Introduction
In the last chapter, despite developments which in no sense could be understood as a failure of God's purpose, the people, nevertheless, who had probably expected some immediate and miraculous delivery, but who instead had been rebuffed and loaded with heavier burdens than ever by Pharaoh, were greatly distressed and vented their disappointment by angry remarks to Moses. Moses was also powerless to answer their objections, being in fact himself very much discouraged and doubtful. The Scriptures make this plain enough, always, as in this example of it, "telling it like it is," regardless of the faults, sins and mistakes of God's heroes, which are related impartially along with their deeds of success and glory. Note how Josephus' account of this same situation not only ignores Moses' fear, uncertainty, and doubt, but actually affirms just the opposite:
"Moses did not let his courage sink for the king's threatenings, nor did he abate of his zeal on account of the Hebrews' complaints, but he supported himself, and set his soul resolutely against them both, and used his own utmost diligence to procure liberty to his countrymen."[1]
As for the near-panic that fell upon the Hebrews, this was primarily due to their deliverance not having come suddenly and dramatically as they no doubt had expected. We should not be too hard in our judgment of them, however, for many Christians of our own day are guilty of the same shortsightedness. "One of the most pernicious misapprehensions of the Gospel is that which looks on salvation as an instantaneous thing, which speaks of the `saved,' instead of those who `are being saved' (Acts 2.47)."[2]
The finding of multiple "sources" in this chapter by the critics in the first half of this century is nothing but a preposterous scholarly hoax. And we are pleased to note that much of the wind has already been taken out of the sails of such attacks upon the Scriptures. The witness has actually been against them continually. Even in 1915, Moller wrote: "The unity of thought here demonstrated (throughout this chapter) is a protecting wall against the flood-tide of the documentary theory."[3] There was indeed once a flood-tide of those irresponsible theories, Harford, for example, stating as fact that this chapter is "a second account of Moses' call, belonging to `P'."[4] Of course, it is no such thing. The so-called second account here is nothing more than a renewal of the call already received by Moses in Midian, and repeated here for the sake of encouraging and enabling a despondent and doubting Moses, as many of the most dependable current scholars have pointed out. We agree with Napier who thought that, "Moses could have continued at all only in the power of a renewal."[5] "This section does not contain a different account of the calling of Moses, taken from some other source. It presupposes Exodus 3 and completes the account commenced there."[6] It is a renewal, not a variable account of the call in Midian. The necessity for this renewal of Moses' commission is inherent and demanded by his doubt and discouragement. He simply could not have gone on without it.
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