Last week we were talking of the Burning Bush that Moses saw in the desert, and how God spoke to him out of the midst of it. God who was in the midst of the bush, made His glory shine forth to attract the attention of Moses, “and when God saw that he turned aside to see,” He spoke to him.

Did you think this a strange way for God to show Himself to Moses, and to speak to him out of the midst of a common bush? Do you not know that He is all the time showing Himself to us, and speaking to us in the same way? For God is in the midst of every bush, every tree, every plant that you see. He is the hidden life of everything that lives, and the concealed glory of that inner life blazes forth to attract our attention, so that we may turn aside to see.

Think of the bursting forth of the living green leaves in the early spring, and the lovely wealth of bright blossoms that follows; of the blazing glories of the autumn trees and bushes. In all this God is letting His glory shine forth, so that we may see His eternity power and divinity in all the things that He has made.

And when God sees that we “turn aside to see,” still out of the midst of every common bush and tree and shrub, He speaks to all those who have “ears to hear.”

“And every humble hedgerow flower that grows,
And every little brown bird that doth stag,
Hath something greater than itself, and bears
A living word to every living thing;
Albeit it hold the message unawares.”

Do you not think that after seeing the glory of God in the bush Moses looked at every bush with different eyes from what he had before? The seeing of God in that one bush, made known to him His presence everywhere. Wherever God shows Himself to anyone, we may be sure that He is there all the time, only He then opens man’s eyes so that they may see Him.

This is what God did for Jacob when He showed him the ladder reaching from heaven to earth, and Jacob said, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.” He did the same thing for Elisha’s servant when the prophet prayed that God would open the young man’s eyes. He then saw horses and chariots of fire encamped round about them. Elisha knew that they were there all the time, so he did not need his eyes to be specially opened to teach him this.

Long after this time, whom Moses was blessing the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel before his death, he prayed for the tribe of Joseph, that the precious things of the earth and the fulness thereof might be theirs, and “the goodwill of Him that dwelt in the bush.” He understood that the Lord who appeared to him in the bush, dwelt there always, and not there only, but in every bush and everything, for “Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?”

God appeared to Moses in the bush, so that he might learn for himself, and teach the Children of Israel, that “earth is crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God; but only he who sees takes off his shoes.” From the midst of the burning bush, Moses heard the call to worship, and he reverently bowed before the Lord, whose glory he had been beholding.

Is this what you hear when you turn aside to see the lovely blaze of glorious colour that lights up the trees and bushes in the springtime, the graceful trails of the yellow laburnum; the full, fragrant blossoms of the lilac; the pink and white glory that crowns the chestnut, and the warm rod of the hawthorn?

Do you know that all this beauty is a little glimpse of the same glory that Moses saw? It is a reflection of the beautiful colours hidden in the sunlight. The light gives everything its colour. There is no colour except in light, which is made up of seven different coloured rays, the reflection of which we see in the seven-hued rainbow. And the flowers and other things reflect different coloured rays, and show us the beauty of Him who has put His glory upon the heavens to give light to this world.

But the beauty of the trees and bushes at certain seasons only shows us a little of the glory of the hidden life that dwells in them all the time. And does not the whole earth become, to one who really sees this glory in all things, a holy place? It is all the Lord’s dwelling-place, His temple, in which He is to be worshipped.

Hear what the prophet Isaiah said, when the Lord thus appeared to him; and he saw His glory filling the temple: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory.”

God wanted the Children of Israel to see His glory filling the whole earth, so that they might forsake and cast away the idols of Egypt, and worship and serve Him only, always, and everywhere.

And there was yet another most precious lesson that God gave to Moves through the burning bush. The One who appeared to Moses in that flame of fire, He who had come down to deliver His people from bondage, was Jesus Christ the Saviour. He subdued His glory, so that Moses might look upon it and live, and took a common bush, a lowly shrub, no different from any of those around it, in which to appear. Thus He was showing in a figure, how He was to veil His glory so that we should not be consumed by it, and become a little human child just like any other, in order to save His people from the terrible bondage of sin.

But as His appearing in the bush showed that He dwelt, not in that one only, but in every bush, so His appearing and showing His glory in our human flesh, shows that He dwells in every son of man ever born into this world. In each one He is waiting to be allowed to let His glory “shine forth,” as it did in Jesus of Nazareth, “full of grace and truth.”

Let us ever pray the prayer of Moses: “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory.” Then we shall by beholding be “changed into the same image from glory to glory.” And may the grace and the glory of Him who is our life, not be covered up by our sins, but may it ever shine forth to His praise.

“God of nature, over all,
What, through nature, dost Thou call?
Soft I’m calling thee apart,
Little child, give Me thy heart.”

The Present Truth – January 10, 1901
E. J. Waggoner

The Angel Dwelling in the Bush