Bible Commentaries

Exodus 16:4

There can be nothing more sobering than the truth that this life is a state of trial and preparation for another. There is at the same time something wonderfully satisfying in the idea. It puts life before us in a point of view which satisfactorily explains it.

I. This account of the end of life simplifies matters in our journey through life. The principle of trial as the end of life shoves aside a multiplicity of irrelevant ends to make way for the true one; it reduces the purpose of life to the greatest possible simplicity, reduces it, as we may say, to a unit—to the effect upon the individual himself, what he does and how he turns out under these circumstances. The idea of probation thus gives a singular unity to the whole design and plan of life. It throws the individual upon himself as the rationale of the whole.

II. The principle of the end of life being probative applies mainly to all the ordinary external advantages of life and our pursuit of them; but it also affects another and less ordinary class of human objects—the objects connected with the good of others, those useful and benevolent works and those public religious works which good men propose to themselves. There is one defect to which good men are liable: they become too much absorbed in the success of their own plans. The important truth for such men to realize is this very principle, viz., that of the end of life being trial. If they brought this truth home to themselves, they would see that the only important thing to them was, not that a useful undertaking should answer, but that they should have done faithfully their best for that purpose.

III. God makes use of us as His instruments, but the work that we do as instruments is a far inferior work to that which we do to fulfil our own personal trial. The general end of life, as trial, is superior to all special ends; it is the end which concerns the individual being, his spiritual condition, his ultimate prospects.

J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p. 287.

References: Exodus 16:6-8.—J.Hamilton, Works, vol. v., p. 191. Exodus 16:7,—G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 75; J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. i., p. 58. Exodus 16:21.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 198. Exodus 16:29.—T. J. Crawford, The Preaching of the Cross, p. 319. 16—Parker, vol. ii., p. 119; Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii., p. 134. Exodus 17:1-16.—W. M. Taylor, Moses the Lawgiver, p. 149. Exodus 17:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 712. Exodus 17:8-13.—W. Harris, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 320; J. S. Bartlett, Sermons, p. 236. Exodus 17:9.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 112. Exodus 17:10-13.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 330. Exodus 17:11.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Holy Week, p. 472. Exodus 17:12.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 107.