The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 92

thon God's way to our hearts and our salvation is blocked at once. We must be loyal to fa.et wherever we '6nd it. 'l'he very evidence of our own senses, and the accumulated testimony of honest and competent-.witnesses, are not to be sacrificed to so-called first principles of rational inquiry. The right spirit is that shown by Peter and his companion in the house of Cornelius. They saw with their own eyes that the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and his household; and Peter made his inferences and his action to depend on this indisputable fact (Acts x. 44; xi. 18). When Mol'es"'turned aside to see the great sight his eye was single; he did not quibble and despise; and therefore his whole body was filled with light. III. GoD MEETS A PROPER INQUIRY WITH PROPER TREATMENT. Moses is approaching the burning bush to investigate the difficulty by his natural faculties, when God at once arrests him, making lcnown his own presence, and enjoining such outward marks of reverence as became the place and the occasion. And Moses, as we might expect, is immediately obedient. Those who have in them the spirit that seeks for truth, the spirit of faith and right inquiry, will also show a spirit ready at once,to respond to the presence of God. Moses must have had those principles in his life which pointed on to perfect purity of heart. That purity he had in its beginnings, or he would not have gained such a sense of God's presence as was here bestowed on him. Note next, that God does not proceed to answer the inquiry of Moses. There was really no occasion to answer it. When Moses knew that the presence of God had to do with the miracle, he knew enough. To know exactly how God had done it was beyond him. Even God cannot explain the inexplicable. The secrets of creation cannot be penetrated by those who lack creative power. Man can make machines; therefore the man who makes-a machine can explain the purpose and the parts of it to another man. Human beings are the parents of human beings; but as they have no power to make intelligently any living thing, so they cannot understand either how living things are brought into existence or sustained in it. God calls Moses now, not to explain why the bush is burning, but to subdue his mind into appropriate reverence and expectation. The search for truth must not degenerate into curiosity, nor be pursued into presumption. IV. THOUGH GOD LEAVES THE INQUIRY FORMALLY UNANSWERED, YET THE BUR=G DUSH DOES SERVE SOME FURTHER PURPOSE AS AN INSTRUME..'IT OF INSTBUCTIO:;. There was much teaching in this burning bush. If the aim hac been merely to arrest the attention of Moses, then any wonder would have served the purpose. But the wonders of God not only test; they also teach. They must be something unusual, or they would not test sufficiently; they must be something more than merely unusual, else they would not teach. The bush was Israel in the flame of Egypt. That bush had been burning now a century, more or less, yet it was not consumed. All that was essential to its nature, its growth, and its fruitfulness still remained. What was permanent in Israel was no more affected than the tree is by the fading and falling of its •leaves in autumn. The leaves die, but the tree remains. Its roots are still in the soil and the sap still in the trunk. Thus, by this exhibition of the burning bush, God brought before Moses the great truth that, however natural forces may be gathered against his people, and however they may be intensified in their attack, there is never- theless a power from on high which can resist them all-a secret, countervailing power in which we may ever put our trust. And this power is not only for preservation in the-midst of affliction, but for ultimate deliverance from it. The power by which God can keep the bush from being consumed, is a power by which he can take it out of the fire altogether. Believe in this power, and trust it more and more, and God will lead you into sublime conclusions, and endow you with most precious privileges.-Y. Ver. 6.-The God of .Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.-Ha.ving 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 proceeds to a reveb.tion of himself in a particular aspect--;m aspect which required and repaid the most·eamest attention. Notice that, unlike the revelation of the name I All (ver. 13), it W&.S UfllOlicited. J. CONSIDER THE BIGNIFIOANCE OF THIS NAME TO MOSES AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. 1. It was a confident reference to tht>past. Moses might look back on his own career, or that of he people to whom he belonged, with a measure of shame, doubt, humilia- 74 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [cu. m. 6.