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<p>In there verses we have an account of the great things which God did for the Jewish nation in raising them up by degrees to be very considerable. 1. God saved them from the ruin they were upon the brink of in Egypt (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.16.6" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.16.6">Ezek. 16:6</a>): “<i>When I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thy own blood</i>, loathed and abandoned, and appointed to die, <i>as sheep for the slaughter</i>, then <i>I said unto thee, Live</i>. I designed thee for life when thou wast doomed to destruction, and resolved to save thee from death.” Those shall live to whom God commands life. God looked upon the world of mankind as thus cast off, thus cast out, thus polluted, thus weltering in blood, and his thoughts towards it were thoughts of good, designing it <i>life, and that more abundantly</i>. By converting grace, he says to the soul, <i>Live</i>. 2. He looked upon them with kindness and a tender affection, not only pitied them, but <i>set his love upon them</i>, which was unaccountable, for there was nothing lovely in them; but <i>I looked upon thee</i>, and, <i>behold, thy time was the time of love</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.16.8" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.16.8">Ezek. 16:8</a>. It was <i>the kindness and love of God our Saviour</i> that sent Christ to redeem us, that sends the Spirit to sanctify us, that brought us out of a state of nature into a state of grace. That <i>was a time of love</i> indeed, distinguishing love, when God manifested his love to us, and courted our love to him. <i>Then was I in his eyes as one that found favour</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Song.8.10" href="/passage/?search=Song.8.10">Song 8:10</a>. 3. He took them under his protection: “<i>I spread my skirt over thee</i>, to shelter thee from wind and weather, and to <i>cover thy nakedness</i>, that the shame of it might not appear.” Boaz <i>spread his skirt over</i> Ruth, in token of the special favour he designed her, <a class="bibleref" title="Ruth.3.9" href="/passage/?search=Ruth.3.9">Ruth 3:9</a>. God took them into his care, as an <i>eagle bears her young ones upon her wings</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Deut.32.11,Deut.32.12" href="/passage/?search=Deut.32.11,Deut.32.12"><span class="bibleref" title="Deut.32.11">Deut. 32:11</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Deut.32.12">12</span></a>. When God owned them for his people, and sent Moses to Egypt to deliver them, which was an expression of the good-will of him <i>that dwelt in the bush</i>, then he <i>spread his skirt over them</i>. 4. He cleared them from the reproachful character which their bondage in Egypt laid them under (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.16.9" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.16.9">Ezek. 16:9</a>): “<i>Then washed I thee with water</i>, to make thee clean, <i>and anointed thee with oil</i>, to make thee sweet and supple thee.” All the disgrace of their slavery was rolled away when they were brought, <i>with a high hand and a stretched-out arm, into the glorious liberty of the children of God</i>. When God said, <i>Israel is my son, my first-born—Let my people go, that they may serve me</i>, that word, backed as it was with so many works of wonder, <i>thoroughly washed away their blood</i>; and when God led them under the convoy of <i>the pillar of cloud and fire</i> he <i>spread his skirt over them</i>. 5. He multiplied them and built them up into a people. This is here mentioned (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.16.7" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.16.7">Ezek. 16:7</a>) before his <i>spreading his skirt over them</i>, because <i>their numbers increased exceedingly</i> while they were yet bond-slaves in Egypt. They <i>multiplied as the bud of the field</i> in spring time; they <i>waxed great, exceedingly mighty</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Exod.1.7,Exod.1.20" href="/passage/?search=Exod.1.7,Exod.1.20"><span class="bibleref" title="Exod.1.7">Exod. 1:7</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Exod.1.20">20</span></a>. Their <i>breasts were fashioned</i> when they were formed into distinct tribes and
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