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 lance (Exodus 4:10) grown unfamiliar. The annual routine; flocks to be driven to distant-pasturage at the approach of summer. God's hour at hand just when least expected.
I. THE PROPHETIC VISION. When God calls to the prophetic office, there is usually some vision or appearance, through which the call is emphasised and its significance suggested. Cf. Isaiah 6:1-7; Jeremiah 1:11-13; Ezekiel 1:4; Matthew 3:16 to Matthew 4:11; Acts 9:3-6. So here:
1. The vision. A dry acacia bush on fire, not very singular. What is singular is that the bush seems to flourish amidst the flame! The mystery explained, Acts 9:2,Acts 9:4. The bush is in the midst of the flame, but the angel of Jehovah is in the midst of the hush.
2. Its significance. Israel "a root out of a dry ground." In the furnace of affliction, yet flourishing amid the furnace (cf. Exodus 1:12). When Moses had "turned aside to see" forty years before, he had supposed that his brethren would have recognised in him their deliverer; had not sufficiently recognised himself that it was God's angel in their midst who was really preserving them. Trouble, sorrow, persecution may consume and practically annihilate; whole peoples have been killed off and left hardly a trace in history. Though "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," yet there is no specially conservative power in suffering; it is only when God is with men that they can "walk through the fire and yet not be burned" (cf. Isaiah 43:2).
II. THE DIVINE REVELATION.
1. Preliminary condition: Acts 9:4. "Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see."
2. The call heard and answered. To the man ready to receive it the call comes. God is going to reread his own name to Moses, but calls Moses first by his name. The conviction that God knows us is the best preparation for learning more about him. Moses is on the alert; eager to listen, ready to obey.
3. Reverence secured: Acts 9:5. Interviews with God need preparation. Even when God calls, man cannot hear his voice aright save in the hush of utter reverence. To attain this for those who are in the body, material aids must not be despised; so long as men possess senses there must be a sensuous form for even the most spiritual worship.
4. God declares himself: Acts 9:6. Cf. Matthew 22:32. God in the midst of the nation, as in the midst of the bush, was preserving it in its entirety. Not like a bundle of green twigs, the relics of a perished stem. Stem and twigs, the ancestral stock no less than the offspring, all alike preserved—kept by him who can say, "I am their God." Application:—Has God ever declared himself to us? If not, whose the fault? Have we been on the outlook to catch his signs? Have we used due reverence in listening for his voice?—Have we been ready to obey even the lightest indication of his will? Attention, reverence, obedience—all needed if we would hear God speak. We must be as Moses was—self stifled, the world silenced, a-hush to hear the Divine voice.—G.
HOMILIES BY H. T. ROBJOHNS