Exodus 3:2

_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._ The Angel of the Lord appeared. It is common in the Scriptures to represent the elements and operations of nature, as winds, fires, earthquakes, pestilence-everything enlisted in executing the divine will-as the 'angels' or messengers of God. But in such cases God himself is considered as really, though invisibly, present. Here the preternatural fire maybe primarily meant by the expression. "Angel of the Lord" (Whately, 'Good and Bad Angels,' p. 16); but it is clear that under this symbol the Divine Being was present, whose name is given, Exodus 3:4; Exodus 3:6, and elsewhere called "the Angel of the Lord," "the Angel of God...

2._And the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him. _It was necessary that he should assume a visible form, that he might be seen by Moses, not as he was in his essence, but as the infirmity of the human mind could comprehend him. For thus we must believe that God, as often as he appeared of old to the holy patriarchs, descended in some way from his majesty, that he might reveal himself as far as was useful, and as far as their comprehension would admit. The same, too, is to be said of angels, who, although they are invisible spirits, yet when it seemed good to the Almighty, assumed some form in which they might be seen. But let us inquire who this Angel was? since soon afterwards he not only calls himself Jehovah, but claims the glory of the eternal and only God. Now, although this is an allowable manner of speaking, because the angels transfer to themselves the person and titles of God, wh...

1-6 The years of the life of Moses are divided into three forties; the first forty he spent as a prince in Pharaoh's court, the second as a shepherd in Midian, the third as a king in Jeshurun. How changeable is the life of man! The first appearance of God to Moses, found him tending sheep. This seems a poor employment for a man of his parts and education, yet he rests satisfied with it; and thus learns meekness and contentment, for which he is more noted in sacred writ, than for all his learning. Satan loves to find us idle; God is pleased when he finds us employed. Being alone, is a good friend to our communion with God. To his great surprise, Moses saw a bush burning without fire to kindle it. The bush burned, and yet did not burn away; an emblem of the church in bondage in Egypt. And it fitly reminds us of the church in every age, under its severest persecutions kept by the presence...

Verse Exodus 3:2. _THE ANGEL OF THE LORD_] Not a created angel certainly; for he is called יהוה _Jehovah_, Exodus 3:4, c., and has the most expressive attributes of the Godhead applied to him, Exodus 3:14, c. Yet he is an _angel_, מלאך malach, a _messenger_, in whom was the name of God, Exodus 23:21 and in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, Colossians 2:9 and who, in all these primitive times, was the Messenger of the covenant, Malachi 3:1. And who was th...

THE ANGEL OF THE LORD - See the note at Genesis 12:7. What Moses saw was the flame of fire in the bush; what he recognized therein was an intimation of the presence of God, who maketh a flame of fire His angel. Compare Psalms 104:4. The words which Moses heard were those of God Himself, as all ancient and most modern divines have held, manifested in the Person of the Son. OF A BUSH - Literally, of the bush or “seneh,” a word which ought perhaps to be retained as the proper name of a thorny shrub common in that district, a species of acacia....

THE CALL AND MISSION OF MOSES. EXPOSITION EXODUS 3:1 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 the hot blood of youth had given place to the calm serenity of advanced life, God at last revealed Himself to Moses "called him" (Exodus 3:4), and gave him a definite mission. The present chapter is' intimately connected with the next. Together, they contain an account of that extraordinary and indeed miraculous interchange of thought and speech between Moses and God himself, by which the son of Amram was induced to undertake

AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD APPEARED UNTO HIM,.... Not a created angel, but the Angel of God's presence and covenant, the eternal Word and Son of God; since he is afterwards expressly called Jehovah, and calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which a created angel would never do: the appearance was, IN A FLAME OF FIRE, OUT OF THE MIDST OF A BUSH; not in a tall, lofty, spreading oak or cedar, but in a low thorny bramble bush, which it might have been thought would have been consumed in an instant of time: AND HE LOOKED, AND, BEHOLD, THE BUSH BURNED WITH FIRE, AND THE BUSH [WAS] NOT CONSUMED; this was not imaginary, but a real thing; there was such a bush, and Jehovah appeared in it in this manner, and though it was all on fire yet was not consumed, but remained entire after it: reference is frequently had to it as a matter of fact,...

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._ It must have been a great change for Moses, after forty years in the court of Pharaoh, to be spending another forty years in the wilderness. But it was not waste 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 communings 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 forty years because of the two forties thus spent in preparation. And it is not lost time that a man takes in putting on his harness before he

ANGEL (_ See Scofield) - (Hebrews 1:4). _...

CHAPTER 3 THE BURNING BUSH AND THE CALL AND COMMISSION OF MOSES _ 1. The vision of the burning bush (Exodus 3:1)_ 2. Jehovah speaks and calls Moses (Exodus 3:4) 3. Moses' answer (Exodus 3:11) 4. The name revealed (Exodus 3:13) 5. The commission of Moses (Exodus 3:15) 6. The promise (Exodus 3:19) The two last verses of the preceding chapter form the introduction to the great manifestation of Jehovah in the burning bush and the call