin, (2 Corinthians 12:21;) how should not those mourn publicly who are conscious of their own guilt, especially when, being convicted by the judgment of men, they are summoned to the tribunal of God? And therefore it is not without reason that he elsewhere teaches, that the sorrow which worketh repentance should also bring forth these other fruits, viz., carefulness, clearing of themselves, indignation, fear, vehement desire, zeal, revenge. (2 Corinthians 7:10.) For the sake of example also, sinners should not only grieve in silence before God, but willingly undergo the penalty of ignominy before men, so as by self-condenmation to confess that God is a just Judge, to provoke others to imitate them, and, by this warning of human frailty to prevent them from a similar fall.

After, however, God has inspired them with fear, He allays His anger as it were, and declares that He will consider what He will do with them, in order that they may gather courage to ask for pardon; for, although he does not actually pardon them, He sufficiently arouses them to hope, by giving them some taste of His mercy; for, by seeming to leave them in suspense, it is not with the intention that they should approach Him hesitatingly to ask forgiveness, but that their anxiety may urge them more and more to earnest prayer, and keep them in a state of humility.

ELLICOTT, "(4) When the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned.It was something that the people felt the tidings to be evil. It is natural for sinful men to shrink from the near presence of God (Matthew 8:34; Luke 5:8); and so the Israelites had shrunk from it a short time previously (Exodus 20:19). Even now they

would probably have feared a too near contact; but still, they were unwilling that God should cease to be the leader and guide of the host: they set a value on His presence and protection, which they felt that that of an angel would ill replace. Accordingly, when Moses communicated to them what God had said (Exodus 33:1-3), they mourned, i.e., not only grieved inwardly, but showed the outward tokens of griefmade a public and, as it were, national lamentation.

o man did put on him his ornaments.The Orientals, both men and women, have always affected ornament, and taken an extreme delight in it. Herodotus tells us that the Persians who accompanied Xerxes into Greece wore generally collars and bracelets of gold (Hist. ix. 80). Xenophon says that the Medes indulged a similar taste (Cyropd. i. 3, 2). In Egypt, at the time of the exodus, men of station wore generally collars, armlets, and bracelets, occasionally anklets. The Assyrians wore armlets, bracelets, and ear-rings. To strip himself of his ornaments was a great act of self-denial on the part of an Oriental; but it was done commonly in the case of mourning on account of a family bereavement, and sometimes in the case of national misfortunes. (See ote on Exodus 33:1-6.)

WHEDO, "4. The people heard mourned The withdrawal of the divine presence seemed to them to be ominous of evil. Though Gods voice out of Sinai filled them with terror, (see Exodus 20:19,) and they could not endure the nearness of such excessive majesty, the thought that the Holy One is about to forsake them in wrath excites even deeper fear.

Ornaments See also in Exodus 33:5-6. The putting off of these was a sign of humiliation and penitence. In a time of sorrow and guilt the adornments of the person were strikingly out of place.

COKE, "Exodus 33:4. And no man did put on him his ornaments The ornaments of dress have always been esteemed marks of cheerfulness and festivity. The laying aside these, and putting on sackcloth or other melancholy robes, has always been usual in times of trouble and sorrow, especially in the East; see Isaiah 32:11. ehemiah 9:1. The children of Israel, deprived of their greatest blessing, the presence and protection of the God whom they had grossly offended, were commanded to appear before him in the habit of mourners, confessing their sorrow for their offence, and deprecating his just indignation. The 5th verse is explanatory of the 4th. That I may know, Houbigant renders, that I may declare, or make known. By the mount Horeb, Exodus 33:6 is in the Hebrew from mount Horeb; specifying that distance from the mount to which the people retired, as afraid and ashamed to appear before the presence of God. See Houbigant.

REFLECTIOS.It was a discouraging message that Moses brought them, and bespoke God's high displeasure against them. For, 1. God refuses to go up with them, and leaves them to Moses and a ministering angel; against whom their provocations, though continued, might not be so aggravated as against himself in the midst of them; for the abuse of greater privileges brings along with it greater guilt. 2. He reproaches them with their stubbornness: he knew what was in them.

ote; God sees our hearts, and of all our sins is most offended with the inbred alienation of our affections from him. 3. He threatens to consume them, as justly he might. It becomes us to know and feel the justice of our condemnation, that we may be more affected with the wonders of God's grace in pardoning. 4. He stands, as it were, to consider how to deal with them, and bids them humble themselves before him: if so be, he may yet have mercy upon them. God delights not in the death of a sinner: he stays his descending arm, and when he sees us in the dust, stripped of every hope, then he will magnify his grace to the uttermost.

The people were justly confounded at the message: to be forsaken of God, was matter of bitter mourning; and therefore they humble their souls, strip off their ornaments, and give strong expression of contrition. ote; (1.) To be forsaken of God, is the heaviest punishment that can fall upon us: if he but withdraw the light of his countenance from his people, they go mourning all the day long. (2.) When sin is committed, sorrow and shame should cover us; and though tears cannot wash away our guilt, yet 'tis in the way of humble abasement that we may expect to hear a message of peace.

BI 4-8, "Put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.

The work of Lent

Lent is a season with a likeness to Jewish ordinances, because man in his nature and wants is ever the same; it is a Christian season, because its one object is to make us know more of the nearness of God to man, which is the great fact of Christianity. In the text we have one of Gods most explicit statements of the need of such observance; and we ask the meaning of that reason which He assigns for a season of special penitence and humiliation.

1. God wishes to know what to do with us. If the putting aside of ornaments, no matter how valuable or brilliant, is the condition of that process, it ought to be done; for Gods action must be full of power and love; and to be told that His hand is to be felt in our life, must imply that a blessing is to be bestowed upon us far beyond anything that can come from any other addition.

2. Never at any stage of His revelation has God ceased, in one form or other, to prescribe temporary and voluntary relinquishments, in order that He may enter. The ornaments, or Gods voicethat is the simple form of choice.

3. The object of Gods dealings with men is, that He may destroy their sin. And there is no more fruitful source of sin than those ornaments which He tells us to put away. The things which gather about our lives are causes of separation from our brother. The innocence or the desirability of the ornament may make no difference in the result. Learning, applause, and culture may make us just as forgetful, or unsympathetic, or even cruel towards others, as the more material possessions of life.

4. We can see, therefore, that this command is like the call of a John Baptist: Make the way plain, the path straight and level, for the coming of the Lord; remove the stumbling-block which has been in thy own or thy brothers path. Men must learn to see their oneness as brothers, before sin can be done away; lives very different from each other must be placed side by side, and then new modes of thought and

comparison will at once enter. How often one word, which gives us a glimpse into the real condition of anothers heart, makes us ashamed of some feeling which we have been cherishing toward him!

5. But the sins against our brethren are not the only evil that our ornaments work, and do not constitute the only reason why they must be abandoned before God can do His work for us. Those very sins spring from a deeper injury which has been done to our souls. These things that have attached themselves to life come to be regarded as its substance, and to regulate its whole movement. What the text says to us, then, is this: Cease to depend upon the present condition and surroundings of life. Think of yourself as an immortal soul. Try to imagine yourself as cut off from all these pursuits and surroundings, for so, in fact, you must be at some time; then count over the treasures of your life, and see whether there is enough to support an immortal soul.

6. The Lenten call is a call to greater moderation in the use of the things of this life, so that they shall not become our masters; it is a call to exalt the true Master of our life, so that every ornament of our being shall be discarded for ever, which is got worthy to minister to His glory, or which attempts to fight against His supremacy, so that all which remains shall be used in obedience to His commands, and in subservience to His purposes. It is by this test that innocent and sinful indulgence in the things of this life is to be discriminated, that the line of the too much and the too little is to be drawn, and that we are to be made men and women worthy and fit to use the world rightly.

7. But why does God need that the ornaments of mens lives should be put off before He shall know what to do unto them? Is it not limiting His power to say that He cannot deal with us as we are, with all our ornaments upon us? The work which God is to do for us has for its greatest mark that it is dependent upon what we are. It is the work of overcoming sin. God, when He made man, gave him all he needed for full development and growth. His course was forward and upward, ever increasing in power and glory, while obedience and dependence upon God ruled his action. No redemption would be necessary for such a being. Mans sin, his desire after the things of this world, his willingness to build up his life with those, created the great necessity. The self-will of man called upon God for new actionaction which His Divine wisdom could alone create, and which His Divine power could alone execute. That He may know what it shall be, He asks some indication of mans desire. There is nothing to do but to punish, to let the life which persistently holds to what has been its destruction, go its own sad way of separation from God, if there is no relaxing of the nervous grasp on earthly good and ornament. But at the very first sign of a willingness to put such things away, to bridle lifes passion, and to restrain lifes desire, the way of redeeming love is open. Man is ready; and God knows what to do, and He is able to make him His child once more.

8. Let us, then, rejoice at this season for putting away the mere ornaments of life, and in it open our ear anxiously, constantly, eagerly, to hear the word of His gracious intention. Gods treasury is full of the true ornaments of life. He readily offers them to us. Receive them as readily, and the worlds ornaments will lose their false glitter; our hearts will cease to desire them with that eager covetousness which conceals all the better impulses of the soul, and God will be able to do for us all the deep purposes of His wisdom and His love. (Arthur Brooks.)

Repentance of the Israelites

I. God is not able to exercise mercy towards an impenitent transgressor. He cannot do this, because it would

1. Be inconsistent with His own perfections.

2. Be ineffectual for the happiness of the persons themselves.

3. Introduce disorder into the whole universe.

II. Where humiliation is manifested, mercy may be expected. This appears from

1. The very mode in which repentance is here enjoined.

2. The experience of penitents in all ages.

Application:

1. Consider what obstructions you have laid in the way of your own happiness.

2. Endeavour instantly to remove them. (C. Simon, M. A.)

A fashionable sin

The house of prayer is a poor place to exhibit beads, ribbons, ruffles, gewgaws, and trinkets. The evils of such extravagance are many. It keeps people from worship, when they have not apparel as gorgeous as their neighbours. It loads the poor with burdens too heavy to be borne to procure fashionable clothing. It leads many into temptations, debt, dishonesty, and sin. It causes many a poor shop girl to work nearly all Saturday night, that some customers fine clothes may be ready for the Sunday show. It keeps people at home in cloudy or stormy weather, when, if they wore plain clothing, they could defy clouds and storms. It consumes the hours in dressing, crimping, and fussing, keeping people from church, and wasting time, hindering the reading of the Scripture, and making Sunday a day of folly. It makes the poor emulous, malicious, and envious, and plants many a bitter thought in the minds of children and others, when they see their neighbours decked in fineryoften unpaid forand feel that people are respected, not for their integrity of character, but for the fashion of their clothes. It is forbidden in Gods Word. And yet we seldom find a minister that dare open his mouth against this fashionable sin. Christian people should dress plainly before the Lord, for examples sake at home and abroad, for decencys sake, and for the sake of Christ. (Christian Age.)

5 For the Lord had said to Moses, Tell the Israelites, You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy

you. ow take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.

BARES, "I will come up ... - Better; If I were to go up for one moment in the midst of thee, I should consume thee.

That I may know ... - By that sign of their repentance Yahweh would decide in what way they were to be punished.

CLARKE, "Now put off thy ornaments from thee - The Septuagint, in their translation, suppose that the children of Israel not only laid aside their ear-rings, and such like ornaments, in a time of professed deep humiliation before God, but their upper or more beautiful garments too. Moses says nothing of this last circumstance; but as it is a modern practice, so it appears by their version to have been as ancient as their time, and probably took place long before that. The Septuagint gives us this as the translation of the passage: The people, having heard this sad declaration, mourned with lamentations. And the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Now, therefore, put off your robes of glory, and your ornaments, and I will show you the things I will do unto you. And the children of Israel put off their ornaments and robes by the mount, by Horeb.

If it had not been the custom to put off their upper garments in times of deep mourning, in the days that the Septuagint translation was made, they would not have inserted this circumstance in the account Moses gives of their mourning, and concerning which he was silent. They must have supposed too that this practice might be in use in those elder times.

That it is now practiced in the east, appears from the account Pitts gives of the ceremonies of the Mohammedan pilgrimage to Mecca. A few days after this we came to a place called Rabbock, about four days sail on this side of Mecca, where all the hagges or pilgrims, (excepting those of the female sex) do enter into hirrawem or ihram, i.e., they take off all their clothes, covering themselves with two hirrawems, or large white cotton wrappers; one they put about their middle, which reaches down to their ankles; with the other they cover the upper part of their body, except the head; and they wear no other thing on their bodies but these wrappers, only a pair of grimgameca, that is thin-soled shoes like sandals, the over-leather of which covers only the toes, the insteps being all naked. In this manner, like humble penitents, they go from Rabbock until they come to Mecca, to approach the temple, many times enduring the scorching heat of the sun until the very skin is burnt off their backs and arms, and their heads swollen to a very great degree. - pp. 115,116. Presently after he informs us that the time of their wearing this mortifying habit is about the space of seven days. Again, (p. 138): It was a sight, indeed, able to pierce ones heart, to behold so many thousands in their garments of humility and mortification, with their naked heads, and cheeks watered with tears; and to hear their grievous sighs and sobs, begging earnestly for the remission of their sins, promising newness of life, using a form of penitential expressions, and thus continuing for the space of four or five hours.

The Septuagint suppose the Israelites made much the same appearance as these Mohammedan pilgrims, when Israel stood in anguish of soul at the foot of Mount Horeb, though Moses says nothing of putting off any of their vestments.

Some passages of the Jewish prophets seem to confirm the notion of their stripping themselves of some of their clothes in times of deep humiliation, particularly Mic_1:8 : Therefore I will wail and howl; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.

Sauls stripping himself, mentioned 1Sa_19:24, is perhaps to be understood of his assuming the appearance of those that were deeply engaged in devotional exercises, into which he was unintentionally brought by the prophetic influences that came upon him, and in which he saw others engaged. - Harmers Observat., vol. iv., p. 172.

The ancient Jewish commentators were of opinion that the Israelites had the name

;Jehovah inscribed on them in such a way as to ensure them the Divine protection and that this, inscribed probably on a plate of gold, was considered their choicest ornament; and that when they gave their ornaments to make the golden calf, this was given by many, in consequence of which they were considered as naked and defenceless. All the remaining parts of their ornaments, which it is likely were all emblematical of spiritual things, God commands them here to lay off; for they could not with propriety bear the symbols of the Divine protection, who had forfeited that protection for their transgression.

That I may know what to do unto thee - For it seems that while they had these emblematic ornaments on them, they were still considered as under the Divine protection. These were a shield to them, which God commands them to throw aside. Though many had parted with their choicest ornaments, yet not all, only a few comparatively, of the wives, daughters, and sons of 600,000 men, could have been thus stripped to make one golden calf. The major part still had these ornaments, and they are now commanded to lay them aside.

GILL, "For the Lord had said to Moses,.... At the same time he had told it to the people:

say unto the children of Israel: Menachem, as quoted by Ainsworth, observes, that this is said in a way of mercy; for since their idolatry he had only called them the people of Moses, and the people, but now calls them by their beloved name, the children of Israel; but whether this was any hint of mercy and favour, is not very apparent by what follows:

ye are a stiffnecked people; obstinate and untractable; see Gill on Exo_32:9,

I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee; before he threatens them that he would not go up in the midst of them, that is, in a way of grace and mercy, to guide, protect, and defend them himself; and now that he would come up in the midst of them, but in a different manner, in a way of wrath, and to take vengeance on them for their sins; and the meaning is, either that should he do so but one moment it would be all over with them, or they would be utterly consumed; or this is threatened on condition, provided they did not repent of their sins, and humble themselves:

therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee; not their armour, as some, nor

the clothes they wore at the festival for the golden calf, for this was long after that; but the clothes they usually wore, the best they had, with all their decorations and ornaments, and put on mournful habits as an outward token of their repentance and mourning for their sins, if they had any real concern: this shows that these words must have been said before; since the people on hearing the evil tidings had clothed themselves in a mournful habit, and did not put on their ornaments, Exo_33:4,

that I may know what to do unto thee; which does not suppose ignorance or irresolution in God, but is said after the manner of men, that he should deal with them in proportion to their conduct and behaviour, and as that should outwardly appear.

JAMISO, "put off thy ornaments In seasons of mourning, it is customary with Eastern people to lay aside all gewgaws and divest themselves of their jewels, their gold, and every thing rich and splendid in their dress. This token of their sorrow the Lord required of His offending people.

that I may know what to do unto thee The language is accommodated to the feeble apprehensions of men. God judges the state of the heart by the tenor of the conduct. In the case of the Israelites, He cherished a design of mercy; and the moment He discerned the first symptoms of contrition, by their stripping off their ornaments, as penitents conscious of their error and sincerely sorrowful, this fact added its weight to the fervency of Moses prayers, and gave them prevalence with God in behalf of the people.

K&D, "That this good beginning of repentance might lead to a true and permanent change of heart, Jehovah repeated His threat in a most emphatic manner: Thou art a stiff-necked people; if I go a moment in the midst of thee, I destroy thee: i.e., if I were to go up in the midst of thee for only a single moment, I should be compelled to destroy thee because of thine obduracy. He then issued this command: Throw thine ornament away from thee, and I shall know (by that) what to do to thee.

ELLICOTT, "(5)For the Lord had said unto Moses.Rather, And the Lord said unto Moses. The message did not precede the repentance of the people, but followed it.

I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee.Rather, were I to go up in the midst of thee, even for a moment (a brief space), I should consume thee. The people learnt by this the reason of Gods proposed withdrawal. It was in mercy, that they might not be consumed, as there was danger of their being unless they repented and turned to God.

Put off thy ornaments.Rather, leave off thy ornaments, i.e., put them aside altogether; show thy penitence by giving up the use of them; then shall I know what to do with thee; then shall I be able to deal with thee in a way which otherwise were impossible.

SIMEO, "REPETACE OF THE ISRAELITES

Exodus 33:5-6. Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, by the Mount Horeb.

THAT which is principally required of Ministers, is fidelity [ote: 1 Corinthians 4:1-2.], to dispense the word of God aright, without courting the applause of men, or fearing their displeasure. Of hearers it is required, that they receive the word of God with all readiness of mind, and obey it without reserve. Where such Ministers and such people are, happy will they be in each other, and happy also in their God. Of the description we have mentioned was Moses; but not so the people of Israel: they were stiff-necked and rebellious throughout the whole course of his ministry among them. On some few occasions, however, they seemed to be of a better mind; particularly on the occasion now before us. Moses had declared to them a message from God; in which their true character was drawn, and his judgments against them were awfully denounced [ote: See the former part of.]: and the effect, for the present at least, was such as was reasonably to be expected: they trembled at the divine judgments, and humbled themselves instantly in the mode prescribed. This is declared in the text; for the elucidating of which we observe,

I. God is not able to exercise mercy towards an impenitent transgressor

God certainly is rich in mercy, and delights in the exercise of it; and would gladly manifest it towards all the human race [ote: 1 Timothy 2:4; Ezekiel 33:11.]. But impenitence presents an insurmountable obstacle in his way, so that he cannot shew mercy towards any who abide in it. He cannot,

1. Because it would be inconsistent with his own perfections

[He is a God of inflexible justice, unspotted holiness, and inviolable truth. But what evidence would there be that anyone of these perfections belonged to him, if he, in direct opposition to his own most positive declarations, put no difference between the proud contemner of his authority, and the humble repenting suppliant? ]

2. Because it would be ineffectual for the happiness of the persons themselves

[Annihilation indeed would be a benefit, if that were granted to them; because they would then be rescued from the sufferings that await them: but to raise them to heaven would be no source of happiness to them. Having still a carnal mind which is enmity against God, they must hate him though in heaven: either God, or they, must change, before they can have fellowship with each other. As little comfort could they find in the society or employment of the heavenly hosts. The glorified saints and angels could not unite with those who had no one sentiment or feeling in unison with their own [ote: They would be ready to thrust him out of their society. Luke 13:28.]: nor would they who hate the exercises of prayer and praise in this world, find any satisfaction in such exercises in the world above. I say therefore again, that

to an impenitent sinner heaven would be no heaven: for while sin reigns within him, he has a hell in his own bosom, and carries it with him where-soever he goes.]

3. It would introduce disorder into the whole universe

[What sensations must it occasion in heaven! for if God can so change his very nature as to love an unholy creature, who can tell but that he may go one step further, and hate an holy one? As for the effect of it on earth, no one from that moment would either hate or fear sin: not hate it, because they would see that God does not hate it; and not fear it, because they would see that he will not punish it. Even in hell the effect of it would be felt: for, if God takes an impenitent man to his bosom, why may he not an impenitent spirit also; and what hinders but that the fallen angels may yet become as happy as those who never fell? Could such a thought as this be cherished in that place of torment, hell would from that moment cease to be the place it is.]

Here then is ample reason why God, notwithstanding his delight in mercy, cannot find how to exercise it towards impenitent sinners. But,

II. Where humiliation is manifested, mercy may be expected

This appears,

1. From the very mode in which repentance is here enjoined

[When we speak of God as embarrassed in his mind, or perplexed in his counsels, we must not be understood to intimate that such things actually exist: for known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world: nor can any occasion possibly arise, wherein he can be at a loss how to act. But he is pleased to speak in this kind of language respecting himself, in order to accommodate himself to our feeble apprehensions: Put off thy ornaments, that I may know what to do unto thee. Thus in various other places he speaks as perplexed in his mind about the line of conduct he shall pursue [ote: Hosea 6:4.], and as wishing to shew mercy, but not knowing how to do it consistently with his own honour [ote: Jeremiah 3:19.]. Let us not then be misunderstood, as though, in accommodating ourselves to the language of our text, we deviated at all from that reverence which is due to the Supreme Being.

It is here intimated then, that, whilst impenitence continues, he knows not how to exercise mercy to the sinner: but it is also intimated, that, when once persons are humbled for their wickedness, he is at no loss at all how to act towards them: he can then give full scope to the merciful disposition of his own heart, and can pour out all his benefits upon them without any dishonour to his own name. Yes; that point attained, the law is honoured by the sinner himself; the atoning blood of Christ may be applied freely to cleanse him from his guilt; the mercy vouchsafed to him will not be abused; the heavenly hosts will be made to shout for joy; and God himself will be glorified to all eternity. There is no obstacle whatever to the freest and fullest

exercise of love towards such a Being; and therefore God knows both what to do, and how to do it to the best effect.]

2. From the experience of penitents in all ages

[Look at those in our text: God had threatened that he would go with them no more, but commit them to the guidance of a created angel. This had produced upon them a very deep impression: the fear of being deserted by him had wrought more powerfully upon them than the slaughter of three thousand of their number on the day before [ote: 4.]. They humbled themselves in the way that God had commanded; and, behold! the mercy, so ardently desired by them, and by Moses, was granted: My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest [ote: 4.].

Look at all other penitents from the foundation of the world: was ever so much as one spurned from the footstool of divine grace? Was ever one sent empty away? Even where the repentance was far from genuine, considerable respect was paid to it, and the blessing sought for was bestowed [ote: 1 Kings 21:27-29.]. How much more where the repentance itself has been deep, and the contrition manifest! ot even the greatest accumulation of guilt that ever was known, was suffered to outweigh the tears of penitence, or to shut up the tender mercies of our God from a contrite soul [ote: 2 Kings 21:16 with 2 Chronicles 33:1-13.]. The Saviour was sent into the world for the very purpose of saving them that are lost; and he assures all who are weary and heavy laden with a sense of their sins, that, on coming to him, they shall find rest unto their souls.]

Application

1. Consider what obstructions you have laid in the way of your own happiness

[Had you not sinned, or, after your sins, continued impenitent, you would have been happy long since in the enjoyment of your God. He has been long waiting to be gracious unto you, but you would not suffer him to be so. He has been longing to gather you, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but you would not. Say then, what alternative is left to God? He has called, but you have refused: he still calls, and you still continue to reject his counsels. Truly, he knows not what to do: if he spare you, you only add sin to sin; and if he cut you off, you perish without the smallest hope of mercy. Who can tell but that he is deliberating at this moment, and j