(1) In the eighth and last chapter we have seven plagues that came upon the land of Egypt. First, that the rivers of water became full of blood; then, how God sent over the land frogs, lice, worms, pestilence, glands or sores on the people, and hail; and have said that Moses almost added to all the plagues that Pharaoh's heart was hardened and hardened the longer. If he only gained a little air, then he began again to tyrannize. It happened to him as it is said in a common proverb: "When the sick man recovered, he never got worse. But when he was afflicted again, he pretended to be pious and deceived Moses ten times with words, and he did not take it seriously.
V. 1-5. The LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD GOD of the Hebrews, "Let Pharaoh go in.
my people, that they may serve me. If you refuse and continue to endure them, behold, the hand of the LORD will be upon your cattle in the field, upon horses, upon donkeys, upon camels, upon oxen, upon sheep, with an almost severe pestilence. And the LORD will do a special thing between the cattle of the children of Israel and the cattle of the Egyptians, that nothing shall die of all that the children of Israel have. And the LORD appointed a time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the earth. 2c.
This is the fifth plague, when the pestilence comes among the cattle. God has ordained this punishment to be inflicted on the wicked, Deut. 28:21, and the pestilence was to be a sermon of repentance to them, so that they would be deterred from sinning by this punishment. As David's kingdom, land and people were also afflicted with pestilence for three days, when David had counted and mustered his people.
[2 Sam. 24, 15], and God punishes David's tyranny with pestilence; as He punishes Pharaoh's tyranny with pestilence here.
V. 6, 7: And the LORD did so in the morning, and all the cattle of Egypt died; but not one of the cattle of the children of Israel died. Pharaoh sent for them, and behold, not one of the cattle of Israel died. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not let the people go.
This is also a miracle that God makes a difference between the Egyptians and the Israelites, and this plague does not come upon the children of Israel, which otherwise goes upon the Egyptians, but as the holy scripture [Ps. 34, 22. ff.] says: The misfortune befalls the wicked alone. Therefore God protects and saves his faithful. Just as the children of Israel were free from other plagues with which God afflicted the Egyptians; in their land of Goshen, where the children of Israel dwelt within, there was no hail, there was no darkness, but light, and no firstborn was strangled. So God takes care of His Christians, so that even if land dies or other accidents happen in general, they do not have to harm them.
Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Take your fists full of soot from the furnace. And Moses sprinkled it toward heaven before Pharaoh, and it dusted all the land of Egypt; and there arose swarms and glands, both of men and of cattle, throughout all the land of Egypt.
This is now the sixth plague and punishment of God, that men and cattle get sores and glands in their bodies; which plague God also inflicts on all the wicked, Deut. 28:21, 27; so one plague and punishment after another goes on forever, as one bulge and wave of water drives another, until the end comes and Pharaoh is drowned with all Egypt in the Red Sea. And so God gives the wicked time and space for repentance and correction, and for his conversion, as St. Paul says in Rom. 2, 4: "The longsuffering of God admonishes us to repentance" 2c.
V. 22 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Lift up your hand to heaven, and let it rain on all Egypt. 2c.
5. the seventh plague follows on the Egyptians, as hail, with which plague God is also after Pharaoh and his Egyptians, wants to teach them morals, and to make the bad boys saintly. As in the prophet Haggai, Cap. 2, 18, the hail is called a rod and plague of God over the wicked, since God says: "I afflicted you with drought, burnt grain and hail in all your work, yet you did not turn to me, says the LORD" 2c. Further, the text says:
V. 16 I have raised you up so that my power may appear in you and my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.
We have often heard that God acts with us in such a way that one must grasp it, that it is a divine work, so that one does not remain proud against Him and think that free will can also do something. For this reason he leads his own down, so that all their wisdom, power, authority and wit may become too short and fall apart, and we must feel it in our work, when the oxen are standing on the hill, that we cannot help ourselves, but must despair and seek help from God alone. Again, God also elevates and exalts our adversaries so much that they become proud and think they have won the game and are standing in their fist. God gives them riches enough; item, wit, attachment, favor, wisdom, understanding and strength, against which they only beat our Lord God by a stone.
7 But God wants to say here: You have pressed my people under you, so that they are even gasping under you, and it seems that I could not help them; yet you shall let my people go, even though you do not intend to do it. Well, I have done it, and given thee this courage and defiance, which thou hast of thy kingdom and of thy wisdom, that thou art puffed up against me. But you do not know what I do. You have in mind that you will have great honor and a glorious name by oppressing my people, but I will be praised by bringing you down and reducing you to ashes.
8 For this reason our God is called a wonderful God, who rescues from sin and death, and from that which was lost, and brings to the ground all that was lost.
something before him, so that it may be said: This God knows how to help everyone. For he comforts and raises up those who despair, and he cannot suffer the hopeful. As St. Peter also says in his [first] epistle [Cap. 5, 5.j: "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
(9) Such things are not seen at first, why and how God does them, until they are accomplished. Pharaoh and his like, who are puffed up and hopeful, must be awakened, so that God may have something great by which to prove his wisdom and power, and to destroy them. As God still does; when He wanted to preach the Gospel through Christ His Son, John the Baptist and His dear apostles and reveal it to the world, He first pointed to the mighty and powerful empire as the Roman Empire and sent for the wisest and holiest people in Judaism.
(10) There was wit, art, strength, power, riches, and pleasure at the highest, and this could masterfully make the world proud, and when they looked at themselves according to their reason, how mighty they were, and how far their arm reached in the world, they went up in their mind and strutted in such a way that they did not even mention their own name to the city of Rome, because they first grabbed the beret and pulled it off. So they held this name as an idolum; therefore they also decided in the Roman council that it was a god, and they drew all the world's goods to themselves, were magnificent, mighty and rich, and in spite of this they despised God's word, accepted no sermon of repentance, punishment, admonition and warning, and were even obdurate, so that they saw nothing with their seeing eyes and heard nothing with their hearing ears, as Isaiah says, Cap. 6, 10. Now God made Rome like this, she did not exalt herself like this. But afterwards God says, as He did to Pharaoh, "I have given you this defiance, that the whole world may sing and say of it.
Against this mighty monarchy, God had St. Peter, the Fisherman, St. Paul and other apostles preach, and hung them on this power of the Romans, just as He hangs Moses on King Egypt. There one would like to say: How is God so foolish? Why does he attack this great regiment with ar
men, miserable people? Reason says: What can a fisherman do? But God leads it through, even if it costs a lot of blood; there were many thousand martyrs who died freshly there, who were cut off as the heads of the cabbage.
(12) But this Roman empire is destroyed, that it is not known where it is now, only that the pope has persuaded us that the Roman emperor has it. But let him go and sit down there; the nest is destroyed, and the birds have flown away. In the same way, the Egyptian kingdom has also gone to the ground and has been swept aside.
13 Thus God honors His word by letting this kingdom perish; just as here He says to Pharaoh, "I will overthrow you, that it may be known that I am the LORD. Then Moses, in great weakness, goes against the great power of Pharaoh, and nevertheless overthrows him in the Red Sea. So foolishly our Lord God attacks him.
(14) Now this is said to us first of all for comfort, light and understanding in God's works, that you should know when you are in distress and anguish that God is the one who awakens it when the devil and death come against you. For thus says God: This devil, who wants to devour you, I have in my fist; his evil will and high courage is in my power and authority. I have thus sent it: You are my poor little worm [Isa. 41, 14.f and have my word in your heart, in which you believe; but I call to the devil to devour you. Then he gloats, and is angry, as if he would swallow you up in one bite; but you, on the other hand, are fainthearted, fearful and terrified; nor, if you gorge yourself on your faith, is God above death, the devil, the world, sin and hell, and above everything, so that the devil could not bend a hair on your head. But as a great fish snatcheth at a little worm that is hooked, and swalloweth it, and is put to shame; so shall the devil and the world, with their tyranny against Christians, be put to shame also.
15. God aroused the devil against Job and incited him 1) provoking the devil himself with
1) "them" in Eisleben's.
He said to Job, "Do you see my servant Job, how righteous and innocent he lives?" He said, "Here you have him; go and take him; you have everything, his body and his goods, in your hand; have control over the goods and the body; only spare his life. Now the devil goes and takes away all his goods and health, so that Job does not mean anything else but: Now I am dead, and thought that he would devour and eat him. But God has set a goal for him, and says: I am also here, you devil, you shall not devour him. Therefore Job became healthy again, rich and powerful, had children and goods again, and against the will of God the devil could not harm your Job and could not create anything.
16 Thus, even if we are overcome by the wrathful princes for the sake of the gospel, and are afflicted with sickness and death, the world quickly says, "The devil has done this; God is pious, he does not do it. Then God speaks against it: Dear one, do not take this honor away from me, I have truly done it, dear child, so that you may know me, otherwise you would not know me and would not call upon me [Eccl. 3:14]. For need teaches to pray and to call upon God.
(17) Therefore, you shall see, says God, how I can save you from sin, death, the power of the devil and hell, and also from all misfortune; for it is only for this purpose that my name, my honor, power and wisdom may be known. For if I did not send you more than you could overcome with your strength and power, and if I only let you go hungry until you buy food and drink for money and help yourself, then you would never remember me, you would not know my power.
18 If I let you live so that you overcome your enemies yourself, and no more hardship should come under your eyes than you could lead out with your reason and with your strength, then you would recognize yourself and not me, you would forget me, and you would exalt yourself above your wisdom. Therefore I will do so, that I alone may be known and honored, and will send you distress and calamity, in which no angel nor any creature shall help you,
than I alone. And then you will see how I am greater than you and can help more than men.
19 St. Paul to the Romans in the ninth chapter, v. 17, quotes this, that God boasts (and one should let him have this glory) that he sends us sickness and all misfortune and temptation. Although the devil and wicked men do it, yet he boasts that he has their courage and heart in his hand, and uses Satan and ungodly men to oppress and afflict his own; they must be his rods, so that he may prod his children. As is also the case here. Pharaoh is against God and God's enemy, so God is also his enemy, and he also oppresses and tortures the people of Israel. But God boasts here and says: "You would not have this power and courage if I did not give it to you. Pharaoh must be the ruthlessness of the children of Israel.
(20) Now this question is raised again: Whether God is the one who hardens men and forces them to evil and sin? Why does he condemn people? Reason concludes here: If God wanted to condemn sin, he would not be called to sin, or would not have created the unrighteous and godless. Now, reason always wants to court God, whether he is just and right, wants to measure God according to its laws and thoughts. God should act more carefully and not be so frightened, but do it in such and such a way, and thus present God with a law. But you must leave that out of your head if you want to speak of God, that you do not put a law or measure on God; for he is not a creature, he is immeasurable.
(21) A measure is set for man, I should do so and so; my life is finite, it can be grasped, and has a rule, measure, way and law [Wis. 11:22]. Since you also wanted to act with God in this way, 1) you were lacking God. For what is done with God according to law, measure and purpose does not apply. Reason cannot go higher than to think: God should do it this way and no other way, and soon judges thus,
1) Eislebensche: wollest.
Says: Is it not good that one should be obdurate? And so she makes a measure for him; she thinks that God is like a man, that one judges of God as of men. So reason does not understand, and yet wants to be wise and judge from God [Matth. 11, 25. Ps. 51, 6.]. But God gives you laws, and takes none from you; he sets a goal for you, and you do not set it for him. Therefore it is not right for you to will it this way and to consider it right and good, but know that He wills it this way and gives it this way; His will is set above all laws. When he says, "I will have it so," it is above all laws, for he is an infinite God, and has power and authority.
22 But if you say, "Yes, I do not understand that it is good that he should be hardened. Yes, dear one, it is evil in your sight; do you think that you are God? God has no measure, law or goal (as I said), so he cannot do against it, he cannot sin against the law, because none is presented to him. Therefore everything he does is good [Gen. 1, 31].
(23) There is another question that flows from this: Does God cause sin? This is what makes me put God in a ring and circle, or in a jar, in which I want to keep him. He has prescribed for me how I should live and serve Him, so I think He should live in the same way. He gives out the law, but he does not take it up again. It belongs to no one but God alone to give law and teaching on how to live and be righteous. But God shall not ordain a law, how he may govern the world or men. You may do as you please, but what God does is right, for His will is not unjust or evil; He has no measure or law for enlightening the one or hardening the other. If I should measure God in this and judge according to my reason, then he is unjust and has much more sin than the devil, yes, he is more terrible and horrible than the devil. For he acts and deals with us violently, torments and tortures us, and has no regard for us.
(24) A man might become foolish about this if he did not take his reason captive and drive out of his head all such thoughts, relying only on the fact that God does not measure anyone or prescribe laws for him.
because God is even exlex,1 ) as they say. But one cannot persuade reason, much less can one persuade it, or tear from its eyes the hopeless, cursed brooding and researching in such high, incomprehensible things, since it always says: Quare? Cur? Why? Then the law is there. If God did this or that according to it, then it would be right. But with this measuring one deprives oneself of life, limb and our Lord God, and it is said: "Do it in the name of the devil. But every heart that can say: Dear God, do it as it pleases you, I am satisfied; it cannot go down, but the others must go down.
Therefore, St. Paul says to the Romans in chapter 9, v. 20: "Who are you that is right with God? You are a man, and you want to be right with God; where will you get it? You must have the law if you want to be right with God, namely, you must do so; and because it is not done, you have not complied with the law. How, do you also want to act with God in this way? That is not proper. You may deal with your neighbor in this way, he has the law, he and you should do this, not rob, steal, commit adultery 2c., but God wants to do as he pleases, and must do so, because his will is the law, it cannot be otherwise.
A man is called pious when he acts and lives according to the law. With God it is even reversed; a work is called good because God does it. My work is not good because I do it, but because it is done according to the law of God, in which it is prescribed to me what I should do. I must step out of my mind into something higher, namely into the law of God. God is not pious because He does this work, but because the work is right, good, holy and well-done, for He Himself does it; and thus goodness comes from God, and not from the work. God is the doer, and does not take goodness from works or laws. But we do not take goodness from doing good, 2) and from being respected by men, but that the law may be done right, it must be fulfilled by the Holy Spirit.
1) that is, exempt from the law.
2) spend - accomplish.
Then we also get the name that we are pious.
Our reason sees through a colored, red or blue glass, which it cannot do from the eyes; therefore everything it looks at must also be red, blue or green; it cannot interpret this Pharaoh well, that God drives to evil, and hardens or incites either to good or evil. God does well in this, and not wrong. But he who is driven does wrong, for he has God's commandment before him that he should not do so, and yet the devil drives him so that he acts and does so, and does not live as God would have him. God wants you to have His law for yourself; so the devil tempts you to act against the law. Would you say, 1) Is God's will contrary to itself? That is too high. God's will is there, but how it is done I am not to know.
I am to look down at what God wants me to do. Now He has revealed His will to me through the Law and the Gospel, and taught me what I should do; I should deal with this and not climb up and ask why God is doing this or that? Let such things stand. But when you have come to faith and true understanding, and have experienced the cross, you will understand.
Reason always begins to build on the top of the roof and not on the bottom. As many are found who have never heard Christ preached, they are rough and wild people, torturing 2) and cursing as if they were full of devils, seeking only first why God does this or that, coming up to the light with their shitty feet and blind reason, and measuring God by reason. But we should take before us the way that God gave to St. Paul [1 Tim. 6, 19], and lift up a foundation; the roof will then be found, let God with His secret counsel in peace, and do not climb up to the roof with your reason. He will not have thee so ascend, but cometh unto thee, and hath made thee a ladder, and a way, and a bridge, saying, I descend from heaven unto thee, and am made man.
1) Eislebensche: Wollest.
2) martern curse. "Marter" was a common curse word in those days, especially among the lansquenets.
in the body of the Virgin Mary, lie in the manger in Bethlehem, suffer and die for you; believe in me,- and dare on me, who was crucified for you. Matth. 9, 21. 22,
So I climb up to heaven, and there I will not climb up into the Godhead and ponder. One should preach about the Godhead only once in a year, so that one would know that in matters of blessedness one should start from below, that is, how Christ would come to us, that one would preach how this child, Christ, eats milk and butter, lies at his mother's breasts, and is to be found in Bethlehem, and there learn why Christ would come, what one has in him [Is. 7, 15. 1 Petr. 2, 2.]. If I wanted to say to God: Why do you do this? he answers: I know what is behind it. If we could leave off the hair, the devil would not come in with such and such questions, whether we are provided for salvation or not? Item, how Christ can be God and man? 2c.
Should one not rather preach about faith and love? Yes, they say, I have known this for a long time. But, dear one, do not go into such questions, you deal with the humanity of Christ, there you are sure that God has sent his Son into the flesh; let him be in it, look for him everywhere, he has lowered himself into the body of the Virgin Mary, and presented his humanity to us, there he wants you to know it, to look at it, and to practice it. "He is the way, the truth and the life" 2c. [John 14:6.] Nevertheless let us climb higher, and know how he hath provided this or that, this hardened, that not another. He who is prudent and wise, let him remain on this set course. He comes to us first, and we do not go up to heaven to meet him, but he casts the Son down into the flesh, and causes him to be born; then he leads him, and causes him to be slaughtered and crucified. This is the purpose to which we should look and aim.
32. how the Lord Christ gives a slap to the apostle Philippo, who also had strange thoughts of God, asked where God the heavenly Father was, what he was doing, if he was swallowing swallows in heaven? said [Joh. 14, 8.] to Christ: "Show us the Father, and it will be enough for us." Then the Lord Christ answered
stus and said, "Here is the Father, pointing to himself, saying, "He who sees me sees the Father also. Do you want to climb to God by another way to heaven? He says: Here, brother, "the Father is in me, and I in the Father" [John 14:10]. Keep your eyes fixed on me, through my humanity one comes to the Father, the Father closes himself into one humanity, and through my humanity the Father has presented himself to the whole world. So he attaches him to his humanity, and pulls him around from the erroneous thoughts.
For if I say, Christ, who was sent by the Father, died and redeemed me, a poor, condemned sinner, then I will soon come to the Father. But if I ask, Who told him to do it, know this: He did it gladly, and did it for himself out of pure love, grace, goodness and mercy. Then I find God the Father right, and He is all goodness and love, for we see His goodness in the Son [John 3:16, 16:15]. Therefore let this question go, and do not clamber up why he has done this or that in this way. So I must meet my thoughts that they fall to the ground. For I have another way which I must go and let these thoughts go. As the Lord Christ said to St. Philip, who also looked up there, "Here, Philip, he who sees me sees the Father also" [John 14:9].
(34) Thus the Lord Christ always sets his disciples' minds, hearts and eyes on himself, saying, "If you see me as the heavenly Father has sent me to preach to you, and die for your sake, then you have the heavenly Father's will and good pleasure. If then thou believest this, thou shalt be saved, and shalt not be troubled, but shalt live for ever in this faith. In this faith and with this heart you go, and if a man thus attaches himself and binds himself to the humanity of Christ, in which are all treasures and riches [Col. 2, 3.], then a sweet sermon is found, why God hardened Pharaoh, and how he dealt with the transgression. When I come to the Gospel, I thank God. For I have Christ, who died for me, who is Lord over all, and Father over all.
has given and bestowed him upon me from heaven. Therefore he also has the hearts of all enemies in his hand, I know this, and this also comforts me, that I can strengthen my faith and say: There is no need, Christ and the Father, whom I have, have everything in their fist and power [Rom. 8, 33. 34.].
35 We shall therefore save these sayings until the time of trouble, when we are in prison, and are threatened with the sword; saying, The sword shall not cut, except my heavenly Father have it. So I can use these words for the benefit of my blessedness when I am in suffering and temptation. For otherwise I will be angry with God, I will be blasphemous toward him 2c. I am too green to want to rise above. It is just as if I wanted to give a little child malmsey to drink, which belongs to big, strong people to drink. When I am old and tired of work, and drink malmsey, then it tastes good to me, and strengthens my life, otherwise a child should drink death from it. So God would never have said this saying if Moses had not been in distress, and in such distresses that seem as if they would never have an end. God wants to say: Moses, and you, the people of Israel, hold fast, there is no need, I have made it so.
(36) Therefore reason does not consider the time or the person, but in the time of distress and anguish these sayings were spoken. Thou wilt speak of them when thou sittest at the tavern and in the alehouse; when thou waitest there for thy wine and beer, and let the question of the provision be passed over. You are not yet the person, nor I, who should speak of it; it is too early for that. Say to them: Do you know what Christ is, how he was born, what he has done with his life and death? Ask them again, "Have you ever been in danger of death for the sake of the gospel? He says: No; then answer thou, What then dost thou inquire about that is not profitable to thee, neither is it commanded that thou shouldest know it? And why wilt thou know these great things, who hast never known any cross, affliction, or temptation, nor understood Christ?
(37) Thus I turn away them that ask and want to know much of the dispensation, saying, Lift not up yourselves too high, lest ye break your necks, and leap by leaps; but go ye first to Bethlehem, and seek the young child Christ in the manger, and see how the mother Mary hath dealt with the young child Christ, and how Christ died for you, and when he suffered for you, and what he hath done for you. Let me tell you about these things, and report, whoever you are, and I will answer you about the question of the provision.
38 Therefore, this is the summary of this chapter, that God is not to be measured, judged, or judged in His works, but He is not to be measured, judged, or judged in His works.
He shall measure and judge everything, and his will is his will. Let him do as he pleases. Where there is no law, there is neither sin nor injustice; but where sin and injustice are to be, there must be law first. Reason judges itself and all men according to the law, and also wants to respect God in this way; therefore it is lacking. He who cannot understand this, let him be silent and let others judge. God does not have a law; but as he wills, so it is willed, his will is his guide, measure and weight. I command you to use this saying when trouble comes, so that you may learn to recognize God and defy him, just as Moses did here.