Bible Commentaries

Exodus 6:8

Consider the meaning of our duty to God; the great truth that we have such a duty; and how it comes about that we have it.

I. Duty is something which is due from one to another; something which ought to be given, or ought to be done; not a thing which is given or done under compulsion, under the influence of fear, extorted by force, not even a free gift or offering; quite different from this; if a thing is a duty, it must be done because it is right to do it and wrong to omit it.

II. The words of the text are, as it were, the sign manual whereby Almighty God, in His dealings with His ancient people the children of Israel, claimed from them the performance of that duty which they owed to Him. The words which gave validity to an Israelitish law merely rehearsed the fact that He who gave the law was Jehovah; and nothing more was added, because nothing more remained to be said.

III. Notice the principles upon which our duty to God depends. (1) There is a relationship, a close vital connection between God and man, which does not exist between God and any other of His creatures; man is in a very high sense "the Son of God," so that it is inconceivable that the true aims and purposes of God and man can be distinct. Man being made in God's image, ought to do God's will. (2) Our duty to God depends also on the ground of election. God deals with us now as with His Church in former days; it is still a Church of election. We, to whom God sends His commands, are still rightly described as redeemed out of the house of our bondage; and if the redemption of Israel out of Egypt be nothing better than the faintest type and shadow of the redemption of mankind out of the power of the devil, how much greater is the appeal which is made to us on the ground of that deliverance which Jesus Christ has wrought out.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons, 4th series, p. 1.

References: Exodus 6:8.—M. G. Pearse, Thoughts on Holiness, p. 231. Exodus 6:9.—W. Arnot, Roots and Fruits of the Christian Life, p. 327; Parker, vol. ii., p. 310; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Sermons for the Christian Year, p. 494. Exodus 6:27.—Parker, vol. ii., p. 311. Exodus 7:1-14.—Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii., pp. 67, 69.