VI. GOD'S RENEWAL AND ENLARGEMENT OF HIS PROMISES. (1) Now shalt thou see.--Moses' complaint was that God delayed, and "was slack as concerning His promise." Hitherto He had not "delivered His people at all." The answer,"Now shalt thou see," is an assurance that there will be no more delay; the work is just about to begin, and Moses will behold it. He will then cease to doubt. With a strong hand shall he let them go.--Rather, through a strong hand: i.e., through the compulsion which my strong hand will exert on him, Drive them.--Comp. Exodus 12:31-33. Verse 1. - Now shalt thou see. There was encouragement in the very word "now." Moses' complaint was, that God delayed his coming, would not show himself, was "slack concerning his promise." In reply he is told that there is to be no longer any delay - the work is just about to commence. "Now shalt thou see." With a strong hand shall he let them go. The "strong hand" is not Pharaoh's, but God's. "By means of my strong hand" (or "overpowering might") "laid upon him shall he be induced to let them go," and similarly with the other clause. Drive them out. This phrase well expresses the final anxiety of Pharaoh to be rid of the Israelites. (See Exodus 12:31, 22.) 6:1-9 We are most likely to prosper in attempts to glorify God, and to be useful to men, when we learn by experience that we can do nothing of ourselves; when our whole dependence is placed on him, and our only expectation is from him. Moses had been expecting what God would do; but now he shall see what he will do. God would now be known by his name Jehovah, that is, a God performing what he had promised, and finishing his own work. God intended their happiness: I will take you to me for a people, a peculiar people, and I will be to you a God. More than this we need not ask, we cannot have, to make us happy. He intended his own glory: Ye shall know that I am the Lord. These good words, and comfortable words, should have revived the drooping Israelites, and have made them forget their misery; but they were so taken up with their troubles, that they did not heed God's promises. By indulging discontent and fretfulness, we deprive ourselves of the comfort we might have, both from God's word and from his providence, and go comfortless.Then the Lord said unto Moses,.... In answer to the questions put to him, and the expostulations made with him:now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: in inflicting punishments on him: for with a strong hand shall he let them go; being forced to it by the mighty hand of God upon him; and it is by some rendered, "because of a strong hand" (s); so Jarchi; for this is not to be understood of the hand of Pharaoh, but of the hand of God: and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land: not only be willing that they should go, but be urgent upon them to be gone, Exodus 12:33. (s) "propter manum validam"; so some in Drusius. |
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