Exodus
2:23 ¶ And it came to pass in process of
time, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason
of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the
bondage. 24 And God heard their
groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with
Jacob. 25 And God looked upon the
children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.
The
Pharaoh that sought to kill Moses has died. But, the descendants of Jacob are
still struggling as slaves under hard work. They prayed to God for deliverance.
It must have been pretty painful. We have only to look at our own experience
with racial slavery in America to see how awful it can be to live under those
conditions; a despised, hated race serving in hard bondage to masters and
mistresses who can have you killed and do whatever they wish to your person.
But, God’s plan is unfolding in His own time.
We
do not know who these Pharaohs were although many have tried to guess. One
problem is that kings were not liable to make monuments to their defeats only
their victories. In fact, like the communist North Vietnamese in the war with
America and South Vietnam who declared every defeat a victory, it is more
likely that the ancient kings would twist the truth to glorify themselves. Be
careful about accepting scholarly opinions which are based on limited and
tainted evidence as most of the truth of history is buried in the dust and no
amount of archaeologists’ spades and shovels will ever dig it up. Trust the
Bible only, God’s preserved words given to us for our learning and
understanding. As Paul explained the purpose of these histories of God’s
ministry of reconciliation of man to Himself;
Romans
15:4 For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort
of the scriptures might have hope.
Exodus,
chapter 3
Exodus
3:1 ¶ 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. 2 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. 3 And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and
see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 4 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. 5 And he said,
Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place
whereon thou standest is holy ground. 6
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.
Moses
leads the priest of Midian’s flock to a remote part of the wilderness, the backside of the desert. The mountain of
God, even to Horeb shows that by connecting with the word even that Horeb is the mountain of God.
1Kings
19:8 And he arose, and did eat and
drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto
Horeb the mount of God.
Sinai was the name
of the area.
Exodus
19:1 In the third month, when the
children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came
they into the wilderness of Sinai.
2 For they were departed from Rephidim,
and were come to the desert of Sinai,
and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
So, Sinai and
Horeb will be used interchangeably for the name of this mountain.
1Kings
8:9 There was nothing in the ark save
the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a
covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.
Exodus
31:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he
had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of
testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God…32:4 And he received them at their hand, and
fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they
said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of
Egypt.
Psalm
106:19 They made a calf in Horeb, and
worshipped the molten image.
Malachi
4:4 ¶ Remember ye the law of Moses my
servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes
and judgments.
The angel of the LORD is one way the
presence of Jehovah God is manifested in our reality.
Isaiah
63:9 In all their affliction he was
afflicted, and the angel of his presence
saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and
carried them all the days of old.
The angel of the LORD is Jesus Christ who
led the Hebrews in the wilderness.
Judges
2:1 ¶ And an angel of the LORD came up
from Gilgal to Bochim, and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have
brought you unto the land which I sware unto your fathers; and I said, I will
never break my covenant with you.
Which the New
Testament makes very clear is God Himself.
Galatians
4:14 And my temptation which was in my
flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
Hebrews
1:3 Who being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by
himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
God the Father,
the soul of God, the seat of His will, is a spirit and cannot be seen.
John
4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
John
1:18 No man hath seen God at any time;
the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared
him.
But,
in this case, God manifested Himself in a bush that burned but was not
consumed, in a fire that did not consume. This attracts Moses’ attention and
God speaks to him out of the fire.
Then,
God demands that Moses respect that the area around this bush is holy ground,
separate to God. Here is one definition of what it means to be holy or separated unto God. But, just
remember that it is separated unto God by God. Something is holy because God says it is holy, not because you say it is holy.
Numbers
6:5 All the days of the vow of his
separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be
fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy,
and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
In the following
verse God requires the successor of Moses, Joshua, to show the same reverence.
Joshua
5:15 And the captain of the LORD’S host
said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou
standest is holy. And Joshua did so.
It
is then that God identifies Himself as the God of Moses’ ancestors, the fathers
of the Hebrew people. Moses was afraid to look at this presence of God then.
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