Exodus 13

Ex. 13 1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, what- 2 soever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. 11 And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanite, as he sware 12 unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it thee, that thou shalt set apart unto the LORD all that openeth the womb, and every firstling which thou hast that cometh of a beast; the males 13 shall be the LORD’s. And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break its neck; and all the firstborn of man among thy 14 sons shalt thou redeem. And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, What is this? that thou shalt say unto him, By strength of hand the LORD brought us out 15 from Egypt, from the house of bondage: and it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the LORD slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man, and the firstborn of beast: therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all that openeth the womb, being 16 males; but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem. And it shall be for a sign upon thine hand, and for frontlets between thine eyes: for by strength of hand the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt.

De. 15 19 All the firstling males that are born of thy herd and of thy flock thou shalt sanctify unto the LORD thy God: thou shalt do no work with the firstling of thine ox, nor shear 20 the firstling of thy flock. Thou shalt eat it before the LORD thy God year by year in the place 21 which the LORD shall choose, thou and thy household. And if it have any blemish, as if it be lame or blind, any ill blemish whatsoever, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the LORD thy God. 22 Thou shalt eat it within thy gates: the unclean and the clean shall eat it alike, as the gazelle, 23 and as the hart. Only thou shalt not eat the blood thereof; thou shalt pour it out upon the ground as water.

Ex. 22 29 Thou shalt not delay to offer of the abundance of thy fruits, and of thy liquors.

23 19 The first of the firstfruits of thy ground thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God.

No. 15 17 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land whither I bring you, then it shall be, that, when ye eat of the bread of the land, ye shall offer up an heave offering unto the LORD. Of the first of your dough ye shall offer up a cake for an heave offering: as ye do the heave offering of the threshing-floor, so shall ye heave it. Of the first of your dough ye shall give unto the LORD an heave offering throughout your generations.

Lev. 27 30 And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD’s: it is holy unto the LORD. And if a man will redeem aught of his tithe, he shall add unto it the fifth part thereof. And all the tithe of the herd or the flock, whatsoever passeth under the rod, the tenth shall be holy unto the LORD. He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it: and if he change it at all, then both it and that for which it is changed shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed. These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai.

De. 14 22 Thou shalt surely tithe all the increase of thy seed, that which cometh forth of the field year by year. And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to cause his name to dwell there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herd and of thy flock; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always. And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it, because the place is too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God shall bless thee: then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt bestow the money for whatsoever thy soul desireth, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul asketh of thee, and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God: and thou shalt rejoice, thou and thine household: and the Levite that is within thy gates, thou shalt not forsake him; for he hath no portion nor inheritance with thee. At the end of every three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thine increase in the same year, and shalt lay it up within thy gates: and the Levite, because he hath no portion nor inheritance with thee, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, which are within thy gates, shall come, and shall eat and be satisfied; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand which thou doest.

The burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, in which the unity of the soul with God is expressed, find their parallels in the gifts, the firstlings, the first-born, the tithes, the shewbread, the eternal fire on the altar of burnt-offering, the daily and festal burning of incense, the washings before every sacred act of prayer or sacrifice, and in the vows of the Nazarite and the Rechabite; in all these things the desire is expressed to authenticate by outward acts the readiness to surrender one’s self unreservedly to God. Tholuck.

EFFERING OF FIRST-BORN OF MAN AND BEAST. Ex. 13:1, 2, 11-16; 22:29, 30; 34:19, 20. Lev. 27:26. De. 15:19, 20.

2. Sanctify unto me all the first-born.** To sanctify, kadesh, signifies to consecrate, separate, and set apart a thing or person from all secular purposes, to some religious use. A. C.—As a permanent memorial of God’s having graciously spared them in Egypt, every first-born male, both among men and cattle, was henceforward by the Divine command to

Moses to be declared holy—i.e., was to be separated from others, and devoted to God and to his service. They were thus to be put into his possession, because by sparing them in Egypt he had shown that they belonged to him. C. G. B.

We see throughout the patriarchal period a prominence given to the right of the first-born, who received a double inheritance and authority over the family. The reason for this was chiefly founded on the great importance attached in ancient times to the keeping together of families, the transmission of their traditions, the maintenance of discipline and morality, of steadfastness and community. This family relationship had clearly continued in Egypt, and preserved Israel from disruption. It was in after times one of the foundation-stones of the Israelitish political constitution. Among the people of God the first born was the head, the centre of unity in the family, and so God’s representative. After the judgment on the Egyptian first-born, Israel was now in a double way God’s peculiar possession. He had spared them of his mercy, as he had punished the Egyptians. As a thank-offering were all the first-born to be given up to him. This sacrifice consisted in the perfect surrender to the service of the Lord; in which respect the tribe of Levi in later times stood in the place of the first-born (Nu. 3:13), and the first-born were hence under an obligation to tax themselves for its support; at the same time the first-born was yet further released by an express offering. In all this we perceive a type of him who is “the first-born of every creature” (Col. 1:15); who gave himself to God by the sacrifice of his own will once for all, for the sanctification of all, and not merely as a typical service. His death became at the same time the effectual sin-offering for men (cf. Heb. 10:5-10). This is the deep significance of the Law before us, by means of which Moses was led to a clearer understanding of what took place before his eyes. Gerl.

The earliest birth is here regarded as the representative of all the births; so that the dedication of the whole family was involved in that of the first-born. The difference between the first-born of Israel and the first-born of Egypt was this: the Egyptians refused to render to Jehovah that which was due and continued most obstinately to resist his will; Israel did not draw back from the dedication required, and covered their previous omissions by the atoning blood of the sacrificial lamb. Now the Law of the kingdom of God is, that everything which will not voluntarily consecrate itself to the Lord, for the purpose of receiving life and blessedness through this self-dedication, is compulsorily dedicated in such a manner as to receive judgment and condemnation. The slaughter of the first born of the Egyptians is therefore to be regarded as of the nature of a ban, an involuntary, compulsory, dedication. But Israel’s self-dedication to Jehovah had hitherto been insufficient, and hence the necessity for the expiatory sacrifice to cover the defects. The necessary complement of reconciliation is sanctification. By virtue of the atoning paschal blood the first-born of Israel had been spared; but if they were to continue to be thus spared, the sanctification of the first-born must follow. And as the first-born of Egypt represented the entire nation and in their fate the whole people were subjected to a compulsory dedication; so was the voluntary dedication of the whole nation of Israel set forth in the sanctification of the Israelitish first-born. K.

Observe that this order for the consecration of the first-born, which lies at the foundation of the whole system of provision for the ministry and ordinances of religion subsequently, grows immediately out of and connects with the Passover covenant and its blessings. “The first-born is mine,” saith Jehovah. Of course, all things are his, of right, by creation. But this call for the consecration of the first-born is founded upon an act of redemption—the preservation of the first-born of Israel in the blood-sprinkled houses when the first-born of Egypt were slain. It was, therefore, to be a perpetual reminder of this work of redemption, and in token of their gratitude for it this portion was to be devoted to God as his peculiar portion, and if reappropriated by themselves it must be redeemed by an equivalent. When, subsequently, the new system of religious worship was formally inaugurated, a whole tribe—the tribe of Levi—was taken as a substitute for the first-born of every family, so that thus a ministry was provided. But the consecration of the firstlings of animals was still required, together with the tithe of one tenth of the produce of the land for the maintenance of religion. The whole system subsequently adopted had, however, its original root in this ordinance of consecration of the first-born. Thus it will be perceived that the provision made for the support of religious ordinances even in the Old Testament, though, as to its subsequent form it was represented by the consecration of a whole tribe to religion, and of a tenth of the income of the land for its maintenance, was, in principle and in the ground of it, the same as under the New Testament. The consecration of one’s self to the redeeming Christ involves the consecration of all that is his so far as it is needed to promote the honor and advancement of Christ’s cause. And thus in the ancient Church was developed the principle laid down by Christ that the test to determine the measure of one’s love to God, and how high he stands in our affections, is how much we are willing to part with of what we love best in this world. The Church of Pentecost, whose members no longer “called anything their own” as against the needs of the cause of God, was indeed a fit successor to the newly-redeemed Church of the Passover in Egypt. And fitting and beautiful, as the title of a church which had such an origin to its ministry and ordinances, is that title “the Church of the first-born,” and Christ himself the “first-born of many brethren.” S. R.

Ex. 13 17 And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not by the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near ; for God said, Lest

18 peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt : but God led the people about, by the way of the wilderness by the Red Sea : and the chil-

19 dren of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt. And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him : for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will

20 surely visit you ; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you. And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilder-

21 ness. And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way ; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light ; that they might go by day

22 and by night : the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, departed not from before the people.

14 1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that

2 they turn back and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, before

3. Baal-zephon : over against it shall ye encamp by the sea. And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them

4 in. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he shall follow after them ; and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host ; and the Egyptians shall know that I

5 am the LORD. And they did so. And it was told the king of Egypt that the people were fled : and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was changed towards the people, and they said, What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from

6 serving us ? And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him : and he

7 took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over all

8 of them. And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel : for the children of Israel went out with an high

9 hand. And the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before Baal-zephon.

Nu. 33 6 And they journeyed from Succoth, and pitched in Etham, which is in the edge of

7 the wilderness. And they journeyed from Etham, and turned back unto Pi-hahiroth, which is before Baal-zephon : and they pitched before Migdol.

Notwithstanding the difficulty of exactly identifying localities after an interval measured by thousands of years, it is, on the whole, surprising to see how near an approach can be made to a determination of the route by which Israel went up out of Egypt. The exceptional configuration and condition of the country are, and always have been, such as to guide and restrict the movements of large companies ; and the ascertainment of a few places goes far toward settling the whole line of march.

The Wady Tumilat is a narrow fertile strip lying some thirty-five miles north of the latitude of Cairo, and extending from the Nile delta to the eastern edge of Egypt. A little north of Cairo the two limestone ridges that shut in the Nile break down and swing off to the northeast and the northwest respectively, making room for the delta. The northeastern line, greatly reduced in height, opens at a place nearly east of Zagazig, and lets a narrow tapering valley or depression of surface shoot directly east, almost to Birket Timsah, the Crocodile Lake. It is the Wady Tumilat. Goshen unquestionably included Wady Tumilat, the valley of the modern canal and railway. Along this valley ran the ancient canal of the time of the exodus, though not then, as afterward, extended to the Red Sea. From Zagazig the railway runs almost due east, soon entering and following Wady Tumilat. For a long distance the valley seemed the most productive part of Egypt that I had seen. In its wider parts it may be two miles or more in breadth, growing steadily narrower, till be-

fore reaching Ismailia, on the Crocodile Lake (Timsah) (which is by rail forty-seven miles east of Zagazig), it entirely fades out. The railway and the Sweet Water Canal run through its entire length. Bartlett.

13:17. God led them not by the way of the Philistines. The reason is here given in advance for the change in their route indicated in the emphatic command to Moses (14:1, 2). B.

18. The Way of the Wilderness by the Red Sea, or “The Way of the Red Sea,” was the road which swept out of Egypt, across the wilderness between the two arms of the Red Sea, from the head of the Gulf of Suez to the head of the Gulf of Akabah. It is today the great Hajj route from Egypt toward Mecca. It is frequently referred to in the narrative of the exodus and wanderings. H. C. T.

To say nothing of the Divine purposes relative to the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, and the humbling and proving of the Israelites by a protracted sojourn in the wilderness, they could not enter Canaan by the direct route without encountering the Philistines, who then occupied all its southern borders. These Philistines were a powerful and warlike nation, between whom and the Israelites there seems to have been an ancient grudge existing from a circumstance mentioned 1 Chron. 7:21, 22. To avoid, therefore, the perils of battle, Moses is directed to take another far more circuitous and difficult route “by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea.” Moses was directed in this, for the circumstances clearly evince that he could have been no self-appointed lawgiver, leading forth the Israelites from Egypt of his own motion, but that he all along acted under Divine dictation and control. Bush.

Their spirits were broken with slavery; the Philistines were formidable enemies, too fierce to be encountered by raw recruits; it was more suitable that they should be prepared for the wars of Canaan, by experiencing the difficulties of the wilderness. God proportions his people’s trials to their strength, and will not suffer them to be tempted above what they are able. He tried their faith and patience and dependence upon God, and inured them to the hardships of the wilderness, and so instructed them. Every stage had something in it that was instructive; even when he chastened them, he thereby taught them out of his Law. It is said (Ps. 107 : 7) that he led them forth by the right way; and yet here, that he led them about; for God always leads his people the right way, however to us it may seem about; so that the farthest way about proves, if not the nearest way, yet the best way home to Canaan. How God instructed them is explained long after (Neh. 9 : 13), Thou gavest them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments; and especially (verse 20), Thou gavest them also thy good Spirit to instruct them; and he instructs effectually. We may well imagine how unfit that people had been for Canaan, had they not first gone through the discipline of the wilderness. H.

In this wilderness route there were great purposes to be accomplished in the moral training and culture of the nation and in the manifestations of the God of their fathers before their eyes. That way lay the passage of the Red Sea which God provided as the burial-place for the proud hosts of Pharaoh; that way lay Sinai—those grand mountain cliffs which God was to shake with his thunders and invest with the smoke and the flame of his glorious presence, that the Law might be written in letters of fire upon the souls of the whole people; that way lay the long, breadless, waterless route of almost forty years wandering and sojourning in which the Lord fed the people with angels’ food—bread from the lower heavens—the manna of the desert, and with water once and again from smitten rocks, flowing in dry places as a river—that they might learn the power and the love of their God; that way lay also their long tuition and training into their religious system—a wonderful arrangement of sacrifices and ordinances for which the lifetime of a generation was scarcely too long. All these great results and yet others were contemplated and provided for in this choice of the wilderness route as their way to the land of Canaan. H. C

According to the course of the country, Moses might have marched the people a much shorter way, and, supported by the power of God, have taken possession of the land of Canaan at once; but such rapid proceedings would not have served the purpose for which the children of Israel were separated from all other nations. It is evident, from Moses’s supposing that they would ask the name of the God of their fathers, that they had become polytheists during their residence in Egypt. Their making and worshipping of the golden calf is a proof of the strength of their attachment to the idolatry of their late masters; and the readiness with which they suffered themselves to be seduced by the daughters of Moab, indicated their proneness to idolatry of every kind. God drew them, as he says himself (Hos. 11 : 4), “With the cords of a man, and bands of love,” that, by appeals made to their understandings and their affections, they might see reason to become attached to him and habituated to his worship; but this could be done only by detaining them in the wilderness till their religious principles should be fixed and their trust in him and attachment to his service be strengthened into habit by numerous displays of goodness and power, such as were never vouchsafed to any other people. Had they been carried to Canaan by the shortest way and settled there at once by the extermination of the seven nations, nothing would ever have been heard, either by them or by us, of the Angel of God’s Presence visibly preceding them; nothing of his dividing the sea to facilitate their passage; nothing of his overwhelming their enemies in those very floods, which to them were a kind of wall on each side; nothing of his drawing out rivers of water from the stony rock; nothing of his (Ps. 78 : 24), “sending down manna upon them, and giving them food from heaven;” nothing of his “raining flesh, as thick as dust, and feathered fowls, like as the sand of the sea,” nothing of his amazing descent upon Mount Sinai, when, in the lofty words of the Psalmist (Ps. 18 : 9, etc.), “he bowed the heavens, and came down, and it was dark under his feet; he rode upon the cherubims, and did fly; he came flying upon the wings of the wind; he made darkness his secret place, his pavilion round about him with dark water, and thick clouds to cover him: There went a smoke out of his presence, hailstones, and coals of fire, so that the earth trembled and quaked; the very foundations also of the hills shook, and were removed.” The wilderness, in short, was the scene which God had made choice of for the display of his almighty power and goodness: there it was that he laid bare his arm, as he calls it, to the Israelites; that every day he took care of their meat and drink and clothing; and had he not detained them there so long, he had not been so kind. It may be considered further, that, before this people were to be admitted into the possession of the inheritance which God had promised them, all matters were to be adjusted between him and them; and to this purpose laws were to be given, ordinances instituted, and covenants sealed. Stackhouse.

In the sacred story there are three great typical lands: Egypt, Arabia, Canaan. Egypt is the Land of Bondage; Arabia is the Land of Training; Canaan is the Land of Rest. He who would pass from Egypt to Canaan must needs go through Arabia. It was into Arabia that Moses was led, in his training for his work as leader and lawgiver, after his dwelling in Egypt. Elijah the prophet had his training lessons there (1 Kings 19:1-18). And thither was Paul sent in preparation for his work as the apostle to the Gentiles (Gal. 1:17). H. C. T.

19. Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. Nothing in all Joseph’s life showed his heart so plainly as the directions he left at his death. After a long life spent in their service, he so loved his kindred and had such faith in his God that he thought only of how he could best make even his dead body serve his people and glorify God. It was not merely a desire to be buried with his fathers; for all Egypt would have united with his kindred in carrying him thither. They had thus carried Jacob; still more willingly would they have heeded the wish of their great statesman who for eighty years had governed Egypt so wisely and so well. But he would serve his people and honor his God with his dead body. A long life of service did not satisfy him so long as there was aught he could do. He believed God would visit the people and lead them out of Egypt. But the time might be long and their faith fail as they waited. Nothing he could say or do would so keep the coming exodus in their minds as to leave his bones among them unburied, waiting to be carried up from hence. Nothing would serve so effectually to keep in their minds and hearts the wonderful story of God’s dealings with Joseph himself: his rescue from the pit and from the dungeon, and his deliverance of his father’s family from the famine. Year after year, as they march back and forth through the desert, while slowly the condemned generation died out among them, that coffin is borne on by his descendants. Those who bore it on that night-march from Egypt had died, and their sons, who stood looking upon it then with wondering eyes, had taken their place. And still they wandered in the desert, and still no burial-place was found for Joseph. But, as it had done in Egypt, that coffin strengthens their faith in their desert march. Does despondency seize upon some son of Manasseh, and does he say gloomily to his comrade, “We shall all perish in this wilderness; it would have been better to have remained in Egypt, for none of us will ever reach the land of Abraham?"—one look toward that body waiting there, and which had waited so long, would silence him. If Joseph had such faith so long ago, why should his children doubt? That coffin stood a silent pledge that the wanderings should cease and they rest in the land promised to their fathers. It preached to them not only faith but patience. Why should they be weary of these few years, when Joseph had waited for burial through centuries? Hom. Rev.

21. The Lord went before them. That by the Lord here is meant the Lord Jesus, we have the authority of Paul to believe (1 Cor. 10:9). It was He whose spirit they tempted in the wilderness, for it was He who led them through the desert to the promised rest. In a pillar of cloud—of fire. This pillar or column which appeared as a cloud by day, and a fire by night, was the symbol of the Divine presence, the Shekinah or Divine dwelling-place, and was the continual proof of the presence and protection of GOD. A. C.—It was manifestly the visible presence of Jehovah with his people. It was to be both a guide to them in all their wanderings, a shelter in the day from the blazing sun of the desert, and at night a light to illuminate the encampment; as a protector to flame forth against their enemies, or on some special occasions, as upon the doomed violators of his covenant, in the way of executing the wrath of Jehovah against offenders. As to the form and structure and outward appearance of this remarkable symbol, we are led to conceive of it as a majestic column, with base perhaps broad enough to shade the whole camp of Israel from the sun, which must have been six or eight miles square. By day it was an opaque body, by night the ineffable brightness from within shone through the encircling opaque cloud. This remarkable pillar of cloud and of fire is spoken of as the Angel of Jehovah (Ex. 23:20-23); as the glory of the Lord whose sight was like devouring fire (Ex. 24:17). So in De. 1:32, 33: “The Lord, your God, went in your way before you to search you out a place to pitch your tents in, in fire by night to show you by which way ye should go, and in a cloud by day.” According to the teaching of these passages, this cloud-fire pillar was to Israel the Angel Jehovah of the nation, and they looked upon that sublime and awful column as the visible embodiment of their ever-present God looking out from it upon them, and from whom the most secret action could not be hid. It was also their oracle for the time—their Shekinah, or visible glory. On occasion it rose from their camp and ascended to the summit with attendant lightnings and thunders; or again descended from Sinai and stood over the newly-erected tabernacle, where God talked with Moses and delivered all the precepts of the Levitical Law. In short, this was the symbol of the Divine presence with his people, and as a theophecy typified the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus “the brightness of the Father’s glory.” S. R.

This inwrapped inner splendor is more appropriately termed “the Glory of the Lord;” and this “Glory” is said to have appeared in the daytime, when God would express his displeasure on account of the people’s transgressions, or when he would strike them with a trembling awe of his majesty, as at the giving of the Law from Sinai. In like manner, when the two sons of Aaron, Nabab and Abihu, offended by strange fire in their offerings, a fatal flash from the cloudy pillar instantaneously extinguished their lives. We cannot doubt, therefore, that this majestic pillar of cloud was intended to serve as the Shekinah, or visible representative of Jehovah, dwelling in the midst of the chosen people. The Divine nature—that is, the Divine power, efficacy, authority, majesty, and omniscience, would be associated with the external visible symbol. To all practical purposes, therefore, this cloudy pillar was to them the “Angel Jehovah,” CHRIST, the God of their nation, and they were to look up to that sublime and awful column as a visible embodiment of their covenant God, as an ever-present witness, from whom not even their slightest word or deed could be hidden. This view of the cloudy pillar as a kind of watch-tower of the Almighty, an aerial Mizpeh, or “place of espial,” is expressly recognized in the remarkable passage (Ex. 14:24, 25). Bush.

In each of the aspects which this pillar assumed, we find the corresponding feature most fully verified in Christ. He is the light of men. The glory of the Father shines forth in him as full of grace and truth. He alone has revealed the Father, and can give the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Therefore he is the Word or Revealer of God, the effulgence of his glory. And while merciful and compassionate in the last degree to sinners—the very personification of love—he yet has eyes like a flame of fire, and feet as of burning brass; and he walks amid the golden candlesticks, as he did in the camp of Israel, to bring to light the hidden works of darkness, and cause his indignation to smoke against the hypocrites. P. F.

Christ was with the Church in the wilderness (1 Cor. 10:9). Now their king passed before them, even the Lord on the head of them (Mic. 2:13). Those whom God brings into a wilderness, he will not leave nor lose there, but will take care to lead them through it. They needed not to fear missing their way who were thus led, or being lost who were thus directed; they needed not to fear being benighted who were thus illuminated, nor being robbed who were thus protected. They who make the glory of God their end and the Word of God their rule, the Spirit of God the guide of their affections and the providence of God the guide of their affairs, may be confident that the Lord goes before them, as truly as he went before Israel in the wilderness, though not so sensibly; we must live by faith. H.

Nothing less than an identification of Christ with the “Jehovah” or the oracular Presence, the Shekinah, of the Old Testament was manifest in that overwhelming display of which John, Peter, and James were eye-witnesses on the Mount of Transfiguration, when there was a temporary laying aside of the veil of his flesh, the cloud of his human nature, and a transient disclosure of the indwelling Shekinah, the glory of his Godhead. This was a preintimation to the senses of that ineffable light and splendor in which he will appear when he comes with the retinue of his saints to be the luminary of the New Jerusalem, which is to come down from God out of heaven. The whole scene seems to have been intended to afford a demonstration to the senses of the substantial identity of the person of the incarnate Redeemer with the manifested Jehovah of the Jewish dispensation. Consequently, whatever of essential divinity is indicated by the title “Jehovah,” it is unquestionably to be considered as belonging to Christ. Bush.

To lead them the way. The custom of guiding caravans by means of smoke and light is referred to by many authors. Curtius tells of Alexander the Great employing this method in his campaigns. A beacon or cresset on a lofty pole before his headquarters pavilion could be seen by all from near and far; and it was a guide to all. “Fire was to be the signal by night; smoke by day.” “We cannot but acknowledge,” says Kurtz, “that in the pillar of cloud and of fire, in which Jehovah himself accompanied and conducted his people, there was some reference to the ordinary caravan-fire, which served as a guide as well as a signal of encampment and departure to the caravans and armies of the East. For in the design and form of the two phenomena we can trace exactly the same features; the difference being that the one was a merely natural arrangement, which answered its purpose but very imperfectly and was exceedingly insignificant in its character, while the other was a supernatural phenomenon, beyond all comparison more splendid and magnificent in its form, which not only served as a signal of encampment and departure, and led the way in an incomparably superior manner, but was also made to answer far greater and more glorious ends.” Trumbull.

The pillar of fire and cloud had also certain offices to perform to the Israelites. These were for guidance and protection. It was by this that the Lord directed their course through the dreary and trackless waste which lay between Egypt and Canaan, showing them when to set forth, in what direction to proceed, where to abide, and also affording light to their steps when the journey was by night. In addition to these benefits, the pillar also served as a shade from the heat of a scorching sun; and on one occasion at least, when the Israelites were closely pursued by the Egyptians, it stood as a wall of defence between them and their enemies. P. F.—Some such guidance as was afforded the people in the pillar of cloud and of fire was necessary. The host of Israel being so numerous, having with them their flocks and herds, and being only to a small extent organized, it is difficult to see how they could possibly have kept together so as to march in any one direction or to come into camp without some provision like this of the cloudy pillar, rising high over the desert. N. C. B.—As far as the purposes of the Israelites were concerned, that cloudy-fiery pillar was the Shekinah or dwelling-place of Israel’s God; it was the manifestation of his friendly protecting presence in their midst. There was sure guidance in its goings—a pledge of safety in its presence; by day a welcome awning in its shadow, and by night an illumination no less welcome in its forth-flowing effulgence. Hamilton.

22. The pillar of cloud departed not. It did not vanish from their view, but was a constant and unerring signal before or in the sight of the people. We have not now the pillar of fire and cloud, but we have the Word of God, which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. This also is a supernatural revelation of the present Lord and his Messiah by the eternal Spirit, conveyed through the minds and words of holy men. This spiritual flame, kindled from heaven and enshrined in the cloud of human speech, has not been lost or extinguished, but continued from generation to generation, and is in the way of being diffused throughout the whole world, to be the guide of the nations to the land of promise till the days of darkness disappear. It remains a speaking token of the continual presence of the God of all grace, of the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost in his church. M.—The Israelites were not to look at the road they traversed, whether it was rough or smooth; their business was to look only upon the cloud, and follow wherever it led them. And is not this our course? We are not responsible for the roughness or length of the road; we are only responsible for obeying the command of him who has placed us in it. In walking through life, as we traverse the desert and march toward Emmanuel’s land, we are to look only for guidance, for strength, for pardon, for peace, for success, to the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night—the brightness of the Father’s glory, God manifest in the flesh, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. J. C.

20. Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. We are to look not for a city, but for a region of that name. The papyrus of Saneha says that leaving the lake Kemuer (Timsah) he arrived at a place called Atima, which could not be very far distant. And the papyrus Anatasi, VI., a document of the time of the exodus, has this passage: “We have allowed the tribes of the Shasu of the land of Atuma to pass the stronghold of King Meneptah of the land of Succoth, toward the lakes of Pithom of King Meneptah of the land of Succoth.” That I consider the region of Etham, the land which the papyri call Atima or Atuma. It was inhabited by Shasu nomads, and as it was insufficient to nourish their cattle, they asked to share the good pastures assigned to the Israelites. Both the nature of the land and its name agree well with what is said of Etham, that it was “in the edge of the wilderness.” I believe Etham to be the region of Atuma, the desert which began at Lake Timsah, and extended south of it near the Arabia Gulf. Naville.

We best meet the requirements of the narrative if we suppose Etham to have been beyond the eastern end of Wady Tumilat, toward Palestine, and not far from the northern end of Lake Timsah. It would thus lie on “the edge of the wilderness—” that is, on the line where Egypt ends and the Arabian desert begins. It would be where the way was open before Israel, either to pass over the heights of Guisr, or to strike northward into the main road to the Philistine territory and to Palestine. The command at that place, to move in the direction of Suez, would indeed be an order to “turn back.” Bartlett.—All the desert east of the present Suez Canal was called the desert of Etham; and the “edge” of this desert on the route followed by the Israelites must have been near the present town of Ismailia, at the head of Lake Timsah. At this point the desert portion of the journey direct to Palestine begins; and here, between Lake Timsah and Lake Ballat, is the highest part of the isthmus and the best road out of Egypt to the east. Dawson.

Had the Israelites passed out of Egypt at this point, the march would naturally have been across the desert some way south of Lake Serbonis to the Wady El Arish, and thence along the coast of the Mediterranean to Gaza and the low tract of the Shefeleh. But the nation was not yet in a fit condition to meet and contend with the war-like people of that rich and valuable region—the Philistines. God accordingly, who guided the march by the pillar of the cloud and of fire (verses 21, 22), “led them not the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest the people repent when they see war.” G. R.