The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus — Reading Notes

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In Category - Theology

Authors: Chadwick, G. A. (George Alexander), 1840-1923, Nicoll, W. Robertson (William Robertson), Sir, 1851-1923 [Editor] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2010 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Bible. Exodus -- Commentaries Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 135,820

Reading time 591 min

Text sections 15

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #33420

Chadwick's commentary on Exodus reads the text as Christian scripture, tracing how the book's language and narratives prefigure New Testament themes. He examines the covenant name, the Song of Moses, and the tension between divine transcendence and anthropomorphic imagery, arguing that Exodus prepares Israel for the Incarnation.

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Books linked by conjunction “And:” Scripture history a connected whole, 1.—So is secular history organic: “Philosophy of history.” The Pentateuch being a still closer unity, Exodus rehearses the descent into Egypt, 2.—Heredity: the family of Jacob, 3.—Death of Joseph. Influence of Egypt on the shepherd race, 4.—A healthy stock: good breeding. Goethe’s aphorism, 5.—Ourselves and our descendants, 6.

GOD IN HISTORY, i. 7.

In Exodus, national history replaces biography, 6.—Contrasted narratives of Jacob and Moses. Spiritual progress from Genesis to Exodus, 7.—St. Paul’s view: Law prepares for Gospel, especially by our failures, 8.—This explains other phenomena: failures in various circumstances, of innocence in Eden; of an elect family; now of a race, a nation, 9.—Israel, failing with all advantages, needs a Messiah. Faith justifies, in Old Testament as in New, 10.—Scripture history reveals God in this life, in all things, 11.—True spirituality owns God in the secular: this is a gospel for our days, 12–13.

THE OPPRESSION, i. 7–22.

Early prosperity: its dangers: political supports vain, 13.—Joseph forgotten. National responsibilities: despotism, 14.—Nations and their chiefs. Our subject races, 15.—The Church and her King: imputation. Pharaoh precipitates what he fears, 16.—Egypt and her aliens: modern parallels, 17.—Tyranny is tyrannous even when cultured, 18.—Our undue estrangement from the fallen: Jesus a brother. Toil crushes the spirit, 19.—Israel idolatrous. Religious dependence, 20. —Direct interposition required. Bitter oppression, 21.—Pharaoh drops the mask. Defeated by the human heart. The midwives, 22.—Their falsehood. Morality is progressive, 23.—Culture and humanity, 24.—Religion and the child, 25.

THE RESCUE OF MOSES, ii. 1–10.

Importance of the individual, 26.—A man _versus_ “the Time-spirit,” 27.—The parents of Moses, 28.—Their family: their goodly child, 29.—Emotion helps faith, 30.—The ark in the bulrushes, 31.—Pharaoh’s daughter and Miriam, 32.—Guidance for good emotions: the Church for humanity, 33.

THE CHOICE OF MOSES, ii. 11–15.

God employs means, 34.—Value of endowment. Moses and his family. “The reproach of Christ,” 35.—An impulsive act, 36.—Impulses not accidents. The hopes of Moses, 37.—Moses and his brethren. His flight, 38.

MOSES IN MIDIAN, ii. 16–22.

Energy in disaster, 39.—Disinterested bravery. Parallels with a variation, 40.—The Unseen a refuge. Duty of resisting small wrongs. His wife, 41.—A lonely heart, 42.

THE BURNING BUSH, ii. 23–iii.

Death of Raamses. Misery continues, 43.—The cry of the oppressed, 44.—Discipline of Moses, 45.—How a crisis comes, 46.—God hitherto unmentioned. The Angel of the Lord, 47.—An unconsuming fire, 48.—Inquiry: reverence. God finds, not man, 49.—“Take off thy shoe.” “The God of thy father,” 50.—Immortality. “My people,” not saints only, 51.—The good land. The commission, 52.—God with him. A strange token, 53.

A NEW NAME, iii. 14; vi. 2, 3.

Why Moses asked the name of God: idolatry: pantheism, 54.—A progressive revelation, 55.—Jehovah. The sound corrupted. Similar superstitions yet, 56.—What it told the Jews. Reality of being, 57.—Jews not saved by ideas. Streams of tendency. The Self-contained. We live in our past, 58.—And in our future, 59.—Yet Jehovah not the impassive God of Lucretius, 60.—The Immutable is Love. This is our help, 61.—Human will is not paralysed, 62.—The teaching of St. Paul. All this is practical, 63.—This gives stability to all other revelations. Our own needs, 64.

THE COMMISSION, iii. 10, 16–22.

God comes where He sends, 65.—The Providential man. Prudence, 66.—Sincerity of demand for a brief respite, 67.—God has already visited them. By trouble He transplants, 68.—The “borrowing” of jewels, 69.

MOSES HESITATES, iv. 1–17.

Scripture is impartial: Josephus, 70.—Hindrance from his own people. The rod, 71.—The serpent: the leprosy, 72.—“I am not eloquent,” 73.—God with us. Aaron the Levite, 74.—Responsibility of _not_ working. The errors of Moses, 75.—Power of fellowship. Vague fears, 76.—With his brother, Moses will go. The Church, 77.—This craving met by Christ, 78.—Family affection. Examples, 79.

MOSES OBEYS, iv. 18–31.

Fidelity to his employer. Reticence, 80.—Resemblance to story of Jesus. He is the Antitype of all experiences, 81.—Counterpoint in history. “Israel is My son,” 82.—A neglected duty Zipporah. Was she a helpmeet? 83.—Domestic unhappiness. History _v._ myth, 84.—The failures of the good, 85.—Men of destiny are not irresponsible, 86.—His first followers: a joyful reception, 87.—Spiritual joy and reaction, 88.

PHARAOH REFUSES, v. 1–23.

Moses at court again. Formidable, 89.—Power of convictions but also of tyranny and pride. Menephtah: his story, 90.—Was the Pharaoh drowned? The demand of Jehovah, 91.—The refusal, 92.—Is religion idleness? Hebrews were taskmasters, 93.—Demoralised by slavery. They are beaten, 94.—Murmurs against Moses. He returns to God. His remonstrance, 95.—His disappointment. Not really irreverent, 96.—Use of this abortive attempt, 97–8.

THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF MOSES, vi. 1–30.

The word Jehovah known before: its consolations now, 99.—The new truth is often implicit in the old, 100.—Discernment more needed than revelation. “Judgments,” 101.—My people: your God, 102.—The tie is of God’s binding, 103,—Fatherhood and sonship, 104.—Faith becomes knowledge. The body hinders the soul, 105.—We are responsible for bodies. Israel weighs Moses down, 106.—We may hold back the saints, 107.—The pedigree, 107–8.—Indications of genuine history, 108–9.—“As a god to Pharaoh,” 110.—We also, 111.

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Chadwick's preface immediately establishes a distinctive hermeneutical stance: he treats Exodus as a sacred scripture invested with spiritual authority, not because of its date or origin, but because Jesus Christ treated it as such. This position allows him to navigate between critical scholarship and traditional piety, aiming to edify first and inform second. Throughout the commentary, Chadwick repeatedly draws attention to the way Exodus uses bold, even startling, anthropomorphic language about God—such as the phrase “Jehovah is a man of war”—and argues that such figures, far from being primitive, prepare the reader for the Incarnation. His method is to trace the “permanent in the evanescent,” finding in the old covenant the life-blood of the new.

The Covenant Name and the Progress of Faith

Chadwick devotes careful attention to the divine name as revealed in Exodus, noting how the text moves from abstract power to personal relationship. In his analysis of the Song of Moses (Exodus 15), he observes that the people first call the Lord “my salvation” as an appellation, a title that will endure through the Psalms and Isaiah. He traces a progression: from experience of deliverance to appropriation (“He gives Himself to me”), then to trust rooted in memory (“my father found Him the same Helper”), and finally to praise and exaltation. This sequence, he argues, is “the very spirit of evangelical obedience, the life-blood of the new dispensation racing in the veins of the old.” The covenant name thus becomes a lens for understanding how the Old Testament cultivates a relationship of love and loyalty, not hireling service.

Anthropomorphism as Preparation for the Incarnation

Chadwick confronts the charge of anthropomorphism directly, acknowledging that it can degenerate into unworthy notions of God, yet insisting that it represents a great advance toward true and holy thoughts. He points to the bold assertion “Jehovah is a man of war” as an example: in the original, this includes the statement “Jehovah is a man.” While clearly a figure, such language prepares Israel for the Incarnation by teaching that God stoops to identify with humanity. Chadwick cites Jesus’s appeal to Psalm 82 (“I said, Ye are gods”) to show that Scripture itself vindicates a degree of divine condescension. He then notes that after the Incarnation, Christians need help from the other side—from science’s expanding view of creation—to prevent over-humanizing their conceptions. This dialectic between transcendence and immanence is a recurring thread in his exposition.

The Song of Moses and the Birth of Evangelical Obedience

Chadwick’s treatment of the Song of Moses (Exodus 15) exemplifies his method of reading the Old Testament in light of the New. He highlights the word “salvation” as it first becomes an appellation for God, then traces its echoes through later Scripture. The song’s progression from gratitude to trust to praise, he argues, is the pattern of evangelical obedience: not rendered by a hireling but by a child. He connects this to God’s declaration “Israel is My son,” and shows how the song’s language of exultation naturally leads to anthropomorphic affection—a belief that God shares the best and purest in human souls. Chadwick concludes that such steps prepared Israel for the Incarnation, and that the Incarnation in turn requires a balancing perspective from science to keep our conceptions of God from becoming too human. The song thus becomes a microcosm of the entire Exodus narrative’s theological trajectory.

Chadwick’s commentary rewards readers who are interested in how a late-nineteenth-century Anglican dean navigated the tensions between historical criticism and traditional Christian doctrine. His focus on the progressive revelation of God’s character through the text’s own language—especially its bold anthropomorphisms and its development of the covenant name—offers a consistent interpretive lens. Readers should expect a work that is more homiletical than technical, but one that engages seriously with the biblical text’s own patterns and prepares the ground for Christological reading.

There are moments when Chadwick’s Exodus notes feel less like scholarship and more like a held breath before the Incarnation—that ache of a God who insists on drawing near. It reminds me of the quiet patience found in the Genesis volume, The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis — Reading Companion, where the same holy thread begins, almost imperceptibly, to unravel toward light.