The International Sunday School Lessons By J. H. S. LESSON III._July 20. —M oses C alled to D eliver I srael .— Exod. :l-4; 20. M G olden T ext : Blessed are the pure in heart ; for they shall see God.— Matt. 5:8. I. M oses C alled .
is most irreverent. Higher "critics must stoop lower if they would see. "The proud He knoweth afar off.” This generation never takes off its hat. 3. The Covenant God. “I am the God of thy father,” etc. This is God’s covenant name; not only to identify Himself to Moses, but to confess His self-assumed ob ligation to the patriarchs to “be a God to them and to their seed after them,” While God exists His promise stands. “Since the father’s fell asleep” (1 Peter 3:4), God had not spoken—centuries of silence but He lived and He remembered. Centuries of silence—yet Christ shall come! to save His own, 4. God Knows. “I have seen—heard— known—am come.” “We have not an High- priest who cannot be touched with the feel ing of our infirmities” (Heb. 4:15). Though seemingly forgot His peoples burdens, wrongs, sighs, and prayers are all known and heeded; “in all their afflictions He was afflicted” (Isa. 63:9). He will come (2 Thess. 1:3-7). 5. God Saves. He came down “to de liver—bring out—bring unto.” Three phases of redeeming work: (1) To deliver from Satan, guilt, sin, the world. (2) To bring out from the sphere of Satan, the society of sinners, the bondage of law, to separa tion to Himself. (3) To bring into pos session of peace, of rest, of victory, of glory, and the land flowing with the milk and honey of grace. 6. Moses’ Humility. Forty years of in tellectual culture in Egypt (Acts 7 :22) made Moses great in the eyes of men and Moses; then he struck and—vanished. That culture, essential as it was for his peculiar task, was nothing and worse without the spiritual culture of humiliation, solitude, aloneness with God and the desert, the .school of John, Jesús and Paúl (Luke 1:80,
1. A Call Higher. Moses and David were shepherds; Peter and John fishers; Jesus a carpenter. God calls lowly men to lofty enterprise. Bunyan was a tinker, Carey a cobbler, Moody a shoe clerk. 2. The Theophany. “The Angel” (Mes senger) was Himself God, Jehovah. He was “the Word,” afterward made flesh (John 1:1, 14; Mai. 3:1L The fire was a symbol of Him who is “a consuming fire,” to the “dross” in His saints, and to the all of the sinner (Heb. 12:29; Isa. 1: 25; 1 .Cor. 3:13; 1 Thess. 1:7-9). The "bush” has varied significance. It was Is rael in the furnace of affliction, unconsum ed ; it was the Word in the flesh; the Jews in captivity; the Church in the world; the Bible “under fire;” fierce centuries of per secution, worldliness, criticism, and yet more Jews, more Christians, more Bibles than ever! II. A t the B ush . 1. The Miracle. Of “this great sight,” Mrs. Browning said: “Barth’s crammed with heaven And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees takes oft his shoes.” True, but this was no “common” bush. We must not blot out the distinction between natural and supernatural. Moses had seen “common” bushes, but this ‘ gave him pause;” and he turned to see " why the bush was not consumed.” It was because of Him who was “in the midst of the bush,” —in the midst of Israel,—of the Christ,— of Jewry,—of the Church,—of the Bible. “Put off thy shoes.” 2. Who seesf Mrs. Browning’s “Only he who sees puts off his shoes.” is true, but it is a far better lesson to teach that only,he who puts off his shoes sees. We hear much of reverent criticism which
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