Exodus 6:1 - Homiletics

God's condescension to a weak faith.

As the Lord Jesus condescended to Thomas, and bade him "reach hither his finger and behold his hands, and reach hither his hand and thrust it into his side," so that he might be no longer "faithless, but believing"( John 20:27 ), so Jehovah now declared to Moses that, if he could not walk by faith, sight should be vouchsafed to him. "Now shalt thou see," etc. Human infirmity is so greet, man's faith is so weak, the best are so liable to accesses of distrust and despondency, that, if God were extreme to mark what is in this way done amiss, few indeed would be those who could "abide it." Therefore, in his mercy, he condescends. Well for man could he breathe continually the higher, rarer, atmosphere of faith. But, if he cannot, yet has Godward aspirations, so that he takes his distrust and his despondency to God, as Moses did, God will in no wise cast him out. He will not "break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax." He will accept the imperfect service that is still service, and allow his servant to work in a lower sphere. Henceforth the faith of Moses was not much tried—he had soon sight to walk by. When once the series of plagues began, he could no longer ask, "Why is it that thou hast sent me?" He could see that the end was being advanced—the deliverance being extorted from the king—and that the day of final triumph was fast coming.