August 8

And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 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. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. - Exodus 3:3-5.

HERE observe the attention and inquiry this extraordinary appearance awakened. “Moses said, I will turn and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.” And what Moses did we should do. “I would magnify thy works,” says David, “which men behold.” “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure in them.” Let us, therefore, turn aside and contemplate the same object. Moses had here much to excite his surprise. He saw no fire around him; he saw no fire descend from heaven. How could it be? Though this was surprising, there was something still more so. The fire continued; yet not a spray or leaf of the bush was consumed. Then he found a living personage also uninjured, and addressing him from the midst of the bush. So that we see attention and inquiry was naturally and unavoidably excited in him. And when are we not in danger? When are our motives entirely pure, or our actions sinless? Even things innocent in themselves, and things that are commanded may be carried too far through our depravity, and our imperfections become injurious.

Let us observe, secondly, God’s prohibition, or rather the regulation of the disposition in Moses, to turn aside and inquire why the bush is not burned. “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. And he said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” We may observe that this was designed to be a check upon our curiosity. This principle operates naturally in us all, though in some much more than in others, and we should be careful not to give way to it, even in the common affairs of life, but much more in religious matters. There is no countenance given to this in the word of truth; for when a man asked our Saviour, “Are there few that be saved?” he did not answer him, but said to them who were present, “Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able;” and when Peter asked, “Lord, what shall this man do?” he said, “What is that to thee? Follow thou me.” And Moses himself delivered the maxim which all religious people should remember: “the secret things belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.”

We should be satisfied with the facts of Christianity without the philosophy of them. The religious controversies which have occupied so much time, and which have injured so many fine tempers, have commonly been concerning things too deep for human reasoning to fathom, too lofty to be inquired into without presumption, or too insignificant to merit regard.

Observe, also, that this was to be considered an intimation of the humility with which God ought to be approached. The tokens of reverence have differed in many ages and places. The taking off the shoes here was much the same as taking off the hat with us. Therefore Solomon says, “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to offer the sacrifice of fools.” Nothing like trifling is to be indulged in drawing near to God. “I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me.” “God is greatly to be feared, and to be had in remembrance of all them that are about Him.”

We should always remember that “God is a Spirit,” and that He “seeketh such to worship Him.” And that God is to be glorified in our bodies as well as in our Spirits, which are his. “Therefore,” says the Apostle, “let us have grace whereby we may serve Him with reverence and godly fear.”