Introduction
INTRODUCTORY.
(1.) Through the book of generations ( Genesis) the fabric of Divine Revelation has risen like a pyramid in ten successive stages, broad as the creation at the bottom, and narrowing at the summit to a single family, which becomes lost from view in the darkness of Egyptian heathenism. The spiritual history of this family is now resumed, in order to develop facts and principles of universal interest and significance. JEHOVAH’S NAME is to be set in Israel, that, through the life and literature of that nation, the glory of that NAME may be diffused over all lands and ages. The narrative, after the manner so often noticed in Genesis, at the commencement doubles back upon itself for a new departure, and gives a brief review of the grand divisions of the nation; it then proceeds to relate the fulfilment of the promises to the patriarchs in the vast fruitfulness of the descendants of Israel. The connexion is thus close and logical with the Book of Generations, to which it is grammatically joined by the simple connective particle. The account of the origin of the world, of the race, of the chosen family, and the record of the successive calls of the patriarchs, having prepared the way, the writer proceeds to describe Jehovah as taking up his abode with men. Various ancient records and traditions, proverbs and songs, have been woven together in this work, but the unity of the composition shows that it proceeds from a single hand.
(2.) A very few lines shed upon the centuries of the Egyptian sojourn all the light that the world has received. The sacred writer did not aim to furnish a full history of Israel, but to develop the fulfilment of God’s plans, and hence he hastens over whole ages to the time of the accomplishment of the patriarchal promises. The work thus differs essentially from all secular histories. It is not a history of Israel, but of God in Israel.
The immense increase of Israel in Egypt, whether the time of their sojourn were two or four centuries, precludes the idea of a severe continuous servitude. They were cruelly oppressed only during the last part of their stay. They were by no means a nation of degraded slaves, for they had their elders and scribes, brave warriors, skilled artisans, firm and sober family traditions, and inspiring songs. They had become entangled in Egyptian idolatry, but they had not forgotten the God of their fathers. From Joshua 5:5 we find that the covenant seal of circumcision was set upon the people generation after generation; while a name like Jochebed meaning, whose glory is Jehovah shows that at least in the tribe of Levi the covenant Name was revered.
There was a stern, sharp antagonism between the Egyptian religion, with its magnificent temples, its colossal idols, and its pompous ritual, and the simple spiritual worship of the Hebrew patriarchs; and this antagonism developed more and more in successive generations, and culminated in the conflict wherein Jehovah triumphed over the gods of Egypt. Moses did not create, but localized, spiritual forces that had been gathering for generations. When Israel was fully ripe for the revelation, the I AM spoke from the burning bramble.
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