were the afflictions of the people of God,' and the reproach incurred the reproach of Christ,' and these he well knew would be sanctified to any one who should encounter them for conscience sake. CHAPTER III. Of the events which marked the history of Moses during the forty years of his residence in the land of Midian, the Scriptures have furnished us with no detailed account. As Moses is himself the historian of his own life, it is reasonable to infer from his silence that the period was not distinguished by any occurrences sufficiently important in his view to deserve a record. His days probably passed quietly away in the wonted discharge of his duties as a shepherd, and the shepherd too of another man's flock. His situation was no doubt favorable to contemplation and communion with God. He could scarcely fail to make progress in that divine knowledge which would do more to qualify him for his future mission than all the learning he had acquired in Egypt. The life too which he led was happily adapted to work within him that hardi. hood of constitution and character, of which he would afterwards stand so much in need, and of which the sequel. of his story affords us so many striking instances. Still, it could not but be a severe trial of his faith to find year after year elapsing, and the prime and vigor of his age apparently wearing away, while no tokens from above indicated that the great work of his vocation was any nearer at hand. Yet he seems meek with the sympathy and tenderness of woman's heart needs to be told, how strong is the attachment formed for a helpless infant thus strangely and unexpectedly thrown upon her hands. A deep and affectionate interest would inevitably spring up in her bosom towards her orphan charge, an interest all the deeper and stronger from having no children of her own. Now can we suppose that Moses when he had attained to years of reflection and was made acquainted with the events of his history, could have been insensible to what he owed to his preserver? Would it not be a mighty struggle to tear himself away from one who had been a mother to him from his infancy; who had watched with kind solicitude over his advances from childhood to youth, and from youth to manhood; whose heart had exulted to note his expanding intellect as he grew learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and to see him entitling himself by his intrinsic merit to the station to which he had been fortuitously raised? Shall he then sumnon up an iron resolve, sunder the ties that bound him to his earliest bene. factor, and bid her adieu for ever? Shall he do this when in doing it he would seem to be resigning the only hope of aiding and of finally emanci- | pating his brethren? For if he would consent to be called the son of his patroness, retaining his place in the court, and watching the events of providence, some opportunity might at length occur for effecting an object so near his heart. But we see the conviction of present duty outweighing every other consideration, and triumphing over the promptly to have endured as seeing Him who is ings of affection and the dictates of worldly policy. So complete is the dominion of Faith over his whole soul that he resolves to take the momentous step, though assured that he should thereby plunge into affliction and incur reproach. But the afflictions anticipated invisible, and to have evinced that true wisdom which consists in waiting for and following the call of heaven, instead of running before it. It was evidently no part of his design to hold up for admiration his own example of submissive patience, yet the Holy Spirit is not restrained from presenting his conduct in such a light as will suggest the most useful lessons to all succeeding ages. i flock to the back side of the desert, and came to b the mountain of God, even to Horeb. b ch. 18. 5. 1 Kings 19. 8. -T He led the and lonely places have often been those &c Came to the mountain of God, so called, not so much from its great height, as tall cedars are called cedars of God, &c. (see Note on Gen. 23. 6), as by an 1. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro. Heb. hayah roeh eth tzon, was feeding the flock, or acting the shepherd towards. See Note on Gen. 37. 2. He who is before, Ex. 2. 18, called Reuel, is here denominated Jethro. Our reasons for thinking them the same person have already been given. In Num. 10. 29, he is called Raguel, and is expressly said to have been the father of Hobab.-There is no doubt a very marked contrast between Moses in the court of Egypt, making his abode in a palace, and surrounded with all the splendors of royalty, and Moses a humble hireling shepherd, lead-ticipation, from several very remarking his flocks over the rough places of the desert, sleeping often in the open air, exposed to heat and to cold, to weariness and watchings, and living upon the coarsest fare. But as we know that he had voluntarily and deliberately made the exchange of one condition for the other, and as we know too the motives by which he had been governed in doing it, it would be no matter of surprise could we be assured, as was doubt-nights; (6.) that from hence he brought less the fact, that he was as truly happy while thus traversing the rocky region of Midian, his tent his only shelter, as when treading the marble pavements of Egyptian halls, or reposing on couches of state, with a crowd of menials prompt to do his pleasure. As it was from a supreme regard to the glory of God that he had entered this humble sphere, so God was not unmindful of the sacrifices he had made, nor did he leave him without witness of his special favor. Desert able events having afterward occurred upon this memorable mount tending to confer upon it a sacred character. It was here (1.) that God appeared to Moses in the bush; (2.) that he manifested his glory at the delivery of the law; (3.) that Moses with his rod brought water out of the rock; (4.) that by lifting up his hands he made Joshua to prevail against Amelek; (5.) that he fasted twice forty days and forty the two tables of the law; and (7.) that Elijah was vouchsafed a glorious vision. The Chal. renders it,' the mount where the Glory of the Lord was revealed.' -¶ Even to Horeb. Heb. horeb, i. e. dryness, from the character of the soil; it being a dry, sterile, bleak, rocky region. The names 'Horeb' and 'Sinai' are interchanged in the Scriptures; and modern travellers give such varied accounts of them, that we are left in great uncertainty with regard to their original 2 And the Angel of the LORD) and he looked, and behold, the c appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; c Deut. 33. 16. 1sai. 63. 9. Acts 7. 30. bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. four score and five thousand.' The effect here described is very generally conceded to have been produced by a pestilential wind of the desert, which is personified, and termed an angel. So the pestilence which occurred in consequence of David's numbering the people, 2 Sam. 24. 15, 16, in like manner represented as the work of an angel. The destruction of the first-born in Egypt, Ex. 12. 23, 29, is doubtless to be viewed in the same light. Though cut off by the direct supernatural judgment of the Most High, yet the agency is personified and represented as a destroying angel. The language of the Psalmist, Ps. 78. 49, undoubtedly requires the same construction; He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath and position. They may be considered as parts of one vast eminence in the midst of the surrounding desert, the upper region of which forms an irregular circle | of thirty or forty miles in diameter. This region contains the highest mountains of the peninsula, whose shagged and pointed peaks, and steep and shattered sides, render it clearly distinguishable from all the rest of the country in view. Abrupt cliffs of granite, | from six to eight hundred feet in height, whose surface is blackened by the sun, surround the avenues leading to the elevated region, to which the name of Sinai, at the present day, is specifically applied. The cliffs enclose the mountain on three sides, leaving the east and north-east sides only, towards the gulf of Akaba, more open to the view. Fur-indignation and trouble by sending evil ther information respecting this remarkable mountainous tract will be given in tracing the course of the children of Israel in their march from Egypt to Canaan. angels among them ;' i. e. the judgments of the plagues. In the New Testament the same mode of speech occurs, Acts, 12. 23,' And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave 2. The angel of the Lord appeared not God the glory, and he was eaten of unto him, &c. Of the scriptural import worms, and gave up the ghost.' Here the of the word 'angel' we have given a judgment itself, the fatal disease with somewhat extended view in the Note which Herod died, was the angel intend on Gen. 16. 7, with which compare Note ed in the text. But if such language on Gen. 24.7. It is properly a term of was used in reference to vindictive judgoffice, and not of nature, and is used to ments extraordinarily inflicted, there is denote not only human and spiritual no reason to doubt that merciful visita messengers, but also any of the imper- tions, or in fact any kind of rare, wonsonal agents, such as winds, fires, pesti- derful, and astounding occurrences that lences, remarkable dispensations, &c., happen somewhat out of the ordinary which serve as a medium to make course of providence, should be set forth known the divine will, or to illustrate in a similar figurative or symbolical the divine operation in nature or provi-diction. Thus when it is said, Dan. 6. 22, dence. In fact, one of the most frequent that God had sent his Angel and shut uses of the term is as a personification | the lions' mouths, that they should not of divine judgments. Thus 2 Kings, hurt Daniel,' it is not necessary to un19. 35, And it came to pass that the derstand the literal presence of an angel, Angel of the Lord went out and smote or spiritual being, but simply, that by in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred the special interposition or influence of ་ 1 the Almighty, the ravenous beasts were midst of a bush. This appeared to restrained from acting according to their Moses a natural fire burning with great instincts. The principle on which this vehemence in the midst of the bush, yet interpretation rests is well expressed we may suppose it to have been the by Reland (Dissert. de Samarit. 7. § 7.), supernatural fiery splendor which con'That with whatever instrument God stituted the Shekinah, the symbol of unites his own virtue, so as to animate the divine presence. The Hebrew word it, and to work in, with, and by it, that for 'bush,' (properly bramble bush) is instrument is called an angel.” Accord-seneh, and from the 'bush' here ingly, even a dream, a vision, a voice mentioned, in connexion with the divine from heaven, may be so denominated. appearance, the Jewish writers, nôt imBut the appellation seems to be in a probably, suppose that this mountain particular manner bestowed upon the and desert were afterwards called by theophanies, or special divine manifesta- the Israelites 'Mount Sinai,' and the tions of which we so frequently read in 'wilderness of Sinai. Thus in Pirke the Old Testament as made to the patri- Eliezer, ch. 41, 'From the beginning of archs and prophets. The Shekinah, or the world this Mount was called Horeb, visible material symbol of glory, is un- and when God appeared unto Moses out doubtedly, in repeated instances, called of the midst of the bramble-bush, from the angel of the Lord, inasmuch as it the name of the bramble (Seneh) it was was the medium or vehicle through called Sinai.'-The incident which so which the Divinity was pleased to re- much excited the wonder of Moses is veal himself to the outward senses. generally supposed to have been deThus the Shekinah in the pillar of cloud signed as a representation of the conand fire which guided the march of the dition of the Israelites in Egypt. The Israelites is called, Ex. 14. 19, the angel burning bush,' says Philo,' was a symof the Lord. At the same time, in all bol of the oppressed, and the flaming such cases an intelligent agent, a spirit- fire of the oppressors; that what was ual being, or, in other words, Jehovah burning but not consumed, did portend himself, is doubtless to be considered that these who were afflicted by the as really but invisibly present in and violence of their enemies should not associated with the visible emblem. perish; and that the attempts of their Thus, in the present instance, the ap- enemies should be frustrated; and that pearance, the preternatural light or fire the present troubles of the afflicted in the burning bush, we suppose to be should have a good issue.' There they what is truly and primarily meant by were oppressed and cruelly treated, the angel of the Lord; but it is clear bound down with bondage, and sufferfrom the sequel that in and under this ing every grievance that malice could outward symbol there was present the devise and power effect to wear out divine personage who styles himself, their strength and diminish their num v. 6, 'the God of Abraham, of Isaac,bers. They were in a furnace of fire, and of Jacob,' and who is also, v. 7, ex- and in themselves but as briars and pressly called 'Jehovah' (Lord). This thorns compared with those that kindis still farther manifest from Deut. 33. led it. But they were nevertheless not 16, where Moses, in blessing the tribes destroyed; nay, they were still flourishin the name of the Lord, invokes uponing; the nation continued to shoot forth Joseph'the good will of him that dwelt in the bush.' Still farther confirmation of this view will be given as we proceed. In a flame of fire out of the vigorous branches, and a numerous offspring surrounded them in spite of their enemies. And whence this wonder, this apparent contradiction to the common 3 And Moses said, I will now turn | he turned aside to see, God called aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 4 And when the LORD saw that d Ps. 111. 2. Acts 7. 31. course of nature? It was because God was in the midst of them. He, the imperishable and eternal God, who now appeared to Moses in the bush, burning but unburnt, and who afterwards walked with his three faithful servants in the burning fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar, was continually with his oppressed people, and therefore they were not consumed. But farther, it will be no stretch of fancy if we consider the appearance of the bush as an emblem of the present condition of the children of Israel. They are at this day strangers in foreign lands. They have been in circumstances which, according to the common operation of merely human and political causes, would have long ago amalgamated them entirely with other nations, and made them vanish, as a people, from the earth. But they are at this day a distinct and separate people; they have survived the lapse of ages, which have swept away others far more numerous and powerful; they eunto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses! And he said, Here am I. e Deut. 33. 16. did the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together.' And ever since have the world and the devil been striving to crush his people, and to root out the memorial of them from the earth. Often have his witnesses prophesied in sackcloth, and often have his people suffered bonds and imprisonment and death for their religion. Yet it remains, and is still ; light shining in a dark place. This in because that God is with his church God is in the midst of her, and there fore she is not moved. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.' rock and the gates of hell shall not prevail against her. Her great head has declared, 'Lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world.' And herein consists the stability, perpetuity, She is built upon a and increase of the church. 3. Why the bush is not consumed. Heb. lo yibar, is not eaten up ; i. e. burnt up, entirely consumed, for that it was apparently burning we are expressly informed in v. 2. A fire in the Scriptures is frequently said to eat' as Lev. 6. 10, And take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed ;' Heb. hath eaten,' Ps. 50. 3, 'Our God shall come and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.' It was matter of astonishment to Moses that this was not the effect in the present instance. are scattered over the face of the whole earth, and yet their national character and name are preserved, and even their visages declare their origin. And why is this burning bush of the house of Israel yet unconsumed? It is because God is with them. He remembers his covenant with their fathers. He has further mercy in store for them. There shall yet come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.' They shall again be grafted into their own olive-tree, for God is able to graft them in again, and his gifts and call ings are without repentance. But again, this appearance. may be considered as an apt emblem of the condition of even 4. When the Lord saw that he turned the spiritual church of Christ. Against aside to see, he called unto him, &c. himself and the cause of his gospel | As if to reward the religious awe and |