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The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:1-10
The Burning Bush. "Behold the bush," etc. Exodus 3:2. A very astonishing event; yet amply evidenced to us by those voluminous arguments which now more than ever establish the authenticity of Exodus; but in addition to t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:1-6
Forty years since, Moses (Exodus 2:11) had "turned aside" from court life in Egypt to see how his brethren the children of Israel fared amid the furnace of trial. The old life seems like a dream, so long ago; the old la…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:1-22
THE CALL AND MISSION OF MOSES. EXPOSITION
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:1-22
THE MISSION OF MOSES. After forty years of monotonous pastoral life, affording abundant opportunity for meditation, and for spiritual communion with God, and when he had attained to the great age of eighty years, and th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:1
Moses kept the flock. The Hebrew expresses that this was his regular occupation. Understand by "flock" either sheep or goats, or the two intermixed. Both anciently and at the present day the Sinaitic pastures support th…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:1-5
Moses at the bush. We do not now see burning bushes, or hear voices calling to us from their midst. The reason is, that we do not need them, The series of historical revelations is complete. Revelation in the sense of t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:1-5
The bush and its suggestions. Glean here a few of the general suggestions of the passage:— I. REVELATION. The appearance at the bush suggestive— 1. Of the supernatural in Nature. Bushes are aglow all around us, if only…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:1-5
The burning bush. I. OBSERVE THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH GOD FINDS MOSES. He is still with Jethro, although forty years have passed since their first acquaintance. Though a fugitive, he had not become a mere wanderer. 1.…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:2
The bush in history. The bush had primary reference to Israel, and the fire in the bush represented Jehovah's fiery presence in the midst of his people— 1. For their protection. A fire flaming forth to consume the adver…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:2
The angel of the Lord. Literally, "an angel of Jehovah." Taking the whole narrative altogether, we are justified in concluding that the appearance was that of "the Angel of the Covenant" or" the Second Person of the Tri…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:3-10
I. How MOSES MET WITH GOD. 1. The marvel was marked and considered. He might simply have glanced at it and passed on; but he observed it till the wonder of it possessed his soul. There are marvels that proclaim God's pr…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:3
The impulse to draw nigh. Moses saw a strange sight; one that he had never seen before; one that struck him with astonishment. His natural impulse was to inquire into its cause. God has implanted in us all this instinct…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:3
I will turn aside. Suspecting nothing but a natural phenomenon, which he was anxious to investigate. The action bespeaks him a man of sense and intelligence, not easily scared or imposed upon.
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:4-6
The prohibition, and the ground of it. Suddenly the steps of the inquirer are arrested. Wonder upon wonder! a voice calls to him out of the bush, and calls him by his own name, "Moses, Moses!" Now must have dawned on hi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:4
When the Lord saw … God called. This collocation of words is fatal in the entire Elohistic and Jehovistic theory, for no one can suppose that two different writers wrote the two clauses of the sentence. Nor, if the same…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:5
Draw not nigh. The awful greatness of the Creator is such that his creatures, until invited to draw near, are bound to stand aloof. Moses, not yet aware that God himself spoke to him, was approaching the bush too close,…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:6
The God of thy father. "Father" here is used collectively, meaning forefathers generally, a usage well known to Hebraists. (Compare Exodus 15:2, and Exodus 18:4.) The God of Abraham, etc; i.e. the God who revealed himse…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:6
The God of the fathers. "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham," etc. In these words— I. GOD CONNECTS HIMSELF WITH THE DEAD PATRIARCHS. They imply— 1. Continued existence; for God, who says here, not "I was," b…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:6
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Having wakened the mind of Moses into full activity, given him a revelation of supernatural power, and brought him altogether into a state of the greatest reverence and awe, God pro…
Matthew Henry on Exodus 3:7-10
God notices the afflictions of Israel. Their sorrows; even the secret sorrows of God's people are known to him. Their cry; God hears the cries of his afflicted people. The oppression they endured; the highest and greate…
Compassion of God for the Israelites. (b. c. 1491.)
COMPASSION OF GOD FOR THE ISRAELITES. (B. C. 1491.) Now that Moses had put off his shoes (for, no doubt, he observed the orders given him, Exodus 3:5), and covered his face, God enters upon the particular business that…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:7
I have surely seen. Literally "Seeing I have seen"—an expression implying continuance. On the force of the anthropomorphic terms "seeing, hearing, knowing," as used of God, see the comment on Exodus 2:24-25. Taskmasters…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:7-11
God's sympathy with the oppressed. I. GOD IS EVER IN SYMPATHY WITH THE OPPRESSED, AND AGAINST THEIR OPPRESSORS (Exodus 3:7, Exodus 3:9). This is now, thanks to the Bible, made as certain to us as any truth can be. God's…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 3:7-10
The call of Moses. With face covered, but with ears attent to hear, Moses stands before God to learn his will. And God takes him, as it were, into counsel, not only calling him to a certain work, but revealing to him wh…