Slike strani
PDF
ePub

you ever inquired into this matter? Are you willing to become the instrument, in the hand of God, of accomplishing his wise and benevolent designs? Do you desire that he should employ you, in some way, in doing good to your fellow-men? If you do, that way will be opened. Pray that you may have this desire, and that you may be so employed. It is your duty thus to feel and act. It is your choicest privilege. It is your highest honor and happiness.

CHAPTER VII.

God appears to Moses in the burning bush, and makes known his intention of sending him to Egypt.

Surrounded with the sublime scenery of Horeb, an object more striking than it all meets the eye of Moses. The lofty and majestic cliffs, with the cloud-capt summits of the mountains, fade away from his sight; and his eye fastens intensely upon a single bush not far from him. He might have observed it before with a transient glance, having nothing peculiar to distinguish it from others of a similar kind. But now it assumes a new and strange

aspect. Out of the midst of it rises a flame of fire; and in this flame the angel of the Lord is visible.

The bush continues to burn, but is not consumed. Moses approaches to see more clearly this wonderful sight-the mysterious fire whose lambent flames are harmless. A voice arrests his ear. He listens in awe-struck suspense. It is God who speaks to him out of the midst of the bush, "Моses; Moses." And he answers, "Here am I."

The voice continues, "Draw not nigh hither : put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

Moses obeys the divine injunction, and bowing himself to the ground, hides his face; for he is afraid to look upon the intensely bright and daz. zling splendor.

Surrounded by the yet burning flame, and uttering the awful voice, is to be seen the form of the Angel of the Lord; now assuming such additional and overpowering glory, and speaking as God himself, that Moses can not sustain the sight of this manifestation of the Divine presence.

The form of this Angel of the Lord might have been a human one, as in the case of the three angels who appeared to Abraham in the plains of Mamre, and one of whom is repeatedly styled Jehovah. This probably was the peculiar way in which God saw fit to manifest himself. Nor is the opinion which many have held, to be regarded as resting on slight grounds, that this Angel, or visible manifestation of Jehovah, was no other than the Son of God, "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of his person;" the eternal Word, who " was in the beginning with God, and was God;" and who, taking upon himself the nature of man, afterwards appeared in our world as the Messiah, the Redeemer of our lost and ruined race.

The voice continues, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their task-masters; for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me; and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

This was a momentous undertaking, attended with many and great difficulties; and it appeared to Moses the more so, thus to be intrusted to the agency of a single individual. Besides, he regarded himself as among those who were the least qualified to assume its weighty responsibility and duties. With unfeigned humility he replied, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?"

God assured Moses, that he would be with him, and impart all needed wisdom and strength; and bade him consider the miracle of the burning and unconsumed bush which he witnessed, as a convincing evidence of the certainty of this. He also told him, that he would yet live to see this encouraging promise fulfilled in the striking fact, that, after he had delivered the Israelites from their bondage and brought them out of Egypt, they should serve God upon the very mountain where he then was.

But the obstacles to be removed rose up, in all their formidable array, before the mind of the fearful Moses. He began to anticipate the doubts which his countrymen might feel with regard to the fact of his being really sent by God to them. There is reason to think, too, that many of them had fallen into gross ignorance respecting the religion of their fathers, and been influenced, in some degree, by the false notions and idolatrous practices of the Egyptians. They would have, it was to be feared, quite imperfect views of the character of that Almighty Being in whose name their professed deliverer would come, and of his power to carry into effect his gracious designs.

"And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them?"

"And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."

"And God said, moreover, unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations."

What higher assurance could they want, that Moses had come from the ever-living and true God? The simple and sublime name which he gives to himself, would show this. Unlike the false, temporary, and changeable deities of the heathen, he claims the character of eternal self-existence. He is the immutable Jehovah, the same yesterday, today, and for ever, in whose never-varying power and truth the most implicit confidence can be placed.

And to this he adds the appellation by which he

[blocks in formation]
« PrejšnjaNaprej »