The bush in history.
The bush had primary reference to Israel, and the fire in the bush represented Jehovah's fiery presence in the midst of his people—
1. For their protection. A fire flaming forth to consume the adversaries.
2. For their purification.
God was in the fires that tried them, as well as in the power that upheld them. The fire was thus a figurative representation at once of destroying punishment and of refining affliction. But the bush, while burning, was not consumed. This involves the principle that nothing, however weak and perishable in itself, with which God connects his presence, or which he wills to continue in existence, can by any possibility be destroyed. From this point of view—a thoroughly legitimate one—the emblem admits of various applications, and directs our attention to a series of supernatural facts yet greater than itself, and well deserving our turning aside to see.
1. There is the obvious application to the Church, which to a thoughtful' mind, pondering as it should the facts of history, is a veritable repetition of the wonder of the bush "burning but not consumed." The bush is an emblem of the Church in the other respect of outward plainness and unattractiveness. And it is noteworthy that the times when the Church has forgotten her calling to be meek and lowly in heart, and has aspired to great outward splendour, and been ambitious of worldly supremacy, have invariably been times of marked decline in purity and spirituality. She fares best when content with modest outward pretensions.
2. A second application is to the nation of the Jews—also a "sign and wonder" in history (see Keble's hymn, "The Burning Bush').
3. A third is to the Bible. What enmity has this book encountered, and what fierce attempts have been made to disprove its claims, destroy its influence, sometimes even to banish it from existene! Yet the miraculous bush survives, and retains to this hour its greenness and freshness, as if no fire had ever passed upon it.
4. Yet another application is to individual believers, against whom, while tried by fiery trials (1 Peter 4:12), neither the enmity of man, the assaults of Satan, nor providential afflictions and calamities (Job 1:1-22.) are permitted to prevail, but who, under all, enjoy a support, a peace, a comfort, plainly supernatural—"dying, and behold we live" (2 Corinthians 6:9). Flippant observers may see in these things nothing worthy of peculiar attention—nothing which cannot be explained by ordinary historical causes; but sober minds will not readily agree with them. They will regard the facts now referred to as truly "great sights," and will, like Moses, reverently turn aside to inquire into them further.
Note—
1. The true glory of the Church is God in her midst.
2. The outward weakness of the Church enhances the wonder of her preservation.
3. The Church has most reason to glory in those periods of her history when she has been most despised and persecuted (Matthew 5:11; 2 Corinthians 12:9; 1 Peter 4:14).—J.O.