An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

The reason is implied in the Text, Because he only knows the certain time of their extremity. None can give exact and timely help to the necessity of another, but he that knows the exact time of his extremity. The Lord can and will give deliverance to his people, in the very nick of time, when the months of their sorrow and burdens are fulfilled, for he knows the number of them. The children of Israel had long and sore bondage in Egypt, but no longer than the months which were appointed; for as soon as they were fulfilled, their bondage was ended, and they delivered; mark how the Spirit of God records it to a day (Exod. 12.41.) And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred a•d thirty years, even the self-same day it came to pass, that all the h sts of the Lord went out from the Land of Egypt. Nor doth the sacred Record leave it thus, but adds (vers. 42.) It is a night to be much observed; or (according to the letter of the Hebrew) A night of observations unto the Lord, for bringing them out from the Land of Egypt: This is that night of the Lord, to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations. But Moses said in the former verse, It was the self-same day. Why doth he say here, It is a night, &c? And this is that night of the Lord, &c. The reason I conceive was this; The word day may be taken largely, for a natural day consisting of twenty four hours; now because the four hundred and thirty years were fulfilled and ended at the beginning of that day, (the Jewish account of days beginning at evening) •herefore their deliverance began then, and did not stay till the morning. Thus exact is the Lord, keeping his word not only to a day, but to a piece, yea, to the very hour of a day. And as the Lord gave that people deliverance just when those years were fulfilled, according to that ancient prophecy; so doubtless when the forty two months, or (which is the same) the thousand two hundred and threescore days for his witnesses prophesying in sack-cloth (Rev. 11.2, 3.) shall be fulfilled, then they also ⟨p. 319⟩shall come out of their bondage from under mystical Egypt and Babylon.

The reason is implyed in the Text, Because he only knows the certain time of their extremity. None can give exact and timely help to the necessity of another, but he that knows the exact time of his extremity. The Lord can and will give deliverance to his people, in the very nick of time, when the months of their sorrow and burdens are fulfilled, for he knows the number of them. The children of Israel had long and sore bondage in Egypt, but no longer than the months which were appointed; for as soon as they were fulfilled, their bondage was ended, and they delivered; mark how the Spirit of God records it to a day (