《The Biblical Illustrator – Exodus (Ch.0~8)》(A Compilation)
General Introduction
Over 34,000 pages in its original 56 volume printing, the Biblical Illustrator is a massive compilation of treatments on 10,000 passages of Scripture. It is arranged in commentary form for ease of use in personal study and devotion, as well as sermon preparation.
Most of the content of this commentary is illustrative in nature, and includes from hundreds of famous authors of the day such as Dwight L. Moody, Charles Spurgeon, J. C. Ryle, Charles Hodge, Alexander MacLaren, Adam Clark, Matthew Henry, and many more. The collection also includes lesser known authors published in periodicles and smaller publications popular in that ara. Unlike modern publishers, Exell was apparently not under any pressure to consolidate the number of pages.
While this commentary is not known for its Greek or Hebrew exposition, the New Testament includes hundreds of references to, and explanations of, Greek words.
Joseph S. Exell edited and compiled the 56 volume Biblical Illustrator commentary. You will recognize him as the co-editor of the famous Pulpit Commentary (this commentary is even larger than the Pulpit Commentary). This remarkable work is the triumph of a life devoted to Biblical research and study. Assisted by a small army of students, the Exell draws on the rich stores of great minds since the beginning of New Testament times.
The Biblical Illustrator brings Scripture to life in a unique, illuminating way. While other commentaries explain a Bible passage doctrinally, this work illustrates the Bible with a collection of:
· illustrations
· outlines
· anecodtes
· history
· poems
· expositions
· geography
· sermons
· Bible backgrounds
· homiletics
for nearly every verse in the Bible. This massive commentary was originally intended for preachers needing help with sermon preperation (because who else in that day had time to wade through such a lengthy commentary?). But today, the Biblical Illustrator provides life application, illumination, inspiriation, doctrine, devotion, and practical content for all who teach, preach, and study the Bible.
00 Overview
EXODUS
INTRODUCTION
Exodus: a Sequel to Genesis
This, the second part of the Pentateuch, is a sequel to Genesis; it is joined on to Genesis by the conjunction and, and bears a remarkable resemblance to it. In Genesis, the earth rises out of darkness into light; in Exodus, Israel emerges out of the darkness of Egyptian bondage into light and liberty. The beginning of Genesis speaks of intestine struggles which preceded the creation of the earth in its present state; such, also, was the condition of Israel, “without form and void,” before the Exodus. At the Creation the earth was brought forth out of the water, on the face of which the Spirit moved. And surely it was not without a meaning that the great leader of Israel, its mediator and lawgiver, the type of Christ Himself, Moses, was drawn out of the water, and thence received his name. Surely it was not without a meaning that Israel, whose children had been merged in water (as the prior earth was), rose to new life out of the waters of the Red Sea, over which the Spirit brooded in the cloud, and “they were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” In Genesis the earth is born, by the Spirit, out of the water; in Exodus, Israel is born anew by the Spirit out of the water; and both these are figures of the new birth in Christ by water and the Spirit. Here is an inner analogy between Genesis and Exodus, and this treatment of the two great subjects bespeaks an unity of authorship. It bespeaks the presence also of the Divine Mind, guiding the hand of the writer. (Bishop Christopher Wordsworth.)
Exodus is not the full counterpart of Genesis
That venerable document is matched in grandeur of scope not even by the rest of the Pentateuch, but only by the remainder of the volume of revelation. It opens with a creation, of which man forms the prominent object; the Old Testament closes with the anticipation of a new creation (Isaiah 65:17), in which also man will hold the conspicuous place; and the New Testament records the atoning obedience of Christ, and the quickening work of the Holy Ghost, as the guarantee and earnest of that new creation, the consummation of which it again announces to the Church (2Peter 3:13). Genesis also touches upon the history of the whole race of man, and even after the call of Abraham traces the peaceful intercourse subsisting between the chosen family and the rest of mankind. Exodus marks the full-grown antagonism between the chosen nation and the heathen world, records the violent separation between the two, and then confines itself mainly to the history of the party that remained in communion with God. Its distinguishing event, the Exodus, is accordingly the prototype of that great event in the experience of the individual, in which he comes out from the bondage of the flesh into the freedom of the Spirit, as well as of those great occasions in the history of the Church in which it reasserts its spiritual life and liberty, and passes with all the determination of new-born principle from the wilful service of sin into the conscientious obedience of holiness. This coming out is a process continually going on during the history of the Church until all have come out, and the doomed world is given over to everlasting destruction. It is the manner of Scripture to signalize the primary event in any given series as a lesson and example to all future generations. In Genesis are recorded all kinds of origins or births, and, among others, the birth of Isaac, the seed of promise. In Exodus is recounted the deliberate action of the new-born, in coming out of the land of bondage. The wilderness between this land and the land of promise, the troubles, temptations, and failings of such a state of life, the giving of the Law to a new-born and emancipated people, the setting up of the ordinances of a holy religion, are all typical events, prefiguring others of a like nature, but of still grander and grander import. They do not stand alone on memory’s tablet, but embody a principle of constant value, which comes out in a series of analogous events in the course of human affairs. They are standing monuments in the great field of the past, written in legible characters on the page of history for the instruction of coming days. The scope of the Book of Exodus, however, is not to be limited to the mere fortunes of the chosen people. Even if it stood alone, its communications could not be confined to so narrow an area. It details a certain stage of that momentous process, by which the covenant of God with man is to be upheld, and its benefits secured for a growing proportion of our fallen race, until at length the main body at least of all kindreds and tongues returns to God. (Professor J. G. Murphy.)
Description of the Book
Recollection, “remembrance,” of the great original works of God in creation and redemption is the appropriate appointed means of originating and sustaining, in the heart and life of men, that righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost which constitute His true kingdom in individuals and in communities. The Pentateuch, as the instrument of God in that recollection of the Beginnings, is thus evermore in a fontal relation to the true new life of mankind in the Creator and Redeemer. And the vast importance of Exodus begins to appear when it is seen to be, thus, the central vitally essential part of a whole, whose importance is so vast as a feeder of that life which is unseen and eternal. For Exodus is not only a continuation of the narrative in Genesis on to the last three Books of Moses. Our translators, when they make the V, at the opening of this book, to be, not “and,” as in Leviticus 1:1, but “now” mean that here there is something more than simply continuation of the narrative. And, in fact, there is here a decisively new reach of the stream. It is not merely, as when the Nile rushes down its cataract from Ethiopia, a sudden transition into a new manner of movement, amid new surroundings. It is as if a new and mighty river had sprung out of a smitten rock, or poured down from heaven in effusion Pentecostal. For instance, on the face of the movement there is that very great new thing, the first appearance among mankind of a visible kingdom of God; a kingdom destined to unfold into that Christendom which is the only real civilization of the peoples in human history. And at the heart of the movement, as the very life and soul of it all, there is the new supernatural revelation of God now, for the first time since the Flood, going forth to mankind as a public instruction which is gospel preaching (Hebrews 4:2). It is accompanied by the first appearance of credential evidence of miracles and prophecy. And in especial, that revelation takes the practical form of an actual supernatural redemption and consecration; in the accomplishment of which there are brought into view, for the instruction of mankind in all nations through all ages, those principles of the kingdom of God, regarding His character, and moral government, and gracious purposes towards mankind, which are the principia of the only true religion that is ever to live upon the earth. These are main, plain, unquestionable characteristics of the Book. The first part of it, the redemption from Egypt, has a place like that of the Gospels in the New Testament Scripture; and the second part of it, regarding the consecration in Sinai, has a place like that of the Acts of the Apostles, along with the Epistles to the Hebrews, to the Galatians, and to the Romans. What greater thing could be said in illustration of the importance of it? In some obvious respects, it is the most fundamentally important book ever given to mankind. And the study of it is essential to a real and scholarly acquaintance with the history of man. (J. Macgregor, D. D.)
Divisions of the Book
The Book consists of two distinct portions. The former (chap. 1-19.)
gives a detailed account of the circumstances under which the deliverance of the Israelites was accomplished. The second (chap. 20-40.) describes the giving of the Law, and the institutions which completed the organization of the people as “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” These two portions are unlike in style and structure, as might be expected from the difference of their subject-matter; but their mutual bearings and interdependence are evident, and leave no doubt as to the substantial unity of the Book. The historical portion owes all its significance and interest to the promulgation of God’s will in the law. The institutions of the Law could not, humanly speaking, have been established or permanently maintained but for the deliverance which the historical portion records. (Canon F. C. Cook.)
The first part of Exodus is predominantly historical; the second essentially legislative or dogmatical; but yet the former contains three important laws; and the latter, the history of a flagrant breach, on the part of Israel, of the promises made concerning the faithful observance of the Law, the erection of the holy Tabernacle, and the consecration of Aaron and his descendants. (M. M. Kalisch, Ph. D.)
Mosaic Authorship.--
1. One argument is drawn from the representation of the personal character and qualifications of Moses. In its most important features it is such as could never have been produced by a writer collecting the traditional reminiscences or legends of a later age: not such even as might have been drawn by a younger contemporary. To posterity, to Israelites of his own time, Moses was simply the greatest of men; but it is evident that the writer of this Book was unconscious of the personal greatness of the chief actor. He was indeed thoroughly aware of the greatness of his mission, and consequently of the greatness of the position, which was recognized at last by the Egyptians (see chap. 11:3); but as to his personal qualifications, the points which strike him most forcibly are the deficiencies of natural gifts and powers, and the defects of character, which he is scrupulously careful to record, together with the rebukes and penalties which they brought upon him, and the obstacles which they opposed to his work. Such a representation is perfectly intelligible, as proceeding from Moses himself; but what in him was humility would have been obtuseness in an annalist, such as never is found in the accounts of other great men, nor in the notices of Moses in later Books.
2. This Book could not have been written by any man who had not passed many years in Egypt, and who had not also a thorough knowledge, such as could only be acquired by personal observation, of the Sinaitic Peninsula. But it is improbable that any Israelite between the time of Moses and Jeremiah could have possessed either of these qualifications; it is not credible, or even possible, that any should have combined both.
3. A weighty argument is drawn from the accounts of the miracles, by which Moses was expressly bidden to attest his mission, and by which he was enabled to accomplish the deliverance of his people. They are such as no later writer living in Palestine could have invented for Egypt. From beginning to end no miracle is recorded which does not strike the mind by its peculiar suitableness to the place, time, and circumstances under which it was wrought. The plagues are each and all Egyptian; and the modes by which the people’s wants are supplied in the Sinaitic Peninsula recall to our minds the natural condition of such a journey in such a country.
4. The portion of the Book which follows the account of the departure from Egypt has characteristics marked with equal distinctness, and bearing with no less force upon the question of authorship.