And when the forty years were expired there appeared to him an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.
The burning bush
A sign and a type--
I. Of Israel. As in Egypt, it resembled a degenerate and wild thorn hedge, burning, but not consumed, in the glow of the brick-kiln, and in the heat of trial.
II. Of The Messiah. According to His human lowliness--a thorn bush, and Divine glory--the flame in the bush, inseparable in one person--the bush not consumed.
III. Of the Christian Church, in its insignificant cross form, constant trial, and indistructible powers of life. This bush has now burned fez nearly two thousand years, and yet we have never seen its ashes. (K. Gerok.)
Moses trembled.--
The fear of Moses
I. Its nature.
1. It was not slavish fear.
2. But pious humility. How good is it for a teacher, who must so often stand upon holy ground, to experience this trembling, not only at the commencement, but during the continuance of his ministry.
II. Its effects. This filial fear and reverence will be--
1. A barrier by which useless words, vain gestures, and other sinful things will be prevented.
2. An incentive to speak and act as before God, in God, and from God. (Apostolic Pastor.)
Put offthy shoes.
Anexhortation to put off earthly stains and conceited pride in the presence of God.
1. For ministers, in the study and in the pulpit.
2. For hearers in their church-going and at worship. (K. Gerok.)
I have seen, I have seen the affliction of My people.--
The greater our need the nearer God
1. He sees the sufferings of His people.
2. He hears the sighs of believers.
3. He comes down at the proper time.
4. He sends out His servants.(K. Gerok.)
The people of God
I. God has a people. “My people.”
1. Chosen by Him.
2. In covenant with Him.
II. Where they live. “In Egypt.”
1. A house of bondage.
2. A transient residence.
3. Among a strange people.
III. What they suffer. “Affliction.” In some shape or form this is the Christian’s earthly lot.
1. Inflicted by man.
2. Permitted by God.
3. Working out spiritual ends.
IV. The Divine notice of their case.
1. God sees their affliction.
2. God hears their groaning.
3. God works out their deliverance. (J. W. Burn.)
This Moses … brought them out after that he had showed wonders and signs.--
The miracles of Moses and Christ
The Divine authority of the Jewish lawgiver was chiefly seen and heard in thunderings and lightnings, great plagues and fearful judgments--in the darkened air, the flashing firmament, the corrupted waters, the divided sea, the rending earth, lamenting families, armies overwhelmed and terror-stricken nations: so that most emphatically does the sacred historian, in summing up the character of Moses as a worker of miracles, declare that none ever equalled him “in all that mighty hand, and in all that great terror which he showed in the land of Egypt.” The glory of our Saviour’s miracles is of a different kind, and better suited to the genius of His dispensation. He gave indeed abundant testimony that it was not for want of power He did not signalise His mission like Moses--when, e.g., over His Cross the sky was shrouded with a pall of funereal darkness, while fierce earthquakes tore the flinty rocks, and the temple vail was rent asunder by an unseen hand, and the buried dead arose. But the characteristic tone of the Redeemer’s marvellous works was of another and a benignant kind. The Mighty Man of Wonders, by whom come grace and truth “went about doing good.” Consolation and joy and bright-eyed health attended all His steps. Mercy went before His face; and at His heavenly smile diseases vanished, pain expired, fear ceased to quiver, sorrow dried her tearful countenance, the broken heart was made whole. (A. S. Patterson, M. A.)
