Divine Deliverance

Burning Bush

Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; 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. Exodus:3.1-10

Perseverance is one of the many fruits of God’s Spirit (Galatians:5.22-23). The burning bush of Exodus is an early example of the matchlessly persevering nature of God’s people. After 400 years of bondage under Pharaohs, the once-proliferating Jews were shrinking in number. Instead of a “tree of fruitfulness” from God on behalf of Egypt and Africa, they were a mere “bush” some have estimated at 3,000. Affliction by Egypt and wilderness harshness was a fire that would have brought extinction to any other people on Earth. Yet, the Jews, like “leaves of the burning bush,” were not consumed. When Moses saw the staying power of leaves in the burning bush, God told him to take off his shoes, that he was standing on holy ground. But, was it the ground on which Moses stood, or was it earth-composed Moses, himself? He saw something God wanted him to understand more than any other man on Earth. Holy Moses would deliver the Jews from bondage by God’s foreordination. The burning bush vision would help him to remember that no matter how tough the recovery path became, God would keep the Jews alive and vital as His Chosen People, unconsumed. They were a people tried by fire, but saved by God with such indisputable evidence that they aptly remember the experience as some of the most awesome Acts of God ever. Jews commemorate Divine Deliverance by Holy Days of longest standing in Jewish and human history.

#Deliverance #Moses