A Remarkable Benediction
(No. 3540)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1916.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, APRIL
21, 1872.
"And for the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush." Deuteronomy
33:16.
MOSES died blessing the people. This showed his meekness, for they had
been his plague all his life, and yet his last word with them is full
of blessing. He has a blessing for all the tribes, though all the
tribes had in turn grieved his spirit. It is a graceful thing to die
scattering benedictions–for the old man to feel that life is just
about over, and that before he dies he will distribute his
legacies–legacies of benediction. It is the most graceful way of
departing out of this life to another, leaving a blessing behind, while
we, ourselves, are going into the fullness of the blessing to come. But
the blessing of Moses was graceful at the close of his life because it
was constant with all of his life that went before. Had he lived
cursing, it would have been absurd, if not impious, to die blessing. I
would not wish to have that man's benediction in words on his deathbed
who never gave a benediction in actions while he was in his life. But
the whole course of Moses' life was that of blessing the people. He had
been a nursing father to them. He carried them in his bosom. Often he
stood in the gap between them and an angry God. He had spared them by
acting as a Mediator when the sword of vengeance was drawn against
them. Countless blessings had been bestowed upon them through him. Was
it not his rod that worked wonders in the field of Zoan? Was it not his
hand which was stretched over the Red Sea, by which God made a way for
his people? Did not his rod, when it smote the rock, bring forth the
liquid stream? Was it not by his voice that God communicated to them
that the manna should drop around their camps? He had blessed them from
the very first moment that he had come into contact with them, for he
came forth from the palace of Pharaoh, giving up all the riches that
might have been his, that he might side with his brethren and began to
fight their battles, smiting the Egyptian and hiding his body in the
sand. It was from this cause that he was banished from the courts and
when he returned, again, it was with the same resolute determination to
abide with his people, and the same warm heart towards them. Brothers
and Sisters, if you wish to give your children a blessing when you die,
be a blessing to them while you live! If you would make your last words
worth the hearing, let your whole life be worth the seeing. It is
graceful to die blessing, but let it be always consistent with the
blessedness of our former life.
The particular blessing which he gave to Joseph shall now have our
attention and, first, we shall notice the blessing, itself, which he
wished to Joseph. And, secondly, the peculiar form in which he worded
it And, when we have thought that over, it shall be in our heart to
wish the same to all who are present here. First, then, let us look
at–
I. THE GREAT BLESSING WHICH MOSES WISHED CONFERRED UPON JOSEPH.
The good will of God–"the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush." I
would like any man's good will. The better the man is, the more I would
desire to have his good will. If it did not come to the benefacitor the
good doing, I would like him to think benevolently towards me, to have
his good will, if I never derived any particular good directly from
him. One does not like to go to bed and feel you have an ill will from
any man. Certainly, it is always well to feel that we have no ill will,
ourselves, towards any, but that our good will reaches out to all! One
would like to have the good will of wise men who could counsel us, and
of great men who could help us. One would like to have the good will of
angels, to know that they cheerfully obey the Divine Command to watch
over us. But how much superior to all this is the good will of God–the
good will of Him whose will is power, whose wish is fact, who has but
to will it and the good that is willed becomes our good in very deed!
Oh, 'tis a high blessing to have the good will of God! Beloved, our
heart wishes this to
everyone here present, and every Christian wishes this for their
children, wishes it for their household, wishes it for their neighbor,
wishes it for their fellow countrymen. May the good will of God be with
you!
For, Beloved, in the first place, this is the fountain of every
blessing. It is from the good will of God that every good thing which
comes to us takes its rise. Election is according to the pleasure of
His good will. He chose us because He would choose us–because He had a
good will towards us. Redemption springs from that good will. What else
but good will could give the Savior to such unworthy ones as we were?
Our calling into the Divine Life is a work of His good will! Our
preservation in that life, our growth in it and all the blessings with
which God loads that life to make it blessed–all these are fruits of
His good will! You cannot find a single blessing that comes to us by
the way of merit. We may say of every blessing, it is according to His
loving kindness and His tender mercies. He forgave us because He had a
good will towards us. He restored us from our wanderings because of His
good will. He daily cleanses us and He makes us meet for the
inheritance of the saints in light–and all because of His good will.
To what else can we ascribe the Covenant of Grace? To what else can all
the blessings which are pledged to us by that Covenant be attributed?
It is according to His good will. In wishing, therefore, to anyone that
he may have the good will of God that dwelt in the bush, you are
wishing to him the fountainhead of all mercies–you are wishing to him
the infinity, the immensity, the Immutability of the goodness and love
of God! It is a comprehensive blessing–and who is able to tell all its
heights and depths?
The good will of God is also the sweetener of all other blessings. It
is the source of them! It is the sweetener of them. Everything that
comes from God to us derives a double blessedness when we feel that
they are the fruit of His good will. Take spiritual mercies–though
they are, in themselves, so rich that none can estimate their value,
yet is there a peculiar brightness put upon them when we know these
come from God's love! These are all tokens of His favor towards us, His
people. And truly, Brothers and Sisters, the lower mercies of daily
life become more blessed to us as we know they come from His good will!
As you cut that loaf of bread, each slice of it is flavored with His
good will. When you put on your garments tomorrow morning, though they
are those in which you exercise your toilsome labors, yet are they
tokens of God's good will as much as those coats of skins which God
gave to our first parents! Yes, Beloved, sitting here tonight, this air
we breathe, the power to breathe it and the health which enabled us to
come up to the House of Prayer, and this House, itself, and the ears
with which we hear the words, and the good tidings which are given us
to hear–all these are of His good will, and are the sweeter because we
recognize the favor of God in them!
Oh, to have temporal blessings with a curse–that is a dreadful thing!
I hardly know a text more fearful to contemplate than that one, "I will
curse your blessings." Oh, if God makes any bitter, how bitter the
wormwood and the gall must be! If He puts death in the pot in which the
broth is made to sustain life, what death must there be when He shall
deal out the poisoned cup of His eternal wrath to the ungodly! Sweet,
indeed, are blessings when they are thus honeyed with His love, but
would they be if, instead thereof, they were seasoned and salted with
His wrath? Be thankful, Christian, for I will venture to say that this
makes even our trials pleasant to us when we know that they also are
the fruits of His good will! We cannot always make our hearts believe
that the rod is a good thing. We cannot always persuade our unbelief
that our dark, heavy, gloomy hours are really for our good–but they
are so–and we shall believe this when we perceive that they are sent
out of good will to us! Not out of anger, but out of love–love to us
that He may love us right up out of our sins, love us away from our
infirmities and love us into a higher state of Grace–attracting us by
His Divine Love till we become like He! Note, then, the two things–it
is a great blessing because it is the source of all blessings, and the
sweetener of all blessings!
But the next consideration about this is–and let us carefully notice
it–that, nevertheless, it surpasses all other blessings. The good will
of Him that dwelt in the bush is a greater blessing than all the
blessings in the world–what if I say in Heaven, itself? Besides,
Brothers and Sisters, all the blessings in the world without this are
less than nothing! And if they were all gone, if that were conceivable,
and yet we had this left to us, we need not regret the loss of all,
since we should find all in God! You remember how the old Puritan put
it? He had been rich and then was brought to poverty, and he said he
didn't find much difference, for, he said, when he was rich, he found
God in all, and now that he was poor, he found all in God! Perhaps the
latter is the higher state of the two. Without God, alas, my Soul, if
you were in Paradise! But with God, oh, joy and bliss if you were in
prison! All the things put together shall perish in the using–like
leaves of the forest, they shall wither before long. But You, my God,
are an unwithering Tree of Life, and under You I
shall always have shade–I shall sit down beneath Your shadow with
great delight, and shall always have food, for Your fruit is sweet unto
my taste. I will rejoice in You, for Your good will is better than all
things!
I will tell you what it is–you who have not this good will. If you
should lose everything else and you have to win it, you would make a
good bargain. If you have not God's good will and could not have it
except by losing the sight of your eyes, and the hearing of your ears,
and the renouncing of all your bodily and mental faculties–if you
could not have the good will of God without losing house, home and
friends, you might cheerfully, gladly, at once close in with the
negotiation and say, "Let me have God's good will and I will take
whatever He pleases, or lose whatever He takes!" But let me remind you
that you have not to lose these things to get His good will. If you
have His good will, you may know it by this–will you accept the gift
which He presents to you in His dear Son? Having nothing, will you take
Christ to be yours? Being naked, and poor, and miserable, will you let
Him be your raiment and your riches? If so, You have God's will, you
have God's good will, for you have Christ, who is the good will of God
towards us, Incarnated in the flesh. The Lord grant each one of us,
then, this blessing–to have His good will. And now, secondly– II.
THIS BLESSING IS PUT IN A VERY PECULIAR FORM.
He says, "The good will of Him that dwelt in the bush." And why did he
put it so? Was it, first, because Moses looked back to the appearance
of God in the bush with peculiar delight on account of its being the
first manifestation of God to his soul? I have no doubt that Moses had
fellowship with God, before, but we do not read that he ever had an
appearance of the Divine Being to him until he was at the back side of
the desert near to Horeb. And there he saw God in the burning bush.
Beloved, we always set most store–at least I do–in our memory upon
the first appearance of God to us. It brings the tears to my eyes when
I recollect those words of the old hymn–
"Do mind the place, the spot of ground, Where you did meet Jesus!"
Ah, I do mind it, and always shall, while memory holds her seat! I may
forget anything else, but I shall never forget that! And though I have
had many, many manifestations to the comfort of my heart, yet that
first one has peculiar charms. And I do not marvel that Moses called
his God, The God Who Dwelt in the Bush. Now, have not some of you
remembrances of the first days when the love of your espousals was warm
in you, and when the manifestations of Jesus were bright to you? Well
then, wish to others that the good will of God, who appeared to you
behind the hedge, or out in the field, or down in the saw pit, or at
your bedside in your chamber–the good will of Him that said to you, "I
have blotted out your sins like a cloud"–wish that that good will may
rest upon your kinsfolk and your friends!
Is it not also very likely that Moses mentioned that peculiar
circumstance in his blessing because God on that occasion pledged
Himself to him?He gave that burning bush to be a token to Moses, and a
sign. And that token had been redeemed–and that good old man, at the
end of the last 40 years of his life, remembered how God had appeared
to him when he was 80 years of age and given him that pledge! And now
that he was 120 years old, God had redeemed it! He had been true to him
for 40 years. Have not we some pledges and tokens? Have not you some
place where the Lord appeared to you and said, "Certainly, I will be
with you, and will bring you again unto this place"? Are there no
remembrances in your soul in which a faithful God has pledged His
promise to you, and has redeemed it? If so, each man will know his own
case, and each man, if he speaks naturally, will wish a blessing for
others, according to his own experience of the blessed God! I do not
wonder that after Moses had seen God redeem the token of the burning
bush, when he wished to convey the idea that the good will of a
faithful Covenant-keeping God should rest upon His servant Joseph–the
tribe thereof– should say, "The good will of Him that dwelt in the
bush."
Moreover, at that time, in the bush God did show Himself as a Covenant
God. He began thus, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob." He was a Covenant God. Brothers and Sisters, may you
have the good will of a Covenant God! I often wonder what those do who
do not know the Covenant of Grace. It seems to me to be the richest
well of consolation that God has ever dug–the Covenant ordered in all
things and sure. It was the stay of David on his deathbed. It is the
comfort of many of God's Davids in the battle of life. I wish tonight
with all my heart, dear Friends, that you may not look for the good
will of an absolute God out of Christ, but look for and enjoy the will
of God who has pledged Himself to you in your Representative, Christ
Jesus, in the Eternal Covenant of His Love. I think that is another
reason why Moses put it in that form.
And, perhaps Moses looked upon that bush as the place of His call to a
more active life, and regarded God in a different light from that time
forth from what he had ever regarded Him before. His own name was
Moses. He was drawn out of the water and now he might have changed his
name, for God had called him out of the fire! Now he saw the God of
fire. Oh, there are some Believers that have never got to this. They, I
hope, have renounced the world as Moses did when he counted the
reproach of Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt! They
have also got into the wilderness where Moses was–they are separated,
they love contemplation and they live near to God–but they have never
been called into active service. That third 40 years of Moses' life was
the crowning part of all his career. The 40 years with Pharaoh, the 40
years in the desert, all prepared him for the 40 years in the
wilderness with his people. But some Christians have not begun that
last period of their lives! I wish they had, and I shall be glad and
rejoice if, tonight, the Lord should appear to any of His servants and
call them, saying, "I have called you to bring sinners out of Egypt,
and to set them free." If He ever does, when you come in later times to
pronounce a blessing upon others, you will put it thus, "The God that
called me to preach the Gospel, the God that led me as His servant, be
with you, each one of you!" And if that is the form in which you put
the blessing, it will be a very rich one!
But now I will come back to the words again. What did Moses mean? We
see why he used the term, but what did he mean by saying, "The good
will of Him that dwelt in the bush be with you"? Did not he mean,
first, "May the blessings of condescension ennoble you"? What
condescension for God to dwell in a bush! Had the Eternal dwelt in a
cedar, it would have been a stoop, but for Him to dwell in the
uncouth-shaped, worthless shrub–a bush–oh, this was matchless! Oh,
Beloved, may everyone of us know what it is for God to condescend to
dwell with us! We are as the bushes of the heath. There is nothing in
us that fits us for God's mercy. What are we, and what is our father's
house? Why should the Lord look upon us–perhaps as little in talent as
we are in merit, low in our own esteem–but much more low in very deed
and truth? Oh, may the Lord deal with each one of you in His
condescending way! He is known to give His mercy condescendingly. "He
has put down the mighty from their seat and He has exalted them of low
degree. He has filled the hungry with good things, but the rich He has
sent away empty." After that fashion may He deal with you! And if He
should do so, then how ennobled will you be, for that bush in Horeb had
a greater Glory about it than the cedars of Lebanon! It was but a bush,
but it was a bush in which God had dwelt! And you, too–you will have
to say, "Your gentleness has made me great. He has lifted the poor from
the dunghill and set him among princes, even the princes of His
people." A drop of Grace gives more honor than a world of fame. One
spark of love of Christ is more ennobling to your heart into which it
falls than though it were all ablaze with the stars and orders of all
the knighthoods of the kingdom! The love of God makes poor men truly
rich, little men supremely great, the despised to be honorable and the
nothing to be lifted up among the mighty! I wish you, then, Beloved,
God's condescending love to ennoble you–"the good will of Him that
dwelt in the bush." Or, as we might read it, "the good will of the
Shekinah of the bush," for that is the very same Shekinah that shone
between the cherub wings! The good will of Him that dwells upon the
Throne in Heaven is the good will of Him that dwells in humble and
contrite hearts today!
But Moses, however, meant something more than that. Did not he mean
that he wished to Joseph's tribe indwelling and mysterious
mercies–"the good will of Him that dwelt–dwelt in the bush"? It was a
strange dwelling. Can anyone understand how God, who is everywhere, can
be in one place in particular? And shall anyone tell us how He, who is
greater than all space, should yet dwell in a bush–in a bush? He that
sets the heavens on a blaze with lightning and kindles all the stars,
comes down and sets a bush aglow with His Divine Presence! It is
mysterious. Oh, may everyone of us know the mysterious good will of the
indwelling Spirit of God! Do you know it? Do you know it? Oh, Beloved,
as the fire was in the bush, is the Spirit in you? Do you know He is
there? Search yourselves! If He is there, may He tell you– and if He
is not there, oh, may some sparks of that Divine Fire fall into your
nature now–enough, at least, to make you desire more and set you
longing and praying for the wondrous blessing of an indwelling Spirit!
Ignatius of old used to call himself, "Theophorus," or, "the
God-Bearer." Truly, every Christian is such a God-Bearer. "I will dwell
in them and walk in them." "I will put My Spirit within you, and you
shall walk in My way." Surely Moses meant that–at least, the sense is
in his words. May you enjoy the mysterious indwelling and the blessings
that come from it!
Further, did not the man of God mean that he desired that Joseph might
possess enlightening blessings "The good will of Him that dwelt in the
bush" means this–He set the bush alight and it became a luminary. It
had light. It gave forth light. It had light more abundantly. It was a
dark bush–God came into it and it caught the attention of Moses,
though it seems to have been daylight. He was watching his flock, but
so bright was this that it outshone the sun! And Moses said, "I will
turn aside and see this great sight." A bush is not a great sight–it
was God that made the bush so bright that it became a great sight! May
you, Beloved, have the light of God's Spirit to reveal to you God's
Truth! And may that light be in you so brightly that others may see it
and learn God's Truth through you! What is the Scripture to us, unless
God shines on it? The Bible is only like a country signpost at the
turning of a road in a dark night. Unless there is the Light of God to
read it by, the signpost is of no service. We need the Spirit of God to
shine on the Scriptures! O God, come into us and give us Your Light! We
need You. Let this be a token of Your good will to us.
But that is not all. Surely Moses meant, "May the Lord grant you the
blessings of trial and the blessings of preservation." For all through
the various branches and twigs of that bush, there went a fire, a
devouring fire, a fire that would have licked it up as the blaze licks
up the stubble in a single moment! Yet that fire in its nature was
preserving, as well as consuming and, through the goodness of God, the
bush was as safe when it was ablaze as it had been before. Beloved, how
I wish for you that whenever fiery trials may come, the consuming fire
may spend itself upon your corruptions, but oh, may God grant that
there may be nothing in it that shall touch your better nature! May it
be a conserving as well as a consuming fire! We do, some of us,
acknowledge to have been in the furnace when it has been heated very
hot. Weary nights have been appointed to us and days of anguish of body
and of sinking of spirit. We have lain cast out even from the Presence
of God, sometimes in our apprehensions, in the very deeps of the Valley
of the Shadow of Death, and God– blessed be His name–He has sent the
fire and come with it, and we have not been consumed, but can sing this
day of judgment and of mercy! That mingled song is well set forth in
the bush that burned, but was not burnt–burned, but was not consumed!
I would not wish for any of you perfect immunity from trouble, lest you
should miss the coming through tribulation into the inheritance of the
Kingdom of God, but I do pray for you that when the trouble comes, the
God that raised the trouble may come with it, so that you may be
burned, but not consumed!
I will not tarry longer over this explanation of the text, but now most
earnestly and from my heart I wish to you, Beloved, this blessing. May
"the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush" dwell with you! In your
dwellings, may His good will dwell. Whatever your homes may be, may God
be with you there. May His good will be with your husband, with your
wife and your children, your servants, your business, your field, your
estate. May He that dwelt in the bush condescend to dwell in that
little chamber and that narrow room! If a bush can hold Him, so can
your poor room! If a bush revealed Him, so can your bed–yes, and your
sickbed, too. Believe in it–that God's good will can perfume every
chamber of your dwelling, can make your going out and your coming in to
be blessed, and all your ways the same! I wish for you, Beloved, that
"the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush" may dwell with you
wherever you may be!
Are you like Moses just now, alone and solitary in a wilderness? Have
you come into this great city, and are you yet feeling as if you were a
lone person, as in a desert? May "the good will of Him that dwelt in
the bush" be with you and may God reveal Himself to you in your
solitude, as He did to the Prophet at Horeb. Perhaps you will be called
from this day forth to conflict, as Moses stood before Pharaoh, and had
to face the wrath of the king. May you confound your adversaries and be
very mighty for your God! Possibly God intends to give you success in
your service–like Moses, you will bring out Israel from under bondage.
May "the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush" keep you sober in
success and humble in prosperity! Perhaps before you there shall soon
be a difficulty as great as that which met the children of Israel
before Pharaoh–you will come to the Red Sea–the rocks will be on
either hand. Pursuers may be behind you. May the good will of Him that
dwelt in the bush and was with Moses, be with you in the hour of stern
trial. Through your Red Sea, may the Lord lead you, as He led the
children of Israel like a flock!
Perhaps you will be subject to many provocations, as Moses was from the
people whom he loved. They spoke of stoning him. They murmured against
the Lord and against His servant, Moses. May you be as meek as Moses,
because the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush shall overshadow
you! Possibly you may have a long life of Christian service before you.
It may be for 40 years you will have to carry a people in your bosom,
and nurture them for the Lord. My Brothers in the ministry, I wish the
good will of Him that dwelt in the bush to be with you through all your
toilsome tasks. Perhaps you are soon to die. Old age is creeping upon
you. May you die like Moses, blessing the people with the good will of
Him that dwelt in the bush with you to your last moment! And may your
spirit climb her Pisgah and look from the top of Nebo, and have a view
of the Glory to be revealed–the brooks that flow with milk and honey,
and the goodly land! May you see it, even unto Lebanon, and in those
last moments of yours, before your spirit melts into Glory, may
"the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush" still be with you!
Beloved, this is wished to you all! And I speak not my wish, but the
benediction of the Lord upon all His servants, "The good will of Him
that dwelt in the bush be with you." But, alas, all here are not
servants of God. Yet even to them will I–
III. ANXIOUSLY DESIRE THAT THIS WISH MAY BE FULFILLED TO YOU ALL.
Oh, Sinner, tonight may He that dwelt in the bush call you! Moses
little thought of it. He was keeping sheep, but a burning bush was
enough to attract him. These few simple, feeble, but affectionate
words, may, perhaps, be like the bush to you. Or if not, perhaps, a
trouble at home will come and be like a thorn bush to you. I pray it
may, and may God be in the bush! I do desire that God would in some way
speak to you careless ones and arrest you, for you must come to know
Him, or you will everlastingly perish! And may you be humbled in the
Presence of God, each one of you, as Moses was, for he took off his
shoes, feeling that the place whereon he stood was holy ground, and he
was unholy. May you feel the solemnity of your position–a dying man
soon to meet his Maker–a guilty man soon to meet his Judge–a despiser
of Christ soon to see Christ on His Throne! O Soul, may you put off
your carelessness and have done with your neglect, and begin to pray!
And as the Lord of the burning bush said to Moses that He knew the
sorrows of his people, I do pray, oh Sinner, that when you stand humbly
before the Presence of God, you may see that God has pity upon you! May
you look to Jesus on the Cross and see where He was like a bush that
was burned with the anger of God, though not consumed– and may you, as
you look, hear Him say, "I know your sorrows, for I have borne your
sins and carried your transgressions for you." And oh, may you find
peace tonight!
Oh, it does not matter whether it is the back side of the desert, or
the back gallery of the Tabernacle, or down below, beneath the
galleries, or where it is–it will be a blessed spot to you if you find
God tonight! Moses could never forget that spot near to Horeb, neither
will you if the Lord should appear to you! It matters not who the
preacher is, though he should be no more than a bush, yet shall he be
an angel of God to you! The Lord grant that such an appearance may come
to you by faith. May you look to Christ tonight, for, if not, you will
have to see God, by-and-by, as a consuming fire! And remember this
word, "Beware, you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and
there be none to deliver you!" May you never know the meaning of that,
but on the contrary, may "the good will of Him that dwelt in the bush"
be with you! Amen and amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: EXODUS3.
Verse 1. Now Moses was tending 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. It must have
been a great change for Moses, after 40 years in the court of Pharaoh,
to be spending another 40 years in the wilderness. But it was not
wasted time–it required the first two periods to make Moses fit for
the grand life of the last forty. He must be a prince and he must be a
shepherd, that he might be both a ruler and a shepherd to God's people,
Israel. He must be much alone. He must have many solitary conversations
with his own heart. He must be led to feel his own weakness. And this
will be no loss of time to him–he will do more in the last 40 years
because of the 80 years thus spent in preparation! And it is not lost
time that a man takes in putting on his harness before he goes to the
battle, or that the reaper spends in sharpening his scythe before he
cuts down the corn.
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, but the bush was not consumed. How near God seemed in those
ages when He could be beheld in a bush or sitting under an oak! And is
He not equally near us if we are but prepared for His Presence? Surely
pure eyes are scarce, or sights of God would be more frequent, for "the
pure in heart shall see God."
3-5. 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 near here:
take off your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is
holy ground. God is not to be viewed by curiosity–He is not to be
approached by presumption. A holy trembling well becomes the man who
would commune with the Most Holy God. We are not fit for communion with
God without some measure of preparation. There is something to be put
off before we can behold the Lord.
6. Moreover He said, I am the God of your 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. Partly because of the universal
superstition that if God appeared to any man, he would surely die–but
in Moses' case, perhaps more because of an appreciation of the holiness
of God and of his own unworthiness. There is not a man among us but who
must do as Moses did if we are in a right state of mind. They who think
they are perfect might presume to look, but they who are truly so, as
Moses was, would, as he did, hide his face, for he was afraid to look
upon God.
7. And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people
who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their
taskmasters; for I know their sorrows. Beautiful verse. God had seen
and God had heard, as if their griefs had had two avenues to His heart.
God sees not with eyes, and hears not with ears, as we do, but He
speaks after the manner of men, and He says by two ways they had
reached his very soul–"I have surely seen the affliction–I have heard
their cries." And then He adds, as if to show the perfection of His
sympathy with them, "I know their sorrows." Now it is quite true today
concerning us and concerning our God–He has seen, He has heard and He
knows–"I know their sorrows." When the sorrow is known, then God
begins to work. He is no passive spectator of the misery of His chosen,
but His hands go with His heart.
8. And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the
Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good and a
large land, 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 when the cry of God's
children goes unto Him, depend upon it, there will be something moving
before long! When a father hears the cries of his children, when a
mother hears the cry of her baby, it is not long before there will be a
movement of the heart and of the hands! I am sure, Brothers and
Sisters, there have been crises in English history which have been
entirely due to the prayers of God's people. There have been singular
occurrences which the mere reader of history cannot understand, but
there is a number still alive who wait upon God in prayer, and they
make history. There is more history made in the closet than in the
cabinet of the ministry. There is a greater power at the back of the
throne than the carnal eye can see, and that power is the cry of God's
children!
9-10. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come
unto Me: and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians
oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send you unto Pharaoh,
that you may bring forth My people, the children of Israel, out of
Egypt. I do not wonder that Moses opened his eyes when he knew what a
poor creature he was for God to say, "Come now, therefore, and I will
send you unto Pharaoh"–the very man whose life was sought by
Pharaoh–"I will send you unto Pharaoh"–the man who had been rejected
by his own people when he took their part–"You may bring forth My
people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt." Oh, let us be ready for
any commission! If God were to say that He would build up Heaven by the
poorest and meanest among us, it would not be for us to draw back! Let
Him do what He wills with us! Oh, for a faith to believe that in the
midst of our weakness, God's strength would appear.