Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Exodus
Book: Exodus
Chapter: 2
Overview:
Moses is born, and exposed
On the
River.
(1-4) He is found,
and brought up
By Pharaoh's
Daughter.
(5-10) Moses slays an
Egyptian, and flees to
Midian.
(11-15) Moses marries the
Daughter of
Jethro.
(16-22) God hears the Israelites.
(23-25)
1-4 Observe the order of
Providence: just at the time when
Pharaoh's cruelty
Rose to its height
By ordering the
Hebrew
children to be drowned, the deliverer was born. When men are
contriving the ruin of the
Church,
God is preparing for its
Salvation. The parents of
Moses saw he was a goodly
Child. A
lively
Faith can take encouragement from the least hint of the
Divine favour. It is said, Heb 11:23, that the parents of
Moses hid him
By Faith; they had the promise that
Israel should
be preserved, which they relied upon.
Faith in
God's promise
quickens to the use of lawful means for obtaining
Mercy. Duty is
ours, events are
God's.
Faith in
God will set us above the fear
of
Man. At three months'
End, when they could not hide the
infant any longer, they
Put him in an
Ark of bulrushes
By the
River's brink, and set his sister to watch. And if the weak
Affection of a mother were thus careful, what shall we think of
Him, whose
Love, whose compassion is, as himself, boundless.
Moses never had a stronger protection about him,
No, not when
all the Israelites were round his
Tent in the
Wilderness, than
now, when he lay alone, a helpless
Babe upon the waves.
No
water,
No Egyptian can hurt him. When we seem most neglected and
forlorn,
God is most present with us.
5-10 Come, see the place where that great
Man,
Moses, lay, when
he was a little
Child; it was in a
Bulrush Basket By the
River's
side. Had he been left there long, he must have perished. But
Providence brings
Pharaoh's
Daughter to the place where this
Poor forlorn infant lay, and inclines her
Heart to pity it,
which she dares do, when none else durst.
God's care of us in
our infancy ought to be often mentioned
By us to his praise.
Pharaoh cruelly sought to destroy
Israel, but his own
Daughter
had pity
On a
Hebrew Child, and not only
So, but, without
knowing it, preserved
Israel's deliverer, and provided
Moses
with a good nurse, even his own mother. That he should have a
Hebrew nurse, the sister of
Moses brought the mother into the
place of a nurse.
Moses was treated as the son of
Pharaoh's
Daughter. Many who,
By their
Birth, are obscure and
Poor,
By
surprising events of
Providence, are raised high in the world,
to make men know that
God rules.
11-15 Moses boldly owned the cause of
God's people. It is
Plain
from Heb 11. that this was done in
Faith, with the full
purpose of leaving the honours, wealth, and pleasures of his
rank among the Egyptians.
By the
Grace of
God he was a partaker
of
Faith in
Christ, which overcomes the world. He was willing,
not only to risk all, but to suffer for his sake; being assured
that
Israel were the people of
God.
By special warrant from
Heaven, which makes
No rule for other cases,
Moses slew an
Egyptian, and rescued an oppressed Israelites. Also, he tried to
End a dispute between two
Hebrews. The reproof
Moses gave, may
still be of use. May we not apply it to disputants, who,
By
their fierce debates, divide and weaken the
Christian Church?
They forget that they are brethren. He that did wrong quarrelled
with
Moses. It is a sign of guilt to be angry at reproof. Men
know not what they do, nor what enemies they are to themselves,
when they resist and despise
Faithful reproofs and reprovers.
Moses might have said, if this be the
Spirit of the
Hebrews, I
will go to
Court again, and be the son of
Pharaoh's
Daughter.
But we must take heed of being set against the ways and people
of
God,
By the follies and peevishness of some persons that
profess religion.
Moses was obliged to flee into the land of
Midian.
God ordered this for
Wise and holy ends.
16-22 Moses found shelter in
Midian. He was ready to help
Reuel's daughters to water their flocks, although bred in
learning and at
Court.
Moses loved to be doing
Justice, and to
act in defence of such as he saw injured, which every
Man ought
to do, as far as it is in his power. He loved to be doing good;
wherever the
Providence of
God casts us, we should desire and
try to be useful; and when we cannot do the good we would, we
must be ready to do the good we can.
Moses commended himself to
the
Prince of
Midian; who married one of his daughters to
Moses,
By whom he had a son, called
Gershom, "a
Stranger there," that
he might keep in remembrance the land in which he had been a
Stranger.
23-25 The Israelites'
Bondage in
Egypt continued, though the
murdering of their infants did not continue. Sometimes the
Lord
suffers the rod of the wicked to
Lie very long and very heavy
On
the
Lot of the righteous. At last they began to think of
God
under their troubles. It is a sign that the
Lord is coming
towards us with deliverance, when he inclines and enables us to
cry to him for it.
God heard their groaning; he made it to
appear that he took notice of their complaints. He remembered
his
Covenant, of which he is ever mindful. He considered this,
and not any merit of theirs. He looked upon the children of
Israel.
Moses looked upon them, and pitied them; but now
God
looked upon them, and helped them. He had respect unto them. His
eyes are now fixed upon
Israel, to show himself in their behalf.
God is ever thus, a very present help in trouble. Take courage
then, ye who, conscious of guilt and thraldom, are looking to
Him for deliverance.
God in
Christ Jesus is also looking upon
you. A
Call of
Love is joined with a promise of the
Redeemer.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you
Rest, Mt 11:28.