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. (Exodus 3:1-2)
|
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. (Exodus 3:3-4) |
“The
burning bush was typical of the indestructibility of Israel, just as the bush,
though continually burning, was not consumed, so would the fire of Egyptian
persecution and oppression of other nations be unable to consume Israel.” (Exod.
Rabba 2 http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/tmm/tmm08.htm)
Rabeinu Bachya
did accent on three important appearances:
-
The burning bush;
-
The angel;
-
Shechinah
Hashem opened to Moshe little by little. Hashem opens to us little by little if we
want know Him more.
Why did
Adonai open to Moshe in the burning
bush? In midrashes – Mechilta derabi
Shimon, Shmot Raba, Yalkut Shimoni – we read about some main reasons:
- Why did God tell
with Moshe out of the midst of the bush but not out of the mountain or the
height? God show us the humility.
“Though
the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth
afar off.“ (Psalms 138:6)
- Hashem is together with Israel.
"He
shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I
will deliver him, and honour him." (Psalms 91:15)
- It is
simple to put a hand into the bush because of the thorn prickles go inside. But
it is difficult to take away a hand from it. Egypt was like the thorn prickles: it was simple to come to Egypt for
Jews but it was difficult to come out from it for them. It is simple to come to
the spiritual Egypt but it is very difficult to come out from it. ("Just
as it is the nature of a thorn bush that if a man thrusts his hand into it, the
hand suffers no hurt because its thorns are bent downwards, but when he tries
to pull his hand out, the thorns catch it and he cannot withdraw it, so it is
with Egypt. At the beginning they welcomed Israel, as it is stated : ‘The land
of Egypt is before you' (Genesis 47:6). But when they sought to leave, they
would not let them, as it is stated: ‘And also Israel, I shall not let
go." (Midrash Yalkut Shimoni 169 http://www.amitchildren.org/shemot/four.asp))
The burning bush is the symbol of
God’s might, God’s power.
Messiah Yeshua said:
"And
I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matthew
16:18)
Baruch Hashem!
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